Digging Up Your Family

Peter McQueen 1.0

Note: to see a post for Robert Haskins Crozier CLICK HERE

While I continue to track down the parents of Peter McQueen I suppose putting some information up about him would keep me from writing one very, very long post about him. †

 

My relationship to Peter McQueen:

Me

Virginia Marie Stalls (mother)

James Paul Stalls, Jr (granddaddy)

Minnie Virginia Richards (g-grandmother)

Jerome E Richards (2nd g-grandfather)

Caroline McQueen (3rd g-grandmother)

Peter McQueen (4th g-grandfather)

 

According to census records Peter McQueen was born about 1795 in South Carolina.  I do know (due to a court case involving one of his daughters and his niece) that he had at least one older sister named Ann McQueen who married Stephen Wood.  Ann McQueen, also from South Carolina, died in Meriwether County, Georgia.

Peter McQueen is not on any census records until 1840 for some reason, so tracking his exact whereabouts is difficult.

Peter married Elizabeth Freeland in 1820 in West Feliciana, Louisiana.  They had (according to the divorce papers) three daughters:  Louisa in 1822, Melissa in 1824 and Caroline in 1826.  By 1827 the family was living in Lauderdale County, Mississippi.

In 1827, when Caroline was about a year old, Peter deserted his family.  He had previously sold many of their belongings.  When he left he took two slaves that Elizabeth’s father had given her, telling Elizabeth he would sell the slaves and return with the money.  He disappeared for 10 years.  I have been unable to find him on the 1830 census (or 1820 census, for that matter). 

Peter apparently returned sometime in 1837 and took the two oldest daughters, Louisa and Melissa, from their home against their will, though why he did not take Caroline is not known (unless, as might be suspected, Caroline is not actually his daughter…).  According to records he took the girls up to Marshall County, Mississippi and enrolled them in school.

Elizabeth filed for divorce in May of 1838.  She assumed that Peter had fled west of the Mississippi River and was possibly living in Arkansas.  A notice went out in the paper in Jasper County, Mississippi asking him to come forward and face the accusations.  Of course he didn’t and the divorce was finalized May 1839.

 

In 1840 Peter is found living in Northern Division, Marshall County, Mississippi.  Listed in the household are:

1 white male between 15 and 19 years of age

1 white male between 40 and 49 years of age

3 male slaves under 10 years of age

1 female slave under 10 years of age

1 female slave between 10 and 23 years of age

1 female slave between 24 and 35 years of age

 It is not clear who the white male between 15 and 19 years of age is, nor at this point do I know if the female slave between 10 and 23 years of age and the female slave between 24 and 35 years of age are the two that he took from Elizabeth.

 

It was about 1840 when Peter brought Louisa and Melissa to live with him.  According to court records between 1840 and 1850 Peter became upset when his daughters attended a Methodist Church and kicked them both out of his house.  It’s not clear whether he kicked them out for attending church, for attending a Methodist Church or attending the night meetings at the Methodist Church.  However, Reverend Robert Haskins Crozier wrote a novel based on the incident titled Fiery Trials: Or, a story of an Infidel's Family, Rogers and Company, 1882.  The book paints Peter as an atheist who forbid his family to even think about religion. 

 

On April 24, 1843 Peter, who had been named the administrator of William M Bostwick’s estate, reported that the estate was insolvent.  Peter may not have been forthcoming in filing a list of the assets of the estate until October 1846.  (William Trezevant et al. vs. Peter McQueen, Administrator of William M. Bostwick, deceased)*

 

The January Term of 1849 found Peter in court again when Theodore Bostwick sued him for wages he felt Peter owed him.  The judge found for the defendant (Peter) and awarded a new trial.  Bostwick had failed to present evidence to prove his case and the judge declared that Peter had shown kindness in providing clothes, food and medical attention. (Peter McQueen vs. Theodore D. Bostwick)* 

 

In 1850 Peter is found on the census still living in Northern Division, Marshall County, Mississippi.  He is listed as Peter McQueen, 55 years of age, a farmer and born in South Carolina.  This is the first time that it is shown where he claims to have been born.  Also living in the household with him is a man named John Bogan, 23 years of age from North Carolina who was a carpenter.  It’s not clear his relationship to Peter.  The slave schedules also list Peter as having twenty-one slaves between the ages of 9 months and 33 years.**

 

The year 1850 found Louisa living with the Grey family in Marshall County, Mississippi.  She would go on to marry Thomas Cottrell, then Jeremiah Elder.  In 1850 Melissa was living with the Benjamin Cottrell family in Marshall County, Mississippi.  Benjamin Cottrell owned the Sylvestria Girls School in Marshall County and Melissa taught there.  Melissa died in 1851 and is buried in the Cottrell Family Cemetery in Marshall County, Mississippi.  Her headstone reads “When my father and mother forsake me, then the Lord will take me up”.

 

The census enumerated in 1860 finds Peter living in Town 2 Range 5, Byhalia, Marshall County, Mississippi.  He is living by himself, age 65 years, a farmer, extremely wealthy and still from South Carolina.  He is again on the slave schedules as having 30 slaves between the ages of 8 months and 40 years.

 

In 1860 Peter’s niece, Mary Ann Wood Mullins lost her husband Patrick Henry Mullins to a brain inflammation leaving her to raise four children on her own.  Peter’s will, dated September 3, 1863 appoints Mary Ann as executrix.  Peter’s entire estate was left to her and her children, but nothing to his last living child Louisa.  According to a Mississippi Supreme Court case, October Term 1866 between Mary Ann and Louisa (Mary A. Mullins et al. v. Louisa Cottrell) concerning the validity of the will Peter lived in Choctaw County (it is not clear whether Choctaw County, Mississippi or Choctaw County, Alabama, though Mississippi seems to be the most obvious) two years prior to his death.  The record of the case*** goes on to say that in Choctaw County he “killed a man in that county, and was killed in attempting to escape”.  It goes on to state that Peter died in the “autumn of 1865”, but it doesn’t give an exact date of death.  It also doesn’t tell us where he is buried.

 

Questions:

-Who are Peter McQueen’s parents?

-Where was Peter McQueen prior to 1820?

-Where was Peter McQueen between 1827 and 1837?

-Is Caroline actually Peter McQueen’s daughter?

-Who are these Mystery McQueens living with Robert Hoyle in 1860, Township 2 Range 4, Byhalia, Marshall County, Mississippi: Peter McQueen (age 2 years) and Infant Boy McQueen (age 4 months) who don’t appear to have any parents and there aren’t any other McQueens living in the area?

 

† information on court cases concerning him will be separate posts…he apparently was not at all unfamiliar with what the inside of a court room looked like…

* both William Trezevant et al. vs. Peter McQueen, Administrator of William M. Bostwick, deceased  and Peter McQueen vs. Theodore D. Bostwick cases can be found in Cases argued and decided in the Supreme Court of Mississippi, Volume 20, Mississippi, EW Stephens Publishing Company, 1849

**I am going to go ahead and say that what I learned about this guy concerning slaves makes me really dislike…no, hate him…he truly disgusts me

***found in Mississippi Reports-edition, publisher and publishing year unknown-photocopied pages found in research files of Hubert H McAlexander, the McAlexander-Marshall County Collection, JD Williams Library, University of Mississippi-information can also be found in The Southwestern Reporter, Volume 149, West Publishing Company, 1912

More McQueen Goodness!

I received in the mail yesterday the court transcripts for the trial that erupted over Peter McQueen’s will, the will in which he left everything to his niece, rather than his own daughter (the only living daughter of the two he kidnapped in the first place, but also the only living daughter since as Caroline passed previous to his death).

Today, however, we will not be going over these transcripts.  Today we are going to piece together what I have found concerning the McQueen family. 

Peter McQueen was born about 1795 in South Carolina.  We know that he married Elizabeth Freeland in Louisiana in 1820.  Peter and Elizabeth had at least three daughters, as named in the divorce papers: Louisa, Melissa and Caroline.  The divorce was granted for Elizabeth from Peter in 1839 in Mississippi.  I have not been able to locate Elizabeth after this, though she may either be the Elizabeth McQueen in Lauderdale County, Mississippi who married Claburn Perry in 1840 or she may have died, since the divorce papers described her as “infirm” (whether that meant she was on her deathbed, had the sniffles or somewhere in between is not clear).  I’m betting on the marriage, but so far I can’t find any other record of Elizabeth or Claburn to match up year of birth or place of birth.

In 1837 Peter McQueen returned to his home ten years after abandoning his family and pretty much kidnapped his two oldest daughters, Louisa and Melissa (by the way, I am sure I will go over all of this again in another post, say the post concerning the trial, but there is a point to all of this now, I promise).  Why he did not take Caroline with him also is not known, though speculation is that she either was not his child or may not have been at the home at the time he returned.

Peter enrolled Louisa and Melissa in a girl’s school where they later taught or lived for respite (more on that another day).  Melissa died young, having never married.  Louisa married first Thomas Cottrell, second Jeremiah Elder, both much older than herself-26 years and 22 years respectively).  Louisa did not have any children by 1865, and I am not yet certain if she had any after.

Caroline married Edmund Richards in 1846 in Arkansas.  She is on the 1850 census with Edmund and three of their children living in Arkansas.  There is also an 18 year old woman named Mary McQueen living with them that I had assumed was her sister, but I am no longer sure (if so, then Mary would have been born while Peter was gone from his family when Caroline was 4 years old-therefore possibly a different father or she could be a cousin of Caroline).  Caroline is not on the 1860 census with her family, which leads me to believe she passed between February of 1856 after her youngest son Jerome was born and August 1860 when the census was enumerated.  Though I am pretty tempted to keep looking for her since I was unable to find any record of her death (which is not unusual).

So, back to Peter.  By his death in 1865 the only daughter left living was Louisa.  Due to a…uh, we’ll call it a “disagreement”, between the two, Peter left everything to his niece Mary Ann Mullins (and I checked to see if this Mary Ann Mullins might have been the same person as the Mary McQueen living with Caroline in 1850, but it isn’t).  Mary Ann Mullins actually was a big clue to help me along with finding some of Peter’s family, though I still haven’t located his parents yet.  BUT, here’s what I found:

Mary Ann Mullins was born Mary Ann Wood in 1832 in the state of Georgia to parents Stephen Wood (of Virginia, 1792-1862) and Ann McQueen (of South Carolina, 1793-1834).  She married Patrick Henry Mullins (1824-1860), though I am not sure in what state they were married.  Together Mary Ann and Patrick, a tobacconist, had four children: Stephen, Matilda, Mary and Pauline.  Patrick died March 8, 1860 in Alabama of a brain inflammation.  After his death Mary Ann moved in with her Uncle Peter in Holly Springs, Marshall County, Mississippi.  After his death she and her children lived in Holly Springs for quite a while.  Mary Ann passed in 1917 in Memphis, Shelby County, Tennessee of old age and is buried in Byhalia, Marshall County, Mississippi.  Her headstone, which can be found on Find-a-Grave, reads:  Mary A. Wood, Wife of P.H. Mullins, 1832 1917.

SO, now to research the McQueens.  Both Peter and Ann McQueen were born in South Carolina, Ann in 1793 and Peter about 1795.  The McQueens listed on the census records in 1790 in South Carolina are:

 

James McQueen-Edgefield, South Carolina, two males, one female, three slaves

 

Daniel McQueen-Prince Georges, Georgetown, South Carolina, two males, two females, two slaves

Rachel McQueen-Prince Georges, Georgetown, South Carolina, five males, two females, one slave (note: all five males are under the age of 16 years)

Ruth McQueen-Prince Georges, Georgetown, South Carolina, one male, two females, four slaves

 

Robert McQueen-St Phillips and St Michaels, Charleston, South Carolina,  one male, one female

John McQueen-St Phillips and St Michaels, Charleston, South Carolina, two males, one slave

 

The McQueens listed on the 1800 census in South Carolina are:

 

Nell, or Neil, McQueen-Liberty, Marion District, South Carolina, two males, five females

 

William McQueen-Kingston, Georgetown District, South Carolina, two males, four females

Rachel McQueen-Kingston, Georgetown District, South Carolina, five males, four females

 

No McQueens have been found at all in the state of Georgia in 1800 or 1810.

McQueens listed on the 1820 census in Georgia (are you ready for this?  it’s a loooong list!):

 

John McQueen-Washington, Georgia, one male, three females

 

Lydia McQueen-Savannah, Chatham, Georgia, one female, seven slaves

 

Now, I’m not even sure if any of my McQueens, except for Ann McQueen, ever moved to Georgia.  Ann died and was buried in Meriwether County, Georgia.  Chatham and Washington Counties are not what I would call “nearby” Meriwether County back in those days (prior to cars being able to zip up and down the freeways, I mean).  I can’t be certain if she married in South Carolina or Georgia (why, oh why, can I not find the marriage record?).  If I could find that record it might give me a clue as to who Peter and Ann’s parents are.