California Letter

________

1540 N. Park Ave.,

Pomona, Calif.

September 12^th

Macon County Times,

Lafayette, Tennessee

Sirs:

Enclosed is a money order for $2.50 to pay for subscription to the paper for one year. The old subscription expires on September 13, 1957. We enjoy reading the contents of the Times as many memories of our boyhood days are brought back to mind by things we read in the Times. We left there Sept. 20, 1909. I have made several trips back and forth between my adopted State and my native State and have enjoyed meeting my many friends and relatives. I am proud to know that Lafayette and Macon County are progressing in general.

Wishing you and all a successful year ahead, I am

Sincerely,

Fountain L. Hargis

(Editor’s note. Fountain L. Hargis is the son of Wyatt Hargis and has been gone from Macon County nearly 50 years. Wyatt Hargis was the son of William Hargis, father also of Robert Hargis, of Route two, Lafayette; Wiseman Hargis, Eason Hargis, former merchant of Long Fork, “Clutch Hargis, George Hargis and William Lee Hargis. The family has Cherokee blood by reason of the fact that one of the older Hargis’s married a Cherokee Indian woman named Jennie Jacobs. The Hargis I find listed in the census of 1820 for Smith County, Tennessee, which in that year embraced about two thirds of the present Macon County, was John Hargis, Jr. He had three males under 10 and he himself was between 18 and 26. His wife was then (1820) 16 to 28. They owned one Negro slave in the year 1820.

The first Hargis in the 1820 census for Smith County was William Hargis, who had two males under 10, names not given; one male between 10 and 16; one between 18 and 26; and William, we suppose, over 45 years of age. Females were: Two under 10, one from 10 to 16, two from 16 to 26, and one above 45 years of age, name not given but presumed to have been Mrs. William Hargiss.

John Hargiss, Senior, is the next I find listed in the 1820 census. He had two males under 10, two males between 10 and 16, one male from 16 to 18; one between 18 and 26; and one above 45, presumed to have been John Hargis, Sr.. Females were: two under ten, and one between 26 and 45. This is all the Hargis families I can find in the east two thirds of the present Macon County, in 1820.

In the census of 1830 for Smith County, which still embraces about two thirds of the east part of Macon County, I find the name of Herod Hargis, who had three males under five years of age, and one from 30 to 40, presumed to have been Herod. Females in the same family, names not given, one between 20 and 30, presumed to have been Mrs. Herod Hargis; and one from 60 to 70, possibly his mother or mother-in-law. Their near neighbors were Cyrus W. Brevard, William B. Reece, Coleby Stapp, James Parker and Thomas Wilburn, presumed to have lived on Big Goose Creek or Dixon’s Creek.

I find next the name of John Hargis, who had two males under five, three from 5 to 10, two from 10 to 15 years of age and one male from 30 to 40, presumed to have been John Hargis. Females were as follows: One under five, one from five to 10, and one between 30 and 40, presumed to have been Mrs. John Hargis. Their near neighbors and this will give some insight into the location of the Hargis family, were: Lewis Meador, John Baker, Charles Marsh, Demcy (Dempsey) Parker, Lawson Oliver and Howell H. Hargis. We would judge that in the year 1830 the family, from the names of their near neighbors, lived on the waters of Dixon’s Creek.

The near neighbor, Howell H. Hargis, lived on the second farm either “up or down the road” from John Hargis. In his family there was one male, between 20 and 30 years of age, presumed to have been Howell H. Hargis; two females under five, presumed to have been Hargis girls; and one female from 40 to 50. Although no names except Howell H. Hargis are given, it is possible that this last female might have been his wife, as many of our early settlers married women who were considerably older than the husbands. Perhaps readers will wonder how long the censuses were taken merely in age groups. All the members of a family were not listed by name until the census of 1850. So we have to do a lot of “supposing” or presuming.”

The Demcy or Dempsey Parker above mentioned lived a long, long time ago near the present Booker Wilburn home on Dixon’s Creek. Dempsey Parker was the ancestor of two officers of the local bank, Luther and William Parker.