Rev Abbot Hancock: Original Biography

©  Kathy Duncan, 2020

Lately, I've been researching one of the collateral Kavanaugh's from my family tree, specifically Charles Kavanaugh Jr., husband of Frances Powell. I've been sifting through his records in multiple states and counties and sorting through his children. I've been trying to amass as many primary documents as possible. I thought I had something promising when I came across this biography of Rev. Abbot Hancock on his Family Search page. It reads like it was copied from an early county history, but is it has no source information. What seems especially promising is the information that Rev. Hancock "married Miss Lucynthia Kavanaugh, daughter of Dr. Charles Kavanaugh and his wife Frances (Powell) Kavanaugh." That would seem to prove that Charles Kavanaugh was a "Dr." What is suspect about this is that Frances's maiden name is in parenthesis, a convention that 19th-century country histories usually did not use.

Family Search
Click Image to Enlarge

So, I pressed on to see what else I could find along these lines, and I investigated Rev. Abbott Hancock's Findagrave memorial.

Findagrave Memorial
Click Image to Enlarge

These two biographies are identical right down to the title in all caps: REVEREND ABBOTT HANCOCK. Clearly, they originated from elsewhere, but where?

I continued to probe and found the original in The History of Carroll County, Missouri published in 1881. It's worth noting that the author of the original biography knew Rev. Abbot Hancock.

History of Carroll County, Missouri, 1881

There are some notable differences between the original and the copies of it on Family Search and Findagrave. First, the spelling of Rev. Abbot Hancock's name is different. The information that Lucinthia Kavanaugh was the daughter of Dr. Charles Kavanaugh and Frances Powell is absent. Lucinthia's name is spelled differently. The original was about two sentences longer and included the writer's impression that Abbot Hancock was born in about 1795 or 1796.

Again, it is important to seek out the original source. In this instance, the original source does not confirm that Lucinthia's parents were Dr. Charles Kavanaugh and Frances Powell. Since this was written by one who knew Abbot Hancock, being able to confirm this would have been helpful.

I am not saying that Lucinthia Kavanaugh was not the daughter of Charles Kavanaugh and Frances Powell. Since there are other marriages between Hancocks and Kavanaughs, it seems likely that she is, but this biography cannot be used to document it. This is also another example of people who alter the transcript of original sources to suit their own narrative. That is always the danger of transcripts. It seems likely that one of the contributors, to either Family Search or Findagrave, altered the original, and the other contributor unknowingly copied and pasted it to the other site. It's also possible that both contributors copied and pasted it from elsewhere. As researchers, we have a responsibility not just to cite sources, but to refrain from altering them to suit our own purposes.

Granderson D. Nevill Sr. Takes a Wife

©  Kathy Duncan, 2020

My research into the life and times of Granderson D. Nevill has revealed a fifth wife. Chronologically, she would be wife number four, which is subject to change.

Granderson D. Nevill is the black-sheep-of-the-family, scallywag ancestor that I have been stalking since the late 1980s. It is safe to say that he taught me most of what I know about genealogical research. As a research figure, he has mostly been found in off-census years and has left behind a surprising paper trail. As a person, he was quick to anger and use his fists, but he also seems to have charmed the ladies. He may have been the proverbial bad boy.

His first wife was Minerva Peterson of Montgomery Co., TN, who married him just after 1830 and divorced him in 1836. One family story is that they had a little girl who died before or by the age of five. His second wife was my ancestor, Martha E. ____, who married him in 1836, and divorced him in 1846 in Dickson Co., TN. They had an undetermined number of children, but my best guess is there were seven children. One and a half weeks after their divorce, Granderson married, as his third wife, Annette Travis of Montgomery Co., TN. They had two boys. By 1850, Annette was back in her mother's household in Montgomery Co., TN. That divorce record has not been found yet, but Annette went on to marry Philip Crotzer. By now, you may be noticing a pattern of behavior: Granderson enjoyed being married. And his wives? Not so much.

In 1850, Granderson D. Nevill is missing from the census, or I have not found him yet. In 1860, he is boarding with the Hunter family in Titus Co., Texas, and he does not have a wife. Then he is again missing from the 1870 census. By 1880, he is in Crawford Co., Arkansas with what is probably his last wife Caroline E. Harper. Granderson would have married her sometime after 1870 because Caroline (Harper) Ford and her sister Martha Harper were living together in Bradley Co., Tennessee that year. That means that realistically there is a thirty-year time span from 1850 to 1880 which could hold an undetermined number of additional wives. Three or four more wives would not be an unreasonable number.

Last night one of those additional wives turned up in Sebastian County, Arkansas. I was going through land deeds looking for land owned by Granderson's son, Granderson "Granville" D. Nevill Jr., in Sebastian County, Arkansas, when I came across an 1863 deed in a book of deeds for the 1880s. Sebastian County, Arkansas had two courthouses from the early period on. One courthouse for Ft. Smith and one for the Greenwood District. My ancestors' records were filed in the Greenwood District courthouse, which of course burned in 1882 with the result of a massive record loss.

So what was a deed from 1863 doing in a later deed book? Well, lucky me, in 1887 the buyer, Thomas Donoehoe, seems to have taken all his early deeds back to the courthouse to be re-recorded in Deed Bk 5, page 582. Bless his prudent heart.

In 1863, Granderson D. Nevill had sold 80 acres to Donoehoe for $860. Granderson's wife Kitty L. Ann Nevill signed away her dower rights on this deed. This deed also contains the township and range numbers for this piece of land but does not indicate who Granderson had acquired the land from or when he acquired it.

Sebastian County, Arkansas
Deed Bk 5, p. 582 - 583

Sebastian County, Arkansas
Deed Bk 5, p. 584 - 585

This 1863 deed is important for more reasons than its inclusion of another wife. If we look at the five year period previous to this deed, then a lot can be discerned about Granderson D. Nevill Sr. In 1858 and 1859, he was in Old Boston, Bowie Co., Texas, operating a tannery with an Ellis. Whether he had a wife at that point is unknown. Evidently, Nevill and Ellis dissolved their business together, and Granderson Sr. removed to Titus County, Texas, where he was a farmer with $300 in real estate (location unknown). He is not married at that moment in 1860. By 1863, he is in Sebastian County, Arkansas, married to Kitty L. Ann, and has acquired property that he is already selling. During the four year period from 1861 to 1865, his son Granderson D. Nevill Jr. was serving with a Texas confederate unit, having enlisted in Mt. Pleasant, Titus County, Texas in 1861. By about 1866 or 1867 Granderson D. Nevill Jr. had married his only wife, Louisa Rebecca Walker, whose family settled near Ione, Logan County, Arkansas. They were just a few miles from Sebastian County. It is reasonable to imagine that after the war Granderson D. Nevill Jr. went to his father's place in Sebastian County, where he met his future wife Rebecca Walker and probably filed their marriage record in a courthouse that burned!