PRYOR FAMILIES in OVERTON COUNTY, TN
Part 3: Pryors in Overton Co. in the Late 1800's
The Pryor families who settled in Overton
Co. and the surrounding counties in Middle Tennessee have been difficult to
trace due to the unavailability of records and a plethora of undocumented
information that has been published in print and on the Internet.
Because of the movement of families from one county to another it is almost
impossible to confine the discussion of Overton Co. Pryors to just that one
county. Therefore, the article that follows is divided by heads
of families as they appeared on the 1850 Census. Each section contains
information of where each Pryor family came from (if known) and where their
descendants migrated to after 1850.William H.
Pryor. William H. Pryor was born Feb. 1834 in Tennessee and first
appears on a census in 1860. He appears on the Census records of
Overton Co. in 1870 and again in 1900. In the interim census years he
was counted in Clay Co., TN. It is known that he married Rutha Dial
and later had a wife named Mary. He was the father of at least nine
children; his son Wilburn "Buddy" Pryor was the Postmaster in Oakley, TN.
William H. Pryor has not yet been linked to ancestors in Overton Co., TN or
other Tennessee counties.
Edward Pryor. The 1860 indicates
this Edward would have been born in about 1833 in Tennessee. He is
too old to be the son of any of the known children of William and Spicy
Pryor. He has not been found on the 1870 or 1880 Census.
Chesley Malone and Mary Ellen Pryor.
Chesley Malone and Mary Ellen Pryor were half siblings; children of
Candis Malone of Overton Co. They both appear on the 1880 Census
in Overton Co. living with their spouses. They have not yet been
located on earlier census records. Mary Ellen Pryor reported that
her father was a John Pryor. By 1911 Mary Ellen Pryor and her
husband Jefferson Engler were living in Carroll Co., AR, a county where
several other Pryors from Overton Co., children of James and Nancy
Pryor, had relocated. It is not yet know if there is a connection
between these families.
John Anderson and William Colm Pryor.
Born in 1884, William Colm Pryor first appeared on a 1910 Census of
Overton Co. He was counted in this county also in 1920 and 1930
and died in Tennessee in 1965. He was married to Nancy Cooksie
White. John Anderson Pryor did not appear in Overton Co. until the
1920 Census, living close to Colm Pryor. The loss of the 1890
census has hampered attempts to identify individuals born after the 1880
census and before 1900. It that these Pryors are late-comers to
Overton Co., in fact John Anderson Pryor arrived after 1910, it can be
speculated that they probably are unrelated to earlier Pryors.
