We had a Ruffin in early Panola Co. from VA. James D. Ruffin was Probate Judge of Panola Co. as early as June, 1839. He purchased the plantation adjacent to the Satterwhite Plantation and in the 1850 census was shown as family #674 and the Fleming Littlefield family (with GWL, age 9),Satterwhite Plantation,was #675...JDR was shown as being 33 years old (b.1817). From 1839 through 1845 he was listed as Probate Judge or appointed Commissioner in settlement of many probate cases in the northern part of the county. He had apparently moved from the county by 1860 since he does not appear in that census. So I do not have evidence that JDR was in the county when the Braswells were there. He must have moved just north of the Panola Co. line into what was at that time the southern part of Desoto Co. (now Tate Co.) because my g.grandfather, Will E. Terry, mustered into the reorganized Invincibles (Co.D, 4th Regiment MS Cavalry) in May 1862, with Capt. James D. Ruffin as the commander. References to JDR after the War show him as "General"...I do not know if he actually attained that rank, or if it was bestowed upon him by local citizenry who knew that he had commanded a CSA unit. JDR's obituary from the Sardis Southern Reporter lists him as "General James D. Ruffin, county pioneer and Mayor of Como, died April 27, 1886, age 69". I have never been able to find a marker for him or his wife, although several of their children, who were prominent citizens in north Panola Co., are buried in the Como and Sardis cemeteries. The only other Ruffin in Panola Co. as early as 1850, was William D. who was 23, born in TN, and in the same household as Mary Price, 32, who I think was his sister...they might have been siblings of James. One of Mary's daughters married Shelton McGehee and many of their descendants live in the Como area now. By 1860 DWR had married, three children had died and were buried in Fredonia Cemetery (seven miles east of Como), and his 28 year old wife would die in Dec. of 1860. Some people think that he is also buried with his wife and infant children at Fredonia and that his tombstone was in the cemetery at one time but is now missing. However, there is a CSA marker with no dates on it for David W. Ruffin in Salem Cemetery (in Tate Co. just a mile and a half north of the Panola Co. line in the western part of the county). Local family members have been told that their Ruffin ancestors were the same Ruffins associated with the Dandridges (through marriages) from whom Martha Washington descends...I have not tried to verify that, however. So that is about all that I know of the Panola Co. Ruffins except that my g.grandfather named one of his sons (my grandfather) Crenshaw Ruffin Terry out of respect for his former CSA commander. Additional info on-line: http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~westxan/
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