Peters
Family History
Prepared
for the Peters Family Reunion
12 October 2003
The Peters family reunion
is being held at the Fountain City United Methodist Church in Knoxville,
Tennessee. The reunion brings together
descendants of Alva Edward Peters and Sallie Jane Cole.
Alva Edward Peters and
Sallie Jane Cole are generally referred to as Grandma and Grandpa Peters, even
by those of us who may be their great grandchildren or their great great
grandchildren. Both of them were born in
1870. Both of them died in 1942. They are buried at the Mt. Vernon Cemetery in
Anderson County, Tennessee.
I have generally heard Alva
and Sallie’s children referred to as “the brothers and sisters”, and their
grandchildren referred to as “the cousins”.
The brothers and sisters were Lester, Elzie, Ella, Birchel, Jonnie, Bob,
and Arthur. Jonnie died as an infant,
and he was a twin of Birchel. The rest
of the brothers and sisters married and had children of their own.
Some of us knew Grandma and Grandpa
Peters and remember them well. Others
of us are too young to remember them.
Many of us knew the brothers and sisters
and remember them well. In my case,
Lester was my grandfather. I remember
him as Papaw Peters. I remember the rest
of the brothers and sisters as Aunt Elzie, Aunt Ella, Uncle Birchel, Uncle Bob,
and Uncle Arthur. No doubt the rest of
you all have similar names and memories, depending on what your particular
relationship to the various family members was.
The family’s roots are deep in Anderson County, Tennessee. Alva Peters was from Anderson County. His parents were married in 1865 in Anderson County, and Alva was born and raised in Anderson County. Sallie Jane Cole was from Anderson County. Her parents were married in 1865 in Anderson County, and Sallie was raised in Anderson County. However, she was born in Knox County and lived there for a while before moving back to Anderson County.
The brothers and sisters
all lived in East Tennessee. Several of
them ended up in Knox County, but they all started out in Anderson County. Most of the cousins stayed in East Tennessee,
although a few of the cousins moved elsewhere.
With each succeeding generation after that, there were more and more of
the family members who spread out throughout the country, but there is a very
strong contingent of our Peters family who are still in East Tennessee.
Much of the Peters family history comes from the Peters family bible. Unfortunately, the present location of the bible is not known. It was loaned out, but nobody remembers to whom. If anyone knows where it is, please let me know. We need to make copies of the family history pages from the bible for everybody.
Fortunately, Irene (Peters)
Tarver has two family histories, one handwritten and one typed on an old
Underwood typewriter, that appear to have been taken from the family
bible. So all the information from the
family bible has not been lost.
Please let me know if there are any
errors or omissions in this history, and I will make the corrections. I know we
do not have all the younger generations listed for all the families. Where we do have people listed, we often have
a birth date but not a birth place, or we have a date of death but not a
location where someone is buried. Any
such information would be a valuable addition to the data base.
Jerry Bryan
8300 Sharp Road
Powell, Tennessee 37849
c24m48@hotmail.com
This section of the family history will discuss the ancestors
of Alva Edward Peters and Sallie Jane Cole.
Here is a little pedigree chart to make our family a little easier to
follow.
Lester, Elzie, Ella, Birchel, Jonnie, Bob, and Arthur Peters |
Alva Edward Peters |
John Henry Peters |
John W. Peters |
Ruby Smith |
|||
Hulda Asberine Cross |
Alfred Carter Cross |
||
Zipporah Peters |
|||
Sallie Jane Cole |
William Cole |
|
|
|
|||
Vesta Clay England |
John England |
||
Jane Peters |
As you can see, we have three different Peters lines. Grandpa Peters had two grandparents who were
Peters. Grandma Peters had one
grandparent who was a Peters. William
Cole is what genealogists call a brick wall.
I have not been able to find his parents.
There is considerable evidence that John W. Peters, Zipporah
Peters, and Jane Peters were brothers and sisters. If they were, then Grandma and Grandpa Peters
were second cousins, and Grandpa Peters’ parents were first cousins who
married.
Going back a couple more generations, the first two Peters
into Anderson County were Tobias Peters Sr. and Henry Peters Sr. Tobias and Henry moved from Greenbrier
County, Virginia to Anderson County, Tennessee in 1797. Strictly speaking, they moved to Knox County
because Anderson County was not created until 1801. But they moved to the part of Knox County
that became Anderson County when Anderson County was created. Tobias Peters Sr. and Henry Peters Sr. both
appeared on the taxpayer list for the first Anderson County tax in 1802.
Just to complicate things further, the part of Greenbrier
County where the Peters lived in Virginia later became Monroe County when
Greenbrier County was split up, and both Greenbrier County and Monroe County
became part of West Virginia during the Civil War. So if you want to find the Rehoboth Church
where Tobias Peters Sr. was married (it is still standing – it is the oldest church west of the
Alleghenies), you have to go to Monroe County, West Virginia. Monroe County, West Virginia is in a very rural and very mountainous part
of West Virginia, up against the Virginia-West Virginia border.
Most Peters researchers believe that Tobias and Henry were
brothers, but nobody has been able to prove it so far. Tobias was married to Elizabeth Rachel
Scarborough and Henry was married to Mary Wiatt. The Peters moved to Tennessee along with the
Scarbrough family, and the community where they settled became known as the
Scarbrough community. The name is
spelled variously as Scarbrough, Scarborough, Scarbro, and Scarboro, but it’s
always pronounced as Scarbro. There were
many, many Peters-Scarbrough marriages, and I have had to spend just about as
much time researching the Scarbroughs as researching the Peters in order to
sort out who is whom.
The Scarbroughs were Quakers back in Virginia, but they were
Methodists by the time they got to Tennessee.
I don’t know what the Peters were in Virginia, but they were nearly all
Methodists in Tennessee. The Rehoboth
Church in Virginia where Tobias Peters married Elizabeth Rachel Scarborough was
founded by the Methodist circuit rider, Bishop Francis Asbury.
Tobias Peters was a Methodist exhorter, and many of his sons
and grandsons were Methodist ministers in the Holston Conference. Tobias and Henry Peters were trustees when
the Methodists bought some Anderson County land for the Bethel Meeting House in
1821.
It appears to be the case that we are all descended from Henry
Peters Sr. but we are not descended from Tobias Peters Sr. Henry had a son named Thomas Peters. We are all descended from John W. Peters,
from Zipporah Peters, and from Jane Peters.
All three of them appear to have been children of Thomas.
Here is the pedigree for Zipporah Peters. She was named for her Grandma England who was
Vesta Zipporah Choate. Vesta Zipporah
Choate was known by her middle name of Zipporah. Using middle names is a very old tradition in
our family. So I suspect that Zipporah
Peters’ name was really Vesta Zipporah Peters, but I have not been able to
prove it.
Zipporah Peters |
Thomas Peters |
Henry Peters Sr. |
Mary Wiatt |
||
Sarah (Sallie) England |
John England |
|
Vesta Zipporah Choate |
Because Jane Peters was Zipporah’s sister and John W. Peters
was Zipporah’s brother, their pedigrees look just like Zipporah’s. It seems likely that Jane Peters named her
daughter Vesta Clay England after Jane’s Grandma England (namely, Vesta
Zipporah Choate). It also seems likely
that Vesta Clay England named her daughter Sallie Jane Cole after Vesta’s Grandma Peters who was Sarah (Sallie)
England, and after Vesta’s mother who was Jane Peters.
Family
of Grandma Peters (Sallie Jane Cole)
Sallie Jane Cole was one of four sisters. They were Ida, Cordie, Sallie, and
Mollie. Ida and Cordie were twins. Census data indicates that there was a fifth
child who must have died young, but I do not know if the fifth child was a boy
or a girl.
Ida Rhoda Cole married Phillip Hancher Wells. Some of you all remember Ida as Ida Wells or
as Aunt Ida. Children of Phillip Wells
and Ida Cole were Lucy Clay Wells, William H. (Bill) Wells, Bessie M. Wells,
George Edgar Wells, Ernest Clifton Wells, and Robert C. Wells. The only one of these children for whom I
have any information is Bill Wells. Bill
married Ann Burton, and they had daughters Wilma Wells and Irma Wells. Ida and Phillip Wells are buried at the New
Grey Cemetery in Knoxville.
Cordelia Rene (Cordie) Cole married Tolbert Ross (Ross)
Scarbrough. Cordie’s middle name was
pronounced like “Irene” except without the “I”.
Some of you all remember Cordie as Cordie Scarbrough or as Aunt
Cordie. Children of Ross Scarbrough and
Cordie Cole were Flossie N. Scarbrough who married George Victor (Vick) Foster,
Cassie Scarbrough who married George Stratton, and Roy Earl Scarbrough who
married Julia Ann (Julie) Long. Cordie
and Ross Scarbrough are buried at the Scarbrough Cemetery in Anderson County.
Mollie I. Cole married Robert A. Peters. Some of you all remember Mollie as Mollie
Peters or as Aunt Mollie. Children of
Robert Peters and Mollie Cole were Elmer Peters who married Audrey, Genette
(Nettie) Peters who married Lester Lane, and Reese Peters who married Guy Jones. Lester Lane and Nettie Peters had a son named
Elmer Lane. I don’t have any other
generations for this family. Robert A.
Peters died at the age of 33, and Mollie was a widow for many years
thereafter. But about 20 years after her
first husband died, Mollie married again, this time to Joseph E. (Joe) Fraley.
Robert A. Peters was a younger brother of Alva Peters. So the children of Robert Peters and Mollie
Cole were double first cousins of the children of Alva Peters and Sallie
Cole. I suspect that our Bob Peters was
named for his Uncle Robert. Robert A.
Peters is buried at the Scarbrough Cemetery in Anderson County, and Mollie is
buried at the Lynnhurst Cemetery in Knoxville.
A couple of Ida’s children have names that are very
interesting. One name that is
particularly interesting is Lucy Clay Wells.
The mother of the four Cole sisters was Vesta Clay England. Lucy’s middle name came from her grandmother
Vesta Clay England, and Vesta was the
daughter of John England and Jane Peters.
There were a lot of Peters-Clay marriages back in Virginia before our
Peters family moved to Anderson County, and I am convinced that we are
descended from the Clay family. But I
have not yet been able to find our Clay connection.
One of the things you normally do in researching your family
is to find them in the census. Sallie Jane Cole was born in 1870. Here is her family in the 1870 census.
Dist.
19, Knox County, TN, 20 Jun 1870, Beaver Ridge PO p.339b, House Number 70
Family Number 71
Coal
William 23 m w farmer $300 $100 TN
Vesta
30 f w keeping house TN
Ida
1 f w TN
Corda
1 f w TN
Many old censuses have spelling errors, and in 1870 William
Cole’s surname was spelled as “Coal” rather than as “Cole”. But we know now that the correct spelling is
“Cole”.
At the time of the 1870 census, Ida and Cordie were not yet
two years old, and Sallie was not yet born.
But Sallie was born on 29 June, shortly after the census was taken. Ida and Cordie turned two on 3 July, just a
few days later.
The important thing about the census entry is that the family
was living in the Beaver Ridge community in Knox County just nine days before
Sallie was born, so that is surely where she was born. There is evidence that Ida and Cordie were
born in the Concord community. If so,
then the family must have moved from Concord to Beaver Ridge between 1868 and
1870.
I have found a deed for William Cole’s property in the Beaver
Ridge community. The property was on
Middlebrook Pike where the name of the road changes from Middlebrook Pike to
Byington-Solway Road. If you are driving
out of town on Middlebrook Pike, Ball Camp Pike goes off to your right and Lovell
Road goes off to your left. Lovell Road
goes through a gap in Beaver Ridge at that point, as does a creek called Plum
Creek. William Cole’s deed says that his
property adjoined Beaver Ridge, Plum Creek, and Ball Camp.
William Cole died before 1880.
Vesta must have had no money after her husband died, because she was not
able to keep her family together. The
girls were scattered every which way.
Sallie and Ida lived as servants in Anderson County, and Vesta lived
with Cordie and Mollie in the Concord area of Knox County.
Here is Sallie living in the home of Preston Shannon in
Anderson County in the 1880 census. Her
name was listed as Sarah Cole.
Dist. 9, Anderson
County, Tennessee, 1880
p.16, dwelling number 158
Shannon Preston 59 self m m w farmer TN TN TN
Susan 51 wife f m w keeping house TN TN TN
Oliver Douglas 19 sson m s w farmer TN TN TN
Scarbrough
Polena 18 f s w servant TN TN TN
Cole Sarah
10 f s w servant TN TN TN
In the
1870 to 1880 time frame, Sallie was a very common nickname for Sarah. But there is no evidence that Grandma Peters
was a Sarah. All the evidence is that
she was just Sallie.
I
think what happened was that the census taker knocked on the door and asked who
was living there. When he was told that
Sallie Cole was living there, he just assumed that her name was really Sarah,
the same way you might assume that somebody’s name was really Robert if you
were told that their name was Bob. So he
wrote down Sarah instead of Sallie.
Here
is Ida living in the home of John Scarbrough in Anderson County in the 1880
census.
Dist. 9, Anderson County, Tennessee,
p.9 dwelling number 88
Scarbrough John 54 self
m m w farmer TN TN TN
Mary 55 wife f m w keeping house TN TN TN
Charles 27 son m s w
(crippled) TN TN TN
Arminte 18 dau f s w TN TN TN
Peters
Sarah 92 motherL f w w TN -- VA
Cole
Ida 11 f s w servant TN -- TN
John
Scarbrough’s mother-in-law was Sarah Peters, widow of Thomas Peters. So Mary Scarbrough was Mary Peters before she
was married. I am getting ahead of my
story, but Mary Peters Scarbrough was Ida’s grandaunt.
Here
is Vesta living with her other two daughters Cordie and Mollie in Knox County
in the 1880 census.
Dist. 10, Knox County, Tennessee, 17 Jun 1880
dwelling number 259, family number 264
Cole Vesta C.
37 widow keeping house TN TN TN
Cordie R. 11 dau at home TN TN TN
Mary I. 7 dau TN TN TN
Mollie
was a nickname for Mary back in 1880, the same way Sallie was a nickname for
Sarah. But there is no evidence that
Mollie was a Mary. All the evidence is
that she was just Mollie. District 10 of
Knox County was the Concord community in 1880.
In
summary, William Cole and Vesta Clay England were married in 1865 in Anderson
County, Ida and Cordie were born in 1868 in Knox County (probably in Concord),
Sallie was born in 1870 in Knox County (probably where Ball Camp Pike hits
Middlebrook Pike), Mollie was born in 1873, and by 1880 William Cole had
died. Vesta was not able to keep her
little family together. By 1880, Cordie and Mollie were living with their
mother in Knox County, and Ida and Sallie had been farmed out to families in
Anderson Count.
Cordie
had not been farmed out to another family at the time of the 1880 census. But Cordie’s granddaughter Ann (Scarbrough)
Perrine tells me that Cordie also lived in Anderson County as a servant at some
point, possibly with a Johnson family.
Ann Perrine is the daughter of Roy Scarbrough and Julie Long.
To
tell you the truth, I doubt that Ida and Sallie were living as servants in the
same sense that we think of servants today.
Vesta must have needed some help, and her family must have helped her.
I
already pointed out that John Scarbrough’s wife was Mary Peters, and they were
taking care of Ida Cole. I didn’t point it out yet, but Preston
Shannon’s wife was Susan Peters, and they were taking care of Sallie Cole. Mary Peters and Susan Peters were sisters,
and they were both daughters of Thomas Peters.
This is the same Thomas Peters who was the father of Jane Peters. Finally, I already pointed out that Vesta’s
mother was Jane Peters. So it looks as
if the Peters sisters pitched in to take care of Jane’s four Cole granddaughters
when Jane’s son-in-law William Cole died.
To
complete the story on Jane Peters, she and John England were married in 1839 in
Anderson County. Their daughter Vesta
Clay England was born in 1840, the first of twelve children. Jane Peters England died in 1881. John remarried in 1882, had a two more
children with his second wife, and died in 1902 in Roane County.
If we
jump ahead about twenty years, we have the 1900 census entry for Alva Peters
and Sallie Cole. (In case you are
wondering why we jump ahead twenty years instead of just ten, the 1890 census
was destroyed by fire.)
Dist. 9, Anderson County, Tennessee, 14 Jun
1900
p.129a, dwelling number 7, family number 7, owns farm, had mortgage
Peters
Alva E. head Oct 1870 29 m6 TN TN TN farmer
Sallie J. wife Jun 1870 29 m6 TN TN TN
Earnest L. son Feb 1895 5 s TN
TN TN
Elsie C. dau Dec 1898
1 s TN TN TN
Hulda A. mother Dec 1845 54
w TN TN TN
John W. bro Mar 1877 23 s TN TN TN
Martha E. sis Jan 1888 12 s TN TN TN
Henry H. bro Mar 1890 10 s TN TN TN
(Sallie had 2 children, 2 living. Hulda had 14 children, 6 living.)
Earnest
L. Peters was Lester Peters (the census taker misspelled his first name which
should have been Ernest) and Elsie C. Peters was Elzie Peters. Alva was the head of household in a house
where his mother and three of his brothers and sisters still lived. I am getting ahead of my story again, but
Alva’s parents were John Henry Peters and Hulda Asberine Cross. John Henry Peters had died in 1890, well
before the 1900 census, but Hulda was still living and was living with her son
and daughter-in-law whom we knew as Grandma and Grandpa Peters.
In the
very next house, we have the following.
Dist. 9, Anderson County, Tennessee, 14 Jun
1900
p.129a, dwelling number 8, family number 8, owns farm, had mortgage
Wells
Phillip H. head w m Sep 1859 40
m9 TN TN TN farmer
Ida R. wife w f Jul 1868
41 m9
TN TN TN
Arthur C. son w m Jun 1887 13 s TN
TN TN
Luther B. son w m Aug 1889 10 s TN
TN TN
Lucy C. dau w f Sep 1892
7 s TN TN TN
William H. son w m Mar 1895 5
s TN TN TN
Bussie M. dau w f Aug 1897
2 s TN TN TN
George E. son w m Dec 1899 5/12 s TN TN TN
Scarbrough Vesty motherL w f Apr 1840 w TN TN TN
(Ida had 4 children, 4 living. Vestie had 5 children, 4 living.)
This
was Sallie Cole’s sister Ida and Ida’s husband Phillip Wells. It was very common back then for family
members to live next door to each other in this fashion. Vesty Scarbrough was Ida’s mother. So Grandma and Grandpa Peters were living
right next door to Grandma’s mother Vesta and to Grandma’s sister Ida. The two oldest Wells children were Phillip’s
children from a previous marriage.
The
census record above shows that sometime between 1880 and 1900, Vesta had
remarried, and this time to a Mr. Scarbrough.
Vesta was a widow again in the 1900 census, so her Mr. Scarbrough died
before 1900. The marriage book at the Anderson County Court House is a little
hard to decipher, but it shows that Vesta married Chesley J. Scarbrough on 24
Oct 1885. Chesley died 1 Dec 1899. The 1890 census was destroyed by fire, so
there is no surviving census data that shows Chesley and Vesta while they were
married.
Some
of you all remember Vestie. In talking
to you, you have told me that she was known as Aunt Vestie or as Grandma Vestie
or as Grandma Scarbrough. You have also
told me that she looked just like Grandma Peters, which sort of makes sense
because she was Grandma’s mother. Both
of them were short, both of them always wore an apron, and both of them wore
their hair up in a bun.
Here
is a census entry from the 1910 Anderson County census.
Dist. 9, Anderson County, p. 8
Peters Mollie head
f 36 TN TN TN widow farmer
Elmer son m 16 TN TN TN farm labor
Genette dau f 13 TN TN TN
Reese dau f 9
TN TN TN
Scarborough Vesta mother f 70 TN TN TN widow
This
census entry is for another of the Cole sisters, Mollie Cole. She was a widow by 1910 because Robert A.
Peters died very young in 1905. Genette
was known as Nettie, but she was listed as Genette in the census. But notice that Vesta was living with yet
another of her daughters in 1910.
I
cannot find Vesta Clay England Cole Scarbrough in the 1920 census. But I have discovered that she is buried in
the New Grey Cemetery in Knoxville (along with Ida and Phillip Wells), and that
her tombstone says that she died in 1924.
Family
of Grandpa Peters (Alva Edward Peters)
We
know from the Peters family bible that Alva was the son of John Henry Peters
and Hulda Asberine Cross. Alva was one
of 14 children. Most of the children
died young. Some died as infants, some
as young children, some as teenagers, and some as young adults.
The
only children who married were Alva who married Sallie Cole, Robert who married
Mollie Cole, and Will who married Delia Weaver.
Even
though he married and had children, Robert died fairly young himself. He was only 33 years old when he died in
1905, and none of you would remember him.
William
Daily Peters died in 1937, and some of you all remember him as Uncle Will. He and his wife Delia Weaver are buried in
the New Grey Cemetery in Knoxville. Will
and Delia Peters never had any children.
Some
of you may remember a brother of Alva named Hutzel. Henry Hutzel Peters never married, but he was
30 years old when he died in 1920 of typhoid fever. It is said that Lester looked just like his
Uncle Hutzel, and that they could have passed as twins. Hutzel had a fiddle that was passed down to
Lester, and Lester played it at dances.
Hutzel is buried at the Scarbrough Cemetery in Anderson County.
John
Henry Peters was a Civil War Soldier who fought in the 5th Tennessee
Infantry on the Union side. There was
also a 5th Tennessee Infantry unit on the Confederate side, but many
East Tennessee men fought on the Union side.
He was described in his Civil War pension application as: height, 5 feet
8 inches; complexion, dark; hair, auburn; eyes, gray.
John
Henry Peters and Hulda Asberine Cross were married in 1865, just after the war
was over. There were many 1865 marriages
where Civil War soldiers came home from the war and got married. In fact, I have wondered if William Cole was
a Civil War soldier since he and Vesta Clay England were married in 1865. I have found records for several William
Coles who served in the Civil War. One
of them might possibly be our William Cole, but so far I haven’t been able to
find enough information to prove if one of them is ours.
There
was a post-war baby boom after the Civil War just as there was a post-war baby
boom after the soldiers came home from WWII.
Grandma Peters and Grandpa Peters were both Civil War baby boomers.
John
Henry Peters died in 1890 at the age of 46, and Hulda received a widow’s
pension in 1891 for John’s war service.
After John’s death, Hulda lived with Alva and Sallie until her own death
in 1916. John and Hulda Peters are buried
in the Scarbrough Cemetery in Anderson County.
John’s
early death was due to his war service.
He contracted disease of the spine from exposure and hard marching near
Wilmington, North Carolina. At
Marietta, Georgia, August 1864 he contracted fever and ague from
exposure. He was partially disabled
thereafter, and was not always able to work.
John
Henry Peters was the son of John W. Peters and Ruby Smith. Hulda Asberine Cross was the daughter of
Alfred Carter Cross and Zipporah Peters.
From the point of view of Alva Peters, he had a Grandpa Peters who was
John W. Peters and he had a Grandma Cross who was Zipporah Peters. The evidence is very strong that John W.
Peters and Zipporah Peters were brothers and sisters, both of them being
children of Thomas Peters. So John Henry
Peters and Hulda Asberine Cross were first cousins who married.
John
W. Peters and Ruby Smith were married in 1840 in Anderson County. They appeared in the 1850 and 1860 censuses,
but both of them had died by 1870. John
W. Peters was a Civil War soldier who died in London, Kentucky in 1861. He served in on the Union side in Co. G,
First Regiment of the East Tennessee Infantry.
He died of fever while still in training, and he didn’t even serve long
enough to draw his first paycheck. Ruby
Smith died in 1867 in Anderson County.
After Ruby died, the younger children were taken in and cared for by
their older, married siblings.
A
number of men from our Peters family served in the Civil War in addition to
John Henry Peters and his father John W. Peters. All the Civil War soldiers from the Peters
family that I have found so far served on the Union side. I am not going to try to list all the ones
who served, but there is one I especially want to mention.
John
Henry Peters had a twin brother named William E. Peters. So William E. Peters was Alva’s uncle. I don’t know for sure what William’s middle
name was, but I suspect it was Edward so that his full name was William Edward
Peters. If so, then Alva Edward Peters
was probably named for his uncle William Edward Peters.
John
Henry Peters would have been doubly motivated to name a son Edward. First, William E. Peters was his twin
brother. Second, William E. Peters was
killed in action in the Civil War, and it would be natural to honor such a
brother by naming a son after him.
William
E. Peters was killed on 6 August 1864 at Utio Creek, near Atlanta,
Georgia. The battle at Utio Creek was
part of General Sherman’s campaign to capture Atlanta, and Atlanta itself fell
on 1 September 1864.
I want
to finish this narrative with yet one more census entry, this one from Anderson
County in 1880.
Dist. 9, Anderson County, Tennessee
p.16, dwelling number 157
Peters John self m m w 35 farmer TN TN TN
Hulda wife f m w 34 keeping
house TN TN TN
William son m s w 14 farmer TN TN TN
Alva son m s w
9 TN TN TN
Robert son m s w
7 TN TN TN
Alza dau f s w
5 TN TN TN
John son m s w
3 TN TN TN
Samuel son m s w
2 TN TN TN
Elizabeth dau f s w 1/12 (b.
April) TN TN TN
Keith
Joseph nephew m s w 4 TN TN TN
Albert nephew m s w 3 TN TN TN
Alva
Peters was 9 years old in the 1880 census, and Sallie Cole was 10 years old. Really, they were both born in 1870 and she
was from June to October older than he was.
But the census was taken in June, so he was not yet 10 years old when
the census was taken.
You
can’t tell just from looking at the census entry above, but John and Hulda
Peters were living next door to Preston and Susan Shannon in 1880. Alva Peters was the son of John and Hulda,
and Sallie Cole was living with Preston and Susan Shannon. So Grandma and Grandpa Peters lived next door
to each other as children.
The
nephews Joseph and Albert Keith illustrate how families took care of each other
back then. Hulda’s sister Annie Cross
married Calvin Keith in 1874, and these nephews were the children of Calvin and
Annie. Annie died about 1879, so Hulda
was keeping Annie’s children in 1880.
Calvin Keith married M.E. Scarbrough in 1881, and he took his sons back
at that time. Because of the missing
1890 census, by the next time we see Alva in a census in 1900, he was married
and had two children.
Our
Cross Family
Alva’s
mother was Hulda Asberine Cross. I have
seen her name listed as Hulday, as Huldie, and as Huldy. But I have also seen her name listed as
Asberine and as Asby. Given the strong
propensity in our family to go by middle names, I suspect that a lot of people
called her Asby.
Hulda’s
parents were Alfred Carter Cross and Jane Peters. I discussed Jane Peters earlier. She was the daughter of Thomas Peters and
Sarah (Sallie) England. Hence, she was
the sister of John W. Peters and of Zipporah Peters. Since we are all descended from Jane Peters,
John W. Peters, and Zipporah Peters, there were definitely some cousin
marriages in later generations.
Alfred
Carter Cross was the son of William Cross.
William was a very interesting character. He was born in 1762 in Baltimore County,
Maryland. William’s father died in 1770
when William was eight years old. Quite
a few members of the Cross family moved to western North Carolina between 1770
and 1776, Tennessee did not yet exist in 1776, but the part of western North
Carolina where the family moved is now Sullivan County, Tennessee. Sullivan County is up against the Virginia
line, and includes Bristol and Kingsport.
In
1776, William Cross served as a drummer in the Revolutionary War. He was only 14 years old at the time. William served in a unit that defended the
frontier against Indians and Tories.
They were posted along the Holston River across the state line in
Virginia. In 1781, William Cross served
a second tour in the Revolutionary War, this time as a private.
In
1817, William moved from Sullivan County to Knox County where he lived for a
year. He moved from Knox County to
Anderson County in 1818. So our Cross
family has not been in Anderson County as long as our Peters family.
William
Cross lived in Anderson County until his death in late 1844. He owned 174 acres of land in Anderson
County. His land was where Scarbrough
Road intersects with Illinois Avenue.
The ownership of the land was not clearly settled after his death, and
the issue was not resolved for over 40 years.
In 1888, there was a lawsuit between members of the Cross family over
the land. The result of the lawsuit was
that the land was sold at auction at the courthouse door in Clinton, and the
family members split the proceeds of the sale.
One of the family members who received a share of the proceeds was Hulda
Asberine Cross.
William
Cross’s land was purchased at auction in 1888 by Joseph L. Pyatt. In and of itself, that name is not especially
interesting. But it turns out that
Joseph L. Pyatt was the grandfather of our very own Aunt Jo Peters.
Our
England Family
We are
all descended from John W. Peters, Zipporah Peters, and Jane Peters who were
brother and sisters. They were children
of Thomas Peters and Sarah (Sallie) England.
That automatically means that we have England ancestors because John W.
Peters, Zipporah Peters, and Jane Peters were just as much Englands as they
were Peters.
In
addition, Jane Peters married John England.
John was the son of Titus England and his wife Elizabeth (we don’t know
Elizabeth’s surname), and Titus was the son of John England and Vesta Zipporah
Choate. (The two John Englands were
grandfather and grandson.) So Titus
England and Sarah (Sallie) England were brother and sister, and John England
and Jane Peters were first cousins who married.
The
Englands moved to what is now Anderson County, Tennessee from Montgomery
County, Virginia. Montgomery County is
in the mountains of western Virginia. It
is close to the West Virginia state line but does not actually bump up against
West Virginia. At the time the England
family moved from Virgina to Tennessee, Montgomery County was much larger than
it is today. In fact, Greenbrier County
where the Peters lived in Virginia was created from Montgomery County. So I wonder if the Peters family and the
England family knew each other back in Virginia before they moved to Tennessee.
Cousins
and Other Oddities
Alva
Edward Peters and Sallie Jane Cole were second cousins who married.
Robert
A. Peters and Mollie I. Cole were second cousins who married.
Our
Peters “brothers and sisters” who were the children of Alva and Sallie were
double first cousins of the children of Robert and Mollie.
Our
Peters “brothers and sisters” grew up with two grandmothers, one grandmother
living in the house with them and the other grandmother living next door. Their Grandma Peters was Hulda Asberine
Cross. Their Grandma Scarbrough was
Vesta Clay England. Hulda Asberine Cross
and Vesta Clay England were first cousins.
John
Henry Peters and Hulda Asberine Cross were first cousins who married.
John
England and Jane Peters were first cousins who married.
Jesse
C. Cross married Amelia (Millie) England.
Alfred Carter Cross married Zipporah Peters. Jesse C. Cross and Alfred Carter Cross were
brothers. Amelia (Millie) England and
Zipporah Peters were niece and aunt.