The Seals Family
Lucenia Mullins
Introduction
Lucenia Mullens was born on February 7, 1833 according to her headstone at Howard Quarter Cemetery in Claiborne Co., Tenn. The 1900 census, however, indicated she was born in February 1832. While other census records could back up either date and a few others, we can probably assume the date of birth on her headstone is correct. Her headstone also indicated that her last name was Lawson. We're not sure where that last name came from. The 1850 census indicated she was living in the household of William Mullens, born in Tennessee, and Tabitha Mullens, born in Virginia. We'll discuss this relationship in more detail below. The census also indicated that her last name was Mullens and that she, like her presumed father William Mullens, was born in Tennessee. Despite having several children beginning in the late 1850s, her last name was Mullins in the 1860 census and Mullens in the 1870 census. After her marriage to Allen Butler in 1878, Lucenia was still listed with the last name Mullins in the 1880 census. However, she used the last name Butler in the 1900 census and the 1910 census (see below). In the next section we'll take a look at the documents associated with her children to see if they can shed light on the reason that she or the family chose to put the surname Lawson on her headstone. This analysis may also provide clues to help us uncover the names of the fathers of Lucenia's children.
The Children of Lucenia Mullins
According to the 1900 and 1910 censuses, Lucenia Butler had given birth to five children and four were still living. While we cannot be absolutely sure of the name of Lucenia's child who died before 1900, we believe there's a good case to be made for that child being John Brownlow Mullins who was born in 1856 and appeared only in the 1860 census (as Brownlow Mullins, age 4). At the time of his birth, Tabitha would have been age 41 and Lucenia would have been 23. One of Lucenia's sisters could have given birth to Brownlow, but the two oldest, Elizabeth and Emmaline, indicated in the 1900 census that all of the children born to them were still living. We believe this information, along with the Bible record discussed below, confirms that John Brownlow was the son of Lucenia. As a sidebar, it's of interest that the son born in the mid-1850s was given the middle name Brownlow. When the Civil War began, many East Tennesseans were staunch Unionists and large numbers of the men crossed into Kentucky to join the Union army. John Brownlow was likely named for William Gannaway "Parson" Brownlow who was a newspaper publisher, Methodist minister and fierce opponent of secession long before the Civil War began. He became Governor of Tennessee at the end of the war and helped Tennessee become the first Confederate state to be readmitted to the Union in 1866.
With this as backdrop, what follows is the list of children born to Lucenia Mullins. We've included their vital statistics and, in the paragraphs that follow, any records that may provide insight into the names of their fathers.
- John Brownlow, b. Jan. 1, 1856 in Claiborne Co., Tenn., d. before 1870 in Claiborne Co., Tenn.
- Delaney (Laney) Jane, b. July 13, 1859 in Claiborne Co., Tenn., m1. McDaniel (Mack) Sulfridge on Dec. 24, 1874 in Claiborne Co., Tenn., m2. James Washington Seals on May 20, 1886 in Claiborne Co., Tenn., d. March 25, 1941 in Claiborne Co., Tenn.
- Martha Jane, b. June 1, 1861 in Claiborne Co., Tenn., m1. William E. C. Davis on Oct. 13, 1877 in Claiborne Co., Tenn., m2. Martin Vanburen Miller on July 27, 1886 in Claiborne Co., Tenn., d. June 10, 1925 in Claiborne Co., Tenn.
- Sarah Josephine, b. April 11, 1866 in Claiborne Co., Tenn., m. John Greer on Nov. 27, 1885 in Claiborne Co., Tenn., d. March 2, 1957 in Claiborne Co., Tenn.
- Mary Laverne, b. January 17, 1869 in Claiborne Co., Tenn., m. William P. Seals on Jan. 6, 1890 in Claiborne Co., Tenn., d. Oct. 11, 1958 in Coleman Co., Tex.
John Brownlow John Brownlow appears as John Brownlow Lawson on a page of the Seals Family Bible immediately after his mother, Lucenny, and just above his sister, Delaney Jane Lawson. His only appearance in a primary source document is in the 1860 cencus where he is listed as Brownlow Mullins.
Delaney Jane Delaney Jane appears as Delaney Jane Lawson on the above referenced page of the Seals Family Bible. After that, the next four censuses indicate her last name was Mullins/Mullens. Delaney (Laney) Jane's last name on her 1874 marriage record was Shultz, thus adding one more name to the mix. Some researchers say Lucenia Mullins married Jake (Jacob) Shultz and Delaney Jane was the product of that marriage. The only marriage record we've found for Lucenia was recorded in Claiborne Co., Tenn. on June 26, 1878 when she married Allen Butler. While her name on that record was Celea or Cena Mullens, we are confident this is Lucenia Mullins since she appeared in the 1900 and 1910 censuses as Lucenia Butler, widow. Curiously, the 1880 census taken two years after her marriage indicated she was still using the last name Mullins and she was divorced. Since this is the first census in which she was listed as the head of household, we assume Mullins was the last name she provided to the enumerator. As for being divorced, that field required a forward slash for Widowed and a D for Divorced. Given the strange way this enumerator wrote his capital D's, it's possible he initially marked it as Divorced and then corrected it to Widowed. We do not know at this time when Allen Butler died. The death certificates for Lucenia's grandchildren by way of James Washington and Laney Jane (Mullins) Seal also showed a split on the maiden name of their mother. The informants for Maude and George W. believed it was Mullins; the informant for Orvil believed it was Lawson.
Martha Jane Martha Jane's 1877 marriage record indicated that her name was Martha J. Lawson. Martha was just age 16 when she married William Davis, so this was not likely a surname from a previous marriage. Martha Jane's 1925 death certificate indicated that her mother's maiden name was Lucinda Lawson and her father was Jim Robertson. Her two youngest daughters' 1957 and 1958 death certificates indicated their mother's maiden name was unknown to the informants; one indicated that her father's last name was Mullins. These last two records are not particularly unusual since the informants were being asked to recall names that were likely not discussed in decades. Because her last name remained Mullins in census records, many researchers speculate that she had common law marriages and chose to keep her last name Mullins or that the enumerators simply made mistakes and assumed she was a Mullins since she was living with her parents, William and Tabitha Mullins.
Sarah Josephine Josephine indicated her last name was Mullins on her 1885 marriage document. On her 1957 death certificate, the informant indicated that neither the father's nor the mother's names were known to her.
Mary Laverne Laverne married William Phleming Seal on January 6, 1890 in Claiborne Co., Tenn. The 1890 marriage record indicated the name of the groom was W. P. C. Seal Lawson and the name of the bride was Luvernna. We believe the person who wrote the marriage record placed the last name of the bride on the wrong line. The 1900 and 1910 censuses confirm this Seal marriage including the fact that they had been married for 20 years in 1910. The 1958 death certificate for Mary Laverne Seals indicated that her father's name was Mullins and that the maiden name of her mother was unknown.
So, how do we make sense out of these records? The last piece of the puzzle that may help sort things out was the Seals Family Bible in which the births of John Brownlow Lawson and Delaney Jane Lawson were recorded on a single page along with the birth date of their mother, Lucenia. This page seems to prove that John Brownlow, who only appeared in the 1860 census, was the son of Lucenia Mullins. It also appears to be the first time the name Lawson appeared in a family record. Four of the five children of Lucenia Mullins had the name Lawson associated with them at some point in their lives. The only exception was Sarah Josephine. We'll discuss this in more detail in the next section.
Why Was the Last Name Lawson Placed on Lucenia's Headstone?
Lucenia seems to have had relationships with several men including a Lawson, Jim Robertson, a Shultz (possibly Jacob) and Allen Butler. Given that her first two children were considered to be Lawsons at the time of their birth, according to the Seals Family Bible, these children may have been the result of her first, and perhaps most important, relationship. Her third child, Martha Jane, also seems to have considered herself a Lawson, given that she used that name on her marriage document and her family used the name on her death certificate. There is one Lawson who appears to be the most likely candidate for a relationship with Lucenia Mullins - William B. Lawson. We suspect he lived fairly close to the Mullins family. While the two families lived in separate sub-divisions of Claiborne County, they were enumerated by the same Assistant Marshal, William G. Payne. Dwelling houses were supposed to be numbered in the order of visitation and Mr. Payne continued the same numbering system from one sub-division to the next. So, the William B. Lawson household was dwelling house 524 (page 84) and the William Mullins household was dwelling house 636 (page 102). William B. Lawson was one year younger than Lucenia Mullins. He and his wife, Catherine Daniels, had been married in 1851, but she did not appear in the 1860 census. According to the 1860 census, William was living with his son Henry, age 4, his sister, Leonora, who was listed as a domestic, and her two children. Could William B. Lawson have begun a relationship with Lucenia Mullins around the time his wife was pregnant with their son Henry? William was a day laborer and could have worked on the Mullins farm or another farm nearby.
We believe William B. Lawson, like many East Tennesseans, fought for the Union during the Civil War. There was a William B. Lawson in the 8th Tennessee Infantry regiment, Company I. If this was him, his records indicate he joined the unit on July 1, 1863 in Hancock Co., Tenn., but was "absent without leave" by September 1863. His records indicate he was sick at times and he deserted his regiment at other times. Desertion was common for the East Tennesseans who had to weigh commitment to the Union with their own concerns for the safety of their families. In William B. Lawson's case, there may not have been any real difference between sickness and desertion. The Union Army seems to have looked the other way when southerners left their companies. They knew the tremendous pressure their soldiers felt leaving their families behind enemy lines. "Deserters" were often welcomed back to their old units or joined other units when they returned to duty. William B. Lawson was on his company's muster-out roll in June 1865 in North Carolina; however, it's not clear if he was present or absent at that time.
William B. Lawson appeared in Claiborne Co., Tenn. tax records in 1865, 1866 1867, and 1872. He did not appear in the 1870 census. According to an 1881 deed record, William B. Lawson was deceased at the time of a transaction involving land he had sold in 1866. It's not known when he died, but it could have been at any time between 1872 and 1881.
Do we have a good case for naming William B. Lawson as the father of three or four of Lucenia's children? Yes, a very good circumstantial case. If we assume Lucenia Mullins came by the name Lawson based on her relationship with the father of at least three and maybe four of her children, then William B. Lawson had the right name, lived in the right place, and had an occupation that required him to work away from his home. His relationship with Lucenia Mullins might have been a one-off event except for the fact that his wife seems to have died early in their marriage. Autosomal testing of descendants of William's only son, Henry, and Lucenia's children might provide more evidence of their relationship, but for now William B. Lawson seems to be the obvious choice for the person who had the longest running relationship with Lucenia. The children likely placed his last name on Lucenis's headstone because her relationsip with him was the longest and most important relationship in their mother's life.
Who Were the Parents of Lucenia Mullins?
The 1850 census contains a few clues regarding the parentage of Lucenia Mullins. It lists 18 year old Luceny Mullens and five siblings living with William and Tabitha Mullens in Claiborne Co., Tenn. William Mullens, age 42, had been born in Tennessee and Tabitha, age 36, had been born in Virginia. The two oldest children, Hannibal and Luceny, were born in Tennessee; the four youngest in Virginia. In a search for earlier records for William Mullins, we found only three William Mullens/Mullins living in Tennessee according to the 1840 census and only one of them, William Mullins of Greene County was living in east Tennessee. Marriage records for Greene County showed that William Mullins had married Peggy Bailey on Nov. 12, 1827. A comparison of the 1830 census and 1840 census for William Mullins of Greene County to the 1850 census for William Mullens of Claiborne County, suggested a possible match; however, in checking later census records, we're confident we found William Mullins of Greene County living in Washington Co., Tenn. in the 1860 census. He was the right age, his wife was named Margaret (the formal named for Peggy) and one of the children had a middle initial "B." Researchers believe this child's full name was Martin Bailey Mullins which would mean that Peggy's maiden name was given to that child. Since our William Mullins was clearly living in Claiborne County in 1860, this took the Greene County William Mullins out of the running as the father of Lucenia Mullins. There were several Mullins families living in nearby Hawkins Co., Tenn. according to the 1830 and 1840 censuses. It may be that William Mullins was either living with one of those families or was simply missed by the enumerator in 1840 when he would have likely been living on his own with at least two children. Or, perhaps he had temporarily moved out of Tennessee? More on that possibility below.
What does this mean for determining the parents of Lucenia Mullins? When we look at several primary records of this period and later (most of which are discussed above), we can likely draw several conclusions. Since Lucenia was born in Tennessee (per the 1850 census) and Tabitha was born in Virginia and had children who were born in Virginia up until 1848 (per the 1850 census), it's not likely that Tabitha was Lucenia's mother. If Hannibal Mullins's mother was Bettie Sulfridge as his 1923 death certificate) indicated, it may be that Bettie Sulfridge was also the mother of Lucenia Mullins. One caveat regarding Hannibal's death certificate is that the informant, the head of the household in which Hannibal was living, does not appear to have been related to him; however, Hannibal's wife was living in the same household, so the mother's maiden name may have been her recollection. This led us on a wider search to determine where William Mullins might have lived in the late 1830s and 1840s.
Based on court minutes regarding road maintenance in 1833 and his witnessing a deed in 1835, it's clear that William Mullins lived in Claiborne Co., Tenn. in the early to mid-1830s. However, between 1839 and 1849, a William Mullens appeared in nearly every personal property tax list for Lee Co., Va. which is just north and east of Claiborne County. During this period, we have found no records for William Mullens in Claiborne County and he did not appear in the 1840 census for Claiborne County. When we looked for William Mullins in Virginia, we found someone with that name in the 1840 census for Lee County and his family lined up pretty well with the Claiborne County family in the 1850 census. The oldest male and female were ages 20-30, the only other male was under age 5; the two other females were under age 5 and age 5-10. These numbers fit well with the ages of Tabitha, Lucenia, Hannibal and Elizabeth. William would have been age 32 if the 1850 census was right, but that's only off by two years. Based on the tax records and the 1840 census, it appears that William Mullins moved from Claiborne Co., Tenn. to Lee Co., Va. around 1838/1839 and then moved back to Claiborne County around 1849. As a bonus, if Tabitha Mullens, William's wife according to the 1850 census, was a Lawson at birth or by marriage as many researchers believe, Lee County would have been the place William Mullens would have met her. Based on the 1839 tax records, there were seven Lawson families living in the Eastern District of Lee County where William Mullens lived.
So, who were the parents of the six children named in the 1850 census? There were just a few Sulfridges living in Claiborne Co., Tenn. in the 1830's, but one of them, John Sulfridge, stands out. According to the 1850 census, he was age 66 and living with a recently-wed wife and her children. While John Sulfridge did not appear in the 1830 or 1840 censuses, he did appear in the 1833 tax list for Claiborne County. We believe his age and his appearance in this tax list and the 1850 census makes a good case for his being the father of the Elizabeth (Bettie) Sulfridge who married William Mullins and was the mother of both Lucenia and Hannibal Mullins. What about the other children? Since there were many Lawson families living near William Mullins when he moved to Lee Co., Va., including at least four families that lived close to William Mullens, we are inclined to agree with the researchers who believe Tabitha Mullins was a Lawson. While we can find no evidence of Tabitha's last name at birth, the sheer number of Lawsons in Lee County makes this a pretty good assumption until other evidence is uncovered. The only caveat to this assumption is the fact that the Lawson name was later associated with several daughters of William and Tabitha Mullins. These associations may have caused some researchers to make a backward association of that name to Tabitha, perhaps in the belief that she was married to a Lawson before she married William Mullins.
Lucenia's Second Chapter - Life with Children and Grandchildren
By the 1870 census, Lucenia's family was complete as far as surviving children were concerned. Lucenia (Lawson) Butler continued to live near most of her children in Claiborne County until her death in 1910. According to her headstone at Howard Quarter Cemetery in Claiborne Co., Tenn., Lucenea Lawson died on May 16, 1910.
Return to Seals, Part 4