Richard,
Lydia Memes Purvis b.26 May 1798 who married John Colyer b.20 Aug 1781had
a sister Elizabeth 'Betsy' Purvis b.1806 who married Morgan Colyer 28 Apr
1825 in Pulaski,Co.,KY I know they were living in Owen,Co.,IN by 1837 .Would
you have any info on this Morgan Colyer. I've been searching for yearswith
no luck.
Bill Savoree
National Archives and Records Servicespouse: Roberts, Rhoda (1763 - 1852)
JAMES PURVIS
Revolutionary War
R8529
State of Kentucky Pulaski County
On this 20th day of November 1832 personally appeared before theworshipful Justices of the County Court in Pulaski County, Stateof Kentucky, now sitting as a court in oten court. James Purvisaged about sixty nine years. A resident of Pulaski County,State of Kentucky, who being first duly sworn, according to law, dothon his oath make the following Declaration in order to obtain the benefitof the provision made by the act of Congress, passed June 7, 1832,that he enlisted in the Army of the United States in Pitt County,North Carolina, where in his sixteenth year as well as he nowrecollects, with Captain Joseph Gray for the term of one year andserved in the Regiment of Cob. John Heritage. John Allen, Major,in the North Carolina state line, in the 4th Regiment was durinathe period. stationed sometime at Fort Tazwell below Newburn. NorthCarolina. and when not at the station was marched to different placesfor the purpose of keeping down the Tories and such other duties as thesituation of the country might require. Was some times on Cape FearRiver, sometimes on Peedee and on Drowning Creek and the expirationof the twelve months was regularly discharged at a town called Kingstonin North Carolina and received a discharge signed by the said MajorAllen which has long since been lost, mislaid or destroyed. Afterwardsthe time not known in the County of Martin, State of North Carolina heundertook as a substitute for brother William Purvis to perform athree month tour in the Militia of the State of North Carolina and servedin the Company' of Captain Williams in the Regiment of Col. Ascurn. Wasrendezvoused at Kingston and marched to the army under the Command ofGeneral Gates and was engaged in the Battle that resulted in thedefeat of General Gates after the Defeat the army was scattered andhe returned home after having served two months. Afterwards inMartin County, North Carolina, the time not known, he becameagain a substitute for his brother Lewis Pervis for a three month tourand he rendezvoused at a town called Halifax, North Carolina and the dayafter the rendezvous he was ordered with a detachment in all 300 to beplaced under the command of Capt. Coats and Capt Coalman signing officersunder them he was marched along on New River and was awhile stationed ata place called New River Chapel and at that place was discharged andreceived a discharge signed by Capt. Coalman which has long since beenlost1 mislaid or destroyed. He further states that in addition to theabove Militia Service he served two other small tours. Afterwardswhile a resident of Pitt County. North Carolina the time not nowrecollected, he enlisted for the period of eighteen months in the regulararmv on continental establishment as he understood under CartBenjamin Coalman in the Regiment of Archibald Lyth, Robert BlontMajor. as marched to Charleston? South Carolina and joined thearmy of General Green and continued with the army until after the peacewas made and concluded. He was engaged in the service under this lastenlistment about one year after the proclamation of peace. He received awriting from the orderlv Sergeant, signed by the Captain as he was onloan , authorizing his return home. He was not in the Battle foughtwith the British by General Green near Camden. being on guard that day toprotect the baggage wagon. He was born in Martin County, NorthCarolina. He does not know the date. There is no record of his ageThat he knows of and all he is enabled to state as to age is from whathis parents told him when a boy. He is himself entirely illiterate,being unable to read or write. He continued in North Carolina after thewar until he removed to the State of Tennessee residino there aboutyears and about twenty since he removed from Tennessee to Pulaski County,Kentucky, where he now resides. He has no documentary evidence of hisservice and knows of no person by whom he can prove it. unless he canprove some portion of it circumstantially by Francis Aldridge ofPulaski County, who was in the same armv with the applicant under thelast enlistment, but he has no positive recollection of theservice rendered by the applicant, not being the same company. He herebyrelinquishes every claim whatever to a pension ar an annuity except thepresent and he declares that his name is not on the pension roll ofany agency in any state.
Sworn to and subscribed this day and year aforesaid.
his
James Purvis
mark
State of Kentucky Pulaski County
The affidavit of Francis Aldridge aged between sixty seven and sixtyeight years. a resident of Pulaski County, made in open court, before thePulaski County Court, on this day of November 1832, he states thet hewas in the Regiment of Archibald Lyth, Major Blount was also anofficer, as mentioned in the the within Declaration of James Purvis, andwas marched to Ashley Hill South Carolina. and joined the main Armyunder General Greene and he upon oath states that he recollects to havethen heard that a man by the name of Purvis belonged to the army and h~well knew that Caot. Coalman belonged to the regiment as stated bythe said Purvis in his declaration and the said Francis Aldridgefurther states that between eighteen and twenty years anterior tothis he met with the said James Purvis and after conversing about thelast war and hearing the name of Purvis, he thought herecollected the name of Purvis of having been engaged in the serviceunder General Greeneas stated by Purvis and mentioned his recollection toPurvis and this affiant and Purvis then talked over and conversed aboutthe events and transactions of the service under Gen. Greene and he hasno douby that James Purvis was in the Regiment of Lythe as stated by himunder Gen. Greene and served as he states.
Sworn and subscribed to in open Court this day affirmed.
We James Cooper, a clergyman and Francis Aldridge and John Newbyin theCounty of Pulaski! State of Kentucky and in the vicinity fo the applicantJames Purvis hereby certify that we are well acquainted with JamesPurvi,s who has subscribed and Sworn to the above and foregoingDeclaration. that we believe him to be of the age he states. That weheard him talking and conversing about and relate the events andtransactions mentioned by him in his Declaration upwards of
ten years anterior to this and that he is reputable ano belived in theneighborhood where he resides to have been a soldIer of the revolutionand that we concur in that opinion and believe he served as he states.
Sworn and subscribed the day and year above.
James Cooper Stephen Hail
John Newby Francis Aldridge
Johnspouse: Colyer, John (1781 - 1851)
Colyer/Collier was born 1n Greenbrier,Va. which today is known as West Va.
Married Lydia Purvis 1818, she was from Johnston Co., North Carolina.
They then moved to Pulaski Co., Ky. and are buried in Souls Chapel Cem.
There may have been a brother, cousin, uncle, or William also whichwent
to Ky. also.
The name was misspelled around the Civil War.
Wesley M. Colyer
Wesley Colyer [wcolyer@@cinci.rr.com]
VITAL STATS: 1853 Deaths, p 2 - Pulaski County, Kentucky
-------------------------
Transcribed & Submitted by Valerie J. Davis, vdavis@@blarg.net
Date: 15 May 1999
From Kentucky State Archives Film #994053: KY Birth, Marriage, and DeathRecords (1852-1910);
Powell-Rowan Counties; Filmed Jan 1981 by The Division of Archives &Records, Frankfort, KY;
Pulaski Co: 1852-1859, 1861, 1874-1878
*************************************
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Family Index is at:http://www.rootsweb.com/~usgenweb/ky/pulaski/vitals.html
1853 Deaths; page 2
S/M/C = Sex/Marital Status/Color*
*[in 1853, the color was not actually recorded. B or Black waswritten in at a later time.]
PC = Pulaski County, KY
(**SCROLL TO THE RIGHT for additional info**)
1853, p 3: "A Copy Att J.D. Allcorn Clk"
This shows death of a slave named Clara
Decedant S/M/C Age Parents/OwnerDeath Date Cause of Death Death Place ResidenceBirth Place Occupation
Clara -/-/B 16 Lydia Colyer11 Dec PC PCTN
Served as soldier of the American Revolution: Volunteered fromBotetourt County, VA in 1778. Servied six months in Colonel Preston'sREgiment Capt. James Newell's Company. Remvoed to the West in 1779 andin 1780 served in Col. Benjamin Logan's Regiment, under Capt. GeorgeAdams, Lieut. William Moore and Joseph Kennedy. In 1782 served underGen. George Rogers Clark in the Northwest. All this per Edith ColyerCurtis DAR app in 1970.spouse: English, Martha (~1754 - )
EARLY YEARS OF A BUDDING AUTHOR
Conditions in Macon, Missouri, further deteriorated, and Reed Roseboro'became embroiled in acrimonious exchanges with an in-fluential churchman.Squabbling, plus an intensifying financial recoil,
made it obvious that the family must move. In late August 1868 Marthamade plans to return 10 Tennessee for the third time since the war. Shehad b-n promised a teaching job by Will Houston, superintendent ofschools In Shelbyville. Houston was the husband of Martha's sister Sallie.
Martha Colyar Roseboro' and her daughter Viola left Macon, two countiesdirectly west of Hannibal, Missouri, with a fund of sixty4our dollars.When they boarded a train for Hannibal their problems began. Viola hadbeen born in Pulaski on December 3.1857, and was therefore not eveneleven years old. The conductor, however, mid she looked at lent twelveand exacted a second adult fare. The purser on the steamboat at Hannibalalso demanded another fare. In an anguished letter, written while on thesteamer, Martha reported the unanticipated expenses to her husband. Shesaid she had twenty-eight dollars and could thus account for sixty-two,but had no idea what had happened to the other two.
Martha had misjudged when schools opened in Shelbyville and arrived fartoo early. In order to use up the extra time she began to talk ofteaching illiterate black children in Nashville. Her brother Arthur,realizing the peril to his political objective in this plan, once again,with a notable lack of imagination, suggested that Martha and Viola visitthe mines at Tracy City. They dutifully agreed, and again passed throughFranklin County. In his office at the end of the Sewanee Mountain railline Martha talked of her aspirations for Viola,(1 ) while Arthurat-tempted to point out that he had a family of his own to look after inaddition to brothers and other sisters who seemed to expect aid from him.Meanwhile young Viola found a high stool, a large desk, and writingmaterials,( 12)
Tracy Tennessee , September 5, 1868
Dear Papa:
I should like to see you very much. Please excuse theheading of my letter, as for that matter I hope you will excuse the wholeletter. Not that I could write a very good one anyway. Now [I am] goingto tell you some of the-all about our journey.
Soon after we got on the boat, the scenery was beautiful. Greathigh cliffs with such beautiful vines hanging over. This was on the Illside. On the MO side were beautiful trees. ( I would have used the wordbeautiful again only I couldn't think of any other.) with grape vinesrunning all over them. I will tell you how they looked. They had greentrunks and the limbs don't show a bit, the vine runs all over it justthe shape the tree is. Soon after I turned this page they cut two gratebig watermelons, before long dinner was redy. We had butter beans andapple dumplings. Before dinner my dress was loose, after it was tight.
Your Loving Viola
P.S. Love to all our [Macon] friends after a liberalsupply for yourself.
A few days later when Martha stepped from the train in Shelbyville, Violamid quietly, "How small?' Since the school board had not voted on herappilcation1 Martha backtracked to Winchester for a visit with Dr.Murrell18 family and with Novella Marks. Viola1 maintaining a negativeattitude, wrote her father "Winchester is the dullest Place I most eversaw."(13) School in Shelbyville did not Open that year until October 12,with Martha finally installed as principal but paid only a pittance. Hervolunteer efforts to integrate blacks into the school
-~m of Shelbyville kept the community in turmoil until "MeddlesomeMattie"11 a. detractors called her1 departed for Missouri the next spring
The Roseboro's were away from Tennessee the next five years. WhenWinchester heard that Martha had gone to the Far West the town buzzedthat Arthur had Issued free railroad passes to her Just to get her out ofthe way. With his sister far away, her reputation U troublemaker would beless of an issue in the upcoming race for the governorship.
Martha was. intensely unhappy during the years Mr. Roseboro1 servedchurches in Nevada and California. Arthur did not become governor, andthe radical Roseboro's were soon back to haunt him. The family returnedto Tennessee in late August 1874 In order to enter Viola in FairmountCollege at Moffat1(14) apparently unaware that Fairmount1 like theUniversity of the South, vacationed in the winter. (In the popular mindthe school six miles east of the university was frequently regarded asits female branch1 though it never officially had that status.)
When Viola began the regular college term the following March it was heruncle who escorted her up the mountain, after requesting that her parentsstay in the background for a few days. On their way to Moffat the pairstopped in Sewanee to look at the university buildings1 which astonishedViola by their simplicity. The university was. in its seventh year ofoperation, and already a primitive touch of the gothic was inevidence.(15) She specifically noted the sharply pointed roofs andcrudely arched doors and windows of some of the wooden structures. Logbuildings served as faculty housing. Fairmount, founded the previous year(1873) on the site now occupied by the DuBose Conference Center1consisted of a main building and separate dormitories Soon Mr. Roseboro'pleased his wife by taking a church in Moffat within convenient visitingdistance of Winchester. Considering the smothering tendencies of theparents1 A. S. Colyar regarded this arrangement as a mistake(16)
THE CAREER OF VIOLA ROSEBORO'
During Viola's third year at Fairmount a classmate induced her to give adramatic reading in a church during a visit to Russellville, Kentucky.She had practiced the skill since the winter spent in Shelbyville. Amonth later, April 18,1878, fourteen young men signed an advertisement inthe Russellville newspaper that pleaded for Viola's return. HenryWatterson, editor of the Louisville Courier-Journal, interviewed her andurged that she draw materials only from the works of Southern writers.Within a few months, Viola, fired by what was called Colyar ambition, hadpresented readings from Cinncinnati to New Orleans. In November 1878she enrolled In stage-arts classes in Cincinnati. Thereafter the gossipsof the Moffat congregation so reproved Mr. Roseboro' for allowing hisdaughter to make preparations for a life on the stage that he beganlooking for a new charge outside Tennessee.
B-ore December was past if was clear to Viola that her plans inCincinnati were going to coat more than her parents could supply. Shewrote to the Colyar-owned Daily American in Nashville, offering to submita "Cincinnati Letter' dealing with dramatic personalities, theater chatand book reviews. Viola sent a weekly column to the paper for the nextsix years, until switching to New York's Daily, Graphic.
Viola made her Nashville acting debut on May 27,1879, to the predictablelaudation of her uncle Arthur's newspaper. By that time her father hadbecome pastor of a church in Michigan and her mother, in a healthdecline, had returned to Franklin County, staying with Veils Marks atHundred Oaks.
During the next eight yearn Viola was a member of several stockcompanies, gradually transferring her home base from Cincinnati to
New York City (about 1882). All the while 8he continued to write1sometimes signing herself as Martha Wallace and also occasionally actingunder that name. (Her father's mother had been a Wallace.) Viola's lifewas radically altered in 1887 when she contracted pneumonia whilebarnstorming in upstate New York. As a result she permanently lost whatwas called the golden tone of her voice. She remarked that the prayers ofpeople in Moffat had been answered because she was now permanently offthe stage. Meanwhile Martha continued to follow her husband as he movedfrom church to church within Pennsylvania and New York in compulsiveefforts to be dose to their daughter.
Viola devoted herself exclusively to freelance writing until being hiredIn 1893 m a manuscript reader on McClure's(17) Yearn earlier, Martha andViola had begun to experience an alienation that Arthur Colyar foresaw asa possibility for two women equally unacquainted with humility. AfterViola was on her own she was increasingly annoyed that her motherpersisted in sending her copies of her articles with grammaticalcorrections written in the margins but including no simple word of praise.
(the difficulties with her mother, Viola dedicated a book of shortstories in 1892 thus: ~ my mother, my earliest and still my bestcompanion in the blessed world of letters, I wish to inscribe this, myfirst book." Viola, perhaps remembering how her parents had mat on aWinchester sidewalk, paid her mother another compliment no parent couldforget. As a child, she said, she could always tell where her mother wasin a crowd because that was the direction people were looking. Marthadied of cancer in May 1893; her husband died three years later.
Viola developed a passion for discovering genius during her years onMcclure's as fiction editor. She bought the first stories 0. Henry andBooth Tarkington sold.(18) She got Willa Cather an editorial position onthe magazine staff, and Miss Cather acknowledged that Viola was her"first critic. Among scores of other writers she shepherded andencouraged were Margaret Culkin Banning, Rex Beach, Samuel Hopkins Adams1Jack London1 Ida M. Tarbell, Edwin Markham, and Fulton Ousier. Aftereighteen yearn with Mcclure's she moved to Collier's She owned homes inNew York, Connecticut, Cape Cod, and Florence1 Italy, which, however, sheultimately lost through poor lnvestments(19) In old age she lived onStaten Island. Viola Roseboro' died January 29, 1945 murmuring as if insummary
of her life, "People people, people." Services were held in New York Cityand the body transferred to a cemeteries vault at Clifton Springs nearRochester New York. Burial took place there on April 21 1945. Viola wasplaced beside her parents.
a General
First Governor of the State of Tennesseespouse: Sherrill, Catherine (Bonnie Kate) (*1760 - )
Owned land abutting William Colyar in Washington Co. TN between 1801-1809.spouse:
According to Arthur St. Clair Colyar's application to Sons of AmericanRevolution in about 1901, Mr George Sherrill was a private in NorthCarolina troops and pensioned.
According to History of Washington County Tennessee 1988 by The WataugaAssociation of Genealogists, PO Box 117, Johnson City, TN 37605-0117.
George Davidson Sherrill served under John Sevier in Revolutionary War