Submitted by Bob [surname unidentified] (before 2015)
My g-g-grandfather, Elijah Vick came to Bledsoe County, Tn. in 1815. He and his wife Lucy Gay Vick were from Edgecombe County, NC. Elijah is mistakenly listed on the 1815 Tax List of Bledsoe as Elijah Wick. He is also listed in the 1830 census of Bledsoe County. In 1816 Lucy Gay Vick inherited some land in NC. from her father, Henry Gay, and Elijah and Lucy returned to Edgecombe County, NC., sold Lucy’s land to her sister and brother-in-law, the Mercers, and returned to Bledsoe. They lived somewhere near Robeson’s Crossroads between Pikeville and Dunlap on what is now U. S. highway 127.
Elijah and Lucy had five children, 1 boy and two girls were born in Bledsoe and 1 boy and 1 girl was born in NC. The only name of any of these children I have been able to find is that of my g-grandfather, Robert Vick [ 6 ]. He was born in NC, in 1810 but, after 1815 he lived the rest of his life in Bledsoe and Knox County, Tn. He married Minerva Nelson, I believe in Bledsoe, He is listed in all the censuses of Bledsoe from 1840 through 1870. In the 1860 census he is listed as mulatto. I don’t know whether this means he was part Indian or black. I know his grand father, Robert [ 4 ] of Greene County, NC. owned slaves and property in Edgecombe, Pitt and Glasgow Counties in NC.
Robert [ 6] had twelve children in Bledsoe:
Martha, b. ca. 1835, d. before 1850, I assume she is buried in Bledsoe but I have not been able to confirm any to the Vick deaths in Bledsoe.
Emeline, b 1837, she was living in Bledsoe in 1870, but I have some information she died and was buried in South Pittsburg, Tn.
John, b. 1839 in Bledsoe, d. before 1860 in Bledsoe,
James, b. April 1841, married Sarah Hickey in Knox County on April 5, 1865 when he returned from the Civil War. He fought on the Union side.
Edley, b. 1843, d. as a Union soldier in Flat Lick, Ky. hospital on April 23, 1862, he did not die of combat wounds, he died of measles,
Mary, b. 1846 in Bledsoe, d. after 1870, she never married, I assume she died and was buried in Bledsoe,
Rufus, my grandfather, b. 1848, he died on August 6, 1920 in Nashville, he married Susan Willis of Jackson County, Ala. on June 5, 1873, she died in Nashville on March 27, 1934, Ashley, b. ca. 1849, I have some information that he died in Jackson County, Ala. but I have not been able to confirm this or the date, I have some data that he was a blacksmith.
Virginia, b. ca. 1849-50, she was living in 1898, but I do not have any record of her marriage or death,
Robert Emmitt, b. July 26, 1858 in Bledsoe, married Elizabeth Childress of Washington County, Tn. on December 19, 1888, they lived in Tn., Tx., Ala, and they lived and died in Knox County, Tn.
Alex, b. 1858 in Bledsoe died in childhood, I assume in Bledsoe,
Asbury, b. August 1860, married Sarah ?, d. I believe in Birmingham, Ala., but I have not been able to confirm this, he was also a blacksmith.
Emmitt worked for the old Tennessee Coal, Iron and Railroad in South Pittsburg. He was a member and an officer of the Odd Fellows Lodge. He was a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South in Knox County. Rufus worked for the old Nashville Tellico and Charleston Railroad shop in Nashville as a carpenter. He owned property in Nashville. James was what I would consider a hero in the Civil War. He fought in several battles the Battle of Rogersville, Tn.