Dr. William Hughes and his wife Ellen C. Hughes are buried in
Bethany Cemetery along with his father, Thomas Hughes. My reasons
for linking this family to the Cowserts are circumstantial and I
welcome any information to confirm or refute my theory that Ellen
was a Cowsert. I came to this conclusion from information I knew was
wrong that was gathered by an early Cowsert researcher. Wrong
information sometimes has great significance, especially in oral
history. Let me explain.
There were two Cowsert brothers who came to Pickens County from
Chester County, South Carolina and we four sisters are related to
both of them. John Cowsert’s son married Joseph Cowsert’s daughter
and they are our great grandparents. John had two children and
Joseph had at least ten. Emma Cowsert Sumrall, a granddaughter of
Joseph’s oldest son, constructed a family sheet back in the 1940’s
for Joseph’s family that included birth dates, one of which was our
ancestor, Eleanor Cowsert, with a note that she had married Dr.
William Hughes. We knew that was wrong. We also knew Dr. Hughes’s
wife Ellen was born too early to be placed in the Joseph Cowsert
family where Emma had put her, whereas his brother, John, had a
daughter on census that fit her age perfectly. Therefore, we believe
Ellen C. Hughes, wife of Dr. William Hughes, was the daughter of
John and Elizabeth Cowsert. Our ancestors are Eleanor Adeline
Cowsert, daughter of Joseph, and Richard D. F. Cowsert, son of John.
The Hughes family is buried near the Cowserts in Bethany Cemetery,
which is another part of our circumstantial evidence. We also noted
Dr. William and Ellen C. Hughes named their first son John (her
possible father) and Thomas (his father).
Such is the tragedy of burned courthouses and missing marriage
records. But we family researchers soldier on! I hope by placing
this information on the Pickens County site that some descendants
will come forward with better proof than I have.
Dr. William Hughes was born in October,1805 in Union District South
Carolina and died August 5, 1865 in Pickens County, Alabama. Ellen
C. Hughes (possibly a Cowsert) was born in 1815 and died April 18,
1852 in Pickens County, Alabama. Buried beside them is presumed to
be William’s father, Thomas Hughes, born 1774 in South Carolina, and
died August 27, 1858 in Pickens County, Alabama. They are all buried
in Bethany Cemetery, and Thomas is on the 1850 census with the
William Hughes family. William and Ellen had 5 children on the 1850
census, all born in Pickens County.
1. Thomas John Hughes was born February, 1840, still single at age
60 on 1900 census.
2. Mary A E Hughes* was born May, 1842 and married Thomas P.
Archibald 1860-70.
3. Newton R. Hughes
4. Richard Hughes
5. Amanda Addie Hughes was born September, 1847 and married (1) ____
Gibson and (2) ___ Kennedy.
She had only one child, John Thad Gibson.
*The 1900 census shows Mary Hughes had no children. From Deaths,
Marriages in Pickens County by Betty Junkin on page 32 (from an
early newspaper): “Died 2/7/1877 Thomas Archibald, at his home near
Pleasant Ridge, age 61 years. He married twice, his 2nd wife was a
daughter of the late Dr. William Hughes of Pickens County, Alabama.
The only issue from this family I have located is the son of Amanda
Addie Hughes, John Thad Gibson, who was born in November, 1871 in
Louisiana, and married Lula ____, born December, 1875 in Tennessee.
Their four children were born in Greene County, Alabama in Union
Pct: Hughes W. Gibson, born October 1891, Gertrude Gibson born
August 1893, Mamie Gibson born October, 1895, and Newton Randolph
Gibson born January, 1898.
Wanda Sanders Bodemann, email Lcbode@cablelynx.com. (501) 609-9630
155 Forest View Circle, Hot Springs AR 71913-6557
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