Barbara Beatty (1786 - 1878)

Born 20 Aug 1786 in Fredericktown, Cecil, Maryland, United States

Ancestors

Descendants

Died 1 May 1878 at age 91 in Fayette County, Kentucky, USA

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Biography

Barbara Beatty was born on 20 Aug 1786 in Fredricktown, Maryland. ^[1] She was the daughter of James Edward Beatty (1742-1820) and Elizabeth Ramer (1747-1841). She was the youngest of 11 siblings.

She married Daniel Spurr (1785-1832) on 1 Apr 1807 in Fayette County, Kentucky.^[2] they had eight children.

She died on 1 May 1879 in Fayette County, Kentucky, and is buried at the Beatty Family Cemetery in Lexington, Fayette County, Kentucky,^[1] as are her parents and spouse. This cemetery is variously called Beatty Family Cemetery, Spurr Family Cemetery, or Masterson Park Cemetery.

Excerpted from "Oklahoma, a history of the state and its people," v. 3 Page: 420-421 of 629:

"John William Spurr - A member of an old and prominent Kentucky family and himself a native of that State, Mr. Spurr has been a resident of Oklahoma for more than a quarter of a century. Until 1919, since which he has been retired from active work and has made his home at Seminole, he was successfully engaged in operating a large farm at Stroud, Lincoln County, where he was a pioneer planter of cotton in that part of Oklahoma. Like his ancestors, Mr. Spurr is a cultured gentleman and has always taken a very active and helpful part in the civic, fraternal, religious and social life of the community. His many fine qualities have won for him a high social position, and he has been considered for many years one of the leading citizens of that part of Oklahoma, which he has helped to develop.

"On his paternal grandmother's side Mr. Spurr is a descendant of a German lady of high birth, supposed to have been a princess, who between 1730 and 1740 fell in love with a youth, not her equal in position and fortune, named Michael Ramer. As the result of her parents' opposition to their marriage, the two young lovers eloped to America, married and settled in the State of Maryland. To this union there were born four daughters, one of whom Elizabeth Ramer, born July 25, 1747, married June 18, 1765, James Beatty, who was born October 16, 1742. The youngest of the eleven children of James and Elizabeth (Ramer) Beatty, Barbara Beatty, born August 20, 1786, married April 1, 1807, Daniel Spurr, these being the paternal grandparents of John William Spurr. The youngest of their eight children, Beatty Ramer Spurr, was the father of John William Spurr. He was born August 16, 1825, and became a physician in Fayette County, Kentucky. Dr. Spurr was an old-time country physician and for many years rode on horseback over a radius of some thirty miles to attend to his practice and patients. He was a gentleman of the old school and was very fond of fine saddle horses, usually owning a number of thoroughbreds. Though offering his services as a military surgeon during the Civil War, he was not accepted, the authorities considered his professional services as a civilian physician indispensable to the several communities, which he served so faithfully for many years. Dr. Spurr married, February 28, 1861, Mary Ann Delph, a daughter of John M. Delph, mayor of Louisville, Kentucky. To this union there were born three children, only one of whom lived to maturity, John William Spurr.

"John William Spurr was born five miles north of Lexington, Kentucky, January 10, 1862, a son of Dr. Beatty Ramer and Mary Ann (Delph) Spurr. He was educated in the public grammar and high schools of his native region and continued to live in Fayette County, Kentucky, until June 1901, when he removed to Oklahoma. There he settled at Stroud, Lincoln County, purchasing one hundred and sixty acres of land, one half mile east of that town.

"He immediately proceeded to cultivate this property, having decided to raise wheat. The first year he planted ninety acres, the second year fifty, and the third year fifteen. However, he soon discovered that neither the soil nor the climate was particularly adapted for the cultivation of wheat and with characteristic enterprise he made a very thorough study of cotton growing. Before long he decided, as the result of these studies, to devote himself to the growing of cotton and worked out methods which he considered especially well adapted to his soil and to the climatic conditions of his neighborhood. Though many people predicted failure, he quickly proved his methods to be the best for his seeds and purposes, and thereafter he met with great success during the eighteen years he continued to cultivated his Stroud farm. Just after the World War, Oklahoma farms brought remarkable prices, and Mr. Spurr eventually sold his farm, in March 1919, and removed to Seminole, where he has since then made his home. Though practically retired, he occasionally engages in contracting work and in the construction of buildings, and has handled several profitable enterprises of this nature. In politics Mr. Spurr is a supporter of the Democratic party, and during his residence in Stroud he served as inspector on the local election board. Though a man of public spirit and urged several times to run for the office of the county commissioner, he has never aspired to public office and has always declined to become a candidate. For twenty-four years he has been a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and during this period he has been prominently active in the affairs of this organization, having held several high offices, including that of Noble Grand. His religious affiliations are with the Baptist church.

"Mr. Spurr married, at Covington, Kentucky, April 18, 1883, Mary F. Nunnelley of Greendale, Kentucky, a daughter of Dudley Vardivan and Jurette (Hudson) Nunnelley. Mrs. Spurr's father was born in Pulaski County, Kentucky, and was married twice, his second wife, Mrs. Spurr's mother, being a daughter of Colonel Hudson, who served on the staff of the governor of Kentucky during the Civil War. Prior to that time he had moved to Fayette County, Kentucky, and had purchased a large farm, located between Lexington and Georgetown. His father had come to this country from England, where his ancestors had been ministers for many generations. Dudley V. Nunnelley was prominent throughout his life in the Baptist church and was highly respected for his deep and sincere interest in religion. At an early age he had become converted to the Baptist faith and he was present when Alexander Campbell, the famous Baptist reformer, organized the Cane Run Baptist Church near Lexington, Kentucky, from which later developed the Baptist sec known as Campbellites or Disciples of Christ. Prior to the Civil War, Mr. Nunnelley owned many slaves and, in common with other Southern planters, the end of the war brought him heavy losses. After the war he devoted himself to his various enterprises, to his family and to his church. Mr. and Mrs. Spurr were the parents of seven children, all born in Kentucky: 1. William Harold Spurr, who was born, March 29, 1884, and who died at Seminole, July 24, 1919, was one of the pioneer businessmen of Seminole, where he enjoyed a very high position; with Mr. Douglas of Shawnee, he organized the first bank at Tidmore, now part of Seminole; he also was interested in the drug business, dealt in oil leases and royalties, owned some very valuable oil land; he married Maud Stroud of Stroud, Lincoln County, and at the time of his death was survived by his wife and three children: Harold Baxter, James Wrexel and Dorothy. 2. Richard Delph, married Mary Talley of Lees Summit, Missouri. 3. Beatty Ramer, married Ethel Goff of Stroud, Oklahoma, and is the father of one son, Beatty Ramer, Jr., 4. Dudley Lewis, who served in the Ninetieth Division during the World War; married and he and his wife, Pearl, have two daughters. 5. Mary Etta, married George Franklin Killingsworth of Seminole, Oklahoma. 6. Bessie Ellen, married Samuel I. Kinyon. 7. Louise Jewell Spurr, who married Chester A. Porta, and is the mother of one daughter, Victoria Frances Porta."^[3]

From the History of Fayette County, Kentucky:

"Dr. Richard J. Spurr, farmer, P. O. Donerail, is one of the numerous descendants of Richard Spurr, a young man of high family in England, who, in the early colonial days, emigrated from his native land to America, and settled in Loudoun County, of the present State of Virginia; was a Commissariat office throughout the war of Independence, and witnessed the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown; married a lady of the celebrated Colton family, and became the father of eight children, all born in Virginia; moved to Kentucky and became one of the earliest settlers in what is now Athens Precinct of Fayette County (see Precinct History), and there died a few years after locating. His son Daniel, born in August, 1785, near Lessburg, Va., remained on the home farm till his marriage, in 1807, with Barbara Beatty, born in August, 1786, in the vicinity of Fredericktown, Md., whence her parents, James and Elizabeth (Ramer) Beatty, came to Kentucky in 1795, and bought the farm of Richard Masterson, from whom Masterson’s Station took its name. The Beattys were of Scotch-Irish descent, and the Ramers were from Mayence, Principality of Hesse-Darmstadt on the Rhine. The father of Mrs. Beatty, Michael Ramer, was a tanner, and, at the time of the Reformation, preserved his Bible by hiding it in a footstool till the edict for the destruction of translations of the Scriptures was revoked. After his marriage Daniel Spurr moved to the “Masterson Station” farm of his father-in-law, where he and his wife lived and died. Both belonged to the Baptist Church in which their children followed them. Of the four sons and four daughters born to them, all grew up, and being of a long-lived race, seven still survive – Richard J., Lydia, Mary Ann, William, Daniel, Beatty R. and Martha. The eldest daughter, Eliza, is dead. The eldest son, Richard J., was born in March, 1808, and grew up on the farm he now occupies; received a limited common-school education, and, at the age of fourteen years, went to work as a man. On January 10, 1830, he married Susan Jewett, born in the year 1812, in Jefferson County, Ky., where her parents, David and Ruth (Beatty) Jewett, were early settlers, her father being a ranger and Indian fighter. The young husband lived for a few years on a farm adjoining that of his father, but, on the death of the latter, returned to the homestead. Having studied medicine and taken his degree at Transylvania College, he began the practice of his profession in 1838, and continued it, along with the care of his farm till 1856, when failing health compelled him to relinquish his professional duties. Since then he has given his attention to general agriculture, in which he takes great interest. Since 1865, he has been an active and devoted member of the Fair Association, of which he has been a very useful Vice President for sixteen years. He is the writer of the agricultural chapter in this work. He was left a widower on January 14, 1866, with six daughters, the survivors of fourteen children born to him. Three of his daughters are married – Estelle, to John Howard, of Daviess County; Mary S., to Thomas Hawkins, and Sarah M., to John J. Curtis, of Fayette, and three – Martha F., Jane P. and Ethel B. remain at home with their father and his second wife, since August 1880, Bettie, daughter of John and Apperline (Nicholas) Curtis. The Curtis family was of Mason, and the Nicolas family of Scott County. In 1848, Dr. Spurr was elected to the State Legislature; was re-elected in 1855, and sent back for a third term in 1863. Since 1878, yielding to the solicitations of his friends, he has served as a Justice of the Peace in his precinct, in which he is highly respected for his many excellencies of head and heart. "^[4]

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1} Find A Grave: Memorial #133294289 page for Barbara Beatty Spurr (20 Aug 1786–1 May 1878), citing Beatty Family Cemetery, Lexington, Fayette County, Kentucky, USA; accessed 27 November 2020; Maintained by dtreat (contributor 46965035).
2. ↑ "Kentucky, County Marriages, 1797-1954," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:Q28D-DFXK : 29 November 2018), Daniel Spurr and Barbara Beatty, 01 Apr 1807; citing Marriage, Fayette, Kentucky, United States, various county clerks and county courts, Kentucky; FHL microfilm 9,014.
3. ↑ Thoburn, Joseph B. (Joseph Bradfield), 1866-1941 & Wright, Muriel H. (Muriel Hazel), 1889-1975. Oklahoma, a history of the state and its people, v. 3, book, 1929; New York. (texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth20197/: accessed May 18, 2017), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, texashistory.unt.edu
4. ↑ William Henry Perrin, History of Fayette County, Kentucky, Southern Historical Press, 1882, Pgs. 860-861

• Family Search profile for Barbara Beatty, (1786–1878) accessed 27 Nov 2020.

• https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth20197/m1/420/?q=maud%20spurr

• Spurr family Bible Record (on file at Kentucky Historical Society)