Down the Rabbit Hole--Wades of Rutherford Co TN

This "rabbit hole" adventure starts out with me finding this snippet shown below on  Newspapers.com and wanting to know more about this Wade family.

The Tennessean 29 Dec 1889 Sunday morning edition  pg 15 People and Events Murfreesboro section  (www.newspapers.com)  listed as The Tennessean Paper at the time it was The Daily American (Nashville, TN)

Fount and Eth B. Wade appear to be sons of Levi Wade.  Just out of curiosity I pulled their 1850 Census entry where they are living in their father's household.

1850 US Federal Population Census, Rutherford Co. Tennessee Wilkinson Crossroad Dist. Stamped pg #191 written pg #381 https://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=8054 images reproduced by FamilySearch  (household entry carries over onto the top of the following page)

This Levi Wade's place of birth is given as Maryland.   He appears to be the one who is listed as a son of James Wade and Ann Magruder in Ancestry's North American Family Histories Collection 1500-2000 with the information noted as coming from Daughters of the American Revolution Lineage Book : NSDAR: Volume 159: 1920.  This entry also shows his connection to Maryland as he appears to be the great-grandson of Joseph Magruder who died in Montgomery Co MD in 1793.

I found 4 marriages for a Levi Wade all in Rutherford Co. TN.  The DAR lineage book noted that Mary Henderson was his 2nd marriage

1st Marriage to Mary A E. Bedford 17 Jan 1821
2nd Marriage to Mary Henderson 8 Jan 1828
3rd Marriage to Virginia Barksdale 5 Nov 1839
4th Marriage to Catherine E Thompson 7 Jan 1864(one compiled Ancestry.com source says 1863)

Virginia's FindAGrave entry says that Levi Wade was a widower with 12 children when he and Virginia married(see above link-Click on her name). She died sometime prior to Levi's marriage to Catherine likely around 1863 though her Find-A-Grave entry gives 1868 and is not sourced.

Imagine the number of descendants.  This is something to think about if you are a descendant and have done DNA testing.  You'd have 21 other possible lines of descent for cousins as Virginia and Levi went on to have 10 children.  According to some of the info I ran across while trying to see how many times he married, he was a TN state senator who voted for succession at the last minute and was away in Virginia when the Yankees took over his plantation. Levi filed a claim in 1876 with the Southern Claims Commision but it was disallowed.  He lived to be in his mid-80s.  There were many mentions of him in the Tennessee newspapers which you can read if you have access to Newspapers.com.  Virginia's family cemetery(Barksdale) has some details about the Union troops taking over the family plantation.

Paternal DNA matches with some of the Nowlin descendants.

In the process of sorting thru my DNA matches and looking at their trees in order to identify our common ancestors I noticed that I had a good many matches who were descendants of Bryan Ward Nowlin and wife Lucy Wade.  Their Great Grandson Bryan Ward Nowlin (son of Jabus Swanson Nowlin) died in 1861.  I located his will in Marshall Co TN Probate records on Ancestry.com and learned that he was a doctor.  He and Rebecca Ewing Niell had 10 children only 5 of which lived beyond the age of 7.  That must have been heartbreaking.  He lists the surviving children in his will. a snippet of which is shown below.  B. W. Nowlin himself was only 41 when he died.

Children:  

• James Ozro Nowlin
• Thomas Light Nowlin
• Milton Gross Nowlin
• Harriet Elizabeth Nowlin
• Rebecca Lavona Nowlin

These DNA matches are on my Paternal side and the Bedford, Marshall, Rutherford and Williamson Co TN area is where m Dad's lines lived.

B W Nowlin Probate Date 13 July 1861

Ancestry.com. Tennessee, Wills and Probate Records, 1779-2008 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2015. Original data: Tennessee County, District and Probate Courts. Marshall Co TN Wills, Vol A-C, 1835-1912  pg 422