The Early Tribbett Family of Colliers Creek in Rockbridge County, Virginia

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GENERATION Four

12. John³ Tribbett Unroe (Elizabeth², John¹) born 16 September 1826,¹ married 16 December 1845, Sarah Elizabeth Clark.² Rev. William W. Trimble performed the marriage ceremony. Sarah was born 5 January 1826,³ daughter of John and Mary (Bradds) Clark.⁴

John T. Unroe was a constable in Rockbridge County, Virginia for a term of 2 years, his bond for this position was dated 5 July 1852.⁵ When his term as constable expired in 1854, he moved with his wife and children to Greene County, Illinois.⁶ Family tradition says they left Rockbridge in covered wagons on their trek to Illinois.⁷

In 1869, John T. and Sarah Eliza (Clark) Unroe moved to Jasper County, Missouri.⁸ They resided in Jasper County for several years, then in 1878, they decided to try their luck in Galena, Kansas.⁹ They did not settle in Galena very long. they soon moved to a 160 acre farm, 3 1/2 miles Southeast of Pittsburg, Kansas in 1879.¹⁰ John T. Unroe was prominent in public affairs in Crawford County, Kansas, and was well educated for his time.¹¹

Sarah E. (Clark) Unroe died about 1890.¹² John remarried about 1891 to Mary J. (surname yet unlocated). Mary was born February 1841 in Ohio.¹³ John and his second wife remained on the Pittsburg, Crawford County, Kansas farm until August 1904, when they moved into the town of Pittsburg, Kansas.¹⁴

On 22 February 1905, John T. Unroe suffered a stroke of paralysis and became an invalid.¹⁵ He died 13 December 1905 at his home at 106 E. Washington, Ave., Pittsburg, Kansas.¹⁶ His funeral was conducted from his home and his body was laid to rest in Mount Olive Cemetery.¹⁷

John became a Methodist Episcopal when young, and was a Mason for over 40 years.¹⁸ He is said to have been a good "Master", and had to force his slaves to leave. He served the Confederate Army, in Captain Pickett's Division,¹⁹ and was said to have hated Abraham Lincoln.²⁰ His grandson, John J. Phillips, wrote a poem about his farm.²¹

John T. and Sarah E. (Clark) Unroe had eight children, 5 were born in Rockbridge County, Virginia, and 3 were born in Green County, Illinois.

90 i. Mary⁴ Elizabeth Unroe (John³, Elizabeth², John¹) born c1846,²² married a Miller.

91 ii. Martha⁴ Jane Unroe (John³, Elizabeth², John¹) born c1848,²³ married a Hight.

92 iii. Constanza⁴ W. Unroe born c1850.²⁴ married a Dawson.

93 iv. James⁴ Buchanan Unroe (John³, Elizabeth², John¹) born 1852.

94 v. Elizabeth⁴ Virginia Unroe (John³, Elizabeth², John¹) born 1854, married first a Mr. Phillips, and second a Mr. Gillette.

95 vi. Rhoda⁴ Ann Unroe (John³, Elizabeth², John¹) born 1858, married a Treadwell.

96 vii. Lucia⁴ A. Unroe (John³, Elizabeth², John¹) born 1862, married a Johnson.

97 viii. George⁴ Unroe (John³, Elizabeth², John¹) born 1865.

13. Mary³ Elizabeth Unroe (Elizabeth², John¹) born c1827,²⁵ married 7 November 1844, Steven G. Fenton.²⁶ Rev. Joseph Spriggs, a Methodist minister performed the ceremony. Steven was born c1815 in Maryland.²⁷ He was a stonecutter by profession.²⁸ Steven G. and Mary E. (Unroe) Fenton had at least 6 children, and seem to have left Rockbridge, most likely heading west.

98 i. John⁴ Wesley Fenton (Mary³, Elizabeth², John¹) born c1845²⁹.

99 ii. George⁴ S. Fenton (Mary³, Elizabeth², John¹) born c1847.³⁰

100 iii. James⁴ H. Fenton (Mary³, Elizabeth², John¹) born c1849.³¹

101 iv. Mary⁴ E. Fenton (Mary³, Elizabeth², John¹) born c1850.

102 v. Martha⁴ A. Fenton (Mary³, Elizabeth², John¹) born 19 May 1855.³²

103 vi. William⁴ Arthur Fenton (Mary³, Elizabeth², John¹) born 29 December 1857.³³

104 vii. Virginia⁴ L. Fenton (Mary³, Elizabeth², John¹) born June 1860.³⁴

14. Adam³ Unroe (Elizabeth², John¹) born 27 March 1830,³⁵ married 16 December 1852, Mary Elizabeth Ford.³⁶ Rev. Andrew B. Davidson performed the marriage ceremony. Mary was born 26 August 1835,³⁷ daughter of Jacob and Anna (Scott) Ford.³⁸

Adam served in Company C, 1st Virginia Cavalry, CSA.³⁹ He enlisted in Company H, 18th Virginia Cavalry on 1 May 1864 in Rockbridge County, Virginia and was present in that unit until 31 October 1864.⁴⁰ He served for four years with General Lee, passing through his service without even a wound.⁴¹ He was elected Road Commissioner to Buffalo Township for a term of one year on 23 May 1871.⁴² Adam taught school "up at Ford's" in 1885,⁴³ and was teaching "down on Toad Run" on 1886.⁴⁴

On 17 February 1887, Adam Unroe sold his personal property and he and his family began preparing to leave for the West.⁴⁵ On 4 March 1887, Adam, Mary and other family members boarded the noon train en route to Bringhurst, Carrol County, Indiana.⁴⁶

Mary Elizabeth (Ford) Unroe died 28 April 1905,⁴⁷ and is buried by Adam's side in Meadow Lake Cemetery, Wolcott, White County, Indiana.

Adam identified himself with the Methodist Episcopal Church in his early youth. He lived 68 years of his life in perfect health. In his old age, he suffered a broken limb and cancer, which caused his death. He died 11 July 1908,⁴⁸ at Wolcott, White County, Indiana.49 His body was taken to Meadow lake Cemetery for burial.

His pall bearers were Ex-Union soldiers. "Tenderly the boys in blue bore to his last resting place their neighbor, who had worn the gray, thus burying all animosities before the clods of earth hid from view their old time enemy."⁵⁰

Adam and Mary E. (Ford) Unroe had 11 children,⁵¹ 3 died in infancy,⁵² of those who lived to adulthood, only one daughter remained in Rockbridge County, Virginia. The others migrated west with their parents.

Transcription of a letter written to Adam by his wife while in was in the Confederate Army:

August _th 1862

Dear Adam i received a letter from you yesterday that Hugh Mackey brought for me this makes fore if not five i have written you lately this letter i will send by humbels i recon you will get it i do not know what is the reason you do not get my letters i always direct them the same way we are all well at present and hoping those few lines may find you in good health. i have no good knews to write to you we heard that Samuel C. Tribbett was Murdered night before last he was keeping store for watkins up a bout Buchanan and thire was three negro men came in the store and bought some goods from him and went out and in a few minutes one of the men came back in and nocked him down with a ax and choped his head off they have got them in Jail and i hope they will hang the all the Devil is in all of the nigars now i wish he had them all you can let liby know we are in hopes it is not true i was sorry to learn that you do knot get my letters i write to you i write ery letter i get from you answer i have sent you a fatigue Jacket and a pair of pants to town for humbels to take to you we are all thinking about sending you something to eat the first chance i have i have bespoke a chuse and some honey from Mother for you i think of you daily if you only had something good to eat i hope the Good Lord will soon ____ peace so all the poor men will get ____ to their family one mon for they have grea_____enerd off them ____ you owe Mr Morris sixty three dollars i am going to pay as far as the money lasts i do knot think i will have enought to pay them all i have not spent but one quarter of a dollar since you left Ema and Any shoes you got them last Summer are too small for them i am going to sell them for a pair for i want to take her to to preaching in Collierstown she is always wanting to go with me brother Cealow is going to preach at Cummings schoolhouse a Sunday evening John is still at home yet Miss Slavses is going to take up the first off September i want to send him again to her Miss Salina Powers is teaching at Cummings Schoolhouse Ema can spell in three Syllabels she is learning very fast indeed she and Anny feeds your little sow for me she will way two hundred again fall i think she is fine indeed John wants you to send him a yanky Saddle for him Charley is got one his pa sent him John thinks he ought to have one i sent John to Andrew Tolleys for your boots this evening if they are done wee will send them to you i am knitting you a pair of socks this makes too pair of socks for you the children are all fat and saucy you would knot know little Ann if you saw her she is gust like Houston i believe i have written you all the knews i have i hope you will get this letter so i must bring this letter to a close for this time for i have to __ight Bread to bake Sarah is washing this evening ___sa good by my Dear for this time M E Unroe to Mr A Unroe

(Envelope addressed:)

Care of Col Lee: Mr Adam Unroe Company C 1st Va Calvary Richmond Va⁵³.

The children of Adam and Mary E. (Ford) Unroe):

105 i. John⁴ Etchison Unroe (Adam³, Elizabeth², John¹) born 17 December 1853,⁵⁴ died 15 March 1918.⁵⁵ On 30 November 1876 at Cutler, Indiana, he was married to Louisa T. Adams.⁵⁶ Louisa was born 1853 and died 1909, she was a daughter of Warren Adams. John was a contractor by profession.

106 ii. Martha⁴ Virginia M. Unroe born 2 February 1856,⁵⁷ died 21 March 1856 of blue disease.⁵⁸

107 iii. Elizabeth⁴ "Emma" Unroe (Adam³, Elizabeth², John¹) born 15 April 1857,⁵⁹ married 18 March 1879,⁶⁰ Hugh T. Ford. He was a son of James and E. Ford. Hugh lived at Cole County, Illinois at the time of their wedding and they removed there soon afterward.

108 iv. Anna⁴ Scott Unroe (Adam³, Elizabeth², John¹) born 21 October 1859,⁶¹ died 9 March 1928.⁶² On 12 February 1885, she married Samuel Leander Moore.⁶³ Samuel was a son of William and Margaret (Cunningham) Moore. He was a farmer. Anna was the only one of Adam and Mary E. (Ford) Unroe's children to remain in Rockbridge County, Virginia.

109 v. unnamed⁴ male Unroe born 26 November 1861,⁶⁴ died 30 December 1861.⁶⁵

110 vi. Stuart⁴ Lee Unroe (Adam³, Elizabeth², John¹) born 18 March 1866,⁶⁶ died 27 September 1929 in Illinois.⁶⁷ On 27 November 1907 , in Macon, IL, he married Maude Dunkel.⁶⁸

111 vii. Sallie⁴ Florence Unroe (Adam³, Elizabeth², John¹) born 25 December 1868,⁶⁹ died 1 March 1934.⁷⁰ On 8 September 1891, she married William Boyd Kerns. William was born in 1867 and died in 1961. Both Sallie and William are buried in Zion Cemetery, Flora, Carroll County, Indiana.⁷¹

112 viii. William⁴ Howard Unroe born 19 December 1867,⁷² died 10 July 1868.⁷³

113 ix. Garrett⁴ Unroe (Adam³, Elizabeth², John¹) born 8 June 1871,⁷⁴ he died at Anderson, Indiana. His wife's name was Anna, she was born August 1873 in Indiana. He lived at Anderson, Indiana in 1935.

114 x. Minnie⁴ Ray Unroe (Adam³, Elizabeth², John¹) born 2 Jun 1874.⁷⁵ She married 25 April 1893, Milton A. Hamilton in Bringhurst, IN.⁷⁶ She then married a Mr. Hill, and later a Mr. Bartlett. She died in Anderson, Indiana. She lived at Anderson, Indiana in 1935.

115 xi. Harry⁴ "Tucker" Unroe (Adam³, Elizabeth², John¹) born 17 May 1877,⁷⁷ died 11 November 1935. On 9 October 1896, at Bringhurst, Indiana, he married Nellie C. Hunt. She was born 1880 and died 1958. They are buried at Maple Lawn Cemetery, Carroll County, Indiana.⁷⁸ They lived in Flora, Indiana, and had at least 10 children. The "Unroe Boys", his sons Roy and Willis, are legends in Flora for their basketball abilities. When they were lured to Clinton County by a coach who saw their potential and offered Harry Tucker Unroe a better job, the family moved to Frankfort, Indiana.⁷⁹

Back to Generation One

Back to Generation Two

Back to Generation Three

END NOTES

^{1. Monday's Dailey Issue,
Newspaper obituary, Crawford County, KS, 14 December 1905. Sent to the
compiler by Peggy Salz, Federal Way, WA.}

^{2. Rockbridge County, Virginia
Marriage Register 1, p. 358.}

^{3. Tombstone Inscription,
Pittsburg, Kansas Cemetery, as cited by Peggy Salz, Federal Way, WA.}

^{4. Carmen E. Clark. MSS "John
and Rebecca Clark of Rockbridge County, Virginia", 1987.}

^{5. Rockbridge County, Virginia
Will Book 12, p. 170.}

^{6. Monday's Dailey Issue,
obituary, op cit; and William G. Culler. History of the State of Kansas
Chicago, IL, 1883, p. 1147.}

^{7. Peggy Salz, Federal Way,
WA cites "Notes and Family TalesÓ" from Bertha M. Bradshaw,
February 1982.}

^{8. Monday's Dailey Issue,
obituary, op cit,; and William G. Culler. History of the State of Kansas,
op cit.}

^{9. Ibid.}

^{10. Ibid.}

^{11. Monday's Dailey Issue,
op cit.}

^{12. Ibid.}

^{13. Federal Census, 1900,
Crawford County, KS, microfilm T-1046 #134, as cited by Peggy Salz, Federal
Way, WA.}

^{14. Monday's Dailey Issue,
op cit.}

^{15. Ibid.}

^{16. Ibid.}

^{17. Ibid.}

^{18. Ibid.}

^{19. Robert J. Driver, Jr.
Lexington and Rockbridge County in the Civil War. Lynchburg, VA: H. E.
Howard, Inc., 1989, p. 144.}

^{20. Peggy Salz, Federal Way,
WA, cites Bertha M. Bradshaw, op cit.}

^{21. Peggy Salz, Federal Way,
WA, op cit.}

^{22. Federal Census, 1850 Rockbridge
County, Virginia, p. 340B.}

^{23. Ibid.}

^{24. Ibid.}

^{25. Federal Census, 1850 Rockbridge
County, Virginia, p. 376, 51 District, dwelling #1, family #1.}

^{26. Dorthie & Edwin Kirkpatrick,
Rockbridge County, Virginia Marriages, op cit.}

^{27. Federal Census, 1850 Rockbridge
County, Virginia, op cit.}

^{28. Ibid.}

^{29. Federal Census, 1850,Rockbridge
County, Virginia, p. 376.}

^{30. Ibid.}

^{31. Ibid.}

^{32. Dorthie & Edin Kirkpatrick.
Rockbridge County, Virginia Births 1853-1877. Athen, GA: Iberian, p. 188.}

^{33. Ibid.}

^{34. Ibid.}

^{35. Photocopy of his obituary
from a Wolcott, IN Newspaper July 1908, sent to the compiler by Peggy Salz,
Federal Way, WA.}

^{36. Rockbridge County, Virginia
Marriage Register 1, p. 428.}

^{37. Picture of her tombstone
in Meadow Lake Cemetery, Wolcott, White County, Indiana sent to the compiler
by Mrs. Dick N. Bishop, RR1, Box 1, Flora, IN 46929.}

^{38. Rockbridge County, Virginia
Marriage Register 1, p. 428, and Dorthie and Edwin Kirkpatrick, op cit.
also Federal Census, 1850 Rockbridge County, Virginia, p. 341, District
51 1/2, dwelling #147, family #150.}

^{39. Robert J. Driver, Lexington
and Rockbridge County in the Civil War, Lynchburg, VA: H. E. Howard,
Inc, 1989, p. 113.}

^{40. Roger U. Delauter. 18th
Virginia Cavalry. Lynchburg, VA: H. E. Howard, Inc., 1985., p. 96.}

^{41. Adam's obituary, op cit.}

^{42. Rockbridge County, Virginia
Will Book 20, p. 28.}

^{43. Rockbridge County News,
27 January 1885, "Collierstown" by John W. Paine}

^{44. Rockbridge County News,
23 April 1886, ÒFrom CollierstownÓ by John W. Paine.}

^{45. Rockbridge County News,
4 March 1887.}

^{46. Rockbridge County News
"Gone West"4 March 1887, p. 3, c.1}

^{47. Picture of her tombstone
sent to the compiler by Mrs. Dick Bishop, Flora, In, op cit.}

^{48. Picture of Adam and MaryÕs
tombstone sent to the compiler by Mrs. Dick Bishop, Flora, IN, op cit}

^{49. AdamÕs obituary,
op cit.}

^{50. AdamÕs obituary,
op cit.}

^{51. Ibid.}

^{52. Rockbridge County, Virginia
Death Register, pp. 19, 47, 91.}

^{53. Photocopy of this letter
in the compilerÕs files, sent to the compiler by Mary E. Unroe,
2028 N. Union St., Decatur, IL 62526, November 1985.}

^{54. Rockbridge County, Virginia
Birth Register 1, p. 103.}

^{55. Picture of JohnÕs
tombstone sent to the compiler by Mrs. Dick Bishop, Flora, IN, op cit.
He and his wife are buried in Meadow Lake Cemetery, Wolcott, White County,
In next to Adam and Mary.}

^{56. This data was sent to
the compiler by Mrs. Dick Bishop, Flora, IN.}

^{57. Rockbridge County, Virginia
Birth Register 1, p. 250.}

^{58. Rockbridge County, Virginia
Death Register , p. 19.}

^{59. Rockbridge County, Virginia
Birth Register 1, p. 194.}

^{60. Rockbridge County, Virginia
Marriage Register 1A, p. 369.}

^{61. Rockbridge County, Virginia
Birth Register 1, p. 194, and tombstone inscription Mt. Moreland Methodist
Church Cemetery, Rockbridge County, Virginia}

^{62. tombstone Inscription,
Mt. Moreland Methodist Church Cemetery, Rockbridge County, Virginia.}

^{63. Rockbridge County, Virginia
Marriage Register 1A, p. 483.}

^{64. Rockbridge County, Virginia,
Birth Register 1, p. 250}

^{65. Rockbridge County, Virginia
Death Register, p. 47}

^{66. Rockbridge County, Virginia
Birth Register 1, p. 328.}

^{67. Letter to the compiler
November 1985 from Mary E. Unroe, StuartÕs daughter, Decatur, IL,
op cit.}

^{68. Ibid.}

^{69. Rockbridge County, Virginia
Birth Register 1, p. 367.}

^{70. Photocopy of her obituary
sent to the compiler by Mrs. Dick Bishop, Flora, In.}

^{71. Mrs. Dick Bishop, op cit.}

^{72. Mary E. Unroe, Decatur,
IL sent this date.}

^{73. Rockbridge County, Virginia
Death Register, p. 91.}

^{74. Rockbridge County, Virginia
Birth Register 1, p. 449.}

^{75. Rockbridge County, Virginia
Birth Register 1, p. 557.}

^{76. Mrs. Dick Bishop, Flora,
In sent this information.}

^{77. Rockbridge County, Virginia
Birth Register 1, p. 667.}

^{78. Mrs. Dick Bishop, Flora,
IN sent this information.}

^{79. Letter to the compiler
dated 15 November 1993 from Mrs. Dick N. Bishop, RR 1, Box 1, Flora, IN
46929.}