Benton County Tennessee
Genealogy
Early Settlers Biographies
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The origin of the Ellis Family has not been determined but they appeared in Virginia at an early date. Timothy Ellis was living in King and Queen County on 29 April 1693 near a small creek running into Propotanke Creek next to Richard Anderson, John Perrin and John Williams lands. The records for King and Queen County were destroyed during the Civil War and many family documents have been lost.
One branch moved into Tennessee soon after the state was created in 1796. William Ellis, the progenitor of this family in TN. His son, Joseph, moved to Benton County, TN before 1860. William Ellis family was listed in the 1850 Census taken for Franklin County, TN, being enumerated on page 140, House #940, in part as follows:
William Ellis age 61, born in VA, occupation farmer.
Mary Ellis age 54, born in GA
Lucinda Ellis age 25, born in TN
William Ellis age 20, born in TN
Joseph Ellis age 16, born in TN
George W . Ellis age 15, born in TN
Mary Ann Ellis age 13, born in TN
Margaret Ellis age 11, born in TN
William Ellis (Junior) served in Company F, 16th Tennessee Cavalry. Joseph Ellis served in Company K, 59th M.I. and George W. Ellis served in Company D, 16th Tennessee Cavalry, all being in the Confederate Army.
Joseph Ellis born about 1834, in Franklin County, TN was the progenitor of the family that settled in the Fifth Civil District, Benton County, TN. He married Sarah Frances Smith on 18 December 1855 in Franklin County, TN. Sarah Frances was born about 1835, a daughter of Christophe Christian Smith. Joseph and Sarah Frances Ellis moved to Benton County, TN about 1859 with Joseph and Rebecca McKelvy. Joseph and Frances Ellis settled in the Fifth Civil District near the Sixth Civil District line, while Joseph and Rebecca McKelvy settled in the Sixth Civil District near the Fifth Civil District line. Sarah Frances Ellis and Rebecca McKelvy were sisters.
Joseph and Sarah Frances Ellis had issue:
1. Mary Frances Ellis born 23 November 1856 and married Hariman
L. Markham on 24 April 1873.
2. Martha J. Ellis born 11 September 1858, married James W.
McKelvy on 14 February 1883 and died 30 November 1885. She was buried in the Smith Cemetery, Benton County, TN.
3. Elizabeth A. Ellis born 26 December 1859.
4. William Daniel Ellis born 20 March 1862 in Benton County, TN and married Laura Frances Ogles, of whom later.
5. George C. Ellis born 29 February 1864, married Jemimae Durden on 6 November 1884 and died 2 January 1890. He was buried
in the Smith Cemetery in Benton County.
6. Cordelia Ellis born 20 August 1866.
7. Joseph Miller Ellis born 24 October 1868, married Jethenia
E. Ellis on 27 July 1890, married second Mrs. Rebecca Durdin and married third Elizabeth Durdin, Rebecca's daughter.
William Daniel Ellis was born 2O March 1862 the son of Joseph and Frances Sarah (Smith) Ellis and married Laura Frances Ogles on 3 August 1879. She was born 23 December 1861 in Gibson County, Tennessee a daughter of John Lemuel and Milinda Artelia (Smith) Ogles.
William Daniel and Laura Frances Ellis had issue:
1. Rosa Bell Ellis born 10 May 1880, married Ernest H. Smothers on 21 December 1898, died 16 June 1963 and buried in the Cedar Grove Cemetery, Sixth Civil District, Benton County.
2. William Granville Ellis born 16 June 1894, married Muriel Betz in NE (date unknown) and had two children, Kenneth and Lourane. William Granville Ellis married second (wife name unknown), and died in the--late 1980's at Fort Myers, Florida.
3 Infant boy born 10 January 1897 and died 16 January 1897. Buried in the Smith Cemetery, Benton County.
William Daniel Ellis died 24 May 1937 near Tiptonville in
Lake County, TN and buried in the Cedar Grove Methodist Cemetery,
Benton County, TN. Laura Frances (Ogles) Ellis died 16 June
1953 at the home of her daughter, Rosa Bell Smothers in Camden,
Tennessee, and buried by William Daniel Ellis the Cedar Grove
Methodist Cemetery.
John Lemuel Ogles was born in Gibson County, TN apparently the son of James Ogles and his wife Susan Arbuckle. There has been much speculation made about the date of his birth. A tombstone erected at his grave site several years after his death in the Mary's Chapel Cemetery at Rector, AR states that he was born 6 May 1829. However, there is sufficient circumstantial evidence that he was born in 1831, some six or seven months after the death of his father. James Ogles made no mention of a son named John Lemuel in his will and probably did not know of his expected birth. Further, James Milba Ogles during the 1900 census claimed that he was born in November of 1829, so John Lemuel Ogles could not be born before his older brother, James Milba Ogles, who was born in November of 1829.
John Lemuel Ogles married Milinda Artelia Smith on 20 June 1852 in Gibson County, TN. She was born 15 February 1837 a daughter of Owen and Luanna (Spears) Smith. John Lemuel and Milinda Artelia Ogles had five children before they moved to the Sixth Civil District of Benton County, TN.
Their known issue:
1. Elizabeth Jane Ogles born in 1853, married John Edward Elmore on 12 October 1871 in Benton County, died in 1937 and buried in the Mt. Carmel Cemetery, Benton County, TN.
2. Sarah Ann Ogles born 19 January 1856, married Benjamin Samuel Pierce Watson on 3 October 1874 in Benton County, TN, died
9 December 1932 and buried in the Cedar Grove Cemetery, Benton County, TN.
3. John Franklin Ogles born 9 February 1860, married Mary
Isabell McGill on 15 October 1879 in Benton County and died 1 August 1946 in Paragould, AR.
4. Laura Frances Ogles born 23 December 1861, married William Daniel Ellis on 3 August 1879 in Benton County, TN, died
16 June 1953 and buried in the Cedar Grove Cemetery, Benton County, TN.
5 . James Wesley Ogles born in 1864, married Rosella Elmore on 18 October 1885 in Benton County and died
15 July 1942.
6. Owen Ogles born in August of 1869 in Benton County, TN,
married Sarah Grisson on 27 February 1888 and died in Collins Drew County, AR.
7. Julius Alonzo Ogles born 17 March 1871, married Alice Vashti Phelps on 31 August 1888 in Benton County, TN and died
14 April 1959 in Marmaduke, Greene County, AR.
8. Prolimor (Olive) Ogles born 3 March 1874, married John Henry Crews on 22 September 1889 in Benton County, TN, married
second Thomas Jerome Harvey on 17 July 190_, and died 30 August 1926 in Marmaduke, Greene County, AR.
9. Georgia Belle Ogles born 12 March 1876, married Jethro
Jefferson Brown on 6 October 1896 in Benton County, TN and died 9 October 1966 in Carroll County, TN. She was buried in the Bakers Chapel Cemetery, Benton County.
10. Cardos W. Ogles born in 1881 and died in 1883. He was buried at the Cedar Grove Cemetery, Benton County, TN.
Melinda Artelia Ogles had breast cancer and died a painful death on 24 April 1889. She was buried by her son, Cardos W. Ogles, in the Cedar Grove Methodist Cemetery. A letter written by Isiah Smith to Permelia Isabell Taylor described the suffering their sister Melinda Artelia Ogles experienced during her fatal illness.
John Lenuel Ogles married second, Mary (Stoker) Combs, on 20 June 1889 in Benton County, TN. She was born in 1854 and had married Frederick H. Combs on 11 November 1887.
John Lemuel and Mary Ogles known issue:
1. Orison Ogles born ca. 1892 in Benton County.
2. Unknown child born ca. 1894 in Benton County.
3. Unknown child born ca. 1896 in Benton County.
4. Doy Ogles born ca. 1898, place unknown.
5. Roy Ogles born ca. 1901, place unknown.
6. Milinda Ogles born ca. 1904, place unknown.
John Lemuel and Mary Ogles moved to AR about 1898, probably to Rector, Clay County, Arkansas. However, they had returned to Benton County before the 1910 census was taken in that county. They returned to Rector, Clay County, AR where John Lemuel Ogles died on 24 December 1913. Mary Ogles apparently remained in Rector until her death, although the date is not known.
Able Utley born Ca. 1788 in Wake County, N.C. the first child of Burwell Utley, Sr. and his first wife Sarah Lashley (Lashlee). He married Elizabeth (Betsey) Hailes on 12 September 1816 in Wake County, N.C. She was born Ca. 1795 in Georgia a daughter of Matthew and Jane (Noris) Hail.
Able and Betsey Utley moved to Gilford County, N.C. soon after their marriage and then to Humphreys County, TN about 1823. They settled on 200 acres of land granted him in Range 8, Section 3, that became part of the Third Civil District of Benton County, TN in 1836. He received other grants joining his original grant. His land was located south of Camden and about half way to Birdsong Creek on what was then called Perryville Road, but now known as Birdsong Road. Here he built a log house near the road and made this their residence.
Able and Elizabeth Utley had issue:
1. Jane Utley born ca. 1817 and married Ira H. Aden ca. 1839.
2. Female born ca. 1819. No information.
3. Martha Elender Utley born 6 March 1820 and married Hezekiah Forrest ca. 1838 and died 30 September 1883.
4. M.C. Utley born ca. 1822 and married Stephen Marchbanks on
12 December 1842.
5. Arthur Jack Utley born ca. 1825 and married Judy D. Thomas on 10 September 1850. She was born ca. 1833 a daughter of J.K. and Mary Thomas.
6. Louisa S. Utley born ca. 1827 and married Fleix R. Reeves on 16 July 1846.
7. Andrew Thomas Utley born ca. 1828 and married Irene Thomas on 10 September 1850.
8. Synthia Utley born ca. 1830 and married William C. Cambell on 22 November 1848.
9. Albert Utley born ca. 1832 and married Rebecca Thornton on
2 October 1853.
10. John Utley born ca. 1834 and married Nancy H. Hinnant on
22 December 1864.
11. Elizabeth Utley born ca. 1835. No information.
12. Viola Utley born ca. 1838 and married Thomas J. Corbitt on 17 February 1858.
13. Jorotha Utley born ca. 1840. No information.
Able Utley wife Elizabeth died sometime between 1870 and 1878 leaving him at home alone. He conveyed fifty acres of land to Fleix R. Reeves on 25 July 1878. Reeves, a son-in-law, married Louisa S. Utley in 1846. Fleis R. Reeves was born ca. 1833 a son of Timothy and Avarilla Reeves.
Able Utley also conveyed fifty acres of land to Daniel L. Dean on the same day. Daniel was also a son-in-law, who married Ada L. Utley on 18 September 1877.
The two deeds reveal that Able was an old and infirm man no longer physical capable of farm labor, but of sound mind knowing he had to make definite arrangements for his well being. He died in April of 1879 and buried by his wife in the family burying ground.
State of Tennessee: I, Able Utley, have this day bargained Benton County: and sold and do hereby transfer for and convey to D.A. Dean his heirs and assigns forever for the Consideration that he the said Dean together with his father-in-law, F.R. Reeves, obligate and bind himself to support, clothes and nurse me during the remanding of my life, a certain tract or parcel of land lying in the 3rd Civil District of Benton County, Tennessee it being part of 200 acres granted me by the State of Tennessee, containing by estimation fifty acres be the same more or less and bounded as follows: to-wit, Beginnian at a hickory, post oak, and dogwood pointers thence west 64&3/4 poles thence west 127 poles to a stake in the west boundary of said 200 acres thence south 64&3/4 poles to a post oak the southwest corner of said 200 acres and excluding one acre set apart by me for a burying ground.
To have and to hold the said fifty acres of land I covenant and bind myself my heirs and representatives to warrant and defend the title of said land against the lawful claim of all persons whatever in testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and affixed my seal this 25th day of July 1878.
| Attest: Jas. C. Hudson F.R. Reeves | his Able Utley mark |
The deed to Daniel L. Dean set apart one acre of land for all time to be used for a "Burying Ground," which has been used by the Utley Family for several years. This burying ground became a much used community cemetery after the death of Able Utley, but retained the Utley Cemetery name. More land was acquired in 1905 for the cemetery and to add a Baptist Church on the northwest corner of the new land. Then in 1936 the cemetery was again enlarged and the Utley Cemetery name changed to Eastview Cemetery and is still known by that name.
A permanent trust fund was set up in 1966 with an organization appointed for the maintenance of the cemetery, which was the first such undertaking of a private cemetery in the county. The original acre set aside by Able Utley is located on the east side of the present cemetery and contains many members of the Utley family and their relatives with only large cedar trees marking their graves.
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