Henry Pennington - South Carolina to Alabama

Henry Pennington was born in South Carolina about 1812-1815 and died in Lamar County, Alabama about 1888. He never made it to Itawamba County, but his sons did and thus began a connection of many generations of Penningtons to Itawamba County. When Henry died, he was buried on his land that was located between Sulligent and Vernon, but unfortunately the family's land was lost following his death.

I can only speculate, but courthouse records indicate a promissory note in the amount of $97.03 was issued by Henry on January 23, 1885 to W. L. Morton & Co. Advertisements in the Vernon newspapers from the 1880s show that Dr. W. L. Morton owned a drug store there. It was a common practice for physicians to acquire land by taking a deed of trust from patients unable to pay their bills. A $97.03 medical bill would have resulted from a significant medical service.

Following foreclosure on the family's land in 1889, all four of Henry's sons moved to Itawamba County where they are found on that county's tax rolls in 1890. In addition to James, there were sons Greenberry, Aaron and William Giles Pennington who moved across the state line into Mississippi, although William Giles did not stay in Itawamba County - he returned to Alabama. The Pennington brothers lived in the Lost Corners area of southwestern Itawamba County.

When Henry's grandson, Lamar Pennington, was still living, back in the early 1980s, he took my mother to the "lost" and overgrown gravesite of Henry Pennington, and with my father's help, they cleared and cleaned off the burial ground. Three graves were revealed and found to be covered with a thin layer of crumbling concrete in which someone had long ago written the names of Henry, his first wife Susan Jane Lusk, and a granddaughter Docia Guyton. Not too long ago, the Lamar County Genealogical and Historical Society erected a monument and surrounded the grave site with a wire rope to protect it from machinery and future intrusions.

Henry Pennington
Born 1812
Died Oct(?) 1888

Docia Guyton

Susan Jane Pennington