Isham Burrell Hale - father of Richard Lafayette Flynn
The following newspaper article explains how Isham Burrell Hale identified as the father of Richard Lafayette Flynn.
Unearthing the roots of
the Flynn family tree
Crossville Chronicle,
Crossville, TN - 14 Jan 2022
In the field of genealogical
applications, advancements in DNA testing have been used to expand
the scope of research, assist in getting past elusive “brick walls,”
fill gaps and solve mysteries, even mysteries of parentage. One such
story is that of the Flynns of
Flynns Cove in Cumberland County.
Direct descendant, Gary Flynn of Bellingham, WA, recently
underwent DNA testing to establish the roots of his family tree and
put to rest the mystery of the family’s ancestry.
The Flynns were a Cumberland County pioneer family, settling a farmstead in the in the southwest corner of Cumberland County at Flynns Cove before the county was formed in 1855. John Flinn [sic] Jr. was a Revolutionary War soldier born in Virginia in 1760. He received a land grant in 1797 from North Carolina for “Indian Lands in Tennessee” for his service during the war. He settled in what was then White County, establishing Flynns Cove with his wife, Mary, and seven children. Their daughter, Rebecca Flynn, was the mother of Richard Lafayette Flynn, the illustrious and notable “Red Fox” of the Civil War.
Richard Lafayette “Red Fox” Flynn (1825-1905) was a Union scout during Civil War and a conductor for the Underground Railroad. He was heralded as an excellent scout and nicknamed “Red Fox,” because he was strategic in his ability to outwit, outflank and outsmart the opposition during the Civil War.
According to Memorial and Biographical Record, copyright 1898, by George A. Ogle & Co., Publishers, Engravers and Book Manufactures, Chicago, IL, Richard Lafayette Flynn was a prominent and well-known character throughout East Tennessee, reared on his grandfather’s (John Flinn) homestead until 12 years of age, when his mother moved to the upper part of Bledsoe County. There, he grew up and married Miss Zilpha (Ezylphia) Wyatt, daughter of John and Sarah Wyatt, in 1846.
When the Civil War erupted, he
joined the Union and was a scout, dispatch courier and guide. He was
captured once while bearing a message to the colonel of a regiment
at Sparta, GA. He met a squad of Confederates, who stopped him and
the young man who was with him.
The book read, “…had
his captors known that he was the famous ‘Red Fox,’ he would not
have been permitted to escape,” before stating he did manage his
escape with only a bullet hole in his sleeve, and losing his
coonskin hat.
He guided fugitives and regular army
squads, such as Lt. Col. D.A. Dorsey and his comrades after they
captured an engine on one of Georgia’s railroads when they were
making their escape from Atlanta, GA. He also helped collect
munitions of war when Major Gen. William Rosecrans was pushed into
the mountains, and was a guide for him from Cumberland, TN, 30 miles
through the mountains to Kentucky. At one time he led 37 people
through the mountains. In the later years of the war, he belonged to
Capt. J.C. Hinch’s company, an independent company guard organized
against guerrillas.
It was written that his older
brother, John Flynn, was taken by guerrillas who were in pursuit of
the Red Fox and was killed on Jan. 3, 1865.
At the close of
the war, he returned to the farm where he was born in the 3rd
District, Cumberland County, near the Lantana post office, and was,
by Gov. William Brownlow, appointed tax collector of Cumberland
County.
The big question mark on the family tree was who the
Red Fox’s father was, since there is no record of his mother ever
having married.
Direct father-to-son descendant of the
Red Fox and 3rd great-grandson, Brad Flynn had heard stories about
him growing up.
“I know he was part of the underground
railroad and how he got his name. There was also a rock down there
somewhere [at Flynns Cove], that supposedly had a split in it. He
was hiding from soldiers and, from my understanding, he hid inside
that split in the rock and watched the soldiers just go on by,” he
said.
Over the years, two theories emerged within the
family’s stories. Gary explained that Red Fox was the youngest
of the four children born to his mother Rebecca Flynn, daughter of
John Flinn [sic], all of whom carried her maiden name, Flynn. “But
she had never married,” he said.
One of the theories stated that
Rebecca had consorted with a Hale in the neighboring community. But,
because Richard “Red Fox” was such a clever and crafty soldier,
hunter and woodsman, the family thought that perhaps his father
could also have been a native Cherokee.
As the Red
Fox’s great-great-grandson, Gary decided to have the DNA test and
finally get some answers. “As a direct descendant, father to son, I
qualified as a candidate for a y-DNA test,” he said, “the results of
which revealed that the first theory was correct. We were Hales, and
the Cherokee connection was a myth.”
Some family members
working on the Flynn/Hale family tree listed a Thomas Hale as the
suspected father of the Red Fox, though there was no supporting
evidence for it. “He just happened to live in White County,”
Gary said. “At one point, prior to doing the y-DNA test, I tested
that theory by naming him on my tree, but I placed an “unverified”
notation on his profile. When I failed to get any DNA matches, I
promptly removed Thomas Hale as a possible father to Richard
Lafayette Flynn.
Gary continued his genealogy research to
include the Hales with a specific age and location profile, as well
as conducted a search of his autosomal-DNA matches for the surname
Hale.
“I eventually found an unexplained match for a
Scott Terry Hale from Pikeville, Bledsoe County,” he added, noting
that this Hale’s location was only about 28 miles from Rebecca’s
home in Flynn’s Cove. While a feasible match geographically, Scott
was too young to fit the profile. However, his father, Isham Burrell
Hale, was the right age to be a consort of Rebecca Flynn’s.
He continued, “After posting Isham as a possible father of
Richard, I received 15 DNA matches, thereby confirming his
paternity.”
Gary added, “Isham Burrell Hale is the portal
that that allows matches from Richard Lafayette Flynn to four
different half-siblings, and also four of Isham’s siblings. These
connections wouldn’t be possible if Isham and his father,
John Hale,
were not Richard’s father and grand-father.”
Hearing this
information for the first time, Brad put the conclusive evidence all
together. “Red Fox used his mother’s maiden name, which was
Flynn?” he asked. “So, you’re telling me I would have been a Hale
had he used his dad’s name?”
Provided that he is a direct
father-to-son descendant, the answer was yes. Of course, as far as
lineage and DNA, no matter which surname the descendants carried, it
didn’t make them any more or less Flynn or Hale as they already
were. But it was not often, especially in those times, that the
children would carry their mother’s maiden name. It was a unique set
of circumstances that allowed for them to carry the Flynn name
father to son, and in this case, also mother to son.
“I guess DNA can bring up some interesting facts,” he said.
“Obviously, I’m very proud to be a Flynn. I’m so proud that Red Fox
carried his mother’s name. That is no disrespect to the Hale family,
just that I’m proud to carry the Flynn name.”
Nonetheless,
Brad thought it was a truly interesting discovery and an overall
neat story that just added to the richness of the Flynn/Hale family
history, and all because a distant cousin in Washington used the
application of DNA testing to his genealogical research.
The discoveries didn’t end there. Gary also employed his DNA
results which unmasked another family secret. While continuing to
study the early pioneer Flynn/Hale/Wyatt families of Cumberland
County, he noted that in “Cumberland County’s First 100 Years,”
published in 1956, the book listed Sarah Wyatt’s maiden name as
Trembell [sic] in John and Sarah Wyatt’s family tree.
“However, thanks to DNA, it’s been revealed that Sarah was actually
born a Rhodes,” Flynn said. “Because of this surname change,
numerous Wyatt descendants have wrongly assumed that William T.
Trammell was the father of Sarah Wyatt.”
He further
explained his findings regarding Sarah’s mother, Mary Zilpha Lynch.
She had married John Rhodes of Orange County, NC, in about 1775, and
they had a least three children, with Sarah being the last, born in
1777. By 1781, Mary Zilpha had separated from John and married a
wounded Revolutionary War veteran named William T. Trammell, and the
children ceased using the surname Rhodes, taking the name Trammell
along with their mother.
Gary said the successes further
highlighted the usefulness of DNA testing as a genealogical tool.
He’s had a number of other breakthroughs, as well. “Accuracy is
important to me,” Gary said. “With the advent of DNA matching as a
research tool, even novice genealogists have managed to answer
age-old family questions. Genetic genealogy is valuable tool for
breaking through those ‘brick walls’ that have plagued genealogists
for years.”
