It seems each trip back to Tennessee gives me little clues or encouragement to continue to revisit those brick walls. After visiting the Wolfe-Bray Cemetery, it has become clear to me that the Bray’s were in Tennessee soon after statehood but only the line with a great military paper trail has been embraced by most researchers of the Tennessee line. Who is this ancestor? My fourth great-uncle named Stogner Bray. He was a man full of adventure and on the move throughout his life.
Stogner makes his first appearance in Tennessee on an 1810 Grainger County tax list and marries Sally Waters on August 12, 1814 using Henry Bray as his bondsman.
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| Marriage bond source: Ancestry.com |
About one month later, Stogner enlists in the 3rd Regiment East Tennessee Militia under Colonel William Johnson and serves under Captains Christopher Cook and Joseph Kirk. In answer to his description at the time of enlistment in the military, Stogner states he was about 33 years, occupation is farming, born in North Carolina, height about 5’ 5 ½” tall with dark hair, eyes and complexion. A brief history of this regiment is provided on the State of Tennessee’s website:
“Part of General Nathaniel Taylor's brigade, this unit of drafted militia (about 900 men) was mustered in at Knoxville and marched to the vicinity of Mobile via Camp Ross (present-day Chattanooga), Fort Jackson, Fort Claiborne, and Fort Montgomery. Along the way the men were used as road builders and wagon guards. Many of them were stationed at Camp Mandeville (near Mobile) in February 1814, where there was much disease. For example, the company of Captain Joseph Scott had thirty-one listed sick out of an aggregate of 104 at the final muster.”
In 1817 he cleared the land for Benjamin Bray of Claiborne County and is listed on the 1830 Claiborne County census alongside Abijah Bray and Benjamin Bray, Sr..
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| Tennessee Early Land Registers Source: Ancestry.com |
1840 appears to be the decade of changes as Benjamin Sr. no longer appears on a census and Stogner is on the move. He relocates to Whitley County, Kentucky (about 64 miles northwest) where he applies for his military pension 11 years later -- 1851. In a summary of his residences given in 1875, we learn that since his discharge from the military in 1815, Stogner lived in Claiborne County, Tennessee then removed to Whitley County, Kentucky where he lived 7 or 8 years before moving to Lincoln County, Kentucky (about 78 miles northwest) then returned to Whitley County before moving onto Vigo County, Indiana (about 359 miles northwest) and finally landed in Sullivan County, Missouri (about 381 mostly west). Just think that Stogner began moving out of Tennessee around 50 years old and continued moving until he was about 75. He appears to be widowed by 1860 but has adult children living with him. Moving was no small feat as I’ve read that wagons being pulled by oxens would travel about five hours each day for about 10 miles per day. Since most of his travel took place before the Civil War then I am not sure if train travel was an option. The map below shows some of the main routes of travel around 1850.
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| Source: Southernindianaconnections.com |
The Chariton Courier (Keytesville, Missouri) published the following article on July 13, 1878:
“Uncle” Stogner Bray of Sullivan County, was 100 years old in March last. On the 18th inst. he was in Milan, and on starting home mounted his horse with two bushels of corn meal in the saddle, and taking a sack of flour in his lap, “started off as gay as a boy of eighteen.” –New Century.
The last time our adventurer appears in the news is on Friday, March 4, 1881 in the Weekly Graphic, Kirksville, Missouri:
Stogner Bray living four miles southwest of this city, died on last Monday at the age of one hundred and four years. Even at this advanced age he retained his physical and mental vigor. He was the oldest man in the county.
Stogner is buried in the Henry Cemetery in Reger, Sullivan County, Missouri. I don’t feel that I’ve given this adventurous spirit the story he deserves but all I can say is what a life!
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| Source: Find A Grave, photo provided by Thomas Corey |
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