Parents

Son of Joseph Lewis TERRY & Dovina WALKER.

Life History

Notes

• Thomas L Terry is one of the many Terry men with the middle initial L.  I had surmised that this was Lewis (Louis) or possibly Lafayette.I later found a note on a Terry Family discussion in the Terry FamilyHistorian list that reported his full name as Thomas Lewis Terry.
  
  Thomas moved with his parents to Texas before the 1870 census.  Thomas is reported as a single man Farming, in a household apparently withhis farmer, a J Roach, in Brazos County, Texas.
  
  1870 Federal Census, Brazos County, Texas, 16 June, PO Bryan, page 2,Hse/Fam #15
  Terry, T 23 M W Farmer [No Real Estate value] $100 Personal Estate b Georgia.
  
  In 1880 Thomas and his parents and other family members are found in Milam County, Texas, near San Antonio, which is in Bexar County.  It is likely several families of the Terrys moved together or in close succession.  There are several family units in Milam County, Bexar County and farther north in McLennan County in the 1880 census.  He is living 3 houses away from Mary Elizabeth's family and they are recorded on the same page of the 1870 census.
  
  Thomas married a Texas woman after he got there.  In the 1880 census Thomas L Terry is 33 years old and is married to Mary E, age 26.  Theyhave no children yet.  This census does not report how long a couple have been married.  Living with them is Thomas' younger brother William Walker Terry, listed as William W, age 19.
  
  Their first cousin Thomas Duncan Terry, son of William and Julia Terry, is in McLennan County, and he also married a local girl, Martha (Mattie) Wiley Wall, whose family had migrated from North Carolina, whereMattie was born.  Their first child Julia Virginia (Jennie) was born there in December 1880.
  
  This family later moved back to the Terry home county of Murray in Georgia, but about 1900 moved to Oklahoma, where Jennie married a Texas man who had moved to Indian Territory, Joseph Asa Jenkins.  They became my grandparents.  Our family has all these Terry cousins strung from central and western Texas to northern Oklahoma and western Arkansas.
  
  1880 Federal Census, Milam County, Texas, 24 June, District 103, District 103, page 46, Hse/Family #233
  Terry, Thomas L W M 33    Merchant  GA SC SC (b abt 1847)
  Terry, Mary E  W F 26 Wife Kpg Hse TX -- --  (b abt 1854)
  Terry, William W W M 19 Brother Clerk in Store  GA SC SC
  
  Living with them in the same house are Thomas and Wiliam's parents Joseph and Dovina, and their daughter Martha Missouri, age 22, still unmarried and at home.  The are not reported in relationship to Thomas L,even though this is all one household and numbered as all one family..
  
  1880 Federal Census, Milam County, Texas, 24 June, District 103, District 103, page 46, Hse/Family #233
  Terry, Joseph W M 65    Farmer SC VA VA (b abt 1815)
  Terry, Dovina  W F 55 Wife Kpg Hse NC VA VA  (b abt 1825)
  Terry, Martha M W F 22 daughter AL SC GA
  
  Before the 1900 census, Thomas had moved farther west, to San Angelo,where he lived the rest of his life.
  
  1900 Federal Census, Tom Green County, Texas, 14 June, San Angelo, District 156, page 14B, Hse #268, Fam #276
  Terry, Thomas L    W M  Sept 1846  53 Head  Married 26 years  Clerk in Store  GA SC SC
  Terry, Mary E  Wife W F  Feb 1855  44  Married 26 years  TX Germany Germany
  Terry, Thomas L  Nephew  W M  Apr 1883 56  TX TX TX
  Kelly, J O  Servant W M June 1873 26  TX AR GA  Day Laborer
  
  Note their 26-year-old servant, J O Kelly, living in their household.  Besides being listed in the relationship of Servant, his occupation is shown as Day Laborer.
  
  This census tells us that Mary E's parents came from Germany.  Their birth place was unreported in the 1880 census.  There are many German families in Central and northern Texas.  There were still whole Germantowns, with schools taught in German during my lifetime.  Only in thelate 1900s has this changed appreciably.  The Oktoberfest is now an even bigger state celebration in Texas than it was when I was younger.Even the Irish and Scottish families celebrate Oktoberfest.
  
  At this point I still did not know Mary E's middle or maiden name.  In September 2008, a cousin in the Terry line contacted me with the information that she was a great great niece of Mary Elizabeth and Thomas.  She wrote:
  
  "I think that your Mary Elizabeth was my ggreat aunt. Her last name was Thomas. I found a death certificate for Mary Elizabeth Terry d on May 14, 1920 in San Angelo buried in Fairmont cemetery."  The maiden then appears to be Thomas.  This is a bit puzzling, since I was unaware of Thomas as a German surname.  I finally found this Thomas family in the 1870 census in Brazos County, Texas, about 2 doors down from T Terry, who matches our details for Thomas Lewis/Louis Terry.  See more details about this Thomas family in Notes for Nicholas Thomas and for his daughter Mary Elizabeth Thomas, wife of Thomas Louis Terry.
  
  The 1900 census also now tells us when Thomas and Mary married.  Theyhave been married 26 years according to this report.  This would meanthey married about 1874.  However, their marriage is recorded with anexact birth date of 08 January 1871, Brazos County, Texas at Mr. Thomas' home by Elder Ball. I first got this information from Jacque Watkins in September 2008.
  
  Note that the third person in the household would appear to be their son, Thomas L Terry, Jr.  He is even listed as Terry, Thomas L Jr.  And yet he is listed as a nephew, not a son.  The birth states of his parents would also indicate a different father.  I have not been able to figure out who among Thomas' brothers might have had a son also named Thomas L.
  
  This is quite likely, however, since there is a distinct pattern in this Terry line of brothers naming their sons after brothers.  But in that case, the enumerator erred in listing him as "Jr."  If this is really Thomas L, Jr, this would have to mean he is the son of this ThomasL Terry.  If this is really a nephew of Thomas L, this would have to mean that this Thomas L also had a brother named Thomas L, which we know is not the case.
  
  The birth of the younger Thomas L's father in Texas, though, still presents a puzzle, since none of this Terry family had been there long enough to have been born in Texas before 1880.  The younger Thomas is 17, born in May 1883, according to this census.  He is in the first generation of Terrys in this line to have been born in Texas.  There are simply errors of one sort or another in this census (surprise, surprise!), which I will need more information to unravel.
  
  Since writing the above analysis, I have gone back over some old discussion groups to review old names on which I earlier had information, to try to make connections to new information I have now complied.  I find notes from Jacque Watkins, also researching this family line, referring to Thomas Lewis Terry, who matches the details of the person listed as "Thomas L Terry, Jr" in the 1900 census.  She has that person's birth as April 1882, which is one year different from my reading ofthe birth date in the 1900 census.
  
  It appears in a list of names of this family, and place names in Texas and Arizona match.  It seems from these notes that it would be safeto interpret the mixed census identification in 1900 to mean that Thomas Lewis Terry.
  
  I have not yet found this family in the 1910 or 1930 census.  But in 1920 they are still in San Angelo.
  
  1920 Federal Census, Tom Green County, Texas, 2 January, District 194, San Angelo, Precinct 1, page 1B, 512 Oakes Street, Hse #21, Family #22
  Terry, Thomas L Head M W 73 GA SC GA Bookkeeper, Store [born abt 1847]
  Terry, Mary E Wife F W 63 TX Germany Germany [born abt 1857]
  
  Also with them are other family members I have not yet been able to identify:
  Ross, Carmi A Nephew M W 36 TX US US Fireman [born abt 1884]
  Ross, Tommie L Niece F W 20 TX GA TX None [born abt 1900]
  Ross, Lillian S Niece F W 3yrs 0mos TX GA TX None [born December 1916]

Sources

• 1. 1860 Federal Census, Murray County, Georgia
  • 6 July, Militia District 972, PO Rock Creek, Page 53, Hse #367, Fam #3
• 2. Terry Family -- Descendants
  • Name: http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~troy/terry/lewisterrydescendanttree.html;
• 3. 1880 Federal Census, Milam County, Texas
  • 24 June, District 103, District 103, page 46, Hse/Family #233
• 4. 1900 Federal Census, Tom Green County, Texas
  • 14 June, San Angelo, District 156, page 14B, Hse #268, Fam #276
• 5. 1870 Federal Census, Brazos County, Texas
  • 16 June, PO Bryan, page 2, Hse/Fam #15
• 6. RootsWeb -- Terry Family by Jacque Watkins; Thomas Louis Terry ID: I557072900
  • http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=:3001708&id=
• 7. 1850 Federal Census, Murray County, Georgia
  • 14 November, Page 535/527 (scan p 264), Hse/Fam #1613
• 8. 1920 Federal Census, Tom Green County, Texas
  • 2 January, District 194, San Angelo, Precinct 1, page 1B, 512 Oakes St
• 9. Texas Birth Index, 1903-1997
  • T L Terry
• 10. Terry Family Historian -- discussion
  • Name: http://www.terry-family-historian.com/guestlog.htm;
  • Jacques Watkins
• 11. Texas Death Index, 1903-2000
  • Mary E Terry
• 12. Jacque Watkins, email correspondence to Orville Boyd Jenkins, September 2008