Person:Mary Dugger (34)

Special thanks to Tom Dewlen and Anita McEnulty for data shared on this family.

Mary Ann Sabra Dugger was born ca 1818/19 in Carter Co, TN. She is a proven daughter of William Dugger (1750-1839) and his 3rd wife Nancy Ann Brown.

From what we have been able to gather, it seems Mary Ann Sabra Dugger was never married, but had several children, some of them perhaps by James Morgan but that is unproven.

She was named in her father William Dugger's Will of 1839 as "my daughter Sabra Morgan," this has lead many to believe she was married to a Mr. Morgan. James Morgan was a witness the Will of William Dugger, so he seemed a likely candidate for her husband. However, the 1850 census shows her as "Maryann S. Dugger" living with her mother and sisters, and her children. All later records give her name as "Dugger", and her children all had the "Dugger" surname.

It is possible that James Morgan (or some other Morgan) and Sabra were involved, but never married. He was probably (I'm speculating here) the father of her first child (Sarah Ann born ca 1836), and her dad was trying to make them get married by listing her as a "Morgan" in his Will, or else he considered them married, whether they really were or not.

In any event, Mary Ann Sabra Dugger had a child born ca 1836 (possibly by Mr. Morgan), and another in 1842, another in 1844, another ca 1846, another in 1854, another ca 1859. I have not checked Carter County, TN Court records to see if there were any charges of bastardy brought against her.

Mary Ann Sabra Dugger seems to be with her brother Benjamin T. Dugger for the 1840 census. He was newly married that year, and apparently had his mother and sisters with him.

She was with her mother and siblings on the 1850 census in Carter Co, TN.

Sabra's brother William C. Dugger, applied for a Pension on behalf of himself and his siblings, as heirs of Revolutionary War soldier William Dugger, their father. Filed 9 Jun 1853 (# R 3109), he named the surviving heirs of William, and included Sabra as "Mary S., age 35", which in 1853, puts her birth at circa 1817/1818, which is in close agreement with other sources.

Mary Ann Sabra Dugger was still in Carter Co, TN for the 1860 census: Mary Duggar age 41, and children were: Nancy, 18; John, 14; Lucinda, 6; and Alonzo, 1.

The dawn of the Civil War brought bad times to nearly every part of the south. Eastern Tennessee was a particularly bad area, as there was a strong pro-union sympathy there, as well as a strong pro-south sympathy, and this caused a serious clash among former friends and relatives. Several of the Dugger's left for Indiana during this timeframe. Mary Ann Sabra Dugger apparently accompanied some of her brothers to Vermillion Co, Indiana during the 1860's. She was listed there on the 1870 and 1880 census.