Staggs Family History

My ancestors in the United States

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      Clementine Tabitha McCrea (1841-1922)

      BIRTH: 28 Sep 1841, Tuscaloosa, Alabama, USA
      DEATH: 28 Jan 1922, Compton, Newton, Arkansas, USA
      FATHER: John McCrea (1796–1859)
      MOTHER: Malinda Parsons (1806–1884)
      SPOUSE: John Brown McFerrin (1836–1923)

      When Clementine Tabitha McCrea was born on September 28, 1841, in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, her father, John, was 45, and her mother, Malinda, was 35. She married John Brown McFerrin on June 4, 1857, in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. They had 11 children in 24 years. She died on January 28, 1922, in Compton, Arkansas, having lived a long life of 80 years, and was buried in the McFerrin Cemetery, Newton County, Arkansas.

      The Life of Clementine Tabitha McCrea

      A Life of Quiet Strength from Alabama to the Ozarks

      Clementine Tabitha McCrea entered the world in 1841 in Alabama, born into a region of red clay fields, pine woods, and small farms where families depended on one another as much as they depended on the land. Her childhood was shaped by the rhythms of rural Southern life—church gatherings, seasonal work, and the steady hum of domestic labor that began before sunrise and ended long after dusk.

      She grew up learning the skills expected of a young woman in the antebellum South: tending gardens, sewing, cooking over open hearths, and managing the endless tasks that kept a household running. These early lessons would become the foundation of her adult life.

      Marriage and the Coming Storm

      On 4 June 1857, sixteen‑year‑old Clementine married John Brown McFerrin, age twenty‑one, in Tuscaloosa County, Alabama. Their marriage began in a world that still felt stable, but within four years the nation fractured. Alabama seceded, and John entered Confederate service with the 26th Alabama Infantry, Company G.

      Clementine, still barely more than a girl, suddenly found herself responsible for the home, the children, and the farm while her husband marched off to war. Like thousands of Southern women, she endured shortages, fear, and long stretches of silence when no letters came. She kept the household together through determination and the support of nearby kin.

      When John returned after the war’s end, he came home to a wife who had grown into a resilient, capable woman—one who had learned to shoulder responsibility in the hardest of circumstances.

      Rebuilding a Family in a Changing South

      The McFerrins remained in Alabama for several years after the war, appearing in census records as a steadily growing family. Clementine bore eleven children, each one adding to the lively, demanding household she managed with quiet competence.

      But the postwar South was a difficult place to rebuild. By the mid‑1870s, Clementine and John joined the great migration of families leaving Alabama for the promise of new land in the Arkansas Ozarks. They settled near Compton and Hill Top in Newton County, a rugged landscape of steep ridges, deep hollows, and clear mountain streams.

      Five of her children: Martin, Benjamin, Ardenia, Joseph, and John.

      Life in the Ozarks

      In Arkansas, Clementine’s days were filled with the work of survival. She cooked on wood stoves, hauled water, tended gardens that fed the family, preserved food for winter, and raised children who grew into the backbone of the Hill Top and Compton communities.

      Her home was a place of constant motion—children coming and going, neighbors stopping by, the sounds of farm work drifting in from the fields. She taught her daughters the domestic arts that sustained mountain households and raised her sons to value hard work, honesty, and responsibility.

      Though her life was not one of public recognition, she shaped the character of her family and her community in ways that endured long after her passing.

      Later Years

      As her children married and established homes of their own, Clementine remained the quiet center of the McFerrin family. She lived long enough to see grandchildren and even great‑grandchildren born, her life spanning from the antebellum era to the early twentieth century.

      Clementine Tabitha McCrea died in 1922, at about eighty‑one years old, and was buried in Newton County, Arkansas, near the land where she and John had built their life after the war. John followed her in death the next year, closing a marriage that had lasted sixty‑six years.

      Legacy of Clementine Tabitha McCrea

      Clementine’s legacy is woven into the generations that followed her. She was the matriarch who carried the McFerrin family from the worn‑out soils of Alabama into the rugged beauty of the Ozarks, where her children and grandchildren helped build the communities of Hill Top, Compton, and Plumlee.

      Her life embodied the quiet strength of frontier women—resourceful, resilient, and unwavering in devotion to family. Through war, migration, hardship, and renewal, she held her household together and raised children who became farmers, teachers, community leaders, and builders of the region.

      The values she lived—industry, perseverance, faith, and loyalty—echo through her descendants. In the farms they worked, the families they raised, and the stories preserved in your family history, Clementine Tabitha McCrea’s influence endures as firmly as the hills she came to call home.

      Parents

      FATHER: John McCrea (1796–1859)
      MOTHER: Malinda Parsons (1806–1884)

      Married

      John Brown McFerrin (1836–1923) 4 Jun 1857in Tuscaloosa County, Alabama

      Children

      • Angeline Cordelia McFerrin (1859–1926) married Daniel Levi Smith (1861–?)
      • Martha Ophelia McFerrin (1860–?)
      • Lulecy Hester McFerrin (1865–1931) married James Ennis Cecil (1862–1960)
      • Jarrett Lycurgus McFerrin (1866–?) married Sallie Swafford
      • Jerusha Alice McFerrin (1869–1904) married Henry Edward Smith (1862–1938)
      • John Orestes McFerrin (1871–1948) married Nalia Elizabeth Hamilton (1880–1949)
      • Benjamin Eugene McFerrin (1876–1955) married Sarah Belle Harp (1875–1954)
      • Joseph Henry McFerrin (1876–1969) married Aly Ann Howell (1878–1971)
      • Ardenia Belinda McFerrin (1878–1953) married Thomas F Jones (1874–1955)
      • Martin McFerrin (1881–1953) married Anna Alberta “Bertie” Allred (1882–1972)
      • Oliver P McFerrin (1884–before 1910)

      Documents

      • Birth Records
        • None
        • Birth date on her headstone: 28 Sep 1841
        • 1900 United States Federal Census > Name: Clementine Mc Feirn; Age: 58; Birth Date: Sep 1841; Birthplace: Alabama, USA
      • Wedding records
        • Alabama, U.S., Select Marriage Indexes, 1816-1942 > Name: Clementine Mcrea; Gender: Female; Marriage Date: 04 Jun 1857; Marriage Place: Tuscaloosa County, Alabama; Father: John Mcrea; Spouse: John B. Mcferrin; FHL Film Number: 1290746
      • Death records
        • Arkansas, U.S., Death Index, 1914-1950 > Name: Clementi McFerrin; Death Day: 28; Death Month: Jan; Death Year: 1922; County: Newton; Volume Number: 4; Roll number: 19141923; Certificate Number: 641
        • Find a Grave > Birth: 28 Sep 1841, Alabama, USA; Death: 28 Jan 1922 (aged 80), Newton County, Arkansas, USA
        • Burial: McFerrin Cemetery, Newton County, Arkansas, USA
      • Census Records
        • 1860 United States Federal Census > Alabama > Tuscaloosa > McMath > Name: Clementine McFearson; Age: 20; Birth Year: abt 1840; Gender: Female; Race: White; Birth Place: Alabama; Home in 1860: McMath, Tuscaloosa, Alabama; Post Office: McMath; Dwelling Number: 1831; Family Number: 1638; Occupation: Seamstress; Inferred Spouse: John B McFearson (23); Inferred Child: Cordelia McFearson (2)
        • 1880 United States Federal Census > Arkansas > Newton > Van Buren > 114 > Name: Clementine T. Mc Feirn; Age: 38; Birth Date: Abt 1842; Birthplace: Alabama; Home in 1880: Van Buren, Newton, Arkansas, USA; Dwelling Number: 65; Race: White; Gender: Female; Relation to Head of House: Wife; Marital Status: Married; Spouse’s Name: John B. Mc Feirn; Father’s Birthplace: Alabama; Mother’s Birthplace: Alabama; Occupation: Housekeeper; Other Household members: John B. Mc Feirn (husband, 44), L. H. Mc Feirn (15), Jarrett L. Mc Feirn (14), Jerusha A. Mc Feirn (12), John O. Mc Feirn (9), Benj. V. Mc Feirn (6), Henry J. Mc Feirn (4)
        • 1900 United States Federal Census > Arkansas > Newton > Plumlee > District 0089 > Name: Clementine Mc Feirn; Age: 58; Birth Date: Sep 1841; Birthplace: Alabama, USA; Home in 1900: Plumlee, Newton, Arkansas; Sheet Number: 7; Number of Dwelling in Order of Visitation: 108; Family Number: 109; Race: White; Gender: Female; Relation to Head of House: Wife; Marital Status: Married; Spouse’s Name: John B Mc Feirn; Marriage Year: 1858; Years Married: 42; Father’s Birthplace: South Carolina, USA; Mother’s Birthplace: North Carolina, USA; Mother: number of living children: 9; Mother: How many children: 10; Can Read: Yes; Can Write: Yes; Can Speak English: Yes; Other Household members: John B Mc Feirn (husband, 64), John O Mc Feirn (28), Joseph H Mc Feirn (13), Oliver P Mc Feirn (18)
        • 1910 United States Federal Census > Arkansas > Newton > Plumlee > District 0102 > Name: Clemantine McFerrin; Age in 1910: 67; Birth Date: 1843; Birthplace: Alabama; Home in 1910: Plumlee, Newton, Arkansas, USA; Sheet Number: 5a; Race: White; Gender: Female; Relation to Head of House: Wife; Marital Status: Married; Father’s Birthplace: South Carolina; Mother’s Birthplace: South Carolina; Native Tongue: English; Able to read: Yes; Able to Write: Yes; Enumeration District Number: 0102; Years Married: 52; Number of Children Born: 10; Number of Children Living: 8; Enumerated Year: 1910; Other Household members: John B McFerrin (husband, 73)
        • 1920 United States Federal Census > Arkansas > Newton > Osage > District 0105 > Name: Hemma T Mcferrin; Age: 79; Birth Year: abt 1841; Birthplace: Alabama; Home in 1920: Osage, Newton, Arkansas; Street: Coupton and Casper Road; Residence Date: 1920; Race: White; Gender: Female; Relation to Head of House: Wife; Marital Status: Married; Spouse’s Name: John B Mcferrin; Father’s Birthplace: North Carolina; Mother’s Birthplace: North Carolina; Able to read: Yes; Able to Write: Yes; Other Household members: John B Mcferrin (husband, 83)
      • Other

      Relation of Joseph Henry McFerrin to Karen Edgar: great-grandfather

      Page last updated June 10, 2026

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