N ancy Maloney Reed was born on December 18, 1835, in Fairview, Buncombe County, North Carolina. She was the daughter of Eldad Reed 3rd (1799–1865) and Elizabeth Gallimore (1804–1865). Nancy married Martin C. Bridewell of Greene County, Tennessee, in Fairview on January 26, 1854. They were married by Rev. Squire R. Murray, pastor of Cane Creek (now Fairview) Baptist Church.

Nancy and Martin moved to Greene County, Tennessee and lived there for five or six years before moving to Sullivan County, Missouri. Nancy’s father and the rest of his children moved there as well. They first lived in Wintersville, Sullivan County, Missouri and were there when the Civil War began.

Martin enlisted in Wintersville in Company I, 44th Infantry Regiment Missouri Volunteers. He was injured on November 30, 1864, in the Battle of Franklin and was discharged and returned home.

Bridewell then purchased land in Valpariso (now called Pollock), Missouri, and served as postmaster there for a period of time. He had contracted a lung illness during the Civil War and died from lung disease in February 1872. He is buried, along with three of his daughters and father-in-law, in Elmwood Cemetery, near Milan, in Sullivan County, Missouri.

Nancy married John A. Courtney on February 5, 1877. After he died on February 12, 1880, she moved to Washington County, Arkansas later that year.

She married Jacob G.W. Sensibaugh and they moved to Warner, in Vann Township, on the Creek Indian land in what is now Oklahoma. (Oklahoma became a state on November 16, 1907.) Nancy Reed Bridewell Courtney Sensibaugh died in Warner, Muskogee County, Oklahoma on November 23, 1907.

Nancy Reed and Martin
Bridewell’s Six Children

1. Elizabeth Bridewell was born in Tennessee around 1855. She married Darius Davis on August 24, 1872, and died in Missouri before 1876.

2. Amanda P. Bridewell was born in Tennessee on April 4, 1858, and died on September 16, 1859, in Sullivan County, Missouri. She is buried in Elmwood Cemetery.

3. Eliza Bridewell was born on July 1, 1860, in Sullivan County and died there on July 16, 1860. She is buried in Elmwood Cemetery.

4. Samantha E. Bridewell was born in Sullivan County on October 3, 1861, and died there on July 8, 1862. She is buried in Elmwood Cemetery.

5. John Andrew Bridewell was born in Sullivan County on August 15, 1867, and died on July 22, 1917. He married Rosa Danner (March 11, 1875–December 21, 1964) on January 18, 1894.

6. Elmore Bridewell was born in Sullivan County in 1869.

Bruce Whitaker documents Fairview-area genealogy. To get in touch with him, contact the Crier at [email protected] or
828-771-6983 (call/text).