Vol. 26, No. 2 August 2010 Non-Profit Org. East Tennessee Historical Society U.S. POStage P.O. Box 1629 PAID Knoxville, TN 37901-1629 Permit No. 341 Knoxville, tenn ANDERSON KNOX BLEDSOE LOUDON BLOUNT MARION BRADLEY McMINN CAMPBELL MEIGS CARTER MONROE CLAIBORNE MORGAN COCKE POLK CUMBERLAND RHEA FENTRESS ROANE GRAINGER GREENE SCOTT HAMBLEN SEQUATCHIE HAMILTON SEVIER HANCOCK SULLIVAN HAWKINS UNICOI A Tri-Annual Publication of JEFFERSON UNION JOHNSON WASHINGTON The East Tennessee Historical Society Heritage Programs from The easT Tennessee hisTorical socieTy Were your ancestors in what is now Tennessee prior to statehood in 1796? If so, you are eligible to join the First The easT Tennessee hisTorical socieTy Families of Tennessee. Members receive a certificate engraved with the name of the applicant and that of the Making history personal ancestor and will be listed in a supplement to the popular First Families of Tennessee: A Register of the State’s Early Settlers and Their Descendants, originally published in 2000. Applicants must prove generation-by-generation descent, as well as pre-1796 residence for the ancestor. The We invite you to join one of the state’s oldest and most active historical societies. more than 14,000 applications and supporting documentation comprise a unique collection of material on our state’s earliest settlers and are available to researchers at the McClung Historical Collection in the East Members receive Tennessee History Center, 601 S. Gay St. in downtown Knoxville. • Tennessee Ancestors—triannual genealogy magazine • Journal of East Tennessee History—annual scholarly publication with articles on Tennessee and East Tennessee history • Newsline—history news from across the region Civil War Families • Announcements and invitations to conferences and special events • Discounts on tours, conferences, and museum shop purchases oF Tennessee Annual Membership Categories Individual $ 35.00 Family $ 45.00 Civil War Families of Tennessee seeks to identify and honor the sacrifices of the valiant soldiers on each side of the nation’s greatest conflict. By entering your ancestor, you will pay tribute to his service and assure that his Contributing $ 75.00 contributions are remembered. Most importantly, you can help identify and preserve special family artifacts, Sustaining $125.00 diaries, photographs, and documents for the benefit of future generations. Student $ 25.00 If you are a descendant of any individual who served either in or from Tennessee during the Civil War—Union Gift memberships available—The gift that gives all year. The recipient will receive a or Confederate—you are eligible to join. In order to recognize the service of the many young men who died special gift card. unwed or without children, CWFT membership is available through collateral descent (service of a brother of an ancestor). For more information, visit www.east-tennessee-history.org Members receive a certificate featuring their names, along with the names of their ancestors, rank, regiment, and or contact us at [email protected] company. or call 865-215-8824. __________________ Applications for both programs are available from ETHS. P. O. Box 1629, Knoxville, TN 37901 East tEnnEssEE Historical sociEty Phone: 865-215-8824; email: [email protected]. 601 S. Gay Street www.east-tennessee-history.org P.O. Box 1629 __________________ Knoxville, TN 37901 RecoRding tHe State’S HiStoRy one family at a time Tennessee Ancestors A Publication of the East Tennessee Historical Society August 2010 Volume 26, No. 2 61 ����������������� Place of Birth of Postmasters and Other Federal Employees, 1816-1825 by Robert S. Davis, Director, Family & Regional History Program, Wallace State College 70 ����������������� Descriptive Records, Department of Tennessee, Grand Army of the Republic Post No. 29, Jim Brownlow Post—Witts Foundry, Tennessee transcribed by Raymond A. Sears 73 ����������������� Tennessee Family and Bible Records Obadiah Hall Bible John J. Craig Bible 78 ����������������� The Marriage of John and Susannah Nicholson, Washington County, 1783: A Case Study by Robert S. Davis, Director, Family & Regional History Program, Wallace State College 79 ����������������� Delayed Tennessee Birth Certificates by Steve Cotham, Head, McClung Historical Collection 81 ���������������� Reprints of Selected Articles: Echoes from the East Tennessee Historical Society, 1942-1984 Register of Persons Who Wish Reservations under the Cherokee Treaty of July 8, 1817 90 ���������������� Amazing Record Sheds New Light on Bible Family of Early Greene County by Donahue Bible 95 ���������������� Voter Lists and Election Results from Knox County, Tennessee, in the June 08, 1861 Vote upon the Declaration of Independence, And Ordinance Dissolving the Federal Relations Between the State of Tennessee And the United States of America� by Frank Weathers, Assistant, Knox County Archives 120 ��������������� Book Reviews by Fran Allison Young 121 ��������������� New Books At the McClung Historical Collection compiled by Jenny Ball 59 Tennessee Ancestors, August 2010 THE EAST TENNESSEE HISTORICAL SOCIETY Founded 1834 OFFICERS 2010 – 2011 Jack E. Williams, President Susan Richardson Williams, President-Elect Paul H. Bergeron, Vice President, Knoxville Area Natalie Haslam, Vice President, Knoxville Area Carrington Montague, Vice President, Southeast Tennessee Jerome Taylor, Vice President, Southeast Tennessee Mary Fanslow, Vice President Northeast Tennessee Jim Shelby, Vice President for Development Linda Claussen, Assistant Vice President for Development Joe E. Spence, Recording Secretary Jane Creed, Assistant Recording Secretary George K. Schweitzer, Treasurer Joe Ben Turner, Assistant Treasurer Ginny Rogers, Past President Dean Rice, Knox County Representative Steve Cotham, Manager of McClung Collection Arthur G. Seymour, Jr., Legal Counsel DIRECTORS Edward S. Albers, Jr. John Duncan III Gordon Savage Barbara U. Arant Sam Furrow D. Ray Smith Charles E. Atchley, Jr. Henrietta Grant Joe Swann Randy Boyd Jim Hart Gary Wade Deborah Brezina Marvin House Carol Weller Betsey Bush Alan M. Jones Edward F. Wheeler, Jr. Russell Byrd W. Dwight Kessel Candace White Jane Gamble Chedester Imogene King John Wood Bill Cobble Linda Ogle Bob Worthington, Jr. HONORARY Gordon S. Nelson Malcolm Rogers STAFF Cherel B. Henderson, Director Adam Alfrey, Curator of Exhibitions Lisa Oakley, Curator of Education Lisa Belleman, Director of Development Michele MacDonald, Curator of Collections Stephanie Henry, Executive Assistant William E. Hardy, Teaching American History Academic Coordinator Aaron Purcell, Ph.D., Managing Editor, The Journal of East Tennessee History Diane Bohannon, Assistant Shop Manager Jerry Wiseman, Museum Shop Staff Marsha Grieve, Museum Shop Staff TENNESSEE ANCESTORS EDITORIAL STAFF Cherel B. Henderson, Editor Raymond A. Sears, Assistant Editor Ann K. Blomquist, Assistant Editor J. Stephen Cotham, Contributing Editor Fran Allison Young, Book Review Editor Diane Bohannon, Query Editor Diane Bohannon, Forrest Conklin, Editorial Assistants Submission to and correspondence concerning this publication should be directed to Cherel B. Henderson, Editor, TENNESSEE ANCESTORS, East Tennessee Historical Society, P.O. Box 1629, Knoxville, TN 37901. TENNESSEE ANCESTORS (ISSN 0882-0635) is published tri-annually by the East Tennessee Historical Society and is distributed to members of the Society. Postage paid at Knoxville, TN. Postmaster: Send address changes to TENNESSEE ANCESTORS, P.O. Box 1629, Knoxville, TN 37901. Report of non-delivery of TENNESSEE ANCESTORS should be made within three months after the date of the issue if the magazine is to be replaced free of charge. 60 Tennessee Ancestors, August 2010 Command-Shift Click to accessPlace this of boxBirth� Enter/paste of Postmasters title here (expand box as needed, using guides)� Style:and article other� headFederal�main Employees, (must be 1816-1825applied to appear in TOC)� by Robert S. Davis, Director Family & Regional History Program Wallace State College Hanceville, AL 35077-2000 The United States government published lists of its employees roughly every two years from 1816 to 1914 usually as A Register of Officers and Agents, Civil, Military, and Naval in the Service of the United States or a variant on this title. State and country of birth appears for most of the Federal employee in the editions for September 1816, 1819, 1821, 1823, and 1825, including for most of the thousands of deputy postmasters across the country. As the men and women who filled these positions were usually local people old enough to have important political connections, they often were not likely to have lived long enough to appear in the 1850 census. This information often appears nowhere else. Major research librar- ies and archives have sets of these books although often on microfiche.The free web site Google Books includes the 1816 edition of this series. For other sources for information on Federal employees see Claire Prelchtel-Kluskens, “Documenting the Careers of Federal Employees,” Prologue: The Quarterly of the National Archives 26 (1994): 180-83 and Genealogical and Bio- graphical Research: a Select Guide to NARA Microfilm, available on the Internet at http://www.archives.gov/publications/ microfilm-catalogs/biographical/.Holdings discussed in the latter publication include autobiographical applications for Federal jobs from presidents John Adams through U. S. Grant. Each of the booklets accompanying the respective mi-