Brick Walls
Henry Peters Sr. and Tobias Peters Sr.

Henry Peters Sr. and Tobias Peters Sr. moved to what is now Anderson County, Tennessee in 1797, thereby founding the Peters family in Anderson County.  At the time Henry Peters and Tobias Peters moved to Tennessee, Anderson County did not yet exist.  They moved to Knox County, and Anderson County was created from portions of Knox County and Grainger County in 1801.  Henry Peters and Tobias Peters were living in that part of Knox County that became Anderson County.

Henry Peters and Tobias Peters moved to Tennessee from what was then Greenbrier County, Virginia and from what is now Monroe County, West Virginia.  Peterstown and Peters Mountain in modern day Monroe County were named after the Peters family of which Henry Peters and Tobias Peters were a part.

Henry Peters and Tobias Peters moved to Tennessee along with the Scarbrough family and possibly with some other Greenbrier County families.  The area of Anderson County where they lived was known as the Scarbrough community.  The area is still known as Scarbrough to this day.  However, no one lives there now because the land was taken by the government in 1942 as a part of the Manhattan Project to build the atomic bomb.

Henry Peters and Tobias Peters are suspected of having been brothers.  However, it is not known who the parents were for either man.  DNA results from descendants of both men are consistent with them having been brothers.  But that does not prove that they actually were brothers.  The best that can be said is that the two men were very closely related, possibly having been brothers and possibly having been cousins or other close relatives such as uncle and nephew.

Ancestors of Henry Peters and Tobias Peters are believed to have moved to Greenbrier County from Rockingham County, Virginia.  There were Peters living in Rockingham County who had similar naming patterns as the Peters in Greenbrier County.  Also, there was a large Peters family in early Carter County, Tennessee who had moved to Carter County from Rockingham County.  There are very close DNA matches between descendants of the Anderson County family and descendants of the Carter County family.  Finally, DNA results from the Anderson County branch of the family and the Carter County branch of the family are a close match with DNA results from descendants of Hans Ulrich Peters.  Hans Ulrich was from Bavaria.  My grandfather always said that our Peters family was from Germany, and the oral family history from my grandfather is consistent with DNA results that tie our family to Bavaria.

Henry Peters Sr. was my fifth great grandfather.  Henry Peters and Tobias Peters moved from Greenbrier County, Virginia to what is now Anderson County, Tennessee in 1797.  They moved with the Scarbroughs, and Tobias was married to Elizabeth Rachel Scarborough shortly before the move.  Therefore, I have collected also the Scarbrough tax records for 1802.  James Kennedy Scarbrough from the tax records was the father-in-law of Tobias Peters.  As might be expected because they lived near each other, the Peters and the Scarbroughs were in the same militia company.

Henry Peters Sr. married Mary Wiatt on 15 Sep 1788.  Therefore, one might expect to find Wiatt or a Wyatt family members living in the same area as the rest of the people Capt. Haile's militia company, or at least somewhere in Anderson County.  But there were no Wiatt or a Wyatt family members (or any other spellings) anywhere in Anderson County in 1802.

The information in this tax list is from a transcription in Early East Tennessee Taxpayers by Pollyanna Creekmore, published by Southern Historical Press about 1980.  There are two copies at the McClung Collection at the Knox County Public Library, plus I own a personal copy.  I have tried unsuccessfully to locate the original handwritten documents.  Pollyanna Creekmore worked at the Knox County Public Library at the time her book was published, but I have not been able to find anybody at the library who knows where the original documents are located.  I've also been unable to find the original documents at the Anderson County Archives which are located on the second floor of the Anderson County courthouse.

I have included the Hackworth surnames in this transcriptions because one of my grandfather's brothers married a Hackworth. 

This list is most curious in that it consisted of names only.  There were no numbers of acres, numbers of polls, number of stud horses, or anything like that.  I found the 1805 tax list on microfilm at the library.  I've found no narrative or other description of this particular tax list from any other genealogist or historian.

It is also curious in that the names were not grouped into any districts or militia companies that were clearly identified.  The names were grouped in the sense that they were alphabetized "over and over again".  They went from A to Z, then from A to Z again, etc.  Every time the names started over at A, it was probably a new group but it is not clear what the groups were.  Given the timeframe, the groupings were probably militia companies.

The names were numbered from #1 to approximately #600.  The Peters and the Scarbros were in the same group, and I continue to collect early Scarbrough records along with early Peters records.