Pipkin Family Association

Aser Pipkin, 1805-1901


Aser Pipkin, son of Enos Pipkin and Elizabeth Dill, was born 18 November, 1805 in Davidson Co., Tennessee. Enos bad an older brother named Asa. Aser is sometimes listed in army records as Asa. I think Aser was named for his uncle Asa and the name evolved into Aser.

Here we have the typical patriotic, moving around Pipkin. What an interesting life this man lived. I know I have a double dose of Pipkin blood and know what these genes do to me.

Soon after the birth of Aser in Davidson Co. the Enos Pipkin family moved back to Maury County, then sometime prior to 1820 they moved back to Davidson Co. where we find them at the time of the census of 1820.

When Aser was nineteen years old he married Margaret Singleton Foster, 23 December 1821 in Maury County, Tennessee. From an army description we find that he was five foot seven inches tall, light complexion, gray eyes, dark hair. Margaret was the daughter of Richard Foster and Elizabeth Mann Foster. Now I will need to follow up the Foster line to determine the relationship between Richard and Elizabeth.

Ties must have been strong in Maury County. Aser and Margaret lived here for the birth of their first five children. Things must have been too settled for Aser. The family moved to Hardin County, Tenn. in 1842, where his sixth child Nancy Julia was born.

War with Mexico came on the scene end Aser's patriotic blood stirred up. I'm sure there was more than patriotism involved however. I note that veterans in those days received land grants for service. Our Aser may have been looking both ways.

At forty one years of age, with six children, Aser enlisted as a private in Capt. Porter's Company of the 1st Regiment of Tennessee Volunteers, Commanded by Col. Jones E. Thomas. He enlisted for a year at Memphis, Tennessee on the 9th of June, 1846. The unit was organized at Big Springs, Tenn. On the march from Tennessee to New Orleans, Aser contacted measles and was left at Little Rock, Arkansas. When able to travel, Aser paid for his own transportation to New Orleans, then on to Matamoris, Mexico where he rejoined his Regiment. He was bound and determined not to miss this war. On 31 December 1846 the regiment was enroute from Matamoris to Victoria, Mexico. On 31 January 1847 they were at Tampico and on March 31 at Vera Cruz, Mexico. In Aser's records was the following:

"To all whom it may concern, know ye that Asa Pipkin, a private of Captain Coopers company of Tennessee Regiment of Cavalry, who was enlisted on the 15th day of June 1846 to serve for 12 months, is hereby honorably discharged from the Army of the United States by reason of Surgeons Certificate..by occcpation when enlisted, a farmer. Given at Vera Cruz this 12 day of April 1847. J.E. Thomas, Col. Commanding

On 18th November, 1848 Aser filed an application for back pay while living in Favette Co. Tenn. Apparently he then moved to Mississippi because we find that on 4 December 1848, he applied for bounty land and was issued warrant #43780-160-47 for Mexican War Service. Perhaps the available bounty land was in Mississippi at that time.

We find in the 1850 Census of Marshall County Mississippi (North)

Aser Pipkins, age 45, farmer, $1200, born Tenn
Margaret Pipkins, age 45, born Virginia
Martha J. Pipkins, age 14, born Tenn
Margaret Pipkins, age 13, born Tenn
James K.P. Pipkins, age 10, born Tenn
Nancy Pipkins, age 8, born Tenn

The first two children born to this union are not listed in this Mississippi Census. Sally Salina was either married or living away. She would have been 25 in 1850. The second child, Mary Elizabeth, died at the age of two in 1833.

In Mississippi, Aser was accepted and liked. The records of the Mount Pleasant Lodge #99, Ancient and Free end Accepted Masonry, Marshall County, Mississippi show he was initiated, passed, and raised in l849. He was listed as a member in 1851.

About 1851, the Pipkin travel bug again struck and Aser and family moved to White County, Arkansas. Later he moved to Hickory Plains, Prairie County, Arkansas. Asers' wife, Margaret Singleton Foster died on 14 May 1857 in Hickory Plains. Aser later married Martha Matthews Yarber, the widow of Daniel Yarber. We find an interesting relationship now. Aser's son James married Emaline Yarber and Aser married her mother, Martha Matthews Yarber. James was his step son-in-Law as well as son.

Family legends state that Aser served in the Civil War for a period of time. There is no record of any such service. His son, James K.P. Pipkin was a Sgt. in the Arkansas Cavalry however. During this war period, a cousin of Aser visited or met Aser somewhere and came home with him. This cousin Paris Pipkin met and married Aser's youngest, Nancy Julia.

The 1870 Census shows Aser's family were all living away. We read:

1870, Prairie Co. Arkansas, 15 August 1870
Aser Pipkin, age 64, born Tenn
Martha, age __, born Mississippi
James Carver, age 23, Laborer
Henry Alien, age 18, Laborer

Soon after the August Census of 1870, Nancy Julia Pipkin and her infant daughter Mary Lafentie returned to the family home in Hickory plains, Arkansas. Nancy Julia and her baby lived with Aser end Martha until 1873, when Nancy Julia married William Louis Kirk.

Mormon Elders (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints) taught the Aser Pipkin family about the Church in 1876. According to Aser's grandson, these Elders were Henry G. Boyle, D. K. McAllister, and Johnny Page.

Aser's grandson, James Knox Polk Pipkin Jr., has written of the trip the Pipkin family made in coming west and their history for a number of years. I have corresponded with this fine grandson in years past and I believe he would let me use part of his account.

..."The missionaries converted my father and grandfather (James and Aser) and they and my grandmother and two boys were baptized the same day. The neighbors learned of the baptism and they gathered to cuss and swear at the missionaries and throw rocks at them. It got so bad we had to quit.

Later several converts from Alabama, Georgia, and Tennessee all met and left in 1876 for the West, mostly Utah. There were about 100 families and they travelled mostly with ox teams although there were one or two horse teams in the train. We started with a guide named Beebee from Arizona, however, when we got as far as Kansas he got sick and a 2nd member we had guide us. His name was William P. Wimmer. I remember we had to put iron shoes on the oxen before we could start over the Rocky Mts. At night we would circle the wagons so the front wheel of one wagon was against the back wheel of the next so as to form a cirle or corral. We would cook end light our fires in this corral. If the ground was hard the people would dance after supper. We had a couple of fiddlers in the company.

We had night riders to look after the herds, but sometimes the Mexicans or Indians would raid end steal some of the oxen. One of my father's oxen died and we had to break an old black cow to work. All went well until we got to Albuqueque. Some of our wagons got stuck in the quicksand. Albuquerque was almost all Mexican. The houses were adobe and had mud roofs. The leaders of the Church sent word where all the different saints would settle.

We were chosen to help settle Sunset, Arizona. The United Order had been started there and we all ate at one big table, We lived there for six years. Lot Smith was our Leader. It was decided that the Little Colorado River could not furnish enough water for irrigation, so father and Grand- father were called to settle in New Mexico, about 150 miles east of Sunset.

There was no town here but soon after they named the new settlement Ramah, New Mexico. We lived in Rahah from 1882 until 1892 and then volunteered to go to Farmington, New Nexico on the San Juan River.

Aser wrote an attorney while living in Ramah asking for help in obtaining that long ago back pay from the Mexican War. This was dated 20 April 1885 and was sent to an attorney in Mississippi. On 22 March 1887 at the age of 83 he applied for a pension. In his letter he noted that since his discharge from the Army he had lived in Prairie County, Arkansas for twenty seven years, Arizona for five years, New Mexico for four years, and that he lived some time in Mississippi before going to Arkansas. Aser drew a penson of $12.80 a month until his death in Fruitland, New Mexico on 4 May 1901. He was 95 years old at death."

We are indebted to Aser Pipin for many things. I believe the first we should thank him for his acceptance of the Gospel of Jesus Christ while living in Hickory Plains, Arkansas. It was an unpopular decision in those days and created much oppostion. I am sure it was hard to leave a beautiful home and farm where he had lived for twenty seven years end strike across the country in an ox pulled wagon at the age of seventy two.

Our second thanks go to Aser for his genealogy work. He and family traveled by ox or wagon train to St. George, Utah in 1879 and performed work for his kindred dead. From his work we are able to find our lineage back to John Pipkin of 1704.

Aser was a pioneer and had a ventursome spirit. He was not afraid to try a new place. I have often wondered how he felt about trying to get his back pay from the Army for some fifty years end never breaking through the beaurocracy. Can you imagine what he would have to tell us about that? Witness: Wm Scott Mullen & Enes Pipkin

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