It’s Family Time~Dempsey and Martha Jane (Tidwell) Rivers Family

The name Dempsey Rivers is pervasive throughout the Rivers lineage. Today's Dempsey Rivers  was born 23 January 1852 in Chesterfield County, South Carolina. He was a son of Frederick W. Rivers and Synthia Matilda Knight.  Between December 1854 and April 1856 Frederick W. and Synthia packed their belongings and family and moved from Chesterfield County, South Carolina to near Birmingham, Alabama.

Their son, Richard Malachi Rivers wrote these words for a local newspaper “The Alabamian” sometime before his death in March 1944.

“I was born in Jefferson County near Warrior, Alabama, February 15, 1866. My father and mother came from South Carolina in 1852.

My father [had] taken up 820 acres of land near Birmingham, old Hawkins field where the fairground is now and swapped it for land (near) Robins Cross Road in 1856 and exchanged it for land near Warrior in 1858 and exchanged that land for land near Houston in 1872.”

Frederick W. Rivers and Cynthia were very prosperous in Alabama. The couple raised a family of twelve children.

Their son Dempsey Rivers was the 4th born child of this couple. If the family migrated in 1852 then Dempsey was just a baby. The 1860 Census, Jefferson County, Alabama showed daughter Elizabeth Temperance Rivers born in SC and her date of birth is December 1854.

At age 20, Dempsey Rivers married Martha Jane Tidwell on 15 September 1872.  Martha Jane, age 20, was the daughter of Benjamin Tidwell and Hannah Parmelia Byram. Dempsey, like his father, was a farmer.

Dempsey and Martha Jane Rivers had three children:

  i. Mary Jane Rivers, born 10 Nov 1873, Warrior, Jefferson, Alabama; married William Jackson Farley, 1894, Walker County, Alabama; died 12 Nov 1957, Walker County, Alabama.

  ii. Frederick James Rivers, born 20 Jul 1877, Jefferson County, Alabama; married Margaret Sue Howard, 1 May 1896, Jefferson County, Alabama; married Annie Mayfield; died 23 Sep 1943, Warrior, Jefferson, Alabama.

  iii. Benjamin Dempsey Rivers, born 11 Nov 1881, Jefferson County, Alabama; married Lucy Jane Stearns, 28 Sept. 1899, Mabletown, AL; died 28 Aug 1965, Warrior, Jefferson, Alabama.

They may have had more children if Dempsey had not passed at the early age of 36. Family legend says that Dempsey was murdered but I have not found any document that will substantiate this claim. Martha Jane also died at an early age of 41 on 23 July 1893. Their youngest Benjamin Dempsey Rivers was only 12 years old.

Dempsey Rivers is my 1st Cousin 4X Removed.

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1. Find A Grave, Inc., Find A Grave, database and digital images, (http://www.findagrave.com : accessed 24 September 2011); Memorial page for Dempsey Rivers; (23 January 1852–23 December 1885); Find a Grave memorial # 20246488, Citing Warrior Cemetery; Warrior, Jefferson County, Alabama, USA.

2. 1860 U. S. Census, Jefferson County, Alabama, population schedule, Blackburns, Jefferson County, Alabama, Page: 676, Line 5-15, Household 232/217, Household of Frederic W. RIVERS; digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : viewed 23 July 2011); citing National Archives Microfilm M653_12.

3. 1870 U. S. Census, Jefferson County, Alabama, population schedule, Township 14 Range 3, Jefferson County, Alabama, Page: 288A, Line 17-28, Dwelling/Family 246/254, Household of Frederic W. RIVERS; digital images, Ancestry.com (http://ancestry.com : viewed 23 July 2011); citing National Archives Microfilm M593_21.

4. 1880 U. S. Census, Jefferson County, Alabama, population schedule, Jefferson County, Alabama, enumeration district (ED) #68, Page 336A; Line 46, Dwelling 92, Family 93, Household of Dempsey RIVERS; digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : viewed 24 September 2011); citing National Archives Microfilm T9_16.

5. Clarke County, Alabama, marriage certificate (15 September 1872), Dempsey Rivers and Martha Jane Tidwell; Montgomery, Alabama, USA, State of Alabama Center for Health Statistics, Record Services Division.

6. Find A Grave, Inc., Find A Grave, database and digital images, (http://www.findagrave.com : accessed 23 September 2011); Memorial page for Martha J Rivers; (22 July 1852–23 July 1893); Find a Grave memorial # 20246492, Citing Warrior Cemetery; Warrior, Jefferson County, Alabama, USA.

7. 1860 U. S. Census, Carroll County, Georgia, population schedule, District 2, Carroll County, Georgia, Page 434B & 435A; Line 40, Dwelling 45, Family 45, Household of Ben TIDWELL; digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : viewed 2 October 2011); citing NARA publication Roll: M653_113.