Our Cash Family Connection

William Galen Cash, (1847-1916) was known as W.G.
He was a farmer, local preacher, teacher and ultimately became Superintendent of Schools in Belmont County, Ohio.



◄ This photo of him is circa 1905. (Click photos to enlarge them.)










◄ On the back of this photo his daughter, Leona Cash Jones, wrote, "It was said [he was such a good teacher] he could teach a dog to read." This tongue-in-cheek photo presumably shows him doing so with his dog, Rover. (Note the glasses on the dog.)












◄ This portrait of W.G. Cash and family is circa 1905.








W.G. Cash married Mary Elizabeth Anderson (1852-1927), who was known as Mollie. They had three daughters, Leona Cash (Jones), Dessie Cash (Spencer) and Mottie Cash (Noll). Leona (1873-1957) married Fleetwood Churchill Jones (1857-1937) and they had two children, Carleton Duane Jones (1895-1967) and Mary Elizabeth Jones (Anderson) (1907-1993).

Carleton was my generation’s maternal grandfather, Fleetwood my generation’s maternal great-grandfather and W.G. my generation’s maternal great-great grandfather. Carleton’s sister, Mary Elizabeth, was twelve years younger than Carleton and hadn’t been born when this portrait was made. The rest of those named above are included in this photo.

I haven't documented this, but my generation's maternal uncle, DeRand Jones, over several decades did extensive work assembling his family's history and reported that W.G. was the uncle of James Cash Penney of JC Penney stores fame; W.G.'s sister was reportedly JC Penney’s mother.

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Looking Back Further

If the information below is accurate, the Cash family above has an interesting ancestral history. In my research on our family's ancestors I stumbled across the following data:

“The first known CASH in America was a William Cash from Scotland, a mariner who settled in Salem, Massachusettes [sic] about 1645. On one of his return voyages from England/Scotland on his brigantine 'The Good Intent', he brought with him a favorite nephew, son of his brother, who was also named William Cash (aka The Imigrant) [sic], born in Scotland circa 1653.

At his uncle's urging, this younger William Cash went down into Virginia, settling in Westmoreland County about 1673. William Cash, the Imigrant (sic), came to Tidewater, Virginia about 1673 and was the first Cash to settle in that Colony. (Johnny Cash, the singer, is descended from William the Imigrant)” (sic) [emphasis added]

also…

“William Cash lived in Salem, Mass. at the lower end of Essex Street, near the eastern corner of Gerrish Place; he married Elizabeth Lambert Oct., 1667; he died before 1693.”

Source cited on the website where I found this: “The History of Salem, Massachusettes", Sidney Perley, 1928, Salem, Ma., Volume II, 1638-1870.

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The website on which I found this was created by a man by the name of Jeff Drake, so I presume the parenthetical comment about Johnny Cash was written by him. Here’s more from his site:

"William Cash, Master Mariner, was born in Scotland, and settled in Salem, Massachusetts, in 1667. There he married Elizabeth Lambert, bought a home on a quarter acre at the junction of Essex and Forrester Streets. Eight children were born to them, four sons and four daughters. In 1676 the Mariner brought to Salem his nephew, also named William Cash, from Scotland. This younger William was the Immigrant Ancestor of our American Cash family.

The Salem Mariner left [in] Massachusetts a record of the fact that the Cash [family] seat was anciently at 'the place Cash', near Strathmiglo, in Fife, Scotland. Research proved him to have been correct. The Salem William was owner and Master of the Brigantine, 'Good Intent', and was very likely a master Mariner by the time he was 22.

He operated his ship in the British Isles-American Colonies trade. To have sailed a wooden vessel for nearly fifty years on the treacherous waters of the Atlantic, with the crudest of instruments or by the stars, particularly in winter, and finally after a lifetime to bring to port his vessel and crew intact, marks him certainly as a Master of the sea. He was of that intrepid group of early mariners who pioneered the routes for the commerce that would follow them.

He sleeps [is buried] in Charter Street Cemetary [sic] (now called Vine Cemetery), Salem, on Burial Point. The wooden cross that once marked his grave is long gone."

Source cited on the website on which I found this: CASH book written by Don Cash. (March 10, 1976, San Diego, California, now deceased.)
Source

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So What Does All That Have To Do With Our Family?

Here’s the ancestral trail, distilled from Mr. Drake’s very detailed website - which he takes down to the W.G. Cash level - supplemented from there by what we know about W.G.'s descendants. (Mr. Drake’s site includes all the children, siblings, and spouses of everyone listed below, but for simplicity I’ve left them out here.)

William Cash (the mariner above): Abt 1642 to after 1717, married Elizabeth Lambert: 1642-unknown, and had a son William.
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William Cash: 1668-1729, married Sarah Flinder, and had a son Richard.
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Richard Cash: 1706-unknown, married Abigail Davis and had a son John.
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John Cash: 1736-1794, married Ann Shaw and had a son Isaiah.
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Isaiah Cash married Mary (unknown maiden name) and had a son named Jonathan.
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Jonathan Cash: 1801-1874, married Mary Stotlar 1801-1854, had a son named William Galen Cash.
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William Galen Cash: 1847-1916, married Mary Elizabeth (Mollie) Anderson, 1852-1927, and had a daughter, Leona Cash.
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Leona Cash, 1872-1957, married Fleetwood Churchill Jones, 1857-1937, and had a son named Carleton Duane Jones.
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Carleton Jones, 1895-1967, married Nelle Virginia Field, 1899-1976, and had four children, Fleeta Claire, Paul Wesley, Virginia Lee and DeRand Jones.
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Claire, Paul, and Virginia were the parents of my generation, thus had/have children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, adding generations 10, 11 and 12 to the above.

I cannot verify that Mr. Drake’s research is correct, for I found at least one error in his info, e.g., W.G. Cash’s wife and children’s names were incorrect (I corrected them here). In addition, on another page of this blog I've included a note from his granddaughter, Mary Jones Anderson, that says W.G.'s forebears emigrated from Wales. However, if Mr. Drake's research about preceding generations is accurate, it appears that twelve generations up from the youngest members of our current family, William Cash, Master Mariner from Scotland, is an ancestor of ours and was the uncle of another William Cash from whom the singer Johnny Cash descended.

Being Johnny Cash's distant cousin is a remote connection to our family, for sure, but a fun possibility to consider. It’s also interesting to contemplate the idea that William Cash (the mariner) and his nephew were, indeed, the first people by the name of “Cash” recorded as being here - 100 years before America became a nation - and are in our ancestral line.

Update to the above on 15 June 2010:

After posting information on this blog about our Cash family connection I was contacted about the Cash family by Kathy Shea, who turns out to be a cousin who's related to our family through the Cash line on her mother’s side. Kathy provided data that conflicts with the data found on Jeff Drake’s site.

Simplified, Kathy’s research, which is documented in a 99-page report, shows the following descendancy information:

John Cash married Mary Dawson (not Richard Cash & Abigail Davis);
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John Cash married Ann Shaw;
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William Cash married Keziah Nicholls (Kathy reports that we're missing this generation);
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Jonathan Cash married Mary [unknown maiden name] (Not Isaiah - Isaiah married Mary Seal);
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Jonathan Cash married Mary Stotlar;
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William Galen (W.G.) Cash married Mary Elizabeth (Mollie) Anderson.

To which I can again add the following:

W.G. and Mary Elizabeth Cash's daughter, Leona Cash, 1872-1957, married Fleetwood Churchill Jones, 1857-1937, and had a son named Carleton Duane Jones.
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Carleton Jones, 1895-1967, married Nelle Virginia Field, 1899-1976, and had four children, Fleeta Claire, Paul Wesley, DeRand and Virginia Lee Jones.
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Claire, Paul, and Virginia were the parents of my generation, thus had/have children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, adding generations 10, 11 and 12 to the above.

If Kathy Shea’s research is accurate - and it’s well documented from original sources, then our link to William Cash the mariner is broken. Having said that, there may be another link that connects William the mariner to our family, but not the one provided by Mr. Drake. The research on this is a work in progress for Kathy, so we shall see what she turns up regarding this issue.

Last updated 6/30/2010