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_James OLIPHINT _____|
| (.... - 1849) m 1797|
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|--Presley Ward OLIPHANT
| (1809 - 1880)
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|_Polly COMPTON ______|
m 1797 |
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[892]
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THE WIVES AND CHILDREN OF PRESLEY OLIPHANT
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There is some difficulty in sorting out Presley's wives and children, and some interesting mysteries in the endeavor.
TM Oliphant's history of the Oliphant family (1958-1959) states that Presley had two wives, and that the name of the first was unknown. The second was 'Miss Anne Fitzhugh of Smyrna". He lists the children of the first marriage as Mattie(f), Mollie(f), and Charlotte(f). Then, by wife Mary, he lists Caroline, John, James, Andrew, Benjamin, Samuel, Silas, Sallie, Lee, and Anne.
In 1939, Jill Knight Garrett interviewed two of Presley's grown children (Silas, Benjamin and Benjamin's wife Mary) and both of them talked about their siblings. Silas stated that "there were 13 children born, seven boys and six girls. All lived to be grown except the youngest boy, who died at fourteen years of age. There were six boys and three girls older than myself." Mary, wife of Benjamin, stated that Ben had 7 brothers (for a total of 8 boys), five sisters, and three half-sisters.
Obviously Silas and Ben & Mary differ as to the exact number of siblings. There is a conflict, too, in the account from TM Oliphant: from later census records, we know that Charlotte (listed as first marriage) is younger than Caroline (listed as second marriage). The problems are compounded by the fact that that neither "Mollie" nor "Mattie" ever appear in the home of Presley in any of the census records. On top of that, the names "Mollie" and "Mattie" may not even be their real names - both were commonly used as nicknames.
Luckily TM did have some information about who Mollie and Mattie married, and some of the children and grandchildren that Mattie had. According to the information he collected from family members, Mollie married Isaiah Dickerman and Mattie married a Washington Cooper. In the notes for these children I've detailed the information that I've found; to summarize here, I did find an "I. Dickerman" married to a woman named "Mary", with an Oliphant niece living in the house (Mollie was commonly used as a nickname for Mary). I also found a "George Washington Cooper" who married an Oliphant woman and whose children and grandchildren match the ones that TM Oliphant had for Mattie. Her name, however, was wildly different from what we had listed - her name in the marriage record and census data was "Sophronia".
The oddest thing about both of these women, however, is that it lists that they were both born in Arkansas. Digging in Arkansas as a result of this lead finds a "Pristly Oliphant" on the tax rolls of Crawford Co. AR in 1836. Presley doesn't appear in his own household in Tennessee census records until 1850, despite the fact that he is 40 years old at that time and on his second marriage by that point. It is distinctly possible that Presley moved to AR as a young man, and then later moved back to Rutherford County TN.
It is also odd that "Mollie" and "Mattie" do not ever appear in Presley's home in any of the census records, even when they would have been young enough to expect to see them (like in the 1850 census). Given the strong evidence that Mollie and Mattie were born in Arkansas, a review of the Arkansas 1850 census seems in order. I've only been able to turn up 4 Oliphants in Arkansas in 1850. One is a man in Saline Co in the middle part of the state whose birthplace was Mississippi. The other three are three little girls, all living in Upper Crawford Co within a page of each other in the census. Each is an Oliphant girl in the home headed by another surname with no other Oliphants in the home, and each was born in Arkansas. Their names? Martha, Mary, and Sofrona:
Sofrona Oliphant - 8 yo, in home of Emily Putnam
Martha A. Oliphant - 10 yo, in the home of William Hudspeth
Mary J. Oliphant - 14 yo, in home of Thomas Walden with a number of other families.
What's interesting as well is that there are the following marriages in Middle Tennessee between 1850 and 1860:
Martha A. Oliphint Noah C. Bell 06/18/1855 Rutherford Co.
Mary J. Oliphint A. P. Davis 02/16/1857 Rutherford Co.
Sophronia Oliphant George W. Cooper 11/29/1859 Davidson Co.
When you look up these three women's homes in the 1860 census, each of them was born in Arkansas:
1860 Census - Davidson Co, Nashville Ward 8
Noah C. Bell 22yo TN
Martha A. Bell 20yo AR
George G. Bell 4yo TN
Mary W. Bell 2yo TN
1860 Census - Rutherford Co, District 3
A.P. Davis 43yo TN
M.J. Davis 22yo AR
J.H. Davis 2yo TN
1860 Census - Davidson County, Nashville Ward 4
G. Washington Cooper 23yo TN
Sophronia Cooper 21yo AR
(In the household of William Sturdevant)
So, a working hypothesis: In the 1830's Presley moved to Crawford County Arkansas. We don't know if he married before the move or after he got to Arkansas, and what happened to his wife there. He had three daughters while there; Martha, Mary J, and Sophronia. He moved back to Rutherford County, TN sometime before 1850, but left his daughters behind in three different homes temporarily. He subsequently married his second wife and started a family with her. Shortly after that he moved his three daughters from the first marriage to Tennessee, where each married before 1860. One of them, Mary, was married twice - once to A. P. Davis and then later to Isaiah Dickerman.
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The Homes of Presley Oliphant
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Presley was born in Rutherford County TN. As mentioned above, he likely moved to Crawford County AR in the 1830s, and then back to Rutherford County sometime before 1850.
The 1850 census shows Presley and his family in Rutherford County; in the 1860 census they are in Davidson County (Nashville post office), and in the 1870 census they are in Dist 1 of Williamson County (Franklin post office), as they were in 1880.
"The family moved from Smyrna in Rutherford County Tenn, to Williamson County about the year of 1860, as they were there during the war between the States." - TM Oliphant
Silas (his son) stated that the family moved to Williamson county "three years after the War". Mary Richardson, Benjamin's wife, states that the move to Williamson Co took place when Ben was about 14 years old.
We do not know when and where Presley and Mary died or were buried.
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Presley's Trades
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Silas, son of Presley, says that his father was a carpenter by trade, but later took up farming as his occupation. The 1860 census lists his occupation as "Wagon Maker"; the 1870 and 1880 census lists him as being a farmer.
The 1850 Slave Schedule of the census lists Presley W. Oliphint of Gambill, Rutherford, TN as having the following slaves:
Age Sex Race
20 Female Black
10 Female Black
6 Male Black
4 Female Black
1 Male Black
[893]
[S31]
Oliphant Family History
[894]
[S38]
Estate of James Oliphint
[895]
[S12]
Historical Sketches of Dickson Co, Tennessee
[896]
[S12]
Historical Sketches of Dickson Co, Tennessee
[897]
[S19]
U.S. Census - 1850
[898]
[S21]
U.S. Census - 1860
[899]
[S42]
U.S. Census - 1870
[900]
[S20]
U.S. Census - 1880
[2388]
[S31]
Oliphant Family History
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Oliphant Family History
© 2005 John Scott , 305 Murphy Court , Macon , GA 31216 , jsscott@tennesseeheritage.com. Permission is granted to copy portions of this document for personal use only. May not be published in paper form, electronically, or by any other means without permission.