Descendants of John R. Lewis
Somewhere deep in the
mountains
of eastern Tennessee
in the year
of 1829,
a boy child was
born.
This child was given the name
John R. Lewis.
At the time of John's birth, the United States had been in existence just over
fifty years. Following the natural progression from
east to the west, John's ancestors moved into this
pristine wilderness to seek a better life for
themselves and their offspring.
It was
a region filled with a myriad of springs, streams, and deep rivers surrounded
by primeval forests and rolling hills climbing to craggy mountain tops. The
land was wild and if not bountiful, then at least habitable and was
shared by all in the area... including the indigenous population.
The predominant tribe of the area was the Cherokee.
Many of the people inhabiting the area gave their
lives in an attempt to control what they felt was
rightfully theirs... this emotion was shared by both
sides.
With the scant amount of information regarding the subject
on hand, I can only speculate that this Lewis family was of Welsh
extract. A great majority of immigrants to America bearing the Lewis
surname were of Welsh descent. Given this information and the knowledge
that eastern Tennessee initially had a sizeable Welsh population, it is not unreasonable to make
this assumption. Even today many of these Celtic descendants reside in the region.
By the year 1838, when John was but nine
years of age, the Cherokee were driven from their
ancestral home in one of the darkest chapters of
American history. This death march became known as
The Trail of Tears.
Perhaps the saddest and most tragic part
of this episode was the fact that many of the settlers
and Indians had intermarried, creating allegiances
that could not be sustained. Many marriages were torn
apart as loyalties to families and culture proved
stronger than the wedding vow. Some of the Cherokee in
Tennessee and North Carolina managed to avoid the forced march
and years later established a tribal government in North Carolina.
Thousands of Cherokees never made it to the end of the forced march. They died
of starvation and disease along the way.
There have always been
stories passed on within this Lewis family implying we shared the blood of
the Cherokee. To this point, It has been difficult to lend
credence to this belief since searches of the Indian rolls proved fruitless. It is certainly not beyond the realm of possibility however, given the fact
that these early Lewis's lived so closely with the Cherokee of the area.
It is my belief that John
was born in Jefferson County, Tennessee in 1829. I am led in this direction by the fact
that Rufus Henry Lewis was born in Jefferson County in 1833 according to his Confederate
Pension records.
Rufus Lewis was on the 1850 and 1860 census living in John Lewis's
household. Rufus and John fought together for the Confederacy during the War of Northern
Aggression. For a time, both were members of the 5th Tennessee Calvary Co."F"
(Cocke County Tennessee Confederates,
by Darby O'Neil)
It isn't much of a stretch to conclude that the evidence is credible enough to establish the two as brothers.
John grew to be a young man and took a wife.
Her name has been established as Sarah from Census records.
On July 26 1846, in Jefferson County Tennessee, a John Lewis married a Sarah Griffin.
(Taken from the book "Early East Tennessee Marriages")
Our Sarah?... Can't prove it yet, but a strong possibility
nonetheless.
Mrs. Paris Hall, (no relation to the writer) a noted Cocke County, Tennessee genealogist now deceased,
had Sarah's maiden name listed as Brown. Mrs. Hall's work has been cloistered by her family since her death, so we may
never know the source of her information.
There have been various sources that attribute
the Byrd surname to Sarah, which is certainly intriguing considering the fact that John
and Sarah lived next door to a Byrd family in Sevier County, Tennessee according
to the 1850 federal census for that county.
Given available information, Sarah's surname can only be a matter
of conjecture.
By 1850, John was a farmer in Sevier
County Tennessee. He lived with his wife Sarah, and their infant son Joseph Lemuel.
Also included on that particular census as living with John and Sarah, were 35 year old
Elizabeth Lewis, and a 10 year old Rufus Lewis.
It is more likely that Rufus was actually
16 or 17 at this time, considering the fact that his Confederate pension record establishes his Birthdate
as 1833. It was not unusual for census age information to be recorded incorrectly. It appears that
for whatever reason, there were those who gave different birthdates from one census to another.
On the 1860 Federal Census, Rufus is listed as 25 years of age.
Elizabeth is still a mystery at this point.
Is it possible she could be the mother of John and Rufus? She would have been 14 or 15
years old at the time of John's birth, but that was not implausible during the early
nineteenth century. Nor can we dismiss the possibility that she could have been an older sister. We
lose track of her after the 1850 census.
In 1860, John was living in Cocke County,
Tennessee with Sarah, Joseph Lemuel, Rufus, and the newest member of the family, George
Michaux, born in 1854. John Lewis had property valued at $125.00.
In attempting to establish
a migratory pattern for the family, It is important to note that Jefferson, Sevier, and Cocke
Counties juncture one another on the French Broad River near an area known as Dutch Bottoms.
It is entirely possible that John, Rufus, and their families never lived outside a ten mile radius
of the area. They could have lived in any of the three counties and been within sight of the other two.
John and Lemuel lived in the Dutch Bottom area at the time of the 1880 census.
Dutch Bottoms was an area settled originally by
by people of Irish descent and was first known as Irish Bottoms. At some point, people of
Germanic descent became the dominant population, and
the name was changed to "Dutch" Bottoms.
It was known as Bottoms, because of its geological location.
It was on the river bottom land of the French Broad River. It was considered to be the best farm
land in the area because of the fertile soil deposited by the river.
There were several huge
Plantations located in the area and there are still silos visible above the waterline. The area was flooded
during the depression era in order to form lakes as part of the Tennessee Valley Authority's efforts. Portions of the area
still remain above water, but a great percentage is lake bottom now.
The area was famous for it's cranberry
crops. The Stokely Canning Company was founded near the area to take advantage of the bountiful harvest.
An interesting bit of trivia regarding the French Broad River; it is considered second only to the Nile River
of Africa in age. It is so old that no fossils are naturally found there. It began it's long journey to the sea
from the mountains of North Carolina long before any kind of life existed on the planet.
Dutch Bottoms as it looks today. I took this Panaramic photo in October of 2001.
The Lake is typically low during the winter months, because it is drained enough to allow for the excesses of winter flooding.
Note the previously mentioned silo remains to the right in the photo.
The French Broad River seen as it flows just to the east of
Newport in Cocke County, Tennessee.
From all records
I've seen to this point, there is a good probability that John R. Lewis was a tenant farmer.
It was a common practice, particularly among the younger members of the community. In view of the fact that
in his younger years, he moved around a bit indicates that he may have followed the crops and the opportunities
for work and income provided by them.
The most common crops of the area were corn and tobacco. The area is fertile and productive,
but due to the mountainous geography, there was just not as much tillable land available compared to regions further to the south
and to the west. It is well within the realm of possibility that most of the good farm land was taken, and what was available was priced dearly.
It was doubtless beyond the grasp of a young man of meager means.
Tenant farming provided only small opportunity for an individual to advance his station in life.
When you review the occupations listed on the census records from that time, it is evident that there was an ample supply of labor for the
farmers of the area who were fortunate enough to be men of property. A tenant farmer was only a step up from a farm laborer. In return
for farming and caring for the land, the tenant farmer was given a place to live and was allowed to keep a small portion of what he grew. It rarely
amounted to more than subsistence living. Subsistence living, however, was far more appealing than the alternative.
Some farmland in present day Cocke County, near Parrotsville.
It is typical of farms of the area and probably looks much the same as land farmed by John and family
in their time.
By 1870,
we find John was still farming in Cocke County. He had an estimated personal property wealth of $200.00.
The Civil war was a few years behind them, but tensions were still high among the population.
If you supported the Confederacy during the war, those who supported the north in the area went
out of their way to make life miserable for those who remained loyal to Tennessee and the South. Many Confederate
veterans and their families were murdered. For whatever reason, there were some Tenneseeans in the area
who supported the invading armies. Those who did were able to treat those who had been loyal to Tennessee
and the Confederacy poorly without much fear of reprisal from the law. Many of the atrocities were probably encouraged or
overlooked by the occupying army and the Carpetbaggers who infested the South at the time. It was not a
pleasant place to be if you were numbered among the defeated Confederate Patriots.
Six households away from John, Sarah, and 16 year old Michaux lived Joseph Lemuel Lewis and his bride Mandy.
Mandy (Amanda) was the daughter of David P. Click who owned a sawmill with his brother Louis Anderson Click Jr. David
was also a contractor who built many of the buildings and homes still standing in Newport Tennessee today.
Lem was 21 years of age and Mandy was 19. They had two daughters,
Frances E. (3) and Sarah Jane (1). Lemuel was working as a farmer following in the footsteps of his dad John.
Lemuel and Mandy had an estimated personal property worth valued at $200.00.
Amanda was the daughter of David P. Click and Mariah Morrell. She was one of five daughters. Her sisters were:
Elizabeth born 1854, Susan, born 1856, Ruth, born 1858, and Mariah, born 1859.
All graphics, photos, editorial comment, general foolishness,
and folderol are copyrighted by Larry Hall, 2002. All factual information
can easily be found with a little research, so why should I attempt
to keep you from taking it?...
Just don't mess with my words or the pretty pitchurs and geegaws. Okey dokey?
It tends to make me cranky, dontcha know...