A Letter from Adele Wynne Barry to Joe (Wynne)

Ensley Ala.

3 . 11 . 1912

My dear Joe,

Hall handed me your letter tonight to show you how very much it interests me, I am replying immediately. Am always glad to hear from you & your little family, enjoyed so much meeting them, on their visits to our old home at Dayton.
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For years I have been grieving over "lost opportunities" in many ways, or am still worrying. In my younger days (was 69 a few days ago) there was a Bible at home, she ______ of long ago with the family record, and it amused me wonderfully then, the strange mix up of F's & T's.

Your question I think I can answer. Our grandfather's name was David Prowell, married Rachel [Morris] had four children two sons & two
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I have told you what I know of the Prowell name. Hall has an Encyclopedia Twentieth Century in Vol X, I find the name of the Prowell with whom you are in correspondence, famous educator, journalist - or many other titles, Gen. R. Prowell of [York] Penn. he seems only interested in living prominent people. It is up to you to fill the niche in our branch of the family.

Uncle James had so many children that I have not mentioned them: he has a son, [ ] filling the Sheriff's Office in his County, several years ago the same one I believe filled the same office. His daughters were
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superior women. Virginia married Dr. Ryland, she lives in the County and I wish you could get her address as she is the oldest child & lived with Grandmother Prowell who lived to a good old age, died after the Civil War, she could perhaps give you more authoritative information than anyone else. I mean by the County that her home is not in Columbus Miss but another place several miles away. You remember Rachel Lenoir the pretty girl who visited at your father's. She was the daughter of Eliza [ ] lives or did live in N.O. several years ago. Married
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Mr. Montgomery who owned stock yards there or dealt in cattle or stock generally.

While we are on family names, it may interest you to know something of the Pickerings. Pauline Askew, who married Mr. Winslow of Cleveland, Ohio, in order to be in the "social swim", had the ancestry traced, if I wanted it, she would give me the Washington address where by paying $5.00 I could secure the genealogy of the Pickerings. She said had been traced to the time of Wm the Conqueror 14th Century I believe. I am not good on dates.
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I suppose you remember in your classroom at West Point the Picture of Timothy Pickering & you thought, "you are my kinfolk" & it gave you fresh inspiration to reach the top of the ladder as he had done; in looking over Worlds Almanac, I find he was member of the Cabinet, three times Secretary of State, Postmaster Gen. & Sec of War. Look in McCauley's history of the Lies of the Queens of England & you will find Sir Timothy Pickering a suitor of Queen Elizabeth.

From family papers: a handwritten letter. Adele Wynne Barry is presumed to be the author based on references to "Hall", her son, and the discussion of the Prowells, her mother's family. Some pages may be missing -- there was no signature page -- and the pages shown may be owut of order as they were not numbered and did not follow logically along folds.

Obituary of Anna Belle Medearis

MRS. BELLE MEDEARIS HOLMAN, for twenty-seven years an active member and worker in the Russell Street Church of Christ, died at a Nashville hospital Thursday afternoon at 5 o'clock. She had been a member of the Christian Church for thirty-nine years, joining the denomination in Fayetteville, Tenn., her birthplace, when she was 14 years old. In 1889 she was married to MR. W. F. HOLMAN, a real estate man, and moved to Nashville. She is survived by her mother, MRS. J. H. MEDEARIS, nine sisters and three brothers, one son and three daughters. Buried at Mt. Olivet Cemetery. (Nashville Banner)

The Shelbyville Gazette, September 28, 1916, as copied by the Chestnut Ridge Cousins.

Captain Medearis Loans Government $75,000

Man of Wealth

Captain John Medearis was a man of great wealth, consisting of lands, money, and Negroes. He loaned the United States Government, through his Commander and personal friend, General Washington, the sum of $75,000 to help defray the expenses of the war. When Independence was established, he would never present a claim, saying that heritage of Freedom to his descendants was much more than riches, H was gratified to have been of double service to his beloved Country. Thus ends the Official record of Captain John Medearis, who was born on the 22d of February, 1734.

Captain John Medearis was also given a Land Grant in Hamilton County, Tennessee of more than three thousand acres. The city of Chattanooga is on this grant. The Land Grant was not renewed; so in time reverted to the United States Government.

He married a widow, Mrs. Bell, and to them two children were born (date of marriage and births of children, not known) Mary, and George Washington.

I believe this information was compiled by Mary Medearis, the great-granddaughter of Captain John Medearis. This text was transcribed into this blog from a photocopy of a type written document that provided to me by Charles Ham, the great-grandson of Mary's sister, Frances Dean Medearis.

Documentary References for Captain John Medearis

Following is a list of references by volume and page of the Documentary and other authority on which the Record of Captain John Medearis is established;

First: On file in the records of the North Carolina Society of the order of the Cincinnati, at Baltimore, Maryland. Also in the Roster of the Tennessee Regiments of North Carolina Continental Troops, Raleigh, North Carolina.

Second: Bureau of Pensions, Washington, D.C. 2823 Revolutionary War.

Third: Land Register's Office, Nashville, Tennessee, Book No. 1, page 3, Warrant 19.

Fourth: Secretary of State's Office, Raleigh, North Carolina, (No. 1771).

Fifth: Private letter (sworn Notary) written by General George Washington to Captain John Medearis, ordering him to Raleigh, North Carolina, to pay off troops. This letter, with other papers, Continental money, seals of the United States Government, etc., were kept in an old trunk during his life, but have been lost in recent years.

Sixth: North Carolina Troops in Continental Line. Published by direction of Secretary of State.

Seventh: Book in D.A.R. Library, Washington, D.C.

I believe this information was compiled by Mary Medearis, the great-granddaughter of Captain John Medearis. This text was transcribed into this blog from a photocopy of a type written document that provided to me by Charles Ham, the great-grandson of Mary's sister, Frances Dean Medearis.

Brief History of Revolutionary Soldier, Captain John Medearis

John T. Medearis who came to America from England prior to the war of the Revolution, and settled in Virginia is the first of the name of whom we have authentic account. He married Miss Rachel Davis, and to them were born three children -- Benjamin, Martha, and John. Benjamin married Miss Grady of Virginia; Martha, Mr. Phillips of Mississippi; of them, we have no further knowledge. John, from whom we trace our line of descent, was a soldier in the war of the Revolution, and shall be designated in this paper as Captain John Medearis, as a soldier and officer of the war of the American Revolution, and of services rendered by him in assisting to establish American Independence.

First: John Medearis was Lieutenant in Eaton's Company of the Third North Carolina Infantry, April 15th, 1777. Was promoted to Captain, December 23rd, of same year, in same Company. Was transferred to the First Regiment of North Carolina Continental Infantry, February 6th, 1782.

Second: Captain John Medearis was pensioned as Captain North Carolina Troops at $480.00 per annum. As his application is not on file, his services cannot be more definitely stated; on application of his daughter, Mary Medearis Smith, of Bedford County, Tennessee, March 31st, 1823, the pension was increased to $600.00 per annum as Assistant Deputy Quartermaster General for services of two years.

Third: Military Grant for services as an American soldier in the war of the Revolution, and for actual services rendered as a soldier in the Continental Army, for gallantry, bravery, and loyalty, Captain John Medearis of Fifth Regiment North Carolina Troops, was granted by United States Government, 3,290 acres of land in Marshall County, Tennessee, a record of this land grant appears on page three, of Warrant Number 19, Book Number One, Land Register office, Nashville, Tennessee. The following is a copy of a letter, which is self explanatory:

To the Commissioners of Specific Tax, in
Benton and Newburn Districts, North Carolina:
Halifax, N.S.,
March 13th, 1782

Gentlemen:

Captain John Medearis attends to receive
the Specific supplies ordered by his Excellency, Governor
Burke, for the use of defraying charges in the Quartermaster's
Department. He bears the several orders for that purpose,
which you will receive and take his receipt for the quantity
he may receive, and oblige,

Your Humble Servant,
Nicholas Long, D.H.

I believe this information was compiled by Mary Medearis, the great-granddaughter of Captain John Medearis. This text was transcribed into this blog from a photocopy of a type written document that provided to me by Charles Ham, the great-grandson of Mary's sister, Frances Dean Medearis.

Documentary References

Brief Note on Captain John Medearis

Captain John Medearis was a veteran of the American Revolution who settled on a land grant of 3,290 acres in Marshall County, Tennessee. Captain Medearis named his holding "Liberty Valley." He was born in Essex County, Virginia in 1744, served as Deputy Quartermaster General of the North Carolina Continental Army and died at Liberty Valley in 1834.

Elizabeth Sharpe Woodward Medearis Yowell

Elizabeth Sharpe Woodward was born in Amelia County, Virginia, in 1783. When she moved to Tennessee, she travelled with Andrew and Rachel Jackson, who were returning from Washington, DC, where Jackson was a member of Congress. She married George Washington Davis Medearis in 1809. Washington Medearis died in 1838, and she married Joel Yowell of Marshall County, Tennessee. Yowell was the father of her son-in-law, William Yowell. During the Civil War she died while visiting her daughter in, Sarah Medearis Lloyd of Cheneyville, Louisiana.

By the time of the Medearis Trip to Texas, she was apparently twice a widow, and known as Grandmother Yowell, even to her Medearis granchildren.

From Miss Moore's article on "The Medearis Trip to Texas" in The Volunteer, Spring 1991.