Nov. 24, 1955 - Reprinted July 29, 1976
Transcribed by Elsie Sampson
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CAL’S COLUMN *
OKLAHOMA LETTERS
ASKS ROSE DATA
1308 S. Norfolk Street
Tulsa, Okla.,
Nov. 2, 1955
Dear Elder Gregory:
I have enjoyed every issue of the Macon County Times we have received since meeting you when we were in Lafayette. Needless to say I would like to subscribe to the Times as I read every word of it, even if I do not know very many people there. Macon County is dear to me as my father was born and reared there. As you know, he was James Edgar Rose and passed away in Oklahoma about four years ago.
I enjoy your knowledge of family history that has appeared in your paper. I would surely like to know about my ancestors and hope that you may write something on the Rose family later. I know that my grandfather was William Brittain Rose, and his first wife, my grandmother, was named Docia. But I do not know her maiden name.
We loved Tennessee. It is as the song says: The greenest State in the land of the free.” We hope to visit there again some time and hope to see you again. We wish you health and happiness and every success to your fine Macon County Times.
Yours truly,
Mr. and Mrs. Lawrence M. Tayar.
P.S. Enclosed please find a check for subscription. Also please note change of address. Thanks. Mrs. L. M. T.
We have some information on the Rose family. We hope to learn more and get same into a later article. The first Rose of whom we have any information was William Rose who married a Miss Chandler. This family was from South Carolina. Their children: William Jackson Rose, married Elizabeth P. Bruer, might have been spelled Brewer, although our records indicate that the family considered the first spelling as preferred; Ezekiel Rose, who became a physician at Temperance Hall, in DeKalb County, Tenn., Pleasant Rose, John Rose, married Susan Baker; Nan Rose, married a McClanahan; and Wash Rose, twice married, the first wife having been a Miss Freedle. There may have been other children of William, but these are all I have on my records.
William Jackson Rose was born Feb. 2, 1823; and his wife, Elizabeth Bruer, was born Oct. 2, 1824. They were married Nov. 20, 1844. Their children were: Mary Jane Rose, born Aug. 15, 1845 married Reuben Read and left no children; Pickney B. Rose, born Feb. 14, 1847, never married; Elizabeth Rose, born Dec. 31, 1849, married Robert Witcher; Ezekiel W. Rose, born Nov. 30, 1852, married Betty Goad, who still lives, on Route one, Pleasant Shade; Sarah E. Rose, commonly known as Sallie, born Dec. 14, 1854, and married Halum Wix; William Brittain Rose, known as Buck Rose, born Nov. 20, 1856, and married Docia Smith, second marriage to Fannie Blankenship, James A. Rose, born Oct. 8, 1858, and married Sarah Ann Robinson; John H. Rose, born Oct. 3, 1861, and married Leatha Keene; and Jacob J. Rose, born Jan. 26, 1864, and died unmarried Nov. 11, 1880.
Mary Jane Rose Read died without issue, on Nov. 10, 1918. Pickney B. Rose never married and died a bachelor on Aug. 3, 1902. Elizabeth Rose and her husband, Jim Bennett, were the parents of; Nola, married Jack Hodge; John, married a Cothron, daughter of Lambert; Berta, no additional information; Maggie, married a Woods; Billie, married a Blankenship; another son, believed to have been named Davey; Jacob, died in infancy; and Elizabeth, married James Carr. Elizabeth P. Rose died June 24, 1893.
Tabitha Rose married Robert Witcher. Their children were: Willie, Theodore and Bob. If they had other children our records do not show them. Ezekiel W. Rose and his wife, the former Miss Betty Goad, were the parents of: Ethel Aggie, married Wylie McDuffee, son of Ansil McDuffee, son of Tapley McDuffee, son of Neil McDuffee and his wife, the former Miss Barthenia Gregory, daughter of Bry Gregory, the editor’s great-great-grandfather, and also a soldier in the American Revolution; Tallie Rose, who married John Gammon, son of Frank Gammon; Freddie Susan Rose, married Willie Cox; and Charlie Jackson Rose, who married Tennie Harper. Ezekiel Wesley Rose died April 17, 1935, and the editor of the Times held his funeral.
Sarah E. Rose and her husband, Halum Wix, were the parents of: Urella Wix, married a Jiles; Buford Wix, killed in World War I; Ethel Wix, never married; Lillie Belle Wix, married a Sloan; Minnie, married Aubrey Cothron; and Aultie Wix, married Henry Carr. We do not have the date of the death of Sarah Rose.
William Brittain Rose, the grandfather of Mrs. Tayar, married Miss Docia Smith, the daughter of Cab Smith and his wife, the former Miss Elizabeth Dickerson. Cab Smith’s real name was Calvin Smith, the son of Abraham Smith, who was commonly called Abel Smith. Abel Smith was the son of Malcolm Smith, a Baptist minister, born in Chatham County, North Carolina in 1765 and who came to Salt Lick in Jackson County, Tenn., in the year 1805. Hundreds and hundreds of the descendents of Malcolm Smith still live in the counties of north Middle Tennessee.
My record of the Smith family shows that Calvin Smith and his wife, the former Elizabeth Dickerson, were the parents of the following sons and daughters: Kinney, Luther, married Cricket Patterson and later Mattie Tuck; Floyd Smith, married Laura Cothron, and whose son, Jesse Smith, died on Tuesday morning. Nov. 15th, from injuries received in a car wreck; Doak, a nickname for Docia, who married William Brittain (Buck) Rose; Mattie, who married Brice Gregory, a first cousin of the editor’s Father; Nota or Nola, who died at the age of 16 years; Elmer, a daughter; and another daughter, whose name is not on our list, but who married a Brimm.
Elizabeth Dickerson was the daughter of Lamson and Rebecca Greanead Dickerson. The editor has a brother-in-law, Dewey Dickerson, whose grandfather, James Dickerson, was a brother of Elizabeth. Dewey married our youngest sister, Grace. Mrs. P. D. Smith, the former Miss Mattie Tuck, resides at this time on Route One, Pleasant Shade, Tenn. The name Greanead was spelled 150 years ago Grinad, and pronounced as spelled. Rebecca Greanead was the daughter of Foster and Rebecca Sutherland Greannead, pioneer settlers on Peyton’s Creek, Smith County, Tenn.
Buck Rose’s sons and daughters, according to our records, were: Edgar, Artis, Bud, Elizabeth, for her grandmother, Elizabeth Dickerson, we would guess; and Dewey Rose, all children of the first marriage; and Clay and Mary Lou Rose, by the second wife, Fannie Blankenship. Elizabeth married Edgar Lovelady, now dead. Mary Lou married Herman Gross. Clay married a Miss Willis, and resides at the old place on Route One, Lafayette.
James A. Rose was for some years one of our nearest neighbors and a very fine man. His children are: Mrs. Ernest Harris, of Lafayette, Tenn., and Mrs. Lamon Armstrong, of Portland, Tenn. He died April 16, 1936.
We come next to the offspring of the brothers and sisters of William Jackson Rose. We have no way of knowing at this distant day and time the order of their births. We have no information as to Dr. Ezekiel Rose, except that he lived and died at a piece some miles south of Hickman, Tenn., known as Temperance Hall. He was called by relatives in this section, “Uncle Doctor.”
Pleasant Rose’s wife’s maiden name is not to be found on our records. Pleasant appears to have died rather young, leaving this widow with two sons, one of them Tom Rose, who married Clara Adams; and the other was Bud Rose, who married Betty___, the last name not being known. Later she became the wife of James Allen and still later the mother of the late Dr. M. H. Allen, Lafayette physician and druggest for many years. However, none of the present generation seems to know anything scarcely of Pleasant Rose.
John Rose was another son of William Rose and his wife, the former Miss Chandler. He was twice married, his first wife having been the former Laura Baker, who had one daughter, Myrtle Rose, who married John Holland, son of Asa Holland. John Rose married the second time, to Josie, daughter of Issac Allen Livingston, and a sister of Prince Livingston, formerly of Macon County. By her John Rose was the father of: Cleveland Rose, married Ruth Mandrell; Alida Key Rose, married Charles Adkinson: Wredell Rose, married Holly Hawkins; Alla, no further information; Ethel Mae Rose, married a Fritschner and resides at 2010 Patterson Ave., Louisville, Ky., and Beulah Rose, who did not marry.
Nan Rose was the only daughter of William Rose and his wife, the former Miss Chandler. Nan married a McClanahan, the operator of a mill on Goose Creek in the vicinity of Hillsdale, some miles south of Lafayette. They had one daughter, Sallie McClanahan. Here our information ends, so far as she is concerned.
Tom, son of Pleasant Rose, married Clara Adams, and was the father of Lillie Rose, married a Harwell; Srygley Rose, married Chafulaya Hargis; Elmer and Lennie, Bud Rose, son of Pleasant Rose, married Betty ___. By her he was the father of Lela Rose, married a Carver; Gladys Rose, married a Ferrell; and Walter.
The sixth and last of the offspring of William Rose and the Chandler woman was Wash Rose, who was twice married. The first wife was a Miss Freedle. The second wife’s name is unknown to the writer. By the first wife Wash Rose was the father of: William or Bill Rose, who married Ann Towns, daughter of Ben Towns, Sr., and a sister of Ben Towns, Jr., and Edmond Towns, Sr., and a daughter, Louvena Rose, who married a Miller.
By his second marriage Wash Rose was the father of: Tom Rose, Gertie Rose, Ida Rose, Luther Rose, who married Rachel Royster; and one other son or daughter, whose name we do not have. William Rose, son of Wash, was the father of Tom Rose, Mary Rose, who married Bud Ellis; and Martha Rose, who married Sheal Gann. Rufus Rose is a son of Tom Rose and resides in Robertson County, out from Springfield.
The above informationis not complete, but it is the best available at this time. Perhaps more can be learned later by further research.
We have additional information on the Rose family, but we are not prepared to tell of the connection, if any, between these families and Wm. Rose and his wife, the former Miss Chandler. The names of members of the Rose family are found in our old records as follows: In the Annals of Tennessee by Ramsey, on page 138, appears the name of Ossa Rose, who was a signer of a petition to the Provincial Council of North Carolina, which document is without date, but was received at Raleigh, North Carolina on Aug. 22, 1776. It contains the names of about 115 of the earliest settlers in what is now Tennessee. We have a copy of this petition and it is a very human document.
William Rose was a citizen of Smith County, Tenn., which included the greater part of Macon County in 1820. What William Rose he was we have no way of knowing, since the census records till the year 1850 show only the names of heads of the family up to 105 years ago. William Rose in 1820, was the head of a family consisting of: One male under ten, and one between 26 and 45, William , himself, we are sure; and females: One under ten, and one from 16 to 26, Mrs. William Rose, we presume. This is the only Rose family listed in Smith County in the 1820 census.
Rhoda Rose appears to have been a widow in Smith County, Tenn., in the census of 1830. But the first part of this article does not show a Rhoda Rose. She had in 1830: One male from 10 to 15 years old, and two males rom 15 to 20, and one female between 30 and 40 years of age, supposed to have been Rhoda. Her near neighbors were: Iverson Hanes, Robert Dallas, Henry Miller, Soloman Adams, John Adams, Richard Haynes and Aaron L. Adams. Some of these new neighbors lived long, long ago, in the vicinity of the present New Harmony. It is an established fact that the first known place of residence of a family named Rose in the present Macon County was in the vicinity of the present New Harmony, which is six miles southwest of Lafayette.
The other Rose family in Smith County in 1830 was that of William Rose. There is reason to believe that this is the same William Rose mentioned in the census of 1820, which showed William Rose then to have been between 26 and 45 years of age. In 1830, the following is the makeup of his family: One male under five, three males from five to 10; one from 30 to 40, presumably William himself. This would fit into his age as given ten years earlier; females; One under five, one from 10 to 15, and one, supposed to have been Mrs. Rose, from 30 to 40. This also fits into the age of Mrs Rose as given in the census of ten years earlier.
Near neighbors of William Rose, in 1830 were: Henry Hire, Priestly Simpson, David Farmer, Jas. Norris, Thomas Petway and Willis Jones. We have no idea where these men lived 125 years ago.
George W. Rose is the first listed in Smith County in the census of 1840. He had: One male under five, and one male from 20 to 30, George W. himself: and one female between 20 and 30. Near neighbors were: Joseph Briggs, Sarah Morris, James Clardy, William Chambers and Charles Tate. we have no idea where these men lived in 1840.
Prather Rose is the last head of a family listed in Smith County in the census of 1840. We would judge that this is the name of a widow, as there is no male in the family old enough to be recognized as the head of the family. Males are as follows: One from five to 10, two from 10 to 15, and one from 15 to 20, one from 30 to 40, presumed to be Prather; and one female from 60 to 70. Near neighbors of Prather Rose 115 years ago were: John Harris, Jefferson Jones, Stephen Stone, Basil Foley, Joseph Clardy and William Gann. We do not know in what section they lived.
In the Smith County, Tenn., census for 1850, the following Rose names are listed: William Rose, 26 years of age and born in Tennessee; Elizabeth Rose, 25 years of age and born in Tenn., and three children, Mary, five; Pinckney, three; and Tabitha, one year old and all born in Tenn. There is every reason to believe that this is the William J. Rose of the earlier part of this record. There was a mistake made in copying the name, William J. Rose, and the census records in Washington are old and faded and the copyist made out the letter J. an I. Looking back into the list of children of William Jackson Rose and his wife, Elizabeth Bruer Rose, we find a Mary, Pinckney and Tabitha.
The next Rose family listed in Smith County in 1850 was that of George W. Rose, with him listed as having been born in Tennessee 30 years before the 1850 census. His wife, Mary, was the same age and she also was born in Tennessee. Their children were: William, 11; Mary, eight; Cornelia, six; Samuel, four; and Taylor Rose, two, all born in Tennessee. There are some indications that George W. Rose was the Wash rose of our earlier record. This record lists his first-born as having been William, who later married Ann Towns, the daughter of Ben Towns, Sr. However, our records do not show Mary, Cornelia, Samuel and Taylor Rose. Since the two Rose families just listed lived on adjoining farms, it is likely that Wash Rose, as given above was a brother of William Jackson Rose. Near neighbors of the two Rose families were: B. E. Warren, Sarah Morris: Abraham Carmichael, Anderson Woods and James Clardy, and this would indicate that they lived in the same community as they occupied 10 years earlier, in the 1840 census. But we do not have any idea as to what part of Smith County these families occupied 105 years ago. These are the only two Rose families listed in Smith County in 1850.
In the census for 1870, I find only one Rose, John W., mentioned or listed. He was a merchant and was 35 years of age. The taker of the census for 1870 for that part of Smith County seems to have been a rather poor speller, for he listed the McClanahans as Cleneyhams, Manning he spelled as Manin, and Litchford as Letchfor. so we have to make considerable allowance for some of the census takers of the long ago. We find that the census taker listed Mrs. E. F. Atwood as Ridlarm Atwood, and we are sure that this was an error in the spelling. He listed Coleman Sampson as Colmen Samson, and we know enough of the history of the family to know that the correct spelling was Coleman Sampson.
We hope that the above information will prove of some help to members of the Rose family and others in establishing their history, so far as their line of descent is concerned. Write us if we can do anything further along this line.