USA > Tennessee > McNairy County > Reminiscences of the early settlement and early settlers of McNairy County, Tennessee > Part 2
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In the county : Little Hatchee, Samuel Lewis. Leon Gay.
North part of county : Josiali Wamble. W. J. Anderson. At Adamsville : Shelby, Dunn & Rogers. C. H. Dorion. Combs & Stratton South part of county ; Benj. Saunders, Josiah Jeanes. L. Huggins. At Camden : F. P. Duke.
CHAPTER IV.
Militia organizations and Officers-Names of Lawyers-The Sounders Family- Three Sketches, by J. S. P.
The first militia regiment organized in the county was No. 107. Ist. commandant J. T. Burtwell. 23.
Lieutenant-Col. Thomas Hamrick.
N. C. Riggs.
Thomas Patterson.
3d.
P. D. Wilson.
F. M. Masengale.
- James Johnson. Not remembered.
Soon after the 108th regiment was organized.
Ist. Colonel Samuel Graham.
Lieutenant-Col. John Derreberry.
2d. John Campbell.
J. L. Henderson.
3d. " John H. Meeks J. N Barnhill.
4th. O. I. Meeks.
J. D. Young.
5th. J. M. Kirk.
Isaac Booth.
6th. W. W. Jeanes. Not remembered.
The first brigadier-general who reviewed the regiments in this county was- 1st. Graham, of Perry county. 31. J. H. Meeks, McNairy.
2d. R. P. Neely, Bolivar. 4th. W. D. Jopling, MeNairy.
The following is a list of the names of Lawyers who practised in the courts of our county in an early date of its history :
Regular-
V. D. Barry. afterwards judge. Bolivar,
Tennessee.
Austin Miller
: 1
David Fentress
Henry Barry
At a later day-
John Fentress. ,, ,
Alex. Robertson
11
Joseph Cloud
Jackson,
Micajah Bullock
Lexington, 11
William Wiphers
James Scott.
Savannah,
Alex. Harden
A. G MeDougle
Waynesborough,
Maclin Cross
l'urdy,
B. C. Rives
Occasionally in attendance-
W. B. Miller
Jackson,
Roger Barton
Adım Huntsman.
S. E. Rose
Lawrenceburg,
11
11
11
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Hon. James Warren furnishes the following interesting particulars in regard to the Saunders family, of MeNairy county.
My first acquaintances with any of the Saunders family was when I was a small boy in the county of Granger. Stanford L., the eldest son, married the daughter of Henry Lebo, with whom I was living. Soon after Lebo and Saunders moved to Warren county, Middle Tennessee. Some time after Benjamin F. and Hezekiah: Saur ders also married the dangi,ters of sand Lebo. In the year 1827 the three Saunders brothers came to McNairy county and I with them, where I made the acquaintance of the balance of Thomas Saunder's family, consisting of sixteen. children (living) as follows :
Sons-
Stanford L married a Lebo.
Joel K.
Thornhill.
Benjamin F 17
Lebo.
Hezekiah
Lebo.
Lindsey
Landreth. =
Thomas
Lebo, a niece of the others.
Aaron A.
McKee.
William C., the only one now living
. Moore.
John, who was killed by the kick of a horse when a boy before they came to this city.
Daughters-
Leah.
married a Cardwell.
Ellen
Ingraham.
Elizabeth
Ramsey.
Nancy
Anderson.
Sarah
Cardwell, nephew of the above.
Katharine
McCraw.
Polly
Maness.
Rachel
Tennyson.
The family in general was above average in point of intellectual alibiy, industry and business, though none of them had more than a neighborhood school education.
In religious opinion they were Baptists, and all of the sixteen brothers and sisters were baptized into the church.except Joel K .. who was a believer in Christ but never joined the churc ..
In polit'es they were divided, and they were a class of men who held on to well-established convictions with great tenacity.
At one time they were the most numerous family ever in the county.
John Saunders, an older brother of Thomas, had but a small family, and I never knew of but two of them marrying : Berjamin married a Miss Landreth : Hannah marriel C. H. Dorion.
Wm. C. Saunders, of MeThiry county, furnishes the following mentoranda of the history of his family :
Thomas Saunders, whormigatel to McNairy county, Tennessee, was of a very ancont family in Eveland, having descended from Laurence Saunders, who suffered martyrdeer in Queen Mary's reign for preaching the gospel. Thomas"
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great, great-grandparents were Huguenots, emigrated from England in 1639 to South Carolina and settled about where Charleston now stand?" They died in Savannah, Georgia, before the revolutionary war. He married Elizabeth Root in his 18th year ; she was in her 16th year. She was also of English descent; ber mother was a Stanford, related to Lord Stanford of London. She was born in Maryland. Their offspring were 17 children -- 9 sons and 8 daughters -- 16 raised families. They emigrated from Chatham county, N. C., in 1816 to Granger county, East Tennessee ; settled on Clinch River; emigrated to West Tennessee in 1826.
A PIONEER FAMILY. BY MRS. JENNIE S. PERKINS.
Near the close of the eighteenth century, Thomas Sanders and Elizabeth Rook were married and settled in Chatham county, North Carolina.
The young husband was the son of Benjamin Saunders, a staunch Quaker; the wife was a lineal descendant, on the father's side, of Admiral Rook, of the English navy ; on her mother's side, of a younger brother of Lord Stanford and Marie Wills, of Germany.
Thomas had violated the rules of his society by uniting himself with one of a different faith, and was promptly excluded and denied its temporal benefits as well.
Elizabeth was an orphan whose only dower was industry, intellert and great personal beauty.
With only youthful strength and energy to rely upou they began the arduous task of rearing a family on the worn-out soil of their native State.
Their children increasing faster than their means, they removed to Tennessee, whose natural advantages gave superior promise to the unrequited toilers in the older States.
They stopped a while amid the wild mountain scenery and rich valleys of the eastern division, but the climate being rigorous they sought further, and finally decided upon McNairy county as their permanent home. This was about the year 1825.
Their family had increased to seventeen children, sixteen of whom were living ; sons and daughters were married, and with their growing families were settled near them. Here a most encouraging prospect opened before them.
A virgin soil of great fertility, landscapes of marvelous beauty made up of green savannas and towering forests of the finest timber, in whose coverts game was swarming, affording the hunter delightful pastime ; while the streams teerced with fish tempting the angler to while away a pleasant hour on the green mossy banks beneath the spreading beeches that hang over the bright water.
The hardy sons of the toil-worn father began to look about them, and build op homes and reputations for themselves.
Although their early opportunities had been very meagre, the " Old Field School" of former times being the only institution of learning ever open to them, they bal most assidnondy tried to educate themselves; their excellent mother sparing no pains to impress upon their min is the necessity of self-culture. They succeeded so well in overcording their early defects, that they were called to di many positions of honor and trust, which they did in a creditarle mander. Meas- while their families increased while health and competence smiled on the pleasant homes chey had reared in this land of promise.
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The gifted mother had passed away ; but the agel father sat in the midst of his numerous descendants, like a patriarch of old.
A few years before his death, which ocentral in 1918, his children, grand- children, and great-grandchildren numbered one hundred and twenty.
As a family their traits were strongly marked, being ambitious, prond spirited, energetic, deeply devotional and strongly attached to each other and home.
Their personal likeness was very striking, so much so that the most unobserv- ing stranger rarely failed to perceive it.
In religious faith the whole family were Baptists, and all were believers. In politica the father and six of his sons were Democrats, the other two sons were Whigs.
During the war the surviving brothers were divided, three espousing the cause of the South, and three remaining loyal to the United States Government.
They were unyielding in their principles, and vehement in their advocacy, and were realy to make great personal sacrifice for their belief
Few families have added so much to the population of the section of their choice, or have sent out so many representatives to other states; and fewer still retain t rough so many generations the mental and physical characteristics of their forefathers, as the descendants of these pioneers of McNairy county.
LINDSEY SAUNDERS.
Janlsey Saunders, who was born in North Carolina in the year 1800, and removed from thence to Tennessee in early boyhood, was endowed by nature of sound juxdment and an indomitable will.
He had a feeble frame, but began holding office as soon as eligible, and was in various positions of official trust until increasing infirmities compelled him to retire.
He had in the meantime attended closely to his landed interests, and occasion- nally engaged in selling goods.
Having by the sheer force of will and untiring energy wrested fortune from an adverse fate he had little charity for the failures of others. 7
He possessed great sincerity of character, and a stern, unyielding temper, was a devoted friend, and decided enemy, inclined to befriend the weak and oppose the strong, and like his Quaker ancestry, opposed to slavery.
Before the war he was an " old line Whig," and during the same a staunch adherent of the Union, and was ready to make any sacrifice for the principles he conscientiously believed to be right.
He was neat and methodical in all he did, and very careful of his dress. In person, tall and commanding, very dignified in manner and conversation, of august presence, the face and expression indicating the man. He was strictly temperite ; and by exercising great care prolonged his life to his 59th year, then passed quietly away, leaving an example of truth and integrity worthy to be emulated by the rising generation.
·CESTASCESS,
Lindsey Saunders,
21-32
AARON A. SAUNDERS.
Aaron Saunders, who was born many years later, was also of a delicate frame, but had excellent business capacity.
Being associated with the elder brother in official and mercantile pursuits, and having the same political belief, they were very closely united for a long period and although there existed such a disparity of years, mental characteristics, and general deportment, the two brothers were often mistaken one for the other.
Aaron for many years filled the office of county clerk in the most acceptable manner, and was also largely engagel in merchandising; and was in all respects in the prime of life a most successful man.
He was a very popular minister of the gospel, and by his winning address made hosts of friends.
He was flexile in temperament, inclining to go with the popular tide instead of opposing it; a Free Mason, and pro-slavery in principle, and during the war espoused the cause of the South.
He was tall and elegant in pers n, very handsome, prepossessing, courtly and polished in manner, retaining in spite of physical decline to the close of life the tenderness that made Lim beloved by a wide circle of friends and relatives who will not lock on his like again.
--
James Warren
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CHAPTER V.
ketSch of Hon James Warren-Letter of Rer. R. D. Miller, and his early recollections of Purdy-Sketch of Newspaper-Sketch of Mr. W. Taylor Anderson.
HON. JAMES WARREN.
The following sketch of Hon. James Warren was published in the Falcon World, September, 1830.
Col. James Warren was torn in Claiborne county, East Tenn., June 12:1. 1510: His father on.igrated to that section at an early day, and died when the subject of this sketch was three years old, leaving a wife and eight children. At the age of seven Col. Warren was taken by the County Court and bound to Henry Lebo, a farmer of that county. lie moved to Granger county, and thence to Warren county. Middle Tenn., and located at the foot of Cumberland Mountains. Soon after his wife died, and his daughters married, thus leaving him without a house- keeper. He then rebound Col. Warren to David Woadly, with whom Le remained two years. His treatment was so cruel that he left Woadley and returned to Lebo and asked him to do something better for him, which he did by binding him to his son-in-law, S. L. Sanders, who was a good man. With him he catse to McNairy county in 1827, and served him faithfully until he was twenty one years old.
Soon after arriving at man! ood he was elected by the County Court to the office of constable, which he held for two years. In 1836 he was appointed deputy Sherit, and in 1838 was elected to the office of Sheriff, and by re-election held the office six years. A part of the duties of the office at that time was to collect the State and county taxes, every dollar of which found its way to its proper place.
In 1815 he was elected to the Legislature, and again in 1847. He introduced several bills during each session, which met but little opposition. He was the author of the measure which secured to the occupant holders a title to their for the fees of the office. That act alone saved to the people of McNairy $50.000, and to every other county south and west of the Congressional Reser: a- tion line that amount or more.
Up to 1860 he was identified with the Whig party and opposed to secession. During the war he used his intuerce to protect citizens from arrest and other wrongs. He made several trips to Memphis and elsewhere for the release of prisoners unjustly held by the Federal forers.
He is eminently a man of principle, and acts from a profound sense of duty.
R. D. MILLER
writes the following interesting letter :
WEST HARTFORD, Vr., July 30, 15$1.
General M. J. WRIGHT,
DEAR SIR : I commence writing in response to your kind request, that I would give you, for use in your proposed " Reminiscences of McNairy condy. Tenn.," a sketch of my own recollections of it.
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My college course, in Amherst college, Mass., was completed in August, 1943. and " the world was all before me, where to choose my place of rest, and Providenco my guide." An elder brother of mine had been living in Tennessee and his P. O. address, the last time be sent us a letter, some years previous, was Hambur,- MeNauy county. In September, that year, I started in search of him with the hope of funding lam, and also some remunerative employment for myself. I neet not relate the incidents of miy romantic journeying and voyaging by stage, steamer, and railroad, till I reached the county named.
My stage ride from Memphis, mostly by night, was a bord one; and the driver left me, one night about one o'clock, at what he thought would be the most convenient point from which to reach Hamburg, a place away from the stage route.
Weary, hungry, and with but twenty-five cents left, I rapped at the door of a man, whose name was Phelps, and met with a cordial reception from him, bis place being somewhere between Bolivar and Camden, I think. When Iinformed him that I was from Vermont, he said he was from Massachussets and that, when- ever he met a man from that State, be welcomed him as a Brother, and any one from any other New England State as a half-brother. He went to Tennessee as a clock peddler, found his wife there, and was raising up an interesting family of children. A: I informed him of the object of my mission there, as that of frst Ending my brother, James M. Miller, he said he had seen " Jees" Miller, and thought he was then teaching school not many miles off. His social friendliness cheered my drooring spirits greatly, and I got some good sleep the last part of the night. The next morning after brekfast, he brought up two horses, which he and I mounted and rode away into places where I should have been utterly los, alore ; but, in an hour or two, by inquiry at a log house to which we went, -- 3 strange sight to me then-we learned that my lost brother was residing in that part of MeNairy county, and teaching school there.
Mr. Phelps continued with me till we found the way improved and he could direct me plainly, and then returned homeward with the horses, while I walked on, till I reached my brothers home, also a log house, apparently in the midst of an almost boundless forest !
Mr. Fhelp's had a Southerner's generosity ; and showed it in refusing to take anything for his service in my behalf; and so my twenty-five cents remained intact for future use ! I reckon, or guess. (as a Yankee would say) that be may have carried something of that generous spirit even from the old Bay State. He must have been a good neighbor and useful citizen, and I should suppose that his sons, if living, would be found the same. I would like to meet him to day and thank him for his brotherly kindness to me, when I was so nearly destitute, not knowing that I had any acquaintance within 1,500 miles. thirty-three years ago "
My brother, a feeble man bodily, intelligent, industrious, honest, patriotic, a planter and school-teacher, a good number of years in that county, but now residing in Hardiman, doubtless has left the savor of a good name among his old Deighitors there. In hi quiet, unemotional way, he was always ready for every good word and work ! Some of his children are natives of McNairy.
I found him not rich, and, of course, I soon began to feel that I must be look- ing for something to do. Ilis impression was that the Purdy Academy was is want of a Principal. In a few werks I was employed in so responsible a position, concerning which my Erst conference was with Hon. James Warren, the chairman
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of the Trustees and Representative in the State Legislature. My stipulated zeward for service then was $30 a month, anl boarding myself out of it-srs', but much better than nothing The second session my pay was increased to $40 a month; and out of what I received after meeting the expense of board and all other outgoes, I did something towards paying debts incurred during my college course of study.
I am glad to learn from my nephew that Mr. Warren's sound sense and practical talent arestill appreciated by the people and called into use. I remember his countenance so expressive of unassuming modesty and downright honesty. making him always trustworthy. May his sons, if war and diseise have spared them-whom I had a little share in training- more than fill his place.
Wm. S Wisdom seemed to be the leuI'ng financier of the county, having a lien on many plantations and furnishing many of the settlers money and merchandise, by means of which they were tided over their pecuniary and sumptuary difficulties for a while. He had a business talent which, in other circumstances, might have made him a millionaire. A quiet, prompt, straight forwardness characterised his business affairs. My judgment as to his sons, Dew and Peter, from my knowledge of them as my pupils, would be that they came t> develop a business talent and taste unlike those of the father, supposing them to have become men of business. One of them might have enjoyed spending money better than earning it. I should like to know how the boys there, to whom I became much attached as a teacher, came out temporally and spiritually. H.w the Pace boy came out, of whom one of his playmates complained to me that he had been throwing rocks at him ? How the Addams boy came out, whom I exhorted to break off the filthy habit of chewing tobacco, as I saw it running down the corners of his mouth, and from whom I then received the reply that he had tried and found that he couldn't! How the Connor boys came out, who were jo -: as Lonest, peaceable and faithful as their father was in his sphere. How Baker, the eldest member of the school, walking a long distance from home, daily, slow but sure, and anxious to become a surveyor. canie out.
I am glad to learn that one at least of my Purdy boys has reached an honored place as a soldier : " Marcus !" and yet I am inclined to think that he was scarcely his father's equal, in natural. soldierly qualities. The old man, as I recall his person, seemed made to be " every inch" a soldier-one of nature's nobleman.
What a quiet, unpretending tradesman Maclin Cross was-not then Judge. When, at the commencement of Taylor's administration, he was purposing to seex the office of postmaster, I remember his questioning me about the Postmaster- General, under Taylor, Jacob Collamer, a Vermont man, such a man as day State might well be proud of. It may be that, as a Vermonter myself, I wrote him z line in Mr. Cross's behalf. That he obtained the office I am quite sure. The clearness and candor of his mind, with other things desirable, would have been helpful in making him a good j: dicial officer. His son was a good scholar, in all respects, promising to make a man of more impressive personal presence than the father. Mr. Riggs, a thick set, short man and a good, zealous methodist- if I mistake not-how pleasantly and happily he seemed to do the duties and meet the perplexities of life, and he had a boy, who was capable of being as cheerfully useful as his father was.
There was Elder Saunders, Baptist preacher and county clerk, almost every
.
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day-Sabbath excepted-in his office north of the Court House. Everybody had confidence in hun as a man of christian integrity ; though some may have feared an early failure of his lung power, from it's being excessively overtasked in parts of his earnest preaching exercises. I am reminded of a saying ascribed to Dr Lyman Beecher, that some preachers seem to forget that it is the lightning, not the thunder, that strikes. Brother Sanders is unusually fortunate if he is still blowing the gospel trumpet, so that the " dead in trespasses and Fins." shall bear
and live. He disliked slavery and hoped for its disappearance, like many of his neighbors ; but, as the circumstances were, he felt that he might as well pay for his colored belp as to hire it. He said to me that he purposed to treat hix two, servants as fellow-servants of Christ, and yet was not fully squared with bis position in that respect. As a northern man, I did not see how I could then help him to better his condition. If he is living, he is pleased, perhaps. as I am, that so unnatural and troublesome a thing has disappeared, though so differently from what we hoped for- from the way which wisest men would have chosen.
Father Kerr, the old School Presbyterian preacher, and a farmer, preached to us occasionally, and we always knew that he meant to give us solid, nourishing strengthening truth. He was not an awakening speaker, but one under whose preaching the weary might feel inclined to fall asleep. Some of us once attended a lively protracted meeting under his superintendence, out at his chief preaching station, near the place of his residence. Dr. Gray, of Memphis, a man of pulpit power was one of the speakers on that occasion.
Brother Johnson, the Methodist Circuit Rider, was a good young man. alway doing his best, but inclined to bridge over the gaps in connected thought, with saying : "And so forth and so on."
We were favored, in those days, with quite a variety of preaching. all in the old Academy building, and there was always something good in it, for the help of those who would receive it.
The way by which each man's heri of wandering swains was kept from being lost, interested me when I went to Tennessee. Early in the morning I would hear a cry, which would have startled me if it had resembled the cry of " are" that I had heard ; but it was not such a cry. I imagine that it was more like the In han whoop. It was the varying cry as each man's voice varied, of several men in the village, designed to bring each one's herd home; and it was not in vain. By inquiry I soon ascertained the object of it, and became much interested in observ- ing how each herd separated itself from all others, and gathered "to its own place," led by the voice of its owner, distinguished by it as Agering from al others. Happy would it be for multitudes of the human family, if they were a wise, practically, in discovering the voice that calls each wan lering one back to the place of abundant supplies-the home of duty, safety and abiding peace
The last man I saw in Tennessee was Dr. R.W. Crump. By the generous and of my brotherly, fatherly landlord Kincaid, I was conveyed on horseback through deep mud from Purdy to the Tennessee river in February. 1850, expecting my baggage to follow me #cod. Being disappointed as to the arrival of aby trunk in time for the first steaber pasaing Crump's Landing dows the river I was oblige to tarry several days with the Doctor. My bill there was and", 2, and the time passed pleasently. Had I know what was to come I might rechage, have gone up, a short distance, to Pittsburg Loading. and locked over the field of fire and carnage that has now made that part of MeNairy county memorable. It is
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well that we know not what is coming. In conversation with Dr. Crump on religious themes, it came to appear to us that while I was a Congregationalist- very much the same as Presbyterian-he was a Methodist. He expressed no dis- satisfiction with his ecclesiastical relation , but said he regarded the educational principles and methods of the Presbyterians as much superior to those of the Methodists, and that he would like to have his children trained according to the forme :. I may have heard a Methodist preacher, in Tennessee, speak depreciat- ingly of an educated Gospel Ministry ; but it is pleasent to know that the great Methodist denomination has been coming more and more to advocate and work for a thorough intellectual training for the preacher as well as the lawyer and the medical practitioner.
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