Harold B. Carruth, author of the book, Carruth Family, 1959, believed that the name Carruth (spelled twenty different ways), was taken from "lands of Carruth," a group of farmsteads located in the barony of Duchal in Renfrewshire, Scotland. This is located about 12 miles from the center of Glasgow and about five miles south of the Clyde River in beautiful moorlands. If Harold B. Carruth is accurate, then all Carruths are cousins.

The meaning and origin of the place name, Carruth, is unknown. Cited in "lands of Carruth" is a gentleman house called "Carruth House." It is complete with a guardhouse at the entrance of the fenced area of the estate and the house sits in a grove of trees. Acres of moorlands surround the property and it is said to be as lovely today as it was reported to have been in the 1600's and 1700's.

Around 1695, British Crown opened up plantations in Ulser, Northern Ireland. Many Scots took advantage of the leasable land, including some of the Carruths from Renfrewshire. Not all of the Carruths migrated to Ireland, some stayed behind.

It is known that the forebears of the Carruths who came to America took the opportunity to lease the acreage in northern Ireland.

Throughout the British Islands in the early 1700's, the Scots, as well as the Presbyterians were weary and discouraged by the restrictions placed on them by the Crown and the Church of England. They began to look around for a new and better home where they could enjoy more freedom of religion. In 1727, the patriarch, James Carruth, of Ballymartin Parish, Antrim County, Ireland, died. His sons, Walter and Adam (1) sailed to America on the ship, Diligence of Glasgow, in January of 1729. When they first arrived in the new country, the earlier colonists referred to them as Irish, which they strongly resented, insisting rather that they were Scots. Later, they were considered Scottish-Irish or Scotch-Irish.

Adam Carruth, (1), born around 1704, Antrim County, Ireland, died 1782, in Gaston County, North Carolina. He married Elizabeth Beattie, daughter of John Beattie. Adam and Elizabeth had seven children. The third child, named Robert Carruth (2), born 1746, died 1815, married Elizabeth Anderson. They had nine children. Robert and Elizabeth's seventh child was a son named Alexander Carruth (3), born 1784, North Carolina, married Nancy Elkins in 1818, and moved to Lawrence County, Alabama.

Alexander and Nancy had nine children, and their fourth child was a son named Thomas Carruth (4). Thomas was born in Madison County, Georgia, in 1814. The 1860 US Census lists Thomas married to Cynthia Ann Stovall, the daughter of William Stovall and Cynthia Tatum Srovail. After Cynthia Ann's death in 1844, Thomas left his four children with Absolom I. Stovall, a brother of Cynthia Ann, and went back to Walker County, Alabama. Thomas' whereabouts was unknown by his family and descendants for many years until he was found in the 1860 Census records residing in Marian County, Alabama, with second wife and two more children. In 1852, Absolom I. Stovall moved his family, along with the Carruth children, from Lawrence County, Alabama to Tupelo, Mississippi. He was a minister and he cared for his sister's children until they were adults.

According to the 1860 US Census, Thomas and his second wife, Mary L. "Polly" Stanford, and their children were in Marion County, Alabama. They had a total of eight children. One of the children was a son, William Carruth (5), born July 30, 1848, Marion County, Alabama. He married Mary Lou Clementine Miller, daughter of John Jasper Miller and Melinda Clementine Gann. (These Ganns are traced back to Holland in The Gann Generations by Eileen Gann in 1992.) William and Mary Lou had four children. The oldest, a son named John Thomas Carruth (6), was born October 26, 1875, in Sanford County, Alabama (now Lamar County). He married Emmer Galbreath White, born August 14, 1877. She was the

daughter of Willie W. White and Luther Spruiell (they never married).

John Thomas and Emmer had nine children. These nine children are the parents of the Carruths who attended the 1997 Carruth reunion in Lamar County, Alabama. Listed below are these nine children:

1. Melinda Ethel Carruth, born September 1, 1897, married on November 25, 1923, to Henry Lester Warlick, born May 13, 1888.

2. William Charlie Carruth, born March 6, 1900, married on September 23, 1923, to Velmer Elmare Myers.

3. Loncie Everline Carruth, born November 19, 1903, married on January 16, 1923, to Lawrence Kelly Smith.

4. Millie Ray Carruth, born 1906, married on May 18, 1930, to Marlin Flynn.

5. Crowlie Anna Carruth, born June 2, 1909, married on November 26, 1932, to Charlie Ernest Elliott.

6. Willie Lee Carruth, born November 25, 1911, married on December 4, 1947, to Effie Rozina Taylor, born May 25, 1923.

7. Dewey Lawrence Carruth, born November 5, 1916, married to Verla Thompson Terrill.

8. Earlie Arnold Carruth, born 1916, married in 1936 to Edna Earl Taylor.

9. Cecil Floyd Carruth, born May 27, 1920, married in 1941 to Robbie Gray O'Mary.

The information herein was obtained from the book From Whence Ye Came by Lela Grant Carruth, 1982; The Gann Generations by Eileen Gann, 1992; and personal knowledge of family members. Information taken from the Carruth Family Cookbook published 1997.

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