LAUDERDALE COUNTY, TN 1860 FEDERAL CENSUS http://ftp.us-census.org/pub/usgenweb/census/xtn/lauderdale/1860 =============================== TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES: =============================== Prepared by Donald Robbins Transcription aid by Betty Hawley Checked by D. K. Robbins January 29, 2008 Census Sheet's Format ------------------------------- Census Sheet Header Information ------------------------------- Each Census Sheet consists of 40 lines. The Header information contains a place for the Date of entry, Post Office, The County Name (Montgomery) and the name of the recorder of the information. ------------------------------- Census Sheet Detail information ------------------------------- Column 1 - Dwelling - houses numbered in the order of visitation Column 2 - Families, numbered in the order of visitation Column 3 - The name of every person whose usual place of abode on the first day of June, 1860 was in this family Column 4 - Age Column 5 - Sex Column 6 - Color, White, Black or Mulatto or Indian Column 7 - Profession, Occupation or Trade of each person, male and female, over 15 years of age Column 8 - Value of Real Estate Column 9 - Value of Personal Estate Column 10 - Place of Birth, Naming the State, Territory, or Country Column 11 - Married within the year Column 12 - Attended School within the year Column 13 - Person over 20 who could not read or write Column 14 - Whether deaf & dumb, blind, insane, idiotic, pauper or convict In the interest of getting the information transcribed to an 8 1/2 x 11 sheet, some adjustments were made in the format of the transcription. A new line was created, which contains the Page Number and Line Number of the Image file that the information was transcribed from. The Surname is in Caps, along with the date of the census page, the census district, the Post Office, and the information from Column 1 and Column 2. The information from Columns 11, 12, 13 was encoded following the Column 10 information, Place of Birth. The encoding is: M, for married within the year, S, for attending school within the year, and I, for illiterate for a check in Column 13 for persons over 20 who could not read or write. The information from Column 14 is added, as is, to the person's line. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - The information from the microfilm for the 1860 Census for Lauderdale County consists of 125 pages. There were 861 Family Units in Lauderdale County ==================================== COUNTS ==================================== Number of White Males 2776 Number of White Females 2432 Number of Mulatto Males 2 Number of Mulatto Females 0 Number of Black Males 12 Number of Black Females 16 Number of Students 818 Number of Illiterates 314 Number of Married 38 in the last year Number of sets of twins 8 The enumerator was Jas. L. Green at P049-37 ==================================== NOTES from the Transcribers ==================================== This is one of the most interesting counties we have transcribed. It is the first one we have done for west Tennessee. It is obviously a plantation economy. With the number of overseers listed, it had a large slave population. The large Personal dollar amounts also reflects this. It is by far, the most affluent county we have done. Also of interest is the number of Wood Choppers. Twenty Two. The land was heavily forested, and so a big operation was needed for clearing the land for cotton growing. Also we were struck with the number of people that had emigrated from the Carolinas ==================================== PLACES OF BIRTH ==================================== Tennessee 3402 North Carolina 373 Virginia 255 South Carolina 215 Kentucky 102 Arkansas 56 Mississippi 56 Alabama 46 Indiana 46 Pennsylvania 18 New York 18 Georgia 14 Germany 11 Illinois 9 England 4 Missouri 4 Louisana 4 Canada 3 Maine 2 Maryland 1 Vermont 1 Ireland 1 ==================================== OCCUPATIONS Alphabetically ==================================== Architect 1 Bapt Min 4 Beggar 1 Black Smith 3 Boot Maker 1 Brick Mason 3 clerk 7 Cabinent Maker 2 Carpenter 18 Chair Maker 1 Constable 1 Engineer 1 Episcopal Min 1 Farm Hand 22 Farmer 694 Gentleman 1 Grocer 5 Gun Smith 1 Jeweler 1 Laborer 70 Lawyer 4 Machinist 5 Mechanic 2 Merchant 15 Meth Min 1 Miller 2 overseer 30 Painter 2 Physician 18 sheriff 1 Saddler 2 Seamstress 2 Shoe Maker 1 Tailor 2 Tax Collector 1 Taylor 3 Tayloress 1 Teacher 9 Teamster 1 Waggon Maker 2 Wagon Maker 1 Watch Maker 1 Weaver 1 Wheel Wright 1 Wood Chopper 22 ==================================== OCCUPATIONS by frequency ==================================== Farmer 694 Laborer 70 overseer 30 Farm Hand 22 Wood Chopper 22 Carpenter 18 Physician 18 Merchant 15 Teacher 9 clerk 7 Machinist 5 Grocer 5 Bapt Min 4 Lawyer 4 Black Smith 3 Brick Mason 3 Taylor 3 Cabinent Maker 2 Mechanic 2 Miller 2 Painter 2 Seamstress 2 Waggon Maker 2 Architect 1 Beggar 1 Boot Maker 1 Chair Maker 1 Constable 1 Engineer 1 Episcopal Min 1 Gentleman 1 Gun Smith 1 Jeweler 1 Meth Min 1 sheriff 1 Saddler 2 Shoe Maker 1 Tailor 2 Tax Collector 1 Tayloress 1 Teamster 1 Wagon Maker 1 Watch Maker 1 Weaver 1 Wheel Wright 1 ==================================== INFIRMITIES ==================================== blind 1 dumb 1 idiot 4 insane 2 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - HISTORY of LAUDERDALE COUNTY LAUDERDALE COUNTY, TN - MISCELLANEOUS - Goodspeed's Lauderdale County History ==================================================================== USGENWEB NOTICE: In keeping with our policy of providing free information on the Internet, data may be used by non-commercial entities, as long as this message remains on all copied material. These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or for presentation by other persons or organizations. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material for purposes other than stated above must obtain the written consent of the file contributor. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store the file permanently for free access. This file was contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by: Betty Casey betty.casey@worldnet.att.net ==================================================================== Lauderdale County History (Goodspeed Publishing Co., 1887) The eastern portion of Lauderdale is on the plateau of West Tennessee and the western in the Mississippi Bottoms. The highlands of the plateau run in a general northeast and southwest direction through the county, and are cut up by numerous streams, and in some parts are quite hilly. The surface of the bottoms is low and flat, and is of recent formation. Upward of 80,000 acres of land are embraced in the bottoms of the county, which, when entirely reclaimed from overflow, will furnish as rich agricultural land as can be found anywhere. The surface of the highlands is underlaid by bluff loam or loess. On the steep slopes of the bluffs the gravel and sand of the orange sand formation crops out from under the loess. Several beds of lignite are also met with. On Coal Creek are found outcroppings of coal of an inferior quality. The soil of the bottoms is a dark, rich, alluvial loam, very productive, the depth being from then to twenty feet, while the soil of the uplands is of a mulatto color, with a clay foundation, and has an average depth of between nine and ten inches. The best corn, wheat, oats, tobacco and all the grasses and fruits grow well in the county, the cotton being of an excellent quality. Fine poplar, oak, hickory, maple, gum and chestnut timber grow in abundance in the forests. The Mississippi River washes the entire western border of the county. Forked Deer River enters the county from Haywood at a point where the three counties of Lauderdale, Crockett and Dyer come together, and running first in a northwest direction, curves to the south and enters Obion County, and Hatchie River enters the county from Tipton, and forms the southern boundary line. The creeks of the county are Cane, emptying into Hatchie River; Knob, emptying into the Mississippi; Cold Creek, emptying into the Mississippi; Mill and Tisdale emptying into Forked Deer; Lagoon, Williams and Fisher emptying into Hatchie, and Goodwin emptying into Cane Creek. Originally forked Deer River forked in the Seventh District, one fork emptying into the Mississippi above Island No. 26, the other emptying opposite Island No. 27. The earthquakes of 1811-12 are supposed to have changed the mouth of the river to its present location. By the same disturbances numerous small lakes were formed in the county by the earth sinking, the larger of which are Big Lake, Chism Lake and Sunk Lake, all in the Fifth District. The channel of the Mississippi River is very changeable and treacherous, and at Plumb Point, in the county, the Mississippi River commission has for several years been at work improving the river. A force of between 400 and 500 laborers have been at work driving piles and weaving willow matrices on both sides of the river, confining the stream to a narrow channel in order to facilitate navigation. Work at present is suspended, but will be resumed in the spring, the necessary appropriation of money having been made by Congress. In 1785 Henry Rutherford, accompanied by two chain-bearers, visited what is now Lauderdale County and located a number of large tracts of land for North Carolinians. Selecting a sycamore tree as a point from which to start his surveys, he cut on it his initials H. R., and called it Key Corner. In his report he describes this point as a small sycamore standing on the south bank of Forked Deer River, at the first highland where a branch runs into said river. Key Corner is situated sixteen miles north from Ripley in the Eighth District, and retains the name given it by Rutherford. After the treaty with the Chickasaw Indians, and the lands of West Tennessee had been opened for settlement, Henry Rutherford, his brother John, brother- in-law Oliver Crenshaw, George Davis and Willis Chambers, came to Lauderdale County from Middle Tennessee, making the trip in keel-boats, and arrived with their slaves and household goods at Key Corner September 1, 1819. Their families followed later in the fall. The Rutherfords and Crenshaw burned away the trees and cane, erected log cabins, and completed preparations for a permanent home, while Davis and Chambers settled only temporarily, and two years later moved to what afterward became Dyer County, and settled about four and one-half miles east of where the town of Dyersburg now stands. Benjamin Porter and family, natives of Virginia, moved from Middle Tennessee in the fall of the same year, coming by land, crossing the Tennessee River at Reynoldsburg, and reached Key Corner February 1, 1820. The following April Mr. Porter cleared a tract of land in the Key Corner neighborhood, one and a half miles west from the present village of Double Bridges, fifteen miles northeast from Ripley, and in this house, still standing, was born June 12, 1820, Benjamin Porter, Jr., the first white child born in Lauderdale County. Mr. Porter is still living at the old homestead. Probably the next settlement in the county was made in the neighborhood of Fulton by Samuel Givens and others in 1825-26, and the next one in the Durhamville neighborhood in 1826- 27, by the Durhams, Turners, Neiswongers, Rices, Chambers and Taylors, and at about the same time Robert C. Campbell settled near Ashport on the Mississippi; Jacob Boyler, settled near Ripley; John Flippin, eleven miles north of Ripley; Hugh Dunlap, near Double Bridges; James Sherman, on Hatchie River, and Stephen Blackwell, near Hurricane Hill. Other early settlers were Joseph Wardlaw, Benjamin Jordan, James Blair, John Kenley, James Bethell, Patton Chambers, Samuel Strickland, James Saulsberry, L. H. Dunnaway, John and Zachariah Mitchell, John Flemming, James and John Russell, Leonard Dunnevant, Wm. Chambers, Zachariah Paine, John Brown, Beverly and Wm. Watson, Richard and Wm. Matthews, Samuel V. Gilliland, Wm. Braden, James Crook, Cary Alsobrook, Dickison Jennings, Jeremiah Cheek, Claibourn Ransville, James N. Buck, James P. and John N. Percell, Jordan C. Cowell, H. R. Chambers, Jesse Goodman, Jefferson Brown, John Byrn, Robert West, Joseph Taylor, John Rudder, W. H. Stone, Samuel C. Loveless, James Price, Claiborn Hutton, Thomas Fitzpatrick, R. Golden, J. P. Fuller, R. P. Reynolds, Wm. P. Gains, E. Stringer, Wm. McClelland and J. Robertson. Among those who received grants for land in the county were the following, together with the number of acres each received: Henry Rutherford, 500 acres; Griffith L. Rutherford, 3,000; Adam Boyd, 1,000; J. M. Alexander, 675; Jacob Byler, 100; Thomas Bond, 144; Green Baker, 200; John w. Campbell, 1,428; Charles Black, 100; Robert Campbell, 449; Wm. Conner, 449; James W. Reynolds, 140; Christopher Watson, 100; Robert Maxwell, 100; Wm. Strain, 107; W. W. Lea, 200; Samuel Lancaster, 210; James A. Lackey, 101; J. C. McLemore, 1,316; Isaac Moore, 153; Drury Massie, 113, and John C. Nevils, 154. The pioneers found the country entirely covered with high cane and thick timber, which were infested with all kinds of animals, and even at the present day the canebrakes and forests in the Mississippi Bottoms abound with wolves, wild-cats, deer, and other game, and an occasional panther and bear are killed. The first mill was a tub water-mill, on Mill Creek, near Double Bridges, built in 1826, by Benj. Porter, and owned by Griffith L. Rutherford. Both wheat and corn were ground. The next mill was put up by Benj. Jordan on the creek by that name, eighteen miles northeast of Ripley, in 1828, and was similar to Rutherford's mill. The next was owned by Wm. Munn, and was built on Tidwell Creek, in 1831-31, and Robert Connor built the next one in 1835, on Currin Creek. Other similar early mills were those of J. L. Green, on Cane Creek; Joseph Wardlow, on Cole Creek; and George Chipman, on Cane Creek. The first steam-mill was built by Samuel Lusk, in 1840-41, and was located in the Sixth District, and the second one by A. G. Bragg, in 1851, at the mouth of Cole Creek, on the Mississippi River, near Fort Pillow. The first cotton-gin, horse-power, was erected in 1828 at Key Corner, by John Jordan and W. P. Chambers; the next in 1832-33, by Henry and James Crawford, near the above place, and the two next by Joseph Wardlaw and Thomas Durham, in 1833-34, in the Durhamville neighborhood. The mills and gins of any importance, all of which are steam power, are as follows: First District, B. S. Fisher's and D. M. R. Oldham's saw, grist and cotton-gins; Second District, J. C. Durham's saw mill, James Robertson's and Wm. Payne's saw-mills; J. T. Williams saw-mill, planing machine and gin, and Cobb Bros. saw-mill; A. Lea & Co.'s and W. S. Wright's gins; Fifth District, Green Curlin's gin and James Johnson's saw-mill and gin; Sixth District, Darnell & Son's and Morris Bros.' saw-mills; Seventh District, D. P. Shaffner's the Illinois Lumber Company's saw-mills; and Darnell & Son's saw and planing-mill; Eighth District, Pugh & Adams' saw, grist and planing mill, and B. G. Henning's saw and grist-mill and gin; Ninth District, O. J. Smith & Co.'s saw-mill and gin, and the St. Louis Lumber Company's saw-mill; Tenth district, Coleman & Barfield's grist-mill; Eleventh District, J. T. Williams' saw-mill, Williams & Stewart's saw-mill and gin, H. H. Lewis' saw and grist mill and gin, and Mrs. L. O. Jenkins' gin; Twelth District, Hill & Son's saw and grist-mill and gin, Baur Bros.', James M. Young's, Wesley Sawyer's and J. H. Farmer's saw mills. The General Assembly passed an act, on November 24 1835, authorizing the erection of a new county between Hatchie and Forked Deer Rivers, and west of Haywood County, in West Tennessee, to be known as Lauderdale, in honor of Col. James Lauderdale, who fell at the battle of New Orleans, and in May, 1836, the county was established, the territory being taken from the counties of Haywood, Tipton and Dyer. The act provided for the appointment of Blackmore Coleman, David hay, Nicholas Perkins, Samuel Owen and Howell Taylor, all of Haywood, as commissioners to select a location for a county seat, which was to be named Ripley, in honor of Gen. Ripley, of the war of 1812, and designated the house of Samuel Lusk, who lived three miles north of the present county seat, as the place of holding the initial sessions of courts, from which place they were to adjourn to any other place deemed suitable and expedient, and the county court, upon its organization, was directed to appoint five commissioners to lay off the county seat into town lots, sell the same, and erect the necessary public buildings. John R. Howard, of Henry County, was selected to survey the boundary lines of the county. Another act was passed by the General Assembly, in 1870, taking from Haywood county a tract containing about fifteen square miles, and adding the same to Lauderdale and in 1878, by another act, Island No. 34, known as Miller's Island in the Mississippi, was added to the county. the boundary of the county is as follows: North, Forked Deer River; east, Haywood and Crockett Counties; south, Hatchie River; west, Mississippi River, and has an area of about 512 square miles. Desiring to annex themselves to Dyer County, for convenience in reaching the county seat, the citizens of Lauderdale living in the extreme northern portion of the county, in what is known as the Mill Creek District, petitioned the Legislature, and secured the passage of an act to that effect, in 1877, the act providing the change did not reduce Lauderdale below its constitutional number of square miles. A survey of the county was made by order of the chancery court of Lauderdale, in which court a suit of injunction has been instituted, and the survey demonstrating to the court that the county would be reduced below 500 square miles, a decree of perpetual injunction was issued. In June, 1836, the county court appointed Griffith Rutherford, Hiram Kellar, Henry Crawford, Robert Campbell and Rezin Byrn commissioners, to lay off the county seat, sell the town lots and erect a temporary court house and jail. The town was promptly laid off, and the lots sold at public sale in the following July. The commissioners at once contracted for the erection of a log court house, the plans and specification of which called for a building of good, hewed, yellow poplar logs, 22x26 feet in length, 17 feet high, with two doors and windows. The house was completed the following October and stood in the extreme northwest corner of the town, on the Ashport and Ripley road. In 1844 a second court house was erected on the public square. It was of frame, one and a half stories high, and cost about $4,000. This house stood until its destruction by fire in 1869, the fire being caused by a defective flue. In 1870 the present brick court house was completed at a cost of about $20,000. The building is of brick, two-story, with three entrances. The first floor is divided into three halls, opening into which are six offices, while on the second floor is the court room. The building stands in the center of an extensive square or yard. A log jail was also erected by the commissioners in 1837, which stood on the west side of Main Street, at its northern terminus. It served until its destruction by fire, in 1842. The following year, a one-story brick jail was erected, and in 1873 the present substantial brick jail was erected costing about $12,000. The poor commissioners obtained a grant for 77 acres of land in the Sixth District, in 1847, and upon it erected a log asylum for the poor of the county. In 1849 the land was sold and 105 acres purchased in the Second District, and the asylum removed; and at present the asylum consists of several houses, and is situated on a tract of 100 acres, six and one-half miles west of Ripley, in the Eleventh District. The Ashport Turnpike Company, of Lauderdale County, was incorporated by the General Assembly in 1835. Wm. Armour, John W. Campbell, Wm. Connor, James Hubbard, Harrod J. Anderson, Ebenezer Young and Robert C. Campbell, were appointed commissioners to open books and receive subscriptions for stock. The capital stock was fixed at $20,000 in shares of $100 each, and upon half of that amount being subscribed, the company was authorized to begin work. Considerable work in the nature of causeways and levees was accomplished by the company, about $4,000 of State money and as much of the stockholders' being expended, when the organization and work was abandoned. The company was rechartered again in 1856, but not organized. The only railroad which passes through the county, is the Chesapeake & Ohio, or Newport News & Mississippi Valley, which was completed in July, 1881. In 1870 the county voted $150,000 aid to this road, then only proposed. For payment of this sum, a tax of $1.25 on the $100 worth of property was assessed in 1874; in 1882, $1.25; in 1883, $1.25; in 1884, $1.50; in 1885, $1, and in 1886, 80 cents. In 1873 the number of acres of land assessed for taxation in the county was 272,445, the value of which was $2,442,623, and the total valuation fo taxable property was $2,829,158; in 1885 the number of acres assessed was 262,400, walued at $1,406,464, and the total valuation of taxable property was $1,733,809. In 1840 the population of the county was 3,435; in 1850, 5,160; in 1860, 7,559; in 1870, 10,835; in 1880, 14,918; and in 1886, 19,290. The voting population in 1871, was 2,587, and at the August election, 1886, it was 3,214, of which the Democratic party had a majority of 604. In 1870 the cereal products of the county were wheat, 18,662 bushels; rye, 100 bushels; corn, 443,809 bushels; oats, 5,465 bushels; cotton, 6,337 bales. In 1885 they were wheat, 24,953 bushels; rye, 55 bushels; corn, 580,797 bushels; oats, 17, 398 bushels; cotton, about 15,000 bales. In 1870, the livestock of the county was as follows: Horses and mules, 3,115 head; cattle, 3,404 head; sheep, 3,118 head; hogs, 22,086 head. In 1885 the live stock amounted to 4,079 head of horses and mules; cattle, 12,324 head; sheep, 2,682 head, and hogs, 26,916 head. County court. Robert C. Campbell and Benj. F. Jordan, acting justices for Tipton County, met at the house of Samuel Lusk on the first Monday in May, 1836, and organized the county court of Lauderdale. The following commissioned justices were present, and producing their commissions were administered the oath of office: Jeremiah Pinick, Milton G. Turner, John H. Maxwell, Able H. Pope, Wm. Strain, Elijah B. Foster, Henry Critchfield, Christopher G. Litsworth, Henry R. Crawford and Henry R. Chambers. The court was organized by the election of Robert Campbell as chairman. The county officers elected on the first Saturday of the preceeding March then came forward, were sworn into office, gave bond, and entered upon the discharge of their duties. The court then divided the county into eight districts, and appointed revenue commissioners for each. There are now thirteen districts, one of which, the thirteenth is an island in the Mississippi. The commissioners for the town of Ripley were then appointed and qualified, after which the court adjourned until the following June. The June term of the court was held at Samuel Lusk's, and the July and September terms at the house of Col. Jacob Byler, who lived three miles northeast of Ripley, while the October term was held in the log court house at Ripley. The following is a complete list of the county officers, with dates of service: County clerks: Wm. Carrigan, May to June, 1836; Griffith L. Rutherford, 1836- 40; Isaac M. Steel, 1840-44; L. M. Campbell, 1844-48; Isaac M. Steele, 1848- 52; Jo. C. Marley, 1852-60; George Johnston, 1860-70; J. H. Wardlaw, 1870-78; H. T. Hanks, 1878-82; W. H. Jackson, 1882-86, and present incumbent. Circuit Clerks: David Gilliland, 1836-44; Isaac M. Steele, 1844-48; Wm. C. Fain, 1848-60; J. N. Wardlaw, 1865-66; J. A. Wardlaw, 1866-67; J. N. Wardlaw, 1867-70; A. B. Hearring, 1870-78; B. C. Durham, 1878; and present incumbent. Sheriffs: Guy Smith, 1836-38; John C. Barnes, 1838-40; Griffith L. Rutherford, 1840-46; Ivey Chandler, 1846-52; Wm. G. McClelland, 1852-56; Ivey Chandler, 1856-60; Ira G. Barfield, 1860-62; J. H. Wardlaw, 1865-70; C. C. Griggs, 1870- 73, when he was removed from office, and was succeeded by S. D. Alsobook, the coroner. Mr. Alsobrook served about one month and was killed by a tramp while making an arrest, when the court appointed Fredrick Barfield, who filled out the unexpired term and was elected to the office in 1874, but died before his term expired, and W. J. Woodard was appointed to fill the vacancy and served until 1876. T. D. Cobb, 1876-80; Andrew Crockett, 1880-86; W. R. Miller, present incumbent. Registers: Thomas D. Fisher, 1836-38; James Price, 1838-45; James A. Lackey, 1845-57; John Sutherland, 1857-58; Benjamin F. Lackey, 1858-62; Daniel McLeod, 1862-65; J. D. Baxter, 1865-86, and present incumbent. Trustees: Wm. T. Moorehead, 1836-39; John H. Maxwell, 1839-40; J. M. C. Robertson, 1840-42; Gilford Jones, 1842-46; A. Phillips, 1846-52; Wm. Lunsford, 1852-54; J. N. Wardlaw, 1854-60; D. P. Steele, 1860-62; John E. Gray, 1862-66; James A. Lackey, 1866-70; Frederick Barfield, 1870-72; A. H. Young, 1872-74; Wm. Boydsdon, 1874-78; J. M. Jenkins, 1878-86; Andrew Crockett, present incumbent. Chairmen and Judges of County Court. -- Chairmen: R. C. Campbell, 1836-37; Able H. Pope, 1837-38; Samuel V. Gilliland, 1838-39; Stith Richardson, 1839- 40; J. H. Maxwell, 1840-41; J. L. Green, 1841-42; J. H. Maxwell, 1842-43; J. L. Green, 1843-45; I. M. Steele, 1845; John J. Nelson, 1845-51; James A. Lackey, 1851-54; P. T. Glass, 1854-56; Robert H. Oldham, 1856. The office was changed to that of county judge in 1856, and in July of that year, James L. Green was elected as such, and served until 1858; Frederick Barfield, 1858-60; W. A. Partee, 1860-61, S. A. Thompson, 1861-68. In 1868 the office was changed back to that of chairman, and Thompson was elected and served until 1874; I. S. Kellar, 1874-75; J. L. Hearring, 1875-76; P. T. Glass, 1876-77; T. Bun Carson, 1877-82; Blair Pierson, 1882-86, and present incumbent. Circuit court. The first session of the Lauderdale Circuit Court convened at the house of Jacob Byler, three miles northeast from Ripley, on the third Monday in June, 1836, Judge Austin Miller, of Hardeman County, presiding in interchange with John Read, the regular judge. The second, or October term, was held in the new log court house, at Ripley. Below is given a list of the officers of the court from 1836 to 1886: Judges: John Read, 1836-58; Samuel Williams, 1858-61; Isaac Sampson, 1865-67; Wm. P. Bond, 1867-70; Thomas J. Flippin, 1870-86, and present incumbent. Attorney-generals: Alexander Bradford, 1836-38; Wm. B. Miller, 1838-40; Joseph H. Talbott, 1840-46; T. P. Scurlock, 1846-58; Robt. P. Caldwell, 1858-61; Hardin J. Turner, 1865-67, W. T. Talley, 1867-70; John J. Dupuy, 1870-86; S. L. Cockroft, present incumbent. Chancery court. On January 8, 1856, the first session of the Lauderdale Chancery Court convened at the court house in Ripley. The officers of this court have been as follows: Chancellors: Issac D. Williams, 1856-59; John Somers, 1859-60; Wm. M. Smith, 1860-61; J. W. Harris, 1865-70; James Fentriss, 1870-72; Henry J. Livingston, 1872-86; John Somers, present. Clerk and masters: Henry H. Richardson, 1856-59; Stephen H. Steele, 1859-65; T. B. Carson, 1865-70; J. N. Wardlaw, 1870-86 and present. Bar: The local bar of Lauderdale includes the names of Lysander Campbell, the first practicing attorney; Joseph Perkins, the second; Isaac M. Steele, the first attorney licensed by the court; H. H. Richardson, John Sutherland, Jo. C. Marley, Wm. Wilkerson, F. M. Wilkinson, John F. Pierson, Joseph S. Williams, P. N. Connor, C. H. Connor, T. B. Carson and Wm. D. Steele. The present bar is as follows: Isaac M. Steele, Jo. C. Marley, Thomas Steele, W. E. Lynn, James Oldham, G. C. Porter and R. W. Haywood. Under the militia laws Lauderdale maintained a regiment of militia belonging to the brigade, composed of the militia of the counties of Haywood, Lauderdale and Tipton, of which Wm. H. Lobing, of Haywood, and Wm. Connor and L. M. Campbell, of Lauderdale, succeeded each other as brigadier-generals. The Lauderdale regiment was divided into battalions, and two musters were held annually at the muster ground near Ripley, the regimental muster occurring in the fall, and the battalion in the spring. Upon the second call for volunteers to serve in the war of the United States with Mexico, a company was organized jointly by the counties of Lauderdale and Tipton, each furnishing about thirty-five men. They were mustered into service as Company G, at Memphis, in July, 1847, and placed in the Fourth Regiment of Tennessee Volunteer Infantry, commanded by Col. Waterhouse, of Middle Tennessee. The officers of Company G were Henry Travis, of Tipton, Captain; Hugh Read, of Lauderdale, first lieutenant; Thomas Epperson of Tipton, second lieutenant; James Lake, of Lauderdale, third Lieutenant. At the close of the year for which they volunteered, the survivors, about half the original number, returned to Memphis and were mustered out. Among the member of the Lauderdale half of the company were J. O. Weathers, James and George Lake, John Bragg, Matthew Porter, James Buchanan, Bolan Fields, Wm. Hinson, Needham Barfield, Robert Woods, David Friend, Rice Kenley, Marion Walker, A. H. Dunnevant, John Conner, Jacob Byler, A. W. Thompson, John Whitson and J. H. Wardlaw; the last six are still living. Three companies, two of foot and one of mounted infantry, were organized in Lauderdale County during the civil war. Company G, of the Fourth Regiment of Tennessee Infantry, was organized at Ripley April 15, 1861, of which John Southerland was elected captain; H. C. Pillow, first lieutenant; W. W. Wheeler, second lieutenant, and M. L. Hearn, third lieutenant. The company went into drill camp at Germantown, Tenn., where they were mustered into service and joined the regiment. After the battle of Shiloh the company was reorganized, W. W. Wheeler being elected captain; John Richardson , first lieutenant; A. J. Meadows, second lieutenant, and Charles McCormick, third lieutenant. The company participated in all the campaigns in which the regiment was engaged, and after the final surrender, in 1865, the survivors, between fifteen and twenty in number, returned home. Company K, Ninth Regiment of Tennessee Infantry, was organized at Ripley June 5, 1861, by the election of Jo. C. Marley as captain; H. H. Richardson, first lieutenant; Peter Fitzpatrick, second lieutenant, and went into drill camp at the Jackson fair grounds, where they were mustered into service. The regiment was joined at Union City. At Corinth the company was reorganized, when P. J. Fitzpatrick was elected captain; J. B. Carson, first lieutenant; Frank Dunham, second lieutenant, and P. N. Connor, third lieutenant. Out of the original 120 men, only two -- Arch Young and J. D. Jordan -- were at the final surrender at Greensboro, N.C., April 26, 1865. At about the time of the organization of Company K, a portion of a company of mounted infantry was organized at Ripley, by the election of C. H. Connor as captain; Wm. Boydstun, first lieutenant; James Young, second lieutenant, and T. B. Carson, third lieutenant. Going into camp at Camp Beauregard, in Graves County, KY, the company was mustered into service, and joined Maj. Henry C. King's battalion of mounted infantry, of which Dr. B. F. Lackey, of Ripley, was appointed surgeon. In March, 1862, Maj. King was superseded in command of the battalion by Col. Thomas Claibourn. The battalion at that time numbered eleven companies, and was given the name of the First Confederate Regiment of Tennessee Mounted Infantry. The celebrated Confederate Fort Pillow, on the Mississippi River, is in Lauderdale County. Fort Pillow was built in 1861 by the State of Tennessee, and so fortified that Federal gunboats were unable to pass it. The fort was abandoned the last of May, 1862, and was soon afterward occupied by the Federals. The line of works, as constructed by the Confederates, was on an extensive scale. The parapets of the inner works were about eight feet high, with a ditch six feet deep and twelve feet wide. When occupied by the Federals the armament consisted of two ten-inch rifled Parrott guns, two twelve-pound howitzers, and two six-pound rifled field pieces, and the garrison of 295 white and 262 colored troops, under command of Maj. Booth. Before dawn, on April 12, 1864, Gen. Forrest, with about 3,500 men, assaulted the fort and captured it during the day. Maj. Booth was killed, seven officers and 219 men were captured, thirty-four white and twenty-seven colored Federals were received at the hospitals at Mound City, and the balance of the 557 soldiers, with the exception of the few who escaped, were killed in the battle, smothered in the mud of Cole Creek, or drowned in the back water. During the occupancy of Fort Pillow by the Federals, Lauderdale County was overrun by raiding parties, and, occasionally, during the war, bodies of Confederates would visit the county. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ==================================== More HISTORY from the WEB ==================================== Lauderdale County was formed in 1835 from Haywood, Dyer and Tipton counties. The county seat is Ripley. The people who lived in the upper part of Tipton County and the lower part of Dyer were cut off from the two county seats by considerable rivers, the Hatchie and the Forked Deer, respectively. These streams had wide bottoms and in bad weather convenient access was denied. Those rivers were, by nature, county boundaries. Accordingly, Lauderdale County was created by the Legislature on Nov. 24th, 1835, from parts of Tipton, Dyer and Haywood Counties, and named in honor of and to perpetuate the memory of Col. James Lauderdale, who fell in one of the battles before New Orleans, on the night of Dec. 23rd, 1814. As is elsewhere shown Henry Rutherford in 1785, fixed his Key Corner at the first high ground along the south side of the Forked Deer River, the Cole Creek Bluff. In the spring of 1819 Rutherford with his brothers, Benjamin Porter and one Crenshaw, returned to Key Corner and established a settlement, bringing with them live-stock, poultry, farming implements and a good supply of provisions. They made the trip overland to Reynoldsburg on the Tennessee River, where they took the flat-boats for the remainder of the journey. Rutherford settled on a tract he had entered a generation before, about two miles east of Key Corner. Benjamin Porter erected a dwelling at Porter's Gap nearby, where his son, Benjamin Jr., was born June 12, 1820, the first white male child born in the county. Benjamin Porter, Jr. lived all his life in the house in which he was born, and died a very old age. He had the unusual experience of having been a resident of three different counties without a removal. It is related of him that he was a celebrated bear hunter, having killed, by actual count, over one hundred bears, and on one day four full-grown panthers, which averaged nine and one-half feet in length. The first grist mill in the limits of Lauderdale was built at Key Corner in 1826 for Griffith Rutherford, a son of Henry. The first cotton gin was built at the same place in 1827 by John Jordan and Williams Chambers. The first sermon perched was in the same settlement by a Baptist minister, Mr. Lanier, in 1821. The same neighborhood received an accession from Knox County in John Flippen and his family in 1822. So promising was the neighborhood that in 1821 Colonel Wm. Polk, Judge A. D. Murphey, of North Carolina, and Herndon Haralson formulated a plan to establish a town there. The scheme of a town on the Bluff of the Mississippi appears to me to be idle in the extreme, when the Bluff on Forked Deer is so near, and the distance to Orleans less down the Forked Deer from the Bluff than down the Mississippi from the other. Would it not be well to direct Capt. Haralson to lay out the town immediately? We could instruct Mr. (Samuel) Dickens to make a sale of some lots this fall. While Key Corner was the principal settlement in the county, it was not the first, since a man named Vincent settled on the site of Fulton in 1819, and upon the authority of Col. G. J. Hutcheson, of Lauderdale, his grandfather, Samuel Andrew Given, born in North Carolina in 1771, emigrated prior to 1818 to the West, and traveling past the later site of Jackson, they went by a rude boat down the Forked Deer to the Mississippi, thence to the site of Fulton, near which place they obtained from the Chickasaw Indians a tract of land and settled. In 1818, a daughter was born to Samuel A. Given, who was the first white child born in the country. The tradition is that obtained from the Indians was at the time in part a cleared field. This may have been the site of the village of the Natchez Indians shown upon James Adair's map. The first settler in the southern section of Lauderdale in the Big Hatchie country was the father of Joseph S. Williams, author of Old Times in West Tennessee. The oldest town, Fulton, was laid out in 1827 by Judge James Trimble, of Nashville, and for a time flourished. It stood near the site of Fort Pillow, of the Civil War. Col. Thomas Durham located three miles north of the Williams settlement in 1826, and he established there a town in 1829 bearing the name of Durhamville. About the same time Captain Stephen Childress located six miles below, where he opened a large plantation. His wife was the sister of Thomas H. Benton and Jesse Benton, Jr. Later prominent settlers were Joseph Wardlaw and Larkin Gaines, and his sons Pendleton, Powell, and Abner. The first church in the county was Turner's Chapel, established near Durhamville in 1829, with William Taylor as pastor, though without doubt religious services were held much earlier and in probability congregations formed but without regular pastors. The first school was taught by Edith Kenley in her home two and a half miles north of Double Bridges. The first newspaper was the Ripley Gazette, established about 1860 by Mr. Youngblood. General William Conner and others promoted the town of Ashport on the Mississippi, and in 1835 the Ashport Turnpike Company was chartered. In the early forties it constructed a high and wide levee on the south side of Big Open Lake. Lauderdale County has in its borders several small lakes, the largest of which is Big Open Lake, five miles east of Ashport, which, with its arms, covers seven or eight thousand acres of land. Other lakes are Chisholm, Crutcher, Sunk and other smaller lakes. Some of these lakes certainly ante-dated the earthquakes of 1811-1812, since Chisholm Lake was in existence when Henry Rutherford ascended the Forked Deer in 1785. Ripley After the creation of Lauderdale County commissioners were appointed to select a county seat. On Feb. 24, 1836, Howell Taylor, Nicholas T. Perkins & David Hay as commissioners, purchased from Thomas Brown about sixty-two acres of land on which the town of Ripley was laid out by Abel E. Pope. The town received its name from that of General E. Ripley, of the War of 1812. The site was selected here, also, on account of a large spring, in a ravine just north of the public square. In the same year commissioners were appointed, including Griffith L. Rutherford, to sell town lots; and in the fall of 1836 a log court house was erected with the proceeds, which served through our period. The first court had been organized at the home of Samuel Lusk, three miles north of the site, in June, 1836. The first mercantile business in Ripley was conducted by J. N. Smith in a log cabin. The Baptist's were in the first denomination to organize a church in the town, with the Rev. Joseph H. Borum as first pastor. Statistics on Lauderdale County 1921 1920, Population: 21,494# 1921, Assessed Value of Taxable Property: $15,266,680 Area: 450 Square Miles Number of Farms: 3,406# Railway Mileage: 26# Riply, the county seat, on the Illinois Central Railroad, has the population of 2,070. Halls and Henning are other towns in the county. Bounded on the West by the Mississippi River and drained by smaller streams. Surface nearly level, with large good growth of timber. Soil fertile, and the county is a large producer of cotton. Other staple products are corn, fruit, and live stock. ================================================================================== - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - THE STORY TELLERS We are the chosen. My feelings are, in each family there is one who seems called to find the ancestors. To put flesh on their bones and make them live again, to tell the family story and to feel that somehow they know, and approve. To me, doing genealogy is not a cold gathering of facts but, instead, breathing life into all who have gone before. We are the story tellers of the tribe. All tribes have one. We have been called as it were, by our genes. Those who have gone before cry out to us: Tell our story. So, we do. In finding them, we somehow find ourselves. How many graves have I stood before now and cried? I have lost count. How many times have I told the ancestors you have a wonderful family you would be proud of us? How many times have I walked up to a grave and felt somehow there was love there for me? I cannot say. It goes beyond just documenting facts. It goes to who am I and why do I do the things I do? It goes to seeing a cemetery about to be lost forever to weeds and indifference and saying I can't let this happen. The bones here are bones of my bone and flesh of my flesh. It goes to doing something about it. It goes to pride in what our ancestors were able to accomplish. How they contributed to what we are today. It goes to respecting their hardships and losses, their never giving in or giving up, their resoluteness to go on and build a life for their family. It goes to deep pride that they fought to make and keep us a Nation. It goes to a deep and immense understanding that they were doing it for us. That we might be born who we are. That we might remember them. So we do. With love and caring and scribing each fact of their existence, because we are them and they are us. So, as a scribe called, I tell the story of my family. It is up to that one called in the next generation to answer the call and take their place in the long line of family storytellers. That, is why I do my family genealogy, and that is what calls those young and old to step up and put flesh on the bones. Author unknown - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - The 1860 Census or Lots of Questions Answered The 1860 Census lists a dwelling number and family number and each sheet lists the county as well as town and post office name. Questions answered on the 1860 census include, name, age and sex of each individual; color, occupation, value of real and personal property; birthplace, whether married within the year (m.y.), whether attended school, can read or write and the date of the enumeration. Also included are boxes to indicate if an individual was a pauper or convict. Here is an article published in 1859 about the upcoming 1860 census: Friday September 23, 1859 Weekly Star - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - THE NEXT CENSUS The year 1860 is the time appointed for taking the eighth census of the United States. From having been originally a simple enumeration's of persons, this Federal census has grown to be a decennial register of the number of inhabitants and their occupation, religious denominations & c, and also a statement of the commerce, manufacturers, arts and industry, and the wealth of the nation. The collection of these statistics has hitherto been attended with immense labor and difficulty. The inquiries of the census takers have not only been baffled by the stupidity and perverseness and ignorance of many to whom they were addressed; but it has been impossible to obtain accurate information upon important subjects because the parties; who alone are presumed capable of imparting it, have never taken the trouble to inform themselves. It often occurs that, in the absence of the head of a family no other member of it is able to give the information required; for instance as to the ages of the different members or it, or the amount of land in cultivation, the number of negroes and their ages, the quantity and value of horses, mules and oxen, etc., or of farming implements or farm products. In town and country similar difficulties are continually met with by the marshals appointed to collect these statistics, and the census is consequently returned incomplete. It is probably that while care will be observed to prevent any frauds or excess in the publication of the next census, it will be ordered by Congress to be taken so as to include all the most important items of information in regard to the progress of our population and our country. In view of this contingency the Nashville News very sensibly suggest that each farmer, this fall , as he gathers his crops, shall keep something like an accurate account of the quality and value of the same; and if he will take the trouble to make out a statement of the names and ages of his family; the number and ages of his servants, the number and value of his horses and mules; the number of bales of cotton, barrels of corn, bushels of wheat, oats, rye, barley, potatoes, etc., and leave it in some place where any member of thefamily, who may be at home when the deputy marshal shall call, can readily get hold of it, it will save time to all concerned, and very greatly assist to make the census return perfect, complete and satisfactory. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -