"Digging For Your Roots" From articles published in the Herald and Tribune, Jonesborough, Tennessee
Judge John L. Kiener
Posted 7-2-05

---

---

QUERIES

My grandparents were WILLIAM HARMON ARRANTS and BERTHA HELENA (DEPEW) ARRANTS so these are my two main lines of research.  I have some old pictures to put in files for others to use.  Enclosed with this query is a photograph of the old Embreville School in which my mother and aunt taught.
(Editor: If you are interested in looking at the photograph, please let me know and I will place it in the Jonesborough Genealogical Letter file at the
Washington County / Jonesborough Library, 200 Sabin Drive, Jonesborough, Tennessee 37659.  I did not feel the picture I received would reproduce well
enough in the Herald & Tribune for use in "Digging For Your Roots."  - J. L. Kiener) I also have two pictures of a large group taken at the quarry about
1920.  My grandparents and their children are among the group.  Another one I can recall is of the train wreck at Watauga.  Then I have pictures of my
father, aunts, and other ancestors when they were living in Northeast Tennessee.  If you have files of family searches for others to use, I would
be glad to share my information by printing it or putting it on a CD, whichever is better for your system.  If you can be of assistance in my
research, please contact Patricia Arrants, 30 Locust Trail # 20745, Jasper, Georgia 30143-7915.

    DID YOU KNOW THAT THE PRINCE OF HANGMEN  is buried at Mountain Home Cemetery in Johnson City?  Judy Fowler-Argo, Public Affairs Officer at the Quillen VA Medical Center, sent "Digging For Your Roots" the following article: "The Prince of Hangmen. George Maledon, earned this title while serving as executioner for the Federal Court for the Western District of Arkansas during Judge Parker's time.  Maledon was born in Germany on June 10, 1830 and with his parents migrated to the German Catholic Community in Detroit, Michigan.  When George reached adulthood, he headed west, eventually working as an officer on the Fort Smith police force.  During the Civil War, he enlisted in the 1st Battalion, Arkansas Light Artillery. According to his military records, Maledon was five feet, eight inches tall, and had dark eyes, auburn hair and a fair complexion.  Immediately after the war, Maledon returned to law enforcement as a deputy sheriff in Fort Smith and then worked as a guard, special deputy and executioner for the federal court.  It is said that Maledon worked for the court for a period of twenty-two years, and during that time, executed over sixty criminals and shot two to death in escape attempts.  If those numbers are accurate, he executed several times as many men as any officer in America and more than any known legal executioner of modern times with the exception of a Frenchman who reportedly decapitated 437 persons.  Just before he left Fort Smith, Maledon was asked if his conscience ever bothered him about the hangings or if he feared the spirits of the departed. He replied: 'No, I have never hanged a man who came back to have the job done over.' In 1894, Maledon retired from the federal court and opened a grocery business in Fort Smith.  Three years later, he took a show of relics from the hangings on tour.  He had ropes, pieces of the gallows' beam and photographs of the most noted desperadoes on display in a tent.  'People of all classes flocked to the show grounds, crowded about the lecturer and filled the tent, viewing the
gruesome relics and listening to the old hangman's recital of soul-stirring events as he pointed out the . . . instruments of his vocation.'  Maledon died from dementia on June 5, 1911 in a home for old soldiers in Tennessee and is buried in the Johnson City (VA) Cemetery in that state."  Juliet Galonska wrote the article in March, 1996 on behalf of the National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, Fort Smith National Historic Site.  For additional information, Herald & Tribune readers can use the following Web Site: http://  www.  nps.gov/fosm/history/radio/26.htm

SURNAME RESEARCH

SURNAME RESEARCH - BACON, BURNS, LOVELL, MILLER, RICHARDSON being researched by Woody Beck, 123 Snapfinger Way, Athens, GA 30605-4449; E-mail address: wbeck  @ arches.uga.edu

CARSON, DOWNEY, HANNA, HUMPHREYS, KEPLINGER, MILLER, PATTON being researched by Barbara Beckett, 409 W. Irish Street, Greeneville, TN 37743; E-mail address: resource1 @ onemain.com

STEWART, STUART being researched by Mary Stuart Beil, 11700 SW Butner, Apt 305, Portland, OR 97225, and

BERRY, CARROLL being researched by Theodore D. Berry, 2236 Northmont Blvd., Reading, PA 19605-3031; E-mail address: berrytd  @ bellatlantic.net

 
CATHARINE SEVIER, PART I
                                     
                  
     (Editor's Note: Catharine Sevier has been the subject of recent inquiry by historians who wish to develop a better understanding of the role that pioneer women played in the establishment of what is now known as the State of Tennessee.  The Herald & Tribune in the early 20th Century printed articles about this "GREAT WOMAN OF PIONEER TIMES."  This week's "Digging For Your Roots" present Part I of the series. In reading these newspaper stories, please remember the times in which they were printed. The page on which the material quoted here appeared contained advertisements for "CASTORIA - For Infants and Children: Promotes Digestion, Cheerfulness and Best Contains neither Opium, Morphine, nor Mineral.  NOT NARCOTIC," and for subscriptions to both THE NEW YORK WORLD and THE TOLEDO BLADE, TOLEDO,  OHIO."  The Philadelphia Printers' Supply Co., 39 North Ninth Street, Philadelphia, Penn. also offered for sale the "Highest Grade of Printing Materials and Metal Furniture."  The account published herein appeared on December 11, 1908. - J. L. Kiener)

    By Walter Sherfey

     If Catharine Sevier had been a man, the chances are that she would have achieved no ordinary distinctions as a soldier and statesman, but as a woman she accomplished the higher destiny of becoming the wife of the greatest man of pioneer times, the mother of an ideal family, the sympathetic friend, and the wise counselor of the people of an entire commonwealth.

     The lives of few persons have been filled with so much of the romance and the hard conditions of pitiless reality and fewer still have borne the smiles and frowns of fortune so admirably as did this queen of the backwoods.   She was born in 1758 in the "Yadkin country," of North Carolina.   Her parents belonged to that restless, self-reliant race that ever felt itself unduly crowded so long as within sight of a neighbor's barn and it is therefore certain that her childhood was spent amid the dangers and hardships that constantly beset the conquerors of the West "at the beginning of the war of the Revolution - the skirmish line of civilization," advancing ever westward, and pushing its outposts beyond the mountains until they rested in the Watauga Valley, in what is now eastern Tennessee.  Among the adventurous spirits that had come thither was Samuel Sherrill.  There on a June day in the troublous times of 1776, we first meet his daughter under circumstances that seem almost prophetic of her remarkable career.

     The King of the Cherokees had resolved to exterminate the Watauga pioneers, and he threw the whole strength of his nation upon the fort defended by Captain John Sevier.  History is eloquent of that defense but with the forgetfulness of the minor details which we would most like to know, it fails to record how, amidst the uproar and confusion of battle, Capt. Sevier saw a tall, graceful girl, running towards the fort, pursued by a pack of howling savages, how exposing himself above the walls he shot down more than one Indian, who was raising his tomahawk for the fatal blow, and how nerved by desperation, the fugitive at one bound, leaped the palisades and fell into the arms of her defender.  Yet this little incident was destined to exert a greater influence over the fortunes of the frontier than the battle won that day, for it was the first meeting of John Sevier and Catharine Sherrill.  The friendship, perhaps love, which thus began in the hour of danger and deliverance upon that historic spot, now deserted and silent save for a tuneful colony of wood thrushes, was to endure through the storm and stress of forty eventful years with all of the fresh zeal and romantic ardor of some beautiful tale of fiction.

                                                     (To Be Continued)


     (Editor's Note: This is Part XI of the MINUTE BOOK INDEX, 1791 - 1804, of the SUPERIOR COURT OF WASHINGTON DISTRICT.  This series of "Washington County Records" was compiled by the Works Progress Administration (W.P.A.) in 1935 - 1936.  The material was prepared under the direction of Mrs. Leonidas W. McCown, 512 East Unaka Avenue, Johnson City, Tenn. 37601.  A note recites that: "This is a work book & the typed copy was turned in to
Headquarters in 1936. - W. P. A. - Mrs. L. W. McCown, Supervisor."  The front page of the handwritten Index recites that the "Original in Washington County

   Court House, Jonesboro, Tennessee."  Judges of the Court are listed as - Andrew Jackson, David Campbell, and John McNairy.   -- J. L. Kiener)

    THE "N" LIST

     NELSON, John 47.
     NELSON, William 4, 8, 17, 27, 38, 48, 71.
     NOISBITT, James 217, 232.
     NEWLAND, George 106.
     NEWMAN, John 163, 195, 318, 320.
     NORTH, Philip 175, 191, 207, 223, 236, 261, 287, 310.


     OHIO RIVER 1.
     OLDHAM, Henry 109, 118, 124, 131, 142, 153, 167, 180, 181.
     OLDHAM, Nancy 109, 118, 124, 131, 142, 153, 167, 180, 181.
     OUTLAW, Alexander 7, 11, 14, 23, 30, 32, 45.
     OUTLAW, John 11, 18.
     OVERTON, John 158.
     OWIEN, Joseph 318, 320.

    THE "P" LIST

     PAYNE, Thomas 8.
     PAINE, William 243, 246, 250, 277, 279, 302, 318, 320.
     PARKES, John 322.
     PARMAN, Giles 246, 250.
     PARSLIUEP,  Asahel 46.
     PATTERSON, James 2, 9, 13, 28, 39, 49, 60, 66, 75.
     PATTERSON, John 46, 47.
     PATTERSON, Robert 10, 12, 25, 30, 39, 50, 60, 66, 75, 80, 87, 96, 104, 120, 126, 136, 148, 161, 177.
     PERUBERTON, Thomas 266.
     PENNY, James 182, 183, 197, 213, 316, 322, 334.
     PERCEFIELD, Samuel 227, 240, 261, 290, 325, 329.
     PERMAN, Benoni 65.
     PERNAL, Polly 315.

    THE "R" LIST

     RHEA, Joseph 318, 320.
     RHEA, Mr. 135.
     RHODES, Elisha 218.
     RICHARD, William 234.
     ROACH, Jorden 71.
     ROAN, Archibald 33, 34, 70, 82, 89, 103, 110, 111.
     ROBERTSON, Charles 119, 126, 136, 148, 161, 176, 196, 197, 210, 211, 265, 273, 290.
     ROBINSON, Charles 71, 241, 310, 312, 322, 329, 330, 331, 335.
     RODDYE, James 147.
     ROGERS, Robert 235.
     ROGERS, Thomas 174, 190, 206.
     ROLLAND, Isaac 9.
     ROSS, Thomas 192, 193, 208, 223, 236, 262.

    THE "S" LIST

     SAMMON, George 5.
     SAMUEL, Henderson 277.
     SAUNDERS, Philip 29, 43, 51, 52.
     SASMAN, Jacob 234.
     SCOTT, John 49, 93.
     SINUS, John 90.
     SINCLAIR, Alex. 191.
     SLAUIBE, John Henry 103.
     SLAUGHTON, Thomas 145.
     STOCKLEY, Donelson 109 (A note provides that this is improperly indexed. The name should be DONELSON, Stockley, 109.
     STOCKTON, Joshua 145.
     SWOOPE, Jacob 191.
     SEVIER, James 16, 31, 56, 59, 83, 87, 159, 172, 200, 214, 225, 238, 262, 288.
     SEVIER, Robert 31, 246.
     SEVIER, Valentine 302.
     SHARP, John 110, 118, 124, 132, 142, 154, 167, 182, 201.
     SHELBY, Evan 24.
     SHELBY, John 5, 6, 7, 13, 15, 22, 24, 25, 26, 31, 34, 36, 37, 38, 39, 45, 46, 49, 56, 57, 70, 74, 78, 118, 124, 133, 135, 143, 154, 168, 183, 184, 201,
               215, 230, 255, 282.
     SHELBY, Isaac 175, 190, 206, 222, 235, 248, 269, 268, 279, 286, 305, 307, 308, 336.
     SHIELDS, John 131, 142, 102, 109, 117, 123.
     SHIPLEY, John 209, 224.
     SHIRLEY, John 42, 53, 63, 68, 70, 83, 90, 94.
     SHOAT, Austin 13, 42, 53, 62, 68, 76, 81, 88, 96, 105, 127, 137, 148, 162, 210.
     SHARPSHIRE, Joel 225, 238, 260, 268, 289, 299, 311, 313, 327.
     SKILLERN, William 146, 157, 171, 187, 204, 232, 256, 285, 301, 317, 320, 327.
     SMITH, John 135, 145, 155, 170, 175, 185, 190, 203, 207, 217, 222, 231, 235, 256, 260, 284, 309.
     SMITH, Samuel 29, 43, 210, 213, 225, 237.
     SMITH, William 246, 250, 271, 277, 279.
     SOAMAN, Jacob 174, 189, 205, 221, 257.
     SOUTH CAROLINA  5.
     SQUIBB, John 250, 251, 290.
     STINSON, James 10, 94.
     STRAIN, John 56, 87.
     STUART, David 146, 157.
     STUART, James 4, 9, 14, 39.
     STUART, Robert 31.
     STUBBLIFIELD, Wyat 16.

    THE "T" LIST

     TADLOCK, John 8, 11, 268, 269, 315, 329, 333.
     TALBOT, Mathew 28, 40, 41.
     TAPSCOT, James 140.
     TATE  246, 250.
     TAYLOR, Christopher 180, 322.
     TAYLOR, Leeroy 65.
     TAYLOR, Nathl. 139, 160.
     THOMAS, Isaac 102, 108, 117, 123, 131, 141, 153, 163, 167, 200, 215, 230, 244, 248, 274, 279, 301, 317.
     THOMPSON, John 318, 320.
     TILLERY, John 193.
     TIPTON, Isaac 213.
     TIPTON, John, Senior 322.
     TIPTON, Jonathan 250.
     TOOL, John 70, 82, 89.
     TOOL, Ruth 70, 82, 89.
     TOPP, Roger 31.
     TORBUTT, Agnes 134, 145, 155, 170, 185.
     TORBETT, Alexander 134, 145, 170, 185, 269.
     TORBETT, Alexr. 185
     TRIMBLE, William 16.
     TURNEY, Peter 31.
     TYE, John 43, 52, 81.
     
     THE "U" LIST

     UNSTEAD, John 2, 3, 296.
     UNSTEAD, Susanna 3, 296.

               (To Be Continued with THE "V" LIST - VANCE)

                                                     ROAD PETITIONS

---

Back to JGS Home Page

---

Graphics on this page by Genie Art