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Sunday, November 23, 2008

Family Myths: Col. John Luttrell

Col. John Luttrell is probably one of the most famous Luttrells in American History.  He was instrumental in the founding and settling of Ft. Boonesborough, was one of the partners in the Transylvania Company that employed Daniel Boone to blaze a trail into Kentucky and was a war hero during the Revolutionary War.  He died gallantly in combat at the Battle of Lindley Mills in North Carolina.

N Carolina (10)

On a recent trip to North Carolina I spent hours trying to locate the Lindley Mills Battlefield.  I found the actual Lindley Mills on Cane Creek [est.1755].  It is a functioning [and modernized] business, but I couldn't find the actual battlefield or marker.  This Marker depicts the event that led to the battle and death of Colonel Luttrell.

There are two myths that have existed concerning the Colonel, the lesser myth is that:

"...some believed that the stature of the Col. was a result of being connected to the Earls of Dunster and/or the Earls of Carhampton in England and Ireland [respectively]. But while he may have been descended from these families the evidence is that his stature may have been more self-obtained than due to any connections." 1999, gdl

The more unfortunate myth that surrounds Col. John Luttrell concerns his descendants.  The Fact over the Myth is that he had no descendants! 

I know of at least one family branch that has held a family reunion for over 50 years now and sincerely believes that they are descendants of Col. John Luttrell.

Where the confusion comes in is that they are confusing their John Luttrell [m.Winnefred Lawrence] of Fauquier County, VA. with Col. John Luttrell [m.Susannah Hart] of Orange County, NC.  The situation is even further complicated by the presence of a third John Luttrell [also m.Ann] in Fauquier County, VA. 

Both of the Johns in Fauquier County were cousins and both died within a year [1789/90] of each other and were survived by their widows at a much later date than the Colonel who died in 1781.

Colonel Luttrell died and left a widow as he mentions in his will dated c.1775 [probably in connection with his partnership in the Transylvania Company]: 

...be aplied towards defraying and paying all my just debts and lawfull debts and that one third of the residue of the said lands to be given unto my three brothers Thomas LUTRELL, Hugh LUTREL and William LUTRELL to them and their heirs and assigns forever. Secondly; my will and desire is that my beloved wife, Susannah Lutrell have the residue of my estate both real and personal until the time that my child or children that she is now great with shall arive to the age of twenty one years or get married whichever of them circumstances first happens. My will is that my estate be equally divided between them to them and their heirs or assigns forever, but if it should so happen that my wife should no be with child or that her child she is now great with should die before it arives to twenty one years of or gets married as before mentioned in that case it is my desire that after the sequence paid my brothers and my just debts satisfied my estate be at her disposal to do with as she pleases. In testimony where of I have hereunto set my hand and seal this 20th day of March 1775.

As it turns out the child that Susannah 'is now great with' must of died because in the much contested and documented estate settlement never mentions a child of the Colonel.  Susannah remarries a man of questionable character after the death of the Colonel and the estate becomes contested by the brothers.  No where is the child mentioned in papers filed in the settlement of the estate or papers dealing with the disposal of some of the property.  Susannah and her second husband [Dr. John Umstead] purchase some of the Kentucky land [willed by the Colonel to his three half brothers] from William and Hugh.  Thomas is not mentioned and some believe he was dead by this time.

The Colonel fails to mention another half brother Richard in his will [there is constant confusion over who is and isn't still alive] and in probate papers filled by Richard he appears unsuccessful in obtaining any of  the Colonel's estate.

Papers were still being filed as late as 1821 by Susannah and the doctor and still no mention of a child, who would have been in his forties and would have more than likely been relevant to any claims or disposal of the properties.

So as you can see there is no proof of offspring and the overwhelming documentation points to there being no offspring of the Colonel.  There is on the other hand established evidence of the other John Luttrells both outliving the Colonel and there descendants are well established.

Sources:

LITTRELL and LUTTRELL HEROES In the WAR for American Independence [All Spellings]: By KARL DEWITT LITTRELL [decsd] with NANCY LITTRELL GOLDSBERRY

Kentucky Records, Vol II, "From Original Court entries", Compiled by Mrs. William Breckinridge Ardery, Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., Baltimore, Maryland.

Henderson County, Kentucky Deed Book A, Abstracted by Bettie Cummins Cook.

The Southern Genealogist's Exchange, Fall 1979, Vol. XX, #91.

The Transylvania Company and the founding of Henderson, Kentucky, By Archibald Henderson.

Kentucky Court of Appeals Deed Books, A-G, Volume I, by Michael L. Cook, C.G. & Bettie A. Cook, C.G., Cook Publications, Evansville, Indiana, 1985

Littrell Road: Annual Pilgrimage

Littrell Road is located in southern Lawrence County, Tn., running from the Lexington Highway[227] in Loretto south to Fairview Road. Nearby is Urban Lane which runs from Beartown Road [between 43 and the Fairview Community] to Fairview Road.


-click arrow to view the slide show and map-

Thursday, November 20, 2008

Making the Most of This Website/Blog

Anyone can read this blog and anyone can leave comments on 'postings' by using the 'comments' link.  If your interested in 'posting' your own articles or pictures just send us an email and we will send you instructions.

When you first arrive at this website you are on the Main or Front page. Articles/post on the Front Page are constantly changing:

  • When an article is first ‘posted’ it appears at the top of the main page.
  • When new articles are posted the older articles move down the page, this results in all articles appearing in reverse chronological order from top to bottom.
  • As new articles are added the older articles near the bottom of the page disappear.  They disappear from the main page to keep it from being endlessly long.  How many articles appear on the main page is controlled by the website editor.* 
  • When articles are posted to the website, at the authors discretion, they also appear on other pages so the articles still exist on these other pages.

Like the main page, articles on these other pages also appear at the top and move down the page as new articles are posted, but unlike the main page these articles never disappear unless the author specifically removes them.

How to view these other pages:

  1. Whenever viewing an article look for the subject ‘Label’ and click it to go to the page with all articles containing that subject Label. [For example on this article the ‘Label’ is at the top of the article and is: ‘About This Page’]
  2. Look in the Sidebar for an item/section titled 'Table Of Contents’ and you will see a listing of articles by subject or ‘Labels’.
  3. You can also isolate an article by itself by clicking on the title of the article.  This handy if you want to print an article out. When printing this way be sure to use ‘Print Preview’ and designate how many pages to print. This is important because printing all pages could result in 10 to 20 pages because the sidebars may extend past the actual article length.
  4. You can also isolate articles by the month or year they were posted by using the ‘LF.N Archives’ section in the sidebar. Above all else experiment. Click on the pictures in the ‘Picture Gallery’ or the links in the ‘LF.N Video Library’. You can always return to the Front Page by clicking on the banner at the top of every page.

We want this site to be interactive.  To this end it is set-up so that different branches of this family can have there own 'page' to exchange information, past, current, and future:

Look in the side bar for an item/section titled 'Table of Contents’ and the ‘Family Pages’ section and click on the subject "Page 3b: Redford 'Red' Littrell" Notice that you are now taken to another page very similar to the main page you were just on:  portions of the page remains unchanged from the main page; the header, sidebar and the items above and below the blue background articles/post, but the Articles/Post section [the light blue background] is different.  It now contains only Article/Post that are relevant to the Redford Littrell Family.*  It doesn't just contain a certain number of articles but also contains older articles that have disappeared from the main page.  This is the 'Redford Littrell Family' page.  By one or more members of your family branch participating your branch can have its own page too.

We hope you enjoy this website and we encourage you to tell your family about it.  Please leave comments and email us to be on our mailing list.

If you or someone in your family would like to contribute information, pictures, or articles please consider becoming a contributor to the site by mailing me your information, pictures etc. So email me if your interested and encourage your family members to do the same.

This website [actually its a blog, but we will refer to it as both a blog and a website] is made up of several ‘pages’ and each page contains several components, or elements:

  • A Header: The area at the top of the page containing the logo/banner stretching across the width of the page body.
  • The Side Bar: The narrow column on the side of the page.  On some website/blogs it may be on either side, or there may be more than one sidebar and they could be on one side, both sides or below the Main Body.
  • The Footer: The area at the bottom of the page which, like the Header, stretches across the width of the page body. Some blogs may not have a Footer.
  • The Main Body: The main body is the wide column. It contains many elements including the ‘Post’ or articles.
  • The Post: Post comes from the colonial and old England phrase ‘to post a letter’ which is the predecessor of the more modern phrase ‘to send a letter.’  This is where the title ‘Post Office’ comes from.  On this website the post are distinguished from the rest of the Main Body by their light blue background or frame like what you are reading now.  For simplicity sake the Post will more often than not be referred to as Articles or Post/Articles.

On this website [and all blogs] the Header, Footer and Sidebar will appear the same on all pages.  This is why when you go from one page to the next they may look the same at first glance.

Parts of the Main Body, with the exception of the ‘Post’ also remain the same.  The Header, Sidebar, Footer and Main Body are all controlled and edited by the Website Editor, Glenn Littrell [AKA GlennDL].  The Post, however is what changes from page to page.

 

*This is accomplished by the author of the article using Subject Labels when they post their articles.  Notice that at the top or bottom of every article their appears “Label:” followed by one or more items separated by commas.  These are labels the author chose to attach to the article so that it will appear on a certain page at this website.  This article has the label of “About This Site”, but some articles will have more than one label since they may be relevant to more than one subject.  For example The Redford articles will also have the “Missouri Littrells” label because Redford was a descendant of that Family line.  In other words any article can appear on several pages on the website.  Additionally all articles originally appear on the main page until they are replaced by newer articles as described above.

Thursday, October 23, 2008

Tennessee Tombstones:

Over the years I have taken pictures of hundreds of tombstones as a quick way to record data in the field, I've visited at least a hundred cemeteries in Indiana, Missouri, Illinois, Virginia, Kentucky, Alabama and Tennessee.

The Lawrence County Genealogy Society was collecting tombstone pictures recently so I made mine available to them and decided to post them on the website for everyone's review. If you would like to have a particular stone displayed send it to me and I will add it to the collection.

 
-click arrow to view the slide show-

The Lawrence County Genealogy Society was collecting tombstone pictures recently so I made mine available to them and decided to post them on the website for everyone's review. If you would like to have a particular stone displayed send it to me and I will add it to the collection.

Stones in Missouri can be found at the Page 3: Missouri Littrells in the sidebar.

 

also see:

Monday, October 13, 2008

From: Amanda (Jason and Erica, too)

Hi All!

Nothing significant going on with Jason and I--normal keeping our heads above water with work and daily life.  I have completed my educ. administration internship and now have 2 classes to finish by Dec. then I'll have my education administration Master's degree.  Jason is, of course, selling trucks as if the economy has never changed.  I know he works a TON harder to just sell at the same pace, but he still manages to make it work somehow!

Erica has a cardiologist appt. on Thursday, Oct. 16th so we'll probably send another update sometime next week. 

She has completely changed and grown up since starting pre-school in August.  She now can say the Pledge of Allegiance all by herself, sing her ABCs, write and recognize the letter E for Erica, plays school, "reads" the pictures in books to Jason and I, sings songs and best of all:  she's completely aware of various letters and what they stand for!  For example, when reading her alphabet books she notices the S and says this is for Nana's name (Susan), J is for Daddy's name, A is for Aunt Amy & mommy's name, F is for GooGoo and Papa's name (Faye & Fred), and even notices that the F is right by her name (E).  How awesome is that?  (although I'm her mom and a reading teacher, so I'm a little partial to those accomplishments, of course)  Fred and Erica One thing Erica has struggled with a bit all along is her speech.  She does talk our ears off, but the articulation of certain sounds has stumped her so she should begin speech testing and then get an IEP which will allow her to get speech services through the school district.  Since being around other kids her age, we've already noticed improvements in her speech though. 

One exciting thing this summer was when I nominated Erica for a Do The Right Thing Award.  It's an award given by a local news channel and the city police department.  It recognizes kids who do the right thing.  Erica didn't get the award, but she did get a certificate and tee shirt.  This is the story in a nutshell:

Jason was changing the oil in his car and cut/punctured both of his index fingers.  When he said "ouch" and Erica saw the blood, she ran inside through the house to get 2 Band-Aid for him.  She brought them back outside to the garage and put them both on his fingers.  Doesn't sound like a big deal, but if you know Erica, you know that she's petrified of Band-Aid because of the adhesive and how hard it pulls to take them off.  This, I'm sure, is because of all the surgeries, tape, and Band-Aid she's been exposed to.  I think it was awesome that she put aside her fears to help her daddy. 

Once again, I'm her mom and a little biased, but isn't that part of parenting?

Sorry for the proclomation length, but that's our news.

Love,

Amanda (Jason and Erica, too)

...Amanda is the great-granddaughter of John & Kizzie Littrell, granddaughter of Red and Louise Littrell and daughter of Fred & Faye Littrell. 

 

Congratulations to Evan Pounders

...great-great-grandson of John & Kizzie Littrell, great-grandson of Viola "Sis" Littrell-Johnston and grandson of Lurene Olive Johnston-Olive.  Evan graduated from Florence Christian Academy [HS] on May 16, 2008.

ewpounderf

Thursday, October 9, 2008

How2 Preserve Your Photographs:

Any family photos no matter how recent are important. Whether or not you decide to contribute old pictures to our projects or not you may find the following information useful.

If you do decide to contribute a photo to our project [or anyone else’s] please remember you don't have to contribute the original. A good quality copy or reproduction is fine; better yet if your picture is on file at some studio somewhere just bring us the information for ordering it. If you only have an original we can make copies and then mail your original [and an extra copy] back to you.

If you only have an old photo that is an original, even if you don't loan it to us for reproduction, YOU SHOULD HAVE A COPY MADE and save the negative. Old and new pictures all eventually fade and deteriorate, so do negatives. Let's preserve our heritage. Having the original photo is great, but having the only photo is careless. If you don't make copies for the rest of the family at least take the precaution to make copies for your descendants! Many take it for granted that their children and grandchildren will someday enjoy the pictures they take today.

Photographs suffer from yellowing, cracking, and fading. Others are destroyed or simply lost. Although some photographs last for generations, none of them are immune to the effects of time. One day you or your descendants may open your old shoebox to discover that some of your most precious mementoes are suddenly ‘blank’.

Photographs are made-up of several layers of materials. The top layer contains the image suspended in gelatin (purified animal protein), or emulsion layer. This layer is coated on to a base layer of photographic paper of film. A layer of adhesive is used to make the other two layers stick together.

The materials used to form the image [top layer] depend on the type of photograph. Black and white photographs are made up of light-sensitive silver salts (silver halides), and Color photographs and slides are made up of dyes instead of silver deposits. You can expect your color prints to last for decades, but they do not preserve as well as black and white images.

see also "Preserving Your Newspaper Clippings"

see also "How2 Scan Photos"

Monday, September 1, 2008

The Comer Family

Daniel Comer was the father of Kizzie Comer Littrell [sitting on his lap]. Besides being related to Donie Ezell Littrell by marraige [the brothers John and James, respectivly] Kizzie and Donie were also first cousins by birth as Kizzie's mother Ollie [above] was Donie's aunt.

Daniel and Ollie Comer

Sunday, June 22, 2008

Missouri Tombstones

Over the years I have taken pictures of hundreds of tombstones as a quick way to record data in the field, I've visited at least a hundred cemeteries in Indiana, Missouri, Illinois, Virginia, Kentucky, Alabama and Tennessee. The Lawrence County Genealogy Society was collecting tombstone pictures recently so I made mine available to them and decided to post them on the website for everyone's review. If you would like to have a particular stone displayed send it to me and I will add it to the collection.
 
-click the arrow to view the slide show-
You can view the Tennessee Tombstones at: Page 2: Tennessee Littrells at www.littrellfamily.net

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Laura Brown Littrell

Sent: Wednesday, March 19, 2008 11:30 AM
To: glennsworld.littrell@gmail.com
Subject: HelloLaura__Ezell_Brown__Littrell

Hello Glenn, It has been a long time but I think that I was on your mailing list several years ago. I found you and your website by accident when I was searching for information about my great grandmother Laura Brown Littrell. I believe that it was you who sent me a photo of her as a very young girl.
Shortly there after my computer died and life become very eventful to say the least. That said I have a new email address and started working on my family tree yet again. So please add me to your mailing list. Thank you
Take care
Bonnie Kellum

Laura Brown Littrell

Sent: Wednesday, March 19, 2008 11:30 AM
To: glennsworld.littrell@gmail.com
Subject: HelloLaura__Ezell_Brown__Littrell

Hello Glenn, It has been a long time but I think that I was on your mailing list several years ago. I found you and your website by accident when I was searching for information about my great grandmother Laura Brown Littrell. I believe that it was you who sent me a photo of her as a very young girl.
Shortly there after my computer died and life become very eventful to say the least. That said I have a new email address and started working on my family tree yet again. So please add me to your mailing list. Thank you
Take care
Bonnie Kellum

OVER 80
April 7, 1988
The Democrat Union Lawrence County, Tennessee
To the Editor:

I would like to be a member of your over 80-club.I was born near Loretto, the daughter of H.M. and Martha (Ezell) Brown July 4, 1901.

I went to school at Pebble Hill School, which is gone now. My first teacher was Miss Anna Wisdom from Lawrenceburg.I entered third grade when I started school until the Pebble Hill school was built there was no school near enough to attend. My mother taught my sister and I at home. At first there was only three months school term and than later five months. We lived five miles away from the school and we walked it each day to and from school. There was no school buses in those days.

In 1919, I married Edward Littrell and we had nine children, six boys and three girls. We lived in and near Loretto until 1929 we moved to South East Mo. My father and mother came to Mo. in 1930. Within the next few years, both my father and mother died, also a sister and my oldest brother. In 1940 my husband died and in 1941 a son.

The children and I moved back to Tennessee in December of 1941 we bought a small farm near Liberty Grove.

In 1946, I married K.G. Campbell. He died July 2 in 1960. By then, all my children were married and I went back to MO. for a few months, a very unhappy few months and I came back to Tennessee. the most beautiful state in the world. I have a trailer and I live alone in Loretto. I do my housework, work in the garden and flowers and I am content.

There has been many changes in these 80 years. Some people say the good old days, but I, for one, don't think some of them were so good.

I have read the D-U for many years and for several years was a D-U correspondent for Loretto Route 4. The D-U is the best county newspaper in the South.

                           Thank You
                           Laura Campbell
************************************************
Photo courtesy of Auvine Littrell Lynxwiler: Inscription on back of picture says: "This is Lo??? Littrell. She was Ed Littrell's wife I don't know what kin she was to Dad + Uncle John", also on back in pencil:"Laura Littrell.

note: Laura’s children descend from George Literal, brother to Timmons Literal and son of Eli Franklin Literal, but Laura and her descendants also descend from Hobardt Ezell (Kizzie Comer Littrell’s grandfather) and an as yet unconnected Belew family line. (see also Unknown Belews)

END OF PAGE

Remember, each page has a limit on how many articles can appear on that page. When you reach the bottom of a page use the “Older Post” link under the last article(ABOVE) to view/see if there are more articles.

You can use the “Newer Post” and “Older Post” links to navigate back and forth between pages.