The Munsons of Texas — an American Saga

Chapter Seventeen

SARAH KIMBROUGH ARMOUR’S FAMILY
THE ARMOURS, THE HILLENS, THE WADDYS, AND THE KIMBROUGHS

SUMMARY
Sarah Kimbrough Armour was descended from a long line of early American colonists from England, Scotland, and Wales. In the early years her ancestors lived mainly in New Kent and Louisa Counties, Virginia, and Baltimore, Maryland; later some moved west to Tennessee. Sarah, who was sometimes called Sally, was born on September 3, 1831, in Paris, Henry County, Tennessee, the daughter of Solomon Hillen Armour and Sarah Ann Holmes Waddy. Through her father she was descended from the colonial families of Hillen, Hooker, Raven, and Clements of early Maryland; through her mother from the families of Waddy, Kimbrough, Parke, Cooke, and Smith of early Virginia. She, like Mordello, was every bit a descendant of Britannia and of the American colonial South. The several accompanying charts show her known genealogy.

The Armours from Scotland

Sarah K. Armour’s great-grandfather, James Armour, was born in Scotland in about 1735, and lived at Mauchline (or Machlin), near Ayr. In 1761 he was married to Mary Smith by the Reverend Auld in Mauchline. Among their children were David Armour, Sarah’s grandfather, and Jean Armour.

The Scottish poet and hero, Robert Burns, who was of a lower class and was famously promiscuous, took Jean Armour as his mistress, and she gave birth to two sets of twins, none of whom survived. The story is told that Jean’s father so strongly disapproved of Robert Burns that the couple separated and Burns moved to Edinburgh, but later they were reunited and were married on August 3, 1788. They then had two additional children: Francis Wallace and William Nichol Burns. Munson family tradition has told that Jean Armour was the “Jeannie” of Robert Burns’ original poem or song, “Jeannie with the Light Brown Hair,” but recent research does not confirm this. The song was written in 1852 by the American composer Stephen Collins Foster. Burns did write many poems and songs, including “Auld Lang Syne,” and he was the original author of the lines:


O wad some Power the giftie gie us
To see oursels as ithers see us!

Jean’s brother, David Armour, was born in Mauchline in 1768. He emigrated to America and arrived in Baltimore on July 29, 1788, at the age of 20. Years later one of his descendants wrote: “My Aunt said it was understood by the older generation that the reason for David Armour’s leaving Ayr was because of the affair of his sister Jean with the poet Robert Burns, whom she finally married” [1]. In Baltimore, on May 14, 1793, at the age of 25, David married Mary Hillen of the wealthy Hillen family of Baltimore.


The Hillens from Wales

The Hillen family had long roots in Baltimore. John Hillen I had come from Wales at an unknown date, certainly well before 1700. His son, John Hillen II, was the father of Solomon Hillen I, Mary’s grandfather, who was born in Baltimore in 1708. Solomon Hillen I married Elizabeth Raven in 1729, and one of their sons was named Solomon Hillen II, born about 1731.

Solomon Hillen II’s second marriage, in 1769, was to Martha Clements, a daughter of Colonel Charles Clements. One of their children was daughter Mary Hillen, born in about 1775, who, at about 18 years of age, married David Armour in Baltimore on May 14, 1793.

Family tradition tells that the elegant old Hillen mansion is today the clubhouse of a fine country club in Baltimore.

David Armour and Mary Hillen had six children in their nine years of marriage before Mary died in 1802. The fifth of these, Solomon Hillen Armour, the father of Sarah K. Armour, was born in Baltimore on August 29, 1800. Solomon Hillen Armour was named for his maternal grandfather, Solomon Hillen.

After Mary Hillen’s death, David Armour married Mary Winchester in 1803. Mary became mother to the six Hillen children, and David and Mary Winchester Armour had four additional children.

Sometime before 1828 the family moved to Paris, Henry County, Tennessee, where Solomon Hillen Armour met and married Sarah Ann Holmes Waddy in 1828.


The Waddys from England

Sarah K. Armour, through her mother, Sarah Ann Holmes Waddy, was a descendant of the distinguished Waddy family of early Virginia. Two Waddy brothers, Samuel and Anthony, came to New Kent County, Virginia, in the 1600s from North England near the Scottish border. The earliest known dates are the baptism records of Samuel Waddy’s children in St. Peter’s Church, New Kent County — Mary Waddy in 1687 and Elizabeth Waddy in 1689. This is the church in which, years later, George Washington married Martha Custis.

Anthony Waddy I, our ancestor, had four children: Mary, Anthony II, John, and Samuel II. Samuel II was known as Captain Waddy in Louisa County in 1758. He had eight children, and one, Captain Samuel Waddy III, is recorded as a brave Revolutionary soldier who spent the winter of 1777-1778 with George Washington at Valley Forge.

Anthony Waddy II, our ancestor, was the father of Anthony Waddy III, who was born in New Kent County on December 14, 1714, and died at the age of 50 in 1764 .

As the frontier pushed westward, the family moved inland to Louisa County in the mid-1700s, where son Samuel Albert Waddy I was born in 1755. Samuel Albert Waddy I married Mary Cook, raised a family, and died in Virginia in 1818, at the age of 63.

His son, Samuel Albert Waddy II, was born in Louisa County, Virginia, in 1778 in the midst of the Revolutionary War. Samuel Waddy II was married in 1803 to Martha Holmes Kimbrough. She was the daughter of Robert Kimbrough (sometimes Kimbro) and Sarah “Sally” Smith. This is apparently where the favorite name of Sarah entered the family.

The family moved at some later date to Paris, Tennessee. There they raised at least four children: David Thompson Waddy, Joseph Kimbrough Waddy, Mary Waddy, and Sarah Ann Holmes Waddy. Sarah Ann was born in 1811 in Huntsville, Alabama. Samuel A. Waddy II died on March 15, 1841, at about the age of 62.


Solomon Hillen Armour and Sarah Ann Holmes Waddy

Solomon Hillen Armour and Sarah Ann Holmes Waddy were married on February 13, 1828. He was 27 — the bride was 17. They had three children before he died on December 21, 1833, at the age of 33:


  1. David H. Armour, b. April 3, 1830, d. 187? (Texas?)
  2. Sarah Kimbrough Armour, b. September 3, 1831 Paris, Tennessee d. January 31, 1887 Bailey’s Prairie, Texas
  3. Samuel Robert Armour, b. May 10, 1833, d. May 21, 1834

An account of the day of Solomon Hillen Armour’s death is contained in a letter from his brother, David Armour II, in Paris, Tennessee, to David’s mercantile partner, John Cromwell, in Jackson, Tennessee. The letter is of interest because it indicates that their father, David Armour I, must have died prior to this date as he is not mentioned.

Paris, Saturday Morning
Sunrise - 21 Dec. 1833

Dear Jno.
Bro. W. [William] wrote to Mother [stepmother Mary Winchester] last night. Bro. Solomon has slept pretty well since then but is extremely low, when awake he appears quite sensible, day before yesterday he was out of his head all day & night - Yesterday he was apparently a good deal better but I have had no hopes of his recovery for a week past & believe he cannot live until Monday morning - We of course do all we can for him to make his situation as comfortable as possible. I am reconciled to the will of Providence about him - more especially as I know he is so himself - Oh that we all could die the death of the rightous & may our last end be like theirs; when it may please God to call us away from this world therefore it highly becomes us to live their lives - - - righteously & constantly with fear of God that we may at last thru Grace die triumphantly with faith of Jesus Christ. I am almost worn out sitting up every night - my mind constantly under great anxiety between hope & fear - I must try & be particular & not get sick myself. Were I a single man it would be of no importance but I have too many now depending on me to be indifferent about my life & health - - - Poor Bro. Sol. was too thoughtless of himself in his grat anxiety to attend to his busness.
     I surely hope Mother will not attempt to come here to see Bro. Solomon, it will be exposing herself too much, the weather is too unfavorable & her own health too delicate, & if even she could see him alive, he is so low that it is very doubtful if he would be in his right mind & could not be any ways satisfactory to either of them. . .
    I hope my Dear Wife will endeavour to take care of the family - the best way she can while I am away, & not on any account worry or fatigue herself about anything. If any Pork is delivered while I am away you will have to see a litle to it. . .from present appearances of the weather it will be a good time to salt Pork. . .must be sure to put saltpetre on hams - shoulders & jowls & to rub the salt in well. . .send to Albert Waddy 500 dolls [dollars] I borrowed to send to W. Moore - I sent him 800 yesterday. . .Give my love to your father, to my dear wife & to the children & rest of the family & believe me Yrs truly D. Armour

In 1833 Sarah Ann Holmes Waddy Armour was left with three babies: aged three, two, and seven months. Daughter Sarah Kimbrough Armour was two. On September 20, 1837, still in Tennessee, Sarah Ann married James Elliot Black. They had two sons: Amos Alonzo “Lon” Black and William Waddy “Will” Black. Some years later the family moved to Brazoria County, Texas, where James Black operated Black’s Ferry on the San Bernard River. The move may have been made in the middle 1840s as daughter Sarah K. Armour apparently did not accompany them on the move. Munson records tell that she was visiting her mother in Texas when she first met and later married Mordello Stephen Munson. James Black died on September 21, 1849, and Sarah Ann Black lived in Columbia, Texas, for the remainder of her life.

Sarah Armour Black was very religious and frequently visited and corresponded with her daughter at Bailey’s Prairie. An entry in her diary dated March 5, 1863, reads: “My birthday - fifty years ago I was a babe in Huntsville, Alabama, the joy of the household being the first daughter. Little did my dear kind parents think that babe would have to pass through such rough seas and be heir to so many diseases and troubles of almost every kind. But I can truly say the hand of the Lord has been in it all, and I am this night although on a bed of sickness a monument of his goodness & mercy and though I am so sinful he loves and blesses me aboundantly. . . Sarah and children out to see me for which I am thankful.” She died in Columbia at 5:45 p.m. on May 5, 1864, at the age of 53. An entry in the diary of daughter Sarah K. Munson on that date reads partially as follows:


     On this day, the most grievous day of my life, I was called to the Death bed of my dearly beloved mother, one of my greatest of earthly treasures. Oh that we may meet again where troubles are no more. May the Lord so direct our steps as to lead us to that blessed abode where we shall meet that dear vanished mother to part no more.

Sarah K. Munson had but one brother who attained adulthood. He was David Armour. Little information on his family is known. David seems to have lived in Texas, as “David,” “Lon,” and “Will” are often mentioned in Sarah Munson’s diary and correspondence.

After Sarah K. Armour married Mordello Munson and settled in Texas in 1850, she did not return to her Tennessee home until a trip was made in 1881. Her diary relates that she and her eldest daughter, Emma, made an extended trip to visit her Waddy relatives in Collierville. Letters back and forth refer to the great fun and warm family visits of this trip.

Current Munson files contain many photographs of relatives with only the notation “Collierville, Tenn.” No identifying names are noted and no living Munsons can identify the pictures. (This should be a warning to all to write an identification on all family photographs). The photographs are undoubtedly of members of the Waddy family in Collierville. David Thompson Waddy, an uncle to Sarah K. Munson, became a physician in Collierville and died there in 1892, leaving four children.

Sarah’s aunt, Mary Waddy, married Dr. Reese Bourland in Collierville, and they had three children named Hillen, Joseph, and Sarah Bourland. In later years (in the 1880s) this Dr. Bourland was a Methodist minister in Georgetown, Texas. It is curious that their first son was named Hillen. Mary’s sister, Sarah Ann Holmes Waddy, had just recently married Solomon Hillen Armour. The Waddys, the Armours, the Hillens, and the Thompsons appear to have been very close socially and in business and to have frequently intermarried. The sons of many of these families carried as their given name the family name from another of them; and the Munsons of Texas have continued to use these names, as there have been many Hillen, Armour, and Waddy Munsons in the years that followed.

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