Sarah LEFFEW ²

   Another name for Sarah was Sally.^{1 3}

  Research Notes:

It's really only by the process of elimination that Sarah Leffew is believed to have perhaps been a daughter of Joseph Leffew. All of Elisha's and Elihu's daughters, at least those evidenced by census records, have been accounted for, and so only the 3 female children in Joseph's 1830 household remain to be identified. Factoring in the added information from the 1833 school list, it appears we are looking for 2 females age 3-10 in 1830 and 1 female age 10-15. Sarah, born about 1822-1824, fits the profile of one of the younger females. Moreover, Mariah Leffew, who married a brother of James Madison Harvey, fits the profile of the older female. Accordingly, it's reasonable to assume that Sarah and Mariah were two of the female children in the 1830 census. It then follows that Joseph may have been Sarah's father and Polly Miller may have been her mother. However, there is no evidence of Sarah's involvement in the administration of Joseph's estate, particularly the disposition of his land. Then again, that seems to have been the case with some other children as well, so that fact may not mean much in trying to determine whether Sarah was Joseph's daughter.

But there is yet another possibility, initially labeled "wild and crazy" by its proponent and my Leffew research colleague, Danette Welch, but it's really not so. Danette asked the question whether the Sarah Leffew that married James Madison Harvey might not have been Joseph's widow, Sarah Majors Leffew. The widow Sarah does have the advantage over the unnamed child from the 1830 census in that her name was Sarah. Also, the widow Sarah cannot be traced after the 1840 census. Moreover, by being born 1810-1820 per the 1840 census, the widow Sarah is only slightly out of the age range of Sarah Leffew Harvey. Also, there were younger male children in Sarah Majors Leffew's 1840 household that can't be identified, one under age 5 and the other age 5-10. Simlarly, there are male children in James Madison Harvey's 1850 household that were seemingly born before he married his wife Sarah, namely George, born about 1837, and Abner, born about 1839. Abner is a common Majors given name and suggests he, maybe George too, might have been the widow Sarah's children before she married Joseph or even younger siblings left to her care when her parents died. However, this suggestion is complicated by the fact that in the 1860 census George was born about 1840 and Abner was born about 1843. As to Abner, the 1880 census shows his year of birth to be about 1841 and the 1900 census says it was Apr 1849 (obviously a census error).

We also know that Madison Harvey was named by Sally Leffew, "a single woman," as the father of her child in an 1841 bastardy case. (See Grainger County Court Minutes, Volume 7, February 1831-September 1842, Page 657.) Their marriage a few days before the hearing mooted this case. Does being identified as "a single woman" instead of as "a widow" have any significance?

Both theories as to the idenitity of Sarah Leffew Harvey have pluses and minuses. What's needed is more evidence. In the meantime, I have tentatively identified Sarah as Joseph's child, but included a note on Sarah Majors Leffew's webpage to consider the other theory, especially since Danette's intuition on the complex Leffew family relationships is usually very good.

  Birth Notes:

It's hard to get a fix on Sarah's year of birth, which is crucial to the question whether her mother was most likely Polly Jones or Polly Miller. The stated age range is taken from the 1850 and 1860 censuses. The 1870 and 1880 censuses are just not credible in this regard. The stated age range suggests Polly Miller was her mother.

Sarah married James Madison HARVEY on 3 Jun 1841 in Grainger County, Tennessee.¹ (James Madison HARVEY was born about 1816 in Tennessee ³ and died after 1880 ⁴.)

  Marriage Notes:

Indexed as M. Harvery and Sally Leffew ¹