Porter Family in Mississippi - Part 1

As a descendant of the Porter family in Mississippi that migrated first from Pennsylvania to South Carolina, through Alabama, and finally to the Mississippi Territory, I have found my own Porter family's history very difficult to trace.  My paternal grandmother, Lelia Porter Branch, first told me when I was young, that her father, John James (J.J.) Porter, was "Black Dutch" from Pennsylvania and that he was descended from one of three brothers who arrived in the Mississippi Territory about 1800.  She did not know the name of the brother from whom her father descended.  In my research, I have found that what my grandmother told me was fairly accurate, since early territorial census records show Landlot, Shadrack, and John Porter living in Adams County, Mississippi.  Available land records establish that Landlot (Lancelot) acquired land in the Mississippi Territory in late 1804, with Shad (Shadrack) Porter witnessing the transaction.  

No. 1914, Claimant: Lancelot Porter, 24 September 1804. Witness: Reuben Mayfield, 22 January 1805. Certificate D-161 issued 16 December 1806, Miss Ter., Adams Co., Homochitto River. Purchased from Thomas  Aldridge the right of preference as claim by ad Aldridge in Feb 1803, when he cleared a parcel of land, made a brush fence and planted corn, also peach trees and in 1804 Lancelot Porter settled sd place and cleared 3 acres and is now living on it.Miss Ter., Adams Co.// Thos. Aldridge, of sd county, for $500 in hand paid by Lancelot Porter, of sd county, sells all right of occupancy on land on south side of Homochitto River, on June 1804. Wit: Hiram Downs, John Scarlett, and Shad Porter, proved before the Board, 10 Sept 1805.

Armed with this early census and land ownership information, I began a research saga that extended to several counties in Mississippi, and one that is still ongoing.  During the next few weeks, I plan to post what I know about various Porter families that lived in Adams, Attala, Chickasaw, Choctaw, and Hinds Counties. 

Author's Note:  If you are descended from Landlot, Shadrack, or John Porter who settled in the early Mississippi Territory and have stories or photos that you would like to share here on this blog, please contact me.

Chasing the Meriwethers

Several weeks ago, I wrote a post on my Cemeteries of Dancing Rabbit Creek blog about Colonel James Drane, whose house and grave marker can be seen at French Camp, Mississippi, a small historical town on the Natchez Trace. The next day, I received an email from a reader who told me that Colonel Drane's actual grave is located somewhere else in the state. The reader offered to provide me with photographs of the grave that actually contains the remains of Colonel Drane, and I accepted the offer. I hope to write a followup post as soon as I receive the photos. In her email, the reader asked me if my family is descended from Colonel Drane, and I responded that I have no knowledge of such a familial connection.

But her question actually raised another for me, one that involves the Drane family and my own Merriweather family. Here is the question and the story behind it. Over ten years ago, I decided to research my great-grandmother's family. I had always known that her maiden name was "Merriweather." This old surname, with its origins in England and Wales, traditionally has been spelled "Meriwether." Alternate spellings include "Merriweather," the one used by my great-grandmother, along with "Meriweather," "Merryweather," "Merriwether," and "Merryweathers." If you are interested in researching the Meriwether Family in the United States, I highly recommend The Meriwether Society and its publications as a great place to start.

I began my research with little knowledge about how much genealogical grief the spelling of my great-grandmother's name would cause for me. Initially, I searched for information about a known event, something that I only needed to substantiate: a record of Margaret Susanna (Maggie) Merriweather's marriage to John J. Porter, in either Attala County or Carroll County. After several failed attempts, searching under all the variations of the name listed in this post, I ultimately found the marriage record. It was just a stroke of luck, however, that I found it at all, since Maggie's last name was not spelled like any of the known spellings: it was phonetically spelled "Morsiweathers." I was elated to find the record, but it was difficult for me to believe that it had even been possible, considering the spelling.

My next foray into Merriweather research was the first time I encountered the Drane name. But first, I must provide some additional background. My grandmother, Maggie's daughter, told me the story about how Maggie's father, Wilds Merriweather, had deserted his family which included Maggie's mother, Malverda Gibson Merriweather, Maggie, and her younger brother, Lewis Merriweather, sometime around 1880, after Malverda had given birth to a stillborn child. The child's death is documented in the Mississippi Mortality Index published for the mid-late 1800's, but the actual story about the desertion remains unsubstantiated. One thing for certain is that Meriwether family members living in Mississippi did return to their native Shelbyville, Kentucky, near Louisville.

Malverda Gibson Merriweather eventually remarried when Maggie was about 12 years old. With this knowledge, I searched for a record of her marriage to Newell Autry Felts that would have occurred in the late 1880s, and I found the document in the records of Yalobusha County. According to the document, "Jim Drane" posted a marriage bond for Malverda Merriweather's marriage to Mr. Felts. It is very likely this individual was actually "James Drane" who lived in nearby French Camp.

My family research has not found anything to indicate that Jim Drane was a relative by blood or by marriage. Maybe he was a friend, neighbor, or perhaps Newell Autry Felts worked for him. Apparently, he knew my great-great-grandmother and her intended husband well enough to post a surety bond attesting to their legal abilities to marry each other. But I still don't know why a surety bond was needed for this particular marriage, since others during this time frame were being performed without such a bond. One possibility is that it had something to do with the fact that Malverda's husband had deserted her when he moved with his family back to Kentucky. Since I have been unable to locate a record of their marriage, maybe Malverda and Will were never legally married at all. And perhaps Jim Drane was aware of the situation and attested to this knowledge by posting a surety bond.

The actual story surrounding the relationship between my great-great-grandparents, Malverda Gibson and Wilds Merriweather, remains one of my family's unsolved mysteries, one that I hope one day to solve. But as those of us who love family history know for certain, genealogy research is never complete.

The Boy and His Hound Dog

Isn't he cute? This picture of my father was taken in the 1920's in Attala County near the old J. J. Porter homeplace. He is standing beside a fairly large hound dog, maybe a "red-bone hound" with the longest ears I have ever seen. My father seems to be reluctantly holding his left hand on the back of the dog. I am certain that my father's male relatives, but less likely his mother, could barely wait until he became old enough to go raccoon hunting with them. Based on the look on his own face, however, I am not sure if he shares those same feelings. He may be just in awe of this huge dog.

Raccoon hunting was a rite of passage for men during that time and in that place. My father was an infrequent hunter, but when we visited his aunt and uncle in Attala County during my childhood, he always participated in the Saturday night 'coon hunt. To me and to my brothers, the sound of a hound dog's throaty bark from deep within the woods was a certain sign of Saturday night success in "treeing" and subsequently the death of an elusive raccoon. It meant, too, that our father might be home in time to tuck us in.

My great-uncle died of complications from Alzheimer's several years ago, and my father's hunting days are now in the past. The woods are less dense, and wildlife less plentiful now, but the tradition and the sport of raccoon hunting lives on.

Family Cars of Yesteryear

The picture here is of my father and my grandfather taken shortly after my father got his first job and purchased his first automobile. The picture is dated October 1941. My father had driven my grandparents, who didn't own a car at the time, from the Mississippi Delta, where they were living then, to Holmes County and Attala County to visit relatives. I can tell from the picture that his father was very proud of him, and my father must have been proud to be able to show off his new wheels.

My father was about three when this picture was taken of him standing on the running board of a Model T owned by his maternal grandfather, J. J. Porter. He seems to be rather happy posing for the camera from this position, and it may have been from this experience and this moment that he developed his lifelong love for all things cars

To the left, you will see my paternal great-grandmother, Margaret Meriwether Porter, posing in front of a Model A, owned by her husband, J. J. Porter. The snapshot was taken around 1920, and the small child pictured smiling in the right rear is one of her four young sons.

Cars seem to appear often in old pictures, frequently serving as the backdrop for the entire photograph. They were something new and different, and our ancestors were quite proud of them. Not only did they represent a large investment of money at the time, but they represented a significant change in lifestyle, since ownership of a car must have been a "step up the social ladder."

Little did our ancestors know how this new form of transportation would go on to alter the world.

My Dad, the Birthday Boy - But on a Horse??

I have written and submitted this photograph for Smile for the Camera, 6th Edition.

What you see here is a photograph of my father on a horse – not a pony, but a full-sized horse WITH a saddle. The back of the picture says it was made at the old J. J. Porter place in rural Attala County, Mississippi, near the community of Sallis. J. J. Porter was his maternal grandfather. The writing on the back of the picture also states that my father was celebrating his first birthday….but on a horse??

Over the years, I have seen family photographs of children sitting on Shetland ponies, standing on the running board of a Model T, posed beside or in front of a another type car of long ago, sitting in a wagon pulled by a goat, standing beside a tractor, and yes, even sitting on a tractor. But this is the one and only picture I have ever seen of a small child sitting on a full-size horse!

Now back to the picture. First, “smile for the camera” must not have yet been understood by my father when he was one. He is not smiling. In fact, he appears to have been very reluctant to sit on the horse in the first place, and is probably quite afraid of his predicament. His eyes appear closed….was it the sun, or was it just time for a quick nap?

A one-year old sitting on a horse must have thought he would never see his parents’ safe arms again. Was someone holding onto him, possibly behind the horse? I certainly hope that was the case, although I am unable to make that determination from this picture. And what WAS he wearing? Something all white, including the coat and the cap, it appears. It must have been his Sunday clothes, but maybe he had been christened on his first birthday….unlikely, although possible.

But I am still wondering…..was a horse, a car, a tractor, and a wagon pulled by a goat all “accepted” as normal places for photographing children “way back when?” Or was it common practice only in rural areas?

Maybe someone who reads this post can enlighten me.