I wonder if my cousins from Rabun County may not be getting quite bewildered. They have believed for many years that old John Dillard had just two, maybe three, children: James, Mary Rebecca Dickerson, and a daughter who married a Dryman.
But look what's happened: during the last five years or so, we've been adding children all the time. First came three more boys--Thomas, John Jr. and William F. Although it could be argued that none of them are completely proved as John's sons, there is plenty of circumstantial evidence, in fact a rather overwhelming amount of it. There can really be no doubt that the three belong to John.
With Sophia, our total of children comes up to seven--but we did not think that was necessarily all. In the censuses of 1790, 1800 and 1810, there are still more young people in John's household. Of course these do not have to be children--they could be visitors, relatives, servants, you name it. However, it usually works out that such people are indeed children--and this seems to be working in John's case.
So, right here at the Dillard Family Reunion a year ago, Margaret Payne asked me if I had seen a certain Kentucky record about Sarah Dillard, wife of Baxter Davis. I had not seen that, but now I have, and lo and behold, another daughter of John has appeared!
The record in question is from Wayne Co. Kentucky, where for a time they officially recorded deaths the way we do now. It says, "Davis, Sarah, died 13 November 1858 of the Flux, age 80 years, a widow, born in North Carolina, resided and died in Wayne on the Cumberland River, daughter of John and Ruth Dillard."
That's about as firm an identification as you can ever have in genealogy. There is simply no possible doubt that John Dillard had a daughter Sarah. Note, by the way, that this is also the first and only mention in an official record of John's wife. We were pretty sure she was Ruth; this makes it official.
Since then, we've been in touch with four descendants of Sarah Dillard Davis, and an exchange of data is taking place. Meanwhile, Lucile Johnson of Arkansas, whom some of you will remember from the Reunion a few years ago, has also been prowling through records and turning up additional data. In fact, Lucile, a champion among sleuths, had already wondered if there was some connection with Baxter Davis, because he appeared in so many Dillard documents up in Buncombe Co.
So, what have we learned? Precious little. The principal problem is that in the late 1700's and early 1800's, when Sarah lived, there are an incredible number of Baxter Davises around, not just in the Dillard areas, but all over the map. Apparently there was one family of Davises who latched on to the name Baxter way back when, and used it and used it and used it.
From what we've sorted out of this mess, this is what is emerging, still mighty vague and foggy. There was a Baxter Davis Sr., who was up in Greasy Cove at the same time as the Dillards, the Loves, and the Gregorys. When they moved down to Flat Creek in Buncombe Co., he seems to have moved too, along with what appears to be no fewer than
Baxter Sr. seems to have moved out to Kentucky late in the 1790's, along with some of his sons. Baxter Jr. however apparently stayed in Buncombe, where he married Sarah Dillard by 1795 (possibly a bit earlier, but not much: he apparently was born c.1775, she in 1778). He had some land near the Dillards, but sold it around 1810, and apparently went off to Kentucky by 1815.
Although the Davises seemed to have engaged in quite a bit of land speculation, Baxter seems to have ended up with only 50 acres, which would hardly qualify him as well-to-do. He apparently died between 1821 and 1825--as far as the records are concerned, he just vanished. In 1825 we find that Sarah is paying the taxes on the 50 acres, and her husband never turns up again, as far as we can see.
No estate record has been found for Baxter, and so we do not have a list of children yet. One child is firmly proven, a daughter, Ruth, born in 1796, who married Jesse Cannon Flynn. She also has an obituary that identifies her parents.
A second daughter is probable: Margaret, who married Aaron Hardwick. "Sary" Davis signs a consent for her marriage, usual if the bride or groom was under age. "Sary" must be our Sarah -- and from the way she wrote the consent, she must not have had much education.
Some think there was another Baxter, a Robert, and so on, but to date, no other children have been proved. Unfortunately, that part of Kentucky is loaded with Davises--the results mostly of old Baxter Sr.'s begetting eight sons, all of whom presumably produced little Davises in enormous quantity (a number of them named Baxter, of course).
It's intriguing, puzzling in fact, that in the Census of 1850, Sarah is not living with her own children, but with a niece of her husband, daughter of one of Baxter's brothers.
So, that's where we are on Sarah Dillard Davis: more questions than answers.
Here's one question we haven't figured out yet. It's a record from the North Carolina legislature:
North Carolina Genealogical Society Journal, XIX (1993), 227. @ 227. Davis, Baxter and wife Lucretia. Petition of Baxter Davis of Buncombe County, North Carolina, and Lucretia Davis, his wife, of Washington County, Tennessee, 8 Nov. 1806, states that the said petitioners had amicably agreed to part from each other of their own free will and accord, no longer to be considered man and wife. Petitioners have not cohabited in anyway as man and wife for twelve years and pray an act to divorce them. (GASR Nov.- Dec. 1806, Box 2: folder "Petitions (Divorce, etc.)"). Committee of Divorces and Alimony to whom was referred the petition of ... Baxter Davis and
Boy, divorce sure was hard to get back then!
We suppose this must be Baxter Sr. If Baxter Jr. was born in 1771, a marriage that stopped in 1792 must have been short. But Baxter Sr. seems to be equipped with a wife in Kentucky, one his own age, and therefore we are not totally sure which Baxter is involved..
So, is there any possibility this was indeed Baxter Jr.? Did he then commit bigamy when he married Sarah in 1795--and continued to live with her as man and wife after the divorce was refused? Who can tell? All I can say further is that if this was Baxter Jr., and if he was committing bigamy, no wonder he went off to Kentucky!
There was a strong tradition that John Dillard had a daughter who married a Dryman. Ritchie called her Mary, which is obviously wrong, and I've seen accounts which called her Ruth, and had her married to James Dryman.
Recently, we've been digging into the Dryman family, which centers up the road from Rabun County not very far--Macon Co, North Carolina. The records on the family are not clear-- here we go again!
We don't find any Mary Dryman; we also don't find any Ruth Dryman. There is a James, but if he had a wife, we can't find her, or if he's maybe a James who turns up down in South Carolina, his wife isn't Ruth.
But one lady (with whom we haven't yet corresponded) wrote John T. Coleman a few years ago, stating firmly that she was descended from Elizabeth Dillard for sure, and that Elizabeth's husband was probably Henry Dryman.
There are quite a few land records on Henry--actually Henry Jr., since his father is of the same name and is around the same area--and his wife is Elizabeth. And we do have a list of children this time, although I am not sure on what records it's based.
So, it looks as though we've maybe found John Dillard's daughter who married a Dryman, and her name is Elizabeth. There probably are a whole bunch of new cousins up the road a ways in Macon County.
Two final points. When John Dillard died, James Dillard and Mary Rebecca Dillard
Dickerson testified that they were the only two surviving children. They were wrong, and they get wronger every time we find another child. In fact, of the eight children we now give to John, seven were living in 1842. Only Thomas was dead.
To be sure, they were widely spread out: Sarah was in Kentucky, John Jr. in Tennessee or possibly another part of Georgia, William F. was in Missouri, Sophia was in Tennessee, and Elizabeth was just up the road in Macon Co.
Why James and Mary Rebecca testified that way I don't know and won't guess. It may be connected with the unanswered question of why John Dillard's kids went away from their parents-- and also away from each other.
My other parting shot is just this: Census records show that there may be one more daughter for John Dillard unaccounted for and undiscovered. We don't even have an inkling of who she would be. Maybe someone will tell me before the end of this reunion. Meanwhile, don't hold your breath!