Barlow Ancestry of Charles Alexander Worley So far as is now known, Charles Alexander Worley was directly descended from Branson Barlow, through his son, John Barlow; through his daughter, Mary Ann Elizabeth Barlow Worley. The following is Charles Alexander Worley’s Barlow ancestry, as currently pieced together. William Barlow The earliest Barlow that can be traced to Robeson County, North Carolina was William Barlow, ca. 1735 – 1790. His name appears in 1764 on a land grant of 100 acres in Bladen County, part of which later became Robeson County. It is currently believed that other Barlows mentioned in land grants and census reports may be his children: Ralph, Branson, William, Marsh, and Mason. An Elizabeth Barlow is mentioned in the 1800 census, but we have no way of knowing if she was his daughter, his widow, or the widow of a son. (http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Trail/8793/page2.html) Robeson County is a flat swampy area of North Carolina near the border of South Carolina. It was settled in the early 1700s by immigrants from other states and by a large group of Highland Scots. William Barlow’s land was on Little Marsh Swamp, and direct descendants of his son, Ralph Barlow, still live there in the Little Marsh and Rockfish Creek area . Linda Barlow, a great, great, great granddaughter of Ralph Barlow has lovingly restored an old log house that she believes was built by Ralph in the early 1800s. The other boys left Robeson County to seek new land and a better life in Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi. (http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Trail/8793/page2.html) Branson Barlow Branson Barlow was probably born in North Carolina. The parents and siblings of Branson Barlow are, as yet, unproven. However, it is currently believed that Branson is the son of William Barlow, of Robeson County, NC., and that his siblings were Ralph, William, Elizabeth, John, Marsh, and Mason Barlow. Information concerning this group can be found at: http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Trail/8793/page21.html We do know that, in 1800, Branson Barlow was living in Robeson County, NC, where he bought fifty acres adjoining his own property on the south side of Myers Marsh, south of Big Rockfish Creek (Robeson County January Term 1800 Book 1 page 161). A copy of this sale can be found on the Barlow Clearinghouse website. We also find Branson Barlow enumerated in the 1800 Robeson Co NC census, on page 368. The numbers associated with his name are: 30010-10101-00. These represent Branson and his wife, both between 26 and 45, one female, between 16 and 26, and four small children, 3 boys and a girl, all under the age of 10. By 1816, Branson had made his way to Monroe County, Alabama. The 1816 census shows Branson and his wife, both over 21, with nine children, 6 boys and 3 girls, all under the age of 21. Also found in the 1816 census in Monroe County, Alabama, is one John Barlow. This John and his wife are shown as being over 21, with seven children, 3 boys and 4 girls, all under the age of 21. Whether or not there is a relationship between this John Barlow and Branson Barlow is unknown. However, it is not likely that this man, with his wife and seven children, is the son of Branson, since we now know that Branson’s son, John, would have been only 18 in 1816; hardly of an age to be married and have seven children. In 1817, there was a Petition to Congress from the Alabama Territory, signed by Branson and Aron Barlow. The Aron Barlow family settled in Baldwin and Mobile Counties and, to date, research has not established whether there is a relationship between the two families or not. In 1820, there were 30 enumerated counties in Alabama. However, complete census records are available for only 8 of the 30. These counties include Baldwin, Conecuh, Dallas, Franklin, Limestone, St. Clair, Shelby, and Wilcox. The other 22 counties have only a census index available to researchers. In 1820, Branson Barlow appears as Brandon Barlow on the census index for Cherokee County, Alabama. From Branson's will, which was probated in October 1839, we find the names of his children, but no wife is mentioned, so it is assumed she is already deceased. Branson Barlow Last Will and Testament Children of Branson Barlow are: Lewis Barlow, b. between 1790 & 1796 NC John Barlow, b. c1798 NC William Barlow, b. c1804 James Barlow, b. c1806 Mary Barlow, b. c1808 Sarah Barlow, b. c1810 Barlow Descendency to Charles Alexander Worley Two of Branson Barlow’s children are of particular interest to the descendants of Charles Alexander Worley. These two are Lewis and John, the oldest sons of Branson Barlow. This narrative presents the most plausible parentage of Mary Ann Elizabeth Barlow Worley, mother of Charles Alexander Worley. Assuming that ages for Lewis Barlow were correct in both the 1830 and 1840 census records for Clarke County, Alabama, Lewis Barlow was born about 1790. Assuming the age given for John Barlow on the 1850 census in Morehouse Parish, Louisiana, was correct, John Barlow was born about 1798. Both Lewis and John were born in North Carolina. Census records for 1830 and 1840 show that Cado (Cader) Worley (b. c1770 NC), father of Zachariah Finley Worley (b. 18 Jan 1817), lived very near Lewis Barlow. 1830 Clarke County, Alabama John 30 – 40 age 32 (b. c1798 NC) Wife 20 – 30 age 30 (b. c1800 GA) 3 m under 5 one of these is William b. c1826 AL (age 4) 1 m 5 – 10 1 f 5 – 10 probably Mary A. Elizabeth (barely 5 at the time of the census)1838 In 1838, Zachariah Finley Worley was in Texas, working as a civil engineer for the U.S. government. Since the government had no money to pay their workers, they paid them in land. Zachariah Finley Worley was paid with 1,100 acres of Texas land, which his heirs were unable to claim because the courthouse housing the records burned. In a letter to his parents, Zachariah promises to leave Texas and return home to Alabama during the winter of 1838 or the spring of 1839. 1840 Clarke County, Alabama John 50 – 60 age 42 Wife 40 – 50 age 40 2 m under 5 one of these is James b. c1838 2 m 5 – 10 2 m 10 – 15 one of these is William b. c1826 AL (14) 2 m 15 – 20 1 f under 5 this is Sarah (age 1) 1 f 15 – 20 probably Mary A. Elizabeth (barely 15)Elizabeth (b. 1834) should have been listed in the 1840 census as between 5 and 10. (age 6). Looks as if Mary A. Elizabeth and William were born the same year, but were different ages at the time of the census. 1844 Mary Ann Elizabeth Barlow (age 18) married Zachariah Finley Worley (age 27) on January 13, 1844 in Clarke County, Alabama. The marriage was witnessed by Lewis Barlow. About 1844, the family of John and Sarah Barlow moved to Morehouse Parish, Louisiana. If her parents were already headed for Morehouse Parish, Louisiana, that would explain why Lewis Barlow, her father’s brother, stood surety for Mary Ann Elizabeth Barlow when she married Zachariah Finley Worley that same year. Sometime in the mid-1840s, Lewis Barlow and Martha Everett had a daughter and named her Mary Ann Elizabeth Barlow (after his brother’s daughter). It is believed that Lewis and Martha’s daughter died in 1849 or early 1850, as she was mentioned in her father’s will in April 1849, but was not with her mother and brothers in the Clarke County, Alabama census in 1850. 1845 Zachariah Finley Worley and Mary Ann Elizabeth Barlow had their first child, Donald Roger Worley, in Alabama in 1845. 1845 - 1849 Zachariah, Mary A. Elizabeth, and their baby, Roger, followed John and Sarah Barlow to Morehouse Parish sometime between 1845 and April of 1849. Their twins were born in Louisiana in April of 1849. This lends support to the notion that Mary A. Elizabeth Barlow was the daughter of John and Sarah, and followed her parents from Clarke County, Alabama, to Morehouse Parish, Louisiana. As of yet, there is no proof of this, but it is a “best fit” with all the census information that traces the members of this family throughout their lives. 1850 As shown in the following 1850 Morehouse Parish census, by 1850, John and Sarah Barlow were settled in Ward 4, Morehouse Parish, Louisiana. Their son, William, was married to the girl next door, Jane Roy/Ray, and the young couple was living with her mother, Elizabeth Roy/Ray. Zachariah Finley Worley and Mary A. Elizabeth Barlow were living nearby. They had added a set of twin boys to their family, John and Thomas, and Zachariah’s younger brother, Alexander Travis, was living with them. Zachariah had become a chair maker. 1850 Morehouse Parish, Louisiana 4th Ward, Morehouse Parish Louisiana Enumerated 17 September 1850 by Gus G. Starkey Page 406 #347/368-369 Elizabeth Roy / Ray, age 55, born in Kentucky (?) John Roy / Ray, age 31, born in Louisiana William Roy / Ray, age 23, born in Louisiana William Barlow, age 24, born in Alabama (b. c1826) Jane Barlow, age 16, born in Louisiana next door #348/370 John Barlow, age 52, born in North Carolina (b. c1798) Sarah Barlow, age 50, born in Georgia (b. c1800) Elizabeth Barlow, age 16, born in Alabama (b. c1834) James Barlow, age 12, born in Alabama (b. c1838) Sarah Barlow, age 9, born in Alabama (b. c1841) Eliza Barlow, age 6, born in Alabama (b. c1844) one black female slave, age 16 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Wards, Morehouse Parish Louisiana Enumerated 28 and 29 August 1850 by Gus G. Starkey Page 397b #216-229 Zach Worley, age 30, chair maker, born in Alabama Mary A. Worley, age 24, born in Alabama (b. 1826) Donald Roger Worley, age 5 born in Alabama John Livingston Worley, age 1 year 4 months, born in Louisiana April 1849 Thomas Jones Worley, age 1 year 4 months, born in Louisiana April 1849 Alexander Travis Worley, age 17, born in AlabamaTravis was Zach’s brother. It might also be noted that Worleys have an astonishing number of sets of twins. William Barlow and Mary A. Elizabeth Barlow Worley were both 24 years old in 1950. Earlier census records fit with their having been born in the same year, but often different ages at the time the census was taken. The 1850s brought a number of deaths to the Barlow/Worley families and began to alter their living arrangements. The 1860 census in Morehouse Parish, Louisiana, shows the following: 1860 Bastrop, Morehouse Parish, Louisiana Enumerate 06 August, by DB Farnsdale? Page 395 #508/516 Wm J. Barlow, age 34, born in Alabama Jane Barlow, age 26, born in Louisiana Sarah Barlow, age 9, born in Louisiana Virginia Barlow, age 7, born in Louisiana E.J., Barlow, female, age 2, born in Louisiana Sarah Barlow, age 60, born in Georgia James Barlow, age 22, born in Alabama Bastrop, 4th Ward, Morehouse Parish, Louisiana Enumerated 20 June 1860 by (blank) #76/76 M.A. Worley, (female), age 35, born in Alabama Charles Worley, age 9, born in Louisiana Joseph S. Worley, age 11, born in Louisiana E.S. Worley, (female), age 10, born in Louisiana (living a few doors away is A.C. Worley)By 1860, John Barlow was dead. Zachariah Finley Worley died in 1857. John’s wife, Sarah, now 60 years old, took their son, James, and moved in with William and Jane. Mary Ann Elizabeth Barlow Worley, her husband and 8 of her 11 children all dead, was living alone with her three remaining children. Soon after the 1860 census, she and two of her children also died, leaving Charles Alexander Worley, age 8 (8 according to him – 9 according to the census), as the sole survivor of Zachariah Finley Worley and Mary A. Elizabeth Barlow. Charles was taken in and raised by his father’s brother, Travis Worley, on the old Worley and Wash Brown plantation. During the 1860s, war came to the South. The following record has been found of William Barlow: Barlow, W. J. Private Co D 2nd Battalion Louisiana Heavy Artillery, Rolls of Prisoners of War, Paroled Monroe, Louisiana, June 9th, 1865, Resident of Morehouse Parish, Louisiana. As shown in the 1870 census in Morehouse Parish, Louisiana, much had changed for the Barlow family, as well as for Charles Alexander Worley, now 20 years old. 1870 Bastrop, Ward 2, Morehouse Parish Louisiana Enumerated 02 June 1870 by W.F. Blanchard Pg 199/78 #623/616 William Barlow, age 50, born in Kentucky (should be age 45 and Alabama) Jane Barlow, age 47, born in Alabama (should be 36 – 8 yrs age difference, not 3) Charles Worley, age 20, born in Louisiana Pg201/81 #641/635 Sarah Barlow, age 20, born in Louisiana Jane Barlow, age 18, born in Louisiana Eliza Barlow, age 10, born in Louisiana William Barlow, age 8, born in LouisianaTheory: Let us, for a moment, consider the most likely reason for William Barlow, his wife Jane, and Charles Alexander Worley to be living together, while the children of William and Sarah lived together in a house nearby. Let us assume that Mary Ann Elizabeth Barlow and William Barlow were, in fact, the children of John and Sarah Barlow. William and Elizabeth would have been very close, considering that they were probably less than a year apart in age. Suppose William had health problems after the war and Jane needed male help to care for him? Would she not have turned to the oldest male in her family? That would have been 20 year old Charles Alexander Worley, the only surviving child of her husband’s sister. William and Jane’s oldest daughters, Sarah and Jane, were grown and capable of taking care of the younger children. So, while the Barlow children lived in a house nearby, Charles moved in with his uncle and aunt to assist in William’s care. This entire scenario, of course, is pure speculation. Whatever the reason, these living arrangements did not last long, as Charles Alexander Worley married Laura Donovan by 1873 and my g-grandmother, Grandmaw Moore (Rena Narcissis Worley), was born February 3, 1874. Charles Alexander Worley, sole survivor of Zachariah Finley Worley and Mary Ann Elizabeth Barlow, was born September 26, 1851 and died August 14, 1920. He married three times and fathered a total of 18 children. The Choctaw Connection Worley family lore has continuously maintained that Mary Ann Elizabeth Barlow Worley was the Choctaw daughter of a Chief White Feather. In 1912, the family was approached by Alexander P. Powell. Since the families this man contacted had usually already applied for Native American status and were of known Melungeon origin, it is now suspected that, instead of Mary Ann Elizabeth Barlow’s being the full-blood Choctaw, it may have been her mother, Sarah, who was the daughter of Chief White Feather. Investigation of this family legend continues. Alexander P. Powell In 1912/1913, the children and grandchildren of many Native Americans fell prey to a multi-state scam targeting Melungeon families. The scheme's operators claimed the descendants of these individuals were "Indian" and were therefore owed government money. The conman, Alexander P. Powell of Laurel, Mississippi, carried a big book, in which he supposedly had the Indian records of Native American descendants. He made contracts with many of Melungeon families in East Texas and Louisiana, offering to represent them in Washington D.C. with the promise of getting their names on the Indian Rolls. However, by 1915, the scam had been uncovered. Powell was tried and convicted in Shreveport, Louisiana, and sentenced to prison for wire fraud and impersonating a government official. He died before serving any time in jail. This investigation does not negate the Worley family lore that our Mary Ann Elizabeth Barlow was the Choctaw daughter of Chief White Feather – and was “given” the name of the people on whose farm she was living. She could have been living on the Lewis Barlow farm for decades and never listed in the census because she was an Indian. However, it is far more likely that our Mary Ann Elizabeth Barlow was, indeed, the daughter of John and Sarah Barlow. In fact, it could very well be that it was Sarah Barlow, not her daughter, who was the Choctaw daughter of Chief White Feather. -End- (Last Revised: January 2001)Collector’s Note: Although I have written the story of the Barlow ancestry of Charles Alexander Worley, it must be noted that I did none of the actual research myself. All of the information in this document was pieced together from information gathered by the following individuals: · Thomas Lee “Buddy” Dykes, Jr. (my father), who spent 40 years collecting information concerning the descendants of Charles Alexander Worley. · Murphy Zack Worley, son of Charles Alexander Worley and India Shirley Moore, who wrote the story of his life, and ancestors, as best he could remember it. · Susan Barlow Holmes, owner of Barlow Clearinghouse, who gave me the latest pieces of the puzzle. · Mary Barlow, whose Barlow Family Biographies gave me yet another piece of the our Barlow puzzle. Webmaster: Carol Scott, 3-g-granddaughter of Mary Ann Elizabeth Barlow and Zachariah Finley Worley
