Tiner/Tyner of Moore Co NC & Washington/Benton Co.s AR

Nancy (Tyner?) Stephens family connections, found recently, both confirm some earlier conclusions and dispell other earlier conclusions reached by me, and generally accepted by other researchers that I shared them with through 2007.

What seemed very apparrent to me, and to fellow Tynor/Stephens researchers, and is so obvious from the earliest AR/MO censuses, was that around 1800, some members of both families were born in NC.Because of certain spelling &/or typo errors of that time period, we were unable to locate our Thomas Tyner family in NC, and there were too many Stephens/Stevens families to chose from in NC.While some researchers always tended to agree with me that these two families were at least connected by marriage(s), if not by blood, others maintained there was no documented evidence of that connection, only circumstantial evidence.

Much has changed my life since 2007, and access to information has exploded, along with ways to filter for it, and to find what seemed too difficult or impossible to find back then.

Searching again in the heads of families of NC, using websites such as google, heritagequest & familysearch, and then going back to rootsweb, genforum and to the books on library shelfs, I was able to find the following in Moore Co, NC:

1790 NC Fayette Dist., Moore Co p 159: TYNEY, Priscilla1 1[no free white males over 16, 1 free white male under 16, 1 free white female, including head of family, no other free persons, no slaves].

1800 NC Moore Co p 77: TYNOR, Thomas 10100-00001 [1 male 0 to 10, probably Thomas, Jr, 0 males 10 to 16, 1 male 16 to 26, probably Thomas, Sr, 0 males 26 to 45, 0 males 45+--0 females to 10 to 16 to 26 to 45, 1 female 45+, probably Priscilla].

Next to STEPHENS, Benjamin [Sr] 10101--00111

Next to STEPHENS, John [Jr]20010--10010


1790 NC Fayette Dist., Moore Co p 163: STEPHENS, Benjamin Sr 25

Next to STEPHENS, John Jr 1 1 2

p 164: STEPHENS, Benjamin [Jr] 1 1 3


While there were a few other Stephens families listed on Moore Co in 1800, 1810 & 1820, there appear to be no more Tyner families listed in Moore Co, and Benjamin Stephens Sr & John Stephens Jr are not listed there after 1800 either.The fact that they were all listed next to each other in 1800, provides more evidence that the statements that both families always lived near and with one another in NC & AR are truthful statements.I had always believed there was some connection between the Tyner families of McDonald Co, MO, many of them descended from Dempsy Tyner of SC, and the Tyner families of Washington & Benton Co.s, AR, just across the MO/AR state line.If there was any relationship, it was probably quite distant.

Thomas Tyner, SR may have been listed with his mother Prisclla in 1790, and his mother listed with him in 1800, since he had probably had at least one son, Thomas Tyner, JR by then.In the 1850 Fed Cen of Marrs Hill, Washington Co, AR, Thomas Tyner [Jr] was listed as 52 NC [b about 1797/8].

In the 1850 FC of [Cross Hollows P.O. area] White River Twp, Benton Co, AR, Nancy (Tyner?) Stephens was listed as 50 NC [b about 1800/1].Why Nancy was living in White River Twp, in 1850, possibly only a short time during the time of the 1850 Census being taken, has always been a mystery to me.There were plenty of early settlers of Crawford - Washington - Benton Co. AR from NC with members of their family born in NC around 1800, but few were listed in Moore Co, NC in 1800.

Nancy 50 NC always did live with her youngest son, David Stephens, and near her youngest dau, Adaline who was listed in family/dwelling 227/227 as Ataline 19 AR wife of James Baker 23 AR next to 226/226Nancy Stephens 50 NC, Nancy 21 AR & David 18 AR.I now see that Nancy 21 AR could very well have been Nancy (Tyner?) Stephens' next to youngest dau and 2 yrs older than Adaline.If she is not Adaline/Ataline then I no nothing further about her, which is quite possible since she could have died or married soon after 1850.

Another possible explanation for Nancy 50 NC living in White River Twp during at least part of 1850 is the family that was listed before her 225/225, the family of Charles Gwinn [listed as Swinn in the typed book transcribed by Elizabeth B. Langley; Stone County, Missouri Historian & Genealogical Researcher' Billings, Missouri, 1967; entitled: POPULATION SCHEDULE of the UNITED STATES CENSUS OF 1850 (Seventh Census) for BENTON COUNTY, ARKANSAS].

Charles Gwinn [listed as Guinn in 1840 FC of Bush Creek Twp, Washington Co, AR]was listed in 1850 White River Twp as age 39 Not Known [in space for birthplace].It may be of little research value, but the census taker made a notation Est. [estimated] before the age 39, indicating Charles did not know [or want to give] his own age.The space under occupation for Charles was left blank also. All of this was not as common as one might think it was, even for that census.

However, the same notation, Est, was made before the age 50 for Nancy 50 NC, whose space for occupation was also left blank [quite understandable for her being a widow, but in the space for occupation for her son David 18 AR was written None, which may imply he shoud have had one].None was also written in the space for occupation for James Baker in the next household.From 1860-1910, David Stephens/Stevens was listed as a farmer with his wife, Margaret (Davis) Stephens/Stevens.In 1860 & 1865, his mother Nancy was listed with him as 54 KY & 65 NC.We can only assume he was her son, and she was his mother, in these censuses, because relationships were not listed until the 1880 census.

These notations, by themselves, would not be worth much to me as a researcher, if it was not for the fact that I have not been able to find any mention of James Baker after this census, although Adaline has James Siegel Baker in MO in 1867/8.The rest of the family of Charles Gwinn: Mahala Gwinn 30 AR [1820 is very early to be born in Benton Co, AR, but more common in Washington Co, AR], Lucinda 15, Scynthia 12, Mary 9, William 8, Nancy 4 & Manerva 1 (all ch b AR).I have not been able to find Mahala, or any of the Gwinn ch listed in 1850, in any later censuses.Apparently, Charles Gwinn died before 1860, but most of the children were still alive in 1860, just not found in any census.

For nearly 45 yrs, I have known that my mother's maternal grandmother's maternal grandmother, Mary Stevens/Stephens was buried near Leonardville, Riley Co, KS, and that on her tombstone [with Isaac Landers Swagerty] it is written that she was born Sept. 3, 1819 and that she died Dec. 20, 1893.Arkansas records were not so readily available to me in 1968/9, but I was told that Mary was a young orphan Indian lass when she md Pleasant O. Swagerty.She was not quite 13 when they were md in 1832 in Benton Co, AR.

When I began to diligently search AR census records for my 3rd great grandmother Mary (Stevens) Swagerty, I was sadly disappointed that so little was available at that time.I thought her name was Mary Elizabeth, but much later I found out it was Mary Ellen.

In the very first census that she was listed by name, she was listed as the wife of Isaac [Landers] Swaggerty 25 [23?] AR in the 1850 FC of [Osage Mills P.O. area] Osage Twp, Benton Co, AR, Mary [Ellen] 30 TN [b late 1819, she had not reached her 31st birthday] with 5 living ch: [Sarah] Sally L[ouise] 15, Lucinda [Tabitha] 12, Thomas J[ames Axley] 9, Mary E[lizabeth] 5 & Pleasant O['Haver] 3 (all ch b AR).Her eldest dau, Nancy Jane b 10 April 1833 to her & her 1st husb, Pleasant O'Haver Swaggerty had died young, possibly about the same time her 1st husb died.

My 2nd great grandmother was also listed by name for the first time in that same census as Mary E. 5 AR.She is generally believed to have been born to Mary Ellen & her 2nd husb Isaac L. Swaggerty, but some still maintain that Pleasant O. Swaggerty was her father, and that she was raised by Rev. Isaac & Mary.Mary Elizabeth Swaggerty md Phillip Hoffman of Germany near Ft. Riley, KS on 2 July 1865.

My Greatgrandmother Lucinda Bitha [shortened from Tabitha] was born on Mall Creek in Clay Co, KS on 1 May 1866, the eldest dau of Phillip & Mary (Swagerty) Hoffman, who had 4 more daus & 3 sons.When middle-aged, Phillip lost his health and was barely able to work to support his family.My Greatgrandmother Lucinda & her next younger sister, Mary Ellen were sent to live with their grandparents, Rev. Isaac Landers & Mary Ellen (Stevens) Swagerty near Grandview, Riley Co, KS.

In 1885, in Riley Co, KS, Lucinda B. Hoffman md Harrison Alexander Mosburg, and their eldest dau, Mary Elizabeth "Mae" Mosburg, named for Lucinda's mother, was my maternal grandmother.I have lots of pictures, stories & census informationof my mother's matrenal line heritage as far back as my 3rd Great Grandmother, Mary Ellen (Stevens/Stephens) Swagerty/Swaggerty.

Unfortunately, the censuses before 1850 listed only the head of household by name and the males & females in that household, including the head of household named, by their ages.In the absence of deeds, wills and other such documents, it is impossible to prove relationships by census information alone.Lucky for me, I havean abundance of family traditions that have been passed down through many generations of my maternal lines. These are supported by the little bits & pieces found in other family sources, including a few obituaries, a few marriages and some information extracted from many censuses, the least reliable source for me in the Swagerty, Stephens & Tyner family research.

Perhaps the most important piece that I found is the obituary of Bennett Tiner [Tyner].I will share some parts of that obituary, along with other supporting evidence I've found recently, in a follow-up to this post.

As always, I welcome any comments, additions or corrections to this work in progress research, since my only purpose is to provide the most accurate infromation we can presently find, in order to help future generations know more about their true heritage.