Died of Cholera

Recently I had the opportunity to visit Tennessee.  One of my stops in Nashville was the Tennessee State Library and Archives.  The Library has onsite access to a historic Nashville Newspaper database:  The Nashville Tennessean (1812-1922).

I searched "Nashville Tennessean" newspaper database using only the "Medlin" family surname, which resulted in 7 or so pages with 20 hits on each page.  After going through a couple of pages, I was beginning to think that I would not find anything of great value.  Then I clicked open an 1854 article titled, "Health of Lebanon."  Lebanon is the county seat for Wilson County, Tennessee.  In 1850, our Samuel Medlin family lived in Wilson County.  The article was about an outbreak of cholera and listed some of the residents who had died of the disease.  One of the persons mentioned who had died of the disease was my 3rd great-grandmother, "Mrs. Sam'l Medlin" (Rebecca Morgan Medlin.)  Rebecca was the mother of my 2nd great-grandmother, Bettie Medlin Stewart.  Grandma Bettie had always referred to herself as an orphan, because her mother, Rebecca, had died when she was an infant.  Since Bettie did not even know her own date of birth, I had to guess at Bettie's birth date from the few times she gave her age to the census taker.  So, that meant I also had to guess at an "about death date" of 1852-1855 for her mother, Rebecca, who supposedly died when Bettie was an infant.  Rebecca's widowed husband, Samuel Medlin, remarried on 26 Dec 1855, so I knew that Rebecca had died before that date.

Below is a copy of the newspaper article reporting the death of Rebecca Morgan Medlin:

After reading the newspaper article, I just sat there a little stunned and a lot sad.  Poor Rebecca.  Did others in her family also suffer from the disease and recover?  Perhaps Rebecca wore herself out caring for others in the family and then succumbed to the disease herself?  We will probably never know the complete story. Several of the older daughters in the family - Caroline, Nancy, Eliza - also disappear from records after the 1850 census.  Did they also get the disease during this 1854 cholera outbreak in Wilson County, Tennessee?  Or, did they get married and move away?  Or, did they die from another disease?

In Memory of Our 3rd Great-Grandmother
May you never be forgotten

Rebecca Morgan Medlin

Born about 1817 in Tennessee

Died July 1854 in Wilson County, Tennessee

Other posts mentioning Rebecca:
Maiden name of Rebecca, wife of Samuel Medlin
Meet for Lunch?
Bettie Medlin - Little Orphan Girl

Meet for Lunch?

Last week on a late night talk show, the question was asked: "If you could have lunch with any three people in history, who would you pick?"  That got me to thinking, and I bet most of you know exactly what it was I was thinking... 

"If I could have lunch with any three of my ancestors, who would I pick?" 

It was hard for me to choose just three, because I would love to hold a big banquet with many, many more in attendance.  But, I finally made a list --  then changed it, then changed it again.  So, after a week of thinking about it and changing my mind, here's my list of three:

1.  My first choice would be Susan Evaline West Leffel.  Susan Evaline West, daughter of Michael West and Susannah McKee, was born 3 Jun 1817 in Kentucky. Susan married David Miller Leffel on 3 May 1837 in Springfield, Clark, Ohio.  Susan and David moved to Texas around 1858, when she inherited land from her father, Michael West.   The Leffel's move to Texas would set in motion events that would eventually lead to David's death.  Susan's husband, David Miller Leffel, was one of forty Union sympathizing citizens of North Texas who were charged with disloyalty and treason against the Confederacy by a “Citizens Court” in Gainesville, Cooke County in October 1862 and then hanged in what is called the Great Hanging at Gainesville. 
After much study into the Gainesville Hangings on my part, I would like to talk to Susan about what she and her family really went through and what really happened.  I would like to know if David was buried in the mass grave with many other victims of the Hanging, or if he is buried somewhere else.  Why did she stay in Texas after the end of the Civil War?  I would also like to know what happened to some of her siblings and their families.  So many questions...

2.  Second choice would be Rebecca Morgan Medlin.  She is my 3rd great-grandmother and the mother of my 2nd great-grandma, Bettie Medlin Stewart.  Rebecca died of Cholera when Bettie was still an infant, so even Bettie did not know her mother.  Rebecca is shadowy figure in my family history, shrouded in mystery and family legend.  There are stories passed down about her being a Cherokee Indian and hiding out in the mountains when the Cherokee were driven out of Tennessee.  Supposedly she was good with herbs and making her own medicines.  Rebecca's mother may have been Indian and her father white.  One story states that other Indians may have killed her parents because her Indian mother married a white man.  Do these stories have any truth to them?  I have no idea.  Was she related to the Morgans and Elrods in Putnam County, Tennessee?  Where did she meet her husband and where were they married?  So many unknowns in her life. Yes, I would definitely like to spend some time with great-grandma Rebecca.

3.  My third choice would be Jane Baldwin, my third great-grandmother.  She has tugged at my heart for years!!  Not only can I NOT find enough records to know all the "who, what and why" of her life, but my heart cries for her.  Jane experienced so much loss during her lifetime -- her husband and many of her thirteen children.  By 1870 when Jane was about 65 years old, only TWO of her thirteen children are known to still be living: James M. and Francis Marion. Jane's other eleven children were already deceased or their whereabouts completely unknown. Texas was definitely not kind to the Baldwin family!  But through it all, Jane did not lose faith in God -- In 1854, she was a founding member of  the "Little Flock Baptist Church." 
There are so, so many questions I would really like to ask Jane.  What happened to this child or that child?  Where did she grow up?  What is her maiden name? Who were her parents and grandparents?  Where did she meet her husband and where were they married? Were they happy and did they have a good marriage?  What was it like living in Texas in those early days?  The list could go on and on and on.

If you could pick three ancestors to have lunch with, who would you pick? 
Do you even know who three of your ancestors are? 

Now is the best time in history to get involved in genealogy and family history, so many records are accessible right from your own computer.  My family trees, along with all the research and records, are on Ancestry.com.  And, many records are free -- FamilySearch.org adds free records daily to the billions of records they already have!  Get started and have fun!  Find those three ancestors you would love to meet for lunch.


**Descendants (male and female) of these ancestors are encouraged to participate in DNA testing!!

Maiden Name for Rebecca, wife of Samuel Medlin

The Medlin family is on the Baldwin family line.  2nd great-grandpa Henry Stewart married Bettie Medlin.  This is about Bettie's mother, Rebecca.

After years of searching, I recently found the maiden name for Rebecca, the wife of Samuel Medlin of Wilson County and Davidson County, Tennessee.  To say I was excited would be a gross understatement.

Previously, the only official record researchers had of Rebecca was the 1850 Federal Census of Wilson County, Tennessee.  The 1850 census showed the Samuel and Rebecca family with the following children: Caroline, Emily, Nancy, Amanda, Eliza, Paralee, Riley, and Pinkney.  Our great-grandma, Bettie, was born a few years after the 1850 census was taken. 

According to family stories, Rebecca died shortly after Bettie (her youngest daughter) was born in about 1854.  After Rebecca's death, it appears that the older Medlin children married or were on their own and the younger Medlin children were raised by extended family or friends. Bettie Medlin was raised by the Barnett Richardson (his brother Caleb was married to Patsey Medlin) family in Putnam County, TN.  Rebecca's son, Isaac Pinkney was living with the Riley Medlin family in Putnam County, Tennessee in 1860.  Twenty-one year old daughter, Amanda was living with her older married sister, Emily Rogers, in 1860.  Records indicate that Samuel Medlin married again after the death of his wife Rebecca, but it does not appear that any of the children lived with him in his new marriage.

Several of the children ended up living in the Nashville area: Emily Medlin Rogers, Amanda Medlin Reed, William Riley Medlin and Isaac Pinkney Medlin.  I have never been able to find information concerning Caroline, Nancy or Eliza.

The Tennessee death certificates have just recently been placed online by FamilySearch.org.   The only place that the maiden name for Rebecca has been found is on the Death Certificates for her sons, Isaac Pink Medlin and William Riley Medlin. 

Rebecca's maiden name as written on the death certificates for her sons is Morgan.  Did I mention that I was excited about this find? :)

Isaac Pinkney died at the age of 96.  The parent's names given on Pink's death certificate are:
Father - Sam Medlin b. Tennessee
Mother - Miss Morgan b. Tennessee
The informant listed on the death certificate was Pink's son, Morgan David Medlin

Riley died at age 80.  The parent's names given on Riley's death certificate are:
Father - Sam Medlen b. Tennessee,
Mother - Beckie Morgan b. Tennessee
The informant listed on the death certificate was Mrs. W. R. Medlin (Riley's wife, Kate).

Many thanks to the volunteer indexers of FamilySearch.org who made this possible.  The death certificates can be found on FamilySearch.org.  If you would like to help volunteer and index records, please go to Worldwide Indexing.  The records that are indexed by volunteers are free and available to everyone.  Volunteering to index is easy and fun to do!

Can't tell you how much money I had previously sent to the Tennessee State Archives, trying to locate and obtain these death certificates without success.  At that time, I was charged a $10 fee for a 3 year (timespan) search, where I would give them the year to search from.  I certainly did not think that Pinkney would live to be 96 years old!  Now these records are free on FamilySearch.org.  Yea!!  I think that I mentioned before that I was really excited to find the Tennessee Death Records online!:)

Some "Family Stories or Traditions" concerning Rebecca Morgan
 -- Remember these are not proven.
Some descendants recall stories about an Indian Grandma.  Was Rebecca Morgan a Cherokee Indian??
In a 2002 telephone conversation with Henry Reed Jr. of Madison, TN (descendant of Rebecca's daughter, Amanda Medlin Reed), Henry said that his great-grandmother was Cherokee Indian. He said that she (Rebecca) was born before the Indian removal.  Supposedly when the Cherokee's were driven out of Tennessee on the "Trail of Tears", Rebecca hid out in the mountains. The mountains were in the southern part of Tennessee -- one was called Lookout Mountain. Henry said he saw a picture of his grandmother Rebecca when he was a boy and she looked Indian. Henry also said that "Rebecca" was not her real name, it was a name given to her when she was christened and her real Indian name is lost to anyone's memory. He also recalled stories handed down in the family of how Rebecca would teach her children how to gather herbs and make traditional Native American medicines. 

Bettie Medlin Stewart also passed down stories about her mother being a Native American.  A great-grandson, Joe Baldwin, recalled stories Bettie told about her Indian mother and white father being attacked by Indians who were mad because her Indian mother had married a white man.  Bettie said that her father was scalped by the attacking Indians and her mother left for dead.  Could these stories be about her grandparents instead of parents?!?  Probably so.  Research shows that her father, Samuel, lived years after her mother died, so this story can't be about him. Since her mother died of Cholera when Bettie was an infant, Bettie never knew her mother and was raised by extended family.  She may have confused the stories she heard as a child, thinking they were of her mother instead of her grandmother.  My feeling is that these stories may be about her mother's parents.  As more records become available, perhaps we can solve this mystery about Rebecca's parents.

Questions that still need to be answered about Rebecca Morgan Medlin:

Who are Rebecca's parents?

Where was she born?

Did she have siblings?

Was her mother a Native American?

When and where did Rebecca get married to Samuel Medlin?

If anyone has any information concerning Rebecca Morgan, please leave a comment.
Also, all descendants of Samuel Medlin and Rebecca Morgan are encouraged to participate in DNA testing.

See post about the death of Rebecca Morgan Medlin.