[Granville-Hough] 5 Sep 2009 - Polygamy
Trustees for Granville W. Hough
gwhough-trust at oakapple.net
Sat Dec 25 06:39:39 PST 2010
Problems of Polygamy in the Tom Sullivan Household.
Tom Sullivan (1875 GA - 1855 MS) did not seem to be bothered by his
varied household of 22 children from three separate mothers. Tom had
likely observed multiple wives in Creek or Choctaw households and
followed their general practices. People also knew generally that the
Mormons were practicing polygamy in Utah. Some wealthy white
slave-holders had black concubines. If other people were bothered by one
settler with a multiple family in a remote corner of the county, they
did not dare make a fuss about it. How did Maude, the first known
mother, and Polly, the third and last mother, feel about it? Actually,
there is no record that they did not get along. It may well be that they
were so afraid of Pappy Tom that they did not speak up. There are a few
indications of the stress which existed. It is recalled that Maude did
not create problems when Polly had ten or more children while she was
still alive. She is said to have accepted that Polly had no more choice
than she did about having children. So there was some sort of mutual
acceptance. Another indication is that the Sullivan home was in two
parts, as if there had once been separate dwellings which had been moved
together, perhaps at the time of Maudes death in 1846. Another
indication was that there were separate keys to the smokehouse where the
meat was kept. Perhaps, there had been problems of one mother having to
go to the other to gain access to the smokehouse. So Pappy Tom just
issued each her own key. Finally, as soon as Maude was buried, Polly
insisted on Pappy Tom taking her to the local Justice of the Peace to
get married. Indeed, Alexander, their last child, was the only one born
in wedlock. In her old age, Polly visited with her children,
step-children, and their children, whoever needed help and solace. The
one picture I have seen of Polly shows her as a small and neat looking
woman with the Henry and Caroline Byrd family; and perhaps the Byrd
children considered her as Grandma Polly, though I do not believe they
were at all related by blood. I think Caroline was born to Maude after
Polly was also having children. Caroline probably just considered Polly
an alternate mother. mtDNA would probably resolve the mother, if you
could find a Bird descendant who had no other influx of Sullivan blood.
Maybe there is someone in the Paul Bird, Sr, and "Shuck" (Ware) line who
meets that requirement for Caroline. Then finding a descendant of Polly
with unmingled blood might be more difficult, but some of Loughton
Sullivan's descendants might qualify.
How did the children get along? Some have suggested that Loderick, the
son of Pollys mother, and the second mother, and half-brother to Polly,
the third mother, was sometimes disdained as "the Bastard" so that he
moved away, back to Simpson County, when he could. I personally doubt
that, as all of Polly's children except Alexander, the youngest, were
legally bastards.. When violence erupted among Pollys grandchildren,
descendants of Maude began to call themselves Sillivans, as opposed to
the lawless Sullivans who descended from Polly. However, when it came
to marriage, the preferred partner was a cousin, whoever was available
and willing, without regard to whatever grandmother they had.
It would seem that there would have been much discussion among the early
Sillivan/Sullivan sons about their father and his background, about
where they had lived and what they had done; but it seems that nothing
much was passed on. Joseph Sullivan, Jr, recorded what he knew while his
own father and mother were still alive, but apparently Joseph Sullivan,
Sr, and wife Harriet (Wilson) did not know much, or they would not
disclose what they knew to Joseph, Jr. Joseph, Sr in 1841 had actually
gone back to Lauderdale County, MS, among Pappy Tom's kin to find his
wife Harriet Wilson. They married there in the home of Owen Sullivan,
probably an uncle. He obviously knew where the family came from and
where descendants lived.
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Harold Hopkins comments are pertinent to today's message on Tom
Sullivan. The majority of the classmates he mentions are Sullivan
descendants, including the hero, Rudolph Darden:
Mike Causey of Brandon, MS., or near Brandon, just sent me a scan of
part of the /Smith County Reformer /containing a story -- by Eugene
Tullos, a Raleigh lawyer who has written a lot concerning Smith County
historical incidents -- about the Mize High School Senior Class of 1940
that includes some of the heroics of Rudolph Darden, a member of my
class. Rudolph joined the Air Corps as I did, right out of school, and
became and enlisted bombardier on a B-17. He was credited with sinking
many, many tons of Japanese shipping. Later, he was commissioned and
took pilot training and during the war his plane and its crew fell into
the Gulf of Mexico -- off Tampa -- and he was drowned. My sister was
married to Rudolph and they had one son (Danny Darden), who died
recently of a rare brain disorder or cancer.
My sister (Mary) and Rudolph were divorced and Rudolph had remarried at
the time he was killed.
It includes a photo of several members of my 1940 class, including Rudolph.
Others are me, my cousin Lloyd Butler, Erschel McAlpin, Maxie Sullivan,
Tommie Lee Sullivan, Mittie West, Willie George Bradshaw, and Robert
Pittman.
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