History of the Conner Family of Natchez Ms William Conner and his wife, Mary Savage, moved from South Carolina and settled in Adams County, Mississippi, in about 1790. Their son William Carmichael Conner (1798-1843) was a successful planter in Adams County, and he married Jane Elizabeth Boyd Gustine (1803-1883). Jane Gustine Conner purchased Linden in Natchez in 1849, after her husbands death. Together, William and Jane Conner had nine children: 1) William Gustine Conner (1826-1863)...1) William Gustine Conner (1826-1863) married Eliza C. Wood, and owned Linden Grove and Rifle Point plantations in Concordia Parish, Louisiana. He died at the Battle of Gettysburg. He and his wife had six children, all of whom died without issue. 2) Lemuel Parker Conner was born in 1827 and died in 1891; more detailed information about him follows. 3) Henry Le Grande Conner was born in 1829 and died in 1876. 4) Rebecca Anne Conner (1832- 1868) married Douglas Walworth, with whom she had five children. 5) Farar Benjamin Conner (1834-1904) married Mary Louise McMurran (1831-1864), daughter of John T. McMurran (1801-1866) and Mary Louisa Turner (1814-1891); they had three children. He owned and/or managed Rifle Point plantation in McClennan County, Texas. After Mary Louises death, Farar married Marie Chotard, daughter of Major Henry Chotard and Francis Minor, in 1889. 6) Margaret Dunlop Conner (b. 1836) married General William Thompson Martin (1823-1910), with whom she had ten children. They resided at Monteigue in Adams County, Mississippi. 7) Anna Eliot Conner (b. 1838) married Robert C. Dunbar (d. 1863), and following his death, married Dr. Douglas Starke Bisland. 8) Richard Ellis Conner (1841-1925) married Margaret Buckner (1846-1917), with whom he had five children. 9) Mary Anne Duncan Conner (b. 1843) married T. Casey Witherspoon, with whom she had two children. Lemuel Parker Conner was born in Natchez, Mississippi, on September 30, 1827. He attended Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. After leaving Yale, he studied law under John T. McMurran of Natchez, but he did not enter law practice at that time. In 1848, he married Elizabeth Francis (Fanny) Turner, daughter of Edward Turner, a prominent Natchez judge, and sister of Mary Louisa Turner, wife of John T. McMurran. Lemuel Conner was a successful planter in Mississippi and Louisiana until the Civil War. During the war, he served at Tullahoma as a lieutenant colonel under General Braxton Bragg in the Army of Tennessee. After the war, Lemuel Conner and the members of his family signed oaths of allegiance to the Union, and he returned to Natchez. During Reconstruction, financial difficulties forced Conner into bankruptcy. He lost much of his land holdings and subsequently worked as a manager of Killarney and Rifle Point plantations in Louisiana. In the early 1880s, he resumed his study of law and, after being admitted to the Louisiana Bar Association, began to practice in Vidalia, Louisiana, where his half of the partnership Conner & Son was located; Lemuel Conner, Jr., practiced law in St. Joseph, Tensas Parish, Louisiana. Lemuel Conner, Sr., and Fanny, his wife, had ten children: 1) Francis Eliza Turner Conner was born in 1848 and died in 1860. 2) Jane Gustine (Janie) Conner (b. 1850), married Mr. M. Liddell Randolph in about 1874; with him she had four children. They lived at Blithewood Plantation, Bayou Goula, Louisiana. 3) Mary Louise Conner (1851-ca. 1863) died of disease. 4) Eliza Turner (Zizie) Conner (1853-1877) married a Mr. Eustis. 5) Rebecca Parker (Nanie) Conner (1854-1913) married Mr. John H. Gay III, son of Edward J. Gay, in 1877 and moved to Hollywood, California. 6) William Edward Conner (1856-ca. 1863) died of disease at about the same time as Mary Louise. 7) Theodosia Conner (1858-1909) married Mr. W. L. Shaw, with whom she had one daughter, Theodosia; they resided in Shaw, Louisiana. 8) Edward Turner Conner was born in 1860 and died in 1871. 9) Francis Eliza II (Fanny) Conner married the Rev. R. W. Baily (d. 1901). After the death of her husband, she moved to Hollywood, California, with her sister Rebecca Conner Gay. 10) Lemuel Parker Conner, Jr. (1861-1943) married Mary Macrery Britton (1863-1936), in 1888. They had four children and lived at Clover Nook in Adams County, Mississippi. After the death of Lemuel P. Conner, Sr., in 1891, his wife, Fanny, was cared for by her children, and financially supported by her son Lemuel, Jr. After graduating from Louisiana State University in 1882, Lemuel P. Conner, Jr. moved to St. Joseph, Tensas Parish, Louisiana, and became the other half of the legal firm, Conner & Son. In 1888, Lemuel, Jr., moved from St. Joseph, to Natchez, Adams County, Mississippi, and married Mary Macrery Britton, daughter of Audley C. Britton (1822-1894), of Britton & Koontz Bank, and Eliza Macrery (d. 1907). Lemuel and Mary lived at Woodlands with relatives of Lemuels mother while building their permanent home, Clover Nook, ca. 1894. Lemuel practiced law with his uncle Richard Conner, and later, when the partnership was dissolved, Lemuel, Jr., established his own law office in Natchez. Lemuel and Mary were actively involved in politics, theater, church, and other social activities in Natchez. Lemuel participated in the campaigns of several local political figures, most notably those of James K. Vardaman, John Sharpe Williams, and Percy E. Quin (who was married to Lemuels cousin Aylete Buckner Conner, daughter of Richard Ellis Conner and Margaret Ferguson Buckner). He worked to have the battleship U.S.S. Mississippi christened at his hometown as a way of demonstrating the qualifications of Natchez as an ideal deep-water port. Lemuel participated in the planning of visits by presidents Theodore Roosevelt and William Taft. He was also a correspondent of Thomas Boyd, then president of Louisiana State University. Mary Britton Conner was, with her husband and children, actively involved in all phases--acting, singing, direction, set and costume design--of local theater productions. The family was also involved in the First Presbyterian Church in Natchez. Although Lemuel, Jr., had completed the requirements for a law degree in 1882, he did not receive it until 1932. In 1927, he was elected to the office of City Clerk in Natchez, and he served in that office until his retirement in 1941. He died in Natchez in 1943. Lemuel and Mary Conner had four children: 1) Audley Britton Conner (b. 1890) married Edna Louise (maiden name unknown) in about 1913, and from that marriage had one daughter, Edna Louise. Following his divorce from Edna, Audley married Myrtle (maiden name unknown) in about 1934, and moved into Clover Nook with his father. Thereafter, Audley became sheriff of Adams County. 2) Lemuel Parker Conner III (1894-1908) died of typhoid fever. 3) Eliza M. B. Conner (b. ca. 1897) attended Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts, and in 1918 married William Thompson Martin, Jr., and they subsequently settled in New York City. 4) Gaillard Gustine Conner (b. 1902) married Alice (maiden name unknown). They lived in Gilbert, Louisiana, and had one daughter, Mary Britton Conner.
Posted on: Thu, 06 Feb 2014 01:56:06 +0000
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