The Descendants of Jacob W. BROYLES and Mariah REYNOLDS

The Jacob W. BROYLES & Mariah REYNOLDS Family

John (Johannes) —> (Hans) Jacob —> Jacob —> James —> Jacob W. (3^rd Marriage)

The Story

This is a narrative about the family of Jacob W. BROYLES and his 3^rd wife Mariah REYNOLDS. Jacob was a member of the fifth generation of the BROYLES family in America. It began with Johannes BREYHEL, a German immigrant, who was part of the Second Germanna Colony in 1717, located near present-day Fredericksburg, VA. The BROYLES story is documented in The BROYLES Family by Dr. Arthur Leslie KEITH, and also on the internet in the BROYLES/BRILES Database by Steve BROYLES. The material presented here on Jacob W. BROYLES comes primarily from Dr. KEITH. The main sources of information for Mariah REYNOLDS and the following two generations are U.S. Census records, City Directories, Vital Statistics, newspaper articles, and family Bible entries. Some information also comes from conversations with living descendants.

Jacob and Mariah

Jacob W. BROYLES was born about 1806, in Washington Co., TN. He was married three times and sired a total of 19 children. His first marriage was to his cousin, Elizabeth BROYLES, in 1824. They had four children. On April 19, 1829, she and her brother, George Washington BROYLES, drowned in the Nolichucky River. Jacob was with them at the time and was able to save the children but not his wife or brother-in-law. Later that year he married a widow, Eve BURGNER, a marriage that produced eight more children. He married Mariah REYNOLDS in 1853. They had seven children before he died in 1873, at the age of 67, in an Asian cholera epidemic that was sweeping through that region. Jacob W. was apparently a well known character in Horse Creek. In KEITH's history of the BROYLES family he is cited as being known as 'Winter Jacob' and 'Wild Jacob' ('Winter Jake" and 'Wild Jake"). KEITH further writes that he "... was probably more unkind to himself than to others. Stories of his escapades continued long after his death."

Jacob W. BROYLES married Mariah REYNOLDS on April 22, 1853, in Greene Co., TN. They lived in the Horse Creek Community, which is near the boundary of Greene and Washington Counties. Here is a listing of their family as recorded in the 1870 census, just three years before his death. (From other Census data, Jacob W. was more likely 64, and Mariah 35 or 36, at this time.)

(NOTE: Horse Creek is in Greene Co. At some time, Jacob had moved from Washington Co. to Greene Co. For a little history and geography, the area in Washington Co. where the BROYLES clan settled is now called the Philadelphia Community, which is located in the SW corner of the county, and is about a mile from the Washington-Greene county line. The Horse Creek Community starts just about a mile beyond that line. Many BROYLES descendants of those who first settled in Washington Co. moved on farther to the SW into the Horse Creek area, the Nolichucky River area, and beyond.)

1870 U.S. Census
Occupants	Name	Age
Head of Household	BROYLES, Jacob W.	70
Wife	Mariah	40
Children	Elizabeth	15
	George W.	12
	Mahala	10
	Mary	8
	Sallie	6
	Rufus	1
	Catharine	1 mo

In 1860, a Mary REYNOLDS and her two children, Joseph and Elvira, ages 8 and 5, were living with Jacob and Mariah. We have not been able to determine if she was the wife of a man named REYNOLDS (maybe Mariah's brother), or Mariah's sister, who either married another REYNOLDS or took back her maiden name after a divorce or the death of her husband, or was an unmarried sister of Mariah.

Mariah moved to Newport, TN, in Cocke Co., sometime after her husband died in 1873. Newport is about 20 miles southwest of Horse Creek. She was living there in 1880 with her son Rufus. Two of her married daughters were living nearby. Her occupation was "washing", and Rufus, 12 at the time, was working as a laborer. We have no record of her after that.
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Elizabeth BROYLES

Elizabeth BROYLES was born in 1855, in Washington Co., TN. When her father died in 1873 she was about 18 years old. She married a Henry HENSON, but we have not been able to find a record of the marriage. In 1880 she and her husband were living in Newport, TN, in the same house as her sister Mary, who was also married, and nearby her mother. They had no children at that time. In 1900 she and her husband were living in Greeneville, TN. She had given birth to five children over the years. Four had died and the fifth was not living with them. She was raising her sister Mary's daughter, the daughter's two children, and her brother George W.'s son. The family moved to Knoxville in 1901-1902, and lived near her brother Rufus for many years. Elizabeth BROYLES HENSON died in Knoxville on July 16, 1914, and is buried there in New Gray Cemetery.
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George W. BROYLES

George W. BROYLES was born in 1856 in Washington Co., TN. He married M. Emma KIRK in Washington Co. on September 4, 1879. They had one child that we know of, Chester Garfield BROYLES. We have no further record of George W. BROYLES or his wife Emma KIRK.
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Chester Garfield BROYLES

Chester Garfield BROYLES, the son of George W. BROYLES and M. E. KIRK, was born in Jonesborough, TN, on March 7-8, 1882 (marriage and death certificates) or June 1883 (1900 census). In 1900 he was living in Greeneville in the house of his aunt, Elizabeth HENSON. He moved to Knoxville with the HENSON family in 1901-1902, where he worked in a marble mill. On July 18, 1909, he married Cora DAVIS in Knoxville. They moved to Marble City, OK, in 1910-1911, but returned shortly to Knoxville. Cora DAVIS BROYLES died in Knoxville on January 13, 1913. She left three children, but it is unclear if any were from her marriage to Chester. Sometime later Chester moved to Indianapolis, IN, where he married Hazel B. KINNEY on August 23, 1918. He was admitted to the Central Insane Hospital in Indianapolis on February 28, 1922, and he died there on November 27, 1923. He is buried in Memorial Park Cemetery in Indianapolis, IN.
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Mahala BROYLES

Mahala BROYLES was born in June or July 1859, most likely in Horse Creek, TN. She was either 13 or 14 when her father died in 1873. We have no further record of her at this time.
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Mary BROYLES

Mary BROYLES was born in 1862. She married Thomas GRUBBS in Greene Co. on June 7, 1879. Her brother-in-law Henry HENSON was the Bondsman. A year later they were living in Newport, TN, sharing a house with her sister Elizabeth and Henry, Elizabeth's husband. They had a child, Lillian (Lillie), born in April of that year. We have no trace of her or her husband after that.
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Lillie GRUBBS

Lillie GRUBBS, the daughter of Thomas GRUBBS and Mary BROYLES, was born in Newport, TN in 1880. Sometime after that she moved to Greeneville. She and Napoleon (Pole) SIMMONS were issued a marriage license on July 8, 1899, in Greeneville. There is no return. In 1900 she was living with her aunt Elizabeth BROYLES HENSON, and Elizabeth's husband Henry HENSON. She had two daughters, Bonnie and Mary SIMMONS, who were also living there. Bonnie was three years old and Mary was 1 month old at the time of the Census. It appears that Elizabeth was raising the children, even though Lillie was their mother. When the family moved to Knoxville, in 1901 or 1902, Lillie lived apart from Elizabeth and the girls and worked in various occupations. In 1910 she was a boarder in the house of James D. SEAVER. He was a brother of her mother Mary's sister-in-law Martha SEAVER. Also living in the house was Fulton W. SEAVER, a brother of James. Lillie and Fulton married on June 9, 1913. In 1920 they were living with his daughter from a previous marriage. Sometime between 1920 and 1930 Lillie married another man named KOONTZ. By 1930, she was a widow, living with her daughter Bonnie who had married a William BUTCHER in 1914. Lillie died on March 13, 1955. She is buried in New Gray Cemetery.
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Sallie BROYLES

Sallie BROYLES was born in 1864, probably in Horse Creek. She was living there with her family in 1870. In 1880, after her father had died, she was 17 years old, living in Greeneville in the household of John JOHNSON, employed as a cook. Living next door to them was a Julia RAMSEY, who had a daughter Minnie RAMSEY, the same age as Sallie. In 1900 Sallie, now 37, was a servant in the RAMSEY household, again employed as a cook. Minnie was there also, with her children, now the widow of a man named Marsh. Living nearby, in Rheatown, was a George A. BALES, a widower with 5 children.

On October 5, 1900 George A. BALES and a Sarah BROYLES were married in Greene Co. There is no further record of them until 1920, when they were living in Carnegie, OK. She is listed in the census as Sally, 50 years of age. They had a son David Alexander BALES, born July 22, 1902, in Afton, TN. They later moved to Hollene, NM, where George BALES died on January 27, 1935. He is buried in the Hollene Cemetery. She then moved to Shawnee, OK, where she lived with her son David until her death on February 2, 1936. The name on her death certificate is Salie BALES and her age is given as 66. Her parents were listed as unknown. David BALES was the informant. She is buried in the Little Cemetery in Little, OK, a small town about seven miles north of Seminole.

We do not know for sure that Sarah/Sally/Salie BALES is our Sallie BROYLES; however from conversations with her granddaughters she was referred to as Sally and described as an orphan who was placed in a household to be raised. Their father, David A. BALES never mentioned Sally's family to them. Also, while the ages given in census records and on the death certificate for George BALES' wife indicate that she was born in 1870, a BALES family genealogy lists her birthdate as January 2, 1864. It seems plausible that after Sallie's father died her mother had difficulty supporting all the children, so she placed Sallie in the home of friends to be raised, where she later married George A. BALES.
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Rufus Jack BROYLES

Rufus Jack BROYLES was born in eastern Tennessee, reportedly near Jonesborough or Telford. From an entry in his wife's family Bible he was born on April 24, 1869. He is listed in the 1870 census living with his family in Horse Creek. In 1880 he was 12 years old, living with his mother Mariah in Newport, TN. He married Martha E. SEAVER from Whitesburg, Hamblen Co., in 1888. We do not have a record of the marriage. In later life he mentioned to some family members that he was a cowboy before he was married. If so, it's possible that Rufus may have lived in a western or mid-western state at some point between 1880 and 1888, but we have not been able to verify this.

In 1900 Rufus, now 31 years of age, was living with his wife and their five children in Knoxville, TN, in her brother James D. SEAVER's house. Rufus was a day laborer. By 1910 they had three more children. At that time, Rufus was a steam engineer working for a railway company. By 1914 they had two more children which completed their family. Sometime between 1914 and 1919 they moved to Ft. Wayne, IN, where he was employed as a fireman in a rim factory. They later moved to Cincinnati, OH, where Rufus worked in a marble factory until he retired. Rufus BROYLES and Martha had ten children:

Children of Rufus BROYLES & Martha SEAVER
Children	Born	Location	Died	Location
William Edgar BROYLES	22 May 1890	Greeneville, TN	16 Jan 1950	Pittsfield, MA
Carl Minnis BROYLES	14 Mar 1892	Greeneville, TN	04 Apr 1949	Ft. Wayne, IN
Jesse Orville BROYLES	03 Feb 1894	Knoxville, TN	20 Feb 1933	Cincinnati, OH
Bonnie Belle BROYLES	22 Nov 1896	Knoxville, TN	10 Feb 1981	Mason, OH
Rufus BROYLES, Jr.	14 Jun 1898	Knoxville, TN	16 Mar 1923	Cincinnati, OH
William Fain BROYLES	30 Mar 1901	Knoxville, TN	19 Dec 1958	Cincinnati, OH
Myrtle May BROYLES	09 Nov 1905	Knoxville, TN	08 Jan 1923	Cincinnati, OH
Wirt Calvin BROYLES	22 Jun 1908	Knoxville, TN	11 Oct 1961	Cincinnati, OH
Helen Stella BROYLES	16 Aug 1912	Knoxville, TN	25 Feb 1977	Cincinnati, OH
Earl BROYLES	14 Aug 1914	Knoxville, TN	19 Feb 1919	Ft. Wayne, IN

Rufus J. BROYLES died on May 26, 1943. His wife Martha died on May 21, 1947. They are buried in the Vine Street Hill Cemetery in Cincinnati, OH.
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(William) Edgar BROYLES

(William) Edgar BROYLES, the son of Rufus J. BROYLES and Martha E. SEAVER, was born in Greeneville, TN, on May 22, 1890. The family moved to Knoxville a few years later, where he lived through 1900. Sometime between 1900-1910 he moved to South Bend, IN, where he was a finisher in a woolen mill. He remained in the textile industry throughout his life and had a reputation as an expert cloth finisher. At some point he changed his name to Edgar William. He married Cecilia M. LASECKI on April 21, 1910 in South Bend. The following year he and his wife moved to Pittsfield, MA. In 1916 they moved to Columbia City, IN, for one year, then back to Pittsfield, where he remained for the rest of his life. They had five children:

Children of Edgar BROYLES & Cecilia LASECKI
Children	Born	Died
Edgar Anthony BROYLES	12 Jun 1910	16 Jun 1965
Robert Louis BROYLES	10 Oct 1912	27 Jul 1979
Francis Richard BROYLES	12 Jun 1914	03 Nov 1928
Charles Stanley BROYLES	23 Mar 1916	27 Nov 1977
Cecilia BROYLES	21 Dec 1917	10 Jul 1919

In 1919, Edgar's wife Cecelia and daughter Cecelia both died in the influenza epidemic. The following year, on January 14, 1920, he married Josephine Margaret ANDREOTTA. They had seven children:

Children of Edgar BROYLES & Josephine ANDREOTTA
Children	Born	Died
Joseph Edgar BROYLES	29 Oct 1920
Josephine BROYLES	06 Jun 1922
Virginia BROYLES	08 Sep 1923	01 Aug 1998
James J. BROYLES	28 Sep 1927	12 Oct 1985
Richard Francis BROYLES	20 Aug 1935
William Roger BROYLES	20 Apr 1937
(John) Bruce BROYLES	08 Dec 1944

(William) Edgar BROYLES died on January 16, 1950. His wife Josephine died on June 9, 1995. They are buried in St. Joseph's Cemetery in Pittsfield, MA with two of the children from his first marriage, Francis and Charles. Charles' wife Carrie HERMANSKI is also buried there.
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Carl Minnis BROYLES

Carl Minnis BROYLES, the son of Rufus J. BROYLES and Martha E. SEAVER, was born in Greeneville, TN, on March 14, 1892, and later moved with his family to Knoxville, TN. He is listed in the 1910 U.S. Census there as a house painter. Sometime after that he moved to Celina, OH, where he married Florence CAVENDER, on September 16, 1916. They lived in Cincinnati and Celina for a few years, then moved to Ft. Wayne, IN, where he remained for the rest of his life. They had eight children:

Children of Carl BROYLES & Florence CAVENDER
Children	Born	Died
Ada Violet BROYLES	01 Jul 1917	09 Mar 1999
Myrtle Fay BROYLES	03 Feb 1919
Florence Elizabeth BROYLES	20 Jul 1920	14 Oct 1925
Carl BROYLES, Jr.	19 Jul 1922	31 Jan 1981
Jack Esten BROYLES	22 Jan 1924	16 Jan 1991
Barbara Jean BROYLES	27 Mar 1925	31 May 1997
Bonna Lou BROYLES	15 May 1927	23 Jan 1998
Albert Glenn BROYLES	21 Jan 1932	06 Jul 1992

Carl BROYLES died on April 4, 1949. His wife Florence died on August 24, 1953. They are buried in the Prairie Grove Cemetery in Ft. Wayne, IN.
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Jesse Orville BROYLES

Jesse Orville BROYLES, the son of Rufus J. BROYLES and Martha E. SEAVER, was born in Knoxville, TN, on February 3, 1894, and grew up there. He is listed in the 1910 U.S. Census as a 16 year old living with his parents and working in a chair factory. When the family later moved to Ft. Wayne, he stayed in Knoxville, living with his sister Bonnie, who was now married to Samuel J. STRANGE. Jesse married Bessie SMITH in Knoxville, on May 11, 1913. She died less than a year later, on February 14, 1914. They had no children.

He then married Laura ROGERS on April 3, 1916, in Knoxville. Her father's name was John RO(D)GERS, and her mother's name was Clementine CARR. Reportedly, Laura was part Cherokee Indian and lived on the Reservation at one time, although we have not been able to authenticate this. She had previously been married to Fielding S. RAMSEY. In 1920, after their first child was born, Jesse and Laura moved to Cincinnati, OH, where they lived for the rest of their lives. They had five children:

Children of Jesse BROYLES & Laura ROGERS
Children	Born	Died
Bessie Eleanor BROYLES	25 Apr 1920	27 Aug 1983
Earl Anthony BROYLES	03 Nov 1922	18 Mar 2000
Helen Marie BROYLES	19 Jan 1925	12 Apr 2002
Edgar William BROYLES	05 Oct 1928
Diane Jessie BROYLES	01 Apr 1932	01 Oct 1981

Jesse Orville BROYLES died on February 20, 1933. His wife Laura died on June 7, 1986. He is buried in the Vine Street Hill Cemetery in Cincinnati, OH. She is buried in the Oak Hill Cemetery, which is also in Cincinnati.
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Bonnie Belle BROYLES

Bonnie Belle BROYLES, the daughter of Rufus J. BROYLES and Martha E. SEAVER, was born in Knoxville, TN, on November 22, 1896. She is listed in the 1910 U.S. Census living in Knoxville with her parents and working in a chair factory. She married Samuel J. STRANGE on September 19, 1914, in Knoxville. They had no children. Her husband died on February 12, 1965. A few years later she went to live with her nephew William FLYNN in Mason, OH. She lived there until her death on February 10, 1981. She is buried alongside her husband in the New Gray Cemetery in Knoxville, TN.
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Rufus BROYLES, Jr.

Rufus BROYLES, Jr., the son of Rufus J. BROYLES and Martha E. SEAVER, was born in Knoxville, TN, on June 14, 1898. He is listed in both the 1900 and 1910 U.S. Census living there with his parents. By 1920, when his parents moved to Ft. Wayne, IN, he was no longer living with them. His whereabouts at that time are unknown, but there is a picture of him taken at a photography studio in Chicago, IL, which suggests that he may have lived there for a time. On March 16, 1923, he died from tuberculosis at the age of 24 in his parents home, who now lived in Cincinnati. His body was removed to Knoxville and buried in the New Gray Cemetery.
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William Fain BROYLES

William Fain BROYLES, the son of Rufus J. BROYLES and Martha E. SEAVER, was born in Knoxville, TN, on March 30, 1901. He moved to Ft. Wayne with his parents around 1919, and worked as a riveter in a dredge company. He later married Jeanette LYLES, whose family lived next door to his sister Bonnie in Knoxville. Fain and Jeanette moved to Cincinnati, OH, where he worked as a truck driver and then as a foreman at a supply company. They had no children. Reportedly, he was struck in the head by a crane at work, which led to his death on December 19, 1958, from cancer of the skull. He is buried in the Vine Street Hill Cemetery in Cincinnati. His wife Jeanette moved back to Knoxville after his death, where she died in October 1986.
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Myrtle May BROYLES

Myrtle May BROYLES, the daughter of Rufus J. BROYLES and Martha E. SEAVER, was born in Knoxville, TN, on November 9, 1905. When her parents moved to Ft. Wayne around 1920 she stayed in Knoxville with her sister Bonnie and Bonnie's husband. She worked as a laborer in a cotton mill. Myrtle never married. Sometime after her parents moved to Cincinnati she went to live with them. She had tuberculosis, and on January 8, 1923, she died at the age of 17. Her body was removed to Knoxville where she is buried in New Gray Cemetery.
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Wirt Calvin BROYLES

Wirt Calvin BROYLES, the son of Rufus J. BROYLES and Martha E. SEAVER, was born in Knoxville, TN, on June 22, 1908. He moved to Ft. Wayne, IN, with his parents around 1919, and then to Cincinnati when they moved there. Around 1944 he married Aline FLYNN. She was the sister of Robert FLYNN, who was married to Wirt's sister Helen Stella BROYLES. Wirt and Aline had no children and they later divorced. Aline moved to California with her brother Houston and then to Charleston, SC, where she died on September 18, 1989.

Wirt then took up residence with Sophia McCORD, whose family came from Ewing, KY. They also had no children, but Sophia had two sons and a daughter, Brenda, from a previous marriage who lived with them. Brenda was reportedly later adopted by Wirt and took the name BROYLES. Wirt BROYLES died on October 11, 1961 and Sophia died on March 25, 1996. They are buried in the Vine Street Hill Cemetery in Cincinnati.
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Helen Stella BROYLES

Helen Stella BROYLES, the daughter of Rufus J. BROYLES and Martha E. SEAVER, was born in Knoxville, TN, on August 16, 1912. She is listed in the 1920 U.S. Census living with her family, who had moved to Ft. Wayne, IN. The family moved again to Cincinnati, OH, and on May 5, 1928, she married Robert FLYNN in Newport, KY. He was a preacher who came from Burnside, KY. Reportedly, Rufus and Martha, Stella's parents, spent a considerable amount of time with the FLYNN family, and Martha lived with them after her husband's death. Stella's daughter recalls her grandfather Rufus telling her that he was a cowboy before he was married. Robert and Stella had five children:

Children of Robert FLYNN & Stella BROYLES
Children	Born	Died
Robert FLYNN, Jr.	16 Apr 1929	24 Dec 1989
Helen Magdalene FLYNN	07 Mar 1931	27 Apr 1999
Barbara Jean FLYNN	28 Sep 1932
Joann Martha Lou FLYNN	15 Jun 1934
William Wirt FLYNN	14 Feb 1943

Helen Stella FLYNN died on February 25, 1977. Her husband, Robert FLYNN, died ten years later on June 2, 1987. They are buried in Meyers Cemetery in Goshen, OH.
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Earl BROYLES

Earl BROYLES, the son of Rufus J. BROYLES and Martha E. SEAVER, was born in Knoxville, TN, on August 14, 1914. He moved to Ft. Wayne, IN, with his parents around 1919. On February 19, 1919, he died from influenza, a disease that was ravaging the country. He was buried in a cemetery in Ft. Wayne, but on December 22, 1919, his body was removed to Knoxville for reburial. He is buried there in New Gray Cemetery.
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Catharine BROYLES

Catharine BROYLES, the last of Jacob W. and Mariah's children was born in June or July of 1870. She was about three years old when her father died. We have no further record of her.
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