Catherine Spears
1760–1848
✦ direct ancestor — Owen's 5×-great-grandmother · Carpenter line appears 2× in the tree — pedigree collapse
✦ A story has been written about this person: Present, Present, Present, Died: Valley Forge, Blue Licks, and the Two Fathers the Revolution Took — A Swiss-born elder dead in the winter camp, a militiaman killed ten months after Yorktown — and the two broken families that became one.
Life
- Born
- 6 Sep 1760 · Rockingham County, VA
- Died
- 1 Apr 1848 · Casey Co, KY
Marriage & children
William B. Carpenter (1785–1838)
Christeenah Carpenter (1787–c. 1875)
Sarah Sally Carpenter (1790–1853)
Mary Carpenter (1792–1810)
Margaret Carpenter (1794–1877)
George Red Face Carpenter (1797–1877)
Henry Carpenter (1799–)
Conrad Carpenter (1799–1865)
Catherine Carpenter (1801–1848)
Timeline
- 9 Mar 1784MarriedAdam Carpenter — Lincoln County, Kentucky, USA
Records behind this page
Unnamed source
D.A.R. lineage form - Catherine Spears b. 2 Sep 1760 Virginia, d. 1 Apr 1848 Casey Co. Ky.
Form read on the image (G1). Death 1 Apr 1848 matches this tree exactly; birth 2 Sep 1760 sits 4 days from the tree's 6 Sep - deaths registered, births remembered. Compiled testimony; married (1) to John Fry, later Adam Carpenter.
Research notes
Working notes from the research, kept verbatim — what was read, what it proved, what stays open.
Research note · 2 Aug 2026
AUDITED 2 Aug 2026 - HER PARENTS ARE ANSWERED, AND SHE IS THE HINGE BETWEEN THIS TREE'S TWO REVOLUTIONARY WAR DEATHS. PARENTS: GEORGE and CHRISTINA (HARDWIN) SPEARS, German immigrants - named by the Kentucky Historical Society archivist citing the CARPENTER FAMILY PAPERS, MSS 47, Box 1 FF 1, the family's own archive. George Spears is then independently verified in four record series: Virginia Treasury Warrant #242 (15 Oct 1779, 2,600 acres); Certificate of Settlement and Preemption Warrant #516, Dick's River, 28 Jan 1780 - so he was in Kentucky before 1778; six Lincoln County entries; and Wayland's Rockingham County claims list of 24 Apr 1782. KHS says her father's estate was Rockingham County land sold by an executor in installments, which ties Wayland's George Spears to her - as a strong INFERENCE, not proof. SHE MARRIED TWICE, AND OWEN DESCENDS THROUGH BOTH: (1) JOHN FRY, killed at the Battle of Blue Licks 19 Aug 1782; (2) ADAM CARPENTER in 1784, son of George Zimmerman/Carpenter who died at VALLEY FORGE in March 1778. Both dead men were Rockingham County, Virginia men, and John Fry served on Capt. Baxter's 1782 pay roll four names from a 'George Speare'. She was widowed at 22 and outlived Adam by 42 years. ⛔ THE DAR WARNING ON THIS SURNAME TRIANGLE IS EXPLAINED, NOT OUTSTANDING. DAR ancestor A019433 carries 'PROBLEMS HAVE BEEN DISCOVERED' and a March 2015 staff note: 'WIFE OF JOHN CARPENTER IS ELIZABETH SPEARS. NO PROOF SHE MARRIED A FRY.' That is about a DIFFERENT SISTER. There were two Spears sisters and two Carpenter brothers: ELISABETH Spears married JOHN Carpenter; CATHERINE Spears married ADAM. DAR was correcting a conflation this tree does not make. ⚠️ But the two households are one degree apart and share both surnames, so ASSIGN EVERY Spears/Carpenter RECORD TO A SISTER EXPLICITLY. ⚠️ TWO THINGS NOT TO IMPORT: she was ILLITERATE, and the Kentucky Historical Society explicitly DISPUTES the popular claim that she authored the 1818 sour-mash whiskey recipe. And 'Christinah' is ambiguous across at least three women here - her mother Christina Hardwin, her daughter Christiana Carpenter (m. Spraggins/Funk), and the eldest Fry daughter named on a D.A.R. lineage form. HER 1846 WILL corroborates the two Fry children - John Frye and Leah Frye who married Jacob Carpenter - from a source that is NOT a lineage application. SHE IS UNCITED. Everything above is from agent-read free-web sources of 2 Aug 2026 and must be re-verified before any of it is written as fact. See ancestry/db-write-queue.md.
Elsewhere
This person on Ancestry (sign-in required)