Presley G. Davenport

(c1805 – 1890)

 

His name is a mystery, for I found no connection between Presley families and Davenports.  However, he was not the first Davenport to be named “Presley”. [1]  The 1801 will of William Davenport of Charlotte County, Virginia names his son Presley Davenport as an executor.[2]  And the 1798 will of Francis Davenport Jr. in Newberry County, SC named a son Presley Davenport.  Our Presley Davenport is thought by some descendants to have had the middle name “George”.

 

Our Presley was born about 1805, probably in Oglethorpe County, Georgia (he gave his birth state as Georgia in each later census).   He married Sarah Ann Credille, daughter of Moses Credille and Abigail Davis, on 30 September 1831 in Henry County, Georgia.  [Note that Presley’s 1872 pension application gives the date as 30 September 1830.]  In 1832 he drew lot #28 in Murray County in the Cherokee Land Lottery as a resident of Clarke County.  In 1840 he was enumerated in the Pike County census.[3]  In 1850 he was in the Henry County census.[4]

 

Presley G. Davenport seems to have shared some characteristics with his grandfather, in that he appears to have been constantly in debt.  Neither his father nor his mother-in-law trusted him with property.  On 8 December 1842, Martin S. Davenport “for love and affection for my son Presley G. Davenport and his children” gave two slaves “unto my son-in-law Ellington Credille in trust for the use of said Presley, his wife and children”.[5]  Why this gift was not given outright to Presley is unknown, but the intention was clearly to give Presley the use of the slaves but not the ownership.  Upon Ellington Credille’s death in 1850, responsibility for this trust (in the form of the surviving issue of these slaves) passed to Presley’s brother Moses N. Davenport.  On 6 May 1850, a Henry County record shows that Moses N. Davenport “received from Catherine Davenport, administrator of the estate of Ellington Credille, deceased, one negro girl by the name of Elizabeth being the only surviving negro conveyed to Ellington Credille in trust for Presley G. Davenport and his children...”[6]

 

Presley served briefly as a private in the war against the Creek Indians, and used that service to obtain benefits.[7]  He enrolled in the Georgia Western Guards mounted militia on 7 June 1836 and was mustered out a few months later on 3 September 1836.  On 23 October 1850, while a resident of Henry County, Georgia, he applied for a land bounty based on this service.  He declared that he volunteered in Troup County and served for three months, and gave his age as 45.  A year later, on 15 December 1851, a land warrant for 40 acres was issued.[8]  On 30 June 1855, as a resident of Cass County, Texas, he declared he had disposed of the first warrant, applied for additional bounty land, and another warrant for 40 acres was issued.[9] 

 

He had moved to Cass County, Texas probably in late 1854 (Sidney Davenport, born c1854, shows a birthplace of Georgia in three censuses.)  On 30 December 1854 Presley G. Davenport of Cass County purchased 300 acres in exchange for a slave woman and child valued at $1,000.[10]  The land was part of the J. R. Boyce headright, on the north side of Frazier’s Creek, a few miles northeast of Linden.[11]  Family legends, repeated by the descendants of his daughter Unica Davenport Witt, seem to agree that he was a cotton farmer who brought several slaves with him from Georgia. [See the footnote for a summary of the legends.][12]

 

He must have fallen on hard times almost immediately.  Three merchants obtained a judgment against him in March 1856 for $180.40.  A month later, on 11 April 1856, the sheriff sold 100 acres of his land to satisfy the debt, one of the creditors being the high bidder.[13]  On 2 August 1856 Presley sold an additional 5 acres to the same creditor for $25.[14] 

 

Presley was also disposing of both his land warrants at about this time, but was apparently still in debt.  On 8 October 1856, Abigail Credille of Cass County made a deed of gift to “my beloved daughter Sarah Ann Davenport, wife of Presley G. Davenport”, of a slave, a mule, nine cows and a wagon. [15]  The gift was explicitly exempted from “the debts, contracts, and liabilities of her husband Presley G. Davenport.”

 

The 1860 census of Cass County shows Presley G. Davenport, age 53 born in GA, with his wife and the last five children in the household.[16]  Presley, shown as a farmer, is listed with $4,000 in real estate and $1,600 in personal property – both of which are likely overstated.  The slave schedule lists him with a single male slave aged 10.  Not far away is James G. Credille, Sara’s brother, with Abigail Credille in his household.  Presley took the amnesty oath in Cass County on 29 September 1865.  On 25 May 1866 Presley executed a promissory note to a local merchant; he had borrowed $100 “for the use of my family and for the purpose of keeping up my  farm and making a crop” and promised to deliver 500 pounds of cotton at the end of the year.[17]

 

Although the 195 acres he still owned was declared to be worth $4,000 in the 1860 census, on 24 September 1867 Presley and Sarah Davenport sold the remaining 195 acres for $200.[18]  (The $3,000 may have included the value of slaves he still owned at the time.)  They apparently moved to neighboring Titus County.  The 1870 Titus County census shows Presley (now age 64) and his wife, with George and Sydney in the household.[19]  They are living next door to his daughter Unica and son-in-law James H. Witt.  Presley is shown as a farmer with $320 in real estate and $150 in personal property.  Essentially all 19^th century records of Titus County were lost in a courthouse fire, but this census record implies that Presley had bought land near Mt. Pleasant.

 

On 14 November 1872, as a resident of Mt. Pleasant, Titus County, he applied for a pension based on his 1836 militia service.  This was apparently an act of desperation.  He applied under the act granting pensions to veterans of the War of 1812, so the pension was ultimately rejected.  Four months earlier, he had also applied for a third land warrant, which was also rejected.  However, the application file includes a few of useful statements.  He declared that he was married to “Sarah Ann Criddle” in Henry County, Georgia on 30 September 1830 (sic).  He also gave his age as 66 in a deposition of July 1872 and as 68 in another deposition in November 1872.    On 27 February 1873 he wrote to Washington, saying “I am old, uncrafted, and poverty stricken, and need aid if I am entitled to anything under the law.”

 

At some point in the 1870s, he moved to Dallas County along with three of his children.  His wife is thought to have died about 1874, which might account for the move.  The 1880 census of Dallas County shows Tilman Seago (Matilda’s husband), Sidney Davenport, and George Davenport living adjacent to one another in the community then known as Seago.[20]  Presley (now age 75) appears in the household of his son George Davenport.  He apparently returned to northeast Texas, and died in 1890 in Hopkins County, according to descendants.  He and his wife are buried in the Mt. Zion Cemetery  in Sunny Point, Hopkins County.  I was unable to find a probate record.

 

Presley and Sarah had eight known children:

 

1.      James Davenport (c1832 – 15 November 1862)  The 1840 household shows no sons, but a daughter aged 5-10.  This is apparently an error, for the 1850 census shows a male named “J.” aged 18 as the eldest child.  Family legend identifies this eldest child as James.  He enlisted in Marshall, Texas on 24 February 1862 in Co. A of Clarke’s Regiment (the 14^th) of Texas Infantry.  He died at Camp Nelson, Kentucky, and is buried in the national cemetery there.  He was unmarried.  I am unable to find him in the 1860 census.

2.      (daughter) Davenport (c1835 – c1835)  A daughter died in infancy.[21]

3.      Matilda Elvira Davenport (26 May 1839 –  19 July 1909)  She was apparently the other female in the 1840 household.  On 28 January 1855 she married in Cass County to Tillman Kimsey Seago.  By 1870 they were in Dallas County, where Seago owned a store by 1876, and is generally credited with giving his name to the community of Seagoville.[22]  They moved to Comanche County about 1884, and are both buried there.  She had at least seven children who appeared in the 1880 census.

4.      Jesse Dawson Davenport (c1842 – 20 June 1863) He was the eldest child in the 1860 household, listed as age 18.  He enlisted on 22 February 1862, and died at Memphis while serving in the Confederate army.

5.      Moses Charles Davenport (c1845 – c1878)  He was listed in the 1860 household as age 15.  I did not find him in the 1870 census or later.  The Witt family legend is that he worked in a store in Snow Hill, Titus County, and drowned when he was shipping cotton on a freight boat that sank near New Orleans in the late 1870s.  He was evidently unmarried when he died.

6.      George Washington P. Davenport (13 November 1848 – 27 February 1927) The 1850 census lists him as “G. W. P.”, the only occurrence of the third initial that I’m aware of.  He was listed in 1860 as age 12 and in 1870 as age 21.  Though too young to serve, he was a mail courier for the Confederates, was a waggoneer after the war, and is said to have supported his  parents as a young man.[23] He married Mary Georgia Holbert.  They are in the 1880 Dallas County census with Ida Holbert, a sister-in-law, and his father Presley in their household.  George is said to have bought a farm in Cumby (then known as Black Jack) about 1891 and returned to northeast Texas, raising cattle, horses and mules.[24]  Both George and Mary are buried in the Sunny Point Cemetery in Hopkins County, Texas.  His birth and death dates are from his gravestone.[25]  Vineta Witt Keetner got some of he

7.      Unica Abigail Davenport (18 Nov 1849 – 16 May 1935) She is listed as “U” in 1860, age 11, and as “Unica” in 1870.  Nearly all records of her name thereafter are as “Unica” – the source of that name is unknown to me.  She was called “Una” by many.  She married James Houston Witt in Titus County on 17 December 1868.  Both are buried in the Omaha cemetery in Morris County, Texas.  Her gravestone and family records are the source of her birth and death dates.  ( See WITT papers for more detail on this couple.)

8.      Sidney C. Davenport (c1854 – 1880)  He was in the 1860 census as age 6, 1870 as age 15, and 1880 as age 26.  His birthplace was Georgia in all three censuses, implying that the move to Texas was probably in 1854.   According to family legend, Sidney’s first wife was Molly Cameron, who died when their two children were quite young, and Sidney married again.[26]  The 1880 Dallas census shows Sidney, his wife “Mary E.”, and two children (James, 4,  and Ginnie, 2) living next door to George and Presley.  Legend is that, on his death bed, he asked his brother George to take care of his children. The son, James Davenport, died at 21 and the daughter, Ginnie, married a man named Crunk.[27]  Paul Crunk, a descendant, said that the daughter (his grandmother) was thought to be named Eunice Jane but was known as “Jennie”, and married William Franklin Crunk, at the Scatter Branch Church in Hunt County on 16 August 1896.[28]