Part One: Elian and Herlong Vastine James
A snapshot of my paternal line:
Wiley Vastine James, b.
1948,
Suwannee County, FL
Julian James,
1911 - 1958
(Lafayette County, FL)
Perry Clarence James,
1885 -
1979
(Lafayette County, FL)
Herlong Vastine James, b.
1846
(South Carolina) -
1910
(Lafayette County, FL)
Elian James (female), born
1825
in Virginia, later moves to Newberry County, South Carolina
(1850 U.S.
census), and then to Madison County, FL (1860 U.S. census) Year
of
death unknown.
» Elian James (female),
born
1825
in Virginia, moves to Newberry County, South Carolina
» in the 1850 U.S.
Census,
Elian
is listed as living with a female head-of-household (a widow?) named L. T.
Sulivan (document
image). In that census, a child named William James also resides
in the
house, shown to be age 9 - but we believe this child must be
Herlong
Vastine, really aged 4 or 5.
» in the 1860 U.S.
Census
(document
image), Elian now resides in Madison County, FL with Shepherd (or Sheppard) Williams,
who
is listed as Male/Black/Planter, and his children from a
previous
marriage to Margaret "Peggy" Brooks Jones Williams
(James,
Elizabeth, Meriday, Absolum) - all had moved down from
Newberry
together - and two children from the marriage with Elian (John
and
Gibbs, born in Florida). All children are listed as M for mulatto. The name Vastine appears for the
first time.
Elian and Vastine are "checked off" as white.
Shepherd
Williams was born in Newberry County, SC, to Sarah
Williams, the
daughter of a wealthy Newberry County Plantation owner Daniel
T.
Williams. Shepherd's father is never mentioned, but is
hypothesized to
be "Jim," a Williams Plantation slave. Cassandra Prather
Williams, the
wife of Daniel T. Williams, and grandmother of Shepherd
Williams goes
to great lengths in Newberry courts to document Sheppard's
1808 birth
and identify him as a "free person of color." Cassandra must
have been
very fond of Sheppard as she leaves him all her Newberry
County land
holdings when she dies in 1828.
Analysis : In
February of
2011, my Y-DNA
tests revealed that Vastine is not the child of Shepherd
Williams (I had no
haplogroup from
Africa, I am overwhelmingly in the I1
Haplogroup, with the
highest
number of matches in England and Wales so far).
Technically, we
are not even certain that Vastine is the son of Elian - she
could be
his sister, although the
20-year difference in their ages suggests parent-child,
instead of a
sibling relation. But we can say that Vastine arrives to
Madison,
Florida with Shepherd and Elian and lives his childhood in a
household
headed by a Black farmer.
» in the 1880 U.S.
Census,
the
Williams household (document
image) consists of Sheppard
Williams (listed as Mu
for mulatto), Elian
listed as
Juliann, and the daughter Elizabeth
(from Williams' first
marriage, born
1837, also listed Mu for mulatto) in the
Ellaville/Norton Creek district of Madison County. Gibbs Williams, Elian and
Shepherd's youngest son, is 26 years old, listed as "Mu" for
mulatto,
and also living in the Ellaville/Norton Creek district of
Madison
County. (document
detail) Herlong
Vastine is
with wife Sarah,
daughter Mary
(age 6) and son Charles (age 2) in Lafayette County, only a
few census
lines away from the Frieze family, believed to be Sarah's
family.
» in 1884,
Herlong Vastine James
purchases 120
acres of land (document)
around
Fletcher, FL (area
map
& detail
map).
» in an 1885
Florida census,
Elian James (age 60)
is living
with her son Gibbs Williams
(listed as being 28, but
perhaps actually 30)
in
the Winquepin district of Madison County (document
detail). Shepherd Williams' daughter Elizabeth ("Betsy")
is living
in the Norton Creek district of Madison County with her son
David (age
16). (document
detail) Herlong
Vastine
is, naturally, now with his own family: wife Sarah and
children Viola,
Charles, Lela, and Perry in Lafayette County. Note : Shepherd
Williams must have
died between 1880 and 1885
since he does not appear in this 1885 census.
» in the 1900 U.S.
Census
(document
detail), Herlong James
is
in Lafayette County with his wife Sarah and younger children
(not yet
moved from home) Lela, Perry, George, Weltha, Sommer, and
Burton. Also
in 1900, Shepherd Williams' children from his first marriage,
James and Elizabeth "Betsy"
Williams,
are
living together in the Macedonia area of Madison County. Both
are
listed as B for black (document
detail).
» in the 1910 U.S.
Census
(document
detail), Herlong
Vastine
has already died and Sarah
James
is listed as a widowed head-of-household. Herlong Vastine James died
on Jan.
30, 1910 (gravestone).
Possibilities, but further research
needed:
In the 1840 U.S. census of Newberry County, South Carolina
(the same
area, in the "not-stated" region outside the city, in which
we find
both Sheppard Williams and Elian James in 1850) there lives
a David James, aged
20-30, living with
a "free white female" aged 15-20 (aka Wife) (census
image,
detail). Census data before 1850 only listed the
head-of-household by name. Elian
James,
born in 1825, would have been 15 in 1840, thus fitting
inside that
15-20 age range. They are the only 2 persons listed in the
household.
So, is this David James,
who
is gone by the 1850 census, the first husband of Elian and the father of
Herlong Vastine? It
makes sense that
a young widow (Elian in 1850) would live with an older widow
(L.T.
Sulivan - see above) in what most likely was a type of
boarding house.
Finally, we know very little about any descendents of
Herlong's
half-brothers John and Gibbs Williams ... to be continued
...
Last updated Feb. 20,
2011