A CONVOLUTED SAGA FROM THE PITTS SIDE

What follows on this page and in the links to various sections is an abbreviated version of my original PDF document with pictures and family trees which can be downloaded here.

This chapter diverges from a self-imposed restriction of tracing only the pedigree (mothers and fathers) of my ancestors. I have had to limit research for the most part to direct lines because following the lines of the various children of great (etc.) grandparents would create an effort bigger than one person could accomplish in one lifetime. However, amongst some old family documents I have in my possession are transcribed copies of two letters written in 1828 and 1848 by Catherine “Kitty” Spence Pitts, the mother of my great grandmother, Ellen Nancy Pitts Allen (Grandma Ellen), and shared with me by my Aunt Nancy Ellen Allen Haeger (a granddaughter and namesake of Grandma Ellen).

My interest in learning who the people were that my great great grandmother Kitty Spence Pitts (Grandma Kitty) mentioned in these two letters led to a winding road of fascinating and exciting discoveries. Although taking much more time than originally anticipated, I believe the following information and stories give a richer and fuller picture of the lives of my relatives who lived in Missouri and Virginia in the 1800s before and after the U.S. Civil War.

Among the discoveries made are a better understanding of where my grandfather and father got their names (Lambeth Shelton), how some of my African American DNA cousins are connected to me, and the story of the murder of the cousin of Grandma Ellen in 1867!

During my research a few years ago, I ran across a statement in A History of Henry County, Virginia that said of my great grand uncle Joseph Bensin Allen, the brother of my great grandfather Robert Alexander Allen and brother-in-law to Grandma Ellen, “He has ever been much interested in the genealogy of his family, and was editor and publisher of the Troy Record, of Missouri.” Over the years I have thought “Where is all the research that he did?” and “Hopefully someday it will appear from one of his descendants’ attics and they will download it online.” Then, just a few days ago, (at the beginning of May 2024) after I thought I was long done with this Convoluted Saga, I found his research! The Troy Record was not just a periodical, it was “devoted to temperance and the history of my four great-grand-parents, Wm. Allen, of Henry county, Va., Parks Bailey, of the same county, John Chambers, of Warren county, Mo., John Castlio, of St Charles county, Mo., and their descendants.” His four great grandparents are four of my fourth great grandparents. And even though he seems to have only published The Troy Record for three years, what a treasure trove!! There he was in 1900 – 1902, writing of his great grandparents who had lived and died more than one hundred years before he was born, and here I am reading the writing of my great grand uncle who lived and died more than one hundred years before I was born. I wonder, then, who of my descendants or my siblings’ descendants will be reading this more than one hundred years after I am gone. This is my hope – that this research will fill in the stories for generations to come and that you who are reading this even in the year 2160 and beyond will catch the spark to carry on the story of our family in its entirety, the good and the bad.

In this chapter the following is presented:

1. A transcript of a section from A History of the Pioneer Families of Missouri by William S. Bryan and Robert Rose, first published by Bryan, Brand & Co., St. Louis, Mo., 1876, describing the early days of Missouri and St. Charles County where the Pitts and Allen families converged.
2. A transcribed and annotated letter written by Catherine “Kitty” Spence Pitts [Grandma Kitty] in 1828. (Grandma Kitty was the mother of my great grandmother, Ellen Nancy Pitts Allen [Grandma Ellen].)
3. A section from A History of the Pioneer Families of Missouri which tells the tale of the “Slicker Wars” of St. Charles County and Lincoln County Missouri in the 1840s, a portion of which two of the brothers of Grandma Ellen and four of the cousins of her future father-in-law Robert Buxton Allen are mentioned as having a part.
4. A transcribed and annotated letter written by Grandma Kitty in 1848. (Grandma Kitty was the mother of Grandma Ellen.)
5. A court case involving the children of John Richardson which helped prove certain family relationships. (John was the great grandfather of Grandma Ellen and his children were her grandmother and grand aunts and uncle.)
6. The will of Margaret Richardson, daughter of John Richardson, dated 1811. (Margaret was the aunt of Grandma Kitty, who was the mother of Grandma Ellen.)
7. The will of William Meredith Lambeth dated 1851. (William was the first cousin of Grandma Kitty, who was the mother of Grandma Ellen.)
8. A synopsis of a prolonged court case which involved the daughters of William Meredith Lambeth in Louisiana. The events surrounding this case stretched from right after the Civil War in 1865 and went all the way through the Louisiana Supreme Court’s final decision in 1894. (William was the first cousin of Grandma Kitty, who was the mother of Grandma Ellen.)
9. A transcript of a section from Virginia Soldiers of 1776 pertaining to Captain Peter Bernard who was mentioned by my Aunt Nancy in her family history. (Peter was the granduncle of William Meredith Lambeth, the first cousin to Grandma Kitty, who was the mother of Grandma Ellen.)
10. Information, including a filing to the Post-Civil War Freedmen’s Court in 1868, regarding Thomas H. Pitts, the probable source of at least some of my African American DNA cousins. (Thomas was the oldest brother of my second great grandfather, George Richardson Pitts. George was the father of Grandma Ellen, so Thomas was her uncle.
11. The story of the murder of Mary Emily Pitts Phillips, daughter of Benjamin Franklin Pitts, Senior. (Benjamin was an older brother of George Richardson Pitts who was the father of Grandma Ellen. Mary Emily and Ellen Nancy were cousins.)

Below, as well as in sections B., C., D., E., F., G., and I. are included abbreviated family trees to help identify the relationships of the individuals who are mentioned.

Before diving in, let me touch on a few other topics.

THE SOURCE OF THE NAME LAMBETH SHELTON ALLEN:

I think all of Shelton Allen’s children remember that he was embarrassed by his first name and therefore always went by L. Shelton Allen, with “Lambeth” being a carefully guarded family secret. I recall him saying that as a child he had been teased for his first name by other kids who would call him “Lambie”. We also knew that he was a Junior, which, of course, meant his father’s name was Lambeth Shelton Allen. In my Aunt Nancy’s family history she states her father was “known as ‘Lam’ and ‘L.S.’ Allen” so he, at least, was not embarrassed by the name his parents (Robert Alexander Allen and Ellen Nancy Pitts Allen) had chosen for their only son.  Perhaps he knew the relatives from whom those names were inherited, as both Lambeth and Shelton are surnames from the Allen and Pitts family trees.

LAMBETH, as shown further below, is the maiden name given in the information my Aunt Nancy had for my fourth great grandmother, Sarah, the wife of John Richardson, my fourth great grandfather. I do not know what source Aunt Nancy had for this and have not yet been able to independently verify Lambeth as Sarah’s maiden name. However, section E., shows proof that two of the daughters of these fourth great grandparents, John and Sarah Richardson, married Lambeth men, brothers John and Bernard. Another of John and Sarah Richardson’s daughters, Ann Richardson, married Thomas Pitts. Ann and Thomas Pitts, my third great grandparents, had a son, Thomas H. Pitts, who married his cousin, Frances Bernard Lambeth (who was named after her paternal grandmother Frances, whose maiden name was Bernard), the daughter of Ann’s sister Elizabeth Richardson and her husband John Lambeth. Both Frances Bernard Lambeth and Thomas H. Pitts are mentioned again frequently in sections below.

SHELTON was a surname Grandma Ellen would have been familiar with even before she married Robert Alexander Allen who was a first cousin once removed to the Sheltons who lived in the same county in Missouri. The escapades of one of the older Shelton cousins, recounted in section C., involved two of Grandma Ellen’s own brothers and undoubtedly made an impression on her eight or nine-year-old mind.