by Rocky Macy
Mary Jane SMITH was born around 1830 in the state of Tennessee. She appears to have been the oldest of either seven or eight children who were raised primarily by a single mother. Mary Jane married James Mayberry SCARBROUGH in Logan County, Kentucky, on August 7, 1856. She passed away sometime between mid-December of 1868 and early 1870, probably in the state of Texas.
Mary Jane SMITH SCARBROUGH was my great-great-grandmother.
Mary Jane was first found in the public record as a part of the 1850 U.S. Census of South Division, Smith County, Tennessee, where she was a resident of Dwelling #382 and a member of Family # 382. At that time her age was recorded as “22.” There were two adult women in that household who, according to their ages and last names, could have been Mary Jane’s mother: Catharine SMITH (the first name listed in the household) (age 40), and Elizabeth SMITH (the second name listed) (age 37).
Other members of the SMITH family household listed on the 1850 census were John (17), Andrew (14), William (11), Elizabeth (9), Martha (6), James (1), and Elizabeth (1). There was one other sibling, Sarah “Sallie” Ann SMITH HANKINS (19) who was already married and living in a separate residence at the time the census was taken.
The fact that the oldest seven were all siblings was substantiated when William C. SMITH passed away as a childless widower in 1920 and left his estate to be divided equally among the heirs of his six deceased siblings who were listed by name in the court documents. The parentage of the two one-year-olds in the family in 1850 remains unclear at this point, but, unless they were twins, it is likely that each belonged to one of the two adult females in the household or perhaps even to one or both of the adult daughters.
By the time Mary Jane married James Mayberry SCARBROUGH in 1856, there was already one child in their household. Sarah “Sallie” A. SCARBROUGH had been born in 1853 in Tennessee. She had either been born without the benefit of married parents or was James’ child from a previous marriage.
Mary Jane and James and little Sallie migrated to Missouri sometime between August of 1856 and early 1857. Nancy Anthaline SCARBROUGH, their second daughter, was born in Missouri on May 28, 1857. (She was my great-grandmother.) When the 1860 census was taken the family was living in Sarcoxie Township of Jasper County, Missouri.
Catherine, the third child, was born in Missouri in 1862, and James William SCARBROUGH, the couple’s fourth and final child was born in Sien, Texas, on December 13, 1868. (This researcher has been unable to locate “Sien,” Texas, which was noted in the 1911 obituary of James William SCARBROUGH. Mary Jane’s younger sister, Martha Parthena F. SMITH was married to James D.M. CLINE on Christmas Day in 1864 in Marion County, Texas, so it is possible that James and Mary Jane SCARBROUGH and their family were living in that area.)
At that point Mary Jane SMITH SCARBROUGH and her husband, James Mayberry SCARBROUGH, both disappear from the public record until that are posthumously noted in marriage and death records related to their son, James William SCARBROUGH.
By the time of the 1870 census, the four SCARBROUGH children were listed in the household of their maternal uncle, William C. SMITH, of Buffalo Township, Newton County, Missouri, leaving open the possibility that the parents died in Texas and the children were removed to the care of a relative who was able to offer them a home where they could all remain together.
James William SCARBROUGH’s obituary in 1911 stated that his parents “died young.”
Mary Jane SMITH SCARBROUGH’s origins remain murky, and her demise is a mystery, though it may have occurred during or immediately after the birth of James William. The hearty pioneer woman migrated across much of the new and expanding nation, and she left a considerable number of descendants in her wake. She was able to maintain long enough in the hard and rugged land to insure that her legacy would live on.
No comments:
Post a Comment