Rachel Falls

Life Story

Rachel Falls appears only briefly in surviving records, but the few records around her connect several generations of the Ferguson, Falls, and Hornsby families. She married Robert Ferguson in Lincoln County, North Carolina, on 2 February 1819, and later appears indirectly in Robert Ferguson’s Rhea County, Tennessee household pattern before disappearing from the records before 1850.^{1, 2, 3}

The 1819 marriage bond is the direct record that anchors Rachel’s identity as Robert Ferguson’s wife. It was signed by Robert Ferguson and Aaron Ferguson. Aaron’s role on the bond should not be confused with marriage or parentage: the record supports Robert Ferguson’s marriage bond with Rachel Falls, but it does not identify Aaron as Rachel’s husband or as the father of any of Robert and Rachel’s children.¹

Robert and Rachel appear to have moved from Lincoln County, North Carolina, into the Rhea County, Tennessee, orbit during the 1820s. The 1830 census names only Robert Fergerson as head of household, but the age and sex categories fit a young married couple with children born after the 1819 marriage. The 1840 census, again naming only Robert as household head, fits a maturing household with Robert, Rachel, older children, and a younger daughter consistent with Elizabeth Ferguson.^{2, 3}

The evidence supports James Ferguson, Sarah Ferguson, Levi Ferguson, and Elizabeth Ferguson as children of Robert Ferguson and Rachel Falls. They fit the timing of Robert and Rachel’s marriage, the 1830 and 1840 Rhea County household pattern, and the later estate and guardianship evidence connected to Robert Ferguson’s family. Rachel should not be treated as the mother of Ranzy Jane Ferguson without additional evidence; Ranzy appears to belong to Robert’s later family with Margaret A. Ferguson.^{2, 3, 4, 6}

Rachel died before 1850. She may have died before or by 1846, when Robert Ferguson became guardian of Elizabeth Ferguson and her estate, but no record yet gives Rachel’s exact death date or place. The 1850 census places Robert in Rhea County with Sarah and Elizabeth Ferguson in the household, while Rachel is absent.^{4, 6}

Rachel’s family story becomes clearer through her sister Esther Falls, wife of Brinkley Hornsby. Esther belongs to the same Falls-Hornsby-Ferguson network, and the later movements of the Ferguson and Hornsby families show that the two sister lines remained close. In 1846, Brinkley Hornsby was appointed curator over the estate of his minor children in Johnson County, Missouri. Around the same period, Robert Ferguson was appointed guardian of his daughter Elizabeth Ferguson and her estate in Rhea County. Those parallel inheritance clues, read beside James Falls’s 1844 estate administration and 1847 final account, suggest that Rachel’s children and Esther’s children were benefiting from the same Falls family estate, most likely that of their maternal grandfather James Falls.^{4, 5, 7, 8}

William Columbus Ferril’s 1896 family-history letter supplies the later family statement that brings the correlation into focus. Ferril named Rachel Falls, wife of Robert Ferguson; Sarah Falls, wife of John C. Ferguson; and Esther Falls, wife of Brinkley Hornsby, as daughters of James Falls. Because the letter was written decades after the events, it should not stand alone as a single proof. Read with the marriage bond, household pattern, guardianship, curatorship, and James Falls estate timing, however, it strongly supports Rachel’s placement as a daughter of James Falls.⁹