Absalom and Elizabeth Autrey and Their Descendants, With a Section on Thomas Norris

Elizabeth Autrey's mother, Celia Norris, and her five brothers and three sisters lived within a few miles of the Autreys.

The land records of North Carolina and Alabama show that the Autreys had been land owners and farmers since they arrived in America.  Absalom and Elizabeth Autrey bought 160.0 acres of land from Anthony Wayne and Mary Norris, brother of Elizabeth, on 13 January 1838.  It was the southwest quarter of Section 9, Township 19, Range 11 in the Cahawba District of Perry County.  Today, this land is in Dallas County.  The county line between the two counties was changed several times between 1819 and 1850.

The Autrey's were Primitive Baptists.  They were members of the Fellowship Baptist Church, which was located about two miles from their home in the village of Morrowville.  In 1990, the only evidence of the little town is the church and the cemetery.  The church is located in the Talladega National Forest on Alabama State Highway 37. Other families living in the neighborhood and attending the Fellowship Baptist Church in the 1830's and 1840's were the Mitchell, Reedy, Martin, Morrow, McGee, Norris, Stokes and Pierson.  It is thought that Reverend Robert Martin was the pastor of this church.  Absalom and Elizabeth Autrey named a son for the preacher in 1840.

The Autreys lived only about four miles from the town of Corinth, Alabama.  Corinth was renamed Plantersville in the 1850's.  This was probably the reason that the family tradition relates that the family moved from Selma, Alabama, instead of Plantersville, Alabama.  Selma, a larger town, was eighteen miles away.

Absalom Autrey was highly respected by his wife's family.  Elizabeth Autrey's aunt, Betsy (Teer) Baker, lived with Absalom and Elizabeth Autrey after her husband, Richard Baker, died in 1826,  She had no children, and had moved from Kentucky to Alabama to be near her relatives. In 1834 Betsy Baker appointed Absalom Autrey her power of Attorney for the purpose of selling her property and collecting some debts in Hopkins County, Kentucky.  Betsy Baker lived with Absalom and Elizabeth Autrey until her death in 1835.  She left a slave girl in their care.

Absalom Autrey was appointed the Administrator of the estate of Richard Baker Norris.  Richard Norris, Elizabeth's brother, had died in 1840 in Perry County, Alabama, at the age of 25.  He left a wife and two small children.

In the mid-1800's, cheap land was available from the federal government in Louisiana.  Two of Elizabeth's brothers, Thomas W. Norris and John Jackson Norris, had moved to Union Parish, Louisiana in 1847.  Soon other family members including Absalom Autrey and family and neighbors began to make plans to migrate west to take advantage of this land opportunity.  They loaded their possessions and provisions into ox drawn covered wagons.  There was room for very little furniture.  The mantel clock, which is still in possession of a family member was placed between two feather beds.  The farm animals followed the wagons.

In the fall of 1847, these family members made the journey from Alabama to Louisiana:  Elizabeth Autrey, Albert R. and Sarah (Autrey) Neighbors and their children, Elizabeth, Louise and Jane; John Brown L. and Lucinda (Autrey) Mitchell and son John Abby; Joseph N. and Harriett (Autrey) Wiley; John Mabe Autrey; Elizabeth Jane Autrey; William Norris Autrey; Cornelius Autrey; James Jackson Autrey; Celia Autrey; Robert Martin Autrey; Syria Autrey; Martha Ann Autrey; Thomas Jefferson Autrey; Bird Griffin Autrey, Celia (Teer) Norris; William Syria and Harriett Norris and their children Celia, James William Syria, Jr., Margaret Lou, Elizabeth, Absalom and Cinthia; Charles J. and Celia (Norris) Henry and their children Sarah, Celia Jane, Robert James, William J., Mary Isabella and Thomas N. Henry.  There were nineteen children in the group who were ten years old or less.  With so many young children making the trip, one can only imagine the perils of such a journey.

Absalom Autrey made the trip to Louisiana ahead of the other family members. After making arrangements with his brothers-in-law, John Jackson and Thomas W. Norris, in Union Parish, Louisiana, he returned to Vicksburg, Mississippi.  He met the family and helped them cross the Mississippi River.

Log barges were used to cross the Mississippi River at Vicksburg, Mississippi. For years this hazardous experience was often remembered and related by family members.  They crossed the Ouachita River at Trenton and finally arrived in the Dubach area of Union Parish, Louisiana.  It had been seven weeks since they left Alabama.  They arrived just before Christmas 1848.  The families lived in tents until a house was built.

The foundation of the house was made from large boulders and big triangular shaped piers made from tree trunks.  They constructed the double pen dogtrot house from hewn pine logs that were cut from the property.  The logs were notched on the ends and held together with large, wooden pegs.

Each side of the house had a large room in front and a smaller room at the back.  A ten foot passageway, or dogtrot, rant he length of the house.  A door from each room opened to the passageway.  A front porch was built across the entire width of the house.  A stairway was constructed at the back of the dogtrot that led up a loft room.  This attic room served as a bedroom for the Autrey sons.

A chimney of native ironstone was built at teach end of the house.  The fireplaces in the largest rooms were used for heat as well as for cooking.  The roof was made of shingles or shakes that were split with a frow.

Some of the tools that were used by the Autrey family that are in the possession of the descendants are:  the frow, broad ax, hand sickle and the head lighting tool with the fire box.  Other articles that were in the Absalom Autrey home that are with family members are:  Elizabeth's bread tray, a large meat platter, Autrey family Bible, a bed, the sideboard and a 16 x 20 portrait of Mary Jane (Moncrief) Autrey.

There was abundant wild game in the area:  deer, squirrels, ducks, geese, turkeys and rabbits.  According to family traditions, more than 400 deer were killed the first year the Autreys lived in Louisiana.

There was a cellar under the front east room of the house.  Vegetables, fruits, meat barrels, a grist mill, peanuts, potatoes and later home canned foods were stored in the cellar.  A smokehouse, used for curing meat, was built behind the house on the east side of the yard.  There was also a cow shed in this area.  A wooden fence was built around the house with a gate in the front.

After the house was finished, Absalom Autrey went to New Orleans to buy furniture.  The bought two four-poster beds, a marble topped sideboard and a bureau.  The furniture was shipped by water to Monroe then hauled to the new house by ox wagons.

Absalom Autrey was a large land owner in Union Parish.  In addition to the land where the house was built, he bought 320 acres on 4 August, 1851, 159.5 acres in March 1852, 60 acres on 14 January, 1854.  he also purchased 79.91 acres in Jackson Parish in March, 1861.

There was no church near the Autrey house.  Church was held in the homes.  The Autrey house was often used as a place of worship.  Some of the families lived too far to return home at night, so they slept in their wagons, or on pallets on the floor of the Autrey home.

In 1852 Joseph N. Wiley, Harriett Autrey's husband, died.  He was the first person to be buried in the Autrey family Cemetery located behind the Autrey home.  His grave is unmarked.

The Autrey Schoolhouse was built west of the house across the road. In 1860 James Jackson Autrey was the teacher at this school.  The schoolhouse was also used as a place of worship.

On 23 July 1860 Elizabeth Autrey came to journey's end and was buried in the Autrey Family Cemetery behind their log home.

The Autrey family members undoubtedly believed in states rights because all eight of the Autrey sons who were old enough, enlisted in the Confederate Army.  James Jackson, Robert Martin, Cornelius and Syria joined in 1861. John M. enlisted in 1862 and Thomas Jefferson and William Norris in 1863.  Bird Griffin enlisted in 1864.  Only six sons returned home in 1865.  James Jackson Autrey died of an unknown disease in August 1863 at Mt. Jackson, Virginia.  Syria Autrey was wounded in Richmond, Virginia.  He died 17 January 1864 from blood poisoning caused by a hand wound.

The U.S. Congress passed a law in 1861 taxing the landholders of every state for the cost of the war.  The assessments were made in 1864 and the tax was not collected until 1865.  The penalty for nonpayment was the confiscation of the property.  At that time American dollars were almost nonexistent in southern households and the people were disenfranchised and could neither vote or hold office.  The taxes assessed the family members were as follows:  Absalom Autrey, $3.77; John Autrey, $1.49; William Autrey, $2.27; John B. L. Mitchell, $1.96; S. M. Fuller, $2.59 and William J. Field, $.47.

Undoubtedly, the Autrey family had many Confederate dollars on hand at the end of the conflict.  One of Absalom's grandchildren, Dewey (Autrey) Harris, recalled playing with Confederate dollars that were kept in a bureau in the bedroom of the Autrey home.

Absalom Autrey married Kezia McCalla after Elizabeth's death.  No children were born of this union. She died 25 September, 1879 in Dubach, Louisiana.  Absalom Autrey died 14 February 1885.  They were buried in the Autrey Family Cemetery located behind the Autrey home.