Family Group Number STR(8)9#9

Genealogy of George and Hazel Mullins

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Bill Sandifer and Martha Simmons

Husband’s Name William P (N) Sandifer

Date Baptized Silver Creek Baptist Church, Pike Co, Ms.

Date of Marriage c1830

Wife’s Maiden Name Martha Simmons

Date of Birth July 4, 1811 in South Carolina

Date Baptized Silver Creek Baptist Church, Pike Co

Date of Marriage

Date of Death

Place of Burial

Place of Residence

Occupation

Religion

Name of other husbands

Name of Father Richard Simmons

Name of Mother Ann Tyler

2 children in order of birth:

1. Name Jackson Sandifer

Burial Near his grandmother Ann Tyler Simmons, 200 years east of the Iley Varnado old home

2. Name Catherine Sandifer

Name of spouse Wallace A Painter, 7 children

Birth July 23, 1832

Death March 28, 1920

Burial Masonic Cemetery, Spring Creek, Louisiana

Family Group Number STR(8)9#10

Emanuel Varnado and Sally Simmons

Husband’s Name Emanuel D Varnado

Date of Birth January 16, 1807 Barnwell District, SC

Date Baptized 1832 Beulah Baptist Church, Washington Parish, La.

Date of Marriage January 10, 1828

Date of Death October 20, 1882

Place of Burial 1 mile south of Mt Zion church

Place of Residence Pike Co, Ms and Tangiapohoa Parish, La.

Religion Baptist

Name of Father Leonard Varnado

Wife’s Maiden Name Sarah (Sally) Simmons

Date of Birth January 4, 1814 Pike Co, Mississippi

Date Baptized 1837 Beulah Baptist Church, Washington Parish

Date of Death June 23, 1885

Place of Burial 1 mile south of Mt Zion Church

Place of Residence Pike County, east of Osyka

Religion Baptist

Name of Father Richard Simmons

Name of Mother Ann Tyler

10 children in order of birth:

1. Name Warren Newland Varnado

Name of spouse Caroline Strickland, 8 children

Birth July 10, 1829

Married January 1, 1851

Death March 14, 1904

Burial Near the old Ed Varnado home, Pike Co

2. Name Delilah Varnado

Name of spouse William N (Bill) Hope, 6 children

Birth 1830 or 1831

Burial Bill Hope Cemetery, near Kentwood, La.

3 Name Rachel Varnado

Name of spouse Silas Mercer Simmons

Birth December 15, 1832

Death July 21, 1908

Burial Mt Zion Baptist Church, Pike Co

4 Name John Marshall Varnado

Name of spouse Jane Victoria McDaniel, 9 children

Birth 1837 or 1838

Death August 12, 1894

5 Name Norvel A Varnado

Name of spouse Margaret E McDaniel, 13 children

Birth November 8, 1839

Death January 3, 1881

Burial South of Mt Zion church, north of State Line Road

6 Name Adaline Varnado

Birth 1843

Death September 27, 1891

7 Name Lurinda (Lucinda) Varnado

Name of spouse L Harper Varnado, no children

Birth 1845

8 Name Leonard T Varnado

Name of spouse Clarinda A Simmons, 12 children

Birth March 15, 1848

Death September 1, 1929

Burial Spring Creek, Tangiapahoa Parish, La.

9 Name Judson A Varnado

Name of spouse Mary Elizabeth Rhodus, 5 children

Birth 1850

Death 1920

Burial Mt Zion Baptist Church, Pike Co

10 Name Parley Turley Varnado

Name of spouse 1) Georgia Ann Dykes, 12 chn; 2) Leah Wells, 3 chn

Birth 1853

Married 2) January 15, 1914

Death November 6, 1933

Burial East Fork Church, La.

Family Group Number STR(8)11#1

Leonard Varnadoe and Rachel Shillng

Husband’s Name Leonard Varnadoe

Date of Birth 1776 South Carolina

Place of Residence Grew up in SC, moved to Georgia c1809 then on to Natchez Territory before 1811

Occupation Farmer

Name of other wives 2) or 3) McElveen, wife’s name in 1850 is Sarah

Name of Father Samuel Varnadoe, Sr.

Wife’s Maiden Name 1) Rachel Shilling

Date of Marriage Married in South Carolina

Children in order of birth:

1. Name William H Varnadoe

2. Name Emanuel Varnadoe

Name of spouse Sarah Simmons

3 Name Lewis H Varnadoe

4 Name Isham E Varnadoe

Family Group Number STR(8)11#6

Moses Varnedoe and Nancy Ward

Husband’s Name Moses Varnedoe

Date of Birth 1781 in South Carolina

Place of Residence Moved to Georgia c1809 and then to Mississippi Territory to near the site of present day Osyka, Pike County, Mississippi in 1811

Father’s Name Samuel Varnadoe, Sr.

Wife’s Maiden Name Nancy Ward

Children in order of birth:

1. Name Wade Hampton Varnadoe

2. Name Samuel Warren Varnadoe

3 Name Nathaniel Varnadoe

4 Name Mitchell Varnadoe

5 Name Clarinda Varnadoe

Family Group Number STR(8)11#9

Samuel Varnado and Keziah Newsome

Husband’s Name Samuel Varnado, Jr

Date of Birth 1793 South Carolina

Date of Marriage March 3, 1814 Marion County, Mississippi

Date of Death September 26, 1874 Pike County Mississippi

Place of Residence Moved from Georgia to near Osyka, Ms, in 1811

Name of Father Samuel Varnado Sr

Name of Mother 1) First Wife

Wife’s Maiden Name Keziah Newsome

Date of Birth 1792 Edgefield, South Carolina

Place of Burial June 1, 1881

Name of Father John Newsome

Name of Mother Sarah Harpe

The children are listed in STR(7)6

Children in order of birth:

1. Name Charles Varnado

Birth 1822

2. Name Howell Varnado

Birth 1820

3 Name Sarah Varnado

4 Name Archibald Varnado

Birth 1824

5 Name George W Varnado

Birth 1830

6 Name Matilda Varnado

Birth 1814

7 Name David Varnado

Birth 1817

8 Name Newton Bradford Varnado

Name of spouse Isabelle Simmons

Birth June 26, 1827

Married Jan 8, 1852

This family lived near Mt Zion Church, Pike Co

Death April 15, 1897

Burial Newton Varnado Cemetery

9 Name Meredith Varnado

Birth 1832

10 Name Sophronia Varnado

Name of spouse Solomon O Simmons

Birth June 2, 1834 Mississippi

Married Nov 29, 1849

This family lived in the Emerald Community, Pike Co

Death Feb 25, 1904

Burial S O Simmons Cemetery, Pike Co

11,12,13. These three children died when young. They were named Oliver, Franklin and Samuel.

Family Group Number STR(9)1A#3

Henry Strickland and Ruth Thompson

Husband’s Name Henry Strickland

Date of Birth 1766 North Carolina

Date of Marriage 1787

Date of Death February 6, 1817

Place of Burial Madison Co, Georgia

Place of Residence North Carolina and Georgia

Name of Father Solomon Strickland

Name of Mother Amy Pace

Wife’s Maiden Name Ruth Thompson

Date of Birth c1787

Date of Marriage 2) April 10, 1823 Amite Co, Mississippi

Date of Death c1860 St Helena Parish

Place of Residence Georgia, Mississippi and Louisiana

Name of other husbands 2) Samuel Benjamin Bagley

Name of Father Alexander Thompson

Name of Mother Elizabeth (Mary) Hodge

The children are listed in STR(8)1

Children in order of birth:

1. Name Elizabeth Strickland

Name of spouse Dr. Edward White

Birth 1794 in Georgia

Death After 1860 in Texas

Alexander Thompson was born in Philadelphia in 1739 and married Elizabeth Hodge in nearby Carlyle, Pennsylvania, in 1760. They moved to what is now Madison County, Georgia, and operated a gristmill there. They are both buried near the old mill. Two of their children married into the family of Solomon Strickland who had settled near the Thompson’s mill in the 1780s. Both Solomon Strickland and his wife, Amy Pace, were born and raised in North Carolina and were in their late 40s when they moved to Georgia.

Solomon’s great-grandfather had immigrated to Isle of Wight County in Virginia from England with his parents sometime before 1699. Solomon’s father had left Virginia before 1735 and settled in Nash or Guilford County in North Carolina where Solomon was born. Solomon’s son, Henry, was born in North Carolina and probably was in his late teens when he moved with his parents to Georgia. He married Ruth, one of the Thompson girls, and spent the rest of his life farming in Madison County, Georgia. Henry died in 1817 when he was 52 years old. His wife, Ruth, was only about thirty years old. One of her sisters-in-law had moved to Mississippi Territory a few years earlier and Ruth decided to go with her children to Mississippi. In Mississippi Territory she met and married Benjamin Bagley in 1823 and lived on a farm just south of the State Line in St. Helena Parish until she died in 1860. Several of her husband’s siblings and her older brother, Alexander, moved to Amite County, Mississippi Territory, at about the same time. Alexander Thompson was married to Ruth’s sister-in-law, Eunice Strickland. Alexander died in Amite County, Mississippi, in 1824 and his wife, Eunice, died in Amite County in November 27, 1845.

Ruth may have traveled to Amite County, Mississippi, with her daughter, Elizabeth who had married a doctor White. Doctor White, his wife Elizabeth and their sons Henry S White and James T. White lived in Amite County, Mississippi, for about twenty years before moving to Sabine County, Texas, in the 1840s or 1850s with children of James McGrew and related Vardaman and Carter families. Elizabeth White died in Sabine County, Texas after 1860 and her husband, Dr. White, died there in 1871. Their oldest son, Henry Strickland White, was born in Georgia in 1812, married Eliza Jones in Amite County, MS, on July 8, 1836 and died in Sabine County, Texas in 1886. Henry White’s wife died in Amite County. A younger son, James T White was born in 1828 in Amite County, MS, and married Anna Weeks in Texas in 1851. Anna Weeks was the daughter of Levi and Phebe Weeks and was herself born in Amite Co in 1834.

Another of Ruth’s sisters-in-law, Mary Elizabeth Strickland (also apparently called Mollie Cotton) married William Carter of Jackson County, Ga. in 1790. This family apparently moved to Mississippi Territory before Henry Strickland died in 1817. In 1814 William Carter died in St. Tammany Parish in Louisiana. I do not know if this William Carter was a relative of the Elizabeth Carter who married Jesse Redmond. She may have been his granddaughter. In Lucy Varnado’s book about Osyka, Mississippi, she said that Jessie Redmond married Elizabeth Carter, a daughter of Samuel and Charity Carter. Jessie Redmond settled in Pike County very near the State Line where the little town of Osyka is now.

One of William Carter’s daughters, Mary Elizabeth Carter, married Noah Strickland but I do not know if they moved to Mississippi. They had a son, William F Strickland, who married Nancy Travis and they had a daughter named Martha Lancy Strickland. A son of William Carter, Redmond Carter, first married 1) Patience Pace and then 2) Nancy Kemp. I have no information that they moved to Mississippi.

Other possible children of Henry Strickland and Ruth Thompson:

Henry Strickland who married Clarissa Varnado (see Family Group STR(8)1#2).

James Jeremiah Strickland who married Matilda Varnado. James was born in Georgia in February 12, 1812, married in Pike County, Mississippi, on December 11, 1834, was baptized into the Baptist church on November 15, 1841, was listed in the 1850 Census and died in February 5, 1886 in Pike County. His wife, Matilda, was born in Mississippi on December 17, 1814, was baptized in March 1840 and died January 14, 1891. Matilda was the daughter of Samuel Varnado, Jr (see Family Group STR(8)11#9).

Other possible but less likely children of Henry Strickland and Ruth Thompson:

James Strickland who married Nancy Wilson. This James Strickland was born in Georgia in 1801 and died in Louisiana in 1839. He married Nancy Wilson in c1816 in Amite County, Mississippi.

Robert Strickland who is listed in the 1820 Census in Pike County.

Allen Strickland who is also listed in the 1820 Census in Pike County.

William Strickland who was born in 1802 and is listed in the 1850 Census in Pike County. I do not know if this is William F Strickland, son of Noah Strickland and grandson of Mary Elizabeth (Mollie Cotton) Strickland.

Wilson Strickland who died in Texas but is supposedly a brother of Henry Strickland (who married Clarissa Varnado) (see Family Group STR(9)1B).

Family Group Number STR(9)1B

My aunt, Edna Hughes of Greensburg, Louisiana, suggested that the parents of the Henry Strickland (who married Clarissa Varnado) were Solomon Strickland and Sarah Roberts. Solomon married Sarah Roberts in February 1795 and died in May 20, 1850. She lists two sons from this marriage:

#1 child was Wilson Strickland, born April 6, 1803 and died November 21, 1857.

#2 child was Henry Strickland, born March 9, 1805 in Georgia. He married Clarissa Varnado on January 18, 1829. Henry and Clarissa farmed in Pike County and Tangipahoa Parish and raised 14 children. Henry died in December 2, 1870 and is the ancestor of most of the Strickland families in Pike County.

#3 child (possible) James Strickland who married Nancy Wilson.

The father of Wilson and Henry, Solomon Strickland, was born in 1776 the son of David Strickland and Elizabeth Hunt. Edna Hughes listed six children from the marriage of David Strickland and Elizabeth Hunt:

#1 Jeptha

#2 Mourning Muse

#3 Valisity Lanster

#4 Polly

#5 Robert, born 1774

#6 Solomon Strickland married Sarah Roberts.

I have not been able to find any other researcher to collaborate this information.

Nevertheless the connection between Wilson Strickland and Henry Strickland is the basis of a scam that surfaces every thirty or forty years. The scam is called the Strickland Oil Case and was in the news between 1931 and 1949. In 1967 through 1969 and again in 1985 it resurfaced as the Wilson Strickland Oil claim involving title to lands in the Strickland Survey in Montgomery County, Texas. The claim is that some oil company, perhaps Humble Oil, has taken oil from the property without paying royalties because the descendants of the owner, Wilson Strickland, could not be found. If the heirs of Wilson Strickland could be identified then they would share in a huge settlement.

Supposedly a man named Wilson Strickland served in the Texas War of Independence from Mexico. This Wilson Strickland supposedly died without children so the heirs of his sibling (said to have been Henry Strickland of Pike County, Mississippi) would have claim to the money. This means that all of the Strickland cousins in Pike County were eligible to inherit some unknown sum of money if they could prove their lineage and if the lawyer they hired could sue the oil company and win the case. Edna Hughes became quite innocently involved in this scam. A group of Strickland relatives became convinced that the claim was legitimate and Edna was given the task of tracing the family tree of Francis Sylvester Strickland and identifying his heirs. She also collected money to pay the paralegal working on the case. Aunt Edna was quite successful in tracing the family but lost all of her notes when the paralegal disappeared. When I moved to Texas in 1980 I undertook to look into the Wilson Strickland claim.

A Wilson Stricklin did serve in the Texas militia that fought the Mexican army of President Santa Anna during 1836 and 1837. An outcome of the conflict was that Texas became an independent country for eight or nine years. Every veteran of the conflict received two 320-acre bounty warrants from the Republic of Texas for every 6-month period of service in the Texas militia. Accordingly, Wilson Stricklin received Bounty Warrant #358 for 640 acres from the Republic of Texas on May 16, 1837. He apparently assigned this warrant to John A Greer and on August 25, 1845 that individual patented 640 acres in Kaufman County. An entry to that effect is found in the Bounty and Donation Land Grants of Texas under Pat 548 Vol. 1 Abst 498 GLO File Nac Bty 36. GLO File Nac Bty 36 means that the General Land Office opened a file for this claim. This claim was the 36^th such claim filed in the Nacogdoches land district as a Bounty Claim. Kaufman County is just east of Dallas where the town of Terrell is today. However, the Wilson Strickland Oil claim supposedly involved land in Montgomery County (which is just north of Houston) so this Texas Revolutionary War bounty claim could not be of interest to us and, besides, Wilson assigned (sold) the claim back in 1845.

However the 1840 Census of the Republic of Texas lists a W. Stricklin as owning 1476 acres of land in Harris County. The land was listed under “Land Subject to a Double Tax which has not been returned by Any Person in Harris County” meaning that the owner was delinquent in his taxes. Also no poll tax was listed under W. Stricklin so he was either not age 21, not a white male resident of the county or could not afford to pay the tax. Without having seen the title abstract I do not know if the land was sold for back taxes, if it was sold to someone who could pay the taxes or if the owner eventually paid the taxes and cleared the title to the property. This land is probably the basis for the Wilson Strickland claim. However, even if title to this tract could be proven a Texas law makes the point moot.

In Texas claims over mineral rights have to be filed within five years of the occurrence. In other words, even if Humble Oil or someone else deliberately stole oil from the property, a statue of limitations comes into effect five years after the event. If the theft is not discovered and a suit filed within five years of the discovery, all rights to recovery are lost. I do not know whether this statue applied to the Republic of Texas but since oil was not discovered in Texas until the Spindletop well blew-in in 1901 it doesn’t matter. Claims like this one are the stock in trade of a class of lawyers in east Texas. The claims typically involve families who are not resident in Texas but whose ancestors were involved in land or oil deals in east Texas. These cases surface in Jefferson County and around Beaumont every two or three years and are always unsuccessful because of this statue of limitations. In the case of the Wilson Strickland claim the lawyers involved in the case simply disappeared after a few years. As Edna said in a 1985 letter to the Strickland cousins they “just seem to have disappeared from the face of the earth!” In reality they probably moved on to another family’s claim and will return again for another cash infusion from the Strickland family at some time in the future.

Family Group Number STR(9)1C

Other Mississippi Strickland families:

Amite County, Mississippi, marriages include the following Strickland names:

Ruth Strickling married Benjamin Bagley, April 10, 1823. I have identified this lady was Ruth Thompson Strickland, the widow of Henry Strickland, our ancestor.

Henry W Strickland married Emily Smith, November 29, 1836

C D Strickland married L C Cotton, February 221, 1842.

J B Strickland married Martha A Denham, January 18, 1844

Strickland Family Group STR(9)1B concerns the family of David Strickland and his wife Elizabeth Hunt. Another Mississippi Strickland family was supposedly descended from John Strickland and his wife Elizabeth Hunt. This couple had a son named Simeon Strickland who was born in Nash County, NC, in 1776 and who died in Wayne County, Mississippi, in 1883. He is buried in Wayne County. He married Jane Hale in c1810 at Fishpond Village, near Coosa, Alabama. Their eleven children all appear to have been born in Mississippi. Their children were:

Elizabeth (Betsy) Strickland married William Isaac Henderson in 1827 in Wayne County, Mississippi and died in Greene, MS, in 1894.

John W Strickland was born in Mississippi in 1808 and died in Washington County in Alabama. He married Harriet E Palmer in Alabama in 1831.

Mary (Polly) Strickland was born in Mississippi in 1812 and married Henry Cochran.

Nancy Strickland was born in Mississippi in 1815 and married William H Hartley.

Ann Strickland was born in Wayne Co, MS, in 1816 and married Alfred D Carlisle.

Solomon Strickland was born in Wayne Co, MS, in 1820 and married Lucretia Cochran.

Simeon Strickland was born in 1822 in Wayne Co, MS and married Eliza Jane Moulds.

Margaret Rebecca Strickland was born in 1825 in Wayne Co, MS and married Daniel Alexander Prine.

Patience Strickland was born in 1827 in Wayne Co, MS and married Alexander DuPriest.

Samuel Strickland was born in 1830 and married Matilda Stevens.

Redy Strickland was born in 1827.

Family Group Number STR(9)3#2

Henry Varnedore

Husband’s Name Henry Varnedore

Date of Birth October 1749 South Carolina

Date of Death Sept 6, 1840 Georgia

Place of Burial Owen’s Cemetery, between Vienna and Lilly, Ga.

Place of Residence Orangeburg Dist, SC, moved to Laurens Co, Georgia in 1819 and then to Dooly Co, Georgia

Name of other wives 2) Elizabeth, no children

Name of Father Leonard Vernadeau

Name of Mother Sarah Hottow

Wife’s Maiden Name 1) 7 children, all born in SC and all moved to Georgia

Children in order of birth:

1. Name John (Jackie) Varnedoe

Name of spouse 1) Honor Hagen 1 son Eli; 2) Janet Carson

Birth 1774 or 1784 in SC

Married 1) March 7, 1809, 2) August 25, 1814

Death May 11, 1852

Burial Forehand Cemetery, Dooly Co, Georgia

2. Name Joseph Varnedore

Name of spouse 1) Mary Pope, 2) Elizabeth Hughnell 4 children

Birth 1794 in South Carolina

Married 1827 in Dooly Co, Georgia

Death After 1853

3 Name Wesley Varnedoe

Name of spouse Winy Wilcox

Birth c1810 in South Carolina

Married May 8, 1835

Death Before 1853

4 Name Allen Varnadow

Name of spouse 1 son, Thomas A

Birth c1807 in South Carolina

Death Died during the war 1861

5 Name Eleanor (Ellender) Varnedore

Birth c1785 in South Carolina

6 Name Nancy Varnedore

Birth c1805 in South Carolina

7 Name Elizabeth Varnedoe

Name of spouse John Bustle

Birth c1785 in South Carolina

Family Group Number STR(9)3#3

Leonard Varnadoe

Husband’s Name Leonard Varnadoe

Date of Birth January 15, 1750

Date of Death After 1811

Place of Residence Beaufort District, South Carolina

The Varnado researchers who put together the book “Descendants of Leonard Vernadeau and Sarah Hutto, Three Generations 1735-1850” made a guess as to the parentage of the following children. By a process of elimination they decided they had to be children of Leonard Varnadoe, the third son of the original Leonard Vernadeau.

Children:

1. Name Daniel Warnandaw

Name of spouse May have had three sons: Henry, James M, William L

Birth 1778

Living in Lexington Co, Orangeburg Dist, SC in 1800

2. Name Jake Varnadore

Name of spouse May have had one son: John W

Birth 1786

3 Name Samuel Varnedoe

Name of spouse Susan, two sons: Samuel and John

Birth c1790

Received a land grant in Beaufort District in 1835

4 Name Sarah Ann Varnadore

Birth 1784 South Carolina

Living alone in St Peter’s Parish, SC in 1850

5 Name John Varnadore

Name of spouse At least two sons: Charles and Leonarde

Birth 1785 South Carolina

He was living in St Peter’s Parish, SC in 1850 and may be the same person as Jake Varnadore listed above.

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