Although this West Tennessee couple is not directly in my family line, I saw this photo shared recently on Facebook by Leanne Braddock and got curious about who they were. I love that he was so proud of his clock he had a sign made for it and set it up for the photo like it was a member of the family.
This is Nathan Parlow and his second wife, Martha.
Nathan Washington Parlow was born May 19, 1849 in Madison County, Tenn. to Charles Henry “Seth” Parlow (1803-1889) and Nancy Wright (1816-1890).
According to the photo, the clock was built in 1739. It’s been speculated that it could have belonged to his father who migrated down south from Boston Mass. and settled in Uptonville, Tenn. in Madison County. However, Nathan was the youngest of 11 children, so the line to inherit the clock would have been pretty long. Not sure the youngest would have ended up with it. Seth died in 1889 at age 85 and was buried in the Uptonville Cemetery.
Nathan married Alssia Yarbrough (the death certificate of one of their children lists her name as Arlesia, so I am not sure which is correct) on Aug. 18, 1870, and they had four children together: Alice Lugenia Parlow (1872-1906), Martha Agnes Parlow (1873-1961), Sarah Jane Parlow (1874-1966) and George Washington Parlow (1877-1957).
Their daughter Martha Agnes Parlow married my great-grandfather’s brother, John Frank Castellaw (1872-1941), in 1895 and they divorced in 1918. The family lived in a large white house across the street from a cotton gin on Poplar Corner Road near Holly Grove Baptist Church. They had seven children together.
As a boy, I spent quite a bit of time with my grandmother Elizabeth Williams, and she loved telling me gossipy stories about the family of her father, Bob Castellaw, including the divorce of John Frank and Agnes. She would always include that “Agnes came from money.”
In his book, “Nicholas Cobb Descendants,” Joe H. Cobb included a story about the couple that is likely where my grandmother got it:
“The story was told that Frank and Agnes were having marital problems and were estranged for a time. Frank had Sammy, the youngest child, and Agnes desired to get him. She drove a team of mules and wagon to the homeplace when she thought Frank was gone and proceeded to load Sammy into the wagon. Frank was not as far off as Agnes had thought, and he saw what she was doing. Agnes saw him coming and hit the mules on their rears with the lines. The race was on up the road through Holly Grove. It was like the stagecoach racing a band of marauding Indians.” p. 357
So back to Nathan and his clock.
Alssia died on Dec. 29, 1879 in Uptonville at just 30 years old and was buried at the Uptonville Cemetery.
In the 1880 census, Nathan is recorded as living with his parents, Charles and Nancy, and his four children who are ages 10, 8, 6, and 4. They are farmers and are in District Four of Madison County.
On Oct. 20, 1881, Nathan married Martha Braking Womack in Madison County and they settled in Alamo, which is District Seven, of Crockett County, Tenn. They had three children together: Benjamin “Ause” (1886-1967), Elizabeth (1886-1878) and Edwin Oscar (1889-1912). Oscar died at age 23 of tuberculosis.
Nathan died on June 25, 1919 in Friendship, Tenn. According to the notice of his death in the Nashville Tennessean, he was “a member of the Baptist Church for 50 years.” He and Martha, who died in 1928, are buried in the Cairo Cemetery in Alamo.
Now I just wish I could figure out where that clock ended up.
You can find more about my family lines and others at HaywoodCountyLine.com or read more blog posts about the history of West Tennessee on my blog page.