Origins of the CANNON , CRIPPS , GOFF and THORNHILL Families of Rapides Parish, Louisiana

The Cannon, Cripps, Goff and Thornhill families of the Ruby and Pineville areas of Rapides Parish, Louisiana, all descend from a single early Rapides Parish settler of each line. These families intermarried with each other and have produced descendants numbering in the thousands, many of which remain in Rapides Parish.

CANNON - The Cannon family of Rapides Parish (not to be confused with the Fenlon Cannon family of Avoyelles Parish, which originated from Cadiz, Kentucky), all descend from Samuel H. Cannon. Samuel H. Cannon was born in 1805, somewhere in South Carolina (possibly the Newberry County area). On February 20, 1825, Samuel Cannon was found in St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana, when and where he married Margaret Emerilla Joyner, daughter of Absolom Joyner and Zilpha Galloway, of South Carolina, and who came to St. Tammany Parish, from Georgia about 1820. Known children born to Samuel and Margaret Cannon were: Charles; Sarah; John George; Samuel Thompson; and Thomas Green D. In the late 1840's, this Cannon family moved from St. Tammany Parish to the present-day Ruby area of Rapides Parish (then referred to as the "Pineywoods"). After Samuel H. Cannon’s death, in 1853, his widow, Margaret Cannon expanded the family's holdings to include acreage from the Red River and included much of what is today known as Wardville. Nothing is known of what became of Sarah and Charles, after the 1860 Census, but sons John George and Samuel Thompson both fought with Company G of the 2 ^nd Louisiana Cavalry Regiment, C.S.A., and their brother, Thomas Green D., served in Company A of the 14 ^th Battn. Louisiana Sharpshooters. The family seems to have lost most of their property and, of course, their slaves during and after the War Between the States. Margaret Joyner Cannon died on October 27, 1882, and she and most of these early Cannons are buried in the Cannon Cemetery off of Shasha Road near Ruby, Louisiana. John George Cannon married Elizabeth M. Cripps, while his brother, Samuel Thompson Cannon, married Elizabeth’s sister, Mary Jane Cripps. Thomas Green D. married, first, to Lucinda Ortague (Ortego ??), and second to E.A. Arceneaux.

CRIPPS - The Cripps family of Rapides Parish descends from Reason (Reasin) Cripps and Susannah Evans. Reason Cripps, born about 1814 in Missouri, married Susannah Evans (born about 1817 in Louisiana) on April 30, 1835 in Avoyelles Parish, Louisiana. Reason is probably related to David Cripps, of Caldwell Parish, Louisiana. Reason became a wealthy planter in Pointe Coupee Parish, who schooled his children at home with a private tutor from Georgia. In the 1850's, he moved his family to the Pineywoods of the north side of the Red River of Rapides Parish. Two of Reason Cripps' daughters married Cannon brothers (Elizabeth M. to John George Cannon and Mary Jane to Samuel Thompson Cannon). Other children of Reason and Susannah were: Nancy Ann; Reason, Jr.; William; Ellen; Samuel E. (married to Lauvina Chevalier); Charles; James and Louisiana.

GOFF - The Goff family of Rapides Parish, descend from James L. Goff and Columbia Goff Smith. James and Columbia married somewhere in Mississippi, in the mid-1850's. They had a daughter, Ida, in Mississippi, in 1857, and then moved to Roberson County, Texas, where James was a tenant farmer and Columbia was a seamstress. In Texas, they had two more children, Charles Clinton, in 1859, and Alice, in 1861. By 1862, it is possible that the family moved to Catahoula Parish, Louisiana, as in May of that year, James L. Goff enlisted into Company F, of the 31 ^st Louisiana Inf. Rgt., in Jackson, Mississippi. Company F, was comprised of men from Catahoula Parish. Tragically, James died of disease, in Jackson, Mississippi, on July 18, 1862. A couple of years after James' death, his widow, Mrs. Columbia Goff, married the recently widowed William Henderson Smith, of Winn Parish. The three Goff children, Ida, Charles and Alice, were raised in the Smith household. William and Columbia also had three children together: Cordelia, who married John Craig; Angela; and Napoleon (who married Arizona E. Boreland). Alice Goff married L. Battles. Charles Clinton Goff married Missouri Thornhill. Martin Penn Cannon, son of Samuel Thompson and Mary Jane Cripps Cannon, subsequently married Laura Lucinda Goff, daughter of Charles Clinton and Missouri Thornhill Goff. Charles and Missouri Goff's other children were: Nathaniel (married Melissa Cupp); James Clinton; Ida (married Patrick Smith); Charles (married Hattie Hogg); Columbia; Macy (married William Shepperd "Dump" Cannon); Acy (married Miss Willie M. Crawford); Cornelius; Arzelia (married Frank Wiley); and Mary Jane (married Alton P. Branton).

THORNHILL - The first Thornhill family in Rapides Parish was that of Joseph Erwin Thornhill and his wife, Lucinda O'Quinn, who came to Rapides Parish from Pike County, Mississippi in the 1870's. In 1811, the Thornhill and Odum families moved from Beaufort District, South Carolina to Mississippi. One of those Thornhills was Joseph Thornhill. Joseph Erwin Thornhill, later of Rapides Parish, was the grandson of that original Joseph, and was the son of Benjamin Fitzpatrick Thornhill, of Pike County, Mississippi. In 1859, Joseph Erwin Thornhill married Lucinda O'Quinn, daughter of John D. O'Quinn and Louisa Tullos, in Lawrence County, Mississippi. At the outbreak of the War Between the States, Joseph Erwin Thornhill enlisted into Company E of the 16 ^th Mississippi Infantry Regiment, C.S.A., at Holmesville, Mississippi. However, he was discharged several months later, after his hand was shot off. In the 1870's, this Thornhill family moved into Rapides Parish, Louisiana, probably near the area around Philadelphia Baptist Church. The location of Joseph's unmarked grave is unknown, but his wife and many of his children are buried in the Philadelphia Church Cemetery. Joseph's and Lucinda's children were: Jasper Newton; Missouri Jane (married Charles Clinton Goff); William Pinkney (married Annie V. Hollis); James Monroe (married M. I. Gilchrist); and Lenora (married Richard F. McCann).