The YOUNG FAMILIES

Of EARLY GILES COUNTY

Tennessee

COMPILED By

          Flora EAST

          Jacqueline Hayle ELLIS

          Juanita ELLIS
          Bessie E KYLE
          Delpha J McKENZIE
          David L MOORE

          Virginia SHORT

          George M WORSHAM

          Gerald S YOUNG

          Geraldine YOUNG

          John E YOUNG

          Louise YOUNG

          Martha Ann YOUNG

          Neva Fern YOUNG

With Many Updates to 2011 from
the original 1986 Edition,
then more updates to 2013

ANCESTORS

              The limbs that move, the eyes that see,
              These are not entirely me;
                        Dead men and women help to shape
                        The mold which I may not escape.

              The words I speak, my written line,

              These are not uniquely mine,

                        For in my heart, and in my will,

                        Old ancestors are warring still.

              Celt, Norman, Saxon, all ye dead,

              From whose rich blood my veins are fed,

                        In aspect, gesture, voice's tone,

                        Flesh of my flesh, bone of my bone.

              In fields ye tilled, I plough the sod,

              I tread the mountain paths ye trod,

                        And around my daily steps arise

                        The splendours of the centuries.

                            From Poems From Ireland, by Richard Towley
                                          The Irish Times, Dublin, 1944.

       There were at least twenty-two different Young pioneer settlers families in pre-1860 Giles Co and the surrounding area, fourteen in Giles Co, most by 1830. “Surrounding Area” consists of Giles Co, Maury Co, western Lincoln, and Marshall Counties. Most Young descendants contained in this book descend from the Youngs of Bradshaw Creek in Giles Co TN, (in today's civil district 10) or their close cousins in Maury, Marshall, and Lincoln Counties. There were other Young pioneers in Hickman, and Franklin Counties (from PA and KY) who may or may not be listed herein. The research emphasis was on the Young pioneers of Giles Co and next door counties.

       There were eleven original researchers who contributed information for this book, then two more were found who added much more since 1986. Each had gathered informa-tion on his own for various reasons, most being curiosity in his or her ancestry and the love of solving a puzzle in which each researcher was a part. Flora East of Madera, CA and Louise Young of Tyronza, AR had in the late 1960s supplied John Young with the information which took his search to Giles Co, and in April 1981 he made contact with cousin Gerald Young, and in June with another cousin, Martha Ann Young, both of Giles Co. From these two contacts other cousins were reached who freely gave their information to this Young biography; as time went on, seven more con-tributed heavily to the Young Family information.

       Credit for most of the SC research goes to Neva Fern Young of Temple, TX, with much of her earlier information coming from Virginia Short of Waco; Jackie Ellis of Walnut Creek, CA supplied the Willeford information and much SC Young information; Juanita Ellis of Dallas, TX supplied much of the informa-tion on a branch of the Youngs who moved to TX; Gerald Young, Martha Young, and George Worsham of Giles Co tirelessly tele-phoned, wrote, and visited cousins, cemeteries, and the Giles Co courthouse for more info; and Geraldine Young of Wellsville, OH wrote to

many of her cousins. Contributions from John Young were primarily TN census reading and hundreds of hours in front of a keyboard. No single person is responsible for this project; it was a joint effort which could not have been accomplished without all eleven, plus the many more not named on this page who provided twigs and branches to the Family Forest. The Giles Co Historical Society must also be com-mended; their publications provided quite a bit of information contained herein. In the 2009-2010 years, most of the research was done via the Internet. Be warned that often these records are abbreviated from the actual record, so mistakes here may happen.

       This book, at first glance, would normally be called a Genealogy by most. But since there are Youngs who have no obvious ties to others within these pages, a better description would be to call it Kinology. Keep in mind than genealogy information is always out of date as people live and die.

       For more than five years we exchanged infor-mation by letter. But as the Young names began to pile up, a computer with a word processor was used. If anyone would prefer the information contained in this book, contact John E Young. Even with these tools, undreamed of in the pre-1983 years, there will no doubt be mistakes and omissions. That is inev-itable in a venture of this size. But fortunately, these mistakes can be corrected. Any additions and / or corrections, and requests should be sent to John Young, PO Box 27045, Fresno CA 93729. Email (in 2013) is

eazier1@ sbcglobal.net

and the Young Web Site is
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry. com/~eazier1/Young/index.htm.

There are no spaces in these two addresses.

       Whether this book will have printed updates after 2010 is not known, but corrections and additions will be added to our data files and web page. For those who may need updated information only of just certain names, contact the source person who has generally done the research on that line, or contact John Young.

       At the end of each biography are letters and numbers within parentheses which are the codes for the sources of information; the sources are found at the end of the book. There is usually a pattern of order in which the source codes were given: books first, people second, and census and other county information last, but that order of sources has no implication on whom or what supplied the most information. In other words, (61,MD, NY,GE, 1aeyz) does not imply that the primary source of info was the book Loyalist In The Southern Cam-paign (source code 61) since it was listed first, nor does it imply that M Evelyn Davis gave more info than Geraldine E Young nor more than Neva Young, etc.

       Since there are many Young descendants with the same names, an ID code had to be used to identify them. These are the letters and num-bers in [brackets] following most names. All who descend from a pre-1860 Young immigrant to Giles Co and many nearby counties were given an ID number. Each child's ID number is a continuation of his parent's number. When two Young cousins have children, their child is normally continued under the father's number. Whenever possible, the birth names of females are used; if the maiden name is not known, then the "Mrs" title is used with her hus-band's name, or _____ for the missing family name. Each biography of all Young descendants are listed alphabetically, with the non-alphabetical names shown in the index (an index is not available, nor needed, on the Young Web Page). Young ancestors can be traced backwards by looking up the name of the parent, which is given with each person listed; begin with the most recent generation and move backwards. If two parents are given, the second one having an ID code number, then both are Young descendants.

       If you search for a person alphabetically, and cannot find him, also check for variant spellings of that person’s name. For example, Katherine Young may be shown as Kathryn or Kate or Katie Young, or even Catherine Young. Sometime a separate biography was not made of a child if there was nothing more known of him, other than perhaps a name and birth date.

       Our early pioneers, being cut off from their families in the homeland or in a previous state, would name their children in memory of brothers, sisters, parents, etc. But not always. Just as today there are popular personages who become the sources of names for newborn children, this happened centuries ago also. But then the famous person was not a music, movie, or television star, but was often a stage idol, war hero, or president. This should be kept in mind when an unexplained name appears to be pop-ular in one generation over a short span of time and among children of families who are not closely related.

       Sometimes a reference to a decade, such as "the 1820s," is made. This includes the years 1820 through 1829. "1700s" or "1800s" means the years 1700-1709 or 1800-1809, not the whole century. The century for those years would be called the 18th Century or the 19th Century.

       For those who continue the Young search, remember that in the newly settled territories the first pioneers would often have many names for the same place or stream; it took a few years to establish a commonly accepted name. For example, James Creek in Spartanburg Co SC was called Jamies Creek, Jimmy's Creek, and James Creek; the Tyger River at the present western side of Union Co was also called Cane Creek, and Tygar was also used as the spelling.

       Genealogists like to berate the Union soldiers who burned Southern courthouses during the Civil War, thus destroying vital records. But it was not always the Yankees who did this. There was a well established case near Atlanta, GA where the advan-cing northern General wondered why the local courthouse was already burning as he and his men approached. The Union Army had not shot cannon-balls at the courthouse in advance. It was later learned that some of the local people had started that fire in order to destroy tax and police records, so that their families would be able to avoid paying their property taxes, and would be able to be freed from jail without any criminal evidence. So all the blame for courthouse burning in the South cannot be blamed on just one side.

       ID#s Since there were so many people with same or similar common names (John, William, Mary, Elizabeth, Thomas, Joseph, etc),  everyone who was a Young pioneer of early Giles, Lincoln, Marshall,  or  Maury Counties TN  before 1860,  or descendant of  one of  these  pioneers, given an ID# starting [Y1..., [Y2..., [Y3..., etc with a CAPITAL letter Y. Any other Young and descen-dant who were not from the early Giles Co area, but whose ancestry was traced anyway because they lived among the Giles Co area Young families, was given an ID number with a small case y, such as Richard Young [y1e] (his descendants settled in the western side of AR, in Scott Co.)

       When this project first started in the early 1980s, as each new Giles Co Young pioneer was found, they were given an ID# starting with [Y1], then [Y2], [Y3], etc. It was only later learned that some of these early pioneers were siblings, or a nephew / niece / cousin of an early Young pioneer. A quick look at the ID#s will show where in Giles Co, or nearby, they lived by 1830:

       Beech Hill Cemetery is a quarter mile west of Highway 65 in Giles Co TN, and a short distance up the hill (north) of Highway 15; the old homestead of John Archibald Young [Y1] is on the other side of Highway 65, downhill from this Cemetery. This Cemetery was apparently a family Cemetery in the early 19th century, but over the years many people were buried there who have no obvious family ties to the Young families nearby. Most, if not all, of the 19th century burials of those with Young or Smith family names are related to John Archibald Young [Y1] or his wife Nancy Smith. The Cemetery is on rocky ground and therefore has few remaining sites for more graves. See Bradshaw below. (GE,JY, NY, GY, MA)

       Bradshaw was a farming community at the east center of Giles Co nestled along Bradshaw Creek, contained in the present Civil District 10, and is now a short walk west of Frankewing. In 1836 the state government changed the system of dividing the counties, from a militia system to civil district system. The Giles Co leaders then divided the county into 17 districts. Bradshaw fell into the new Civil District 10. Bradshaw Creek was named for surveyor William Bradshaw who became stuck in quicksand while surveying there for the government in 1783. Bradshaw's center was the Bradshaw Missionary Baptist Church. The surrounding coun-tryside is green and lush with many rolling hills. Among the first settlers was John Kennedy and his wife Sarah Britton, Sam and James McKnight, John Archibald Young [Y1] and his wife Nancy Smith, Joe Jarmin, Nicholas Holley, and Odem Hightower and his daughter Hardy. Hardy High-tower built the first mill on Bradshaw. There were many others, including Archibald Smith, some of his brothers and sisters and his father Buckner Smith.

       Of the above mentioned early settlers, John Kennedy and wife Sarah Britton came to Bradshaw in 1808-1809 and were the parents-in-law of Nancy Young [Y3b]; probably James McKnight was the father-in-law of Mary E Young [Y1c6]; John Archibald Young [Y1] and Nancy Smith both came from Spartanburg Co SC in 1809; Buckner Smith was the father of the above Nancy Smith who married John Archibald Young [Y1], and was the father of Archibald Smith who lived next door to John Archibald Young [Y1]; Joel Jarmin came in 1808; Nicholas Holley Sr came from Spartanburg Co in 1809 and was the grandfather of Nicholas J Holley [Y4a3] below; and Odem Hightower came from Spartanburg Co in the winter of 1807-1808; Odem's daughter Hardy came the following year.

       Over a century ago, directly across the road from where Bradshaw Church sits today, there was a very small, one room log church erected in 1811, known as the Center Point Methodist Church. It was named because of its early origin and this was thought to be more centrally located for all people of the Bradshaw community. It is about two miles southeast of Beech Hill Cemetery and downstream along Bradshaw Creek. One of the early Harwell settlers donated the plot of land for this church. When the church doors were closed and no longer used, the people of the Bradshaw community bought the log building, opened its doors and with only seven members, Bradshaw Baptist Church was born in the late 1840s. The seven members were Nicholas Holley and his wife, Nick Burns and wife, Allen Williams and wife, and a Mrs ____ Redd. Nicholas J Holley [Y4a3] (born in 1824 at Brad-shaw), whose wife was Margaret S ____, were two of these founders. (Of all the Young descen-dants in Giles Co, the Holley descendants of Mary T Young [Y4a] have lived at Bradshaw longer than any others.) Some of these founders gave new land for another church after the little church burned. This land also became Center Point Cemetery.

       In 1856 the county budgeted $275,000 to build a section of the Nashville & Decatur railroad from Columbia to the AL line. In 1909 the railroad began a new line between Nashville and Decatur, and it was completed in 1915; the Bradshaw portion was finished in 1914. It went by the Bradshaw church Cemetery and had a depot where Frankewing is now; Frankewing was named after Frank Ewing, a political friend of the railroad officials. There are no stops along this line today, but years ago Frank-ewing at the south edge of Bradshaw and Diana at the north edge were even big enough for trains to stop. With the rise of Frankewing (population 100 within town itself around 1950, and 400 or so within three miles of town), began the demise of Bradshaw as a farming community in its own right. Bradshaw was an area of farm families and not an actual town.

       The Mount Zion Methodist church was organized in 1817 (which was the beginning of the future Frankewing), just eight years after Giles Co was chartered.

       The original Zion Methodist Church, a one-room log building, was erected in 1811 on a plot of ground given by "Chip" Harwell. Since then, another church was built in 1817. In the nearby Cemetery lie many of the oldest families, mem-bers of this church: Harwell, Sherrell, William-son, etc.

       Very little is known of the early history of the first school called Bradshaw, but by 1870 there were three one-room schools in the community. Bradshaw proper, Diana, and Frankewing had one and two room schools; Bradshaw's one room school house, with grades through the twelfth year, was at Beech Hill, a short distance west along the road from the Baptist Church. Those students from the Diana and Frankewing schools who wanted to continue through the twelfth grade would transfer to the Beech Hill school after the eighth grade. There were 250 to 300 students in school at Beech Hill in the 1960s. These small schools are now gone; the students now attend larger consolidated Co schools. The children today can't possibly realize how school was a generation ago, the students barefoot, their lunches in brown paper sacks, and carrying water in a bucket for the classroom when the hand pump went dry.

       It was here, at Beech Hill close to Bradshaw Creek, where John Archibald Young [Y1] settled in 1809, built a permanent home between 1814 and 1816, and lived the remainder of his life. Highway 65 running north to within eight miles of Columbia was constructed in the 1960s and runs between John Young's old homestead and Beech Hill Cemetery where so many of the Young family members are now resting. When John's brothers Joseph Young [Y3] and Thomas Young [Y4] also settled nearby is not known, but it wasn't too much later. John's brother-in-law Archibald Smith moved next door to John about 1812, coming from Spartanburg Co where the Young brothers were born and grew up. (They were actually born in 96 District, from which Spartanburg Co was formed.)

       Since it is almost impossible to tell the exact locations of the pre-20th Century countryside farm houses, and since old Bradshaw was the farm area along the branches of Bradshaw Creek (much of the center of District 10), it is therefore assumed within these pages that all of the center of district 10 is Bradshaw. Actually, the resi-dents today call Bradshaw the area where Little Bradshaw Creek, which runs by Beech Hill, meets Bradshaw Creek. (56, N,GE, GY,MA,1z, 15yzi)

       Frankewing is a small quiet town in Giles Co's civil district 10, on the eastern side of the county, and is at the southern end of Civil District 10. The Mt Zion Methodist Church is here, and behind the church is Mt Zion Cemetery, which is still in use. (Do not confuse Mt Zion Cemetery with New Zion Cemetery located at New Zion Baptist Church on Highway 31A, which runs northeast from Pulaski to Cornersville.) See Bradshaw above. (MA,N)

       Giles County lies in the center of TN, just north of the AL border, west of Lincoln, southwest of Marshall, south of Maury, and east of Lawrence Counties. The county is green and hilly, with numerous streams and creeks running throughout, and a population of about 33,000 in 1900. Pulaski, with a population of 2,500 in 1880, 4,000 in 1900, and 6,000 in 1940 is the county seat and was established in the center of the county in 1811.

       In the 18th Century, before the settlers from the east moved in, the terrain was overrun with dense cane and wild animals, and five or six Indian tribes who all claimed the right to hunt in this territory. By the summer of 1805, the only Indians, by a treaty among themselves, who claimed rights to what was to become Giles Co were the Chickasaw. They had the south and west part of the future Giles Co until an 1816 treaty with the White men.

       Until Maury Co was established in November 1807, the area of the future Giles Co was considered to be part of Williamson Co. Deeds of this pre-1808 era are to be found in the courts of Williamson Co, if they exist at all. For two years after the formation of Maury Co, the pre-1810 Giles Co records may be in the Maury Co courts. On 14 November 1809 Giles Co was established by an act of the State Legislature. Nearly half of the new county lay in Chickasaw territory until September 1816.

       The first permanent settlement in what was to become Giles Co was made near the present towns of Elkton and Prospect in 1805. Appar-ently the only Young families who very early settled in the southern portion of the county was Ephraim A Young [Y8], but not until after 1820, and after the Indians had given up their land to the White settlers in 1816. His sister Rebecca Young and her husband Major John William Kyle had settled in the area around 1807. The early pioneers who settled in the northeast and east side of Giles Co are as follows- In the Brick Church area between 1808 and 1810: John Dabney Sr, Robert Gordon and sons Thomas K and John, Joseph McDonald (who married Elizabeth Gordon, son of Robert Gordon), Richard McGhee (McKee?), the widow Clark and her sons, John Haynes and his son James S, John Jones, Sam Jones, Robert Alsop,  Jacob  Jarmin,  old  John McCanless  and his sons, a Mr Nation and children, Martin Lane Sr, Thomas Lane Esquire, William Henderson and his brother John Henderson, Jonathan Andrews, and the families of Frazier, Tungett, and Samuel; In the Bradshaw Creek area in 1808 and 1809: Odem Hightower and his daughter Hardy, John Kennedy and his wife Sarah Britton, John Elliff, Joel Jarmin, James McKnight,  Samuel  McKnight,

John Archibald Young [Y1]and his wife Nancy Smith, and Nicholas Holley Sr; In the northeast corner of the county from 1810 to 1812: Archibald E Young and his wife Sarah Powell and most of their children, Ambrose Yarbrough, and Shands Golightly. (55, 56, 58, 66,15zi)

       Hardin County is three counties west of Giles Co. Upon the end of the Civil War in 1865, many TN families were moving to AR and TX, and often MO; those who had the means to make the trip went to TX. The Old Stage Road leading east and west across the center of Hardin Co was the one used by the travelers from Giles Co, often by wagon in order to take their belongings. The ferry operators at Savannah had to register or mark the wagons to get them across the Savannah River at the proper time; first come were first served.

       The covered wagons drawn by horses and mules, even more frequently by oxen, were seen hourly going west. Some of the time it was the eldest son who would go ahead to determine whether the whole family should also make the trip, but most of the time the entire family went along. The mother and her smaller children often walked so that the slow oxen could progress more rapidly. An ox team made from fifteen to twenty miles each day.

       This travel continued, and in 1866 more wagons were seen than the previous year. Travel continued until about 1868, but then the families began to return; they had gone to AR and learned the hard way that the new land was not as rich as in TN, nor was the water as abundant, or else there was so much water that their crops could not survive. Many of these travelers, having seen Hardin Co on their way westward, settled there; between the 1860s and the twentieth century there were many descendants of the Bradshaw Young families who made Savannah and the rest of Hardin Co their home. (See the East families.)

       A generation later, Hill, Ellis, Red River, and other northeast TX Counties served to be the choice place in which to settle; Giles and Hardin descen-dants are there now.

       The Savannah Cemetery, located just outside the town of Savannah in Hardin Co, has been poorly maintained over the years and many of the stones have been discarded into a nearby ravine; many people buried there now have no head stones. It was not until the early 1980s before any effective effort was made (by the Hardin Co Historical Society) to preserve the records contained on the Hardin Co Cemetery gravestones. (NB, 51,58)

       Marshall Co TN is at the northeast corner of Giles Co, The southwest corner of Marshall Co now contains Corners-ville and Robertson Fork. These two communities used to be part of the northeast corner of Giles Co’s Civil District 17, but about 1873 this portion of district 17 was made a part of Marshall Co. Prior to this transfer, Cornersville was just inside Giles Co, almost at the Marshall Co border, but after the transfer, Robertson Fork then was just inside Marshall Co, and the Cemetery belonging to the Robertson Fork Church of Christ wound up divided by the new county line.

       Rowan County SC has many early records of Alex-ander, Andrew, Benjamin, Elizabeth, James, Samuel, William, and Sewel & Vachael Young. In the Spartan Militia of 96 District SC were Luel (Sewel?) and Vachill Young from June to Decem-ber 1780 serving in Major Zachariah Gibbs' Regiment; there was a Captain William Young in this same regiment. The Sewel and Vachael names are quite rare, so these two men must be the same. This would be a possible clue as to which area some of the Spartanburg Co Youngs may have come from prior to SC. Other Rowan Co records of the 1763-1774 period name: John Mitchell and Vachael Young in a 1768 lawsuit; Sewel Young was appointed instead of William Divers for public service; many Brandon names (see Major Thomas Young). From the 1775-1789 period the names Edward Smith and William Young appear, and also a William Young Sr. From 1762-1772 deed records William Young and wife Elizabeth sold land to Samuel Freeman in 1767; Charles McKnight of Mecklenburg Co, NC gave power of attorney to Samuel Young and also sold Samuel many hundreds of acres, witnessed by Thomas McKee (see William Young of the Enoree River).

       It would appear that the Young men named here lived in Rowan Co from the 1760s, except when they were in SC during the Revolution, but had ties with men who had the same family names as others who were found in nearby Spartanburg and Union Counties SC after 1785. (71,NY)

       South Carolina was originally part of a land grant to Sir Robert Heath, and was part of a strip of land which included both of the present Carolina states and extended to the Pacific Ocean; this strip was named the Province of Carolina (land of Charles). The spelling was changed to Carolina in 1663. In 1711 the Carolina Colony was split into the North and SC Colonies. TN was a county of NC. SC was accepted as a state in 1788, but more than a century before, in 1683, the first three counties were established: Colleton, Berkeley, and Craven. Eventually all three counties were discontinued; the present Berkeley Co is not derived from the original of the same name. In 1769 the province of SC was divided into the seven judicial districts of Beaufort, Camden, Charleston, Cheraws, Georgetown, Orangeburg, and Ninety-Six. By the time of the Revolution, the Piedmont had nearly half of the White population of about 60,000 in the Colony. In 1795 Pinckney and Washington Districts were established. Three years later the nine districts were divided into twenty-four. From Ninety-Six District, Abbeville, Edgefield, Newberry, Laurens, and Spartanburg Districts were formed. And from Pinckney District, Union and York Districts were formed.

       Ninety-Six District was in the original Berkeley Co, and Spartanburg Co was formed from Ninety-Six District in 1785. The "District" name was commonly used long after many of these districts became counties, even after the 1868 state consti-tution changed 30 districts to counties.

       Quakers were some of the earliest pioneers in the Piedmont districts which became Anderson, Edgefield, Greenville, Laurens, Newberry, Spartan-burg, Saluda, and Union Counties. Bush River (in Laurens Co) and Cane Creek (in Union Co) were two of the larger meeting houses in the Piedmont during the 1770-1822 years; both meeting houses were named after the streams on which they were located. Cane Creek, also called the Tyger River, was established in 1775 as a branch of the Bush River meeting house.

       Migration from PA and down the Shen-andoah spilled over into the Piedmont of VA and the Carolinas in the early and middle 18th Century, populating that region with Presby-terians and German Moravians who worked without slaves and resented control of the assemblies by slave-holding Anglican planters and merchants of the coastal areas. (62,70, GE,JE)

       Spartanburg County is in the Piedmont in the northwest part of the state, bordered on the north by NC. Settlements in this portion of the state began in the 1730s, but most of the early settlers arrived from 1745 to the 1760s, coming from the Rhine section of Germany, the New England Colonies, and the Ulster section of Ireland. The Scotch-Irish immigrants came about 1761.

       Within the early boundaries of Spartanburg and Union Counties there were three streams of importance to the early Young families, all flowing in an easterly direction and tying into the Broad River: Pacolet River in the north part of both counties; Tyger River, lying about ten miles above the southern boundaries of both counties and twenty-five miles below and paralleling Pacolet River; Enoree River, the southern boundary of Spartanburg and Union Counties, separating both counties from Laurens and Newberry Counties to the south. All three rivers are tributaries of the much larger Broad River, the eastern boundary of Union Co. Tyger River was also called Cane Creek in the 18th Century.

       There was an economic depression in SC in 1808 which must have reached even the inde-pendent Up Country settlers. Thus, many of the farm families from the Up Country moved west to the better farmland of TN.

       Two decisive battles of the Revolutionary War took place in the area: Kings Mountain on 7 October 1780 in northeast of York Co, roughly fifty miles north of the town of Union; and Cowpens on 17 January 1781, about fifteen miles northeast of the town of Spartanburg. These two battles turned the tide of the war in the South. (GE, JE, 62, 66,70)