52 Ancestors: Week 3 "Unusual Name": Astyanax

Hector's last visit to his family before his duel with Achilles: Astyanax, on Andromache's knees, stretches to touch his father's helmet. Apulian red-figure column-crater, ca. 370–360 BC. From Ruvo. Stored in the Museo Nazionale of the Palazzo Jatta in Ruvo di Puglia (Bari). Jastrow, 2006. Public domain. Wikimedia Commons.

One of the unusual names I have come across in my family tree is Astyanax. In Greek mythology, Astyanax was the son of the Trojan prince Hector and his wife Andromache.

The first Astyanax I have come across is Astyanax Mills, the son of  Archibald Ewing Mills and Nancy Hardgrave (sister of my 5th-great-grandmother Hannah Hardgrave.) He was born in Kentucky and was a child when his father died around 1814. He may have died young. However, the name continued in the family.

Astyanax Mills Douglass (10 September 1838 - 1 March 1908) was the son of James S. Douglass and Caroline Mills (half-sister/half-first cousin of Astyanax Mills; daughter of Nancy Hardgrave and her second husband John F. Mills, the half-brother of Archibald Ewing Mills.) He was a physician, Confederate officer, and Texas state representative. He was born and raised in Sumner County, Tennessee. He studied medicine in Nashville and earned his medical degree in 1861. He served in Company I of the Sixth Mississippi Infantry Regiment and was promoted to 2nd Lieutenant after the Battle of Shiloh. After he was wounded in 1862, he went to Bowling Green, Kentucky and served as assistant surgeon. He returned to the Sixth Mississippi Infantry Regiment in 1863. After the war, he returned to Sumner County, Tennessee and practiced medicine, then moved to Covington, Hill County, Texas. He served in the Texas State Legislature from 13 January 1874-18 April 1876; 18 April 1876-14 January 1879; and 14 January 1879-11 January 1881, and served in the Texas State Senate from 10 January 1893-10 January 1895 and 13 January 1903-10 January 1905. He was chairman of the Texas State Board of Health and president of the Medical and Surgical Association of Hill County, the Medical Examining Board of the Eighteenth Judicial District, and the Confederate Veterans and Old Settlers Association of Hill County. He was profiled on the blog The Strangest Names in American Political History.

Astyanax Mills Douglass had a son, Astyanax Saunders Douglass (24 September 1871-27 April 1897), who had a son also named Astyanax Saunders Douglass (19 September 1897-26 January 1975.) This Astyanax was a Major League Baseball catcher. He played for the Cincinnati Reds in 1921 and 1925. He was a veteran of World War I. He was a coach at Amarillo High School in Amarillo, Texas, and named the team the Golden Sandstorms. He later founded Furniture Warehouse Stores of El Paso, Texas.

Elizabeth L. Mills, daughter of John F. Mills and his first wife Frances Thurmond, and stepsister/half-first cousin of Astyanax Mills, had a son named Astyanax Mills Duncan (6 February 1833-5 September 1921). He lived in and near Sumner County, Tennessee.

The name Astyanax was also used as a middle name in the family. Ann Hardgrave Mills, the daughter of Nancy Hardgrave and John F. Mills, had a son named Dero Astyanax Saunders (13 June 1858-28 June 1913). He lived in Mississippi. He had a son who was also named Dero Astyanax Saunders (9 March 1900-15 October 1961), who fathered a third Dero Astyanax Saunders (13 September 1931-15 March 1969.)

References
Bork, June, comp. Wayne County, Kentucky Deed Book B (1811-1818). San Diego, CA: June Bork, 1993. Deed abstracts: Joel Coffey & Patsy his wife to the heirs of Arch. E. Mills, dec'd, 24 Nov 1814; Joshua Jones Sr. & Hannah his wife to Nancy Mills, widow of Archibald Mills, et al., 9 Mar 1816.
Miller, Aragorn Storm. Douglass, Astyanax M. Handbook of Texas Online. Texas State Historical Association.
A. M. Douglass. Texas Legislators: Past and Present. Legislative Reference Library of Texas.
Find A Grave, Astyanax S Douglass
Astyanax Douglass - Wikipedia
Astyanax Douglass. Baseball Reference.
Astyanax Douglass - "A Horned Frog Makes Good"
Death notice, A. S. Douglass. El Paso Herald-Post, 27 Jan 1975, p. C-7.
"Concerning Names." El Paso Herald-Post, 1 Feb 1975, p. B-1.
Find A Grave, Astynas Mills Duncan
Find A Grave, Dero Astyanax Saunders
Find A Grave, Dero Astanyax Saunders
Find A Grave, Dero Astyanax Saunders, Jr.

Amanuensis Monday: Andrew Russell Enters 100 Acres of Land on Pitmans Creek, Pulaski County, Kentucky

Pulaski County, Kentucky. Court Orders, Vol. 1, 1799-1803. No. 171, Andrew Russell, 24 June 1801. Salt Lake City, Utah: Filmed by the Genealogical Society of Utah, 1969. Microfilm 804646.

N. 171) On the motion of Andrew Russell Satisfactory proof was made to this Court that the said Russell is Intitled to one hundred acres of land by Virtue of his having Improved the same agreeably to an act of the General assembly Kentucky for Settling and Improving the Vacant lands of this Commonwealth and located as followeth (to wit) Andrew Russell, Enters 100 acres of land on the waters of Pitmans Creek adjoining A Mills Esq on the East & North Jeremiah Boon Esq on the South & to extend westwardly for quantity whis is Ordered to be Certified

Follow Friday: Tax Lists for Tax Day

Since today is Tax Day, it seemed an appropriate time to share some tax lists that are freely available.

New River Notes provides information about the Upper New River Valley of Virginia and North Carolina. It includes a 1787 Wilkes County, North Carolina tax list. My 6th-great-grandfather Francis Hardgrave is listed in Captain A. Trible's District, along with his Greer brothers-in-law. There is also a 1797 tax list for Wilkes County, North Carolina. By then, Francis Hardgrave had left Wilkes County. Other tax lists on the site are the 1774 list of tithables for Surry County, North Carolina; 1790 Surry County, North Carolina tax list; 1782 Montgomery County, Virginia land and personal property tax lists; 1802 Tazewell County, Virginia personal property tax list; 1806 Giles County, Virginia personal property tax list; 1810 Patrick County, Virginia personal property tax list; 1815 Ashe County, North Carolina tax list; 1831 Floyd County, Virginia personal property tax list; 1838 Smyth County, Virginia personal property tax lists (there is a separate list for free persons of color); and 1842 Carroll County, Virginia personal property tax list. There are numerous tax lists for Grayson County, Virginia and Washington County, Virginia.

Cape Fear Clans has the following tax lists: 1763 Bladen County, North Carolina tax list; 1755 Cumberland County, North Carolina tax list; 1801 list of taxable property for Captain Watson's district, Robeson County, North Carolina; and the 1825 tax list for Rockfish district, Cumberland County, North Carolina.

The Russell County, Virginia GenWeb has tax lists for Russell, County Virginia.

Images and partial transcriptions of the 1837 and 1838 Smith County, Tennessee tax lists and images of early Upcountry South Carolina tax lists are available at kenshelton.com.

The Sumner County, Tennessee Archives has Sumner County tax lists, 1795-1801. John Mills, the future husband of Francis Hardgrave's daughter Nancy (they married in 1820), was taxed in 1799 and 1800.

These are just a few examples. It's worthwhile to search and see if there are any free tax lists for your areas of interest. Although no one likes paying taxes, the taxpayers left us something useful: records of their residence in a particular place at a particular time, and possibly additional information.

52 Ancestors: #8 Hannah Hardgrave, A Woman of Strength

March is Women's History Month, so it is a good time for me to write about my female ancestors. My 5th-great-grandmother Hannah Hardgrave seems to have been a strong woman. She was born on 22 February 1782 in Wilkes County, North Carolina, and was the daughter of Francis Hardgrave (a captain and major in the Revolutionary War) and Sarah Greer. Around 1796, the Hardgrave family moved from Wilkes County, North Carolina to Lincoln County, Kentucky. In 1799, Hannah's parents and brothers moved to Tennessee. Hannah and her two sisters remained in Kentucky. Her sister Sarah, who had married Isaac Lowe in Wilkes County, North Carolina on 8 September 1790, was living in Barren County, Kentucky in 1810. Her sister Nancy married Archibald Mills in Lincoln County, Kentucky on 29 January 1797. Hannah married Andrew Russell in Lincoln County, Kentucky on 28 June 1799, and they settled in Pulaski County, Kentucky, which had been created from Green and Lincoln Counties in December 1798. The family appears there in the 1810 United States census, living in the town of Somerset. By 1820 Hannah and her family were living in Davidson County, Tennessee, near her parents Francis and Sarah Hardgrave. She was listed as head of household in the 1820 United States census; she was the head of a large family. Her husband Andrew Russell had probably died. On 7 August 1828, her father Francis Hardgrave died. He left Hannah the land that she was living on, and specified that after her death, it was to go to her son James Russell (her youngest son). Hannah's mother Sarah died on 30 November 1832. By 1840, Hannah was the only one of the children of Francis and Sarah still remaining in Tennessee, and may have been the only one of them that was still living. Her two oldest sons had moved to Kentucky. She was listed as head of household in the 1840 United State census. Again, she headed a large family, which probably consisted of her widowed daughter Malvira Carrington, Malvira's children, her daughter Sobrina (my 4th-great-grandmother), and Sobrina's apparently illegitimate daughter Amanda (my 3rd-great-grandmother). Her youngest son James lived nearby. Hannah could not read and write, and yet she managed, in a male-dominated society, to successfully raise three sons and five or six daughters, and to help raise her grandchildren, including one who appears to have been illegitimate. Sobrina lived with Hannah until Hannah's death; Hannah seems to have been a very supportive mother to her. Although Hannah had help from her father Francis Hardgrave until he died, and her son James Russell probably helped the family too, Hannah still strikes me as a remarkably strong woman for her time.

Hannah died in Davidson County, Tennessee about 1853. Below is her estate inventory.

Davidson County, Tennessee Will Books Microfilm Reel #433 Volume 16, Page 263, Hannah Russell Estate Inventory Dated 16 March 1854, Tennessee State Library and Archives.

Davidson County, Tennessee Will Books Microfilm Reel #433 Volume 16, Page 332, Hannah Russell Estate Inventory Sale, Tennessee State Library and Archives.

 Davidson County, Tennessee Will Books Microfilm Reel #433 Volume 16, Page 333, Hannah Russell Estate Inventory Sale, Tennessee State Library and Archives.