Bailey Sutton's Connection

Many years ago, the journey into my Sutton ancestry research began. I learned of the connection between my third great-grandfather, Thomas Sutton, and a man living in the same area (Claiborne County, Tennessee) named Bailey Sutton. It was assumed these men were brothers who descended from John Sutton and Nancy Coleman (I've also seen Mary Coleman), but the documentation was lacking. In 2008, I learned that Family Tree DNA offered Y-DNA testing and after much grumpiness, my father swabbed his cheek and mailed off the kit. I was so excited as I had visions of matches to many Suttons with documented family trees but when the results came in, I was shocked. Not one match to another Sutton and a mention by another researcher in the Sutton Group Surname Project that perhaps there had been a NPE (non-paternity event) in my dad’s line. Groan! My quest for the elusive Suttons continued. One thing I did learn was the Sutton Project did not have a large number of Sutton males who had tested. Note to self and others – don’t assume that all men with the same last name descend from the same ancestor and share the same haplogroup, etc.. 

A few years later, while reading Roberta Estes’ DNAeXplained blog, I learned that a man named Smith Sutton lived in Lee County, Virginia in 1806 and was a member of the Thompson Settlement Church.  Thomas had also been a member of that church.  Lee County shares a border with Claiborne County, Tennessee and that find was worth further investigation. I began scouring the internet for more information on Smith and stumbled on some old messages about him posted by Greg Clark. We exchanged information and he provided me with some old Lee County, Virginia court documents. We recruited one of his male Sutton cousins for Y-DNA testing. Greg and his cousin descend from Zacheus Sutton who has been proven to be the son of Smith Sutton through Lee County, Virginia court documents dated February 28, 1815, "...John Mark one of the constables of this county having made return that he had executed the said attachment in the hands of James Gilbert and summoned him as a garnishee this day came as well one the plaintiff by their attorney as the said garnishee in his proper person to ho being sworn declared that he was indebted to the said Smith Sutton some time past in the sum of one hundred dollars and that at the request of the said Smith Sutton he executed his note for the said sum of one hundred dollars to Zachariah Sutton, son of the said Smith Sutton payable in good trade on the first day of January next...."   Zacheus and his wife, Susannah Applegate, left Lee County, Virginia in 1820 and settled in Scott County, Indiana. The DNA results arrived, and his cousin was a close match to my dad. Progress! Greg and I began to look for a male Sutton descendant of Bailey to participate in the Y-DNA testing to prove that Thomas, Zacheus, and Bailey were most likely brothers and the sons of Smith Sutton and Mary unknown. Finally, that day arrived (after several years of waiting) when his fourth great-grandson, through John Sutton and Sarah Pridemore, agreed to test. The results are in, and he is closely related to my dad and Greg’s cousin at 37 markers. 

Now I want to share with our new match what is known about Bailey’s connection to Smith and Thomas through the paper trail. The first record that connects Bailey to another Sutton is found in Lee County, Virginia’s 1813 Personal Property Tax List. The older man is Smith Sutton who is first recorded in Caswell County, North Carolina. We estimate that he was born about 1767 so he is old enough to be his father or uncle.

On March 30, 1815, in Lee County, Virginia a lawsuit was on the docket naming Joab Matlock, Smith Sutton, and Bailey Sutton as defendants and the plaintiff was Dennis Burnes.  The lawsuit appears to have been dismissed since Mr. Burnes was not a resident of the state.  

Bailey purchased 50 acres of land in Claiborne County, Tennessee on March 26, 1827.  This was very interesting to me since the assignee was Drury Lawson (Thomas’s father-in-law) and the chain carriers were Diadamma Sutton and James Dooley.  This discovery was a few months ago as I perused the Claiborne County, Tennessee land deeds on Familysearch.org.  It not only shows a connection to Thomas, but also introduces another Sutton, Diadamma!  Who is she?  Could she be a first wife as it is known from later records that Bailey’s wife was Sarah (she is believed to be Sarah Worley or Sarah Petitt).  Perhaps Diadamma is a sister?  Sworn chain carriers had to be of legal age (males had to be 21 years of age) so I assume she was at least 21 years old.  Also, who is James Dooley?  Further investigation or documents revealed he lived in Claiborne County for several years. His first land entry was recorded in 1815.  James Dooley continued to live near Thomas and Bailey until the 1850 census where he was enumerated as an 88 years old White male born in Virginia.  It is assumed he died before 1860 since he is not found on that census.  That is all to be discovered on the chain carriers.

Back to Bailey.  He is enumerated in Lee County, Virginia in the 1830 and 1840 census records and on the personal property tax there in 1831-1834, 1836, and 1837.  He was appointed as the Mulberry Road overseer from the Crocket Works to the Powell River in Claiborne County in 1834.  Two hundred acres was purchased by him in 1845 in Claiborne County from William Roark.  Bailey was enumerated in Subdivision 7, Claiborne County in 1850 along with his wife, Sally, and 10 children (he is believed to have had 14 children).  We also learn from this census that he was born in North Carolina (Thomas and Zacheus were also born in North Carolina) around 1795, his occupation is farmer, and his real estate property is valued at $400.00.  Bailey and the family aren’t found on the 1860 census, but he is taxed on 160 acres in Claiborne County in 1862.

 

In 1868, Bailey purchased a tract of land (196 acres) in Laurel County, Kentucky on the Laurel River for $125 from Jarvis and Francis Jackson.  Bailey and the family are enumerated in Laurel County in 1870. His household consists of his wife, Sally, and daughters Mary Jane (unmarried) and Mahala and her husband James Sulfridge and their five children.  Bailey’s real estate is valued at $100, and his occupation was wheelwright.  The 1880 Laurel County census would be the final enumeration for Bailey and Sally who are living in the household of his daughter Mahala Sulfridge and family.  

 

Sarah passed away in May 1886 and her obituary was published on May 7, 1886, in The Mountain Echo, London Kentucky, “Died on last Tuesday evening at the residence of H.C. Sutton, of general debilities, Mrs. Sarah Sutton, wife of Uncle Bailey Sutton. Mrs. Sutton was between 80 and 85 years of age and leaves quite a number of children and grandchildren to mourn her death.”  Soon after his wife passed away, Bailey sold his Laurel County land on October 18, 1886, to his son and daughter-in-law, Harvey C. Sutton and Mary Sutton (Justice), for $300.

Bailey’s obituary was published in The Mountain Echo on May 10, 1889, as follows “The funeral sermon of Uncle Bailey Sutton will be preached at Slate Hill Church on the first Sunday in June by Elders Ewell and Cheek.  Everybody is invited to attend.”  Both were buried in Breastworks Hill Cemetery, which is also known as Cemetery Hill in Laurel County, Kentucky.

It is amazing to think that we now have three descendants of Smith Sutton connected from the states of Oklahoma, Indiana, and Tennessee. Thomas' grandson, Noah Sutton, left Tennessee around 1890 for Fannin County, Texas and his Y-DNA representative was my father who lived near Oklahoma City. Zacheus' Y-DNA descendant lived in Jackson County, Indiana.   Bailey's Y-DNA descendant still lives near where I began researching records in Claiborne County, Tennessee. 

 

If at first you don’t succeed, search, search again. That is why we call it re-search.

--Mary Harrell-Sesniak, Genealogy Humor

 The Hornes of Perry County, Alabama

I’ve often thought my second great-grandfather, Milo Washington Leonard (also known as Mack or Wash) was a bit of a mystery.  His parents were Levi A. Leonard and Mary Ann Horne and married on June 15, 1825, in Bibb County, Alabama.  Levi is one my few relatives that was born in Massachusetts but headed to the South as a young man without family.  I suspect his journey started through military service in the 1820's.  He was appointed as the Justice of the Peace in Bibb County in 1826, served in the military in 1849 Perry County, Alabama as an adjutant for the 3^rdDivision, 14^th Brigade, 32^nd Regiment.  Levi’s final census (1850) lists him with two sons (Silas, 12 and Alvin, 7) working as a penmanship teacher in Tuscaloosa County.  Of course, I wondered where his wife and Milo was.  Unfortunately, Levi passed away from consumption at the age of 60 as recorded on the January 1860 Perry County, Alabama mortality schedule.  

This ad ran for a few months in "The Independent Monitor" newspaper.  Source: Newspapers.com

Meanwhile in 1850, Mary Ann was enumerated with her parents, Jesse and Mary Horne (nee Duke), along with two brothers named Washington and Andrew.  She was found in Perry County, Alabama again in 1860 with her siblings Washington and Elizabeth but her mother had passed away.  Jesse died in 1861 and mentioned in his will that two of his heirs, George W. Horne and Mary Leonard, are of unsound mind.  A review of the 1860 census confirms this, but the enumerator wrote a comment for Washington Horn and Mary Leonard that said, “Idiotic studying morma”.   Strange.  Could “morma” be Mormon?  There were two heirs mentioned in her father’s will that were living in Utah territory – Thomas and Andrew Horn.  Now I am intrigued so onto see what can be discovered about these two brothers.

 

Thomas is the youngest of Jesse Horne’s children being born about 1831.  If this birth year is correct, then he married his bride, Sarah Carpenter, on November 29, 1848, when he was only 17 years old.  He is missing from the 1850 census but found in Utah with his family in 1860; however, he united his niece Louanna Leonard in marriage to Theophilus Nixon on November 4^th, 1852 in Perry County.  This document provides some great information!  It states that Thomas is an Elder of the “Mormon Church” and the marriage was performed in the presence of James and Lucindy Rhone (this couple is Louanna’s sister and brother-in-law), Andrew Horne (Thomas' brother), Martin Harrison (this gentleman is most likely the husband of his niece Malinda Carolyn Horne), and Washington Horne (Thomas’ “idiotic” brother).  

 

Now I am amazed at this point.  I have spent many hours at Family History Centers (branches of the Family History Library located in Salt Lake City, Utah that is operated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) and peruse their digitized catalog on Familysearch.org.  I owe many thanks to the preservation of genealogy records to this organization.

Source: https://history.churchofjesuschrist.org/media/settlementmap

Back to Thomas Horne, he is found in the Church History Biographical Database as a “pioneer”.  To earn this designation means travel to Utah was completed by 1868 by wagon or handcart (Source: Mormon Pioneer Emigration Facts, Christine T. Cox, Manager of Visitor and Reference Services, March 2018).  He and his family traveled with the Moses Thurston Company that departed on July 3, 1855, from Mormon Grove, Kansas and arrived in Salt Lake Valley on September 19, 1855.  Thomas and his wife, Sarah, died just a few days apart in 1914:

 

Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Horne who were taken last August by their daughter Mrs. Matt McDonald to Butte, Montana, were brought here for burial last Wednesday.  They had been sick quite a while before they went to Montana, and Mrs. McDonald felt she could give them better care if she had them at her home.  They both passed peacefully away only a few days difference between their deaths.  Mrs. Horne was 83 years of age and Mr. Horne 82. (Source:  The Journal (Logan, Utah), 5 Feb 1914, p. 8).

 

Were more family members of Jesse Horne affiliated with this faith in Alabama?  Yes, his older brother Henry Horne was listed as an Elder of the Five Mile, Perry Alabama branch on 29 Feb 1844.  Given that Joseph Smith (founder of Mormonism and the Latter-Day Saints movement) and his brother, Hyrum, were murdered by an armed mob at the Carthage Jail in Illinois on June 27^th, 1844, then I wonder if many people abandoned this new faith for fear of being harmed.  Henry and his family remained in Alabama, and it is hard to ascertain if the Five Mile branch continued.

 

Now as this story ends, I must say that I would never have known that Levi Leonard and Mary Ann Horne were the parents of Milo Washington Leonard if it had not been for connecting with previous researchers on Ancestry.com.  He never appeared on a census record with his parents or siblings. I did find Washington Leonard listed as a 21 year old on the 1860 Tuscaloosa census which is most likely him since he enlisted for the Confederacy at Tuscaloosa, Alabama on September 13, 1861, as a private in Co. K, 20 Reg’t Alabama Infantry.   Returning to the probate records of Milo’s grandfather, there was an update of the heirs published on March 18, 1867 that includes a documented connection to his mother and some siblings, “…Silas Leonard living in Perry County, Mack Leonard supposed to be living in Texas, Lucinda Roane widow of James Roane dec’d living in Perry County, & Eliza Brelland wife of Arch Breland living in Mississippi in right of their deceased mother Mary Leonard and all twenty one years of age…].  Did I mention that Milo is known as Mack, Wash, Washington, and M.W.?!  

Milo Washington Leonard passed away on April 24, 1907 at the age of 64 in Fannin County Texas and is buried in the Gum Springs Cemetery in Carson.  His wife, Mahala Duke Patillo would outlive him 24 years passing away on September 5, 1931 and was buried beside him.  

Source: Milo Washington Leonard Source: Ancestry.com

Pioneer Settler Died Saturday in Carson Community

 

With the death of Mrs. Mahala Leonard last Saturday afternoon at 4 o’clock at her home near Carson, there was removed from our community one of the oldest as well as one of the best-known residents.

 

Mrs. Leonard was 83 years of age and had resided in Fannin County over 60 years.  She and her husband who died several years ago were identified with the activities of the county in its pioneer days.  Mrs. Leonard enjoyed a wide acquaintance over the county and in adjoining counties. She was the last charter member of the Baptist church at Carson having assisted in its organization over a half century ago.

 

She is survived by two daughters, Mrs. T. J. Welch of Carson and Mrs. Will Brewster of Lockney, Texas, and two sons, D.S. Leonard of Ravenna and T.E. Leonard of Carson.  Many grandchildren and great grandchildren also survive her.  Deputy Sheriff Jack Leonard of Bonham is her grandson.

 

Funeral services were held Sunday afternoon, being conducted by Rev. Thos. Reece, Baptist preacher. Interment was at Gum Springs, near Carson.  A large number of relatives and friends from various sections of Fannin County were present.

Mahala Duke Leonard nee Patillo (from my grandmother's photo collection)