Life History

Notes

• "Thomas Terry left Martha Johnson. Both remarried. Thomas to a Mary, surname unknown. Martha, to Benjamin Combs."
  --  Anonymous comment on the profile of Thomas Terry on FamilySearch, https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/details/97GQ-NN2
  
  1850 Federal Census, Breathitt County, Kentucky, 23 August, District 1, page 33, Hse/Fam #247
  Benjamin Combs 57 M Farmer $250 Real Estate b Tennessee [b abt 1793]
  Patsy [Martha Johnston] Combs 48 F b Tennessee [b abt 1802]
  Elvira Combs 9 F b Tennessee [b abt 1841]
  Maranda Combs 9 M b Tennessee [b abt 1841]
  
  Living nearby was Patsy's brother Jessee Johnson.
  
  1850 Federal Census, Breathitt County, Kentucky, 23 August, District 1, page 32-33, Hse/Fam #244
  Jesse Johnston Sr 56 M Farmer $250 Real Estate b Tennessee[b abt 1794]
  Polly [Burns] Johnston 55 F b Tennessee[b abt 1795]
  Madison Johnston 18 F b Kentucky [b abt 1832]
  Nancy Johnston 16  M b Kentucky [b abt 1834]
  - page 33 -
  Henderson Johnston 12 F b Kentucky [b abt 1838]
  Jefferson Johnston 8 F b Kentucky [b abt 1842]
  
  The following detailed profile helps to clarify some names, relationships and family identities.  There are very many individuals with very similar or the very same name in several closely-related families in Breathitt and surrounding counties of Kentucky that several reconstructions seem to have confused some couples and family identities.  Especially the many Johnson and Combs lines in several generations.
  
  An FAG memorial identifies Benjamin's wife as Martha Jan "Patty" Brown, with the same children we find attributed in the information below to Martha Patsy Johnson Terry, who married Benjamin as her second husband.  These two women are merged into one, it seems, on soem genealogies.  But note that the information below from a Combs genealogy reports two wives for Benjamin, first Jane Brown, then second Martha Patsy Johnson (who seems to have also married Thomas Terry first.  Martha married Thomas at an uncertain date, and he abandoned her at an uncertain date.
  
  The daughters that appear with Benjamin and Martha Combs in the 1850 census are linked to the FAG profile for Martha Jane Brown, but genealogies report them to be the daughters of Martha Johnson Combs..
  
  However, one factor in the Jane Brown Combs profile may help.  Though it says she was married to Benjamin but died before 1842.  The significance of the date 1842 is not explained in the memorial.  But we note in the 1850 census, his wife Martha matches Martha Johnson Terry.  This is supported by other records and by the genealogy reconstructed for this family on FamilySearch.
  
  In the 1850 census there are twin daughters in the home, Maranda and Elvira, age 9.  Maybe Jane died in childbirth with these girls, or soon after.  The girls would have been born in 1840, or at least before June 1 of 1941 to be 9 years old at June 1 census time in 1850.  This may be where the ambiguity occurs.
  
  This ambiguity is reflected in the family information below, noting the same uncertain range of dates for the birth of both wives, 1798-1802.  the year 1802 matches other records for Martha Patsy Johnson Terry.  The birth date on Jane Brown Terry's grave stone is 1793.  The date of death is 1845.
  
  This would seem to clarify how long Benjamin and Jane were married before her death, but the Combs genealogy states that Jane died before 1942, with no clarification of the significance of that date.  And in the 1880 census, Martha Combs is reported in the household of her daughter Maranda (Combs) Johnson and her husband Thomas Johnson as Thomas' Mother-in-law.
  
  Without a birth certificate or marriage record, then, it is uncertain which wife was really the mother of these twin girls.  I would think the grave was more definitive, but we have found in our years of research that sometimes the wrong dates or guessed gates are on gravestones!
  
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  Among children of John & Margaret Combs
  
  Benjamin Combs, born between 1787 and 1793 in (possibly Sullivan Co) Tennessee; died 6 Nov 1858, Breathitt Co, Kentucky; m
  (1) 04 Apr 1816, Clay Co, KY, Jane BROWN, b 1798-1802, TN; d bef 1842, probably in Breathitt Co, KY; m
  (2) bef 1842, Martha "Patsy" JOHNSON (who had m (1) 1 Jan 1817, Floyd Co, KY, Thomas TERRY), b 1798-1802 in TN or NC; d aft 1880, of Breathitt Co, KY.
  
  The first record we have for Benjamin is in Lincoln Co, KY, when, on 1 Nov. 1810, he witnessed the consent of John Combs for his daughter Sally to marry James HUNDLEY. The following day he was surety for their marriage bond. If Benjamin was a surety in 1810, he would have been at least 21 years of age giving him a date of birth prior to 1790.
  
  Benjamin is listed on the 1817, 1818 and 1829 Clay Co, KY Tax Lists. He has not yet been located on the 1820 Census. He is listed on the 1830 census in Perry Co, Kentucky. He is listed on the census in 1840 and 1850 in Breathitt Co, KY.
  
  Benjamin is named as a son of John (1761) in the Dickey Diary Interview of Margaret Combs Lewis.
  
  --  Revolutionary War Soldier John Combs Jr of East Kentucky (1761-1848), http://www.combs-families.org/combs/families/c-j1761.htm#benjamin
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Sources

• 1. 1850 Federal Census, Breathitt County, Kentucky
  • 23 August, District 1, page 33, Hse/Fam #247
• 2. Combs-Families.org
• 3. FamilySearch Comments
• 4. 1880 Federal Census, Breathitt County, Kentucky
  • 14 June, Jetts Creek, District 14, page 31 (scan 587), Hse #266, Fam #270
• 5. Find a Grave Memorial Registry