Mary Gatlin Harris

Mary Gatlin Harris

Mary Gatlin Harris Gindrat, 1820-c1889

• Father: William Harris b. 2 June 1774, d. 12 October 1825
• Mother: Mary Drew Alston b. 12 January 1784, d. 2 September 1841

• Mary Gatlin Harris was born on 6 January 1820 in Georgia.
• She married John Henry Gindrat, son of John Gindrat and Sarah L. Stallings, circa 7 November 1837 in Montgomery County, Alabama.
• Following the deaths of their parents William Chambers and Jane Green Paul LeGrand in the early 1840s, the LeGrand children were taken into various families. Mary Jane, the eldest, spent time with Charles and Sarah Norman Rush and with Theodore and Caroline Mays Brevard. She and Green Mark Wood were married by Judge Brevard, and they named their first child Rush Brevard Wood. Margaret was raised as the only child of Letitia Ann Wood McNair (daughter of Green Wood’s cousin Ashley Wood) and her husband Edward McNair. Cornelia was raised in the household of Charles and Sarah Norman Rush, and Virginia William “Willie” was raised from infancy as the only child of John Henry and Mary Harris Gindrat (whose niece Sarah Anne Harris later married Willis Breazeal Wood). Likely son Milton Paul LeGrand also was taken into the Rush family, but no record has been found of his earlier years; by 1850, at age 17, he was serving as an apprentice in the household of druggist Henry F. Godden in Marion, Alabama.
• John Henry Gindrat and Mary Gatlin Harris appeared in the US federal census of 1 June 1850 in Montgomery, Alabama, enumerated next to Mary's sister Sarah Pickett.. Other members of the household included Virginia William LeGrand. Willie LeGrand is identified as Milly Gindrat.
• In a letter to her uncle John Brown LeGrand on 31 January 1859, Mary Jane LeGrand Wood wrote: ". . . Pa & Ma you know left 5 children, 4 girls and one son. They are all married and doing well except the youngest. She is now grown, 18 years old this month, she only came out as a young lady this winter, has been going to school all the time. Mrs Gindrat the lady that raised her has no children of her own, she treats Willie as though she was her own child. She has had every advantage. The rest have all had the same good luck. I have seen none of them since we moved to Texas 9 years ago. Willie is comming to see me this spring, Mrs Gindrat speaks of coming with her. Happy will be the time when we meet."
• John Henry Gindrat and Mary Gatlin Harris appeared in the US federal census of 1 June 1860 in Burnt Corn PO, Monroe County, Alabama. Other members of the household included Virginia William LeGrand. Willie LeGrand is identified as Willie Gindrat, and she also is enumerated with her husband Virgil Murphey in Montgomery County. Also enumerated in the Gindrat household was overseer William Crawford.
• Sarah Smith Harris appeared in the US federal census of 1 June 1870 in Montgomery, Alabama. Other members of the household included Mary Gatlin Harris, Albert James Pickett Jr., John Gindrat Pickett, Martha Raiford Pickett, Michael Leonard Woods, Corinne Pickett Woods, Albert Pickett Woods, Eliza Ward Pickett, Mary Pickett Banks, Richard Banks, Robert Carter Randolph, Sarah Julia Pickett, Jane Beverly Randolph, George C. Randolph and John Henry Gindrat.
• Mary Gatlin Harris became a widow at the 16 September 1874 death of her husband John Henry Gindrat.
• Sarah Smith Harris appeared in the US federal census of 1 June 1880 in Montgomery, Alabama, at Moulton Street. Other members of the household included Mary Gatlin Harris, Eliza Ward Pickett, Martha Raiford Pickett, Alston Harris Pickett, Elizabeth Cowles Jackson, Frances Jackson Pickett, Sarah Alberta Pickett, Corinne Pickett Woods, Martha Harle Woods, Richard Banks, Francis B. Clark Jr., Mary Pickett Banks, Jane Beverly Randolph and Mary Alston Pickett.
• Mary Gatlin Harris died on 3 July 1890 at age 70.
• She was interred at Oakwood Cemetery, Montgomery, Alabama.
• Her estate was probated on 27 August 1890 at Montgomery County, Alabama.

• Last Edited: 22 Jul 2014