By the early 1800s, most of the Derryberrys of Burke County, had chosen to leave North Carolina for the still newer frontiers to the west in Tennessee. Why? Well, in 1790, North Carolina had ceded its western land from the Appalachian Mountains to the Mississippi River to the new state of Tennessee. New counties formed almost immediately in eastern Tennessee, but the rest of the state remained Indian lands for awhile. Eventually, by the early 1800s, treaties with the Indians allowed additional counties to form in the middle of the state. The allure of cheap land in Tennessee and Kentucky lead many in the eastern states to simply pack up their families and all their belongings and set off into the wild.  Some Revolutionary War soldiers were also collecting their warrant land grants provided by the NC government for war services. In some cases, others bought the land grants from soldiers and moved west.

Before railroads and highways, river travel was often the best way short of struggling over mountains and through dense forests. The most basic and affordable watercraft to employ was the boxy and awkward flatboat. It was so named because of its flat underside and shallow draft, which gave the hull the balance and strength to hold a large deck, but which made the vessel difficult to steer. At anywhere from 8 to 20 feet wide and sometimes up to 100 feet long however, the flatboat was considerably larger than any previous riverboats.

The Derryberrys most likely traveled westward on such flatboats navigating various large rivers in Tennessee which, beyond the Appalachians, are mostly flatwater. The Nolichucky River begins about 50 miles west of Morganton, NC and flows through the Smokey Mountains, where it is sometimes white water, into Tennessee where it joins the French Broad River.

The Derryberrys undoubtedly traveled through gaps in the mountains by wagon before finding the flatwater of the Nolichucky in Green County Tennessee. After embarking on flatboats they continued down the Nolichcky to the French Broad River and then on to the Tennessee River at present day Knoxville. Some  travelers at that point apparently disembarked and continued westward by wagon following Avery’s Trace, one of the earliest routes to Nashville.  At present day Crossville, they branched off to the southwest to Middle Tennessee.   By 1820, there were 12 Derryberry families living in Warren and Maury Counties in Middle Tennessee.

However, there were some Derreberrys who stayed behind in North Carolina, and all are believed to have been descendants of John Derreberry Jr., who had died about 1789 and his wife Hannah. Their three sons, George William, Michael (Micah) and John all farmed their entire lives in North Carolina. Of special interest is Micah who was indeed a robust farmer until the end. In an old Derreberry family bible the following is found:

“Micah Derreberry in 1875, at age of 96, cut 90 Doz. wheat”. 

Although it is unclear how much wheat this represents, it still must have been quite an accomplishment for a man his age.

George William Derryberry, our ancestor, and his wife Edey also had three sons plus a daughter, Margaret, before Edey died in her 30s.  Little is known about Margaret or the oldest son John who also died early in his 30s.  Meanwhile, for reasons unknown, sometime in the 1850s their two youngest sons caught the migration bug. Samuel Derryberry went as far as Arkansas by following the Tennessee River all the way to the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. Samuel purchased land in Benton County Arkansas which is where he died in 1878. George and Edey’s youngest son, William, who is our ancestor, also moved his family in the 1850s, but only as far as Greene County, Tennessee. Perhaps they intended also to venture further into Middle Tennessee or even to Arkansas, but for some unknown reason once the family got through the mountains their  journey ended earlier than planned. Greene County has gently rolling hills and wide flat farmlands in the river valleys. Could it have been the beautiful farmland in Greene County, which enticed them to stop there or was it some unknown necessity?  The actual reason is lost to history.