Transcribed by John Waggoner Jr.
Carthage, Tennessee
July 2004
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We acknowledge
ourselves indebted to John Waggoner, David Bass, Martha Davis, Henry Miller and
________ Tyler and wife in the sum of five hundred dollars to be void if Jacob
Waggoner and others shall prosecute with effect a bill filed in Smith Circuit
Court against said defendants with effect or in case of failure of such
prosecution pay the cost of such. Witness our hands the seals, 4th
Oct., 1847.
Jacob Waggoner (Seal)
James B. Moores (Seal)
To the Hon. Judge of
the 4th Judicial Circuit presiding at Carthage, Tennessee. Bill of Complaint for the sale of land filed
in the Circuit Court of Smith County by JacobWaggoner, George Waggoner, and
Mary Uhles, citizens of Smith County, Tennessee.
Daniel Waggoner, David Waggoner and Nicholas Waggoner, citizens of Humphreys County, Tennessee, William Waggoner, citizen of Wilson County, Tennessee, Soloman Wiatt and his wife, Sally, and William Duke and his wife Susan, citizens of Davidson County, Tennessee against John Waggoner citizen of ________, non resident Martha Davis Davis Bass citizen of Arkansas and Henry Miller citizen of Arkansas and Elizabeth Tyler, formerly Elizabeth Miller and her husband _________ Tyler citizens also of Arkansas. Your orator and oratrixes would respectfully show your honor that in June 1847 Mary Morris departed this life intestate in Smith County Tennessee leaving a small estate both personal and real, and your petitioners together with the defendants, some 14 in number, heirs at law and distributies, that is intestate died without issue or children of her own are consequently leaving as her surviving heirs her whole and half blood brothers and sisters and the surviving nephews and nieces of her deceased brothers and sisters to wit: Daniel, Davis, Nicholas, Jacob, William and John Waggoner, brothers and Susan wife of William Duke, sister ___________ Waggoner, half brother, Sally Wiatt wife of Soloman Wiatt, Mary Uhles widow of John Uhles deceased. Nieces and illegitimate children, two in number, of her sister Barbara Waggoner deceased, Martha Davis, niece and daughter of her sister Elizabeth Davis deceased. The father of Martha, Sam Davis is also dead and the three children of her sister Katherine deceased, who first married Jordan Bass and had one child to wit, a son named David Bass and then after his death, with John Miller and had one daughter, to wit, Elizabeth, intermarried with a Mr Tyler and son Henry Miller, all of age.
Your Orator and
Oratrixes would further show Your Honor that at July Term of the County Court of Smith 1847, J. J. Burnett took out
letters of Adm. upon the estate of said Mary Morris deceased, that he is
proceeding to settle up the same, that the personal estate amounts to between
two and three hundred dollars, which will more than meet the debt of the estate
as there are but few. The real estate
of intestate consists of two small tracts of land joining each other bequeathed
by Dempsey Morris, the husband of intestate to her, his wife, said tract
contain one hundred and twenty four acres, more or less, and lies in Smith
County, Tenn and district # 14 on Hogan’s Creek, bounded on the south by John
Estes, north by Jerry Smith and William Evans, east by Moses Reeves and west by
Thomas Crutchfield land, the title
papers will be filed if necessary. Your
Orator and Oratrixes would further show Your Honor that said land is of such a
description it cannot be advantageously partitioned among the heirs,
considering their number, and that it will manifestly be to their interest of
all parties to sell the same for the purpose of distributing the proceeds among
those entitled, the premises considered.
Your Orator and
Oratrixes pray that non-residents be made defendants to the bill that on order
of publication, be made as to them. The
non-residents John Waggoner, David Bass, Martha Davis, Henry Miller, ____ Tyler
and his wife, Elizabeth. Complainants
further pray that said land be sold by decree or Your Honorable Court for the
purpose of distributing the proceeds of this upon such terms as may be directed
by Your Honor and for all such other and further relief or good
conscience.
Moores Solicitor for Complainants
Smith County,
Tennessee
This 4th
Oct. 1847, Jacob Waggoner personally appeared before the clerk of Smith Circuit
Court and made oath that he is informed and believes it to true that John Waggoner, David Bass, Martha Davis,
Henry Miller, _____ Tyler and wife Elizabeth are non – residents of the State
of Tennessee and subscribed the same.
Jacob Waggoner
November Term 1847
Came the complainants
by their solicitors. When it appears to
the court that publication has been made pursuant to order made in the clerks
office at October Rules 1847 requiring the defendants John Waggoner, David
Bass, Martha Davis, Henry Miller, ----- Tyler and wife Elizabeth,
non-residents, defendants to appear at this term and plead, demur or answer to
complainants bill and said defendants having failed to appear and plead, demur
or answer complainants bill , it is
ordered that the same be taken for confessed and set for hearing exparte as to
said non-residents defendants.
March Term 1848
Came the complainants
by the Solicitor and this cause coming
on to be heard upon bill taken for Confessed the value of land not
appearing to the court, it is ordered that the clerk take proof and report in
the premises. Afterwards the clerk filed his report and accompanying proof and
the cause coming on to be further heard, it appearing to the court that that
the tract of land in the pleading mentioned is of such a description that it
will be manifestly for the advantage of the parties entitled that the same be
sold and the proceeds distributed.
It is thereupon
ordered, adjudged and decreed by the court that the clerk of this court proceed
to sell said land by public auction at the Courthouse in Carthage. After giving
40 days notice of time and place by advertisement at Rome, at Dixon Springs, at
Carthage at Smith’s Store on Mulherron Cr. And at Ross’s, said land will be
sold on a credit of one and two years, except or to a sum sufficient to pay the
cost of such which will be required in cash, the purchaser to give notes with
good security and a lien will be retained on the land for the purchase
money. The clerk will report to next
term. It is ordered by the court that
the land directed to be sold by the clerk not be sold for less than five
hundred dollars.
July Term 1848
Came the Complainants
and their Solicitors, when the clerk filed his report showing that after giving
the notice required in the decental order, he sold the land in the pleadings
mentioned at the court house in Carthage on the 14th June 1848 at
public auction when and where Robert Enoch became the purchaser of said land at
the price of five hundred dollars, that said purchaser paid at cash forty
dollars and executed two notes with James L. Bradley and Jacob Waggoner
securities each for two hundred and thirty dollars due at twelve and twenty
four months. The clerk further reported
that in addition to the personal security, a lien was retained on said land for
the balance of the purchase money which report not being excepted to is in all
things confirmed by the court. It
further appeared to the court from the pleadings that said tract of land
contains one hundred and twenty four acres more or less, lying in Smith County
in Civil District 14 on Hogan’s Creek
and is bounded
on the south by John
Estes, on the north by Jeremiah Smith
and William Evans, on the east by Moses Reeves, and on the west by
Thomas Crutchfield. It is thereupon
ordered, adjudged and decreed by the court that all right and title, both legal
and reputable (except lien retained for purchase money) of the parties in this
suit in and to said tract of land bounded as aforesaid be and the same is
hereby directed in the said Robert Enoch, (purchaser aforesaid) his heirs and
assigns to have and to hold forever, subject however to the lien retained as
aforesaid.
July Term 1849
Ordered that the
clerk proceed to distribute the net fund arising from the sale of the land sold
under a decree of this court in this cause as the same shall be collected for
time to time.