Welcome to my Family Web Page. I hope you find it helpful in your genealogy research. I've worked several years on finding my family tree information and most of the detailed information has all come from older family members, census reports and confirming websites that you can link to.
I am not a professional genealogist and am only finding this information, because it has been something that has been questioned through the generations. My family has always said that our name was suppose to be Blackwell, but could not back it up with proof. If nothing else, I feel that I have found enough information to do that.
Please believe me! I know there are many people out there who really might think "yeah right, another person claiming her family had some outlandish thing happen and had gold mines and all kinds of rich people in their family". This stuff is really true and if you can find information to prove me wrong, please try, but I feel that the two old letters alone (see links below), prove what happened. Look at the census records too, cause they also show the names and family members. But most of all, my grandpa William Levi "Lee" Clyburn told our family sketchy stories of how something bad happened that we didn't want to know about and that our name is really suppose to be Blackwell. How the family pulled a wagon by oxen to get to Missouri and even told of old cold snowy weather about how my gg Grandma Sowell got down off the wagon once to walk in deep snow while younger women stayed in the wagon to keep warm and how by the end of the snow trip they had to carry the young women in and gg grandma Sowell just got down and walked in to the house with no help. There was stories of how Eliza and Margaret Sowell had gold belts that they carried the gold in on their trip and it left bruises on their hips. When it got cold they needed firewood, but where they were, there was no wood to be chopped, so they had to burn a mans fenceposts one at a time and the man ended up charging them a dollar a post. They may have had money when they left, but by the time they got to Missouri, they were pretty poor.
I believed my grandpa with all my heart and when he died,
I decided that day that I would find out the truth about our family. We still go by the name Clyburn, but I feel that is alright, because through Mildred Clyburn we do have some Clyburn blood. I'm really proud of my family even if Ransom Blackwell AKA William Clyburn (my gg uncle) shot and killed a slave trader. I'm sure everybody has some black sheep in their family, so mine is no different in that way. His brother Levi Blackwell AKA Levi Clyburn (my grandpa)I guess felt he had to stand by his brother, I'm not sure why. Once they got to SE Missouri where they set up a farm Ransom soon died, but his and his brother's families have continued on over the years and have all lived pretty respectable lives in SE Missouri.
Below you will find links to websites, a couple photos and a couple of retyped letters, because I couldn't get the originals. One original came from my grandpa's sister Ora, she won't let it leave her sight. The other came from Miles Gardner, a genealogy broker that emailed me with the main information. He is selling his original.
Our family name was changed, because of my gg uncle Ransom Blackwell committing a crime (see letter) and then he and my gg grandpa Levi Blackwell(his brother) changed their name to Clyburn (there mother's maiden name) and fled and successfully hid out in SE Missouri, where the family still resides.
Recently I was able to get the new Family Tree Maker and find some new websites with great information on the Brewer's Gold Mine owned by my gggg grandfather, Burrell Brewer. Take a look at the link I found below. Email if if you need any more informaiton. Thank you.
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- William Levi (Lee) Clyburn - Son of William Thomas (72 KB)
This is my grandpa William Levi (Lee) Clyburn. He was the son of William Thomas Clyburn. He loved horses and mules. He was great at training them and even had several teams of mules in his younger years. He once looked at this photo with me and said, "Vickie, do you see how that horse is standing at attention in this picture?" I said, "yes" and he said, "That's not the horse doing that, it's me." I loved to listen to all his horse stories. They were exciting sometimes.
- Levi Blackwell Clyburn's wife Margaret Sowell (361 KB)
This is the oldest and only picture I have that relates to the old family. This is Margaret Sowell Clyburn (Blackwell). She is my great great grandma. This picture was taken on the old farm and I believe that must be a bible that she is holding in her lap. She was the daughter of Gilliam (Gillum) Sowell and Elizabeth Ann Brewer. It was the Brewer's goldmine that the letter in this webpage speaks about. If my memory serves me correctly, my grandpa said that his grandma (this would be her) was Cherokee Indian and that she made medicines out of roots and herbs. Cool huh?!!
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