Ruby Smith was my third great grandmother. She and my third great grandfather John W. Peters were married 26 Jun 1840 in Anderson County, Tennessee. My second great grandfather was their son John H. Peters.
I have not found a will nor a settlement for John W. Peters. He died in the Civil War in 1861, which may explain the absence of a will or settlement.
I have found a settlement for Ruby Smith. The settlement was not in the Anderson County will book nor settlement book. Rather, it was in the Anderson County "loose papers".
The settlement was dated 1869, and Ruby's date of death was given in the settlement as 30 Oct 1867, This is consistent with John and Ruby appearing in the 1850 and 1860 censuses, but not appearing in the 1870 census.
I have not yet transcribed the entire settlement. It is very faded and hard to read. But it does include a fairly easy to read index of persons who received something in the settlement. From what I could read, most of the items in the settlement were household items such as the kitchen dishes. I saw a few hogs, but I didn't see any land. Here is the list of names taken from the index. Where I have been able to identify the people, I have indicated who they were. I think that clearly many of the people were not heirs.