During our visit to Mississippi last August, we visited the location of Thomas' and Penelope's original farm in Lawrence County, just north of Sand Creek and northeast of highway 43. It was split by a small county road, and was composed of gently rolling land, much of it wooded with a few large pastures and perhaps a dozen or so residences. Not far from there, we found his brother's-in-law, Elisha Rogers', large plantation (nearly 900 acres) with the house, circa 1850, still standing. Although the house is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as a prime example of vernacular architecture in the Pearl River area, it is currently in a state of deterioration and disrepair. We understand the property is still owned by members of the Rogers family.
Two years ago, when we discovered the federal land grant that Thomas and Penelope received for their first farm in Lawrence County, we thought we had defined most of his movements and primary endeavors. We knew Thomas had moved from Lawrence County by 1830 since he appeared in the census that year for Hinds County, MS, and of course, we knew that he died in Hinds County in 1838. It is still a mystery as to why the move was made to Hinds County. The county was not formed until 1821 from land derived from the earlier Choctaw cessation. Penelope's brother, Elisha owned the large plantation nearby in LawrenceCounty and her sister, Elizabeth Bourne, was only a short distance away in what is now Jefferson Davis County. To the west, in Copiah County, we located the farms of her other brothers, John, Asa, Ducking, and Elijah. There was no obvious attraction to Hinds County, although, we do know that Thomas' eldest daughter Temperance Nelson's father-in-law obtained a federal land grant in Hinds County around the same time as the move. We had assumed that as he got older, he might have "retired " from farming or perhaps worked as a tenant farmer in Hinds County. Up until this point, no one had discovered any land or tax records for Thomas in Hinds County, and there was no mention of land in his estate settlement.
We spent our first day in Mississippi at the now familiar State Archives in Jackson where we visited briefly with cousin Preston Everettt who is employed there. Toward the end of a long day of pouring over books and microfilm records, when one begins to desperately look for a discovery to warrant the time spent, we found early tax records for Hinds County that showed, first, Thomas and later his sons Abner and John, paying taxes on land in an area of the county called Tallahala! We could hardly wait until the next morning to go to the Courthouse to search for the records on this new land.
After a brief stop at the new Courthouse in Jackson, we learned that the original early land records are housed in the historic Courthouse in Raymond. There, in volume 1, we found that on November 9, 1830 Thomas Everett and William Harris, his son-in-law, had bought, for $600, three adjacent tracts of land--78.59 acres, 39.79 acres, and 39.79 acres--from a Michael McNamara of Marion County. The deed was recorded February 12, 1831. We were amazed and puzzled that Thomas and Penelope had sold their 160 acres in Lawrence County (we have tracked subsequent owners but have not found the record of that sale) and bought another 158.17 acres in Hinds County.
Discovering this land also helped us in tracking some of the movement of Thomas' children. Tempy and Eleazar Nelson, who married in 1821 in Lawrence County, were also in Hinds County in 1830 and received federal land grants there in 1835 and 1840. Cynthia and Willima Harris, who married in 1829 in Lawrence County, remained there until after the 1830 census. But, by 1832, they too received federal land grants in Hinds County.
Through the records in the Courthouse, we are able to track the ownership of Thomas' land over a 17 year period. In volume 6, we found that, in December 1835, William and Cynthia Harris sold their interest in that land to Thomas for the sum of $1,170. It was probably around the time the Harris' moved to Newton County.
The tax rolls show that Thomas paid tax on this land through 1837. From 1838 through 1841, taxes were paid either by Abner Everett as administrator of the estate of Thomas Everett or by Penelope Everett. All indications are that Abner continued to farm the land while all of the other family members moved to Newton and Jasper Counties. Then, in 1847, a deed transaction was filed--for the sum of $455--Abner Everett and Harrison Pittman (his brother-in law) bought out all interest that Thomas' other children shared in the land. This document is the best source that we have found so far to substantiate the names of Thomas' children and their spouses--all are listed except Sarah Barksdale. However, we did find a separate notation stating that Sarah would also be paid her share should she come forward at a later time.
From the maps we brought with us, we were able to plot the location of Thomas' second farm. We headed out of Raymond southeast on Highway 18 toward Utica. We found the land lying off route 18 near Adams Station/Chapel Hill Road. This is about 12 miles southwest of Raymond and 4 miles northeast of Utica. This land was more rolling than his land in Lawrence County and it appeared to have been preserved in larger tracts of present-day pastures and woods on both sides of the road. Driving south across route 18, we crossed a bridge over a stream called--Tallahala!
Due to the close proximity to Thomas' land, we stopped at the Utica Baptist Church and looked at the markers in the graveyard in hope of finding Thomas' grave. Although there were some markers from that period, Thomas' was not among them. Later, the pastor confirmed there was no record of his burial there.
With the help of fellow Everett researcher, Jane Stubbs Bailey of Maryland, a descendant of the large Nathaniel Everett family of North Carolina, we have made some interesting discoveries which may lead us to Thomas' and Penelope's origins. Jane, following a trip to her home in Beaufort County, NC, advised us that she had found some interesting land records. In 1795, a John Everett sold land to a Thomas Everett. Then in 1804, this same piece of land was sold by Thomas and Penelope Everett, and John and Elizabeth Everett. Jane also found a record from the 1802 meeting of the Morottock Primitive Baptist Church in Beaufort County which mentioned a John and Penelope Everett and a Sarah Rogers. We believe this is the John Everett, a revolutiohary war veteran, who relocated around 1800 to Bulloch County, GA and died there in 1840 at the age of 93 or 94. His will mentions his son Thomas, a daughter Asha Rogers, and her son Irwin Green Rogers. We were aware of this family, as was Lee Everettt, but were never able to make any specific connections. Craig recently visited the Bulloch County Courthouse and the Statesboro Library and found records to confirm that Asha had been married to a Thomas Rogers of NC.
We cannot yet confirm that this is our Thomas and Penelope. However, their location, the timing of these records, and John's will all make this direction look quite promising. Hopefully, we will have much more to report on this family.