USA > Tennessee > Monroe County > Sweetwater > History of Sweetwater Valley > Part 22
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4. Bettie Nelson, b. July 4, 1856. Married Charles Howard, of Greeneville, Tenn., on October 17, 1882. Lives at Ocmulgee, Okla.
5. John, b. June 29, 1858. Died in Oklahoma about 1905.
6. Annie, b. April 6, 1860. She married (first) Cicero Haynes, September 30, 1883. They had one daughter, Bessie Roe, married Howard. Mrs. Haynes married (second) Dr. C. Stearns. Two children, both dead.
8. David, the youngest child of Matthew Nelson died while his father was state treasurer.
STERLING NEIL.
The parents of Sterling Neil came from Virginia to this country. Sterling Neil was born in McMinn County on November 14, 1823. He married Miss Sallie Thomas, of Thompkinsville, Ky. She was born in West Tennes- see. Her parents were Samuel and Sallie Thomas. She died in 1880 at Fort Valley, Ga.
Sterling Neil moved from MeMinn County to his farm on the Athens road, one and one-half miles from Sweet- water, in 1849. They moved to Fort Valley, Ga., in 1863. He left his farm in Sweetwater Valley in charge of his father-in-law when he went south on account of the Federal occupation. Owing to the absence of the real owner, the farm and house suffered more from dep-
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redation than it otherwise would. At Fort Valley he was a farmer and banker. He and his wife were both members of the Christian church. Their children were:
1. Stella, b. August 11, 1852.
2. John R., b. March, 1855. Lives at Fort Valley, Ga.
3. Mary, b. December 13, 1858.
4. Alice, b. December 24, 1861; d. at Athens, Tenn.
5. Sam Thomas, b. February 6, 1864; m. Stella Harris. He died in January, 1869.
1. Stella married J. C. Slappey, who was born Decem- ber 10, 1842, on December 14, 1859. They live at Fort Valley, Ga. Their children are:
(1) George A. Slappey, b. April 27, 1871. He m. Fan- nie Harris in 1891, who lived only a year. Eight years later he married Clara Visscher. They live at Fort Val- ley, Ga.
(2) Beulah, b. December 22, 1872; m. W. H. Harris May 16, 1894. Address, Fort Valley, Ga.
(3) Alice, b. October 17, 1874; m. W. C. Black, Novem- ber 29, 1893. Address, Tampa, Fla.
(4) Neil, b. September 18, 1876. Lives at Fort Val- ley, Ga.
(5) Ruby, b. January 3, 1879 ; m. H. L. Harris, January 10, 1898; d. Sparta, Ga., February 1, 1914.
(6) Sterling, b. January 4, 1881 ; m. Elmer Green, June 14, 1904. Address, Fort Valley, Ga.
(7) Maude, b. October 27, 1888; m. R. C. Suder, April 9, 1913. Address, Macon, Ga.
(8) Gladys, b. January 23, 1895.
2. Mary, second child of Sterling and Sallie Neil, was born near Sweetwater. She married Will C. Wester, of Chattanooga, Tenn., December 16, 1879. He was born on Half Moon Island, Tenn., November 27, 1854. He is a fire insurance man. They have one child, Earl Neil Wester, who married Lucille Gerstle.
CHARLES OWEN.
A cosmopolitan population makes a prosperous section and community, when there are not more "undesirable citizens" as immigrants than can be readily assimilated. The lessons of history, if I read them aright, inform us that, without the infusion of new blood into a nation, it
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degenerates and finally gives place to, or is overcome by, some other that is stronger or more aggressive. Our own section of country was peopled by those differing in customs and, in a measure, religion and descended from varied national ancestry. Those settling in our valley, so far as the states were concerned, came from Pennsylvania, Virginia, North Carolina and a few from each of the states of Maryland, Kentucky and South Carolina. As regards remoter ancestry we have the German Lotspeich, Pickel, Patton, Fry and Fryer; the English Cannon, Cleveland, Johnston, Mayes, Nelson and Yearwood; the Scotch Gregory, Neil, Ramsey and Wallis; the French Bogart, Berry, Fine, Goddard, Ju- lian, Lenoir and Rowan; the Irish Moore, Ragon, Rea- gan, Sligo and Scruggs; the Welch Jones and Owen; the Norman-Dutch Heiskell, the Scotch-Irish McGuire.
Most of the families did not come to this valley direct from the mother countries, but had undergone a process of fusion in other states before settling here. To this no doubt is attributed the absence of friction between citizens and neighbors. It has rarely happened that there has been a feud perpetuated in our immediate sec- tion. No Jews, Russians or Italians at first came to our valley. You find in the records no names of people end- ing in "io," "ini," "ani," "off," or "sky." There were no "steins" or "bergs" or "schmidts" but how- ever there were a few plain Smiths.
Those early settlers had no use for people who di- vided the world into just two classes: those of their own tribe and kindred and the others, the Gentiles, whom they thought the Lord did not consider his children and who were of the opinion that Moses was greater than Jesus Christ. They, the pioneers, had just as little use for those who took orders from any foreign potentate temporal or spiritual. They were all Protestants in re- ligion and mostly belonged to one of three churches: Baptist, Methodist or Presbyterian. By Presbyterian we mean any branch of that great body.
Thus the elements (the inhabitants) were so mingled as to make a palatable state of affairs. Like the French- man's drink, which he named a "dim contradiction," it contained various ingredients :
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" A little lemon to make it sour, A little sugar to make it sweet, A little ( ?) liquor to make it strong, A little water to make it weak."
The difference there was in manners, religion, political opinions and customs served only to make social condi- tions more pleasant and agreeable.
OWEN OWEN.
Owen Owen, of Northampton County, Penn., was the great grandfather of Charles Owen, of Sweetwater Val- ley. Owen Owen had a son, David Owen, who was born March 13, 1713. His will is of record at Easton Penn- sylvania. His wife, Sarah, was born March 1, 1724. They were parents of ten children. Joseph Owen was the fifth son. He married Susan B. Hartsell July 24, 1771. They had seven children of whom Charles Owen, who came to Sweetwater Valley, was the second.
Jesse Owen, brother of Charles Owen above, had a daughter, Sarah Wallace, born January 20, 1831. She married Samuel F. Hurt, of Abingdon, Va., on April 12, 1859. Her daughter, Rosa Lee, born December 23, 1868, married James W. Bell, of Abingdon, Va., April 14, 1892. He is president of the First National Bank of Abingdon, Va.
The eldest daughter of David Owen, was named Rachel, who married Samuel Bachman. It was thought she was the first of the Owens to move South. Samuel Bachman settled in upper East Tennessee.
Joseph Owen came to Tennessee between 1793 and 1795. These facts about Charles Owen's ancestry were obtained from Mrs. James W. Bell, of Abingdon, Va.
Charles Owen was born in Allegheny County, Penn., on December 29, 1793. He died at his residence near Sweetwater on September 6, 1873.
Louisa Berry, his wife, was born in Sullivan County, Tenn., on March 22, 1798. She died January 8, 1867. They both were buried in the old cemetery on the hill west of the town of Philadelphia, where the old Presby- terian church once stood.
They were married in Sullivan County on May 7, 1818.
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The exact date they came to Sweetwater Valley is not known to me. The records both at Athens and Madison- ville show that he was a purchaser and made sales of lands as early as 1827. At Madisonville in Book "A," page 93, is found this conveyance: "Chas. Matlock to Charles Owen 100 acres, part of tract, the northwest quarter of section 35, township 2, range 1, east. The residence he built on this tract is a brick house at the fork of the Pond Creek and Philadelphia roads, and south of the Tennessee Military Institute. This last named building is also on the Owen tract. This date (1827), without going back any further makes Charles Owen one of the pioneer settlers.
The following record is found in the state archives at Nashville, Tenn.
"In conformity to an act passed by the General Assembly of the State of Tennessee at Nashville, 3rd December, 1835, entitled an Act to provide for the laying off the several counties in this State into districts of convenient size, within which constables and justices of the peace shall be elected; and for other purposes, and also in con- formity with a resolution appointing commissioners for the several counties, we, William Bayless, John Callaway, Sr., Thomas L. Toomy and Jesse Cunningham, four of the commissioners appointed for Monroe County by said resolution, met at Madisonville, January 16, 1836, and after being sworn, as said act directs, by Joseph Marshall, one of the acting justices of the peace for said county, proceeded to lay off said county into districts as directed by said act, beg leave to report seventeen districts in accordance with the sixth section of said act."
(Boundaries of the First Civil District.)
"No. 1 District. Beginning at the northwest corner of Monroe County, thence running with the line of Monroe and Roane Counties, to include Thomas Vernon, Esq .; thence a direct course to Dr. Gregory's mill on Sweetwater Creek; thence to Morganton road, leading by the farm of William Dillard; thence with the road leading from Dillard's to Gregory's Gap till you come within about two hundred yards of the Boiling Spring; thence a direct course to the county line between Monroe and McMinn Counties, passing between the dwelling house of E. Moore and James Axley, and between John Lotspeich and Wil- liam Neil; thence with the county line to the corner of Monroe County the beginning of the First District. Election Ground, Charles Owens."
He was an elder in the Presbyterian church at Sweet- water when it was built. He was a farmer but was known more as a money loaner and broker (called "note shaver" in those days) than as a farmer. He was con- sidered a good financier.
It was well known that he was an anti-slavery man and thought it wrong to own slaves. The work on the
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farm was done by himself and family and sometimes with the aid of white hired help. Although his farm was not a very fertile one for this valley, he reared in comfort and educated one of the largest families in the section. Who his descendants were and what became of them we will give some account later on.
Politically previous to the Civil War Charles Owen was a Democrat. One might have expected that from his views on the slavery question he would have allied himself with the whigs; for Henry Clay through the greater part of his political career was a gradual emanci- pationist. There was then no Republican party in the South.
He was a man of probity and strong character. What- ever views he held political or religious he had no hesita- tion in expressing them. He was a Union man during the Civil War.
CHARLES AND LOUISA OWEN
were the parents of fourteen children as follows:
1. Sarah White Owen was born Angust 2, 1819. She married Hugh Lawson White Patton, December 12, 1837. They moved to Gentry County, Mo. While they were on a visit here he died on November 29, 1852. Charles O. Patton, of Albany, Mo., is a son of theirs.
2. James White Owen was born January 22, 1822. He married Ann Amelia Kirkpatrick, October 4, 1842. They had a daughter, Margaret, who was born near Sweet- water, August 14, 1846. She married Charles Cunnyng- ham, then of McMinn County, Tenn., but now of Albany, Mo., on May 9, 1867. They have a large family of chil- dren and grandchildren.
Some time after the death of his first wife, J. W. Owen married Mary Jane Patton on June 4, 1856. They re- sided in Gentry County, Mo. He was county treasurer of that county four years and postmaster at Albany, Mo., for four years. He died in Dewey County, Okla- homa, July 15, 1906. There were four children of this second marriage, and each one of them has a Charles Owen in the family. Charles Owen, a son, resides at In- dependence, Okla.
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3. Susanna Owen was born January 10, 1824, and died July 6, 1839.
4. Joseph Marshall Owen was born in Sweetwater Valley, September 1, 1825. He married Mary M. Hill, granddaughter of John Fine, on August 28, 1849. There was one son, Charles LaFayette, who resides at Inde- pendence, Neb., on a Mexican war claim given his father by Charles Owen, the grandfather. J. M. Owen died in Gentry County, Mo .. in 1851.
Charles L. Owen is the father of six children.
Mary M. Hill Owen was born in 1834. She died in Brownsville, Neb., in October, 1884. In 1856 she was married a second time. Wm. H. Lorance, who was born in Monroe County, Tenn., became her husband. To this union were born twelve children, six sons and three daughters of whom are still living (1914).
6. Charles Lilburn Owen was born July 5, 1829. He married Mary Patton, daughter of Francis A. Patton and sister of Horace Patton and a half sister of Frank, James and Ann Patton whose mother was Amanda Tay- lor Patton. This Frank Patton, the father of Mary Patton, resided near County Line where C. D. Browder now lives. I do not know the maiden name of Frank Patton's first wife, but his last wife, Amanda Taylor, was a sister of the late E. A. Taylor. C. L. Owen and wife went to Gentry County, Mo., where so many sought homes from this valley. They have a son, Charles, who, resides there.
7. Louisa Owen was born April 6, 1831. She died May 13, 1908. She married Horace H. Morris on November 18, 1852. He died February 14, 1909. They resided, during their married life, one mile east of Reagan's Sta- tion in McMinn County.
They reared a family of eight children, four sons and four daughters.
Children of H. H. and Louisa Morris :
Josephine, m. J. L. Lowe. She is dead.
Hattie Florence married James Forrest Yearwood, September 11, 1879. She was born September 13, 1857. She resides at 419 Chicamauga Avenue, Lincoln Park, Knoxville, Tenn.
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Charles A., married Janie Dillingham, of Travis Coun- ty, Texas. He lives in Austin.
Nannie Louise married Joseph Bogle. They live in Chattanooga.
Walter L. married Elizabeth Forrest of Niota. Re- side in Austin, Texas.
Edward married Dora Blanton. Live at Soddy, Tenn. Owen married Victoria Shell. They live in Knoxville. 8. Jesse Franklin Owen was born April 4, 1833, and died November 7, 1895. He married Sarah P. Taylor on November 25, 1861. When a young man he went with W. L. Clark and others to California during the excite- ment about gold in that state. He returned previous to the Civil War. In the conflict between the states he took the Union side and came out of the war a lieutenant.
He was elected as representative from Monroe County to the Thirty-sixth General Assembly of the state of Tennessee. He was voted for and elected partly by the Democrats as a compromise candidate. He had an- nounced himself as being opposed to the wholesale dis- franchisement of "rebels" and their sympathizers, which state of affairs existed from the close of the war up to the state election in that year, 1869. He was known as a Senter Republican as opposed the more radical whig of the party, which had up to that time had control of affairs in the state. He was postmaster at Sweet- water under Grant, during his last administration, and also under Hayes and Harrison, occupying that office in all twelve years.
As one would naturally expect he was a Presbyterian. He was a member of Lodge No. 292, F. and A. M., and Chapter No. 57.
The children of J. F. and S. P. Owen were seven in number: Jessie E., Fred Winton, Fred, Ross, Kate, Charles and Hugh. Only three of the children are now living: Ross, Kate and Hugh. Kate, in October, 1898, married Henry Adkins, formerly of Philadelphia, Tenn., but now of Pony, Mont. Ross, married Anne Scruggs, daughter of the late Dr. R. F. Scruggs. Charles married a short time previous to his death.
The first two children "Jessie E." and "Fred Win-
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ton," died in infancy. "Fred was not born until after the death of "Fred Winton."
9. Harriet Owen was born February 9, 1835. She mar- ried George L. Beavers, then living at Sweetwater, on March 5, 1857. They went to Louisville, Texas. He was a farmer. They both resided at Louisville till their death. He died October 5, she September 21, 1910.
Their children were five in number: William H., Fronie, George H., Charles F. and Ruth E. These are all living, are married and all have families and consti- tute quite a colony of themselves, having its origin in Sweetwater.
10. Solomon Hartsell Owen was born February 21, 1837 ; he died October 23, 1861.
11. Wm. Francis. Born and died October 1, 1838.
12. Susan Adeline, was born October 11, 1839. Her post-office is Maryville, Tenn.
13. Emily Caroline Owen was born February 20, 1842. She died March 30, 1874. She married William Jordan Clayton June 14, 1860. He was born in Knox County, August 31, 1835. He lives in Knoxville. Their children were six in number, three boys and three girls. They are now all married and have families. Their places of residence are scattered from Tennessee to Texas. Their names are: Louise Elizabeth Butler, Houston, Texas; Jessie May Richard, Knoxville, Tenn .; Wm. Graham Clayton, Knoxville, Tenn .; Robt. Owen Clayton, Birm- ingham, Ala .; Frank Crawford Clayton, Jackson, Tenn .; Helen Adaline McNutt, Knoxville, Tenn.
14. Mary Haseltine Owen was born November 11, 1843. She married John C. Winton of Loudon County, April 15, 1875. He died on February 21, 1901. Mrs. Winton now resides with her daughter, Mrs. Alice Winton Hen- sley, who married B. F. Hensley, a florist of Knights- town, Ind.
CHARLES OWEN'S CHARACTERISTICS.
Success to the individual consists largely in getting what you want when you want it and in getting rid of what you do not want. This is not a Websterian but a chimney corner definition, but it is sufficient for our purpose. This has reference to a man's subjective at-
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titude towards his own achievements. The end striven for may be worthy or unworthy. There is also an oh- jective point of view: the light in which others regard what you have done. Most people who think they know you well and often others too, can tell precisely where you failed of achieving success; or how your success would have been much greater had you followed a certain line of conduct, which they advised or could have laid down for you had you consulted them. Like the bed of Procrustes they have an invariable standard to fit you to, and lop you off if you prove too long and stretch you to the proper length if too short. This tendency of hu- manity is expressed in the wise saw of the mountaineer : "Measuring my corn with your half bushel."
What Charles Owen's ideal was I have no satisfactory means of knowing. I think he never spoke to me more than a dozen words in his life and he was loath to ex- press himself in public assemblages.
When I was a boy I attributed his not noticing me to his disapproval of a youth who played checkers, ball and the fiddle and ran about the country hunting with a dog, a pony and a gun. I think now he was scarcely aware of my habits and that this was merely indifference. How- ever this might have been, I was careful not to cross his line in my hunts and when Brer' rabbit got on the Owen land he was as safe from me as if he had fled to another county. But I cared little for this since I could go to any other place I wished. There were no wire fences in the valley then to tear my clothes or bar my way. I was not told at home nor by Mr. Owen not to go on his territory, but I much preferred to take no chances of a rebuff with a man who usually ignored me, neither smiled, sang nor looked pleasant even at church. There was an added reason to this; there was a green pond of considerable size in one corner of the yard at Mr. Owen's, on whose margin grew a large weeping willow tree with long drooping branches. In the depths of the pond lived a colony of water moccasins, that on sunny days lazily stretched themselves out on the rocks with which the pond was lined. These things gave the landscape a dreary appearance and taken together had a depressing effect on the spirits. I did not have to be warned to stay
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away from them. I always treated Mr. Owen with marked respect, for besides being a little afraid of him, it had been time and again impressed upon me by my mother and father, with methods more effective than Scripture quotations, that I should have a special regard for the feelings of old people and under no circum- stances whatever misbehave at church or in the school- room, and that if I must eut any extra shines to do so at home. I was rarely, if ever, a visitor at the Owen resi- dence, during his lifetime. In referring to myself in these notes, it is not to inject into them the personal equation, but merely to show that if I have given or shall give more space to him and his people than most others, it is not due to any extra partiality to him or what he stood for, but to record essential facts such as go to the making up of a truthful and instructive history.
Gilbert Parker in one of his books relates that, during the war between the British and the Boers in South Africa, there was a soldier from New Zealand in one of the regiments. He was a very fine one and never shirked a duty. He always carried a set of chessmen with him. In a fierce charge up a steep hill (kopje), from which the Boers were driven, he was mortally wounded. He was not found until after his death. He had adopted this means of sending a message to his com- rades: He had taken from his set of chessmen a pawn (a piece the most numerous and of least value in the game) and placed it on a stone at his head. This was to tell them that he considered himself only an insignificant private in the game of war and that it was inevitable that many should meet such a fate and he was contented to be one of the number. Just this.
It would not have suited Charles Owen to have been so small a factor in affairs; he was too positive a char- acter ; but he would have fought just as hard as the New Zealander. He pursued methods of his own and resented dictation from others.
When he wished to be emphatic in his language, his preface or by-word was "I say," which if unnecessary is at least more scriptural than some in too common use. If he had been writing instead of Francis Scott Key, who wrote the words :
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"O! say can you see in the dawn's early light. What so proudly we hailed at twilight's last gleaming ?"
He would probably have said:
"I say, I can see in this broad land of ours, By Faith the Presbyterian Banner still waving."
He was the ancestor of a score who were named for him. He lived to see many of his children and grand- children grow up to be useful and honored citizens. In most instances his numerous descendants, wherever dis- persed about thé west, south and southwest, have been in- grained with Presbyterianism. When the question was asked: "What church did he or she belong to," the al- most invariable answer was "The Presbyterian" (writ- ten with a capital P).
If success consists in perpetuating the family name and Presbyterian principles then, measured by that standard, Charles Owen was an eminently successful man and I have no doubt these were facts highly gratifying to him.
If half the Presbyterians had been like the Owens and as devoted to their principles, there would, in a few generations, be room for no denominations other than the Presbyterian. For, from Cromwell down they have been fighters and you find them marching solidly toward the enemy when according to the doctrine of chances, you would expect to see them facing the other way. But in the lexicon of the Presbyterians there is no such word as "chance."
As a matter of convenience I append a few facts about Gentry County, Mo., where so many of the Owens and others from this immediate section have made their homes. It is situated in the northwest part of the state about 100 miles north of Kansas City. It is in a rich agricultural country. It contains 490 square miles to our county's 673. The population by the census of 1900 and 1910 were, respectively, 20,554 and 16,820, to Mon- roe's 18,595 and 20,716. So the last census does not make a favorable showing for Gentry county as compared with our ownl.
Albany, the county site of Gentry County, contains
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about the same number of inhabitants as Sweetwater and is about the same elevation above the sea level.
In the presidential election of 1912, Gentry county voted 4,060 and Monroe 2,336. Wilson carried Gentry County by 1,000 votes. It appears they pay more atten- tion to politics there than we do. Evidently a much larger proportion of the voters went to the polls.
IRBY ORR
Was born September 9, 1821; d. in Sweetwater, April 10, 1904. He came from the head of Sweetwater Creek to Sweetwater about the time the E. T. & Ga. R. R. de- pot was built. He was among the first settlers of the town. He was married (first) to Nancy Ann Weathers on December 4, 1840. She was born March 18, 1825. She died June 24, 1862. Their children were:
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