Found - Historic Fenner House in New Bern NC

Digital Photo by A. Vaupel

Old Fenner House 
217 Hancock Street
New Bern, NC

Wow!  With the help of someone who works in the City of New Bern's GIS and mapping office, I now know the physical location of "Lot 89," the site of the old Fenner house.  The house on Hancock Street in New Bern, North Carolina, was purchased about 1769 by Richard John Fenner and Anne Coddington Fenner, my fifth great-grandparents.  I descend through their granddaughter Rachel Fenner, who married William Neatherlin and eventually migrated around 1800 to Amite County in the Mississippi Territory.  After finding the lot number of the property in an online excerpt of the book, The Fenner Forebears, I set out to find the actual house. And thanks to a very dear friend of mine who lives in New Bern, I also have a photo of the house itself.  The house is a rather large frame structure built in the colonial style and located on a street where the remnants of train tracks down its center can be seen.  Currently, the house is undergoing some renovation, including a new coat of paint that closely matches the red metal "storm" roof commonly seen on historic houses in New Bern. According to my contact in the GIS office, the property is currently owned by the Fenner Family Fund Partnership.

Finding the Fenners

Sometimes we stumble upon something simply by chance.  As it has been said so many, many times that one often finds romantic love when one least expects it, maybe finding the name of a previously unknown ancestor falls into this same category of happenstance.  My recent discovery was actually the result of searching for Joseph Fenner, whom I had deemed to be the oldest of three Fenner males enumerated on early census records for Wilkinson County, Mississippi. Joseph Fenner, Sr., an early settler of Wilkinson County, died on August 30, 1840 and left a widow, Rachel, and eight children, most adults. One of these children, William Fenner, through his daughter Rachel Fenner, most likely named for her grandmother, is my maternal fourth great-grandfather.

What I found in my search for Joseph Fenner was really quite unexpected.  I found Fenner surnames in a place that I had not previously searched - Providence, Rhode Island.  My discovery came about while I was reading through references to Fenner surnames in early Rhode Island records, including the Annals of the town of Providence: from its first settlement to the organization of the city government in June, 1832.  An imaged version of this publication, printed in 1843, is available for reading on ancestry.com.  In that publication,  I found that Arthur Fenner served as one of the first four representatives to the Providence General Assembly in 1664. The list of representatives also included the names of two other Fenner men, Thomas and Richard, whose relationships to Arthur and to each other are unclear to me at this time. According to the Annals, Arthur Fenner also served as the Town Treasurer in 1662. As I continued to research the Fenner family of Providence, I was pleasantly surprised to find that Rhode Island's fourth governor was Captain Arthur Fenner, a descendant of Arthur Fenner the assemblyman.  


Although finding the Fenner family members in Providence (Rhode Island) was an unexpected and quite unique experience, I now have more unanswered questions than when I began the search. Are Joseph Fenner, Sr., Joseph Fenner, and William Fenner descended from the Fenners who were involved in early Rhode Island politics?  And if so, how are these individuals related to my ancestors who lived in early Wilkinson County, Mississippi?  


Watch for more here as the search continues.




Source:
Ancestry.com. Annals of the town of Providence : from its first settlement to the organization of the city government in June, 1832 [database on-line]. Provo, UT: The Generations Network, Inc., 2005.  Original data:  Staples, William R., Annals of the town of Providence : from its first settlement to the organization of the city government in June, 1832. Providence: Printed by Knowles and Vose, 1843.

Fenner Family of Mississippi - Beginning at the End

I now know that my great-great-great-grandmother, Rachel Fenner, is descended from the Fenner family that lived in the early-mid 1700's in Bertie and Craven Counties in North Carolina.  It appears that Rachel's family followed in the footsteps and wagon trails of so many others who left that area searching for new lands and a better way of life in places west and south.  From all accounts, Rachel was born after the family left North Carolina.  Some researchers believe Rachel was born in Tennessee, where some of the Fenner family eventually settled, while others believe she was born in Georgia, as her family traveled further south.  Most researchers, however, agree that Rachel Fenner married William Neatherlin in Georgia, and several of their children were born there before the family moved to the Mississippi Territory after 1790.  Since the family eventually included several more children, it seems likely the younger ones were born after Rachel and William arrived in the territory. The presence of both Fenner and Netherland families in the Mississippi Territory in the early 1800s is validated by territorial census information that shows William Netherland, Joseph Fenner, Sr., Joseph Fenner, and William Fenner enumerated as heads of households in Wilkinson and Lawrence Counties.

Source:
Ancestry.com. Mississippi State and Territorial Census Collection, 1792-1866[database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2007. Original data: Mississippi State and Territorial Censuses, 1792-1866. Microfilm V229. 3 rolls. Heritage Quest.

John Patrick Netherland, b. circa 1804 in Scotland

According to the U. S. Census recorded in 1850 in Warren County, Mississippi, John Patrick Netherland, a 46-year old carpenter, was living with his wife, Mary, 30, and a three-month old son, William.  John's place of birth was recorded as Scotland, and Mary's birthplace was Kentucky. By all accounts, John Patrick was married first to Elizabeth Jane Smith, second to Mary Denkins, and third to Abigail Valentine.  His marriage to Elizabeth Jane produced one child, a son named William Bailey Netherland, my maternal great-grandfather.  Ironically, as the 1850 census shows, John Patrick's second marriage to Mary (Denkins) produced another son named "William." If John Patrick Netherland was born in Scotland, as the census record indicates, it seems certain that neither of his parents, Rachel Fenner and William Neatherlin, Sr., were born in Tennessee nor Georgia, as most family researchers have written. Maybe they were, indeed, born in Holland, as other researchers have suggested.

Rachel Fenner and William Neatherlin - Buried in Ebenezer Baptist Church Cemetery, Amite County, MS

During my recent Neatherlin/Netherland research, I learned that Rachel Fenner and William Neatherlin were members of Ebenezer Baptist Church in Amite County, Mississippi. Established in 1809, this church is said to be the oldest Baptist Church in Mississippi.  According to the church's minutes published online, in 1815, Rachel Neatherlin "applyed for...(a letter) of dismission," most likely after William's death and before her planned move to live with one of their adult children. 


Established in 1809, Amite County, Texas, was the fifth county to be established in the Mississippi Territory.  Almost a half century later, Amite County would become known as a "jumping off" spot for residents who migrated to Texas. Interestingly, the town of Liberty,Texas was named for Liberty, Mississippi, where many of these residents later settled.


A list of those buried in the cemetery at Ebenezer Baptist Church is included on the website of Genealogy Trails, and Rachel and William are among those on the list.  I still do not know for sure where either of my great-great-great-great-grandparents were born.  Other family researchers say they may have been born in Tennessee or Georgia or even Holland. But one thing I now know for certain is where they are buried.  Needless to say, a trip to the cemetery for some photos is near the top of my genealogy "to do" list.  I will let you know what I find.

Dicy Netherland and John Saul, Jr. - "Gone to Texas"

The term, "Gone to Texas", or "G.T.T.", was quite common during the early to mid-1800s, when so many settlers moved further west to claim unsettled land.  Much has been written about Texas migration, including my own post on this blog over a year ago, in which I mentioned another blogger, Vickie Everhart. The author of BeNotForgot, Vickie is the administrator of a website for those who are researching ancestors who allegedly migrated to Texas from Mississippi and other states.

Recently, when I began researching the Fenner, Neatherlin/Netherland, and Pettus families, I discovered that they, too, were among the families who were said to have "Gone to Texas."  I can't imagine what these families experienced when they left their homes in wagons for an unknown area and an often unsafe frontier known as The Republic of Texas.  Among these families was one headed by John Saul, Jr., whose wife, Dicy Ann Netherland, was a daughter of my third great-grandparents, Rachel Fenner and William Neatherlin, Sr.

Yesterday, I wrote a post on Cemeteries of Dancing Rabbit Creek about the Saul family.  Around 1824, John Saul, Jr. left the Mississippi Territory with his wife, children, and his parents, John Saul, Sr. and Rachel Saul, settling in the Nacogdoches District of Texas around 1826.  Most researchers agree that John Saul, Jr. was born in Georgia before his parents moved into the Mississippi Territory and that he married Dicy Netherland in Mississippi around 1817. Interestingly, Neatherlin child, Dicy's brother, William Neatherlin, Jr., married the sister of John Saul, Jr., Easter Saul. Eventually, John Saul, Jr. moved his family to Williamson County, Texas, where he and Dicy later died and are buried. Yesterday's post includes photos of the grave stones of Dicy and John Saul, Jr., in Bagdad Cemetery, near the town of Leander, Texas.  According to a profile included in "Daughters of the Republic of Texas, Volume I, Patriot Ancestor Album," Dicy and John Saul, Jr. are memorialized as early pioneers and patriots of The Republic of Texas.

My research is only beginning, and it certainly looks as if I have much more to do.  But I have already found one thing for sure - the trail for many of the Fenner, Neatherlin/Netherland, Pettus, and Saul families seems to end in Texas.

Stay tuned for more......

Resources:  
1.  Daughters of the Republic of Texas, Volume I, Patriot Ancestor Album; Turner Publishing Company, Paducah, Kentucky, 1995. GoogleBooks, accessed on August 28, 2010.
2.  Find-A-Grave, Bagdad Cemetery, Leander, Williamson County, Texas, website accessed online August 27, 2010

Fenner Family Research

Today, as I began researching the ancestry of my third great-grandmother, Rachel Fenner, I stumbled upon an online genealogy book that chronicles the Fenner Family in America.  Now in its 4th Edition, the digital book is well-researched and documented by a number of Fenner descendants.  Included among chapters in the book are those entitled Fenners in England, Swiss-American Lines, German-American Lines, and Irish-American Lines. Also included is an extensive list of deceased family members and the cemeteries in which they are buried. If you are researching your connections to the Fenner Family, this is a site you must visit.

Coggins, Fenner, and Trigleth Family Research

Beginning today, I will be focusing my family research efforts on three lines of my mother's family, specifically the Coggins, Fenner, and Trigleth families.  Read below to see how these surnames fit into my family tree.  Also, I invite you to read future posts on this blog as I document the results of my research about the three families. If you have connections to one of the surnames listed here, please contact me; I welcome the opportunity for us to share information.

• Ancestors of George Walter Trigleth, Sr. and Susan Elizabeth Elviney Coggins, his wife. George, Sr. and Susan E. Coggins Trigleth were my maternal great-great-grandparents. I am descended through their daughter, Lucy Lula Trigleth. Lucy Lula Trigleth was born in 1881 in Brozville, Holmes County, Mississippi and died in that county in April 1951.  She is buried in Coxburg Cemetery, also in Holmes County. Lucy married first William Elza Pettus around 1900 in Holmes County, and they had four children.  One of their daughters, Rosa Mae Pettus, was my maternal grandmother. Many deceased members of the Pettus and Trigleth families are buried in Holmes County, Mississippi cemeteries.
• Ancestors of Rachel Fenner, wife of William Neatherlin. Some researchers believe Rachel Fenner's parents emigrated to the U. S. from Holland.  Rachel and William Neatherlin were my maternal great-great-great-grandparents. One of their sons, Patrick Netherland, who was born in 1804, married Jane Elizabeth Smith, born on July 17, 1825. The marriage between Patrick and Jane Elizabeth Netherland produced a son named William Bailey Netherland, who married Martha Elizabeth Garrard.  One of their twelve children, Ralph Ernest Netherland, was my maternal grandfather. Ralph Netherland and Rosa Mae Pettus, my maternal grandparents, married in Holmes County about 1925 and divorced in 1940.  Rosa Mae Pettus Netherland Parsons and Ralph Netherland, as well as many other deceased members of the Netherland family, are buried in Coxburg Cemetery in Holmes County, Mississippi.