Friday, April 17, 2015

Tale of Two Sisters (and a Brother too.)


ELIZABETH EDWARDS was the daughter of HUGH EDWARDS and his wife HANNAH. Her actual birth date is unknown but we do know that on 5 June 1814 she married a THOMAS TRAVIS in Logan County, Kentucky.

Hugh and Hannah also had a son named HUGH H. EDWARDS born sometime between 1795-1804. Hugh H. married Susanna Travis who was the daughter of THOMAS TRAVIS and BARBARA GREEN. Thomas and Barbara were also the parents of the Thomas Travis who married Elizabeth Edwards.

Family intermarriages of this type are definitely not unusual within my family, especially on the frontier.

On 25 April 1818, Elizabeth Travis appears in the Equity Court in Logan County Kentucky. There she states that she married Thomas Travis on 5 June 1814. (That's the only record I currently find of the marriage.) Viewing the abstract of this case provides some interesting reading and based on these abstracted details, my next step will be to get a hold of the entire transcript of this court case.

Elizabeth states that in March, Thomas Travis deserted her and left her with two children to support. He apparently sold all his property and left the Commonwealth of Kentucky with another woman - one Margaret Edwards. And she requests a divorce.

In April 1820, Hugh Edwards (Elizabeth's father) was deposed in Simpson County Kentucky. He stated that Elizabeth Travis was his daughter and that in March 1818, Thomas Travis went off with one of his other daughters, Margaret Edwards, who was about 17 years of age.  He states that he has "understood and believes that Thomas has ever since lived in adultery with Margaret Edwards."

There are two other depositions  - by John Edwards and Jacob Rowland, that state the same thing - it was obviously common knowledge in both Logan and Simpson Counties.

I can't help but wonder how hard it must have been for Hugh Edwards to state that this man, Thomas Travis, ran off with his 17 year old daughter, leaving his other daughter and two grandchildren to fend for themselves. And I can't help but wonder what it was about Thomas Travis that got Margaret to run away with him leaving behind her family.

The mystery here deepens. For approximately 6 weeks in a row, from February 15 through March 21, 1820,  Elizabeth Edwards Travis advertises the following in the Russellville Kentucky Weekly Messenger.




Note the interesting part of this advertisement. She mentions BOTH Thomas Travis and Hugh Edwards, jun. as the defendants. The Equity Court Records do not mention Hugh Edwards Jr. except to state that on 25 April 1820 when his father Hugh gave his deposition, that he was present. Perhaps the actual transcriptions will reveal why her brother was also listed as a defendant - did he perhaps aide his other sister Margaret in her "elopement" with his brother-in-law Thomas Travis?

Records do not state if a divorce was granted. Elizabeth Edwards Travis at this time, seems to disappear. It is possible she remarried - there are a couple of possibilities. She does not seem to show up on future census records. There's no indication of the names of her two children or what actually became of them. More searching needs to be done.

As for Thomas and Margaret, they seem to have fared much better. No marriage record has been found with cursory checking from Kentucky to Mississippi. I assume they were married at some point - but it is possible they lived together without having been married.

In 1830, Thomas Travis is in Amite County Mississippi. The record is listed as 1 white male 30-39 (Thomas), 1 white female 20-29 (Margaret) and 1 white female 5-9 and 1 white female 10-14.  They also list two slaves. It is unclear as to who the young children are. Do they belong to Thomas and Margaret? I believe they are Parmey Travis who was born in 1822 in Amite County and possibly a sister.

In 1850 Thomas and Margaret are living in Amite County Mississippi as Thomas Travis and Margaret Travis living with a Melinda Brown who is the same age as Margaret Travis.

Thomas supposedly dies in 1853. In 1860, Margaret Travis is still living in the Amite Mississippi as noted on the census. Margaret is listed as a Planter with Real Estate worth $3000 and a personal estate of $13,000. Linna Brown (the same person as the Melinda Brown from the 1850 census?) and a Polly Brown are listed in the household - and listed as Paupers. There are three Wilson children and two Rabum's also listed as paupers. Margaret was obviously financially well off in the years right before the war.

For the moment the trail ends there but I am left with a lot of questions. What happened to Elizabeth Edwards Travis and her two children? Who are the children listed in the census? Who is Melinda/Linna Brown and is there a relationship to the Travis family? Why are there Wilson and Rabum's living with the Margaret Travis in 1860 and what is their relationship to Margaret?  And what happened to the estate of Margaret Travis during the Civil War?

As usual in research, one question opens up a whole list of other questions just waiting to be answered!!