Richard Applebury, Mable Nolan, and the Appleberrys of Virginia
The Appleberry family hails primarily from two counties in Virginia. Albemarle and adjacent Fluvanna counties surround the town of Charlottesville and are nestled next to the Appalachian Mountains. They sit on the western edge of the Piedmont Plateau and are marked by rolling hills and farmland. The traditional crop in this area is tobacco and it is likely the Appleberry/Applebury families here produced that product. The family has deep roots in the area going back to its initial settlement in the early 1700’s and possibly late 1600’s.
The different name spellings have long been known to and a constant bane of the many genealogists researching various branches of this family. The two versions seemed to show up with almost equal frequency along with several mentions of Appleby family members. Use of a particular version is often found in specific geographical regions. For example, Appleberry is commonly used in Virginia while Applebury is the predominant styling for our branch in Tennessee. There are several examples of individuals spelling their name one way in some federal census only to use a different spelling in a subsequent census.
Our great-great-great grandfather Richard Applebury was born in Fluvanna County on November 11, 1793 to our great-great-great-great-grandparents Absalom Abraham Appleberry and Nancy Brown Appleberry. Mable Nolan was born August 12, 1794 and married Richard February 4, 1819, also in Fluvanna County and they went on to have at least seven children, most while living in Virginia. Between 1832 and 1835 Richard moved his wife and six children to Tennessee, probably to Fayette County several miles east of Memphis. Their last child Mildred was born in September, 1835. Between 1840 and 1850 the family moved to the Applebury farm in Shelby County.
In addition to our great-great-grandfather Fielding Applebury (1832-1897), the children in this family were John Henson Applebury (1819-1887), son William Absolam Applebury (1821-1881), son Richard Applebury (1824-1892), daughter Jane L. Applebury (1826-1858), Joel S. Applebury (1828-1874), and daughter Mildred Applebury (1835-1910). Most if not all stayed in the Memphis vicinity and remained farmers by trade, likely raising cotton.
Richard passed away on his 64th birthday, November 11, 1857. Daughter Jane died a few weeks later on January 6, 1858. By 1860, the younger Richard was married had and moved to Tipton County north of Memphis where he was raising eight children with his wife May.
Joel and William appear to have served together in Nathan Bedford Forrest’s 3rd Tennessee Calvary Regiment; it’s likely they joined up in early 1862. They were involved in some of the same battles with their younger brother Fielding and it’s likely they were with the contingent of 700 men who escaped at the Battle of Fort Donelson where Fielding was taken prisoner. They later took part in the Battle of Shiloh, the Battle of Britton's Lane, and the Battle of Nashville. This force, by then designated the 3rd Consolidated Tennessee Calvary Regiment constitute the last Confederate military unit to surrender east of the Mississippi with this capitulation taking place in Alabama in May, 1865. They then returned to their farms and their families.
Mable died at age 79 on April 4, 1874. Joel would pass away a few weeks later on July 4. William died on February 16, 1881 and John followed on September 9, 1887. Richard died on February 8, 1892 and our great-great-grandfather Fielding died on January 10, 1897. The last sibling, Mildred, succumbed to Colitis on April 30, 1910. Many members of the family are buried at either Macedonia cemetery or nearby New Cumberland cemetery in rural Shelby County.
In 1850 a census was taken to enumerate and gather information about the population of slaves in the US. On October 22nd of that year, Richard contributed information about the men, women, and children for whom he claimed ownership. That information is as follows:
Six black men, ages 35, 32, 12, 9, 7, 4 years , and seven months. Three black women, 37, 22, and 7 years of age. As was the common practice, no other information about these individuals was recorded.
In 1860, another Federal Census was conducted for the same purpose. On August 29th of that year, Mable Applebury, now head of the family since the death of Richard three years earlier, reported the following:
Eight black men, ages 45, 40, two at 18, 12, 7, and two around one year old. Two black women ages 29 and 16. One mulatto man, aged 20, and two mulatto women ages 12 and 10. At that same time, Joel S. Applebury listed his ownership of a single slave, a 24 year old woman.
When researching census records for 1850 and 1860, I found members of both Applebury and Appleberry family branches who owned slaves. Families of our direct ascent in Virginia collectively owned scores of slaves. While I’m still researching other branches of our family the information above represents my closest personal brush with the institution of slavery. I’ll never be able to ascertain any practical sense of what these people were like on a personal level although the presence of young mixed race slaves has significant implications. I reserve my opinions in the interest of letting others, including you my dear reader, shape your own reaction.
Richard and Mable Applebury were our great-great-great-grandparents.
