Ansearchin ' News, VOL47, NO. z summer 2000 /" THE TENNESSEE GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY 91 14 Davies Plantation Road on the historic Davies Pfantahbn Mading Address: P. 0. Box 247, Brunswick, 3801 4-0247 Telephone: (901)381-1447 TGS OFFICERS & BOARD MEMBERS EDITORIAL CONTRJBUTIONS President JAMES E. BOB0 Vice President BOB DUNAGAN Contributions of all types of Tennessee-related genealogical Editor DOROTHY M. ROBERSON materials, including previously unpublished family Bibles, Librarian LORE'ITA BAILEY diaries, journals, letters, old maps, church minutes or Treasurer FRANK PAESSLER histories, cemetery information, fdyhistories, and other Business Manager JOHN WOODS documents are welcome. Contributors should send Recording Secretary RUTH REED photocopies of printed materials or duplicates of photos Corresponding Secretary BETTY HUGHES since they cannot be returned. Manuscripts are subject Membership Chairman SANDRA AUSTIN to editing for style and space requirements, and the con- Director of Sales DOUG GORDON tributor's name and address will be noted in the publish- Director of Certificates JANE PAESSLER ed article. Please include footnotes in the article submitted Director at Large MARY ANN BELL and list additional sources. Check magazine for style to be Director at Large SANDRA AUSTIN used. Manuscripts or other editorial contributions should be typed or printed and sent to Editor Dorothy Roberson, 7150 EDITORIAL STAF'E Charles and Jane Paessler, Estelle Belsfield Rd., Memphis, TN 38 119-2600. McDaniel, Carol Mittag, Mary Ann Bell, Jean Alexander west, Ruth Reed STAFF; Michael Ann Bogie, Kay Dawson, WieCalloway, Ann Fain, Jean Fitts, Willie Mae Gary, Members can obtain information hmthis tile by writing Jean Gillespie, Barbara Hookings, Joan Hoyt, Thm TGS. Give your ancestor's I11 name, at least one date and Jackson, Ruth 0' D~~ell,Ruth Reed, Betty Ross, Jean one location, and a sex- ~ed#lo Tatum, Jean West, Marlene Witkinson, Charles Yates, and envela. Ifthe information is a- receive two Saturday volunteers from the Chief Piomingo, Watauga, cards your DAR photocopy pages of up to 10 surname of ances- Hermitage, River City, and Fort Assumption chapters. tors, including the name of the personls] submitting the information. Any other data, if available, will be supplied at Cover illustraiim of TGS Rarearch Ceder- Estelle McDanid 50 cents per page (five cards to a page). Please limit requests to one a month, and to one family name per request. If you THE TENNESSEE GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY haven't sent us your own surname data, please do. Type or publishes The Tennessee Genealogical Magazine, print on 3x5"index cards your ancestor's name; dates and Ansearchin ' News, (E3(ISSN 0003-5246) in March, places of birth, death, and marriage; and names of parents and June, September, and December of each year. spouse(s). In the bottom lefthand comer, put your Annual dues are $20, and members receive the four narne,address, and the date submitted. issues published in the 12-months period foJtowinp, payment of their dues. Issues missed due to late payment or unnamed changes of address can be EE mCESTRY CERTIFICATES bought separately, if available, for $7.50 each, TGS sponsors this program to recognize and honor the including postage. Members are entitled to one free settlers who came to Tennessee before 1880. To place your query each year and may place additional queries ancestors in this roll of honor, request an application from for $3 each. won-members pay $5 each.) AU queries Mrs. Jane Paessler, Certificate Program Director, at TGS. must be relared to Tennessee. Members wishing to Complete and return it with supporting documents or other have their queries also inserted m TGS' web page proof of your ancestor's residency. (Family charts or without additional costs should include their Email computer printouts are not considered sufSicient proof.) address. Each application must be accompanied by a $10 fee. Attractive certificates suitable for fhmhg are issued to each person whose application meets program qualifica- tions. Certificates are inscribed with the prime ancestor's ANSEARCHZW NEWS, USPS #477490 Is pubbhed qrprbcrtg name, when and where he or she settled in Tennessee, and by and for THE TENNESSEE GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY, JNC., 9114 Dnviea PlwhtionRd., Bmmwkk,TN,a naa - prufit the applicant's name. organhotiw Periodiah portage paid at Bnmawick, TN 38014 and ndditiaaal maiting offices BOOKS DOIYAMWW ANSEARCH.. NEWS should be mailed to Mrs. Loretta Bailey, Librarian, Tennessee P.O. Box 247, Brunswick TN 380140247 Genealogical Society, P.O. Box 247, Brunswick, TN 38014.. Hands-On Court Records Workshop Charles A. Shed, one of Tennessee's most active genealogical researchers, writers, and speakers, will conduct a two-part seminar and hands-on workshop here Saturday, 23 2 Editorial Viewpoint September, at Wwood on historic Davies Plantation 3 Margaret Daveiss Hess: First Woman To PIead Case The first session, beginning at 9 a. m., opens with "Find- 9 Some Eariy Tennessee Movers and Shakers ing Genealogical Treasures in Manuscript Collections." Attendees will learn where to look for manuscript collections 10 Tennessee Mamages and private archives, how to access them, and what be 12 Tennessee Comings & Goings can 13 McNairy County Wills of the late 1800's found there. Shedalso will explain how archivists organize 16 Letters to the Editor records, and how to use various finding aids to locate 17 Tennessee Obituaries genealogical data. 22 Rebecca's Journal, 1864 (Final Installment) The second lecture, "Honorably Discharged: Military 27 Licenses Issued To Johnson County Doetors Pension Record Research," will focus on military pension 30 Gibson County Land To Be Sold records of American wars fiom the Revolution forward. Mington Residents Agree To Incorporate Participants will learn what information was collected, who Lampley Family Plans Reunion was eligible for pensions, how to locate fles, and strategies Mother, Children Struggle To Return To Marion Co. for getting the most information fiom the records. Two Free Men Elect To Become Slaves "Although many of my examples are from Tennessee 31 Gleanings from Here 'n There records, the material applies to U.S. research everywhere," 35 Freedmen Contract To Work In Tennessee Shemll says. 39 Wilson County Land on Auction Block For the afternoon workshop, "Using Original Court Bedford County Organizes 4 Companies in 1836 Records," each participant will be given a packet of materials 40 What's the Word? Maybe Not What You Think for hands-on experience in identitjing and interpreting orig- Blantons Schedule 12th Annual Convention inal records. Exercises using copies from 19th century minute 42 Book Reviews books, dockets, estate packets, and court cases will help 45 Which Henderson Was County Named For? develop skills for efkiive research among these records.The 48 Some Inventive Tennesseeans of the 1870s workshop has been hugely popular with genealogists in 49 Fayette County Marriages 1872 Cincinnati, St. Louis, and other cities. 50 From Obituaries of Methodist Ministers ... Shed, who spoke at a TGS membership meeting last 54 Precincts Named for 1832 Elections spring, has been involved in genealogy since he was a teen- Washington Famify Plans Reunion ager, has written or edited more than 20 books, and for six Edwin Drake Awarded Civil War Pension years headed the Tennessee State Library & Archives' Hi Family Has 1889 Reunion research rooms in Nashville. He has master's degrees in 55 By the Way ,. history and library science from Case Western Reserve 56 Queries University in Cleveland, Ohio. Among his works are books 61 Index of This Issue by Frank Paessler on several Tennessee counties, particularly Grundy County where most of his ancestors lived. He began his career at Western Reserve Historical Society in Cleveland, O., where he was head reference librarian. As director of the Cleveland, Tenn., Public Library for Your mailing label, that k. It may be time for ygl to renew. Oon't nine years, Shemll edited a series of genealogical publica- miss out on all the Tennessee genealogical gems we're fining up for yw in upcoming issues for the year 20001 tions about Bradley County. He also has written two family genealogies, edited Tennessee 's Confe&rate Wiabws and Their Families, and a collection of penitentiary records entitled Tennessee Comicts. His most recent publication is Tennesseeans in Court: 2,500 Ear& Settlers Found in Supreme Couri Reports. Current projects include a re- construction of the lost 18 10 Tennessee census. Tickets are now on sale for $23 or can be purchased at the door for $28. Box lunches will again be available at $6 each. Make reservations at TGS headquarters or mail in your resenation and check by 10 September (address at left). iWNE /ANSEARCHIN' NeWS - Summer 2000 Lillian obviously in- herited quite a bit of her EOlTORlALVlEWQOlNT great-great-grandmot her's mental acuity as well as Dorothy Mart Roberson her spunk.... and is an equally fbtingperson. Lillian's line, incidentally, LAST YEAR while doing some research on a story for the comes down through J. magazine I came across a brief reference in a Gibson County A. W. Hess, and that of the late Virginia Walton Brooks history book about one Margaret Daveiss Hess who was (also a great-grat granddmf&er) through William Hess. described as "the first woman to plead a case in the U. S. *** courts." This intrigued me but, Like the typical editor of a WE ARE INDEBTED to Dr. Barnetta McGhee White, genealogical quarterly, I was being pulled in six diredons at Durham, N.C., for providing us with lists of former slaves once and my limited research time yielded little information. who came to Tennessee fiom North Carolina in 1867 under Much later I stumbled upon a Hess-related query on the labor contracts. More than WOO former slaves migrated to Internet which led me to Patricia Lewis of Humboldt, Tenn. Tennessee, dabam% Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana, and She told me that the Daveiss-Hess family historian was none Mississippi under auspices of the Wd~en'shreau.