TXBELL-L Archives

From: B Cockrum <>
Subject: [TXBELL-L] Re: [Fwd: Dawson] #3
Date: Sat, 04 Sep 1999 12:12:16 -0700

> The census taker next came to Purdy in 1830. This census gave only the
> name of the head of household followed by the numbers of persons in each
> 5 year age bracket. The census indicates one male between 40 and 50
> (Samuel Dawson), two males between fifteen and twenty years (John and
> James), two males between ten and fifteen years (Joseph and Robert), one
> male between five and ten years (Samuel Riley), and finally, one female
> between 40 and 50 (Polly Ann). Samuel and Polly Ann's two daughters had
> already married and appear in separate households in the census of
> McNairy County, Tennessee.
>
> Elizabeth (Betsy) Dawson had married John Petty Jr, born Dec 9, 1810, in
> Kentucky. Betsy and John already had six children: Jane Ann, Gibson,
> Elizabeth, Edna, Alsey Josephine, and Alexander Anderson Petty.
>
> Betsy's sister, Edna Bell Dawson, at the age of seventeen had married
> James Magee who was seventeen years older than his bride. His parents
> were imigrants from Antrim, Ireland.
>
> A land grant from the state of Tennessee indicates that Samuel received
> a forty-acre parcel of land on March 14, 1833, in McNairy County. After
> 10 months on his land grant, Samuel bestowed his power of Attorney to
> William S Wisdom, the McNairy county clerk, on Jan 14, 1834, to prepare
> a warranty deed for the sale of his farm to Enoch Owens.
>
> Samuel and Polly bid their friends in Purdy farewell and moved further
> west to the far Northwestern Corner of Arkansas. The first record of
> the Dawsons in Arkansas is an 1836 tax record indicating that Samuel and
> two of his sons paid Carroll County taxes. The Dawson family appears in
> the 1840 Census of Carroll County Arkansas, with the name of the head of
> household and only ages given in five - year brackets of the family
> members. One male between 50 and 60 (Samuel Dawson), one male between
> fifteen and twenty (Samuel Riley), one female between forty and fifty
> (Polly Ann), and one female between ten and fifteen (probably one of
> their grandaughters). The census taker indicated that four people lived
> in the household with two involved in agriculture, there were no slaves.
> The tax records of that same year note that Samuel owned one cow valued
> at 10 dollars.

This thread:

• [TXBELL-L] Re: [Fwd: Dawson] #3 by B Cockrum <>