Inspirational Message

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Saturday, January 26, 2013

Surname Saturday - Louthan, Red Headed Hero Of Scotland

I inherited a collection of letters written between 1948 and 1961.  The sender was researching his Louthan family.  All of the respondents had the same story and it is revealed they received there information from Ann Eliza Louthan who heard it from her Aunt Polly.  Ann Eliza died in 1925.  Henry Thompson Louthan's daughter, Mary Tyler Louthan was one of the senders.  She eluded to her father having trunks full of letters that she was going through and that he had researched heavily in Virginia for his Louthan ancestors.
Going through these letters while scanning them to a file on my computer, I searched on FamilySearch and Ancestry.com to identify the senders.  I was able to trace back the Louthan line from which the writer descended .  All of the respondents believe that all Louthan descendants are related.  Of course, not one cited any sources other than  "from Ann Eliza from her Aunt Polly."
In 2000, I received a manuscript of the Louthan family.  It contains the original genealogy written by W. B. Louthan of Helena, Tama Co., IA in 1878.

"Family tradition holds the following account of Henry Louthan 1st given by Henry Louthan 1st great grandson John Bowles Louthan to his son Wallace Binkley Louthan on January 3, 1878."

About 1737, Henry Louthan, a red head hero of Scotland, emigrated to America and settled in the stated of Virginia, Fredric County, then one of the British colonies.  He being at that time a single man, but soon afterwords married a damsel of the New World. After the birth of four children, Elisabeth, Margaret, George, Henry, she died. Then he married the second wife, she bore him three girls and six boys.  They settled in Ohio.  The children of the first wife were all above the average size.  Georges weight 250 lbs, Henry 225, and not inclined to corpulency.  They remained many years in Virginia.  Georges family consisted of Walker, Henry, George, John and Mollie.  The two latter remained in Virginia.  The other three moved to Missouria.
The writers of this manuscript question some of the details in this written account.  "The statement that Henry 1 was a red-headed hero of Scotland is unsupported and was once questioned by an Orange County, California genealogy group in one of their publications."  "The Henry Louthan 2nd mentioned as son of Henry Louthan 1st was born some 26 years after Henry Louthan 1st emigrated to America and would clearly be the son of the second wife, not the first. Of course it is not uncommon for their to be more than one child with the same name, especially if the older one died.  Names for Henry 1st wife's have been given as Mary and Nancy.  Nancy being the second.

I set out to place the Louthan head of households in the census across the US beginning with 1790 and going to 1840.  Except for the two in South Carolina in 1790, nothing shows up before 1810, records having being destroyed in Virginia during the Civil War.

Name
Year
State
County
Township
Elijah Lauthins
1790
South Carolina
Spartanburg
Not Stated
John Lauthins
1790
South Carolina
Spartanburg
Not Stated
Richard Louthum
1810
North Carolina
Guilford
Greensboro
Moses Leathen
1810
North Carolina
Orange
Hillsborough
Thomas Louthen
1810
Virginia
Harrison
Not Stated
John Louthan
1810
Virginia
Clarke
Not Stated
John Louthan
1810
Virginia
Frederick
Stephensburg
Henry Louthan
1810
Virginia
Frederick
Berryville
Henry Louthan
1810
Virginia
Frederick
Pughtown
Lucy Louthan
1810
Virginia
Frederick
Not Stated
Henry Louthan
1810
Virginia
Frederick
Eastern District
George B Lothian
1820
New York
New York
Ward 6
Jonathan Louthen
1820
Pennsylvania
Westmoreland
Fairfield
David Louthen
1820
Pennsylvania
Westmoreland
Fairfield
John Louthan
1820
Virginia
Frederick
Eastern District
George Louthan
1820
Virginia
Frederick
Eastern District
Henry Louthan
1820
Virginia
Hampshire
Not Stated
Walker Louthan
1820
Virginia
Hampshire
Not Stated
Henry Louthan
1820
Virginia
Smyth
Not Stated
Thomas Louthen
1820
Virginia
Harrison
Not Stated
John Louthan
1820
Pennsylvania
Beaver
Ohio
An Louthen
1830
Pennsylvania
Beaver
South Beaver
James Louthan
1830
Pennsylvania
Beaver
Ohio
James Lowthen
1830
Pennsylvania
Beaver
South Beaver
Samuel Lowthen
1830
Pennsylvania
Beaver
South Beaver
Jonathan Louthen
1830
Pennsylvania
Westmoreland
Fairfield
David Louthen
1830
Pennsylvania
Westmoreland
Fairfield
Moses Louthen
1830
Pennsylvania
Beaver
Ohio
George Louthan
1830
Ohio
Butler
Hamilton
James H. Louthan
1830
Ohio
Butler
Lemon
Hiram Louthan
1830
Ohio
Columbiana
Hanover
Moses Louthan
1840
Ohio
Columbiana
Hanover
Henry Louthan
1840
Ohio
Columbiana
St. Clair
Moses Louthan
1840
Ohio
Columbiana
Clarkson
Moses Louthan
1840
Ohio
Summit
Green
John Louthan
1840
Ohio
Miami
Elizabeth
George Louthan
1840
Ohio
Wayne
Dover
Mathew R Louthan
1840
Ohio
Lake
Perry
Parker Louthain
1840
Ohio
Shelby
Not Stated
John Louthain
1840
Ohio
Shelby
Not Stated
James Lowthen
1840
Ohio
Wayne
East Union
Margaret Louthen
1840
Tennessee
Claiborne
Not Stated
John Lothen
1840
Tennessee
Hickman
Not Stated
Henry Louthan
1840
Missouri
Shelby
Not Stated
Isaac Lathan
1840
Missouri
Howard
Franklin
Walker Louthan
1840
Missouri
Marion
Liberty
Isaac Lawthian
1840
Missouri
Howard
Not Stated
Bessie Lothin
1840
New York
New York
Ward 10
George B Lothian
1840
New York
New York
Ward 6
Geo Louthan
1840
Indiana
Porter
Not Stated
James Louthain
1840
Indiana
Tippecanoe
Jefferson
John Louthain
1840
Indiana
Tippecanoe
Jefferson
Joseph Louthain
1840
Indiana
Tippecanoe
Wabash
William Louthane
1840
Indiana
Putnam
Not Stated
Absolom Louthan
1840
Illinois
Jo Davies
Pleasant Grove

The Tennessee Louthans are documented in two issues of "Reflections, The Quarterly Newsletter of the Caliborne County Historical Society" summer edition 1987 contributed by Dolores Ham who at that time resided in Orangeburg, SC.  

Much speculation has been made regarding the origin of the Louthan/Louthen families.  There was always talk of an "Irish" connection in my branch of the Louthan family, probably  because of the frequency of redheads!  As I have researched the Louthan family, it seems more likely that the family was a participant in the great Scotch-Irish immigration of the early 18th century.  However, evidence of their residence abroad or of their arrival in America has not yet been found.

...it is sometimes stated that Henry Louthan had two brothers, one of whom stayed in NY and another whose destination is unknown.

The challenge to the Louthan puzzle is handwriting and phonetic spelling in old records.  A lazy 'n' sometimes appears to be an 'r', 'ou' is sometimes written as 'ow' and 'S' is always confused with 'L'.  I had this happen to me when I was in high school.  I had filled out an order form in cursive and the package arrived with my surname spelled Southan.

On FamilySearch I did find indexed records of the surname Louthan in Scotland.  And red hair is a trait I inherited as did my brother.  This far removed from the original immigrant, that trait isn't really a factor to consider since there are red heads in nearly every one of my extended family lines, both maternal and paternal.

Will this puzzle ever be solved??  Hard to say.  This is an example of a One Line Genealogy that ignores all of the other lines and so people are lost along the way.  Records prior to 1810 are difficult to find and presents a challenge to this researcher.   The treasure of an old Bible from that time would be nice to find.

I certainly will not run out of research to conduct on the Louthan surname, in America and in Great Britain.
 
 

11 comments:

  1. Nice information on the southern wing of the family. Lots of Louthan households in Kansas and Oklahoma in census also. bdlouthan@gmail.com

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  2. Great article! I am out of the Oklahoma Louthans, my great grandfather was John Louthan and his wife Mary, being one of the original settlers in the great land rush. I was able to trace my line back to the first Henry also.

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    1. I, too, am a decendant of the Oklahoma Louthans and John and Mary Louthan were also my great grandparents. Frank Louthan and Wilma Irwin were my grandparents and his son, Robert Louthan was my father. Lots of Louthans in Portland, Oregon. Are you one of my cousins here? June Louthan

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    2. Yes, I am! Lester and Leota Louthan of Major Co. OK are my grandparents. I have corresponded with Cindy Louthan in Oregon.

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    3. My great great grandfather was John Cope Louthan. I am descended from the first family with wife Anna Jane Haddow.

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  3. My grandfather, "Red" Louthan, was the great-grandson of George Louthan from Ohio Wayne Dover. I have details about George's son William Scott Louthan. But, nothing on this Ohio George. Do you happen to know who his father was? Brothers/Sisters? Was George born in Ohio or Virginia? It is confusing because there is another George from Hamilton Ohio. jelouthan@aol.com

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  4. I should have added: "but not that early." bdlouthan@gmail.com

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  5. I have a son, Paul Louthan, living in Oregon City, OR. Does not have a landline. Might contact thru the Ray Gray family (in-laws). Not a family history bug (yet).
    There are several Georges in Ohio (& VA) records. My gr-gfather was George William, born in Va., raised mostly in Ohio, moved to Iowa, from where he left to serve 3 1/2 years in Civil War. His father was a Henry who died shortly after moving to Ohio. His only child was a son, Gilbert Wade, who moved from Iowa to Texas with 7 kids in 1917. My father, George Ross, was his 5th child. If you have Tom Fetter's Louthan family compilaton, you have the bulk of the linked data before 2012 (tho not tied to documentation). There is more now on Family Search and better documented.



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  6. Help ~ I can't find your name as the submitter of this wonderful information to credit you as the source, Brenda in Memphis

    (2nd g-granddaughter of Margaret Elizabeth Louthan, dau, of John Louthan (1790-1865)

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  7. Brenda: I am Bruce Douglas Louthan in Moab, Utah. I believe we corresponded or exchanged info on a family history bulletin board or blog about 16-17 years ago. My email as noted above is bdlouthan@gmail.com. Best, Bruce

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