Studies in Hill-Moore-Jones-Halbert and Related Families

What was in the pine box?

PART 2

(In the Study of the Hill, Moore, Jones, Halbert and related families, a pine box was mentioned. This is the second segment of what was in that box.--typist)

Notes in parenthesis are from Will Henderson Thomas who made these copies in 1962.

(On May 12, 1820, John Crage (Craig) made a deed to Matthew Hill

conveying fifty acres and lying along the south side of Lost Creek and

the north bank of Clinch River. He paid eighty dollars for this tract

and the deed was witnessed by John Lower and James Crowley. John Lower

lived near the mouth of Clear Creek and he had a grist mill on Clear

Creek, the ruins of the mill dam were still to be seen up until the time

in 1935 that we moved away from Big Valley. The Lower cabin stood on

the Henry Bledsoe place beside the trail leading up toward the Rice

Irwin home. These Lowers left and settled in Indiana. John Craig was

the ancestor of all the Craigs in Big Valley. It is said that he

married a daughter of John and Elizabeth (Gibbs) Snodderly and had a son

Reuben Craig who married a daughter of Robert Longmire, and that

Reuben's daughter married Pleasant Bledsoe, son of Isaac, the pioneer

Bledsoe of Big Valley. Pleasant Bledsoe's son Reuben, named for Reuben

Craig, married Nancy, daughter of Alfred Sharp and had Alfred B. (Boy)

Bledsoe, father of Henry Bledsoe. Of course, A. B. Bledsoe married

Nancy, daughter of Oliver and Frances "Fannie" (Oakes) Hill. Oliver

being a son of Matthew Hill.

On April 5, 1826, Reuben Craig sold a fifty acre tract adjoining the

land sold by John Craig and he was paid eighty dollars for this land.

The deed was witnessed by John Black, John Lower and Andrew Lower.

Then, on Nov. 9, 1822, Elias Loy sold to Matthew hill one hundred fifty

acres on Clinch River and adjoining the lands bought from the Craigs and

Hill paid him three hundred dollars for this tract. It was to this 250

farm that Matthew Hill moved, lived and died. John Black owned lands

adjoining the Hill farm on Lost Creek. Henry Sharp acquired this Black

farm after marrying Elizabeth Black. Terry Hill having married Jane

Sharp, daughter of Henry Sharp, came into possession of it and passed it

on to his son Henry Hill, then he to his son Elbert Q. Hill, then we,

(Lucy and I) sold it to the TVA in 1935 for $7,500. We reinvested that

amount near Athens, TN and sold that place to Dr. Roy Epperson for

$50,000 on May 26, 1961.

A deed dated Sept. 2, 1843, in which John Black sold to Robert Longmire

a hundred and fifty acre tract (where Dr. A. H. Longmire lived) for four

hundred and sixty dollars apears to confirm what Malinda said about a

son of this John Black living where Dr. Longmire resided. It is not

known where the Black family went--probably to Missouri, for Henry

Sharp, son-in-law to John Black did move to Marysville, Missouri. The

deed from Black to Robert Longmire was witnessed by George Snodderly and

Isaac Wilson. WHT)

One faded old paper found in the pine box is an affidavit about a note

made to one Lewis Brimm by Matthew Hill:

State of Tennessee, Franklin County. Personally appeared before me,

Wallis Estill, an acting Justice of the Peace for said county, John

Roberts and made oath that he held a note for one hundred dollars on

Matthew Hill of East Tennessee, due the first of October or November

last, payable in property rating corn at two shillings per bushel and

made payable to Lewis Brimm and transferred from said Brimm to Jeremiah

Oakes and from Oakes to said Roberts, and that said note is so lost or

mislaid that he cannot lay his hands on it. Sworn to and subscribed

before me this 25th day of April, 1828.

(It is probable that Matthew Hill paid off this debt in corn from his

rich Clinch River bottom lands. If so, it would have required 300

bushels to settle this indebtedness. He doubtless built a flatboat to

carry the corn down the Clinch and Tennessee Rivers and through the

dangerous Suck and Boiling Pot below present Chattanooga, for the owner

of the note then was living near Decherd, Cowan or Winchester in

Franklin County. From the Martin Rice Manuscript written in 1891, we

learn that a daughter of James Rice had married a Brimm and settled in

that same locality. It is probable that several families on Clinch

River had gone there to open a new communtiy. Maj. Wallis Estill had

gone there from the same part of North Carolina whence came the Hills.

It is said that one of the early Graves settlers on the Clinch planted a

great vineyard, made wine, and carried it down the river on a flatboat

to the region near Muscle shoals then returned overland to his home in

East Tennessee.)

(On August 8, 1839, John Black sold 150 acres of land adjoining our old

home place on Lost Creek to Robert Longmire for three hundred dollars.

This tract included the place where Clyde Longmire lived between the Dr.

Longmire farm and that of Scott Loy. Mention is made on this deed of

Frazier's Mill, which we identify as what was once the mill later owned

by Hitch, then Carmony and which fell into disuse with only a part of

the mill dam remaining down near the Richardson home when we moved away

in 1935. This Robert Longmire married Sarah, daughter of Conrad and

Sarah (Gibbs) Sharp up where B. C. Ousley now lives in 1962. Conrad

Sharp willed a large farm lying from the Bratcher Sharp farm down to the

Clinch River and along the slope of Big Ridge to Robert Longmire. He

also gave the Bratcher Sharp place, the John D. Sharp place and the

Frank Sharp place to his son Isaac Sharp. Isaac lived where Bratcher

Sharp lived and Bratcher was the son of Melkijah, son of Isaac. This

deed was written by James Lett and George Snodderly. From this deed, we

find that William Carey was at that time clerk of the county court at

Jacksboro. Carey was living near Lost Creek Church when elected as

clerk. He moved to a big farm below Jacksboro and gave his name to

Careyville at Wheeler's Gap.

A Methodist minister came from Ohio and married Carey's daughter and had

a son who became Gen. Carey F. Spence. The minister was Dr. John F.

Spence, one-time President of Grant University, Athens, TN.

Caswell Cross was the registrar of deeds and his deputy was Robert

Morrow. Note that Rosannah or Rosa, daughter of the pioneer Henry Rice

was a young widow called Rosa Spence in the Martin Rice manuscript of

1891. She married Alexander Morrow who was the ancestor of Hon. Dwight

Morrow, the father of Anne Morrow Lindbergh. Alex Morrow had pioneered

on Flat Creek below Luttrell. WHT)

Another piece of paper from the old pine box contained a hand-written

copy of an old hymn;

"I would not live always, I ask not to stay,

Where storm after storm rages high o'er the way..."

(This faded old paper, undated, is torn and mutilated so that it is for

the most part illegible. It is evident that at the time it was copied,

that paper was scarce and hymn books likewise. WHT)

(It is evident that Matthew Hill could not write, but always signed his

papers with "His X mark." Terry Hill wrote fairly well. Jane (Sharp)

Hill signed her papers with "Her X mark". WHT)

A strip of paper two inches wide is in the old pine box. Here is the

notation: Terry Hill was married January 22, 1826. (On the reverse

side there appears to be an exercise in handwriting taken from a copy

book. This line "Constant in all things makes the pleasure...(illegible

scribbling)

(From available information, Terry Hill was born in Stokes County, NC in

1803. He was about 23 years old when he married Jane Sharp on January

22, 1926. The last receipt he gave, so far as revealed in the papers

found in the pine box reads thus: "Received the 5th day of December,

1858, of Terry Hill for schooling one dollar and six and 1/4 cents."

Signed Godfrey D. Stout, Jr.

(Godfrey Stout was an itinerant teacher. He came from what is now

Johnson County, TN and settled near Cloud's Ford on Clinch River. He

was the ancestor of the Stouts near Walnut Grove. All of Terry Hill's

sons were literate. His daughter Malinda could not read or write. Free

public schools were not yet established in 1838 and at that time, little

if any schooling was given to girls. After 1858, Jane Hill paid taxes

on the old farm where we lived in 1935. Many receipts were given her

and show that taxes on the farm amounted to little more that $1.50,

whereas we commonly paid around $85.00 on the same farm the last few

years previous to our moving to McMinn County. Taxes on our 82 acre

farm in McMinn County was $127.00 in 1961, the year we sold to Dr.

Epperson. Land values and taxation increased tremendously from 1813 to

1961! WHT)

See Part 1

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