Person Page 51

Jeremiah Burnett was one of the Crowley neighbors on Rockcastle Creek in Patrick County.

"Samuel Crowley was born on the old Crowley farm four miles southeast of Savannah in Ray county, Georgia 30 June 1791. He was one of ten children born to John Crowley and Elizabeth McClain. He moved with his family about 1800 to Powell Valley, Tennessee. He married there about 1810, Susanna McInnish. Samuel and Susanna had 6 sons and 6 daughters. The three oldest children, James, Louise and Matilda were born in Powell Valley, Tennessee. In the month of October 1815, Samuel and Susanna and their three young children, Samuel's brother Jeremiah and wife Polly and their three children, packed what they could carry on horseback and set out for Missouri. They had only a few cooking utensils and provisions, a large canvas which could be stretched over poles to form a tent for shelter when needed, a shovel, axe and hoe without handles and their guns.

They camped the first night at Cumberland Gap and from there traveled slowly each day, camping early at night. They had Johnnie cakes cooked in the campfire and quail, turkey and now and then a deer for food. At noon they took short rests and ate a cold lunch from the remains of their breakfast. Thus they traveled across Kentucky until they reached Illinois and for the first time saw the tall waving grass of the western prairies. It must have been very difficult for these young mothers, each traveling with children all under the age of 5.

In Illinois they joined a wagontrain from Tennessee and traveled the rest of the way with them to St. Louis, which they reached in the 6th week of their journey. They rested there a few days and then crossing the Mississippi river at St. Louis, they proceeded on to Howard county, Missouri. They arrived there 27 Dec 1815. They settled in Sugar Tree Bottom, Missouri, at that time a territory with but a few white settlers and the country was frequented by Indians.

Samuel remained in Howard county until 1819 when he and his family moved to Lillard (now Lafayette) county. From there he moved to Clay county in the vicinity of Excelsior Springs and then in 1837 he moved to Indian country which was later part of the Platte Purchase from the Indians and was established as Andrew county in 1841.

County court was established at the first meeting by the settlers in March 1841, who were; Upton Rohrer, Samuel Crowley and William Deacon. Court was held once a month thereafter. Samuel Crowley became one of the judges in the county and he named the town where he presided Savanna after his native Savanna, Georgia. For the first three years he held court under and Elm tree until the courthouse was built. The tree was still standing in 1939. The county was said never to have had a more trustworthy court.

In 1846 five of the children of Samuel and Susanna decided to take the immigrant train to Oregon. Samuel rigged out his sons John and Georgw W. (called Wash) with 6 teams of Oxen to make the trip. The daughters who went to Oregon were Louise, wife of Willis Gaines, Matilda, wife of Elva Sloan, and Louisa, wife of William Hutson. John died of Mountain fever in Wyoming and was buried on the banks of the Green River. When Wash arrived in Oregon he took a donation claim at the mouth of the Roaring River, in the Willamette Valley but he later went to the Gold fields in California. He sold his land, stock and all he had in Oregon to his nephew, John W. Gaines, son of Willis Gaines. He then returned to Missouri.

Susanna, wife of Samuel Crowley died in Andrew county, Missouri sometime shortly after 1850. Susanna was born in 1792 but I have no record of who her parents were.

In 1852 two more of Samuel and Susanna's daughters, Jane, wife of Daniel Boone Holman and Mary Ann, wife of Francis Marion Holman left for Oregon. Wash again made the trip, piloting the emigrant train, having already gone once over the Barlow pass. At Fort Hall, a number of the families decided to go to California and among those were the two Holman brothers married to the daughters of Samuel Crowley.

Daniel B. and Jane Holman remained in California, but in 1861 Francis Marion and Mary Ann Holman again crossed the plains from California to Denton county, Texas. Wash Crowley went back again to Missouri and later went to Nebraska and back again to Missouri.

Francis Marion arrived in Texas just before the Civil war. He and his son Edmund were Confederate soldiers in the Civil war. Edmund was killed in one of the last battles of the war. Francis Marion and Mary Ann Crowley decided to return to Missouri after the war and he was killed by horse thieves enroute to Missouri. Mary Ann traveled on to live with her father in Andrew county.

In 1868, Samuel Crowley decided to make the trip to see his children in California and Oregon. He left the follwing legal form in Missouri: "I, Samuel Crowley of Andrew county, Missouri, give to James Dagley, power of attorney to transact any and all business that may become necessary, during my absence which may be temporary, or perhaps permanent, which I am contemplating to California."

As it turned out, he visited his children in California and then went on to Oregon where he settled at Scio, Oregon near his children. His daughter Mary Ann and her two youngest children came with him to Oregon but this time the trip was made by ship around the Horn, the southern tip of South America.

Samuel Crowley died in Linn county, Oregon 7 March 1873 while living at the home of Willis Gaines. He is buried in the little cemetary on the Gaines farm besides his daughters, Louisa Gaines and Matilda Shields and others from their family.

Mary Ann Holman settled at Scio, Oregon near the rest of her family. The story of Mary Ann will be told in the Holman family history."

From "Record of Holmans and Crowleys" compiled by Mary Ella (Strader) Slagle, completed June 30, 1989

(Historical Data and Family records collected by Howard Allen Strader and Mary Ella Slagle with contributions from counsin Dorothy (Curl) Proffitt, Ellen Quilici, descendant of James M. Fulkerson and Samuel Crowley; Betty McDougald, descendant of Isaac Holman of Texas and of Hardy Holman of Tennessee)

https://www.ancestry.com/mediaui-viewer/tree/18210667/person/18734333651/media/9131d22c-3fb3-4f28-b35d-28f55c1a5d57?destTreeId=18210667&destPersonId=18734333651&src=em.

Some lists of children of John Crowley have THREE Elizabeth people. I give up and have no idea which Elizabeth this is:

DARCUS ELIZABETH "POLLY" CROWLEY 1800–1883
Mary (Polly) Elizabeth Crowley 1802–1888
Elizabeth Crowley 1804–1879.