The FLEMING family of Bransford, in the 11th district of upper Sumner County, Tennessee, began it's modern day saga about the end of the eighteenth century. The FLEMINGS were pioneers and farmers who came to Middle Tennessee from Virginia seeking fortune and independence. The first church was named Independence and several years later the school was given the same name. They were very prolific, with a penchant for female children, which accounts for the good looks and sterling character of so many people, whatever their names may be, who are living in upper Sumner County today.

The FLEMINGS, ROBERTSON, THOMPSON, SLOAN,and KERLEY families became close allies through religious and marriage ties. They were a formidable force in upper middle Tennessee for many years, with headquarters at Bransford, on the forks of Bledsoe and Otter Fork Creeks.

The family has always displayed a degree of patriotism that speaks louder in actions than in words. Members of the family, both men and women, have participated in, and fought and died in all of the country's wars and police actions, including the Indian Wars of the sixteen hundreds, the Revolutionary War, The War of 1812, The Mexican War, The Civil War, and all the other wars up to the present time. One of the first fighters was Elizabeth White KERLEY, wife of Captain Henry KERLEY. She was killed by Indians on the tenth day of February, sixteen hundred and seventy six, in King Philips War, while trying to protect her home and children.

Few of the family members are violent people, but their nature and their genes lead them to conflict. The blood feuds of some of the other early families of the region never developed among the FLEMINGS. Their battles were fought on a less violent battleground, the courtrooms of the Macon and Sumner County Courthouses. Some of the lawsuits appear to be trivial matters that could have been settled without the aggravation and expense of a court trial, but the trip to town and the change in routine might have been worth the extra expense.

Some folks think that James FLEMING and Elizabeth RASCO were among the first FLEMINGS to settle in Sumner County and were the parents of Beverly Newton FLEMING. I do not have postitive proof of that so I will just put down a few facts that are on record. A man named James FLEMING was in Gallatin, Tennessee on the 12th day of August, 1824 where he posted a bond of twelve hundred and fifty dollars unto William CARROLL, the governor of the state, in order to get a marriage license. He and Elizabeth RASCO were married the same day by J.B. WYMMS, deacon of the Methodist E P Church. Elizabeth RASCO was a member of the Siloam Church and her name is also on the roll of the Bledsoe Creek Baptist Church.

Beverly Newton FLEMING was born on the 5th day of November 1826 and that event had a profound effect on happenings around Bransford for the next one hundred and seventy years. B. N. grew up along the banks of Bledsoe Creek and lived and worked most of his life on his farm at the forks of Bledsoe and Otter Fork Creeks. The life and times and activities of Beverly Newton FLEMING can be followed and re- constructed by reading the records in the Archives of Sumner and Macon Counties. Beverly's basic occupation was farming, but he also owned a sawmill and a shingle making machine. Those businesses supplied building materials and part time employment for the neighbors and relatives living around Bransford. He was also a Justice of The Peace for Sumner County, which authorized him to perform marriage ceremonies and act as a sort of judge of small claims court. He was a deacon in the Bledsoe Creek Baptist Church, then known as the Independence Baptist Church, a pillar in the community and a powerful man to have as a friend. After the railroad was built between Gallatin and Scottsville, Kentucky, Beverly did a good part time business cutting timber and sawing crossties.

Beverly FLEMING made bond to the state of Tennessee in the amount of twelve hundred and fifty dollars on the thirteenth day of August, 1850 in order to obtain a marriage license. The marriage bond was co- signed by Jesse MEADOR, a relative of Beverly's bride to be, Mary Hubbard ROBERTSON. Copies of the marriage bond and marriage license can be seen at the Sumner County Archives at Gallatin, Tennessee. Beverly was married the fourteenth day of August 1850 by John WISEMAN. His bride was Mary Hubbard ROBERTSON, a girl from the adjoining farm, the daughter of Elisha ROBERTSON and Elizabeth "Betsy" MITCHELL. Elisah had traveled across the mountains from Virginia with his father Jesse after the Revolutionary War. They were in Bransford for the same reason as the FLEMINGS, in search of fortune and independence. Mary Hubbard ROBERTSON, born September 17, 1824 was 26 years of age on her wedding day and two years older than her husband. Part of her dowry was land that is still owned by her direct descendants.

Beverly and Mary had seven children and six of them lived to marry and settle down in Sumner and Macon Counties and raise two families of THOMPSONS, two families of SLOANS, one family of ANDERSON'S and one family of FLEMINGS.

1. Mary Elizabeth was born 3 May 1854 and married Isaac Day SLOAN.
2. Martha Jane Louella was born 3 August 1856 and married Charles Marion SLOAN.
3. James William "Jim" was born 5 May 1858 and married Gertrude Tuggle KERLEY.
4. John G. was born 15 October and never married.
5. Nancy Emily "Missy" was born 3 August 1864 and married Fleming ANDERSON.
6. Monica L. was born 30 April 1865 and married James M. "Jim" THOMPSON.
7. Effie Alice was born 4 April 1866 and married Romas M. "Sobe" THOMPSON.

It appears that B.N. FLEMING started to become active in local politics after Jim was born in 1858. He appeared in the January term of the Sumner County Court in 1859 and produced his commissions as Justice of the Peace in district 13 dated 27 December 1858 and was duly qualified. Beverly had been married eight years and was the father of three children. He was thirty two years of age and a solid citizen, a hard working and ambitious young man on the way to a position of influence and respect in the county.

James FLEMING died in 1859 without leaving a will and Beverly N. FLEMING was the administrator of his estate. I don't know if this man was Beverly's father or not, he might have been his uncle. The hand written record of the court proceedings of the November 1860 term of the Sumner County Court is in the Sumner County Archives at Gallatin.

The five years between the birth of John and "Missy" were trying times for the FLEMINGS, and everyone else in Bransford. The Civil War brought a halt to most of the progress and development that the region had enjoyed for more than fifty years. The men went to war, some on the side of the Union and some on the side of the Confederacy. Most of the people around Bransford were in sympathy with the South. Beverly Newton FLEMING joined the Confederate Army in December of 1861 as a Lieutenant in Company D 55th Tennessee Infantry. He enlisted in Day's Company at Camp Trousdale, near Portland in Sumner County. The camp was a city of tents and improvised huts and was a pesthole. The water supply was contaminated and the sanitation conditions were so bad the camp was moved twice. After traveling through middle Tennessee and parts of Georgia and Alabama, Beverly was discharged on the 19th day of April 1862 at Corinth, Mississippi by General order number 17 signed by Major General HARDEE. The reason for the discharge was the chronic diarrhea he had acquired from the food and water at Camp Trousdale. He was afflicted with that and other infirmitiess for the rest of his life. A copy of the discharge is on file at the Sumner County Archives.

We write about the hardships of the men who went to war but what of the women left to take care of things at home. Mary Hubbard was left with four children aged two, three, five and seven years when Beverly went to war. The thought of taking care of four small children and running a farm in the year 1861 is mind boggling. There were none of the conveniences that we take for granted today. Everything that was eaten had to be prepared by the people on the farm. The children couldn't be served breakfast from a box of ready made cereal because there was no such thing in existence. Someone had to cut wood to burn in the stove before anything could be cooked. There was no running water and no electric irons. Water for washing clothes, bathing, and cooking was heated over a wood burning fire. Before the water could be heated, it had to be drawn from a well or carried from a spring. Who helped Mary with all that work? Several hours of every day were spent getting things ready for the next days struggle. She had to do the washing every week on a scrub board and boil the clothes in a kettle sitting over a wood fire. Who cut all that wood? Beverly joined the army in December. Had the corn been gathered and stored for the winter? Had the tobacco crop been stripped and prepared for market? Was there enough cow and horse feed in the barn for the winter? Had the hogs been butchered and the meat salted and put in the smokehouse? Who would cut wood to warm the house all winter? Those old fireplaces burned a lot of wood and it gets cold in Tennessee in the winter time.

What happened if one of the kids got sick and needed a doctor? Can't you imagine Mary Hubbard in the back yard, with snow on the ground, bent over a tub, washing clothes on the scrub board and trying to keep a fire going under the wash kettle, a rifle or shotgun leaning against the tree, while she keeps one eye on the children and one peeled for Yankee soldiers coming across the hill. She is hoping that the dog lying on the front porch will warn her if some danger comes in from the blind side of the house.

The only help that Mary had, that we know of, was one slave named Sam and we don't know how reliable he was. He probably worked with the livestock and did chores outside of the house. Someone would have to go to the grocery store once in a while to get coffee and sugar and things like that. Mary might have gone and carried the children with her. Beverly furnished some horses to the Confederate Army and we hope he left one for Mary to use for transportation. Maybe she had a horse and buggy that she and the kids could use for traveling around the neighborhood.

Mary couldn't look for any help from Beverly, or even for any letters, as the mail must have been very slow getting through. The men had gone to the war and there might not have been a mailman at that time. The only thing she could do was try to keep herself and the children alive and hope to see Beverly come riding up the road one day. He was gone only four months but to Mary it must have seemed like four years.

B.N. FLEMING and Mary sold a quarter of an acre of land to J.F. MIMMICK on the 1st day of October 1887 for twenty five dollars. The land was located as follows, in the 11th district at Bransford lying between Gallatin and Scottsville Turnpike and the Cumberland and Ohio Railroad, now known as the Chesapeake and Nashville Railroad, on the South by the land of John DURHAM'S heirs and known as the old CARTER lands. On the West and North West by the Gallatin and Scottsville Turnpike, and on the East and North East by the Cumberland and Ohio Railroad, now known as the Chesapeake and Nashville Railroad. This land must have been sold for use as a business; maybe a store.

B.N. FLEMING and wife Mary FLEMING signed a deed on the 9th day of December, 1904 that transferred a strip of land along the Otter Fork creek to the Citizens of Sumner County. The land was to be used for the purpose of removing the County Road from Bledsoe to Hartsville out of the creek bed. Five dollars in cash was paid by F.M. EARLS, commissioner of the 11th road district. The sale was 17 days before B.N. died. The same day that the above sale was notarized, Mary H. FLEMING sold a tract of land to the citizens of Sumner County as follows. For the sum of one dollar and the further consideration that the road commissioner construct a good and sufficient rock wall as to turn the Otter Fork creek off my bottom field, I transfer the strip of land for the purpose of removing the County Road from Bransford to Hartsville out of the creek bed. Said land being the same that was conveyed to me by my husband, B.N. FLEMING on the 2nd day of June 1897. The signature of B.N. FLEMING does not appear on this deed. For some reason, B.N. FLEMING transferred nearly all of his land to Mary in 1897.

Mary Hubbard ROBERTSON was from the Jesse ROBERTSON family of Virginia and had many relatives in the upper Sumner County area. Several of the family cousins who are the great grandchildren of Mary Hubbard ROBERTSON are related to each other from both sides of their families.

Beverly Newton FLEMING completed his passage through this world on December 26, the day after Christmas in 1904, and was buried in the FLEMING Cemetery at Bransford. (which is now called The BRADLEY Cemetery)

Mary Hubbard ROBERTSON FLEMING became a widow at the age of seventy nine years when her oldest child was fifty and her youngest was thirty eight. That was before the age of condominiums, retirement villages and nursing homes, so Mary faced the problem of caring for herself in her dotage. She approached the matter head on and with the no nonsense attitude that has been a strong characteristic of the FLEMING women ever since. She called a meeting of the family and offered to waive homestead rights to the land left by her husband and give it to the children if they agreed in return to pay the lien of several hundred dollars that was owed by Beverly. The children agreed to the terms and they also agreed to take care of Mary for the rest of her days, and they did. She lived with first one then the other until her death.

Mary filed for a pension based on the Confederate Army service of her husband. It is widows indigent pension claim # 3059 filed February 3, 1910. It is not clear whether she ever drew any money from that but the application documents are on file at the Sumner County Archives. There is a copy of the questions for applicant in which Mary Hubbard states that she had been a resident of the state of Tennessee all her life and was married to Beverly FLEMING on 14 August 1850. She says that Beverly FLEMING was discharged from the army on 15 April 1862 by general order number 17 and died on December 26, 1905. I think she was mistaken on the death date and he died in 1904. She stated that she owned no property of any kind. Mary Hubbard signed with her mark and her son, J.W. FLEMING signed as a witness.

The following is the text of an affidavit written in on 15 March 1910. " I knew B.N. FLEMING before the Civil War. He and myself lived in the same county. I was in the Civil War , a member of Co. F of Tennessee Cavalry and am now on the pension list of the state. I remember when B.N. FLEMING enlisted, when he came home after his discharge fron the army before I enlisted in the army. I had a conversation with him in 1863 in which he stated that but for the chronic diarrhea which he contracted while in the army he would raise a company of cavalry and go back to the army. I worked for B.N. FLEMING in the year 1869 and I knew him very intimately. He had a tumor on the back of his neck, also one near his ear at the time of his enlistment which increased in size with age and at the time of this was half the size of a mans head." signed; Mark HENRY. The pictures of B.N. FLEMING do not show a tumor as large as the one described by Mister HENRY and I have not heard of it before. I don't know how to explain the statement.

After seven years of widowhood, Mary Hubbard passed away on the seventh day of December, 1911 and was laid to rest in BRADLEY Cemetery, beside her husband of fifty four years.