Oklahoma Family Tree Stories
This beautiful sculpture of three redbud trees is located just outside the Eleanor and John Kirkpatrick Research Center in the Oklahoma History Center. Each leaf of the Oklahoma Family Tree memorializes an Oklahoma family with the family surname, first name(s), and the town or county where they lived. In addition, a short family history is preserved in the digital family history book at the base of the tree. Sponsoring a leaf is a special way to recognize your family history and benefit future generations at the same time. To find out how to honor your own family with a leaf visit the Oklahoma Family Tree Project page.
Madison Family
Family Tree Leaf
Madison, Charles D. & Bettie Hancock
Langston, Logan County
(Family information provided by donor)
My great-grandfather was Charles David Madison born on April 10, 1855, in Arlington, Arlington County, Virginia, the son of George “Mack” Madison of Virginia, born about 1810, and his wife Maria Black of Texas, born about 1820. His family migrated from Arlington, Virginia, to Austin, Travis County, Texas, in 1859 with Wallace Maxwell, who owned members of the Samuel Black family. Those who traveled West were: Wallace Maxwell, his wife, and two sons; Sam Black, his wife Mary Jane (Madison), and five of their six children; Moses Fraction, his wife Rody, and their two children; George (Mack) Madison, his wife Maria (Black), and their two sons Tom and Charles (my great-grandfather). Also making the trip was Fannie Hawkins. According to the Census of Madison Family Slaves, 1732–1868, Appendix E: Dispersal of Madison Family Slaves, 1770s–1850s, page 243–244, on July 1844 Dolly Madison gave to her son John Payne Todd twenty enslaved people of which Fanny Hawkins, born 1790-?, was the mother of my great-great-grandfather George “Mack” Madison. The 1870 US Census for Travis County, Texas, shows “Fanny” Hawkins about age 80, living in the George “Mack” Madison household with Maria (Black) Madison and their two sons, Charles and Thomas “Mack” Madison II.
After emancipation, according to the Texas, US, Voter Registration Lists (1867–1869), one Mack Madison registered to vote. It states that Mack Madison had been in the state for seven years, and seeing that both George A. and his father Thomas Madison, both went by the name Mack, it could be either one of the two men. Based on age, it was probably George Madison.
In the 1870 Federal Census for Travis County, Texas, the slaveholder that brought the Black and Madison families to Texas, Wallace (Wallis) Maxwell was living next to the Blake (Black) family and the Madison family.
Charles Madison married Bettie Hancock in 1886 in Travis County, Texas. Bettie was the daughter of Payton Hancock, born August 1840 in Alabama, and Martha Boyd, born 1839 in Tennessee. Payton’s biological father was John Allen Hancock, a slave owner born in Virginia and lived and is buried in Alabama. In 1847, John Allen gave his son John 15 enslaved people to take with him to Travis County, Texas. Payton Hancock was one of these individuals. He was 19 at the time of the move. Payton and his brothers Salem, Ruben, and Owen (also known as “Orange”) registered to vote in Texas in the US Voter Registration Lists (1867–1869).
During the Oklahoma Land Run of 1891, my great-grandfather Charles and his family took off in covered wagons and on horseback more determined than ever to make a new life for himself and his family. According to the Homestead Act of 1862, if a settler could stay on the land they claimed for five years and improve it, the land would be theirs free and clear. Charles David Madison staked his claim and got the United States of America Patent Record on Form 4-404 filed for record on the 28th day of January 1901 at 1:40 p.m. and is duly recorded in Book 3 of H Pat. on page 130. His land is located in the southwest quarter of section 34 in township seventeen north, range one east of Indian Meridian in Oklahoma, containing 160 acres. This settlement is in Langston, Logan County, Oklahoma. Charles David Madison took up farming on their land, and Bettie took care of the house and children. Together on their farm, they raised their four sons and five daughters: Mack, Thomas, Ardie, James, Archie, Novella, Lillie, Ophelia, and Davieta Madison.
Charles David Madison died on 13 October 1904 and is buried in Mt. Pilgrim Cemetery in Langston, Logan County, Oklahoma. There was no death certificate due to the fact that he died prior to statehood.
Bettie (Hancock) Madison died on 23 May 1957 and is buried in Mt. Pilgrim Cemetery in Langston, Logan County, Oklahoma. Bettie does have a death certificate at the vital records office in Oklahoma City.
—Marva Madison, great-granddaughter of Charles and Bettie (Hancock) Madison
