Youngblood-Armstrong & Allied Families
Jackson Armstrong, frequently talked about his mother returning to Virginia to visit her relatives, the Tuckers, and stated that his father was born while she was visiting at her old home.
The Probate Court Records of Montgomery, County, Alabama, show that James Francis Armstrong was married to Frances McDade, the daughter of Charles and Edna Adaline (Fields) McDade, on December 20, 1847 by H. C. Clemons, J. P. They had six children; James, Charles, Florence, Martin, Andrew Jackson and Frances. Their married life together was brief for on June 5, 1860 she passed away at the age of thirty one years at Pine Level, Alabama, leaving her ten day old baby daughter, Frances.
The next year, on June 6, 1861, he married Mrs. Ellen Johnstone Reynolds, the widow of James Reynolds who had two sons, James and Thomas and one daughter, Effie. She was the daughter of Thomas Callen and Anne (Candler) Johnstone of Bald Mountain, North Carolina, the latter being descended from Lord Edward Hyde, Earl of Clarendon of England. There were no children by this second marriage.
Ellen Reynolds Armstrong's older son, Thomas Reynolds, was a student at the University of Alabama at the outbreak of the War Between the States and left the University, along with every other student at the school, to join the Confederate Army. Years later, his step-sister, Fannie Armstrong Youngblood, was presented his diploma from the University under an Act of the State Legislature that awarded diplomas to the students who had left school during the term to go to the war. Both of the Reynolds boys died young and un-married. Effie Reynolds married Henry Ance Shaver of Pine Level, an uncle of O. R. Shaver who later married Fannie Armstrong. She left no heirs.
Upon the marriage of James F. Armstrong to Ellen Johnstone Reynolds, Col. Armstrong and his older children went to live at her plantation, leaving the baby, Fannie, with her maternal grandmother. The Reynolds plantation was a very large one and when combined with the Armstrong property comprised more than six thousand acres. Part of the plantation was in Bullock County and part in Montgomery County. It was located six miles south of Mathews and north of Downing on the old Hayneville Road. It was this plantation home that the Youngblood children knew and loved as their own. Their step-grandmother was a wonderful person and muchly loved by all the Armstrong children and grandchildren. She died on July 23, 1914 at the age of eighty-six years and was buried beside her husband in Hopewell Cemetery, not far from the plantation. She was known for her philanthropy and kindness
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