Amanuensis Monday: Deed, James Robertson to Elisha Garland, 100 Acres on Big Harpeth

Davidson County, Tennessee Deed Book G, page 156

Elisha Garland                                            June 10th 1807
This indenture made upon the Eighth day of April one Thousand Seven hundred and ninety nine Between James Robertson of the State of Tennessee and County of Davidson of the one part & Elisha Garland of the State & County Aforesaid of the Other part Witnesseth that for and in consideration of the sum of  Pounds Virginia Currency the Receipt thereof he doth hereby Acknowledge hath Granted Bargained Sold Alliened Enfeeof Convey and Confirm unto the said Elisha Garland his heirs and Assigns forever a Certain Tract or Parcel of Land lying and being in the State and County Aforesaid Containing one hundred Acres on the South side of Cumberland River Begining at a Birch on the North Bank of Harpeth Running Down the River North forty five Degrees to the West fifty four poles then North fifty five Degrees to the West one hundred and forty poles to a Sugartree and Red Oak under the foot of a Bluff then North fifty two poles to a Small Sugartree  and two Elms thence East one hundred and Twenty poles to a Hickory on the East boundery line of the Original Survey thence South with the same two hundred poles to the River Bank About two poles Above the Begining being part of six acres of land granted unto Ebennezer Alexander Assignee Originally of the heirs of William Mathews April 17th day 1793, To have and to hold the  Aforesaid Land and Premises to him the said Elisha Garland his heirs and Assigns forever with all and Singular the Rights Privilages or Emoluments belonging or in anywise Appertaining thereto And I the said James Robertson my heirs & do hereby Release and Relinquish all my Right in the said Tract & do Vest the Same to said Elisha Garland and for him to have hold Enjoy Possess and Occupy the Aforesaid Tract of Land And the said James Robertson do Covenant and Agree for myself my heirs Executors and Administrators with the said Garland to warrant and forever Defend the Aforesaid Land from all manner of Persons Claiming the Same through by or under me my heirs etc –– In testimony thereof the said James Robertson hath hereunto set his hand and Seal the year and Day first Above Written
Witness __ __ _ _____                           Jas Robertson         LS
State of Tennessee [ ] Best Remembered that on the 14th day of August one Thousand Seven hundred and ninety nine Personally Came James Robertson who has Subscribed the within Indenture before me Andrew Jackson one of the Judges of the Superior Courts of Law & Equity for the State Aforesaid and Acknowledged the Signing Sealing and Delivery of the written for Deed for the uses and Purposes therein Contained and mentioned and Requested that the same might be Registered
                                                                                         Andrew Jackson
Let the same be Registered upon the Legal fees being paid

Friend of Friends Friday: Slaves of William Gower, Deceased

In his will, written on 1 March 1849 and recorded in the Davidson County, Tennessee Probate Court books on 23 April 1852, my 5th-great-grandfather William Gower left his slaves Isaac, Rachael, and Harriet to his wife Charlotte (Garland) Gower. Charlotte died on 16 April 1860. Several weeks later, the following notice appeared in the Nashville Union and American.

Nashville Union and American, 8 May 1860, page 1

                                Sale of Negroes.
In pursuance of a decree of the County County of Davidson County, rendered in the case of the heirs and distributees of William Gower, deceased, exparte, at the April term 1860, I will offer for sale at the Court House in Nashville, on Saturday, the 2d day of June next, the following negroes, to-wit-
        Rachel, about fifty seven years of age;
        Isaac,      "   forty                "  "   "
        Harriet,    "   twenty seven   "  "   "  and her two children,
        Laura,      "   five                 "  "   "
        Charles,   "  three                "  "   "
Terms--$100 in cash will be required, and for the balance notes endorsed, payable in bank, at twelve months.
                                                                   F. R. CHEATHAM,
may1-dtds                                                          Clerk and Master.

Looking at the list of William Gower's slaves recorded in the 1850 United States Census slave schedule, it appears that Rachel was the 47 year old black female listed on line 12, Isaac was the 30 year old black male listed on line 14, and Harriet was the 17 year old black female listed on line 16.

1850 United States census, Davidson County, Tennessee, slave schedule. Available from Ancestry.com. 1850 U.S. Federal Census - Slave Schedules [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2004.

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.

 

Tennessee Bible Records

Digital images of photocopied Bible records at the Tennessee State Library and Archives are now available online at http://tnsos.net/TSLA/Bibleproject/. Most of the records are from the late 1700s through the early 1900s. Additional records will be added later if they are donated or discovered. Some of the Bible records include the names of slaves.

The records can be searched, or they can be browsed alphabetically by surname. I found 2 copies (one negative and one positive) of Bible records for the Garland family. Charlotte Garland is my 5th-great-grandmother.

52 Ancestors: #4 William Gower, Methodist Preacher

My 5th-great-grandfather William Gower was born on 26 October 1776 in Wake County, North Carolina. He was a member of one of the first families of Tennessee; he arrived when he was only four years old. At that young age, he also lost both his father and grandfather. Abel Gower Jr. (my 6th-great-grandfather) and Abel Gower Sr. (my 7th-great-grandfather) were killed by Chickamaugas at Clover Bottom in 1780. William Gower married Charlotte Garland on 15 January 1802 in Davidson County, Tennessee. The following year, he heard Lorenzo Dow preach and was so moved that he professed his faith. John B. McFerrin stated that William Gower began to "call forth sinners to repentance" (p. 380). He was licensed to preach by William McKendree (Woodward, 1920). In 1803 William named his first son Lorenzo Dow, and in 1805 he named his first daughter (my 4th-great-grandmother) Margaret "Peggy" after Lorenzo Dow's wife. His church, Gower's Chapel, was across from his home, and it was used as a school on weekdays (Kelley, 1987). In 1885 a new church building, Centenary United Methodist Church, was constructed on the property ("Centenary UMC Homecoming," 2007).

William Gower died on 11 October 1851. The following day, his funeral was conducted by John B. McFerrin (Woodward, 1920). His will was recorded on 23 April 1852. He was buried in Gower Cemetery, located on the hillside below what is now Centenary United Methodist Church.  I had hoped to visit Gower Cemetery when I traveled to Nashville in 2007. Unfortunately I was unable to visit the cemetery because a dog was loose in the area and it looked like it was going to come after me if I got too close. I hope to go back to Nashville eventually, and hopefully I will get a chance to visit the cemetery.

 References:
"Centenary UMC Homecoming." Westview 31 no. 45 (Oct. 17, 2007): 2.
Kelley, Sarah Foster. West Nashville: Its People and Environs. Nashville: Sarah F. Kelley, 1987.
McFerrin, John B. History of Methodism in Tennessee. Vol. 1: From the Year 1783 to the Year 1804. Nashville: Publishing House of the M. E. Church, South, 1888.
Woodward, J. E. History of the Gower Family. Nashville: Harry V. L. Gower, 1920.