THE FIRST GENERATION:

 

 

Robert Gordon and Allied Families

Robert was born between 1773 and 1785 (1784 seems most accurate), as reflected in the 1850 census, in which he indicated being from North Carolina. His sons in later censuses additionally indicate Robert coming from South Carolina or Kentucky. Robert died in the late fall of 1854 near McMinnville, Warren County, Tennessee.

Research to date has yet to reveal exactly when or from where Robert Gordon came to Warren County, though he is found in the 1804/05 Warren County Tax List, next to two other Gordons, 1) John Gordon and 2) James Gordon (1784 - 1820).

Both the John and James Gordon families came to Warren Co. from Madison Co. KY and are likely related to the Robert Gordon family as reflected by theirbordering land ownership in early plat records. Two Robert Gordons are found in Madison County - one is unrelated and the son of a Samuel Gordon and who married to a Mary Kennedy in 1790 (moved to Giles County TN) and the other Robert Gordon married a Sarah Robertson in 1805 (possibly the line moving to Warren County).

John Gordon was the second husband of Polly Gordon, according to "Moses Park: 1738-1828: His descendants and Related Families Wilcher and Vaughn." Polly first married a Samuel Black (1770 - 1806) in 1795 in Madison County, before moving to Roane and Warren counties. The daughter of a David G. Gordon and the first woman mentioned in Warren Co., in 1803, she lived in a log house "Polly Black's ford" on the south bank of the Barren Fork of the Collins River a short distance SW of McMinnville, below the Old Annis Cotton Mills. Before February 1815, Polly married John Gordon and died shortly thereafter. John Gordon may have been the John Jr. Gordon living with Robert Gordon in the 1812 Tax List.

Another Pauline "Polly" Gordon (1785 - 1856) - possibly related - married a Thomas Wilcher II and lived in Warren County. According to descendent Cecile Harrell, Pauline's grandparents moved from Amherst County VA to Burke County NC about 1789, before White County.

When Robert Gordon came to Warren County, he settled on the north side of the Barren Fork of the Collins River, near McMinnville. According to 1809 records, he had been assigned a North Carolina warrant from a Samuel MCPHETERS, later found in White County. The warrant (no. 3877) was for two 200-acre Perfect Tennessee Land Grants.

Robert purchased from a James and William KLAM (ELAM) a farm of 390 acres in the eleventh district located on the Barren Fork, near the old stagecoach road, which lead from McMinnville to Nashville and is mentioned in Goodspeed, History of Tennessee, Warren County as being among those who secured grants from North Carolina calling for lands in Warren County.

Robert and his wife(s) had the following eight children: William George (1810 - 1896), Martha "Patsy" (b.1813), Isaac (1815 - 1859), Sally (b. abt 1820), James Madison (1828 -1892), David Davidson (abt 1830 - 1910), Jane (b. abt 1835) and Benjamin Franklin (b.1838).

DNA testing has proven Robert as father of his first five children through third Robert's first son William George Gordon and Robert's fifth son James Madison Gordon. Furthermore, DNA testing reveals that a William G. Gordon born in 1880 in Oran Missouri is related.

Details of Robert's wife(s) are unclear. In Robert's will, he mentions leaving his possessions to his wife Sarah in her third marriage, implying that Robert was her second husband.

Since Sarah was illiterate, the 1850 census information regarding her 1800 birth date may have been incorrect, implying a birth date nearer Robert's birth.

If Sarah was born in 1800, given that Robert's first son was born in 1810, it may be presumed that his second wife was a "Sarah R." whom he married as early as the 1830s.

Sarah died before September 1866 and in Chancellery Minutes, Ten heirs were included in a suit Thos. Vaughn vs. James Walling and other heirs of the deceased Robert Gordon.

At the age of seventy years, being old and unable to attend to his ordinary affairs, Robert entered into an agreement in 1843, with a John Hopkins, wherein Hopkins would attend to the personal care and comfort of Robert Gordon during the balance of his natural life. It further stated that his wife "Sarah" was occupying 200 acres of this land and living separately from him. Robert also kept the following slaves: Harlot (36), Rose (18), Jack (11), Laurie (7), Mariah (4) and Margaret (2). By 1854, he lists three slaves in his will: Harlot (51), Juliet (9), and Sam (18).

The contract was not fulfilled because in 1852, Robert Gordon made his Last Will and Testament and it was recorded in the county on December 4, 1854 with inventory. His son James Madison Gordon helped settle the estate, as his name is found on the will, as well as the 1857 will of his father-in-law John Byers.

Although not known whether related, also found in 1810s Warren County was a revolutionary war veteran "Charles Gordon" who was given a land grant for defending the citizens of Davidson County TN during the late 1780s.

As late as the late as early 1900s, Robert's land was known as the "Old Gordon Farm."  Some time after Robert and Sarah's death, the Cummings family purchased the land, located on the border with Cannon County. The exact location of this farm and locations of both Robert and Sarah's graves are unknown.

Local genealogist "Mary Barnes" believes all three Gordon families (Robert, James and John Gordon families) were related and that Robert Gordon moved with them from Madison to Roane County (where a George and James Gordon are found), before Warren County. Prior, these Gordons possibly came from Rowan and Iredell counties in NC. Other Warren County families that lived in Roane County included the Vaughns, Blacks, (from Warren County Deeds) James Rogers (father of John Rogers) and Alexander Stewart.

Related and allied Warren County families include: Black, Boyle, Byars, Byers, Durley, Glascock, Harris, Hayes, Hays, Hopkins, Kersey, Menny, Pace, Paris, Robertson, Robinson, Rogers, Romjue, Stockstill, Vaughn / Vaughan, Ward, Walling and Wilcher.