The Hemingway Family Migrates to Madison County, Mississippi

When the U. S. Census of 1850 was recorded in South Carolina, William and Henrietta Hemmingway were living in York in the York District of the state. According to the census, William was born in England about 1796, a "plasterer," with assets valued at $1,100. The birthplace of William's 51-year old wife, Henrietta, was also shown as "England." That same census record showed the Hemmingway household also included five daughters, Ann, 26, Helen, 23, Sarah, 19, Mary, 16, and the youngest, Henrietta, who was 14 years old.

In one of his emails to me, Mitchell Sawyer, a great-grandson of the older Henrietta, related this story about his great-grandmother: "My Hemingway ancestors left Duesbury England on the Ship Majestic and arrived in Charleston Harbor in 1829...(they) settled in the Camden, SC area ...."

By 1860, however, the Hemingway family had already migrated to Mississippi. According to the U. S. Census taken that year, the family was living near Canton, the county seat of Madison County, Mississippi. The Hemmingway surname was now spelled with only one "m." Heading the household was William Hemingway, a 63 year-old "painter," with property valued at $1,500, and 51-year old South Carolina-born Dr. Hemingway, a "physician and planter." Absent from the household was Henrietta Hemingway, William's wife and mother of his five daughters. According to her grave stone in Kirkwood Cemetery near Camden in Madison County, Mississippi, Henrietta Hemingway died on April 8, 1860, shortly before the U. S. Census of that same year was recorded.

The five Hemingway daughters enumerated in the 1850 census in York District, South Carolina, were shown on the U S. Census of 1860 as living in the household with their father and Dr, Hemingway. In 1860, Ann, the oldest of the five, was 34 years old, Helen, 30, Jane, 27, Mary 25, and the youngest Henrietta, was 23 years old. Of note was the fact that all five daughters were still unmarried.

Also residing in the Hemingway household were three other males, Frank Hemingway, a 20-year old and Edwin Hemingway, 16 years old, likely Dr. Hemingway's sons, and John Gourley, age 31, a "farm laborer."

In April of 1862, approximately two years after Henrietta Hemingway's death, her daughter, Henrietta, married John Gourley, the 31-year old who was enumerated in the Hemingway household in 1860. In late 1862, not yet three years after her mother died, Henrietta Hemingway Gourley, lost two more loved ones, her baby daughter, Henrietta Rose Gourley, and her new husband, John, who died in a Civil War battle at Fredricksburg, Virginia.

Next: The Hemingway Family - The Next Generation

The Hemingway Family - South Carolina to Mississippi

Recently, I communicated with a reader of this blog, Mitchell Sawyer, about one of his ancestral families, the Hemingway family, that migrated from South Carolina to Madison County, Mississippi. I first learned about the Mississippi Hemingway family from Mitchell earlier this year when he provided me with name of some of those who are interred at Kirkwood Cemetery near Camden, Mississippi, in Madison County. The name of Henrietta Hemingway, one of Mitchell's ancestors, was among those names, and Mitchell was kind enough to provide the copy of Henrietta that is seen here today.

Photograph provided by Mitchell Sawyer

Although I am not certain, It is likely that the Hemingway family and the family of former Mississippi Governor William McWillie knew each other before they ever left South Carolina. The idea that the two families had a relationship is supported by a family story handed down throughout the generations. According to Mitchell Sawyer, this story relates how McWillie's wife is said to have styled his Hemingway grandmother's hair before her wedding.

The fact that many families living in the Camden, Mississippi area during the mid to late 1800's had lives that were intertwined is not unusual. The community was a small, rural one, fairly close to Kosciusko, but somewhat remote from the larger towns of Yazoo City, Lexington, Greenwood, and Jackson, all miles away. It seems reasonable to assume that children of families who live in close proximity would marry someone who lived nearby. In fact, this assumption follows a cardinal rule of family history research, one that states eligible men and women meet and marry because they know and live near each other. And that was exactly what happened in the case of the families of Camden, Mississippi and numerous other places throughout history.

Starting tomorrow, I hope you will join me here as I tell the story of Mitchell Sawyer's ancestors, the Hemingway Family of South Carolina and Mississippi.