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George W Headlee and Caroline Smith

Updated August 22, 2008
Barbara Neel Blizzard

bjneel@yahoo.com


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OUR FRY, HEADLEE, SMITH and STEPHENS HERITAGE
by Barbara Neel Blizzard and Ron Potter CLRPMAN@aol.com

George Headlee's ancestors came to America in the very early 1600's. His Headlee/Headley family moved from place to place with the Drake family as the colonies developed, finally settling in New York and New Jersey. Many of our Headley and Smith ancestors were in the American Revolution (See the link below.) Eventually our family line went to Iowa where our ancestor George W. Headlee was born. His parents were George J. Headley and Mary Ann Fry, granddaughter of Vincent Fry below. In Iowa George married Caroline Smith.

Who was Caroline Smith? We all heard the story of Captain John Smith who was saved by Pocahontas. Captain Smith had a brother named William, our ancestor. They were sons of George Smith and Alice Rickands, of Willoughby, England. William's grandson, Thomas, came to Colonial Virginia and, his descendants moved to Knox Co. Tennessee where our William Smith married his cousin Betsy Smith November 1812, giving us a double dose of the Smith bloodline. William and Betsy moved to Iowa where Caroline was born.

George W. Headlee....who once rode with "Buffalo Bill," William Cody in his Wild West Show....married Caroline Smith. They had a family large enough to have their own musical band. At their farm in Iowa, the family held dances which cost the large sum of ten cents to partake thereof. My maternal grandfather, Clyde, played the violin, and his twin, Claude played the piano. Claude also called the square dances. It was a fun family and they always enjoyed themselves.

Caroline's family was full of twins far beyond the history of our family included here. "Twins every generation as far back as anyone can remember," my grandfather, Clyde, said. The Headley gedcom includes the Drake family and has my new Anne Barlow's (Mrs. Samuel Drake) royal lineage. She is descended from Charlemagne, Holy Roman Emperor of France. Caroline's mtDNA is haplogroup H---the same as Queen Victoria, Prince Philip and Czarina Alexandria of Russia.

George W. and Caroline were both descended from Royalty. Among their ancestors my favorite is King John. In defense of John Plantagenet, King of England, he saved his mother after King Richard's "wanna-be" heir, Arthur of Brittany, captured her and held her imprisoned in a castle. You've just got to love a man who saves his mother......Our blood-line is so exciting! Pick up any book of history and you'll probably find your own history there in its pages. At the link to "Headlee and Smith Gedcom" at the bottom of this page our lineage goes all the way back to "Abraham" and the Egyptian Pharaoh Rameses I. How? Simply because the royals kept genealogies. It is only in recent years that Roderick Stuart could print the Spanish lineage in "Royalty for Commoners" (on the link below) because the owner of the copywrite would not permit it before.

We're related up close to American legends. George W. Headlee's mother, Mary Ann Fry, was the cousin of the famous Confederate hero, J.E.B. Stuart. Another cousin married into Daniel Boone's family. Yet another married the head of the RLDS, the great-grandson of Joseph Smith. We are proud of our heritage, English, Welsh, Scot-Irish, Native American, French, Swiss, German, and even a bit of Spanish and Arab.

"No man is an Island" and genealogy requires the research of many. Ron Potter, grandson of George and Caroline Headley, made the first Headley/Fry family tree in the 1960's. Others whose information is on this webpage are Glenn Headley, Claude's grandson, Josephine Bendon Mercer, Nora's granddaughter, and Joyce McCool, a cousin of Caroline Smith. Many of the pictures below are from my partner in this webpage, Ron Potter, Daisy Potter's son.

Family Photos

  • Charles Smith and wife Mary Higginbotham (66 KB)
    Charles Smith was the brother of Caroline. You must admit we came from a nice looking family.
  • Claude and Clyde Headley (72 KB)
    Claude and Clyde Headley were twins. The Entire Headley family was named Hadley in the 1925 census on the link below. Elder brother Rit changed his name to George Hadley---Grandpa said his family changed the spelling of their name every generation or so. He said to was to avoid mixing the mail with another in the family. One excuse is as good as another, but he had to change it back to Headley when he went on Social Security, hence, he died as Clyde Headley. However, his brother Athen Ritter died as George Hadley, probably because he was married as George Hadley, the name of a younger brother who died as a child.
  • Golden Daisy Headlee Potter (13 KB)
    Golden Daisy was 19 years old when this photo was taken. Daisy was Ron Potter's mother, and my mother's aunt.
  • George and Caroline Headley's Headstones (111 KB)
    George and Caroline Smith Headlee/Headley
  • Daisy Headley Potter shopping (218 KB)
    Golden Daisy Headley Potter is the lady in the center her son Ron stated.
  • William and Elizabeth Smith Tombstone (28 KB)
    William and Elizabeth Smith, cousins who married, are both descended from the brother of Capt. John Smith of Virginia fame.
  • Caroline's Wine Set (101 KB)
    Caroline's Carnival Glass wine set is now a treasure of Ron's.
  • Gerald, Geraldine Hadley and baby Barbara Jean (26 KB)
    Uncle Gerald Vernon Hadley and Aunt Geraldine Sybil Hadley holding me, Barbara Jean. Gerald and Geraldine were twins, children of Sybil and Clyde. Neice Barbara Jean is the daughter of their sister Bernice.
  • David Fry LDS Record Page 1 (449 KB)
    David Fry LDS Record from Brenna Stokes. Thank you, Brenna.
  • Caroline's Rolling Pin and Corn Cob Pipe (53 KB)
    Yes Caroline smoked a pipe as many women did a hundred years ago. I don't know if Caroline inhaled or not, but grandpa Clyde told me he never inhaled, that Indians didn't inhale in his day either.
  • David Fry's LDS Record Page 2 (474 KB)
    David Fry's LDS Record page 2 of 10 sent to me by Brenna Stokes.
  • Claude and Clyde Headley (6 KB)
    Claude and Clyde were the younger sons of Caroline and George W. Headlee. A young brother named George died from rabies from a dog bite when he was about 10 years old. Later Athen Ritter "Uncle Rit" took the name of George in California where he married the last time. Clyde was my grandpa.
  • Amanda "Jane" Fry (65 KB)
    Jane Fry was Mary Fry's sister. Jane married first Ansalum Coon. When Ansalum died she married James Headlee, brother of Mary Ann Fry's husband George J. Headlee.
  • Mary Ann Fry (22 KB)
    Mary Ann Fry was the daughter of David Fry and Dorothy Stewart who descended from the Emperor Charlemagne. Mary Ann married our ancestor George J. Headley first. Her second husband was James A. Bowes. Thirdly she married William Palmer and had several children by him.
  • Athen Ritter Headley (75 KB)
    Athen "Uncle Rit" was the eldest son of George and Caroline. In later life he took the name of George Hadley. He died using that name in California.
  • Walter Pollard and cousin Caroline Smith (327 KB)
    Walter was the cousin of both Caroline and her husband George W. Headlee. His father's mother was related to our Smith side, and his mother was the first cousin of our Mary Ann Fry. Walter was known as the "Ragman" which was important during the two world wars. But when George was running around the country with Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show, it was Walter who kept food on the table for Caroline and the children. It's no wonder that when George said either Walter goes or George will leave, Caroline chose Walter. It has been claimed by some grandchildren of another marriage, that George married a second time while still married to Caroline. Walter's parents were Jasper N. and Mary Fry Pollard, but she was listed as single on a census living by her mother Amanda Fry widow of Daniel Fry. Since they were Mormons, Jasper had a few wives however, only one was legally married to him at a time. The last one was Mary Ann Gobble whom he married in 1911.
  • Caroline Smith Headley (14 KB)
    Caroline Smith married George Headley, grandparents of Ron Potter, and great-grandparents of Barbara, Josephine Bendon Mercer, and Glenn Headley.
 

Related Files

  • Sybil Newman Headley Family (13 KB)
    Rowles of Omaha is the family of Sybil Newman Headley, wife of Clyde Headley
  • Research Sites (9 KB)
    Research sites for our related families.
  • Our South Carolina Ancestors (10 KB)
    Caroline's Smith, Love, Reynolds and many more ancestors came from South Carolina. I hope you find it interesting. There were two Thomas Reynolds in Edgefield, South Carolina: the one who married Nancy Harris and the Thomas of Gypsy descent. Guess what! We are descended from the Gypsy. And guess what again! So is the other Thomas! They were both descended from Christopher Tillman Reynolds of Pennsylvania. A link here will take you to the lineage of our Thomas Reynolds.
  • Vincent Fry Kids and Grandkids (24 KB)
    These are Vincent Fry and Mary Snow's kids and grandkids.
  • McCool Wills (20 KB)
    These wills are from Joyce McCool and really cool because she was the first to publish the correct lineage of our McCool ancestors. A real ball of yarn, to be sure, because everyone named their children with the same family names--over and over again. Thank you, Joyce.
  • Vincent Fry Page (17 KB)
    The Vincent Fry Homepage was moved from Rootsweb due to the sale of Rootsweb to Ancestry. Most of the states already moved their pages.
  • Thomas Reynolds, Ancestors and Descendants (440 KB)
    Here is the complete line of Thomas Reynolds born in Guliford, NC died in Edgefield, SC of almost 900 years of family from my gedcom.
  • Fry Family (11 KB)
    Vincent Fry Family by Velva Davis.
  • Clyde Headley Ahnentafel (860 KB)
    Ten Generation Ahnentafel of Clyde Oliver Headley, son of George Headley and Caroline Smith.
 

Related Links

 
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