Ancestor Archives: Thomas Meador (1805-1880)

 

by Rocky Macy

Thomas MEADOR  was born on January 11, 1805 in Bedford County, Virginia,.  He married Sarah “Sallie” SNYDER on December 20, 1823, in Breckenridge County, Kentucky, and he passed away on February 3, 1880, in Breckenridge County, Kentucky.
 
Thomas and Sallie had at least seven children, and after Sallie’s death in 1852 he married Judith SCOTT PULLIAM later that same year and they had at least two children.
 
Thomas MEADOR was my g-g-g-grandfather.
 
If it wasn’t for the fact that the MEADOR family was fairly prominent in early Breckenridge County, Kentucky, it would be far more difficult to trace their history.  The family surname can be found in public documents spelled in a variety of ways including Meador, Meadow, Meadows, and even Medder.    Tracing the lineage is also complicated by the fact that the MEADOR family was fond was using the first name of “Thomas.”  This particular Thomas MEADOR was the great-grandson, son, father, and grandfather of people who were also named Thomas MEADOR.   The subject of this profile is sometimes referred to as Thomas Meador, Jr.
 
Thomas MEADOR’s dates of birth and death were established by his tombstone which is still standing at Meador Cemetery #3 near Hardinsburg in Breckenridge County, Kentucky.
 
The seven known children of Thomas MEADOR and. his first wife, Sallie, were:  Elihu (1824-1892) who married Anna Elizabeth LAMB, Sarah (1827-1892) who married Stephen McCOY, Taylor (1831-1861) who married Elizabeth ADKISSON, Mary Jane (1834-1897) who married Charles MACY, Theodocia “Docia” (1836-1861) who married Jesse MACY, Thomas (born 1842), and William (1842-1860).
 
The two known children of Thomas MEADOR and his second wife, Judith, were:   James (or John) (1853-1931) a physician who practiced in Custer, Kentucky, for more than fifty years,  and Lucy (born 1857) who married Richard POMPHREY.
 
Thomas (according to the US Find-A-Grave Index) was born in Bedford County, Virginia.  His Virginia birth is also confirmed by the US censuses for 1850 and 1870, as well as the US Federal Census Mortality Schedule for 1880.    The 1860 US Census for Breckenridge County, Kentucky, lists Thomas’s place of birth as Kentucky, likely a mistaken assumption on the part of the census-taker.   (That census-taker also got the last names wrong on at least two of the children – and probably four.)
 
The 1830 US Census for Breckenridge County, Kentucky, lists the household of “Thomas Meador” as including five free white persons and no slaves.  Included among the five members of the household were one male aged 5-9 (Elihu), one male aged 20-29 (Thomas), two females under the age of five (one was Sarah and the other was probably a child who died young), and one female aged 20-29 (Sallie).
 
The MEADOR family has not been located on the 1840 US Census as of this time.
 
The 1850 US Census for District 1 of Breckenridge County, Kentucky, lists the family of “Thomas Meadows” (aged 44) as containing his wife, Sarah (aged 43), and five children:  Taylor (19), Mary (17), Docia (14), William (8), and Thomas (8).  Also included in the household was Sallie’s mother “Sally SNIDER” (87).
 
Sallie MEADOR passed away in 1852 and Thomas married a widow with children (Judith SCOTT PULLIAM) soon after Sallie’s death.   By the time of the 1860 US Census, Thomas and Judith and their family were living in District 2 of Breckenridge County, Kentucky.     In that household were “Thos. Meadow” (aged 54), Judith Meadow (aged 46), Martha Pulliam (16), William Pulliam (16), Thomas Pulliam (15), Sally Pulliam (14), John Pulliam (7) and Lucy Pulliam (5).  
 
Of those children in the “Meadow” household in 1860, it is entirely probable that Martha and Sally were Pulliams, daughters whom Judith brought to the marriage, and William and Thomas were likely Thomas’s sons from his marriage to Sallie.  Also the two youngest children were the shared biological children of Thomas and Judith and last names would have been Meador.
 
By the time of the 1870 US Census, “Thomas Meadows” was a 64-year-old resident of Cloverport in Breckenridge County, Kentucky.  Also present in his household were “Judea Meadows” (58), John Meadows (18), and Lucy Meadows (16).
 
There is a very old newspaper clipping regarding Thomas MEADOR at Ancestry.com.  It is entitled “Neighborhood Sketches” and focuses on a detailed sketch of a home drawn by Walter H. KISER.  The newspaper is not identified.  The write-up with the drawing states:
 

“This house of red brick with limestone foundation was built about 1825 by Thomas Meador who had come to Kentucky from Virginia in a covered wagon drawn by oxen.  The bricks were made on the premises.  Sand for mortar and for plaster was hauled from a nearby creek which now bears the name Meador Creek.  The house has six rooms and a log kitchen and stands on a knoll a mile northeast of Hardinsburg.  The Meador family retained ownership until recently.”

In a type-written appendage to the article an anonymous source repeated much of the information from the sketch article, but added the following facts:

• The house was built by a man named “Marchall” for Thomas Meador, Jr.;  
• The “Old Meador Cemetery” was located behind the house, and “all of the old folks are buried there;"  and, 
• The house burned to the ground in 1942.

 
Thomas MEADOR passed away on February 3, 1880, before that year’s census was taken, but he was included on the 1880 US Federal Census Mortality Schedule.  As mentioned previously, his tombstone still stands at Meador Cemetery #3 near Hardinsburg, Kentucky, and a fairly safe assumption would be that is the cemetery that was located behind the house on his original homestead.
 
The old pioneer is at rest beneath the land that he helped to settle.