TOMBSTONE INSCRIPTIONS FROM BLACK CEMETERIES
IN BENTON COUNTY, TENNESSEE
(Revised Edition with Maps)
Compiled by Jonathan K.T. Smith
Copyright, Jonathan K.T. Smith, 1995

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A NOTE, THE MENZIES GENEALOGY

Many persons of black descent tracing their families back into Benton County are descendants of the MENZIES family, a group with origins in Decatur County, adjoining Benton County on the south. In order to understand something of the black Menzies past it is necessary to know something of the whites of that surname during antebellum times.

The 1860 slave schedule of the U.S. Census, Civil District 9, Decatur County, Tennessee, page 262, lists R. G. Menzies with slaves: female mulatto aged 80 (c1780); female black aged 31 (c1829); female black aged 30 (c1830); male mulatto aged 21 (c1839); female black aged 18 (c1842); male black aged 13 (c1847); male mulatto aged 11 (c1849); male mulatto aged 9 (c1851); male black aged 9 (c1851); female black aged 9 (c 1851); female black aged 7 (c1853); male black aged 7 (c1853); male black aged 1 (c1859); female black aged 1 (c 1859); female black aged 7 (c1853).

Goodspeed's HISTORY OF TENNESSEE, Dyer County (Nashville, 1887), page 1050, in a biographical sketch of R. G. (ROBERT) MENZIES, states that he was born

 

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in Rockingham County, North Carolina in 1825 and was the surviving child of Robert Menzies who was born in Scotland in 1781, coming to America at age 22, locating in North Carolina, a merchant and hotel operator at Leaksville until his death; and of Mary Menzies (1787-1852), also a native of Rockingham County. Robert G. Menzies was married to Sarah F. Hall, a daughter of Alfred P. Hall of Benton County. The marriage records of the latter county show that this marriage occurred on July 18, 1853. Menzies moved to Decatur County before 1850 and continued to live there until his move to Dyer County in 1870 where he became a prominent farmer and grain dealer; he died in Newbern, August 12, 1893. The Menzies farm consisted of some 1180 acres at the time of the Civil War.

Also living, in Civil District 9 of north Decatur County in 1860 were two other persons of the Menzies name, William J. Menzies, aged 74 years, given as native of North Carolina and John C. Menzies, aged 68, also a native of North Carolina; these men may have been uncles of Robert G. Menzies. In the 1860 slave schedule of Decatur County (page 263), William J. Menzies was given as owner of a female mulatto aged 24 (c1836) and a female mulatto aged 12 (c1848). John C. Menzies is listed with a female mulatto aged 45 (c1815); male black aged 40 (c1820); male black aged 32 (c1828); male black aged 27 (c1833); male black aged 25 (c1835); male black aged 22 (c1838); female black aged 22 (c1838); male black aged 18 (c1842); female black aged 18 (c1842); male mulatto aged 13 (c1847); male mulatto aged 12 (c1848); male black aged 9 (cl85l); female black aged 24 (c1836); female black aged 24 (c 1836); female mulatto aged 12 (c1848); female mulatto aged 11 (c1849).

Almost certainly several of the black Menzies reported living in Civil District 1 of Benton County in the 1880 census were among these antebellum bondsfolk bound to the Menzies in the 1860 census in nearby Decatur County. There may have been a "blood tie" between some of the black and white Menzies. In 1880 these people were JOHN MENZIES aged 45 and wife, PARALEE, aged 26, native of Tennessee, with five children (page 3); ROBERT MENZIES, aged 60 and wife, HARRIETT, aged 45; he a native of North Carolina and she of Tennessee, with four children (pages 3-4); SPENCER MENZIES, aged 40 and wife, PILE (Polethy in 1870 census), aged 34, native of Tennessee with five children and Spencer's mother, MARY, aged 60, native of North Carolina (page 6); ANSELM /Anse/ MENZIES, aged 37 and wife, ANN, aged 27, native of Tennessee with five children (pages 8-9); MACE MENZIES aged 32 and wife, TISHY, aged 40, native of Tennessee with five children (page 10); HENRY MENZIES, aged 26 and wife, AGNIS, aged 20, natives of Tennessee with two children (page 11). Living in Civil District 3 were PERRY PAVATT, aged 25 and wife, HARRIETT, aged 23, natives of Tennessee, with three children, WILLIE, ANNIS and LILLIAN (page 4). The latter couple were married in Decatur County, November 30, 1875; her maiden name was MENZIE.

 

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