Timeless Bonds: Connections; Past and Present

Connections; Past and Present

This is a tale. It is a tale about family history. It is a tale that demonstrates how seemingly random folks can come together in seemingly new ways. Those connections would seem to be new, but upon further inspection, we can see that those folks were not as random nor as unconnected as they first appeared.

Lewis Farmer was born in Hawkins County, Tennessee around 1798. His parents were Stephen and Nancy Russell Farmer. He would have at least 3 brothers and one sister. It seems that the family probably moved to Harlan County Kentucky sometime before 1801 because Lewis' brother David was born in that year and David was born in Harlan.

Now, sometime in the 1790s, a baby girl was born. Much uncertainty surrounds her birth. I cannot be sure of the date she was born or even where she was born. One census indicates that she was born in 1793 in North Carolina and another indicates that she was born in 1797 in Tennessee. The state of Tennessee was admitted into the Union in 1796 from land ceded to the United States by North Carolina. Perhaps this can account for the confusion, or perhaps the person providing the census taker with information just gave bad information. I cannot even tell you the name of this baby's parents, except to assume, perhaps erroneously, that at least one of her parents had the surname of Hurley, as this baby girl's name was Anna Hurley.

I do not know anything about Anna after her birth until September 25, 1816. It was in Harlan County, Kentucky on that date that she was married to Lewis Farmer. Lewis was 18, and God knows the age of Anna, but I don't. The Lewis and Anna Hurley Farmer family seemed to have stayed in Harlan County for the remainder of their lives. They would have at least 6 children. One daughter, Mary Polly was born in 1829, and another daughter Eliza would be born in 1833.

Now there was another family, the Joseph and Mary Marsee Nolen family, residing in Harlan County in 1830. The Nolens had 3 children in 1830. Another child, a son, Joseph Jr would be born in 1831. The Nolen family would reside for the rest of their lives in Harlan County, having at least 13 children.

Joseph Nolen (from Ancestry)

Another family of interest to our tale is the Nathan and Judith Shumate Harris family. This family was also longtime residents of Harlan County, Kentucky. The couple was married on July 5, 1815, in Harlan County. They would continue to live there for years having a family of at least 7 children. One of those children was a boy named Preston born in 1821.

Nathan Harris (from Ancestry)

Now, these families all lived in Harlan County. I don't know how familiar you are with Harlan, but it is for certain in the Appalachians. My Mom, Loretta Nolen Smith has never had trouble with getting carsick, but she says that riding through those mountains in Harlan County changed that. There are mountains in all directions, and those mountains form a barrier, a vacuum of sorts.

Now back in the early 1800s, the US highways and interstates that we know today were not even a "gleam in their Daddy's eyes" In fact, those Daddy's were not even a gleam in their Daddy's eyes. Cars were not produced until the late 1800s and did not become common in families until the late 1920s and early 1930s. The railroad didn't make it to Harlan County until 1911. Of course, the Cumberland River and its tributaries are county features, and river travel was probably availed as possible, but much travel back in the early 1800s was probably by mule, horse, or on foot. Knowing that you might imagine that travel was difficult and tiresome at best. Bein in a mountainous area, as you might imagine, did nothing to make that travel any easier.

My Gma Smith used to call courting "sparking". You can imagine that sparking was a pastime much more pleasant when done in the area you lived. Nowadays, folks carry on "long-distance relationships" with ease. We can telephone our "sparkees" and can hear their voice. We can FaceBook and email almost instantaneously. We can facetime, skype,..... and actually see them while they are talking. We can drive many miles in little time and in the comfort of our automobiles so that we can be with them, but back in the early to mid-1800s, these were just more of those Daddy's gleams.

So this community, initially known as Mt Pleasant, lay amongst the splendor of the mountains, isolated to a large degree by that splendor. Harlan County probably seemed like the world to these folks. Of course, folks did sojourn over those mountains to other communities, but it was probably a rather daunting expedition not taken lightly. Now I imagine, that as isolated as it seemed to be, the folks within that community probably were pretty familiar with just about all of the folks that lived within that community. Folks may have had the entire width of the county between their homes, but they likely ran into each other while in town trading for the goods they were unable to raise on their own. They probably met at the post office or saw each other at Sunday meetings. They probably traveled to the homes of other families in the area to barter something they had for something that their neighbor lacked in return for something their neighbor had that they lacked. My parents have told me about folks getting together when they were growing up in Owsley and Clay counties on different occasions. For example, a man might travel with a portable mill to make molasses. Folks would bring their harvested sorghum cane to a central location and the folks would make a fun event out of doing a chore. So folks within the county were probably all at least acquaintances. It is not difficult to imagine the families that I have mentioned knowing each other.

So the convenience of proximity often made the proximity of a sparkee a very attractive thing, and we can see that each of these families called Harlan County, Kentucky home. It is not surprising that Cupid's arrow might strike close to home!

Mary Polly Farmer, daughter of Lewis and Anna Hurley Farmer would marry Preston Harris, son of Nathan and Judith Shumate Harris. Her sister Eliza would marry Joseph Nolen, son of Joseph Sr and Mary Marsee Nolen. The union of Mary Polly Farmer and Preston Harris would produce Elizabeth "Betty" Harris in April of 1845.

Elizabeth "Betty" Harris (from Ancestry)

The union of Eliza Farmer and Joseph Nolen Jr would produce Sarah Elizabeth "Bettie Ma" Nolen on January 14, 1861. This would make Sarah Elizabeth "Bettie Ma" Nolen and Elizabeth Betty Harris first cousins.

Sarah Elizabeth "Bettie Ma" Nolen

So, many family members nowadays may not be aware of the longevity of the connection between the"Smith" and the "Nolen" families. That connection began way back on March 22, 1853, when Eliza Farmer, the sister of Mary Polly Farmer Harris married Joseph Nolen Jr, forever tying the results of those unions together. So when my father Donald Smith and my mother Loretta Nolen wed on December 21, 1957, unbeknownst to either of them, fourth cousins married.

Donald and Loretta Nolen Smith

Years after the fact, when my parents would find out about this kinship, Dad would jokingly ask, "Does that mean we have to get an annulment?" Mom, just looked at him and said, "No Don, that just means we can't sleep together anymore!" I think that they are a match made in Heaven!

And that is how new connections are not always as new as they would seem!

Anna Hurley & Lewis Farmer
3rd Great-Grandmother 3rd Great-Grandfather

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Mary Polly Farmer Harris <Sisters> Eliza Farmer Nolen

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Elizabeth (Betty) Harris King <First Cousins> Sarah Elizabeth (Bettie Maw) Nolen