Ashe Co., NC Pennington's Part 2

In Ashe Co. NC Pennington’s Part 1 – I discussed two of the major lineages as I saw them that either came out of through Ashe Co., NC.  The first group was that of Micajah Pennington b. 1743 which was the first group that I spent a lot of time on because I thought I was descended from Micajah.  I later found out that my ancestry did not come through Micajah Pennington but rather Ephraim Pennington and so that was the second group that I discussed.  The rest of them start to become a bit more complicated.

Group 30 are the descendants of Abram Pennington.  I haven’t seen a whole lot that convinces me that Abram is the progenitor of this group…put I can’t argue on who is included.  If Abram is the progenitor, the descendants include:

• Elizabeth b. 9 Apr 1798 d. 13 Dec 1868 m.  Wells Blevins
• Andrew b. 11 Oct 1809 d.11 Oct 1882 m. Hester Ann Blevins
• Artemecia b. abt 1810 d. 27 Feb 1897 m. James Blevins Jr
• James b. abt 1810 d. aft 1880 m. Catherine Sexton
• Lorenzo Dow b. abt 1817 d. aft 1880 m. Nancy Pope

This family is made even more complicated with the fact that three Pennington siblings married three Blevins descendants (Children of James Blevins and Lydia Sizemore).  The inter-connectivity of these families makes it difficult sometimes to figure out who belongs to who.  Elizabeth’s descendants for the most part lived in Grayson Co., VA.  To put in perspective…Grayson Co., VA as a neighboring county to Ashe Co., NC means that you never quite know where a Blevins a few generations down connects. 

I think that largest chunk of Group 30 descendants and probably the best documented are those of Andrew Pennington b. 1809.  He has in particular presented a quite a problem for me personally.  It is quite easy to confuse Andrew Pennington b. 1809 – son of Abram Pennington with Andrew Pennington b. 1813 – son of Ephraim Pennington.  So, I have spent a lot of time differentiating between the two.  Andrew Pennington b. 1809 married Hester Ann Blevins and left Ashe Co. NC sometime between 1850 and 1860.  Most of the family went to Washington Co., VA – but some descendants stayed behind in Ashe Co., NC.  With a family of eleven children, the descendants of this family are numerous.  For the most part – the descendants of Penningtons living in Smyth Co., VA or Washington Co., VA are most likely to be descended from Andrew.

I think that it is possible that Artremecia and James Pennington are twins (which is a guess on my part) and both of these families stayed primarily in the Ashe Co., NC area.  The Blevins family is so interconnected with the Penningtons that it is fairly easy to assume that a Blevins probably has a Pennington in their ancestry.  Like her brother, Andrew – Artremecia had a large family of eleven children.  I must admit that this family is one area that I need a lot of assistance on…because they are so numerous and there are so many intermarriages that I continuously find cousins who have married each other which makes tracing the family very confusing.

If the Pennington lives in Ashe Co., NC today and isn't a descendant of Ephraim Pennington – one of my most likely families to look at is that of James Pennington and Catherine Sexton.  They had a family of eight.  There is still a lot of information that I don’t have on this family.  One of the James’ daughters also provided a bit more confusion as she had four sons out of wedlock.  Those sons also produced their share of descendants that also causes some confusion.

The youngest of the family is Lorenzo Dow Pennington.  For many years, Dow Pennington was almost what you would call an orphan Pennington.  There was a lot of theories as to where he might belong.  Thanks to the hard work and persistence of some of his descendants, this is no longer the case.  Like his siblings, Dow was born in Ashe Co., NC but he seemed to move back and forth between Washington Co., VA and Ashe Co., NC…at least for two censuses.  Some of his descendants lived in the Virginia area…and some stayed in Ashe Co. NC.  This is another family that I don’t have a lot of confidence in what I have – I recognize that there is still a lot more work that needs to be done on this family on my part.

Here are some of the blogs that I have written about the Group 30 Pennigton's

• A Tale of Two Andrews
• Abel Abram Pennington
• Complicated Pennington Connections
• Mecie Pennington

The next group of Penningtons is those of Group 12.  These are the descendants of Samuel Pennington and Elizabeth Anderson.  There were eight children in this family and their descendants mostly are in Grayson Co., VA – but they still show up in Ashe Co.  Samuel is one of those ancestors who is a bit of an orphan.  His father’s name is unknown and legend has it that he was a stowaway on a ship or some such story.  Recent developments in DNA testing suggests that he might be a close relative of the Ephraim Pennington group.  So, that opens up a whole new can of worms as far as theories go.  We know that he was born around 1795 probably in Virginia.  However, as far as I am concerned – much of the information concerning his birth and ancestry are suspect because theories are all that it is based on.  His wife, Elizabeth Anderson’s family is from Grayson Co., VA which suggests to me that Samuel is probably from either Grayson Co., VA or at least near its border. Supposedly Samuel left the area after his wife’s death in 1848 and died in TN in 1862.  Since I find no mention of him in the census records in either 1850 or 1860, I have my doubts about this story.  Two of his sons died in Civil War prison camps and another one of his sons was confused for many years to be a possible son of Levi Pennington and Elizabeth Henson.  There is also anecdotal evidence this confused son of Samuel (Elisha Pennington) was a close relative of the Levi Pennington descendants.  So, one of my theories is that Samuel was possibly as son of Ephraim Pennington.  Whatever my point of view, there is no doubt that Samuel’s ancestry is mysterious as well as his death.

Here are a few blogs from that line:

• The Mysterious Samuel
• Elisha “Dock” Pennington

While researching Penningtons in Ashe Co., NC, when I used to run into an unfamiliar name, I would add them to my database and continue looking until I could connect them.  I have been able to identify the ancestry of almost all of these unconnected names.  The only one that I have yet to connect is that of Douglas Pennington  Douglas was born about 1820 and died in 1888 in Ashe Co., NC.  He was married to Kesiah Sullens and had nine children with her until her death in 1860.  Douglas then married the widow of Isham Blevins, Ann Edmonson and had three more daughters. This is still a family that requires a lot more research on my part.  However, I am sure he fits in with one of the Ashe Co., NC families…I am just not sure of where.

The other families that must be mentioned are those of Group 32 of Wells Pennington.  That family left Ashe Co., NC before 1820 but is likely connected with the larger group.  Another group is that of Group 31, which are the descendants of Aaron Pennington and they also left early in the 19^th century for Kentucky.  DNA has proven that Group 7 (descendants of Micajah Pennington and Ephraim Pennington) Group 30 (descendants of Abram Pennington) Group 12 (descendants of Samuel Pennington), Group 31 and Group 32 have common ancestors as well as those of Group 4 (descendants of Ephraim b. 1734).  We may never know how they fit together because of the lack of documentary evidence that has either been destroyed by the vagaries of time, fire, flood, or war, but we do know that based on DNA research that these families are all connected.  As a researcher, I have tried to identify where each of these Penningtons belong and have developed a pretty good database of Penningtons in Ashe Co., NC, Johnson Co., TN, Washington Co., VA, Smyth Co., VA and Grayson Co., VA.  You never know when someone or something else will provide an important bit of information that makes yet another connection in these Pennington groups.

Abel Abram Pennington

It has been my experience that most of the Penningtons that I have found around Smyth and Washington Co., VA descend from Andrew Pennington and Hester Blevins.   Sometimes trying to figure out where some of these Penningtons fit has been a struggle.  While there may be some argument as to who Andrew Pennington's father was - there is no doubt that his descendants left a stamp on the region.

Abel Abram Pennington is the oldest son of Andrew Pennington and Hester Ann Blevins.  He was born 17 May 1836 in Ashe Co., NC and d. 18 Sept 1920 in Washington Co., VA.  I suppose that there is a clue as to the identity of Andrew's father with the naming of his oldest son.  Only problem is that Abel and Abram were supposedly brothers and Abram is considered by most to be Andrew's father.  Anyway Abel was married to Emily Blevins on 16 Oct 1861.  Emily would have been Abel's first cousin.  Her father was Daniel Blevins and mother was Lucy Ann Dickson.  (Lucy was the daughter of Johanna Pennigton and Douglas Dickson).  They had two children in two short years and Emily died in 1866.  Perhaps the reason there weren't any more children after 1863 is because Abel enlisted into the Confederate Army during the Civil War.  Abel must have gone back to live with his parents after his wife's death because he is recorded with them in the 1870 census with his two children.  In 1871, Abel remarried to Sarah V. Able.  Sarah was born on 17 Mar 1848 in Johnson Co., TN which is a neighboring county to Washington Co., VA.  She was the daughter of Leander Abel and Mary Ann Bush.

In some census records Abel is listed as Abram or Abraham and in others he is listed as Abel.  He is listed as Abel in the pension that was given to his widow after his death, so I suspect that Abel was his first name.  Abel's pension lists his cause of death as Pleurisy and he is buried at Green Cove Baptist Church Cemetery in Green Cove, Washington Co., VA (Find A Grave #18709078) His second wife, Sarah survived him by 9 years and died on 19 Mar 1929 and is buried in the same cemetery.  Something of interest is that Sarah's younger brother married her step daughter, Malvina Elizabeth Pennington.

Abel Abram and Emily Blevins had the following children:

• McClellan Pennington b. 15 Dec 1862 d. 8 Nov 1901 m. Mary Jane Blevins.
• Malvina Elizabeth Pennington b. 11 Sep 1863 d. 7 Mar 1920 m. Robert S Able

Abel Abram and Sarah Able had the following children:

• Columbia Jane Pennington b. 26 Jan 1873 d. 21 Jul 1961 m. William Harrison Dolinger
• Leander M. Pennington b. 10 Dec 1874 d. 5 Jan 1925 m. Ida Jane Hoosier
• Freelin E Pennington b. 22 Mar 1876 d. 19 Jan 1918 m. Carrie Cook
• Mary H. Pennington b. 16 Mar 1877 d. 27 Mar 1959 m. Calvin M. Hash
• Arthur Pennington b. 1881 d. bef 1906
• James Pennington b. 9 Feb 1883 d. 11 Mar 1963 m. Florence Loretta Blevins
• Orena Matilda Pennington b. 26 Jan 1886 d. 1970 m. D. Clinton Daye
• Dora M. Pennington b. 4 Jan 1888 d. 4 May 1920 m. Richard Elmer Venable
• F. Larelly Pennington b. 19 Nov 1891 d. be 1906
• Chester R. Pennington b. 9 Apr 1893 d bef 1910

Complicated Pennington Connections

There are a lot of complicated family lines that I have studied through the years…some have well established family lines that have been documented and stretch back to Europe.  Others are fortunate if they stretch back to the mid 1700’s.  DNA has told us that the Pennington's who came from the Ashe Co., NC area are genetically linked…but once you get back a generation or two in the 1700’s, there hasn’t been any documentation located yet that establishes a clear relationship.  So, having said that, I decided many years ago to concentrate on all of the Pennington's who came through Ashe Co., NC and not just the family that I descend from…you might say I started this because of a tie between my Dollar family and the Pennington family.

I have written before about the two Andrews Penningtons (A Tale of Two Andrews…) and you might say that I am revisiting one of those lines.  Research has told me that if I am looking at a family who lives in the Washington Co., VA area or nearby, I am looking at a descendant of Group 30 and most likely one of Andrew Pennington and Hester Ann Blevins.  Andrew lived to be 71 years of age and Hester was 78 when she passed.  Both were buried in the Laurel Cemetery in Smyth Co., VA.  They had eleven children and while they all lived relatively near their parents…they were scattered around Ashe Co., NC, Johnson Co., TN, Washington Co., VA and Smyth Co., VA.  I found one of these daughters of Andrew and Hester while researching my Dollar family.

Mary Matilda Pennington was born 11 Jul 1842 in Ashe Co., NC and died on 2 Mar 1920 at Little Fall, Ashe Co., NC.  She married Calvin Calhoun Davis on 25 Jul 1861.  Calvin was the son of Jordan Anderson Davis and Cynthia Lynch.  It looks as if Calvin and Mary Matilda Pennington married and then he left to fight in the Civil War.  Of course that might have been when the marriage had a license or bond that was obtained…their oldest child was born on 6 May 1861 in Ashe Co., NC…a few months preceding their marriage license.  Calvin evidently went to the war and ended up a prisoner at Elmira prison…for their next child appears on 19 Dec 1865.  You might say that Mary Matilda Pennington was one of the reasons that I started researching all of the Penningtons in the area.  I kept running into Penningtons that I couldn’t identify and it was frustrating.  Mary Matilda’s son, Ezra Edward Davis had a daughter named Ethel Davis.  (She just died a few years ago at the age of almost 102)  Ethel was married to Chester Lyall, who was the son of Amanda Jane Dollar and William Davis Lyall.  One of my habits is to try and find the parents of a spouse in case the information might prove useful in the future.  This information proved very useful. 

Amanda Dollar was the older sister of my great great grandfather, John Dula Dollar and they were both children of Alexander Monroe Dollar and Elizabeth Pennington.  So, when Amanda Dollar’s son married a Pennington descendant (Ethel Davis), I got curious. I was told by Ethel’s son that his grandparents were Ezra Edward Davis and Sina Miller and that he had heard of a Pennington connection.  So, I tried to take it a bit further.  Ezra was the son of a Tildie Pennington and C. C. Davis.  After more research I discovered that their full names were Mary Matilda Pennington and Calvin Calhoun Davis.  While Mary Matilda was mostly referred to as Matilda or Tildie….that was her full name.  So, her parents were Andrew Pennington and Hester Blevins…so now I started working on that family tree.  Just because I always like to include the parents, I did a little more checking and found out that Sina E. Miller was the daughter of Eli Miller and Allie Hart…I couldn’t help looking further and found out that Sina’s grandmother was a Blevins and when I put her name into my genealogy program it popped out a red flag and asked me if the Bathsheba Blevins was the same one who married Isaac Miller.  I found out that she was…and found yet again another Pennington link.  Bathsheba was the daughter of Elizabeth Pennington and Wells Blevins.  Elizabeth was Andrew Pennington’s sister…and Wells Blevins was Hester’s brother…so now the tree became even more complicated.

Most who have studied the Pennington family have stayed with their own particular line.  Going straight back as far as they could and not looking at the siblings and their families.  It don’t know if it is a sickness of mine…but I have hard time not poking around to see what else I might discover.  So, my research is almost always in a state of flux and I doubt that I will ever have a complete picture of the Penningtons of Ashe Co., NC.  There are too many branches that have yet to be explored.  You might say it all started when I discovered that Amanda Dollar’s son married a granddaughter of a Pennington…and I just had to figure out who it was!

Johanna Pennington Dickson

The Penningtons in Ashe Co., NC include several families that are separate but somehow connected by DNA.  It used to be that we in the PRA (Pennington Research Association) thought that most of these Penningtons descended from Micajah Pennington.  In actuality, almost none of them do!

Micajah Pennington and Rachel Jones had 10 children…we know all of their names and their birthdates from the bible entry that is recorded on Elizabeth Pennington Barton’s pension application for her husband’s military service.  Of those 10 children, it is unknown what happened to Elijah Pennington b. 9 Dec 1761, Levi Pennington b. 21 Dec 1767, Rachel Pennington b. 26 Dec 1771, and Benajah b. 15 Jun 1782..  Elijah likely moved away from the area and whatever happened to him is unknown.  It is likely that he owned land and paid taxes in Ashe Co., NC but there is no trace of him after 1805.  Rachel Pennington most likely died young and Levi probably moved away to Lee Co., VA – the Levi that is recorded after 1815 is a different Levi and not the son of Micajah Pennington and his wife, Rachel Jones.   It is unknown what happened to Benajah – there is a record of him that turns up in Kentucky in 1812 but he disappears from record after that.  However, there is one family member that lived in Ashe Co., NC…their daughter Johanna. 

As far as I have been able to ascertain, all of the children other than Johanna moved to Lee Co., VA, Grayson Co., VA or Kentucky (Perry Co., Harlan Co., and Breathitt Co.) Johanna  was born 24 Mar 1779 probably in modern Ashe Co., NC but at that point, it was still Wilkes Co., NC (Ashe Co., NC didn’t become a county until 1799)  She married Douglas Dickson sometime before 1804 as her first known child was born at that point.  Here is a list of their children:

• William Douglas Dickson b. 23 Jun 1804 Ashe Co., NC d. 31 May 1880 Reynolds Co., MO m. Nov 1824 Frances Cross
• David Dickson b. 4 Mar 1811 Ashe Co., NC d. 10 Nov 1888 Ashe Co., NC m. Phoebe Sullins
• Lucy Ann Dickson b. abt 1815 Ashe Co., NC d. 1883 Ashe Co., NC m. abt 1831 Daniel Blevins
• Mary J. Dickson b. abt 1818 m. abt 1844 Timothy Poe
• Emily Dickson b. 16 Sep 1822 Ashe Co., NC d. 11 May 1894 Ashe Co., NC m. 11 Nov 1854 Jefferson Adkins

There are three other children that are attributed to her but I don’t believe that she is their parent but rather their grandparent – she would have been simply too old to have them.  They are:

• Nancy Dickson b. abt 1829 Ashe Co., NC d. abt 1879 m1 21 Feb 1846 Wellborn Ray m2. 22 Oct 1857 Aswell Peter Eller
• Sarah Jane Dickson b. 14 Sep 1830 Ashe Co., NC d. 21 Mar 1890 Wyoming Co., WV m. abt 1855 John Wiggins Ray
• Caroline Dickson b. 4 Mar 1832 Ashe Co., NC d. 26 Jan 1925 Ashe Co., NC or Roane Co., TN m. 21 Nov 1848 Ashe Co., NC Calvin Eller

I’ve always suspected that I didn’t have a list of missing children born between 1804 and 1811 and have thought that they were responsible for the younger three daughters.

This family is significant in Ashe Co., NC mostly because of the marriage of Lucy Dickson and Daniel Blevins.  There are some unexpected ties between two Pennington lines and the Blevins family.  Daniel Blevins had a sister named Hester that married Andrew Pennington of the PRA Group 30 and he also had a brother named James who married Artremecia Pennington (Andrew’s sister) and their oldest sibling, Wells also married another sister of Andrew named Elizabeth.  So between the three Blevins siblings who married Pennington siblings and the younger Daniel who married a Pennington granddaughter, there are some interesting family ties.  There are several who can claim ancestry through both Group 30 and Group 7.  There is certainly a DNA tie within these families but at this point, don’t know what it is.  There is however, a lot of circumstantial evidence that these families have close ties based on the marriages alone.

The rest of Johanna’s siblings moved away, but Johanna lived her live in Ashe Co., NC and died sometime before 1860 most likely in her mid 70’s.  Her husband, Douglas died after 1860 as he is recorded in the 1860 census.  Their burial location or actual death dates are unknown.  There is a lot about their lives that seem to be mysterious to me.  Most especially that gap between  1804 and 1811…as well as three children attributed to the couple when Johanna would have been 50 plus years old.  These three are not recorded in the household in the 1850 census, but I have never found anything else that proves or disproves the fact that they had a familial relationship.  I suspect that there are a few illegitimate children that are also represented so it makes the waters somewhat murkier.

As with any research process, there is always new information that might be found.  So…sometime in the future, I need to once again attack these families and see if something new is to be found.  I, myself, find it interesting that for so long researchers have attributed the majority of Ashe Co., NC Penningtons to the descendants of Micajah Pennington – when in reality the only child of his who stayed there married a Dickson, so therefore I know of no known Micajah Pennington descendants in Ashe Co., NC with the last name of Pennington.

Levi Pennington & Elizabeth Henson Family

The earliest Pennington relative that I discovered is my 3^rd great grandmother.  With name of Elizabeth Pennington – she had an unfortunate commonality with a lot of female Penningtons, the first name of Elizabeth!  In my Pennington database alone, I have about 28 Eliza or Elizabeth Penningtons.    So even though I knew her name, it took a lot more time to figure out which Pennington line that she belonged to.  Turned out that she was the second youngest child of Levi Pennington and his wife, Elizabeth Henson – I have thirteen children listed for this family.  Some number their children as many as 16, but I have stuck with the 13 children that I can identify and connect through documentation.

Levi Pennington and Elizabeth Henson probably married around 1814 or 1815.  I doubt if it was much before that because Elizabeth Henson was born in 1799 and would have been a little young.  Here is a list of Levi and Elizabeth’s children:

• Dora  b. bet 1810-1820
• Edy b. abt 1815 d. abt 1866 m. abt 1835 Nathan Eastrage
• Hiley b. bet 1816-1818 d. 4 Nov 1895 m. Aug 1837 James Emmett Lewis
• Elijah Ephraim b. bet 1819 – 1822 d. Jan 1892 m. abt 1846 Mary Osborne
• William b. 1821 d. aft 1880 m. abt 1848 Frances Blevins
• Larkin b. Jan 1826 d. 6 May 1901 m. 11 Feb 1857 Lydia Lewis
• Harvey b. 29 Feb 1828 d. 21 Apr 1822 m. abt 1850 Easter Little m. abt Oct 1896 Martha Ann Brooks
• John b. 10 May 1829 d. 5 Mar 1917 m. 16 Feb 1859 Manda Hurley m. abt 1860 Emeline Kilby  
• Anderson b. 1832 d. 1850
• Andrew b. 1834 d. aft 27 Aug 1863 m. 5 Nov 1857 Mary Little
• Levi Daniel b. 1837 d. 17 Jan 1909 m. 17 Dec 1854 Elizabeth Osborn
• Elizabeth b. abt 1839 d. bet 1883-1887 m. 17 Jan 1857 Alexander Monroe Dollar
• Martha b. 29 Mar 1843 d. 21 Dec 1926 m. 21 Mar 1872 Marshall Gilley

If you read my previous 1940 Laurel Twp Census blogs – you will have found a prominent position for the children and grandchildren of Elijah Ephraim Pennington, John Pennington and Edy Pennington Eastrage.  These three children of Levi stayed in the Laurel area.  It is unknown where Edy is buried, but John is buried in a family cemetery in the Laurel area, and Elijah is in the Elijah A Shepherd Cemetery.    John Pennington’s name is fairly prominent because he acted as a Justice of Peace and you will find Elijah Pennington’s name quite often as well.  Especially at the Little Laurel Baptist Church where several of the stained glass windows are in memorial to he and other members of his family. 

Little Laurel Baptist Church

Elijah Pennington window

Isaac Pennington window

The land in the Laurel area that these families lived on were land grants that has been gained by Ephraim Pennington b. 1769 d. aft 1852 and in all likelihood his father as well (Probably Ephraim b. 1745).  We know that Ephraim had at least three sons – Levi b. 1794, Andrew b. 7 Sept  1813 and Daniel b. bet 1813-1814.  Ephraim is last recorded in the 1850 census, living with Andrew in Ashe Co., NC.  Andrew sells his land to his nephew and moved over to Laurel Bloomery, Johnson Co., TN and Daniel ended up moving to Claiborne Co., TN.

These close connections between families can make research at times somewhat difficult.  Just when you think you have your data correct…you learn yet another connection.  It is much easier than it was when I first started researching Pennington’s nearly 15 years ago.  There are more records available online and more researchers available via email to communicate with.  At least now, if someone is a descendant of an Elizabeth Pennington – I have 28 connected…and perhaps I can help!

A Surprise With Hiley

If you ever think that you have the “complete” information on a family – be prepared to be wrong.  I didn’t feel quite that confident about the family of Levi Pennington and Elizabeth Henson, but I was pretty sure that we had a pretty good list of their children.  I was definitely proved wrong.

A few years ago, I began hearing about a Hiley Pennington.  Now…I had never come across this name and so it was pretty interesting.  She was born between 1816-1818 in Ashe Co., NC and died 4 Nov 1895 at Sturgill, Ashe Co., NC.  Hiley was married to James Emmett Lewis  in August 1837 probably also in Ashe Co., NC and they were the parents of eight children.  I went through my normal research to see if I could figure out where she belonged.  The more I looked the more suspicious that I got that I was looking at a daughter of Levi Pennington and Elizabeth Henson.

Levi Pennington was born abt 1794 probably in Ashe Co., NC and died sometime bet 1886-1887.  He married Elizabeth Henson probably around 1815.  They have been said to have anywhere between 12 and 16 children.  I really felt that I could only prove 12 children and so that was on my list.  However, I became convinced that Hiley was actually one of those children and therefore I had to raise my number to 13.  Their children are:

• Dora Pennington b. bet 1810-1820 (no further info)
• Edy Pennington b. abt 1815 Ashe Co., NC d. abt 1866 Ashe Co., NC m. Nathan Eastrage
• Hiley Pennington b. bet 1816-1818 Ashe Co., NC d. 4 Nov 1895 Sturgill, Ashe Co., NC m. James Emmett Lewis
• Elijah Ephraim Pennington b. bet 1819-1822 Ashe Co., ND d. 4 Nov 1895 Ashe Co., NC m. Mary Osborne
• William Pennington b. abt 1821 Ashe Co., ND d. aft 1880 m. Frances Blevins
• Larkin Pennington b. Jan 1826 Ashe Co., NC d. 6 May 1901 Ashe Co., NC. m. Lydia Lewis
• Harvey Pennington b. 29 Feb 1828 Ashe Co., NC d. 21 Apr 1922 Ashe Co., NC m. abt 1850 Easter Little m. 2. Oct 1896  Martha Ann Brooks  
• John Pennington b. 10 May 1829 Ashe Co., NC d. 5 Mar 1917 Ashe Co., NC m. 16 Feb 1859 Manda Hurley m 2. Abt 1860 Emeline Kilby
• Anderson Pennington b. 1832 Ashe Co., NC d. 1850 Ashe Co., NC (Drowned)
• Andrew Pennington b. 1834 Ashe Co., NC d. aft 27 Aug 1863 (Civil War) m. 5 Nov 1857 Mary Little
• Levi Daniel Pennington b. 1837 Ashe Co., ND c. 17 Jan 1909 Morganton, Burke Co., NC m. 17 Dec 1854 Elizabeth Osborn
• Elizabeth Pennington b. abt 1839 Ashe Co., NC d. bet 1883-1887 Johnson Co., TN m. 17 Jan 1857 Alexander Monroe Dollar (my line)
• Martha Pennington b. 29 Mar 1843 Hemlock, Ashe Co., NC d. 21 Dec 1926 Eldreth, Ashe Co., NC m. 21 Mar 1872 Marshel Gilley

There may be more because we have a few unidentified names that we have found in a Probate document on Levi Pennington.  I’ve not yet been able to identify Isaac Cartron & wife and C. A. Warren and wife Catherine.

Clip listing the children of Levi and grandchildren (if parent had passed away)

 

This gives me hope that someday, someone will find another document that answers all the questions that this Probate document poses.  Although you must admit that it is interesting that there is hope that if you keep searching even on families that you think you have a complete history…you never will know when something shows up that offers a delightful surprise piece of information.  So…Hiley was a surprise all those years ago…but she was also a good lesson.  Never believe that your information is complete – there always might something else that explains yet another mystery.

Intersecting Families....

The Pennington family in Ashe Co., NC intersects with a lot of families.  Possibly one of the most dominant of these families is the Blevins family.  They are present in the Micajah Pennington line (Group 7) as well as Group 30 and the children of Abram Pennington.  Trying to figure out where they fit can be a challenge.

Johanna Pennington was the youngest daughter of Micajah Pennington and Rachel Jones.  She was born on 24 Mar 1779 in Wilkes Co., NC and died before 1860 probably in Ashe Co., NC.   Johanna married Douglas Dickson sometime before 1804 probably in Ashe Co., NC.  They were the parents of eight known children and their daughter Lucy Ann Dickson married Daniel Blevins in 1831 in Ashe Co., NC and were the parents of 13 children and grandparents of at least 40 others.  Daniel Blevins siblings also had close ties to Penningtons.  Daniel was the son of James B. Blevins and Lydia Sizemore.  James Blevins and Lydia Sizemore’s had ten children and of those four were married to Penningtons. They were:

• Wells Blevins  b. 8 Oct 1795 Ashe Co., NC and d. 23 Dec 1865 Whitetop, Grayson Co., VA m abt 1820 Elizabeth Pennington b. 9 Apr 1798 Ashe Co., NC d. 13 Dec 1868 in Whitetop, Grayson Co., VA
• Hester Ann Blevins b. 8 May 1812 in Ashe Co., NC and d. 19 Oct 1890 in Konnarock, Smyth Co., VA m. abt 1835 Andrew Pennington b. 11 Oct 1809 Ashe Co., NC d. 11 Oct 1882 Konnarock, Smyth Co., VA
• James Blevins, Jr b. abt 1809 in Ashe Co., NC and d. 23 Dec 1869 in Ashe Co., NC m. abt 1831 Artemecia Pennington b. abt 1810 in Ashe Co., NC d. 27 Feb 1897 in Ashe Co., NC
• Daniel was born about 1814 in Ashe Co., NC and died 12 July 1864 probably either in Ashe Co., NC or Washington Co., VA. m. abt 1831 Lucy Ann Dickson b. abt 1815 in Ashe Co., NC and d. 1883 Ashe Co., NC

All three of the Pennington siblings were the children of Abram Pennington who was probably a cousin of Micajah Pennington and his granddaughter who married Daniel Blevins – their younger brother.

James Blevins and Lydia Sizemore had about 44 grandchildren with these Pennington siblings and cousins.  Then the Blevins and Penningtons make things even more confusing by intermarrying several times.  It seems that almost any Blevins in Ashe Co., NC is somehow connected to both the Pennington/Dickson family as well as the Blevins family.   Some of these Pennington/Blevins families stayed in Ashe Co., NC but many more lived in Smyth and Washington Co., VA as well as Grayson Co., VA.

When I am confused as to the relationship of a Blevins to the Pennington family – I refer to Ron Blevins who I think is probably the best Blevins researcher that I have come across.  There have been many times that the two of us have had to puzzle out a relationship and it has taken both of our databases and experience to figure it out. 

Now, I don’t believe that this is any different than any other county with families who have lived in the same area of generations.  In fact – I’m sure that there are many other researchers out there who have experienced the same challenges.  The Blevins family helped convince me to research not just one Pennington line but multiple Pennington lines.  These cover the Pennington Research Association groups of Group 7 (Desc. Of Micajah Pennington) Group 30 (Desc. Of Abram Pennington) and also of Douglas Pennington b. 1818 whose lineage has not yet been ascertained.  

So, if you research Penningtons – you also research Blevins and a few other family lines such as Graybeal and Osborne.  It is a tangled web with many intersecting relationships.  It is difficult enough with a computer and genealogy program – I have to wonder how genealogist who were not computer aided managed the excellent research that they accomplished.

A Tale of Two Andrews…

I have been studying the Pennington family for about 15 years.  In the beginning, I concentrated my efforts on my 3^rd Great grandmother and her family.  I became the group leader for the PRA Group 7 – which were the descendants of Micajah Pennington.  As I expanded my research, I looked at all of the Pennington in the Ashe Co., NC area and later expanded my search to Watauga Co., NC, Wilkes Co., NC, Grayson Co., VA, Smyth Co., VA, Lee Co., VA, Washington Co., VA, Harlan Co., KY & Johnson Co., TN.  I call this group the “Ashe Co., NC Penningtons” – which includes Penningtons in Group 4, 7, 12, 30, 31, &32.  Most of my time has been spent on the Groups 7 and 30 which includes the majority of the Penningtons living today in Ashe Co., NC, Smyth Co., VA, Washington Co., VA, and Johnson Co., TN.  One of my most challenging puzzles involved two Andrew Penningtons who had too many similarities.

Most of the Group 30 Pennington descend from Andrew Pennington b. 11 Oct 1809 in Ashe Co., NC.  He is the son of Abram Pennington.  Although Andrew had siblings – he seems to be the primary direct ancestor of most of the Smyth Co., and Washington Co., VA Pennington.  Andrew married Hester Ann Blevins about 1835 in Ashe Co., NC.  Hester was the daughter of James Blevins and Lydia Sizemore and along with two of her siblings married Pennington siblings.  Hester and Andrew had 14 children and both lived fairly long lives.  If you follow Andrew’s path in the census he is located in the following locations:

• 1850 Census – Ashe Co., NC
• 1860 Census – Western District, Washington Co., VA
• 1870 Census – Abington, Washington Co. VA
• 1880 Census – Holston, Washington Co., VA
• Died 11 Oct 1882 – Smyth Co., VA and buried at Laurel Cemetery, Smyth Co., VA

By my count, Andrew and Hester had 72 grandchildren – it is no wonder that their descendants are so plentiful.

The second Andrew was born a few years later on 7 Sept 1813 in Ashe Co., NC.  He was the son of Ephraim Pennington b. 1769.  (I differentiate these Pennington sometimes by their birth years because there are multiple Penningtons with the same first name)  At first, it seemed possible that he was son of Levi Pennington b. 1794 and a brother of my 3^rd great grandmother, Elizabeth Pennington.  There are 14 to 16 children that are attributed to Levi Pennington and Elizabeth Henson – however, this Andrew Pennington is not one of them.  Instead, he is a younger brother of Levi Pennington.  You might wonder how we came to that conclusion.  I say “we” because there were several people involved in looking at and studying the information.  We came to that conclusion after a close reading of a letter that we had a copy of that was written by Daniel Pennington, a younger brother of Andrew.  In this letter, Daniel is visiting his brother in Laurel Bloomery, Johnson Co., TN and talks about visiting his son’s uncle Levi the next day in Ashe Co., NC.  This meant that Levi was not Andrew’s father, but rather his brother and the Ephraim that he was recorded with in 1850 was most likely his father.  At the time I first started researching him – I didn’t realize the important role that Andrew played in my family’s history.  My 3^rd Great grandmother, Elizabeth and her husband Alexander Monroe Dollar left Ashe Co., NC and moved to Laurel Bloomery, Johnson Co., TN sometime after 1880.  I’m sure they went to Laurel Bloomery because Elizabeth’s uncle was already living there with his family.  So…here is Andrew’s path through the census –

• 1850 – Ashe Co., NC
• 1860 – Ward’s Forge, Johnson Co., TN
• 1870 – Taylorsville, Johnson Co., TN
• 1880  - Johnson Co., TN
• Died – 29 Dec 1894 – Shingletown, Johnson Co., TN (Laurel Bloomery area)
• Buried – Wesley Methodist Church Cemetery, Shingletown, Johnson Co., TN

Andrew's grave at Wesley Methodist Church Cemetery - Johnson Co., TN

Andrew married Mary Elizabeth Pope around 1835 and were the parents of 8 children. Andrew married a second time after Mary Elizabeth Pope’s death to an Elizabeth Shepherd sometime after 1884.  Andrew and his wife had about 25 grandchildren.  However, if you look at those buried at Wesley Methodist Cemetery in Shingletown, I would estimate that about 70% of those buried there are somehow connected to Andrew and his descendants. 

View looking towards the Wesley Methodist Church from the cemetery.

So, when you research Andrew Pennington b. 1809 or Andrew Pennington b. 1813 you will find them in close geographic proximity in almost every census.  Not only is that a problem, when you look at census records, it is common to find mistakes in the years of birth.  So either one could easily be mistaken for the other – the only way to truly separate them is to look at their wives.  It took me a few years to locate them in all the census records and to build my database to include their children and other descendants.  Now, as a Pennington dies in the region – I spend the time to add their information to my database and attempt to connect them.  When I can’t connect them – I am often drawn in a whole other direction of research.  You might say that these two Andrew’s were my first tangents in other genealogy directions and I’ve never stopped looking at their families or adding new information to my database.  So my tale of two Andrews is always in flux and probably will never be complete.