The Warren Family History

The Warren Family History

By Patricia Grace Ames Belote Mapp

Patrick Warren was born December 22, 1816, in Northampton County. He lived at “Mount Pleasant”, a home on the Eastern Shore seaside near Machipongo. I don’t know if he was born there, however.

Patrick Warren married Elizabeth Ann Scott (born August 5, 1818) on July 18, 1838. She was the daughter of Thomas W. Scott and Sally Holmes. Her family had owned land where Holmes Presbyterian Church now stands. Could it be the church was named for her family? They were staunch Presbyterians. Elizabeth had converted to the Baptist Church. Soon after they met, Patrick asked her how she happened to be Baptist. Her reply was, “I don’t know, except I read my Bible more than they do.”

Grandpa Warren had two brothers. John was a farmer and lived in Pungoteague. Calvin Laws (named for a Baptist preacher, I believe) was headmaster of Margaret Academy and taught Latin and Greek. Dr. Downing said he was the smartest man he ever knew. He is buried in St. George’s Episcopal Church yard.

After Patrick and Elizabeth married, they lived at “Grape Valley” farm near Birdsnest. I believe the property was Scott owned. Some of the Warrens are buried there. Whitelaw does not mention this place, but he should have for its’ quite old and built with pegs. One section of the building has been removed.

Elizabeth and Patrick had ten children: eight boys and twin girls, on of which died in infancy.

Now all I know about the children: I’ll give them in order according to birth.

1. Patrick T. Warren, a Baptist minister, preached some on the Shore, went to Pamplin, Virginia. A former pastor at Onancock Baptist, Earl Wallace, said his name is on the roster of that church as minister where Earl now serves. Patrick had one son and three daughters.

1. Cousin Luther lived in New York City and worked for the Stock Exchange. He sent mother a check every Christmas to buy presents for us. His one daughter, Betty Lee corresponded with one of my sisters a long time ago. The last news from her , she was going to Hollywood to see if she could get in the movies. I don’t think she made it! Cousin Luther died fairly young.

2. Cousin Mary never married. She worked at the Metropolitan Museum in New York. Every Christmas she would send us books.

3. Cousin Odell married a college professor and lived in Utica, New York. She had one son, Luke Warren Boneham. I don’t know what happened to him.

4. Cousin Hannah married a wealthy banker and had no children. Every Christmas she sent us a check and presents for all of our family: six children, Mother, Dad, and Grandfather. She lived in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Uncle Patrick ended up in Mobile, Alabama. We never saw any of them.

2. George, worked in Baltimore and never married. I do not know what his occupation was. One evening he had word to come home right away for his mother was dying. He went to the docks to get passage to Onancock. No one was coming due to bad weather. Finally, a Captain Johnson said he would take him and made the comment “I’ll either be in Onancock or Hell by tomorrow morning”. Friends of Uncle George said he was reluctant to come after that remark, but decided to try it. Well, they did not make Onancock. In the middle of the night his mother rallied and said, “Something has happened”. All the children were there except George. She said, “Something has happened to George.” I don’t know if their bodies were ever recovered. She lived several years longer.

3. Levin Dix, who was named for a Baptist minister. He lived in Onancock and worked in the insurance business, married a Morris and had two sons and three daughters.

1. Roger, lived in Abingdon, had a daughter and one son. Never met them but Annette was at Mary Washington College when Ruth was there. She left mid term to marry. I used to fall heir to her clothes she outgrew. Lucky me!

2. Cousin Morris lived in Richmond. He was a prominent insurance executive. His son Morris Jr. was a Presbyterian minister. One daughter was a missionary, one married a minister, and one married an Ames, Dr. Susie Ames’ family. Uncle Dix girls were Amy, Annette, and Alice. Alice and Anette died young. Amy married a lawyer, lived in Norfolk, and had no children. We loved visiting her.

4. Luther Rice, also named for a Baptist minister. Very prominent insurance executive in Richmond. He married Kathryn Butts from Georgia. She was a sister or first cousin to Major Butts, Secretary of State, who went down with the Titanic. They had two children: Marion, who had one daughter and Kathryn Lewis, never married, who wrote for the Richmond News Leader and visited us in her later years.

5. John, who went in the Navy, went down with the Maine in Havana Harbor.

6. William, who was principal of the first school on Chincoteague. He later taught school, married a Chincoteague girl. A terrible disgrace at the time! Eastern Shore people looked down on Chincoteague people because they sided with the Union during the civil war. Don’t know if they had children or much about them.

7. Braddus was named for a family of Baptist ministers. He taught school but died fairly young.

8. Carson, went to New York City when a young man. He had two daughters: Elva and Alice. Both daughters visited us, one in Church Neck and one in Nassawadox.

9. Elizabeth Ann, was my grandmother. She married Nebraska Phillip Bell. After her father died she and her mother lived in Salisbury and she taught school. She had attended Atlantic Female College in Onancock. I think they were there until he mother died. Then she moved to Marionville and lived with a Floyd family, teaching the children. She was born in 1855 – five years older that Papa and had one child, Betty Grace Bell Ames. When she taught in Salisbury, she was very young. Some of her pupils were older and she called them “Mister”.

In 1855 Grandpa Warren was asked to be the first pastor of Onancock Baptist Church, which was just beginning to be built. He had previously preached at Red Bank and in other churches. The family moved from “Grape Valley” to “Ker Place”. The church did not furnish a parsonage so whether he rented or someone let him live free, I don’t know. I do know they both had some means and owned slaves. One slave was such a favorite of my grandmother (we always called her Other-Mama) that she named mother Betty, for Aunt Betty Bell and Grace for the slave who was “Aunt Grace”. One of the slaves, a young girl, had epilepsy and had a spell and fell in the back parlor fire place, burning herself very badly. She was coming for the children. She died soon after. This had quite an affect on little Elizabeth.

In 1855 a lady gave a few thousand dollars for a Baptist church to be built in Onancock and requested that Patrick Warren be the pastor. So, he must have moved to Onancock shortly after Other-Mama was born. He was there about eleven years. After the Civil War, he probably had no money of his own. Then he was pastor of the Navy Yard Baptist Church in Washington, D.C. He died there about three years later. He was buried in the Onancock Church yard, but later to Onancock Cemetery moved when a new church was constructed. The old church building was raised and moved back.