Who Was Hugh’s Father?

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Was Sampson Caudill (1784 – 1863) the father of Hugh Caudle(1812--1859)?


Genealogists and family historians have long speculated about the identity of the father of Hugh Caudle (1812 – 1859).  Clayton Cox, the genealogist and long-time authority on the Caudill family, never provided an answer.[1] An article in Cordell Clippings, the newsletter of the Cordell Family Association (now inactive) No.10, January 1994, may be the source of the many assertions that Hugh was the son of Sampson Caudle.[2]

The Caudills (Caudles, Caddells, Coddles, Cordels, Codills, and many other spellings) are a large and well-documented family.  The first documentation of a Caudle in America is a Virginia Land Grant to Stephen “Cawdle” from King George of England in 1731.[3] By the time of the Revolutionary War, the family had migrated to North Carolina.[4] The family had begun migrating to eastern Kentucky by 1789.[5]

TRACKING THE MIGRATION OF TWO FAMILIES

In 1820, Sampson Caudill was in Floyd County, Kentucky. He had three sons under 10: William born 1810, Spencer born 1813, and James born 1814.  There were no males “of 10 and under 16” listed, so William must have been born after the date of the 1810 census.  Owners of online family trees inserted Hugh in 1812 but, since Nancy was born 6 June 1811, and Spencer was born 5 January 1813, it seems unlikely.[6]

In the 1830 Census of Perry County, Kentucky, Sampson Caudle reported 2 males 5 thru 9: Irvin born 1 October 1820, and Benjamin born 27 February 1822;  1 male 10 thru 14 and one 15 thru 19.[7]

A census record for Hugh Caudle in 1830 has not been found. 

By 1840, both the Sampson Caudill family and the Hugh Caudle family were in Missouri, Sampson in Polk County[8] and, Hugh in Ray County.[9]

In 1850, Sampson, wife Elizabeth, and an Elizabeth age 14, born in Illinois, were enumerated in Cedar District, Cedar County, Missouri. Cedar County was formed from parts of Polk and DeKalb Counties in 1845, so Sampson may have been in the same place he had lived in 1840.[10]

The 1840 U. S. Federal Census enumerated Hugh Caudle in Grape Grove, Ray County, Missouri.  By 1850, Hugh and his family had moved to Atchison County. Son James, age 14, on the 1850 census is the first of Hugh’s children to have been born in Missouri, so they were probably in Missouri by 1836.[11]

Hugh purchased land in Atchison County in 1856.[12]

Sampson Caudell purchased 40 acres in Cedar County, in 1857.[13]

Andrew McCollister was appointed Guardian of Hugh Caudle, an insane person, on 30 April 1859. McCollister charged the estate of Hugh Caudle $12 for transporting Hugh to the “lunatic asylum” at Fulton, Missouri 6 – 12 May 1859.[14]  Hugh died there on 18 September 1859.[15]  In 1956 a fire destroyed the administration building and many patient records.[16]  Patients who died there were buried in unmarked graves in a cemetery on the hospital grounds.

Sampson Cordell died on 1 June 1865 in Cedar County, Missouri.[17] Although Find A Grave is a secondary resource, the information is corroborated by the appointment of an Administrator of the Estate of Sampson Cordell in Cedar County, Missouri,  6 September 1865.[18] That same day, the Administrator of the Estate filed a document in the Probate Court certifying that Sampson Cordell had died intestate and naming his heirs.  There are no grandchildren of Hugh Caudle listed in the statement.[19]



CONCLUSION

In the only two records for Hugh Caudle, the 1840 and 1850 censuses, the spelling of his name is the same. Sampson used a variety of spellings; Caudill in 1820, Caudle in 1830, Cordell in 1840, Cordel in 1850 and, 1860.  The 1860 census indicated that he could not read and write. [20]

Although both families migrated to Missouri at about the same time, there is no record of them ever having been in contact with one another.  There is no clear route between Cedar County and Ray and Atchison Counties.

Sampson Cordell (1784 – 1863) was not the father of Hugh Caudle (1812 – 1859).
v

[21]                                                                               Figure 1

[1] Cox, Clayton R., Appalachia Crossroads ,Baltimore : Gateway Press, 1977 – 2003.
[2] “Descendant of James Cordell Jr. Sends Data,” Cordell Clippings, No. 10, January 1994 : accessed at Kentucky Historical Society, 6 May 2017.
[3] Stephen Cawdle Grant, Virginia Land Office Patents and Grants, Chronological Document Display for Land Office Grants and Patents; digital images, The Library of Virginia (image.lva.virginia.gov/LONN/L-1/011-2/201-300 html : accessed 16 Mar 2020).
[4]Fold3, Revolutionary War Pensions (title/467/revolutionary-war-pensions : accessed 16 March 2020), database and images, entry for James Cordill, https://www.fold3.com/title/467/revolutionary-war-pensions.
[5] Alfred V. Adams, Twixt Me And Mose Life in the hills of Eastern Kentucky (Kentucky: Alfred V. Adams, 1984), 43.
[6] 1820 U. S.  census, Floyd County, Kentucky, population schedule, [top of page missing], line 2, Sampson Caudill; digital image,  Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 18 March 2020); citing National Archives microfilm publication M33 roll 22.
[7] 1830 U. S. census, Perry County, Kentucky, population schedule, no township, p. 35 (penned top left), line 12, Sampson Caudle; Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 18 March 2020); citing National Archives microfilm publication M 19 roll 40. Perry County was formed in 1821 from Clay and Floyd Counties.
[8]1840 U. S.  census, Polk County, Missouri, population schedule, no township, p. 156, line 14, Sampson Cordell; digital image,  Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 18 March 2020); citing National Archives microfilm publication M704 roll 228.
9 1840 U. S. census, Ray County, Missouri, population schedule, Grape Grove District, p. 306, line 9, Hugh Caudle; digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 18 March 2020); citing National Archives microfilm publication M 704 Record G.
[10] 1850 U. S. census, Cedar County, Missouri, population schedule, Cedar District, page no. missing,  dwelling 118, family 118, Sampson Cardel; digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 17 March 2020); citing National Archives microfilm publication M432 roll 395.
[11] 1850 U. S. census, Atchison County, Missouri, pop. Sch., no Twp., 149 stamped, dwelling [ ], family 224, ; Hugh Caudle; digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 17 March 2020), citing National Archives microfilm publication M 432, roll 391.
[12] Hugh Codel (Atchison County, Missouri) General Land Office Records certificate No. 17347; digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 18 March 2020).
[13] Sampson Caudell (Cedar County, Missouri) General Land Office Records, certificate No. 18441; digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 18 March 2020).
[14] Atchison County, Missouri, Hugh Caudle probate case files no. 150, Atchison County Recorder, Rockport.
[15] “U.S. Federal Census Mortality Schedules Index, 1840-1880,” database, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 20 March 2020), entry for Hugh Caudle, ID# 41_2859, Callaway, Missouri.
[16] “Fulton State Hospital History,” Missouri Department of Mental Health, (https://www.dmh.mo.gov/fulton-state-hospital-history) : accessed 20 March 2020).
[17] Caudill, Lenny, Tolliver, Lee & Debbie, Hahn, Rob, “Sampson “Caudill” Cordell,” Find A Grave (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/192227477 : accessed 21 March 2020).
[18]“Missouri Probate Records, 1750 – 1998,” images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark/61903/3:1:3QSQ-G9LH-7KWD?cc=2399107&wc=Q9D-74W%3A1326924201%2C1339535702 : 22 September 2014), Cedar > Probates, 1845-1868, vol A-B > image 465 of 678; Missouri State Archives, Jefferson City : accessed 20 March 2020.
[19] Cedar County, Missouri, Sampson Cordell probate file found loose in basement of Cedar County Courthouse, posted to Ancestry.com (http://www. https://www.ancestry.com/mediaui-viewer/collection/1030/tree/36895361/person/19861071731/media/2e5bb521-781a-476b-9b8e-6841ec104c79?_phsrc=Kjf2548&usePUBJs=true : accessed 22 March 2020).
[20] 1860 U.S. census, Cedar County, Missouri, population schedule, Madison Township, p. 121 (penned), dwelling 848, family 848, Sampson Cordel  digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 22 March 2020); citing National Archives microfilm publication M653, roll 613.
[21]“Township Map of the State of Missouri 1858”  (Cincinnati, Ohio: E. Mendenhall, 1858); digital image, State  Historical Society of Missouri (digital.shsmo.org/digital/collection/Maps/id/13/43c/1 : accessed 18 March 2020. 


Barbara Mattoon
            



                                 

                                                                                
 

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