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The Holley Family |
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Who were the parents of Jeremiah Smith (1773-1843) of Pike County, Mississippi? My great-grandfather, Walter Tynes, wrote his memoirs in 1928. In My Pilgrimage he described his grandmother as ' Martha "Patsie" Smith Alford, daughter of Jeremiah Smith and his wife who was a Holly.' We know that Martha Smith Alford's father Jeremiah Smith married Joanna Dillon. It was Jeremiah's father Jeremiah who married the Holly. The only Hollys in the area in the Census of 1820 were Ellis Holley in St Helena Pr, LA, and Zechariah Holly in Marion Co, MS. So a relationship to Elias is suspected.(1) Jeremiah (1773) Smith's father was Jeremiah. This is recorded in Resource Records of Pike/Walthall Counties, page 118, where it states that Joanna Dillon married 'Jeremiah Smith b.12/23/1773, son, supposedly, of an older Jeremiah Smith.' |
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(2) Jemima Smith of Wilkinson Co, GA, and Washington Pr, LA, was the wife of Jeremiah Smith, The Georgia Passports in Passports of Southeast Pioneers 1770-1823,page 257 , shows a passport issued 19 March 1810: 'for Mr. Bardin Dicks and Mr. Jeremiah Smith, the former with his wife and one child, the latter with her four children, from Wilkinson County.I take "her four children" to mean that this was Mrs. Jeremiah Smith, not Mr. as transcribed. Jeremiah Jr had moved to the Bogue Chitto River in (then) Amite County, Mississippi, in 1808, intentionally avoiding Spanish Territory. In fact, the story goes that after he built his house, the Spanish surveyors came through and determined that he was south of the border. So he moved his house across the line into Mississippi Territory. But by 1810, he and Joanna had six children under the age of 10, averaging 18 months apart in 1809-1811, so this could not have been Joanna joining him later. The Florida Parishes of Louisiana were not a part of the United States until December, 1810, so they missed the Census of 1810. The 1812 Tax list of St Tammany Parish lists both Barden Dykes 1-1-2 and Jamima Smith 0-1-4 (one woman and four children). What relation they may have had is unproven, but Barden appears to be a son-in-law. Taken together, the passport and the tax list identify Jemima Smith of St Tammany/Washington Parish, Louisiana, as the Mrs. Jeremiah Smith of Wilkinson County, Georgia. Additionally, Jemima Smith was a founding member of Mt Nebo Baptist Church in Wilkinson Co, GA, in 1808, and of Mt. Nebo Baptist Church in Washington Pr, LA, in 1814. (3) Further connection between the Dykes and Jemima Smith can be found in the proximity of their land near what is now the town of Tangipahoa, Louisiana. Amite County Mississippi, Volume IV shows the 1829 plat of Township 2 South, Range 7 East, with the Tangipahoa River through the middle. Section 40 on the east side of the river is owned by Robert Singleton and Jemima Smith. Directly across the river is Section 39 owned by William Dyches. Who Robert Singleton was, we also do not know, possibly another son-in-law. Elias Holley owned the land just north of the Dyches on the west side of the river, including the present town of Tangipahoa,The marriage record of William Chaine and Phebe Smith (probable daughter of Jemima) 14 April 1814, was witnessed by Barden and Sarah Dykes. (4) Jeremiah (1773) definitely had a brother George. While neither Jeremiah nor George Smith named a daughter "Jemima," Jeremiah did name one son "Eli" according to Bible records. I have also seen his name listed as "Elias V Smith." The records I have found of the other children of Jemima Smith do not include a granddaughter Jemima, either. So that is not a distinction between Jeremiah & George and her other children. |
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(5) Jamima Smith had children who married into the Dykes and Singleton families, as did Elias Holley of St Helena Pr, LA. While not proof, this is consistent with the idea that she was the sister of Elias Holley. |
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The Census of 1790, South Carolina, Orangeburgh District - South Part |
The Census of 1800, South Carolina, Orangeburg District, |
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Orange County |
Barnwell County |
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Elias Holly |
Elyas Holley |
Burden Dykes |
Richard Dillin |
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Using a variety of sources, including internet sites (such as the Descendants of Dykes on Family Tree Maker LINK ), I have attempted to reconstruct these families where they intersect:Elias Holley (c.1750-1824) married Prudence (Castille?) Only one researcher claims any last name for Prudence, and that without any evidence being presented. He received a land grant on Scratchnose Branch, on the south fork of the Edisto River in Orangeburg District, SC, in 1785, and later adjoined George Mixon, Isaac Dykes, Phillip Jennings and John Vernon. The South Edisto River formed the boundary between Orange and Barnwell (Winton) Counties in the Orangeburg District. I have not found a Holley Family into which I can place him, but the main Holley Family came from Bertie County, North Carolina (same as Richard Dillon). Elias Holley Jr. married a daughter of George Dykes of Pulaski Co, GA, as shown on George Dyke's estate settlement in 1829. I have found no evidence of a relation between this Elias Holley and the one in Louisiana, but he married into the same Dykes Family. In Barnwell County, SC, the 1790 census shows Elias (Sr) with a family of one male over 21, NO males under 21, and 3 females. There was a William Holley, 1 male over 21, 5 males under 21, and 4 females, in the same county, who may have been the father of Elias Jr. It was not uncommon for the Jr/Sr distinction to be applied to nephew and uncle, if the uncle had no son of his own. A Joseph Holly appears in the Census of 1800, and stays in Barnwell at least until 1816, when he inherited from the estate of his father-in-law Solomon McClain, his wife listed in her father's 1814 will as Prudence Moody Holly. There was a Joseph Holley who owned land on the Edisto River in Colleton County in 1750-56. Colleton County included this area before the Orangeburg Precinct was created in 1768. It is possible but completely unproven that this Joseph Holley could have had sons Elias and William. Unfortunately, records between 1768 and 1785 would have been kept in Orangeburg. While the records of Barnwell are completely intact, all records in Orangeburg were lost in 1865. Tentative reconstruction of families, requiring more proof: Jemima Holley (c.1755-c.1827) married Jeremiah Smith (c.1750-c.1806) 4. daughter Smith married Robert Singleton, Jr (1834 Washington Pr LA, then moved to Mississippi) 5. Sarah Smith (1790-after1830) m.c.1808 Barden Dykes (c1775-1814) m.1815 Lott Ridgdell . . (1775-1833); Hinds Co, MS 6. Phoebe Smith (1792-1825) married 1815 William Chain (1788-1856); Covington Co, MS William Dykes (1725/30-1802) married Susannah Everette, Lived in Orangeburgh Dist, SC . . . 2. Felix Dykes (c.1770 - after1840) moved to Louisiana . . . 3. Isaac Dykes (1779-1815) married 1802 Rebecca Holley; St Helena Pr, LA . . . . . . . daughter Prudence Dykes (1810-1867) married Thomas Wainwright . . . 4. William Dykes (c1789-c1852) married before 1816 Phoebe Singleton; Washington Pr, LA . . . . . . . daughter Lucretia Dykes (1825-1896) married 1839 William Dorten Smith 2. Barden Dykes (c1775-1814) married c.1808 Sarah Smith 3. Abel Dykes (1760-after1820) Pike Co, MS 4. Benjamin Dykes (1781-after1850) Jackson Co, MS . . (Felix, Isaac, William, Barden, Abel, Benjamin, John, and Dennis Dykes settled on the Tangipahoa . . River between 1805 and 1815. Some scattered afterwards.) Robert Singleton (1765-1821) married Mary Daniel. Owned property in Washington and St Helena Pr. Lived in later years and died in St Landry Pr, LA. He had other children there. Thomas Wainwright (c.1740) married c.1775 Keziah Dixon (c.1758-before 1792) she m(2) Singleton1. Hosten Dixon Wainwright (c.1780-c.1851) married Edith Singleton 2. Samuel Wainwright (c.1787) 3. Thomas Wainwright (1789-1872) m.1810 Sarah Cockern (1787-1843) m.1844 Prudence Dykes 4. John David Wainwright |
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ODDS AND ENDS There was a Jeremiah Smith in Greenville Co, SC, appearing in land records and jury lists from 1786 to 1800, with children shown in the Censuses of 1790 and 1800 of ages compatible with those of our Jeremiah Sr. A Jemima Smith is on an undated but early member list of Fork Shoals Baptist Church in southern Greenville County, founded 1780. Jeremiah is absent from the Census of 1810. However, in 1800, there is no female listed in the household of appropriate age to be Jemima. There was a Jeremiah Smith in Newberry County, South Carolina, who was paid in 1806 by the estate of Abel Thomas for making an ironwork, as a funeral expense. He was paid by the estate of Adam Tidman on 2 Feb 1808 for making running gears for a wagon in 1805. The census of 1800 indexes a Jama Smith 01202-11001, but looking at the image, it is James. The Census of 1790 Newberry County also lacks a Jeremiah Smith. Could this also be the Jeremiah Smith of Fork Shoals, Greenville County, 40 miles away? Our Jeremiah was a blacksmith of some note in Pike County, Mississippi. On 20 March 1810, one day following the issuance of a Georgia passport to Bardin Dicks and Mrs. Jeremiah Smith from Wilkinson County, to travel through the Creek Nation of Indians, there was a passport issued to "Wm. Gray and Jeremiah Smith from Baldwin County." Who was William Gray, and where did he and this Jeremiah Smith go? There was never a Jeremiah Smith associated with the Jemima Smith of West Florida, nor of Louisiana, that could have been a husband. The Census of 1820, in fact, called her "Widow Smith." If the Jeremiah Smith of Baldwin County was her husband, they were not living together then, and never did again. |
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My Conclusion I believe that Jeremiah Smith (1773-1843) was the son of Jeremiah Smith of South Carolina and his wife Jemima Holley, the sister of Elias Holley, I invite your ideas, comments, and findings. |
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