BARTEMUS ACTON & SARAH ANN ROBEY

BARTEMUS ACTON & SARAH ANN ROBEY

Bartemus was born in Charles Co., MD on April 25, 1799 to Osborn Acton and his second wife Elizabeth.  Bartemus married Sarah Ann Robey, daughter of Aquilla and Chloe (Robey) Robey on June 27, 1825.  She was known as Sallie Ann and was born in Charles Co. on June 6, 1809.  According to family tradition, Bartemus (promounced Bar-tee'-mus) and Sarah, and their first three children, came from Port Tobacco, Maryland in Charles Co. around 1829 with their possessions loaded in ox wagons.  The Boswell family joined them and they all settled on Halls Creek near their old friends the Leonard Bean family. 

The cabin they first settled in was already standing on their land, on the banks of Halls Creek a few miles from Sulfur Springs near the buffalo trail towards Rosine.  Years later his great granddaughter Bessie Acton Rowe described the house as being a well-built two-story house with large rooms.  There was no dogtrot leading to the back part of the house but instead a wide plank walkway between the living quarters and the room behind the house.  There the Actons kept meat, lard, barrels of meal, flour, canned and dried goods, and fruits and nuts.  Bessie said the cabin burned around 1926.

Bartemus was a farmer, slave-owner, and a Class Leader of the old Mt. Vernon Methodist Church.  He was one of the founders of Mt. Vernon in 1854 and was a trustee of the building committee for the second church building in 1866.  His real estate was valued at $5000 for the 1840 census and he owned three slaves.  In 1870, one of these slaves still lived with the family; a woman named Ann Acton, born in 1820 in MD and who worked for the family as a cook.  She and other Acton slaves have many descendants who live in Ohio and Daviess Co. today.

Sarah Robey Acton had nine children between 1826 and 1846 which was about average for a family during those times.  She died on June 19, 1849 and was buried at the age of forty years and thirteen days in the Bean Cemetery at Sulfur Springs in Ohio Co.  Sarah's estate papers are recorded in Butler Co. in Bk. B, p 259.

Sulfur Springs was one of the oldest towns in Ohio Co. and had daily stage runs connecting it with Rosine, beginning in 1888.  It was a resort town with a twenty room hotel where guests would "take the waters", enjoy barbecue cooked food, and good music.  The Acton store there was probably run by Bartemus' grandson Robert Acton, son of William Henry Acton.  There was also a livery stable, two drug stores, and a post office, which was located in another merchandise store across from the Acton store.  This was owned by Jerry Cannon.  Dr. Frank Bean operated a blacksmith business. 

The area once known as Sulfur Springs was sold to the Methodist Church in 1931 and converted to a camp with a parsonage.  This Methodist church merged in 1968 with the United Methodist Church of Dundee.  Down the road was the "colored church".   The 1937 flood caused several homes and the hotel to be under water and the mail came in by boat.  In the early 1970's the hotel was razed and a large log home was constructed over the foundation.

Bartemus married second to Eliza Statler Taylor on November 1851 but had no children by this marriage.  Eliza was born April 28, 1798 and died February 5, 1866; she was descended from the Stephen Statler and Ignatius Pigman families, both early pioneer families of Ohio Co. 

Bartemus wrote his will on March 21, 1867 and it is recorded in Ohio Co.  His estate papers are in Butler Co., Bk B, p 506.  He died March 31, 1868 near Sulfur Springs and is buried with his first wife Sarah Ann in the Bean Cemetery on the Mt. Vernon Rd. in Ohio Co.

The children of Bartemus and Sarah Robey Acton were:

1) SUSANNAH CAROLINE ACTON - Born April 8, 1826 in Charles Co., MD and named for Bartemus' sister; married on August 24, 1843 to stonemason Joseph Martin (Mark) Mitchell.  She died September 8, 1878 in Ohio Co.

2) MARY JANE ACTON - Born December 24, 1827 in Charles Co., MD; married to Gabriel Jackson Bean, son of Leonard and Sarah Boswell Bean, on October 17, 1844.  She died July 29, 1896.

3) THOMAS WASHINGTON (WASH) ACTON - Born May 21, 1829 in Charles Co., MD and named for his maternal grandfather.  He married on January 2, 1851 to Ellen Hale.    He died July 8, 1917 and was buried at the Midkiff Cemetery.  Wash observed a slave auction at Dundee, KY and vowed never to have any part of slavery despite the fact his father was a slave owner. 

4) PATRICK GABRIEL (GABE) ACTON - Born June 17, 1831 and married on March 22, 1853 in Daviess Co. to Cordelia ( Delia) S. Lashbrook;  she was born November 1, 1835, daughter of Norris Lashbrook.  He died in 1883.

E) CHLOE ANN ELIZABETH ACTON - Born May 7, 1833 in Sulfur Springs and named for her two grandmothers; married on December 25, 1852 to Noble Bean.  Noble who was born May 7, 1830 in Acton, KY in Taylor Co. to Leonard and Sarah (Boswell) Bean and died September 10, 1910.   Elizabeth died May 30, 1910 and was buried in the Mt. Vernon Cemetery. 

6) WILLIAM HENRY ACTON  - Born November 4, 1834 in Warren Co., KY although his parents were probably residing in Ohio Co. at the time.  He married Martha Jane Crawford on January 24, 1856, daughter of Hugh and Rebecca (Forman) Crawford.  She was born April 28, 1837 and died March 18, 1920.  He died October 9, 1917 in Ohio Co. and is buried in the Mt. Vernon Cemetery.

7) FIELDER WEMMES ACTON - Born March 24, 1837 and married Elizabeth Wade Hines on January 28, 1858; he died March 24, 1911 and is buried in the Mt. Vernon Cemetery near Sulfur Springs. 

8) MARTHA ANN ACTON - Martha was born July 15, 1840 and married William T. Crawford on September 22, 1856 and died in Grayson Co., KY after 1900.

9) EVELINE BEAN ACTON - Born March 16, 1846; married Thomas L. Davis on December 13, 1865; he was born December 26, 1842 and died December 9, 1892.  She died on March 25, 1916 and is buried in the Sunnydale Cemetery in Ohio Co. 

Note:  This biography was researched and prepared by Glenda Potts Thacker from Owensboro.  Thank you for submitting this wonderful bio.