Monday Meadows

Asa Crayton Meadows

The path the direct line ancestors of Crayton Meadows journeyed on from Virginia to Alabama is an interesting one. Where did the Meadows family originate? How did they end up in Alabama? The Meadows family originally came from Prince George County, Virginia. They lived around the James River area. The DNA Project World Tree shows that this Meadows familial lineage was from England. Whether the progenitor of the Meadows family, Daniel Meadows, came directly from England to Virginia is unknown now.

Research continues since records are frequently being added online. Daniel Meadows migrated from Virginia to North Carolina. His son Isham Meadows Sr. had a son named Isham. Isham the second left Bute County, North Carolina and headed toward Georgia. He settled in Alabama. Three of Isham the second’s children were born in North Carolina, and the other eleven were born in Georgia. William Meadows, Isham the second’s son, was born 1794 in Wilkes County, Georgia. William had a son John Calvin born in Greene County, Georgia in 1818. Isham the second died in Lowndes County, Alabama 16 Dec 1844. John Calvin Meadows was the father of twelve children of which seven were born in Georgia and five were born in Alabama. Asa Crayton was the third from the youngest of the twelve children. Why am I writing about him first? His descendant was one of the first matches that contacted me on the autosomal DNA test results. From the information, he gave me the family tree program shows that the Asa Crayton Meadows is a great grand uncle and his son Samuel Jackson Meadows is a first cousin twice removed. Samuel’s son is a second cousin once removed. This information sparked interest in the Meadows familial lineage, and it proved my genealogical paper trail for the Meadows line.

 Asa Crayton Meadows was born in New Site, Tallapoosa County, Alabama. His mother was Sarah Ann Oliver daughter of Thomas White Oliver and Frances Roebuck. Asa is seventeen years old on the 1880 District 142, Newsite, Tallapoosa County census. His mother Sarah Ann was deceased by 1880. The next census Asa is on, is the 1900 District 70, New Site, Tallapoosa County census. He is married, has three sons, one daughter and his eighty-year-old mother-in-law is living with his family. On the 1900 federal census the relationships to the head of house are stated, a birth month and year is given, the years married, the mother of how many children and how many living is information asked for on the census. Asa and his wife Sara Ann had been married sixteen years. Asa was born June 1863 and Sara Ann was born May 1867 in Alabama. Her mother Zada Spates was born in South Carolina.

While looking at the information for Sara Ann Spates Meadows the name Zady stood out to me, and was a familiar name that had come up in previous research of the paternal Lee family.  After researching further, the name Zady kept coming up with the Margaret, the other daughter of Jordan Lee. Zady Spates is the daughter of Jordan Lee and Lydia. Zady married a Spates; therefore, the conclusion was that Asa married his cousin. Jordan’s wife Lydia had a sister named Zady Hodge, and Lydia named her daughter Zady after her sister. Zady Lee was born July 1819 in South Carolina. Zady was the mother of ten children, with seven living children. She was widowed.

The 1900 census has information to be gleaned about the residents of the counties; information that will tell a story of an ancestor. Asa was a farmer as was his father, and his ancestors back to Daniel Meadows. On the 1900 census Zady, his mother-in-law, stated she was a farmer.  Researching collateral line family members helps to find other family members that might otherwise prove difficult to locate. This has been the case while researching Asa Crayton Meadows. His mother-in-law is a daughter of Jordan Lee whom would not have been found if the Meadows collateral ancestors weren’t researched.

In 1910 District 165, New Site, Tallapoosa County census Asa and wife are living with four of their sons and one daughter. They were all working on the farm as laborers. Asa owned the farm, and he and Sarah Ann had been married twenty-six years. They had five children and all were living. This was the last census Asa Meadows was on. Those times were hard and families were farm laborers; that was a backbreaking occupation and survival was difficult during those times. 

 He died 5 December 1917 in New Site, Alexander City, Tallapoosa County, Alabama and is buried in the Harmony Cemetery in Tallapoosa. Asa Crayton was only about fifty-four years old when he died. No will or probate record was found for Asa Crayton Meadows.