The Sextons are connected to the Jordan family line by the marriage of Catherine Sexton to William Jordan (son of William Jordan and Blanche Fullerton) on March 19, 1826 in Cabell County.
The Sexton family is said to have originated in Germany. It’s not known when they first came to America, but they were said to be early settlers of Virginia.
William Sexton was born at an unknown date and died between August 29, 1826 and February 1827 in Cabell County, (West) Virginia. He married Elizabeth Black, the daughter of Abraham Black and Elizabeth (last name unknown), on April 28, 1801, in Greenbrier County, (West) Virginia. Elizabeth had been born circa 1781 probably in Fauquier County, Virginia. She died between 1860 and 1870 in Cabell County.
signed by William Sexton and Adam Black (brother of Elizabeth)
William may have been briefly married to Catherine Jordan before his marriage to Elizabeth Black, according to some researchers. They point to William’s eldest child, James, having been born in September 1800 (before William’s marriage to Elizabeth Black) and to the 1813 land transaction where James Jordan, supposedly the father of Catherine, sold a tract of land to William for $50 (much less than the land was worth).[1]
Elizabeth never remarried after William‘s early death, but instead finished raising their family on her own. For the remainder of her life she lived with one or more of her children. Her last home appears to have been with her widowed son John.
Children of William Sexton and Elizabeth Black[2]
1. James H. Sexton (1800-1855) never married. James had some sort of mental handicap that kept him from living on his own. He was always assigned a guardian (family member or as a ward of the state) during his lifetime. Born in Greenbrier County, he moved to Cabell County as a boy and lived there the remainder of his life.
(1802-ca.1885)
2. John N. Sexton (1802-ca.1885) married Louisa Ann Woods (?-1848), who predeceased him. Born in Greenbrier County, John moved to Cabell County as a boy. There he and Louisa had three sons, two of whom, Horatio and Henry, fought for the Confederacy during the Civil War. Louisa died in 1848 possibly due to complications of childbirth, and is buried in Maupin Cemetery, Cabell County, West Virginia. John probably died in Cabell County around 1885.
Children of John N. Sexton and Louisa Ann Woods
2.1 Horatio Hamilton Sexton (1843-1927)
2.2 Henry Bascom Sexton (1846-1923)
2.3 James F. Sexton (ca.1848-?)
3. William Sexton (ca. 1804-ca.1835) was the first of the Sexton children to leave home. He had already moved to Sangamon County, Illinois, by the time the Jordans left Cabell County for Indiana in 1827. Many of the details of his marriage and children are covered on a website, The Sexton Family of Cabell County, WVa, created and maintained by Gary Morrison.
(1806-1876)
4. Catherine Sexton (1806-1876), wife of William Jordan.
5. Andrew H. Sexton (possibly Andrew Hughart Sexton) was born in Cabell County on October 8, 1809. He was married twice, first to Mary Malcolm (1808-1846), the daughter of Joseph Malcolm. Mary died on November 5, 1846, in Cabell County, probably from complications of childbirth. She is buried in Maupin Cemetery, Cabell County, West Virginia.
Children of Andrew H. Sexton and Mary Malcolm
5.1 John Sinclair Sexton (ca.1831-1850)
5.2 Joseph Marion Sexton (ca.1835-?)
5.3 William Addison Sexton (1834-1907)
5.4 Mary Elizabeth Sexton (1837-1911)
5.5 Margaret Catherine Sexton (1840-1904)
5.6 Talitha Cumi Sexton (1843-1936)
5.7 Peter B. Sexton (1846-?).
After Mary’s death Andrew, faced with a large family to support, quickly remarried. His second wife was Mary F. Reynolds (1828-1895), with whom he had nine more children. Mary was the daughter of Ezekiel Reynolds.
Children of Andrew H. Sexton and Mary F. Reynolds
5.8 Charles Henry Sexton (1847-1884)
5.9 Abraham W. Sexton (1849-1919)
5.10 Sarah Frances Sexton (1852-1930)
5.11 James Washington Sexton (1854-1934)
5.12 Morgan A. Sexton (1856-1895)
5.13 Amy Emeline Sexton (1858-1880)
5.14 Minerva Alice Sexton (1862-1950)
5.15 Louisa Jane Sexton (1863-1950)
5.16 Nathan W. Sexton (1868-1916)
Sometime in the early 1850s Andrew moved his large family westward to Indiana, probably Hancock County, thence to Wayne County, Illinois, in the fall of 1854. If his reason for moving was to improve his lot financially, Andrew was disappointed. In an 1862 letter to his nephew, Mount Etna Jordan, Andrew complained about the (Civil) War, “the cuttin and slashin and carvin and killin.” His crops had failed, and he opined that his family had nothing to eat or wear.
Andrew survived the war by fifteen years, dying in his adopted state of Illinois in 1880. He is buried in the Farnsworth-Mt. Zion Cemetery in Wayne County near his second wife, Mary, who died on November 30, 1895.
(1816-1903)
6. Adam B. Sexton (probably Adam Black Sexton) was born around the year 1814 in Cabell County, (West) Virginia. He married Eliza Harshbarger on November 26, 1835. Eliza was born in Virginia on December 26, 1816 and died on May 3, 1903, in Illinois. Adam and Eliza moved to Indiana in 1851 or 1852, and from there to Wayne County, Illinois, in 1854. At the start of the Civil War Adam volunteered to serve in the Union army, but his military time was curtailed by illness. On October 8, 1862, Adam died in Wayne County by a strangulated hernia.
Children of Adam B. Sexton and Eliza Harshbarger
6.1 Elizabeth Sexton (ca.1838-?)
6.2 James M. Sexton (1839-1863)
6.3 Milton Sexton (1845-1923)
6.4 Madison L. Sexton (ca.1847-1865)
6.5 Jefferson H. Sexton (ca.1849-?)
6.6 Zachariah Adam Sexton (1856-1935)
7. Elizabeth Sexton was born in January 1816 in Cabell County. On December 17, 1844, she married Samuel William Carroll. Samuel was born on December 1, 1817 and died on April 9, 1909 in Hartford, Lyon County, Kansas. Elizabeth died on November 17, 1847, shortly after the birth of her second child.
Children of Elizabeth Sexton and Samuel William Carroll
7.1 William Henry Carroll (1845-1907)
7.2 Charles Wesley Carroll (1847-1927)
8. Jacob H. Sexton was born in Cabell County on November 28, 1819. He married Acantha Hinchman on November 28, 1848. Acantha, born on September 28, 1828, was the daughter of Judge William Hinchman, who was taken prisoner along with other known Union sympathizers in a confederate raid on Barboursville in 1861. Judge Hinchman died in a rebel prison less than a year later.
Jacob and Acantha moved from Cabell County to Hancock County, Indiana, in 1850, and by 1853 they had relocated to White County, where both lived the rest of their lives.
[Jacob] had during life accumlated enough of this world’s goods to enable him to pass his declining years in comfort, barring the infirmities of old age. He had just completed arrangements to move to town and was on his way to deliver the lease for his farm, when he was attacked by vertigo, and must have lain in the road for an hour when discovered by a neighbor. He was assisted home, but all effort to revive him proved futile, and he lay in a comatose condition thirty-six hours when death ensued.[3]
Jacob died on January 24, 1896 and Acantha followed on March 19, 1918. They are both buried in Wolcott, White County, Indiana.
Children of Jacob H. Sexton and Acantha Hinchman
8.1 Sarah J. Sexton (ca.1849-ca.1863)
8.2 William T. Sexton (1851-1912)
8.3 Lewis W. Sexton (1852-?)
9. Abraham B. Sexton (probably Abraham Black Sexton) (ca.1822-1852) never married. Abraham suffered from severe headaches all his life, which made it impossible for him to live independently. During most of his life he moved between his brothers’ and sister Elizabeth‘s homes. He spent his final years boarding with a neighbor, Dicey Barrett.
10. Joseph Lemay Sexton (1824-1879) married his first cousin once-removed, Lucinda Adaline Black, daughter of James C. Black and Lucy E. Brown, on March 18, 1847. When several of his siblings left Cabell County to move out west in the early 1850s, Joseph and Lucy moved no further than Lincoln County, West Virginia. In Lincoln County Joseph caught typhoid fever and died on September 8, 1879. Lucy lived another ten years, passing away on November 19, 1889.
Children of Joseph Lemay Sexton and Lucinda Adaline Black
10.1 Malissa A. Sexton (ca.1850-?)
10.2 William H. Sexton (ca.1852-?)
10.3 Ida B. Sexton (ca.1858-?)
The Jordan Family 