Gene Notes

Some random and some not-so-random thoughts on family history.

Thursday, October 11, 2012

Thriller Thursday - Another Family Story

My dad's aunt Mary Black Percival French gave my uncle some family history in a letter. I don't know if it is fact or fiction, but here is another one - mostly regarding my great-great grandfather, John Stearns Percival, father of Herbert Davidson and John Henry Percival. He married Susan Davidson.

"I got all the earlier ancestors, but got stuck when it came to my own grand-father, your great-grandfather [blogger's note: John Stearns Percival.]  According to what I found, he did go to war for the South but came home for a visit, [His enlistment was up. He re-enlisted a few months later] then went back and was killed shortly after that. The Kansans came over to Waverly while he was gone the first time, ran off the 20 slaves they had, (who had already been freed but chose to stay with my grandmother (Susan Davidson Percival) and the two small boys, my father and uncle Herbert.) The Kansans burned all the buildings, house barns and all, took all the live-stock and left my grand-mother penniless. She went to stay with a brother and taught school to support herself and children."

Actually, Susan Davidson Percival took her children and fled to Kentucky to her sister-in-law's home  where she did indeed teach school. Her only brother, John Davidson lived in Jackson County, Missouri and he died in 1864.

I can't even find John Percival on the 1860 slave census. The family was living in Middleton township, Lafayette county, Missouri in 1860 and not Waverly. Is it possible he freed any slaves he may have owned? Yes. If there were former slaves living on the farm in 1860, they aren't enumerated.

Copyright 2010-2012, ACK for Gene Notes

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