text:
Roy Peebles World War II enlistment record…
Roy was a son of James Walter Peebles and May Belle Owens Peebles. James Walter Peebles was a brother to George Washington Peebles (Mage). His brothers who also enlisted were Ell and Grant Peebles.
U.S. World War II Army Enlistment Records, 1938-1946 about Roy Peebles
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- Ell Peebles World War II enlistment record… (rememberingtheshoals.wordpress.com)
- Sidney GRANT Peebles' World War II enlistment record… (rememberingtheshoals.wordpress.com)
- Luke Willis Peebles World War II enlistment record… (rememberingtheshoals.wordpress.com)
- Luther Coleman Peebles World War II Enlistment Record…(rememberingthehsoals.wordpress.com)
- Elmer Louis Peebles World War II Enlistment record… (rememberingtheshoals.wordpress.com)
Ell Peebles World War II enlistment record…
Ell was a son of James Walter Peebles who was a son of George Henry Peebles (Grandpa Dick) and brother to George Washington Peebles (Mage).
U.S. World War II Army Enlistment Records, 1938-1946 about Ell Peebles
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- Sidney GRANT Peebles' World War II enlistment record… (rememberingtheshoals.wordpress.com)
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- Luther Coleman Peebles World War II Enlistment Record…(rememberingthehsoals.wordpress.com)
- Elmer Louis Peebles World War II Enlistment record… (rememberingtheshoals.wordpress.com)
Sidney GRANT Peebles' World War II enlistment record…
U.S. World War II Army Enlistment Records, 1938-1946 about Sidney G Peebles
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- Elmer Louis Peebles World War II Enlistment record… (rememberingtheshoals.wordpress.com)
Luther Coleman Peebles World War II Enlistment Record…
U.S. World War II Army Enlistment Records, 1938-1946 about Luther C Peebles
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World War II enlistment record for James Arlander Murray…
U.S. World War II Army Enlistment Records, 1938-1946 about James A Murray
The obituary for Armour Pritchett Barron's brother…
James (Jim) Pritchett
Funeral services for Jim Pritchett, 24, who died with pneumonia Saturday, April 4, 1931, at a naval hospital at Hampton Roads, Va., where he was an Aviation Machinist Mate 3rd Class, U.S. Navy.
The young man was stricken with pneumonia and succumbed before his father, M.E. Pritchett, reached his bedside. Mr. Pritchett accompanied the body to Linden Wednesday, where burial services were conducted at the Old Linden Cemetery by the Rev. J.C. Phares.
The deceased was a member of the Linden Baptist Church. Active pall bearers were three brothers-in-law, Messrs. Eugene Wynne, John Perkins, Thurston Barron and three boyhood friends, Kimbrough Baty, John Love Wade and Jack Barley.
Surviving besides his father, M.E. Pritchett, and a step-mother, Mrs M. E. Pritchett are two brothers, "Toby" Pritchett of Hampton Roads, Va. and Ev Pritchett of Linden; five sisters, Mrs John Perkins of Anniston, Mrs. Eugene Wynne of Theodore, Ala., Mrs. Thurston Barron of Gadsden, Ala. and Misses Toinette and Tolitha Pritchett of Linden; a half sister, Mary Elizabeth Pritchett,and three half brothers, William Clarence, Henry McDaniel, and Wallace Pritchett of Linden; a grandfather, Mr. James Pritchett of Boligee.
Source: Mrs. G.W.Cuninghame's (Miss Evie's) old scrapbookfrom the early 1900s.
Hood Cemetery, where are you?
This was the question on my mind for a number of decades. I knew some of my Vandiver family had been buried in Hood Cemetery and had spent considerable time researching for it. I had the information that included Hood Cemetery, near Warren. It was quite the goose chase.
I finally found it when I asked Aunt Gene Murray Slaton where her grandparents were buried. She was a little over ninety years of age at the time. She was alert and sassy. She still drove and she liked speed. I admired her. Aunt Gene died in April of 2008 at the age of 98.
Alrighty then, it was Hood Cemetery also known as Feathers Chapel Cemetery, near Warren. But this Warren was in Tennessee.
Tyree Glass and Mary Vandiver Glass moved to Somerville, Tennessee as he was a railroad man and he went there to work at the railway station or on the railroad trains. He had worked at the Tuscumbia railway station and then at the Decatur railway station before moving to Somerville to work on the railway station in Memphis. You just must read the article about Tyree Glass and his first wife; a link to this article is at the end of this writing. It is a fascinating read. Mary Vandiver was his second wife.
They took my great-great-grandparents on my father's side with them. The family had lived at Stouts and Saints Crossroads in what was Franklin County but is now Colbert County for almost forever. Ryland O'Bannon Vandiver was known as Riley Vandiver and his name is sometimes given as Ryland Bannon Vandiver. Matilda Clementine Allen Vandiver was called Clemmie. Along with the Glasses came Riley and Clemmie Vandiver's youngest daughter Walker Vandiver. They resided in Somerville, Fayette County, Tennessee, not far from Memphis where the railroad was located.
I had always felt a lonley twinge in my heart about Miss Walker Vandiver and Miss Evaline Casey. Walker Vandiver was on my paternal side of the family and Evaline Casey was on my maternal side. Neither ever married, and that would seem to make for a very lonely life. Neither have a marked grave. Neither have much to document that they ever lived and breathed the air God provides to everyone.
There were three daughters born to Riley and Clemmie Vandiver. There was daughter Mary E Vandiver who married Robert TYREE Glass as his second wife. There was daughter Minnie E Vandiver who married Sidney NEWT Hunter. [Newt Hunter's father Ambrose D Hunter served in Co K of the 35th Alabama Regiment during the War Between the States] And there was Lou Ella Vandiver, beautiful Lou Ella Vandiver who married Levi Murray. They were my paternal great-grandparents.
There is one photo of Evaline Casey and mother gave me a good description of her before she left us in 2007. But no one ever shared any information about Miss Walker Vandiver. Walker Riley Vandiver, the youngest daughter of Riley and Clemmie Vandiver lived with her parents all her life and removed to Somerville, Tennessee with them and her sister and brother-in-law. There she lived. There she died. It was just this day that I discovered a tidbit of information about her.
That information came in the form of her death certificate. A copy will follow below. It gave her whole name as Walker Riley Vandiver. It could be supposed that they gave her the Riley name after her father and that there were no sons, but there is no way to know where the Walker name originated. There was a mistake on the death certificate as it states that her mother was Matilda Hurst. Well, it is just a little mistaken since that was not her maiden name. Her maiden name was Matilda Clementine Allen. Her first marriage was to a Hurst. It has not been ascertained what his first name may have been as there are several who could fit in that spot as far as the little information goes to date. It is believed that he was killed during the War Between the States or died shortly after. She had two sons by the Hurst husband, John H Hurst and Arthur Hurst. Matilda or Clemmie as family called her, secondly married to Riley Vandiver.
Rest in peace Miss Walker Riley Vandiver. She died in Somerville, Tennessee and lies at rest at the head of the gravemarker for her parents at the Feathers Chapel Cemetery near Warren in Fayette County, Tennessee. The cemetery is just a pleasant drive from the Shoals area. There is not even a bump now where her body was placed. It is like she never existed. No pictures. No stories. No memories except for those like me who are willing to turn over heaven and earth to know their family. But, wait, the saddest part will come at the end with the photos of Riley and Clemmie Vandiver's gravemarkers that are the only thing that would indicate where Miss Walker Riley Vandiver is buried.
Walker Vandiver was born in Franklin, now Colbert County, Alabama in the Saints Crossroads community in January of 1880. She moved with her parents and sister's family to Somerville, Fayette County, Tennessee after 1910. She never married. She died 9 April 1946 in the community of Warren in Fayette County, Tennessee. She is buried on the 'Vandiver" side of her parents' gravemarker in Hood Cemetery in the Feathers Chapel community of Fayette County, Tennessee. She lies in an unmarked grave.The following photos are of the gravemarkers for Riley and Clemmie Vandiver at Feathers Chapel aka Hood Cemetery near Warren, Tennessee. The first time I visited there was with my aunt Alice Murray Thompson and Sue Murray Burden. The markers were in very bad shape at that time. The material they were made from was not granite as it may have been sold as, and was crumbling from the bottom in the elements. The second time I visited there and took these photos, the deterioration was even more concerning. Chunks of the gravemarkers were gone. And all those who would have cared and taken care of repair or replacement are gone now. Sad. Sigh.
Miss Walker Riley Vandiver who died 9 April 1946 is buried on this side of her parents' gravemarker in an unmarked grave.
Related articles: A tragedy, a tragedy… http://rememberingtheshoals.wordpress.com/2011/01/27/a-tragedy-a-tragedy/
This pdf file of Samuel Pleasant Box's Revolutionary War…
documents goes with the previous writing about the two Samuel Pleasant Boxes entitled "It is a small world…".
It is a small world after all…
and who in the world would have thought that the Peebles and Box connected families would both have had at least one relative to venture to Siloam Springs, Benton County, Arkansas?
Below is a Family Group Chart for the family of Samuel Pleasant Box, Jr. He was the son of Samuel Pleasant Box, Sr (and Mary "Polly" Pannell) who was a son of John Hatters M Box.
Husband: Samuel Pleasant BOX
Born: 18 AUG 1789 at: ,Anson Co.,NC Married: 9 JUN 1814 at: ,Grainger Co.,TN Died: 19 FEB 1873 at: ,Polk Co.,MO Father: Mother: Other Spouses:
Wife: Jemima MURPHY
Born: ABT 1797 at: TN,or,NC Died: 12 JUL 1869 at: ,Polk Co.,MO Father:William MURPHY Mother:Nancy HORNBECK Other Spouses:
Name: Pleasant Miles BOX Born: ABT 1818 at: ,Grainger Co.,TN Married: at: Died: 30 JUN 1896 at: ,Christian Co.,MO Spouses: Rebecca NORTHERN
Name: Elizabeth Ann BOX Born: 16 APR 1820 at: ,,TN Married: 28 MAR 1841 at: ,Polk Co.,MO Died: 2 AUG 1888 at: ,Polk Co.,MO Spouses: David BROCKUS
Name: Daniel Renfro BOX Born: 9 OCT 1821 at: ,Jefferson Co.,TN Married: 11 SEP 1838 at: Died: 14 JAN 1909 at: Eudora,Polk Co.,MO Spouses: Parthena MCGEE
Name: William Pinckney BOX Born: 1 AUG 1825 at: ,,TN Married: 24 MAR 1844 at: ,Polk Co.,MO Died: 2 JAN 1905 at: Siloam Springs,Benton Co.,AR Spouses: Hannah CANTWELL
Name: Nancy BOX Born: ABT 1831 at: ,,IN Married: 2 JUN 1850 at: ,Polk Co.,MO Died: at: Spouses: Caswell BOX
Name: Jane BOX Born: 19 JUN 1833 at: ,,TN Married: BEF 1860 at: ,Polk Co.,MO Died: 5 DEC 1915 at: ,Polk Co.,MO Spouses: James Van WAGNOR
Name: Margaret Adeline BOX Born: ABT 1838 at: ,,TN Married: at: Died: 1 JUL 1862 at: Polk Co.,MO Spouses: __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Samuel Pleasant Box, Sr served in some of the most important battles, and it would seem served under the "Swamp Fox": Gen. Francis Marion, during the Revolutionary War. His service was noted in the South Carolina roster on page 89. The entry documenting his service reads as follows:
Box, Samuel S3015
B. 1745, Orange District, S. C. While residing in Orange District, he was drafted during 1776 under Capt. Sanders and Col. Moultrie and was in the battle at Fort Moultrie. In 1779, he was drafted under Col. Moultrie and Gen. Lincoln. He was taken prisoner in the fall of Charleston and held twenty-two days. Afterwards, he was drafted under Col. Maitland and was in the battle at Stono. Thereafter, he was under Capt. Elliott and Gen. Marion and was in several skirmishes. (Moved to N. C. and Tenn.)
Samuel Pleaseant Box, Jr's father-in-law has a storied past in service to his country as well. William Murphy (DANIEL RICHARD2, WILLIAM1) was born March 31, 1760 in Warsborough, North Carolina, and died August 15, 1850 in Polk County, Missouri. He married Nancy Ann Hornbeak, daughter of John and Jane Hornbeak. She was born February 28, 1765 in Anson County, North Carolina, and died March 10, 1833 in Jefferson County, Tennessee.William Murphy has a Commemorative Plaque placed by the DAR at his grave in the Enon Cemetery southwest of Bolivar, Missouri. He was the son of Daniel Murphy and nephew of the famous "Murphy Boys of Virginia." The famed Murphy Boys were Joseph and William Murphy who were jailed in Virginia for preaching the Gospel without the sanction of the Church of England. William Murphy served in the Revolutionary War, He resided in East Tennessee in 1782 with wife's parents and in 1841 In lived in Missouri with Samuel Box (Jr). William received a Pension for his service in the Revolutionary War. He can be found on the TN Pension Roll of 1835. His pension was transferred from Tennessee and he can be found on the Missouri Agency Rolls 27 October 1841.
Samuel Pleasant, Jr's father served with with great valor during the Revolutionary War. Samuel Pleasant Box, Sr was like most plantation owners in South Carolina. They fought in the Revolutionary War when needed and went back home to work their farms, until needed again.
Samuel Box was first drafted in June 28, 1776 to serve under Captain Sanders and Colonel William Moultrie. Colonel Moultrie had built a fort on Sullivan Island in front on the harbor at Charleston, South Carolina. British Commodore Sir Peter Parker's flagship led the attack with nine other warships. Under heavy attack from the South Carolina troops the British finally gave up and left the action. General William Moultrie later became a governor of the state of South Carolina.
Samuel Pleasant Box, Sr's next enlistment was in early 1779, again under Colonel Moultrie and General Lincoln. This battle was a raid by the British troops to test the defenses for the City of Charleston. The British troops retreated but Samuel Box was captured and held as a prisoner of war for 22 days.
Samuel's next battle took place during a British retreat from an abortive raid on Charleston. Samuel was under the command of Lieutenant Colonel John Maitland and their orders were to cover the rear guard at Stono Ferry. General Benjamin Lincoln lead the main attack and Colonel Moultrie led a smaller secondary attack to stop British troops coming in from Johns Island.
The British troops also included Scottish Highlanders and German Hessian troops, but the battle began well for the Americans. The Scottish Highlander's two companies resisted until only 11 men were left standing. A German Hessian battalion finally broke and fled. Maitland shifted his forces in an attempt to counter a larger British threat, when the Hessians rallied and returned to the fight. The British then sent up more reserves and General Lincoln chose at this time to withdraw. The American loss was 146 men killed and wounded with 150 men captured. Among the dead was Hugh Jackson, brother of Andrew Jackson.
The balance of the war Samuel served mostly under Captain Elliott who was under General Francis Marion " The Swamp Fox ". General Marion's lighting fast raids drove the British Army crazy. Marion's men were the most feared and the most hunted by the British in South Carolina.
Samuel Pleasant Box, Jr. was born 18 August 1789 in Orange County, North Carolina. In 1814 he married Jemima Murphy as the first marriage bond in the photo above indicates. The 1818 marriage bond is to Catherine , but Jemima Box did not die until 1869, so it is uncertain who the Samuel Box may have been on that bond. He died 19 February 1873 in Polk County, Missouri. Samuel Pleasant Box, Jr. is buried at Mount Gilead Cemetery, Bolivar, Polk County, Missouri. His wife, Jemima Murphy Box and a number of his close relatives are also laid to rest there.
Chepultepec was where there were Boxes…
but they do not seem to be but few of them there now.
Chepultepec, located less than forty-five miles northeast of Birmingham, was in Blount, County, Alabama. The name has long since been changed to Allgood and is less than five miles from Oneonta, Alabama.
This story article will give a little information on one of the sons of John Hatter M Box. This son, Milton Asbury Box, was born on 9 Mar 1841 and died 11 Feb 1918 in Chepultepec, Blount, Alabama. His obituary reads:
Co I 49 AL Inf, CSA Milton Asbury Box first entered the service as a private 22 Aug 1862 at Chepultepec, Alabama. Continued until 15 May 1865. Milton Box, one of Blount's oldest citizens, died at his home near Allgood, Monday. Mr. Box was 76 years of age and was a member of the Methodist Church. He spent nearly all his life in the community where he died. The deceased is survived by one son L. W. Box. The funeral was held Monday and was conducted by Rev. W. L. Hendrix. [Southern Democrat, Thursday, February 14, 1918] Burial: Shiloh Cemetery Chepultepec, Blount County, Alabama, USA
Milton did not marry until age 44. He married a Mary Margaret whose maiden name is not yet known. He was a widower at the time of his death. He was a farmer by trade. His father, John Hatters Box was born in South Carolina and his mother Jennie Stovall Box was born in Virginia. The son mentioned in his obituary was Luther Worth Box.
Luther Worth Box lived to be 89 years old. He was born 18 Sep 1886 and died 30 July 1976 in Oneonta, Blount County, Alabama. Luther W Box married Nancy C Vaughan 1886 – 1976, and they had the following children: Leonard Leroy Box 1915 – 1952, Clarence Milton Box 1919-1981 , Clyde E Box 1920 – 1997 and Gordon Luther Box 1922
Luther and Nancy Box's youngest son, Gordon Luther Box, entered service in the Army during World War II at age 20 on 3 October 1942 at Fort McClellan, Alabama. By age twenty-two he was killed in action. His death occurred 18 Nov 1944. He had only completed grammar school at the time of enlistment. He was single without dependents. He was 5'6″ tall and weighed 115 pounds. He served in the European Effort and was ranked as Private First Class at the time of his death. His gravemarker at Oak Hill Cemetery, in Oneonta has an inscription: "Killed in Service".
Luther and Nancy Box's son Clyde Earcy Box, Sr. served as a S2 in the U S Navy during World War II. He is also buried at Oak Hill Cemetery.
Son Clarence Milton Box died 17 December 1981 in Maylene, Jefferson County, Alabama. He, too, served in the Army during World War II having enlisted 12 Feb 1942. His release date was 20 September 1945.
So far away but so near in function…
were the kitchens of the plantations in our area of northern Alabama. Or at least the Pond Springs Plantation and the Cunningham Plantation seemed very far from each other in the horse and buggy days. One commonalty of the two plantation homes were their kitchens.
Pond Springs Plantation, also known as the Joseph Wheeler Home, Hillsboro, Lawrence County, Alabama
The three houses now on the property include a dogtrot or double log cabin possibly built before 1818, a somewhat later two-story Federal-style house (1830's), and the main wing built around 1872.
This photograph by Alex Bush, 1935 shows the kitchen at Pond Springs located in Lawrence County, Alabama in the Wheeler Basin community was typical of the kitchens of many plantations. Pond Springs originally was owned by the Hickmans who apparently sold their interest in the plantation, known as Pond Spring, to Colonel Benjamin Sherrod, partner in the initial purchase of the property.
Colonel Sherrod was born in Halifax County, NC, migrated first to Georgia, then about 1818 settled in Alabama where he established several cotton plantations throughout the Tennessee River Valley. Sherrod's own home, Cotton Garden, was located north of the nearby town of Courtland, and it appears that his eldest son, Felix, and his family lived at the Pond Spring place.
The owner of more than 300 slaves, Benjamin Sherrod was an early Alabama tycoon, with extensive and varied business interests. He also served as chief promoter and stockholder of the Tuscumbia, Courtland, and Decatur Railroad, one of the earliest west of the Appalachians.
The Pond Spring plantation passed from Sherrod's son, Felix, to a grandson, also named Benjamin Sherrod. In 1859, Benjamin married Daniella Jones of nearby Caledonia plantation, and at the time of his premature death in 1861, the plantation became Daniella's. Daniella (known as Ella) Jones Sherrod, born in 1841, was the daughter of Richard Harrison Jones and his wife, Lucy Early, who was the daughter of Georgia Governor Peter Early. The Jones family had moved from Georgia to Alabama in 1822.
After Benjamin Sherrod's death, Daniella returned to her parents' home. Caledonia, where in the fall of 1863, she met General Joseph Wheeler while he and his troops camped near the Jones home. They were married following the War in 1866. Wheeler moved his family to New Orleans after the War Between the States for four years, then relocated back at Pond Springs where they raised their family of children.
Cunningham Plantation, now known as Barton Hall, located near Cherokee in Colbert County, Alabama
This reproduction of a drawing by Harry J. Frahn, 1937 of the plan of the kitchen at the Cunningham Plantation in Colbert County, Alabama seems typical of plantation kitchens of that day.
These kitchens both, at Pond Springs and at the Cunningham Plantation, include a bedroom, presumably for the cook and her family. Thus confined, the cook was never relieved from work as she faced constant demands from the main house. John White, a former slave from Texas who lived in a kitchen- quarter, remembered that his proximity to the Big House made him a frequent target of his owner's temper.
Elvis has left…
the building in Sheffield, Alabama. The Sheffield Jaycees put on a show that featured Elvis Presley, Jim Ed and Maxine Brown and a two hour Louisiana Hayride Show at 8:00 pm on 19 January 1959. The Sheffield Community Center was the venue. Advance admission was a seventy-five cents for adults at the door, and fifty cents for children. Add a quarter to those admission prices for tickets at the door. Tickets went on sale at Palace Drugs in Tuscumbia, Smoke Shop Drugs in Sheffield, and Anderson News Stand in Florence.
Memory lane is a sweet lane to travel down…
and sometimes pictures say it best. There is a group that is trying to restore the neon signs that were atop the Coca-Cola Bottling Company during my generations youth, before, and beyond. The Coca-Cola Bottling Company was as the crest of the hill just past O'Neal Bridge on Court Street in Florence for decades. It was across the street from the Holiday Inn. The Coca-Cola Bottling Company had a pair of neon signs that were the colors of their logo, red and white. The red bars on the neon signs would go up and down. The sequence of the lights caught the eye of those stopped at the nearby red light. They were memorable. Fragments of the memories of childhood, both the signs and the WOWL-TV owl sign across the street on the corner of the embankment at the Holiday Inn.
The neon signs were taken down and stored in 2004; as late as last year there were hopes that they could be restored and placed again on the streets of Florence, Alabama. It is not known when the WOWL owl sign was taken down. One eye was a red light that signaled caution as there had been a fatality in the area; while the green light meant all was safe for the present. Both building have been torn down now. They were both iconic. Florence just is not the same.
Below are some of the photos of the signs and buildings:
After all these years…
this good buddy and fellow in combat is not forgotten.
His name was William Roy Porter. Make that Sergeant William Roy Porter. He was born 13 July 1949 in New York state, likely in the city of Oneida in the county of Madison. His parents were Stanley H and Rosemary Porter. His siblings were: Sharon, Scott, and Kyle D Porter. Sharon L Porter married James H Wylie. They live in Penfield, Monroe County, New York. Their children are Mark and Susan. Kyle D Porter, the younger sister, married Michael Richard Comstedt. They lived in Colorado in 2011.
The last of the two brothers, Scott Stanley Porter was born 11 November 1951 in New York. Likely he was born in Oneida, New York. His death occurred 17 May 2011. He died in Sacramento, California but is buried in the same cemetery as his brother, Saint Helenas Cemetery in Oneida, Madison County, New York. The bulk of the text of his obituary published in The Oneida Daily Dispatch on 15 June 2011 reads:
Scott Stanley Porter, age 59, died peacefully on Tuesday, May 17, 2011 in Sacramento, Calif. after a long illness.
Scott graduated from V.V.S. Central School in 1969 and from Cobleskill Community College in 1971 where he received an associate's degree.
He worked for Pan Am and United Airlines his entire life and retired in 2008.
Scott enjoyed traveling, cooking and drawing.
Surviving are his parents, Stanley and Rosemary Porter of Oneida; sisters, Sharon (James) Wylie, of Penfield, Kyle (Michael) Comstedt of Louisville, Colo.; nephews, Mark (Jen) Wylie, Christopher Wood and Chad Porter; nieces, Susan (Bryan) Gardner and Stacy Wood; one great-niece, Kailey Gardner and one great-nephew, Andrew Gardner; several uncles, aunts and many cousins.
Scott was predeceased by his brother, Sergeant William (Bill) Porter.
Family and friends are invited to attend a Mass of Christian burial to be held on Saturday, June 18, 2011 at 10 a.m. in St. Helena's Church, Primo Ave., Sherrill. Burial will follow in St. Helena's Cemetery, Middle Road, Oneida, N Y.
There is no further information on the eldest child, Sharon Wylie. The youngest sister, Kyle D Porter married Michael Richard Comstedt. Michael is a rather talented and renown chef.
MICHAEL COMSTEDT EXECUTIVE CHEF , SCHOOL DIRECTOR COOK STREET SCHOOL OF FINE COOKING Denver , CO
Michael Comstedt is executive chef and school director of the Cook Street School of Fine Cooking , located in Denver's charming lower downtown area.
At an early age , Comstedt was inspired to focus on the culinary arts by his grandfather , publisher of Restaurant News.He supplemented his high school experience with food service courses while working part time in the William Penn Hotel in Whittier, California. Comstedt studied food and beverage management , business , French , and art at Rio Hondo Junior College and Los Angeles City College.In addition to his college studies, Comstedt mastered his culinary skills at Café Figaro's in West Hollywood.Through the American Culinary Federation, Comstedt was awarded a formal apprenticeship at the Westin Hotel's flagship property ( The Century Plaza Hotel in Century City , California ) studying under Executive Chef Walter Roth.…
As a team , Comstedt and Reynolds founded the Professional Culinary Arts Program at The Cooking School of the Rockies, which includes local schooling as well as international study in France.
William Roy Porter's Unit was 3RD PLT, A CO, 5TH BN, 60TH INFANTRY, 9TH INF DIV, USARV. His life was cut short on the Incident and Casualty Date of 2 June 1970. His Age at Loss was a mere 20 years. The Incident Location was in Cambodia, Province not reported. His death was considered a ground casualty under gun or small arms fire. He died outright in a Hostile environment. His body recovered.
Source: URL: www.VirtualWall.org/dp/PorterWR02a.htm Data accessed:5/30/2013
He was just a young boy when he met his demise. He and Bill Presley knew each other only a few short weeks, but Bill has not forgotten his friend yet. The online rubbing of his name on the Virtual Wall is to the left.
Sgt Porter's final resting place would also become the same cemetery that his brother Scott would be laid to rest at in Oneida, Madison County, New York. The cemetery name is Saint Helenas.
Bill and Nelda Holloway Presley have made attempts to find Sgt Porter's family. They thought they had come across the family in Georgia, but that was another Porter boy. This my friend, Bill, is the family of that young boy that died so needlessly so long ago. Enjoy.
And this is as close to a photo of Sgt Porter as I could get. It is a photo of the marker for his grave. But for the brave, we would not be free.
A little remembrance of the Korean War service men…
would be nice this Memorial Day weekend. The men listed below are just some of the brave men from the Shoals area and surrounding areas that gave so that we and others might be free. They are among the many of:
|John Slater
There are heroes amongst us…
and often they live a quiet life without fanfare. Sometimes they get upset at using the term 'hero' in connection with their names, but how better to honor them?
On this Memorial Day weekend, we need to take time to reflect on those who have served our nation is valiantly. And to give credit where it is due. Have you ever heard of the surname Cottingham? My mother said they always pronounced it Cotten-gim, as opposed to how I have heard it spoken all my life. The Cottingham's of our family lines have a long and storied history. But a couple of generations ago they were located in Lawrence County, Alabama. Many of them and their kin remain in Lawrence County, Alabama. My Peebles' family line is intertwined with the Cottingham family on many levels, but one will be highlighted in this writing and that will be the family of Edgar and Lena Cottingham.
We are double kin to that family. Edgar Cottingham was the son of Pearlie C and Roman Cottingham. Pearlie Catherine Cottingham nee Tolbert was my grandmother's sister. Lena Cottingham nee Peebles and was my grandfather's sister. It is confusing I know and a family chart would have to be consulted regularly to keep the family lines straight. So this hero is especially interesting because family ties to him are through both our Tolbert and our Peebles lines.
Our hero of mention here, is J B Levert Cottingham. You have never heard of him you say? Perhaps you have heard of the actor Gregory Peck? Well in the war movie Pork Chop Hill, Gregory Peck
portrayed the role of J B Levert Cottingham and he did a wonderful job through the visual arts of showing us just what a hero our J B Levert Cottingham was. It is very fitting to document him on this day to honor the fallen and dead heroes of our wars.
J B Cottingham was born 22 April 1929 to Edgar and Lena Cottingham in Lawrence County, Alabama. He died without fanfare on 28 February 1998. His obituary stated simply, "He was a US Army veteran of the Korean War, where he received the Purple Heart Medals for his service in the Battle of Porkchop Hill, and he was a retired sheetmetal worker." That is not much fanfare for someone so brave, so heroic, and so famous that he would be portrayed in a famous war movie by Gregory Peck.
Pork Chop Hill was based on the eyewitness essays of ex-soldier S. L. A. Marshall. The film is set during the Korean "police action." While diplomats argue pointlessly over the shape of the negotiation tables at Panmunjon, United Nations troops bleed and die. Lieutenant Gregory Peck leads a 135-man unit on the attack of the Chinese-held Pork Chop Hill. When reinforcements finally arrive, only 25 of Peck's men survive. There is a three and half hour documentary on some of the heroes of Porkchop Hill entitled "Men of Truth and Courage in a Forgotten War: The 17th Infantry in Korea," produced by Legal Eagle Productions; there are excerpts from that documentary on YouTube.
An account of the battle in Military Magazine reads as follows:
Korean War: Battle on Pork Chop Hill
Officially it was designated Hill 255, but its contour lines on a map of Korea and a 1959 film made it world famous as Pork Chop Hill. Based on a book by military historian S.L.A. Marshall, the movie dealt only with the penultimate, two-day battle for Pork Chop Hill in April 1953. In actuality, that hill claimed the lives of soldiers from the United States, Thailand, Colombia, the Republic of Korea (ROK) and China in an ongoing struggle that lasted longer than on any other single battlefield in Korea.
After Communist North Korean forces invaded South Korea on June 25, 1950, the war raged up and down the peninsula several times as the United States, the United Nations (U.N.) and finally Communist China sent ground forces there. By July 1952, however, both sides had constructed such strong defensive lines that neither could undertake a major offensive without suffering unacceptable losses. In 1952, North Korea and China had 290,000 men on the front lines and another 600,000 in reserve. The U.N. countered with 250,000 troops on the line, backed by 450,000 reserves.
While the two sides engaged in tedious, often exasperating truce negotiations at Panmunjom, their soldiers huddled in trench systems resembling those of World War I. The constant patrolling and artillery duels seldom made headlines at home. But occasionally battles for outposts such as Heartbreak Ridge, the Punchbowl, Capitol Hill and the Hook drew media attention, giving them propaganda value at the talks.
Much of the focus on Pork Chop Hill was a result of Communist political structure. At that time, Marshal Peng Dehuai commanded the Chinese People's Volunteer Forces in Korea, taking his orders from the Central Military Commission (CMC), of which Mao Tse-tung was chairman, and Mao's foreign minister, Zhou Enlai, vice chairman. Peng's lieutenants often had multiple responsibilities. For example, Peng's deputy, General Deng Hua, was also commander of the 13th Field Army and a delegate at the peace talks. Li Kenong, chief of military intelligence for the CMC, was also vice minister of foreign affairs, chief of the Military Intelligence Department of the People's Liberation Army, and headed the Chinese delegation at Panmunjom. Because of Li's ministry and intelligence positions, he had his government's authority to coordinate armistice talks and battlefield strategy. Consequently, whenever negotiations reached critical stages, the Chinese military was used to test the U.N.'s will on the battlefield. As the action raged around relatively unimportant outposts, the battles themselves took on political and propaganda significance far beyond their military value.
In May 1952, Maj. Gen. David Ruffner took command of the 45th Infantry Division, holding the right flank of the I Corps' line in west-central Korea, facing the 39th Army of the Chinese 13th Field Army. Wishing to take the high ground in front of his division's main line of resistance (MLR), Ruffner and his staff developed a plan to seize a dozen forward hills, stretching from northeast to southwest. The last two in the southwest, Pork Chop and Old Baldy (Hill 266), were held by the Chinese 116th Division.
On June 6 and 7, the 279th Infantry Regiment seized the six northern hills, while the 180th Infantry advanced on the six southern ones. Company I of the 180th took Pork Chop after a one-hour firefight and immediately fortified the position. The Chinese 346th, 347th and 348th regiments counterattacked over the next several days, but I Company, with artillery support, held them off. Ruffner had extended the 45th Division's line to provide a breakwater for his MLR, with Port Chop Hill, partially protected from Old Baldy, providing a vital part of the buffer.
The 2nd Infantry Division replaced the 45th in the fall of 1952, and its 9th Regiment was assigned to Pork Chop and Old Baldy. In October the Thai 21st Infantry Regiment occupied Pork Chop and managed to beat back assaults by elements of the Chinese 39th Army in November. When the 7th Infantry Division replaced the 2nd, troops of its 31st Regiment occupying Hill 255 found words written on the bunker walls by the departing Thais: 'Take good care of our Pork Chop.'
In the late winter of 1953, General Deng argued that Chinese forces should adopt a retaliatory (zhenfeng xiangdui) strategy rather than remain on the defensive. The CMC endorsed his idea, and Marshal Peng moved the 23rd and 47th armies into line near Pork Chop Hill. On March 1, 1953, Chinese artillery opened an 8,000-round artillery barrage. Then, on the night of March 23, elements of the Chinese 67th Division of the 23rd Army and the 47th Army's 141st Division launched simultaneous ground assaults on Old Baldy, Pork Chop and Hill 191.
'On March 23rd, we ran a 50-man patrol along the perimeter of Pork Chop,' recalled Corporal Joe Scheuber of I Company, 31st Infantry. 'We just got into our foxholes on the finger of Pork Chop when enemy mortar and artillery hit us. To our right, more incoming rounds. Then we saw Chinese behind us and realized we were surrounded. We fell back to the trench line at the top of the hill, but the Chinese had reached it first. Hand-to-hand fighting broke out. There was a tremendous amount of noise. I got nicked in the arm and my helmet got shot off. I worked my way down the hill, killing a Chinese soldier with a grenade. I ended up in a shell hole the remainder of the night, as the enemy artillery lasted most of the night. When dawn broke, I was found by another unit from I Company as they pushed the Chinese off the hill.' The Chinese drove the defenders back 800 yards. Just after midnight, however, two companies from the 7th Division reserve counterattacked and recovered Pork Chop by morning.
The 1st Battalion of the Chinese 141st Division, commanded by Hou Yung-chun, was selected to assault Old Baldy. The unit's political officer hand picked the 3rd Company to lead the attack and plant the 'Victory Flag' on the hill. Facing the Chinese was the recently arrived and inexperienced Colombian 3rd Battalion. Supported by heavy artillery fire, the Chinese penetrated the U.N. position at about 2100 hours. Although the Colombians were reinforced by an American company, it was not enough to prevent them from having to fall back. Kao Yung-ho, a young soldier in the 3rd Company, declared, 'This victory is to our company commander's credit.'
'When the Chinese seized Old Baldy there was good military logic to abandon Pork Chop,' S.L.A. Marshall wrote. 'That concession would have been in the interest of line-straightening without sacrifice of a dependable anchor. But national pride, bruised by the loss of Old Baldy, asserted itself, and Pork Chop was held.'
A lull fell over the area while the Chinese 47th Army was resupplied for its next objective — Pork Chop. Back in the United States, the press lambasted the 7th Division for the loss of Old Baldy and described the division as weary, slipshod and demoralized. Unwittingly, the American press supplied the Chinese with a propaganda tool — during the April and July fighting, 7th Division troops would hear those same caustic criticisms loosed at them from Chinese loudspeakers.
In April 1953, two platoons of E Company, 31st Regiment of the 7th Division, both under the command of 1st Lt. Thomas V. Harrold, garrisoned Pork Chop. The total strength within the perimeter came to 96 men, including attached artillery, engineer and medical personnel. The 1st and 3rd platoons mustered only 76 riflemen, and 20 of them were stationed at listening points outside the perimeter. Easy Company normally had twice that many, but it had begun its rotation out of the sector.
The bunkers and trenches had been engineered according to the then-conventional pattern of the Eighth Army. As Marshall described it: 'A solidly revetted rifle trench encircled it at the military crest, providing wall and some roof cover, which served for defense in any direction. Sandbagged and heavily timbered, fire-slotted bunkers were tied into the trench line at approximately 30-yard intervals. They gave troops protection while affording observation and command of the slope.' The natural terrain, however, divided the two platoons, because Pork Chop was pushed in like the dent in a hat.
General Deng's plan to assault Pork Chop had been endorsed by the CMC on April 3, but Mao intervened, delaying the operation until the peace talks stalled. In that same month, the negotiators at Panmunjom agreed to exchange their sickest POWs, an operation called Little Switch. At that point, however, the Chinese political leadership wanted to show the U.N. that its cooperation did not reflect an unwillingness to fight. Deng was therefore authorized to attack Pork Chop Hill before April 20, when Little Switch was slated to begin.
At 2000 hours on April 16 a patrol from the 31st Infantry, consisting of 10 soldiers from Fox Company and five from Easy, advanced to within 100 yards of the shallow stream at the valley bottom and set up an ambush. At about 2300, some 50 Chinese soldiers approached from Hasakkol. Sergeant Henry W. Pidgeon of Fox Company flung grenades at them, thereby striking the first blow in the Battle of Pork Chop Hill. He then ordered the patrol back, but Easy Company's mortars, firing at the advancing Chinese, cut off the American patrol. A few individuals filtered back into the trenches at 0445, but most of the patrol remained on the slope until 1900 the next evening.
The advance patrol's encounter failed to raise alarm among Pork Chop's defenders, and two full companies of Chinese infantry reached the ramparts before anyone knew of their presence. Slipping past the listening posts, the Chinese assaulted the 1st Platoon's sector on the Pork Chop's left flank. Sergeant 1st Class Carl Pratt and his 1st Platoon troops could hear the enemy but remained in their bunkers because of Chinese shelling. The 3rd Platoon, separated from it by terrain, was unaware of the 1st Platoon's situation or of the growing danger it was in.
At his command post (CP) at the far end of the perimeter, Lieutenant Harrold evaluated the situation. There had been increased Chinese shelling, contact had been lost with the outposts and 1st Platoon, and the volume of submachine gun fire had increased in the 1st Platoon's sector. Sensing that Easy Company was in big trouble, he fired a red star rocket, signifying 'We are under full attack,' and a red star cluster, signaling 'Give us flash Pork Chop.' At 2305, the lights came on all over the hill, and two minutes later American artillery opened fire, to be answered by the Chinese batteries. Twenty minutes later, the firing ceased and members of Easy Company emerged from their bunkers. They found the Chinese in the trenches, and firefights broke out throughout the perimeter.
Although the Chinese had infiltrated the defensive works, the command post, then held by Harrold, two other officers and two NCOs, prevented them from securing the rear slope or barring reinforcements from coming up. Other than the CP blocking Pork Chop's back door, the hill's defense was without a linchpin. The 3rd Platoon was pinned in the bunkers, while only six wounded soldiers remained of the 1st Platoon. By systematically killing the occupants and capturing the bunkers, the Chinese, aided by additional reinforcements, secured most of the hill by two hours after midnight.
Harrold relayed what he knew through his battalion command to the 31st Infantry's commander, Colonel William B. Kern. One hour after the fighting began, three rifle platoons of L Company had been trucked forward, in case the Chinese overran Pork Chop. Shortly after 0200, Kern ordered one platoon from Fox Company and one from Love Company to reinforce Easy Company. The Fox platoon became lost and never arrived. Second Lieutenant Earle L. Denton was leading Love's 3rd Platoon from Hill 200 to Pork Chop when, about 50 yards from the chow bunker, two machine guns opened fire and brought down six of his men. After a second burst of Chinese gunfire, Denton decided to pull back.
Returning to Love's CP with only 12 men, Denton reported to the company commander, 1st Lt. Forrest James Crittendon, that the 3rd Platoon's attack had failed. The battalion commander, Lt. Col. John N. Davis, ordered King and Love companies to counterattack at dawn. Love would launch its second assault with only two platoons and, incredibly, never learned that it was to be part of a joint operation with King.
King Company's 135 troops were stationed behind Hill 347. At 0330, they were ordered into an attack position behind Hill 200. Minus the weapons platoon, each soldier carried a full belt, extra bandolier and three more grenades than usual. The six Browning Automatic Rifle (BAR) men in each platoon carried 12 magazines, and each light machine-gun team carried five boxes of ammunition. Each platoon also carried a flame-thrower and a heavy rocket launcher. Colonel Davis suggested that King attack Pork Chop's rear slope with two platoons abreast and hold one in reserve. King Company's commander, 1st Lt. Joseph G. Clemons, Jr., understood that King would receive support from Love, which would attack up the ridge finger on Pork Chop's right. 'Hit the hill hard and get to the top as fast as the men can go,' Clemons told his platoons' leaders. 'Success depends on speed; we must close before daylight.'
With the 2nd Platoon deployed on the right, the 1st on the left and the 3rd in reserve, King Company reached the assault line. At 0430 the artillery barrage lifted and King stepped off. Although they were not fired on, it took King's men 29 minutes to travel the 170 yards to the nearest bunker. 'We managed to get over the first line of barbed wire through holes cut by shellfire and by walking on bodies of men lying on the wire to hold it down,' said Sergeant Samuel K. Maxwell, a K Company medic who had been on the hill back on March 23. 'Pork Chop was steep. We were heavily loaded with ammo for our weapons and the MGs, as well as the boxes of grenades. The steep climb had us pooped. We got within grenade range in small groups to begin grenading our way down the main trench, clearing out the Chinese.' Just as the first man entered the defensive works at 0500, the Chinese artillery struck.
As the battle entered its second round, Love Company had launched its second attack about the same time as King, but met a Chinese barrage more intense than the earlier one. Both of its platoons were crushed and sent tumbling back to Hill 200, leaving King Company on its own.
Sergeant 1st Class Walter Kuzmick's squad of King Company's 2nd Platoon encountered its first fire at the chow bunker just below the main trench. Kuzmick reached the main trench at 0520 and pushed his men along it toward the CP. Second Lieutenant Robert S. Cook, the 2nd Platoon's commander, reached the CP first and called Kuzmick forward. As Kuzmick rushed the bunker, grenade in hand, a lieutenant of Easy Company sprang out the door, also brandishing a grenade. Both men froze. Just then, Clemons appeared, stunned to find any Easy Company men left on the hill. Before anyone could move, three shells of undetermined origin hit the bunker. Cook, the Easy Company officer and several King Company men were wounded, but the Easy Company survivors inside were unharmed.
While weary King Company settled into the trenches and Love regrouped on Hill 200, fresh forces from the Chinese 141st Division moved toward Pork Chop. 'Pork Chop was a maze, a rat's nest of bunkers, line and commo trenches, shell holes and rock clumps,' Sergeant Maxwell said. 'The Chinese kept feeding fresh troops into their counterattacks. The survivors of the previous attacks would then come out of cover and join them. We fought with the men we had. Every hour, we numbered less.'
Clemons did not have enough men to take the hill by storm, so he and his executive officer, 1st Lt. Tsugi O'Hashi, returned to the chow bunker to sort things out. Clemons, guessing that he had lost half of his men and that the rest were low on ammunition, decided to bring up the 3rd Platoon.
By 0745, King Company had not advanced more than 200 yards in two hours, and the Chinese still held bunkers along two-thirds of the trench line. Feeling that his men were stretched to the breaking point, Clemons waited for help. It came in the form of 12 men from Love Company.
Crittendon had pushed 62 men of the regrouped Love Company back up the right-hand finger. On the way up, Crittendon was hit, along with the next company commander, 2nd Lt. Homer F. Bechtel. Command fell to 2nd Lt. Arthur Marshall, who led Love on through a buzz saw of artillery and machine-gun fire. By the time Marshall reached Clemons' position, he had 12 men left, including Lieutenant Denton.
The total of 65 Americans on Pork Chop — survivors of Easy, King and Love companies — was about the same number as Easy Company had had at the start of the battle. At 0814, more reinforcements arrived in the form of G Company, 17th Infantry, commanded by Clemons' brother-in-law, 1st Lt. Walter B. Russell. At the same time, however, a fresh Chinese company arrived at the other side of the hill's ridge and fighting blazed anew. At 1100 Clemons radioed his battalion, 'I must have water, plasma, more medical assistance, flamethrowers, litter, ammunition, several radios.' Only a little water and C rations arrived.
At noon, 1st Lt. James Blake, the battalion intelligence officer, entered Clemons' CP with a message from Colonel Davis, ordering him to send survivors of Easy and Fox to the rear, and for George Company to withdraw at 1500. 'When they go out,' Clemons told Blake, 'it is not reasonable to expect that we can hold the hill.' Battalion did not respond to his message. Clemons' and Russell's men held on for the next few hours, but at 1445 Clemons sent another message to Battalion: 'We must have help or we can't hold the hill.' This time Colonel Kern responded by calling division headquarters and urging either relief or reinforcements for Pork Chop.
The 7th Division faced a more complex issue regarding the hill. If it fell, the Chinese could strike next at Hill 347, which could turn into a bloody, battalion-per-day meat grinder like Triangle Hill, an objective that had ended up in Chinese hands by the end of October 1952. The division asked for a decision from I Corps, which asked the Eighth Army, which asked Far East Command. The Eighth Army wanted to weigh how many men it was prepared to lose against the importance of preventing the Chinese from flaunting a victory at Panmunjom. While the high command debated the issue, the 7th Division commander, Maj. Gen. Arthur G. Trudeau, and his aide-de-camp, Brig. Gen. Derrill M. Daniel, helicoptered to Davis' regimental CP to get a clearer view of King. They arrived at 1500, just as George Company withdrew from the hill.
By then, King Company had suffered 18 men killed and 71 wounded. 'We were down to 25 men, including a few men from Love Company,' Sergeant Maxwell recalled. 'With no reinforcements in sight, Lt. Clemons grouped us onto a high hill knob on Pork Chop where we might hold out. Somehow we held the rest of the day into the night.' Troops also manned two bunkers at the top of the crest, and Clemons remained in the CP with the radio while O'Hashi and Kuzmick directed the troops. In preparation for a night attack, the Chinese shelled the American positions for four hours.
At 1640, Clemons reported to the regiment: 'We have about 20 men left still unhurt. If we can't be relieved, we should be withdrawn.' General Trudeau, who was present when the message came in, decided to hold the hill. He got official backing from the Eighth Army, because of its linkage to the talks at Panmunjom. Trudeau attached the 17th Infantry Regiment's 2nd Battalion to the 31st Infantry and moved the 17th's 1st Battalion into the support area of Pork Chop Hill.
Colonel Kern immediately ordered Captain King of Fox Company to move onto Pork Chop and relieve Clemons' force as soon as possible. Fox's troops arrived at 2130 and deployed into the trenches with the remnants of King and Love companies. At the same time, a Chinese force attacked from Hasakkol. American artillery scattered the Chinese, but they responded with a barrage of their own, killing 19 men of Fox Company.
With Fox Company bloodied and exhausted, Kern committed Easy Company of the 17th Infantry, while Trudeau released that regiment's 1st Battalion to Kern, just in case. Easy's commander, 1st Lt. Gorman Smith, moved his company around the right finger of Pork Chop and marched directly up its face — the Chinese side — hoping to catch them off guard.
Inside the American CP on the hill were Clemons, Denton, King and 14 enlisted men. At midnight, when Chinese fire let up, Clemons pulled his survivors off the hill. 'About 2200, Fox Company of the 31st counterattacked and reached us,' Maxwell said. "King' was relieved at 2400. We made our way one by one in the gaps between Chinese artillery salvos to the foot of Pork Chop. Here, 20 hours earlier were 135 men in nine 6-by-6 trucks. Now, the seven of us sat in a one-ton weapons carrier. On leaving Fox Company, one of their medics had asked me to leave my med kit with him. I showed him it was empty. I had used every item I had carried up that hill. King Company would need 150 replacements before it could fight again as a full-strength rifle company.' Denton remained at the CP, because Captain King requested further help.
About 0130, the Chinese attacked again, swarming around the CP and lobbing grenades into the bunkers. The Americans were wounded, but held on. Denton called for fire directly onto the bunker's roof. Fire from quadruple .50-caliber machine gun mounts swept the roof of Chinese. As the enemy launched another assault, Denton and his men knew that this time they would be overwhelmed. Chinese fire intensified. Then, suddenly, there was silence, followed by the crack of rifle fire as Easy Company of the 17th Infantry arrived. Driven from the crest, some Chinese scampered back across the valley, while others took refuge in the outline trench works. Evaluating Gorman Smith's risky maneuver in retrospect, S.L.A. Marshall wrote that 'For the embattled group within the Pork Chop CP, the minutes thus saved by one man's intuition and hard work were as decisive as a last-minute reprieve to the condemned.'
Easy Company's assault was the pivotal event in the battle for Pork Chop, but it did not end the fighting. By 0230, Easy was deployed over the trench works, and the Chinese launched company-size assaults at 0320 and 0429. At dawn, Kern committed A Company of the 17th to the struggle, and throughout April 17 the three American companies reoccupied the trench system, using small arms, grenades and bayonets, finally crisscrossing the peak and taking control of the hill. Denton and a few diehards of Love Company remained on the hill until midafternoon.
In the early morning of April 18, more troops from the Chinese 141st Division assaulted the hill again, but after a bloody close-quarters fight they were driven back by an arriving company of American reinforcements. At dusk, the Chinese finally conceded the fight and withdrew to their side of the valley.
Marshall called Pork Chop Hill 'an artillery duel,' noting that the nine artillery battalions of the 2nd and 7th divisions had fired 37,655 rounds on the first day and 77,349 rounds on the second. 'Never at Verdun were guns worked at any such rate as this,' he wrote. 'The battle of Kwajalein, our most intense shoot during World War II, was still a lesser thing when measured in terms of artillery expenditure per hour, weight of metal against yards of earth and the grand output of the guns. For this at least the operation deserves a place in history. It set the all-time mark for artillery effort.'
Pork Chop became a well-publicized battle and therefore an important bargaining chip at the peace table. In June 1953, Marshal Peng provided General Deng with a fresh unit, the First Army, consisting of the 1st, 2nd and 7th divisions, to relieve the 47th Army. On July 6, the Chinese command decided to make another attempt to take Hill 255. A few days earlier, the Communist and U.N. delegates had reached a tentative ceasefire agreement, but South Korean leader Syngman Rhee had balked at the settlement. The Chinese meant the attack on Pork Chop to chastise the Americans for failing to keep Rhee reined in.
'The Chinese were on their loudspeakers telling us to surrender,' recalled Angelo Palermo, a 21-year-old private in Able Company, 17th Infantry. 'If we did not, they said, we were all going to die. They announced that they were going to take Porkchop and that they would take no prisoners. On the night of July 6, as it started to get dark, the Chinese attacked in force. I was on a .50-caliber machine gun when they started to swarm up the hill. I could have sworn that all of China was on that slope. With enough firepower, we could have killed a thousand gooks, but we hadn't nearly enough ammunition to turn back this kind of attack. We fired the .50 until we ran out of ammo, and by that time the Chinese were in our trenchline, so we fought them with rifle butts, bayonets, and even fists and helmets. They were pushing us back, but before we were driven off the hill, Baker Company came up to help us. However, the sheer numbers of Chinese drove us off the top of Porkchop.'
The Americans sent in successive companies of reinforcements, and the Chinese matched each one with an additional battalion. The 17th Infantry gained and lost Pork Chop twice in four days.
'General Trudeau came up on an inspection and told us that Porkchop had to be held at all costs,' wrote Private Palermo.'I thought generals only talked like that in movies, but apparently I was mistaken.'
Trudeau organized a counterattack force from the reconnaissance battalion and personally led it up the hill. For that exemplary action, he was awarded the Silver Star. S.L.A. Marshall also noted that the much-maligned 7th, the only U.S. Army division to fight a major battle in 1953, 'acquitted itself with the highest credit.'
By July 11, five American battalions held a company-size outpost against a full Chinese division. On that same day, however, General Taylor, I Corps and the 7th Division ordered the hill abandoned. Taylor wrote in his book Swords and Plowshares, 'The cost of continuing to defend Pork Chop became so prohibitive under the massed Chinese attacks that I authorized its evacuation.'
Korea and Vietnam War veteran Colonel Harry G. Summers wrote more critically of his rationale: 'Ever the politician (as he would prove to be again in the Vietnam War), General Taylor had made his decision based on his perception of American public and political reactions to the high number of U.S. casualties.' Marshal Peng praised the outcome as 'an example of how Chinese forces effectively employed the 'new tactic' of active defense in positional warfare.'
The British, who fought a similar battle at the Hook, thought the struggle for Pork Chop was foolish. Asked what he would have done to recapture Hill 255, Maj. Gen. Mike West, commander of the Commonwealth Division, answered: 'Nothing. It was only an outpost.'
With the final signing of the armistice agreement at Panmunjom on July 27, 1953, Pork Chop Hill became part of the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea. It has since become a symbol, both positive and negative, of a controversial war. In his book The Korean War, Max Hastings summed up both by writing: 'The struggle for Pork Chop became part of the legend of the U.S. Army in Korea, reflecting the courage of the defenders and the tactical futility of so many small-unit actions of the kind that dominated the last two years of the war.'
This article was written by James I. Marino and originally published in the April 2003 issue of Military History magazine.
A comment attached to the article above is written thusly:
On 11 July 1953, a mission was organized to "booby trap and mine" the bunker complex on Pork Chop Hill, after a decision by Eight Army Command in Seoul to withdraw from the outpost. This mission was carried out by a twenty-two man detail led by 1st Lt. David L Bills, who was then considered a "booby trap" expert. The detail was comprised of men from "D" and "H&S" Company 13th Combat Engineers.
Based on a coversation I had with A Company Commander, 13th Combat Engineers, Capt. James Brettell, he told me that "he never expected to see these men again" because of the overwhelming enemy presence on the hill. In addition, the book "On Hallowed Ground, The last battles for Pork Chop Hill" by Bill McWilliams, it stated that this was considered a \suicide mission\ by others in command at the time.
The goal was to move out on this besieged hill, to place nuisance mines and booby traps throughout the fortifications that would inflict causalities and harass the enemy as he moved about the trenches and bunkers. This work was done while under direct enemy small arms fire and exploding enemy hand grenades. They were continually under intense artillery and mortar fire throughout their job, and much of the work was done in total darkness. They worked until the last group of friendly forces evacuated the position. This heroic action took place between 1630 and 1930 hours.
All these men returned back to their lines without any casualties. They accomplished their mission and on the next morning according to officers attending a meeting with the Commanding General of the 7th Inf. Div., one of the chemical delayed high explosive devices could be heard exploding in the area of the command bunker on Pork Chop Hill as planned.
The men listed below all received the Bronze Star w/ V Device for valor during this mission.
1st Lt Thoralf M. Sundt
1st Lt David L. Bills
1st Lt Harry H Gordon
Sgt John D. Davin
Sgt James L. Halter
Cpl John E Sheppard Jr
Pfc Dennis F. Koudelka
Pfc Gene N. Siefken
Pvt Curtis L. Mcgee Jr.
Cpl Clyde Collingsworth
Pfc Francis S. Grems
Sgt Anthony F. Novak
Pfc William (Unknown, last name not legible)
Cpl Hilton A. Guzman
Cpl Ivan S.C. James Jr.
Pvt Donald W. Johnstone
Pfc Willie Doonkeen
Pfc Sigifredo Ortiz
Pvt J.B. Cottingham
Pfc Donald G. McElroy
Pfc Donald G. McElroy
Pfc Orville J. Leigh
I have shared this information in order to give recognition to these men and their act of heroism, which sometimes seems to get lost in the larger scheme of things.
Any corrections or additions to this article would be appreciated. If I recall correctly, some of J B's family lives in the Grassy community of Lauderdale County. There is still a lot of family in Lawrence County, Alabama including siblings. J B Levert Cottingham's obituary text follows:
J. B. Levert Cottingham Funeral for J B Levert Cottingham, 68, of Courtland will be Tuesday at 2 p.m. at Courtland Baptist Church with the Rev A G Simmons and the Rev Homer Jones officiating. Burial will be in Courtland Cemetery with Parkway Funeral Home directing. The family will receive friends tonight from 6 to 9 at the funeral home. The body will be at the church one hour before the service.Mr Cottingham died Saturday, Feb 28, 1998, at Huntsville Hospital East. He was born April 22, 1929, in Lawrence County to Edgar and Lena Cottingham. He was a US Army veteran of the Korean War, where he received the Purple Heart Medals for his service in the Battle of Porkchop Hill, and he was a retired sheetmetal worker. He was the widower of Shirley Cottingham.He is survived by three sons, Tony Cottingham of Decatur, Gary Cottingham of Louisville, Ky and Keith Cottingham of Courtland; four daughters, Terry Ann Goodwin of Hillsboro, Gerry Nell Cottingham and G G Goodwin, both of Courtland, and Scarlet Givens of Moulton; four brothers, Jimmy Cottingham of Hillsboro, William Cottingham of Decatur and Paul Cottingham and Kenneth Cottingham, both of Courtland; five sisters, Lillian Terry, Jewel Krout, Dimple Todaro and Doris Cottingham, all of Courtland, and Maggie Harris of Stockton, Calif; and 10 grandchildren.Pallbearers will be Randy Williams, Charles Krout, Donnie Cottingham, Jimmy Gwen Cottingham, Judson Pitt and Anthony Hutto.
DECATUR DAILY – March 2, 1998
This is a 1930s photo of the WMSD radio station tower located in Sheffield, Colbert County, Alabama.
Oh, how we long to know our roots…
and where we came from. Marie Purdy Myrick and Tim Purdy have a nice surprise coming their way. She posted on Facebook that showed up in our newsfeed page with a request for help with her family history. And we can help a little.
We traced back as far as Francis Purdy. Francis Purdy had a son named Ebenezer Purdy whose son was James Purdy. James Purdy married Phebe Purdy (Peter , Francis 3-2-1) a cousin. James was born 1750 in Westchester County, New York. He first removed to Dutchess and then to Chenango County, New York. The migration of the family followed along these lines: Canada>New York>Michigan>Washington state. James Purdy had a son named Stephen Purdy.
The lineage then follows that Stephen Purdy had a song named Josiah Purdy. Josiah's parents were Stephen Purdy born 1788 and Sally whose last name remains unknown.
Josiah Purdy was born 1806 and married Rachel Diantha Hartwell who was sister of Colonel Samuel Hartwell who had married Phebe Purdy, an aunt of Josiah's. They lived at Georgetown, Hamilton Township, Dutchess County, New York. Josiah had a brother named Nelson Purdy who lived at Cleveland Ohio. There was also a sister named Sally born 1813 and there must have been other siblings. Further research will be needed by the family.
If research took us along the right path Josiah had the following children: Horace born 1835, Lavinia born 1839, Egbert Francis born 1841, Lucretia born 1844, Preston born 1846, Loren born 1849 and Arminia Alice born 1851.
Josiah Purdy had a son named Preston Purdy, likely Preston C Purdy. Preston C Purdy married Sarah Elizabeth Singer. The photo is of Sarah Singer Purdy. Sarah Singer's parents were Job Singer and Huldah Randal
Palmer. Josiah and Sarah Purdy had one child, Orren Jay Purdy. Sarah married second to Jerome Bonaparte Hath and had a number of children, seven if the count is right; six boys and one girl. Preston married a second time to Eurista or Eulista Lapham and had a family of children.
Orren Jay Purdy married Annie Nettie Scott whose parents were Willard and Jennie Scott. By 1930 Orren was a widower. Orren served honorably in the Spanish American War [one record has him listed as a civil war solder, but that is not possible because he was not born until 16 May 1882 although another birthdate is noted. He was born in Red Willow County, Nebraska. He served as a Private in Co B, 30th Regiment of US Volunteer Infantry. Orren J Purdy died i18 Nov 1954 and is buried at Oak Hill Cemetery in Owosso, Michigan. Orren Purdy may have had more children, but he did have a son named Esley Truman Purdy
Annie Nettie Scott Purdy apparently had three husbands. First was husband Orren Jay Purdy. They had the one son, Truman Esley Purdy. The second marriage was to Albert Anthony Lepard who was born ca 1868. The children from that marriage were Charles Lepard 1910 and Warren Eugene Lepart 1911-1987. The third marriage was to Edward F Gruebner born ca 1888. Their children were Max F Gruebner born ca 1920, Earl W Gruebner born ca 1922, and Betty Jane Gruebner born ca 1927.
Esley Truman Purdy was born about 1905 in Genesee County, Michigan and died 11 Oct 1956 in Seattle, King County, Washington.
E T Purdy was an employee or a member of the crew on several ship voyages. It appears that the voyages started in 1951 and ended in 1955. There was a number of them. Some are listed below.
Elsey Purdy was on the voyage from Seattle Washington that sailed 18 Oct 1951 and arrived at Yokohoma Japan 25 Nov 1951. On that voyage E T Purdy was employed for seven months as an Evap. Util. He can read, is 5″10″ and weighs 175 pounds. The ship was named the General Mason M Patrick.
He made a voyage from Yokohoma Japan to Seattle arriving in Seattle on 22 May 1952. The ship was named General Simon B Buckner and he was 46 years old.
He was on a voyage that departed from Pusan Korea and arrived in Seattle 5 July 1954. The ship was named Marine Adder; he was 47 years old.
He was on a voyage from Pusan, Lorea that arrived in Seattle 8 Jan 1955. The ship was named the Sergeant Archer T Gammon; he was 47.
Esley's wife was likely Letha Irene Fort. Esley Trumen Purdy died at age 51 on 11 Oct 1956 in Seattle, King County, Washington; his wife died three years later. Reports are that he was killed, whether by accident during a voyage or what is not known at this time. The only record found to date of a Serah Blood, who the family gives as his wife was for a Sarah May "Sadie" Blood who married a Ridenhour. Further research is recommended.
Their son Truman Esley Purdy is next in the family line, but there may be other children. He was born 20 Apr 1936 or 1933 in Michigan and died 23 Feb 2000 in Bessemer, Jefferson County, Alabama. He is buried in Oakwood Cemetery in Sheffield, Colbert County, Alabama. He married Mary Lena Kimbrough and there are at least two children: Tim Purdy and Marie Purdy Myrick of the Shoals area. The Veteran's Gravesites, ca. 1775-2006 record has the following information and birth year of 1933 instead of 1936:
|Truman Esley Purdy
|Service Info.:
|Birth Date:
|20 Apr 1933
|Death Date:
|23 Feb 2000
On the 1940 census record Esley was listed as four years old and in the household of his father and mother. They lived on Belsay Road in Flint, Genessee County, Michigan.
So many of the Shoals area know or will find out…
that at least some of their roots were planted firmly in southern Tennessee at some point in their ancestry. Lincoln County has many familiar names to many familiar family names in the Shoals area. This is a reprint of Godspeed's History for that county. See if you can find any of the names in your family tree. Use the command ctrl+F with your names and you may just be pleasantly surprised. I was surprised at just how many I found for my different family tree lines:
LINCOLN COUNTY is bounded on the north by the counties of Marshall, Bedford, and Moore; on the east by Moore and Franklin; on the south by the State of Alabama; and on the west by Giles County. It lies almost wholly within the central basin of Middle Tennessee. The geological situation of the county is about equally divided between the siliceous group of the lower Carboniferous formation, and the Nashville group of the Silurian formation. On the line of railroad may be seen large quantities of black shale, which is so impregnated with petroleum or bitumen that it will sustain for a month a fire when kindled on it. This black shale is also rich in sulphuret of iron, by the decomposition of which copperas and alum are formed. It easily disintegrates upon exposure and is valueless except for the manufacture of the salts mentioned. Many of the limestone rocks are but aggregations of fossil remains. A few miles east of Fayetteville is a quarry where a very fair article of reddish variegated marble is found. This marble is sometimes injured by particles of iron pyrites. The county is divided into two almost equal parts by the Elk River, with which its numerous tributaries affords it excellent water facilities. The streams which enter this river from the north are Bradshaw Creek, Swan Creek, Cane Creek, Norris Creek, Mulberry Creek, Roundtree Creek, Tucker Creek and Farris Creek. Those from the south are Shelton Creek, Duke Creek, Stewart Creek, Wells Creek, Coldwater Creek, and Kelley Creek. Between Elk River and the Alabama line is a belt of high land which is the watershed between Elk River and the Tennessee. This watershed embraces a strip about eight miles wide and includes nearly one-third of the county. It is an exceedingly level high plateau and is not well drained. The sub-soil a pale yellowish clay porous and leachy except in swamps where the clay is bluish. However, a few spots are found with a good red clay subsoil, and when this is found, lands are rated higher. No limestone is seen on this plateau and the main vegetation is wild growth.
The remainder of the county comprises spacious valleys, alternating with productive hills and ridges. Upon some of the hills however, the loose limestone lies in such abundance as to preclude cultivation. The valleys of Elk River and Cane Creek will average a mile in width, and the latter is probably fifteen miles long. The land in these two valleys is as productive as any in the State. Many knolls near Elk River are upraised alluvium. An abundance and a general variety of timber grows in the county. It is mainly of the following varieties: Linn, Buckeye, hickory, poplar, box elder, black walnut, wild cherry, black locust, chestnut, beech, gum, dogwood, ironwood, horn beam, sugar tree, hackberry, cedar and elm.
As early as 1784 land explorers passed through this section, and some surveys were made and grants issued prior to 1790. North Caroline grants for land in this country were issued to John Hodge, Robert Walker and Jesse Comb in 1793. There are also land grants recorded in the office of Lincoln County Register, bearing date of 1794, to the following persons: William Smith, Elizabeth W. Lewis, Ezekiel Norris, William Edmonson, Alexander Green, Thomas Perry, Thomas Edmonson, Mathew Buchanan, Mathew McClure, Andrew Green and John Steele. In the spring of 1806 James Bright, at the head of a surveying party, passed where Fayetteville now stands, striking Elk River near the mouth of Nelson Creek. He found a very rank growth of cane and occasionally discovered Indian trails. Near Fayetteville he found a deposit of periwinkle and muscle shells, giving evidence of an Indian village site, and by some it is supposed that this was the village in which De Soto camped through the winter of 1540-41: This supposition has recently been strengthened by the finding of a coin bearing the inscription of the Caesars.
It is impossible to tell who first settled within the present bounds of Lincoln County. The first settlers are now all in their graves and many have no descendants in the county.. In the fall of 1806 Ezekiel Norris settled on his grant of 1,280 acres of land at the mouth of Norris Creek, and this creek is all that now bears his name in the county. He was a shrewd man. Being led to donate 100 acres of land for the county seat under the false representation that other parties had made the same offer, he afterward sued the county and recovered $700 for the land. He was probably the first permanent white settler in the county.
James Bright also became a citizen of the county, and many deeds are recorded transferring land from him to other parties. For twenty-five years he was clerk of the circuit court and was clerk and master of the chancery court for a term of years. John Greer, a very wealthy man, settled near the mouth of Cane Creek on his large tract of land. He took interest in organizing the county and in conducting the public affairs afterward He was once general of the militia. He erected a valuable mill for those days on Elk River, two miles from Fayetteville.
Joseph Greer settled on his vast domain on Cane Creek near Petersburg. He was a giant in stature, standing six feet seven inches and well built proportionately. He was one of the forty gallant defenders of Watauga Station in 1769. He was also a hero of King s Mountain, and it was he who bore the news of that splendid victory to Congress, then sitting in Philadelphia. He dressed in the style of the old aristocratic Virginia gentleman. Thomas Leonard, Hugh M. Blake, Jesse Riggs, Peter Luna, James Blakemore, Capt. William Crunk and Ezekial March were also settlers on Cane Creek in the first and second decades of this century. Crunk and Blakemore were noted for their social qualities, and dances were frequent at their homes. On Swan Creek, N. G. Pinson, Joel Pinson and Wright Williams were prominent first cane cutters, and men who bore their share of the load in administering public affairs. In what is now embraced in the Twelfth and Thirteenth Civil Districts the first settlements were made by James McCormick, John Anderson, Henry Taylor and Richard Wyatt. On Norris Creek early homes were made by Fielden MacDaniel, Moses Hardin, William Edmonson, John Ray, George Cunningham, Samuel Todd, Isaac Congo, ____ Jenkins and ____ Parks. On Mulberry Creek were John J. Whittaker, a good and prominent man; John Morgan, grandfather of Hon. John M. Bright, Brice M. Garner, who soon removed to Fayetteville, and Gen. William Moore. Others were the several Whitakers, Hardy Holman, William Brown, Enoch Douthat, the Waggoners and Isaac Sebastian.
Other settlements on Norris Creek were made prior to 1810 by Ebenezer McEwen, Robert Higgins, Amos Small and Philip Fox. It is said that Davy Crockett also lived in the vicinity of the waters of Mulberry, in the eastern part of the county, in 1809-10.
In Fayetteville James Bright, who is mentioned above, was one of the most prominent first settlers. James Buchanan, Francis Porterfield, Brice M. Garner, John P. McConnell, Robert C. Kennedy, Benjamin Clements and many others, made up the first citizens of the town. Alexander Beard settled near Fayetteville, south of the river. He has a large body of land, but lost a great portion of it in confirming his title, which, among many other North Carolina grants, was contested. Philip Koonce settled between Shelton Creek and Duke Creek in 1807 or 1808, and near by him, on Shelton Creek, settled Henry Kelso, about the same time. Tunstall Gregory settled on the waters of Shelton Creek, and John Duke on Duke Creek. Michael, Rolinson was one of the first settlers on Coldwater Creek; but an old man, named Abbot, lived in that part of the county five years, before he knew any one else lived within one hundred miles of him, so says one who vouches for the truth of it. A great many settlements were made prior to 1810, on the waters of Coldwater, but names can not be obtained. A man named Peyton Wells was the first to make a home in the vicinity of Wells Hill. He kept a noted ordinary or tavern. A man named Harper was the first to settle on the branch that now bears his name. Joseph Dean and William Todd soon became his neighbors.
The southeastern part of the county was sparsely settled along in the twenties, but the barrenness of the soil has deterred many from locating there.
Many other settlers suffered privations and hardships, as well as those above given, but their names and places of settlement are lost to reliable tradition. In 1808 land entries were made by the following: Anthony Foster, Daniel Cherry, John Morgan, Benjamin Fitzrandolph and George Maxwell. Other land entries were made as follows : 1809– Adam Meek, William Richey, Robert Davis, Nicholas Perkins, John Richardson, Joseph Greer, Michael Robertson, W.P. Anderson, Oliver Williams, Nicholas Coonrod, Newton Cannon, Wright Morgan, Abram Maury, Stephen Holbert, Malcom Gilchrist, William Martin, Edward Bryans, Jacob Castleman, Nimrod Williams, Jesse Franklin, John Tesley, Daniel Kinley, Philip Phillips, Michael Campbell, Samuel Garland, William Townzen, Robert Bigham and Robert Tucker. 1810 — Armstead Stubblefield. Abner Wells, William Rountree, Lemuel Koonce, Thomas R. Butler, Francis Nichson, John Cunningham, William Edmiston, James Buchanan, Morris Shaw, Thomas Edmiston, John Alcorn, Robert Elliott, Robert Nelson, James Winchester and Thomas Hickman, 1811-12– Reuben Stuart, John Cone, Timothy Hunter, James Coats, Roger B. Sapington, Henry Rutherford. 1813-14 — Robert C. Kennedy, Robert Henry, Alexander Newberry, Brice M. Garner, John Coffman, Francis McCown, Mary Gray, David Cowen, Hugh Heartgrave, James McBride, Joseph Garner, Jeremiah Burks, Elyan Clements, Alden Tucker, Thomas Clark, Joel Butler, Daniel Read, William McGehee, Jesse George, Edward Harding, Samuel Ragsdale, Samuel Yager and Aaron Dutton. 1815-20 – William Dickson, Jr., Jesse Pugh, William Smith, Warren Calhoun, Lavis Pugh, John Russell, Andrew Greer, William Dickson, David McGlathery, Henry Rutherford, David Dodd, James Boyle, John Clark, George Price, Joseph Byers and Joseph Street.
Doubtless many others grants were issued, the records of which are lost. Many of the above persons settled here before obtaining their grants, and some who obtained grants did not permanently settle, and even some were speculators who never lived in the county. On account of the climate and the fertile soil settlers were attracted to Lincoln County, and in 1833 it had a population of 10,788 free white persons. Since then parts of the county have been formed into other counties. In 1880 the population was 26,960.
Among the oldest persons now living in the county and who have been in the county since its pioneer days, are Hon. John M. Bright, Rev. J. W. Holman and C.A. French of Fayetteville, and Hugh M. Blake and Joseph Gill of Petersburg . Early pioneers found it no trival matter to develop their farms and raise their families. Not only was farming to be developed, but milling, merchandising, schools and churches, all required attention. However, these people were happy in their condition, and various were their amusements. Fayetteville, Petersburg and Arnold s Grocery (now Smithland) were noted places for settlement of all grudges in pummelling fights. The lookers-on enjoyed this very much, and it was their duty to see fair play. No weapons or missiles were to be used, and it was not fair to bite. In Fayetteville was a grocery, in which fighting was such a common occurrence that it was known as the war office, Militia musters were big days for the people.
Grist-mills were erected on the creeks and on Elk River, and there were several horse-mills in the county. To these horse-mills each man took his own horse or horses, and hitched them to the sweep to turn the mill while his grist was grinding. The water-mills were more economical, that is, they needed no horse power.
Joel Yowell, an early citizen of Petersburg, had a large horse mill two miles from Petersburg, with a hand-bolting machine attached. Jesse Riggs and Thomas Leonard also had mills of this kind. Leonard and Yowell had wheat threshers attached to their mills, and Leonard also had a cotton-gin attached. However, threshing was mostly done by tramping it out.
In 1811 the county court granted Elias Lunsford permission to build a saw mill on Mulberry Creek. This mill was built the following year. In 1814 David ; . Monroe built a grist-mill on the west fort of Cane Creek. Francis Finchee built a grist-mill in 1815. In 1820 Nathaniel B Binkingham built a mill on Cane Creek on a tract of school land.
Taverns were numerous, and were situated in all parts of the county without regard to towns. Ephraim Parham, Vance Greer, William Cross, Brice M. Garner and John Kelley obtained tavern license in 1811. Collins Leonard, Jesse Riggs, Cornelius Slater, John D. Spain, John P. McConnell, Elisha Boyles, William Garrett, George Stobah, C. R. Milborn, David Cobb, Joseph Dean, John Parks, William Smith, Walter Kinnard, Enoch Douthat, John H. Zevilly, John Houston, John Parks, Thomas Rountree and William Mitchell were other tavern keepers in the teens. These taverns were also know as ordinaries, houses of entertainment , etc.
Elk River was crossed by means of ferries. Ezekiel Norris had one of the first ferries on the river. William P. Anderson established a ferry at the mouth of Farris Creek in 1820, and Andrew Hannah, in 1822, established one at Hannah Ford.
Produce was marketed by means of flat-boats carrying it out of Elk River and down to New Orleans, and by wagons to Nashville. The very earliest merchants obtained their goods mainly from Baltimore, and brought them here by wagons from that city. Estill & Garner were experienced flat-boatmen. They took out boats each years, and returned on foot from New Orleans. At first cotton was not raised here to any extent, and that article was obtained in Alabama and freighted by wagons. Scouting Indians frequented these first settlements, but very few depredations were committed by them. It is handed down by reliable tradition that three men, whose names were Taylor, Anderson and Reed were scalped by the Indians while out searching for a horse. Another incident occurred wherein the Indians forced their way into a house where a woman was making soap. The woman had secreted herself behind the door with a gourd full of boiling soap, and upon their entrance she anointed the dirty red-skins with telling effect, causing them to flee for cooler parts.
Lincoln County was created by an act of the Legislature in 1809. The following is the act so far as it relates to establishment of the county:
SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Tennessee, That Lincoln County shall be laid off and established within the following bounds, to wit: Beginning on the northeast corner of Giles County and extending south with the eastern boundary line of Giles County to the southern boundary line of the State; thence with that line east to a point due south of the mouth of the mouth of Cove Spring Creek; thence north to the southern boundary line of Bedford County, and thence, with the said line, westwardly, to the beginning.
Sec. 2. Be it enacted, that John Whitaker, Sr. Wright Williams, Eli Garret, Littleton Duty and Jesse Woodruff be, and they are hereby, appointed commissioners with full power to procure by purchase, or otherwise, 100 acres of land on or near the north bank of Elk River, as near the center of the county, east and west, as a proper situation will admit of, and at all events not more than two miles from said center.
Sec. 3. Be it enacted, that the said commissioners, immediately after procuring the aforesaid 100 acres of land, shall cause a town to be laid off thereon, reserving near the center thereof a public square of two acres, on which the court house and stocks shall be built, likewise reserving a lot in any other portion of said town for the purpose of erecting a jail; and the said town, when so laid off, shall be named Fayetteville.
Sec. 6. Be it enacted, that the court of pleas and quarter sessions, for the county of Lincoln shall be on the fourth Monday in the months of February, May, August and November annually, at the house of Brice M. Garret until a place is provided for holding the said court in the town of Fayetteville.
Sec. 11. Be it enacted, that the militia of the county shall compose the thirty-ninth Regiment and be attached to the Fifth Brigade.
Sec. 14. Be it enacted, that this act shall be in force from the first day of January, in the year one thousand eight hundred and ten.
The county thus established assumed the form of a rectangle in outline, but in 1835 a part of the territory now constituted in Marshall County was taken from the original Lincoln County, and in 1872 Moore County was created, embracing a part of Lincoln.
The first County court met Monday, February 26, 1810, at the house of Brice M. Garner, and the following men were qualified justices of the peace by Oliver Williams, Esq. of Williamson County: Thomas L. Trotter, Wright Williams, William Smith, John Whitaker, Sr. William Dickson, William Roundtree, Eli Garrett, Philip Koonce, Henry Kelso, Robert Higgins, Samuel Barns, Littleton Duty, James Stallard, Jesse Woodruff and Nathan G. Pinson. Philip Koonce was appointed chairman and Thomas H. Benton was made clerk pro tem., and entered the first minutes upon record. County officers were elected, an allowance of $1 each for wolf scalps was made, stock marks were recorded, constables were sworn in, justices were appointed to take the tax. etc. At this term 2,662 acres of taxable land were reported. Harvey Holman, Wright Williams, Littleton Duty, Eli Garrett and John Whitaler were appointed to locate the county seat. They bought 100 acres of land of Ezeckiel Norris and plated the town of Fayetteville.
At the May term William Allen was fined $3 for profane swearing, and the August term taxes laid as follows: 6 + cents on each 100 acres of land: 6 + cents on each poll {white and black}, and 12 + cents on each stallion. Ferriage rates across Elk River were established at the following: Wagon, team and driver, 50 cents; cart or other two-wheel carriage, 25 cents; man and horse, 6 + cents, footman, 6 + cents , and live stock 2 cents per head. Tavern rates were made: Good whisky per half pint, 12 + cents; good peach brandy, 12 +; good West India rum, 25 cents; good diet, 25 cents; good lodging, 6+ cents; good stableage with hay or fodder for 12 hours, 25 cents; good corn per gallon, 6+ cents. Brice M. Garner was allowed $15 for the use of his house for the holding of court, and $30 for furnishing county and record books. Jurors were allowed 50 cents each per day for service. At this term a man entered court with an ear bleeding from being bitten off in a fight. He had the incident recorded at length to avoid the imputation of having been cropped under the penal laws. The clerk charged the usual fee for recording a hog mark. At a term in 1811 two men were each fined $125 for not attending as witnesses in an important civil suit.
The county officers, so far as names and dates can be obtained, have been as follows: Sheriffs–Cornelius Slater, 1810; John Greer, 1812; Francis Porterfield, 1822, William Husband, 1826; Andrew Kincannon, 1828; Alfred Smith, 1833; William C. Blake, 1836; Constant Smith, 1840; William B. McLaughlin, 1844; E.G. Buchanan, 1847; Eli L. Hodge, 1848; James Hanks, 1852, W. M. Alexander, 1854; Moses Cruse, 1856; W. M. Alexander, 1858; Moses Cruse, 1860; William Moffett, 1862; John H. Steelman, 1864; William F. Taylor, 1866; C. S. Wilson, 1868; F. W. Keith, 1868; H. B. Morgan, 1870; W. A. Mallard, 1872; R. F. Holland, 1878; W. A. Cunningham, 1882; George W. Poindexter, 1884; Trustees– John Rhea, 1810; Ebenezer McEwen, 1816; William Neeld, 1826; Samuel E. Gilleland, 1828; E. M. Ringo, 1836; John J. Ramsay, 1838; Richard White, 1842; E. M. Ringo 1844; S. J. Isaacs, 1850; William B. Rhea, 1853; William Neeld, 1854; A. S. Randolph, 1858; William R. Smith, 1862; William P. Neeld, 1864; J. D. Scott, 1866; J. H. Carey, 1868; J. D. Scott, 1870; J. J. Cummins, 1872; H. C. Street, 1874; Henry Henderson, 1876-86. Registers– Samuel Barns, 1810; Cornelius Slater, 1816; Peter M. Ross, 1832; John Goodrich, 1836; Daniel J. Whittington, 1852; Peter Cunningham, 1860; Miles Ramsay, 1862; A. T. Nicks, 1864; A. J. Childress, 1869, P.D. Boyce, 1870; B. B. Thompson, 1874-86. Rangers– Philip Koonce, 1810-41; William T. Berry, 1843; A. H. Berry, 1848; N. O. Wallace, 1853-86. County Court Clerks– Brice M. Garner, 1810-32; Robert S. Inge 1832; F. L. Kincannon, 1832; Charles Boyles, 1836; George W. Jones, 1840; Harmon Husband, 1843; Henry Kelso, 1844; George Cunningham, 1852; E. L. Hodge, 1854; Norris Leatherwood, 1857; Daniel J. Whittington, 1858, John T. Gordon, 1864; E. P. Reynolds, 1868; John Y. Gill, 1870; P. D. Boyce, 1874; E. S. Wilson, 1882.
In 1856 J. R. Chilcoat was elected county judge, and served until the war. Afterward were elected T. J. McGarvey, 1869; J. C. Cowen, 1870; M. W. Woodard, 1873; N. P. Carter, 1874. Circuit court clerks: James Bright, 1810-36; Alfred Smith, 1836; J. R. Chilcoat, 1848; R. S. Woodard, 1868; Rane McKinney, 1870; A. B. Woodard, 1873; Theodore Harris, 1874; W. C. Morgan, 1878.
Chancery clerks and masters previous to the war were Davis Eastland, James Bright, Robert Farquharson and John Fulton served successively. Afterward were Robert Farquharson, until 1869; David Clark, 1869; A. S. Fulton, 1876; W. B. Martin, 1879. Chancellors: B. L. Bramlitt, Terry H. Cahall, B. L. Ridley, John Steele, A. S. Knox, J. W. Burton and E. D. Hancock.
The first court house built was only for temporary use, until another could be erected. It was 18×20 feet in the clear, built with round logs, and covered with a good cabin roof. It had a seat for the jury, court and a resting place for the feet of the court, all of good plank. It was built in 1811 on one corner of the Public Square, by James Fuller, for $35. The first jail was built in 1810, with logs not less than twelve inches in diameter and ten feet long. The walls, floor and loft were all of logs of the same description. In November 1811, a contract to built a new two-story brick court house on the Square, was taken by Micajah and William McElroy, for $3,995. The court afterward allowed $750 extra for the work, thus making the total cost of the building $4,745. This court house was torn down in 1873, and the present one was erected by William T. Moyers, James N. Allbright and William E. Turley, for $29,579,30. J. H. Holman, H. C. Cowan and John Y. Gill composed the committee to report the plans, specifications and estimates for the building; Theodore Harris superintended the work. The second jail that was built, was a two-story brick building, lined on the inside with logs, the logs being protected by sheet iron. It was built about the same time as the court house. The present jail was built in 1868, and by contract was to cost not more than $23,000. It is of stone.
The stone bridge across Elk River is one of the best structures of the kind in the State. It was built in 1861 at a cost of about $40,000. It is of limestone, contains six elliptical arches, and is 450 feet in its entire length. The roadway is flanked on either side by a stone wall three feet high and two feet wide.
The civil divisions of the county were first designated by the companies of militia in the respective parts of the county, i.e., the civil officers of the county were elected from the various militia companies, as they now are from the civil districts. In 1835 the county was laid off into twenty-five civil districts. The lines have been changed from time to time, but still the same number is retained. The school districts have not always coincided with the civil districts, but are now one and the same.
Among the first acts of the county was one to provide for the poor, and in 1815 a special tax was assessed for the county poor. About 1826 a poor farm was purchased and a poor house erected, the supervision of which was put under three commissioners, regularly appointed by the court. The poor are still cared for in this manner.
At different times agricultural societies have been organized, but have as often proved to be institutions of short life. This first one was organized in 1824.
In the year 1858 Fayetteville was connected with the main line of the Nashville & Chattanooga Railroad by the branch built from Decherd to Fayetteville, and in 1882 the narrow gauge road was built from Columbia to Fayetteville. The main support of these roads in the agricultural product, which in turn brings in articles of general merchandise. Pikes connect Fayetteville with Lynchburg and Shelbyville, and extend from Fayetteville for several miles in all directions.
The political cast of the county is strongly Democratic. In 1884 the vote for president and governor stood as follows: Cleveland, 2,382; Blaine, 890; Bate, 2,220; Reid 941.
Financially old Lincoln is on a strong foundation. She has first class public buildings, good general improvements, with a firm backing of a good agricultural soil. The tax for 1884 shows a total valuation of taxable property of $3.564,340; number of acres of land, 345,722, valued al $2,628,780. The State tax for 1886 is $10.192; county tax, $12,692; School tax, $16,257; road tax, $2,393; making a total tax of $41,535. These figures include the estimate on railroad and telegraph property valued at $166,890. In 1885 there was reported in the county 9,325 horses and mules, 14,090 cattle, 11,969 sheep, 42,415 hogs, 1.070 bushels barley, 213 bushels buckwheat, 1,252,919 bushels corn, 37,908 bushels oats, 1,641 bushels rye and 275,463 bushels wheat.
Upon the bench of the circuit court sat Judge Thomas Stewart to hold the first court in the county. Then came Judge Kennedy for a time, who was succeeded by Judge Edmund Dillahunty, who held for a number of years. A. J. Marchbanks was the next judge and continued on the bench until the war. Gov. Brownlow then appointed N. A. Patterson, who became the laughing stock for the lawyers who attended court. He was deficient in the organs of hearing, and very eccentric in nature. Then came W.P. Hickerson, who did not serve a full term. He resigned and was succeeded by Judge J. J. Williams, who was afterward elected to fill the term now closing. For many years Erwin J. Frierson was the attorney-general, and he was superseded in turn by A F. Goff, James H. Thomas, Joseph Carter, George J. Stubblefield, J. H. Holman, J. D. Tillman and A. B. Woodard, the present incumbent of the office. The court in early days was engaged mainly in trying petty offenses, and not until 1825 was there a sentence of death pronounced. Duncan Bonds had murdered Felix Grundy, and was found guilty. He took an appeal to the Supreme Court of the State. A jury in 1828 rendered a verdict of guilty upon a charge of murder committed by a man named McClure, upon D.C. Hall. He received the sentence of death, and was hung in the spring of 1829. About 1847 a negro named Bill Moore was sentenced and hung for an attempted rape. In 1862 John George was sentenced to be hung for murdering Hosea Towry. He escaped from jail. Two years previous to this, in 1860, a negro, Alf, was hung for murdering his master, William Stevens. The whipping post and pillory often received the victims of the judge s sentence for the various offenses, and men were imprisoned for debt.
The bar of Lincoln County is one that ranks high in Tennessee. Not only are the members at present eminent and able lawyers, but from the first Lincoln County has given a home to many able men. At the first meeting of the county court was present Thomas H. Benton. He drew up the minutes of the first session of that court, and was the county s legal advocate on organization. He resided in Fayetteville for a number of years He then arose to adorn the nation s highest legislative council, of which he was a member for thirty-two years, and was truly an eminent man of America. Contemporary with him was L.P. Montgomery, widely, known as the brave Capt. Montgomery, who began the practice of law in 1810, and who fell at the battle of Horse-Shoe. In 1810 George B. Baulch, George Coalter, William White, Joseph Phillips, Marmaduke Williams, Matthew D. Wilson and Alfred Harris were permitted to practice in the county. In 1811 Eli Tolbert, Samuel Acres and Charles Manton were allowed to practice. George C. Witt and W. S. Fontine also practiced here in that year. Hon. C. C. Clay, of Huntsville, Ala. attended this court as early as 1811, as also did John McKinney and John Tolbert. Other lawyers from adjoining counties visited this court professionally, among whom were Judge Haywood, and later, Nathan Green, James Campbell, William Gilchrist, Oliver B. Hays, Lunsford M. Bramlett and Thomas M. Fletcher. Other prominent early lawyers were James Fulton, Samuel W. Carmack, Charles Boyles, William C. Kennedy, William P. Martin, William M. Inge and John H. Morgan. John H. Morgan, after a number of years in Fayetteville, moved to Memphis, thence to Mississippi, and was elected to the bench in that State. He was the father of Hon. J. B. Morgan, of Mississippi. William P. Martin moved from Fayetteville to Columbia, Tenn, and there was a judge for many years.
Kennedy also removed to Columbia, where he too was elected to the bench. He became the owner of quite a number of slaves, which he emancipated and transported to the African colony of Liberia. W. M. Inge was for many years associated in law with L. W. Carmack at Fayetteville. He served one term in Congress from the district which then included Lincoln County, and afterward made his home in Alabama.
Carmack was born in 1802; was an able and learned lawyer. In 1832 he moved to Florida, although retaining a summer home in Fayetteville. He arose to prominence in Florida, and died in 1849.
James Fulton has been styled the father of the Fayetteville. He located in Fayetteville in 1820, when twenty-two years of age. He filled one term as attorney-general in early life, but devoted his time to the prosecution of his profession rather than pursue official honors. He was an able lawyer and a highly respected citizen. His death occurred in 1856.
Previous to 1825 the following were permitted to practice law in the county: E. B. Robertson. William Kelly, Tryon Yancey, besides those above mentioned. Others were W.D. Thompson and Henry B. Ely, 1827; David Eastland, 1829; John R. Greer and Robert Inge. 1832; Andrew A. Kincannon and Elliott H. Fletcher, 1834; George W. Jones, 1839. Mr. Jones was born in 1806, and came to this county when young. He was three times elected to the Legislature. For sixteen years he was a member of Congress, and was in the Senate once. In his congressional career he received the nickname of the watch dog of the treasury . He was also a member of the Confederate Congress and of the constitutional convention of 1870. He was a very able and popular man, filling many of the county offices and taking especial pride in his county s welfare. His death occurred in 1884. He devoted no time to the practice of law, but lived almost wholly in political circles. Other prominent early attorneys of the county were Felix G. McConnell, who went to Alabama and afterward served in the United States Congress, committing suicide while a member of that body; W.T. Ross, a very able advocate; John C. Rodgers, who died young, but was an able lawyer; and Archibald Yell, who was a man of ability and temper. He and Hon. G. W. Jones once engaged in a physical combat before the county court, of which Jones was chairman. Yell threw a book at Jones, and Jones immediately returned the salute by a personal presentation with knife in hand. By the interference of other parties, no injury was done. Yell commanded a regiment in the Mexican war and was killed at the battle of Buena Vista.
The influence of W. H. Stephens, R. G. Payne, W. F. Kercheval, F. B. Fulton and J. W. Newman, has been felt at the bar. Since 1840 Robert Farquharson, who was prominent in the county, but did not give much time to law; David P. Hurley , who was a member of the bar but a short time, and Jas. M. Davidson, an able young lawyer, have held licenses to practice in these courts. Others were D.B. Cooper, who died when yet young; David W. Clark, who pursued the profession but a short time, but was an influential man; J. R. Chilcoat, who was the first county judge; Thomas Kercheval, now the mayor of Nashville; Ed E. Bearden, O. P. Bruce and Thomas B. Kercheval.
Hon, John M. Bright is the oldest member of the bar now living, and probably acquired the most prominence in political circles. He was born in Fayetteville about 1818, and has ever since made this his home. He is able as an attorney, and a prominent member of the Legislature of Tennessee before the war. In 1880 he retired from Congress, where he had served for several years. J. B. Lamb is one of the oldest and most successful attorneys of the county, and has been a member of the Legislature. He is the senior member of the law firm of Lamb & Tillman, of which Col. J. D. Tillman is the other member. He is a son of the Hon. Lewis Tillman, late of Bedford County. He was lieutenant-colonel (afterward colonel} of the Forty-first Regiment of Tennessee Infantry in the late war. J. H. Holman has been a member of the bar since 1866, and is widely known for his ability. J. H. Burnham is a good speaker, and was on the Hancock electoral ticket. He is now making the race for chancellor of this district. N. P. Carter is the county judge and a practicing lawyer. A. B. Woodard, the attorney-general, was reared in Fayetteville, the son of R. S. Woodard, who was a prominent man of the county. M. W. Woodard, also a son of R. S. Woodard, is a practicing attorney, and has been identified with public offices of the county. Joe G. Carrigan and G. W. Higgins are also able attorneys, and have both been in the Legislature. G. B. Boyles is an attorney at law, and now fills the office of recorder at Fayetteville. Others are Col. N. J, George, who was a lieutenant-colonel in Turney s First Tennessee; A. M. Solomon, an ex-member of the Legislature; R. L. Bright, S. W. Carmack, C. C. McKinney, F. P. Taylor, W. B. Lamb, John Routt and George H. Newman.
The sobriquet of The Banner County, so applied to Lincoln, appropriately represents its attitude matters. Hardly had the first few settlers begun to call this their home before Jackson s troops for the war of 1812 asked and received recruits from the county, among whom were Gen William Moore, who commanded a company; Charles McKinney, S. S. Buchanan, William B. McLaughlin, Frank Smith and others as many as fifteen altogether. These troops made Fayetteville their rendezvous, and upon starting upon the campaign they marched out 2,500 strong and crossed Elk River, near where the stone bridge now is. These men served throughout the war, participating in the battle of New Orleans. A patriotic response was again made to the call for troops in 1836. A full company, commanded by Capt.—Tipps, entered from Lynchburg , and another company was raised by Capt. George A. Wilson, but was not mustered into service. However, Capt. Wilson raised a spy company of about fifty men and entered the service. The following are remembered as members of this company: Augustus Steed. Lieutenant; W. H. Bright, bugleman; William Robertson, David F. Robertson, Henderson Robertson, C. B. Rodgers and Oliver Garland. These were from Fayetteville and the immediate vicinity, while many from the various parts of the county also enlisted in this company, as well as in that of Capt. Tipps. By the act organizing the county the militia of Lincoln was made the Thirty-ninth Regiment and was attached to the Fifth Brigade. For many years the militia musters were largely attended, and amusements invariably attended them.
In the spring of 1846 a company of eighty-three men, known as the Lincoln Guards, was raised at Fayetteville for the Mexican war . It was officered as follows: Captain, Pryor Buchanan; first lieutenant, A. S. Fulton; second lieutenant, John V. Moyers; third lieutenant, C. A. McDaniel; orderly sergeant, William T. Slater. The company left Fayetteville March 31, 1846, and participated in the battle of Monterey, where several members were killed.
Early in the spring of 1861, and after the fall of Fort Sumter, and the call of President Lincoln for troops from Tennessee, war was the only thing discussed in Lincoln County. Old gray haired men, devoted wives, sisters and mothers talked of war until the whole atmosphere was full of it. Children after listening to the discussions and imagining that they could almost see the blood flow were afraid to go to bed, and were often afflicted with nightmare. Little tow-headed boys were shouting the battle whoop from every cabin. Old saws, hoes, etc., were soon upon forge or held to the grindstone to make the large, ugly, ill-shaped bowie knives. Almost every man carried two of these knives which were to repel the invasion in the hand-to-hand conflict which was imagined to be approaching. Public meetings were almost daily occurrences and fiery speeches were long and loud. Men, women, and children, of all ages, sizes and colors, went out to these meetings and joined in the general enthusiasm. Even ladies fell into the ranks of the drilling companies- even the most refined and intelligent; willing to part with -sacrifice, if necessary- those most near and dear to them, were enthusiastic and materially aided in sending forth the grand array of volunteers.
When the question of separation was submitted to the people, Lincoln polled 2,892 votes for separation and not one for no separation. However, even before the State seceded companies were organized and war preparations were rapidly going on. The first companies raised were four, which composed a part of Turney s First Tennessee, and one of which was raised principally in what is now Moore County. The others were officered as follows: Company G- B. F. Ramsey, captain; John Shackelford, first lieutenant; F. G. Buchanan, second lieutenant; Thomas Wilson, third lieutenant; and John Thoer, orderly sergeant. Company K- N. C. Davis, captain; T. J. Sugg, first lieutenant; Joe Davidson, second lieutenant; J. B. Turney, third lieutenant; John W. Nelson, first sergeant. Company H- Jacob Cruse, captain; M. V. McLaughlin, first lieutenant; N. J. George, second lieutenant. These companies left Fayetteville April 29, 1861, for Winchester, where the regiment was organized. These companies were with Turney s First Tennessee Confederates from the first of the war to its close, being in the hottest parts of many of the great battles of the war.
The field officers of this regiment who were from this county were, upon organization J. H. Holman, lieutenant-colonel; D. W. Holman, major. Upon re-organization John Shackelford, lieutenant-colonel; M. V. McLaughlin, major. These officers were killed at Gaines Mill and their places filled by N. J. George, lieutenant-colonel, and F. G. Buchanan, major. Dr. C. B. McGuire was surgeon of the regiment and was afterward brigade surgeon.
While these companies were organizing and going forth to duty, others were also forthcoming. On May 14, 1861, four other companies left Fayetteville, and on the same day arrived at Camp Harris, in Franklin County, where they were mustered into the service of the State on the 17th of the same month by Colonel D. R. Smythe of Lincoln County. These companies were assigned to the Eighth Tennessee, under the command of Col. A. S. Fulton, of Lincoln County. Lincoln County was also represented in this regiment by W. Lawson Moore, lieutenant-colonel; Chris C. McKinney, adjutant; Dr. G. B. Lester, assistant surgeon; and David Tucker, chaplain. Company B. known as the Petersburg Sharp Shooters, was raised at Petersburg, with A.M. Hall as captain; Chris C. McKinney, first lieutenant; T. W. Bledsoe, second lieutenant; C. N. Allen, third lieutenant; and N. P. Koonce, orderly sergeant. Company C was officered as follows: Rane McKinney, captain; N. M. Bearden, first lieutenant; T. W. Raney, second lieutenant; A. M. Downing, third lieutenant; and R. D. Hardin, orderly sergeant. It was known as the Camargo Guards. Company G. Norris Creek Guards, was raised at Norris Creek with George W. Higgins, captain ; W. C. Griswell, first lieutenant; David Sullivan, second lieutenant; E. S. N. Bobo, third lieutenant; Joseph G. Carrigan, orderly sergeant. Company H. Was commanded by W. L. Moore until he was elected lieutenant-colonel, and was then officered as follows: W. J. Theash, captain; William Bonner, first lieutenant; T. H. Freeman, third lieutenant; G. W. Waggoner, first sergeant.
The Eighth Tennessee was one of the two regiments that made the almost unparalleled Cheat Mountain campaign, enduring those severe privations, marching through rain day and night, leaving the roads stained with blood from their feet, and almost starving for want of food. Without blankets or tents and with very little food, for eight days these troops were undaunted in their onward march and in their flight for life, but many took sick and died from exposure and fatigue. Two companies were raised in the western part of the county and constituted in the Thirty-second Regiment. One of them was known as the Millville Men: J. J. Finney, captain; W. P. A. George, first lieutenant; Jno. W. Wright, second lieutenant; Jno. P. McGuire, third lieutenant; David F. Hobbs, first sergeant. The other was the Swan Creek Guards: C. G. Tucker, captain; John Roach, first lieutenant; J. T. Pigg, second lieutenant; H. H. Tucker, third lieutenant; J. S. Finley, first sergeant. The quartermaster of this regiment was E. S. Wilson, of this county.
Then came the organization of the Forty-first Tennessee, whose colonel was Robert Farquharson, of this county, and whose lieutenant-colonel {afterward colonel} was J. D. Tillman, now of Lincoln, then of Bedford. Lincoln furnished four companies to this regiment, viz.: One {company C} commanded by Capt. J. D. Scott, whose lieutenants were B. J. Chafin, J. R. Feeney, and Jacob Anthony, and afterward commanded by Chafin and Feeney successively; one from Mulberry {company A} commanded by W. W. James whose lieutenants were L. Leftwich, Christopher Carrigher and A. D. Johnson; one (knows as Liberty Guards) commanded by J. H. George; with the following lieutenants: William Smith, T. D. Griffis and S. A. Hopkins; and one commanded by W. B. Fonville, whose lieutenants were W. S. Bearden, A. A. Woods and E. R. Bearden. These companies left Fayetteville about the last days of September, 1861, and the regiment was organized at Camp Trousdale.
The Forty-fourth Regiment of Tennessee Volunteer Infantry was organized at Camp Trousdale in November, 1861, with C. A. McDaniel, colonel, and D. J. Noblett, assistant surgeon, from this county. It also included four companies from Lincoln; one commanded by C. A. McDaniel, who, upon being elected colonel, was superseded by T. M. Bell, and he by J. E. Spencer, with the following lieutenant, Joseph Cunningham, A. B. Rhea, and J. J. Martin; one by W. A. Rhodes, with J. H. Patterson, Jacob Van Hoozer and C. K. Moody as lieutenants; one from Shelton Creek, commanded by Capt Smith, and one from Swan Creek, commanded by Capt. Stiles.
The Forty-fourth was actively engaged in some of the fierce conflicts of the war. At Shiloh forty-two per cent of those of the regiment actually in combat were killed and wounded. Afterward this regiment and the Fifty-fifth Tennessee were consolidated, still retaining the name of the former, and embracing another company from this county, which was organized in the latter part of 1861, by W. H. Moore, and embraced in the Fifty-fifth upon the organization of that regiment. Early in 1862 another company was raised by Capt. James R. Bright, with R. B. Parks, J. L. Moore and Stephen Loyd, as lieutenants, and entered an infantry regiment of Kentucky. After the battle of Shiloh the company was reorganized with W. P. Simpson, captain, and J. B. Price, T. D. Hill and G. W. Jones, lieutenants. J. L. Moore who was second lieutenant at its first organization, afterward raised another company and entered the service.
December 21, 1861, there were twenty-one companies of infantry from Lincoln County in the service. However, this number included those raised in Moore County, which was then a part of Lincoln. The company of J. L. Moore, was probably the last full company of infantry to leave the county as a company. Recruits were added to the old commands throughout 1862-64. About September, 1862, Freeman s Battery, which was a part of Hardin s Artillery, received about fifty members from Lincoln County, only one of whom was killed in the service. A great many of Forrest s escort were from this county, probably the majority of the members. Capt. Nathan Boone was captain of the escort. Other cavalry regiments received members from the county. Wheeler s First. Tennessee Cavalry was composed of some Lincoln County boys, as was the Eleventh Tennessee Cavalry and also the Fourth Tennessee Cavalry.
Including all men in the service from first to last, Lincoln County furnished nearly 5,000 soldiers. Besides the regular companies of infantry there were several who entered war in companies from adjoining counties. This was also case with artillery men and cavalry men. At all times recruits were entering the old commands.
At the organization of Capt. Higgins company of the Eighth Tennessee, the ladies of Norris Creek and vicinity presented the boys with a beautiful large flag, the presentation being made by Miss Sallie Landess in an eloquent and stirring address. On the 25th of August, 1861, a magnificent flag was presented to the Eighth Regiment by the ladies of Lincoln County, accompanied by an inspiring address from the Hon. John M. Bright. On the flag were written in large gold letters the words, Patience, Courage, Victory. Many times did the ladies send stores of provisions, containing delicacies for the sick, clothing and all kinds of hospital and camp supplies. Much of the inspiration that enabled the troops to remain in the field with sickness, danger and deprivations, came from the encouragement received from the ladies at home.
The Federals first entered Fayetteville April 9, 1862, causing a sudden suspension of business. They withdrew after about two months stay, and again occupied the town in the spring of 1863, remaining until 1865. The court house was used as a stable for the horses a part of the time, and for the protection of troops at other times. It was surrounded by a bomb proof wall about six feet high, built of brick. The whole county was almost impoverished by the foraging armies passing to and fro. Sherman s whole army, on its march from Memphis to Chattanooga, passed through Fayetteville and crossed Elk River on the stone bridge, which, affording an excellent passage over the river, caused many of the passing armies, both Federals and Confederates, to pass through here. While Fayetteville was occupied by the Federals, business was at a standstill and many depredations were committed. When requested to do anything the citizens did not wait for time to argue points. The depredations, however, were mostly committed by Brixie s band of robbers, who in the main, claimed to be Yankees. Among the most dastardly acts, which the people suffered, was the murder of Judge J. R. Chilcoat. Afterward John Massey, a Confederate soldier, who had returned home {together with two other men named Pickett and Burrow}, was brutally murdered- riddled with bullets. Some buildings were burned county records were destroyed and, of course, property was confiscated. Guerrillas did not injure the people to any great extent.
The war over, the soldiers laid down their arms to return to their avocations of life. They found their farms in a deplorable condition. Their stock was gone, fences burned, buildings going to rack or entirely destroyed. The cost of the war to Lincoln County can hardly be estimated. However, she has now almost recovered from the effects, the hard times and desperate conflicts are remembered as in the past, and all unite in one grand army for the upbuilding of the welfare of the country.
There was a differences of opinion as to the expediency of the location of the county seat where it was located. One-hundred acres of land was obtained of Ezekiel Norris, and a town of 128 lots was platted. On September 5 and 6, a sale of lots was made, the following, among others, being purchasers: Potter & Wilson, 11; Eleanor Buchanan, 1; John Buchanan, 2; Charles Porter, 2; Francis Ross, 1; Robert Ramsey, 1; Joseph Sumner, 2; John Kelly, 2; William Whitaker, 2; Hugh Blake, 2; Joseph Commons, 2; Walter Kinnard, 2; Rice M. Garner, 2; Peter Looney, 1; Joseph Jenkens, 2; Joseph McMillan, 1; James Bright, 2; John Angel, 1; James Cochran, 1; Stephen Chinnault, 1; Jacob Van Zand, 1; The records in the register s office are not all preserved, hence, the names of all the first purchasers can not be obtained.
Among the earliest merchants were Francis Porterfield, Robert Buchanan, Robert H. McEwen, and Robert H. Dickson, all of whom were successful. Mr. Dickson also ran a tan-yard and saddlery. Ephraim Parham was the first man to obtain tavern license; John P. McConnell and Vance Greer also kept taverns in Fayetteville very early. Between 1820 and 1830 existed the following firms: General merchants–Buchanan & Porterfield. R. & W. Dickson. Mason & McEwen, Alex R. Kerr & Co., A. A. Kincannon, Akin, Bagley & Co., McEwen & Gilleland, Daniel Dwyer, H. S. Morgan, William F. Mason & Co., Thompson & Wardaw, John Thompson, Dickson & Wallace, J. H. Wallace, William Akin & Co. Grocers–Parks & Moyers, and J. G. Selph & Co. Physicians– J. B. Sanders, G. & R. Martin, William Bonner, A. C. Gillespie, Charles & J. V. McKinney, J. J. Todd. C. J. Smith and R. Stone. Besides these, James Crawford had a saw-mill, gristmill and distillery; S. A. Pugh ran a saddlery and Barclay & Ross a furniture store; E. M. Ringo was a watch-maker, Jacob Moyers a coppersmith, I. H. Wallace a shoe-maker, Weigart & Bryant and H. Worsham, tailors. C. Wilson had a bookbindery. An inn was kept by W. H. Talbot. Wool cards were run by Frost & Co., and by Johnson & Garner.
In December, 1823, Robert Dickson, Esq., was elected mayor. Vance Greer, R. H. McEwen, Chas. McKinney, Elliott Hickman, Joseph Commons and J. P. McConnell were elected aldermen; Wm. F. Mason, recorder; Vance Greer, treasurer, and Wm. Timmins, constable. In the thirties, the most prominent general merchants were Wm. Dye & Son. Napoleon Garner, Gilliland & Roseborough, Gilliland, Smith & Co., Martin & Murphy, and A. C. McEwen & Co. The physicians were J. B. Chas. McKinney, Wm. & M. C. Bonner, and Elliott Hickman. In the forties general merchandising was carried on by H. & B. Douglas, A. T. Nicks, John Goodrich, Jno. A. McPhail, S. Hart & Co. R. H. C. Bagley. Fulghum & Short, J. S. & J. T. Webb, Morgan & Neil, A. B. Shull, H. C. Holman & Bro., W. W. Petty, Southworth & Co., D. M. Tucker, T. C. Goodrich, W. H. Webb, Webb & Thompson, George F. Smith, B. L. Russell, Southworth, Morgan & Neil and Scott & Gray. Rane McKinney and Deimer & Hampton were druggists. Webb & Smith had a book store.
In the fifties, Wright & Trantham, T. C. Goodrich, Wright & Ransom, Thomson & Buchanan, Goodrich, Buchanan & Beavers, W. D.& S. M. Ewing and Russell & Tucker were general merchants. Fletcher & Stogner were produce dealers. Groceries were kept by all the general merchants. Scott & Gray were merchants tailors and furnishers. The first carriage manufactory ever established was by Raboteau, Hobbs, & Walker. C. S. Wilson kept a livery stable and Chilcoat & Edmonson a tavern. Diemer & Hampton were druggists.
In the sixties after the halt caused by the war had place to business, general merchandising was carried on by Wright & Trantham, Newman & McLaughlin, J. C. & J. F. Goodrich, Murray & Morgan, P. T. Murray, Morgan Bros., F. W. Brown & Co. Druggist were Diemer & Miles and Smith & Blake. Grocers were Foster & Co., and Woods & Woodard. Moyers & Wilson were dealers in furniture. In the seventies business assumed wider proportions. Morgan Bros., P. T. Murray, Wright & Wright, J. C. Goodrich. T. J. Gray Co. , Smith & Miles, J. E. Caldwell, Nassauer & Hipsh, Hart & Fisher and F. W. Brown did a general mercantile trade. B. J. Chafin & Co., Bagley Bros., Bryson & Lauderdale, J. W. Barnett & Co., J. C. Goodrich, R. L. Gains & Co., W. H. Webb and W. R. Smith dealt in groceries. J. B. Hill, who had been in business for many years, and S. Heymann were jewelers. E. C. McLaughlin, J. S. Alexander and C. S. Wilson ran liveries. S. W. Brown & Co., Blake & McPhail and R. H. Ogilvie were hardware merchants. Douthet Bros. and Gray, Hatcher & Waddle were dealers in boots and shoes. J. T. Medearis ran a tan-yard.
The present business is as follows: General merchants–Wright & Wright. Nassauer & Hipsh, Kilpatrick & Co., Morgan Bros., J. A. Murray & Co., J. A. Lumpkin, J. W. Naylor & Sons, Whitaker & DeFord and T. C. Goodrich & Co. Groceries– J. C. Goodrich, Lauderdale & Rowell B. J. Chafin, Bagley Bros., E. E. Feeney, Stonebraker & Co., Bryson & Francis, J. L. McWhirter, W. K. Woodard, Blake & Rawls, Z. P. Gotcher, J. A. Bunn & Son, H. Nevill and J. W. Bennett. Hardware–Lamb & Robertson and Benedict & Warren. Drugs–W. A. Gill & Co. Smith & Miles, W. W. Christian and C. A. Diemer & Son. Jewelers–J. B. Hill, S. Heymann and A. D. Ruth. Bookstore–R.S. Bradshaw. Saloons–W. W. Alexander & Co., Eaton & Evans, Alexander & Copeland, B. J. Chafin and J. L. McWhirter. Livery stables–C. S. & R. M. Wilson and J. S. Alexander. Physicians–W. C. Bright, C.A. Diemer, C.B. McGuire, R. E. Christian and W. W. Christian. Grain merchants– Holman & Woods and Bruce & Cowen. General produce– C. Bonds and Caldwell & Scott. Furniture and undertaking– J. B. Wilson and J. A. Formwalt. The leading hotel is the Petty House. Others are kept by Sanford Prosser, S. G. McElroy, Mrs. A. Johnson, and T. S. King has a restaurant. Bearden & Thomas have a flouring-mill, J. L. Waggoner a planing-mill, and L. Peach runs a stone, saw and marble works. J. L. Vaughn manufactures carriages and buggies.
The first newspaper in Fayetteville was the Fayetteville Correspondent, edited and published by David Augustine Hays; only a few numbers were issued. The Village Messenger was then published from March 11, 1823 to July 18, 1828, by Ebenezer Hill. In 1829 the Western Cabinet was commenced by Ebenezer Hill and John H. Laird. Mr. Hill published one volume of Haywood s reports in his office. He published Hill s Almanac for a great many years, making it a part of the standard literature of southern Tennessee and northen Alabama. As early as 1833 the Independent Yeoman was published by Joe B. Hill, afterward by Joe B. & E. Hill. Then it was purchased by W. L. & A. H. Berry, and published as the Lincoln Journal, from 1840 to 1848, at which time C. A. French, became the editor ans publisher, continuing it until the war. In 1840 a Whig paper, the Signal, was started and issued but a few numbers. After the war the Lincoln County News was started by Ebenezer Hill, Jr., and continued by W. P. Tolley for some years. The Fayetteville Express was established in 1873 by S. H. McCord, was afterward published by McCord & Lloyd, and is now by Lloyd & Blake. The Fayetteville Observer was established in 1850, stood the war stroke, and continues to be a thriving paper, edited and published by N. O. Wallace.
The Lincoln Savings Bank was established in 1870 with a capital of $100.000, did a seemingly good business, but suspended in 1884, jarring the financial status of the whole county considerably. The First National Bank was organized in June, 1873, with a capital stock of $60.000. Its first president was Hon. George W. Jones. Its present president is Dr. C. B. McGuire; its cashier, J. R. Feeney.
As early as the year 1824 a Masonic Lodge was established but existed only a few years. Jackson Lodge, No. 68, F. & A. M. Was chartered October 9, 1828, and now has a membership of over 40. Calhoun Lodge, No. 26, I. O. O. F., was chartered April 6, 1846, and now has nearly 30 members. Fayetteville Lodge, No. 181, K. Of H., was established April 1, 1875, and has a membership at present of nearly 65. Protection Lodge, No. 8. A. O. U. W., began its existence from charter dated May 2, 1877. Jewel Lodge. No. 59, K. & L. Of H. Was established April 1, 1879, and has about 60 members. There are five church edifices in the town, owned respectively by the Cumberland Presbyterians, Presbyterians, Methodist Episcopal Church South, Christians and the Protestant Episcopalians. The Missionary Baptists have an organization but no building. There are four churches for the colored people of the following denominations: African Methodist Episcopal, Primitive Baptist, Missionary Baptist and the Cumberland Presbyterian.
About 1815 George L. Leonard settled where Petersburg now is and cleared up the land there. He put up a cotton-gin, and afterward began the first mercantile trade of the place by selling small articles of merchandise, such as thread, etc. Porterfield & Akin established a small store in 1828, and Wm. DeWoody conducted their business. In 1833 they were superseded by Rowlett & Hill, and soon others followed. Holman & Loyd, Jones & Yowell, Rives & Hayes and Stone & Reese were merchants before 1840 and all did a large business. Then came a lull in the business tide of Petersburg instil the war; however, Metcalfe & Son did a good business during this time, as also did Wynus, Blake & Co., Smith, Blake & Co. And Fonville & Bledsoe. Since the war the principal merchants have been W. J. Hamilton, P. B. Marsh & Son, Fogleman & Cummings and Hall & Hamilton, together with the present business firms. General merchants– G. A. Jarvis, Cummings & Bledsoe and B. S. Popflanus, grocers–E.M. Crawford and L. L. Rebman; W. R. Hanaway, undertaker and furniture dealer; Rives & Christopher, saddlers and harness-makers; saloons–J. W. King & Co., F. S. Cummings & Co. And Pack & Byrd; blacksmiths–Alex Lancaster and George Morrison. J. C. Montgomery has a large frame flouring-mill, and Dwiggins & Co. Are erecting a fine brick mill. Gillespie Bros. Do a livery business.
The secret societies are Unity Lodge, No. 84 I. O. O. F., which has a membership of twenty; Petersburg Lodge, No. 123, was organized in 1846, and for many years was very strong, but now has only a weak organization; Petersburg Lodge, No. 607, K. Of H., has a membership of thirteen, and was organized in 1877. Petersburg has a good school, and five churches of the following denominations: Methodist Episcopal South, Presbyterian Cumberland Presbyterian, Missionary Baptist and Christian. It is a chartered town, but by some the charter is considered a burden. It is situated on the Duck River Valley Railroad, twelve miles from Fayetteville.
Mulberry began to exist as a village about 1840. Among the merchants that have transacted business there were Booker Shapard, Drury Conley, Abner Brady, R. N. Whitaker, W. W. James & Co., Hoots & Logan and J. & W. H. Reese, previous to the war. Since the resumption of business after the war have been W. W. James & Co., W. L. Shofner, R. A. & J. H. Reese, Whitaker & Yates, E. S. Terry and J. G. Reese, the last two of whom are now in business. Several family groceries, etc., have existed from time to time. The Mulberry Academy began about 1830, and has become a noted school. There was once a male and female academy, but it is now known as the Mulberry Male and Female Academy. There in one Missionary Baptist Church, one Cumberland Presbyterian Church, one Methodist Episcopal Church South and one Christian Church. Physicians are G. W. Jones, A. R. Shadden and S. Dance. Mulberry Lodge, No. 404. F. & A. M., was organized in 1870, and is in a prosperous condition. It had twelve charter members. Mulberry Lodge, No. 148, was chartered in 1871 and has only a very weak organization. The Good Templars have a lodge of about ninety members. There are two good mills near by. In the village are two blacksmith shops, two wood-work shops and a cabinet-maker and undertaker.
Boonshill was one of the first postoffices established in the county. Previous to the war Wood & Daniel, Hudson & Horton and Sumner & Ewing were merchants there. Since the war have been Buchanan & White, E. S. Wilson & Co., Swinebroad & Co., Templeton & Son and H. D. Smith, the present merchants. Physicians have been Dr. John Wood, Dr. Dunlap, Dr. Porter, Dr. Parks and Dr. Sumner. Stephen Hightown first settled where Millville now is. Stone & Baird were the first merchants; others were Frank McLane, Sam Isaacs, Thomas McLaurine, McGuin & Son, McGuire & Franklin, Ezell & Hudspeth. Since the war have been Ezell & McGuire, F. L. Ezell, Ally Smith and Finney & Son. Dr. C. B. McGuire practiced medicine there from 1847 to 1859; others have been Dr. M. P. Forehand and Dr. G. W. McGuire.
Dellrose was first known as Roosterville. Hog Bruce was the founder and first merchant. It has only been a village since 1867. D. C. Sherrill & Co. Are now doing business there. These is a good school. Dr. B. S. Stone is the physician of the place. Molino postoffice was established in 1849, by D. C. Hall, the first postmaster and merchant. Since the war, merchants have been Robert Stewart, James W. Rawls, Joe Montgomery and J. H. Dale & Co. J. W. Rawls was a blacksmith, and John Hays the present one. It has a Missionary Baptist Church there, and is located in a good locality. Howell is a small station on the narrow-gauge railroad, seven miles from Fayetteville. It was first known as Renfroe Station. Harris Bros, and George Bros, are merchants. It has a good railroad depot and a Cumberland Presbyterian Church. Oak Hill is a village nine miles north of Fayetteville. The postoffice is Norris Creek. H. L. Cole and James Bell are merchants. It has a good school, a Cumberland Presbyterian Church and a Missionary Baptist Church. There is also a Masonic lodge of thirty-eight members-Mount Hebron, No. 344, and a weak lodge I. O. O. F.- Oak Hill, No. 39. A pike connects Oak Hill with Fayetteville. Stonesborough is a chartered town and consist of a distillery owned by Stone & Thomas, and a store and saloon owned by Stone & Patterson. W. J. Landers has a tan-yard between this place and Oak Hill. Chestnut Ridge is also in the north part of the county. J. N. Stallings is a merchant. James Freeman a blacksmith, and Wash. Gilbert a wagon-maker. Chestnut Ridge Lodge No. 499, F. & A. M., has about fifteen members, and Chestnut Ridge Lodge, No. 157, I. O. O. F., has nearly fifty members. There is a church near by.
Booneville, received its name from Capt. Nathan Boone. Musgraves and Shofner, and J. E. Reese are merchants. It is about three miles from Mulberry Village. Blanche was first known by postoffice as Pleasant Plains. Samuel Parker was the first postmaster, and W. W. Petty the first merchant in 1849. It began to assume the proportions of a village after the war, and is now a pleasant and thriving little town. Dr. J. C. Coasts is the merchant and physician. There is located here Pleasant Plains Lodge, No. 305, F. & A. M. , and a church. There are several county stores near by.
Smithland was known as George s Store until 1884. At first the postoffice was on the north side of Elk River, having been established about 1840. It was moved to Arnold s grocery about 1850, and there Smithland has been built. This was a notorious fighting place. Taylor & McLaughlin and R. Smith are the present merchants. An I. O. O. F. Lodge, Sereno No. 195, is located at Smithland.
Camargo was established in 1849 and was a flourishing village prior to the war. John Caughran was the first merchant. Others have been Nicks & Webb, J. N. & W. A. Stallings, Wm. Ashworth, Samuel Dehaven and J. A. Corn.
Lincoln is settled mainly by northern people who went to that place after the war. J. F. Montgomery, J. R. McCown, J. E. Ramsey and J. C. McClellan have been merchants there. In 1887 ____ Crosby started a small spinning Factory at Oregon. In 1839 it was bought by Henry Warren, was afterward operated by H. & T. K. Warren, and is now operated by Henry Warren & Son. This factory has about 1,000 spindles, a cotton-gin and a flouring and grist-mill attached, being an investment of about $20,000 capital. Oregon is three and once-half miles from Flintville, its shipping point. It has a Cumberland Presbyterian Church.
Elora was formerly known as Baxter Station, and only dates its beginning since the building of the Fayetteville & Decherd Branch Railroad. It is in the southeast corner of one now existing from Fayetteville to Decherd. J. B. Hamilton and W. M. Parker & Co. Are the merchants.
Flintville, twelve miles from Fayetteville, on the Nashville & Chattanooga Railroad, has sprung into existence since the building of that road. The first merchants were Cunningham & Myrick; J. A. Grills was the first blacksmith; Peter Cunningham put a grist-mill, and then he and L. P. Myrick engaged in distilling. The town was all destroyed by the Federals the time of the war. Since the war merchandising has been carried on by D. M. & J. C. Mimms & Knowles, D. M. Mimms, Kilpatrick & Co., Merrit & Golden (saloon), Chas. Kelley, D. M. & W. G. Mimms, Richard Routt, A. Smith, Peter Cunningham, Brady & Hall, Henry Warren & Son, and Chick & Eslick. J. W. Cooper & J. J. Coston have been blacksmiths and wagon-makers, and Joseph Richardson, a saddler; E. J. Cambron is a carriage and cabinet-maker; Tolley, Eaton and Sims have run distilleries, and Copeland & Co. Now have a large distillery. They also have a good mill. John Young also has a mill. Surprise Lodge, No. 153, I. O. O. F., is located there with sixteen members. There are four church organizations at Flintville.
Kelso s first merchant was A. S. Fulton. Subsequent merchants have been hill Southworth, D. M. Eslick and Jenkens McKinney. Present merchants are J. A. Taylor, G. D. Wicks and M. S. Eslick. Kelso Lodge, No. 490, F. & A. M., and Kelso Lodge No. 172, I. O. O. F., are located there, and also a Cumberland Presbyterian Church is at Kelso.
The attention of the early pioneers was required by almost everything before it was given to means of educating the children. This most important subject was not long entirely neglected, for those who had sufficient education taught short terms of school at the different private residences early in the teens. After a time, by agreement, the settlers would meet to build a schoolhouse in the different localities. These buildings were of logs, with a door in one end and a fire-place in the other, not all of them had fire-places, and those that them generally allowed the escape of the smoke through a large hole in the roof, there being no chimneys to them. This was the condition of the schoolhouses even through the twenties. The seats were made of poles split open, supported on legs about three feet long, and with the flat side up. Light was admitted through an aperture made by leaving out one log along the sides of the building. A bench or plank for writing was supported on pins driven in the log just beneath the window. The roofs of these primitive institutions of learning were of boards held to their place by weight poles. Each pupil took whatever book he could find. Some studied the Life of Washington, others the Life of Marion, and a few would take a Clarion {the paper then published at Nashville} to school, and learn from that. These were pay-schools, the tuition being from 75 cents to $1 per pupil for one month. Various were the rules and requirements of these schools. Each teacher had new rules. An invariable custom was to make the teacher treat or take a duckin on Christmas and at the close of school. If a mischievous boy passing the schoolhouse desired to be chased at a lively rate it was only necessary for him to yell out school butter, when the teacher would say to his pupils: Take him in, boys. Reading and writing were the main branches taught, and arithmetic was sometimes taught. Pupils recited one at a time. They were by most teachers allowed to seek the out-door, pure atmosphere in fair weather to prepare their lessons. Prior to 1820 {probably as early as 1815} the Fayette Academy was established. This was a county academy, and derived its support from a State fund. The building became untenable about 1854, and the new building just then erected by the Cumberland Presbyterian Church was to be used by Milton College, which did not materialize, was purchased, and Fayette Academy continued for some years, and then sold the building to the county school commissioners.
The Fayetteville Female Collegiate Institute began its existence almost as early as the Fayetteville Academy. The land was donated by James Bright. This institution is under the control of a company and board of trustees. The building first used was torn down in 1884 to give place to the present splendid brick building. The enrollment for the past year was about 220 pupils. Although it, by name, is known as a female school, both sexes are admitted.
The Mulberry Female Academy was established in 1830 and existed as such until 1869, when it was consolidated with the Mulberry Male Academy, and since the institution thus formed, has prospered under the name of the Mulberry Male and Female Academy. The Mulberry Male Academy was formed and put in working order in 1844.
Viney Grove Academy was founded by the Rev. Henry Bryson and conducted with great success by him for many years. This once ranked with the standard educational institutions of the South, but it has died away. It was five miles west of Fayetteville. Boonshill Academy has existed since before the war. The building is a nice brick house, and good schools are taught there.
The Petersburg Masonic Academy was founded by that fraternity in 1858 and is taught in the lowest story of the brick Masonic Hall at Petersburg. Oak Hill Institute flourished from 1865 to 1880 with considerable success. The building is frame. Nixon Springs Academy, near Smithland, was a good institution from 1875 to 1880. Hopewell Academy at Lincoln was endowed by the United Presbyterian Church and is a well-conducted school. Greenwood Academy, between Mulberry and Booneville, was established in the fifties, and has a brick building. Cane Creek Academy, at Howell, also has a brick building and is comparatively a new institution.
The public school of Lincoln County are gaining is favor, but are yet in their infancy. There are eighty-two public school in the county for white, and thirty-one for colored people. There are but eighty-four public school buildings, but school is taught in other buildings. The buildings are as follows: Stone and brick, 3; frame, 47; log, 34; total, 84. Value of school buildings is estimated at $23,460. And the value of apparatus, etc., at $1,570. The scholastic population of the county for this year is 9,912, and the amount of school fund, at $1.75, per capita, is $17.346.
As in all new countries, the first settlers of this section were more accustomed to the sound of the hunting horn and chasing hound than to pulpit oratory on the Sabbath. However, many good Christian people were among the first pioneers, and they established Scripture readings, and even preached sermons at the different private residences. Early services were held in the court house, and not unfrequently did people assemble at some designated place in the woods to hear a sermon.
In 1811 the earthquake shock which was so sensible felt here was by many regarded as the approach of the Last Great Day, and consequently many accessions to the Christian flock were made. For a considerable time big meetings were held, and a great revival was experienced, but after a time the lull in the tide came, the spirit of the meetings died down. Yet there was a good work being done by some of the good Christian people. As early as 1808 a church was organized at the Forks of Mulberry, and it is a Primitive Baptist organization. Hardy Holman was the first pastor. In about 1812 the Shiloh congregation was organized by the same denomination. Other churches of this {the Primitive or old-school Baptist} denomination, are Concord, which was organized prior to 1820; Mount Olivet, probably organized in the twenties; New Hope, a small congregation, but an old one; Kelly Creek, which began existence in the forties. Pleasant Grove; Rocky Point; Bethel; and Buckeye, which was organized as late as 1866 with a membership of nineteen and now has 165 members. Nearly all of these churches are in a good condition and prospering.
In the fall of 1812 the Presbyterian Church of Fayetteville was organized with the Rev. John Gillespie as pastor. The first elders were David Turner, Andrew Hannah, Francis Patton, John Armstrong and Ebenezer McEwen. Private members were Peggy Hannah, Mrs. Armstrong, Mrs. Patton, Mrs. Turner, Peggie Gillespie, Mary McEwen, Elizabeth Ferguson, John B. Alexander and Barbara Alexander. Subsequent pastors of this church have been John R. Bain, James McLinn, Amzi Bradshaw, E. McMillan, M. M. Marshall, W. C. Dunlap, D.D., George Hall, A. D. McClure, J. H. Bryson, W. H. Groves and R. M. DuBose. The present membership is 105. First worship was in the court house; afterward an edifice was built, which was destroyed by a storm in 1851, and then the present one was erected. Other Presbyterian Churches of the county are: Unity, eight miles from Fayetteville, organized about 1829, and now having a membership of about forty; Petersburg, organized May 5, 186,. And now having about forty members; Swan Creek , organized as early as 1830, now having a membership of fifty; and Young s Chapel, with a membership of twenty-five, and having existed only since 1870. One other church, by the name of Old Unity, once existed, but is now extinct.
Bethel Church of the Associate Reformed Presbyterian denomination was organized 1830 by Rev. H. Bryson, who continued as its pastor until his death in 1874, and was superseded by Rev. A. S. Sloan, the present pastor. There are three other churches in the county of that denomination known as the New Hope, Prosperity and Pleasant Plains.
Early in 1829 a camp-meeting was held near Fayetteville by distant workers in the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. Great success blessed this meeting and an organization of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church of Fayetteville was accomplished the same year. Rev. S. M. Cowan was the first pastor, continuing many years, and under him the church multiplied in numbers and strengthened in good work. Subsequent ministers have been Herschel S. Porter, W. D. Chaddick, D. D. , Stokely Chaddick, S. M. Cowen, again M. B. DeWitt, ____McElree, Nat Powers, C. P. Duvall, ____ McDonald and J. S. Weaver. Among the first members were Benjamin Clements and wife, William Norris and wife, Benjamin Wear and wife, S. O. Griffs and wife, George Stonebraker and wife, Jacob Stonebraker and wife and Dr. Charles McKinney and wife.
Cane Creek Cumberland Presbyterian Church was organized in 1817 by Rev. R. Donel, and now has 138 members. J. B. Tiger has been its pastor for twenty-five years, and in its seventy years of existence the church has never been without a pastor, although but five men have served as pastors. There are thirteen other Cumberland Presbyterian Churches in the county, viz.: Mulberry, with a membership of about 50; Mount Zion, organized by Rev. D. Tucker about eight years ago; Hebron, an old church with about 125 members; New Unity, with 100 members; Petersburg, with about 70 members; New Salem, and old church, with a membership of about 75; Pisgah, organized about 1856, and now having about 40 members; Liberty, organized about 1878, present membership about 50; Sulphur Spring, with 75 members, built and supported by Henry Warren for his factory hands; Moore s Chapel, a young congregation of about 100; Elkton, a small congregation; Flintville, a new congregation with a small membership; and New Lebanon, about twelve years old and having a large membership.
The Methodist Episcopal Church of Fayetteville was organized prior to 1829. Rev. Joshua Kilpatrick was its pastor that year. Present membership is 162. The present church building was erected about 1846. The other Methodist Episcopal Churches South and their approximate memberships are follows: Shady Grove, 100; Lloyd s Chapel, 75; Providence, Beech Grove, Union and Boonville, 331; Petersburg, __; Macedonia, Hermon, Flintville and Liberty, 350; Medium and Moore Chapel, 263; Mulberry, 90; Shiloh, 100; Dellrose, __; Blanche, Smith s Chapel, Shiloh and Ebenezer, __; and New Bethel, a new organization. This denominations is in a prosperous condition.
The Christians have nine organizations. They are as follows: Fayetteville, which was organized in 1865 and now has a membership of about 75; Gun Spring, Philadelphia, Friendship, Chestnut Ridge, Mulberry, Antioch, one on Lane s Branch, and one at McAlister s chair factory.
The Hard Shell Baptist have small congregations–Mount Carmel and Sulphur Springs.
The Protestant Episcopal Church of Fayetteville is the only one of that denomination in the county. It was organized in 1882 and in 1883 was built the elegant little stone edifice which is used for worship.
The first organization of the United Presbyterian Church in Tennessee was Lebanon Church in this county. It was organized September 15, 1865, by Rev. A. S. Montgomery. The church building cost about $2,000 and the present membership is 145. Other organizations of that name are Hopewell and Pisgah.
The Missionary Baptists also have a number of congregations in the county. They have an organization at Fayetteville, but no church house.
Some very interesting people lived in Lincoln County, Tennessee. One case in point was Josephine Myrtle Corbin. She was born 12 May 1867. Daughter of William H Corbin who was born in Georgia and Nancy Williams Sullens Corbin who was born in Alabama. The Corbin's had a large family of children.
She married James Clinton Bicknell, June 12, 1886, in Blount County, Alabama. She died 6 May 1928 in Cleburne, Johnson County, Texas. She is buried at the Cleburne Memorial Cemetery. Three of her children are known: Clinton Francis Bicknell (1896 – 1966), Ruby Eugenia Bicknell Wells (1898 – 1978); and Lillian Josephine Bicknell Hammack (1906 – 1973). She is said to have had four children.
Her father enlisted 3 Oct 1862 as a Private during the War Between the States. He served in Company B, Georgia 43rd Infantry Regiment. The family moved to Johnson County, Texas at some point. Most of them are interred in Johnson County, Texas.
The extra legs were part of a twin that did not split correctly. Sometimes this is referred to as a parasitic twin. Each of her smaller inner legs was paired with one of her outer legs. She was said to be able to move her inner legs, but they were too weak for walking. She had four daughters and a son. She was born a dipygus, meaning that she had two separate pelvises side by side from the waist down. She was often referred to as the four-legged woman.
In all the photographs of her she is smiling and seems very happy.
- What I know about Tuscumbia Landing… (rememberingtheshoals.wordpress.com)
Old photos and old memories…
what a combination. This is an old photo of Muscle Shoals, Alabama. Someone online referred to this studio and the town being out in the sticks and was incredulous that 'stars' would have recorded there. I wonder where they were from.
Fame Recording is in the photo. There is a car wash. A convenience store appears on the left. Does anyone remember the names of the businesses? This was a trip down Memory Lane.
1942 Florence Alabama…
was such an idyllic city. The lampposts that were discussed online are seen in the photograph. Also seen is the Majestic Theater City Cafe Florence style, and First National Bank.
Our forefathers worked hard to make a living for their families…
and the cotton mills in northern Alabama and southern Tennessee allowed them to do just that.
This is a photo of Laurel Hills Cotton Mill Workers, Laurel Hill, Lawrence County Tennessee
People Who Worked At Laurel Hill Cotton Factory Taken From 1880. Transcribed Lawrence Co.
Census 12th District.
|Page No. In Census
|Job title
|Brewer, Ada
|Brewer, Araminta
|Brewer, Henry
|Brewer, James
|Brewer, M. F.
|Brewer, Malissa
|Brewer, Margaret
|Brewer, Mary J.
|Brewer, Rachel
|Brewer, Sarah E.
|Brewer, Sophronia
|Brewer, Thomas
|Brewer, Wade
|Bullion, Charity
|Corcoran, Alice
|Corcoran, Florence
|Corcoran, Henry
|Corcoran, John
|Corcoran, Patrick
|Corcoran, Sallie
|Corcoran, Thomas
|Corcoran, Willis
|Couch, Angie
|Couch, Emily
|Cox, Eddie
|Davis, Elizabeth
|Davis, Jeff
|Fife, Georgia A.
|Fife, Hannah
|Fife, Lidia
|Gordon, John A. J.
|Gordon, Leona
|Gordon, Matilda
|Green, Jane
|Hall, Fannie
|Holloway, David
|Holloway, Delila
|Holloway, Mary K.
|Holloway, Sarah E.
|Jones, Clark
|(Cotton Mfg.)
|Jones, W. C.
|(Cotton Mfg.)
|Laughter, Florence
|Laughter, Sterling
|Lee, Allie
|Lee, Dora
|Lee, Hardy
|Lee, Lidia A.
|Lee, Mary J.
|Lee, Sallie
|Martin, Jennie
|Massey, Rhoda
|Morton, Samuel
|Mosley, Jo.
|Norman, James
|(Waggoner) ??
|Partridge, Thomas
|Riley, John
|Simpson, Evan
|Simpson, Jackie
|Staggs, Clarenda
|Staggs, Eb
|Staggs, Emilene
|Staggs, Fredonia
|Staggs, Jane
|Staggs, Martha
|Staggs, Mary
|Staggs, Meridy
|Staggs, Thomas
|Styles, Laten
|(Boss Weaver)
|Wesley, John
|(Blacksmith) ??
|Wilson, Moses
|(Waggoner) ??
|Wooley, William
There were 400 people that lived on Laurel Hill. 80 worked in the cotton mill.
Compiled by Lawrence Archives, Lawrenceburg, TN, February 2011. By Wayne Austin via Mary Bob McClain.
A farewell to comrades…
by General Joseph Wheeler was published in the Florence Times Newspaper on 21 September 1900. General Wheeler was bidding his comrades farewell in the conflict of the War Between the States.
Sometimes you just happen across history…
as is the case with this posting by a 1964 graduate of Colbert County High School, Wayne Austin. I just don't understand why I remember all these people when I was so very young way back then.
Hatton Elementary School, 1957, (East), Colbert County Alabama
HATTON ELEMENTARY SCHOOL, 1958 Graduation of the 6th Grade.
Hatton School was located about 10 miles east of Muscle Shoals Alabama on what was then known as Second Street. A new school building was built around 1970 after integration and the old rock building used for programs such as Head Start. [Wayne Austin 1/25/2004]
Hatton Elementery School 1958 Teachers and Administrators. East Colbert County Alabama.
Left to Right: Sue Striet, Principal from about 1924 to about 1961; Eileen Striet, Teacher of 1st & 2nd grades, Mrs. Simpson, Teacher of 3rd & 4th Grades, Mrs. Earl Gamble teacher of the 5th & 6th Grades. All of the above teachers were related except as far as I know Mrs. Simpson. She came from the nearby Shoals area in the mid 1950s to teach there. Mrs. Gamble and Eileen Striet were probably sisters and Sue was related someway from the previous generation probably the mother of Eileen and Sue. They lived in the Brick Presbyterian Church Community and are all buried there in the church yard cemetery today Feb 2004. In some sense these ladies were a part of the old south tradition that resulted from the large farmer land-owner culture. They were descendents or married into the descendents of the old Striet place and the historic Presbyterian Brick Church families of the area. The Striet place was an 1800s farm located one mile to the south of this school and has a unique Civil War history. Story goes that this large old antebellum home was spared by the federals because there was a star on the upper crest of the home. The federals used it as a hospital instead of burning it. The old home stood for many years being occupied by the ancestors of the Striet ladies above who preceded earlier families going back well into the early 1800s. It finally collapsed under its own weight from neglect and ruin beginning about 1955. Today parts of the home lie decaying on the ground.
Hatton Elementary Graduation from the 6th grade 1958. Wayne Austin is standing and reading the Gettysburg Address when he should have been quoting it. He (I) can well remember that I had it memorized. The paper was probably a reflection of shyness and a method of hiding from the crowd. Left to right: others; Jim Peden (back); Gloria Davenport (front); Sam Aday (back row), Billy Chaney (front); Wayne Austin (Standing); Joan Rutherford seated in front and partially blocked by Wayne; Truman Collier (front & deceased), Rodney Hamby (back & completely blocked behind Truman); Betty McGregor (front); Cathy Ledlow (just to the right behind Betty, deceased).
Mrs. Earl Gamble presenting award to Gloria Davenport; Left to Right: Sam Aday (back), Billy Chaney (front, deceased),
Joan (Rutherford) Bogle (front), ______(behind Joan), Truman Collier (front) Rodney Hamby(behind and just the left of Truman), Gloria (Davenport) Johnson (excepting award or grad. certificate) and Betty McGregor (seated), Mrs. Earl Gamble making presentation. Notice in these photos how attentive these little kids in the audience are whom I am unable to identify from the back of their heads. It is like some major event worthy of their full attention.
Left to right: Johnnie Rutledge, ______ girl unknown, Wayne Austin (front), Jim Peden (back), Gloria Davenport (front), Sam Aday (back), Billy Chaney (front), Joan Rutherford (front), Truman Collier (front), Rodney Hamby (behind Truman not visible), Betty McGregor (front), Cathy Ledlow (behind Betty, unseen). The kids in the audience no doubt contained the other five children of Paul & Ruby Lee (Barlar) Austin. I see the back of the head of Warren the eldest son. His ears stick out at the top and just to his right is probably the younger brother Ernie. One can only see part of he right side of his head. Notice the one little girl from behind who is sitting in a chair without the back support. She is making the best of it by wrapping her arm behind her back to serve as a cushion. This would have been photographed in May of 1958. Photography by the Mother or Dad of Gloria Davenport. The writer received these photos from Gloria via her son Ashley Johnson who digitized them for publication. [Wayne Austin 1/25/2004]
Joan (Rutherford) Bogle making her presentation. Believe the little girl in the back row of the audience who turned around is Amere Austin. If so the little blond gal to Amere's left is Mary Austin her sister.
Rodney Hamby making presentation.
Betty McGregor making presentation.
Hatton School Building – photo graphically restored to look similar to the old school I remember in the 1950s.
Wayne Austin November 28, 2005.
In another posting, Wayne Austin, gives this report of neighbors near the homestead of his Austin family on Hatton School Road:
From Hatton School going south the first family were the Peden family about 500 yards down on the left coming south. He drove the Hatton School Bus for a number of years. If a student misbehaved in those days he would put them off the bus and let them walk home no matter how far. Yes, yours truly was one of the misbehaving trudgers one time, but only one time, because that is all it took.
Next and almost across the road was the farm of George Oldham. This was a home built probably in the 1890s. In a freak accident George's wife was run over by a road grader. George was so despondent that he also ended his life leaving this house vacant and after many years fallen down.
Another 200 yards on the right was a frame house that sat next to the road where the son of George Oldham ,Virgil Oldham lived for a time until he built a new house in the Brick Church neighborhood. Hillard & Joyce Hatton lived there for a time early in their marriage.
Next house was a small frame house on the right back off the road. It was at one time an old sharecropper rental residence. The people that live there the longest were the Peden family possibly related to the first Peden family mentioned above. Jim the son was in fifth grade at Hatton Elementary School in 1956. Later Fitz Newson (black) the grandfather (I think) of the star Alabama tight end (Ozzie Newson) and later Pro-football player lived for a time there (Fitz) when times were hard for that family. Next house was the the nice home of the Sam Streit family. At one time the kin of this family owned the Streit Dairy Products in Sheffield Al. Later the Simmons family owned this home and ran the Simmons Tire company on 2nd street in Sheffield during the 1960s & 1970s. About 300 yards further down the road and across the street was a stately old mansion of about 5,000 square feet with 20 feet ceilings. It was an old Antebellum home they say built in the 1840s.
Next back on the other side of Hatton School Road was the home of the Posey family. I don't believe they had any children Charles Ray Posey worked for Robbins tile company on 6th Street in Tuscumbia, AL and he enjoyed all night stints at hunting raccoons using coon hounds.
The next house was on the right was the house displayed above as the Austin house but it actually fronted on Jarmon Lane.
The next family was a black family on the left that I do not remember the surname, but I believe he had two or three young sons.
The next family was the James Family farm. They reared 4 or five children. The father was killed by a drunk driver in a traffic accident at Underwood Crossroads (2nd Street & County Lind Road) about 1951. Albert Streit witnessed that accident and described it this way: "My family witnessed the death of the James family father. . We were going to church on a Sunday morning and their truck was a about 200 yards ahead of us. The father was riding in the back of the truck, standing up. They were heading west on second street road. As they were turning right to head north a vehicle occupied by a drunk driver came from the south and hit their truck throwing the father out of the truck. They were en-route to the Ford City Baptist Church.
The children were: 1. Blanton, 2. Paul, 3. Kay and 4. Douglas (Doug), Kay was homecoming queen at Colbert County Hi School in 1962. Members of the James's family were very personable and talented folks, but they were messy housekeepers.
Next on the right across the street were the Crittendon family who moved there in the mid 1950s. Jerry Lee was the eldest son and had a few behavior issues as a youngster. He was always getting into trouble with authorities but I don't recall any major problems with the law. His sister Jo-Ann was just the opposite always in control. I believe there were a young set of twin boys living there in the late 1950s early 1960s. The father was strict and domineering & I don't recall the name.
Last house was the Grissom family. They lived on the right at the intersection of Hatton School Road and 6th Street. Very friendly folks. The lady was always trading flowers with my mom Ruby. I do not remember any children from this family. They might have been older.
I do not have a recollection of the black families that lived down Jarmon Lane in the 1950s Except for our neighbors the Cobb family, the balance of them kept to themselves. There was one Jarmon family that had something over 15 kids that lived down that lane.
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