Amy Johnson Crow at No Story Too Small has a weekly challenge to write the stories of your ancestors. This is week #9 and the suggested theme is CLOSE TO HOME.Rather than focusing on a single individual this week, I am writing about three families with the following surnames that migrated and kept their homes close to each other.
SARGENT - SKEEN - WAGGONER
Thomas Sargent is my 5th gr-grandfather and was born about 1760 in Orange county, North Carolina (later becoming Caswell county). He was the youngest of seven children. His brother Stephen was born about 1745, also in North Carolina. Living nearby was the family of Jonathan Skeen who was born in Pennsylvania about 1730. Jonathan had six children and his son Peter married Stephen Sargent's daughter Sarah in 1779 in Caswell county. In 1792 Jonathan Skeen, Jr. married another one of Stephen Sargent's daughters, Elizabeth, also in Caswell county.
By 1796, brothers Stephen, Thomas and William Sargent have migrated to Russell county, Virginia, along with many of their children, including the two Skeen brothers. In Virginia they were living near the Waggoner families who had been in Virginia since the mid 1700's. Unfortunately the 1800 census for Virginia was destroyed during the War of 1812. The Sargent's didn't stay in Virginia very long and several years later they continued moving west, this time to Kentucky, the Waggoner's also made their homes close by.
In Pulaski county Kentucky in 1806, Thomas Sargent's son Jacob, married Elizabeth Waggoner, daughter of Henry Waggoner. Two years earlier Thomas' daughter Drada had married Jacob Waggoner, another son of Henry Waggoner. In the 1810 census the names were listed in alphabetical order on three different pages but you can see all the Waggoner's and Sargent's in Pulaski County.
Once again the Sargent's and Waggoner's were on the move. By the 1820 census they were in Lawrence county Indiana. Henry Waggoner died there in 1823 at the age of 59. While in Lawrence county the next generation of Waggoner and Sargent marriages occurred. Henry Waggoner's granddaughter Savina, daughter of Jacob (brother of Henry) , married Elisha Sargent, my 3rd gr-grandfather, son of Joseph and grandson of Thomas.
One more move was made by the Waggoner's and Sargent's. This time the move was just one county over - Martin county Indiana. However, there was another interesting connection. It was here that Savina (Waggoner) Sargent died and her husband Elisha's second marriage was to Sarah Boyd Skeen. This particular Skeen family had migrated form Whitley county Kentucky, just one county over from Pulasky, and is thought they are cousins of the Skeen family the Sargent's had lived near in North Carolina.
One more twist; Elisha's son Jacob, my 2nd gr-grandfather, married his step-mother's sister, Nancy Jane Skeen in 1852.
There may have been other marriages between these three families, but I have not yet followed through on all the siblings.
