Parthenia was born about 1833 in Maury County Tennessee. She was the oldest of ten surviving children of Thomas Boaz and Mary "Polly" Pullen who had married in Maury County a year earlier on January 5, 1832. One Boaz author and researcher conveys she went by the nickname "Telie". Most records indicate she probably grew up and lived in Maury County although after she married, her family went to Weakley County, Tennessee.
She married Willis Anderson Bailey on Dec. 1, 1855 in Maury County. The next year they had one son, William Thomas Bailey. According to the later testimony of Willis Bailey, she died in 1860.
Parthenia's grandfather, William Boaz brought his large family to Maury County from Pittsylvania County, Virginia a few years earlier and they settled in Stiversville. There in Stiversville, they were associated with several of the families the Baileys also had ties to, including the Cannons, Hickmans, Duggers and Buggs.
Parthenia's maternal grandparents were Elisha Pullen and Anna Willis Richardson. Elisha and Anna came with her father's (Thomas Richardson) family to the Giles/Maury County area from Wilkes County, Georgia just a couple of years before the Bailey's came from Kentucky.
Records also indicate about this time a William Pullen married Sarah Bailey around the year 1810 in Maury County. According to later court records mentioning his descendants, this Sarah Bailey has proven to be a daughter of Parks and Mary Bailey of early Giles County. Although Pullen researchers insist William and Elisha Pullen were not brothers some indicate it's possible they were at least somehow related. If so, there should also be some possibility Elisha Pullen and the Parks Bailey clan were also acquainted at this time.
Parthenia's maternal great, grandfather, Thomas Richardson died in the year 1815 not long after arriving, and was buried in Stiversville. It should also be mentioned one of his daughters, Lucretia Richardson married Howard Cannon, and they would later have children who were neighbors to our Baileys.
Although Parthenia died in 1860, it appears her siblings remained closely connected to Willis Anderson Bailey and his family. At least three of her brothers made the later migration trek to north Texas and settled in Cooke County. In fact, Willis served as administrator to his uncle, George Boaz's Will in Cooke County, Texas in 1882.
So how did Parthenia and Willis originally meet? Possibly through her uncle George Pullen, who was a Bailey neighbor in the early 1850's. It's also possible they could have met through the Hambrick family. There were several families the Hambricks and Boaz's both associated with in Maury County. There is an interesting article called "The History of Stiversville" written by James Barrow Brown, which mentions several of the aforementioned families. Could this possibly connect these two families together?
