Family History by Robert Monroe Fleming (Sr.)

Facts Stated by Armedia Jennings Causey

Transcribed by Robert M. Fleming Jr.

I - The following facts stated by Armedia Jennings Causey to Florence Litia Fleming in 1930.

There is a teapot in possession of Frank Causey which is 100 years old. This teapot was brought from Scotland by Lord James McMuirtry. His daughter, Armedia Causey's Grandmother married Samuel Bonafil Jennings. Her name was Sarah (Sally) McMuirtry. Their son, Martin Jennings, married Martha Long, parents of Armedia Jennings Causey.

The McMuirtrys lived on aplantation at Selina, Tennessee in a Colonial house located on the State line, half being in Tennessee and half in Kentucky. This place was surveyed by Daniel Boone. There is a quarry on the place of Tennessee marble. The steps, pillars and bannisters are of this marble. George Peterman, a cousin, lived there. Was about of the age of Armedia Jennings Causey.

July 21, 1929 - The following is a letter written by Armedia Jennings Causey on this date.

Laird James McMuirtry and his wife and family were aristocratic people and they raised their children like that. An Pa and Ma tried awfully hard to raise their children that way. They said if we had been in the South, they could but there were too many common people in the North. He called the Northern people, Yankees, but there wasn't any of us children who could be called coarse. Your Grandma Causey said she knew that was just the reason she found it difficult to raise her family to be fine and refined. Because there were so many common people to run with.

The following will enable members of the family to join the Daughters of the Revolution, copied from Armedia Jennings Causey's letter.

Iva Causey Fleming daughter of
Armedia Jennings Causey daughter of
Martha Long Jennings daughter of
William Anderson Long son of
Jacob Long.

Captain William Long fought in the Revolution. Jacob Long fought in the war of 1812, waded in water to his waist. My Grandmother said she had heard him tell about it often. And he nad William Long had walked on the snow and left tracks of blood, as the other men did too. So they were almost barefooted. He joined the army at Richmond, Va. Records there of at Washington, D.C. will have to be examined.

July 7, 1929 - Lord James McMuirtry fought in the Mexican war, an officer, and was given land by the government. A league was 4800 acres and he had three or four leagues and 400 slaves. The both brought money from Scotland. He was called a Southern planter, that means a large plantation. They had their own hunting preserve for wild game and that was where my Grandfather Jennings met my Grandmother. They were invited there to hunt.

Grandfather Jennings was an Englishman. His father came from England and they had fine hunters, race horses and grey hounds.

The McMuirtrys had one son, Uncle Alec. He and my grandmonther were twins, and Pa always thought more of his son on that account.

Aunt Jennie McMuirtry married Billy McCord, all Scotch. And they were Uncle Tommy's McCord's Father and Mother and Mira's Grandfather and Grandmother. Those three are all I can remember of the McMuirtry children. Aunt Jennie McMuirtry was the only one I ever saw.

My Grandmother died when I was young, and so did Uncle Alec. Uncle Alec married and lived near St. Louis on land they bought. They had Will, Rebecca called Beca, Dave, Jasper, Mollie and Maggie. They all visited in my home when I was a girl. Maggie and I were about the same age. Aunt Beca would bring her up every summer to stay through vacation. After Uncle Alec died Aunt Beca went out went out and lived among the Indians six years and learned their doctoring. Then Aunt Beca started practing and became wealthy. She kept the children in St. Louis and gave them all a fine education except Will. He wanted to stay on the farm. Dave and James were both fine doctors. She offered to take me and give me the same chance but Pa said they needed me on the farm. If I gone I would have married James. We thought a lot of each other. We did marry one of our cousins.

I had a cousin, Nettie Mitchel, who was cured by Aunt Beca. Nettie hadn't walked for three years, only with a crutch. And in six months she was walking without crutches. The last time she was at our house was when Charley was a baby there in Roenoke. The McMuirtrys were her husband's Father and Mother.

I don't know what became of them or their family or all that land. He died long before the war, so did she. I have heard Pa say, "For a long before he died he freed a lot of slaves and gave them land and built cabins for them. He never whipped any of his slaves and didn't allow the over seers to whip them. He told them if they couldn't work they couldn't eat. So he didn't have any trouble to get them to work.

When his children married she gave them each 1000 acres of land. Grandma got that much and also three colored women.

Grandpa hada lot of land. Tennessee and Kentucky hadn't been surveyed. It was all one state and they built the house partly of logs and partly of stone and Tennessee marble.

Judge McCormick said when he was hunting up names for the family history he and Selby went to Kentucky and went to his Grandmother's house. His Mother's Father and Mother were named McKensie. One of their cousins was living there, and it was the same house built some time in 1700. The first story is of granite, and the second out of hewn logs put together with white plaster. Judge McCormick said it was good for another two or three more hundred years. His Mother was born there and that may be the way Grandpa's was built, part of it in Tennessee marble but they thought it was granite until years later. He said when they built the house they first laid a big flat stone. Then the next one was just small enough to lay on top to make a step and so on till they had five steps. And later found out these were marble. There is a stone quarry on this land, and they had cedar shingles and lots of timber and darkies to work.

After they had the house and barn and cabins built for the darkies a surveyor came through and so the state line is between the house and barn, and the barn and half the cabins were in Kentucky. They lived there for years. And when anyone asked Pa where he was from he would say, "Kentucky and Tennessee". He said he was in one state as much as the other. His black Mammy's cabin was in Kentucky and he was with her as much as he was with his own Mother. His black Mammy was also the cook. She was one of the women Grandma's Father gave her and her maid was one of them. They called Grandma, Miss Sally". When she was as girl she rode to hounds like the young people did in England and Scotland. The Jennings boys were all raised that way, too. When they moved to Illinois they freed their slaves, about a hundred. Some of the folks asked why they didn't sell them. They said they would just as soon sell their children. You know they had a fortune because they had several who would have brought $1000.00 each. But they never thought of selling them. Grandma had been raised with those three that she took with her and they married and helped her raise her ten children.

Uncle Charles Lawson was Pa's eldest brother and William Anderson next. They were married when they moved to Illinois. John Martin was 23, My Father. James Madison 21, Thomas Judson 19, Melvin 17. I don't know his other name. Martha Jane 13, Kenedy 15, Franklin Bonefil 11, Henry Orvil 9. These are the names and ages of all of them. When they left Tennessee it nearly killed Grandma to leave her colored people and she had never never done any work. Not even to comb her hair. And she lived only three years after leaving Tennessee. They had 3000 acres of land. Just because others were going west Grandpa decided to go. Pa said he hated to leave his black Mammy, who raised him.

Grandma was very sick and the children were raised by a wet nurse and that was the way she raised him. She had a boy three weeks older than Pa and she nursed both, and Pa called him his foster brother Jack.

When Pa got old enough to go to school she would send jack to care for Pa. Colored children didn't go to school. He would lay around in the shade. Pa's other brothers were at school. But he was small and sickly. That was Pa's servant. Every time he went any place Jack went to.

They gave each family land and a cabin when they left Tennessee. Pa said when they had the Civil War, if everyone had treated their slaves like his Grandpa McMuirtry and his Father did there wouldn't have been any war. For they didn't want to be freed.

Now those are the names of Pa's brothers and sisters. Grandpa's name was James Samuel Bonifil. Called him Sammy. His Grandmother's and Mother's name both Sarah. But Grandma was called Sally.

The McMuirtry home was in Selina, Tennessee. On the map it is in Overton County on the Oby River. I expect we still have cousins there. Jennings Petermans, Henry, Hallseys, Stones. They all lived there at Selina. Will Peterman was at our house when I was about 14. If he is alive he is in his 80s. His mother was James first cousin. That is why Pa was always so proud because he was raised to have servants. Not to do anything unless he wanted to. And people who didn't have slaves the colored people called them, "poor white trash".

If Pa had lived we would have gone back there and hunted up his people and mine to.

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©2009 Robert M. Fleming Jr.

This page was last revised on 30 August 2009.