History of the Baughn Generation in America

Written by: Joseph H. Baughn (9/9/1879 - 4/10/1976)


Preface

I have been implored by several of the Baughn generation (family) to write this history, as I am the oldest one of the generation to be known living. It seems that none of the generation has kept any record of the genealogy of the family.

Most of all the deaths occurred at around eighty years old or younger, except me. I am now ninety years old and still have fairly good health, strength and mind. I live one and one-half miles south of the little town of Lynn in Winston County, Alabama, and I am now still living on the old homestead where my father, Frederick H. (Cap) Baughn homesteaded and lived until he died in 1916. I still have the old land patent to the old homestead, and I have lived here for (90) years. My father made this homestead while James Buchanan was President of the United States in 1858.

There have been several nicknames used in the family, so I am enclosing all nicknames in parentheses so no one may get balled up, as many knew them by their nicknames better than by their real names. I don’t want to do any writing that would lead anyone off.

I am using every effort to give true facts as nearly as possible. I suppose the reason for so many asking me to do this writing is because, in talking to me, they have learned that my memory of recollection reaches back for seventy-five years and plainer and more vividly than it does to things happened one to five years ago.

At the writing of this history, I want to insist that as far as I have ever known this is the only history of the family ever written as it is a general rule that families do not keep a history or record of the family or generation, unlike the Jew, who can tell you of his generation, and to which of the twelve tribes of Israel he belongs.

I want to ask every one who gets a copy of this writing to take care of it, keep it for the information or history of the generation (family); for it is highly possible that there will never be another Baughn family history written.

Most of this history has come through my father, Frederick H. Baughn, generally known by all as Uncle Cap, and he was as confidential and truthful as any man I ever knew and was thought to be so by all who knew him. He never exaggerated anything to make it suit himself, and I am sure that all the information I ever learned from him was true and correct.

This writing dates down to September 20, 1969 and consists of about all concerning later families to this date.

Joseph Herbert Baughn


The first of the Baughn generation (family) in America was one Joseph Baughn, who with his wife, sailed from the nation of Wales to America around the last of the Eighteenth Century or from about the year 1794 to the year 1800.

They landed in South Carolina, where they settled down and raised their family. Two sons are all that we history of-one son Joseph Baughn and one son, Payton Baughn. We don’t know whether this Joe Baughn was ever married or not. The other son, Payton Baughn, married one Nancy Hicks, the daughter of Frederick Hicks, who we suppose, settled down near the same place the first Baughn settled and near the same date. They were full-blooded Black Dutch who sailed to America from Holland. The one daughter is all we have record of.

We have no record of what became of the original Joe Baughn, but Payton Baughn drifted to the state of Georgia, and from there the main part of the Baughn family scattered.

The Baughn family seemed to be susceptible to tuberculosis. Seven of the men and eight of the women of the Baughn family died with tuberculosis.

As was stated earlier, Payton Baughn, the son of the original Joe Baughn who came from Wales, married a Black Dutch girl, the daughter of Frederick Hicks, the only child we have history of in the Hicks family. After staying in South Carolina for a few years, drifted to the state of Georgia. For some unknown cause, he was a crippled man, who had to use a crutch and a walking stick to walk at all. He was educated and followed teaching school for a living, moving frequently wherever he could get the best pay for teaching.

His family consisted of five boys and four daughters. The boys were Herbert (Hubbard) Baughn, William Baughn, John Baughn, Sr., and Frederick H. (Cap) Baughn, and Jasper (Buck) Baughn. Hubbard’s wife died in Georgia, leaving two children, one boy and one girl. William Baughn married in Georgia, also. He married Matilda Buchanon.

Payton Baughn stayed in Georgia until the year 1849 when he came to Alabama with his single children and Hubbard. and William came to Alabama a year or so later. Payton Baughn landed with one Isham Prince on the Old Byler Road, later known as the Willis Farris place, and still later as the Tom Townsend place. The old Byler Road was then a stage line form Decatur to Tuscaloosa.

From there the Baughn family scattered. John Baughn married Rebecca Armstrong, daughter of Steward and Polly Armstrong. Their children consisted of two boys and seven girls. The boys were George and Kendrick (Ken); the girls, Rebecca, Malinda, Filey, Margaret, Nellie, Jane and one whose given name is unknown and who married Willis Gunter. Rebecca married John N. Baughn; Malinda married Joe Kennedy; Filey married Walter Nichols; Margaret married Bud Palmer; Nellie married Gaines Palmer; Jane married Thoan Nickerson. In addition to the nine children who lived to be grown, there were three or four who died with flux, now known as colitis, when they were small.

And now the families of Hubbard Baughn and William L. Baughn who were both sons of Payton Baughn…..

Hubbard Baughn lived in Georgia for some time, where his wife died, leaving two children, one boy named John and one girl whose name is unknown.

Later on, after Payton Baughn came to Alabama, Hubbard also came to Alabama, where he stayed for two or three years, before he moved west, supposedly to Texas, where he thought the country would be more healthy for him. He died with tuberculosis and all sign of the family was lost, as the U. S. mail system was slow and it was almost impossible to get any communication from Texas. And that was all that was ever known of Hubbard Baughn and his family.

William L. Baughn, son of Payton Baughn, lived in Georgia a year or two after Payton came to Alabama. He had married Matilda Buchanon in Georgia and they came to Alabama and raised five children. One daughter Emma married John Sims, and had two sons, Rufus and Irving.

Emma and her son Irving, died with tuberculosis. Another of William L. Baughn’s daughters, Anner, married Benjamin Weaver, had several children, and lived until a fairly old age. Dora married Silas Lackey, had one daughter and died with tuberculosis.

The oldest son, Thomas, died quiet young with slow fever. He was around twenty years old when he died.

The youngest son, Albert, married Nancy Carolyn (Dolly) Rose. They had eight children. The four boys were Irving, Rufus, who died with tuberculosis, Egbert and Hurbert.

The girls were Annie, Irene, Amy, and Patty Mae. Albert Baughn and his wife died with tuberculosis. While living, Albert Baughn ran a good merchantile business in Lynn for several years, which he left when he died. At the time of his death, he was still living on the old homestead where his father had lived.

And to the family of John N. Baughn, who was also a son of Payton Baughn. He was a single man and still lived with the family when Payton Baughn came to Alabama in 1849. He later married Rebecca Armstrong, the daughter of Steward and Polly Armstrong. They raised eleven children. The six boys were James, Hubbard, William, Henry, John H., and Jasper. The girls were Mary, who married Ben Lambert; Frances who married Coleman Gann; Nancy Green, who married Claborn Threadgill; and Margaret, who married Gale Vines. Nancy Green and Margaret both died with t. b. and had no children. Francis and baby died in childbirth.

Jim Baughn, the oldest child, married Mary Wilson and later died leaving four children, which were taken and raised by their grandmother, Rebecca Baughn, and their uncle, Henry Baughn. Jim Baughn died with tuberculosis in Oklahoma.

Hubbard Baughn married Nancy Brimer, daughter of Eliza Brimer, a widow.

John N. Baughn homesteaded land ajoining the land of both William Baughn and Frederick (Cap) Baughn. The John Baughn homestead was just west of that of Frederick (Cap) Baughn and south of the home of William Baughn , the two lower homesteads on Black Water Creek.

The above John N. Baughn was in the Union Army of the United States during the Civil War.

Another son of Payton Baughn, Jasper (Buck) Baughn, went to the Union Army in the Civil War and was never heard from again. It was supposed he was killed in battle and never reported.

And to the family of Frederick (Cap) Baughn, who was the son of Payton Baughn and who was known almost altogether as Cap Baughn, which name we will use in this writing.

Cap Baughn came to Alabama with his father, Payton Baughn, in the year 1849 when he was sixteen years old and lived with his father until he married in August 16, 1856. He married Margaret (Peggy) Holt, homesteaded land and built their home where they lived the remainder of each of their lives. Cap Baughn died on November 16, 1916 and Margaret (Peggy) died on June 14, 1925.

They lost one child in infancy and raised seven children. The boys were William J. Baughn, George P. Baughn, Frederick Jackson Baughn and Joseph H. Baughn; the girls, Nancy Carolyn, Sarah Jane, and Martha Anne.

Cap Baughn was eighty-three years old when he died and Margaret (Peggy) was near ninety.

In his early life, Cap Baughn took up the trade of tanning leather and making shoes, which he did an extensive lot of. He tanned many tons of leather and hauled it off to markets and learned, it is supposed, just about all there was to be learned at the time about hides and leather. In 1882, he was robbed of around twelve hundred dollars, which was supposed to have been done by Sanford Wafford and his brother-in-law, Thomas Arnold, but at that date, they could not get positive proof.

Cap Baughn, with his brothers William and John N. Baughn, homesteaded adjoining land; William on the north, John on the west, and Cap on the east. All three homesteads lay between a half mile to two miles of where the little town of Lynn now stands. One of the children of Cap Baughn was William J., who married Malinda Love and raised three boys and four girls. George P. Baughn married Betsy Cagle and raised two girls Lelar and Barbara Ann, and the boys, Luther and Joseph Frederick. All of George’s children except Barbara are dead at the time of this writing. Jack married Sarah Dykes (Polly), and they raised five boys, Thomas, Joseph, William, Albert and Washington, and girls, Elizabeth, Emma, Annie, and one lost in infancy. One of Jack’s sons, Thomas was killed in a penitentiary in Salem, Oregon, while demonstrating and tearing up buildings and machinery.

Cap Baughn’s daughter, Nancy, married Melton Cagle and raised six boys and four girls. The boys were Hubbard, George, John, James, Rufus, and Joseph. The girls were Roxanna, Margaret, Sarah, and Martha. George, John, James, Joseph (Jobe), and Martha are still living at the time if this writing. Later on in this writing, an account of John H. Baughn, this writer, is given.

And to the family of John H. Baughn, who was the son of John N. Baughn, a grandson of Payton Baughn. He married Mandy Key a daughter of Mary Anne and John R. Key, who, it is claimed, killed himself in jail. Other members of the Key family were Elijah, Sarah, Elzaney, Julia, Ova, and Victoria.

John H. Baughn raised eight children. The boys were Argie, Floyd, Fletcher, Fred, Felman, Kermit, and Vance. The two girls were Veltie, who married Clyde Pennington and Bernice, who died shortly after her marriage to Velton O’Mary.

John Baughn’s first wife Mandy, died, and he married Parilee Burgess, a widow and the daughter of Garrett Dodd.

The only living member of John H. Baughn’s family is Fletcher, who married Pearl Lynn, the daughter of John W. and Tine Lynn.

It may not be of any importance to any reader, but I am including this information about myself.

I am Joseph Herbert Baughn, a son of Frederick (Cap) Baughn, who was a son of Payton Baughn, who was a son of the orignal Joe Baughn, who came from Wales to America; aand I am now ninety (90) years old. I was born in Winston County in Alabama and have lived here all my life. I am still living on the old homestead where my father lived most of his life. I was born on the ninth day of September, 1879. I still have fairly good health, can get around pretty well, eat well, and I think I still have a fairly good mind. I have raised my family here on the old homestead of my father, Frederick H. Baughn.

I married Bertha Long, a granddaughter of William R. Long and daughter of John C. Long. Our children are as follows: W. Howard Baughn who married Agnes Nix; Nora Baughn married Walter Downey; Ruby Baughn married Ralph Fletcher; Elve Baugh married Talbert Partaine; Lenola Baughn married Bonnie Radford; Harvey Baughn married Roberta Wilson; Merceed Baughn married Roman Manasco who was killed in a coal mine. She later married Leonard Farris. Jeree O. Baughn married Ala Mae Ingle. We lost one, a twin to Merceed, in childbirth.

I served as a Justice of the Peace and Notary Public for thirty-five years. That, I think, has given my neighbors pretty good faith in me, or they would not have kept me in this position so long. When I at last retired, the people tried to get me to run for Justice again, but I refused. I was afraid my mind may be getting a little weak and that I might make some mistake that could get someone in trouble.

In doing this writing, I have taken the time and studied hard in trying to do it properly and to give true facts as nearly as I can. I trust that I have done so. I have been several days doing this writing as I couldn’t think of everything at once, and I would stop work or rest or sometime, possibly a day or so to study so as to be sure I was doing the writing correctly and giving true facts; for I realize that I am not going to be here much longer to do anything, and if this writing can give anyone information or pleasure in reading, I will be repaid for my trouble. It has been a wearisome job and hard on my mind which I realize is weakening away. I now bid good-bye to the world. This writing has been a strain on my mind, studying and trying to obtain all the facts about the family as true facts.

In closing I wish to remark that I have never been out of the state of Alabama.

After the closing of this writing I have decided that the Generation or the Public would require some further history of the older ones of the family and so I am making this addition especially concerning Payton Baughn who was a son of the original Joe Baughn who came from Wales to America.

Payton Baughn was a crippled man, had to use a crutch and a walking stick to walk. He served in Winston County as Tax Assessor and Tax Collector both. While there was not enough money to pay two men to do the work he got twenty-five dollars a month for doing the Assessing and Collecting and had three months in the year to do the work making seventy-five dollars per year. This was around the end of the Civil War.

Just after this date he was elected Probate Judge of Winston County and served there for a while and was killed in his office by a drunken man. Paul Garrison stabbed him with a knife. Garrison skipped bond and got away. While a bond of $1000.00 was made detectives hunted for him but never found him. He was in Arkansas but got word of the reward and skipped from there.

And another feat that was accomplished through the Baughn family was concerning the disease of Pellagra, which was known in Italy for several years before it got into America. It was a terrible scourge and claimed to be incurable. There was no treatment known for it. But we found a treatment for it. We and my brother George P. Baughn by accident discovered a treatment that cured hundreds of cases while it raged in America for just a few years---12 or 13 years and seemingly died out and has never bothered many since. We cured one regular doctor, one R. H. Miller. He had tried several doctors with no avail and has made the statement to several that it actually cured him for which he was very thankful.

And with this I suppose I will close this writing.


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