The Munsons of Texas — an American Saga

Chapter Four

EARLY MUNSONS OF THE SOUTH 1745-1820

SUMMARY
Available records mention a number of Munsons in the Southern Colonies and States between 1745 and 1820. Some of these Munsons appear to have been associated with our Jesse and Robert Munson, but no positive relationships have been established. Even though our Jesse Munson's son Micajah was born in South Carolina in 1788 or 1789, and Jesse and his brother Robert made the trip from Virginia to Natchez in 1792, they are not listed in the first U. S. census taken in 1790. Evidence suggests that they may have been migrating from South Carolina to Kentucky, back to Virginia, and on to the Natchez District just as the new nation was being organized and the first census was being taken. Several other Munsons are listed in South Carolina and Kentucky in the census records of 1790 and 1800. Thereafter, numerous Munsons appear in the census records in these states and in Mississippi and Louisiana. There are strong reasons to believe that these other Munsons of the South were close relatives of Jesse and Robert, but proof is lacking and the numerous possible relationships are confusing.


The earliest scattering of records found thus far which mention Munsons in the South are as follows: a William Munson was an inhabitant in North Carolina in 1745; a Benjamin Munson was an inhabitant in North Carolina in 1757; and a Samuel Munson Sr. was a taxpayer in Virginia in 1772, 1775, and 1777 [1].

Recent research reveals that a Robert Munson married a Patience Daughtrey in Northhampton County, North Carolina, (on the Virginia border) prior to 1754, at which time they had a son named William Munson. A large family of Daughtreys (also recorded Daughtree and Doherty) lived in Northhampton County, North Carolina, and the adjoining Nansemond County, Virginia. In November of 1769 a Robert Munson (presumably the same man) petitioned the South Carolina Council of Provincial Government for 200 acres of land , to which he apparently never received title. While no record has been found showing his ownership of any land, a Robert Munson lived in the Camden District (in what is now Fairfield County) from 1769 into the late 1780s. A close associate, a Colonel Henry Hunter, also from Northhampton County, North Carolina, also lived there. It appears that the Munson, the Hunter, and the Daughtrey families had migrated from Virginia to North Carolina and then to South Carolina about or before 1769. It is thought that all were very possibly related by marriage.

This Henry Hunter was apparently a participant with the rebels in the American Revolution, as a recently discovered pension application of a Revolutionary soldier states: "Was in a tour of duty under Captain Kemp Strother, Captain James Craig commanded the company and Col Henry Hunter was commander of the whole detachment. Took Captain Dick Smith, a Tory Captain and his command prisoners on Crane Creek Richland District" [2].

Evidence indicates that a Robert Munson was an active upland South Carolina planter in the Camden District during the 1770s and 1780s. He may have farmed on land owned by others, which was a common practice. Henry Hunter owned several large tracts of land in the Camden District, and was at different times a juror, a grand juror, and a representative to the South Carolina Colonial Assembly. There were several Henry Hunters — father, sons, and nephews — in one big family during these years, and it has been suggested by one researcher that there appear to have been two Robert Munsons — father and son. In a judgment in a lawsuit in the Court of Common Pleas in Charleston, South Carolina, dated December 1, 1774, Robert Munson, a planter of St. Marks Parish in Camden County, agreed to pay to Meyer Moses, a merchant of "Charles Town", the considerable sum of five hundred and nine pounds and nine shillings. To meet the requirements of the judgment, half that amount was paid on the day of the judgment. These sums suggest that this Robert Munson handled sizable values of goods and money.

A Robert Munson was the administrator of Bryan Doherty's estate in the Camden District on March 3, 1787. He may have been appointed administrator because he was next of kin, which was the common practice, possibly a nephew-in-law or a brother-in-law.

No mention of a Jesse Munson has been found in these early records, although a Jesse Munson and/or a Robert or Rob Munson (certainly later generations) appear in every South Carolina decennial census from 1820 through 1850. This suggests that some close relatives and their descendants remained in South Carolina when Jesse and Robert migrated to the Natchez District in 1790-1792.

A Robert Munson was awarded a land grant in Georgia in 1785, to which he apparently also never received title. In the same year, a Robert Munson bought tools from a John Brown in Barnwell County, South Carolina, which county borders the Savannah River and Georgia. Micajah, the first known son of Jesse Munson, was born in South Carolina in 1788 or 1789.

These sketchy records strongly suggest the presence of our Robert and Jesse Munson in North and South Carolina during the second half of the 1700s. In 1787 Robert and Jesse Munson were awarded Spanish land grants in the Natchez District of New Spain for a total of 1,582 acres. Court records of the Natchez District show the presence of a William Munson there in July of 1781 [3]. Who he was and whether he was an early resident, was on a trading mission, or was exploring this territory for settlement is not known. Local land grants were awarded by the Governor of the Natchez District, who at that time was Carlos de Grand Pre. This William Munson may have been the source of information or the applicant for the Munson land grants. He may have been the father, a brother, an uncle, or a cousin of Jesse and Robert Munson. He may have been the William Munson who later settled in South Carolina and apparently left descendants there. None of the answers is known.

These land grants were in virgin territory just east of the Mississippi River in what is now eastern Louisiana, just a few miles from the Mississippi border. Years later Jesse's grandson, Mordello Stephen Munson, would report in The Munson Record: "At an early day, [grandfather] Jesse Munson removed from South Carolina or Virginia to Kentucky, and again removed to Mississippi" [4].

It should be remembered that during these revolutionary times populations in upland South Carolina were sparse and poor and communications were limited. While some citizens and especially their leaders had strong revolutionary feelings, many were also loyal to the British Crown. The latter were called Tories, and many of them left the United States after the revolution, moving to the Bahamas, the West Indies, Spanish Florida and the Natchez District, or back to England. But there was also a large group of citizens who did not support either side strongly. They were probably guided by peer pressure, economic considerations, and the desire not to be on the losing side. It has been suggested by researchers that the Munsons may have been in this group. This may have contributed, together with post-war economic hardships in upland South Carolina, to their decision to move to the Natchez District of New Spain.

This move was apparently made during the time that the first United States census was being taken, as neither has been found in the census of 1790 in any of the states. They were possibly en route to see relatives in Kentucky, as a Samuel Munson Sr. appears in the 1790 Kentucky census. Then, in the spring of 1792, Robert and Jesse Munson and their families, in company with the families of Henry Hunter and John Grady, traveled by flatboat from Holston, Virginia, (which is very near the Cumberland Gap into Kentucky) to Natchez, and both are listed in the June, 1792, Spanish census of the Natchez District. No roads and only a few trails existed in the mountainous terrain of western Virginia (which then included present-day Kentucky); travel was by foot, horseback, or riverboat, and was very slow. Such an expedition by several families would have taken many months.


A View of Those Revolutionary Times

It may be useful to consider the national events which were occurring at the time of these earliest records of our Munson ancestors in the South. The American Revolution began in New England in 1775; the American Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence —


When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another. . .

— in Philadelphia on July 4, 1776. The Revolutionary War was fought from New England to Georgia and South Carolina from 1775 until General Charles Cornwallis surrendered to General George Washington at Yorktown, Virginia, on October 19, 1781. The resulting thirteen independent states lived unsatisfactorily under the Articles of Confederation from 1777 until 1788. This is the period when the Munsons apparently lived in South Carolina.

In an effort to achieve a better form of government, the Constitutional Convention convened in Philadelphia on May 25, 1787, and the Constitution —


We the People of the United States, in order to form a more perfect Union. . .

— was signed and submitted to the colonies on September 17, 1787 (the year in which Jesse and Robert Munson received their Spanish land grants). The Constitution was first ratified by Delaware on December 7, 1787; by South Carolina as the eighth state on May 23, 1788; and by the ninth state, New Hampshire, on June 21, 1788, at which time it became the law of the land. A new era had begun. The first national elections were held in April of 1789, and George Washington, John Adams, and the new Congress took office in New York City soon thereafter.

Rhode Island, the last of the original thirteen states to ratify the Constitution, was admitted May 29, 1790. Vermont, the first addition, was admitted in the following year before the results of the first census were announced. Maine was a part of Massachusetts, Kentucky was a part of Virginia, and the present states of Alabama and Mississippi, presumably a part of the United States, were claimed by both Georgia and Spain. Spanish Florida included "West Florida" and extended to the Mississippi River. The present states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, and part of Minnesota were known as the Northwest Territory. Each of the southern states extended to the Mississippi River, beyond which stretched that vast and unexplored wilderness belonging to the King of Spain. Although penetrated here and there by venturesome explorers and a few settlers, most of the land between the Appalachian Mountains and the Pacific Ocean was Indian-inhabited, unexplored wilderness.


The First United States Census – 1790

When the first United States Congress assembled in 1789, one of its first items of business was to order an immediate census of the new nation. No national census had been previously taken, and the new census, approved on March 1, 1790, became the first of the permanent decennial censuses of the United States and a major asset to future genealogists. Though the area covered by the first census seems very small when compared with the present area of the United States, the difficulties which confronted the census takers were great. In many localities there were no roads, and where these did exist they were poor and frequently impassable. Bridges were almost unknown. Mail was transported in very irregular fashion, and correspondence was expensive and uncertain. Philadelphia became the capital in July of 1790, and Washington was merely a government project to be known as The Federal City.

The 1790 census reported total inhabitants of 3,231,533 freemen and 694,280 slaves, for a total population of 3,925,813. By comparison, the l980 U. S. census reported 235,000,000 persons. In 1790, New York City, the largest city, had a population of 33,131. Philadelphia was second with 28,522, and Boston third with 18,038. Many of the original documents of the 1790 census were lost when the British burned the nation's capitol in the War of 1812. The retention of other copies, or their reconstruction as best possible from other records, as in Kentucky, produced the current census data. The 1790 census recorded the names of persons only when they declared themselves to be "head-of-household", but it ostensibly counted all residents of the U. S. After the name of each head-of-household, there was reported for that household the numbers of "free white males over 16"; "free white males under 16"; "free white females"; "other freemen"; and "slaves." In following census years, the categories were similar but included more detailed information. It was not until 1850 that the names of spouses and children in a household were listed.


The Early Munsons in the Carolinas

A study of all of the Munsons listed in the southern states in the early censuses is interesting [5]. In Virginia and Georgia there were no Munsons in the 1790 or the 1800 census. In North Carolina, in 1790, there was a Moses Munson with a family of three males over sixteen and three females — this could have been a large family or two or three couples living together. There had been several Moses Munsons in the early Thomas Munson families of New England. This Moses Munson does not appear in the 1800 census, nor later, and nothing more is known of him. Having been the head of a large family of adults, he may have died before 1800.

The findings in South Carolina are more intriguing. The 1790 census of South Carolina reported 141,979 freemen and 107,094 slaves. The state was divided into eight districts, with Orangeburg District bordering the Savannah River, adjacent to Screven County, Georgia. In Orangeburg District, the 1790 census lists two families of Munsons, and the head-of-household in each is a female. One is Martha Munson with a family of two white males under sixteen and one slave. The other is Patience Munson with two white females and four slaves.

Could these have been the wives and families of Jesse and Robert Munson, who may have left for Kentucky and the Mississippi Territory? If so, Martha could have been the wife of Jesse, with two small sons. It is established that Jesse's son, Micajah, was born in South Carolina in 1788 or 1789. If this guess should be true, it would indicate that another of Jesse's sons is unaccounted for. He may have perished, or he may be one of the several unidentified Munsons — Samuel or Samuel Elder — who were closely associated with Jesse and Robert during the following decades. Patience Munson and two daughters could have been Robert's family. It is known that a Robert Munson married a Patience Daughtrey prior to 1754 in North Carolina, and that a Robert Munson, possibly the same Robert Munson, or a son, lived in South Carolina during the 1770s and the 1780s. This guess would indicate that this Patience Munson could either be the mother or the wife of our Robert Munson. If she was the wife, she did not survive, as the only reference to Robert's wife in Mississippi was to Winifred in 1805. Robert's known family in the Natchez District was wife Winifred, a son, Telfair , and two daughters. Estimates place Telfair's birth before 1774, so a robust son of sixteen or more could easily have accompanied his father on the trip to the frontier. This would have left behind Robert's wife, Patience, and two younger daughters. It is also noteworthy that the Patience Munson family had four slaves and the Martha family had one, because in later years Robert Munson would accumulate many slaves while Jesse died with none.

It is important to emphasize that there exists no proof of this theory beyond the above circumstantial possibility, but also that no facts appear to exclude it as a possibility. Furthermore, the 1800 census in South Carolina shows no Martha and no Patience Munson, and Patience and Martha are not heard of again. It is also interesting to note that in later years, when Jesse's eldest son, Micajah, married, his first daughter was named Ann Elizabeth for her mother, and his second daughter was named Martha C. Munson.

While this scenario describes some of our Munsons leaving South Carolina in about 1790, all the Munsons did not leave. A few Munsons are recorded in each decennial census thereafter, and their names include more than once a Robert, a Jesse, and a William [6]. A William Munson is found in Richland County in 1801, a planter who assisted in making cotton gins used by General Wade Hampton. William Munson and William Boatwright made the first new gins of home manufacture in Richland County [7]. This could very possibly have been the William Munson who was recorded in the Natchez District in 1781. The 1810 and the 1820 censuses of South Carolina list a William Munson with, apparently, a wife and two children, Robert and William Jr., in Richland District. The 1830 census lists Robert and William (presumably William Jr.) and a Rob Munson, thought to be a son of William Jr. The 1840 census lists only Robert, and his 1841 will lists his children as Jesse, William, John, James, Thomas, and Elizabeth. The 1850 census lists Jesse, John, Thomas, and William C. Munson in Richland County. It appears that this William Munson and his descendants remained in Richland County, South Carolina; and their descendants may possibly still live there today. The names strongly suggest that this William Munson was a brother to our Robert and Jesse.


The Munsons of Kentucky

By the year 1750, the southern American colonies consisted of a string of English settlements along the Atlantic seaboard with large, wealthy farming estates in the lowlands and smaller, poorer farms in the uplands. As the years passed, adventuresome frontiersmen ventured further into the Appalachian Mountains. In 1753 the Colony of Virginia sent a young George Washington across the range to scout the new French settlements in the Valley of the Ohio River. Their aim was to assert British claim to the upper Ohio Valley. In the ensuing French and Indian Wars (1754-1763), the English drove the French back to Canada and captured Montreal. Further understanding of the land beyond the Appalachian Mountains was gained from these adventures.

Daniel Boone (1734-1820) is given much credit for opening the land beyond the mountains to settlement. He was born in Pennsylvania just two years after George Washington was born in Virginia, and at the age of 19 he moved to the mountainous frontier of North Carolina. In 1754, at the age of 20, he was participating in the French and Indian Wars. He traveled widely over the frontier and spent much time there among the Indians. In 1767 he hunted in the vicinity of the Cumberland Gap in the Allegheny Mountains, and in 1769 he made the entire trip through the Gap. In 1775, as the American Revolution was beginning in New England, he guided a party of settlers along the Wilderness Road into Western Virginia, to what is now called Kentucky, to form the first settlement in that territory, appropriately named Boonesboro.

The Wilderness Road ran 300 miles through dangerous and bloody Indian country, but it opened the great area west of the mountains to a flood of settlers. By the time of the 1790 census the population of Kentucky was 61,247 freemen and 12,430 slaves — a total of 73,677 persons. There is strong evidence to suggest that Jesse and Robert Munson followed this trail in about 1790 on their trips from South Carolina to Kentucky and again back to Holston, Virginia.

Daniel Boone settled in Fayette County, Kentucky, where he served as "lieutenant" of the county and later as a member of the Kentucky State Legislature. Also among the early settlers in Fayette County, as enumerated in the reconstructed 1790 census, was an Isaac Munson and a Samuel Munson Sr. In the 1800 census there is an Isaac Munson and a Samuel Munson in Bourbon County, which had been formed out of Fayette County in 1795, and also an Allin Munson in Henry County. In the 1810 census there appears in Scott County an Allen Munson and a William Munson with families having five and seven minor children respectively. These, it is thought, were the children and grand-children of the earlier Samuel Munson Sr., and from these there may have grown a clan of Munsons of Kentucky [8].

It appears likely that this Samuel Munson Sr. was a close relative of Jesse and Robert — possibly their father, an uncle, a brother, or a cousin. It is interesting to note, as previously reported, that a Samuel Munson Sr. was recorded in Virginia in 1872, 1875, and 1877. In later years two Samuel Munsons appear in Louisiana and are closely associated with the other Munsons there. One was named as the only heir in the estate of Wright Munson in 1816, and, in the same year, a Samuel Munson was named to prepare a list of the assets in the estate of Jesse Munson, which estate was later taken over by Jesse's son, Henry William. One could wonder if this Samuel Elder Munson might have been the unaccounted-for other son of Martha, a son of Jesse, and a brother to Henry William Munson. And further, Henry William Munson named his first son Samuel; and his first cousin, Telfair Munson, also named a son Samuel.


Wright Munson — a Brother or the Father of Jesse and Robert?

Of great interest is the sketchy story of a Wright (or Right) Munson in South Carolina and Mississippi. He is not found in the 1790 census, but the 1800 census lists two new Munsons in South Carolina. One is the Isaac Munson of Greenville County, recorded as a husband with wife only, both over 45 years old. Of greater interest, however, is a Wright Munson, found in Barnwell County, which had been formed out of the southeastern portion of Orangeburg County in the 1790s. The family of Wright Munson consisted of two males between the ages of 26 and 45, three females between 26 and 45, one boy between 10 and 16, two girls under 10, and no slaves — a Munson family of three couples and three children. Researchers feel that these may have been the families of Wright Munson and his two sisters, the Browns and the Bests, all living together.

What is known of this Wright Munson? He always signed his name "Right Munson." On August 4, 1800, he purchased 744 acres of land from a Bartlett Brown of the same county on Briar Creek in the "Savannah River Swamp." There is a suspicion among researchers that Wright Munson may have been living on this site with the Browns and the Bests prior to the time of his purchase. Strangely, he appears to have moved to Mississippi soon after completing his new purchase. On page 236 of Book A of the Record of Deeds of Barnwell County there is recorded the following deed, dated March 28, 1801 [9]:


     Wright Munson, Planter of Barnwell Dist. to Mary Best, my sister For her Love & Affection 35 head of Cattle, 4 mares, 1 colt 100 head of hogs, one wagon gear Plantation Tools, household furniture the corn I have in the crib as well as the crop for this present year wit-C. D. Wyld Jos. Harley [signed] Right Munson

Another interesting find from this period is an excerpt from the inventory of a John Brown, deceased. An account of expenses for the year 1785 shows that John Brown's blacksmith tools were sold to a "Robt. Munson". Less than nine months after he had purchased 744 acres of farmland, Wright Munson gave all of his farm inventory to his sister and headed for the Mississippi Territory to join his Munson relatives there. Wright Munson, Robert Munson, and Jesse Munson are listed on the 1805 tax rolls of Wilkinson County, Mississippi Territory. At an unknown date, Wright Munson purchased from Archibald Rhea one hundred acres of land bordering the land grants of Jesse and Robert Munson. He appears to have lived there, possibly until his death in 1815.

Then, in 1809, back in South Carolina, there appears on page 319 of Deed Book R of the Record of Deeds of Barnwell County, the following:


     Wright Munson of Wilkinson Co. Miss. to Bartlett Brown & Jacob Kittles $1488.00 744 Acres Land in Savannah River Swamp near William Campbell and land owned by Beake, surveyed for the said Bartlett Brown 11 [?] 1796 and granted to Right Munson 4Aug1800. Wit- Thos Goldery Michael Brown [signed] Right Munson

In the archives section of the Wilkinson County Courthouse in Woodville, Mississippi, is the will of Wright Munson, dated Feb. 14, 1813, which reads:


     Sick and weak, to well-beloved son, Samuel Elder, now known as Samuel Munson, whom I claim as my begotten son and heir, 100 acres of land adjoining Archibald Rea. It is my will that my present companion, Patsy Ward, shall receive a decent and comfortable support out of my estate during her single life. Friends, Gerard Brandon, Sr. and Jr., exrs. Wit: Dan Clarke, John Babcocks, G. C. Brandon. Probated 11 March 1815.

Other probate records dated 1815 refer to the estate of Wright Munson and his heir, Samuel Elder Munson.

A later recorded deed in the Wilkinson County archives reveals the following:


     May 13, 1817 Samuel Munson of the State of Louisiana and parish of Rapides sold to Andrew Rea for $2000.00 100 french acres on the banks of Bayou Sarah Including houses, ginn, stables & buildings It being a part of 1000 arpens originally granted to Andrew Hains. It being a tract of land conveyed from Archibald Rea to Right Munson.

And further, in 1829, from the Court of Equity Records of Barnwell District, South Carolina:


     JAMES B. ROWLEY, Admr. [Administrator] vs. JOHN A. OWENS, Admr. Accounting & Discovery, Filed Nov. 21, 1829.
Petitioner is admr. on estate of Wright Munson and says the estate was first administered by James Overstreet [likely a brother-in-law] who was appointed by the Ord'y of P.D., Dec. 16, 1815, and that it consisted entirely of notes and accounts owing deceased here. Overstreet died intestate in 1822, without having fully administered, and William Overstreet became admr. on estate of James Overstreet; William Overstreet died w/o having fully administered, and John A. Owens became admr.

Defendant's answer dated Feb. 3, 1829, refers to Munson "when he left this state" as having on that occasion appointed James Overstreet his agent to collect said debts, and when Overstreet heard Munson was dead he had himself appointed admr. The Munson heirs never have appeared or sent for their money, and defendant does not know who they are or where they are but understands they live in Texas; and professes to be ready to settle with them. Rowley evidently not an heir or relative of Munson.

Thus, some of the biography of Wright Munson can be reconstructed. He is first found around Briar Creek in Barnwell County, South Carolina, in about 1800, but he may have been there some years earlier. Historians relate that many settlers from Virginia and North Carolina migrated to this area in the 1790s, and Briar Creek meets the Savannah River near the famous Burton's Ferry on the main overland gateway to Georgia. There Wright Munson appears to have been associated with the Browns, the Bests, and the Overstreets, all of whom may have been in-law relatives. Also, a Robert Munson had purchased blacksmith tools from the Brown family some years earlier.

Wright Munson moved to the Mississippi Territory between 1801 and 1805 and purchased land bordering that of Jesse and Robert Munson. He apparently had a house, a stable, and a cotton gin there. He died in 18l5, leaving a Samuel Elder Munson as his heir. He strangely refers to this Samuel Munson in his will as "whom I claim as my begotten son and heir", and no other heirs are mentioned. Again one can wonder if this Samuel Munson may have been his nephew or a grandson, a son of Jesse. In a personal letter written in 1953, Mr. H. C. Leak, a lawyer and genealogist in Woodville, Mississippi, stated, "I am of the impression that Robert was a son of Right Munson, though I am not certain on this part" [10]. It appears likely that Wright Munson was either the father or a brother of Jesse and Robert.

At this time it appears that the father of our Jesse and Robert Munson could have been William Munson, another Robert Munson, Wright Munson, Samuel Munson Sr., or someone else. An understanding of the exact relationships of these many Munsons of South Carolina, Kentucky, Mississippi, and Louisiana remains for future Munson genealogists to unravel.

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