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Ellen Carmack was the mother of the first 9 children of Thomas.
The youngest of these nine was Minerva who was born about 1829. (See
census of 1860 and 1830.) The youngest three children, Martha, Sarah
and Thomas B. L. were the offspring of Mary `Polly' Gillenwaters.
Ellen's parentage is unknown. I have tentatively assigned her to
John Carmack along with a sister, Sussanah. In 1796 a John Carmack
transferred land on Big Creek to Joel Gillenwaters. Was John Ellen's
father?
So far as I have been able to determine, Cornelius and John
Carmack arrived in the Holston River Valley in the mid to early
1770's. All references to Carmacks in the Distant Crossroads
quarterly prior to 1800 were either to Cornelius or John with the
single exception of the marriage of a Sarah Carmack. In Vol IV No 2
p52, extracts from "SUMMERS' Annals of SW VA" lists a Washington
County, VA, marriage of Sarah to one Hugh McGee on 1 Oct 1792. I have
taken the liberty of tentatively assigning her as a sister of
Cornelius and John.
In Vol V No 1 p18, the marriage of Rachel, daughter of Cornelius,
to "Maryland" John Smith is shown and by the context must have
occurred around 1800. In Vol VI No 4 p126, a query states that Jacob
Miller married Sussanah Carmack. Since Jacob was born in 1776, this
would place the date of their marriage around the turn of the century.
Since this latter marriage is much too early for the daughter of
Cornelius, I have assigned her as a daughter of John and sister to
Ellen.
There are no references to other male Carmacks until 1814 when
William Carmack was mustered out of Capt. William Gillenwaters East
Tennessee Volunteers after the War of 1812.
Thus we note that for almost 40 years the only male presence of
Carmacks in the Hawkins County area were Cornelius and John Carmack.
John died intestate so we have no clue of any of his children except
by inference and crystal balls.
In the 1840 census of Hawkins County, there are five Carmack
households: William, age 50-59; John, age 50-50; Cornelius, age 40-49;
Epps, age 20-29; and Willie B., age 20-29. From the will of the elder
Cornelius Carmack, we could infer that the three older male Carmacks
in the 1840 census are his sons. From the will of William Carmack, 23
Mar 1851, we could infer that Epps and Willie B. are his sons.
The question arises "Where are the children of the elder John
Carmack?" It would seem that other than the possible daughters,
Sussanah and Ellen, he had no other children. Certainly, he had no
sons who lived beyond childhood or they would have shown up in some
record.
Since we have no proof that Ellen was a Carmack, how can we
justify referring to her as a Carmack. The collateral evidence is
slim. Her son Joel carries the middle name Carmack. While it was
common for a child to receive his/her mother's maiden name, it was
also somewhat common to give them middle names of friend's of the
family. However, Ellen's daughter, Minerva, named one of her children
Cornelius Carmack; so, maybe there is some justification in assuming
that Ellen was a Carmack.
Again, I warn the reader, that I have possibly spun a tale in
defining the Carmack family in the Hawkins/Washington counties area
and urge you to join in the research.