Dempsey Key (1808 - aft. 1856)

Born 1808 in Chester, South Carolina, United States

Ancestors

Husband of Mary Ann (Isom) Key — married 1835 in Shelby Co., Tennessee

Descendants

Died after 1856 after age 48 in Carroll, Missouri, United States [uncertain]

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Dale Key [send private message]

Biography

Dempsey Key was born in 1809.^[1][2]

This profile is a collaborative work-in-progress. Can you contribute information or sources?

Notes

Note N407*Listed in 1840 census, Shelby Co., TN with 5 sons under 5 yrs old.

*In 1850 farm laborer in Ray Co., MO.

Per Pat J. Calton:

*Left Shelby Co., TN with Mary's parents. Came by boat up the Mississippi & Missouri rivers to DeWitt, Mo in 1844. They left the boat and walked to Leslie Township, Mandeville, in Carroll Co., Mo. They moved to Ray Co., Mo in 1849.

*He worked as a farm laborer for John Street 1843 to 1845. In 1845 he was a Charter member of "Our Little Flock" Baptist Church in Leslie Twp., East of Mandeville, Mo.

*Dempsey (disappeared) left Mary between 1850 and 1857. Legend has he either went back to Memphis, Shelby Co., TN or Sidney, Fremont Co., Iowa.

*Dempsey went to Iowa, remarried and had more children. *Found land records for Dempsey Key in Carroll Co., MO.(5/1/98)

Leta Karen (Key) Miller's Notes:

From the research that I have done, I do not believe that Dempsey deserted his family. At the time Pat Calton wrote this, she did not know that Dempsey's Father, Owen, lived in McDonald Co. MO. I personally believe that he went to where his Father and Mother lived. He also had brothers & sisters living there. His Father died between 1850 & 1860 Census and possibly his sister Nancy as I haven't found her after the 1850 Census either. He may have died there also or had been killed. In one of McDonald History books they found an unidentified dead man on one of the creeks in Mountain Twp. where his parents lived that had been hit in the head about that time.

I guess my question is: Why would he have bought land in Carrol County in October of 1856 and then left his family. His wife and five sons died from diphtheria in 1857 in Carrol County.

Sources

• “United States Census, 1850," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MDZV-5LR : 12 April 2016), Dempsey Key, Ray county, Ray, Missouri, United States; citing family 720, NARA microfilm publication M432 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.).

1. ↑ Source: #S3031
2. ↑ Source: #S3161

• 1850 District 75, Ray County, Missouri Census
• Source: S3031 Mary Helen Key Grozinger's notes
• Source: S3161 Pattie J. Calton's Family Report: Descendants of Gideon Ison, Sir
• http://www.earljones.net/aqwg6984.htm#212533
• U.S. General Land Office Records, 1776-2015

Name: Dempsey Key

Issue Date: 1 Oct 1856

Place: Carroll, Missouri, USA

Land Office: Plattsburg

Meridian: 5th PM

Township: 54-N

Range: 24-W

Section: 17

Accession Number: MO4700__.329

Document Number: 17505