Moving Out of Virginia – 3

There are some instances of Northerns turning up in states that cannot be directly related to our family line, even though they appear to be. One of the most obvious were were the Northerns of Jefferson County, Tennesee where they have been established for many generations.   In fact, in her book, Dorothy Gross shows a picture from 1986 of Mill Springs Cemetery on Northern Rd. in Jefferson County that show a number of Northern graves. 

The first evidence of the family in Jefferson County came when John Northern bought land there in on September 11, of 1811.  In 1814, he was recorded several times as appearing on a jury there.  John clearly came from Wilkes County, North Carolina where he is registered as being on the census in 1790.  There were also a number of other Northerns living in Wilkes County as well. He appears to have married his long time wife Rhoda Lassiter there as well.  Just where John was born is not certain.  While some families list his birthplace as North Carolina, most say that he was born in Virginia in 1766.  Some families list his father as Edmond, others as John or William.  Once even says that this parents were our ancestors George Northen and Margaret Jones, though there is no documentary evidenced of this.  It is quite likely, however, that he was connected to our family in some way.  John appears to have lived quite a long life.  While he may not have lived until 1870 as some families claim (that would have made him 104), he is listed in the 1850 census as being  84, and in 1861 he was on a list of “Free White Males” in Jefferson County.  Interestingly, the 1860 census says of both John and Rhoda, “can’t read or write.”  Rhoda, however, was reputed to have been a midwife.

Jefferson County, Tennessee has an interesting history that is not commonly known about. Tennessee was admitted to the United States in 1796, just 15 years before John Northern brought his first property there.  However, back in 1784, soon after the United States was formed, the people in this area were part of land that was supposed to go to North Carolina.  Instead, they broke away and organized their own government and called it the State of Franklin.  They established their own government and capital.  It applied for admittance to the United States, but Congress never formally accepted its application for admission.  As a result, Franklin only lasted for about four years and shortly after became part of the new state of Tennessee.  It is one of the rare examples, though, of a state that never became a state.

Another branch of the family that cannot be directly documented to trace back the original John the immigrant is responsible for the Northerns who moved into Arkansas.   As mentioned previously mentioned ,  a John Northen who is likely the son of the immigrant John moved to land near the Great Swamp in Currituck County, North Carolina in 1712.  His grandson, also named John was born in Currituck sometime between 1800-1810.  Sometime around 1840, he headed out for Mississippi but wound up in Arkansas.  Three of his sons served in the Arkansas Infantry for the Confederacy during the Civil War.  Though most of the family members appear to have moved on to other places, his youngest son, William Wesley Northern stayed and raised six children there.  Interestingly, in the 1880 census for Independence County in Arkansas, he is listed as Wesley Northen.

As the map shows, the migration was to the west. The family never moved further south than mid-Georgia and curiously never into South Carolina. One possible reason is that our family were primarily tobacco planters whereas South Carolina’s main plantation crop was rice. Also, Missouri is not colored in because no one stayed there for more than a generation but it was a place that many families visited for a while or passed through. Much of the migration was fueled by the Civil War and it is interesting to consider that another migration of families was fueled by World War II. That is how the Northen family ended up in California beginning in the 1940’s.