USA > Tennessee > Monroe County > Sweetwater > History of Sweetwater Valley > Part 26
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Reagan did not have to take the oath of allegiance but was finally released on parole.
I have written the above not with the purpose of mak- ing any comparison between Fort Delaware and Ander- sonville and Libby. Conditions in the last may have been, and probably were, just as bad, as in the northern prisons, barring the severity of the winters in the north- ern climate. What I wish to emphasize as strongly as possible is that prison life under the most favorable con- ditions either in war or peace is horrible to any human being whether inflicted by an enemy or by a jury of peers. As cruelty exasperated the prisoners during the Civil War, so will undue severity make the inmates of our state penitentiaries the greater enemies to society. Deprivation of liberty and the companionship of our fellowmen are terrible punishments in themselves.
THE ANCESTORS OF GENERAL JAMES H. REAGAN.
The information below given about the Reagan family up to General James H. Reagan was obtained from W. M. Sweeney of 126 Franklin Street, Astoria, Long Is- land, N. Y., who has gone to great trouble and expense to trace the genealogy of the different branches of the .
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Reagan family. His investigations have been very painstaking and thorough. Out of the material, which he has allowed me to use, I give these facts.
The O'Regans were an ancient Catholic family in Ireland and about the year 1729 a number of them emi- grated to Pennsylvania. It seems that after coming to this country that they dropped the O in their name and spelled the last part in a variety of ways.
According to the first Federal census. of the state of Pennsylvania of 1790, there were seven heads of fam- ilies of the name living in the state, viz: James Reagin, Weldin Reagan, Reason Reagan, Stephen Regan, John Regan, George Ragon and Phillip Ragin. I also have the military record of two Revolutionary soldiers from Pennsylvania, who served in the 2nd Pennsylvania regi- ment. They are James Reagan and Michael Reagan. James was killed October 4, 1777, at the Battle of Ger- mantown. They were both engaged in the Battle of Brandywine, where Senator Reagan's great grandfather was wounded. They were both probably his relatives. This is taken from a letter of W. M. Sweeney to W. B. Lenoir dated November 15, 1915. In the same letter he gives these additional facts :
I have just returned from a trip to Guilford County, N. C., where I made an examination of the records of that county to find traces of the Reagans, and thinking that the result of my investigations might interest you I write to inform you of the result.
Under date of March 22, 1772, I find a deed from John Reagan and Mary, his wife, conveying 200 acres of land on the south side of the Dan River, to John and Samuel Henderson for a consideration of £150. (Deed Book 1, page 96.)
I also find a marriage bond dated March 28, 1776, signed by Thomas Cook and John Reagan, in which Thomas Cook agrees to marry Elizabeth Reagan (daugh- ter of John and Mary Reagan?). This Thomas Cook, who served in the Revolution as captain of the Independ- ent Company, Light Horse, North Carolina Militia, in Continental service, was a brother of Nancy Cook, who married James Reagan, Sr., who died near Knoxville, Tenn., in 1827. I think it is most likely that James Rea- gan, Sr., was a son of John and Mary Reagan.
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A Deed dated May 22, 1782, from John Reagan to Francis Cook (the father of Captain Thomas Cook), con- veying "156 acres of land, part of a tract of 640 acres of land granted to the said John Reagan December 16, 1778." (Deed Book 2, page 200.)
A grant (No. 835) of land from the state of North Carolina to James Reagan, dated October 14, 1783, con- veying 179 acres of land. (Deed Book 1, page 116.)
Another Grant (No. 833) of land from the state of North Carolina to James Reagan, dated October 14, 1783, conveying 150 acres of land. (Deed Book 1, page 116.)
A deed dated January 1, 1783, from Samuel Parks to James Reagan, conveying 120 acres of land, consid- eration, £120.
A deed dated September 12, 1785, from William Wil- son to James Reagan conveying 400 acres of land, con- sideration, £100. (Deed Book 4, page 30.)
As the names of John and James Reagan are found in the first Federal census of the state of North Car- olina, 1790, it shows with the deeds that they were both residents of Guilford County from 1772 to 1790, at least.
I do not find any record of John as a resident of Guil- ford County prior to 1772 nor of James prior to 1770, when his son, John (who died in East Tennessee in 1857), was born there. Mr. Sweeney adds :
I wrote to Senator Reagan some years ago and his re- ply was as follows:
"My greatgrandfather, Timothy Reagan, was a native of Ireland, but came to this country before the American Revolution; lived in Pennsylvania, was a soldier of the Pennsylvania Line in the War of the Revolution, and was dangerously wounded at the battle of Brandy- wine. He subsequently moved to that part of North Carolina which was west of the Alleghany Mountains, and is now East Tennessee. He helped to build Lawson's Fort, the first fort built in what is now Sevier County, but which was then occupied by the Cherokee Indians. The name of my grandfather was Richard Reagan. He and the wife of Major James Porter were the first two white children born in the territory of what is now Sevier County, Tennessee, and they were born on the same day, but I do not know the date. My father, Timothy R. Reagan, was born in the same county, in 1797. I was born in the same county, 1818.
"My greatgrandfather had a numerous family, mostly sons, and their descendants are scattered through the Southern and Western States, and are very numerous, though I know but little of them.
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"I knew General James Reagan, of East Tennessee, and we called each other cousin, and, while we understood that we were of the same family, we did not know the precise relationship between us.
"Very respectfully,
"JOHN H. REAGAN."
"Mr. W. M. Sweeny, "Astoria, N. Y."
From a letter from Joseph Reagan (a grandson of James Reagan, Sr.), to William M. Sweeney, of Astoria, Long Island, N. Y., we make the following extracts :
"Conyers, Ga., April 8, 1895.
"My Dear Nephew:
"My grandfather (James Reagan) I never saw, but have heard that he was a man of fine and discriminate judgment. He accumulated quite a good fortune in the way of land and negroes. I can recollect that when I was a boy ten or eleven years old he sent for all his chil- dren to come to see him. Some of them were living in Georgia. My father (James R.) was one of them, and one brother, Charles Reagan, and one sister went. They rode horseback from Georgia over the mountains of North Carolina and Georgia into Tennessee, two or three hundred miles. He divided out his negro property among all his chil- dren; I recollect my father brought home one of the largest horses I thought I ever saw and two likely negroes as his part. My grand- father kept enough to live comfortably on, but in less than a year afterward he died. In the year 1837 I made a trip into Tennessee,
above Knoxville, near where he had lived.
Uncle John Reagan, my
father's oldest brother, lived there. I saw the old family Bible, in which I saw the record that grandfather had married three times and had fifteen children. Some of them I have never seen. One of them, Peter, came to Georgia and settled in upper Georgia at Rome. The youngest, William, went to Texas, and died there some years ago. Brother Thomas was well acquainted with him. He left a large family. My grandmother was named Cook. Grandfather married her (his second wife) in North Carolina before he moved to Tennessee.
"When she died my father and his brother, Charles, and his sister, Frances, were grown and they came to Georgia.
"My grandfather Morrison (his mother's father) was named Joseph Higginbotham Morrison. You see, quite a long name. It is said that there were as many letters in his name as in the alphabet, and so there were."
James Raggon made a will of date July 23, 1821. The subscribing witnesses were John Rigney and John Calloway. He died sometime late in the year 1827. The will was admitted to probate in the Knox County Court in July, 1828. John, Peter and William Reagan, were the three executors to the will-"The undernamed, ten of my children" were mentioned as devisees in the will : John, May, Ann, James, Charles, Franky, Peter,
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Rachel, Rebekah and William, and one nephew, Havern Raggon to whom he bequeathed a 42-acre tract of land. After disposing of a few items of personal property, he directs that the balance of the realty and personalty be sold and the proceeds divided equally among the ten children; from the parts of certain ones were to be de- ducted specified sums which he had charged to them. From Peter's part was to be taken the sum of $370. As this will was made in 1821, the father likely gave this in money or its equivalent when he went to Sweetwater Valley. Peter came here and married Miss Cunnyng- ham.
It appears from this will and from precious gifts to children mentioned by James Reagan, of Conyers, Ga., that James Raggon of Guilford County, was an eminent- ly successful business man. Who the other five of the fifteen children set down in the John Reagan Bible and whether living or not at the writing of the will is not known.
EXTRACTS FROM AN OBITUARY OF JOHN REAGAN, PUBLISHED IN KNOX COUNTY.
"Died on Jan. 25, 1857, at the residence of his son-in-law, Mr. Thomas McMilland, Knox County, Tennessee, Mr. John Reagan in his 87th year. The deceased was born in Rockingham County, North. Carolina (then Guilford) May 24, 1770. He emigrated and lived in South Carolina and afterwards to Kentucky and later to Knox County, Tenn., where he resided since 1910."
(Note :- Thus any one of three states, North Carolina, Georgia or Kentucky might have been the birthplace of James Hays Reagan, his son.)
The obituary continues: "In his extreme old age, though nearly blind, he retained in a remarkable degree, his vivacity, his cheerful- ness and his quaint humor. Age never chilled the ardor of his friend- ship; infirmity never impaired the exercise of his good nature and cordial feelings; debility never blunted the keen edge of his wit. He was without avarice, envy, ostentation or malice. He never had an enemy; never owed anybody anything but good will. Interment was at Lebanon churchyard, where repose the remains of a former wife whom he has survived thirty-four years."
REAGAN GENEALOGICAL TABLE.
A John Reagan came from Pennsylvania and settled in Guilford County, N. C. His wife's name was Mary. One son, James, b. ; d. in 1827. James m. three times : (first) Miss Hays; (second) Nancy, daughter of
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Francis and Betty Cook; (third) unknown. Children of James R., whose names are known are:
1. John, by first wife; 2. James ; 3. Charles ; 4. Frances (m. Narremore) ; 5. Peter; 6. William) Rebekah by second wife; May (m. Whitter), Ann (m. Hamlin), Rachel (m. McCall).
1. John had a son (1) James Hays and (2) a daughter Sarah, who married Thomas McMillan, of Knox County, Tenn.
5. Peter m. Nancy, daughter of Jesse Cunnyngham of Monroe County. He went to Rome, Ga., where he died. Children were Carrie and Addie. (See Mayes.)
7. Rebekah m. Wm. Burns, a merchant of Athens, Tenn.
2. James, son of James and Nancy R.
James, b. Guilford County, N. C., July 2, 1780; d. Pike County, Ga., December 27, 1855; m. in Elbert County, Ga., January 8, 1805, Mary Dandridge Morrison, daugh- ter of Joseph Higginbotham Morrison and Francis Hig- ginbotham. Mary D. Morrison was b. in Virginia, 1784; d. in Elbert County, Ga., September 8,
1839. Children of James and Mary D. M. Reagan :
William Morrison, b. January 10, 1806; d. February 25, 1858.
John, b. January 28, 1808; d. June 22, 1862.
Martha, b. May 31, 1810; d. July 28, 1828.
Nancy A., b. May 15, 1813; d. August 6, 1872.
Charles, b. May 13, 1815; d. October 8, 1874. Joseph, b. March 29, 1817; d. February 28, 1904.
James, b. July 26, 1819; d. September 5, 1896.
Francis W. Reagan, b. August 21, 1821; d. May 25, 1865; m. December 14, 1845, Sarah C. Refo. Child, Eugenia Octavia, b. October 17, 1846; m. September 30, 1867, Thomas W. Sweeney. Children : Thomas Francis, b. July 14, 1868; William Montgomery, b. August 29, 1871.
Mary Dandridge, b. October 8, 1823; d. January 22, 1902.
Sarah Elizabeth, b. August 6, 1825; d. October 30, 1854.
Thomas Jefferson, b. March 21, 1828; d. May 9, 1887.
m-matilha Junneil
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MRS. J. R. LOVE.
Mrs. Julia Reagan Love, the second child of J. H. ;and Mira Reagan, was born September 4, 1843. She went to school to Mrs. H. M. Cooke at Athens, Tenn., 'also to Asheville, N. C.
On November 18, 1868, m. Colonel James R. Love. He was born in Jackson County, N. C., August 19, 1832. Died at his residence near Sweetwater, Tenn., on No- vember 10, 1885. His father was John Bell Love and his mother, Margaret Coman Love. They lived three miles from Webster, N. C.
James R. Love took the B. A. degree at Emory and Henry College 1858. He then studied law under Col- onel Nicholas Woodfin at Asheville, N. C. At the begin- ning of the war he enlisted in the 16th North Carolina, (C. S. A.) Regiment. He was elected lieutenant-colonel in the 69th North Carolina Regiment, which was or- ganized in September, 1862, and he was made colonel of the regiment before the close of the Civil War. Not long after which he was elected to the lower house of' the North Carolina Legislature. He was a member of the North Carolina Constitutional Convention and in 1873 was elected to the state senate. After marriage he lived in Webster, N. C., where he practised law. He moved to Tennessee in November, 1876, having pur- chased part of the I. T. Lenoir farm. In 1884 he was elected representative from Monroe County to the Forty- fourth General Assembly, of which he was a member when he died. He was a member of the M. E. C., South. The children of James R. and Julia Love were:
1. Son, d. infancy.
2. Mira Lenoir, b. June 19, 1872. Educated at Cen- tenary College, Cleveland, Tenn., and graduate of Ashe- ville (N. C.) Female College. On May 8, 1902, she mar- ried J. W. Lowry, son of J. H. and Mary Caroline Lowry, of Sweetwater, Tenn. Her children are: Joseph Walker, Jr., b. August 27, 1903; Julia Love, b. May 8, 1906; James Robert Love, b. November 16, 1907.
3. Margaret Bell, b. August 4, 1874, at Webster, N. C .; d. January, 1885.
4. Julia Burgwin, b. March 30, 1876, at Webster, N. C. Was educated at Price's School, Nashville, Tenn. She
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was married November, 1894 to Frank B. St. John, of Johnson City, Tem., who was born June 16, 1870. His father was George W. St. John, of Virginia. His mother was Martha Blair, of London County, Tenn. George W. St. J. settled near Watauga, Tenn. Frank B. St. J. is engaged in real estate business. Their children are : Frank Love, b. November 11, 1895. Louise Avery, b. July 5, 1893. Julia Love, b. December 18, 1910.
5. James Reagan Love, b. September 3, 1877. Farmer, Sweetwater.
6. Elizabeth Avery, b. September 3, 1879. Educated at Randolph-Macon Woman's College, Lynchburg, Va. Teacher, Sweetwater and Madisonville, Tenn .; Jalapa, Mexico; Edmonds, Wash. Went to Soochow, China, September, 1914, where she teaches in Laura Hagwood School.
7. Robert John, b. September 19, 1881. Graduate of the University of Tennessee. Profession, civil engineer. Worked in the state of Sonora, Mex., in Peru, for the Southern Railway in Mississippi, Georgia and North Carolina. For the past three years has been doing en- gineering on county roads of Monroe and Loudon coun- ties. He married Lillian Dee Worrell, on July 3, 1915. Her father is Charles B. Worrell, of Clayton, Ind. One child, Robert John Love, Jr., born at Madisonville, Tenn., on September 5, 1916.
8. Hattie Frank, b. February 6, 1884. Graduate of Randolph-Macon Woman's College, Lynchburg, Va., and of Woman's Medical College, Philadelphia, Pa. Was interne at Worchester Memorial Hospital, Wor- chester, Mass., and studied at Scarritt Bible and Train- ing School, Kansas City, Mo. Went to Soochow, China, in September, 1913, as medical missionary. She is dean of the medical school at Soochow, and practises in Mary Black Hospital.
James Avery Reagan, third child of J. H. and Mira Reagan, was born at the old Reagan homestead, at which Callahan now (1914) lives, on January 7, 1846. Went to school to Prof. Aldehoff on Lookout Mountain in 1861 and 1862. In August 1863 he enlisted as a private in Co. B (Captain Maston), 16th battalion Confederate
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cavalry, Lieutenant Jno. R. Neal, commander, and served continuously and principally in Tennessee, also in Virginia, Maryland, South Carolina and Georgia, un- til the surrender at Washington, Ga., in 1865. He was fortunate enough to be paid there before the surrender $28.25 dollars in silver out of the Confederate treasury. From 1865-7 he was a student at Dinwiddie's School at Greenwood, Va. He was a student at the University of Virginia four years 1867-71. Took there the degrees C. E., M. E. and B. S.
Worked under Major Ruhl in the location of the Cin- cinnati Southern Railway.
Was resident engineer in construction on the section near Robbins, Tenn., including the tunnel.
Worked for the Union Pacific in Wyoming one or two years.
Was the engineer in charge of location and superin- tendent of construction northern end of the Mexican National Railroad for several years. He was superin- tendent of the Lenoir Manufacturing Co., Lenoir's Tenn., after the death of W. A. Lenoir until the sale of the property to Brice, Sanford and others.
He was married to Miss Elizabeth Buchanan, of Abingdon, Va., on June 25, 1889. They came to Rea- gan's Station in the fall of 1891, where he owned a large farm. Miss Elizabeth Buchanan was born July 12, 1867. He was a member of the McMinn County Court for fourteen years, and was chairman of that body four terms. Was chairman of the Road Commission of that county for several years. He was engineer of road lo- cation and construction, for Loudon County 1911-1915, inclusive.
Mrs. J. A. Reagan was a daughter of Prof. John L. Buchanan and a granddaughter of president E. E. Wiley of Emory and Henry College, Virginia. Prof. Buch- anan has been teacher of languages at Emory and Henry and Vanderbilt University; president at Agricultural and Mechanical College, Blacksburg, Va., and president of the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville. Mrs. Rea- gan, coming from intellectual ancestry on both sides, preserves the reputation of her people for accomplish- ments and popularity. She has been quite in demand as a speaker on selected subjects at farmers conventions and
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meetings. She has been a demonstrator on certain lines of home improvement work. She and her neighbor, Mrs. C. O. Browder, have acquired almost a national reputa- tion as original dialogue and dialect entertainers.
The children of J. A. and E. B. Reagan are: Frank, b. May 31, 1890; Julia, b. July 25, 1892; Margaret, b. October 24, 1894; d. April 11, 1896; Elizabeth Avery, b. March 13, 1897; Myra, b. November 27, 1898, and James Avery, b. September 24, 1907.
4. John Martin, fourth child of J. H. and Mira Rea- gan, b. February 20, 1848; d. July 17, 1870. He was the second person and the first adult buried at the old Sweet- water cemetery. He attended school at the University of Virginia, for three years, in the academic depart- ment. He was pursuing a law course at Lebanon, Tenn., when disease overtook him. I have heard that tuber- culosis, which was fatal to him, was brought on in this way: one very cold night there was a fire in Le- banon and he became overheated in his efforts to help put it out. By accident a bucket of water was poured upon him. This brought on sickness which terminated in tuberculosis. This soon resulted fatally. He died at the old Reagan residence. He was a fine student. He was courteous, handsome, unselfish and manly, and therefore was immensely popular. There never was a young man passed away in Sweetwater Valley whose death was more regretted by his neighbors and school- mates.
Frank Reagan, the fifth child of J. H. and Mira Rea- gan, b. July 15, 1851; d. November 30, 1862.
RICHARD FRANCIS SCRUGGS
Was born at Warrensburg, Tenn., February 1, 1834. He died of pneumonia at his residence in Sweetwater on December 28, 1903.
He was the son of Rev. John Scruggs and Theresa Newell Carter Scruggs. They were the parents of four- teen children, of whom R. F. was the - th. Elder Jno. S. was the second son of Richard and Eliza McMahon Scruggs. He was born in Grayson County, Va., March 14, 1797. He was a graduate of Tusculum College in
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Greene County which was founded by Samuel Doak in 1794.
J. and T. N. C. Scruggs were married on September 7, 1824. She was the third daughter of Francis Jack- son and Esther Crockett Carter and was a first cousin of the celebrated Davy Crockett. She was born near Newport in Cocke County, October 8, 1806. F. J. C. and E. C. were married on February 16, 17 -. F. J. C. was the son of John Carter, one of the first settlers of Haw- kins County. He established a store which was con- ducted under the firm name of Carter and Parker. They were robbed by a band of Cherokee Indians. When the - Henderson treaty was made with the Cherokees C. and P. demanded compensation. The lands of Carter's Val- ley from Cloud Creek to Chimney Top Mountain were granted them, on the payment of a small sum of money. This was advanced by Robert Lucas, who thus. became a partner of Carter and Parker. This firm leased their lands to settlers much after the manner of the patrons in the early history of New York.
In 1771 J. C. settled one-half mile north of Elizabeth- ton, Tenn. He was a member of two constitutional con- ventions of North Carolina. His son, Landon Carter, was prominent in the Tennessee Constitutional Conven- tion of 1796. His grandson was the chairman of the Constitutional Convention of 1834. His great grandson, also named Wm. Bates Carter was an active participant of the Constitutional Convention of 1870. All these men represented the same constituency and the last named Wm. Bates Carter was a Democrat chosen in a strong Republican district. James Robertson, Landon Carter and others laid the foundation of the Watauga settlement which was first mainly in Carter County.
After the death of F. J. C. in 1857, his wife E. C. C., went to Monroe County to reside with her daughter, Theresa N. Scruggs, whose husband John S. had pur- chased a large body of land on Chestua Creek in Monroe County and had moved there in 1833. She died July 9, 1870, and was buried in the churchyard of the church house erected on the farm of J. S. Here lie also J. S., who died November 11, 1867, his wife T. N. S., d. Novem- ber 9, 1888, and also seven of his children and many of his grandchildren. J. S. was a preacher, farmer, stock-
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raiser and slave owner. For many years he was pastor of the Chestua, Mt. Harmony and Madisonville Bap- tist churches. He made no charge for his services.
R. F. Scruggs, after completing his academical educa- tion at Mossy Creek, now Carson and Newman College, became a physician. He obtained his medical diploma from Jefferson Medical College at Philadelphia, Pa. He commenced the practice of medicine in Sweetwater in the year 1855. He occupied the office made vacant by the death of Dr. Parker, who was the first physician coming to Sweetwater. On the 14th of February, 1860, he married Elizabeth Ramsey Heiskell. He erected the residence on Oak Street now occupied by Mrs. Scruggs.
He built up a very large practice for a young phy- sician, previous to the Civil War.
Soon after the war ended he became a partner with his brother-in-law, N. P. Hight, in the mercantile and produce business. N. P. Hight was the husband of Ad- die Heiskell.
This firm also acquired' numerous holdings and lots in the town of Sweetwater. They erected the brick buildings at the corner of Monroe and Depot streets and the brick hotel opposite, now the Hotel Hyatt, and various houses for rent in different parts of the town.
Dr. Scruggs was an extensive druggist as well as phy- sician and sold drugs in the store now occupied by the Sweetwater Pharmacy.
He was most of the time during his business career treasurer of the Sweetwater Masonic Lodge No. 292, from the obtainment of its charter till his death.
He was also administrator of several large estates and was noted for his good judgment in business and the strict honesty and accuracy of his accounts.
Notwithstanding the multiplicity of his business re- lations, when not necessarily occupied he was a genial and interesting companion and conversationalist. His information was accurate and varied and was by no means confined to his profession. He found' time in some way to read many books, managed to get at and understand the main points in them. Anything that touched humanity even outside of his own profession, met with his intelligent and considerate attention. He was consulted by more people about more different sub-
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