Individual Details

May or may not belong as son of Abraham

Hill, or Hilly, married Nancy A. Morris on 7 Dec 1809, in Jasper Co, GA. He spent his life on the move, always going west. After leaving Edgecombe Co NC, he went to Sumter Co SC, then to Jones & Jasper Counties in GA, Warren Co TN, Dekalb Co, AL, and finally to Hickory Co MO.

The family was counted in Warren Co TN in 1820 & 1830. In 1840 they were in DeKalb Co AL, under the name "Hiley Bipin" By 1850 they were in Dallas Co MO, and then Hickory Co MO in 1860. In 1870, Nany was in Camden Co MO, age 81, living in the home of her son-in-law Samuel Edison [Spelled Idson on this census].

Hill & Nancy had nine children: Charles, Nathan, Nancy, May, Lousena, Elizabeth, William, Virginia & Louisa. The names came from the sworn statement of their grandson William C. Pippin acting as administrator of his aunt Virginia's estate. Virginia died before 21 Sep 1868 in Hickory Co MO, unmarried. The heirs were listed as:
Nancy A. Pippin, mother, Hickory Co MO
Wm C. Pippin Senr, brother, Pulaski Co MO
Nathan Pippin, brother, Dallas Co MO
Louisa M. J. Idson, sister, state of TX
Lousena Hemdon, sister, state of GA
Heirs of May Bohanan, sister, state of AL
Wm C. Pippin Jr. [son of C. A. Pippin, brother, & his only heir), Hickory Co MO

Obsolete website found on Wayback Machine
http://www.oocities.org/hillypippin/wpe/node2.html
Hill Pippin

Hill Pippin, born around 1789 in North Carolina, and died after 1860 in Missouri, is the most remote ancestor that our branch of the Pippins can identify with confidence.

Hill Pippin married Nancy Morris, whose ancestry also is yet to be determined. According to Dru L. Pippin, ``... Pippin married Nancy Hill. ... [and his son] Hill Pippin (Hilly) married Miss Birdsong.''

Hill Pippin is supposed to have come to Hickory Co. in 1848. Dru L. Pippin said he is buried in the Fisher graveyard, East of Preston, Mo.

Name

Even the name of our ancestor has been a source of contention. Was his name Hilley, Hilly or Hill? Is Hilly a diminutive of Hill? Here is how some documents generated in his lifetime name him. Hilley: marriage, land lottery, 1830 Census, receipt for transporting Cherokees, 1860 Census. Hill: various land transactions, and the 1850 census, the first census we have with Hill himself the Head of Household. One theory is that his given name is from the surname ``Hill''. My convention is to use ``Hill''.

Date and Place of Birth

Since there is no birth record, bible date, or tombstone, Hill Pippin's date of birth must be guessed from the census records. In the 1830 census he is said to be between 30 and 40 (DOB 1790-1800). In the 1850 census he is said to be 62 (DOB 1788). In the 1860 census, the last census in which he can be found, he is said to be age 71 (DOB 1789). For convenience, in the following chronology I assume he was born in 1789. According to the Census records, he was born in North Carolina.

Ancestry

Dru Pippin says that Hill's mother was named Nancy Hill. He was unable to identify the father.

One theory was that his parents were ``Joseph Howell Pippin'' and Nancy Hill. (Johnny Bezusko told me that it was a ``family tradition'' that Hill Pippin's mother was named Nancy Hill.) This theory has been refuted by Jim Pippin in Pippin Pathways, supra. But how did the Joseph Howell Pippin theory arise? According to Johnny Bezusko, the notion was based on one of the letters that John Breckenridge Pippin sent to Rev. Walter W. Pippen, Jr. In one letter, he says that Joseph Howell Pippin (JHP) was his ancestor and that JHP had several boys, whose names he recited, and two whose names he had forgotten for the moment when he wrote the letter. As Johnny Bezusko told me, there was a big ``Aha!'' and researchers at the time concluded that Hill Pippin ``must'' have been one of those two unnamed sons. This ``pin the tail on the donkey'' logic continues to plague us today. But Jim Pippin was able to identify the other two sons, and Hill wasn't one of them.

Jim Pippin wrote me in 1999 and outlined his reasoning for guessing that Hill was actually descended from Abraham Pippin. I discuss his theory below.

Chronology

1808-1820

The first written records I know of that name Hill Pippin relate to his marriage to Nancy Morris. The record says that Hilly Pippin and Nancy Morris married in Jasper County, Georgia, somewhere in the period 1808-1810. The date is given more precisely by Frances Ingmire in a listing of records from Randolph and Jasper Counties, Georgia; she gives the date 1809-12-07. Hill's first son, Charles Applewhite Pippin, was born in Georgia around 1812. (In the 1850 census C. A. Pippin is 38 years old.) Hill was therefore about 24 when he got married.

Hill's second son, Nathan, was born in Georgia around 1813. (In the 1850 Census Nathan is shown as 36 years old.)

Hill appears in the Georgia Land Lottery during this period. For 1811 through 1814 he appears in ``District 13-Jones County - LL 80 District 13 Jones County (Joins LL's 49,79, & 81 in 13th dist, and 56 in 10th dist)''. He is shown in three transactions: (1) 1811 E-107 William Ratcliff to Hilley Pippin 130 ac by estimation; (2) 1813 Tax list Hilley Pippin 150 ac adj Pope; and, (3) 1814 Tax list Hilley Pippin 120 ac adj Pope.

He also appears in 1818 in ``Deed Records for 13th District of Jones County, Georgia'' in two transactions, namely: (1) 1L-209 1818 William McMath to Hilley Pippin 101 ac West 12/12; and (2) 1L-210 1818 Hilley Pippin to Thomas White 101 ac 12/12.

The Jones County location could be important if it turns out that Hill can be linked to Isaac Pippin. because there are records of Isaac Pippin in connection with the land lottery in Jones, Co. Isaac also appears in the 1832 Gold Lottery. But it's unclear what the substantial lapse of time between Hill's last appearance in the Georgia lottery and Isaac's means. Was there any relationship.

1820

I don't have any census data. Dolores Timmons says he is enumerated in the 1820 Census for Warren Co., TN. She says there were land transactions there too.

1825

Hill's his third son, William Carroll Pippin was born in Tennessee. Hill was around 37.

1830

Hill was in Tennessee as of the 1830 census: ``Peppin, Hilly: 1m 5-10, 2m 15-20, 1m 30-40; 1f less than 5, 1f 5-10, 2f 10-15, and 1f 30-40.'' County not shown; just ``Middle Tennessee''. Hill would have been around 40 years old. His last child, a daughter, Louisa Matilda, was born in Tennessee in 1831. Hill would have been 41 or 42.

Dolores Timmons found his name on tax rolls for Warren Co., TN in 1836.

1838

There is a receipt to Hilly Pippin showing a location of Rawlingsville, Alabama in 1838. This is a place that takes some researching to find, since it is evidently only a historical name at this point. It is east of Huntsville and about 50 miles west of Georgia. There is a Bellefonte, Alabama, about where the receipt quoted below leads one to look.

Receipt to Hilly Pippin. For furnishing seven wagons and teams and hauling 90 Cherokee Emigrants and their baggage from Rawlingsville, Alabama to the Bellefonte Landing on the Tennessee River twenty-seven miles allowing four days and a half commencing on the 12th and ending on the 16th day of March 1838 at four dollars per day for each team, $126.00.
Approved by Nat. Smith, Superintendent of Cherokee removal; paid by Lt. Edward Deas, signed by Pippin.
Hill would have been around 50 at this time. This is the only document I have seen that shows Hill in the company of native Americans.

1840

Charles A. Pippin appears in the census for Warren Co., TN.15 ``Charles A. Pippin: m:1-0-0-0-1 f:0-1-0-0-1-1.'' It seems that Charles Applewhite Pippin had married by this time; he would have been 38 years old. I have not located a record in this Census directly naming Hill.

1842

Hill Pippin appears in the Register of Receipts, Lebanon Land Office, 1842-10-0516, Residence: DeKalb Co., Alabama, Sec. 11, Tsp. 6, Range 9. The source says that ``DeKalb County was formed in 1836 out of land acquired in the Cherokee Cession...,'' and ``The Coosa Land District was established by an act of Congress 10 July 1832 to administer the sale of Creek Indian lands in Alabama....''

1845

Four land transactions reported 17 in ``Proofed Patents 1840-1851 DeKalb Co., Alabama'' and dated 1845 (May and July) place Hill Pippin and William Carroll Pippin in the vicinity of Huntsville, Alabama. William Carroll Pippin would have been around 20 at the time. The source refers to the location T6S R9E.

In a short statement of the family history of William Carroll Pippin by George W. Pippin in 188918, George says that William Carroll Pippin ``was taken to Alabama when young, and was reared on a plantation in that State....'' This is echoed in Dru L. Pippin's ``Pippins in Missouri'' in which he says, ``William Carroll was born in Tennessee and taken by father to Alabama and reared on a plantation.'' And in ``Pippin: A Pioneer,'' E. S. Khalifah said, ``As a small boy [William Carroll Pippin] went with the family to Alabama (near Birmingham) where he grew to young manhood.'' Lebanon, where the land transactions took place, and Birmingham are about 75 miles apart. Dru may have simply been echoing George's statement, which he quoted in his own document; however, the Khalifah article was probably written on the basis of information Bland Nixon Pippin provided to Dr. Khalifah personally. The additional fact of a location in the vicinity of Birmingham is possibly something Bland recalled hearing in family discussions. It's possible that all the information Bland had about his family came from the eldest brother, George, who was pretty close to him.

Another location in Alabama is named by Dru Pippin in ``Pippins in Missouri'' where he says that Charles Applewhite Pippin ``married Betsy Hinchaw in Alabama at Nunley's Cove.'' I haven't been able to find any reference to a Nunley's Cove in Alabama, but there are references to a Nunley's Cove in Tennessee - a location in Grundy County, just south of Warren County. This is consistent with the whereabouts of the Hill's son Charles Applewhite Pippin in Tennessee as of the 1840 census. I have heard of a land deed naming Hill Pippin and Nancy Barnes in Warren Co., TN, but I have been unable to confirm it.

On the issue of Alabama, it should be mentioned that William Carroll Pippin's son Bland Nixon Pippin wrote a clearly autobiographical novel concerning a family with the surname ``Applegate'' and in the novel the father - who would correspond to William Carroll Pippin - is from Alabama.

1850

In the 1850 census Charles Applewhite Pippin appears in Pulaski County, while Hill and Nathan are in separate households in Hickory County. William Carroll Pippin is shown living with Hill.

Hill's entry in the census is not entirely legible. He is shown as ``Hill'' age 62 (1788) and his wife Nancy, 60 (1790). Also in the family are Elizabeth, 26 (1824); William, 25 (1825); Carolyn, 22 (1828); and [illeg., probably Matilda], 17 (1833). There is a non-family laborer too, whose name I cannot read.

In 1852 Charles Applewhite Pippin was still in Waynesville. He is listed, along with Bland N. Ballard, Elisha Christeson, and William Trower, in Pulaski County Administrative Bonds, Book A (1848-1852) on 1852-03-05 with respect to the administration of the estate of Samuel York, who had died intestate.

William Carroll Pippin married Nancy Jane Tilley of Waynesville, Pulaski County, in 1852. He was around 27 years old. His first child, daughter Virginia Caroline Pippin, was born in Hickory County in 1854. But ultimately William Carroll Pippin moved to Pulaski County, and Charles Applewhite moved back to Hickory County.

In 1853 Charles Applewhite Pippin is shown in the early land entries in Hickory County: (T37 R20), Charles A. Pippin, August 5, 1853, northwest northwest section 34.20

1860

Charles Applewhite Pippin had returned to Hickory County and he is shown in Hickory County in the 1860 census. In the 1860 census, Hill, Charles, Nathan, and William C. are all shown in Hickory County.

Hill Pippin appears for the last time in the census this year. He is shown in Hickory County, Missouri, age 71, farmer, real estate of $600 and personal property of $357. He is shown as having been born in N.C. Also in his household, wife Nancy, age 67 (b. c1793), born in NC; and Virginia, age 25 (b. c1835), born in TN.

1868

Both Charles A. and Nathan Pippin are shown on the 1868 delinquent tax list for Hickory County.21

The Move to Missouri

The family ended up in two different Missouri counties, Pulaski County and Hickory County. We can get a sense of when the family moved to Missouri by examining when Hill's grandchildren were born. Nathan's daughter Nancy A. was born in Missouri roughly 1844 (she was 16 in 1860).

In Goodspeed George W. Pippin says that William Carroll Pippin came to Pulaski County, Mo., ``about forty years ago, and [settled] on the farm on which his son, George W., now lives.'' This would date the move to Missouri to 1849; however, one must take into account that there was probably a delay between the time when George made his statement and the 1889 date of publication of the book. George's statement itself wasn't dated. In ``Pippins in Missouri'' Dru Pippin says that William Carroll Pippin ``came with father to Missouri in 1848 and settled in Hickory Co.'' Since Dru incorporated George's Goodspeed statement in his work, that is possibly where he got his date. Hill would have been 60, Charles 36, Nathan 34, and William Carroll 24. Charles Applewhite had a son, Stirling22, who was born in Tennessee roughly 1843 (he was 17 in the 1860 census. But Charles Applewhite Pippin's wife, Elizabeth (Hinchaw), wrote a letter from Tennessee to her mother and brother in Waynesville in 1849. It is not clear from that letter whether her husband (or exactly who else from the Pippin family) was already in Missouri.

With respect to Pippins in Pulaski County, George's statement gives the impression that William Carroll Pippin was the first, and that he settled in Pulaski County first after the move to Missouri. This is not the case. William Carroll Pippin at first lived with his father in Hickory County, and Charles Applewhite Pippin was the first to acquire land and live in Pulaski County, Missouri. This is where Charles Applewhite Pippin appears in the 1850 census, while William Carroll appears with Hill in Hickory County. Charles Applewhite Pippin probably came to Waynesville because of his wife's connection. Elizabeth Hinchaw's brother Levi married Permelia Christeson (the Christesons were among the first settlers of the Waynesville area).

Why did the Pippins come to Missouri? And why at that time? Patty Thomas emailed me the following story that she heard from Gayle White, a Charles Applewhite Pippin descendant:

Talking about the letter from Elizabeth Hinshaw to her brother Levi where she seems to be chewing him out for leaving without letting her know anything about it. My Granddad Atchley said the reason that the Pippins came to MO they had some Indian blood wherever they lived it was close to a town. And the mayor's boy molested one of the girls. That night her family and brothers loaded their wagons and headed for MO. When they left they left the mayor's son hanging in a tree on the courthouse lawn. I don't know if that was true or not, all grandma would say was ``O Sush, Will Atchley''. If you've noticed Hill Pippin and Levi Hinshaw showed up in the Pulaski Co. at the same time.
It's a good story. I haven't seen documentation that Hill Pippin ever saw Pulaski County, but it's not inconceivable. Charles Applewhite Pippin and William Carroll Pippin did. However, in 1849 Elizabeth (``Betsy'') Hinchaw Pippin was still in Alabama. We know that because she wrote a letter to her brother Levi from DeKalb County, Alabama that year. So it would seem that they did not all come together in a mass escape, although there are elements of the story that could be true.

The letter from Elizabeth Hinchaw Pippin to her brother Levi does shed light on the route by which the Pippins may have come to Missouri. In it, she refers to someone else coming by way of the Kentucky ``Iron Banks'' - which means they may have crossed the Mississippi at the southern edge of Missouri roughly in the vicinity of Cape Girardeau.

Waynesville

In ``Pippin: A Pioneer,'' Khalifah relates the family history as follows.

As a small boy [William Carroll Pippin] went with the family to Alabama (near Birmingham) where he grew to young manhood. The family turned back to Tennessee and later came to Hickory County. As this part of the country was sparsely settled it was customary to go long distances in search of wheat for seed or food, and this is how William Carroll Pippin came to Waynesville where he met and married Nancy Jane Tilley. They lived for a few years in Hickory County where they established a homestead, lived there for several years, and in the course of time sold the home, removed to Pulaski County and settled on a farm near Waynesville.
Several events signal when William Carroll Pippin might have moved to Waynesville.

William Carroll Pippin's son Jasper was born in Hickory County in 1857, but his son Thomas Jefferson Pippin was born in Pulaski County in 1862.

In ``Pippins in Missouri'' Dru Pippin says that the original William Carroll Pippin holdings in Hickory County ``later became the object of a prolonged lawsuit between the heirs of Charles Applewhite Pippin. William Carroll sold this property to William Carroll second [his brother Charles Applewhite's son] before moving to Pulaski County Missouri about 1863.'' Dru doesn't say how he determined this date.

In Goodspeed George Pippin says that he was raised in Hickory County until he was eleven. George was born 1856-01-28, so if his chronology is correct he moved to Pulaski County in 1867.

On 1861-09-1023 Wilson Tilley was murdered, and part of his land was transferred to William Carroll Pippin's wife, Nancy Jane (Tilley) Pippin.24 At that point, William Carroll Pippin sold his Hickory County holdings to William Carroll Pippin, son of Charles Applewhite Pippin, and moved to his wife's farm in Pulaski County near Waynesville. I suspect that the reason Thomas Jefferson Pippin was born in Pulaski County in 1862 was that Nancy Jane went back to be with her mother and sisters, either for childbirth, or because of the impending Civil War instability in the region. Wilson Tilley had extensive holdings which seem to have been township 35 N, range 12 W, in or around sections 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 22, 23, 24.

Where did Charles Applewhite Pippin lived when he resided in the Waynesville area from 1850 until around 1860? He seems to have had two parcels: one was T35N R11 S18; the other was T35N, R11, Section 727.

Civil War

The Pippins fought for the Confederacy. William Bradford, who ended up raising William Carroll Pippin's son Bland Nixon Pippin, fought on the side of the Confederacy. Levi Hinchaw, Charles Applewhite Pippin's brother in law, did too.25 So did Charles Applewhite Pippin's son Stirling Samuel.

Rev. Walter W. Pippen, Jr. searched archives of soldiers in the CSA. He pointed out the following two entries under ``Pippin/en'' in the records for Texas and said that the entries probably documented the participation of Hill Pippin's sons Charles Applewhite and William Carroll in the war.

Chas. A. ... Enlisted March 5, 1862 at Hamilton, Texas, Company C, 24th Texas Cavalry, CSA. Captured January 11, 1863 at Arkansas Post, Ark. Exchanged April 17, 1863 at City Point, Va. Last of record, April, 1864.
William C. ... Enlisted March 5, 1862 at Hamilton, Texas, Company C, 24th Texas Cavalry, CSA. Captured January 11, 1863 at Arkansas Post, Ark. Exchanged April 15, 1863 at City Point, Va. Last of record in April, 1863.
The 1863/1864 ``last of record'' dates are per Rev. Pippen's manuscript. I suspect the 1864 date is a typo. The unit in which they served seems to have been Deshler's brigade. Details relating to the fate of the brigade were found on the web. In brief: in November, 1862 it was sent to Arkansas and Arkansas Post; after a thirty hour battle the Confederates surrendered. The 24th suffered great ridicule among Confederate forces from then on, because their commander was supposedly the first to raise the white flag. According to the article, the release date from City Point, Virginia was May 4, 1863. The freed prisoners were then sent to Tennessee to join Braxton Bragg's forces. Ultimately at the end of the war, the Texas men returned to Houston on June 13, 1865.

In Rev. Pippen's brief discussion, where he concludes that these are Hill Pippin's sons serving in the war, Rev. Pippen seems to have overlooked an item he had typed a few lines previously in his Civil War records that shows a third member of the clan joining up at the same place and the same time, one of Nathan Pippin's twin sons, Andrew Jackson Pippin. The problem is that we can't conclusively determine whether the W C Pippin of the record is Hill's son or Andrew Jackson's twin.26 However, we know that Charles Applewhite Pippin's brother William Carroll Pippin did serve in the civil war, because his son George says so in Goodspeed.

Another aspect of the growth of the Pippin Line that this Civil War record concerns is the eventual move to Texas of several branches of the Pippin family. Hamilton, Texas, where they officially enlisted, is not a border town; it is deep in the heart of Texas. One wonders who led them to that location. This answer to this question might shed some light on the reasons for the migration of much of the family to Texas later. (There is said to be a letter from John Hinchaw, Elizabeth's brother, written to her in Hickory County, urging the family to go to Texas, as the land of opportunity, but I do not know the date of the letter or from which part of Texas it was sent.)

Date and Place of Death and Burial of Hill Pippin

The last census in which Hill Pippin appears is 1860. It is reasonable to conclude that he died between 1860 and 1870 at age 71-82. It doesn't appear that he moved from Hickory County and probably he died there. Dru L. Pippin said in ``Pippins in Missouri'' that Hill Pippin is buried in the Fisher graveyard in Preston, Missouri. I went to Preston in 1994 and could find no trace of him in the Cemetery Book I borrowed from the Post Office, nor could I locate a headstone in the Fisher graveyard.

There is an entry in the cemetery book for another unnamed old man Pippin buried in a plot in a farm south of the location of the Preston cemetery. I drove out there, but couldn't locate the burial plot - it is all farmland now - and in any event there seems to be no named stone there. This might have been Richard Pippin too. Dru's location is probably correct, given that someone in the vicinity seems to have provided him with this data back in the 1940's based on personal knowledge. Furthermore, Hill's son Nathan was also buried in the Fisher graveyard, which is consistent with the Fisher graveyard as the location of Hill's grave.

Hill Pippin's Wife, Nancy

In the 1860 census, Nancy (Morris) Pippin is 67, which means she would have been born in 1793. Her place of birth is shown as North Carolina. Her maiden name is documented in Georgia marriages as cited above. She married Hill Pippin in Georgia, and it is not known if Hill and Nancy met there or knew each other from North Carolina. The age stated in the 1860 census is consistent with the 1830 data showing her to be between 30 and 40, which means she was born between 1790 and 1800.

Native American Issue

In ``Pippins in Missouri'' Dru Pippin refers to Hill Pippin's wife as ``Miss Birdsong'' - but he makes no mention in that document that she was Native American. However, in ``Pippin: A Pioneer'', Khalifah says that William Carroll Pippin ``was born in Tennessee, the son of Hill Pippin and Nancy Birdsong, a woman of Indian extraction reported to be not many generations removed from the original primitive stock.''

I should preface the following analysis by the remark that I believe that Hill Pippin had one wife, her name was Nancy Morris, and she was not at all Native American. I believe someone got the story mixed up.

The key is the name ``Birdsong''. In 2007 Dolores Timmons put me in touch with Patty Thomas, whose source was Gayle White of the Charles Applewhite Pippin line. Charles Applewhite Pippin's son William Carroll Pippin married Margaret Jaily Bybee. Margaret's mother was Jaile Gaile Birdsong (of whom Patty Thomas has supplied a photograph). This woman is of partly Native American heritage. This is likely the Miss Birdsong that Dru heard about.

At this point, I should review what the problem looked like before Patty Thomas solved it.

The story I heard when I was young was that we had an Indian ancestor whose name was ``Birdsong Applewhite'' or ``Applewhite Birdsong''. (With the benefit of hindsight it is easy to see how well this places her in the line of Charles Applewhite Pippin.) The problem is that Hill Pippin married a Nancy Morris. Explanations might be that he later married a Miss Birdsong, who was also known as Nancy, or perhaps Nancy Morris had the ``indian name'' Applewhite Birdsong, or perhaps Applewhite Birdsong was her ancestor. However, because Hill's wife's age in both the 1830 and 1860 censuses appears to be identical, a first guess must be that she was the same woman. Hill's wife's name is given as ``Nancy'' in the 1850 and 1860 censuses.

Dru's writeup of the family tree dates to around 1941, and in constructing it he had done independent research and contacted distant relatives in Hickory County, Missouri (namely John Cosgrove Pippin, who was a descendant of Charles Applewhite Pippin) who may have had knowledge of family history matters. Hill lived in Hickory County, and his wife, who survived him for quite some time, did too. His last daughter died there in the 20th Century. Knowledge of her origins must have been better there, and persisted longer than in Pulaski County.

My mother told me about another instance where the issue of a Native American connection had come up. She told me that she went to a family reunion when she was a teenager (probably around 1925 to 1930). At this gathering she saw someone who had blond hair and pale skin and a remarkable look. She asked Dru who he was. Dru said he was ``one of those Indian relations.'' (Don't ask me how this physical description corresponds to ``Indian''.)

The idea that the Native American connection and the name ``Birdsong'' really apply to the Charles Applewhite Pippin line alone is consistent with my mother's memory that the Native American issue had come up before only when a distant branch of the Pippins appeared at a family reunion. I suspect that the distant branch was the line descending from Charles Applewhite Pippin. They all lived in southwestern Missouri. The ``Applewhite'' and ``Birdsong'' names both come from this line. A potential origin of the ``Applewhite'' component of the name is discussed below.

Incidentally, Hill's wife is not the only place where rumors of a Native American connection seem to exist. Patty Thomas related the following: ``The story is that Elizabeth and Susannah (Hinchaw) were actually the children of a Native American married to Levi Henshaw. That's the reason no name has been put to the first wife. Again, this is part conjecture and part family stories. Elizabeth Hinshaw (Levi's daughter) was supposedly Indian. Her children and grandchildren even said that.''

Date, Place of Death, and Place of Burial of Nancy Pippin

Nancy Pippin is shown in the census as late as 1870 in the household of S.B. Eidson, in Camden Co., Missouri. Eidson was the husband of Hill's daughter Louisa Matilda. A letter dated July, 1908 to Matilda shows that she was in Buffalo, Missouri by that time. I don't know when and where Nancy was buried. Buffalo is only about 20 miles from Preston, where Hill seems to have died. But Nancy may have died in Camden County, where she last appeared in the census. According to Dolores Timmons, large areas of Camden County were flooded in the creation of the Lake of the Ozarks, and although some graves information was recorded, access to that information is not easy to come by. At this point we do not know if there is a burial record for Nancy Pippin in Camden County - or around Buffalo.

Associated Families: Hill

There is an open and important issue concerning Hill Pippin's relationship, if any, to a family surnamed ``Hill''. The possibility is not without evidence.

On July 31, 1908, James Emory Hayworth wrote a letter27 from Gainesville, Texas, addressed to Hill's daughter, Mrs. Louisa Matilda Eidson in Buffalo, Missouri. Hayworth was married to Hill's granddaughter, Virginia Pippin, daughter of William Carroll Pippin. In it he said, ``I acknowledge the receipt of your letter a few days ago, replying will say several years ago, some one of the Pippin family of Nath Pippin's children, stated to me or Jennie (my wife) that your father (Hilly Pippin) had a large estate coming from the Hill's side of the house ... ''

Dru Pippin's account of the family tree showed Hill Pippin's mother to be surnamed ``Hill'' - and on my copy of his typescript there is a note in handwriting showing her name to be Nancy Hill. As mentioned above, there was supposedly a family tradition that Hill Pippin's mother was named Nancy Hill. Johnny Bezusko told me this but I don't know who related this tradition or any more information about it. I don't believe Dru had seen this letter, and so it was not the source of his knowledge of ``Hill'' being the family name of Hill Pippin's wife. However, Dru's understanding of this matter may not be completely independent of the source given in the letter, because Dru's contact in Hickory County was also in the Charles Applewhite Pippin line.

In the 1860 Census there is an entry for one Samuel A. Hill in the household of Charles Applewhite Pippin. Samuel was not in his household in the 1850 census. Samuel A. Hill was the son of Elizabeth (Hinchaw) Pippin's sister, Mourning (Hinchaw) Hill. Mourning Hinchaw Hill's husband was named Henry Hill.

Now I proceed down a purely speculative path. This Henry Hill may have been the brother of Charles Applewhite Hill, which would lead us to the origin of Charles A. Pippin's middle name.

Who was Charles Applewhite Hill and why would someone have named a son in honor of him? The University of North Carolina says, ``Charles A. Hill (1784-1832) graduated from the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill in 1816 and moved to Georgia with Rebecca. After several years there, Hill returned to North Carolina to become a Methodist minister and educator in Franklin County. He founded an academy at Midway, published a Latin grammar, and served as a state senator, devoting himself to the cause of public education.'' He was the son of one William Hill (1750 Bertie NC-1786 Franklin NC) and Polly (Jones) Hill28, and had a brother named Henry. One record on the web shows ``Hill - Will of William Hill - wife, Polley Hill; four sons, William Bennet Hill, Samuel Sugar Hill, James Jones Hill, Charles Applewhite Hill (none are of legal age); brother, Henry Hill, Samuel Jones, Jordan Hill to be extrs. June 12, 1784. Witnesses J. Hunt, Wm. Nash, Wm. Meguiar.''29

William Hill was the son of Greene Hill (1714 VA - 1769 Northampton NC) and Grace Bennet. Greene Hill had a son named Greene Jr. (1741-?). Greene Jr. had a daughter, Nancy Hill (1768-c1788). She is said to have married Thomas Knibb Wynne (1765-?). (It would have been very exciting if the documentation had shown this Nancy Hill marrying someone named Pippin - all the pieces would then have fallen together.) In Green Hill's bible it says that she left children when she died - but the note the bible note doesn't give names. Was one another Nancy? I cannot tie the Nancy Hill above to Hill Pippin.

Possible Relation: Richard Pippin

When I first became interested in Pippin genealogy one of the first things I did was to consult the census index. At the time the most recent index I could access was for 1850. In it I located Hill Pippin. But I also noticed nearby one Richard Pippin. I suspected they were more than mere neighbors who only coincidentally had the same surname.

I discussed this with Jim Pippin once and he felt there was no relation. Jim thought Richard was from another line of Pippins, one that entered the state to the North and generally settled along the Missouri River before moving south along the western portion of the state. He thought that Richard and Hill represented two different lines that simply converged in the Hickory County area. There is much to be said for this theory and many of the facts fit it very well; but it is now still a theory and has been neither proved or disproved.

Jim Pippin's notes for the family of Thomas Pippin (1760-05-13), child of Isaac Pippin, show that in the 1790 census he is shown in Franklin Co., NC, having one male 16 and up, two males under 16, and three females. Jim Pippin's family group sheet shows two sons before 1790, Jordan (around 1785) and Richard (around 1789). He doesn't note how he identified Jordan. This Richard seems to be the Richard who ended up in Hickory County. Prior to 1850 a Richard Pippin appears in Benton Co., Mo.

According to Jim Pippin, the 1840 census shows for Richard Pippin one male under 5, one male 5-10, one male 30-40, one female under 5, one female 5-10, two females 10-15, and one female 30-40. But in the 1850 census Richard is 61 (inconsistent with the 1840 age), wife Eleanor is 46, son William (10) would have been under 5, son Henry (16) would have been 5-10, daughter Mary (17) would have been 5-10, and the other two females have left. Son William was born in TN and daughter Ellen (8) was born in MO, suggesting they moved almost exactly in 1840.

The Hickory County Richard married Nelly Brashears 1825-04-25 in Lawrence Co., TN. On his family group sheet Jim shows Richard married to Tabitha Sullivan, 1824-05-04, and notes that there had been other marriages.

Roy Colbert of Bethell, WA wrote Ida Robison of Midland, TX on 1968-01-30 about Pippins he had noted during his research:

The two that I have a smattering of info on is Simon mentioned above who was born in NC (1790) was later in Spartenburg and Greenville Cos. SC to Lawrence Co. TN early 1800's and then to Benton Co. MO along with possibly a brother Richard born about 1797 who married Eleanor Brashears dau of Henry Sr. in either SC or in Lawrence, TN.
The question whether Hill and Richard were related is suggested by the fact that both came from the same state, were neighbors, and very close in age. Unfortunately I have been unable to trace Richard Pippin or his family after this one appearance in the Census.

Theory of Descent from Abraham Pippin

Having determined that Hill Pippin was not the son of Joseph (Howell) Pippin, Jim Pippin set out to see where Hill belonged. The process by which Hill was to be identified with one or another of the lines would be to determine which lines have male children under age 5 in 1790 who have not yet been identified. (Rev. Pippen seems to have tried to follow the same process, but when he did his work, he seems not to have found the 1790 census entry relating to Abraham Pippin.) By that process, Jim came to believe that Hill was the son of Abraham Pippin (around 1758), grandson of Solomon Pippin I, and great-grandson of John and Rebecca Pippen. Jim Pippin wrote to me on 1999-05-11. He said:

Descendants of Isaac Pippin of Franklin Co., NC moved to Jones Co, GA, Greene Co, TN, and west into TN in the early 1820's. Descendants of the Pippins of Edgecombe Co, NC moved South into SC about 1780 and then on into GA and AL. Hill Pippin was in Jones and Jasper Co, GA a good ten years before any other Pippins made the move. This has been a puzzle to me for quite a while.
Abraham Pippin removed from Edgecombe Co, NC about 1800 and is next found in Sumter Co, SC in 1802 when he witnessed a deed. I believe Hill is one of the two sons of Abraham that appeared in the 1790 census for Edgecombe Co, NC. Once you review the data you will see that I do not have one piece of documentation to support this conclusion, but the data might help you make an informed decision.
As far as I know, this guess has never been confirmed, although it is treated as a fact in the second of Jim's books on the Pippin family and in an article in the Pippin newsletter. (See below.) In the 1790 census, Abraham is in Edgecombe County, and has two male children under 16, and one male child over 16. In the 1810 census he is in Sumter, SC, with three males under 10, one male 45 and up, two females under 10, one female 16-26, and one female 26-45. [Data: Jim Pippin]. Jim says:

The 1790 and 1810 censuses show that Abraham was probably twice married and had children by both wives. James Pippin, whose family was enumerated in the 1820 census for Sumter Co, SC and Hill Pippin are theorized to be sons of Abraham's first marriage. We do not know how many children were born into Abraham's family between the 1790 and 1800 censuses however, the 1810 census shows that at least one daughter was born during this period. There were probably others. The 1810 census further shows three sons and two daughters under the age of ten years. The oldest female accounted for in the 1810 census is aged 26-45 and she is presumed to be Abraham's second wife. The ages of the children indicates that he probably married for the second time about 1800. It is assumed that these children were born in SC.
It seems possible that other Pippens or Pippins whose parents are unknown might possible be children of Abraham. The 1810 census for Sumter Co, SC shows that all older children, except one daughter, were out of the home and on their own by the date the census was taken. Lewis and Joseph Pippin both entered the militia at Clarenden Court House in the Sumter District of SC. Lewis was enumerated in the 1840 and 1860 census for Butler Co., AL. Joseph lived his life in Montgomery Co., AL. James Pippin appears in the 1820 census for Sumter Co, SC and nothing more is known of him or his family.
Of Abraham's four known sons, only James (1785), Joseph (1792), and Lewis (1790) seem truly identified.

In the Fall 2001 ``Pippin Family News'' an article appeared which I am guessing was written by Jim Pippin. It was titled ``The Other Pippin Family'':

In addition to the four brothers, Joseph, John, Solomon and Benjamin, who came from Maryland to North Carolina, there was also the family of Isaac Pippin. Isaac moved his family from Gloucester County, Virginia, to Halifax County, North Carolina, circa 1760.
Isaac first settled his family in Halifax County, moved to Warren County and eventually settled in that part of Bute County that is now Franklin County, North Carolina. His known children were John Bannister, Richard, Thomas, Isaac II, and Nelson. Of these sons, John, Richard and Thomas were Revolutionary War soldiers.
Isaac II and his family moved to Georgia circa 1825 and settled initially in Jones County. The families eventually moved into Troup and Upson counties. The children of John Bannister also moved out of North Carolina settling in Weakley County, Tennessee, and Greene County, Alabama. Records show that they were taking land by the middle 1930's.
Other descendants of Isaac I moved into Tennessee prior to 1820 and settled in Lawrence and Maury counties. Later these descendants moved on into southwest Missouri except Kinchen and Gilford who moved into Kentucky. The family of Gilford then moved on to Johnson and Jackson counties in Illinois.
Numerous descendants of the four brothers from Maryland moved westward along these same routes, stopping in various counties of the several states for a short time, then moving on. For example, Hill Pippin was in Jones and Jasper counties of Georgia by 1809; he then moved on into Tennessee, Alabama, and finally settled in Missouri. John Pippin, a descendant of Benjamin I, passed through Jones County, Georgia in 1816 on his way to Alabama and Mississippi.
The purpose of this article is to point out the thorough research that should be conducted to separate these two lines of Pippins. The ``pin the tail on the donkey'' method will not get the job done.
To my knowledge, Hill's ancestry has not yet been determined, although the article makes it sound like it has. My thought is that if Hill is not in the same line as the four brothers, and he is instead from Franklin County, NC, where so many arrows seem to point, then can we definitively exclude him from Isaac's line? And if we can, is there yet another whole line to which he must be connected?

Birth

Abt 1788

Edgecombe County, North Carolina

Father	Abraham Pippin (1758 - )
Sibling	Lewis Pippin (1786 - )
Sibling	Joseph Pippin (1790 - )