James Henry DeRossett (1837 - 1914) was my great-grandfather; he was born in Roane County, Tennessee and came to Polk County, Missouri in 1841 with is parents John Moses and Martha (Pritchett ) DeRossett, and the 5 youngest [Rebecca , Mary Jane, William Daniel, Samuel Asbury, & Martha C.] of his siblings. I do not believe any older children came with them, but I'm not sure.

His older brother, Lewis, had come to Polk County in about 1836 and the rest of the family followed in 1841. I have sources besides personal knowledge: In "The History of The Polk County Missionary Baptist Association" Samuel Asbury DeRossett gave a history of the family coming to MO. Also in the will of Samuel he listed James Henry as his brother. Another source is the records of the Slagle Missionary Baptist Church where there are many, many listings about the DeRossett families and the Slagle families. James Henry and Samuel married Slagle sisters Cordelia Catherine Slagle and Margret Adeline Slagle. I have traced a lot of the DeRossett's from the church records (when I get a chance to see them).

At some point James Henry became ill with what appears to be Alzheimer's (in the pension papers they referred to it as "weak of mind"). Why none of his children took him in I do not know to this day for sure. Any way Siegel DeRossett & his wife, Martha "Kit" (Wakefield) DeRossett, took him in an he lived with them until he died. Siegel was the son of William A. DeRossett and grandson of Lewis DeRossett. Most of the items you find call Siegel his nephew, but he was his great-nephew.

My father [Edgar Virgil DeRossett] told me that he would ride the train to Oklahoma as a kid to see his grandfather [John Henry] and would get to play with the Indian kids there. So I went to Cherokee, OK to find out what I could about James Henry. I found his pension papers and a lot of records there. I copied them and brought them home to study as there were a lot of them. It seems Kit kept very good records. They took James Henry in because of the pension he drew from the Civil War. They received the pension for taking care of him. Siegel is referred to as James Henry's great-nephew on all of the pension papers.

According to church records, James Henry and his first wife, Cordelia, were together until her death.
He married Mrs Ida U (Hensley) Brown on 3 Apr 1894, in Polk County, MO. They were divorced in 1896. Family tradition says Ida was a mean woman, who wold beat James Henry. The girls all left home as soon as they could. They married very young in order to get away from Ida. Henry left her and she got everything he had in the divorce settlement. I believe the story because I remember my aunts talking about Ida.

-- compiled by Sue DeRossett Pitts