The Lee’s of Beat Four, Wayne County, Mississippi Part II: Early Wayne County to 2014 By Lennard (Larry) Woodrow Lee, Jr., PhD Master Lee Part 2- January 2014 Contents Introduction .................................................................................................................................... 3 The Lees of Wayne County, Mississippi .......................................................................................... 4 Generation 4: Samuel Jefferson Lee, Senior December 25, 1772- ~1846 ..................................... 6 Martha Patricia “Patsy” Overstreet .......................................................................................... 55 Doctor John Asbury West 1790-1848 ....................................................................................... 62 Generation 5: Robeson Earl Lee................................................................................................... 66 Steve M. Lee ............................................................................................................................ 106 The Tommie Lewis Letter ............................................................................................................ 110 Generation 6: Phillip Anaphur “Napper” Lee............................................................................. 116 Generation 7: Gerod Clifton Lee, Senior .................................................................................... 133 Grandpa Gerod Lee’s correct birth date ................................................................................. 140 From my Grandfather’s Masonic Bible, 1951 ......................................................................... 144 Gerod Clifton Lee, Junior ......................................................................................................... 146 Generation 8: Lennard Woodrow Lee, Senior December 21, 1929 – March 15, 2006 ............. 148 Ulysses Large Lee..................................................................................................................... 156 Polly Reece (Lee) Lott .............................................................................................................. 159 Generation 9: Lennard (Larry) Woodrow Lee, Jr. ...................................................................... 160 Luther William Lee ...................................................................................................................... 178 Notes with Luther Lee; 12 July 2007 at the Wayne General Hospital .................................... 179 The Old Lee Plantation ................................................................................................................ 181 What happened to the Old Lee Plantation? ........................................................................... 184 The Cousins Chart ....................................................................................................................... 186 Ancestors of Lennard (Larry) Woodrow Lee, Junior ................................................................... 187 Ancestor Listing ....................................................................................................................... 206 The General Robert Edward Lee Connection ............................................................................. 218 After all of this information; what do we really know? .............................................................. 224 2 Master Lee Part 2- January 2014 Introduction Part 1 of my Lee family history documented the time when my 6th Great grandfather John Lee migrated from England to America in about the year 1694 through my 4th Great grandfather Zachariah Lee. John Lee settled in Virginia as he was granted 960 acres in Virginia by the King of England. His son Joshua Lee migrated into North Carolina. In North Carolina, Joshua’s son Zachariah Lee was probably killed by Tories. Tories were individuals that did not support the American Revolution for Independence and wanted the thirteen colonies to stay under the government and control of the King of England. Zachariah’s brother, Jesse Lee, Senior served in the Continental Army that was commanded by General George Washington. Thus I get the sense that our early Lee family supported and fought for independence from England. Certainly some of them did. Zachariah’s son, Samuel Jefferson Lee, Senior, migrated from North Carolina to Wayne County, Mississippi in the early 1800s. Part 2 starts out with stories about my 3rd Great grandpa Sam and his family. This Part ends with the present day Lees. I have DNA testing and Wayne County records to verify the entire lineage given in this Part of my family history. In Part 1, I had to rely totally on information generated by others; not so in this Part. A good section of Part 2 is from my own memory. Thus I am very confident about most of the information presented in Part 2. The lineage is certainly correct; but some of the extended family data may not be. As I stated in Part 1, my Lee family has maintained a presence in and around Wayne County, Mississippi for over 200-years. Few other Wayne County families can state likewise. I start out by repeating the prelude to Part 1 about “The Lees of Wayne County.” That is because some may elect to read only this Part of the family history and miss the important information that actually prompted me to do these notes in the first place. As before, I found this “history” entertaining. Try to imagine how life was for our forefathers. 3 Master Lee Part 2- January 2014 The Lees of Wayne County, Mississippi There is much confusion about our family tree. The surname “Lee” is one of the most common surnames in North America; and obviously we are not all related. The Henry Lee Society is a genealogical organization devoted investigating the lineage of the Lee and similar surnames. This Society is becoming one of the largest and most devoted communities of researchers in the world. Their website is http://henryleesociety.com/ . The Henry Lee Society at one time connected my Lee family of Robeson County, North Carolina to Henry Lee of Shropshire, England. However, several DNA tests have shown that my Lee family linage goes back to John Lee of Nansemond County,1 Virginia. Nansemond County, now extinct, existed in Virginia from 1646 to 1972 (above from an 1895 map) 1 Nansemond County, Virginia is an extinct county. It was named for the Nansemond American Indian tribe. It is around Suffolk, Virginia 4 Master Lee Part 2- January 2014 Sometime before 2007, my second cousin once removed, Luther William Lee, took a DNA test sponsored by the Henry Lee Society.2 Luther’s test proved that he belonged in the John Lee family group.3 In the summer of 2007, I also took a DNA test sponsored by the Henry Lee Society that, as expected, linked me to the John Lee family group too. The Lees of Wayne County, Mississippi are descendants of this John Lee. Larry and Luther Lee (left to right) Lee’s Chapel Freewill Baptist Church Wayne County, Mississippi May 2007 The research of the Henry Lee Society has found that the John Lee of Nansemond County family group appears to be one of the largest Lee-surname clans in the USA in modern times. I am now an active member of the Henry Lee Society myself as of November 2013. With those two DNA tests, my Lee family lineage was found; with no doubt. These two DNA tests were taken in different years, analyzed by different laboratories, yet they yielded SAME results for Luther and me. I am very aware that many of my kin folks are likely to dispute and reject the lineage that have recorded in this document, mostly because for many generations incorrect information has been passed down to them, and they sincerely believe what they have been told all their lives. I myself would have rejected this information in the 1980s; however, the odds of two DNA tests being wrong are inconceivably small. There is also overwhelming research evidence that I have found that was done by the many researchers of our family line literally from all over the nation that verifies the John Lee lineage for my family. I now present to you my Lee family that migrated from North Carolina to Wayne County, Mississippi, and then my lineage up to me of the Wayne County Lees. 2 Luther’s great grandfather Robeson “Robert” Earl Lee is my 2nd great grandfather. Luther and my Dad are 2nd cousins. 3 John Lee was known both as “John Lee of England” and/or “John Lee of Nansemond County, Virginia.” 5 Master Lee Part 2- January 2014 Generation 4: Samuel Jefferson Lee, Senior4 December 25, 1772- ~1846 When I was a teenager in 1967 my grandfather, Gerod Lee Senior, mentioned to me that “Old Sam Lee” left Wayne County and went out to Texas and later came back with his children, literally carrying his youngest son in his arms,5 and this is where we Lees came from.” Grandpa also said the Sam’s people came from Virginia, but Grandpa did not tell me much more. Perhaps that is about all that Grandpa Gerod knew about his ancestor Sam. Some forty- years later I discovered just how much more there was! Samuel Jefferson Lee, Senior is my Great-great-great grandfather; or my 3rd great grandfather. I have a number of my Lee relatives that do not know how Sam fits into our lineage. Some even suggest he doesn’t; but I have LOTS of indisputable proof that he does. I have examined Wayne County Census and courthouse records to accurately trace my lineage back to Samuel Lee: Samuel Jefferson Lee, Sr. Robeson Earl “Robert” Lee Phillip