Thomas Luttrell: Ft. Boonesborough, Ky.

Pioneer, Indian Fighter, Boonesborough Militia.

Thomas is not a direct ancestor of ours, but he was a first cousin of once removed of Robert Luttrell and therefore the 2nd cousin (thrice removed) of our John Daniel Littrell).
Thomas is the half brother of Col. John Luttrell, we don't know if Thomas, arrived with his brother John and Judge Henderson, or set out with the Boone party. We don't find mention of him in Henderson's diary along with the many times his brother John was mentioned, so we assume that he was with the Boone (Wilderness) Party. We have little information on Thomas other than land claims and probate papers for him¹ and his brother John (and later John's widow and her nefarious second husband). We believe he remained at Ft. Boonesborough after his brother returned to North Carolina.

Thomas does not appear to have established himself as well as the Colonel so his holdings at Ft. Boonesborough maintained his attention to a greater degree than John, who had affairs and estates in North Carolina, as well as a pregnant wife there.
We believe that Thomas Luttrell died in Kentucky and may have left descendants there.

After the Colonel's departure the history of the fort is filled with conflicts and events that we can only speculate that Thomas Luttrell may have been witness to. We do know that he did meet his settlement requirements for a land claim by '...raising a field of corn” during the first year of Fort Boonseborough's existence. He may have been dead by the end of the war. Failing to find any record of Thomas ever leaving Kentucky and the indications that he was alive at or near the end of the revolution we can then summarize that he was probably involved in at least one of three major events at Fort Boonesborough during the revolution:

1. Capture of Daniel Boone: With the food supply at Boonesborough running low, Daniel Boone led a party of thirty men to the salt springs on the Licking River. Boone's party was greatly outnumbered and captured by Chief Blackfish. Boone and his men were taken as prisoners to Blackfish's town of Chillicothe. Per Shawnee custom, Boone and some of the prisoners were adopted into the tribe to replace fallen warriors. The remainder were taken to Detroit, where Indians received a bounty for each prisoner (or scalp) taken. Boone eventually escaped. Boone eluded his captors and raced home, covering the 160 miles (260 km) to Boonesborough in five days. If Thomas was in the original Daniel Boone party that was captured then he probably spent the rest of the war in captivity in Detroit.
2. The Raid on Paint Lick Town: Upon his return, Boone lead a preemptive raid against the Shawnee village of Paint Lick Town on the other side of the Ohio River. This accomplished little.
3. The Siege of Fort Boonseborough: On September 7, 1778, Blackfish's force arrived outside Boonesborough. Boone counted 444 Native Americans and 12 white men. The former were mostly Shawnees, with a number of Cherokees, Wyandots, Miami’s, Delawares, and Mingos. The latter were French-Canadian militiamen from Detroit, now fighting on behalf of the British Crown. Although this was the largest force yet sent against the Kentucky settlements, taking a fortified position like Boonesborough would still be difficult without artillery to reduce the stronghold. After days of negotiations Blackfish demanded to know "by what right had the white people taken possession of this country." Boone replied that they had bought the land from the Cherokees at Sycamore Shoals (The Treaty of Watuaga). A Cherokee chief confirmed that this was true. Blackfish accepted this answer.What happened next is unclear, but a scuffle broke out, and marksmen from both sides opened fire. All but one of the Americans managed to scramble back into the fort-the last one had to take cover next to a tree stump by the main gate. Negotiations were over; the formal siege had begun. Gunfire was exchanged over the next several days. The Shawnees launched their final assault on September 17, again trying to set fire to the fort. They were beaten back, and a heavy rain helped to put out the fires. The Shawnees lost more men killed in this attack than on all previous days. The next day, they gradually broke off the siege.

¹we know his heir was another John Luttrell (probably Thomas's own son) who inherited as much as 1400 acres of land.

see also

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The above information is from: Military Role Call: The Littrell Family of Mississippi County, Missouri, The Littrell Family Journals Volume IV. (click here)
also:  Littrell Family Veterans Video

reposted from 10-18-2015:   35 

John Riley Littrell: Query

Q: Hi Glen My name shows as Mae Condray but my maiden name is Littrell I am in search of relatives. My father did not have a lot to do with his family when I was growing up so I dont know much about them. His name was James Harold Littrell, my Grand father was James Henry, and my great grand father was John Riley Littrell. They live both in the Harlen KY area and Muskogee OK area after the fall of the coal mines in KY. If you know anything about this branch of the family I would appreciate an answer. Thanks Mae (Littrell) Condray

A: Mae, I have many John and James Littrell’s in my files. I would need some dates and any other information to make a connection. The point of emphasis should be on John Riley but also the others. Sometimes a spouse, birthdate or an Uncle’s name might help make a connection. I am posting your Query on the website in hopes that it might ring a bell with someone.

Joyce Reba "Dottie" Rambo

INQUIRY: I ran across this and was wondering if you would know if they were related to our family in anyway.     Mary Catherine Littrell-Cook

Response: Based on the Obituary information I have no Luttrell’s that I can connect to Joyce Luttrell. Her father, Vernon was probably born before 1916 (based on Reba being born when he would have been 18 or older. This would make him too young to connect to any Luttrell’s in Kentucky without knowing who his parents were.

In addition, Joyce’s birthplace, Anton, Kentucky does not come-up in a Google or map research as a town. The only reference I find to such a place is the Community of Anton, a community in Madisonville, Kentucky, located on Anton Road in Hopkins County.

I have no record of any Luttrell or Littrell Ancestors in Hopkins County, but Hopkins County was formed from other counties in Kentucky that we do have ancestors in: Henderson, Logan, Christian and Lincoln counties. Unfortunately, Hopkins was formed in 1806 and if Joyce had any ancestors in the area it probably was not the area that became Hopkins County.

To make a connection with Joyce we would have to have at least her grandparents information. Most of my research on the Luttrells-Littrells in Kentucky ends at the Civil War, so we would probably need information back to then. At this point I don’t see us making a connection with Joyce without the help of a family member of hers or someone taking her on as a project.

Our Ancestral Movements: From Virginia to Missouri

While we have been developing the story of the family’s Missouri migration from Lawrence County, Tennessee to the bootheel region of Missouri  we have seen more information falling in place on earlier migration stories:

• We know our Littrell cousin’s we’re at the founding of Boonesborough and the blazing of the Wilderness Road with Daniel Boone. They came through the Cumberland Gap as some of the first settlers in Kentucky.
• We know that our Littrell ancestor and his cousins migrated to Kentucky, and then to Tennessee, eventually settling in the same areas as other families that were their neighbors in Virginia.
• We know that our Littrell ancestor and his neighbors and cousins also came through the Cumberland Gap and were among the first settlers to the area around the, then nonexistent, community of Dunnville, Kentucky.
• We know that some of our Ezell Cousins, traveling with the Bumpass Party from Union County, South Carolina would be amongst the first settlers in the area of Giles County. An area that would eventually grow to be the town of Pulaski, the county seat of the newly expanded Giles County, Tennessee. Possibly also coming through the Cumberland Gap into Kentucky then Nashville, Tennessee.
• We know that our Littrell ancestor from Dunnville, Kentucky and some of his cousins and neighbors would be amongst the first settlers in the newly formed county of Lawrence. Settling just miles from the Giles County, Tennessee settlers. Some of these settlers would be from the same families that migrated with our Littrell ancestor into Kentucky.
• We know that our Ezell ancestor, along with our Belew and Comer ancestors and some of their other Union County, South Carolina neighbors would move into the same area as our Littrell ancestor in Lawrence County, Tennessee just miles from their Ezell cousins and uncles in Giles County, Tennessee.
• We know that the same descendants of those Littrell, Comer, Belew, and Ezell families, and their neighbors would once again migrate into the same neighborhoods in another state. This time into the bootheel area of Missouri (see also) during the Great Depression leaving over a hundred years after their ancestors settled Tennessee. (see more)

These Virginia and South Carolina neighbors lived within miles of each other in their original neighborhoods and then in their new neighborhoods in Kentucky and Tennessee they once again were neighbors, and again in Missouri. In some cases they belonged to the same churches as each other in their state of origin and state of destination. They inter married with the same neighbors in both states and left families in their old neighborhoods with each migration. We can identify some moves as a group and some that were individual families moving over short periods of time.

The Murder Of John Perry Luttrell:

When Rodhom Literal (#599) migrated from Casey Co., Kentucky to Lawrence County, Tn., he left at least one grown son in the Casey County area around Dunville.

Rodhom Literal, JR and his wife Matilda Horton, along with the descendants of his father's brothers and cousins from the Virginia migration, left generations of Luttrells in the south-central area of Kentucky.
A grandson of Rodhom Literal, JR., was one of these descendants. He (John Perry Luttrell) and his wife Rebecca lived in the Dunville area in the early 1900s. Rebecca was also a Luttrell by birth. She descended from her great-great-grandfather Richard Luttrell,  a cousin of Rodhom Literal (#599).
According to one source, John was an “M.G., minister of the Gospel, performed several Luttrell marriages”
In August of 1909 there occurred a deadly incident at Dry Fork Church near the community of Phil that left John and his son-in-law, Addie Chapman, dead:
Known to be involved in the fight was John and Addie (both stabbed to death), John Chapman, as well as John Luttrell’s daughter, Polly Jane (Luttrell) Chumley and her husband John, and at least 3 other Luttrells and 2 other Chapmans.
Polly and her husband received life-threatening wounds (gunshot and stab wounds), but both survived.
The 3 unnamed Luttrells and 2 unnamed Chapman’s were arrested.
We don’t know if Addie’s wife, Rebecca A. (Luttrell) Chapman, was involved or not, but it appears the fight erupted between John and Addie Chapman and Mr. Luttrell.
The article says the Luttrell and Chapman families for a long time had bad feelings between them, which is surprising when you realize that Addie Chapman had married John Luttrell’s daughter Rebecca just 6 months before the fight.
(Phil is about 4 miles east of Dunville.)

Note: For Descendants of John Daniel Littrell (LITTRELLFAMILY.net ON FACEBOOK) John Daniel Littrell and John Perry Luttrell would be 2nd cousins. To figure your relationship to John Perry Luttrell count your ancestors from John Daniel Littrell (he would be 0) to yourself (X), You would be 2nd cousin, X removed from John Perry Luttrell).

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The Family’s Migration Story: Tennessee To Missouri Ferry

The story told about Uncle Jim's journey references “...they landed in New Madrid on the ferry...”. The story told of Grandpa John's journey does not reference how they got across the Mississippi River. In trying to trace the journey and migration of John & Kizzie family from Tennessee to Missouri, I investigated several possible crossing points in Mississippi and New Madrid counties.

We know of four ferries in the New Madrid area: the Dorena-Hickman Ferry, the Belmont-Columbus Ferry, and the Tiptonville Ferry (Ferryland in Missouri) and the New Madrid Ferry.

• The only one still operating is the Dorena (MO)-Hickman(KY) Riverboat Ferry crossing. Having ridden it several times during this research its history is sketchy and appears to have been an on again off again operation for sometime.
  

• The Belmont(MO)-Columbus(KY) Ferry is probably the oldest of the four ferries, dating back to 1825. The community of Belmont was located north of Dorena and like Dorena no longer exist. The only reference to the Belmont-Columbus Ferry I have found is one that mentions it was established in 1825 and was re-opened in 2014. I will investigate this on my next trip.
  

• Tiptonville-Ferryland Ferry, I was checking out the Point Pleasant, Missouri area when I was directed to a place called 'Ferryland' to the south. It looked to be very promising, primarily because when I spoke to several people fishing on the bank they were familiar with the history of the area and the ferry landing. They pointed out the corresponding landing on the Tennessee side of the river and affirmed that it the Tiptonville Ferry was in operation in the 20 and 30s, that it also operated off and on maybe as late as the 70s. (Ferryland, State Highway 162 dead-ends at the rivers edge)
  On a subsequent trip I went to Tiptonville. I found the ferry location (Tiptonville Ferry Rd.) and once in town I was informed that one of the owners of the ferry in the past was still alive. I was directed to the local Ace hardware store owned and operated by the former ferry owner and his son. As it turned out he and his father owned the ferry and they, with his son had all worked on it. Unfortunately (see New Madrid Ferry below), he informed me that the ferry wasn't in Tiptonville until 1950.

  		Tiptonville Riverboat Ferry VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

• New Madrid Ferry, with Uncle Jim's migration story “...they landed in New Madrid on the ferry...”, the first place I started this search was in New Madrid, but on several visits I was always told there had been no ferry in New Madrid. This was always a letdown because Troy and I had vague memories of a ferry ride in the area. It was because of the negative responses I got from the New Madrid search that I started looking for other possible crossing locations like Dorena, Belmont and Tiptonville.
  In the above paragraph on Tiptonville I finish with the unfortunate news that the ferry was not in Tiptonville until the 1950s, this news was unfortunate for only a few moments, for as the conversation continued he revealed that his father had moved the ferry to Tiptonville from New Madrid!
  He could not date how long the ferry had been in New Madrid but he said New Madrid was a logical location until a sandbar had developed that interfered with the ferry.

As is the case quite often in this type of research a little mis-information, or missed information, can send you on a maddening detour.

There were several things I learned about ferries that would influence the movement of a ferry: sandbars, droughts (sometimes more so than floods), new roads, shrinking towns, river traffic, competition, and changes in ownership.

The case for the New Madrid Ferry

Ferry Crossings were more common than bridges in 1929 and 1932. The most logical route would have been due west to Memphis and a crossing there or somewhere north of there to Tiptonville, Tennessee which is directly across from New Madrid County, MO.
In 1929 there was only one bridge across the river between Memphis and St. Louis. So one has to assume they crossed by ferry somewhere from Memphis to Cairo. Even though there were bridges in Memphis and the newly opened (old) Cairo Bridge (at the current Ft. Defiance location), they might have still taken a ferry if the toll was cheaper. Back then most bridges were toll bridges. In addition we can rule out the use of the Cairo bridge since it was only connecting Missouri and Illinois, not Kentucky, the Cairo-Kentucky bridge over the Ohio River was not yet built.

In the case of Grandpa John’s migration the same scenario would apply. The fact that John's migration story makes no mention of a ferry doesn't mean they took a bridge. Bridges were infrequent, newer, expensive and probably had higher tolls. Ferries on the other hand were more numerous, older and less costly.

Let’s look at the most logical routes:

On this 1926 map Lawrence County was on the state line between Columbia, TN., and Florence, AL., and New Madrid was at the top of the bootheel on the Mississippi. Keep in mind this map shows only the main roads, by necessity back roads would be used, but for major portions of the trip the main roads shown would most likely be used.

There would be three choices in 1929 and 32:

1. From Lawrence County go due west or south to Highway 72 which would take them to Memphis where they would then cross into Arkansas and then take Highway 61 north to New Madrid. Even today, using the newer interstates, this is a possible route.
2. At Memphis take  Highway 51 north and then the backloads west to the river and a ferry (New Madrid)
3. From Lawrence, go northwest to Highway 45, take it north to Highway 51. From there go west on back roads to the ferry(New Madrid) or go north on Highway 51 and then west on back roads to the ferry(New Madrid)

All three routes appear practical, we have no knowledge of conditions that would favor one rout over the other except for three things: the third route appears to be more direct as it angles northwest towards New Madrid, the third route also avoids Memphis (would Memphis be an enticement or a deterrent to these hill folk?), and last, but not least, the second and third routes literally require a ferry to New Madrid.

So, until we have evidence, or at least information, that contradicts taking the family’s migration story literally doesn’t the New Madrid crossing make since?   

GlennDL~~2014

note: There were two other possible ferries (one in Caruthersville and I think the other in Dyersburg? I will look into this in the future.

John Littrell Graveyard

Sent: Sunday, November 29, 2009 4:27 PM

Sir,

     My name is Delbert Heskett. I am looking for the gravesites of my great-great-grandparents, Jessie Payne and Martha Francis Payne. I have a copy of a death certificate that says Jessie was buried in the John Littrell Graveyard which I believe to be in Barren County, Kentucky. They were born and died in Barren County.

     The directions that I have are 0.4 mile east of the Warren County line on highway 1297 and then south 0.6 mile on Littrell Road. Then west at Wallace Littrell's place and then south to a tobacco barn.

     I have not been able to find any transcriptions of the tombstones in the cemetery. I would prefer not to have to drive all of the way from Texas to Kentucky without some more concrete information. Do you have any information, please?

     Thank you.

                          Del Heskett

George Washington Littrell

Hi Glen,
My name is Sandy Littrell Miller. I am the eldest child of Benerd Paul
Littrell and Georgia Gerldine Littrell of Rolla Missouri. My grandfather was
Milton Earl Littrell and his father was George Washington Littrell. George
was one of 12 children and so was his father George.
My family came to Missouri from Kentucky. We also have a lot of Indian in us
both my grandma Irene Leaf Littrell and my grandpa Earl were 1/2 Cherokee.
My dad is very ill and finding out about the Littrell family will make his
month of hospitalization much happier. Our family settled in Washington
County Missouri and my dad grew up in a little town called Richwoods.
FYI.. In Lee Summit Missouri is a living history museum, and the
Littrell/Luttrell cabin from 1856 is still standing there. Email me when you
get the chance!

Elizabeth Litteral (many spellings)

Sent: Sunday, January 21, 2007 10:09 AM
To: gdl@glenns-world.com
Subject: Littrell

Sir, I am looking for any info that I can find on James and Elizabeth
Littrell, who are buried outside of Willisburg in Washington County,
Kentucky. They are my GGGgrandparents. I believe that they were married in
Garrard County. Their daughter, America married Benjamin Franklin Gardner,
my GGgrandfather. They also had a son, Richard, that I believe, was a
prisoner at Andersonville Prison during the Civil War.
Thanks for any info.
Scott Gardner

Glenn, One set of my GGGgrandparents were William and Elizabeth Litteral
(many spellings) who were married in Garrard County Kentucky. They lived and
raised a family in Washington County and are buried in the Glenns Creek
Cemetery there. Their children were my GGgrandmother America, Richard, who
served in the 6th Kentucky Cavalry during the Civil War and did time at
Andersonville, Allen, who I believe served in the 6th also, Sallie, Patsy,
Louisa, Emma, Martha, and Dalila. I dont have any info on the family any
farther back than John. Would you be familiar with ths branch? Any help
would be greatly appreciated.
Scott Gardner
Also a union man. UFCW at Jim Beam in Frankfort, Kentucky.

Brian Littrell of the Back Street Boys

From: Larry Brown, Dean (Littrell) and Joe Brown's son.
To: GlennDL
Date: Friday, December 25, 1998 1:49 PM

Hi Glen. I'm  My daughters discovered that one of the guys in the band called the Back Street Boys's last name was Littrell (Brian Thomas Littrell) and was from Lexington Ky. My mom and her sister (Christine) think he may be from our family. I looked through some of your info in Glen's World, but couldn't really conclude whether he was or not. Would you have any info on that?

Mom says it is maybe Jim Littrell's side of the family. Any ideas?

Thanks. Thanks too for all your work on the family tree and the home page. I can tell you've done a lot of hard work.

Larry Brown

From: Glenn D. L.
To: Larry Brown
Cc: Joanna Jimerson-Howard
Subject: Re: Brian Littrell of the Back Street Boys
Date: Saturday, December 26, 1998 11:12 AM

Larry,

It is conceivable [actually it's even probable] that this Brian Littrell descends from some common ancestor of ours, but I doubt that he descends from a branch as recent as Jim Littrell's [To date I have no knowledge of any of Jim's descendants migrating to Kentucky,]. He more than likely would descend from one of the branches that migrated to Kentucky in the early 1800's or thereafter. If you viewed the Kentucky Timeline at Glenn's World you probably noticed that I don't go much later than the 1830's in Kentucky. This is because our ancestor [Rodhom Luttrell] left Kentucky apx 1810 and many of his cousins had also migrated from there by then. But Rodhom and these cousins almost all left some grown offspring in the area who have descendants there to this day. This Brian Littrell would probably be a descendant of one of these.

At the moment I don't have information on the Kentucky lines indexed far enough into the 20th century to make any connection to this Brian. I do quite often get inquiries from many Littrell-Luttrell descendants and would not be surprised if one eventually came from a relative of this Brian.

I'll put you on my e-mail list so that if any contacts do develop you'll be aware of it.

If your daughter does a search on the internet she'll find several Websites devoted to this Brian Littrell, just search "Littrell" Say hello to your parents for me and tell them I hope to see all of you at the 99 reunion.

GDL