Pylant Geneology

(Ted's Note): In April of 1988 my wife Shirley and I visited friends in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and decided to come back to Arlington, Texas via Coosa county, Alabama where we planned to find John's grave and to visit the old homestead at Hanover, Coosa county, Alabama.
A lady in Coosa county had written that John and a man named James Lindsey were buried "in a pasture between the Poplar Springs Baptist Church and the road." Said she had no idea why the two weren't buried in the church cemetery.
We found the church and the road and I tromped through the woods trying to locate the two graves. Had no luck so started knocking on doors asking people if they knew where the graves might be located. No one knew but one young man told me that if anyone would know it would be Mrs. Scroggins who was 82 years old and had lived in the area all her life. Told him I surely needed to talk to Mrs. Scroggins; he said she wouldn't normally talk to strangers but that he'd call ahead and tell her we were okay.
Had a very pleasant visit with Mrs. Scroggins. Told her who I was and what I was doing and she asked where I'd been looking. I pointed out the area between the church and the road and she said "no, no, it's out yonder" and pointed toward the woods behind her house. She also told me that John Pylant and James Lindsey weren't buried by themselves. The Poplar Springs Baptist Church was originally located at that spot and had an adjoining cemetery where John Pylant, James Lindsey, and many others, including her grandfather, were buried. John and James had the only tombstones that had survived the years - others were of wood or stone that had eventually returned to nature. After the church burned, they built another at the present site along with another cemetery. So, John Pylant and James Lindsey are buried in the "Old" Poplar Springs Baptist Church cemetery.
Shirley and I walked through the woods behind Mrs. Scroggins' place for almost two hours and, as it was beginning to get dark, decided to find a place to spend the night and return the next day for more hunting. As we turned onto a blacktop road from the dirt road, I saw a man in his front yard and decided to make one more effort. Told Mr. Mondell Cardwell who I was and what I was looking for and asked if he knew where the graves might be. Said they were on his property across the road and took us there. Took pictures then went back to his house. His wife Sara mentioned that there had been another couple there years ago looking for the James Lindsey grave and that she might still have their name and address. Turns out that Mr. and Mrs. V. V. Dempsey had been there 11 or 12 years ago looking for her ancestor, James Lindsey. Mrs. Dempsey also lives here in Arlington, Texas - not more than four miles from us.

From "Wake County, North Carolina Marriage Bonds 1770-1825" - Mrs. P. C. Patterson.

Christiana Jones married Amos Johnson on 17 March 1817. Bondsman: John Pyland

Polly Jones married Jonathan Stephens on 24 July 1807. Bondsman: John Pylant

Zilphy Jones married Isaac Stinson on 14 October 1816. Bondsman: John Piland

From Franklin County, TN Deed Record N: Page 560: Joel Mathews to Gabriel Tucker, 55 acres, 24 Dec 1833. Witnessed by B. P. Smith and John Pyland.

Page 557: Gabriel Tucker to Josiah Jones, 150 acres, 25 Dec 1833. Witnessed by B. P. Smith, John Pyland, and Robert Smith.

Written by Mrs. Joy Quandt Gallagher of Winchester, TN. March 2004.

Pylant - Gilbert
About 1895, the grandchildren of John Pylant and his first wife Zilphy Jones met in reunion, most likely in Lincoln County, Tennessee, with all records and from records and memory compiled The History of the Pylant Family. This was so stated in 1957 to John Pylant's third great-grandson Ted Pylant, who presently lives in Arlington, Texas, during a personal visit Ted had in the home of John Pylant's great-grandson Felix Eugene Pylant (1888-1961), who possessed a copy of The History of the Pylant Family and whose uncles, aunts, and father, Felix Grundy Gibson Pylant (1842-1922), attended the reunion.
The History of the Pylant Family stated John Pylant and his first wife Zilphy Jones had five children: Elizabeth, Guilford, Lucinda, John Allen, and Pinkney. Elizabeth's marriage to Jesse Gilbert and Pinkney's marriage to Margaret "Peggy" Gilbert were both recorded in Cumberland County, North Carolina, the former on November 31, 1818 and the later on October 11, 1820. Elizabeth and her husband Jesse Gilbert moved to Franklin County, Tennessee, where they lived until their deaths. Guilford Pylant married and lived in Arkansas, became one of the most eminent Cumberland Presbyterian ministers of his day, and died at Boonsboro in Washington County. Lucinda Pylant married John Lee of Lincoln County. John Allen Pylant married widow Mary Harkins, lived in Coosa County, Alabama, and in the early 1870s moved to Milam County, Texas where he lived until his death. Pinkney and Margaret "Peggy" Gilbert Pylant lived in Lincoln County until their deaths and had ten children, all named in his estate records. It should be noted that Pinkney and Margaret "Peggy" Pylant's descendants insist her maiden name was Renfrow. However, their marriage record and her War of 1812 widow's pension application both state that at the time of her marriage her name was Gilbert.
John, the father of the above mentioned five children, married the second time to Martha "Patsy" A. Hilliard on June 1, 1818 in Cumberland County, North Carolina. John and Martha had five children: James Henderson, Robert Nelson, William Hinton, Kimbrell, and Francis Marion. James Henderson Pylant, a Baptist preacher and carpenter, married first Sallie Lastor nee Saxton and second Sidney Rebecca Williams and died from a fall off of a barn roof in Haralson County, Georgia. Robert Nelson Pylant, a Baptist preacher, married first Minerva Casey, second Susannah Carlton, and third Elizabeth Howard nee Barker and lived in Coosa County, Alabama and in Polk County, Florida where he died and was buried in Homeland Cemetery. William Hinton Pylant, a farmer, married Ellen "Nellie" Cooke and lived in Franklin County, Tennessee where he died and was buried in Fanning Cemetery. Kimbrell Pylant, a farmer, married first Emily E. Carpenter and second Ellen E. Ferguson and died at his home near Pitman in Randolph County, Arkansas. Francis "Frank" Marion Pylant went to Missouri and married and was captured and killed by Indians in 1863 near Ft. Smith in Sebastian County, Arkansas.
Soon after the death of John Pylant's second wife Martha "Patsy" on January 19, 1838 in Franklin County, he moved to Coosa County, Alabama and lived with his son John Allen Pylant. The elder John died in Coosa County on June 18, 1854 and was buried in the Old Poplar Springs Baptist Church Cemetery in Hatchett Creek District.
Of the elder John Pylant's first set of children, Pinkney Pylant was the one who made Lincoln County his permanent home. Pinkney was born February 22, 1798 in Wake County, North Carolina. Prior to coming to Lincoln County, Tennessee in 1823, Pinkney enlisted in the War of 1812 in Captain John Green's Company, North Carolina Militia at Raleigh in 1814 as a Private and was honorably discharged at Norfolk, Virginia in 1815. His wife Margaret "Peggy" was of Scotch-Irish decent and was born March 7, 1801. They professed religion at Gibson's Camp Ground on Cane Creek, she in 1830 and he in 1837. They joined the Cumberland Presbyterian Church at Mt. Hebron at Norris Creek, now Belleville, in Lincoln County in 1837. He died September 21, 1861 at age 63. She died September 12, 1880 at age 79. They were buried in the Pylant Cemetery in Belleville. They had ten children, eight boys and two girls. Gabriel Pylant married Nancy B. Tucker and died in neighboring Moore County. Green Allen Pylant married first Sarah W. Tucker and second Mrs. Margaret Ann Murray and died in Elora. Penina Pylant married Isham Sorrells and died in Lincoln County. Gray Jackson Pylant married Ann Eliza Adkins and died in Moore County. John Lee Pylant married Elizabeth Winnie Ford and died in Lincoln County. Margaret Ann Pylant married Thomas J. Tucker and died at the age of twenty-eight. James Crawford Pylant married first Lydia Elizabeth Bonner, second Emily Katherine Thomas, and third Mary A. Taylor and died in Lincoln County. William Guilford Pylant married Drucilla Ann Young and died in Petersburg. Francis Marion Pylant died in Resaca, Georgia during the War Between the States. Felix Grundy Gibson Pylant married Canthus V. Dyer and died in Petersburg. Green Allen, John Lee, and James Crawford from time to time either had land transactions with or lived nearby their half-uncle William Hinton Pylant in neighboring Franklin County.
In the 1930s, Gelene Pylant Newhouse, daughter of Felix Eugene Pylant (1888-1961) who was a son of Felix Grundy Gibson Pylant (1842-1922), was home for a vacation from school in St. Louis, Missouri. Her father took her for a ride and went south of Howell in Lincoln County, walked from the main road to an open field, and near a large tree on the periphery showed her a stone with the carving as follows: Betsy Pylant, Died 1826, Age 108 yrs. It was explained to her that this was her forebear-the first that he knew of. Gelene related in 1994 that "being of the age of eighteen, it didn't interest me for further details. However, the stone is quite vivid in my memory."
Betsy Pylant was the grandmother of John Pylant, father of Pinkney Pylant. The History of the Pylant Family incorrectly states she was John's mother. In the book titled History of Dade County and Her People, Vol. II, Greenfield, Missouri, published November 1, 1917, Betsy's son and daughter-in-law, Robert "Robbin" and Caroline Bell Pyland, are listed as the parents of six children: William, James, John, Benjamin, Robert "Robbin," and Nan Elizabeth, who married Alsie Smart and moved to Georgia. Robert Pyland's will, probated in February 1784 in Chatham County, North Carolina, lists the same children as his heirs. William Pyland married twice and lived in several counties adjoining Lincoln County as did his brothers Benjamin and Robert. James Pyland had left Chatham County by 1803 and is believed to have lived in Georgia. John is the same John of this biography who married first Zilphy Jones and second Martha "Patsy" Hilliard. John was the only one to use the "Pylant" spelling for his surname. The others used "Pyland."