[Granville-Hough] 14 Mar 2009 - Genealogy/Hough/Sullivan

[Trustees and Executors for Granville W. Hough]

This was sent to me about seven years ago before I became involved with 
writing about the Sullivan family.  It was originally addressed to Dr. Gough:

> Dear Dr. Gough
>
> Upon contacting Mitchell Sullivan to discuss new information we had learned
> about the arrival of Sullivans and others in the land which became Mississippi,
> he was kind enough to give me your e-address as the expert.  Mitchell is
> husband of a first cousin of my husband Hilton Strange.  Hilton and I have
> enjoyed genealogy as a major hobby for many decades and are trying to continue
> insofar as we are able.  We moved to Hattiesburg a few years ago in late
> retirement after 35 years in the Maryland suburbs of Washington DC.  This is
> full circle for Hilton as his early years were at Cohay Camp #2 - a locale with
> which you may be familiar.
>
> Hilton and I had understood that Thomas Sullivan Sr. had brought his family
> from Ireland circa 1810 to the area in Mississippi later known as Sullivan's
> Hollow, and that the family lived alone in the wilderness self-sufficiently and
> in harmony with the Indians prior to Cession in 1830.  Well, that notion was
> turned on its head by a visitor we had a couple of weeks ago.  The visitor was
> Rachel Craft Perkins, mother of the wife of another of Hilton's first cousins
> who is on faculty at Ole Miss.
>
> Highlights of the new information from Rachel:  (1) She lived almost her entire
> life very near the old Thomas Sr. log home and is a 5th generation descendant
> of Mark Cole and of Hog Tom Sullivan.  (2) Several families from Ireland,
> including Sullivan, Cole, Hester, went to the Cayman Islands and thence to
> Natchez.  (3) Some members of these families may have gone to North or South
> Carolina and then went overland to Natchez.  (3) The first Baptist church was
> organized by these families in Natchez (Oak Grove); however, a disagreement
> divided the congregation into two groups.  (4) Some ventured east with Mark
> Cole as guide and settled in the area to become known as Sullivan's Hollow.
>
> Hilton's maternal line of GARNER has connections:  a gr-gr-aunt married William
> Sullivan,son of Loderick, the 4th son of Thomas Sr.;  another gr-gr-aunt
> married Manuel Sullivan (not discovered in lineage as yet);  the daughter of
> another gr-gr-aunt married Tillman Sullivan (also not placed as yet).  The
> mother of widow of another first cousin was a Cole; however, when I talked to
> the widow by phone last week, I was told those Coles were from Brookhaven.  Did
> someone drop off along the way long ago?  Most exciting to me was the Hester
> name as that is the maiden name of my namesake gr-gr-grandmother.
>
> Learning of your prolific authorship, may I venture that you are/were in
> academia?  I would so appreciate it if you could clarify about the initial
> travels of associated families in this migration.  If they were non-Catholic,
> wouldn't it be likely they were from Ulster or other area of now Northern
> Ireland?  If so, how did they get from Presbyterian to Baptist?  Most
> importantly, how did these families make their trek from Ireland to
> Mississippi.  Certainly, I don't mean in individual detail, but just in
> general.  If you could further our understanding of these matters, it would be
> very much appreciated.
>
> Sincerely,  Len Strange

And this was my response:

     My name is Hough, pronounced as Huff.  I grew up in Smith County in the
Southwest part in Concord Community, on the Simpson County line.  I went
to grade
school in Mize in Smith County but attended high school in Magee, in
Simpson County.
     The Hog Tom Sullivan descendants have about as many versions of
their origin as
they do members.  None were ever in the Natchez District with the Coles.
  The best
I can document, the Coles did come from Ireland as Protestants, not as
Catholics.
They settled in Eastern PA for a few years, then moved to Southwestern
VA near
present day Roanoke.  They got to Natchez on flatboats from the Holston
River in
Virginia in 1776. They got British land grants as Tory settlers or
refugees. They were secret Baptists under the Spanish from 1783
until
1797, then they were Baptist when the first church was founded on Coles
Creek out
from Natchez.  They may have become Baptist in the frontier in SC, NC, and
Southwest VA.  The Mark Cole family had lived briefly in NC/SC before
going back to
Southwest VA and joining six other families on the barge/Flatboat  trek
down the river system.
     The Sullivans may have come from Ireland to Georgia, but I only
pick them up in
Georgia in the first part of the Revolutionary War.  Then Tom Sullivan
disappeared,
probably because he was suspected of being a Tory; as a Sullivan family
did show
up on the Tombigbee River a few years later when it transferred from
Spanish to
American Rule.  Tories from Georgia had settled there while it was still
under
English rule, and one or more Sullivan families had moved there.  If you
will check
the 1850 census, I believe you will find Hog Tom to be 75 years old, born in
Georgia.  That is my recollection when I looked it up some 25 years ago,
but it is
something you should verify.  The Sullivan children from Sullivan Mother
#1 will, I
believe, show AL, or Miss Terr as their birth state, meaning on the
Tombigbee, for
most census years.  You can check them out for 1850, 1860, 1870, 1880.
Now when
you check 1880 to see where their parents were born, for those still
alive, you may
get anything under the sun.  1880 was just about the terminal year for
any children
of this group, or it may be too late.  Start with 1850.
     As for religion, Hog Tom probably had none that he practiced.  He
probably saw
a Catholic church in Mobile in some of his visits there; but I have no
legend that
he was ever inside any church.  That was for his children and
grandchildren to
become part of, or outside of, in some Baptist community.  The Coles,
Carters, Clarks,
Millers, Kings, and related families established Zion Hill.  When
Sullivans took
part, it was usually those married into other founding families.
Sullivans gradually
joined and took part in establishing Oak Grove and New Sardis and
probably churches
in Covington and Simpson Counties.
     The Baptist forerunners of Zion Hill go back to Pike County, then
to Amite
County, then to Coles Creek.  Their migration was vastly different from
the Tory
settlers from Georgia to English territory in West Florida at Mobile or
Pensacola.
It is true that they were all in English West Florida, later Spanish
West Florida,
and that they did merge in Smith County some 60 years after their
initial moves out
of the original 13 colonies.  It's doubtful they ever heard of each
other before.
     With my regards, Granville W. Hough.