Tag: Tennessee

Myrtle Jackson, The Grandmother We Barely Knew

April 25, 2018 Dennis Ayers

The oldest daughter of James and Sarah Jackson was Myrtle Louise, born March 1, 1889 in Greene County, Tennessee. From the very beginning, Myrtle knew only a hard life. Born into a large family with meager resources, she was raised under far different circumstances than her Great-Great-Grandfather, William Jackson, who just four generations earlier was a wealthy land holder and slaver owner.

By age 12, Myrtle was turned out to work as a live-in servant to a local merchant in the Greeneville area. If there was any compensation at all, no doubt it was passed on to her father and mother. The family she lived with was John and Elizabeth Burkey who had two very young children. Myrtle years later recounted that the family treated her poorly and didn’t feed her very much. She had dark hair and light blue eyes and must have been very attractive as a teenager. She certainly caught the attention of a local young farmer named Tom Derrie. She and Tom were married in August of 1904 when she was just 15 years old and he was 6 years older. Ten months later they had their first child whom they named Lillian Mae.

Then shortly thereafter, as mentioned previously, Myrtle’s brothers moved to Campbell County to work as coal miners. Her father and mother joined them as did Myrtle and Tom, who also found work as a coal miner. They moved to a home in Jacksboro and their second child, Alma Bernice, was born in November 1909. Their third child, Melda, born in January 1912 only lived for five weeks before dying of Whooping Cough. They continued to have another 8 children, but only son Alvin (called Bud), and daughters, Helen and Veatta lived to adulthood. The others were tragically lost at young ages. Also, tragically, Tom Derrie lost his lower left leg in a coal crusher machine accident around 1915. These unfortunate events had a terrible and lasting effect on the family. Myrtle and Tom’s difficult life in the years following the accident can be reviewed in the story about Thomas Derrie which can be found in the Derrie chapter of this family history. Myrtle died on February 9,1956 from a heart attack at age 66 and is buried with Tom in the Jacksboro Cemetery.

**Grandma Myrtle, Daughter Veatta Derrie, Granddaughter Carol Ayers – 1955**

My mother, Helen Derrie Ayers, loved her mother very much, and often told me sad stories of her hard life. One story was that Myrtle had to feed her family only biscuits and gravy nearly every meal when there was no money for other food. Living 500 miles away, we didn’t get to see her very often. The times we did see her was on summer vacations when our family jumped in our old car and trekked to Tennessee to visit all the relatives. Then we’d only see her a few days. I believe there was just a single occasion when Myrtle visited Maryland, and that was when she came along with her daughter Lillian’s family in June of 1955. Unfortunately, there just wasn’t enough contact with her for me to have many memories. The few that I have are of a small sweet woman with gray hair who seemed to me to be very caring. I also remember some unpleasant habits like her using snuff, now called smokeless tobacco, and drinking a little to much. Once at her house I woke up one morning and couldn’t find my shoes. It turned out that Grandma had gotten a little tipsy and stolen them from me to wear while cooking breakfast. She thought it was funny, but I didn’t at the time.

I was only 13 when Grandma died. The strongest memory that I have is of my mother crying during the entire long drive to Tennessee for the funeral. I wish there were more memories of Grandma Myrtle, but we barely knew her.

The Fraterville Mine Disaster Created Need for More Miners

April 21, 2018 Dennis Ayers

On the morning of May 19, 1902, the community of Fraterville lost all but three of its adult males. A devastating explosion in the Fraterville Mine killed 216 miners of which only 184 were ever identified. The cause of the explosion was never identified, but it

was most likely due to a build up of methane gas resulting from poor ventilation. At the time, the miners were working about 3 miles under Cross Mountain. Most were killed instantly, and 26 later died of suffocation before rescuers could reach them. Some entire families were lost. It was the worst mining disaster in Tennessee’s history and among the top five in the nation.

The miners were a mix of itinerant workers, expert miners and local men and boys. Most of the itinerant miners were never claimed and were buried alongside the nearby railroad tracks. The others were buried in local cemeteries with 89 being interred in Leach Cemetery in a spot called Miners Circle.

Due to this tragic loss of so many lives, the disaster created the need for replacement miners in the following months. This need is strongly believed to have been the reason for the entire Jackson family to relocate to Campbell County around 1905. Fraterville was located near the town of Coal Creek (now named Rocky Top) bordering Campbell and Anderson Counties. The distance to Jacksboro where many of the Jacksons moved is about 7 miles.

The James Jackson Family Migrates to Campbell County Tennessee

April 19, 2018 Dennis Ayers

James Henry Jackson was born in 1862, in the middle of the Civil war, as the third son of John and Peggy Jackson. He was raised working on the farm next door to Peggy’s parents. James left home early though and, as mentioned in the last post, was married in 1879 to Sarah Malinda Chandler. He was 17 and Sarah was just 15 years old, but they soon established their own household and James became a farm worker. Neither James nor Sarah could read or write and they rented their home as they would continue to do for the rest of their lives.

James was tall with red hair, while Sarah was of medium size with dark hair and blue eyes. As typical of families in earlier times, they proceeded to have 12 children over the next 18 years. As chance would have it, 6 of the children had red hair and 6 had dark hair. By 1900 the family had moved a little south to Greene County, TN. The reason is unknown, but perhaps it was to find better work since James had become a day laborer. They already had their first 10 children, and it seems the family had fallen on hard times. The three oldest teenage sons were also working as day laborers, and they were forced to let their oldest daughter, Myrtle, work as a hired servant at only 12 years of age.

Then around 1905 the whole family, including the 5 adult children and spouses, all moved 50 miles west to Campbell County. What was the reason for such a major event? Well, evidently, it was to obtain employment in the coal mining industry in that general area. With the single exception of James himself, all the men became coal miners. The first to move seems to have been the oldest son, John, who married Melda Roberts in Campbell County in June 1904. Others soon followed and by 1910 all were living in the Jacksboro area.

My mother, Helen Derrie, remembers her grandfather being known as Jim rather than James. It is not clear why Jim didn’t become a coal miner also, but it may have been because he was already in his 40s by the time of the big move. He became a farmer worker again and settled down in Caryville. He lived another 30 years until he died at age 75 in January 1936 from a cerebral hemorrhage. Sarah lived even longer and died in February 1944 from complications resulting from a fractured left hip received in a fall. She was I month short of her 80th birthday. Jim and Sarah are buried together in the Harness Cemetery in Caryville on a hilltop overlooking Cove Lake.

Peter Jackson, Farmer

February 1, 2018 Dennis Ayers

Peter Jackson, the oldest son of William Jackson, was born around 1790 soon after William settled in East Tennessee. He grew up as his father successfully established himself as a slaveholding farmer with large land holdings. However, as was previously described, upon William’s death in 1837, Peter did not inherit any of his land or slaves. By then Peter was 47 years old and had his own family and farm.

As a young man, it seems that Peter may have gone to Kentucky to volunteer to fight the British and Indians during the War of 1812. There is very scant information, but he appears to have fought with the 10th Reg’t (Boswell’s) Kentucky Militia. Fortunately, he returned to Washington County unharmed.

At age 30 Peter married Ann Murray in 1820 and it is believed they had a couple of early children who did not survive childhood. Then finally their son born in 1829 survived. This was very fortunate for us since that baby named John William was our ancestor! Then Peter and Ann had two more sons and two daughters. Ann died about the time of their last child’s birth, so perhaps she died in childbirth which was not uncommon in those days.

Peter spent his entire life in Washington County, TN, during a time when America was rapidly changing. In Peter’s lifetime, Andrew Jackson (no relation) from Tennessee became the seventh President of the United States serving two terms between 1829 and 1837. He championed the “common man”. During Jackson’s presidency, the United States evolved from a republic, in which only landowners could vote, to a mass democracy, in which white men of all classes could vote. However, Jackson had two stains against his presidency. In 1830 he signed the Indian Removal Act, which forced the migration of most members of the Native American tribes in the South to Indian territory in the West. The relocation process which became known as the “Trail of Tears” dispossessed the Indians and resulted in widespread death and disease. Also, Andrew Jackson was a staunch defender of domestic slavery, widespread throughout the South.

Then there was the establishment of the new state of Texas which resulted in bloody battles with the Mexicans including the Battle of the Alamo in 1836. That famous battle cost many lives including the famous Davy Crockett who was born in Washington County just 10 miles from Jonesborough and the Jacksons.

Peter Jackson was seemingly untouched by all that happened during this time frame. He had no further military activities, and generally seems to have had a very ordinary life as a farmer. So, this presents an opportunity to examine his life as a typical farmer in the East Tennessee frontier days. In 1850, Peter lived as a widower with 5 children between the ages of 7 to 19 on his farm. The farm was 150 acres in size with about half the land improved and half unimproved. It was worth about $1000 which is actually only about $33,000 in today’s money (Rural farmland was historically cheap). The size of his farm was about average compared to his neighbors. He had $75 worth of farm implements and machinery. He owned 5 horses and 3 mules, and his livestock which included 5 cows, 4 sheep and 8 pigs was worth about $300. He and his family worked the farm without any slaves, and that year they produced 100 bushels of wheat, 200 bushels of corn and 80 bushels of oats. In addition, they no doubt raised vegetables and fruits, and slaughtered animals for meats. It was typical subsistence farming with only enough for the family to survive on their own with some extra crops to trade for outside necessities. A teenage son named Jobe died shortly after that, cause unknown.

Peter later died in September 1852 at age 62, younger than his father had lived. He left his farm to be equally divided between his two remaining sons, John W. Jackson, and George W. Jackson. He also requested they maintain his two daughters, Sarah and Icy until they are married. John the oldest was named as the Executor.

William Jackson Becomes An Early Tennessee Settler

January 25, 2018 Dennis Ayers

After the United States won the war of independence from England, there was a dramatic increase in internal migration, with as much as 10% of the population moving each year and about half of that moving across state lines. Young white men were the most mobile of the population leading the way westward. Although there were a few permanent white settlements as early as 1771 on the western side of the mountains in North Carolina, it was not until after the war ended, and defeat of the Cherokee and Shawnee Indians that significant numbers of settlers moved into that area now known as Northeastern Tennessee. Actually, many thought the area was a part of Virginia.

The specific region was centered geographically around the valleys created by the Holston and Clinch Rivers in the Cumberland and Appalachian Mountains. It was rugged territory which became a refuge for the frontier type even before the war. During the late 1700s, the new settlement territory came under several forms of government and ownership. First there was the Watauga Association, a semi-autonomous government created in 1772 by frontier settlers living along the Watauga River. Then in 1777, the area was admitted to the state of North Carolina as the District of Washington which consisted of Washington and Sullivan counties, only to be turned over to the Federal government in 1784 as cession for war debts. Then the unhappy citizens formed what they thought was the 14th state called Franklin with its capital of Jonesborough. However, when Franklin was never admitted to the Union, the territory was again taken over by North Carolina in 1790. Finally in 1796 the area became part of the new state of Tennessee.

Jonesborough Monument – Click to Enlarge

With that historical landscape, William Jackson was one of those very early settlers who migrated to the area from Virginia in the late 1780s when he was in his twenties. His actual reason for relocating from eastern Virginia is not known. Perhaps he was looking for new fertile lands as tobacco planting was known to greatly deplete land where it was grown, and he evidently migrated with other Jackson relatives. William may also have brought some slaves with him from Virginia. It was not uncommon that white slaveholding migrants were younger sons of eastern slaveholders, whose inheritance included only a portions of the family’s slaves, or small farmers who owned just one or two blacks.

William apparently settled first in Sullivan County and in 1790 was appointed as a Constable. He married Hannah Jobe in 1789. They had their first child, Peter, in 1790 when the population of Tennessee had reached about 36,000. They would go on to have a total of 9 children. Eventually his family settled in Washington County near Jonesborough where they became successful farmers acquiring considerable land holdings. Records show that William obtained 300 acres in land grants on the Doe River in July 1794.

Hannah died sometime before William who later died in August 1837. In his will he bequeathed tracks of land of 120 acres, 82 acres, 146 acres to his three youngest children. The remainder of his estate was essentially divided among all his children. One very interesting bequeath was for his 5 slaves (Cap, Marshall, Dick, Alice and Elbert) to be hired out with the proceeds shared among all children. Then the slaves were to be set free when they reached 30 years of age. He requested that they be treated Kindly and always be provided with warm and comfortable clothes. His two oldest sons, Peter and George, whom he deemed trustworthy, were named as executors of the will.

Here’s One to Think About

April 22, 2016 Dennis Ayers

An interesting bit of information is worth noting about the complicated relationship between Ira Ayers and Florence Depew. On his father’s side, Florence was Ira’s Aunt since she was his father Martin’s sister. However, on his mother’s side, Florence was also Ira’s Step-Grandmother after she married Will Depew, who was Ira’s mother’s father.

Nothing irregular here, but it kind of makes you think of the humorous country song “I am my own Grandpa”.

Hannah Mae Depew, The Grandmother We Never Knew

March 29, 2016 Dennis Ayers

Hannah Mae Depew was the oldest daughter of William Depew. Tragically, like her mother, Tilda, Hannah did not have a very long life. None of her grandchildren ever had an opportunity to know her, and even her own children had few memories of her. As a result not much is known about Hannah.

When Hannah Mae was born on April 6, 1894, in Hancock County, Tennessee, her father, William, was 20 and her mother, Tilda, was 18. Three younger siblings followed her. Old pictures show that she looked very much like her mother as she was a little woman (120 lbs) with brown hair. Her son, Addison, remembered her hair color as being slightly reddish or auburn. She was called Hannie. After moving with her family to Campbell County, she lost her own mother when she was just 10 years old. Then, when Bill Depew married Florence Ayers and started a second family, Hannie and the other children from the first marriage continued to live with them.

Hannah Ayers (L) & Dorothy Ayers — **Hannie Ayers on the Left**

As previously mentioned, by 1910 the family moved next to the farm of Florence’s father, William Riley Ayers, on Hickory Creek. Like most mountain families, both had a bunch of offspring, and of course there had to be some romance. William Riley’s oldest son, Martin Van Buren Ayers, took a fancy to Hannie and they were married on November 10, 1912. They had four children by the time she was 25: Two boys, Ira and Addison, and two girls, Rose and Mary. Hannie and her family lived a very simple, hard working life in the mountains with no conveniences. Their contact with the outside world was sparse. She probably didn’t even know that women had won the right to vote in 1920. Somehow Hannie contracted Tuberculosis and died as a young mother on March 18, 1926, one month short of her 32nd birthday. She is buried in Hall Cemetery in the Stinking Creek area.

There was a striking similarity to Hannie’s life and that of her mother, Tilda. Both were married when they were 18 years old, and they looked very similar. Both had two boys and two girls. Both of them died as young mothers with Hannie being 31 and Tilda being just 29. At their time of death, Hannie’s oldest child, Ira, was 12, and Tilda’s oldest child, Hannie was 10. Tragically, both left 4 young children behind to be raised by single fathers living in a remote area. It was a hard life in the mountains.

I wish we had known grandmother, Hannie.

William Lafayette Depew, Man of Many Skills

March 16, 2016 Dennis No comments exist

Ira Ayers’ grandfather on his mother’s side was William Lafayette Depew. Some called him Bill, but most folks called him Will. He was born in 1872 in Hancock County, Tennessee, as the oldest child of Henry and Sarah Depew. Will grew up farming and raising and shearing sheep with his brothers on his father’s farm. However, he eventually developed skills that would lead him into other occupations. Although various records indicate that he was a farmer his whole life, his daughter, Elizabeth Suckel, claims that although they lived on a farm, he never did very much farming. Instead, at various times, he was a butcher, a grocer, a surveryor and a carpenter.

In 1893 at age 20, Will Depew married Matilda Seal who was two years younger. Very little is known about her. She apparently was mostly called Tilda, but maybe also Grilla at times. Her grand daughter Rose Jordan never knew her, but remembered the name sounded like “Gorilla” to her as a little girl. Will and Tilda had four children until Tilda’s tragic death around 1904, perhaps as a result of her last childbirth. No record of death is available.

The Louisville & Nashville (L&N) Railroad was one of the first railways built in the South starting in the 1850s. After the Civil War it grew rapidly and by the turn of the century it had pushed into the coalfields of the Southern Appalachians. At Jellico, a small town on the KY and TN border, the L&N tied into the Southern Railway and continued down through the Elk Valley in Campbell County on the way to Knoxville and then Atlanta. Because of his grocer experience, around 1900 Will Depew was hired by the L&N to run its commissary at the train depot in Jellico. So, he moved his family from Hancock County to Campbell County, TN.

Unfortunately, in September 1906 Jellico was the scene of a horrendous disaster when a train car at the depot loaded with 11 tons of dynamite exploded killing 12 people nearby, and wounding some 200 more. 500 people were left homeless as the town of 3000 was devastated. It was very fortunate that Will was not a victim, but the incident apparently ended his job with the railroad as the town of Jellico had to be rebuilt.

After Tilda died, and about the time of the Jellico incident, Will met Florence Ada Ayers and they were later married in 1907. Florence was a loving and loyal wife. Between 1909 and 1932 Bill and Florence had seven daughters and two sons. Tragically, one daughter died at only one year old from measles and whooping cough, one son died from typhoid at age 20 and one son died at age 15 when struck by a car while riding a motor scooter to school. Two of their daughters, Estelle and Ethel, were twins. Their youngest daughter, Lena Elizabeth, born in 1926 still lives in Long Beach, California. She is a delightful lady and loves to talk about her memories of earlier times.

Will Depew was about 5 foot 9 inches tall with a slender build. He never was called to serve in any military capacity. According to Elizabeth, he was a quiet man who only spoke as needed. He was strong willed, determined, and sustained by his faith and perseverance. He was very strict with his children as he was raised himself. Will did all the shopping for the family. While attending a turkey shoot in his thirties, he was shot in the hip, but recovered. Elizabeth, also remembers him playing the fiddle and the organ, so he must have had a good ear for music.

After Will married Florence, he continued working as a grocer, but also learned carpentry. He eventually went on to build houses and restore churches. By 1910 Bill and Florence and their family were living in the Hickory Creek area next to Florence’s father, William Riley Ayers. In the 1920s, when Florence’s brother, Martin, decided to build a new house on Walnutt Mountain, Will helped with the carpentry work. He told Elizabeth that when work became scarce during the 1930s Great Depression, he “nickeled and dimed’ to keep the family going by fixing up places, sharpening tools and saws, and helping neighboring families with “how to” advice on many things.

Unfortunately, as he grew older, Will became badly crippled with severe rheumatoid arthritis in his hips and legs, and needed to depend on canes and crutches to get around. By 1940 he was unable to work. It was hard for him to sit with one stiff leg, so he designed a special high stool/chair to be able to sit at the table. He designed, built, stained and polished the chair with a cane seat to match the other dining chairs. Will was very innovative that way.

Florence died of cancer in 1942 and for awhile Will lived in an “old folks” home. However, about 1945 he moved to LaFollette to live with his daughter, Della Cornelius. That’s where he later died in 1956 at age 84 from a heart attack. Will is buried in the Hall Cemetery on Stinking Creek where both of his wives and both sons are also buried.

Was it Henry Eli or Eli Henry Depew?

April 19, 2013 Dennis Ayers No comments exist

As mentioned earlier, Isaac Newton Depew and his wife, Betsy, had a total of 16 children. With so many names to hand out they became quite creative with some. For example they named two sons George Washington Depew and Thomas Jefferson Depew after famous presidents. Their fourth son was Henry Eli Depew born in 1848 in Harlan County, Kentucky. Some records show his name as Eli Henry while some other records show his name as Henry Eli. So, what was his true name? Unfortunately, without a birth certificate we will never know for sure. However, in the end his headstone shows the name as Henry Eli, giving whoever provided the headstone the last word in the matter. Besides, everyone just called him “Hen”.

By 1860 when he was 12 years of age, Hen had moved with his family to Hancock County, Tennessee, near Sneedville which is where he remained for most of his life. When the Civil War brokeout, he was too young to join the fighting like his two older brothers, William and Joseph. This no doubt was fortunate for us descendants since we would not be here if he had fought and perished like so many did. Hen became a farmer like most everyone else in the county, and he grew everything possible to make a go of it. According to his granddaughter, Elizabeth Suckel, he also raised sheep to sell wool.

Henry Depew married a number of times. At age 23 his first wife was Sarah Ellen McCollum whom he married in 1871. As an interesting side note, Sarah’s father James McCollum had left home in the 1860s to venture to northern California to try his hand at gold mining. When that didn’t work out so well he still remained there as a farmer for a few years. Finally, he returned to Hancock County, Tennessee after being away some 20 years. Together, Henry and Sarah raised ten children. Unfortunately, Sarah died in 1909, but by then all their children were grown with the youngest being 15.

According to an article published in a Hancock County newspaper in 1999, Hen soon married a second time to Myrtle Johnson who was 47 years younger. This marriage did not go well for reasons unknown today, and it was not long before Hen fell in love with Virginia (Vergie) Rhea who was also very young, but 4 years older than Myrtle. However, when he asked Myrtle for a divorce she did not want to easily give up her new home and refused. Following some poor advice from his brother Thomas, Henry thought he could avoid legal complications by going to another state to get married. So, in 1910 Henry went just across the border to Lee County Virginia with Vergie, and apparently got married under the name of Henry D. Pugh. When he returned to Hancock County, Hen learned that the Sheriff was soon coming to arrest him. Since he and Thomas had heard from others about the good life in Texas and the fortune they could make growing cotton there, they decided it was a good day to depart for Texas. The trip took them six weeks.

Myrtle got everything Henry owned but his land. Somehow Henry’s son James was able to save the land from Myrtle. According to letters he wrote back to his son, Henry did not fare well in Texas being sick most of the time. Eventually, he and Virgie were able to move back to Hancock County, Tennessee, and they were officially married in 1912 in nearby Grainger County. Hen had three more daughters with Virgie before he died in 1925 at the age of 76. He is buried in the Depew Cemetery in Sneedville where his first wife, Sarah is also buried. Vergie lived for over 50 years longer and died at the age of 88. She is buried in the Burke Cemetery.