Documenting my family's past for future generations. My family tree includes the Smith/Mansell families of Alabama and Oklahoma, the Castle/Day families of Kentucky and Oklahoma, the Wheat/Ming families of Texas and Oklahoma, and the Bell/Roberts families of Mississippi, Tennessee, and Oklahoma.

Sunday, April 14, 2013

The Powells


A lot of what I know about the Bells and related families comes from one of my Bell cousins.  Her grandmother, Clara Bell Guest, was the older sister of my grandmother, Cora Bell Wheat.  As keeper of the Bell family treasures, my cousin gave me a genealogical jump start by sharing family photographs, Primitive Baptist church minutes, and a dog-eared handwritten history of the Bell and Powell families written in the 1880s by our great-great-aunt Lydia Powell Ray.

Page 1 of the "Genealogy of the Powells"
by Benjamin Powell, as told to his
daughter, Lydia
The tears and mends make it very hard to read, and I only have a photocopy of Aunt Lydia’s “Genealogy of the Powells.”  However, I was able to decipher enough to set me on the way to identifying my Powell ancestors.  The usual way to do genealogical research, from the present back through each generation to the earliest ancestor, worked the other way around in this situation.  I ended up working down from the earliest ancestor listed in Lydia’s genealogy until I got to Benjamin Powell, who was the father of the most recent Powell in my family tree—Mary Mourning “Polly” Powell who married James W. Bell.

Although written by Lydia, she was recording the words of her father, Benjamin Powell, who said, “The ancestors came from Wales and settled in Virginia and moved [from] to Halifax Co., N.C.  Had two sons one of them (my great grandfather) Dempsy Powell married a Miss Benton [indecipherable] moved from there to Wake Co., N.C. before the Revolution War.  Raised up a family of five daughters and four sons.”  They go on to record the names of Dempsey’s sons and daughters, daughters’ married names, their children, and where they lived.  For example, one readable part of the document says, “The other three daughters of my great grandfather Dempsy Powell married Sims Streeter and Temple and moved to Middle Tenn and settled on Duck River near Shelbyville.  They were all very wealthy and their children married so far as we know, men of affluence.” (I love the Victorians!)  While much information is there, it’s sometimes hard to untangle and frustrating because so much is missing due to the age of the document itself.


Map of Tennessee showing location of Duck River
It’s been almost 20 years since I received this document from my cousin and did the initial research.  So much is now available on ancestry.com and from other sources that corroborates these facts or calls them into question.  For example, Lydia does not mention Dempsey’s purported first wife, Nancy Dempsey, at all.  According to comments I have read online, the name Nancy Dempsey first shows up in early DAR applications and Powell researchers have not been able to find a source for it.  Lydia’s genealogy seems to support the fact that Dempsey only had one wife, a “Miss Benton,” given name Pleasant, according to a court record that lists her as the mother of Caswell and Jesse Powell.  

I remember how exciting it was as I did find sources that mostly supported the facts that Lydia and her father had recorded.  For example, Dempsey Powell’s home was in Wake County, North Carolina, near the present town of Wake Forest.  I recently found a transcript online of minutes from the 1792 meeting of Commissioners in Wake County who were viewing lands in the county for a site for the State Capital, “establishing a place for holding the future meetings of the General Assembly and the place of Residence of the Chief Officers of the State.”  They viewed the “Land of Dempsey Powell on the south side of Neuse at Powell Bridge Seven miles from Isaac Hunters” and others. 

Wake County map showing Neuse River
Another piece of information from Lydia’s document has proved to be correct.  Dempsey received a grant of 1,977 acres located on the Duck River in Tennessee for his service in the North Carolina state militia.  (When he was one his way to have the land surveyed, he was shot through the heel by an Indian at Nashville, whereupon he turned around, went back home, and hired someone else to survey the land for him.)  Upon his death three of his daughters, Charlotte who married John Sims, Mildred who married John Streeter, and Elizabeth who married Robert Temple, settled on their father’s grant lands on the Duck River in Tennessee.

Lydia’s 3-page document ends with these words: “This was written by myself Lydia C. Powell as given to me by my father Benj. Powell son of Caswell Powell who was son of Dempsy Powell (senior.)  She adds: “My father died near Potts Camp, Miss. in 1889 age 78 years 0 months.  My mother’s maiden name was Eliza Fowler daughter of Wm. Fowler of Paris, Tenn.”

Benjamin Powell married Eliza Helen Fowler on 22 December 1828 in Henry County, Tennessee.  They had ten children:  William Dempsey, Joseph Devereaux, Thomas A., Benja Ann Helen (Bennie), Georgiana Isabella, John Calvin, Mary Mourning, Lydia Caroline, and Eliza Jane (Jimmie.)  Of the siblings, only two remained in Tennessee.  The others went to Arkansas, Mississippi, Oklahoma, and Texas.  Eliza Helen was visiting her daughters in Johnson County, Texas, when she died on 22 December 1882 on the 54th anniversary of her marriage.  She is buried at Bethesda Cemetery, Burleson, Texas.

Eliza H. Powell headstone
Bethesda Cemetery, Burleson, Texas
from findagrave.com 
James W. Bell died in 1883, and in 1894 or 1895 Mary M. Bell married George Akers and moved to Woodford, Indian Territory.  George Akers died in 1896.  On the 1900 census Mary was living in Choctaw Nation, Indian Territory, with her adult children, William, 32; Russell, 30; Kitty, 22; and Joseph, 20.  William, Russell, and Joseph were working as miners.  Mary apparently died before 1910 as she does not appear on the 1910 census.  She is supposedly buried in McAlester, Pittsburg Co., OK, but I have not been able to find her grave.  Her granddaughter Cora, my grandmother, named her only son William Powell, and he went by the name Powell all his life.

1900 Choctaw Nation, Indian Territory census

11 comments:

  1. Hi Becky, This is Mary Wolfe. This is awesome work you are doing and obviously a labor of love. It means so much to me to have a family history now, but I have lots of reading and catching up to do.

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  2. Hi Becky, My name is Ashley Powell and I was doing some research on my dad's family and I came across your blog and found some great information on my great-great-great grandparents thanks to your research. Thank you so much for posting this information. It has been so helpful and I can't wait to find out more about my family.

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  3. Have any in your Powell family taken a Y-DNA test? My late husband David Powell was in the "Gold Group" as it was known in the Powell DNA Project. Unfortunately the public Y-DNA Project page had to be taken offline because of the new privacy rules of FamilyTree DNA. His ancestor was Benjamin Bridges Powell, b. abt 1801 in TN, but could be AL. He migrated to Greene Co., IL by 1830. Men that match his Y-DNA descend from Thomas Powell of Isle of Wight County, Va. in the mid 1600s. And I believe that Dempsey Powell is related to him, but not the Dempsey who is referred to on your blog.
    Thanks.
    Elaine Hatfield Powell
    www.TheHeritageLady.com

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  4. I am three or four generations removed from any men who would have the Powell surname, and I have not corresponded with anyone that does. I am part of the Ancestry.com DNA Circle for Benjamin Powell, but none of my matches appear to be Powell men. I also checked my Family Finder matches on FTDNA (and my brother's) for possible Powell men but didn't find any that I could definitely tie to my Powell line. Sorry!

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  5. Hi Becky! I'm a Dempsey Powell descendant still living in the area. Do you have a high resolution scan or a photocopy of that "Genealogy of the Powells" that you could scan or mail me? I can provide details if you can.
    Thanks,
    Matthew Yates

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    Replies
    1. If you will send me your email, I will be glad to send you a scanned copy. It is very hard to read, but I'll try to make it as legible as possible.

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  6. You can send it to matthewtyates at aim dot com. Spelling it out to hopefully avoid spam bots. Thanks in advance!

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  7. hello! dempsey powell is my 5th great grandfather. thanks for the info and photos. love it.

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  8. Hi Becky, I am researching the Powells. The name has carried down in my family as a middle name, and we trace back to the several Dempseys, but I am having a time sorting out which one is which, and which of the wives is the bio mom of MY Dempsey. I would be thrilled to have a copy of the letter and hope it will shed light on my mysteries.

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    Replies
    1. If you'll let me know your email, I would be glad to send you a copy. My email is bhatchett5183@sbcglobal.net.

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