UNICOI COUNTY, TN - MISC - Goodspeed's History of Unicoi County ==================================================================== USGENWEB NOTICE: In keeping with our policy of providing free information on the Internet, data may be used by non-commercial entities, as long as this message remains on all copied material. These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or for presentation by other persons or organizations. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material for purposes other than stated above must obtain the written consent of the file contributor. This file was contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by: Javan Michael DeLoach javan@paonlione.com ==================================================================== UNICOI COUNTY J. F. Toney, merchant, was born in Carter County, March 13, 1857, the son of William and Evaline (Price) Toney, the former born in Tennessee about 1834, and died in 1864, while in custody of the Confederates. He was a farmer, and of English ancestry. The mother was born in this State, about 1840, the daughter of Christopher Price. Their children are James P., W. C., Rhoda and David. Our subject grew up, with rural advantages, and was left fatherless when seven years of age. He is a self-made man, and has been a merchant since seventeen years of age, now of the firm J. F. Toney & Co., extensive merchants, at Erwin and Flag Pond, Tenn. In 1879 he married Fannie B., a daughter of Clifton Miller. Their children are Mamie, Clifton, John G. and Jessie. For four years our subject was circuit clerk of Unicoi County. He is a Mason. R. R. Emmert was born in Carter County April 15, 1862. His parents were William C. and Amanda (Renshaw) Emmert, the former born December 10, 1883, in the same county, the son of George and Mary (Hendrix) Emmert, the former a Tennessean, the son of George, who came from Germany, and was a soldier under the command of Gen. George Washington in the Revolutionary war, and said to be related to Robert Emmert, whose family went to Germany after his execution. The father is a lawyer of Erwin and received a limited education in the common schools of Carter County, afterward farming and practicing his profession. He was State senator from 1875 to 1817. In 1851 he married, and their children are Nannie J., Peter W., Mary E., Delcena C., Robert R. and Ella. Our subject was educated in the country schools, and in 1886 became circuit clerk, and is a popular official, and is now associated with W. B. Clarke in publishing the "Erwin Unakean". James M. Anderson, farmer, was born in Carter County, Feb. 16, 1846, and is the son of John A. and Elizabeth (Swingle) Anderson, the former born in 1823. in that county, the son of Isaac, who was of Irish lineage. The father is a prosperous farmer and self- made man. The mother was born in Washington County about 1817, and died about 1856, the daughter of George Swingle, and of German lineage. She was the mother of four sons and one daughter, and highly esteemed. Our subject was educated at Milligan College, and after teaching school became a farmer. He spent a year in the Federal service during the war, and is a Conservative-Republican, and a Mason. October 17, 1872, he married Eva, a daughter of M. L. Taylor, and born August 10, 1850. Their children are Malla E., born August 18, 1873; Landon T., September 17, 1875; Elizabeth M., September 30, 1873; Tommie E., August 22, 1881, and Jennie A., September 6, 1886. Peter L. Barry was born in Johnson County January 11, 1833, the son of Charles and Abigail (Razor) Barry, the former a native of Davie County, N. C., the son of John, a native of Dublin, Ireland, and a teacher by profession. He died during the war of 1812 at Mobile, Ala. The father was born in 1799, a pioneer farmer and iron-worker of East Tennessee. His death occurred in 1863. The mother was born in l799 in Johnson County, the daughter of John Razor, of German descent. She was a devoted Christian, and the mother of five sons and five daughters. She died in 1876. Our subject is a self- educated man, and grew up on the farm, working in his father's iron- works until he was conscripted into the Confederate service. While at Knoxville under Col. Blake he was on a furlough home, and afterward joined the Federal Army as second lieutenant in Company E, Thirteenth Tennessee Cavalry, serving two years. He now cultivates his farm, which embraces over 200 acres, and contains quantities of iron. He is a minister of the Christian Church, and in 1861 married Mary, a daughter of David M. Stout. Their children are Robert F., Amanda A., Dave M., Catharine and Alexander. G. E. Swadley, farmer, was born in Washington County, February 27,1838, the son of Henry and Mary Swadley, the former born in Pendleton County, W. Va., January 2, 1812, the son of George Swadley; Mary, consort of Henry Swadley, the daughter of Christian and Christinia Roadcap, was born in Rockbridge County, Va., in 1808. They are both of German origin. Their living children are G. E., Virginia W., John W., David C., Susan A. and Barbara A., while two sons and one daughter are deceased. Our subject was educated at Boon's Creek Seminary. After he was of age he taught a few years, and is at present county superintendent of Unicoi County, and is largely self- educated, and is a warm friend to education: as exemplified by his official acts, and is in favor of Federal aid and the prohibition amendment. He studied vocal music in 1861 at Singer's Glen, Rockingham County, Va., at which place he made great progress, and came out with distinguished honors, and was an efficient teacher in the divine art, for which he always expressed an enthusiastic love; but before our subject finished his education, he learned the boot and shoe trade, and was recognized as a good and honest workman, and worked at it when not engaged in teaching, up to April 1, 1869, when he married Susan C., a daughter of Perry and Elizabeth Hunter of Washington County, and of German and English origin. She was born December 10, 1844, in the latter county. Their children are Mary E., born July 26, 1872; Laura E. born November 23, 1874; Henry H., born May 24, 1877, and Robert A., born April 26, 1880. Our subject has been a farmer chiefly since his marriage, at which time he located on his present farm of 232 acres in Buffalo Valley, containing some indications of iron ore and manganese. Madison T. Peebles, farmer, was born in Carter County, January 2, 1825, the son of William and Elizabeth (Sheetz) Peebles, the former born October 15, 1787, the son of William, who came from Ireland to Virginia in 1770, a soldier of the Revolution, and a pioneer of EastTennessee. The father was a successful farmer, and became an extensive land owner, having at one time several thousand acres of farming and mineral lands, most of which he conveyed to his children while vet in the vigor of manhood and prime of life. He was an earnest and active Christian of the Methodist Episcopal Church-one of the 1828-30 reformers of that ecclesiasticism which culminated in the organization of the Methodist Protestant Church, on a basis of mutual rights of the ministry and laity, and lived a useful life. and died an honored member of that church on June 30, 1875. The mother was born on the left bank of the James River, at what is now known as Eagle Rock, Botetourt Co., Va., September 7, 1794, the daughter of Jacob and Catharine Sheetz, who were of German stock. She was an esteemed Christian lady, of the most active benevolence, and died December 4, 1886. Our subject, one of ten children, was born and reared on his present form, and has chiefly educated himself since attaining to mature age. He read a full course of medicine from the year 1845 to 1848, and, thus equipped, practiced the "healing art" in the Mississippi Valley for eight years, passing unscathed through the Asiatic cholera that decimated the population of that section in 1849. Tiring of the daily scenes of sickness, sorrow and death, often beyond the reach of human remedies to relieve, he returned to the paternal roof in 1856, and during the last thirty years has done quite a considerable practice both in medicine and surgery from motives of charity alone, without the hope of fee or reward. The joint owner with his brother, William J., of a large landed estate, he has united the activities of an agricultural life with the more congenial pursuit of literature, and the two brothers, thus dwelling together in "single blessedness," as co-tenants of the same estate for a quarter of a century past, have each exercised all the rights of an absolute sovereign. He has been a member of the Methodist Protestant Church for thirty-seven years, is a friend to all public and private enterprises for the promotion of education among the masses, and the moral and religious improvement of society. He is a Royal Arch Mason, a Past Master and Past High Priest of that ancient and honorable brotherhood, and one among the oldest Masons of East Tennessee. W. R. Fagan, farmer, was born in Caswell County, N. C., November 16, 1830, the son of J. G. and Elizabeth (Martin) Fagan, the former born in 1793, in North Carolina, of English-German origin, and the latter about 1798, in the same State, the daughter of Robert Martin, a soldier of the Revolution. The father, a highly esteemed man, and a blacksmith, died in 1869. The mother was a Methodist, and died about 1875. Our subject, one of a family of seven brothers and five sisters, learned the blacksmith trade, and has devoted himself to farming, now owning 425 acres in Buffalo Valley. November 23, 1853, he married Eliza, a daughter of Samuel McCorkle. She was born February 16, 1836, and is of Irish-German parentage. Their only child is James M., born August 19, 1854, and educated at Milligan College. He is a farmer, and a merchant, and November 21, 1877, married Margaret A., a daughter of G. S. Ellis, and born November 12, 1858. Their children are Robert S., William R., Maggie N., Grover C. and Eliza L. F. H. Hannum, farmer, was born in Blount County, July 3, 1837, the son of Henry and Ann E. (White) Hannum, the former a native of Pennsylvania, born in 1802, the son of Richard M., of English origin, and he the son of Col. John, of the Revolution. The maternal great-grandfather was a surgeon in the Revolution. The father was reared in Kentucky; married in Virginia, and, after a short residence in Florida, came to Blount County, where he was a physician, and died in 1845. The mother, born in 1810, in Abingdon, Va., was a daughter of Col. James White, and died in 1883, a member of the Presbyterian Church. Our subject, one of a family of three brothers and three sisters, was reared in Blount County, and educated in the institute at Lexington, Va., but has since been a farmer, and with his brother now owns 5,000 acres, in this county, on which are found large quantities of iron, and from which the first steel was manufactured in Tennessee, and perhaps in the South. W. E. Tilson, farmer, was born in Washington (now Unicoi) County, April 29. 1827, the son of Peleg and Nancy (Allen) Tilson (once spelled Tillotson), the former born in 1795 in Virginia, the son of William, who became a pioneer of East Tennessee, and a farmer, and was the son of William, Sr., who came from Ireland, and was one of Gen. Washington's aides in the Revolution. The father was a farmer, and died in 1841, in Carter County, having become insolvent through intemperate habits and surety debts. The mother, born in Virginia, in 1800, of German lineage, was the daughter of George Allen, and a devoted Baptist. Her death occurred in 1859, leaving the following children: George, Ruth, John A.., William E. and James W. Our subject is largely self-educated, and for several years before the war was a teacher, and now is a surveyor and successful farmer. He owns over 4,000 acres, largely timbered and mineral land. March 14, 1852, he married Minerva K., a daughter of James Sams, of Irish-German origin. She was born September 5, 1831. Their children are Eliza E., born March 4, 1853; Leroy S., born August 13, 1854; James F., born December 21, 1836; Jacob C., born March 14, 1860; )Mary J., born October 18, 1862; John Q., born April 5, 1866; Lula, born August 20, 1868; and William J., born August 13,1871. Our subject is the present clerk and master in chancery, and has two sons, who are practicing physicians, one a prominent educator in North Carolina, and the other two now in school, the eldest one of whom graduates in the class of 1888.