|
|
|
Sumner County, Tennessee Tennessee formed the western lands of North Carolina in the days before statehood. In the year 1772, Joseph Drake, Isaac Bledsoe, and Casper Mansker traveled through parts of Middle Tennessee and discovered three licks, which bore their names, that is: Bledsoe's Lick, Mansker's Lick, and Drake's Lick. News of the abundance of game and fertility of the soil traveled fast, and soon other families began to arrive. The population was sufficient by 1786 to establish a county, which was named after Colonel Jethro Sumner, an officer of the Revolution. Sumner County was created on November 17, 1786, from the eastern part of Davidson County and is the second-oldest county in Middle Tennessee. Between 1777 and 1788, six counties had been formed to give the people a political voice and some form of organized government. Three counties were in East Tennessee (Washington, Sullivan, and Greene), and three were in Middle Tennessee (Davidson, Sumner, and Tennessee). North Carolina finally ceded its western lands, the Tennessee country, to the federal government when it ratified the United States Constitution in 1789. Congress designated the area as the Territory of the United States, South of the River Ohio. It was also known as the Southwest Territory and was divided into three districts - two for East Tennessee and the Mero District on the Cumberland. In 1795, a territorial census showed enough population for statehood. Congress approved the admission of Tennessee on June 1, 1796. It became the sixteenth state of the Union. On October 26, 1799, Wilson and Smith Counties were carved from part of Sumner County. Macon and Trousdale Counties on the east were later formed from parts of old Sumner County. On November 6, 1804, an act was passed by the Legislature to provide a county seat for Sumner County. It was named Gallatin in honor of Albert Gallatin, the Secretary of the Treasury of the United States. As we are about to learn a lot of our ancestors ended up in the soon to be Sumner County in the later part of the 18th century and the early 19th century: the Latimers (descendants from the Denisons and the Brewsters of Mayflower fame), the Hamiltons, and the Brigances.
Jonathan LATIMER II was born in New London, Connecticut in 1724, and there married Lucretia GRISWOLD. They had 14 children, all born in New London. About 1790, the now Colonel Latimer (Jonathan Latimer II) determined to move his family from Connecticut to the new Kentucky Territory, later to become Tennessee. He was then an old man of sixty-six or sixty-seven years of age, but it is believed the move was decided upon in order to take advantage of the government’s offer of free land to those who had served in the Revolution. His children were grown; many of them married, at the time of the move from Connecticut. The journey was long and tiresome, made by ox-drawn Conestoga wagons over poor roads, which were often impassable. Wherever it was possible, use was made of the many streams in order to make the journey easier. They traveled into the Cumberland country which lay on both sides of the line between Tennessee and Kentucky; on the west the Tennessee River, with the Cumberland River running through it from the east to the west. The Latimers settled in Robertson County, about ten miles north of the Cumberland River and fifteen miles northeast of Nashville. In 1796, Tennessee became the 16th state and the area occupied by Jonathan’s descendants became Sumner County. In 1797 Colonel Latimer divided 690 acres of land on Station Camp Creek among his sons, Charles (189 acres), Robert (189 acres), and Griswold (157 acres) and the 3 orphans of his son Nathaniel (155 acres). In 1802 he wrote his will and on October 13, 1806 he died at the age of 82 years. The following is a transcript of his will:
Robert LATIMER, the eighth born of Jonathan Latimer’s 14 children, married Lucinda (nee: unknown), and their first child was a daughter, Ann LATIMER. She was known by her nickname “Fannie Latimer”, and she married William HAMILTON in Sumner County, Tennessee on August 14, 1806. Robert Latimer's will was written in Sumner County, Tennessee in 1811. This will spells his name as Latimon rather than Latimer. However, Robert signed it with his "X" so the spelling was apparently left to someone else. The text of his will follows:
Our first Hamilton ancestor to arrive into the area of Sumner County was Thomas HAMILTON I and his family around 1783. There are a lot of references to Thomas Hamiltons in the late 1700's in Sumner County, and we know that most of them are our Thomas Sr. and Jr. There was one other Thomas Hamilton born c: 1750 and his relationship is uncertain, and this Thomas fought in the American Revolution and it is doubtful that either of our Thomas Hamiltons did so. In the county records there are a number of instances where our Thomas Hamilton bought and sold land: on August 20, 1799, Thomas Hamilton, the elder, bought 640 acres of land on the south side of the Cumberland River, on the first small creek emptying into the River below the mouth of Goose Creek, for $600.00 from Robert Fenner of Halifax, North Carolina. (Deed book 2, pg. 516). On January 20, 1803, Thomas Hamilton I. conveyed 50 acres of land to his sons, Thomas Hamilton and Robert Hamilton, for love and gratitude. (Deed book 3, pg. 338). Thomas Hamilton Sr. died shortly thereafter. All of Thomas Hamilton I four children lived in Sumner County, and there their children, ten by James, eleven by Thomas II. and six by Robert were raised. All three of these men must have been restless, because they all moved on: James to Caroll County, Tennessee, Thomas Jr. to Gallatin County, Illinois, and Robert to Cass County, Texas. But while living in Sumner County, their kids met the Latimers who had arrived there from Connecticut. William HAMILTON was born in 1786 in what was then North Carolina, in the area that would become in 10 years Sumner County, Tennessee. In 1789, North Carolina ceded present day Tennessee to the United States and it became part of the Kentucky Territory. This is the same area that the aforementioned Latimers moved to around 1790. Here he met and married Jonathan Latimer’s granddaughter Ann on August 14, 1806, just 2 months before her grandfather died. The bride was 20 years old and the groom 19 at that time. William and Ann had 11 children in Sumner County, one of whom died in infancy. In about 1837 the whole family left for Arkansas.
|
