52 Ancestors: #30 Charlotte Garland

My 5th-great-grandmother Charlotte Garland was born on 1 July 1782. She is listed in the Garland family Bible under Elisha and Lucy Garland and before the children born after Elisha and Lucy's marriage.

Garland Family Bible. Available from Tennessee Bible Records. Nashville, Tennessee: Tennessee State Library and Archives.

Based on the composition of Elisha Garland's household in 1790 (1 free white male over 16, 6 free white females), Charlotte appears to be in Elisha's household.

Elisha Garlin household. 1790 United States Census, Pendleton, South Carolina. Series M637, roll 11, page 4, image 17. Family History Library Film 0568151. Ancestry.com. 1790 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010.

However, when Elisha Garland's widow, Lucy (Reeves) Garland, applied for a Revolutionary War widow's pension, she stated that they married on 14 December 1783 in what became East Tennessee.

Declaration of Lucy Garland, widow of Elisha Garland, pension application. Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty-Land Warrant Application Files (NARA microfilm publication M804). Records of the Department of Veterans Affairs, Record Group 15. National Archives, Washington, D.C.

She also named her children with Elisha. She stated that their first child, Sally, was born in 1784. Charlotte was not mentioned.

Declaration of Lucy Garland, widow of Elisha Garland, pension application. Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty-Land Warrant Application Files (NARA microfilm publication M804). Records of the Department of Veterans Affairs, Record Group 15. National Archives, Washington, D.C.

Who were Charlotte's biological parents? Elisha and Lucy (Reeves) Garland seem to be the parents that raised her. But were they both her biological parents?

Charlotte may have been an illegitimate child. Lucy Reeves was probably her biological mother. Lucy had a sister named Charlotte (the wife of James Robertson, "Father of Middle Tennessee"). Charlotte has sometimes been referred to as Charlotte Reeves.

Woodward, J. E. History of the Gower Family. Nashville: Harry V. L. Gower, 1920.

Lucy also could have been previously married, and Charlotte could be a child from that marriage. Or perhaps Elisha Garland had been previously married to a relative of Lucy's, maybe a sister. I had the Family Finder test done with Family Tree DNA and matched with a Reeves descendant, so I know I am related to the Reeves family. Or perhaps Lucy did not want to acknowledge that she had given birth to an illegitimate child, so she omitted Charlotte. 

Charlotte married William Gower in Davidson County, Tennessee in 1802.

Marriage record, William Gower and Charlotte Garland, 1802. Tennessee State Marriages, 1780-2002. Nashville, Tennessee: Tennessee State Library and Archives.

In 1850, Charlotte, her husband William Gower, and their daughter Cynthia lived in Davidson County, Tennessee, near their son Lorenzo, his wife Nancy (Gatlin), and their children. Their daughter Margaret ("Peggy"), my 4th-great-grandmother, married Nancy's brother John Gatlin.

Charlotte died in 1860. Her estate inventory was dated 11 April 1860 and recorded on 31 July 1860.

According to the 1860 United States Census mortality schedule, Charlotte died of old age in May 1860 in Davidson County, Tennessee. The informant probably could not recall the exact date of her death.

National Archives and Records Administration (NARA); Washington, D.C.; Federal Mortality Census Schedules, 1850-1880, and Related Indexes, 1850-1880; Archive Collection: T655; Archive Roll Number: 27; Census Year: 1860; Census Place: District 10, Davidson, Tennessee; Page: 71. Ancestry.com. U.S. Federal Census Mortality Schedules, 1850-1885 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010.

Charlotte was buried in Gower Cemetery in Nashville, Tennessee. According to her gravestone, she died on 16 April 1860.