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The burials at Byrnville were researched during
the mid-20th century by a high school history teacher of Byrn ancestry,
Gordon Sappenfield. A pupil of his, Ruth
Binkley, wrote a most interesting and engaging but not always clear account
of these researches, which was first posted on USGENWEB in 2000 by Sandi
Evilsizer Koscak (also of Byrn ancestry) and again more recently in helpfully
paragraphed form at the web-address shown above. I am grateful to S.E.Koscak
personally for additional advice and clarification.
Briefly: a Charles Byrn of Dublin (c.1731 –
c.1800) emigrated from Ireland to America and settled with his wife, Sarah,
in Salisbury, North Carolina. Two of their sons, Charles Leason Byrn (b.1777)
and Temple Coleman Byrn (b.1778), migrated from there to Indiana in, respectively
1806 and 1809. The younger brother laid out the town of Byrnville on his
land in 1837 (now Jackson Township, Harrison County).
NB: although the document’s title implies
only one cemetery, the content of the document makes it clear that Byrnville
actually has two: the ‘Pioneer Cemetery’ (on Charles Leason
Byrn’s farm, para.2), and the ‘New Cemetery’
(started in 1846 on Temple Coleman Byrn’s land, para.7).
When reading the document on S.E.Koscak's web-page,
it may be helpful to bear in mind:
- There is much scope for confusion over the names
Temple Coleman Byrn, Temple Cole Byrn, and the initials T C Byrn.
Temple Coleman Byrn Sr is the one just mentioned who founded Byrnville
and he is not directly problematic. The confusion comes from the way
he and the other two are mentioned elsewhere in the document:
Para.3 names “Temple Cole (known as Rogers)” —
with dates: b.Nov.1809, d.19 Sep 1885 — as the last person to
be buried in the old Pioneer Cemetery. But nowhere is it said how he
fits in: was he also a son of Temple Coleman Byrn Sr? — which
would make him a younger brother of the Temple Coleman Byrn Jr referred
to in para.11 (see below). This is what S.E.Koscak understands,
but I guess I won’t be the only person to feel frustrated that
the parents chose to name one son “Temple Coleman” and another
one “Temple Cole”.
Para.8 confusingly refers to the burial stone of “Temple
Cole” when it is clear from the dates on the stone (b.1778, d.4
June 1857) that Temple Coleman [Byrn] Sr is meant.
Para.11 refers to “Temple C. Byrn Jr born in Rowan Co,
NC” with dates: b.30 Dec 1805, d.17 July 1843 — at least
this man is not directly confusing either, because he must be the son
of Temple Coleman Sr (and he would have been a frisky 3 or 4-year-old
when his parents trekked north-west to Indiana, while Temple Cole would
have been born not long after the family's arrival there).
- Para.11 also names “Sarah (BELL)
BYRN, wife of T C BYRN” (b.27 Dec 1815, d.26 March 1881) —
I can say, with thanks to S.E.Koscak, that this Sarah née Bell
is the wife of Temple Cole Byrn known as “Rogers”, and she
is not to be confused with the Sarah née Brooks who was the first
wife of Temple Coleman Byrn Sr (paras 3, 4 & 6).
- Also in para.11, three people (Mary Alice,
Norbin and Dudley) are named as children of “T C and S BYRN”
— they are the children of Temple Coleman Byrn Sr by his first
wife.
- It’s a relatively small point, but this first
wife, Sarah Byrn née Brooks, was only 28 years old when she died,
i.e. she was neither 38 as given in para.4, nor 37 as given
in para.6.
- At the start of para.11 there is a reference
to “the four members of the BYRN family already mentioned as buried
in the Pioneer Cemetery” — these four must be
(i) the original pioneer, Charles Leason Byrn (para.2), and
(ii) his wife Ann (or Anna) née Clodfelter (para.2),
plus
(iii) Temple Cole Byrn aka “Rogers” (para.3), plus
(iv) the 28-year-old Sarah Byrn née Brooks, sister-in-law of
Charles Leason and Anna Byrn (para.3).
(BUT: S.E.Koscak’s information is that Charles Leason Byrn died
in Morgan, Indiana. On the other hand, I guess, he could still have
been buried in Byrnville.)
- Para.1 gives the name of Charles Byrn’s
wife as Ann, but without a surname. From another correspondent I gather
that her maiden name may have been Suter. This might explain why her
son Charles Leason [Byrn] named his first son also Charles Leason [Byrn]
but with the nickname “Suter”.
The name spelled Leeson, incidentally, is a long-established family-name
in Dublin and district, Ireland.
It is beguiling to speculate whether this Charles Byrn who emigrated
from Ireland in the mid-18th century might be the same Charles Byrn
who was a younger sibling of my third great grandfather James. What
I know of their dates fits to within about 25 years, so it is not a
strong possibility, but unfortunately I have no other information at
all.
- One last question: does anybody out there have a
copy of the Byrn Family Tree which Ruth Binkley refers to in the final
paragraph?
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