Polly Hastings Milliken, Wife of James Milliken

1782-1849

In earlier years, Polly was a common nickname for Mary.  There were two women with the name "(Mary) Polly Hastings" in TN at about the same time.  

One was the daughter of John T. Hastings, who was born in Buncombe County, NC and later moved to middle TN.  This "Polly" married Thomas Thomas and was mentioned in her father's 1830 Franklin County, TN will as "daughter." Her sister, Peggy Hastings who married John Ault, was also mentioned in this will (see will transcription in the John T. Hastings section of this Hastings family page).

According to Knox County, TN marriage records, the other (Mary) "Polly" Hastings married James Milliken in Knox County on September 4, 1805.  They were buried in the Ridge Cemetery in Shelby County, Illinois.  The tombstone markings were transcribed and can be found in Inscriptions of Shelby County, IL Cemeteries, Volume III, as recorded 1971-1972 by Edward H. Boedecker (published January 1973).  This volume can be found at the Shelby County (Illinois) Historical Society. 

Debbie Clark visited this cemetery on February 10, 1999.  At that time, Mary's stone had fallen flat on the ground but was still readable.  Mary's stone read:

James' stone was unreadable in 1999 and had been broken.  But according to the Boedecker 1971-1972 transcription, his stone once read:  

These inscriptions put Mary's birth year at 1782 and James' birth year at 1791.  According to Mary E. Fouts, a petition from the May 1849 term of the Shelby County, IL Court referred to the time of James' death as having been in "the month of May, 1830."  

We have no documents that link this Mary "Polly" Milliken with the Daniel Haston / Hastings family.  However, the time (September 4, 1804) and place (Knox County, TN) of her marriage to James Milliken do seem to indicate that they may have been in the same county in east TN at the same time.  Daniel was known to have been in Knox County as late as October 7, 1801.  Perhaps he was there for a few more years, because July 22, 1806 is the earliest that we know that he was in White County.  We have no documentation to specify the exact year that Daniel left Knox County, however we do know that Daniel's son David remained in Knox County until late in 1806 or early 1807 (later than his father, Daniel).

Also, a letter* remaining in the Knoxville Post Office for John Millikin was sent to him in "care of Samuel Cowen" (Cowan).  This Samuel Cowan was the man who sued Joseph Haston in the 1800-1802 Knox County, TN "timothy lot" case.  Samuel Cowan owned land adjacent to the land that Daniel Haston was renting from John and Jane Wood in the period around 1800.  Perhaps John Millikin lived on the Cowan land (which would explain why a letter was addressed to him in care of Samuel Cowan) adjacent to Daniel Haston and perhaps Mary "Polly" Hastings was the the daughter of Daniel Haston (Hastings) and she married the son of neighbor John Millikin (Milliken), who was James Milliken.  John Miliken appeared eight names down from Danl. Haston on the 1787 Washington County NC/TN tax list with 239 acres.  So, apparently John Milliken and Daniel Haston were neighbors in Washington County in 1787.  (Page 211 of the Early East Tennessee Taxpayers by Pollyanna Creekmore)

*Source:  November 14 & 21, 1796 issues of the Knoxville (TN) Gazette. 

Also, there was a James Millikin, Sr. and a James Millikin, Jr. in Knox County, TN in 1795.
Source:  James Millikin & James Millikin, Jr. vs. John Hill, Docket 325/237 of Knox Co, TN Court of Pleas & Quarterly Sessions (documents dated from September 1795 through January 1798.

Some researchers believe that this Polly Hastings Milliken was the daughter of Henry C. Hastings of Orange County, NC, John T. Hastings' brother.  But, this Henry C. Hastings married Mary Cates in Orange County, NC on February 15, 1790.  This was eight years after (Mary) "Polly's" birth.  Also, there is no proof that Henry C. Hastings ever lived in east TN.  He was on the Orange County, NC census (as per Ancestry.com) for the years 1800 and 1810.  Shortly thereafter, he moved to Bedford County in middle TN. 

There was a James Milligan on the 1820 census of Bedford County, TN, but he was over 45 and Polly's husband was 35 at the time.  (According to a Deane Porch transcript of the Bedford Co, TN 1820 census, the census numbers for this James Milligan household were:  110002-20110.)
 

A William Pruet (possibly the husband of Sarah Roddy, daughter of James & Mary McComesky Roddy) sold 110 acres of land to Elisha Millikan in Jefferson Co, TN on October 26, 1822.  Was there any McComesky-Roddy-Haston-Millican connection between the families of these two men?  The oldest child of James & Mary Millican could only have been about 16 years old in 1822, so Elisha would not have been their son.  And Joyce Kerr says that this man would not have been related to the James Millican who married Mary/Polly Hastings.
Source:  Pages 227-228 of Jefferson Co, TN Deed Book I (1821-1840)
 

Joseph Haston, with help from Dennis Towmey, sold James Roddy's Guilford County, NC estate settlement land to a Samuel Millican (Millikan) in 1802.  This Samuel Millicans was probably one of the Quaker Millicans of that area.

Note:  There were lots of Millicans who lived where Philip Roddy and James Ryan lived in SW Guilford and NW Randolph Counties of NC.  They were Quakers, at least some of them. Perhaps the Millican family connections with Roddys and Haston began back in North Carolina.