Welcome to Old Settlers online

Old Settlers was a term used in Kansas for various reunions held by early settlers of the state.  African American descendents of settlers who came to Kansas from 1860 to the Great Depression, held their own “Old Settlers Reunion” in Topeka Kansas, which I attended several times as a child. 

On my maternal side, I am descended from several family lines that came to Kansas in search of the “promised land” – some before the great Exodus, some as Exodusters, and some during the Great Migration from the South in the late 1910s and early 1920s. 

Kansas has a wonderfully rich history of African American migration, starting with their fight to remain a “free state” prior to the Civil War, one of my direct ancestors served in the Kansas Colored Infantry 1^st  regiment and leading up to Brown vs. the Board of Education in Topeka, which directly impacted my mother and her siblings who were children in Topeka at the time.

Florida, the land of my father’s family, also has a unique African American history, owned by the Spanish well into the early 19^th century and a last foothold for Native Americans in the East through the band of Florida Seminoles that refused to be moved.  While Florida was a true Confederate state, I believe African Americans who were freed in Florida were strengthened by multi-ethnic heritage of that state.

  Our Families

The Plumbs

Migration from Tennessee to Lawrence county Missouri in the early 1800s, and from Missouri to Jackson county Kansas in 1863. 

Our Plumbs took their name from family friend Preston B. Plumb, a prominent abolitionist and early settler of Kansas, who later became a United States Senator. 

Read More

The Coffeys

Migration from Virginia to Wayne county Kentucky around 1800, from Wayne county to Lincoln county Kentucky in the 1870s, from Lincoln county Kentucky to Marshall county Kansas in 1878, many of our Coffey descendents moved west in the late 1890s and early 1900s, settling in places like California and Colorado.

Read More

The Walker/Mitchel family

Migration from Virginia and Maryland to Carroll & Henderson counties in Tennessee in the early 1800s, from there to Muskogee county Oklahoma in the early 1900s, and from there to Kansas in 1918.

George Walker married Allis Mitchel in 1870 in Carroll county.

Read More

The Hays/Wilson family

Migration from Tennessee to Pope county Arkansas, coming as slaves with some of the first settlers of that county around 1830, on to Muskogee county Oklahoma around 1905, and finally to Topeka Kansas in 1918.

[Note that Pope county was actually formed in 1829, seven years prior to Arkansas’ statehood in 1836]

Read More

The Austins

Migration from the Carolinas and Georgia to Leon county Florida in the mid 1800’s with the family of Augustus Alston.  According to family lore linked to and partly descended from the Florida Seminole tribe. 

The Frazier/Williams family

The Fraziers came to Leon county Florida from Virginia, just prior to or during the Civil War, migrated to Orange county Florida around 1880.  Charles Williams came to Florida from either Georgia or Alabama and married Mary Maud Frazier in Orange county in 1892.  Little is known of our Williams family heritage before Charles.

Read More

  United States Colored Troops

In my quest to trace my ancestors I have complied lists of several USCT units, where my ancestors served or where I believe my ancestors would have enlisted. 

I am in the process of trying to obtain as many pension records for the men from these units as I can locate.  Due to the expensive nature of this endeavor, this will be an ongoing but long term project.

Read More

  Wayne county Kentucky People of Color project

I am placing numerous transcriptions of records from Wayne county online.  Many are from the research I’ve done on my Coffey family line. 

Also, I am in the process of transcribing the notes on African American families taken by Jacquelyn Coffey Daffron, a resident of Wayne county. 

This is an ongoing project, with the hope that the data provided here will assist researchers of African American heritage in their efforts.

Many thanks to Jackie for donating her notes and for the long hours she put into collecting this material.

Read More