Arthur,
I received electronic copies of the two pages of Thom Carden's 1990 chart
several weeks ago from Elisa. The words on these two pages are indeed
difficult to read, but I agree that Elisa's message yesterday (Apr 17)
containing her best effort to make out the wording across the top of the
sheets is probably correct, as is her list of the names of the fourteen
children of Robert Carden and Phyllis Wilbank (Woolbank) that are associated
with the vertical lines that fall below the long horizonal line across the
top of the page.
Your original message quoted Thom Carden's written statement that "Top line
represents the 14 children of Robert and Phyllis, 5 of which are traced to
date." You correctly wondered whether it was actually five, as he wrote, or
six, as a quick glance at the chart appears to indicate. Six of these 14
children, specifically Reuben Henry, James, Robert, Leonard, Larkin, and
Jesse, appear to have vertical lines containing family descendants below
their names, but Thom Carden was correct - there are really only five
families, not six, that are traced on the chart. A closer look at the chart
will show that most of the information under the name Leonard, and
specifically the information (names of 6 children) written for Leonard A.
(jr.) who married Margaret Berry, is a duplicate subset of the same
information found under the name James for the same Leonard who married M.
Berry. That is, the same six children listed for the Leonard A. that Thom
Carden shows under the name Leonard are also listed (along with two other
children) for the Leonard that Thom Carden shows under the name James. This
Leonard whose name is duplicated in both places on the chart is Leonard
Ansel Carden, who married Margaret Berry, daughter of Sanford Berry, in
Franklin Co. Tennessee in about 1820. The father of this Leonard Ansel
Carden was James Carden, who migrated to the part of Franklin Co. TN that
became Coffee Co. TN when the latter county was formed in 1836. James
Carden and many of his descendants are buried in the Carden cemetery in
Coffee Co. TN. One of his sons, the Leonard Ansel Carden described above,
migrated from their home in Franklin (Coffee) TN along with four of his
Berry brothers-in-law (sons of Sanford Berry) and several of their Frazier
neighbors, across the state line into what became Jackson Co. Alabama. My
own father, a great grandson of this Leonard Ansel Carden, was born in
Jackson Co. AL in 1895. Evidently back in 1990, Thom Carden knew that there
were a few folks who thought this Leonard who married Margaret Berry and
raised a family in Jackson Co. AL might be the son of the Leonard across the
top of the chart, so he showed the family of Leonard and Margaret in two
places on his chart, in deference to those who had this alternate view.
Although there may be some of our cousins who haven't yet been fully
convinced, I have never seen anything to suggest that this Leonard across
the top of the chart was ever in Middle Tennessee or Northern Alabama. When
I uncovered what seems to be firm evidence of a joint migration from
Franklin (Coffee) Co. TN to Jackson Co. AL by these extended
Berry-Carden-Frazier family members (and side-by-side neighbors) that
intermarried in both TN and AL, that was sufficient to convince me that
James Carden, buried in Coffee Co. TN, not Leonard Carden who probably never
came to TN or AL, was the ancestor of my father who was born in Jackson Co.
AL.
It turns out that the 1914 letter from O. C. Carden to Rev. T. A. Carden of
Joelton TN, posted for us last week by Trish Carden, contains more evidence
on this same issue. We may not know the identity of O. C. Carden, but Rev.
Thomas Alexander Carden was the great grandson of James Carden of Franklin
(Coffee) Co. TN. Every person mentioned in the 3rd paragraph of that letter
was a descendant of James Carden. This includes the two guys who had
written multiple letters to this O. C. Carden. One was Anderson V. Carden,
who had run away from the law to California, but who later returned to
Coffee Co. and is buried in the Carden cemetery there. The other writer of
multiple letters to O. C. Carden was Robert Columbus Carden, who happens to
be Beth Carden MacDonald's great grandfather. This Robert C. Carden had
told O. C. Carden that his (Robert C.'s) father Reuben had five brothers
(uncles of Robert C.) named Lewis, Robert, John, James, and Leonard. This
paragraph goes on to say that one of these brothers, Leonard, had three sons
who were (actually) John Lewis Carden, Leonard W. Carden, and James Sanford
Carden. Finally, the paragraph states that one of these three sons, John
Lewis Carden, had a son named Homer Carden who was living in Trenton, AL,
which happens to be in Jackson County. Hence, this paragraph appears to
show the family connection between James Carden of Franklin (Coffee) Co. TN
and his son Leonard Ansel Carden who migrated to Jackson Co. AL, and
Leonard's grandson Homer Carden, who was still living in Jackson Co. AL in
1914 and died in 1965. I suggest that this 3rd paragraph of this 1914
letter supports the position that Thom Carden PhD got it right when he
showed Leonard Ansel Carden and all of his Jackson Co. AL descendants to
fall under James Carden on his chart.
Bill Carden