John B. Nunn and Sarah C. Martin

Nunn

Sarah C.

1861 - 1961

John B.

1859 - 1940

Buried Pythian Ridge Cemetery, north of Sturgis, Union County, Kentucky. Tombstone photographed 3 December 2012.

According to her death certificate, Sarah Catherine Nunn was born 27 December 1861 Union County and died 24 July 1961 in Sturgis Hospital. Her parents were William Martin and Elizabeth Dial.[1]  She married John Benton Nunn 27 December 1882 in Union County.[2] On the marriage bond,  the following information was given for John Benton Nunn: age "23 past," first marriage, born Union County, father born Crittenden County and mother born Spencer County, Kentucky. Sarah C. Martin, the bride, was age "20 past," born and lives Union County, father born Hopkins County and mother born Tennessee. They were married at Wm. Martin's.

The 1870 Union County census shows John B. Nunn enumerated in the household of Hugh Nunn, age 50, and Mildred Nunn, age 39, who  are shown as the parents of John B. Nunn in Nunns of the South , edited by Alexander Nunn and the Team Group Committee.[3]  This book lists the children of John B. and Sarah Catherine (Martin) Nunn as follows:  Carol Walton Nunn, Susie Casey Nunn, Alvil Clifton Nunn, Georgia Stella Nunn, Byers Nunn and Ira Coutrell Nunn.

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[1] Kentucky Death Certificate #61-18166, Sarah Catherine Nunn, Ancestry.com.

[2] Kentucky County Marriage Records 1783-1965, Union County, Ancestry.com.

[3]   Alexander Nunn and the Team Group Committee. Nunns of the South, (Montgomery, AL: Paragon Press, 1974) 76.

Published 26 Mar 2019, Western Kentucky Genealogy Blog, http://wkygenealogy.blogspot.com/

Francis Marion Martin - Kentuckian and Texan

Livingston County, Kentucky has produced a number of men who have been prominent in public service, some who served in other states as well as in Kentucky.  Included among this group  is  Francis Marion Martin, who made his mark after leaving Kentucky.   He was the illegitimate child of a Miss Thompson and James Martin. In February 1837, James Martin officially acknowledged his son, then known as Francis Marion Thompson, six years old. Apparently, the child was living with James Martin at that time.

[1]

Francis Marion's mother is not identified, but is said to have died before the child was one year of age.[2]  James Martin died 21 January 1840 and is buried beside his wife, Elizabeth (Coffield) Martin in Slayden Cemetery #1,  Burna, Livingston County. [3] In his will,James Martin left all his property to his "son and only heir Francis Marion Martin. Executors of this will were William N. Hodge and James L. Dallam. [4]   Since he was only nine years old when  his father died and his mother was also deceased, Francis Marion lived with the William N. Hodge family.[5]

Francis Marion Martin "received only one year of formal schooling and served as a boat-hand on the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, a store clerk, and a trader before moving to Texas in 1853."[6]   

Because Francis Marion was not yet 21 years old when he and Mary Catherine Hodge decided to marry, Blount Hodge was appointed his guardian to give consent for the license to be issued. [7] Blount Hodge was also bondsman on the marriage bond and W.N.  Hodge, father of the bride, gave consent for his daughter to marry. On 11 April 1849, Francis Marion Martin and Mary C. Hodge were married in Livingston County.[8]  The following year Francis Marion, Mary C. and their first born child, Allis, were living with the W.N. Hodge family in Smithland.[9]

In 1852, Francis Marion and Mary C. lost their second daughter, Lizzie, at just four months of age. 

Lizzie

Daughter of

Francis M.

& Mary C.

Martin

Born April

2  1852  Died

Aug 15, 1852   [10] 

She is buried in Smithland Cemetery.

One  year later Francis Marion sold the land he had inherited from his father and moved his family to Texas, settling in Navarro County, where some of Mary Catherine's Hodge relatives had settled. Francis Marion farmed, raised stock and eventually acquired 1,500 acres of land in Navarro County. 

Francis Marion first ran for state office in Navarro County in 1859 and was elected to the Senate. Then, when the Civil War started,  he served as a captain in  Company C, 20th Texas Cavalry, CSA.[11]  He returned to public life in 1878, when he was once more elected to the Senate. In 1882, while serving his last term as Senator, he successfully ran as lieutenant governor of Texas.  In 1887, he switched his affiliation from the Democratic party to the Prohibition party and the next year was a candidate for governor. He was defeated and left the Prohibition party for membership in the Populist party. He ran for lieutenant governor in 1892 and 189 4, but was unsuccessful. [12]

Mary C. (Hodge) Martin died in 1866 and F.M. married Angie Harle 22 October 1877 in Navarro County.[13] There were seven children by the first marriage and three by the second marriage.  The burial place of Mary C. Martin is unknown. Francis Marion Martin is buried at Oakwood Cemetery in Corsicana, Navarro County. His second wife, Angie Harle, lived until 1947 and is also buried in Oakwood Cemetery.

Francis Marion Martin's was age 73 when he died and he saw many changes during his lifetime. He was born in Smithland, Kentucky during the heyday of that town.  His parents both died when he was young and he was reared by non-family friends. As a young married man, he left Kentucky for Texas, where he preceded to make  his mark on that state.

  

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[1] James Clark, Governor. Acts of the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Kentucky, December Session, 1836, (Frankfort, KY: A.G. Hodges, State Printer, 1837) Chapter 222, An Act to change the name of Francis Marion Thompson, Approved, February 3, 1837, page 113.

[2] Handbook of Texas Online, Worth Robert Miller, "Martin, Francis Marion," accessed 8 January 2018, http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fma56.

[3] Find A Grave Memorial #41485155, accessed 12 January 2018. Also, conversation 10 January 2018 with Jerry Bebout, who submitted the Find A Grave information and photograph of the James Martin tombstone.

[4]  Livingston County Will Book B, p. 70, dated July 1839 and proven in open court 3 February 1840.

[5] Handbook of Texas Online, "Martin, Francis Marion."

[6] Ibid.

[7] Livingston County Court Order Book K, p . 76, 2 April 1849

[8] Joyce McCandless Woodyard. Livingston County, Kentucky Marriage Records Including Marriages of Freedmen, Vol. II (August 1839 - December 1871), (Evansville, IN: Evansville Bindery, 1994) 55.

[9] 1850 Livingston County, Kentucky census, Roll M432_210, p. 373B, dwelling 706, family 706, Ancestry.com, accessed 8 January 2018.

[10] Tombstone photographed and recorded18 November 2017.

[11] Handbook of Texas Online, "Martin, Francis Marion."

[12] Texas Legislative Council Research Division, Presiding Officers of the Texas Legislature 1846-2016, (Austin, TX: Texas Legislative Council, 2016), Database and photograph, pp. 42-43, accessed  22 January 2018.

[13] Texas Marriages, 1837-1973, Database, FamilySearch, accessed 22 January 2018.

Published 25 January 2018, Western Kentucky Genealogy Blog, http://wkygenealogy.blogspot.com/

Tombstone Tuesday - John B. Martin

John B.

Martin

1844 - 1917

Buried Pilot Knob Cemetery, Crittenden County, Kentucky. Tombstone photographed 9 April 2014.

According to Kentucky death certificate #32553 (1917), John Bazel Martin was born 1846 in Arkansas and died 22 September 1917 Crittenden County, Kentucky. His parents were Nathan Martin, born Henderson County, Kentucky, and -- Stinson, born Evansville, Indiana. The 1860 Henderson County census shows John B. Martin, age 17,  living in the household of Nathan and Cynthia Martin in District No. 1 in Henderson.

J.B. Martin married Susan E. Deen 19 March 1884 Henderson County. They appear together on the 1910 Crittenden County census and Susan is shown living with her children on Kevil Street, Marion, Kentucky on the 1920 Crittenden County census.

Published 25 November 2014, Western Kentucky Genealogy Blog,  http://wkygenealogy.blogspot.com/

Answers Result in More Questions on Judith Martin

Mrs. Judith Turner

Born

Sept. 14, 1810

Died

July 31, 1873

Aged 60 Yrs.

10 Mo's &

20 D's

It all started when I spotted the tombstone of Mrs. Judith Martin leaning against a shed in Cedar Hill Cemetery in Princeton, Caldwell County, Kentucky. It looked to be perfect as the subject of Tombstone Tuesday for this blog. As usual, I did some research to learn a little about her. Who were her parents? Who did she marry? Did anything extraordinary happen during her life?

I learned some things, but what I learned only raised more questions - questions for which I found no answers. Maybe you can help.  Here is what I learned.

Judith was a daughter of Tilghman Martin of Caldwell County and married Nathaniel Rochester as his second wife in June of 1833. Nathaniel Rochester, reputed to be a hotel keeper in Princeton, was first married to Milly Johnson in 1810 Knox County, Kentucky. In 1818, Nathaniel and family purchased land in Caldwell County and moved there. Shortly after 1830, Milly died and in 1833, Nathaniel married Judith/Judy Martin.

Apparently, Nathaniel and Judith stayed in Kentucky after their marriage as they had two children born there. They were Amanda Malvina, born 1834, and James, born 1838. Nathaniel and Judith Rochester have not been found on the 1840 census in any state, but I feel they remained in Kentucky.  Nathaniel and Judith must have divorced as Nathaniel was not found in 1850 and Judith was living with her new husband, Mathew B. Turner, whom she had married earlier that same year.

In 1889, Mrs. Agatha Rochester Strange published a little book, House of Rochester in Kentucky. Nathaniel Rochester and his children are listed, including a daughter, Amanda Malvina, by Judith Martin, but neither the marriage to Judith or the second child, James, is mentioned.

On 6 August 1851, Judith's father, Tilghman Martin, wrote his will. He left bequests to each of his children except Judith. Judith's children by Nathaniel Rochester did inherit from their grandfather. When Judith's brother, also named Tilghman, wrote his will in 1852, he specifically excluded Judith from inheriting from his estate. Apparently, there were hard feelings between Judith and her family.

The marriage of Judith and Mathew B. Turner apparently terminated, too. On the 1860 census Judith was living in the household of her brother, A.J. Martin, and Turner was living with his married daughter in Williamson County, Illinois.

So, when and where did Nathaniel and Judith (Martin) Rochester divorce and where were they living in 1840?  Did Judith Martin Rochester and Mathew B. Turner also divorce?  If so, where?  I have looked in Caldwell, Livingston and Crittenden counties and found no record of a divorce.  Crittenden County seemed the logical place to find records on Nathaniel as he died at the home of his son, William H. Rochester, in Marion in 1874, but, so far, I have not found anything there. Do you have any ideas?

Published 19 September 2013, Western Kentucky Genealogy Blog,  http://wkygenealogy.blogspot.com/

Tombstone Tuesday - William B. Nation

NATION

William B.                         Eva V.

    1863 - 1919                       1869 - 1901

Buried at Pilot Knob Cemetery, Crittenden County, Kentucky. Tombstone photographed 25 August 2010.

William B. Nation Jr., the son of William Nation Sr. and Eliza J. Springer, was born 24 May 1863 in Tennessee and died 22 December 1919 Crittenden County, according to his Kentucky death certificate #31893 (1919).

 He married Miss Eva V. Orr 30 December 1885 in Crittenden County and they had two children, Pleasant and Fannie. Eva died 1 November 1901 and, according to her obituary in the 19 December 1901 issue of the Crittenden Press, she left a loving mother, devoted husband, two little children, two brothers and three sisters. Her last words were "Blessed Jesus."


On 19 April 1904 William B. Nation married Mrs. Bettie Martin at Marion. William B. and Bettie  had the following children: Georgia and William D.