Family:Unknown Todd and Unknown (1)

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The Todds of Pulaski County KY and Washington Co VA Todd Family 55 (TF55) Richard McMurtry

Background

It all began in the early 1790s. Our nation was new. George Washington was the first President under the new Constitution. The frontier was still wild in those days. The end to the wars against the Indians in the old northwest (NW Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana) was still several years away. The Indians of Tennessee still dominated most of that state and were still retaliating for depredations in the settlements around Nashville.

Sometime in the early 1790s, a Todd family that included James Todd, John Todd and Patrick Todd migrated from northern Ireland to Washington County in southwest Virginia.[1]

Almost twenty years later, in 1811, Elizabeth Todd (1749-1847) settled on Buck Creek in northern Pulaski County, Kentucky.[2] With her were 4 boys aged 10 to 19, William Todd, Anderson Todd, Thomas Todd and Henry Todd.

Thirty years later, in 1843, Robert Todd b 1790 came from Indiana (where he had been living since before the 1820s) and settled in Pulaski County after living briefly in Whitley Co, KY.[3]

Recent research shows that all these Todds are related and this essay tells what we have learned about the origins of these Todds.

To complicate matters, there was a Joseph Todd 1780-1827 (unrelated to the other Pulaski Co Todds) who came to Pulaski County and died there in 1827.[4] He had come with his brother James G. Todd to Russell County Virginia about 1801, then left there in 1810 to come to Kentucky. Though he was no relation to the Pulaski County Todds, he may have known them because his wife Charity Henninger probably grew up as a neighbor to the Washington County Todds.

Todds in Washington County

The three adult Todds that came into Washington County in the 1790s were: James Todd who bought land in 1792/3, John Todd who appears on the tax lists by 1794, and a Patrick Todd who died in 1798.

Neither James nor Patrick got to enjoy for long the opportunities and the promise that living on the frontier offered them. Patrick died in 1798, apparently single, leaving only an inventory of his personal property which included a whiskey still! James Todd was mentioned at the filing of the estate inventory, suggesting a family connection.[5]

James bought several hundred acres of land, though he sold most of it by 1801. He died in 1801, leaving a widow Jane and three minor children, Thomas born about 1796, Robert born about 1798 and Mary born about 1801.

John Todd seems to have had the opportunity to live a long life and see his children grow up. He seems to have had several children, many of whom were born in the 1780s before coming to Washington County. In 1810, he left the county, with his two remaining sons John Todd b abt 1781 and a younger son born 1794-1800 (who may have been the Robert Todd who later settled in Pulaski County) and three daughters. John Todd Jr settled in Indiana by 1811 and we assume that the rest of the family of John Todd Sr did also.[6]

At least one branch of the Todds of Pulaski County had a tradition in the family that they had come from Washington County Virginia, children of a William Todd, but we have not been able to find any evidence for such a William Todd nor likely parents of any name in Washington Co.

The evidence for a link of the Pulaski County Todds to a William Todd in Washington County is this: William H Todd b 1826, (son of Anderson Todd b 1797 Virginia) on his 1877 marriage record in Pulaski County said his father was born in Washington County, Virginia. Also, a family tree, probably printed after 1932 and inserted into an 1890 bible commentary owned by Anderson Todd’s great-grandson Armstrong Todd says that Anderson was born in Lodi which lies in Washington County, Virginia. That family tree stated that William and Elizabeth Todd were Anderson’s parents. This tradition of a father named William also appeared in an 1876 death record for Henry Todd in Pulaski County which stated that William and Elizabeth Todd were the parents.[7]

Because of this link of the Pulaski County Todds to Washington County, we would expect to find a William Todd in the Washington Co tax lists between 1794 and 1801; but we find no William Todd in the tax lists of Washington County Virginia nor those of neighboring, Russell, Wythe or Greenbrier County either. The only William Todd we find in Southwest Virginia at that time is is a William Todd in Montgomery County VA in 1787, 1788, and 1789 and then he disappears.[8] If the disappearance reflects his death, then he could not be the father of the Todd boys born in Virginia in the 1790s. There is a Mary Todd who died intestate in Montgomery Co in 1792, but the court records for her don’t mention any other Todds and don’t confirm her as widow of the William of the tax lists of a few years earlier. It is hard to imagine how there could such a strong tradition of a Washington County origin in there was no substance to it; but we are left without locating the William Todd asserted to be the father of the Pulaski Co Todds.

This author’s current theory (which is just a guess) is that William H Todd b 1826 the son of Anderson Todd was influenced in his understanding of the family origins by a Todd who was born in Washington County, namely, Robert Todd b 1790/1796 in Washington County who settled in Pulaski County in 1843. William was involved with the estate of his uncle Henry Todd and so could have been the source of the 1867 death record for Henry indicating parentage as William and Elizabeth. The traditions about Anderson Todd reported by his son William H Todd seem suspiciously to resemble the origins of Robert Todd. This Robert Todd was born in Washington County, Robert’s mother died in Washington County prior to 1810 just like the family bible asserts that Anderson Todd’s mother died in 1809 in Washington County. The family bible even lists Robert as a brother, but DNA shows that he was not a brother, though he is likely close kin, possibly even a first cousin.[9]

Robert is assumed to be the brother of John Todd Jr and both are assumed to be the sons of John Todd Sr that appear in John Todd’s 1810 census record in Washington Co. DNA from a descendant of Robert Todd b 1790/1796 is an exact match with the DNA from a descendant of John Todd Jr who settled in Orange Co IN by 1820 and in Greene Co IN by 1822, suggesting close kinship (possibly brothers). The age (born 1780-1790) and arrival (prior to 1820) of this John Todd in Indiana fits with the estimated age (b 1782) and departure era (1810) of John Todd Jr of Washington Co, VA.

So though we believe we can link Robert Todd b 1790/1796 to Washington County, we can not find corroborating evidence in the Virginia records for a William Todd in Washington County who could be the father of the Pulaski County Todds. We suspect that William Todd was indeed the father of the Pulaski County Todds but that he was a younger brother to John Todd Sr of Washington Co, not to John Todd Jr. We further theorize that this William either lived in Indiana or North Carolina and that, after William’s death, his family came to Pulaski Co from one of those places. Rootsweb.com