~1816 - ~1854
Illinois - Kentucky
I am assuming Elizabeth is the daughter of David and Nancy because of location and because she named her first daughter Nancy (although the name was used in the Deweese family before this time). It's not a lot to go on, but there is nothing else.
I am assuming she was the eldest daughter because she says in the 1850 census that she was born in Kentucky, and the rest of David and Nancy's children (the ones I can identify on the census) were born after they moved back to Illinois.
David and Nancy were married in Butler County, Kentucky in 1814. They apparently stayed there for a few years and then went back to Illinois in time for the 1st Territorial census of 1818. They lived near the rest of the Samses in Union County, Illinois, and David (with his brother Thomas) was one of the founding members of the Clear Creek Baptist Church.
In 1820, after the Jackson Purchase of western Kentucky from the Chickasaws, most of the Samses got land grants in Hickman County. Some of them kept on living in Illinois (or went to Kentucky and then back to Illinois); David and his brothers William and Wiley eventually settled in Hickman County - William early (1825 at least) and David late (1829 is the first time he appears on the tax rolls).
David and Wiley (and William's widow, now remarried) lived near the Deweeses in 1830.
[David had three unnamed girls of almost marriageable age; Wiley's children are all
accounted for - and none of the girls was named Elizabeth; William had no children of his
own.]
In 1837 (August 1), Elizabeth Sams married Absalom Deweese, son of Henry and Amelia Deweese, grandson of John and Elizabeth Sams Deweese. The date is not documented by me; I got it from Jack Vaughan, official Deweese genealogist.
Elizabeth and Absalom had 5 children:
Nancy b. ~1841 - nothing more known about her
William R 1845-1896 moved to Indiana with Absalom, Co E 120th Ind Inf
m. Nancy Louisa Swaney - 6 children - divorce
Lavisa Ann ~1847 - 1886 moved to Indiana with Absalom
m. William H Hudson - x children
Mary Polly ~1848-1897 - moved to Indiana with Absalom
m Michael Edward Stanton - 8/9 children
Frances L b. ~1854/6 - moved to Indiana with Absalom
m Henry C Sloan
In the 1830s, many of the Deweeses moved to Johnson County, Illinois (near their Sams
relatives in Union County). Elizabeth and Absalom may or may not have made the move.
Certainly they were back in Kentucky in time for the 1840 census - along with many of
Absalom's siblings - but not his parents (who were on the Johnson County census for
1840).
1840 - Hickman County, Ky census
Absalom - 1m, 1 f 20-30
Part of Hickman County became Ballard County in 1842, and Elizabeth and Absalom are
on the 1850 Ballard County census.
669-669 Absalom Deweese 33m farmer Ky
Elizabeth 34f Ky / Nancy 9f Ky / William 5m Ky / Ann 2f Ky
Tolbert 14m Ky / Nancy 15f Ky presumably Ab's brother & sister
One odd and extremely irritating thing about this census is that our next ancestor, Mary Polly Deweese, who should have been about 2 years old at this time, is not on it. Such an occurrence is not unheard-of (4-year old Grandpa Rufus has been left off the 1880 census), but it does make it much more difficult to establish relationships.
Elizabeth and Absalom had one more child after 1850: Frances, born about 1854 or 1856. Sometime after that Elizabeth died. Absalom continued on the Ballard County tax rolls through 1859, and then he, and most of the Deweeses, moved to Warrick County, Indiana. I wonder if this constituted a parting-of-the-ways with the Sams family - with whom the Deweeses had been associated since the 1780s in North Carolina. The Samses either stayed in Kentucky or dispersed in different directions (a couple of Elizabeth's brothers went to Texas).
Absalom remarried in 1860 and had 3 daughters with his new wife. He served in the Civil War (in the same unit as his son William - Co E, 120th Ind Inf). He died in 1875.
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To Absalom Deweese page
To Children of Absalom and Elizabeth
To next ancestor, Mary Polly Deweese
contact me at: lee@leesgenes.com
page last updated 7 September 2004