Dalton and Dicie

This photo shows two of my grandfather Jesse James Loveday's siblings, Dicie (right) and Dalton (seated). When I obtained this photo, I was told that the other woman (left) was one of Dalton's girlfriends, and another source told me that her name was Queenie Williams. I love the hats!

The full list of children born to Eli and Callie (Spurgeon) Loveday were: Dalton Doyle (married Hettie ??), Lloyd Lawton (married Deama Ball), Jesse James (married Josie Oakley), Ada (married Kurtis Hurst), Dicie (married Horace Kelly), Etter (married Pinkney Ball, Deama's brother), Savannah Georgia (Ruben Thomas, then Oiver Duffy), Winnie Pearl (married John Justus), and Sally (married Allen Kelly, cousin of Horace).

Veterans

As we honor our Veterans this week, I feel it's appropriate to post about an interesting find I had on a research trip. Daddy and I had driven in search of a cemetery off Wilhite, where he remembered attending a funeral as a little boy. I was looking for the graves of my great, great grandparents, but we stumbled across something else.

As we turned onto a small lane, we stopped to ask a man in his yard whether he could tell us about any cemeteries on that road. I explained that we were doing a little research on the family tree and mentioned some names. The man, whose last name was Branam, then said he had something I might want to see, and he brought out this flag. He explained that during World War II, Bethany Baptist Church had sewn the names of local soldiers onto the stars. There on the flag was my Uncle Doyle Loveday's name. To this day, I regret not offering to buy the flag, because I honestly think the man was almost suggesting that I might want to do that.

Other names include Hurst, Thomas, Webb, Rolen, Williams, Odom, Ball, Blalock, Elidge, and Branam. If you click on the photo, you can see some of the names a little better.

Eli Loveday and his Bible

Eli Loveday (born October 17, 1861; died August 1917) and his wife Callie (Spurgeon) farmed in what was known as Loveday Hollow (now called Hagg Hollow) off Jones Cove Road in Sevier County, TN. Both were very active in their church, Bethany Baptist, and when one young man felt called to preach, Eli taught him how to read. Eli had dark skin and a handlebar mustache. (Look at that pipe!)

In his later years Eli became blind in one eye from the cancer that eventually took his life. Callie "grieved herself to death" within the year. If our dates are correct, they had been married since they were 13 and 14 years old!

Shown here is Eli (back row, left) with his nephew Tally Breeden and "Sprig" Williams (who married Eli's niece), along with Eli's daughters Etter and Dicey and his Uncle David Loveday.

Eli's 1909 Bible records the family births and deaths, and I was able to have it photographed for the Daughters of the American Revolution Bible Project, as well as for the Sevier County Library.

Revolutionary War: The Battle of King's Mountain

As the Revolutionary War was fought, the people of our area played an important role in helping to turn the tide toward freedom so that our family lines could enjoy their pursuits of independence. Colonel Ferguson of the British army became frustrated with the havoc being caused by the renegade Overmountain Men and sent word that if they didn't lay down their arms and cease their actions, he would cross the mountain himself and hang their leaders and ruin their lands. Well, that was the wrong thing to say to those strong-willed men who were determined to have victory. In short, the frontier farmers and woodsmen living over the mountain pulled together and marched to King's Mountain to defeat Ferguson and his men!

I've had the pleasure on Thursday and Friday this week to watch the present day Overmountain Victory Trail Association (OVTA) members, shown here, re-enact and retell the story of that march and victory during their annual trek along the original trail taken to King's Mountain. They provide demonstrations and presentations for schools and civic groups along the way. What a wonderful celebration of history and a gallant effort to preserve the details of this important heritage! For more information about the OVTA, visit their website.

Participating in that battle that was a turning point of the Revolutionary War were men by the names of Breden, Collins, Harrell, Webb, and Williams, names from our family lines. Were those any of our ancestors represented there? I hope to find out!

Perry Webb: Always serving others

My grandmother Josie (Oakley) Loveday's grandfather was Perry Webb, a man who served his country, church, and community.

Perry was born on May 22, 1840, in Sevier County, and on March 24, 1858, he married D.L. and Julia Ann (Bryant) Williams' daughter Mary Jane.

As a Civil War soldier for the Union, Perry enlisted from Cocke County on September 26, 1863, as a private in Company K of the 9th Tennessee Cavalry and was promoted to Regiment Sargent of Company A. He participated in the battles of Greeneville, Wautauga, Bulls Gap, Morristown (2), Russellville, Blue Springs, Salt Works, and Wytheville, as well as the siege of Knoxville. For three months in 1864, he was on special duty guarding the Drake Creek railroad bridge. He was honorably discharged at Knoxville on September 11, 1865. His brothers Abraham and Milas were soldiers as well.

Perry served as deacon and trustee of Bethany Baptist Church (Jones Cove Road), and unfortunately, the church records were lost when his house burned. His faith was very important to him, and he would sometimes sing "the old camp songs" in his sleep.

He and Mary had twelve children, among them my great grandmother Sarah Catherine. They had a peach orchard on their land, and their large log home consisted of two cabin rooms with a fireplace between them and a frame kitchen to one side. In their front yard, they had an open well and beneath the apple trees a few bee hives, which Perry loved to sit and watch in the years after Mary's death on February 16, 1904. Perry died September 15, 1915.

*Some information obtained from a March 21, 1900 article in the Vindicator, shown in the Sevier Bicentennial book, 976.87 of the McClung Collection.

D. L. Williams: Killed by Rebels

Even though Tennessee seceded during the not-so-Civil War, many of Sevier County's men chose to fight instead for the Union. Lots of those families descended from frontiersmen who had fought alongside John Sevier and others in Revolutionary War battles like that at King's Mountain to establish the union and independence of the states.

The mountainous farms of East Tennessee were not heavily populated with slaveholders, and most ET men who fought for the Confederacy were conscripted or had hopes of rising in the social strata because of the trade and commerce that had grown with the deeper South within the 1850s development of railroad systems in the area. Many fought for the South because they deeply believed in the rights of states to make their individual decisions about slavery and other issues. (Two very insightful books about East Tennessee's conflicted role in the War Between the States are O.P. Temple's 1899 East Tennessee and the Civil War and W. Todd Groce's 1999 Mountain Rebels.)

Alternating occupation of Confederate and Union forces in the region wreaked havoc between neighbors and families, and Sevier County was greatly impoverished. Deserters and outlaws roamed the mountains, killing innocent citizens and pillaging farms for food and personal gain. Rebel soldiers came to my great-great-great grandfather Dillard (D.L.) Williams' home off Jones Cove Road above Bethany Baptist Church, and when he went out to face them, they put him on a horse and kept watch over him while they stole from the smokehouse and the corn crib before burning them. After that, they took D.L. up the road and shot him. His wife Julia Ann (Bryant) Williams survived and lived until January 19, 1898. D.L. and Julia Ann Williams were the parents of Mary Jane Williams, who married Perry Webb.