I am looking for information on Robert Dortch who settled in Ouachita Parish in West Monroe, La. near
Bayou De Siard.
Robert Dortch was a member of the Western Star Masonic Lodge 24 in the
1860's. He died near Oxford, Mississippi, on December 4,1869, at age
40. He was born about 1829. He married Mary Bethune Martin, the
daughter of John Bethune Martin of Moore County, NC and Nancy Hill
Harris of Montgomery County, NC. Robert Dortch and Mary Bethune Martin
were married before 1861 in Holly Springs, Marshall County,
Mississippi as per LDS Patron Sheets.

While in Raleigh at the State Archives, I found a book by Daniel Allan
McDonald that said that John Bethune Martin was living with his
daughter, Mary Bethune Martin, in Monroe, LA, when he died. The book
also stated her husband was "a wealthy planter named Robert Dortch"
whose family was from NC.

My true quest is to find the location of Robert Dortch's burial and,
hopefully, the date of death, will and tombstone of his father-in-law,
John Bethune Martin. Any names, dates and places anyone could share on
the Dortch Family in Ouchita Parish, LA would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks! Fredreica speyer@bellsouth.net

Notes on the Dortch Family:

According to James T. Harris, the children of Robert Dortch and Mary
Bethune Dortch were:

Dortch, Alexander Martin
Birth : 25 May 1852
Death : 21 Jul 1873
Gender: Male

Dortch, William Eaton
Birth : 24 Jan 1854
Death : 11 Jul 1901
Gender: Male

Dortch, John Bethune*
Birth : 25 Aug 1862
Gender: Male
*John Bethune Dortch married Mary Louis Pegues 30 April 1890.

Dortch, Robert
Birth : 8 Dec 1864
Death : 1866
Gender: Male

Mary Bethune Martin married James Lamme Meigs 23 Dec 1879 in Columbia
County, Florida, after the death of Robert Dortch. James L. Meigs was
born 25 Feb 1821 or 1827 in Athens, TN. His first wife was Katherine
or Catherine Kirkpatrick. I wonder if she married in between these two
husbands since Robert Dortch died 10 years before her marriage to
James Meigs. I believe she must have moved to Florida to be near her
sister, Margaret Harris Martin Finley.

According to Hillsborough County, FL 1880 census records for District
61, Precinct 3, pg 12:
Meigs, James L. w/m 53 TN TN TN engineer;
Mary w/f 47 TN VA TN wife;
Dortch, William D. w/m 27 TN VA TN stepson;
Meigs, Alexander K. w/m 23 TN TN TN son; (Alexander Kilpatrick Meigs)
Meigs, Mildred w/f 15 TN TN TN daughter.
(It lists William as not being at home and Alexander as a Machinist.)
Note: Two other Meigs sons, Return Jonathan Meigs and James Lamme
Meigs were deceased by the 1881 census)


Jim Perrin wrote:
Robert Dortch, b. 8 Dec. 1829 in NC, is not closely connected
with the Dortch family in the Felicianas. I have been studying the
Dortch family for almost thirty years, and the ones who came to
Feliciana (Spanish West Florida) in the 1790's are my line of this
family. By 1981, I had collected enough Dortch information to compile
the Dortch Family Reference Book.
The information on Robert Dortch is on p. 117. Information on
only one of Robert and Mary's children is included, and that is John
B. Dortch. As you said Robert was the son of William Eaton Dortch (b.
30 Sept. 1805 in VA.) and Ann Pendleton Cobb, daughter of Rev. John
Cobb.
William E. Dortch was the son of Noah Dortch (b. 15 March 1781),
who married Elizabeth Eaton in 1801.
Noah Dortch was the son of Noah and Ann Lucas Dortch.
Noah Dortch was the son of David Dortch, who lived in Lunenburg
and Mecklenburg counties in VA.


B.W. Dortch wrote:
John Dortch, who married one Hillica Barefoot in VA around 1715. He
had four sons, John, Jr. married but left no family, David, Nathan and
William, my line. I think your Robert descended from David + Lucy
Russell, through son Noah + Ann Lucas, Noah, Jr. + Elizabeth Eaton,
William Eaton Dortch + Ann Pendleton Cobb, Robert Dortch + Mary
Bethune Martin and on from there.,