CORA ELLEN DINSMORE FARRIS, Feb. 10, 1888 – Sept. 30, 1982. [I believe we were always told her name was Densmore, but most of the older documents I have seen say “Dinsmore.”] She was born in Alabama [I think in Winston County].

Cora was the daughter of Green Berry Dinsmore (or Greenbury A. Green Dinsmore in one source), born about 1859 in Georgia, and Rebecca A. Sanders (born about 1858, Alabama). Green and Rebecca were married in South Florence, Ala., and in 1910 were living in Prentiss County Mississippi. [Grandmother Farris was living in Lynn, Ala., in 1910, when she was 22 and married. She may have lived in Mississippi also for a time as a girl. I remember Grandmother telling me that her grandfather, who lived in Mississippi at the …show more content…
16, 1879 [or 1878, as on his tombstone—I remember confusion about this when he died], DIED JUNE 15, 1967. [Grandpa was born near the Winston County and Marion County line in Alabama. He may have been born in Marion. He purchased 39 acres of public land in Marion, just over the county line from Winston, in 1905, before he was married. I remember Grandmother telling me that he had “entered and cleared” land before they were married, which I gathered she took as great initiative and energy. (He also drove a sporty black buggy.) Alonzo appeared in the 1900 Census, when he was 21 and unmarried, in Itawamba County, Miss., which borders Alabama west of Tuscumbia. His parents were also there at the time. Alonzo was living in Lynn, Winston County, according to the 1910 Census, but was in Walker County in 1920, according to that Census. However, son Winfred was born in Nauvoo, in Winston County, near Lynn, in December 1920, so they may have moved earlier that year. Alonzo and Cora and the children moved to Lawrence County, Tennessee, in 1925. Grandpa and the older boys, Sylvester and Odie, moved their belongings by wagon. Grandmother and the younger ones, including Winfred, Truman, and Imogene, and I presume Bernice, traveled by train most of the way, probably as far as Leoma. A lot of people moved from north Alabama to the Five Points and Bonnertown area of Tennessee around 1920 to raise cotton, according to a history of Lawrence …show more content…
Farris was the seventh child (of 10) and the fifth son (of seven) of Willis A. [Alonzo?] Farris (1814-1889) and Mary Jane Collins (1821-1887). Willis was born in South Carolina and Mary was born in Tennessee. They were married about 1836. [I think they married in Tennessee.] In 1837 they lived in Franklin County, Alabama, where their first child was born. They then lived in Lawrence County, Alabama, then Hancock County, which later became Winston County. Willis served as sheriff of Hancock County from 1850 to 1853 and again (when it was Winston County) from 1859 to 1865, or throughout the Civil War. Winston County, like much of the Tennessee Valley, was deeply divided during the war, with about equal numbers of soldiers serving in both the Union and Confederate armies. Willis was against secession and apparently attended the secession convention in Montgomery, where his side of course lost. He never served in either Army. I have not found evidence that his older sons did either; John Tucker would have been too young, age 14 when the war ended. Willis served in the Alabama legislature during Reconstruction, which suggests that he was considered a loyal Union man, as former Confederates would not have regained political power until after 1877. Willis died of typhoid fever at age 76 and is buried along with Mary Jane in Pisgah Cemetery in Carbon Hill, Walker County, Ala. The 1860 Census lists Willis as Winston County sheriff, age 45; Mary Jane, age 39; and