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Introduction
This booklet is bong called a “Brief History” by necessity because the information needed to make a longer and more detailed account of our family’s past just is not available.Some people think that tracing ones
family tree is as simple as going into a genealogy library and
requesting a copy of a family history, and with a few strokes
on a computer keyboard, the information tracing the family
back to Adam and Eve will be rapidly brought up and printed
for little or no cost.
But in reality, it just does not work
that way. I began working or our genealogy nearly thirty years
ago, and have worked on it periodically since that time.
During this period, I have seen the resources arid records
available increase enormously, both in what is available in
printed form as well as what is on microfilm and computer.
But, as is the case with the Glasgow
and Reagan families, no
matter what technological advances occur, much information
just is not available because thorough records were just not
kept by Church, state, or individual. This is particularly
true of the Southern colonies and states from which The
Glasgows and Reagans came because these were rural, agrarian,
and more sparsely populated than the more densely populated
and commerce oriented North. As the population moved Westward
into the mid and Southern areas of the interior, the
population became even more isolated and records more sparse.
This poverty of documentation continued as the population
moved Westward. For example, when I wrote to the Oklahoma
State Dept. of Vital Records for the death certificate of
Christopher Columbus Glasgow,
I found that there was no record of his death even though he
died in 1925. At this time. Oklahoma had only been a state of
eighteen years and record keeping was a bit sporadic even at
that relatively late date in history.
Further, a primary cause of the lack
of available records is that they have been lost or destroyed
by fire, and personal records have been lost simply because
people did not care enough about family and family history to
save them.
The information I am putting into
this brief history is as accurate as I am able to make it at
this time. Very often there is conflicting information
regarding dates, names, and places, and the person compiling
the genealogy must make a judgment as to which is most likely
to be correct. There are certain to be mistakes in this
booklet, and I welcome any corrections or additional
information that anyone has to offer.
In addition to family history
research being limited by scarcity of information it is also
very expensive undertaking and therefore limited by the
economic resources of the researcher. Records such as birth,
death, and marriage certificates now cost about ten dollars
depending or the state if it is ordered by mail and it the
employee at the government agency retrieving the document must
search for it him or herself. This amount is paid whether the
record is found or not. This was the case regarding the death
certificate of Christopher Columbus Glasgow.
I am more fortunate than amateur
genealogists living in less populated areas because the Puget
Sound area has excellent research facilities. The Tacoma
Public Library has a modest genealogy department, and the
Family History Branch Library in the Mormon Church is only
about two miles from my home. It has a limited permanent
collection of books and microfilm, and microfilm is available
on interlibrary loan from the main library in Salt Lake City
for three dollars a roll.
The Seattle Library has a very large
genealogical section, and there is a regional office of the
National Archives in that city as well.
However, even with these resources
available, There is still a great deal of expense in
genealogical research. Every time drive to Seattle and back,
my little truck uses at least five dollars worth of gas, and
the Seattle Library is downtown where street parking is not a
viable option, so I have to pay between five and twelve
dollars to park for eight to ten hours, depending on the day
of the week and how far I am able to walk.
These research facilities, excellent
as they are, still do not provide all of the
information that might exist somewhere. The Mormon Church does
not have all state, county, or local resources microfilmed
yet, and mere are some family histories that this library has
not acquired or has riot copied. Also, there are some
documents that are only available for use at the main library
and cannot be obtained on inter library loan, So, it is
necessary to write to individual resources and places in an
effort to obtain information. Most county employees are not
allowed to do general genealogical research, and an amateur
researcher such as myself has to hire a professional
researcher or professional genealogist at a very high hourly
rate to assist It is possible to spend hundred or even
thousands of dollars and still not get the information you are
looking Ion.
The other option is to go to the
place where you need to do research and do it yourself.
Needless to say, if your research needs to be done a long way
from your home, you need to have plenty of time as well as
money. In 1981 I took a month long genealogy vacation that I
had bean planning for years. I was able to do a lot of
research, but the starter on my new Chevette which was still
on warranty went out three times This really curtailed my work
in Mississippi and Tennessee, and I never got to Virginia and
the Carolinas as planned. I have never purchased another
General Motors Product.
Since finding out about the Glasgow Reagan reunion, I have
activated my research and have put quite a bit of time and
money into this , but have not really been able to do much
more than confirm other information or expand on it. However,
I have tentatively placed the Reagan’s
back
one more generation thanks to information received from Betty
Hamby Cooper who has very lately privately published a family
history titled Tennessee Roots, Vol. II , The Descendants of
Charles Reagan. While the
relationship between Mrs. Cooper’s Reagans and ours has not
been established, they were both from early Virginia and are
probably related. She has a great deal of information about
other Southern Reagans as well as her own.
When 1 started working on this
history almost thirty years ago, it was my plan to make a
complete history of every member of the family from the most
distant ancestor to the youngest member of the newest
generation. I even collected family sheets on as many nuclear
families as I could. However, I was young, idealistic, and not
very realistic in my plans. First, the new generations come
into being faster than they can be accounted for, and to
include everyone in a history would be impossible. Second,
with the enormous changes in society’s overall acceptance of
non-standard relationships and living arrangements with
children being conceived and even born into these
relationships, I have decided that it is kindest and
appropriately discrete to limit this history to Josephine, Christopher Columbus
sand their children. For the most part, vital records are
accurate and conclusive enough now that if an individual, even
generations into the future, wants to trace his or her
ancestry back to Josie and Lum, they should be able to do so
with adequate research and access to the information I have
accumulated over the years.
Family sheets are included at the
back of this booklet for you to record your own individual
family.
I wish that I could give this history
as a gift to all of the members of my extended family, but
since I am using some of the money 1 have set aside for the
trip to the reunion to research and print this history, it
will be necessary to charge a small amount per copy. I will keep this amount as low as
possible.
1. The Glasgow Ancestors
When I was a small child, my paternal
grandmother, Effie Glasgow Shaw Moore,
and my great aunt, Prudie Glasgow Goode, told me that the City of Glasgow Scotland was named for their family.
While this great pride in family background is wonderful, it
is not very accurate. In reality, their family was probably
named because they lived in that city or had come to this city
from somewhere else in Scotland. This, of course, would have
been many centuries ago.
Christopher Columbus Glasgow was the son of William H. and Nancy
Jane Glasgow. Federal Census reports show that
the family was living in Marion County Alabama in 1840 and
1850. He was probably born in South Carolina about 1815. One
census report says that he was born in Kentucky, but as with
all old records, census reports are riddled with errors and a
family historian must try to be logical and decide which
information is most likely to be correct. Since several
censuses say South Carolina, and only one says Kentucky, it is
probable that the former is correct. It is possible that his
family moved to Kentucky when he was very young, and the
person giving information to the census taker was mistaken
about which was his birthplace. Also, most people’s education
was extremely limited in those days, and many people simply
did not understand state boundaries and geography. William H.
was illiterate as were many if not most of his neighbors.
Robert S. Glasgow Jr., an attorney
in Adamsville Alabama, who researched the South Carolina
Glasgows for years and who was president of the now
defunct Glasgow Family Association, said he thought
sure that William H. was part of his family who lived in
Newberry South Carolina in the late eighteenth and early
nineteenth centuries. If it could be learned who William H’s
parents were, our branch of the family could probably be tied
into this tree.
The first known member of this family
is James Glasgow who came from Northern Ireland
in the late colonial period in the decades just prior to the
American Revolution as did most of the Scots-Irish. He
died in Newberry South Carolina (then Craven County) in 1775.
James’s wife’s first name was Mary,
but her last name is unknown. These people are very possibly
the great or great-great -grandparents of William H. Glasgow.
Vera Epperson of Ruleville
Mississippi, a granddaughter of William H’s son Eli, tried for
a number of years to find what she called our “missing link”,
but was not successful. I do not believe that either
Robert Glasgow or Mrs. Epperson
is still living.
William H. Glasgow’s wife was Nancy Jane. She was born
December 19,1818 in Missouri. This was six years before
Missouri became a state, so her family must have been pioneers
in that area. Her maiden name is unknown. If this information
can be obtained, it is possible that Missouri Territorial
records will reveal some information about her family. Nancy
died July 4,1374 in Tishomingo County Mississippi after this
county had been divided into three counties.
My great aunt Prudie Goode told me in
1966 that her grandmother Glasgow’s maiden name was Wright, but I later learned that
this was the maiden name of her great-grandmother on the Reagan
side.
In 1977, my great aunt Georgie Glasgow Edwards told me that both her Glasgow and Reagan grandfathers
moved to Navarro County Texas because some of their children
had moved to that county. She said that both of these men died
in Texas, but I have been unable to find any kind of death or
burial records for them.
WilliamH.and Nancy Jane Glasgow had ten known children. It is possible that they had others
that died young. The oldest seven were born in Marion County
Alabama. M. Noah was born about 1838, and married Mary E. Ward
August 4, 1859. Eli was born about 1839 and married Jenny Mitchell.
He died about 1880. William
Ballis was born October 3, 1840 and married Sarah (last name
unknown). After Sarah’s death he married Loutina Hale
Robinson. He died November 8,1924 in Faxon, Oklahoma.
Melinda was born about 1843, John
Andrew about 1845, and Robert Sanders, also known as Sam was
born about 1848. He married Loula Jane (last name unknown),
and after her death married Sarah Underwood. His
great-granddaughter, Catherine Trusty, worked on the family
history for some time but was unable to add any new
information to what I had already gathered. A recent effort to
contact her was to no avail. Sam died in 1932 in Kerns,
Navarro County, Texas.
James Fleming Glasgow, also known as Sims, was born
January 1850, and his wife’s name was Florence.
The three youngest children were born
in Tishomingo County Mississippi after the family moved to
that state. Mary E. was born about 1852. Christopher Columbus,
nicknamed Lum, was born May 24,1854, and married Josephine Reagan
February 6,1872. Eliza Jane was born about 1855.
As far as I am able to determine, Eli
and Noah remained in Mississippi. An
often told story is that during the American Civil War, Noah
joined the Confederate Army, but William joined the Union
Army, supposedly because it offered a better pay incentive.
Sam was also in the Confederate Army, and he drew a pension
for this service in Texas in his old age.
Sims
moved to Texas some years after the Civil War as did Sam and
Lum.
I have no information about what
happened to Melinda, John Andrew, Mary E., or Eliza J. One census report says that John
Andrew was crippled. My great
aunt and uncle, Tom and Emma Glasgow told me that one of
Uncle Tom’s aunts was a schoolteacher and that one had
been captured by Indians, but they could not recall whether
this was on the Glasgow or Reagan side of the
family.
William H., the father of this
family, is said to have been a tall man with sandy red hair.
He was a farmer and blacksmith.
Uncle Tom and Aunt Emma also told me
some of the stones they heard from their parents and aunts and
uncles about Northeastern Mississippi in the Civil War days.
It was a hard time for all, and food and basic necessities
were scarce. Salt was unavailable, so the family washed the
salt out of the dirt in their smoke house for cooking and
table use.
Further, they said that Uncle Tom’s
grandmother would put a candle in the window when it was safe
for William to come home for a visit Apparently his joining
the Union Army made him rather unpopular with other members of
the family even though the sentiments in this part of
Mississippi were divided much as in the border states like
Tennessee rather than being strongly for the Confederacy as
was the rest of the state.
Aunt Prudie Goode told me that both
Josie and Lum’s mothers acted as “doctors” and gave medical
aid to wounded during the War of the Rebellion. Old Tishomingo
County, where the Glasgows and Reagans lived saw a lot of
front line battle. The Battle of Corinth was very bloody and
devastating, and of course, the Battle of Shiloh was fought
only a few miles away across the Tennessee border.
The hardships faced by Mississippians
and other Southerners, both black and white, after the end of
the war were in some ways as great or greater than those
suffered during the war. The Glasgows and Reagans were not
slave owners, so their economic loss may not have been as
great as it was for others. However, the family was rather
typical in that many of its members felt that the war torn
deep South held no future for them, so they moved Westward
looking for cheap virgin lands. During the Reconstruction
period, Texas was considered to be the “promised land” by many
such as these.
II. The Reagan
Ancestors
The Reagans most certainly came from
Ireland where the name was O’Reagan or O’Ragan.
This name is one which is easily
misspelled. During the days when the illiteracy rate was high
and when even those who could read and write had very limited
educations, words were often spelled solely by how they
sounded. When someone told a census taker, a county clerk, or
a minister his or her name was Reagan, this person
receiving the information would spell and record it
phonetically. Thus, Reagan, Ragan, Regan,
Rigan, Ragen, Riggen, etc. are usually just variations of the
same name. I have even seen it spelled Wriggin.
So, a family researcher must be
careful not to put to
much stock in exact spelling. To do so would cause a lot of
clues to be missed or even concrete information to be
overlooked.
Betty Hamby Cooper, as mention
earlier, thinks that all of the early Virginia Reagans are
most likely connected. She feels that these people probably
immigrated in the seventeenth century to Maryland. She makes
it clear in her book that she does not know these things for
sure, but I think that her speculations are on solid ground.
By the late part of the fifth
century, Christianity was firmly established in Ireland as the religion of the native Gaelic
Celt population. Due to this island nation’s relative
isolation from Rome and the rest of Europe, its Church
developed certain unique characteristics. When the
Anglo-Norman suppression of the native population began in the
early centuries after the Norman Conquest of the British
Isles, religious persecution became part of this suppression.
However, between this time and the reformation, the Normans in
Ireland intermarried with the native Celts and gradually
became identified with the native population, adopting among
other cultural characteristics the native religion. One source
says that the Normans became more Irish than the Irish
themselves.
Suppression of Ireland by England
continued and became intense during the Protestant reformation
into the rein of Cromwell. When the Roman Catholic James II
was driven from England, economic conditions worsened for the
Irish and religious persecution intensified under the
Protestant William and Mary.
About this same time Lord Baltimore,
who was a Roman Catholic, established the colony of Maryland
which guaranteed religious freedom to all Christians and which
welcomed immigrants of all persuasions. This in pan served as
the impetuous for a modest wave of immigration from Ireland.
While the Protestant persecution of
Catholics in Ireland was more wide spread, the Protestants who
were a small minority, were also oppressed by the Catholics
These people were the native residents of Ireland, not the
English absentee landlords. Many of these people immigrated
too.
Before going on to our Reagans in
particular, it should also be said as part of this background
on early Irish immigration that economics were probably as
much if not more a motivation for immigrating than was
religion or other considerations. However, the early
immigrants were much better off materially than their cousins
who would immigrate nearly two hundred years later during the
potato famine. For the former, survival was not dependent on
immigrating as it was for the later.
It can only be guessed which group of
the early immigrants our Reagans were part of.
If they were Catholic, this religious persuasion was
probably abandoned by the time the family moved to Virginia.
During the seventeenth century about
one hundred thousand people came to the Chesapeake area from
Ireland. During this same century, many low land Scots
emigrated to the Northern counties of Ireland. Their numbers,
coincidentally, were about the same as the native Irish who
went to the American Colonies. A century later, they in turn
would immigrate to the New World in very large numbers.
Josephine Reagan’s
paternal grandparents were probably Thomas Jefferson and Jane
Reagan.
The information about this generation has just recently come
to me from Betty Hamby Cooper and still needs more
documentation to confirm this relationship for certain. I have
not been able to find
a will for Thomas Jefferson, but will continue to search for
verifying data. Mrs. Cooper’s information is based on
information from relatives and data from Lincoln and Franklin
County Tennessee Federal Census reports.
Thomas Jefferson Reagan was
born about 1784 in Virginia and Jane was also born in that
state about 1793. All of their presumed nine children were
born in Virginia. Her maiden name is unknown for certain, but
it may be Whitworth.
Their oldest assumed child was John,
born about 1812. His wife’s name
was Jane. William C. was born
about 1815, and he married Candace Davis.
Walton A. was born about 1817. James was born about 1820, and
his wife’s name was Nancy. Nancy Huntley Reagan was
born January 1,1823, and she married George Turner MeCutchen.
I have very recently been in touch
with Tessy McCutchen McMillan of Bentonville, AR., who is a
descendant of Nancy and George. She is most likely my fourth
cousin twice removed. I noted in the information she sent me
about her family that she was born just about the time I
started working on genealogy. It really pleases me to know
that there are new generations coming up that are interested
in family and family history.
Catherine Huntley Reagan
died in Cooke County Texas in 1872. In
her letter to me Tessy said that when George, who was a
doctor, died, Nancy took his medical equipment and aided
soldiers in the Civil War. This was in Missouri.
After Nancy Huntley, Thomas Jefferson
and Jane had Micajah P. who was born about 1827, Edward H.,
born about 1829, Paul W., born about 1833, and Calloway J.
born about 1836.
This family moved to Franklin County
Tennessee probably sometime after the birth of Calloway. It is
not known if this was the first place they lived in Tennessee.
Thomas Jefferson and all of his sons were farmers.
A great deal more research is needed
regarding this generation. It is possible that data to verify
the relationship between these people may not exist. I will
continue to look as I have for the past thirty years.
Josephine’s father
was William C. Reagan, and was born about 1815
in Virginia. On most census reports and Bible records he
was listed as W.C., which he apparently was called most of the
time. On Josphine’s death certificate he is listed
as J.B. Reagan. This is totally incorrect. This was probably the name of one of
his nephews.
The first census report on which he
is listed is the 1840 Lincoln County Tennessee Census. Lincoln
County is next to Franklin County on the West. The census for
that year listed only the heads of households by name and the
number of people in that household by approximate age.
W.C. married Josephine’s
mother Candace sometime before 1838 almost certainly in
Tennessee. The census reports for Tishomingo County
Mississippi all give her name as Candace which I am sure is
correct Josephine’s death
certificate says that her name was Florence, but since the
people supplying the information probably never knew her, I am
sure they were only guessing or remembering incorrectly. When
I began working on this genealogy in early 1966, none of Josephine’s four living children knew the
first names if their grandparents.
The 1850 Tishomingo census says that
Candace was born in Georgia, but the 1860 and 1870 census
reports say she was born in Virginia. It is my belief that
Virginia is probably correct She was born about 1821.
Candace’s maiden name was Davis, and
her mother’s maiden name was Wright. Many descendants say that
this family is Cherokee. This will be discussed later in
another section of this history.
Some of the Davises and Wrights
probably lived in Lincoln County Tennessee. There are numerous
people of these names listed in old records for this county,
bat I am unable to establish
a relationship with Candace.
Beside W.C., the 1840 census says
there was one male age 10-15, one male 40-50, two females
under five, two females 15-20, one female
30-40, and one female 60-70 in his household. Since W.C.’s
probable parents were living in Franklin County at this time,
it is very probable that some of these other people beside
W.C., Candace, and their two daughters under 5 were
members of Candace’s family. Some could have been hired hands.
This census also says that there was one person in the
household engaged in agriculture, and two were engaged in
trades.
According to Aunt Georgie Glasgow
Edwards, Candace had a brother named John Davis, but the first
names of her parent and other siblings is not known. It should
be noted that there are Davises named Mary, Martha, Cotesta,
Amanda, and Josephine Virginia on the Lincoln County
records, and W.C. and Candace gave these names to their
daughters. Naming children for family members was even more
common then than it is now, so these people on the marriage
records were probably her sisters or other close relatives.
I have no further clues to the
identity of Candace’s parents. They were probably married
between 1790 and 1820 in Virginia. Wright and Davis are both
common names, so are difficult to narrow down.
W.C. and his family moved to
Tishomingo County Mississippi between 1846 and 1849. This
county had been established in 1836 when the Chickasaw Indians
ceded the area to the state.
Many other people from Lincoln County
emigrated to this new county. There were a number of Davises
who lived in the same area as W.C. and Candace. Again, Davis
is such a common name, that it cannot be known for sure, but
it is very possible that at least some of these people were
relatives. There were many Glasgow’s in the area
as well. These two families remained close even after many of
them moved to Texas and Oklahoma.
Candice died between 1870 and 1880
probably in Prentice County Mississippi. W.C. died February 6,
1891 in Navarro County Texas.
Their four oldest children were born
in Tennessee and the rest were born in Tishomingo County. Mary
A. was born about 1836. Martha J. was born about 1840, George
J. was born in 1843 and probably died in Tillman County
Oklahoma. Elizabeth F. was born about about 1846 and married
James Stormet.
The children born in Mississippi were
Cotesta, born about 1849, Amanda, born about 1851, Josephine, born June 6, 1854, Candace, born
about I 857(probably died young), James W., born about I
859,and Francis, also born about 1859. It is not known if
these people were twins. Thomas Jefferson was born about 1861,
Caldonia, was born about
1863, and Candace C., was born about
1865. Amanda married A. J. Jones, and of course, Josephine married C.C.Glasgow.
Mormon Church marriage records paint
an interesting but sad story regarding Amanda. She and her son
Thomas age eight are listed in the household of W.C. on the
1880 census which says she was a widow. However, the Church
records say that this same A.J. Jones was married to five
other women, one before and four after Amanda. There is no
record of him being divorced from any of these wives, and the
Mormon polygamy practice did not extend to Mississippi. So a
possible conclusion that can be drawn from this was that he
was a womanizer and bigamist. Divorces were very hard to
obtain at this time, so he probably just did not bother with
this legal step before going onto a new relationship.
There is another Jones child listed
as a son with with one of the Glasgow on this
census as Charles age six. W.C. was a widower in his middle
years at this time. His daughter Elizabeth and her husband
also lived in the household. It is possible that the Reagan
family just did not have room for one more child and that this
child was adopted by a Glasgow. Since these
two families were very close, this is a very plausible theory.
Does anyone remember the family telling this story? Am I in
some way misinterpreting the Mormon Church records?
I know little of the fate of
Candice’s other brothers and sisters. 1 would dearly love to
be in contact with some of their descendants.
Josie (Josephine) and Lum (Christopher Columbus) were born in the same
house in old Tishomingo County Mississippi. Lum was one week
older than Josie. The Glasgows had sold their house to the
Reagans. One of the births was a little bit earlier than
expected, so their being born in the same place was unplanned.
Lum’s birth date was May 29, 1854, and Josie’s was June 6,
1854.
It is a little unclear whether Josies
full given name is Josephine Virginia or Allie Josephine. Both are
probably correct. She is listed as Josephine V. on one census report, but may
have changed her name to Allie Josephine later because she like that name
better.
The family moved around a great deal.
Uncle Tom Glasgow said that this was more the
idea of his mother than his father. He and Aunt Emma said that
she was always looking for greener pastures.
Lum was a farmer, but Uncle Tom said
he was also very good at blacksmithing and was a skilled meat
cutter.
The information I have about dates
and places comes from pages from an old family Bible that
Uncle Tom gave me when I first started researching the family
history, census reports, vital records, and information from
descendants. Much of this data conflicts, so I again have
tried to give the information that I feel is most likely to be
correct in the following narrative.
Jose and Lum were married in Prentice
County Mississippi, which was formed from part of old
Tishomingo County and a small part of Tippah County. This
event took place February 6, 1872 at the home of W.C.Reagan.
The Justice of the Peace, Squire Bill Paden, officiated.
Their oldest daughter, Willie, was
born in Prentice County December 5, either 1873 or 1875. 1
have heard a lot of people speculate why she was given a
masculine sounding name such as Willie. It is my belief that
the parents were probably expecting a boy who they had planned
to name William for both of their fathers, but when the child
was a girl, Willie was an attempt to make a feminine name out
of William. Willie married Dan Glasgow.
Melinda Emma, the second daughter was
born December 18, 1877 in Prentice County. She married a
doctor whose name was either Ince of Nance. Aunt Aver’s oldest
daughter, Ola Harris, said that the doctor died early on and
that Emma married again and had children by the second
husband. However, in the old Bible records that Uncle Tom gave
me, Emma Nance’s death date is given as February 14, 1916. If
this is correct, her name was Nance when she died which would
indicate that she had not married someone else. She is
supposed to have had two children, but no one knows what
happened to them.
After Emma was born, the family moved
to Smith County Texas where third daughter Aver was born
September 18, 1880. She married Andrew J. Meador June 19, 1900
in Dublin Texas. They had eight children. The family lived in
the San Antonio area for many years. Aunt Aver and her
daughters were very helpful and encouraging from the very
start in my efforts to do the family genealogy.
Some time after Aver was born, Josie
became ill and the family moved back to Mississippi for
several years. They then moved back to Texas, this time to
Navarro County. Katie was born there in January 1883. She
married Dote Wilbank. They had children, but no more is known
about that family. Josie was living with Katie at the time of
her death. Aunt Aver had told me that the Wilbanks were living
near Blum Texas at this time, but Josie died and is buried at
Slayton Texas in Lubbock County.
Arie, the fifth daughter was born in
Navarro County June 2, 1885. She was married and may have had
children, but nothing is known of her descendants. The old
Bible records that uncle Tom gave me says that she died June
9, 1909, so she was only twenty four at her death. Jo Goode
Savage told me that Aunt Prudie had Aries wedding dress in a
truck, but Jo does not know what happened to it.
The sixth daughter, Georgie, was born
in Navarro County March 4,1888. She married T. E. Edwards.
They had five children. The family lived in Texas, but moved
to the Puget Sound area of Washington during WWI 1. They moved
back to the Houston area at the end of the war. I heard both
my grandmother and my Aunt Prudie talk a lot about Aunt
Georgie, but I did not get to meet her until 1977 when I was
traveling through Houston. She seemed like such a wonderful
fun loving person that I really regretted that I had not known
her sooner. She was able to give me quite a
few clues about the family. I think she may have been named
after Josie’s brother George.
Prudie Allie, the seventh child was
also born in Navarro County August 31, 1890. She married Ben
Heber Goode in Henrietta Texas September 1911. They had five
children. This family moved to Kim, Colorado where all of
their children grew up. Uncle Ben died in 1949 and Aunt Prudie
in 1966. Both are buried at Kim.
Effie Louise, the youngest daughter
of Josie and Lum was born January 18, 1893 in Navarro County.
When I was a small child, she told me that her family moved
from Navarro County, which is in East Texas, first to central
and then to West Texas because of her asthma. She married
James Columbus Shaw in 1908 in Munday Texas. They had five
children, but two died young. Jim died in 1923. Before his
death, he and Effie had homesteaded on some land near Kim
Colorado.
After Jim’s death, Effie married
Robert Arthur Moore, who I always knew as my “Grampa.” They
had three children. All were born in Las Animas County
Colorado and grew up in Kim, Colorado.
Kim is located in the Southeastern
corner of Colorado which was part
of the dust bowl of the 1930’s. Nearly everyone in the
country, or the world for that matter, that grew up during
this period had a rough road to hoe. This was particularly
true of the middle part of the nation from Texas to the
Dakota’s due to the drought. However, this time of hardship
seemed to motivate many of these people rather than discourage
them. The eleven children of Effie and Prudie who grew up in
Kim are very good examples of this. All graduated from Kim
High School, and of these eleven, eight received college
degrees. All have had successful careers in agriculture,
education, law enforcement, business; the military, the
airline industry, and science.
The ninth child and first son of
Josie and Lum was Sherman, born January 8, 1897 in Johnson
County Texas where the family had moved from Navarro County.
Sherman married Archie, and they had two children. Sherman
died March 25, 1932 in Comanche County
Oklahoma when he was only thirty-five years old. I remember my
grandmother speaking of him so fondly. She said that she
thought he died young because he had been gassed while serving
in the Army in Europe during the First World War.
Thomas Jefferson Glasgow, the
youngest child of Jose and Lum was born November 19,1900 when
his parents were both forty-six years old. He was also born in
Johnson County Texas. Tom married Emma Dunnigan August 7,1920
in Carnsville Oklahoma. He died
November 16,1977 while visiting in Oklahoma. He is buried in
Tacoma Washington. They had four sons and one daughter.
After.Emma’s death, Tom married Alma Glasgow, the widow of Tom’s nephew who was
Willie and Dan Glasgow’s son.
Tom was a meat cutter and grocer. He
and Emma operated the Glasgow Food Store in Tacoma, Washington between the mid
1950’s and the time they retired in the mid 1960’s.
Tom, Emma, and all of their children
eventually emigrated from Oklahoma to Washington State,
beginning with Kenneth who was stationed at Fort Lewis near
Tacoma during WWII. Two of the sons were meat market managers
for Safeway, two were in the furniture business, and their
daughter operated a beauty saloon until her recent retirement.
The family of Josie and Lum left
Johnson County when Tom and Sherman were very young and moved
to West Texas. They lived in Old Glory and Munday, which is in
Knox County. After Prudie and Effie were married, the family
moved to Faxon, Oklahoma in Comanche County. Lum died and is
buried there.
When I learned that our family was
going to have a reunion, I tried to find descendants of Emma,
Arie, and Katie, but had no success. I searched the Navarro
County marriage records and Federal Soundex Census reports
looking for clues to where Emma and Arie might have lived last
without success. There are no Wilbanks now living in Slayton
Texas. I called people in Lubbock by the name of Wilbanks, but
none were related. It is my plan to give copies of this
history to genealogical societies in the areas where the
family has lived to try to find missing cousins as well as to
obtain more family history data.
One of the first family stories I
remember hearing when I was a child was that Christopher
Columbus was the only one of the Glasgow brothers born in this country, and
that all of his older brothers were born in Scotland. This is,
of course totally untrue. His brothers were all born in Marion
County Alabama which us a very long way from Scotland.
I have no idea where or when this
myth began, but the Glasgows most likely left Scotland in the
early seventeenth century and moved to Northern Ireland before
immigrating to the American Colonies in the early to mid
eighteenth century. The fact that Glasgow is the name of a city in Scotland
may have triggered this idea in someone’s overactive
imagination.
Another family story is that the Reagan-Glasgow
family is somehow related to Thomas Jefferson through either
the Reagans, Davises or Wrights. There is no evidence what so
ever to support this. It is true that three generations had
people named Thomas Jefferson, but this really does nothing to
substantiate the myth. Thomas Jefferson was one of our
founding fathers, author of the Declaration of Independence,
our third president, and a native Virginia. Naming male
children after great patriots was very common in the early
days of the nation especially in the Southern colonies. The
only thing indicated by the given name of our probable
ancestor, Thomas Jefferson Reagan,
is that his parents were probably patriots rather than
loyalists during the American Revolution.
A third family myth, and certainly
the most controversial one, is that Candice Davis Reagan
was a Cherokee Indian. This legend really cannot be proven one
way or the other, because the arguments both pro and con are
totally inconclusive.
First as to physical appearance, to
the best of my knowledge, there are no existing pictures of
Candace, but pictures of Josie show that she had black hair
and high cheeks bones. Other members of the family such as my
father, Van E. Shaw, are dark complexioned as well. This could
indicate some Native American genes, but could also be because
the family has a lot of Celtic ancestry. Some family members
have seen the small hips and thick waists that some of us have
as indicative of Native American ancestry, but I believe that
these traits come from the Glasgow side.
Candace is listed on all of the
census reports as white, but a census expert at a genealogy
seminar I attended in 1968 said that it was very common for
Indian women to be listed as white if they were married to
Caucasian men. This was not true of Indian
men who were married to white women. Many Indian women who
were living in the white world lied to avoid the prejudice of
the time, and in the case of the people from one of Five
Civilized Tribes such as the Cherokees, they lied to avoid
removal to the Indian lands in the West. For some, the primary
reason for marrying their white spouses was to avoid removal. It should be remembered that the
Cherokees adopted European ways very early and intermarried
shortly after the colonization of the North American Continent
began.
This early intermarriage was a result
of several factors. First, the Cherokees had a lot in common
from a cultural standpoint with the settlers in the Southeast,
many, if not most, of whom were of Celtic origin. All were
basically agrarian people who hunted to provide what could not
be supplied by farming alone. Both lived in log structures and
had clan systems as a major means of providing societal
structure.
A second factor regarding early
intermarriage was that the number of white men was far greater
than that of white women, so the white men looked to the
Indians for wives.
As to information from family
members, what I have been told either first hand or second
hand regarding this issue is divided. My grandmother told me
that we were part Cherokee, but she told one of my aunts that
this was not true. Aunt Prudie on the other hand said that It
was not true and that some members of the family only claimed
to be Native American in order to claim land being allotted to
the individual members of tribes in Indian Territory. Josie is
supposed to have told one of Aunt Aver’s daughters the family
was not Native American and that everyone in the county,
including her family, was making this claim in the hope of
obtaining free land. Further, Uncle Tom told me that It was
true, but he told one of my aunt’s that it was not true. And
just to confuse the issue even more, just a few weeks ago,
Uncle Tom’s son Jack said that he had always considered
himself Indian.
Uncle Tom’s wife, Aunt Emma, said
that the people in the area where they lived all considered
the family to be part Cherokee, and Maude Shaw Reagan
who was a great aunt on the Shaw side of my family as well as
being married to Josie’s nephew, Chester Arthur Reagan, told me that “everyone in the
surrounding area (of Munday Texas) knows the Reagans are
Indian”.
Josephine was never
on the Cherokee rolls. There are a number of Davises on the
rolls, but there is no way to determine If these people are
relatives. The first name of only one of brother is known.
This was John Davis. There were two John Davises who filed for
tribal status during the 1907 allotment period. One of these
claims was accepted, and the other was rejected.
There is one family of Reagans on the
rolls. These people are Lydia Reagin and her sons Arthur G.
and Austin. Their ancestry was from Lydia, the mother, who was
a Reagan only by marriage. This Arthur
G. Reagan, should not be confused with Chester
Arthur Reagan, the son of Josie’s older brother
George Reagan.
There are several Davises on the
Cherokee Census of 1835 which was taken in preparation for
removal of the Cherokee Nation to what is now Oklahoma. There
was a Dr. Daniel Davis, but it is not known if he was related
to any of our Davises.
Again this is a very controversial
part of our family’s oral tradition, but 1 did not realize how
much so until I started putting this booklet together. There
are some that are so anxious to be able to have the honor of
knowing that they are descended from the First Americans that
they would have me become biased in favor of that outcome in
my research. At the other extreme there are those who think
that to have Native American Ancestry is a disgrace.
I for one would be extremely proud to
have the blood of the noble Cherokee or any other Native
American people in my veins, but I simply do not know for sure
whether I do or not. I feel that I have discussed this legend
objectively without giving weight to any specific conclusions.
This is really because there are no conclusions because
specific concrete data is lacking. Its just part of family
lore and will probably never be anything but.
To those who feel that having
non-Anglo-Saxon-Norman ancestry is somehow not all right, I
would remind theni of some of the people who are Native
American with large or very small blood quantums who have been
great accomplishers. Among the many Cherokees are Sequoya
(also known as George Guess), Will Roger, Johnny Cash, Kay
Starr, and John Ross. And, among other native groups, the
person to whom the free world owes its very survival is, of
course, Winston Churchill, who is one thirty second Iroquois
through his American mother Jenny Jerome. He was proud of this
fact and discussed it freely and openly.
To conclude this subject I will say
that the possibility of our family having Cherokee Ancestry is
the one people ask me about the most, and to leave this very
important part of family lore from this history would be
inexcusable.
A final family myth is that former
President Ronald Reagan is a close relative. This one needs
to be dismissed. In his autobiography, President Reagan, says that his great grandfather,
Michael Reagan, immigrated from County Tipperary to
America in the middle of the nineteenth century during the
potato famine. Our Reagans were here at least three quarters
of a century before this time and were probably here as long
as two centuries before the famine immigration. If we are
related to this great man, which we probably are, it is as a
very distant cousin. Uncle Tom was sure that he was a long
lost nephew or close cousin because of the close resemblance
with our family, but, this is most likely because of the
prominence of Celtic genes in so many of our people.
If anyone has any other legends are
lore regarding the family, I would love to hear about it.
William Ballis Glasgow’s death certificate is probably in
the Oklahoma State Dept. of Vital Records. If someone who
lives in Oklahoma could go there in person to check this out,
it would be very helpful. Also, there may be
information in Faxon where William and Lum died.
I live in a high cost of living area,
and my genealogy budget is very limited as is my time because
of my job and maintaining my house by myself. So, any help in
doing research would be greatly appreciated. I will not be
able to travel to the places where our ancestors lived until I
retire. If any of you live near
or are going to any of these places where our forebears lived,
a little time on genealogy research would really help make
this a whole family project If any of you are going to
Washington D.C., a trip to the Daughters to the America
Revolution Library would probably yield some way good
information.
Someday after I learn to get along
with the word processor and retire, I would like to
write a more complete history.
Margaret J. (Peggy)
Shaw
5901 North 37th (206) 759-6687
Tacoma, WA 98407
e-mail: Shapeg@aol.com
A Sampling of Pictures
The following pages contain pictures of
various members of our family. They are numbered and
identified below. Most are machine photocopies of machine
photocopies and are not very clear. I have regular prints of
only a few of these pictures. My collection of family pictures
is very limited. If you have any old pictures of the family
and would be willing to share them, I would be very grateful.
The picture on the cover is of Josie
and Lum when they were in their twenties or thirties. It could
have been their wedding picture. When I took the copy of the
picture Uncle Tom Glasgow had to make a copy and negative of
my own, the people at the photo studio told me that his copy
was a copy of a copy that had been colorized and that the
colorizing had effected the quality of the picture and the
quality of subsequent prints. They also told me that it looks
as if their heads are being held still by brackets that were
invisible to the camera and that helped prevent people from
moving while the film was being exposed.
1 Josie about 1905.
2. Aver Glasgow Meador about 1925
3. Josie,
Lum, and their six oldest children in the late 1880’s. Does
anyone have a good quality print of this picture?
4. Aver Glasgow Meador about 1940.
5. A sister of Josie. Does anyone know
which sister?
6. Lum’s
brother Sims Glasgow.
7. Prudie
Allie Glasgow Goode and her husband Ben Goode with
youngest son Ray L. Goode during WW 11.
8. Effie Glasgow Shaw Moore about 1955 in Kim
Colorado with her second husband Art Moore and daughter Odell Shaw Kennedy.
9. Relatives
of Josie. Can anyone identify these people?
10. Effie Glasgow Shaw Moore in Kim Colorado about
1925.
11. Josie with
grandson Kenneth Glasgow about 1923.
12. Thomas
Jefferson and Emma Glasgow about 1920. I think this was taken
around the time of their wedding.
13. Thomas
Jefferson Glasgow about 1920.
14. Sherman Glasgow before 1920.
15. Josie and Lum with their four youngest children about
1905 near Old Glory Texas. Uncle Tom thought
that this was in Oklahoma, but Old Glory is
in Texas and he was very young at this time.
16. Sherman
and Arckie Glasgow probably in the 1920’s.
17. Josie
and Lum with grandson Kenneth Glasgow about 1923.
ABBREVIATED BIBLIOGRAPHY
Barbe, Carmen.
Canny, Nicholas; Kingdom and Colony
Cooper, Betty Hamby. Tennessee
Roots Vol. II The ancestors of Charles Reagan
Curtis, Edmund. History of Ireland
to 1924
Edwards, Georgia Glasgow
Epperson, Vera
Everton, George. Handy Book for
Genealogists
Funk and Wagnals New Encyclopedia
Glasgow_Reagan Bible Records
Glasgow, Robert S. Jr.
Glasgow, Tom and Emma
Goode, Prudie Glasgow and son Jack
Lincoln Co. Tenn. marriage records
McMillian, Tessy McCutcheon
Meador, Aver and daughters
Moore, Effie Glasgow Shaw
Moore, Neil
Morgan, Ted. Churchill Young Man in
A Hurry
Mormon Church Family Records
Navarro County Texas Vital Records
Reagan, Ronald. An
American Life
Reagan, Maude Shaw
Texas State Civil War Pension
Records
Trusty, Catherine
Tishomingo County Mississippi
marriage records
US Federal Census Reports
US Federal Census—Soundex
US Federal Census Report, 1835 Cherokee Census