William M DeFoe (1819 - 1878)

Born 18 Jan 1819 in Giles County, Tennessee

Ancestors

Husband of Sarah Ann Richmond — married 20 Jan 1842 in Giles, Tennessee, United States

Descendants

Died 31 May 1878 at age 59 in Hickman County, Tennessee

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Susan DeFoe [send private message]

Biography

William DeFoe was born in 1819 to John (Defoe) DeFoe and Mary (Kelly) Defoe. He married Sarah Richmond in 1842 and began a family, eventually having ten children born in three different states. Their first four children, including two twin boys, were born in Tennessee before the family later migrated to Illinois, where Sarah was born. They family then migrated to Missouri, where William and Sarah had four more children and William worked as a laborer.^[1]

Their youngest two children were born in Tennessee before the family bounced to Florence, Alabama,^[2] ending up back in Pulaski, Tennessee by 1870.^[3]

Their children included:

1. John Wylie (1842-1899)
2. Isaac James (1844-1876)
3. Elizabeth Moss (1845-1885)
4. Martha Ann Catherine (1848-1906)
5. Sarah Adeline (1849-1892)
6. William T. (1851-1862)
7. Andrew Marion "Mine" (1854-1915)
8. Eliza Jane Elmanza (1855-)
9. George Washington (1857-1866)
10. Mary Matilda (1859-)
11. Rosanna (1863-1881)

Life must have been hard (particularly for the mother): in all of the census reports, William worked as a wagoner and all of the children over the age of 10 worked--Elizabeth and Martha worked as weavers, Sallie worked as a "reiver," Andrew worked as a farm hand, and Eliza worked as a "slaicer;" the girls probably all worked at the textile mill in Nashville. William died in 1878, at the age of 59, probably brought on by a life of hard labor with twelve mouths to feed. He is buried at Petty Cemetery in Pinewood, Tennessee.^[4]

Sources

1. ↑ "United States Census, 1850," database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MDZJ-ZRB : 22 December 2020), William Defoe, Salt River Township, Pike, Missouri, United States; citing family , NARA microfilm publication (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.).
2. ↑ "United States Census, 1860", database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MHDG-5N2 : 10 November 2020), William Defoe, 1860.
3. ↑ "United States Census, 1870", database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MD81-DQK : 3 January 2021), William Defoe, 1870.
4. ↑ "Find A Grave Index," database, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QVLL-W19F : 7 July 2020), William Defoe, 1878; Burial. Find A Grave: Memorial #96249736