"Was there a Catholic in the Family?"

Grandpa Wicker's cousin, Helen Williams Bateman, commented to me several times that someone in the Williams family was a Catholic (pretty unusual in Southeast Missouri Bootheel) and she wanted me to look into it.  I finally found it.

My great grandmother was Macy Williams (Helen's aunt).  Macy's mother was Mary Ann Pullam.  Her mother was Ally Jane Vaughn.  Her mother was Nancy Dyer the daughter of William Dyer.

Some families have stories about someone being an Indian Princess or on the Mayflower, but my family has stories about someone being Catholic.  Well, I did finally find that there is a possibility through Nancy Dyer's step mother.  So, my 4 great grandmother's step mother was a Catholic and possibly she also converted Nancy, who was born in 1811, the same year her mother Gracie McG(K)ee Dyer died.

I found this story on Ancestry: William Dyer Family from "History of Union County, Kentucky" 1886.

"If any family in Union County deserves the reputation of being a Union County family, it must be the Dyer family.  the founder of the stock was one of the first settlers, and he raised a large family, all of whom, except one, married and raised families.   Most of these children lived and died in Union County, and there are now probably more members of the Dyer family within Union County than any other race.

This family was founded by Wm. Dyer, a blacksmith, who was born in Virginia in 1780.  He came to Union Country in 1804, and settled where Morganfield now stands.  He married Gracie/Grizzell McGee in Virginia, before coming here.  His first four (sic) children were by her.  Family lore says that the family of William Dyer and the family of John Mason came to Kentucky together, by way of flat boat to Henderson County, Kentucky.  However, it was 1804, that the families arrived at the mouth of the Lost Creek after their trip down the Ohio River and pushed themselves up on shore and selected their home sites.  Per the 1810 census, the dyers had a household of three sons and one daughter under 10 years of age and four adults.  It is believed that Gracie McGee died around 1811.

William Dyer served in the War of 1812, so must have left his family of children with a neighbor or kin while he was away.  He served for six months as a private in the 11th Regiment of the Kentucky Militia under Slaughters; part of the time he was hospitalized at Baton Moure, Louisiana.  In 1816, William Dyer married Anna Harris and had six children with her.  the new Mrs. Dyer was a Catholic and raised their children in this faith.

Wm. Dyer is said to have been one of the men who located the county seat of Morganfield.  Tradition as it that he in company with other commissioners, were reclining on the bank near the spring, slightly feeling the effects of fatigue and Jeremiah Riddle's whiskey, when Mr. Dyer threw his cane up the hill toward where the Court House now stands, and proclaimed oracularly, that there would be the county capital.  He was a man of impulse, but integrity.

An illustration of this is seen in an incident of his life, that is related as follows:  A neighbor of his, by the name of Gwinn, had a horse that was constantly breaking into Dyer's cornfield.  After sending word to Mr. Gwinn several times to keep the trespassing horse off his corn, Mr Dyer shot the offending animal and then sent the price of the horse down to Morganfield to its owner.  Mr. Dyer died in 1832.  All his children died rather young.  There seems to have been considerable consumption in the family.  His trade has staid (sic) in the family.  His sons, John and Nathan, were good regular blacksmiths, and Harvey and James did the work for their farms.  John Will, the son of John Dyer and John Nathan, is the only one now in the business."  Additionally, the Dyer family also passed on to their inlaws the trade of blacksmithing.  This trade was shared with Roland Cecil Sr.  as he married Mary Huldah Dyer.

Supposedly, when William Dyer died, he was buried on the family property.  However, in 1966 a Waller Young owned the property and said that he never saw a tombstone there in the 20 years that he had lived on the property.  He did recall plowing throw (sic) the land where the old Dyer blacksmith shop had once stood.

Thanks to familyhistorycrw on Ancestry.com for these stories.

Benjamin Williams and Mahala Watson

Genealogy can be pretty dry and reading legal documents can be tedious.  But every now and then we run across facts and can just imagine the emotions and conditions which led to the events.  But we will start at the very beginning.  May I introduce my great-great-great grandparents.  Sorry, there are no photos---those would be pretty rare for this class of people during the early 1800's.

Benjamin Williams and Mahala Watson were both born in Kentucky around 1810.  The first record we have is their marriage in 1827 in Hopkins, KY.

The 1830 census is more of a tally with only the "head of the household's" name.  There were 2 white adults between 20-29 (one male, one female) living in Benjamin's household.  I always like to see who else is on the page because there are often relatives.  William Williams was on the same page and in the same age range.  When we later found out his wife was Malinda Watson, we were pretty sure they were related through the husbands and/or the wives.  Carol Williams Huff found an obituary which showed that Malinda only had one daughter whose name was Mahala.  That is another indication that they were related---she might name her daughter for her sister.

The children started arriving by 1834 with Martha Williams (m. Matthew Harris), Polly Williams born in 1836 and Thomas Jefferson Williams in 1838. The next census in 1840 is still a tally with 1 boy under 5, 2 girls between 5-9 and 2 adults between 30-39 living in the household of Benjamin Williams.  Next door is living a Samuel Watson who was born around 1813, but we don't know if this was Mahala's brother, but he is likely a relative.