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| My oldest (identified) Priddy photograph - Sofostris Allison Priddy, and his wife, Nancy Tomlinson Priddy -1870s? |
In the early years of my genealogical research, I largely
ignored my maternal grandmother’s family, the Priddys, largely because I
naively believed them to be “researched.” My grandmother had inherited a copy
of a 15-page or so history of the Priddys compiled in the mid-twentieth century
by distant cousins, Mr. & Mrs. Harry Priddy of Van Wert, Ohio. This
generally factual history carried the family’s story back to John Priddy
(1758-1847). A bit later, I discovered the book The Priddy Family in America by Fred G. Butler (1981) in the
collection of the Allen County Public Library in Fort Wayne. This book
connected John Priddy to his ancestors in North Carolina and Virginia going
back to the seventeenth century, at the same time demonstrating that the family
had both northern and southern branches.
I have done very little research on the Priddy family before
my branches settled in Ross and Fayette Counties, Ohio in the early nineteenth
century, moving to Van Wert County in the 1830s.
While the Priddy men left a reasonable record of their
lives, for three generations, their wives remain mostly a mystery, leaving
three generations of “Priddy puzzles” that I have worked on from time to time
for nearly twenty years.
Martha (Rowe) Priddy (1754-1833) is buried and memorialized
beside her husband in the Cochran Cemetery near New Martinsburg in Fayette
County, Ohio. Her marriage to John Priddy is recorded in Louisa County,
Virginia, in 1790, with the license indicating that her mother, Lucy Rowe, gave
permission. A similar license in 1791 reveals that her sister, Fanny, married
Benjamin Alvinson in the same County. The Priddys associated closely with a
number of Rowe families in Fayette County, Ohio, yet I have not yet been able
to firmly tie Martha to any of these. It
is clear that there was some relationship to the family of Jesse Rowe, an early
settler and Methodist of Fayette County.
The life of Eliza (Butler) Priddy, wife of John and Martha’s
son, William, also raises more questions than answers. Several late-nineteenth
century biographies of descendants (of T.D. Priddy in Van Wert County, Ohio and
Jahial Parmeley in Lake County, Ohio) mention the figure of Benjamin Butler,
supposed father of Eliza (Butler) Priddy who lived to be either 106 or 108
years old. While I’m sure that there is truth to this tale in some form, no
trace of Benjamin has been found. One of the earliest contemporary mentions of
the family was an obituary of Eliza (Butler) Priddy which appeared in the Western Christian Advocated in 1843.
Besides the details of her death, it includes the following:
“Born 1791 in Delaware, the youngest daughter of Benjamin Butler,
Esn.; was five years old when her mother died; grew up in the household of her
eldest brother, Thomas Butler, Esq. who in 1807 moved to Chillicothe, Ohio and
soon died, leaving a feeble widow and six small children; in 1817 married
William Priddy and to them 8 children were born; in 1837 her husband moved his
family to Putnam County, Ohio where their house became a preaching -place; last
move was to Van Wert County.”
Much like her mother-in-law, Martha, Eliza’s life left numerous
clues that have not yet coalesced into a coherent tale. I suspect that records
of Ross and Fayette County would reveal considerably more about the Butler
family.
Finally, we come to perhaps the most interesting story of all, the
life of Sarah (Brown) Priddy (1814-1870). I had the opportunity in the 1990s to
interview Truman Priddy, a son of Harry and Blanche Priddy, who wrote the
history referenced above. His grandfather, Thomas Franklin “Frank” Priddy
(1845-1938) was well remembered in my branch of the Priddy family and left a
long reflection on life in early Van Wert which is preserved in archives in
both Lima and Van Wert. Truman, who was born in 1913, remembered stories of his
grandparents’ life in Ridge Township, Van Wert County in the mid-nineteenth
century. He recalled that his grandparents were the first couple married in
Ridge Township (which is also attested in several other sources, although their
marriage record is recorded in Mercer County). He also recalled two pieces of
data on his grandmother: that she was an
orphan and that she was in some way related to a “Sam Brown”.
One lesson I have learned is that I have frequently failed to read
county histories closely enough. Although these volumes are prone to error,
they also contain the occasional genealogical “golden nugget,” having recorded
some detail forgotten in later times (as long as one doesn’t take these “nuggets”
too much at face value). Such is the biography of Thomas Franklin Priddy
included in Volume III of the History of
Northwest Ohio (1917), which, besides a fascinating account of the Priddy
family, indicates that Sarah (Brown) Priddy came to Van Wert County with the
William Hill family. William Hill was
indeed a close neighbor of William Priddy and family and came himself from
Fayette County about the same time. Like Priddy, he and his family were staunch
Methodists. Fayette County marriage records reveal that William Hill married a
Jane Brown in 1823. A rich history of William Hill’s family by Gold Collins
Gnake, apparently written in 1948, is archived in Van Wert. This history states
that William’s first wife was a Martha Brown and that his second wife, Jane,
was her younger sister. It also confirms that “Sally Brown” who married A.T.
Priddy, was “an orphan” taken in by William Hill, “a relative of his wives.”
Again, much like earlier generations, Sarah left a number of clues.
It is clear from the above and the family’s close relationship with William
Hill’s son, Smith Hill, that there was a close relationship between Sarah and
the Hill family. While there is a “Sam Brown” family in Van Wert County, it
appears that he may have had Pennsylvania roots and not further proof of his
relationship to the Priddy family has been found. I wonder if perhaps Jane
(Brown) Hill, second wife of William Hill, was perhaps not Martha (Brown)
Hill’s sister, but rather her sister-in-law, and perhaps the mother of Sarah
(Brown) Priddy. This is purely speculative.
Again, perhaps Fayette County records would shine a light. Perhaps
Sarah’s father, a mysterious Mr. Brown, left some form of record at his death
in the ‘teens or twenties of the nineteenth century. It is also possible that
such records would be found in Ross County.
The Priddys and the families with whom they lived an intermarried
present a compelling story of the early Northwest. They were early settlers in
both Fayette County and Van Wert County, and left a strong record of their
adherence to Methodism throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. They
also left an above average number of biographies and memories that have passed
down to us today, allowing in some ways the reconstruction of their lives.
Undoubtedly, careful research would stitch together a fascinating, fuller
narrative.
