| Notes |
- Notes: Daughter of Barnabas & probably his second wife, Martha
Adams. Mary appears to have been a bit wayward, favoring seafaring
gentlemen without benefit of clergy, according to Ben, who places her
as born in 1797 ( by date on tombstone).
(1) However, Wilbur's grandmother told him that his g.g. grandmother
Mary ran an inn/tavern and a traveling saleman (men) was/were the
father(s) of her children. At any rate, she has at least six
children and never bothered to marry.
(2) It is family history that she left West Virginia in a covered
wagon in the mid-1800's and headed for Georgia with her family (others
say Charleston). The family stopped to camp in Oconee Co, S. C. near
the Anderson Co. line, liked what she saw and stayed.
(3) Lived remainder of her life on the farm at north edge of
Townville, S. C. (See William Samuel's notes on land grand of 1850 in
Oconee Co. for more probable accounting of this move. )
Her birthdate coincides with the date of birth of an unnamed daughter
of Barnabas in 1800-1820 Census reports, (1795-1804). Some records
indicate that at least William Samuel, and probably Jesse, were born
in Union Co. and did not move to Townville area till 1850.
If she was a daughter of Barnabas, she would have been born in Union
County. If she was born in Virginia she would almost have to be a
granddaughter of Samuel which seems unlikely given the poverty of any
information about Woolbrights in the 1790-1800 records of Virginia
other than that of Barnabas and Jacob till 1791; plus mention of
Samuel's household being restricted to two males during the 1790s,
they being under age 20 in 1799 and nothing after 1802, with no
mention of a wife. All of Jacob's children are accounted for with
good records. It seems more likely that she may have been traveling
from Union Co. S. C. rather than Virginia and that the mention of her
forebears being from Virginia was as mis-stated as her birthplace.
If she was not Barnabas' daughter, one needs to consider that Samuel
probably had either sons or grandsons in Union County, prior to the
arrival of Barnabas in 1792-73, who could have been her father but
here again there are no records to support or suggest this as a
reasonable likelihood. As a daughter of Barnabas, there is a problem
assigning her to a mother. She could have been the last chld of
Elizabeth Saunders Woolbright, albeit being near the extreme of
childbearing age.
Otherwise, she is the first child of Barnabas' second wife, Martha
Adams. The seven year interval between the births of Mary and Jesse,
suggests the likelihood that Mary was Martha's first child and
Elizabeth died sometime during or before 1795.
The Gordon Co. Ga. Census of 25 June 1860 lists an Asa C. Woolbright,
age 25, [c1835] farmer, born in S. C. as was his wife, Harriett, age
23, a domestic. Children noted were Mary A. age 3 [1857] and William
F. age 9 months, [1860] both born in Georgia. No other parent
remotely likely
either as Jacob or Barnabas's children. Assigned by Allie Mae
Woolbright Earle as a child of Mary's. She also lists the following
as Mary's children: Sarah C. (Sally) b. 28 Sept 1818;
Elizabeth (Betty) Austin Chambers (she lost husband and son in the
Civil War and married Billy Chambers), & John H. Woolbright, b. 18 Mar
1845 (Apparently disappeared for years and was found by Will
Woolbright, living in Ala.) John's birthdate (or parentage) is in
error, or Mary is having children at a rather late age!
(Some fanciful family accounts relate a trip by covered wagon from
Virginia (some records say West Va.) to Oconee Co. with her children
and stopping for the night to camp on Coneross Creek. While she
appears to have been on her way to Georgia (?) (or Charleston by some
reports) she
apparently liked the local country she saw at the camp site and
decided to stay. She had apparently ran an Inn/Tavern in Virginia
(West Virginia) and the father of her children was a traveling
salesman (probably of Irish decent). Why was she in Virginia and why
was she going to Georgia?
Every indication is that she was born in Union Co. S. C. There is
every indication that all Woolbrights had left Virginia shortly after
the turn of the nineteeth century. Most records suggest that she came
with her son, William Samuel, in 1850 when he moved to Oconee Co. to
take up claim
to a land grant.
The fact that she ran a boarding establishment of some type and had a
number of children without benefit of Clergy is generally established.
Travel by covered wagon was the common mode of getting about in those
days as was the nightly need to establish a camp. However, her
business site was most probably Union, S. C. and her move to the
Townville area was a planned event. But it makes a good family yarn
that the women folk would prefer to ignore, according to Ben and
Wilbur Woolbright.
Mary died in the Farm Home near Townville, Oconee Co., SC.
|
1797 - 1881 (84 years)