SAMPSON JAMES HENDRY

Sampson James Hendry, born 1806, was the son of Neal and Pamelia Hendry. Neal was the son of Robert (born in Scotland and an American Revolutionary War soldier) and Ann Lee Hendry. The Hendry family moved to Burke Co., GA from New Hanover, NC about 1796. They moved to Liberty Co., then to Morgan Co. and then back to Liberty Co. and settled at Taylors Creek. Neal stayed in Morgan Co., married and fathered seven children. Some time after Neal died in 1820, Sampson, his mother, his brother, Robert L. "Bob", and other siblings moved to Harris Co. and lived on Pine Mountain, near Chipley. (Actually, Bob moved to Harris County before Sampson did and had his own farm.) Two of their sisters married McCarter's who owned land on Pine Mountain.

Sampson bought 202 1/2 acres of land from Mary A. Grice for $200 in hand paid. Situated in third district, lot 56, September 21, 1846, according to Deed Book E, page 306, Harris Co. Courthouse. The Hendry homeplace and cemetery were in the area known as King's Gap near the stagecoach road that ran from Greenville to Chipley. The graves were paved over when a new road into Chipley was built. There were never any headstones. The graves were mounds of earth surrounded by field stones and wooden crosses when new, and surrounded by a four foot high hog wire fence. The cemetery was still intact May 10, 1949, when family members visited the area. There were several graves which included Sampson, his first wife, Nancy, and his second wife, Adeline, and maybe Sampson's mother, Pamelia, and three or four children who never married.

Sampson died February 8, 1895, in Fredonia, AL. He went to live with a son, James P. Hendry, after his second wife died but, the only way he would agree to leave Pine Mountain is if his son promised to return his body to Pine Mountain for burial. James P. kept his promise. Traveling by train and then by a rented mule wagon, James P. and the black man who owned the wagon arrived on Pine Mountain during the cold night, dug Sampson's grave and buried him in the family cemetery.

Sampson's property was purchased for $1500 in 1939 by the U. S. Government as tract 20, land lot number 56, third district of Harris County, Pine Mountain State Park Extension Project (Roosevelt State Park).

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