Sam Matteson

Re-discovering a Great, Great Grandfather
of Sam Matteson May 2021

One ancient image that now floats about in cyberspace (see below) provides a rare and precious picture of some of the Moates-Dew family at the end of the nineteenth century. Judging from the apparent age of my grandfather Noah W. Moates (about four by the look of him and b. 27 Dec 1889) and that of an infant whom I have identified as James Worley Jefferson Long (less than 2 and b. 1893) in his mother “Lizzie” Long’s arms, the photograph can be dated to about 1894. The “Sunday-go-to-meetin’ clothes” of the family and the presence of palm fronds suggests that the photograph was exposed on or near Palm Sunday (March 18, 1894). On the right in the group portrait is a bearded gentleman sitting in a rocking chair holding a large Bible on his lap.  Incidentally, this venerable book, a King James Version Bible printed in 1878 is in the care of my 1^st cousin once removed, Katie Beauchamp. The elderly man in the photograph is my great, great-grandfather, the Reverend Thomas Spenser (sometimes spelled Spencer) Dew (sometimes spelled Due). Here he is about age 85. To my knowledge this is the only photograph of him in existence.

Without question, the Reverend was an influential figure in the families of his five daughters, Susan Ann Dew McSween Murphy, Ruth Ann Dew Moates, Martha Ann Dew McLeod (during her short life), Mary Ann Dew Borders Sowell, and Caroline Elizabeth “Lizzie” Dew Long and in the families of their descendants. I discern the shadow of this towering individual inumbrating the generations, falling on my mother’s generation as well as on that of his other great grandchildren and even on me, although in hazier outline. Little is accurately known of him and his life despite the rumors in the family. Much of the information we do have is sketchy or apocryphal, since myth is most happy to blossom in the gaps.  Thus there are oft-repeated but unsubstantiated family tales that must be dispelled before we begin to know who he really was. Fortunately, we can easily dispense with many of the notions because of the power of DNA analysis and on-line documentary evidence now available to us. For example, Reverend Dew was not married to a Native American woman, at least not in the Moates line. I am only four generations removed and should share about (½)⁴=1/16 ~ 6% DNA each with him and his partner. But I must disappoint my children and tell them that we have no indigenous ancestor because I have no detectable levels of Native American DNA in my genome, as is also the case with Rev Dew’s great granddaughter, my Aunt Ann Moates Rowley, who shares about 12% of her DNA with her ancestor.  Moreover, Thomas Spenser Dew (or Due) never sired a son named Thomas Jefferson Dew or Thomas Spenser Dew Jr as some have reported. In this investigation I have eagerly pursued these leads only to be disappointed when I discovered that it was a coincidental or false clue. For example, the suggestions of a lost son are misapprehensions of the son of Thomas Franklin Dew of Tennessee. Reverend Dew never lived in Tennessee, even though he was indeed peripatetic.

Moreover, some actual facts also get distorted and conflated in the retelling. For example, my mother conjectured that Thomas’ “first wife” must have died because “Martha Atkinson raised his girls.” As we will establish below, Elizabeth Williams was Thomas’ wife from 1838 to her death soon after the 1860 census. What is more, I cannot find any record of any Martha Atkinson in the years after 1860 when his “girls” were still young (but older than 8-18.) The Atkinsons were in fact a trusted family in Thomas’ life, ever since his days in Georgia. In fact, Ann Caroline Atkinson Peel from Burke County, Georgia married Thomas’ first cousin and did indeed live next door to the Thomas Dew family in 1860 in Eucheeanna, Florida. She, a first cousin by marriage, may have been a helpful feminine presence in Reverend Dew’s household during the hard days of the late 1860s. Incidentally, Ann’s daughter Mary ultimately married Francis Marion Moates, James Marion and Ruth Ann Dew Moates’ uncle. The source of the name Martha may lie in my mother’s grandmother’s younger sister Martha A. Dew (note the similarity to the legendary Martha Atkinson) who died by age 21 some time during this period.  Thus, the family ties are so tangled in a love knot that you dear reader and family descendants can both be forgiven for becoming confused. The truth is simpler than family lore but complicated enough. The fables handed down to us, moreover, are no more dramatic than the straightforward reality we have uncovered.

T. S. Dew, Wandering Preacher (1808-1899)

“Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee.” [Genesis 12:1]

We have found documentary traces deposited by our Thomas Spenser’s presence, dropped like crumbs along the way, that indicate his residence successively in Granville and Edgecombe Counties of North Carolina (particularly in Tarboro and Beaver Dam, N.C.), then in Burke County, Georgia near Millen, followed by a decades-long sojourn in Ozark, Dale County, Alabama, and then another ten years in Eucheeanna (now an unincorporated community near Defuniak Springs), Walton County, Florida, before moving for about thirteen years to Orange Hill, Washington County, Florida then settling at last in the area near Dothan, Alabama. (See below the map of his peregrinations over his long life.) Much confusing misinformation attaches to his life journey because of many contemporary but unrelated Thomas Dews. He has been confused with a few of them, even most notably the famous (or infamous) antebellum President of William and Mary College Rev Thomas Roderick Dew. Furthermore, our Thomas Dew was never married to a Rachel. The misattribution perhaps sprouts from the confusion with the name of his son-in-law’s, i.e. James Marion Moates’, mother, Rachel Moates Miley Gleason.

Our investigation has been plagued again and again by elliptical information and outright misinformation. For example, I obtained—after much waiting on the post office to deliver the documents from the various Departments of Vital Statistics—highly anticipated Death Certificates of three of Thomas’ daughters (who died in the early twentieth century) each promising to reveal their mother’s maiden name and birthplace. Unfortunately the informants (often a child of the deceased) did not know their grandmother’s name or birth place and sometimes they guessed wrong or simply wrote “UnK” or “Don’t Know.” We can pardon these lapses because of the decades since the passing of their grandparents and the lack of conversation about the “ole folks at home.” Thus, we have had to cast a critical eye on all of the data we uncover to ascertain the trustworthiness of the information.

What we most reliably know of Thomas Spenser Dew comes from a precious document preserved by the children of Noah W. Moates, his grandson, my grandfather. The artifact is an undated testament of three pages written in Thomas’ own hand and probably composed soon after the events recorded before memories had faded. Below is an image of the pages, the original penned in iron gall ink.

Facts from His Own Hand

“Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.” [James 1:27]

From his own hand we learn that Thomas S. Dew was born 25 November 1808 to Zachariah Dew and his wife Sarah. From other sources we learn that later, in 1836, Zachariah Dew of Granville County North Carolina became betrothed to Sally Ann Jewell according to a marriage bond. Thus, although Sally is often a nickname for Sarah, this was obviously Zachariah’s second marriage. Years later, Thomas exhibited an affinity for the family Peel. This suggested to me that perhaps his mother and Zach’s first wife was named Sarah Peel. This was a novel, perhaps daring conjecture. But after I made the hypothetical connection to the Peel family in my family tree, Ancestry.com indicated that I do indeed share many DNA matches with multiple descendants of the Peel family (25 in various sibling branches). Many showed up, in particular, among the progeny of Mills Peel who removed from Edgecombe County, North Carolina between 1830 and 1840 to appear in the 1840 census of Burke County, Georgia. The name Sarah Peel, however, like a genealogical phantom, does not appear in any documents that I found, but this situation is not surprising given the near chattel state of women in the 19^th century. Female identity was linked to their nearest male relations, be it father, husband, or even son. Thus, Thomas’ mother Sarah was (probably) the sister of Mills Peel of Granville, North Carolina and (after the mid-1830s) Burke County, Georgia.

In addition, we find our Thomas Dew (or Due as it is often misspelled) in other documents. In 1829 from a marriage bond we learn that Thomas became betrothed to Penelope “Penny” Bailey Haswell.  The bride’s elder brother William Bailey served as Thomas’ bondman.

While marriage does not inevitably follow every bond issued, apparently the marriage of Thomas (age 21) and Penny (age 30) was consummated. Thomas and the widow Haswell (she had married Redding Haswell at the end of 1824, who—sadly—died within four years) appear unnamed together with her two children by Redding in the 1830 US Census for Granville, North Carolina.

Further investigation revealed that Penny also died within the next three years, however. We deduce this fact from the observation that Thomas sought to remarry in May of 1832 after Penny left the grieving husband with two small children to care for. We find that later in 1841 he and Penny’s nephew by marriage Jeremiah Estes sued the estate of Penny’s (deceased) father John Bailey, administered by Penny’s elder brother William Bailey, on behalf of their respective minor children with their widows, the daughters of Grandfather John Bailey. I could not find what resulted from the suit but did discover that ultimately Helen was fostered by Penny’s sister Glaphrey Bailey and her husband William “Gentleman Buck” Bailey (no blood relation to Penny’s family) until Helen married Herbert H. Hight. Unfortunately she perished before 1860, a childless bride, perhaps a victim of the complications of childbirth as was so common in those days. Her sibling William Dew, being a man, fared better; he was fostered by another Bailey cousin (reportedly Joseph Bailey and Elizabeth Strickland Bailey). He appears to have lived a long and prosperous life, siring many children under the moniker William Dew Bailey or W.D. Bailey.  We may conclude that Thomas was kind to his step-children, finding homes where they could flourish with their blood relatives after events frustrated his attempt at quickly securing a step mother. In the interim from Penny’s death and to his ultimate marriage to Elizabeth he remained a celibate widower as far as I was able to determine.

As we mentioned above, Thomas in 1832 attempted to arrange to provide a step mother for Penny’s children by proposing to Elizabeth Williams. Apparently, she accepted, even at the tender age of sixteen.

Disappointingly, the marriage of Thomas and Elizabeth Williams was not to be, at least not immediately. We are tempted to imagine the anguish of the star-crossed lovers. Since Elizabeth was a minor in 1832 she could not legally marry without parental consent. We can only surmise the reason for the delay but can confirm that they waited more than five long years before Thomas and Elizabeth finally wed on 28 February 1838 according to his testimony. The location of the nuptials is unknown at the moment. I suspect that it was in or near their new home in Burke County, Georgia. It may not have included either of their families. This is a topic of continuing research as is the identity of Elizabeth’s Family. I plan a future essay fully exploring this mystery but will whet the reader’s appetite with a few preliminary findings.

Which Elizabeth?

“Whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God.” [Ruth 1:16]

That Mrs. Dew was born Elizabeth Williams is supported by her appearance in the 1850 and 1860 censuses where she identified herself as “Elizabeth,” born in about 1816, with an inferred birthday after 6 June and before 5 November 1816 (that is, August 1816 ± 3 months) based on her age on the dates of later census enumerations. She also reported that she hailed from Georgia. (See Figures below.)  Several family trees of amateur genealogists associate our Elizabeth Williams Dew with one Eliza Williams, daughter of Dudley Williams of Edgecombe County, North Carolina. However, Eliza is mentioned in Dudley’s will that is dated November 1814 and that was probated in 1815. Since I have several DNA cousins who are, in fact, descended from Dudley Williams and Catherine Tyre, I was initially persuaded that there was a familial association, but because of the consistency of Elizabeth’s claimed birth year (1816) she is probably not this Eliza, being born after Dudley Williams (Eliza’s father) had expired. What is more, Eliza Williams (born about 1811) daughter of Dudley appears to have married a man named Pearson and resided elsewhere.  Instead, I have since become convinced that the family relationship between Dudley and Elizabeth may be that of cousins (2^nd cousin twice removed, for example) rather than parent-child. That would explain the shared DNA with Dudley’s descendants; his progeny and I are cousins, but our common ancestors are further up the Williams family tree; namely, my DNA cousins and I share the ancestors Samuel Williams (1698) and Sarah Elizabeth Alton (1711), who were the parents of Solomon March Williams and the grandparents to Dudley by a different son.

Thus, after vigorous inquiry, I have concluded that it is more likely that our Elizabeth is the offspring of the union of Solomon B. Williams and Elizabeth Stanley, the children respectively of Henry Guston Williams of Warren County, North Carolina (and grandson of the Revolutionary War hero Solomon March Williams) and the Quaker family of Michael Stanley of Guilford County, North Carolina.  My confidence in this conjecture is strengthened by the identification of many DNA cousins who Ancestry.com has identified as descendants of the Stanley family as well as cousins from the Solomon March Williams’ clan. If this is indeed the case, then  Elizabeth Williams Dew may have been born in Davidson County, Tennessee (where I coincidentally currently reside) during Solomon B. Williams’ and Elizabeth Stanley’s sojourn there before their return to North Carolina in 1819.  It was during their residence (1819-1832) in central North Carolina—apparently—when the widower Thomas crossed paths with Miss Williams, perhaps at one of the palatial plantation houses of the Williams Family in Warren County.  Evidence for and investigation of my bold contentions deserve a dedicated exposition and evaluation that is beyond what is appropriate here. Sufficient it to say that in about 1830 or soon afterward the whole Solomon B. Williams family relocated to Alpharetta, Georgia near Atlanta. It is plausible that Elizabeth pined away there for her beloved but forbidden Thomas, while he apparently waited faithfully and persistently in North Carolina until 1835 when he departed the Edgecombe/Granville County area for Burke County, Georgia over 300 miles away.  Thus, Elizabeth nee-Williams Dew could rightfully claim to be “from Georgia.” Oh, how I wish their correspondence had survived! We must be satisfied, however, with the crumbs of history.

On the Little Buck Head (1835-1850)

“And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!” [Romans 10:15]

Thomas’ recollections (see photo and transcription) indicate that at the age of 27, presumably having placed his step children in the care of their blood relations and following the death of his mother Sarah (Peel) Dew, he quit North Carolina and immigrated the 300 miles to Burke County, Georgia. Perhaps he hoped to make a fresh start and put behind him the sadness at the loss of two significant women in his life (Penny his wife and Sarah his mother), and leaving as well the scene of his disappointment in a frustrated betrothal.  Out of all the possible destinations for a new beginning, this corner of Georgia seems at first to be a remarkably random place. I suspected that something special must have drawn him to the banks of the Little Buck Head Creek in what is today Jenkins County, Georgia, far from his birthplace. As we will see throughout his life story, the lure of family is an overwhelming attraction.  Thus, it seems that he was influenced to join his uncle Mills Peel in the county after Planter Peel had also relocated his family there from the Piedmont of North Carolina between 1830 and 1840.

I have confirmed that Thomas did indeed resettle in the coastal plains of Southeastern Georgia by verifying the presence of the various individuals he mentioned by name. Rev. Dew writes in his testimony, “Worked with Mrs. Torrence in 1836.” I have identified her as Mrs. Martha Torrence, widow of John Torrence of Burke County, Georgia a cotton planter.  She is the only Torrence (or Torrance) appearing in the relevant censuses.  Likewise, John A. Atkinson, whom Great Grandpa Dew identifies by name, twice in his notes, and, who probably played such an important role in Thomas’ life, also appears in the 1850 census, as well. Atkinson’s grave lies in the Little Buck Head Church cemetery near his daughter Sarah’s headstone. Incidentally, Sarah was instrumental in the formation of the congregation (Little Buck Head Church) in 1835 that later grew into Millen Baptist Church of present day Jenkins County.

When Thomas found work as a shop keeper (probably in the village of Millen) he and Elizabeth wed, since she was now over 21 and no longer legally required parental consent to marry. I suspect that her parents still not approve of the union and probably disowned her, but this only a guess without any evidence one way or the other. There is no mention of this Elizabeth in the Solomon B. and Elizabeth Stanley Williams family records, although there is a gap at 1816 in the almost annually incremented list of births of their children. By 1850, when for the first time household members are listed by name in the census, Elizabeth would have been long gone. Furthermore, when old man Sol died in 1871, Elizabeth Williams Dew was already deceased herself. So there would be no need to mention her or her unknown heirs. There is therefore no record of her. Similarly, Thomas may have been estranged from his father and the new family Zachariah started with second wife Sally Ann Jewell, since—when Zachariah Dew’s will was probated in 1879—his two surviving daughters claimed (erroneously) that all other heirs (including Thomas) were deceased. They apparently had not heard from their long lost elder brother in years.

Soon (in 1839) the couple would be lodged comfortably in the overseer’s house on the Burton Plantation where Thomas “overseed.” Then disaster struck! We feel a frisson of anguish at the words penned decades later by Thomas, “My house took fire on 21^th Jan 1840 and burnt all I had.” It is telling that the Thomas Dew family does not appear as a separate family in the 1840 census of the county. Perhaps the couple found shelter either in the household of Thomas’ uncle Mills Peel or that of his friend and neighbor John Atkinson for whom he worked the following year. In the period from 1840 to 1850 Thomas must have continued to work in Burke County to provide for his growing family with Elizabeth giving birth to their first born, Sarah Ann on 10 June 1842. About a year beforehand Thomas had taken leave of his responsibilities and made the two week journey back to North Carolina to attend to the legal matter of his disinherited step children. That occasion may have been the last time he ever saw his Tar-Heel-State family.

The decade of the 1840s is a time period in the Dew Family’s life about which I hope soon to learn more by examining the minutes of the Little Buck Head Church. These records reside in the Special Collections (Baptist and University Archives) of the Jack Tarver Library at Mercer University in Macon, Georgia. I plan to report on what I uncover in these records in a subsequent post. The church minutes for the period 1835-1855 for the precursor of Millen Baptist Church can be found on microfilm in the archives. The Dews must have been active members of this fledgling church born during the time of the second Great Awakening for on 9 May 1847 Thomas was ordained a minister of the gospel by the congregation.  The church house survives near Millen in what is now Jenkins County, Georgia. (See photograph from the end of the 19^th century below). The document (presently in the care of his descendant and my brother Dale W. Matteson) reads in part “[F]inding him orthodox in the faith we now as the presbytery called upon have laid our hands upon our beloved brother commending him to [G]od and to the word of his grace and unto every community or vicinity where ever his lot may be cast.”  Rev. Dew dutifully recorded his credentials in the court of probate in the Dale County, Alabama upon his arrival in that vicinity in 1850, as documented by a notation on the outside of the letter of ordination and probate records available on-line.

Pastor Dew of Alabama (1850-1860)

“Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest.” [Matthew 9:38]

Thus the trail of clues resumes in Ozark, Dale County, Alabama in 1850 where the Dew family seems to have joined Rev. Leroy R. Sims, who hailed from Georgia himself, in serving the small but vibrant Baptist Church in the Wiregrass region of southeastern Alabama.

The history of the Baptist Congregation at Ozark is recounted in a series of feature articles by W. L. Andrews appearing in th Little Buckhead Church (ca. 1890) location near Millen, Georgia site of Thomas S. Dew’s ordination 9 May 1847.e newspaper the Southern Star Ozark, Alabama May-June 1899 that served as source material for a small book History of Ozark Baptist Church by L. Don Miley, who coincidentally is a descendant of William G. Miley the father of James Marion (Miley) Moates, who would become Rev. Dew’s beloved son-in-law. A transcription and compilation was made of the newspaper articles by Eustus Howard Haynes of Ozark and is available on-line. From these documents we learn that “T.S. Due” became a member of the Union Baptist Church (later Ozark Baptist Church) and later pastor of the congregation in November of 1857, serving until he “removed to Florida” in March 1860. Today his name appears on a historical commemorative plaque outside the church house. According to the 1850 census Thomas and Elizabeth had added a third child, Martha Ann (“Ann“ of course) in 1849, she being born shortly after the family’s relocation to Dale County. They occupied a farm near the estate of the regionally prominent planter Moses Matthews, who was instrumental in providing materials and the manpower of his many slaves to build the church house. While Pastor Dew and family labored in the fields of the Lord, a fourth daughter, Mary Ann Dew, completed the growing circle of women who surrounded Thomas, who was the lone male in the house except for a nine-year-old enslaved “house boy”  whose name is lost to history.

The Florida Interlude (1860-1883)

“Man that is born of a woman is of few days, and full of trouble.” [Job 14:1]

In the spring of 1860 an exodus from Alabama commenced when the Dew household resettled in Eucheeanna, the bustling county seat of Walton County, Florida, 75 miles south, where they joined their friend and fellow pastor L.R. Sims. They arrived in time for the family to appear in the 1860 Census taken in June. They moved in down the road from the Noah Moates family that included my great grandfather, James Marion Moates, listed as “James Junior” in the ennumeration. Without doubt the arrival of the young women of the Dew family (ages 18, 13, 11, and 8) did not escape the young (age 16) James Marion’s attention. Seven years later, after Jim had served in the CSA infantry, been wounded at the Battle of Missionary Ridge, helped bury his uncle Jonathan, and been captured at Nashville, Tennessee, he and Ruth would be married on 7 Feb 1867, as is noted in the family Bible. Ruthie was the second of the Dew girls to wed. Sarah Ann had married Lieutenant Robert Douglas McSween before his enlistment in 1862. Sarah Ann and Robert had two chilldren, the second born while he was away in the war. It is amusing to speculate whether Reverend Dew performed the ceremonies for his daughters or deferred to Rev Sims. No record of the details of the ceremonies exist, however, to inform us.

Much sadness visited the Eucheeanna Valley during the war and soon afterward. In 1864 word came of Lt McSween’s death at the military hospital in Columbiana, Alabama. Thus, he probably never saw his second child. The war came to the town itself on 23 September 1864. The Union forces under the command of Brig. Gen. Alexander Asboth surprised a small detachment of Confederate Cavalry camped at the courthouse. During the raid the blue coats pillaged the farms in the area. Nine “political prisoners” were captured but were soon released according to contemporary newspaper accounts up north. It is quite possible that Rev Dew (age 56) may have been among those apprehended, while Noah Moates, James’ Grandfather, was not present, since he had died earlier in February of that year (1864) according to genealogical reports. A History of Florida (Floripedia, https://fcit.usf.edu/florida/docs/c/civatmar.htm) recounts the events from the confederate point of view in more bitter terms:

At Eucheeanna, Asboth had all the old men arrested. Only old men could be found, as others were in the army. He locked these prisoners up in the old jail. Here they kept without food a night and a day and part of a second day. To their other sufferings was added great anxiety for their families and homes. When the town had been robbed of all worth having, the prisoners were released, and the general and his men rode on to Marianna. All were mounted on horses taken in the neighborhood.

In addition, Gen. Asboth enforced the Emancipation Proclamation and all of the enslaved people of the village were released from bondage, including the unnamed manservant in the Dew household who was age 25 by this time. Dispatches claimed that in Asboth’s West Florida campaign over 400 “contrabands” were freed. It is possible that Dew’s man was recruited and enlisted in the 82nd or 86th Regiment of U.S. Colored Troops that participated in the raid. His identity is another mystery that remains elusive. Whatever the fate of the pastor’s man-servant, I find it a matter of great disappointment for me to learn that Thomas Spenser Dew, a man of God—but like so many of his age—promoted and participated in the enslavement of his fellow human, supposedly created in the image of the God whom he worshiped. I wish I had more knowledge of what transpired between Rev Dew and his servant. I will try not to pass judgement without understanding, for I do not know how I would have stood against injustice in the antebellum South had I been there. I am reminded of the words of Jesus “judge not that you be not judged.” Still I am sadden at the knowledge of my slave-holding ancestor’s complicity in what I consider a mockery of Christianity.

The Eucheeanna Valley, The Valley of Death

“Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me.” [Psalm 23:4]

Sometime between June 1860 and May1869, Elizabeth, Thomas’ beloved wife of nearly thirty years, died. We infer this fact from her absence in the 1870 census (as well as in the Mortality Schedule for the year preceding the census covering June 1869-June 1870) where in the former I found Thomas hidden in Washington County, Florida under the mis-transcribed name “Thomas Dur” along with his (apparently) unmarried daughter Mary Ann “Dur.”  Interestingly, the father-daughter household lived only a few houses away from Mary’s future husband Ransom T. Sowell. Moreover, two families Peel (possibly part of Thomas’ mother’s greater family) also resided nearby.  In addition, Caroline Slay, Thomas’ future wife also lived in the community with her widowed mother Mrs. Selimea Slay. (I found from the 1860 Mortality Schedule that William Slay, Selimea’s husband, had died in Oct 1859 of Cancer.) It seems Thomas Dew the new pastor of the Union Baptist Church of Orange Hill married Caroline some (short) time before mid-November 1871 (computed from the probably date of Lizzie’s conception). What is more, it appears that Caroline may have died on 23 January 1872 giving birth to her first and only child, the woman who stands in the rear in the photo at the top of this essay. Thomas’ bereavement is confirmed by the 1880 Census where he appears alone with Lizzie in a house adjacent to the home of her Uncle James Marion and Ruth Ann Moates. For the rest of his life Thomas lived near the James Marion Moates family. Meanwhile, Thomas’ other daughter Sarah Ann Dew McSween lived with the elder sister of her battle-slain husband. Moreover, Martha Ann Dew (born in 1849) cannot be found in any subsequent records. We presume that she also expired sometime shortly after the 1860 census, probably in 1868 while her sister Ruth Ann was carrying her niece Martha Ann Moates. But adding anguish to sorrow, Thomas lost his grandchild little Martha Ann Moates, the child of Jim and Ruth who was named in memory of her aunt. The child Martha A was born in January of 1869 but died only 14 months later, shortly before the 1860 census, according to an annotation in the Dew-Moates family Bible. Many in the family are thus unaware that my great grandparents had three, not two, daughters, the first child dying in infancy.

During the period from 1870 to early in 1878, Rev. Dew served the congregation of Union Baptist. Also known as Orange Hill Baptist Church, sharing intermittently pastoral duties with T. E. Langley.  At age 70, Thomas retired at last from the pastorate, apparently to devote himself to farming and grandfathering his offspring. Ever, it seems, cursed with itchy feet, Thomas was to move once again. In about 1883, perhaps influenced by his deceased wife’s Slay family connections in Dale and Henry County Alabama, the Moates-Dew clan migrated one last time to the area north of Dothan in Dale, that later became Houston County Alabama, and on 26 Jan 1884 Thomas Dew at the incredibly mature age of 76 (two years older than I) filed a homestead application that was finally granted five years later. During that time he—probably with the help of family—built a house and worked the farm. The house in the photo at the head of this essay may have been the very house that satisfied the requirements of the Homestead Act four years earlier. We can deduce the approximate time of the relocation from the date of the birth (30 May 1883) and location (Alabama) of Grover C. Moates as listed in the 1890 census for Dale County, Alabama.

It seems that it was on this site a photographer snapped the picture. By then the James M. Moates family had also homesteaded a place nearby and established my mother’s “home place.” Rev. Thomas lived another five years after the photo, succumbing in the end to death in his 91^st year. As the Dew-Moates family Bible records in Ruth A. Moates’ hand “Our Father T. S. Dew departed this life Alabama 2 April 1899.”  She might have added quoting I Chronicles 29:28 “He [King David] died in a good old age, full of days, riches, and honour.” Her father remained active in the church that Ruth and son-in-law Jim helped establish at Midway. He even preached there the year before his demise, according to the church minutes that are in my possession. Thomas S. Dew was buried in the Beulah Cemetery in Dothan.

Summing Up a Life (1808-1899)

“A man’s heart deviseth his way: but the LORD directeth his steps.” [Proverbs 16:9]

During this investigation grandfather Thomas has transformed in my imagination from a mysterious ghost into an actual person. His life spanned the majority of the 19^th century. I discern from the evidence that he was a man of his time and place, subject to all the influences of the age, both noble and vile. He loved the Lord and his family, but embraced a wicked institution. He spent his childhood in the Piedmont region of North Carolina while the war of 1812 and the Indian wars raged. He was apparently initially unschooled in his early manhood since he could not sign his name. Despite his humble birth and mean circumstances he prospered, ultimately acquiring literacy enough to cipher and read. I detect his perseverance in the face of the loss of three wives, Penny Bailey, Elizabeth Williams, and Caroline Slay. He overcame (with new wife Elizabeth’s help) a devastating fire in January 1840 in which he lost everything he owned.  I see his devotion to his physical family of two step children, five daughters and 24 biological grandchildren, tenderly arranging homes for his orphaned step-children as best he could, providing a livelihood for his three wives, and four girls as a bi-vocational pastor, staying true to his extended family. He loved both his blood-kin and his faith family, moving again and again to be close to them and to serve them. Moreover, he seems to have served humbly as a “Barnabas” to younger “Pauls,” like his fellow pastors Leroy R. Sims and Bro. Lisenby. In the photograph there is a look of quiet resolution on his face: a mouth that neither frowns nor grins. He seems at peace. His gaze is forthright, even if he looks at us through wireless spectacles. His gnarled hands hold the Word of God with a reverent familiarity. It also appears that he has chosen to pose with the Bible open to the beginning of the New Testament with its promise of eternal life in Jesus and the hope of ultimate reunion with departed loved ones as appropriate to the occasion of the family portrait: Easter tide.

I imagine that as he looked back upon his life, Rev Thomas took comfort in the words of the Psalmist: “As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth. Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them.” [Psalm 127:4,5]

I listened to Andy Patinkin in his appearance on an episode of Prof. Henry Louis Gates Jr’s PBS series “Finding Your Roots” share a quote from the musical Carousel. He affirmed that “As long as there’s one person on earth who remembers you, it isn’t over.” Such is the sentiment cherished both by the Judaic and ancient Egyptian faith traditions, among others. And if true, then I hope that this inquiry will help keep alive in our hearts—both mine and yours—a now-more-accurately-apprehended memory of Thomas Spenser Dew.  Perhaps, then, the story of Thomas S. Dew will not be over, indeed.

Acknowledgment

I would be remiss if I did not acknowledge the help and hard work of Katie Beauchamp our Moates family historian and faithful cousin. My brother Dale Matteson is also due my appreciation for sharing family artifacts and memories that are in his care. Yet, in a family all are custodians of the history of our people and their memory. If any have artifacts or stories to share I would appreciate seeing a photo of the item or hearing about them. I have shared all I have with the world via Ancestry.com.

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