Jacob Rippy Gant - from North Carolina to Tennessee

Five generations of our ancestors lived/were born in North Carolina.

John Gant's great-great-grandson Jacob Rippy Gant (our great-great-grandfather) was born ≈1816 in Orange (later Alamance) County, NC. His parents were Jonathan Kerr Gant and Mary Elizabeth Trollinger.

On 26 March 1838, Jacob married Miss Doxley (Dorsey) Isley who was born around 1818 in North Carolina. The couple still lived in Orange County, NC then. Five of their children: Henry A - b. about 1838, Mary Elizabeth, Sarah C, Martha F, and John were born in North Carolina as well.

The family moved to Tennessee by 1859 - Jacob and Doxley's oldest son Henry A (our great-grandfather) got married on 11 December 1859 in Sumner County, Tennessee.
Jacob's youngest son was born around 1858/59 in Tennessee too.

The 1870 Census records inform about the family. On 6 August 1870, Jacob, his wife and children lived in the Civil District No.17 of the Sumner County, Tennessee.

Name: Jacob Gant
Event Type: Census
Event Year: 1870
Event Place: Tennessee, United States
Gender: Male
Age: 53
Race: White
Race: (Original) W
Birth Year: (Estimated) 1816-1817
Birthplace: North Carolina
Page Number 30

Household
Jacob Gant, a. 53, b. North Carolina
Rodosky Gant, a. 50, b. North Carolina
Mary Gant, a. 25, b. North Carolina
M F Gant, a. 24, b. North Carolina
John Gant, a. 14, b. North Carolina
Woodson Gant, a. 11, b. Tennessee

Record Source:
"United States Census, 1870," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MD84-RDS : 12 April 2016), Jacob Gant, Tennessee, United States; citing p. 30, family 231, NARA microfilm publication M593 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.); FHL microfilm 553,065.

The above records also mention that Jacob was a farmer and the family estate was worth $500. Besides, Jacob's wife Doxley was illiterate and the children, except Woodson, could not read.

Our direct ancestor Jacob Rippy Gant passed in June 1893 in Sumner County, Tennessee.

Recently, our cousin Mrs. Rachel B. has provided us with the information that Jacob's brothers Henry Rippy (b. 8 Nov. 1809, NC) and Benjamin Newton (born 1812, NC) were the family members who moved to Tennesse the earliest. Henry came to the state before 1850, Benjamin a few years later, in the 1850s.

Who moved our family line from Tennessee (and where to), I will tell you some other time.

Credits:
Photo: CC BY-SA 3.0, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=4303264