52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks

I am going to try out Amy Johnson Crow's 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks to see if I can't get myself back on track blogging.  Since we are obviously already in the 3rd week of the year, I'll have to do some backtracking. 

The first prompt - Start

This got me to thinking about where I started doing genealogy which is surprisingly easy.  I was in Georgia for my 16th birthday and my grandmother (who had shown no previous interest in the subject) had received an answer to a query she had sent someone about her ancestor Washington William Buchanan Horne and his confederate service.  The answer showed that he had fought at Vicksburg, was wounded at some point, and had died in the State mental asylum.  This turned out to be a great learning experience for me because almost at once the family started 'remembering' that their ancestor, his daughter, was not really his.  Since they obviously couldn't have an ancestor in the Asylum. 

Years of research have shown that he was in fact paroled at Vicksburg but this was not where he was wounded.  He was exchanged and went back into the service and was wounded (lost an arm) later while fighting in Georgia.  His full name - not on the records - has been determined.  The Asylum records and reminiscences of his grandson showed that he was probably suffering from what today would be called PTSD.  And both paper research and DNA have fairly conclusively proven that he was the father of Carrie Horne.  There are still members of the family who are 'sure' that Carrie's father was a mailman (didn't exist at that time in rural areas) named Campbell (of whom there were none in that county.) 

The other and to me more interesting document in the file was the Confederate pension application for his wife Mary Ann Morris Horne.  I talked my grandmother into giving me that and it was the starting point for much of my research on her family.  Without it, I would never have known or guessed that she was born in Wilcox County, Alabama which turned out to be key to finding her father's family.  I was also fascinated by her description of her goods (nothing but what she could earn working in the fields). 

So I started off with a family tale that was not true - and even at the time I was pretty sure they were making it up - and with a pension application that may have occasionally fudged the truth but gave me a lot of good useful information.  Both of these hooked me on finding out more about these people, something I've been working on ever since.   My grandmother, on the other hand, never again showed an interest in the topic.  I think that asylum was just too much for her. 

Deed of Trust from Abselia Morris to John Perry

Experimenting with ArchiveGrid, I found a document in the Alabama archives where Apselia (Abselia) Morris, widow of Benjamin Morris, executed a deed of trust to John Perry, trustee of her grandson Michael W. Rabun.   While not proof of anything, it does add to my speculation that there is some sort of connection between Perry and Abselia or her husband.  Names have been spelled as they appear.  Interestingly, Absela Morris also included Ned in her will to go to Michael.  However, since her will was written in 1848 but not executed until 1865, that of course did not happen. The witness Columbus Perry is John Perry's son. 

The original deed can be seen on the Alabama State Archives website. 


Georgia, Crawford County}}  Know all men by these presents that I Absela Morris for and in consideration of the sum of five dollars cash in hand paid by John Perry of said county as well as the love and affection which I have for my grandson Michael Rabun of Alabama, have bargained sold & delivered and by these presents do bargain sell and deliver unto the said John Perry a negro man by the name of Ned about twenty eight years, forever in fee simple. To have and to hold upon the following uses & trusts that I, the said Absela am to have the use control hire and benefit of the labor of the said Ned during my life, then the said trustee, the said John Perry is to convey and deliver the said negro man to the said Michael W. Rabun his heirs and assigns forever in fee simple.  In testimony whereof I have set my hand and affixed my seal this the twenty seventh day of January eighteen hundred & fifty five.

                                     Apselia X Morris
                                             her mark

In presence of
G C Hancock
Columbus Perry
G C Culverhouse J.J.C.


I hereby acknowledge the delivery and reception of the within bill of sale and the property therein conveyed & accept the trust therein ?confided? to me.  January 27th 1855.  John Perry

Recorded the 8th day of February 1855  James I Ray, clerk

Washington William Buchanan Horne

According to his wife's confederate pension application, Washington W. B. Horne was born in September 1835 in Crawford County, GA.  His parents were Nathan Horne and Nancy Whitaker.  He lost his father quite young, having just turned 5 when Nathan died.  The family apparently went through some tough financial times for a period, with debts showing up in various records.  However, by 1857, his mother had restored their finances sufficiently that she was paying taxes on their Crawford County land as well as land in several other counties.   Wash and his sister Mary may have been twins, since they show as the same age in the 1850 and 1860 censuses.  However, since these censuses were done on the same date, it is also possible that one of them is 10-11 months older than the other, with a birthday shortly after the census.  Mary disappears after the 1860 census.  There are indications, including Mary Ann's pension application, that he was originally just known as William Buchanan Horne and that the Washington was a later addition.  He also appears in one census as "Buck". 

Washington enlisted in Savannah on 3 May 1862, in the 57th GA infantry regisment, along with his future wife Mary Ann's brother James.  He received a $50 bounty for doing so.   James died in Tennessee in December 1862.  Washington continued with the army to Vicksburg, Mississippi, where they remained until surrenduring on 4 July 1863.  Washington was among those paroled and sent home until they could be exchanged.

Shortly afterwards, on 8 September 1863, Washington and Mary Ann Morris were married.  The date is from Mary Ann's pension application, but it is unclear where they married since they do not appear in the Crawford County marriage books.  The 57th GA was apparently exchanged by October 1863, when they were reassigned first to Savannah, then in February 1864 to guard duty at Andersonville.  In May of that year they were sent to join the confederate forces defending against the Union advance into Georgia.  Washington was wounded and lost an arm at some point in July, possibly at the battle of Peachtree Creek, where the 57th suffered heavy casualties.  He returned to Crawford county at that time and stayed there.

Both before and after the war, Washington served as a constable for Crawford County and worked as a farmer.  He and Mary Ann apparently had 7 children, 4 of whom were still alive in 1900.   The known children were:

  -- James Washington Horne, 1867-1933.  Married Ada Julia Barfield and remained in Crawford County.
  -- John Horne, b abt 1870.  Probably died before 1880.
  -- Emanuel E. Horne, b 1874, died after 1940.  He married Virginia Braswell.  E.E. had a troubled life.  He was arrested at least once for robbing Moses Wade and was not with his wife in the 1920 census.  In 1910 and 1940 he was in the state asylum in Milledgeville.  He was released at least once when the court decided that he was not in fact insane, but apparently was later sent back.  He was living with his family in Macon in 1930.
   -- Jerry Horne, 1877-1957.
   -- Carrie Frances Horne,  1880-1960.  She married James Edward Wade and remained in Crawford County.

In 1880, Washington was confined to the State Insane Asylum, where he died 4 years later.  He is buried in Crawford County.  Mary Ann remained in Crawford county and is buried next to her husband. 

A Tiny Crack in the Wall?

My first blog post, back all those years ago, was about my ancestor Stephens Morris.  I had speculated that Sarah Morris might be his mother as well as the mother of several Sessions children.  Since that post, I have learned that the book with the marriage information about Sarah Sessions had her mother's name wrong.  The original record says that Nancy Morris gave permission for Sarah Sessions to marry - a good reminder on why the original record should always be checked.   Recently, a descendent of one of the Sessions children contacted me (the joys of an online tree).  They had the family info that their progenitor Ann Sessions had indeed married a Morris.  Even more delightful was the information that Ann's first husband was Walter Sessions and that prior to being in Alabama, they lived in Williamsburg County, SC, where Ann Sessions appears as head of household in 1810.  So I finally have someplace in South Carolina to start looking for my Morris family. 

They also had the family tradition that Ann Sessions Morris had moved to Georgia where she eventually died.  This might help explain one of the biggest mysteries about my Stephen, which is how he came to be in Crawford County, Georgia, where he married as a young man, probably 19 or 20.

There's still a lot of work to be done but I feel like there might in fact be a tiny crack in the wall, that I might find Stephens' ancestry after all. 

Stephens Morris

I know the following about Stephens Morris.

Name is uncertain - seen as Stephen, Stephens, and Stevens, but most commonly as Stephens.
Born somewhere in SC about 1814 (census records)
Married Martha Lewis on 1 Feb 1839 in Crawford County, GA (Crawford county marriages)
Was living in Wilcox County, AL by 1841 (Daughter's confederate pension application)
Voted in Allentown, Wilcox Co, in 1847.
Back in Crawford County by 1860 (census) and still there in 1870.
Possibly the Stephens Morris that appeared in the 1880 Russell County, AL census.
According to censuses, had the following children:

• James Washington, b. abt 1840 in GA, d. 1862 in Civil War
• Mary Ann, b. 1841, d. 1911, m. Washington Horne
• Feraby, b. 1848 d. ?
• Nimrod, b. 1850, d. ?
• Barton Solomon b. 1852, d. 1925. md Mollie Mathews
• Jasper M. b. 1856, d. 1944, md Mary McGraw in Dallas County, AL
• (possibly) James b. 1867. He appears in the census, but I think this was actually James Horne, his daughter's son, living next door. There would almost certainly have been children between Mary Ann and Feraby, but they may have died young.

Now for more tenuous connections and areas where research is needed. The Stephens Morris in the 1880 census is the right age - and had the correct birthplace - to be mine. He is a widower, accounting for Martha not being there (or any other census). My grandmother didn't know much about him, but she believed that the Morrises lived on the GA/AL border, which would fit the description for Russell County.

In 1880 he is living with Amanda Sessions, listed as his niece. In 1850, Amanda Sessions is in the Wilcox County, AL census, in the hh (probably daughter) of John B. Sessions and his wife Lydia Bowman. Stephens, although provably in Wilcox County in 1850, does not appear in that census. However, land records show that John B. Sessions and W.G.W. Sessions, purchased land next to Daniel James Morris, in the same year. All of them were born in SC.

In 1823, Sarah Morris in Wilcox Co, gave permission for Sarah Sessions to marry Green Vickers. Need to check what the guardianship rules were there for the time, but would expect a woman guardian to be the mother, that otherwise a man would have been named. Sarah would have been born after 1802 (she was underage) and probably before 1810, to be of reasonable marriage age in 1823. In the 1840 census, W.G.W. Sessions (with a 70-80 year old woman) was in Wilcox. Two hh down was Mrs. S. Vickers, 30-40, and next to her was D. J. Morris.

Various posts claim that John B. Sessions (b 1804 in SC) middle name was Barton. W. G. W. Sessions (possibly John's brother, b 1808 in SC), reportedly gave one of his sons Barton as a middle name. And of course Stephens' third son was named Barton, a sufficiently unusual name to note. Don't know why Stephens' first son was James, but his second known son, Nimrod, was named after Martha's father Nimrod Lewis.

Right now, I am speculating that Sarah Morris, maiden name unknown), was married twice, first to an unknown Sessions and then to a Morris. Both marriages would have occurred in SC or at least they were living there by the time John B. was born. I think that John (1804), Sarah (1806?), W.G.W. (1808), Daniel (1811), and Stephens (1814) may have been her children. This would account for Sarah Sessions Vickers mother being a Morris and for John Sessions' daughter to be Stephens Morris' niece.

Need to get to Wilcox county to see if I can confirm or deny this info.