Our Search for the Graves of
Isham Gwin and his wife, Mary Canterbury Gwin: A Record From 1999 to 2015
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1. In 1999 I became interested in my Gwin genealogy and collection I had inherited from my father's brother, Uncle James Gwin, who listed our farthest-back person in the Gwin line as a Richard Gwin who married Sarah Chesley, both of Jamestown, VA. Uncle James listed as his source The Abridged Compendium of American Genealogy, Vol. I, p. 706. | ||
2. Uncle James further listed Sarah and Richard's son as Isham Gwin who married a "Miss Cleveland". (I
was
somewhat
surprised
that the Compendium's source did not
know John's mother's first name. I would later learn that she also did
not even recall correctly her last name!) In fact, Isham had
married Mary
Canterbury in Montgomery Co., VA, in 1783. |
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3. Uncle James listed Isham's son as John Gwin who married Jane Walker in Blount Co., TN, on 8 Apr 1812. I'd later find out that all nine of John's and Jane's known children had been born in and around Dallas Co., AL. | ||
4. I finally found a copy of the complete set of this Compendium (mentioned in step one above). It became obvious to me that the Compendium's source for all the information on this Gwin line was a Champe McCulloch, husband of John and Jane Gwin's granddaughter, Emma Basset. Emma's mother and John's and Jane's daughter, Sarah Gwin Basset, lived with Emma and Champe for many years, and this seemed to me to give great credence to the Compendium's information. | ||
5. John Gwin, my ggg-grandfather, told census takers in 1850, 1860, and 1870, that he himself was born in 1792 (his gravestone also lists his year of birth as 1792) in Tennessee. Yet some researchers listed him as having been born "in the Carolinas". When I learned that Tennessee did not become a state until 1796, having been part of North Carolina prior to that, it suddenly made sense to me that both were right. | ||
6. And so I set off for east Tennessee in the summer of 2003 to see what I could find that would confirm Isham's existence as John's dad. I started with John's and Jane's marriage license and certificate in the Blount Co. Courthouse at Maryville. It was right there, and I held it in my hands and had a copy made of it. This proved that they had indeed been married in this county on that date. It also showed that the person who performed the marriage was a Joseph Walker--brother of the bride and Justice of the Peace! (This raises a question which may be answered in no. 15 below.) Further search that day turned up Jane's father, Thomas Walker, as living in Tuckaleechee Cove, Blount Co. | ||
7. After two more days of searching, I came upon a publication by George and Juanita Fox which led me to a copy of the 1807 deed of an Isham Gwin to 249 acres "in Crowson's Cove on the waters of Walden's Creek" in Sevier Co., TN, which deed's microfilm was located at the Cox Museum and Archives in Greeneville (http://www.ggcpl.org/cox.htm). Assuming this to be the same Isham Gwin mentioned in The Abridged Compendium of American Genealogy and therefore my gggg-grandpa, I returned home to New Mexico and began to expand my research on Isham. | ||
8. Collecting the deeds to as many residents of 1807 Crowson's Cove as I could find, with the help of Cousin Barb Ward and the abovementioned George Fox, I mapped out the plats of many of those neighbors' farms, thereby showing who lived next-door to whom. Two of these neighbors were a David Denton and a Kinsey Veatch. | ||
9. Some of that research in church records confirmed that Isham Gwin and Kinsey Veatch of Crowson's Cove were very active in starting and serving as elders and preachers in the Wear's Cove--aka Crowson's Cove--Baptist Church and that Isham had been called to preach in a daughter church in Tuckaleechee Cove, Blount Co., some three miles west of and just across the county line from Crowson's Cove. Then Isham and Kinsey disappeared from church records just before 1820. | ||
10. In July 2004, I went back to Seveir County and confirmed the location of Crowson's Cove with the help of Sam Maner and his staff at the Seveir County Genealogy Library in Seveirville. My plat maps lined up almost exactly with the topo map of Wears Cove, formerly Crowson's Cove. I stood on what, some 200 years before, had been Isham's land, and again returned home. | ||
11. That's when Jim Wall contacted me concerning his family of Crawford, Harrison, and Orange counties, Indiana. He descends from an Isham Gwin and his daughter, Elizabeth Gwin, the latter of whom had married a David Denton, and their earliest children had been "born in Tennessee". | ||
12. Jim Wall has sent me copies of scores of documents he has come across in his research, including Isham's will, almost all of which are posted either on this page or elsewhere in this site. Some of his research shows that his ancestor, Isham Gwin, and a neighbor, Kinsey Veatch, had helped start some Baptist churches in southern Indiana just before 1820. The Dentons were there, too. | ||
13. Isham's will provides a list of his children, but my John Gwin is missing from it. Nevertheless, there is a seven-year gap between Isham's 2nd child, Elizabeth (b. 1788 and who married David Denton) and his "third", Virginia Jane, (b. 1795). That told me that my John Gwin, b. 1792, who claimed to be the son of Isham, could easily fit between Elizabeth and Virginia Jane. | ||
14. Furthermore, there was one more person who turned out to be a brother of John: William Gwin, and another, Chesley R. Gwin, who perhaps was also. Both of these are in Dallas Co., AL, at the same time John was. So it could be that all three of these--William, John, and C. R.--fit into the above-mentioned seven-year period. | ||
15. Church records in Tennessee showed that Isham may have had a temper, he once confessing to having struck a man in anger. We do know that he was a preacher and church planter, so it would stand to reason that he would want to preside at his own children's weddings. But John and Jane were married, not in a church, but by a secular Justice of the Peace, who--perhaps as if to add insult to injury--was a brother of the bride! Then, when Isham, his ministry partner Kinsey Veatch, and his son-in-law David Denton and their families moved to Indiana a few short years later, John and Jane, William and Susanah, and Chesley and his wife all moved the other direction, to Alabama. Were these moves deliberate attempts to get as far from each other as possible? Was Isham holding a grudge in his anger against his son for not allowing him to preside at their wedding? One document that seemed to support such a theory is the list of children of Isham and Mary that ended up on this webpage; when I first encountered this list, it completely omitted John, William, and Chesley! And yet there is a seven-year gap in the listed children's birth dates where John's and William's dates of birth seem to fit perfectly. | ||
16. Aha. Now the real reason for their separation may have
surfaced. Cousin Jim Wall has sent me a copy of a section of a
history book
of some of the citizens of Keokuk Co., IA, one of whom was William W.
Gwin, one of Isham's and Mary's grandsons. In it the author says of
this William's grandfather, Isham, that though he owned slaves himself,
he came to hate slavery, eventually freeing his slaves and moving to
Indiana, a free state, where he would no longer be around this
institution. We know that most of his family moved to Indiana
with him,
including the new families of all his married daughters, but that sons
William and John (and maybe Chesley and Isham II) instead moved their
families south
to Alabama where they would be allowed to continue holding slaves, as
we indeed know at least John and one of John's sons did. Slavery was a
hot, divisive issue, and it appears that this was most likely the very
reason for the parting of the ways of Isham's family. 17. Perhaps the most compelling data to me is the fact that this same history book states that Isham had TEN children--not just the seven who appear in his will. |
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18. In summary, we know that in 1807 an Isham Gwin did live in what was then called Crowson's Cove and today is called the Wear Valley, Sevier Co., TN. We know he had a large family and was active in Baptist churches there. We know he and many of his family moved to Crawford, Harrison, and Orange counties, Indiana, sometime before 1820, and that the abovementioned book says the reason was to escape from the presence of the hated institution of slavery. We know the names of most of Isham's children and grandchildren from church minutes in Tennessee and Indiana, Isham's will, and the probate documents that accompanied his will--and that the book states that Isham had TEN children. And we know that the man who would become my ggg-grandfather, John Gwin, who later would tell his children and grandchildren that his father's name was Isham, married Jane Walker in Tuckaleechee Cove, Blount Co., TN, about 5-8 miles west of where this Isham Gwin's land was and where Isham had preached before he left for Indiana. |
Above is part of a page of the
1850 census of Orange Co., IN, comprising the names of 20 of my
relatives, including Gggg-grandmother Mary Canterbury Gwin. All
four of the households listed are those of descendants of Isom and Mary
Gwin. My transcription of that page follows:
It is this very document that has
led us to the following
speculations. First of all, we know that Isom and Mary sold their
249-acre
plantation
in
Crowson's
Cove (today's Wear's Cove), Sevier Co., TN, and moved to
Indiana. We have believed all along that he must have reinvested
the money from the sale of his farm and bought land in Indiana.
We also know that Isom died in Dec of 1830, some 20 years before
this census. Because he left
Providence Primitive Baptist (click here, scroll to page 46), the
church he helped found and for which he served over ten years as
its first pastor, and because we cannot find his or his wife's
grave in the cemetery of
that church, we speculate that they are buried on the land he
bought.
We know that his wife Mary was listed in the 1850 census as
"blind" and speculate that daughter Minerva, also a widow, moved "back
home" sometime before this census to care for her aging mother, as
shown here. Because the land is listed as Minerva's and its
value as $600, we also speculate that Mary must have given/sold
the farm to Minerva. We also speculate that David and Elizabeth
Gwin Denton, whom we know moved to Indiana with Isom and Mary, must
have bought their land abutting Isom's and Mary's, and now in their old
age and living alone, have given/sold most of it to their son Thomas.
Finally, we speculate that if we can find Isom's and Mary's deed
to this land and ascertain the land's location, we'll find their
graves.
--John M. Gwin
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This page is under development and is NOT a complete listing of all Crawford County family history resources available at the Indiana State Library at this time. As new Crawford County family history resources by county are added, this page will be updated.
Marriage Records
Marriage Affidavits, 1872-1915
MiCrofilm, Second Floor
Marriage Records, 1818-1924
MiCrofilm, Second Floor
Marriages, 1818-1900
MiCrofilm, Second Floor
Noblitt, Ivan E. An index of marriages ... 1818-1955.
Microfilm, Second Floor
Records of Marriage, 1896-1906
MiCrofilm, Second Floor
Leistner, Doris. Marriages, 1818-1860
Genealogy Division, 977.201 C899Lei
Marriages, 1818-1835
The Hoosier Genealogist (Jan.-Feb., Mar.-Apr. 1970) vol. 10, nos. 1-2
Genealogy Division, 977.2 H789
Slevin, Ruth M. Marriages, 1818-1880: books A-D.
Genealogy Division, 977.201 C899sc
Slevin, Ruth M. Marriages, 1881-1896: books E & F. 1972. 47, 47 pp.
Genealogy Division, 977.201 C899sL
Deed Records
Deed Indexes, 1819-1878
Microfilm, Second Floor
Deed Indexes, Grantee and Grantor, 1818-1878
MiCrofilm, Second Floor
Deeds, 1818-1886
MiCrofilm, Second Floor
Indenture Deeds, 1832-1873
MiCrofilm, Second Floor
Probate Records
Probate Complete Records1848-1851
MiCrofilm, Second Floor
Probate Indexes, 1851-1903
Microfilm, Second Floor
Probate Order Books, 1818-1918
MiCrofilm, Second Floor
Probates, 1818-1851
MiCrofilm, Second Floor
Records of Probate Reports, 1873-1875
MiCrofilm, Second Floor
Davis, Wilma. Probate record I, Crawford County, Indiana. 1990. 118,
x leaves.
Genealogy Division, 977.201 C899d
Will Records
Wills, 1818-1899
Microfilm, Second Floor
Wills, 1818-1946
MiCrofilm, Second Floor
Leistner, Doris. Abstracts of wills, 1818-1916
Genealogy Division, 977.201 C899Lw
Slevin, Ruth M. Will records: books 1-2. 1974. 71 pp.
Genealogy Division, 977.201 C899s
Cemetery and Church Records
Gilliatt, Katherine W. Eastridge Cemetery ... Patoka township.
[1951]. 2 pp.
Genealogy Division, p. f. 977.201 C899 no. 2
[Incomplete listing of stones found in an old unmarked cemetery ...
Union Township ... west of Sulfer]. 1 pp.
Genealogy Division, p. f. 977.201 Cuncat. no. 1
Indiana Historical Society. Old Leavenworth Cemetery. 1947. 1 pp.
Genealogy Division, p. f. 977.201 C899 no. 1
Enlow, Opal Jean. Cemeteries (Patoka and Sterling townships). 1975.
1 volume.
Genealogy Division, 977.201 C899e
Neighborhood Youth Corps. Marengo Cemetery. 1970. 33 pp.
Genealogy Division, 977.201 C899n
Census Records
Leistner, Doris. 1850 census. 1980. 168 pp.
Genealogy Division, 977.201 C899Le
Leistner, Doris. Crawford County, Indiana 1860 census. 1987. 219 pp.
Genealogy Division, 977.201 C899Lc
Court Records
Index to Guardianships
MiCrofilm, Second Floor
Partition Deeds, 1881-1936
MiCrofilm, Second Floor
Partition Records, 1853-1876
Microfilm, Second Floor
Eastridge, Richard. Crawford County Commissioner's Record 1834-1845
[2006] 144pp
Genealogy Division 977.201 C899ea
Land Records
Tract Book, 1804-1853
MiCrofilm, Second Floor
University Land Certificate of Entry, 1860-1881
MiCrofilm, Second Floor
Military Records
Crawford County veterans grave registrations.
Genealogy Division, 977.201 C899c
Mortuary and Obituary Records
Key, D. L. Funeral notices of residents of Orange--Crawford
Counties, Indiana. 1979. 9, [4] leaves.
Genealogy Division, 977.201 O632k
Naturalization Records
Leistner, Doris. Naturalization records.
Genealogy Division, 977.201 C899L
Naturalizations, [1882-1896].
The Hoosier Genealogist (Mar. 1982) vol. 22, no. 1
Genealogy Division, 977.2 H789
School Records
Cook, Claud E. [School enumerations ...]. Part 1 (Whiskey Run
township, 1884 & 1885). [2 pp.]
Genealogy Division, p. f. 977.201 C899 no. 3
DAR. Crawford County, Indiana, school records, 1917-1919. 1997. 226
pp.
Genealogy Division, 977.201 C899cr
Miscellaneous
Negro register, 1853
MiCrofilm, Second Floor
Leistner, Doris. Crawford County, Indiana guardian bonds, 1848-1896.
2003. 113 pp.
Genealogy Division, 977.201 C899La
Many of the records identified on this page were initially selected by Carolynne L. Wendel Miller in her book, Indiana Sources for Genealogical Research in the Indiana State Library, published in 1984 by the Indiana Historical Society.
GEN DB 1-8-2013