The 1870 Census holds historical significance in that it is the first Census after the Civil War. It gives us a glimpse of who survived and some times, who did not.

**Many women listed as head of household.  The Civil War left widows keeping their family together.

**Families scattered during the War and are not living where you might expect.

**This is the first Census that blacks are included with the names of their family members.
 

Today, it is easy to think of Tennessee as a Confederate State but it almost wasn't.  When the vote was taken, Weakley County and Tennessee as a State voted not to secede from the Union.  Eastern Tennessee was very much pro Union but some of the good ole boys in Middle Tennessee would not accept the idea,  so by hook and some said by crook, they managed to get a second vote taken. Again, on the second vote, Weakley County voted to stay with the Union. Statewide, on that second vote, Tennessee seceded from the Union and became a Confederate State.

Many Counties, Weakley included, were split Counties.  Horror stories are plentiful, telling of the atrocities committed by both the Confederate and Union sides during the war. And then there were the home grown vigilante gangs, who were mostly out for themselves but killed and terrorized their neighbors if they "weren't on the right side" or even if they wouldn't take a side. Hard feelings persisted for many years after the war. Neighbors who had been best of friends before the war often did not speak the rest of their lives -- which could have been 50 years or more. Around the Dresden area, however, those on the Union side seemed to have helped their Confederte neighbors struggling to get back on their feet - as acknowledged by obit of John Jay Drewry......."At one time he was the register of Weakley County and made a splendid officer. Again, he did a kindness for the confederate soldiers of Weakley County; while commissioner of registratons, after the war, that placed the veterans under great obligations of gratitude to him. There were few men like him, and the ever changing years, as they come and go, will not soon produce such a philosopher and kindly soul as left Dresden when the voice of John J. DREWRY was hushed in the silence of death." - read complete obit

A young man of 20 in 1862 who "joined up" and lived to survive the war, would have been 50 years old in 1892, 60 years old in 1902, 70 years old in 1912,  80 years old in 1922 and 90 in 1932......and you know Tennessee people are long lived........MaryCarol