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Dear Bonnie,
I know that you are very busy digesting all the data that you
collected inyour recent trip. I look forward to a report on the
internet of your gleanings. I want to add an item to my letter
to you of 7/5/1997 in which I outlined new ideas relative to
Burrell, his son Daniel and the Catos of Georgia and Ala. In
that letter I suggested that Henry Cato of Stewart Co., Tn.
might be a son of Daniel. He settled Daniel's estate but I was
retaining him as a son of Sterling because if I moved him to
Daniel's family, then I had no one else to be the third son of
Sterling born before1790. However I have found another man
to consider. He is Nehemiah Cato. Nehemiah was on the 1810
tax list of Stewart Co. (born before 1789 surely) and he served
in the same Company with Henry Cato in the
War of 1812 (Capt. Gray's Co.) I think we should rearrange the
two two families as follows, moving Henry to Daniel's family and
shifting Ransom to Sterling's family as a son born before 1790.
The seven sons of Daniel Cato in the 1800 census (2 born before
1790 and 5 born 1790-00): Henry, Nehemiah, Burwell, Ransom,
Alfred, Roger, Rufus.
The eight sons of Sterling Cato: Nathan, Needham, Ransom,
Sterling, James, William Wyatt, Claiborn, Uriah and possibly an
unnamed son born after 1810.
This puts all of Daniel's sons having records only in Stewart Co.
except Cullen and all of Sterling family having records in Kentucky
except James who was born in S.C. (so he must be son of Sterling,
not Daniel) and Ransom who was closely accosiated with James.
Two things disturb me about this arrangement. One is that now we
have no son of Sterling named Henry as a primary name. There is
Claiborn Henry however as a son. The other thing is that Ransom
seems to fit there better but his age doesn't. He was born 1800-10
according to the 1830 census but this seems unlikely since he
signed a petition in 1819. He surely was born before 1800. To fit
into Sterling's family he would need to be born before 1790. Was
there an older Ransom than the one in the 1830 census of Arkansas.
Please give your thoughts.
Henry Brackin
Kathryn
Bonnie was by a couple of weeks ago and we discussed the Cato
family especially from Wayne Co. Mo. We have come to the conclusion
that Tibitha Cato who married Thomas Jefferson Mcgee was the oldest
daughter of Lewis and Sarah Cato. Why?
She fits into the catagory in the 1830 census 1 f 20-30 Born1810
under Louis Cato
Ivan McKee says that she comes from the South Carolina bunch
Louis's first couple were born in South Carolina
What did they have in common? Tibitha and Thomas were both
from prominent slave holding families.
Richard Sr. who was probably Louis's Brother married Thomas Jefferson
McGee's sister Melvina Mcgee. So now Tibitha's uncle Richard becomes
her brother-in-law.
Open for comment
Adruain
Henry
It was a pleasure for myself and my wife to meet you and you wife.
I don't think Bonnie is home yet as she spent the week-end in Arkansas
at a family reunion. Bonnie and I went to Mo. on Monday the 30th of
June and visited the original Homeplace where Lewis first landed. We
walked the levee where the Cato's started it with Slave labor to keep their
farms from flooding ( incidently the federal govt. later continued this levee
all the way to the Mississippi river to keep the farm land from flooding).
We then visited the Cato cemetary and again visited Lewis's grave.
(1786-1839) on the headstone. After walking through this cemetary
we visited Cletes Cato and his wife Jessie what a wonderful couple.
Cletes is probably the oldest surviving descendant of Lewis and believes
he lives on the original landgrant. What some wonderful stories he can tell
you and he shared a picture of his grandfather Nathan L. and brother
William Green (his younger brother) in their confederate uniforms.
After this we visited the McGee cemetary. There we saw the graves of
Thomas Jefferson McGee and his wife Tibitha (Cato) McGee. We then
went to Greenbrier, Mo drove through it and visited the Ladd chapel.
After which Bonnie continued on to research at Columbia, Jefferson City,
and Kansas City. I am anxiously awaiting to hear from her to see what she
uncovered.
I have always thought that Henry, Lewis and Richard were brothers, and
that
Needham and Sterling were brothers but never could prove it, it was just a
gut
feeling. I'll be interested to see what Bonnie thinks. She will probably be
back home
by the middle of the week. Again it is like you said it is good to put a
face with
a name on a fellow researcher.
Later
Adruain
July 5,1997
Dear Bonnie and Adrian,
I really enjoyed meeting both of you, your daughter Bonnie and
your wife Adruian when you visited me in my home last Sunday. I hope
your research this week has been fruitful.
I have been doing some thinking since our meeting and ended up
revising extensively my write up on the Cato family that I gave you.
I want to share with you my ideas and get your feedback before
disseminating the revision. It may need further revision after I get
your response.
I got to thinking about your statement Bonnie that you were not sure
that Burwell's sons were of age when he died in 1769. I said no
guardianship papers have been found but I am not sure that an
extensive effort has been made to find them. It should be done. The
1800 census of Montgomery Co., N.C. has the son Daniel as less than
45 yrs., making him born after 1755. Based on this record he would
not have been of age and since he was named first in the will, I must
assume he was the oldest son. There was one male in Judith's
household in the same census who was probably the still unmarried
Lewis. So Lewis is most probably not the father of Sterling and Green
Cato of Georgia and later Alabama.
Apparently Burwell never owned but the one piece of property, the
100 acres of land that he bought in 1752 on both sides of White Oak
Swamp, the same piece of property that Judith and Daniel sold in 1779.
I am beginning to suspect that he was a young man at that time of
purchase and was probably born about 1730.
The name Burwell may have come from the Cook family. Jane Cook's
brother John Cook named a son Burwell. The name of Burwell does not
appear in the family of Daniel Cato (John's brother). All this leads
me back to thinking that Burwell was a son of John and Jane Cato,
probably their oldest son.
Where did Daniel Cato (son of Burwell) go after the 1800 census of
Montgomery Co., N.C.? He is not in the 1810 census of N.C., S.C. or
Georgia. I now think that he went to Stewart Co., Tn. The 1810 census
of Tennessee is missing for all counties except Rutherford Co. I
think he is the Daniel Cato that got the license to operate a ferry
across the Cumberland River at the mouth of Cross Creek on 1/20/1808
and died in 1814 with an orphan Rufus and surely other children such
as Burwell, Alfred and Roger whose names appear on the Court Minutes
between 1811-15. A number of families moved to Stewart Co. from
Montgomery Co., N.C. about the same time, including the Andrews and
Scarbrough families who had moved earlier from Brunswick Co., Va. to
Montgomery Co in the 1780's.
James Cato, who was in the Stewart Co. Court Minutes 1815-19 as a
juror, I have listed as a son of Daniel in the last write up but now
I must return him to Sterling's family because the 1850 census of
Pulaski Co., Ark. has his birth place as S.C. I will have a place for
him in Sterling's family by moving Richard to Henry's family. Since
Daniel is a son of Burwell instead of Henry (as my recent write up
had him), there is room for Richard. This will make him a brother of
Lewis (Louis). I have always felt they were brothers but have not
been able to find room for both of them in the same family until now.
This means that the 3 young sons in Henry's household in 1790 were
Richard, Lewis and Henry, all of whom went to Wayne Co. Mo.
In constructing the family of Sterling, there were 3 sons born
before the 1790 census. I think now that they were Nathan, Henry of
Stewart Co., Tn. and Needham. They could not be Henry's sons because
Henry had 3 sons with the same names: Needham and Nathan of S.C. and
Henry of Wayne Co., Mo. I think that Needham was born in 1790, just
before the census was taken. He is sort of a swing man in the
censuses. He is listed in 1830 census as born 1790-00. He was
probably 40 yrs. old just after the taking of the 1830 census. I
think he was 59 yrs. old in the 1850 census, not 69 yrs. as the
census says. The 2 sons born 1784-90 in the 1800 census were surely
Henry and Needham. Nathan was born in 1778 and had left home. There
were 2 sons born 1790-00. They would be Sterling (b. 1795) and James
(b. 1796). Needham, Sterling and James all went to Ark. and both
Needham and James named sons Amos. Again we are getting into the same
family those who lived together and named children similar names. I
continue to believe that the 3 sons of Sterling born 1800-10 are
William Wiat (Wyatt), Claiborn and Uriah. There was a youth in
William Wiat's household in the 1820 and 1830 censuses that was born
1810-15, surely not a son of William Wiat. I wonder if he was a
brother. In other words, did Sterling have a son born after 1810?,
possibly so! I wonder what his name was.
From the 1800 census we know that Daniel had at least 7 sons. There
is room in his family list for both Cullen and Ransom who were surely
born in 1790's. We have then Burwell, Roger, Alfred, Cullen, Ransom
and Rufus, all born before 1800. There should be one more. Could he
be Henry who settled Daniel's estate? At the moment I am still
considering Henry to be Sterling's son but I am not positive. If
Henry is Daniel's son, then who is the third son of Sterling who was
born before 1790? We do not know the age of Ransom who signed the
Petition in Ark. in 1819 with James Cato. He might Sterling's son
since there are other Ransom Catos whose parentage has not been
established but who do not seem to fit into Daniel's family.
Now we still have to consider who was the father of Sterling and
Green Cato of Georgia since we have removed them from the family of
Burwell Cato. The names of Sterling, Green, Lewis, Burwell and John
occurs in these families and surely they must be descendants of John.
They must be sons of Sterling, son of John. Then the Sterling in
Pittsylvania Co., Va. tax list of 1782 with 3 children must be the
this man.
Well, I will close, put this in the mail and await eagerly your in-
put.
Henry Brackin Jr.