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Some people continue to believe that Bradley Collins b. 1787 NC (as per his own census record and family records/notes kept by his oldest son Andrew's oldest daughter Polly), and always listed as free white, etc. is the same person as Bradley Collins b. 1795 or so, the mulatto son of Meredith Collins of Floyd County, KY. They are NOT the same person but two different persons.
One of the keys to them being different is the birth years/dates and data of the first three children of the North Carolina Bradley Collins, compared with the 1820 census record for the Floyd Co., KY Bradley Collins--besides his age. Bradley Collins who was born in North Carolina had his first TWO marriages in North Carolina. His first was 1807/8 and his oldest daughter Keziah was born in North Carolina, as per her family's records. (born actually in 1809--some have 1807 and her 1850 census record has yet another year which is wrong because she would have been under-age then when she married Richard Reid/Reed on November 24, 1827--as per the Clay County, Kentucky marriage record.) The same North Carolina born Bradley Collins was the one who married Jane Ray on February 22, 1817 also in North Carolina--Orange County. He also served in the War of 1812 as an enlistee from Orange County, North Carolina, several stints from 1812-1814, and along with a William Collins at one point. Bradley was in Kentucky for a few years between 1809 and 1812, which is when his OLDEST son Andrew Collins was born. He may have been in Pulaski County, where Andrew Collins Sr. had lands on Brush Creek since 1807, next to William Collins. The laws of Kentucky (and most other frontier states as they developed) held that claimed land could only continue to be held if it was improved within the first year of ownership--and continued to be maintained. Yet, in 1810, Andrew Collins was on the census for Orange County, NC and yet his land in Pulaski County was likewise being taxed in his name--while he was NOT living there full time. Someone else was maintaining the land and that someone else was probably/logically a son. Andrew Collins of Orange County married Isabella Hastings in 1784 in Orange County (marriage and will records). This same Andrew Collins served in the War of 1812--in Kentucky and died in Kentucky in February, 1815 (War of 1812 records). Members of the Orange County listgroup kindly looked up the administration records (scant) in Orange County to confirm that the Andrew Collins there did indeed die in 1815 (intestate) and the estate passed mostly to his wife, Isabella, who was a widow on the 1820 census. She died in the 1820's in Orange County, North Carolina, and according to several marriage bonds and deeds, Bradley Collins was in Orange County, North Carolina in exactly the same time frame.
Keziah and her husband were recorded as "white,"--always. So was Andrew Collins and his family. Bradley Collins, who his son Andrew said lived near Manchester in Clay County, Kentucky when Bradley left Kentucky in 1834, was on the 1830, 1840 and 1850 censes, always listed as white--not mulatto.
The best evidence, then, as described, is that Bradley Collins b. 1787 in North Carolina, was the oldest son of Andrew Collins and Isabella Hastings, NOT Meredith Collins.
Additionally, there is a debate now going on as to who the Abraham and Hiram Collins who were living next to Bradley Collins as "slaves" and yet heads of household" in the Clay County, KY 1830 census were. (They may not have actually been slaves, just freed mulattos and the census taker may have been confused as to what categories he should have placed them in on the census record). In the family records of Bradley's grand-daughter Polly, they were stated to be "brothers"--actually half-brothers--of Bradley and that he had to free them after his parents death. There is evidence that they were, and that their mother was actually a slave, half-sister of Isabella Hastings and likewise then a daughter of Henry Hastings Sr. Hiram born in either North Carolina or Virginia in 1792/3 named a son George Hastings Collins. Abraham, born in North Carolina in 1805, had no children who survived childhood but is alleged to have also had a son named Hastings (not well proved at this point). His sister, Amanda, however, had an illegitimate son whom Abraham raised after his nephew's father was killed in a knife fight in Bell County (records of that nephew's direct descendants--and the Bell County history: the child's father was William S. "Big Bill" Howard. Amanda for some reason fled the county right after the fight and brought her son to her brother Abraham who raised him to adulthood and sold him 40 acres in Martin County, Indiana where he first settled in 1834 (he later moved to Morgan County, Indiana). That son of Amanda (and nephew of Abraham) was named HENRY and went by Henry Collins for some part of his life. Brenda Collins Dillon, whom some may remember as being an enthusiastic Collins researcher for some years about 7-10 years ago, was a direct descendant of Henry and had a fair amount of data on him--and Abraham. By 1850, Henry Collins had assumed the surname "Howard" of his father and was living right next to Abraham Collins in Morgan Co., Indiana (census records).
In Bradley Collins' grand-daughter Polly's notes, Keziah Collins and her husband Richard Reed/Reid helped Hiram and Abraham move to and set up in Indiana after they were accused of murder (along with a long list of other people--the Robert Wickliff murder in Clay County in 1832). In fact, Hiram Collins purchased the first of several pieces of land in Morgan County, Indiana in 1832 and Richard Reed/Reid made a purchase in 1836. (U.S. land office records). Abraham Collins made his first purchase in Indiana in Martin County--near Kezzia Gregory, who was supposed to have been a witness in the trial and whom William Morris Jr. was to have deposed when he went to Indiana (he also was among the accused) and disappeared there instead, later showing up living near Mz. Gregory. This all rather supports the contention of Polly Collins-Smith that Hiram and Abraham were her grandfather Bradley Collins' half brothers--not cousins as was originally alleged by the prosecution in the Wickliff trial.
Brenda Collins Dillon, herself, apparently came to that conclusion, herself because although in 2001 and for a short time after she stated the prosecution claim of the "cousins" relationship, she later told me in an email that she believed they were half brothers and that there was something in the detail of the periodic hearings which went on for over 2 years off and on, that indicated the three accused Collins: Hiram, Abraham and Bradley were half brothers. She believed, though, that because Hiram and Abraham were mulattos, that Bradley had been so also and was the mulatto Bradley Collins from Floyd County, Kentucky. That last belief about Bradley's race and who he was, however, has been shown to be wrong by numerous other records as described above.
I would love to have more from Keziah Collins' Reed/Reid's descendants on this. Keziah and Richard Reed/Reid moved from Morgan County, Indiana to Madison County, Illinois in the early 1840's and were in that location on the 1850 census and apparently died there between 1850 and 1860. On the census record were children: Thomas Reed b. 1829 KY, Mary Jane b. 1841 and Rebecca b. 1845 and possibly Anderson Reed who died in Madison Co. in 1887. There were undoubtedly more children but I don't know their names. Mary Jane Reed may be the Mary Jane Reed who married William H. Peterman April 3, 1866 in Bond County, IL. I suspect Elizabeth A. Reed who married Dr. Samuel Long in Madison County on April 6, 1853 may have been a daughter as well, maybe the oldest daughter.
Hiram Collins (his wife was also a Reed--and he also named one of his sons "Thomas") also moved to Madison County, Illinois just before 1850, but may have returned to Morgan County, Illinois in only a few years. The problem with Hiram is there are TWO of them exactly the same age: one born in Virginia (or North Carolina) and the other born in North Carolina. Which one is really Bradley's "half-brother" is hard to say. One, in Morgan Co., Indiana had a wife named Rebecca (who could have been one of two wives total)and children named: Ramson, Newell, Nancy Jane, Alice (Alcey), Anderson, Perneta, Rebecca, Thomas, John K. Mary and George Hastings who went by Hastons (1850 census). In Madison County, next to Richard Reed and his wife Keziah were: Hiram--same age as the other b. in North Carolina, wife Elizabeth, children: Naman, Susannah, Nancy, James, Mary, Sarah and mother-in-law Susannah Reed. (Thomas Reed oldest son of Richard and Keziah was also living there as a hired laborer). Both are born in 1792/3 but they can't both be the "half brother" of Bradley Collins but both have things about them that "fit." One of them, possibly the one who died in Morgan County in early June, 1857 may be a son of David Collins and Thompsey Posting (married in Rowan County, North Carolina in 1772). It seems logical that since Keziah married Richard Reid/Reed and Hiram Collins of Clay County, living next to Bradley Collins in 1830 married Richard's sister, Elizabeth Reid/Reed the same day November 24, 1827, and had Susannah Reid, his wife's mother living with him in 1850, and his nephew Thomas Reed/Reid, that the Hiram Collins in Madison County in 1850 is the half-brother of Keziah Collins-Reid. Who the other Hiram Collins is and why he named sons Thomas and George Hastings Collins is a mystery.
Not known are the name of Bradley Collins's first wife: although the best guess is she was a Lewis and her first name may have been Elizabeth or Eliza. We also don't know precisely where and when he died. Researchers have confirmed it was not in Appanoose County, Iowa where he lived in 1850 with his oldes son, Andrew (as per the census), nor in Carroll County, Missouri. He died after 1850 and we have approximate years of 1852 and 1855, but no documentation. His grand-daughter said in notes that he died while visiting children. He could have left several in Chariton County, where he lived from 1834 to about 1848. Since his 1843 land purchase was very near the county line of Linn County, and he was close to the town of Marceline in Linn County, he may have died there. He could have also died in Hancock County, Illinois, as Brenda Collins Dillon suspected. His son Andrew had moved to Hancock County,Illinois sometime in the early-mid 1850's and Andrew's daughter Polly attended her first years of school there. Andrew Collins left Hancock County, Illinois at the end of 1858 or beginning of 1859 and moved back to Missouri, Marion County, where he was in 1860. After the Civil War, Andrew moved to Scott County, and lived near Commerce in that county. Andrew Collins married his 2nd wife there, Mrs. Maldiva Myers and died there January 17, 1874. Andrew Collins had five children who survived infancy/childhood: Lewis H. (Henry?) Collins (whose oldest son was named William Andrew Bradley Collins), Polly Ann Collins, Samson Collins (and Lewis' second son was named Samson), David Archibald Collins, Eliza Jane Collins, and Eli Collins. Eli Collins (b. 1855, Appanoose Co., Iowa) apparently died young, and it is claimed that there was another son, Hiram who died as an infant. There are enough gaps in the birth years to certainly make it possible. Two or three children could have been born and died in those gaps.
Lewis H. Collins married 3 times: to Mary Bates, Minerva Mason, and last to Josephine LeGrand by whom he had no children (he married her in 1882 and then died in 1883; she married Zachariah Robertson in 1884 and raised Lewis' 2 daughters). He had two sons, William Andrew Collins (b. 1859) and Samson Collins (b. 1867) but only Samson may have lived past childhood. He had two daughters: Clementine b. 1865, Amanda b. Jan. 1868/9 md. Daniel T. Hahn; and had 3 daughters.
Polly Ann Collins married Philip Newton Smith and lived in Scott County. A descendant of hers, John D. Young, lived in Brighton Illinois in the 1980's and 1990's into 2000 and had most of her notes and records, and I am deeply appreciative of his help in sorting this family out. He was the one who broke the "brick wall" my grandmother Collins and her father accidentally set up that had me on a wild goose chase for a Samuel Archibald Collins instead of David Achibald Collins for many years. My grandmother's grandfather, David Archibald Collins, 3rd son of Andrew Collins, had an unfortunate accident in 1874 that left him with brain damage from a head injury and insane for over 10 years resulting in his being placed in a mental institution for nearly 20 years (mental institution and census records). One day he rammed his head into a wall in said institution and apparently finally broke loose scar tissue or something that had been pressing on nerves and vessels and giving him excruciating constant headaches, insomnia and hallucinations, etc.. He never had the headaches again and was complete sane and normal from then on, but to make sure, the doctors didn't release him right away. He finally ended up released and living with his sister Polly. His only surviving son never knew him as a child, since the accident had happened when the son was only 3, and only met him a few times as an adult. My late maternal grandmother, Jessie Lavinia Collins-Wallace (1892-1989), David Archibald Collins' oldest grandchild by his only surviving son, never met him at all, but did meet his brother--Samson who she knew as "Uncle Sam." Samson Collins, Andrew's second son married Frances Kirk, the sister of David's wife Lavinia Jane Kirk, and had at least one daughter. Samson Collins eventually moved his family to Arkansas and died in Sevier Co., AR on March 14, 1921.
Any cousins with more, documented information please contact me by direct email at: celia.lfsbecker@sbcglobal.net (all letters, no numbers)
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