Returning to the Flatt Family

Before departing for meetings in Ireland, I wrote about my 4th-great-grandfather Pleasant Flatt, and his family in Jackson County, Tennessee. Pleasant's sons, Reamus (later Robert) and William, made their own way after their difficult childhood in Tennessee and settled in Arkansas and Adair County, Kentucky. I skipped over the next part of the story involving Pleasant Flatt, referencing his appearance in the 1860 US Census without providing context. So here is the next part of the story.

Sometime after the death of Lucinda McCormick in 1852 and the end of the chancery case in February 1854, Pleasant Flatt relocated to neighboring Overton County, Tennessee. In the 1860 US Census, Pleasant appears with 25-year old Mary A. Flatt, sons Reamus and William, and the following children:
- Nancy J (age 5)
- Margaret (age 3)
- "Philapena" S. (age 2)
- Martha E. (5 months old)

I do not know yet what happened to Mary A. after the 1860 Census. From the 1870 Census, it looks like Mary had two more children (Cansada in Tennessee around 1862 and Mary F. Flatt in Kentucky about 1865). She may have died in Metcalfe County sometime between 1865 and 1869.

Pleasant next appears in a marriage bond to Nancy (Dowell) Hubbard in Metcalfe County, Kentucky on 1 February 1870. He is listed as 48 years old. They were married on 2 February 1870 by James H. Keen (witnesses Levi Copeland and William Hubbard). Keen was a neighbor in East Fork, Metcalfe County, a few houses down from the Flatt family. In the 1870 US Census, the Flatt family looked like this:
- Pleasant Flatt (47)
- Nancy D. (34)
- Margaret E. (12)
- Susanna P. (11)
- Martha E. (10)
- Cansada (7)
- Mary F. (5)
Children from Nancy's first marriage to James Whitfield Hubbard also in the household:
- Valotta Eugenia Hubbard (12)
- Joanna Hubbard (11)
- Sarah Elizabeth Hubbard (9)
- James E. Hubbard (7)
- Mary W. Hubbard (5)

My 3rd-great-grandmother Nancy Jane Flatt (age 15) appears three doors down in the household of John W. Rose and his wife Mary. At the time, she could not read or write.

Pleasant disappears after the 1870 US Census, as I cannot find him in the 1880 US Census. Third wife Nancy D. had changed her name back to Hubbard, and she appears as head-of-household in Lafayette, Metcalfe County, Kentucky with several of her own children. The Flatt children do not appear in the household with Nancy Hubbard.

The Flatt daughters look like they have scattered among other families in Metcalfe County by 1880. Susanna Flatt (listed as Sousan Flat) appears as a domestic servant (21 years old) in the household of William Thomas in Lafayette, Metcalfe County in the 1880 Census. Her younger sister Martha E. married Benjamin Jeffries around 1879, and they appear as living in Lafayette, Metcalfe County with a newborn daughter Mary F. Jeffries. Cansada Flatt appears in the 1880 Census as Kanzady Flatts, 16 years old, domestic servant, living in the household of John H. Hays in Lafayette, Metcalfe County, near her sister Martha.

I have not yet been able to find Nancy Jane Flatt and her youngest sister Mary F. Flatt in the 1880 US Census. Mary appears in the Kentucky marriage records on FamilySearch, marrying Henry T. Piper in Metcalfe County on 15 March 1883.

Cansada Flatt married Peter Floyd Tackett in Metcalfe County on 14 March 1888, and her family later moved to Illinois and Missouri.

There are a few more leads to follow for the Flatt family, and I will have these in another post.