The ancestors listed in this chapter are the paternal line to Isabella McKENDREE, the first wife of Thomas McCARLEY. The line begins with her great grandparents.
John McKENDREE was born in October, 1727, in Virginia. Despite a considerable amount of research by biographers of his famous son William McKENDREE his parents are not known. He married his wife Mary about 1855, and again, her lineage is not known. Family tradition in one line is that her surname was DUDLEY, and this seems to be borne out in the usage of the name DUDLEY as a given name for several generations. [COMMENT-1] DUDLEY was a common family name in the vicinity and marriage between the McKENDREE family and the DUDLEY family could easily have taken place. [COMMENT-2]
Bishop E. E. HOSS described the family in this manner:
...John and Mary McKENDREE, an intelligent, self-respecting, and God-fearing couple, who belonged to what is sometimes condescendingly called 'the middle class of Virginians.' If anything at all has been preserved concerning his remoter progenitors, it has wholly escaped my research. The family name, however, shows that they were of Scotch origin, though, as was the case with thousands of others of the same blood, they probably reached America by way of the north of Ireland. These transplanted Scotchmen are a masterful race. Wherever they have gone they have left an indelible mark....
John McKENDREE does not appear to have been, except in the matter of his moral and religious probity, a very uncommon man. He was one of the undistinguished multitude of faithful souls whose names though not known in the earth, are written in heaven. By vocation he was a planter, owning his own lands and a few domestic servants, and making always a comfortable subsistence; but never accumulating any considerable fortune, nor achieving social or political eminence. Bishop PAINE describes him as follows: "With strong domestic affections, and without any desire for notoriety, he led a humble, industrious, and religious life." Removing in 1764 to James City County, and again in 1770 to Greenville County, he finally, in 1810, migrated with his youngest son, Dr. James McKENDREE, and three other of his children to Sumner County, in the then young State of Tennessee. From this last of his earthly homes, which was the free gift of the generous and large hearted Rev. James GWIN - a good farm of three hundred acres - he passed to his heavenly home on his eighty eighth birthday, October, 1810.[COMMENT-3]
Mary McKENDREE, whose maiden name, strangely enough, is not known, was a woman of great strength and gentleness of character. In every respect she was fit to be the mother of her famous son. Becoming an invalid in 1769, she was confined to her room till her death, twenty years later. But even under so great a disability she continued the wise management of her household affairs and looked well to the rearing of her children. The exquisite sweetness of her temper, to which there is abundant testimony, left an impression on their minds which neither time nor change could ever obliterate.
Speaking of the McKENDREEs in general, Bishop PAINE says that one of their most marked characteristics was their strong family love. In the course of the years they became widely scattered in Virginia, Tennessee, Alabama, and South Carolina; but they never lost their intense affection for one another. [COMMENT-4]
There were eight children born to the marriage:
| William McKENDREE was born July 6, 1757, in King William County, Virginia, 40 miles northeast of Richmond. He died March 5, 1835, at home of his brother James A. McKENDREE, Fountainhead, Sumner County, 35 miles from Nashville, later reburied at Vanderbilt University. See the following section although he is not an ancestor. |
| Lucinda McKENDREE, born about 1759. She married Jesse JORDAN and had one daughter but she died in Virginia about 1778 at the age of nineteen. Her daughter was raised by her parents. |
Dortha/Dorotha (Dolly) McKENDREE was born in 1761 in King William County, Virginia. She married Charles HARRIS, the marriage bond showing Charles HARRIS & Dolly McKENDREE and issued July 27, 1797, in Greensville County, Virginia. William WALEER was the Security. The family moved to Tennessee; Dolly died about 1835 in Alabama. Dolly and Charles HARRIS' children were:
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| Frances Ann McKENDREE was born June 22, 1763, in King William County, Virginia. She married the Rev. Nathaniel MOORE, October 12, 1815, and moved to Tennessee. She died January 3, 1835, Columbia, Tennessee. All of Rev. MOORE's children were by his first wife, Frances TAYLOR. |
John McKENDREE was born in 1764. He married Ruthey MILBY, September 28, 1783, at Christ Church, Middlesex, Virginia. He moved to South Carolina, and died November 28, 1817, at Charleston, South Carolina. His children include
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Thomas McKENDREE was born in 1767. He moved to South Carolina. His children include:
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| Dr. James A. McKENDREE with his wife Martha (Patsy) WILKINSON, were the grandparents of Isabella McKENDREE McCARLEY and will be discussed later in this chapter. |
| Nancy Dudley McKENDREE, a child of John and Mary McKENDREE, was born Brunswick County, Virginia. She never married. She lived with her brother James A. McKENDREE, and died after June 23, 1842 when she wrote her last will which was probated in December, 1842. "Having lost all her nearest relations, she too passed away." [COMMENT-5] |
The successor of Bishop ASBURY was William McKENDREE, and to him, more than to any other single individual, belongs the credit for organizing the far-flung frontier into a Church. Appointed to the superintendency of the Kentucky District of the newly organized Western Conference in 1800, he gave his life to the expanding West. In 1808 he was elected a delegate to the General Conference in Baltimore, and preached in one of the Baltimore churches. The records say that he was dressed roughly with a considerable expanse of red underwear showing between his trousers and his vest. But he could preach so like an angel that the congregation soon forgot the red undershirt and was captured by this powerful preacher. A few days later the General Conference elected him a bishop. He returned to the west to continue his work, and although he traveled throughout the connection, as the Discipline provided, his main work was in the West. Never content to remain in some headquarters, he rode the circuits and became known to the people in the lonely places. For a time he bore the brunt of the whole responsibility of Church leadership and discipline, for ASBURY was ill. To the end he traveled in the great tradition of WESLEY, ASBURY, and the circuit riders.
He was famous as one of the Church's greatest preachers, and a skillful administrator. The one who guided the Church away from the rule of one man into a framework of constitution and law, he said, "Hold fast to your doctrine and discipline. Others may get along without rule, but we cannot." In a day of movement and wide parishes, Bishop McKENDREE proved to be the right man to establish the Methodist Church as a moral and spiritual power on the frontier. [COMMENT-6]
Even George WASHINGTON grew up with a limited range of book knowledge; and it is not strange that William McKENDREE should have acquired still less. To the end of his life, though he learned to speak his mother tongue with precision and force, he would no doubt have been bothered by an examination in grammar, and he of- ten took uncommon liberties with English orthography. [COMMENT-7]
In him the soldier of civil liberty was merged into the nobler character of a true and valiant soldier of the Cross. Having done his duty to his country in an emergency, he was contented, and never boasted of the fact.[COMMENT-8]
He was reared in the Anglican faith but joined a Methodist Society when he was about 19 years old. Ten years later he was converted. In 1801 he was sent to the Kentucky District of the vast Western Conference which covered Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, Western Virginia, and part of Illinois.[COMMENT-9]
William McKENDREE was born July 6, 1757 in King William County on the farm that is now owned by Mr. Guy CHENAULT.... When William was 7 years old his parents moved to James City County near Williamsburg and a few years later they settled in Greenville County on the Meherrin River. Much later, in 1810, when William was about 53, his family moved from Virginia to Tennessee. It was there in Sumner County that the Bishop would retire with his family for his last days.
He served in the Commissary Department under the allied armies of WASHINGTON and was at the Battle of Yorktown when CORNWALLIS surrendered.
As one might expect, William McKENDREE's educational opportunities were very limited but with dilligence he acquired a sufficient amount of knowledge to qualify as a school teacher before he entered the ministry....
Even so he did not imagine that he was called to preach till one day as he sat at the table and his father said to him: 'William, has not the Lord called you to preach the gospel?' William answered: 'I cannot tell. I do not know what a call to preach the gospel implies.' The old gentleman responded 'I believe he has and I charge you not to quench the spirit.' He continued undecided till one day when he was ill, Rev. John EASTER visited him and prayed for his recovery that he might be entrusted with the Christian ministry. Shortly after he recovered his health, Bishop ASBURY appointed him to the Mecklenburg Circuit as a colleague of Philip COX. This was in 1788 in a district conference in Petersburg. This appointment came as an electric shock to McKENDREE but he obeyed the call....[COMMENT-10]
Preachers lived on small salaries in those days. During McKENDREE's first year's service as presiding elder in the West, he received only $20; the second year, $43.67; and so of other years....
McKENDREE was the first bishop who conducted the business of an Annual Conference according to parliamentary rules. Bishop ASBURY cared but little about rules of order; but McKENDREE knew their importance. During the General Conference of May, 1812, Bishop McKENDREE drew up a plan of business to be brought before the Conference. His address was read in the Conference; but as it was a new thing, the aged Bishop ASBURY rose to his feet immediately after the paper was read, and addressed the junior bishop: 'I have something to say to you before the Conference.' The junior also rose to his feet and they stood face to face. Bishop ASBURY went on: 'This is a new thing. I never did business in this way and why is this new thing introduced?' The junior bishop promptly replied but with perfect tact. 'You are our father, we are your sons; you never had need of it. I am only a brother, and I have need of it.' Bishop ASBURY said no more, but sat down with a smile on his face...." [COMMENT-11]
James A. McKENDREE, the youngest son of John McKENDREE and wife Mary DUDLEY (?) was born in 1768 in James City County, Virginia. He married Martha (Patsy) WILKINSON January 7, 1793, at Empora, Greensville County, Virginia. The marriage bond was issued to James McKENDREE and Martha WILKINSON, on December 27, 1792, Michaell EZELL, as Security at Greensville County, Virginia.
Martha was the daughter of Joel WILKINSON (or WILKERSON) whose wife's given name was Elizabeth. Besides Martha, they were also the parents of Frances WILKINSON who married Robert PETTWAY on May 30, 1799, in Geensville County, Virginia, and of Sally WILKINSON who married Harbert PEEBLES on November 30, 1796 in the same county. Martha may have died soon after the birth of the last child, which records indicate was in 1812 in Virginia, although this conflicts with reports in the records that the family moved to Tennessee in 1810.
It was to James' home that both his father, John McKENDREE, and the Bishop went in their old age and infirmity. Although he was called "Dr." by Bishop HOSS, he apparently gave up his vocation as a medical doctor for the ministry. He was granted a license to perform marriages in Greensville County, Virginia June 14, 1802:
Know all Men by these presents that we James McKENDREE, Robert FOX, and Donaldson TURNER are held and firmly bound to his excellency James MONROE----esquire Governor of Virginia and to his successors in the sum of Fifteen Hundred Dollars to which payment thereof well and truly to be made we bind ourselves our heirs executors and admtors jointly and severally firmly by these presents. Sealed with our Seals and dated this 14th Day of June Anno Domini 1802. The Condition of the above obligation is such that whereas the above bounden James McKENDREE --hath obtained of the County Court of Greensville License to Perform the Rites of Matrimony within the State of Virginia aforesaid according to the Rites and Ceremonies of Methodist Church of which his is in Communion. Now if the said James McKENDREE shall well and faithfully perform the Rites of Matrimony in all cases where he shall be legally called upon according to Law, then above obligation to be void, otherwise to remain in full force power and Virtue. Sealed & Delivered In the Presence of The Court. Jas McKENDREE {Seal} Robert FOX {Seal} Donaldson TURNER {Seal} )This is a link to a copy of the original document.
James and Martha McKENDREE had at least nine children:
| Dudley Ellis McKENDREE was born in 1794 in Greenville County, Virginia. He married Sarah MOORE about 1816 in Sumner County, Tennessee. His children include the following: |
| Martha W. McKENDREE who married Charles F. HARVEY May 28, 1838. |
| Adaline McKENDREE, born February 25, 1818, who married Alfred Gillespie SARVER February 4, 1831, and died December 11, 1892, in Sumner County, Tennessee. |
| Mary Ann McKENDREE, born in Sumner County, who married Alex A. HARVEY June 28, 1838. |
| Alexander Augustus McKENDREE, born October 16, 1824, Sumner County; married Elvira Harvey HOUSE February 12, 1846; died December 1, 1905, in Sumner County, Tennessee. |
| Sarah McKENDREE, born 1827, Sumner County, Tennessee; married John H. MARTIN |
| William A. McKENDREE, born in Sumner County, Tennessee |
(Capt.) Dudley Ellis McKENDREE, Jr., born July 4, 1835, in Sumner County, Tennessee. He did not marry and died June 6, 1864, Louisville, Jefferson County, Kentucky.
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| William (or Alexander?) McKENDREE, son of Dr. James A. McKENDREE and wife Martha, was born 1798 in Greensville County, Virginia. |
| John A. McKENDREE and wife Isabella LOVING were the parents of Isabella McKENDREE, wife of Thomas McCARLEY, and the family is described below. |
Mary (Polly) McKENDREE , born in 1800 in Greensville County, Virginia, married first Richard MOORE, on February 8, 1816. After his death, John A. McKENDREE probably went to Haywood County, Tennessee, to assist his widowed sister in raising her children. There he evidently met and married Isabella LOVING.
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Martha A. McKENDREE was born October 4, 1803, in Greensville County, Virginia. She married Jacob BEASON June 1, 1824, and she died November 10, 1890, in Lincoln, Illinois. Her children were:
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| Rebecca McKENDREE married Isaac WARREN March 26, 1823. She had sons born in 1821 and 1824. |
| Margaret A. T. McKENDREE was born in 1808 in Greensville County, Virginia. She married Tobias BELL on September 11, 1831. |
| Minurva/Minurvi McKENDREE was born about 1809/1810 in Greensville County, Virginia. She married James H. LUCAS, and they had sons born in 1822, 1825, and a daughter Eliza LUCAS born about 1842. |
| Sarah McKENDREE was the youngest child of James A. McKENDREE and wife Martha WILKINSON. She was born in 1812. She married Thomas M. JOYNER November 2/22, 1836. |
John A. McKENDREE, the father of Isabella McKENDREE McCARLEY and the son of Dr. James A. McKENDREE and wife Martha WILKINSON probably met his futhre bride in Haywood County when he went to help his sister Polly with her children after her husband's death in 1829. [COMMENT-15] He had been born in 1800 in Greensville County, Virginia, emigrating to Sumter County, Tennessee, as a child. Isabella LOVING, daughter of Joseph LOVING and wife Rose Berryman TALIAFERRO, was born in Nelson County, Virginia, in 1808. After being widowed in the War of 1812, Rose moved her family to Haywood County where she, like John A. McKENDREE, is living in 1830. The marriage of John and Isabella in Haywood County, Tennessee was reported in on Jamuary 18, 1832. Both John and his wife and his mother-in-law are in Fayette County in 1840. Family tradition is that they lived in the La Grange area in Fayette County.
It would appear that Isabella died sometime after the birth of the last child on February 23, 1848 in Tennessee and before the 1860 census when John is alone with the children in Prairie County, Arkansas. Rose moved with the family to Prairie County, as shown by land records there. John died in on _________, 1867 at Des Arc, Prairie County, Arkansas. His will was admitted to prabate in 1868.
John A. McKENDREE and wife Isabella LOVING had six daughters and one son.
| Ann D. McKENDREE SCLEDGE, born about 1834 in Tennessee, married William H. SCLEDGE on August 24, 1850, in Fayette County, Tennessee. Like many of her sisters, she died at childbirth. |
| Rosalee M. McKENDREE NEVELL was born about 1836 in Tennessee. On August 28, 1854, she married Albert NEVELL. She died in childbirth. |
Virginia McKENDREE WELLS, born about 1839, married a gentleman whose last name was WELLS. She had two children before dying in childbirth. Her daughter
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William Capers McKENDREE, the only son of John A. McKENDREE and wife Isabella LOVING, was born in 1840. He married his first cousin, Martha (Mattie) LOVING, daughter of Wilson C. LOVING. William Capers McKENDREE died in 1908 in Arkansas. He and Mattie had five children, including two sets of twins:
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| Isabella McKENDREE, daughter of John A. McKENDREE and Isabella LOVING, born April 2, 1838, was the wife of Thomas McCARLEY and is described on the McCARLEY page. |
| Mary Etta (Mamie) McKENDREE HARALSON was born about 1844. She was also called Martha, Mattie, and Marietta. She married the Rev. Jerome HARALSON who was a "Presiding Elder" in the Northwest Texas Conference of the Methodist Church [COMMENT-16] and established Polk Street United Methodist Church in Amarillo, Potter County, Texas. The couple had no children. Rev. HARALSON told his wife's niece and namesake, Marietta (Mamie) McCARLEY RICHARDS that she was going to Hell because she rode astride a horse instead of side-saddle. Jerome Collier McCARLEY was named for his great uncle Jerome HARALSON. Mary Ruth RICHARDS WILSON remembers her "Aunt Mamie" and heard talk of "Uncle Rome". She remembers that Aunt Mamie spent a summer with them, that she inststed that Mamie RICHARDS write letters for her, then she would put negative things about Mamie RICHARDS in those letters, fully expecting that those things be written. She remembers serv-ing her some clabber when Aunt Mamie told her to, but Aunt Mamie objected because she wanted unbroken clabber. Thelma McCARLEY BERRY tells that Aunt Mamie wore a lot of starched pettycoats and insisted that they be properly washed, starched, and ironed, but not by her. |
| Julia McKENDREE, the youngest daughter of John A. McKENDREE and Isabella LOVING, was born February 23, 1848, in Tennessee. She married Reynold Bascomb BORDEN on September 17, 1873 and died December 22, 1929 in Santa Ana California. She is the great grandmother of Alice JACKSON, the source of much of the information in this section. |
| In addition to his own children, John A. McKENDREE raised the son of his friends John B. WRAY and his wife Mary.[COMMENT-17] Both of John Feltcher WRAY's parents had siblings, but the turned instead to John A. McKENDREE, naming him as executor of their estate and guardian of their four-year-old son. John A. McKENDREE wrote the obituary for the WRAY couple who apparently died at the same time in 1858. John WRAY had been the superintendent of the plantation of John A. McKENDREE's brother-in-law, General William Henry LOVING. General LOVING's land in Fayette County, Tennessee, adjoined that of John A. McKENDREE. [COMMENT-18] |
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| Allaman | Allerton | Anderson | Baldridge | Barents | Barlow | Barrett |
| Berryman | Beverley | Boz | Breedlove | Bull | Carrington | Catlett |
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| Dunnagan | Edward | Fletcher | Fullerton | Gaebler | Haie | Harkness |
| Hargrove | Hargus | Holt | Hodge(s) | Ivey | Jarman | Kerley |
| Kunst | Lane | Lewellen | Loving | McCarley | McCullough | McFerron |
| McKendree | Meade | Meeks | Newton | Nowlen | Parr | Pawling |
| Pells | Ray | Rhapherd | Richards | Rollins | Roosa | Sharpe |
| Slecht | Sparrowe | Spence | Stagg | Sturgeon | Taliaferro | Tucker |
| Tyler | Underwood | Warren | Wilkinson | Williams | Wood(s) | Wrenn |
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