Day Four: Williamson County

Last year on our summer vacation, we visited Anson, Texas, where my great-grandfather, Gilbert Nathaniel "N.G." Ferrell was elected sheriff in 1908 at the age of 48, three years after my grandmother, Ida Ferrell was born. N.G. died in Anson in 1939, but on that trip, we did not visit his grave or the grave of his wife, Sadie--also buried in Anson--who died in 1960..

N. G. and Sadie were themselves born in Illinois (Ferrell in Williamson County on February 20, 1860, and Sadie in 1868), and they were married in Hunt County (county seat: Greenville), Texas on February 16, 1888. They moved to Jones County (county seat: Anson) in 1890.

This year, we are visiting Williamson County, Illinois. N.G.'s grandfather William Ferrell, his grandmother, Jailey Susannah Barnes, and their son Ezra moved to Williamson County in 1839.

I convinced Emilio to go with me to the Williamson County Historical Society Museum, while the other Ruiz Benton children slept in and Mari read at the hotel.

Emilio intended to read on his phone while were there, but he was soon hooked, time passed quickly, and we were late getting back to the hotel.


Emilio and I didn't uncover much, if anything, new, though we did read several lawsuits brought by the Ferrell family and the Davis family against each other, mostly for trespassing (the Davis family won these court disputes). We also bought the Williamson County Centennial map (1839-1939) above, which shows the history of Williamson County from the time of the French occupation shortly after 1700 to the division of Franklin and Williamson Counties in 1839. The map includes the old French trails, the camps of the Indians, the trail that Revolutionary War general George Rogers Clark followed in 1778 on his way to capturing Kaskaskia from the British; the first European settlement (1810), the three blockhouses built in 1811 as a protection against the Indians, and the "nine prairies." The map also shows Tecumseh "and his  twelve warriors on their way south to enlist the Creek Indians in the War of 1812." Around the border of the map are "the names of the pioneers and the earliest known dates that they crossed the ferries at Shawneetown and Golconda."

Ezra

In 1827, Ezra--my grandmother's grandfather--was born in Tennessee in Smith County (county seat: Carthage--60 miles east of Nashville.

Ezra married Nancy Parks in Williamson County in September 1846 (he was 19: Nancy was 15), and in 1850, he was working as a farmer and living with Nancy, 20-month-old daughter Ruth, and their 11-month-old son John in Williamson County.

Ezra's younger brother Wyatt (b. 1829) served as a 1st sergeant in the 128th Illinois Infantry. I haven't seen a record of Ezra's service; by 1863, he had 8 children, the oldest being 16-year-old Ruth. 

William

William, Ezra's father, was himself born in Fairfax, Virginia in 1788. In 1790, 2 years after William was born, the Ferrells had moved 300 miles south to Wake County, North Carolina, where some of his siblings were born. Here, in 1810, William married a 19-year-old Wake County-native, Jaily Susannah Barnes.

In 1811, William and Jaily moved to Shelbyville,in Bedford County, Tennessee (60 miles southeast of Nashville). He enlisted in Colonel Coffee's regiment for the Creek War and fought under Andrew Jackson in that war and in the War of 1812, his military career ending at the Battle of New Orleans, in January 8, 1815.

The Creek War
After uniting the tribes of Ohio in an effort to keep American settlers out of Native American lands there, Shawnee leader Tecumseh came to Tukabatchee, Alabama to encourage the Creek the join his movement. The Great Comet of 1811 (visible from March through the end of the year) and the New Madrid (Missouri) earthquakes between December 1811 and February 1812 were taken by some as signs of the need to seize the moment.

The War began as a civil war between different Native American factions, but the U.S. became involved on August 30, 1813, when a force of about 700 Creeks armed by British in Pensacola (Florida) destroyed Fort Mims (Alabama), killing 250 defenders and taking 100 captives. The attack spread panic throughout the Southeastern frontier.

Tennessee Governor Willie Blount called out a force of 2,500 West Tennessee men under Colonel Andrew Jackson to "repel an approaching invasion ... and to afford aid and relief to ... Mississippi Territory." 200 Cherokee would fight alongside them.

According to the Encylopedia of Alabama, on November 3, Coffee's regiment--with an "overwhelming" advantage in numbers "attacked the Creek town of Tallushatchee, resulting in its complete destruction and the death of 186 Creeks, including women and children." Davy Crockett participated in this battle. On November 9, another decisive victory for Jackson's troops followed at Talladega.

General Coffee returned to Tennessee for remounts and wrote Jackson in December that his cavalry had deserted. When 900 raw recruits arrived  in January 1814, "Jackson was down to a cadre of 103 and Coffee, who had been 'abandoned by his men.'"  Jackson's men were "inexperienced, undisciplined, and insubordinate." Ultimately, Jackson ended the Red Stick Creek resistance after a decisive victory by this troops at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend on March 27, 1814.

As a result, the Creeks surrendered half of Alabama and part of southern Georgia to the U.S. government, even though many Creeks had fought alongside Jackson against the Red Stick Creeks.

Jackson then invaded Spanish Florida (without authorization from President Madison) and drove the British forces that had helped arm the Red Stick Creeks out of Pensacola on November 7-9, 1814. His troops defeated the British again at the Battle of New Orleans on January 8, 1815.

William 

After these Wars, William and Jaily  moved to Smith County, Tennessee (county seat: Carthage; 60 miles east of Nashville). In 1834, William was ordained a Baptist Minister, and in 1839, he moved from Tennessee to Williamson County and settled near Sarahsville (see map above). His 2 oldest sons Wilfred and Hezekiah came to Williamson County in 1835 and 1836. According to the History of the Baptists in Illinois, "The church to which [William's] sons belonged was divided, and they and fifteen others were excluded because they refused their consent to disfellowship those who favored missions. The Ferrells thereupon sent to Salem, Tennessee Association for a 'presbytery' to examine them and see if they were not 'in order' and adhering to the original practice of the churches. Three pastors were sent, of whom William Ferrell was one. They recognized the seventeen as a church, now known as Davis Prairie [see map above]. The elder Ferrell decided to make [Illinois] his home, and for twenty years he was one of [the state's] most efficient ministers."

In 1860, William was a 71-year-old farmer and miner (see the "Stone Coal Mine" in the map above), living alone with Jaily in Williamson County.  In the summer of 1865, he helped organize the Marion Baptist Church, which he served as an elder. He died two years later, in 1867, when his grandson N.G. was 7 years old.

Hezekiah

William's father, Hezekiah, wrote his last will and testament when he was in a "low state of health" on January 4, 1812 in Wake County (county seat: Raleigh), North Carolina. Seven children are mentioned in the will: James, Polly, Zephaniah, William, Lydia, John A., and Dent.

William inherited "one horse bridle and saddle, one Cow and calf, one sow and pigs, two head of sheep, one Feather bed bedstead and furniture, one pewter basin, one Dish, and six spoons and one hoe," an inheritance similar to that received by his siblings.