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Terry Mason's Family History Site55,574 names. Major lines: Allen, Beck, Borden, Buck, Burden, Carpenter, Carper, Cobb, Cook, Cornell, Cowan, Daffron, Davis, Downing, Faubion, Fauntleroy, Fenter, Fishback, Foulks, Gray, Harris, Heimbach, Henn, Holland, Holtzclaw, Jackson, Jameson, Johnson, Jones, King, Lewis, Mason, Massengill, McAnnally, Moore, Morgan, Overstreet, Price, Peck, Rice, Richardson, Rogers, Samuel, Smith, Taylor, Thomas, Wade, Warren, Weeks, Webb, Wodell, Yeiser. |
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DEATH: Family History Records; ; compiled by Michael S. Cole, [HYPERLINK http://www.thecolefamily.com/hobby/ahnentafel.htm#ahnentafel ] ; ; copy dated 26 Jan 1994 sent to T Mason; NOTES: info from Betty Koleda, Prineville, OR.
BIOGRAPHY: Information sent to T.Mason on 30 May 2004 by Norma Coon.
"Mary Elizabeth McDowell Greenlee was born 17 Nov 1707 in Northern Ireland and died 14 Mar 1809 in Rockbridge Co., VA She was the first white woman to settle on Borden's Tract in Virginia. She emigrated from Northern Ireland with her father, Ephraim, and her brothers. She was beautiful, intelligent and articulate. Mary married James Greenlee. She was recounted as being a woman of extraordinary beauty, intellect, as well as being incredibly articulate for a woman of her time. In fact so much so that her contemporaries considered her so unusual that she must be a witch in league with the devil. One story relates that during a quilting session, one of the other women present made a comment on being hungry. Mary's response was to quote an old adage "It's the ridden mare that deserves twice fed." Through ignorance on the part of the other attendees at the session, this was construed to be a reference by Mary to the "truth" of her being a witch, and to her "riding out into the night to feed on Christian souls." Needless to say, Mary was shunned by her Christian neighbors from this point onward.
However, on one occasion she was asked by her neighbors and kin, the Lewis' to intervene using her 'talents' as a witch to recover the young Alize Lewis (daughter of John and Margaret Lewis) who was called "White Dove" by the Indians. Her parents feared she had been kidnaped by Indians and would be scalped, when in fact, she had stolen away with her Indian boyfriend. Mary agreed to attempt to retrieve the girl for the price of one horse to bring her back on and which she would keep. The Indians liked Mary. Whether this was because they thought her a bit "touched" or more likely she was intelligent enough to reason with them on their own terms. Either way, Mary was successful in negotiating Alice's safe return to her family. Mary and James Greenlee ran a Tavern near Timber Ridge until James' death in 1763. At the age of 97, the county courts of Augusta called upon Mary to give depositions regarding land ownership. They again requested her testimony three years later. Mary amazed the Justices of the Peace with her astonishing memory, giving many details of the early settlers. Her depositions left us much history which would otherwise have been lost to time. Mary moved near Natural Bridge to live near her son in 1780. She died on his farm at the age of 102. Before her death, a poet, who lived nearby, went to make her a visit and proposed to write her epitaph, on condition she would give him a quart of whiskey. She consented. And he wrote: "Good old Mary died of late, Straight she went to Heaven's gate." He showed her this and she was so delighted that she gave him a pint of the whiskey in advance. He drank it and wrote in continuation: "But Abraham met her with a club, And knocked her back to Beelzebub." She was so infuriated at this that she chased him out of the house with a broom stick. Mary's grave was marked in 1944 by the Association for Preservation of Virginia Antiquities. Sallie (Locker) Letcher is the present owner of the farm upon which Mary McDowell Greenlee lays to rest."
QUESTION: Death possibly 21 Feb 1843 in Howard County, MO.
RESEARCHER: From familytreemaker web page of Ronald Bozarth. "Sarah Pierce and her father, William Pierce, were full blooded Cherokee
Indians. The 1800 Tax List for Hardin County, KY shows: George, John, James, and William Pierce.
The census dated February 24, 1802 follows:
Hardin County Nolin February the 24 day 1802
this is to inform you that it is my Desier that you should give licens (written again and scrached out) to Levi bozroth and Sarah
pierce and that she Now lives with me
George Pierce