Knoxville Tennessee Genealogy

Slave Narrative of Joseph Leonidas Star

Person Interviewed: Joseph Leonidas Star Location: 133 Quebec Place, Knoxville, Tennessee Place of Birth: Knoxville, Tennessee Age: 81? Occupation: Shoemaker, Poet If the poetic strain in the Dunbar Negroes of the south is an inheritance and not “just a gift from On High,” Knoxville, Tennessee’s aged Negro Poet,-born Joseph Leonidas Star,-but prominently known in the community as “Lee” Star, Poet, Politician and Lodge Man,-thinks that Georgia’s poetic genius Paul Lawrence Dunbar, “maybe took his writin’ spells” from him. “My grandfather and Paul Lawrence Dunbar’s grandfather was cousins. He were a much younger man than I am, for I was eighty-one … Read more

Slave Narrative of Aunt Mollie Moss

Person Interviewed: Mollie Moss Location: Knoxville, Tennessee Age: 82-83 Place of Residence: # 88 Auburn Street, Knoxville, Tennessee There is no street sign or a number on any of the ramshackled frame cottages that seemingly lean with the breezes, first one direction, then another, along the alley that wind’s through the city’s northernmost boundary and stops its meanderings at the doorstep of “Uncle Andrew Moss” and his wife, “Aunt Mollie.” The City Directory of Knoxville, Tennessee officially lists the Moss residence as # 88 Auburn Street. It rests upon its foundations more substantially, and is in better kept condition than … Read more

Biography of Judge William Cecil Price

William Cecil Price was born in Russell county, Virginia, April 1st, 1816, and is the third child of Crabtree and Linny C. Price, the family being of Welsh descent. His father was a farmer, who emigrated to Greene county, Missouri, in 1836. William had the advantage of a common English education in boyhood, and at twenty years of age was sent to Knoxville college, Tennessee. On returning from college he taught school in this county, and subsequently clerked in a general merchandise store, reading law whenever he had any spare time. In 1840 he was appointed deputy sheriff of Greene … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Harry Elmer Duff

Duff, Harry Elmer; manufacturer; born, Bloomington, Ill., July 23, 1873; son of Jos. G. and Mary Ellen Lowdon Duff; graduated from the University of Tennessee, in 1893, taking Bachelor of Arts degree; in 1902, graduated from the New York Law School, with the degree of Bachelor of Laws; in 1894, came to Ohio, and became identified in a manufacturing business, which a few years later was purchased by the American Sheet Tin Plate Co.; since that time, has been continuously associated with that corporation; local sales representative of the American Sheet & Tin Plate Co.; vice pres. Union Metal Mfg. … Read more

Rutledge, William Thomas – Obituary

William Thomas Rutledge, 79, died yesterday [died December 13, 1938] at the family residence on North B Street here. He was born in Knoxville, Tenn., September 10, 1859, and was married September 9, 1886, to Mary Harrell, who survives him. He is also survived by two daughters, Mrs. L. E. Wyatt, Kittitas and Mrs. Earl Elmer of Ellensburg; four sons, Ernest and Oscar Rutledge of Ellensburg; Earl Rutledge of Prindle, Wash., and Edgar Rutledge of California; a brother, Rev. S. W. Rutledge of Knoxville, and a sister, Mrs. Bert Childs, of Knoxville. Funeral services will be held at the Honeycutt … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Charles A. Ricks

Ricks, Charles A.; sec’y and treas. Kuhlman Car Co.; born, Knoxville, Tenn., Aug. 14, 1868; son of Augustus J. and Emma Maxwell Atwater Ricks; educated, Kenyon Military Academy, and Kenyon College; married, Oct. 21, 1897, at Detroit, Mich., Miss Margaret Trowbridge; business career, 1888 clerk First National Bank, Massillon, O., sec’y and treas. Massillon Loan Ass’n; came to Cleveland in 1890, and became auditor and traveling salesman for the Standard Oil Co.; in 1896, appointed mgr. of the Cleveland station; in 1900, organized the G. C. Kuhlman Car Co., sec’y and treas., builds electric and steam railway cars, turning out … Read more

Slave Narrative of Samuel Sutton

Interviewer: Miriam Logan Person Interviewed: Samuel Sutton Location: Lebanon, Ohio Place of Birth: Garrett County Kentucky Date of Birth: 1854 Miriam Logan, Lebanon, Ohio Warren County, Dist. 2 July 2, 1937 Interview with SAMUEL SUTTON, Ex Slave. Born in Garrett County, Kentucky, in 1854 (drawing of Sutton) [TR: no drawing found] “Yes’em, I sho were bo’n into slavery. Mah mothah were a cook-(they was none betteah)-an she were sold four times to my knownin’. She were part white, for her fathah were a white man. She live to be seventy-nine yeahs an nine months old.” “Ah was bo’n in Garrett … Read more

Linkous, Oscar – Obituary

Baker City, Oregon Oscar Linkous, 89, a former Baker City, Haines and La Grande resident, died April 24, 2004, at a local care facility. A celebration of Oscar’s life will be conducted Wednesday at 10 a.m. at the Haines Methodist Church. Sally B. Wiens will officiate. A lunch and gathering of family and friends will follow after a brief ceremony at the Haines Cemetery. Visitations will be Tuesday from 4 p.m. until 6 p.m. at Daniels Chapel of the Valley, 1502 Seventh St. in La Grande. Oscar was born November 25, 1914, in Knoxville, Tenn., to Millum and Monty Bernard … Read more

Slave Narrative of Andrew Moss

Person Interviewed: Andrew Moss Location: Knoxville, Tennessee Place of Birth: Wilkes County, Georgia Date of Birth: 1852 “One ting dat’s all wrong wid dis world today,” according to Andrew Moss, aged negro, as he sits through the winter days before an open grate fire in his cabin, with his long, lean fingers clasped over his crossed knees, “is dat dey ain no ‘prayer grounds’. Down in Georgia whar I was born,-dat was ‘way back in 1852,-us colored folks had prayer grounds. My Mammy’s was a ole twisted thick-rooted muscadine bush. She’d go in dar and pray for deliverance of de … Read more

Early Records of Lee County, Virginia

This manuscript is a compilation of various early records of Lee County, Virginia. It is suggested that you use the index liberally for your searches which starts on page 152. Surnames will appear under a variety of spellings so be sure to check them all.

Biographical Sketch of Council P. Cates

Council P. Cates, a substantial farmer of Lake County, is the son of John A. and Susan (Box) Cates; he was born February 6,1855, in what is now Lake County; was raised on a farm, and had the best educational advantages the State afforded, having completed his education at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville. After leaving college he was for a while salesman at James Cronan’s store, but it was soon closed, and he commenced farming, but in a short time sold out and went to Texas, and after staying a year there he returned to Lake County. In … Read more

Biography of John Norval Sherman, M. D.

John Norval Sherman, M. D. Although one of the younger physicians of Neosho County, Dr. John Norval Sherman, of Thayer, has gained the confidence and support of the public by reason of his thorough training for his profession and his fidelity to the ethics of the medical fraternity. He came to his present field of activity in 1916, with five years of experience behind him, and has already built up what promises to be a lucrative and representative practice. Doctor Sherman was born July 11, 1884, at Lafayette, Madison County, Ohio, and belongs to a family which originally came to … Read more

Governor Houston at His Trading Post on the Verdigris

In February, 1828, the vanguard of Creek immigrants arrived at the Creek Agency on the Verdigris, in charge of Colonel Brearley, and they and the following members of the McIntosh party were located on a section of land that the Government promised in the treaty of 1826 to purchase for them. By the treaty of May 6, 1828, the Government assigned the Cherokee a great tract of land, to which they at once began to remove from their homes in Arkansas. The movement had been under way for some months when there appeared among the Indians the remarkable figure of Samuel Houston. The biographers of Houston have told the world next to nothing of his sojourn of three or four years in the Indian country, an interesting period when he was changing the entire course of his life and preparing for the part he was to play in the drama of Texas.

The Meeting of Folsom and Nittakachih

When the council, convened for the adjustment and final distribution of the annuity, adjourned in such confusion, together with the animosity manifested and openly expressed by both contending parties the one toward the other, (a similar scene never before witnessed in a Choctaw council) I feared the consequences that I was apprehensive would follow; but hoped that the conflicting opinions then agitating my people would be harmonized upon calm reflection and the adoption of wise and judicious measures. But when I ascertained that Nittakachih and Amosholihubih were truly assembling their warriors, I began to view the matter in its true … Read more

Letter from John Baxter to Robert Love

Knoxville, Tennessee. My Dear Sir: September 2nd, 1861 Your letter of the 29th July did not reach me before I left for Richmond. What detained it I do not know. But on my return I received and read it with great interest. By it, I see that you had properly appreciated my position. From what I had heard, you had misconceived my views, but I seen now that you had not. With the strongest possible convictions against the policy and propriety of Secession, I have ever exerted by influence to preserve peace in East Tennessee, and, as I think, with … Read more

Biographical Sketch of George W. Cross

George W. Cross, a prominent lawyer of Manchester, Tennessee, was born in Anderson County August 31, 1849. He is the son of William and Jane (Black) Cross, both of English descent and natives of Anderson County. The former, born in 1810, is still living; the latter, born about 1820, died February 26, 1885. Married in 1836 the elder Cross-engaged in farming. He is a democrat, and sympathizes with the Cumberland Presbyterian Church of which his wife was a member. Our subject, the fifth of eight children, was educated chiefly at Cumberland University, at Lebanon, Tennessee, and the military school of … Read more

Letter from W.G. Brownlow to Robert Love

Knoxville, February 26th, 1861. Robert Love, Esqr., I desire to purchase a young Negro woman, and to pay down in par funds. Diley would suite me, and I think she would be willing to live with me. I buy, not for speculation, or to trade, but to keep her. What will you take, cash in hand, for Diley? Set your lowest figures. If you will not sell, will you hire her, and at what rates? I am going you for her hire, and will pay it when you visit our place. If you will sell Diley, and I can go … Read more

Fannie Alathea Todd Money of Atlanta GA

MONEY, Fannie Alathea Todd8, (Samuel B.7, Samuel6, Eliel5, Samuel4, Samuel3, Samuel2, Christopher1) born Jan. 17, 1854, died Nov. 2, 1911, married David S. Money, who died Feb. 13, 1911. He was a noted educator and lived some time in Virginia; moved to Knoxville, Tenn., where they lived about twenty years, thence they moved to Atlanta, Ga., where they passed their remaining days. Children: I. Owen S., m. and has six children; lives in Knoxville, Tenn. II. Sancho A., m. and has four children and lives in Knoxville, Tenn. III. Caleb J., m. and has two children; he is a minister … Read more

Biography of Granville T. Ledgerwood

Granville T. Ledgerwood. The community around Beaumont in Butler County and also in Greenwood County had known Mr. Ledgerwood as a substantial farmer citizen and business man for over thirty years. As a farmer he attended strictly to his business, worked with all the power that was in him and in time acquired a well developed farm and sufficient property for his needs. Mr. Ledgerwood is now a resident of the Village of Beaumont, and among other interests is looking after the local postoffice as postmaster. He comes of that fine stock of people that located in East Tennessee during … Read more

Biography of William Davidson Hume

William Davidson Hume, conducting a real estate, loan and insurance business and also closely identified with the oil industries through the handling of oil and gas leases, was born November 12, 1864, in Jefferson county, Tennessee, a son of David Patterson and Rebecca (Thomas) Hume. The father devoted his life to the occupation of farming and William D. Hume remained on the home farm to the age of twenty years, gaining intimate knowledge of farm life and methods through actual experience in the work of the field. He supplemented a public school education by study in the business college at … Read more