One hundred seventy seven years ago today, November 1, 1832, my husband’s great, great, great, grandparents, Lewis (Louis) Tarwater Dunaway and Jane English, were married. They were both born in Tennessee in the early 1800′s but were in Ray County, Missouri when they married. They had 11 children and my husband descends from their son, William Franklin Dunaway who went by the name Ben.
What little the family knows of them is from Jane English Dunaway’s book entitled Dunaway – Allder – Pyle Family when she talks of them, her grandparents. She said:
…they were of pioneering sturdy stock, who homesteaded and bought enough land at $1.25 per acre to give each of their seven surviving children a good farm.
…Jane English, was of the line of Englishes that goes back to the voyage of the Mayflower. Her father, Thomas English, and mother, Letitia Campbell with her uncles, brothers, and her sister’s families settled in the territory which became Cedar County, Missouri, in 1832. Cedar County was organized in 1847 with Thomas English as one of the three first judges or commissioners… About three or four generations back Letitia Campbell English had an ancestor, Alexander Campbell, the founder of The Disciples of Christ Church, often called the Christian Church. For three or four generations afterward this bigoted family seemed to think they had a corner on the path to heaven, they were so intolerant of the other religious sects. All they could think or talk about was baptism by immersion and communion every Sunday.
…Louis Tarwater Dunaway, born in 1809, had three half-siblings each had a different father, the mother being Eve Tarwater. Apparently all were born in Tennessee but later moved to North Missouri. One half-brother was Riley Blythe; one was a Fletcher; one, a Roland (or a half-sister who married a Roland).
Just why Eve Tarwater never married any one of her common law husbands is a matter of conjecture. It could have been that there were no ministers around or Justices of the Peace, but that seems unlikely in the late 18th century. Perhaps the reason was the one a colored woman gave for not marrying: ‘She did not want a lazy good-for-nothin’ man round eatin’ up her chillin’s food’. However it was, Eve Tarwater was quite a character; her children when grown were reliable, responsible, and respected people, all of them solid citizens of Missouri. So far as the family legend goes Ben’s paternal grandfather (Jane Dunaway’s father) was out of the blue, no record from whence he came or whither he went.
Other pieces of information I have found:
They moved from Ray County, Missouri in 1835. “They settled on Sac river and farmed there until 1850, when he sold out and moved to Crisp Praire, east of Dadeville. …Lewis T. Dunaway was an outspoken and fearless Whig in politics,…” (Source: History of Dade County and Her People: from the date of the earliest settlement to the present time)
L.T. Dunaway was one of the first names for land entries in Dade County (1840 TWP 32, Range 26; 1845 TWP 33, Range 25). By one account he eventually owned 1700 acres in Dade County.
Apparently L.T. was in charge of supplies for the Union Army during the Civil War and he died of dysentery at Wilson’s Creek battlefield in 1861.
Lewis Tarwater Dunaway purchased the following land patents:
| Date | County, State | Acres | Location (all 5th PM Meridian) |
| 1833-12-05 | Ray, MO | 82.7 | Sect 23; Twp 51-N; Range 29-W |
| 1838-09-07 | Ray, MO | 40.0 | Sect 1; Twp 51-N; Range 29-W |
| 1838-09-07 | Ray, MO | 40.0 | Sect 12; Twp 51-N; Range 29-W |
| 1844-09-10 | Cedar, MO | 160.0 | Sect 24; Twp 33-N; Range 26-W |
| 1844-09-10 | Dade, MO | 80.0 | Sect 35, Twp 33-N; Range 26-W |
| 1844-09-10 | Dade, MO | 80.0 | Sect 34; Twp 33-N; Range 26-W |
| 1844-09-10 | Dade, MO | 160.0 | Sect 34; Twp 33-N; Range 26-W |
| 1845-10-01 | Dade, MO | 73.4 | Sect 4; Twp 32-N; Range 26-W |
| 1848-08-03 | Dade, MO | 80.0 | Sect 31; Twp 33-N; Range 25-W |
| 1848-11-01 | Dade, MO | 40.0 | Sect 28; Twp 33-N; Range 26-W |
| 1852-11-01 | Dade, MO | 40.0 | Sect 31; Twp 33-N; Range 25-W |
| 1852-11-01 | Dade, MO | 40.0 | Sect 14; Twp 32-N; Range 25-W |
| 1852-11-01 | Dade, MO | 36.6 | Sect 4; Twp 32-N; Range 26-W |
| 1852-11-01 | Dade, MO | 40.0 | Sect 11; Twp 32-N; Range 25-W |
| 1852-11-01 | Dade, MO | 40.0 | Sect 35; Twp 33-N; Range 26-W |
| 1853-04-15 | Dade, MO | 40.0 | Sect 11; Twp 32-N; Range 25-W |
| 1853-12-01 | Dade, MO | 40.0 | Sect 14; Twp 32-N; Range 25-W |
| 1854-12-15 | Dade, MO | 40.0 | Sect 10; Twp 32-N; Range 26-W |
| 1856-03-15 | Dade, MO | 46.5 | Sect 6; Twp 32-N; Range 25-W |
| 1857-05-15 | Dade, MO | 36.6 | Sect 3; Twp 32-N; Range 26-W |
| 1857-05-15 | Dade, MO | 40.0 | Sect 36; Twp 33-N; Range 26-W |
| 1857-05-15 | Dade, MO | 40.0 | Sect 34; Twp 33-N; Range 26-W |
| 1859-06-01 | Dade, MO | 40.5 | Sect 3; Twp 32-N; Range 26-W |
| 1859-06-01 | Dade, MO | 40.0 | Sect 31; Twp 33-N; Range 25-W |
| 1396.3 |
From the Ancestry.com U.S. General Land Office Records, 1796-1907 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 2008. Original data: United States. Bureau of Land Management, General Land Office Records. Automated Records Project; Federal Land Patents, State Volumes. http://www.glorecords.blm.gov/. Springfield, Virginia: Bureau of Land Management, Eastern States, 2007.
I would love to learn more about Lewis’ parents but, to date, I have not had much success. Do you have information to help find his parents?
L.T. Dunaway and Jane English were my g-great-grandparents. I don’t agree with Jane Dunaway about L.T.s’ parents. The Tarwaters were very religious people. Their was a Lewis Tarwater and other Tarwaters in Blount Co., TN. Tarwater is a German name and sometimes they gave every son the same first name. Possibly in this case Jacob.Their are many Samuel Dunaways. This family needs to start fresh in their research because I feel that we have a lot of misinformation. Look up the founder of the church Alexander Campbell. You will find that he lived about the same time as they did. I could find no connection to Letitia Campbell. I hope I don’t sound like I’m being mean but their is a lot of misinformation on Thomas English and his ancestors also from people who just took the word of someone else’s research. Betty
I’m not taking your comment as being mean and I’m glad to receive feedback about the family. My hope in posting information from Jane Dunaway’s book is to gain feedback from other family members and researchers and possibly learn specific information to identify the lineage.
There is quite a variation of information on who Jane English’s parents were. The names seem to always be the same but different families. One source indicates that she was a cousin of Alexander Campbell, who was the founder of the Church of Christ, and that makes more sense based on the dates but at this point there is no proof only a family story.
I believe LT Dunaway had a sister who married a Roland. But I believe Riley Blythe and Fletcher were married to Eva Ann Tarwaters’ sisters. I believe she was the daughter of Jacob Tarwater of Ray Co., Mo. And I suspect she and Samuel Dunaway were possibly married in Missouri. There may not have been any one to perform a legal marriage at that time in Missouri. I’m too old now to go back to the genealogy library, but they built a new one in Independence, Mo. Check hx of Ray Co and census records. A lot of Dunaways in Missouri at that time before MO became a state. I think we are misled by the name of L.T. There are so many possibilities. Betty.
Good to see you visiting again! The marriage records for Ray Co. from 1820-1834 are online http://files.usgwarchives.net/mo/ray/marriages/M182034.txt There are Dunaway, Inglish, Rowland, Fletcher, and Tarwater throughout. Lewis Dunaway and Jane Inglish are listed. It’s definitely all tangled up.