[Granville-Hough] 2 Oct 2009 - Keyes Family

[Trustees for Granville W. Hough]

The Keys/Keyes Family. 

One could well ask the question: If Wild Bill 
Sullivan was such a mean, obnoxious person, why are his descendants such 
nice, agreeable people? One forgets that Wild Bill, among all his 
crimes, was never accused of adultery, and that his wife did most of the 
nurturing of their children. She was Juriah Keyes, and the Keyes family 
was on Cohay and probably on all its branches before Sullivans got 
there. They had established themselves in Covington County just south of 
the border of Choctaw land and merely extended their holdings northward 
after the Indian land cession. I always had a bias toward the Keyes 
family, as my grandmother had married Jeptha Keys, son of Benjamin and 
Nancy, and her oldest daughter, my aunt Nannie (Keyes) Kennedy, 
introduced me to stories of Sullivan’s Hollow before I was ten years 
old. I believed the Keyes families were special people. The Sullivans 
must have thought the same, as all sorts of Sullivans and Sullivan 
descendants married into the Keyes family
I never traced the Keyes family so I do not know how Juriah and Jeptha 
were related; but there was only one extended Keyes family on Cohay 
Creek in Smith and Covington Counties.
While I was growing up in Smith County, I would see the local newspapers 
and note the names of persons reported in some mayhem or unlawful 
activity. I came to expect that there would be Sullivans, Harveys, 
Gentrys, Warrens, etc, but almost never did I see the Keyes name come up 
on those reports. They were not that kind of people. They seemed to 
place a high priority on getting along with all their neighbors. Though 
some of Wild Bill Sullivan’s sons seemed to gravitate toward his 
example, the daughters did not; and the grandchildren seemed to think 
Grandma Juriah was the better example.
So, if you meet a very personable Sullivan, or non-Sullivan, in Smith 
County today, you may have met a descendant of Juriah Keyes, and this 
person you met might just incidentally have had a male ancestor named 
William Cicero Sullivan.