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| Brunswick County, Virginia |
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| Rutherford County, Tennessee |
They were married in Rutherford County:
Rutherford County, TN Marriage Record for 1820
Summerraw, Henry & Day, Minerva Sept 9, 1820
Minerva and John Henry Sumerow had the following children:
1) James H. Sumerow b. 1822 Rutherford, TN; d. 27 Dec 1852 Lauderdale, TN; m. Sarah E. Wright
2) Mary E. Sumerow b. 13 Jul 1824 Rutherford, TN; d. 8 Jun 1895 Lauderdale, TN; m. James C. Alsobrook
3) Jesse M. Sumerow b. 1826 Rutherford, TN; d. 2 Nov 1875 Lauderdale, TN; m. Sarah Sumerow (his brother's widow)
4) Henry Thomas Sumrow b. 1829 Rutherford, TN; d. 9 Sep 1884 Lauderdale, TN; m. 1st Ellen Smith, 2nd Missouri Jackson
5) George Henry Sumrow b. 28 Jul 1830 Rutherford, TN; d. 4 Mar 1913 Merit, Hunt, TX
6) William C. Sumerow b. 1833 Rutherford, TN; d. Bef. 1870 Lauderdale, TN; m. Matilda Rucker
7) Benjamin Franklin Sumerow b. 1837 Lauderdale, TN; d. Bef 7 May 1879 Lauderdale, TN; m. Nancy Elizabeth Brandon
8) Martha Emma Sumerow b. 1838 Lauderdale, TN; d. Aft. 1870; m. 1st John Rucker, 2nd Benjamin M. Hall; 3rd W. H. Flippin
9) Robert W. Sumerow b. 1848 Lauderdale, TN; d. Abt. 1891 TN; m. Nancy Warren
Shortly after their marriage, the westernmost part of Tennessee opened for settlement. By about 1835, Minerva and her family moved to Lauderdale County, just a few miles east of the Mississippi River. There they were able to obtain a grant of over 1500 acres of land, and there they raised their large family and helped to build the community of Double Bridges.
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| The Sumerow family settled on land adjacent to the Mississippi River, which is the meandering western border of the state of Tennessee. Their property was at the north-western part of the county, near the border of Dyer County. |
The following children were named on the back of Henry's grave marker, as children of Henry and Minerva who had preceded them in death:
1) Eleanor C. Sumerow
2) Robert P. Sumerow
3) Predonia Sumerow
4) Virginia Sumerow
5) Eugenia Sumerow
Considering the ten year gap between Martha b. 1838 and Robert b. 1848, we can imagine that most of these children were born in that interval. They even named another son Robert after the one that they had lost. It is difficult to imagine the kinds of sorrows the family suffered to have lost so many children at a tender age. We can only sympathize with what they must have endured, and the strength it must have taken to continue to carry on in their wilderness home.
They would have had much work to clear the land of cypress, and other trees that dominated the area, before the land could be used for farmland. As they cleared the land, the first priority would have been to grow food crops and farm animals to feed their family. As more land was cleared, they began to grow cotton as a cash crop.
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| This picture was taken some miles north of the Sumerow family land. This shows the type of cypress forest that dominated the coast of the Mississippi River when the Sumerows arrived in Lauderdale County. |
In 1852, Minerva lost her eldest son, and just two short years later, in 1854, she lost her husband. Her other children rallied around her, and she was able to make it through those tough times. Then the Civil War came. Most of her sons enlisted for service with the confederate army, and worked to protect the Mississippi coast line. However, the Union army soon succeeded in invading the western shores of Tennessee, and ravaged the farmland to support their own troops. It must have been devastating for the entire community to have their stock and the produce that they depended upon to feed their families stolen away from them.
Minerva is living with her daughter Martha Rucker, her son Robert (who is 12), and Martha's daughter Elenora in the 1860 Census, which is after her husband's death. There is also a slave schedule for Minerva which shows her with 13 slaves. This is unfortunate proof that the family had slaves, but also shows that they were well to do at the time. During the war, they must have suffered greatly, since the Union soldiers came into Tennessee from the Mississippi River. Their close proximity to the river would mean that they were among the first to be invaded.
Minerva was not a young woman any more, and the stress of that time took its toll. She survived long enough to see the end of the war, but did not live long enough to see her community rebuilt and recover from their losses. She passed away in 1868. On 3 Feb 1868, her second son, Jesse, applied to be the administrator on her estate, and distributed the landholdings among the surviving children.
I'm uncertain where she is buried. Henry's tombstone was partitioned with two sections. His information is on the right hand side. The left side was obviously set aside for his wife, but that side was blank. She was either buried elsewhere, or they never got around to adding her information to the tombstone. Henry was buried on land that was originally part of their property, and at the foot of his grave is the grave of his daughter Mary Alsobrook and her husband.
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Minerva's Parents:
Jesse Day has been determined to be her father for several reasons.
1) He is the only Day listed in Rutherford County in 1820, where Minerva was living at the time of her marriage.
2) Minerva was born in Virginia. Jesse lived in VA during the 1810 Census, and had a daughter the right age to be Minerva.
3) Jesse moved from Virginia to Rutherford County TN about 1813, when he sold his land in Brunswick County, Virginia. He appears in the 1820 Census in Rutherford County, and still has a female the correct age to be Minerva.
4) Jesse also relocated to Lauderdale County TN at the same time that Minerva moved there with her husband.
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