The above 1853 letter [in Part One of Old Letters] was written by the deceased Edwin Alexander McCorkle's brother, Robert Andrew Hope McCorkle (RAH McCorkle) in Dyer County, Tennessee, to RAH and Edwin’s sister, Elmira Sloan McCorkle Roache (Mrs. Dr. Stephen Roache). Elmira had been born in Rowan County, NC, but moved with her parents and siblings to the area of Murfreesborough, Tennessee (Stone’s River, Rutherford County), to take up Alexander McCorkle’s Revolutionary War land-grant. (Alexander McCorkle’s NC will left the land-grant to only two of his sons, Robert and William).   The land in Rutherford County (Middle Tenn.) was lost in title-dispute litigation. Thereafter Robert & Margaret and their children and grandchildren, including Elmira Sloan McCorkle & husband Dr. Stephen Roache, moved on to Dyer County, part of the newly opened Western District of Tennessee.  Elmira Sloan McCorkle Roache and husband Stephen did not linger long in Dyer County, moving on northward from Dyer County circa 1829.  For a while their son “Quincy” Robert Quincy Roache (wife née Rebecca Sunderland) operated a store in the Newbern area.  Quincy and his oldest brother Addison Locke Roache, Sr.,  graduated from the University of Indiana Bloomington.

 Generation One. Alexander McCorkle m. 1^st “Nancy” Agness Montgomery (McCorkle), the mother of his children, and they are buried in the Thyatira Presbyterian Church Cemetery in Rowan County; and Alexander m. 2^nd Rebecca Brandon (McCorkle).

Generation Two.  Robert McCorkle by his 2^nd wife Margaret “Peggy” Morrison (McCorkle).  Robert and Peggy are buried in the McCorkle Cemetery, Dyer County, Tennessee.

Generation Three.  Edwin A. McCorkle who m. Jane Maxwell Thomas (McCorkle).  I think Edwin was born in Rowan County, NC, and know he and Jane are buried in the McCorkle Cemetery, Dyer County, Tennessee.  Edwin died in 1853 and Jane died in 1855.

Edwin Alexander McCorkle left upon his death 10^th January 1853 a widow, Jane Maxwell Thomas McCorkle, the daughter of Elizabeth Purviance and William Thomas. [William Thomas was a son of Jacob Thomas and Margaret Brevard Thomas of  NC.] Soon, in 1855, the widow Jane would follow her husband Edwin into death.

Generation Four.  Edwin A. McCorkle & wife Jane Maxwell Thomas McCorkle had the following surviving children. I’m not sure I have them in the correct birth order. My direct ancestor, John Edwin McCorkle, came late, just before the twins Finis and Tina.

            IV.(1)        “HRA” Hiram Robert A. McCorkle; m. 1^st Margaret Cowan, mother of all but one of his children, the 1^st being Winfield Purviance McCorkle. Margaret suffered severe depression after the accidental death of son Tolbert and died in hospital in Nashville; Hiram’s 2^nd wife was Janette Menzies, the mother of only one, Edwin Archibald McCorkle.  More on Hiram:       HRA McCorkle (Hiram), born 6^th November 1827 and died in Newbern, Tennessee, in 1907, married (1^st wife) Margaret A. Cowan, born 3 JAN 1833 in NC: The 1850 Census  of Dyer County, Tennessee, 9^th District, lists the following 2-month-old male child, born in 1850 in Dyer County, but whom I had never heard of until reading the old census records: O. F. MCCORKLE.  I had always thought Winfield Purviance McCorkle (buried Eminence, Ky.) was Uncle Hiram’s first child; evidently erroneously.  --Parenthetically, I just sense that Margaret A. Cowan McCorkle, born 1833, was somehow kin to the 1^st wife of Benjamin Huie (1798-1879), namely Lavinia Cowan, but I cannot find any records to help me.  [End of HRA McC] ;

            IV.(2)        a son who died young, I think named William Thomas McCorkle.

           IV.(3)        David Purviance McCorkle m. 1^st Margaret Scott; 2^nd Elizabeth Jackson.  Margaret Scott was a daughter [I think but am not certain] of James “Jimpse” Scott & wife Violet B. Roddy (Scott), so his children will be listed in the Scott section.

           IV.(4)        Rebecca Elmira McCorkle m. John C. Zarecor; they lived in the Yorkville area, in Gibson County.

            IV.(5)        “AJ” Anderson Jehiel McCorkle m. 1^st Martha Scott, a dau. of Violet B. Roddy & James “Jimpse” Scott, Martha Scott McCorkle a granddaughter of James & Sarah Dickey Scott, each b. 1777; Martha Scott McC was a sister to Sarah (Mrs. Julius M. Huie). Anderson Jehiel McCorkle m. 2^nd Lou Fox.  He kindly raised several of his Scott wife’s nieces/nephews.  Martha Scott’s sister Tirzah “Clementine” Scott (Trimble) left a daughter Bettie Trimble (Mrs. Hundley) and Bettie Trimble (Hundley) had sons Boss” Elmo Hundley and Bryan Hundley.  Also, Clementine’s husband (Trimble) and at least one son (Trimble) lived with Anderson Jehiel McCorkle

            IV(6)    Elizabeth Jane McCorkle (Mrs. Wyatt Reeves), of Gadsden near Humboldt, Gibson County, Tennessee.

            (7)        John Edwin McCorkle m. 1^st “Tennie” Tennessee Alice Edwards Scott, a granddaughter of James & Sarah Dickey Scott, each b. 1777; and 2^nd Mary Elizabeth Cotton of Botland near Bardstown, Kentucky.

            (8a)      “Tina” Margaret Latina McCorkle (Mrs. John T. Gregory) and

            (8b)      Tina’s twin Finis Alexander McCorkle.

Misspellings in the above letter of RAH McCorkle are the author’s (Robert A. H. McCorkle, 11 January 1853) not the scrivener’s (Marsha Cope Huie, 11 February 2006).

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            Yorkville Tenn.  June 24^th 1862.

 

Beloved Sister,

 

            Our paths have been strewn with trials from our childhood to gray hairs.  When you and I parted last, little did we then think that our beloved country would be plunged into fratricidal war in our life time.  but fates have decreed it otherwise.  We were taught to love our country and reverence its constitution and laws.   we ever believed no other nation on the habitable globe had such institutions.  but alas!  alas!  we are ruined.  We have suffered demagogues to lead, and ru-

in our happy country.  I can but believe there are thousands of honest hearts who have ever been for peace, altho evils did exist, yet they could have been cured without so much blood shed and misery.  But ‘tis usele¶ for me to dwell on this part of our woes.

 

            On the 11. day of January last Howard [Howard Harris Roache, son of Elmira the addressee] came to my house.  I knew him and was glad to see him tho weary and worn.   we made him some new warm clothes, and he spent several weeks with us, seemed truly happy in passing among his relations, tho I observed he often thought and sighed for home.  at leangth James came home [the writer’s son James Scott McCorkle].  They enjoyed themselves very much together–visited around generally.

[Page Two]

 

When James went back he went with him, though I dident know he intended to stay until I got a letter fom him stating that he had concluded it was best to remain, from too considerations, first the Mississippi was so full he couldent get back to Gen.l Parsons til late in the spring.  The other was he was permited to join Col Wright’s Reg.t with the promise of being released the 2. [?] of June with the Reg.t   he intended then to rejoin Prices command.  Susan got a letter from him the morning he started into the Shiloah battle.  it was full of thought, expressed confidence in his Redeemer tho “before night he might be cal d to eternity.”   he esca=

ped unhurt Sunday. but Monday he was struck with a musket ball above the right eye.

The first sugeon pronounced it slight, but when he returned to camp on re examination it was thought dangerous.  On Thursday James [James Scott McCorkle] was detailed to go with him and many others.  I went Wednesday to Trenton [Tennessee, in Gibson County] to meet the wounded, some came, but our boys dident get there til Thursday night.  he died before he got to Trenton.   in Trenton, James had him neatly dressed, and a good coffin for him, and procured a hearse and got home Friday.  when I saw the hearse coming I was shocked.  Aa wounded neighbor drove up in front.  I ask him who it was.  his reply was “a friend of mine” oh!  how my heart throb.d.   he then said it was “Howard.”  I cant express my feelings.

 

                                                            [Page Three]

 

we kept him in the parlor that day and night.  Then I took him and laid in Our rowe beside [my 20-year-old son who died recently, in 1861] Robert.

[Our old family records list a Robert E. McCorkle as a child of RAH & Tirzah Scott McCorkle, Robert E. McCorkle having been born in 1841 and dying on Jan. 30, 1861 *]

Amidst all the sorrows of the case I feel gratified that we were permitted to thus care for him, for many of our near friends lie bleaching on the plains of Shiloah.

Billy Cowan was one who fell there.  Cap t. Wilkins was mortally wounded there.  Old Saury [Saury?] Grier’s [Greer’s?] son was wounded, taken prisoner, and has not been heard from since.  After the reorganization under the Conscript law, ** many of our boys came home.  nor do I

think they will ever go back.

 

            The Federal army is south of us.  They hold all Tennessee.  The Mobile & Ohio R.R. is being fixed to run the trains in a day or too.  The Federals hold the Memphis & Charleston RR. and the mississippi Central.  They hold Hernando, Holly-Springs, and many other places in that state.

 

Yorkville is quiet tho the Federals have visited it several times.  They havent mistreated us at all. tho there is a Reg.t of “Jay Hawkers” who are waking up many along the R.R.  – Gen.l Quimby’s head qrter is Trenton. The Officials there denounce the conduct of the J.Hawkers.  They propose to restore the union and protect the loyal.  Many are flocking to the old Union Flag that wavers over Trenton.   indeed from every appearance I am conscienciously of the opinion that the unfettered voice of Tennessee spoken out, would be for the Union as it was.

 

___________

            * Howard Harris Roache, who was mortally injured at the Battle of Shiloh yet lived a brief while afterwards, has two tombstones in the McCorkle Family Cemetery in Dyer County, Tennessee.  One is a decent but ordinary rock placed there by his uncle, the above writer R.A.H. McCorkle.  The other is a tall, spired monument erected later by his parents, Dr. & Mrs. Roache.  In the summer of 1985 we affixed the more modest one, which had for years been lying in neglect against the old iron fence, to the second, more elaborate marker.

 

            ** This letter helps restore the honor of my Huie great-grandfather, Julius M. Huie, who would have been about thirty-four years old in 1862.  Julius’ daughter “Aunt Phronie” always maintaned, “Paw hid out from the conscript in the corn bin.”  Probably that means from the Southern Confederacy conscript, but I don’t know; it could have been just as easily from the Federal conscript.  My mother, Joyce Cope Huie, says my father, Ewing Huie, didn’t like his aunt, Sophronia Huie Thompson, to tell that story about his Grandpa Julius Huie. Now it looks as if it might have been the “Federals” whom Grandpaw Julius Huie managed to evade.  The Federals and the “Confederals” each roamed in and out of Dyer and Gibson Counties throughout the war, exchanging a few volleys with no major battles; and each side, when it could, tried to “conscript” the men of the community.  – I was raised on the story that a “Yankee” was, and is, buried in our front yard, down toward Highway 77, between our house and the highway.  He is supposed to have been killed there, and buried in what was then a cow pond. 

                                                [Page Four]

We are all in moderate health.  hot weather, good crops.  Legrand Whary is dead.  so is Bill Shaw. & Green Holmes. [***]   J.J. Scott is still very feeble, he is at his uncle billies.  Jno. McCorkle very feeble.[[27]****]   Leander[28] has got home from the army, Locke & Ed havent got back yet.[29]

                                                May 2

Brother’s last letter about Howard

__________________

M rs Elmira S. Roache

     ..

California

     Mo.

 _________________

[RAH McCorkle wrote the following on the outside of the letter after folding it:]

            There has been no chance hitherto to communicate to you since Howard came here.   he said he sent you a letter by private conveyance from Columbus [Kentucky].  Tirzah [wife Tirzah Scott McCorkle] and I went to Union City while they were there.  Their Reg.t was ordered away while we were there.  We all came together to Rutherford Station.  There Howard gave us the parting hand at mid night the 15^th March.

Tho. dark, we could see the boys weep----

I trust the way will be open for this to reach you.  If so you will write immediately to Rutherford Station Mobile and Ohio R.R. Tenn----I hope to write again.  Farewell

                                                                        R A H M.Corkle                              

Elmira S. Roache._________________

 *** Green Holmes is buried in the Old Yorkville Cumberland Presbyterian Cemetery. Or I should say, I thought I saw his marker there before restoration of the cemetery, but his name does not appear on the new Internet listing of cemetery graves for Gibson County, Tennessee.  --In 1983 when I received these McCorkle-Roache papers from Casey McCorkle, the old cemetery was abandoned and overgrown with brush.  Fortunately, in the late 1990s, I think because of the efforts of Congressman Ed Jones to have the cemetery declared historic, the cemetery has been restored. –“Miss” Llew Wyatt Jones just told me that Hamilton Parks of Trimble, Tennessee, contributed greatly to her husband’s efforts for restoration.

 

The horrible after-effects of Civil War:

Things were to get worse in the Yorkville-Newbern area. It doesn’t appear that the actual participants, and onlookers, during the Civil War hated each other.  Post-war events seem to have engendered the bitterness and enmity more than did actual war. I’ve read from distinguished historians of the period that it was the grandsons, not even the sons, who were most bitter about the war, at least in the South, which had felt occupied and then victimized by Reconstruction.  Of course, the Radical Republicans, and many northern opponents of slavery, would say that the South only got its due.  That would oversimplify the case, though, as many southerners disliked the institution of slavery, and much of northern commerce had been mixed up with the slave trade. It was slave-trading that was, to me, the true evil. Many, many folks, and not all southerners, bear guilt for the sin of slavery.

[Rough, Penciled Sketch of A Man Hanging from Tree with rope around his neck]

What happened?  I do not know about this particular instance.  I have read that the “Red House” in which the McCorkle family first settled burned, but don’t know when. We know that the “Red House” was on the north of what is now the Newbern-Yorkville road (Highway 77), across the road from what became the John Edwin McCorkle home.  I do not know when the Red House burned.  More generally than the specific case above, we do know than numerous African-Americans continued to live in the neighborhood despite such threats. 

 

 --  It has been told me by old-timers, though, that in the nearby Cool Springs district of Gibson County the radical hate-mongers managed to make their community “lily white.” Not so in the McCorkle land-grant area—although in 1866 after the Civil War Hiram R. A. McCorkle writes in his journal as if in amazement, “My place is clean of Negroes.”  --But in 1901 his journal with grief records the death of Frelinghuisen McCorkle, who was buried in the McCorkle Cemetery. Uncle Hiram attended the funeral services held on the cemetery grounds and writes that he shed a tear at the death of Frelin McCorkle.

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I wrote the following in 1983 and distributed this little booklet to our John Edwin McCorkle-Julius M. Huie Family Reunion, before I had been able to ascertain that William Hays Morrison was unquestionably a brother to our Margaret Morrison McCorkle:

 

                                                Dedication  

 

            This collection of papers above is dedicated to the Morrison cousin, William Morrison or possibly Gilliam Morrison, who lived 1767-1837 and was probably the brother, most certainly a kinsman, of Margaret Morrison McCorkle.  Margaret was born 11 August 1770, just before the Revolutionary War of 1775-83, and she died 11 Nov. 1848 at over 78 years’ age.  Margaret Morrison was the 2^nd wife of Robert McCorkle, whose first wife was (Lizzie) Elizabeth Blythe of Lebanon, Tennessee.

            Margaret Morrison McCorkle’s parents were Andrew Morrison and wife Elizabeth Sloan (Morrison) of Rowan County, NC.  The now-unmarked grave of William Morrison lies next to that of his sister Margaret Morrison McCorkle in the McCorkle Cemetery, Dyer Co., Tennessee.  Once beloved by someone, this William Morrison [now known to be William Hays Morrison] rests somewhere near his tombstone that now lies in ruins against the fence at the McCorkle family cemetery in Dyer County.  His epitaph makes him born circa 1767 and reads thus:

 

Sacred to the Memory of                                                       

___liam Morrison                                                                   

____departed this life

____22^nd 1837                                    

____70 years

 

[By 2003, I had read on <www.ancestry.com>  that this William Morrison has to be William Hays Morrison; and that William Hays Morrison’s wife is buried in Bedford County, Tennessee.  William Hays Morrison, born 7 January 1767 in Rowan County, North Carolina, died 22 August 1837 in Dyer County, Tennessee (McCorkle Cemetery). His wife was Mary Haynes, born 11 Mar 1779 in Rowan County, NC; died 4 Sep 1816 in Bedford County, Tennessee.  They married in 1795 in Rowan Co., NC.  www.ancestry.com lists their children as the following; but we do not have them in our old records, and I cannot vouch for veracity of the ff:

1          Eliza S. Morrison (Mrs. William Stinnett), born 1797 Iredell County, NC; married 13 Oct 1843 in Ray County, Missouri. 

2          John Morrison, born 1798 Iredell County, NC

3       Joseph Pinckney Morrison, born 7 May 1801 Iredell County, NC. Married Matilda McKee Brown; died 28 Sept. 1887 in Glennville, Kern County, California.  {He was a Cumberland Presbyterian minister,  and undoubtedly a nephew of Margaret Morrison McCorkle.  – Joseph Pinkney [sic.] Morrison was the recipient of a letter written 29 July 1857 by his aunt Mary Morrison when she was living with another nephew in Hillsboro, Coffee County, Tennessee; Mary expressed concern that Joseph P. Morrison might lose his land in Tennessee to squatters and other claimants.}

4       Elinor Panthea Morrison, born 1805 Iredell County, NC

5       Robert Donnell Morrison, born 14 July 1813 in Bedford County, Tennessee – died 4 June 1888 in Milan, Sullivan County, Missouri. Robert Donnell Morrison m. Sarah E. Sawyer, born 11 April 1817 in Lincoln County, Tennessee; died 7 March 1896 in Sullivan County, Missouri.  [The “Donnell” name was shared by an early Cumberland Presbyterian minister. I wonder if this Robert Donnell was named after him and would conclude probably so.]

6       William Mann Morrison, born 1815 in Franklin County, Tennessee.  Married Jane Daves, 1819-1880. William Mann Morrison died 1 October 1895 in Marshall County, Tennessee.

[End of William Hays Morrison, brother buried beside Margaret Morrison McCorkle in McCorkle Cemetery, Dyer County, Tennessee]

           

            This collection of papers is also dedicated to our immigrant ancestors Alexander McCorkle and 1^st wife (Nancy) Agness Montgomery McCorkle, who emigrated from in or near Ulster Plantation, Northern Ireland, to Harris Ferry, Pennsylvania.  They removed themselves thence down the Great 18^th-century migration road to the Piedmont of North Carolina, near Statesville / Salisbury, in Iredell County, this part of which later became Rowan County, North Carolina.

 

            Alexander McCorkle’s gravestone in Thyatira Presbyterian Church Cemetery, Rowan County, North Carolina, near Salisbury and Mooresville, reads:

                        In Memory of Alexander M’Corkle

who died December 24^th 1800

Aged 78 years.

The inscription on the grave of Alexander’s first wife, Nancy Agness McCorkle, the mother of his children, reads:

 

In Memory of AGNESS McCORKLE

Wife to Alex McCorkle Snr.

Deceased Sept Ye 5 1789

Aged 63 Years.

 

Agnes Montgomery McCorkle was known in the Scots fashion as “Nancy.”  Alexander married again, after the death of 1^st wife (Nancy) Agness Montgomery McCorkle. His 2^nd wife was named Rebeccah Brandon, by whom he had no issue.

 

This collection of papers is also dedicated to the numerous African-Americans who lie buried in the McCorkle Cemetery in Dyer County, Tennessee, in graves now unmarked.  Some had probably been slaves, like Frelinghuisen McCorkle, but most were, more likely, descendants of freedmen and freedwomen.  My mother [Joyce Cope Huie, born 1915] thinks Jeff Bean is buried there.

            [This is the Jeff Bean who came down from Indiana/Ohio when my mother’s Hendricks great-grandfather, Uriah C. Hendricks  –  who is buried in the McCorkle Cemetery  –   lost his 1^st wife Mary McMahon Hendricks, whom he had married in 1833 in Clermont County, Ohio,  Mary (Polly) McMahan having come originally, we think, from Rowan Co., NC.  Ira Cope, Uriah’s grandson, said Uriah C. Hendricks rode on a horse up to get his wife.  Upon the death of his 1^st wife, Uriah went north again, up to Indiana/Ohio to which the McMahon family had by then migrated, to bring south to western Tennessee Mary Polly MacMahan Hendrick’s sister, Temperance McMahon Bean (widow Bean) (Hendricks) (alias “Aunt Tempe.”)  The Temperance name can get a bit confusing because Uriah C. Hendricks seems to have had a sister—or perhaps 1^st cousin—named Temperance Hendricks (Chaffin), who married Mr. William O. Chaffin in Rowan County, North Carolina in the early 1800s, either 1829 or 1833, I think I remember.]

            It is known that Temperance McMahon BEAN Hendricks brought Jeff Bean south with her, where he became well respected in the Churchton community.  Whether he had been a slave or not, my mother Joyce Cope Huie cannot now remember. Nevertheless, at the time of death of Uriah C. Hendricks ‘s 1^st wife, Mary McMahon Hendricks, Jeff Bean would have been a freedman.

In the 1950s a McCorkle descendant desecrated the graves of the black men and women who had been placed to rest forever in the front of the cemetery, in front of the old iron fence that used to mark the dividing line but which fence has since disappeared.  My cousin Edward Campbell Huie who died in March 2001, long a trustee for the cemetery, told me knew who had shamed us all by destroying these markers; but I have no first-hand knowledge of the identity of the appalling miscreant so am reluctant to name him here even though he is long dead now.  I hope his soul re-incarnates, if there is such a thing as transmogrification of the soul, into a body of a very dark brown colour. Of one thing I am certain: he will have to do penance somehow, somewhere, before he rests.--  All right, so my 90-year-old mother has counseled [as she proof-reads this in November 2005 before I place it on the Internet] that I can’t mention Joe Hiram Pope, husband of Fannie Fuller Pope.   ­­­­Mother says she never before heard Ed Huie's Joe Hiram Pope story anyway; and in Joe Hiram's defense he did spend many long hours mowing the old cemetery during our long summers.  Perhaps he just didn't take extra care to preserve what was deteriorating anyway; I do not know; and we are not supposed to judge our neighbor's actions or heart.  -- But it was his wife Fannie who helped run my father from the old family Lemalsamac church; although she had long tried to find my daddy a good, respectable woman to marry [to those folks, "good wife" could only mean "a Church of Christ member" ].­­ Folks, believe me, it ain't prudent to be, or at least to appear, liberal in the country.  --   --  --  --  -- 

­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­

This collection of papers is also dedicated to my mother, Joyce Rebecca Cope Huie, whose love and sacrifice have seen me through various personal pestilences. When cancer struck me as a very young woman and brutal treatment ensued, it was her strength of will & other resources that sustained me.  And: to my maiden aunt, Sarah Elisabeth Huie, who I really do believe had a photographic memory.  She is the genesis of most of my stories gathered here.  Aunt Beth generously shared her knowledge of God and family, but rarely ventured off our farm except for church and grocery-shopping. I’m still a bit raspy at Aunt Beth though for turning in Jennifer Huie (Tucker)  & me for smoking in the chicken coop when we were 14.

            [In 2005 I would add that it was the profound interest in all learned topics of Ralph Ervin Williamson that re-awakened my thirst for knowledge and desire to make this compilation public.  A graduate of Phillips Exeter Academy & Stanford University (Petroleum Engineering), with the M.S. from the University of Texas in Earth Sciences (not to mention a law degree, which rarely leads to intellectualism), he has enriched my life immeasurably since we married, each aged 53, on Thanksgiving Day, November 25, 1999.  -- If I said the “curiosity” of Ralph inspired me, that although true would be amphibology.]

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                        Note about “Verdant Plain,” “Verdant Grove,” Tennessee, & Southern Consanguinity:

            According to Elmira Sloane McCorkle Roache, her mother’s mother, Elizabeth Sloane (Mrs. Andrew Morrison) [variously, Elizabeth Sloan] was a 1^st cousin to Robert McCorkle.  That makes the mother of Elizabeth Sloane Morrison (the mother being __?__ McCorkle Sloane) a sister to the  Alexander McCorkle who married Nancy Agness Montgomery.  That in turn makes Margaret Morrison McCorkle a 1^st cousin-once-removed to her husband Robert McCorkle. – We are hopelessly interbred.  –   Robert McCorkle died in Dyer County, Tennessee, very soon after making the journey from Rutherford County in Middle Tennessee.  Robert is buried in the McCorkle Cemetery, Dyer Co., Tennessee. – In regard to Margaret Morrison McCorkle’s listing her address as “Verdant Plain,” it is clear to me that she was referring to the McCorkle farm situated in eastern Dyer County, Tennessee, five miles east of Newbern and just west of what is today the Churchton Community.  Obviously the name “Verdant Plain” did not catch on. One wishes it had.

Women’s Liberation 1850s-style

 

I'm adding the following generational demarcations to re-orient the reader:

 

Generation One: Alexander McCorkle & Nancy Agnes Montgomery.

Generation Two:  Robert McCorkle & Margaret Morrison McCorkle. 

Generation Three: Robert Andrew Hope McCorkle & Tirzah Scott.

Generation Four:  Sarah Elmira McCorkle (Mrs. Jonathan Algea).

The Algea is the “al” in the Lemalsamac family church as named by RAH McCorkle. And the “sa” is for “Sarah Elmira McCorkle Algea.”

 

The following Affidavit was sent in the summer of 2006 by Carol McCorkle Branz of Spokanne, Washington, a great-granddaughter of Joseph Smith McCorkle, Joe having been a brother to Sarah McCorkle Algea.  My father Ewing Huie and Aunt Beth Huie's “Uncle Joe” lived in Yorkville, Tennessee. I’ll use just one overall “sic” here, at the beginning, and ask the reader to understand that Uncle Joe's misspellings were most likely because of  advanced age.  My father Ewing Huie was a pallbearer at Uncle Joe McCorkle's funeral, as was Carol McCorkle Branz's father Robert.

 J. A. Wharey seems to be the villain in the following Affidavit.

 

“I Jos. S. McCorkle, being old and knowing I am liable to die at any time.  As I am threatened with a lawsuit, for the maintenance of [my niece] Carrey Algea , I wish to make a few statements which I am willing to make affidavit to.  I will be unable to give dates exactly, but will approximate.  Between 1851 & 4 D^r Algea married sister Sarah.  He was located at a little place between here and Memphis [but, Uncle Joe, that’s about a 90-mile distance!].  The D^r had a good practice, but became dis[s]ipated to the extent that he lost his practice.  Cant tell just when they [to Uncle Joe's page 2] came to my father[’]s nor how long they stayed, but they were there when Fannie [Fannie Algea, later a Mrs. Wharey] was born.  The D^r  had a home, he was in and out from one day to 50, we never knew where he was or what he was doing.  After while he located in Union City, in a shoe shop.  He then moved his family thbere. (I visited them while there)  He was there charged with a very ugly crime, which was very serious, so much so he left there, while Carrey was born, then they came back to Father[‘]s, while Carey was [to Uncle Joe's page 3]  an infant.  They never left any more, as before the D^r  was in and out as he saw fit.  From this time on as before, Jos. & William [that is, the affiant Joseph Smith McCorkle and his brother William Leander A. McCorkle] made the bread & meat, cut the wood for all the fires, while the D^r done [ did, Uncle Joe! ] nothing.  Sister Sarah done all she could but being a weakly woman & having two little girls to see after she could do but little.  I give her credit for what she could do, for she was a noble good woman.  It was impossible for her to support her family.  time  

 [to page 4] went on, the D^r being no good but in and out, till my father [Robert Andrew Hope McCorkle] got tired of that.  Well do I remember the day when my father & sister past by me in the back yard, with sad faces, on their way to the garden where they sat with there hearts bleeding for a long time, talking over the situation, it was a serious time with both.  My father did not force her to leave him, but showed her the consequences if she remained with him, it would be distress and [to page 5] almost starvation to remain with him.  He [RAH McCorkle] told her he would not keep them, and let the D^r rais[e] another family there on him, but if she left him he would take care of her and the two children, so she chose to leave him & stay where she could be taken care of.  We all loved them, and our sympathy ran out for them, so much so we would have divided the last morsel of meat with them, had it been necessary.  Time went on they [to page 6] were fed and clothed comfortable.  Time went on my father made his will being so desirous and sympathising with Sister Sarah, (and being influenced [by his sister] Aunt Elmira Roache, so we think) he over done the thing, for we had not only raised them, but cared for them, in sickness, and in health.  He then gave her [Sarah McCorkle Algea] more than he did brother Jim [James Scott McCorkle, M.D., Newbern, Tennessee] or Sister Sue [Susan McCorkle McNail, Mrs. Will McNail].  He gave us all about equal amt of land value, he then gave Bro William  [WLA McCorkle, buried in the McCorkle cemetery with his wife Alice J. Wells McCorkle and daughter Eudora McCorkle Robertson] & I  [me, Uncle Joe !] the home  [to page 7] place, with the understanding that we were to take care of Sister Sarah & family, give Fannie an english education.  He then gave Jim[,] Susan[,] & Sarah over $1600 in cash.  I got no money, William [WLA McCorkle] got one house & lot in Yorkville & all the house hold & kitchen furniture, more than I got, but I never grumbled.  I knew he would have the trouble of the family.

We were a happy family, hightoned, and thought it a shame and a disgrace to have a family trouble, so we let it go, would rather [to page 8 of handwritten affidavit] suffer wrong than be disgraced.   to show you what Bro W^m throught, he offered me his interest in the farm for $750 less than half what Sister Sarah got in cash.  Besides we sup[p]orted her for 15 long years.  We were working hard to sup[p]ort our familys, and then sup[p]ort hers, while she had her money out at int. at 10 per c for I gave her that for $1,000.  Where is the justis:  Sup[p]ose Sister Sue[’]s husband [Will McNail] had died, we would have been under just the same obligation to have sup[p]orted [to page 9 of affidavit]  her as we did to sup[p]ort sister Sarah.

After Bro William[’]s death in 1889, Bro Jim [James Scott McCorkle] in talking to Sister Sarah, showed her that it was just and right that she release brother W^m and myself, that it was unjust and an imposition on us.  She at once saw it, and said yes, we had done enough for her and her children, and she like a good woman, she gave us both deeds of releasement, thereby releaseing not only her claim but her children[’]s claim, in evidence [to page 10] and of this, she bound in her will, Fannie and property to take care of and support Carrey, nothing can be plainer.  Further evidence of this Sister Sarah moved to J.A. Wharey[’]s her soninlaw[’]s  releasing all claim on us, they lived together & were a mutual help to each other in many ways:  For about 26 long years this has never been mentioned.  Now since sd Wharey & wife have become offended at me thinking they could worry me in my old age and if possible to [w]ring some [to page 11] money out of me, they are talking this matter.  This will be the first family trouble we have ever had in our family, if it comes to pas[s], I can hardly think it will come, I have ever held Fannie in higher esteem, I think she is to[o] good a woman to do such a thing. (shal[l] I be decieved?) 

“I say no man of reasonable intel[l]igence that wants to do justis to all, can take these wills and deeds & facts and consider them and then say I am due them "

 

[I do not have a Page 12 so presume this is the end of the affidavit of Joseph Smith McCorkle.] 

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Obituary of “Uncle Joe” Joseph Smith McCorkle, a son of the above RAH McCorkle & Tirzah Scott (McCorkle)

 

Mr. Joseph Smith McCorkle passed away Sunday night at 9 o’clock at his home in Yorkville after a serious illness of several days duration.  The deceased had reached the four-score milepost on life’s journey.  He had been a devoted member of the Christian Church for more than fifty years.  Services were held at his home congregation where he had labored so faithfully for many years.  Elder C.E. Norred, of Florence, Ala., made a most impressive talk of the grandeur and beauty of the Christian Life.  The large crowd attested to the esteem in which the deceased was held.  The body was brought to the McCorkle Cemetery [in Dyer County] and laid to rest by the side of his wife who preceded him many years ago.  The grave was covered with the many beautiful floral offerings of friends and loved ones.  Mr. McCorkle is survived by three children, Walter, Robert and Miss Annie McCorkle; also by several grandchildren and one great-grandchild.  All except one of the number were present when the end came.  The pallbearers were Robert Daniel McNail [from the deceased’s sister Susan McCorkle McNail], Robert Frazier McCorkle [the deceased’s grandson and the father of Carol McCorkle Branz of Spokane, Washington], [Howard] Ewing Huie [born 1907-died 1971, son of Sophie King McCorkle Huie], Allen Blaine [Karnes] and Oscar Karnes [two sons of Eulalia McCorkle Karnes], the latter four being his grandsons. [That is incorrect in that Ewing Huie was not the deceased’s grandson but was a grandson of John Edwin McCorkle, John E. being a 1^st cousin to Joseph Smith McCorkle.]

 

 

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Now, switching gears, we must find the old, preserved letters of Robert McCorkle's sister who remained in North Carolina, viz., Agnes "Nancy" Ramsay (Mrs. Robert Ramsay), for then we shall no doubt find letters from our own direct ancestors who had removed westwardly to Tennessee.

To re-orient the reader: 

I.        Alexander McCorkle and 1st wife “Nancy” Agness Montgomery

II.  Nancy McCorkle (Mrs. Robert Ramsay)  ... Male siblings... Samuel Eusebius...

William...Robert...Alexander Jr... James... John married Catherine Barr...

and Joseph McCorkle.  Sisters: Mattie McCorkle Archibald;

and Elizabeth McCorkle Barr.

McCorkles in North Carolina

Well, somebody has to find and read these old letters coming to NC from McCorkle relatives

who had moved west to Tennessee.

I hereby charge someone in the coming generations to do so:

“Holdings of the University of North Carolina Libraries:  Correspondence and Related Items beginning circa 1790.  

 “Largely letters to Nancy McCorkle Ramsay and [her husband] Robert Ramsay, paternal grandparents of 

James Graham Ramsay, from various family members.

[Nancy Ramsay is a sister to our ancestor Robert McCorkle, the Robert who died in 1828.]

   “The earliest letters are from Betty Andrews to Nancy McCorkle

Ramsay and address personal and religious issues.

  Early letters to Robert Ramsay are from friends and family in Tennessee, notably Thomas Knox 

and Hugh and Hannah Robinson.

Letters from 1813 on are almost entirely family missives from 

various male and female McCorkles to their Ramsay counterparts.  

All of these originate in Tennessee or Ohio and include descriptions of life 

on the western frontier and family relations.

There is one letter from Robert Ramsay to [his brother-in-law] Alexander McCorkle

 in Tennessee. [This would be Alexander McCorkle Jr., Mrs. McCorkle-Ramsay’s brother. 

Elmira, a niece, said Alexander McCorkle Jr. was “emotional in character and

joined the Methodists.”  

James Graham Ramsay is a McCorkle descendant:

        “James Graham Ramsay was born on 1 March 1823 on his father's small plantation in Iredell County, N.C.

 His parents David (d.1857) and Margaret Foster Graham Ramsay (d. 1855?) were both of Scotch-Irish descent. 

The Ramsays had emigrated in 1695 to Pennsylvania, and John Graham Ramsay's grandfather

 had moved toIredell's Coddle Creek community in 1766.  Ramsay entered Davidson College in 1838 

and was graduated three years later.  He taught school for a year, then studied medicine with his 

brother-in-law before entering the Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia, from which he was graduated in 1848. 

...  Ramsay spent his last years in Salisbury, N.C., with his son

James Hill Ramsay.  He died on 10 January 1903 and was buried in the cemetery of the 

Third Creek Presbyterian Church near Cleveland, where he had been a ruling elder for 49 years.”

“Subseries 4.2.  Genealogical Notes

   “About 160 items.

   “Arrangement:  alphabetically by family 

   “These are miscellaneous notes and a few clipping relating to family history

collected by James Graham Ramsay and his son James Hill Ramsay. 

They are organized by family; notes including information on more than one family are filed with the miscellaneous materials.

“Folder 176-177     Graham family.  [William McCorkle, brother to our Robert McCorkle 

who died in Dyer County, Tennessee, in 1828, married as his 3rd wife a woman née Graham, 

Jenny Graham (McCorkle).] Next: McCorkle family. ”

[END of quoted material from UNC]

[End of quotation from University of North Carolina archival records] 

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