June 24, 1954
Transcribed by Janette West Grimes
* CAL’S COLUMN *
315 West 44th St.
Vancover, Wash.
June 15, 1954
Macon County Times,
Lafayette, Tennessee
Cal's Column, Dear Sir:
Caught a brief glimpse of
your Column in the Portland, Oregon, Library. I am glad to know about
historical and genealogical material in Tennessee. Due to popularity of the
Cal's Column, was not able to examine procedure required in obtaining
information or presenting queries but will go ahead and writer you just the
same. Membership in Portland Forum is 156 and as I'm out of town, I do not have
frequent access to material belonging to the Forum.
Do you have material on Smith
County, printed in past issues and are they available ? I am most interested in
the MICHAEL and ELIZABETH HUMBLE family, who were born and reared in Smith
County. MICHAEL had brother, Ike, and sister, Emaline... exact birth dates
unknown. Michael and Elizabeth Humble had children: Jake, Jess, Polly, Liza,
and John Lafayette Humble, was born November 9, 1847, Smith County, Tennessee.
Do you have material on this family already printed ? If not, will you print
query?
I realize there must be many
inquiries every day in regard to your Column.... as I intend to be searching out
much history, etc. on Smith County, do hope this request can be answered as my
turn comes. Thank you for any attention you wish to give and please advise on
fee required for query and cost of back issues as mentioned above.
Most Sincerely,
Carolyn Humble Fish
__________________________________________________
REPLY
We
appreciate this inquiry from Mrs. Fish. Although the writer is a native of
Smith County, Tenn., we have never met a member of the family of Humble in my
life, and neither do we know of any Humble now living in Smith County. Moreover
we have looked through the Smith County census records for 1820, 1840, 1850,
and 1870, and we find not one member of the family listed in either census. We
have the 1830 census, but it is not indexed and we have not had time to look
through the entire list of the names of heads of Smith County families 124
years ago. We are publishing Mrs. Fish's letter in the hope that some reader
can supply the information she wants. As to regulations governing the use of
our "Column", there is none. We try to give information when we have
it; and when we have none, we just say so.
However, we find some little
information on the family in our records. The following appears in Cathcart's
Encyclopedia: " Rev. Henry Humble, a pioneer Baptist preacher in
Louisiana, was born in South Carolina in 1765; settled in Catahoula Parish, La.
in 1822; and in 1826 gathered the First church on the Quachita; was moderator
of the Louisiana Association in 1828, and the following year died while
attending the Association."
" Rev. Thomas J. Humble,
the leading minister of the Ouachita Baptist Association, was born in Caldwell
Parish, La. in 1829; has long been the efficient clerk of his association, and
frequently its moderator."
We are sorry not to know
anything more than brief accounts of these two ministers. We find that the
following Humbles are buried in Liberty Cemetery, two and a half miles south of
McMinnville, Warren Co., Tennessee, approximately 65 miles southeast of
Lafayette: Margaret W. Humble, born Oct. 23, 1796, died April 22, 1861. Isaac
Humble, supposedly the husband of Margaret, born Sept. 10, 1795, died Nov. 24,
1882. Zachariah Humble, born Jan. 26, 1847; died May 8, 1863. Willy Humble,
March 16, 1862, _______. Members of other families buried in this Cumberland
Presbyterian church cemetery include: Hopkins, Colville, Hackett, Smartt,
McLean, Gwynn, McRamsey, Lauflin, Robinson, Ross, Locke, Carter, and
Waterhouse.
In the Bible of James
McCasland, in the possession of James Napier, are the following names of the
Humble family: George Humble, born June 15, 1773, Humphreys County; Sarah
Humble, Oct. 16, 1770; Margaret Humble, born Oct. 8, 1796; Jacob Humble, born
July 30, 1798; John Humble, born Mar. 6, 1800; Mary Humble, born July 29, 1807;
David Humble, born Oct. 6, 1809; Sarah Jane Humble, born Oct. 10, 1811.
George Humble and Sarah
Humble were married July 31, 1795. William McCasland and Margaret Humble were
married July 31, 1823. William died Aug. 21, 1844 and Margaret McCasland lived
until April 6, 1860. Sarah Humble died in 1852. Some of the others mentioned in
this Bible are the Wylys and Napiers. On Sept. 29, 1810, William F. Overall
married Terry Humble in Wilson Co., Tenn., county seat, Lebanon. Nace Overall
was surety or bondsman for Wm. F. Overall.
We are sorry that we have
only this bit of information, but hope that we have started Mrs. Fish on the
road to the information she seeks.
We have
recently gathered some information on the Towns Family located largely in Smith
County. Our information is far from complete but we give what we have so that
it may help others to get a start on tracing the family back through the years.
The first known member of the Towns family was Edmond Towns, born in North
Carolina in 1784. He married Mary Ellis, born the same year in N. Carolina. He
had one known brother, who went West, but we do not have his name. Edmond and
his wife, Mary Ellis, were the parents of: A daughter, Betsy, who married
Reuben Goad, Jr., and Benjamin E. Towns, born in N. Carolina in 1804, and
married Martha Bransford, a sister of Elvira Bransford, who married Thomas
Shoulders, son of Malachi Shoulders. In the census of 1850, Benjamin E. Towns,
supposedly Benjamin Ellis Towns, lived near his fathe rand mother, on the old
Charlie Goad farm about 3 miles northeast of Pleasant Shade, Tenn., near
Russell Hill. The writer used to carry the mail by this old home in the years
gone by.
Benjamin E. Towns and his wife,
Martha Towns,the latter born in Va. in 1809, were the parents of the following
in the year 1850: William Towns, 18; Nancy, 12; Sarah, 10; Edmond Lee, 8;
Josephine, 6; Angeline, 4; and Benjamin Ellis, Jr., 2 years of age. William
later married a Miss Day who lived only one week; he later married Hannah
Parker; Nancy married John Dillehay, whom we knew quite well in our early life;
Sarah, who married perhaps Day and later James Culbreath; Edmond Lee, born May
11, 1842, married Sallie Gifford; Josephine married Will Wakefield; Angeline,
commonly known as Ann Towns, married Will Rose; and Benjamin Ellis Towns
married the writer's father's first cousin, Miss Mary Gregory, daughter of Tom
Gregory, son of Major Gregory, son of Jeremiah Gregory, son of John Gregory.
Mary and our father were "double-first" cousins, their mothers having
been sisters and their fathers half-brothers. There was still another daughter
of Benjamin and Martha, Elizabeth being her name. She married Ira
"Cap" Richardson, Still another son was James Towns, who died
unmarried.
In our boyhood, Ben Towns,
who married Mary Gregory, lived over the big hill to the northwest of our
little home. We saw daily what was then called the Ben Towns Hill, a huge hill
with one little scrubby beech tree standing almost on the very summit of the
big hill which tree has since died. The hill is now largely covered with black
locust trees. In our boyhood, the hill was almost entirely cultivated and was a
landmark that could be seen for miles. We recall that Mr. Towns, who was a kind
man, used to tell our mother to send to his hill and get peaches. We recall
having fallen out of one of those peach trees about 50 years ago and our left
hand was turned "back" over the wrist. This was very painful and
would, perhaps, today break our wrist or hand. But "them were the good old
days !"
We knew Edmond Towns as a
small boy. We heard him say one day back in the dim and distant past that a
certain piece of land he had cleared was "sixteen to one." Older
readers will recall that there was a political cry of "sixteen to
one," back in Bryan's early political life and meant a plea for 16 silver
dollars to each gold dollar, or dollar in gold. We asked the elder Mr. Towns
what was meant by his piece of ground being " sixteen to one." He
replied, to our boyish question, "There are 16 rocks to one dirt."
And we would judge that he had something there. We recall another episode of
half a century ago on the same line. A farmer in offering some clover for sale,
stated: "This hay is 16 to one." The purchaser later reported that
the seller was right, that there were 16 white blossoms to one sprig of
hay." White blossoms in hay are a pest.
We recall another thing said
to Mr. Edmond Towns as to his size when he was born. He stated to the writer
some 55 years ago that he was so small when he was born that he could have been
placed in a half-gallon coffee pot. One other thing we still recall that he
said. In speaking of his rather large number of daughters, he remarked,
"The devil owed me a debt, and paid me off in sons-in-laws," one of
whom was our uncle, Monroe Gregory. However, his remark was not literal, as he
had a respectable group of sons-in-laws. Edmond Towns, above referred to, lived
on the dividing line between Trousdale and Smith Counties, about a mile and a
half from our childhood home.
In looking through some of
our old records, we find the following concerning the Towns family: In the
census for Smith County for 1820, we find the name Edmond Towner (Towns) as the
head of a family. He had one male from 16 to 18 years of age, one from 18 to 26
and one from 26 to 45, no doubt himself. He had one female from 10 to 16 years
of age, perhaps Elizabeth or Betsey who married Reuben Goad, Jr. and one female
from 26 to 45, no doubt his wife. In the census of 1850, Benjamin E. Towns
lived next to his father, Edmond Towns. Another neighbor on the other side of
the place where Benjamin lived was the Hesson family. This was almost certainly
in the vicinity of the present Russell Hill.
Edmond Towns, of our boyhood,
was the father of three sons: Richard Towns married a Beasley and who still
lives and gave us part of this information in this article; Will Towns, who
married a Roark, and has been dead for a number of years; and Charlie Towns who
still lives in Davidson County, Tennessee.
Ben Towns, out of whose peach
tree we fell, had only one son, Donoho Towns who died in 1908 and was never
married. One of Ben's daughters, Sallie, married Gid Earps, another married Lum
Smith, another married Howard Piper, another married Calvin Beasley, and the
youngest, Myrtle, married Will Cothron.
Daughters of Edmond Towns,
who paid the compliment ( ? ) to his sons-in-laws, included one, who married
Monroe Massey, two of them married
George Oldham, one of them our uncle, Monroe Gregory, one married a Richmond,
and we do not recall any others.
___________________________
This Article
Appeared In The Times
But Was Not
Actually In Cal’s Column
On
Sunday members of the George Mince family and friends met at Old Hopewell
Baptist Church in Sumner County in a reunion. About 150 persons were in
attendance and a big dinner was enjoyed at the noon hour. G. O. Templeton
Preached a good sermon.
The descendants of George
Mince are in part living and the others have passed on. Present Sunday were
Elder Lewis Mince, and Grover Mince; and sisters, Mrs. Ethel Fuqua, Mrs. Mary
Faqua, and Mrs. Mattie Manning. Mrs. Neal Reid, another daughter, was not
present. Two of the sons, Bobbie and Grover, have passed away.
George Mince was born in
Georgia, the son of William and a Miss Banks, his wife. George Mince was one of
the finest singers of oldtime revival songs we have ever known. He had a
melodious voice, loved singing, and had a zeal that was rarely surpassed. He
was a good man and had hundreds of friends in Trousdale, Sumner, Smith and
Macon Counties. There is some reason to believe that he was related to Casper
Mintz, a pioneer Baptist minister, who came to America in 1727. Casper Mintz
was an English Baptist minister, and spent 30 years in the ministry. He was
considered an able preacher for his day and time.
We knew George Mince well,
his wife having been a first cousin of our father, Thomas M. Gregory. Her name
was Elizabeth Gregory, the daughter of Robert Hawkins and Mary Gregory. George
died in 1938 at the age of 72 years.