Family of John Sharp Pemberton 9/03/2007
Generation #1:
- John Pemberton, born October 12, 1742, may
have emigrated from Lancashire
England
but evidence is not clear. However, he married Elizabeth Stanton Delaney (b-January 27, 1740) and they lived in Culpeper County, Virginia
by 1768. He enlisted in the
Revolutionary War in North Carolina. He served with the “Over the Mountain Men” in
the pivotal Battle of King’s Mountain (October 1780) mustering the men at the
Pemberton Oak. He earned the rank of
Captain in Col. Isaac Shelby’s regiment during the war and Colonel by
1788. He was a farmer in the Holstein
Valley of Sullivan, Tennessee who at one time had over 600 acres and a few
blacks. Elizabeth died August 7, 1812 and John died October 25, 1813. They are buried at the Pemberton cemetery in
Sullivan County, Tennessee.
These are their 6 sons and 4
daughters.
2i. Sarah “Sally” Pemberton (b-1765-1670,
m-Thomas Pemberton, live-KY)
2ii. William Pemberton (b-1766, married
Winifred?, lived in Kentucky)
2iii James Pemberton (lived 1767-1815)
2iv. Elizabeth Pemberton
(b-1772, married James Jordan George, died-1802)
2v.
Thomas Pemberton (b-1775, never married, died-1848)
2vi.
Stanton Pemberton (b-1778, m-Sarah King, moved to Cole Co, Illinois)
2vii
Ezekiel Pemberton (b-1781, never married, died-1857)
2viiiDinah Pemberton (b-1783, m-Samuel Snapp, moved to Greene Co, TN)
2ix.
Benjamin Pemberton (1786-1877)
2x. Nancy Pemberton (b-1788, m-Jonathan King, d-1858 Washington Co.
VA)
Generation #2:
2ix. Benjamin Pemberton was the 9th
child of John and Elizabeth Pemberton born on February 7, 1786. During the War of 1812, he was a Sergeant in
Captain Harvey King’s Company in the 2nd Regiment of Lillard’s
Eastern Tennessee Volunteers. Benjamin
married Marianna Sharp on December 3, 1812 and they
had 5 children between 1814 and 1821 when Marianna died at the age of 36 during
childbirth. Benjamin married Barbara Dryden in 1825 and they had two more sons
(Thomas Dryden, William H.). Benjamin was listed as a farmer on the census.
Like many of the families in Southern Virginia, the oldest family members
went to Missouri
seeking land. The youngest remained at
home and cared for the older people in the family. In the 1830s and 1840s, the father divided
his property with the oldest as they left for new country, and the residue was
left for the youngest in the family. We
see this happening in the Benjamin Pemberton family. The three oldest sons of the first marriage
all settled in Dade County,
Missouri. The descendants of the second marriage stayed
on Royal Oaks in Washington, Virginia,
post office Bristol, Tennessee. The following is information
compiled by Mary Ellen (Mrs. John H.) Brown III who visited Royal Oaks: “Royal
Oaks consisted of about 4,250 acres. The present owner now has about 300 to 400
acres of the original acreage. Tom
Gideon Pemberton’s (this must be Benjamin’s) wife died when three of his sons
were teenagers. His second wife was a “city-gal” who didn’t want the almost
grown boys around. So the father gave
each of the boys $1,200.00, an out-filled wagon and team, and their choice of a
young negro slave, male or female, and sent them off to Missouri to homestead land. ‘These three boys were Henry Pemberton, John
S. Pemberton, and Elkanah Delaney “Doc” Pemberton. They homesteaded land in the Hulston Mill
area in approximately 1839 to 1841”. Benjamin, their father, died in
Sullivan County, Tennessee in 1877 at the age of 91 and is buried in the Cold Springs
Cemetery there. Descendants still live on the family farm,
although a new home was built about the turn of the century or a little
earlier.
Benjamin’s 7 children are:
3i. Henry Harrison Pemberton (1814-1874,
m-Eliza Campbell, Mary Buchanan)
3ii. John Sharp Pemberton (1815-1890,
m-Rosanna McConnell)
3iii.Elkanah Delaney Pemberton (1817-1902,
m-Elizabeth Craig)
3iv.Melissa S. Pemberton (1819-1827, dying at the age of 8)
3v.
Benjamin Franklin Pemberton (1821, m-Eliza D. King, daughter of Jonathan
King
and Nancy Pemberton)
3vi.Thomas Dryden Pemberton (1826-1899, m-Sarah Cowan, Susan Bartles)
3vii
William H. Pemberton (1830-1847, dying at the age of 17)
Generation # 3:
3ii. John Sharp Pemberton
was Benjamin and Marianna’s second son, born
September 15, 1815 in Sullivan, Tennessee.
John along with his two brothers, Henry Harrison and Elkanah Delaney, all moved
to Dade County, Missouri in the early 1840s. He married Rosanna McConnell (born June 21, 1824 in Washington,
Virginia which is just across the state line
from Sullivan, Tennessee)
on January 18, 1844
in Dade County, Missouri. She was the daughter of Thomas
McConnell and Sarah McHaffey. Thomas’
first wife, Melissa Sharp (John Sharp Pemberton’s mother, Mariana’s, sister)
died during the birth of their first child in 1816 and then he married
Rosanna’s mother. John Sharp and Rosanna
had only two children (Thomas B.-born 1850, and Mary-born 1852) that show up as
living on the 1860 and 1870 censuses where his occupation is listed as a
farmer. John took up over 200 acres of
land near Hulston Mill, and added to it until his farm consisted of 350 acres.
In 1850, he built a large two-story frame dwelling, which at the time was one
of the finest in the county. John Sharp
Pemberton was also a blacksmith, a state legislator representing Dade County
in 1852, a county collector in 1854, and Dade County
sheriff from 1856 to 1858. He was an
active Democrat and in his day one of the most prominent citizens of the
county. His wife died on December 8, 1875 at the age
of 51. John and his daughter, Mary Nixon, were constituent members of the
Everton Cumberland Presbyterian Church founded in 1884-5 with John Sharp on the
first Board of Elders. He was one of the
founding members of the Everton Lodge No. 405 A.F. &A.M organized in 1886,
serving as treasurer. John Sharp was reported to be a quiet, peaceable citizen,
and was never known to speak an unkind word to anyone. He lived 15 years as a widower, dying on February 6, 1890 at the age
of 75. Rosanna and John Sharp Pemberton
as well as their children are buried at the Pemberton
Cemetery in Dade County.
John Sharp and Rosanna had 4 children,
with only 2 living past childhood:
4i. Thomas B. Pemberton (1850-1896)
4ii. John Sharp Pemberton
(1851-1859?, died before age 8 or the 1860 census)
4iii. Mary M. Pemberton (1852-1928)
4iv. Sarah Elizabeth Pemberton
(1860-1862, died at age 2)
Generation # 4:
4i. Thomas B Pemberton, born September 2, 1850, married Susan Elizabeth McConnell (b-1/1/1854 in Cedar Co, Missouri) on January 21, 1875. Tom had the legal distillery
at or near Hulston Mill. Thomas died 21 years later at about 40 years of age.
Lizzie, then, married Jesse Thomas Jones, a Cumberland Presbyterian
minister. They had no children but
raised Laura Jane Likens, who later married Frank Poindexter. (Information
recorded by Mary Ellen Brown from conversations with John D. Pemberton). Lizzie lived until February 26, 1943. Lizzie Jones and Thomas B. Pemberton are
buried in the Pemberton Cemetery in Dade County.
4iii.
Mary (Maryana) M. Pemberton was born July 11, 1852 in Dade County
Missouri, daughter of John and Rosanna (McConnell) Pemberton. She married Arthur Frank Nixon on January 2, 1879 in Dade
County, Missouri. “Arthur Frank Nixon was born on June 16, 1845, son of
Gabriel and Mary (Mendenhall) Nixon. He
was primarily raised in Indiana, coming to Dade County
with his mother in 1875 after his father had died. Upon his arrival to Dade County,
he engaged in the mining business at Corry for 4 or 5 years. He then entered the hardware business in Golden City
in the company of William Pemberton, and opened a hardware business in Everton,
putting up the second building in Everton.
He remained in this business about 10 years, when he removed to his farm
near Hulston, which his wife, Mary, had received through the Pemberton
estate. He conducted this farm of 325
acres for about 15 years and then bought the Albert Morris Hardware store in
Dadeville in the year 1908, selling out in 1912 to Spencer and Hulston and returning
to the farm. In the sale of the store in
Dadeville, he acquired the flouring mill at Hulston, which he operated one year
before selling to Samuel Farmer. Arthur
F. Nixon was an active Republican, always vitally interested in the public
schools of the county, and served on the school board for many years. Mr. Nixon was raised in the Quaker faith, but
never united with any church. He was a
firm believer in the principles of Community and gave many evidences of his
faith by good works. He was a member of
the A.F.&A.M. lodge in good standing at the time
of his death, holding membership at Everton.
He was extensively known throughout the county as a good business man,
highly honorable and trustworthy, a good neighbor, a kind father, and respected
by all who knew him. The Nixon family continued to reside in the two-story
house built by John Sharp Pemberton in 1850.
Near this original homestead is one of the finest springs in the
county. Arthur in his lifetime improved
this with a hydraulic ram and connected up a perfect watering system with
pressure tank in the house and watering troughs in the barn lots. The old Pemberton homestead was known as one
of the most productive stock and grain farms in the whole community.” (1) Mary
like her father, John Sharp, was an active member of the Cumberland
Presbyterian Church. Arthur died on August 5, 1914 and Mary died 14 years later on December 1, 1928. Mary and Arthur Frank Nixon as well as their
children Lillian and John are buried in the Pemberton
Cemetery in Dade County.
They
had 7 children:
5i.
Mary Rosanna Nixon
(1879-1952)
5ii. Nellie Sharp Nixon (b-1881)
5iii. Arthur Frank Nixon (b-1884, married Carolyn B. Mote who had been a
teacher at Flint Hill School
# 16 in Dade County, no children)
5iv.
Jewel Kate Nixon (b-10/10/1887)
5v. John Pemberton Nixon (1890-1962, unmarried)
5vi. Lillian Russell Nixon (1892-1924, unmarried,
died age 32)
5vii. Paul Kermit Nixon
(1895-1971)
Generation # 5, 6, 7:
5i. Mary Rosanna Nixon was
born in 1879. She married James Walter Kirby. They continued living
in Dade County.
She died in 1952.
They had 5 children:
6i. Nellie Lorene Kirby (married John Rush)
6ii. James Walter Kirby
7i. James Walter
Kirby
7ii. Rosalyn
Kaye Kirby
6iii. Mary Mildred Kirby (married Earnest Allison)
6iv. Celia Hazel Kirby (1907-1990), married Fred H. Toler (1899-1973)
Buried Greenfield Cemetery
7iii. Robert W.
Toler
6v. Denzil Louise Kirby (married Kyle Lloyd Wilson, “Doc”)
5ii. Nellie Sharp Nixon married George Wise, a farmer in Jasper County,
and in 1910 and 1920 lived in Lincoln in Jasper County, Missouri.
They had 2 daughters.
6vi. Frozy Theo Wise
6vii. Georgia Aliene Wise
5iv. Jewel Kate Nixon married Lynn Bron Hembree. By 1917, they were living in Klamuth County, Oregon. They were living in Portland
and Salem, Oregon in 1920 and 1930. Jewel died in 1964 in Salem, Marion County, Oregon.
They had a son and a daughter.
6viii. Lynn Bron Hembree (b-1910, unmarried)
6ix. Beatrice Alberta Hembree (b-1912,
unmarried, d-1998 in Portland,
Oregon)
5vii. Paul Kermit Nixon (born 25 July 1895) married Nona Belle Farmer who was born on 5 March 1900 in Missouri, the daughter
of Samuel Farmer and Clara Lake Pyle (Sarah Jane Gaunt, John Mott Gaunt). Paul was a musician and at one time was with
the National Military Band at Leavenworth,
Kansas. Paul died 23 Dec. 1971 at the age of 76 and Nona lived
16 more years dying on 14
July 1987. They are both
buried
next to their daughter, Pauline, at the Pemberton Cemetery
in Dade County.
They had 1 child.
6x. Pauline A. Nixon (1923-1992, married
1. Finley Preston 2. John Hill)
(1) Arthur Franklin Nixon biography, Dade County and Her
People, Vol. 2, by The Pioneer Historical Company, Nov. 1, 1917, p.
210-212.
Submitted to the Dade County Genealogy Website on 9/3/2007 by:
Nancy Wujcik, great-great-grand-daughter of Henry Harrison Pemberton
[email protected]