Our Old Kentucky Homes

Origin of the Trunnell Family in Kentucky

Dr. John Trunnell and Elizabeth Wells were born in Montgomery Co, MD.  They married in 1799 in Washington DC, where he practiced medicine and they settled in Kentucky around 1800.  They had twelve children and lived on a farm in the area of Highway 44 between Shepherdsville and Mt. Washington.  Their Children were:

Catherine/Kitty Trunnell md Benjamin Ridgway

Jacob/Jake Wells Trunnell md Melville Scott

Elizabeth/Eliza Trunnell md Samuel Hedges

Nancy Trunnell md 1) Benjamin Wigginton Ridgway, 2) Adam Lisman

Emily/Emma Trunnell md John Clark

Henry Trunnell md 1) Louisa Grable and 2) Mary Jane Field

Mahala Trunnell md John Trunnell Ridgway

John Trunnell md Sarah Brashear

Clarissa Trunnell md Orville Overall Brown

Josiah Trunnell md  Julia Rouse

Julia Trunnell md Merritt Griffin

Elizabeth Wells Trunnell died after 1840 and John married Eliza Gray Lloyd, widow of John Lloyd.  John and Eliza had two daughters:

Laura/Laurie Trunnell md William Thomas Stallings/"Yankee Bill" ( b.1842)

Margaret/Maggie Trunnell md William T. Stallings/ "Rebel Bill" ( b.1841) 

 

Henry Trunnell

Henry Trunnell was raised on his father's farm which was near the location of the present Givhan property off Hwy 44, the road betweem Shepherdsville and Mt. Washington. On 20 September 1838 he married Louisa Grable, daughter of Phillip Grable and Margaret Crawford.  The Grables and Crawfords were early residents of Bullitt County, having come from Pennsylvania in the 1780's.  Louisa and Henry had two children, Phillip Grable Trunnell and Arabella Trunnell.  On 29 Feb 1848 Louisa divorced Henry and married a neighbor, Woodford McDowell, leaving  the children to be raised by their father. 

Henry was working as the overseer of a large farm/plantation owned by Jacob W. Bowman and his wife Mary Jane Field Bowman.  Jacob became ill and after a time he knew that he was going to die.  Family stories tell us that Jacob suggested that his wife should marry Henry Trunnell after his death because Henry was a good man and could take care of her and the farm.  They were married on 10 Nov 1848 in Bullitt Co. and had nine children:

Mary Elizabeth "Lizzie" Trunnell  md Thomas Jefferson Pottinger

William Henry "Willie" Trunnell unmd., who died at age 30

Alfred Field Trunnell, who died at age 2

Neil Brooks Trunnell md 1) Sallie K. Simmons and 2) Maggie A. Howlett

Ellen/Ella Trunnell md Charles Wesley Howard

Hamletta Trunnell, who died at age 1

Mattie Lee Trunnell md James H. Herr

John Morgan Trunnell md Mary Stanidans Bergen

Thomas John Trunnell md Louise Daniel

 

Mary Jane Field Bowman Trunnell had 2 children from her first marriage to Jacob W.Bowman:

Jacob Field Bowman, died as a child

Abram Bowman md Mary Pauline Callahan

 

Henry had his two children from his first marriage to Louisa Grable:

Phillip Grable Trunnell md 1) Harriet Virginia Hatzell and 2) Marguerite Weiss

So, they raised at least 12 children together, in addition to various other people they cared for in their home.  They seem to have been good, generous people!

Mary Jane Field Bowman Trunnell

Henry and Mary Jane were prosperous, they had large land holdings and many slaves.  Henry bought most of the land that his siblings had inherited from his father and increased their holdings in Bullitt County.  They had a large farm and the slaves that came with Mary Jane's inheritance from her husband Jacob W.Bowman.  Their oldest daughter, Mary Elizabeth, "Lizzie" returned to Bullitt County in 1933 when she was 84, after living away for many years. She had returned to live with the family of her youngest brother, Tom Trunnell and his wife Louise.  She visited the old Trunnell homeplace and wrote her remembrances of growing up on the farm.  The Cruise family owned the farm at that time and John B. Cruise wrote as she reminisced about her life before she married in 1871.

Henry and Mary Jane Trunnell Portraits

Several years ago I connected with a Trunnell cousin, Liz Kirkman who is a grand-daughter of Thomas J. Trunnell, the youngest child of Henry and Mary Jane Trunnell.  She told me about portraits in her possession of Henry and Mary Jane Trunnell.  She said that they had been painted by "a relative who had moved to the West many years ago".  We visited her at her home near Tampa and to our surprise, the portraits were painted from formal photographs of the couple that I have in my possession.  I finally realized that the paintings had been done by "Hattie" Hatzell, Henry's former daughter-in-law-- and my own great-grandmother.  She grew up in Louisville and was an artist, having trained with well-known art teachers in her youth.  She must have painted the portraits as a gift for her parents-in-law.