Father: Phillip Russell, Jr.
Mother: Rebeckah Russell
Spouse: Tryphena or Lavina Perkins - b: 26/Dec/1815
- Grayson Co., VA - nra: 1870
m: 12/Dec/1839 - Independence, Grayson
Co., VA
Child-1: Sarah Ann -
b: 18/Oct/1840 - Grayson Co., VA
2: Marshall
Monroe -
b: 7/May/1842 - Grayson Co., VA
3: Harvey
Jasper (Harry) -
b: 9/Feb/1844 - Grayson Co., VA
m: Sarah L. Frilpo - 9/Apr/1876 - Union Co., TN
4: Marion
Cicero -
b: 3/May/1846 - Grayson Co., VA
d: 3/Apr/1926 - Knox Co., TN - bur: Glenwood Cem.
m: Emily L. *****
5: Malissa
Latisha -
b: 9/Aug/1849 - Grayson Co., VA - nra: 1860
6: Lewis
Wayne -
b: 17/Apr/1852 - Grayson Co., VA
d: 18/May/1870
7: Jarusha
Caroline -
b: 9/Oct/1854 - Grayson Co., VA
8: Wellington
Scott -
b: 6/Sep/1856 - Grayson Co., VA
d: 19/Dec/1941 - Los Angeles Co., CA - bur: Forest Lawn Memorial
Park, Glendale
m: Nancy Carr - 14/Sep/1890 - Tazewell, Claiborne Co., TN
m: Margaret Olive Imbler - 12/Nov/1895 - Compton, Los Angeles Co.,
CA
9: Elbert
Severe
- b: 13/Apr/1859 - Grayson Co., VA
d: 20/Feb/1928 - bur: Sharpsville Cem., Tipton Co., IN
m: Etta Grayson - 12/Aug/1884
Biographical Details:
The fifth surviving son of Philip, Jr., and Rebeckah Russell was Lewis born on Christmas Eve of 1814 almost certainly in Grayson County, Virginia. Moreover, according to later civil records of Grayson County, he married Lavina Perkins on December 12, 1839. Unfortunately, considerable uncertainty remains regarding her exact identity. Subsequent census records uniformly indicate her first name as some variation or derivative of "Tryphena" or "Triphena". For this reason, various researchers have identified her as a daughter of Jared Perkins, son of Timothy, Sr., and Miriam Sperry Perkins; however, this is almost certainly spurious as his daughter, Phenia (Tryphena), was born prior to 1800 and, thus, would have evidently been too old to have been the wife of Lewis Russell. More seriously, there is substantial evidence that she married someone else. A more plausible alternative is that the wife of Lewis Russell was not a daughter, but rather a granddaughter of Jared Perkins. Indeed, Ms. Eleanor Baker Reeves in her A Factual History of Early Ashe County, North Carolina states that Phenia, daughter of Joseph, son of Jared Perkins, married a Russell. Although not explicitly identified in the text, it is almost certain that this was Lewis. Within this context, it is not known why her name has alternatively been indicated as "Lavina". Naturally, it is plausible that her full name was actually "Lavina Tryphena" or "Tryphena Lavina". The household of Lewis Russell appeared in the population schedules of the US Censuses for Grayson County for the years 1840, 1850, and 1860. Moreover, the births of the youngest three children of Lewis and Tryphena Perkins Russell were recorded in the "Grayson County Register of Births" during the 1850's. In addition, records compiled by Mr. Jeffrey Weaver indicate that Lewis himself and his sons, Marshall and Marion, ages forty-four, eighteen, and fourteen, respectively, served in Confederate forces during the Civil War, although no specific details are known. Subsequently, Lewis and his family apparently moved westward in the 1860's. Accordingly, in 1870 Lewis Russell, a shoemaker aged fifty-six, was resident with several other evidently unrelated individuals (including an African-American cook) in the household of H. K. Matthews in the town of Blountville, Tennessee. (Clearly, the Matthews family were propietors of a boarding house.) Contemporaneously, a Russell household consisting of six individuals, viz., Harry, Dryphena, Marion, Jarusha, Wellington, and Elbert S., ages, twenty-five, fifty-five, twenty-three, fifteen, thirteen, and eleven, respectively, was resident in the nieghboring town of Jonesville, Virginia. (Evidently, "Dryphena" is a misspelling of "Tryphena".) Moreover, the population schedule further indicates that all six were born in Grayson County and that both Harry and Marion "works in shoe shop". Geographically, Jonesville and Blountville are separated by about forty-five miles and are the county seats of Lee and Sullivan Counties, respectively, which are both located somewhat more than a hundred miles west of Grayson County and adjoin across the boundary between the two states. (Indeed, at present Lee County is the most western of all Virginia counties.) This arrangement suggests that as a showmaker, Lewis travelled throughout Appalachian Virginia and Tennessee, but with a home base in Jonesville. In any case, it is evident that all of this accords precisely with the family of Lewis Russell. Although nothing definite is known, it is likely that both Lewis and Tryphena Perkins Russell died before 1900. Several of their children settled nearby in Claiborne County, Tennessee, but others settled elsewhere, viz., Tipton County, Indiana, and Los Angeles, California.
Source Citations:
1. 1840 US Census Population Schedule for Grayson County, Virginia, National Archives, Washington DC: pg. 317, (microfilm roll - M704_556; img. 306).2. 1850 US Census Population Schedule for Grayson County, Virginia, National Archives, Washington DC: pgs. 201B-202A, (microfilm roll - M432_947; imgs. 86-7).
3. 1860 US Census Population Schedule for Grayson County, Virginia, National Archives, Washington DC: pg. 158, (microfilm roll - M653_1348; img. 159).
4. 1870 US Census Population Schedule for Sullivan County, Tennessee, National Archives, Washington DC: pg. 413A, (microfilm: roll M593_1565; img. 86).
5. 1870 US Census Population Schedule for Lee County, Virginia, National Archives, Washington DC: pg. 260B, (microfilm: roll M593_1658; img. 523).
6. Register of Births, 1853-1870, Grayson Co., VA, pgs. 9, 24, and 39, Library of Virginia, Richmond, VA, (microfilm: roll - City and County Records #19). (Billie White and Ginger Ballard (comp), Jeffrey Weaver (tr), New River Notes, www.newrivernotes.com/index.htm, 2015.)
7. Jordan R. Dodd (ed), Early American Marriages: Virginia to 1850, Precision Indexing Publishers, Bountiful, UT, 1990-2003. (Available online at www.ancestry.com)
8. Eleanor Baker Reeves, A Factual History of Early Ashe County, North Carolina -- Its People, Places and Events, P. O. B. 286, West Jefferson, NC, 1986: pg. 172. (printed by: Taylor Pub. Co., Dallas, TX)
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9. Death Certificates, Tennessee Department of Health, Nashville, TN, (Death Certificate No. 9698, Office of Vital Records, State of Tennessee, Nashville, TN)
10. Glenwood Cemetery, Knox County, Tennessee (www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=cr&CRid=531718&CScn=Glenwood&CScntry=4&CSst=45&CScnty=2471&, continuously updated).
11. Sharpsville Cemetery, Tipton County, Indiana (www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=cr&CRid=1961189&CScn=Sharpsville&CScntry=4&CSst=17&CScnty=871&, continuously updated).
12. Shirley Campbell Ramos and Patricia Campbell Kratz, Descendants of Phillip and Rebecca Russell, Gregath Publishing Company, P. O. B. 505, Wyandotte, OK, 74370, 1997: pg. 132.
13. Henry Hardy Catron, The Kettenring Family in America, 1619 N. 19th St., Springfield, IL, 1956. (Reprinted by Unigraphic, Inc., Evansville, IN)