{"id":518,"date":"2023-06-13T23:11:47","date_gmt":"2023-06-14T03:11:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tngenweb.org\/bradley\/?p=518"},"modified":"2023-06-14T02:09:22","modified_gmt":"2023-06-14T06:09:22","slug":"william-cates-civil-war-southern-claims-commission-file-deposition-of-john-mcreynolds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tngenweb.org\/bradley\/william-cates-civil-war-southern-claims-commission-file-deposition-of-john-mcreynolds\/","title":{"rendered":"William Cate’s Civil War Southern Claims Commission File — Deposition of John McReynolds"},"content":{"rendered":"

Additional Testimony for the Commissioners of Claims at Washington<\/h4>\n

Claim of William Cate of Bradley county, Tennessee no. 15.774 and 20702<\/p>\n

Deposition of John McReynolds
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

Age 62 years. I am a farmer and miller and reside about four miles from Cleveland and two miles form the claimant. I am not related to the claimant and have no interest in his claim.<\/p>\n

I have been intimately acquainted with the claimant nearly fifty years; knew his farm from schoolboy days. Our farms lie on Mouse Creek, in Mouse Creek valley, and I am well acquainted with his farm. His farm is an excellent farm, good for wheat, grass and corn.<\/p>\n

I have examined the claimant\u2019s account. The Bacon is certainly reasonable for his farming.<\/p>\n

The flour could not have been made for less than 6 cents a pound. The corn was cheap at a dollar a bushel. The hay is cheap enough at one dollar per hundred pounds.<\/p>\n

The wheat straw was cheap at that time at five dollar a ton.<\/p>\n

The pork was cheap at that time at ten cents per pound.<\/p>\n

The wheat crop of 1864 was not a first rate wheat crop. And I think that the claimant\u2019s land even that poor year would have averaged eight bushel per acre. It is as good a field for wheat or corn as is in this county. I know that the claimant had good hay in 1864 and that I made two tons per acre that year on similar land.<\/p>\n

Prices may look high but it took about two dollars in Greenback to purchase one in gold.<\/p>\n

The claimant is considered a good farmer and has a choice farm.<\/p>\n

Question by the claimant<\/i> – Could not a hungry army have foraged something like two thousand or at least seventeen hundred dollars worth of farm products from me during the years 1862, 1863 and 1864.<\/p>\n

Answer<\/i> – I think they could and especially the way prices were at that time.<\/p>\n

Question<\/i> – Did you know me to be in debt or enthrolled at the beginning of the war?<\/p>\n

Answer<\/i> – If claimant was enthrolled in any way, I did not know it.<\/p>\n

Question<\/i> – Do you know anything unkind or ill feelings between me and Mr. J.F. Larrison<\/b>?<\/p>\n

Answer<\/i> – I recollect that there were bad feelings between them about a mare before the war. And I recollect another cause of difficulty about where a road should run. This took place about the year 1861.<\/p>\n

Question<\/i> – What do you know about his feelings after this, and what did Larrison say about claimant\u2019s losses.<\/p>\n

Answer<\/i> – When I heard him talk about the claimant he spoke of him as about as big a rebel as any of them, but declared he had been smart, and lost nothing by the war, or had managed to save his property.<\/p>\n

Question<\/i> – Do you know anything of a difficulty between J.C. Steed<\/b> and claimant about the said Steed dogging and injuring a number of fine hogs for claimant?<\/p>\n

Answer<\/i> – I heard these hard feelings existing between them on account of said Steed\u2019s people dogging and injuring claimant\u2019s hogs. I heard this from several persons. This was about 1864. I was making inquiry, because I had several hogs that had strayed off and fences had been torn down by the armies till they were (?).<\/p>\n

Some persons told me that they had killed some and badly abused other.<\/p>\n

Question<\/i> – Do you know anything about my loyalty?<\/p>\n

Answer<\/i> – I was a Union man in the early part of the war. And so was the claimant. And if ever the claimant was anything but a Union man, I never found it out. I know he was a Union man in the early part of the war, and I never had any reason to believe he had changed from anything I ever heard from him.<\/p>\n

signed,
\nJohn McReynolds<\/b>
\nbefore, John W. Ramsey – Spec. Comm. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

Links to each section of the transcribed file:<\/h4>\n