Willett Family was the First to Settle Fancy Farm, Kentucky

Edward Willett (1657-1744) was born in Hertford, England. He immigrated to the colony of Maryland as early as 1666, but returned to London in 1674 to learn the art of working pewter, a metal used in dinnerware and other everyday objects. The family was Anglican (Episcopal).

After returning to Maryland, he prospered as an artisan and purchased various tracts of land one of which became known as "Bealington" on the Patuxent River, Prince George's County. It was the practice to give distinctive names to plantations or farms in colonial Maryland. He married Tabitha Mills and had the following children: Bridgett (b.1699), Ninian (b.1701), Edward (b. 1703), Thomas (b. 1708), William, James, and Ann.

William Willett (1715-1772) married Mary Griffith (1720-1792) in 1737 and lived at Bealington Plantation, which he inherited. He also worked in pewter.

William and Mary's 13 children were: Elizabeth (1738-1760), Edward (1740-1815), William (1743-1814), Verlanda (1746-1820), Jemina (1748-1766), Griffith (1750-1840), Tabitha (1752-1824), Samuel (1754-1793), George E. (1757-1811), John (1759-1787), Rachel (1762-1848), Mary (1764-1819), and James (1768-1851).

Samuel Willett signed an oath of allegiance to the new United States in 1778. By 1782, he and most of his siblings (except Edward who inherited Bealington) moved to Jefferson County, Kentucky (actually part of Virginia until 1792).

Samuel, his brother George, and other militiamen were given the task of building Fort Nelson at the Falls of the Ohio River (now downtown Louisville). It is not known if Samuel fought the Indians or British, but he became Captain in the militia of Nelson County by 1787 (Nelson was formed from Jefferson County in 1784) suggesting he was considered a dependable leader.

The Revolutionary War ended in 1783 but attacks by Indians attempting to regain their Kentucky hunting grounds continued sporadically for another 12 years.

Samuel Willett's first wife, Ann Orme, apparently died soon after marriage, and they had no children. On 8/12/1786, Sam married Anne C. "Nancy" Lee. She was daughter of Phillip Philomen Lee and Susannah (Thompson) Lee who were part of the Catholic community that migrated as a group from southern Maryland to Pottenger Creek, Kentucky in 1785.

They had four children before Samuel Willett died in 1793. They were: John (1787-1821); Mary (1788-1831), married Thomas Hayden; William Thomas (1790-1842), ordained a Dominican Priest; and Elizabeth, (1791-1819), married John Janes. Due to Nancy's influence, the succeeding generations of the Willett Family were Catholic.

Samuel's will left his farm to his wife Ann as well as two slave men, Peter and Jarrit. His son John was bequeathed a Negro boy named Toby. The will also states, "Also give my 3 children Mary, William, and Elizabeth, the Negro woman named Stella and all her increase to be equally divided between them when they come of age".

John Willett married Matilda Summers, daughter of Thomas and Mary Ann Summers. Together they had eight children, the oldest was Samuel B. (1808-1892) and the youngest was John William "Uncle Jack" Willett (1821-1902). Sam, his wife, Elizabeth (Hobbs) (1810-1877), and his young brother John were the first inhabitants of Fancy Farm, Kentucky.

In 1818, the Chickasaw Tribe sold their land in west Kentucky and Tennessee between the Mississippi and Tennessee Rivers. General Andrew Jackson negotiated the treaty and the Kentucky portion is still called the "Jackson Purchase".

The land was surveyed and put up for sale over the next few years. It was probably cheap land suitable for growing tobacco that brought settlers from central Kentucky. Relocating within the same state and climate zone made the move less of a transition.

In 1829, Sam B. Willett arrived in Graves County and bought 160 acres of land from the federal government for $40. That winter he returned to Washington County, Kentucky and returned in the spring with his new wife, Elizabeth Hobbs. His young brother, John William Willett, joined them soon after. The location became the town of Fancy Farm, 10 miles northwest of the county seat of Mayfield, and about 20 miles east of the town of Columbus, Kentucky, an important steamboat landing on the Mississippi River at that time.

Life was surely difficult on the frontier with forests to clear, homes to build, and communities to start from scratch, but they did not have to fear attacks by Indians as their grandparents had 50 years earlier.

For Catholics, however, there were special challenges since a priest educated and ordained by the church is necessary to perform the mass as well as to administer most sacraments. Priests were rare, especially on the frontier, but it was essential to the new community to have sufficient population to warrant the establishment of a parish with a priest. Father Durbin began occasional visits to the community as early as 1832.

The father-in-law of Samuel B. Willett, Jesse Hobbs, made the 200 mile trip to visit his daughter and her husband in Graves County and was impressed enough to decide to relocate his own family. However, he died in 1830. It was left to his widow, Mary (Elder) Hobbs, to relocate her family of seven children to Graves County.

Other families followed, drawn by cheap land. Thomas and Polly (Willett) Hayden along with most of their 13 children came to the area in 1833. She was the sister of John Willett and aunt to Sam B. and John William Willett. The James and John Cash families settled in nearby Hickman County in 1834. Also arriving in Hickman County about 1835 was James Elliott and Anne "Nancy" (Willett) Elliott. Nancy was the sister of Sam and John William Willett.

Families that also arrived early in the history of the Catholic settlement were Cornelius and Teresa (O'Bryan) Carrico (seven children), and several children of Stanislaus Toon. Apparently, none of the families brought slaves with them.

St. Jerome Parish was established at Fancy Farm in 1836, and the first resident pastor was appointed in 1845. And so it was family, religion, and land for farming that created the community.

Sources:

http://familytreemaker.genealogy.com/users/w/h/a/Ann-M-Whalen/GENE3-

0002.htmlhttp://labach.tripod.com/ssimmona.htm

http://www.fancyfarm.net/history.html

http://www.thelansdens.com/Ancestors/aqwn32.htm

A History of St. Jerome Fancy Farm, Kentucky
a book edited by Brother Leo Willett