In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

tota Wood Brown May H. b. MOSaVAb. !«12 8 children both 4. bit 4 Aug. M7« B LA Th» 1»* Ceotary Brawm, Shcrrad, Sprawl, Manning,« WUttaau Kxtnded Kiaship Graap MahaMBrownJota Brown EUzaboh Ann Roc Moore b. 17MkVA I b.1767 'Jota Pad Sprawl b. 17910.1MO-IIlOaAL m. MUaLA 4 1859 a LA4 1843 b LA Jana Newton Brown John W. Brown, Jr. b. 1833 B LAb. 1869 B LA (LMM in AL Raleigh T. William p TatMta O'Qmnn b. 1802 a NC' b. 1809 in SC WiDian Wahinglon L. Brown b. MMbLA William b. 1832 a QA Jota O William b. MM BfJA George William b. 1840 in OA Rddgh William, Jr. b. 1841 B QA 4 1*94 BTX William¦ b. 185OaLA b. 1845 m LA 4 19UaTX JeaneO! Tbama Moore Brown» Mary Wrinkle b. 1803 a VAb. 1807 m MS m 1825 a LA—12 children 4 1867 a LA Marthe Sprowi Daniel Brown Mary L a. 1820 a AL b. 1797b VA b. 1821 a LA 1135 a LA—t children 4186OaLA TaVD 4 children m.1 Elizabeth Ann Roe Brown b. 1833 in LAb. 1827 a LA m. 1853 à LA 4191IbLA4 1875 a LA ? WiIInBi W [accessed Dec. 1 1 , 2008] ; George W. Sherrod, private (September 9, 1 86 1 -February 5, 1862), Company C, 16th Louisiana Infantry, American Civil War, compiled military service record, [accessed Dec.11, 2008]; Donald C. SimmonsJr., Confederate Settlements in British Honduras (Jefferson, N.C: McFarland & Company, 2001), 6, 63-65, 70-81, 85, 102, 116-122, 154; Geo. W. Sherrod household, United States Eighth Census (i860), Natchitoches Parish, Louisiana, Schedule 1 (Free Inhabitants) [Ancestry.com, accessed Dec. 11, 2008]. The census lists his occupation as "Preacher, M. E., So." " See National Archives compiled military service record for George W. Sherrod at Footnote.com [accessed Feb. 26, 2009], 7 (Feb. 5, 1862, letter authorizing Sherrod's transfer from die 16th Louisiana Infantry to die Confederate Navy). 20og Plain Folk, Planters, and tL· Complexities ofSouthern Society7 State until the trials and tribulations of Reconstruction Louisiana drove him westward again. Sherrod ultimately led a February 1874 family migration to Comanche County, Texas, which, along with the rest of the Lone Star State, experienced political "redemption" in late-1873 after Reconstruction ended there.18 During his years in Comanche County, G. W. Sherrod often spun yarns about his life and times—tall tales that his grandsons remembered for the rest of their lives. One of Sherrod's stories included the flamboyant assertion that "he could walk from St. Louis to New Orleans without ever leaving his property."19 This boast ofan aging grandparent may have alluded to the fact that his relatives peopled the banks of the Mississippi as it coursed its way down to the Crescent City.20 It might also be a tongue-in-cheek allusion not to the Missouri metropolis but rather to Fort St. Louis, established by the French as a military base and Indiantrading outpost only a few miles northwest ofpresent-day Texarkana.21 At face value, either proposition seems ridiculous; however, G. W. Sherrod's declaration revealed much about his kinship network. He was part of a tightly knit family including both planters and plain folk. Their presence was powerfully felt across a fifteen-mile stretch along either side of the Red River centered roughly in the area of Coushatta Chute. Sherrod's tie to the Browns, the most conspicuously successful family of the kinship group, came through his mother, Mary Brown. His father was William Sherrod, born about 1800 in Tennessee.22 William arrived in Alabama's Tennessee River Valley no later than 1817, when he married the equally youthful "Polly," as Mary Brown was commonly known.23 18 Jean Mansell gives die date of February 1872 for die migration in her article "Family Bible gives facts of the Sherrod Ancestry," Abilene News-Reporter, Jan. 21, 1991; however, several events throw diis date into serious question. One example is die September 1873 Louisiana birth location of Tabitha Elizabedi Sherrod's daughter, Carrie Elizabedi, in Natchitoches Parish, as do early 1874 Louisiana land sales by Rhoda Sherrod and James Brown Sherrod, members of die family migration...

pdf

Share