Clearman Family Tree: Lucretia (Speaks) Clearman

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Project ID#: 144

Birth Information

Flowers of the Field includes a photocopy of a Bible entry that says she was the daughter of Richmond & Susan Speaks. Her parents married 23 Apr 1812 in Madison County, AL (then part of the Mississippi Territory); her mother's name was given as Susannah Jones, which presumably was her maiden name, though that is not known for sure.

The same Bible entry gives Lucretia's birth date as 19 March 1816, which matches the date given on her tombstone in Newton County. The 1860 MS census lists her birth place as AL. Many of the children list their mother's birthplace as AL (N.R., Emily, & Hannah Susan in 1880); her son John consistently lists it as SC, which is probably a mix-up with his father's birth place.

Residence

Lucretia apparently was born in AL in 1816 and had moved to MS with William Clearman by the 1840 census. William's mother, Hannah and brother John Van Clearman were in Alabama by the mid 1830s, so it likely that William came with them. A MS land patent of 1841 indicates William Clearman was from Pickens County, AL, which is where is brother appeared in the 1830 census. In that same census Hannah Clearman appears in Tuscaloosa County, AL and the enumerations include one male age 20-30, which is consistent with the expected age of William; he presumably was not yet married since his future wife was only 14 at the time. It is likely that William married Lucretia in AL. One daughter, Emily (Clearman) Garrison, claims in the 1870 MS census that she was born in AL. Her age puts her birthdate as ~1836, so it possible that the family had only recently moved to MS by the 1840 census. In 1860, the birthplace of William W., son of William & Lucretia Clearman, was listed as MS and the birth year would have been ~1838. So, it seems that William Leslie Clearman and his family moved from AL to MS between 1836 and 1838. As a MS land patent of 1841 indicates William Clearman was from Pickens County, AL, it is likely from there that they emigrated. Lucretia remained in Newton County, MS, until her death in 1869.

Lucretia's whereabouts before her marriage are unknown. Her father, Richmond, died when she was quite young. Estate papers of her grandfather, Aaron Lucky Speaks in Iredell County, NC, indicate Richmond had passed away before the year 1825 when Lucretia was only about 9 years old. I do not yet have any records to indicate the age of Richmond or his wife, but since they had not been married long and had three young children, it is likely that his widow was still quite young. Chances are that she remarried and Richmond's children were listed with their stepfather in the census records. I have no proof of this, however; it is just speculation. There was a Polly Speaks who married Joseph Alexander in 1818 in Madison County, AL. In the 1820 Census, a Joseph Alexander appeared in Greene County, AL, which is near Pickens County where William Clearman lived; there are 3 females age 15-20 in the household, which conceivably could be Richmond Speak's daughters, assuming "Polly" was a nickname for Susannah and the Joseph Alexander in Greene County is the same one who married in Madison County two years before. Again, all of this is speculation.

Spouse/Children

I have not found a marriage record for William L. Clearman and Lucretia. If the earliest likely age for Lucretia to marry is 15, then the couple were married between 1830 and 1836 in AL (the latter date based upon approximate date/place of the birth of their daughter, Emily).

All of the children listed in the photocopied Bible page mentioned above can also be found in the census records with William L. Clearman. Only one child, Hannah Susan Clearman, is listed by name in William's will. He specifies that she receive an extra $200 in lieu of property he gave the others; he further specifies that her portion is to be paid to a caregiver. Presumably, whe was unable to care for herself; she never married and continued to live with her parents. The 1880 census lists her as "idiotic."

Census Records

MS 1840

p. 139, Newton County
head of household: William Clearman

MS 1845

Mississippi Genealogy Exchange v. 26, Spring, 1980
Newton County
head of household: William Clearman

MS 1850

p. 159b, Line 4 (household 63) Newton County
head of household: William Clearman

MS 1860

p. 130, Line 12, (household 886) Newton County
head of household: William Clearman

Death/Burial

Lucretia's tombstone in Blue Springs Baptist Church Cemetery in Newton County, MS, lists her death date as 11 June 1869. She is buried next to her husband, William Leslie Clearman.

References

A * indicates a book is part of my private collection.

Smith, Bonnie Addy, Jackson Eliot Smith, and Robert Ervin Smith, Newton County Mississippi: A Cemetery Census 1782-1995. 1997, Decatur: EBRS Publishing Company.
This book was privately published and is available from the authors at one of the following addresses:
18970 Highway 14 North
Decatur, MS 39327
phone: (601) 635-2149 		100 Woodville Drive
Natchez, MS 39120
phone: (601) 442-3084 		P.O. Box 529
Washington, MS 39190
It is part of the collections of the Allen County Public Library in Ft. Wayne, IN and Clayton Genealogy Library in Houston, TX.*


Baker, Ola Grace, Flowers of the Field. 1974, Montgomery: Paragon Press.
This book is out of print.
It is part of the collection at the Allen County Public Library in Ft. Wayne, IN. *


Marriage record for Richmond Speaks & Susannah Jones is from ancestry.com online database of Early Alabama Marriages to 1825. Their names appear in the marriage index for volume 1 of Madison County records posted online by the Madison County Record Center

A transcript of William Clearman's will is posted on the CLEARMAN Page.


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