I posted the following to the Peters list at rootsweb over the weekend. I thought it might be interesting to a few people on the Anderson County list as well. There are a few parts I would probably have written slightly differently if the original intended audience had been the Anderson County list, but here it is just as I wrote it for the Peters list. Jerry Bryan >There are a lot of puzzles associated with men named John Peters in >Anderson County, Tennessee. I have posted about them several times before, >and now I have some new information. > >A basic working assumption is that all the Peters in Anderson County were >descended either from Henry Peters Sr. or Tobias Peters Sr. This >assumption seems to hold up at least from the arrival of Henry and Tobias >in Anderson County in 1797 until some other Peters lines showed up in >Anderson County in the late 19th century. I have never seen any evidence >that contradicts this working assumption. > >This working assumption limits the possibilities for who the various early >John Peters in Anderson County might have been. I think there are four >main possibilities. > >#1 Henry Peters Sr. -> Thomas Peters -> John Peters >#2 Henry Peters Sr. -> Henry Peters Jr. -> John Peters >#3 Tobias Peters Sr. -> John Peters >#4 Tobias Peters Sr. -> John Peters -> John Peters > >John Peters #3 is known to have existed from the will of Tobias Peters Sr. >and from deeds where the heirs of Tobias Peters Sr. sold his land after his >death. However, very little is known about John Peters #3, for example >whether he married or had children. Therefore, the existence of John >Peters #4 (son of John and grandson of Tobias Sr.) is highly speculative. >I include the possibility of John Peters #4 only for completeness and only >because there were so many John Peters that I need a place to put them all. > >John Peters #1 is known to exist from tax records and a deed. Thomas >Peters paid taxes on 134 + 50 acres in 1839. John W. Peters paid taxes on >134 + 50 acres in 1840. John W. Peters paid taxes on 184 acres in 1841. >John W. Peters and William Peters sold 184 acres to George W. Keith on 31 >Dec 1841. The land was adjacent to land of Thomas Peters. G.W. Keith paid >taxes on 184 acres in 1842. There was no extant deed that transferred the >land from Thomas Peters to John W. Peters and William Peters between 1839 >and 1840. Under these circumstances, I think it is extremely likely that >John W. Peters and William Peters were sons of Thomas Peters. > >The existence of John Peters #2 is speculative. But there were so many >John Peters, that #2 seems likely to me to have existed. See below for >more discussion on this point. > >There are a number of records about various John Peters, but the records >that interest me the most are two marriage records. John W. Peters married >Ruby Smith on 26 Jun 1840 in Anderson County. John W. Peters married >Catherine Lea on 26 Jan 1841 in Anderson County. But of #1, #2, #3, and >#4, which one married Ruby Smith and which one married Catherine Lea? > >I am descended from John W. Peters and Ruby Smith. My John W. Peters died >in 1861 in the Civil War, and my Ruby Smith died in 1867 in Anderson >County. Ruby filed for a widow’s Civil War pension before her death, and >one of her children filed for a Civil War pension after her death, based on >John’s very short Civil War service. These documents are very interesting >reading, but they do not provide any information about John’s ancestors. > >I have found no will or settlement for my John W. Peters. I have found an >1867 settlement for the widow Ruby Smith Peters. It really is just an >estate sale. But many of the names involved in the estate sale were >associated with Thomas Peters, suggesting that my John W. Peters was the >son of Thomas (and hence was John Peters #1). > >For many years, John W. Peters and Catherine Lea seemed to have vanished >from the face of the earth after their marriage. The only clue I had was >that there was a Robert H. Lea enumerated in the 1840 census for Anderson >County. I probably did not pursue this clue aggressively enough, because I >now believe that Catherine Lea was the daughter of Robert H. Lea. Here is >the 1840 census entry for Robert H. Lea as I currently have it transcribed. > >p.5a, line 14, 1840, Anderson County, Tennessee >Robt. H. Lea 0010101-0210201, 1 male slave 21-24, 10 people total, 4 in >agriculture > >00-04 0 0 1836-1840 >05-09 0 2 1831-1835 >10-14 1 1 1826-1830 >15-19 0 0 1821-1825 >20-29 1 2 1811-1820 Dr. Jesse L. Lea, Catherine Lea >30-39 0 0 1801-1810 >40-49 1 1 1791-1800 Rev. Robert H. Lea, Jane D. > >I believe this was the Rev. Robert H. Lea. One of his sons was Dr. Jesse >L. Lea, born in 1820 in Cocke County, Tennessee. The family was enumerated >in the 1830 census in Jefferson County, Tennessee. By 1840, they were >living in Anderson County, Tennessee where I believe Catherine met and >married John W. Peters. But I lost track of them after that. > >I now believe I have found them in Missouri. > >Washington Twp, Johnson County, Missouri, 23 Sep 1850 >p.28a, HN 338, FN 340 >Peters John Westley 35 m w farmer $500 TN > Kitty 28 f w TN > Sarah 9 f w TN > Robert W. 7 m w TN attended school > Thomas S. 5 m w MO > Mary L. A. 1 f w MO > >Kitty is a common nickname for Catherine, but that is not what persuaded me >this family was from Anderson County, Tennessee. After all, Tennessee is a >big state and John Wesley Peters of Johnson County, Missouri did not have >to have come to Missouri from Anderson County. What started to persuade me >is that living next door to John Wesley Peters and Kitty was Welcome >Raymond McCart and his wife Fanny. > >Washington Twp, Johnson County, Missouri, 23 Sep 1850 >p.28a, HN 337, FN 339 >McCart Welcome W. 27 m w farmer $125 TN > Fanny A. 26 f w TN > Mary L. M. 1 f w MO > >I don’t know who Fanny was, but Welcome McCart was the son of Robert McCart >Sr. and Hannah Peters. The family of Robert McCart Sr. was closely >connected to the Peters family. There’s the obvious connection that Robert >married Hannah Peters. I don’t know how Hannah fits into the families of >Tobias Peters Sr. or Henry Peters Sr. She could have been the sister of >one or the other of them (or both, since we don’t know for sure of Tobias >and Henry were brothers), or she could have been unrelated. But of more >import, Robert McCart’s daughter Rebecca married James Peters, son of >Tobias Peters Sr. And a probable son of Robert McCart, given name unknown, >married Agnes Peters, daughter of Tobias Peters Sr. (Tobias named a >daughter Agnes McCart in his will). > >But there’s more. Living next door to the McCarts was Dr. Jesse L. Lea, >son of Rev. Robert H. Lea. So surely, Kitty in house number 338 was >Jesse’s sister Catherine Lea. > >Washington Twp, Johnson County, Missouri, 23 Sep 1850 >p.28a, HN 336, FN 338 >Lea Jesse L. 30 m w physician $1000 TN > Harriet 34 f w VA > Mary J. 2 f w " > >Dr. Jesse L. Lea is known to have arrived in Johnson County, Missouri in >1844. He married Harriet Tandy in 1846 in Johnson County. Despite the >ditto marks in the census entry for their daughter Mary J. Lea, Mary J. was >surely born in Missouri rather than in Virginia. The ages and the birth >places of the children of John Wesley Peters and Kitty suggest that they >also arrived in Missouri about 1844, so the families probably traveled >together. > >Finally, old Rev. Robert H. Lea himself was also in the Washington Township >of Johnson County in 1850, although he wasn’t living next door to the rest >of the family. > >Washington Twp, Johnson County, Missouri, 17 Sep 1850 >p.20a, HN 242, FN 243 >Lea Robt. H. 55 m w M. clergyman $1000 NC > Jane D. 54 f w VA > Thomas 25 m w farmer TN > Brunetta A. 20 f w TN > Mary E. 17 f w TN > Mirinda J. 15 f w TN > >So now that I seem to have found John W. Peters and Catherine Lea, which >John Peters was he? My first reaction was that he had to have been #3 or >#4, which is to say that he had to have been either Tobias’s son or >grandson. The reason is that it was descendants of Tobias Sr. rather than >descendants of Henry Sr. who seem to have interacted with the McCart >family. > >Tobias Sr. and Henry Sr. both moved originally to the part of Anderson >County that is called the Scarbrough community. Scarbrough is in the >southwest corner of the county. Henry and his sons Henry Jr. and Thomas >continued to live in Scarbrough. But Tobias purchased land that I believe >was not in Scarbrough, but rather was on the northwest part of the county. >I need to do some additional work to try to figure out exactly where >Tobias’s land was, but it almost certainly was not in Scarbrough. I don’t >find Tobias’s descendants in Scarbrough. For example, Tobias’s son James >lived in Morgan County, not far across the county line from the northwest >part of Anderson County. The McCarts were in the same part of Morgan >County. > >But I ran into trouble trying to fit John W. Peters who married Catherine >Lea into the Tobias Peters family. John W. Peters who married Catherine >Lea was born about 1815. Most researchers list the birth date of John >Peters #3 as about 1800. I’m not sure exactly where that date comes from. >Tobias was married in 1797, his first son James was born in 1798, and John >#3 was the second son. Maybe it’s only natural to assume that John was >born in 1800. But the next known son was Wesley who was born in 1816. >There were three daughters in between – Rebecca 1800/1803, Agnes 1805 (this >is a guess), and Mary 1813. So John Peters #3 didn’t have to have been >born in 1800; he could have been born considerably later. On the other >hand, John Peters #3 and his brother James were named executors of their >father’s will and guardians of their sister Rachel in 1831. So I think >John Peters #3 was at least 21 years old in 1831, and therefore was born >prior to 1810. > >By the same token, the earliest that John Peters #3 could have been born >was 1800, so I think it would have been unlikely that he married and had a >son by 1815. Women often married that young, but men seldom did. >Therefore, I don't think that John Peters #3 or John Peters #4 could have >been the John W. Peters who married Catherine Lea. > >That gets us back to the hypothetical John Peters #2, son of Henry Peters >Jr. So it seems to me that John W. Peters born 1815 who married Catherine >Lea and John W. Peters born 1822 who married Ruby Smith had to have been >first cousins, with one of them being #2 son of Henry Peters Jr. and the >other being #1 son of Thomas Peters. But which one was which? > >The Anderson County marriage book didn’t start until the 1830’s. We know >from his War of 1812 pension application that Thomas Peters was married in >1812, so he could have been the father either of John W. Peters #1 or of >#2. His first known child was Zipporah Peters born 1813/1814. It is not >known when Henry Peters Jr. was married. He was born in about 1790 and his >wife Jane England was born about 1800 (age 50 in the 1850 census). Jane >would have been young in 1815 to have been the mother of the John W. Peters >who married Catherine Lea, but it is far from impossible. Henry Jr.’s >first known child was Mary Jane Peters born 1827. But there are definitely >some gaps in the knowledge of Henry Jr.’s children. > >Here is the 1830 census entry for Thomas, with children placed according to >my best current knowledge of the family. > >p.172, line 8, Anderson County, Tennessee, 1830 >Thomas Peters 0120001-1211001 > > 00-04 0 1 1826-1830 Susan Peters > 05-09 1 2 1821-1825 John W. Peters, Mary Peters > 10-14 2 1 1816-1820 Henry Clark (Clark) Peters, William F. Peters, >Jane Peters > 15-19 0 1 1811-1815 Zipporah Peters > 20-29 0 0 1801-1810 > 30-39 0 0 1791-1800 >40-49 1 1 1781-1790 Thomas Peters, Sarah (Sallie) England > >Here is the 1830 census entry for Henry Jr. Note in particular the absence >of any male born in the 1815 timeframe. > >p.172, line 10, Anderson County, Tennessee, 1830 >Peters Henry 0200001-21001 > > 00-04 0 2 1826-1830 Mary Jane Peters > 05-09 2 1 1821-1825 > 10-14 0 0 1816-1820 > 15-19 0 0 1811-1815 > 20-29 0 1 1801-1810 Jane England > 30-39 0 1791-1800 > 40-49 1 1781-1790 Henry Peters Jr. > >And indeed, based on the ages of the children in this census entry, I list >Henry Peters Jr. and Jane England as having been married about 1820, when >Jane was about 20 years old. Well, it easily could have been 1818 or 1819 >or so. > >Given these facts, I am forced to conclude that John W. Peters born about >1815 who married Catherine Lea was probably the son of Thomas Peters and >Sarah (Sallie) England. Then, the only place I can put my John W. Peters >born about 1822 who married Ruby Smith was as the son of Henry Peters Jr. >and Jane England. This is certainly a revisionist history, although as I >said the two John W. Peters in question were first cousins and the common >ancestors in either case were Henry Peters Sr. and his wife Mary Wiatte. > >Let’s look again at John Wesley Peters and Catherine Lea in the 1850 census >in Missouri. > >Washington Twp, Johnson County, Missouri, 23 Sep 1850 >p.28a, HN 338, FN 340 >Peters John Westley 35 m w farmer $500 TN > Kitty 28 f w TN > Sarah 9 f w TN > Robert W. 7 m w TN attended school > Thomas S. 5 m w MO > Mary L. A. 1 f w MO > >Robert W. Peters age 7 was surely named for his grandfather Rev. Robert H. >Lea. But notice that there is a Sarah and a Thomas. It surely makes sense >that Sarah age 9 was named for her grandmother Sarah (Sallie) England who >married Thomas Peters, and that Thomas S. Peters age 5 was named for his >grandfather Thomas Peters. The only child that doesn’t fit this pattern is >Mary age 1 because Rev. Robert H. Lea’s wife was named Jane D. But perhaps >there was a Jane Peters age 3 who died (note the gap between Thomas age 5 >and Mary age 1). Perhaps Robert Lea’s wife was Mary Jane. Perhaps the >family simply didn’t follow the naming pattern for the fourth child. Or >perhaps this whole theory isn’t correct at all. But an extremely large >number of the pieces fit extremely well. > >Finally, let’s return to the settlement of Ruby Smith Peters and look at >why it suggests that John W. Peters born about 1822 was the son of Thomas >Peters rather than the son of Henry Peters Jr. as I now believe. > >As I said, it was just an estate sale and in general does not provide a lot >of genealogical information. The administrator was W.B. Peters. This was >Washington Blair (Blair) Peters, oldest son of John W. Peters and Ruby >Smith. But Blair Peters was already known to have been their son, even if >the settlement didn’t exist. Many of the names of people purchasing items >were just neighbors. Peters family members were as follows: > >* J.H. Peters (John Henry Peters, son of John W. Peters and Ruby Smith) >* Alex Cross (William Alexander Cross, son of Alfred Carter Cross and >Zipporah Peters and grandson of Thomas Peters) >* F.A. Peters (Francis Asbury Peters, son of Henry Peters Jr.) >* James Sample (James Samsel, husband of Mary J. Peters and son-in-law of >John W. Peters and Ruby Smith) >* P.W. Shannon (Preston William Shannon, husband of Sarah Emily Peters and >son-in-law of Thomas Peters) >* G.H. Peters (probably bad transcription, probably C.H. Peters – Henry >Clark (Clark) Peters, son of either Thomas Peters or of Henry Peters Jr., >there is conflicting evidence on this point) >* A.C. Cross (Alfred Carter Cross, husband of Zipporah Peters and >son-in-law of Thomas Peters) >* W.B. Peters (the aforementioned Washington Blair (Blair) Peters, son of >John W. Peters and Ruby Smith) >* John Scarbrough (John W. Scarbrough, husband of Mary Peters and >son-in-law of Thomas Peters) > >So there were definitely people associated with Henry Peters Jr. in the >list in addition to people associated with Thomas Peters. And in any case, >Henry Jr. and Thomas were brothers and they lived next door to each other. >So they would have had the same friends, neighbors, and family. Looked at >alone, I still believe that the settlement suggests that John W. Peters >born about 1822 who married Ruby Smith was the son of Thomas Peters. But >the settlement is not definitive, and I believe that the 1830 and 1850 >census data along with the naming patterns of the children of John Wesley >Peters and Catherine Lea force me to revise my history. > >By the way, I am still descended from Thomas Peters. In my previous >history, I listed myself as descended from Thomas's children Zipporah >Peters, Jane Peters, and John W. Peters. In my revisionist history, I list >myself as descended from Thomas's daughters Zipporah Peters and Jane >Peters, and from Henry Jr.'s son John W. Peters. Thomas and Henry Jr. were >brothers, sons of Henry Peters Sr. > >Jerry Bryan

Jerry, That was just wonderful If I live to be 100 I could never do that research. Are you sure you don't want to move to Idaho ? I've hundreds of papers to go through and after 10 minutes I've forgotten who I'm looking for. Boy,you sure have patience. I wonder how good of friends if at all were John Wesley Peters & John Wesley Key were ? kind of made me think . I bet you have made many in the Peters line happy. I hope you recieved Effie's death certificate. Phyllis ----- Original Message ----- From: "Jerry Bryan" <c24m48@hotmail.com> To: <TNANDERS-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Monday, December 06, 2004 9:21 AM Subject: [TNANDERS-L] FW: [PETERS] John Peters update, Anderson County, Tennessee > I posted the following to the Peters list at rootsweb over the weekend. I > thought it might be interesting to a few people on the Anderson County list > as well. There are a few parts I would probably have written slightly > differently if the original intended audience had been the Anderson County > list, but here it is just as I wrote it for the Peters list. > > Jerry Bryan > > > >There are a lot of puzzles associated with men named John Peters in > >Anderson County, Tennessee. I have posted about them several times before, > >and now I have some new information. > > > >A basic working assumption is that all the Peters in Anderson County were > >descended either from Henry Peters Sr. or Tobias Peters Sr. This > >assumption seems to hold up at least from the arrival of Henry and Tobias > >in Anderson County in 1797 until some other Peters lines showed up in > >Anderson County in the late 19th century. I have never seen any evidence > >that contradicts this working assumption. > > > >This working assumption limits the possibilities for who the various early > >John Peters in Anderson County might have been. I think there are four > >main possibilities. > > > >#1 Henry Peters Sr. -> Thomas Peters -> John Peters > >#2 Henry Peters Sr. -> Henry Peters Jr. -> John Peters > >#3 Tobias Peters Sr. -> John Peters > >#4 Tobias Peters Sr. -> John Peters -> John Peters > > > >John Peters #3 is known to have existed from the will of Tobias Peters Sr. > >and from deeds where the heirs of Tobias Peters Sr. sold his land after his > >death. However, very little is known about John Peters #3, for example > >whether he married or had children. Therefore, the existence of John > >Peters #4 (son of John and grandson of Tobias Sr.) is highly speculative. > >I include the possibility of John Peters #4 only for completeness and only > >because there were so many John Peters that I need a place to put them all. > > > >John Peters #1 is known to exist from tax records and a deed. Thomas > >Peters paid taxes on 134 + 50 acres in 1839. John W. Peters paid taxes on > >134 + 50 acres in 1840. John W. Peters paid taxes on 184 acres in 1841. > >John W. Peters and William Peters sold 184 acres to George W. Keith on 31 > >Dec 1841. The land was adjacent to land of Thomas Peters. G.W. Keith paid > >taxes on 184 acres in 1842. There was no extant deed that transferred the > >land from Thomas Peters to John W. Peters and William Peters between 1839 > >and 1840. Under these circumstances, I think it is extremely likely that > >John W. Peters and William Peters were sons of Thomas Peters. > > > >The existence of John Peters #2 is speculative. But there were so many > >John Peters, that #2 seems likely to me to have existed. See below for > >more discussion on this point. > > > >There are a number of records about various John Peters, but the records > >that interest me the most are two marriage records. John W. Peters married > >Ruby Smith on 26 Jun 1840 in Anderson County. John W. Peters married > >Catherine Lea on 26 Jan 1841 in Anderson County. But of #1, #2, #3, and > >#4, which one married Ruby Smith and which one married Catherine Lea? > > > >I am descended from John W. Peters and Ruby Smith. My John W. Peters died > >in 1861 in the Civil War, and my Ruby Smith died in 1867 in Anderson > >County. Ruby filed for a widow's Civil War pension before her death, and > >one of her children filed for a Civil War pension after her death, based on > >John's very short Civil War service. These documents are very interesting > >reading, but they do not provide any information about John's ancestors. > > > >I have found no will or settlement for my John W. Peters. I have found an > >1867 settlement for the widow Ruby Smith Peters. It really is just an > >estate sale. But many of the names involved in the estate sale were > >associated with Thomas Peters, suggesting that my John W. Peters was the > >son of Thomas (and hence was John Peters #1). > > > >For many years, John W. Peters and Catherine Lea seemed to have vanished > >from the face of the earth after their marriage. The only clue I had was > >that there was a Robert H. Lea enumerated in the 1840 census for Anderson > >County. I probably did not pursue this clue aggressively enough, because I > >now believe that Catherine Lea was the daughter of Robert H. Lea. Here is > >the 1840 census entry for Robert H. Lea as I currently have it transcribed. > > > >p.5a, line 14, 1840, Anderson County, Tennessee > >Robt. H. Lea 0010101-0210201, 1 male slave 21-24, 10 people total, 4 in > >agriculture > > > >00-04 0 0 1836-1840 > >05-09 0 2 1831-1835 > >10-14 1 1 1826-1830 > >15-19 0 0 1821-1825 > >20-29 1 2 1811-1820 Dr. Jesse L. Lea, Catherine Lea > >30-39 0 0 1801-1810 > >40-49 1 1 1791-1800 Rev. Robert H. Lea, Jane D. > > > >I believe this was the Rev. Robert H. Lea. One of his sons was Dr. Jesse > >L. Lea, born in 1820 in Cocke County, Tennessee. The family was enumerated > >in the 1830 census in Jefferson County, Tennessee. By 1840, they were > >living in Anderson County, Tennessee where I believe Catherine met and > >married John W. Peters. But I lost track of them after that. > > > >I now believe I have found them in Missouri. > > > >Washington Twp, Johnson County, Missouri, 23 Sep 1850 > >p.28a, HN 338, FN 340 > >Peters John Westley 35 m w farmer $500 TN > > Kitty 28 f w TN > > Sarah 9 f w TN > > Robert W. 7 m w TN attended school > > Thomas S. 5 m w MO > > Mary L. A. 1 f w MO > > > >Kitty is a common nickname for Catherine, but that is not what persuaded me > >this family was from Anderson County, Tennessee. After all, Tennessee is a > >big state and John Wesley Peters of Johnson County, Missouri did not have > >to have come to Missouri from Anderson County. What started to persuade me > >is that living next door to John Wesley Peters and Kitty was Welcome > >Raymond McCart and his wife Fanny. > > > >Washington Twp, Johnson County, Missouri, 23 Sep 1850 > >p.28a, HN 337, FN 339 > >McCart Welcome W. 27 m w farmer $125 TN > > Fanny A. 26 f w TN > > Mary L. M. 1 f w MO > > > >I don't know who Fanny was, but Welcome McCart was the son of Robert McCart > >Sr. and Hannah Peters. The family of Robert McCart Sr. was closely > >connected to the Peters family. There's the obvious connection that Robert > >married Hannah Peters. I don't know how Hannah fits into the families of > >Tobias Peters Sr. or Henry Peters Sr. She could have been the sister of > >one or the other of them (or both, since we don't know for sure of Tobias > >and Henry were brothers), or she could have been unrelated. But of more > >import, Robert McCart's daughter Rebecca married James Peters, son of > >Tobias Peters Sr. And a probable son of Robert McCart, given name unknown, > >married Agnes Peters, daughter of Tobias Peters Sr. (Tobias named a > >daughter Agnes McCart in his will). > > > >But there's more. Living next door to the McCarts was Dr. Jesse L. Lea, > >son of Rev. Robert H. Lea. So surely, Kitty in house number 338 was > >Jesse's sister Catherine Lea. > > > >Washington Twp, Johnson County, Missouri, 23 Sep 1850 > >p.28a, HN 336, FN 338 > >Lea Jesse L. 30 m w physician $1000 TN > > Harriet 34 f w VA > > Mary J. 2 f w " > > > >Dr. Jesse L. Lea is known to have arrived in Johnson County, Missouri in > >1844. He married Harriet Tandy in 1846 in Johnson County. Despite the > >ditto marks in the census entry for their daughter Mary J. Lea, Mary J. was > >surely born in Missouri rather than in Virginia. The ages and the birth > >places of the children of John Wesley Peters and Kitty suggest that they > >also arrived in Missouri about 1844, so the families probably traveled > >together. > > > >Finally, old Rev. Robert H. Lea himself was also in the Washington Township > >of Johnson County in 1850, although he wasn't living next door to the rest > >of the family. > > > >Washington Twp, Johnson County, Missouri, 17 Sep 1850 > >p.20a, HN 242, FN 243 > >Lea Robt. H. 55 m w M. clergyman $1000 NC > > Jane D. 54 f w VA > > Thomas 25 m w farmer TN > > Brunetta A. 20 f w TN > > Mary E. 17 f w TN > > Mirinda J. 15 f w TN > > > >So now that I seem to have found John W. Peters and Catherine Lea, which > >John Peters was he? My first reaction was that he had to have been #3 or > >#4, which is to say that he had to have been either Tobias's son or > >grandson. The reason is that it was descendants of Tobias Sr. rather than > >descendants of Henry Sr. who seem to have interacted with the McCart > >family. > > > >Tobias Sr. and Henry Sr. both moved originally to the part of Anderson > >County that is called the Scarbrough community. Scarbrough is in the > >southwest corner of the county. Henry and his sons Henry Jr. and Thomas > >continued to live in Scarbrough. But Tobias purchased land that I believe > >was not in Scarbrough, but rather was on the northwest part of the county. > >I need to do some additional work to try to figure out exactly where > >Tobias's land was, but it almost certainly was not in Scarbrough. I don't > >find Tobias's descendants in Scarbrough. For example, Tobias's son James > >lived in Morgan County, not far across the county line from the northwest > >part of Anderson County. The McCarts were in the same part of Morgan > >County. > > > >But I ran into trouble trying to fit John W. Peters who married Catherine > >Lea into the Tobias Peters family. John W. Peters who married Catherine > >Lea was born about 1815. Most researchers list the birth date of John > >Peters #3 as about 1800. I'm not sure exactly where that date comes from. > >Tobias was married in 1797, his first son James was born in 1798, and John > >#3 was the second son. Maybe it's only natural to assume that John was > >born in 1800. But the next known son was Wesley who was born in 1816. > >There were three daughters in between - Rebecca 1800/1803, Agnes 1805 (this > >is a guess), and Mary 1813. So John Peters #3 didn't have to have been > >born in 1800; he could have been born considerably later. On the other > >hand, John Peters #3 and his brother James were named executors of their > >father's will and guardians of their sister Rachel in 1831. So I think > >John Peters #3 was at least 21 years old in 1831, and therefore was born > >prior to 1810. > > > >By the same token, the earliest that John Peters #3 could have been born > >was 1800, so I think it would have been unlikely that he married and had a > >son by 1815. Women often married that young, but men seldom did. > >Therefore, I don't think that John Peters #3 or John Peters #4 could have > >been the John W. Peters who married Catherine Lea. > > > >That gets us back to the hypothetical John Peters #2, son of Henry Peters > >Jr. So it seems to me that John W. Peters born 1815 who married Catherine > >Lea and John W. Peters born 1822 who married Ruby Smith had to have been > >first cousins, with one of them being #2 son of Henry Peters Jr. and the > >other being #1 son of Thomas Peters. But which one was which? > > > >The Anderson County marriage book didn't start until the 1830's. We know > >from his War of 1812 pension application that Thomas Peters was married in > >1812, so he could have been the father either of John W. Peters #1 or of > >#2. His first known child was Zipporah Peters born 1813/1814. It is not > >known when Henry Peters Jr. was married. He was born in about 1790 and his > >wife Jane England was born about 1800 (age 50 in the 1850 census). Jane > >would have been young in 1815 to have been the mother of the John W. Peters > >who married Catherine Lea, but it is far from impossible. Henry Jr.'s > >first known child was Mary Jane Peters born 1827. But there are definitely > >some gaps in the knowledge of Henry Jr.'s children. > > > >Here is the 1830 census entry for Thomas, with children placed according to > >my best current knowledge of the family. > > > >p.172, line 8, Anderson County, Tennessee, 1830 > >Thomas Peters 0120001-1211001 > > > > 00-04 0 1 1826-1830 Susan Peters > > 05-09 1 2 1821-1825 John W. Peters, Mary Peters > > 10-14 2 1 1816-1820 Henry Clark (Clark) Peters, William F. Peters, > >Jane Peters > > 15-19 0 1 1811-1815 Zipporah Peters > > 20-29 0 0 1801-1810 > > 30-39 0 0 1791-1800 > >40-49 1 1 1781-1790 Thomas Peters, Sarah (Sallie) England > > > >Here is the 1830 census entry for Henry Jr. Note in particular the absence > >of any male born in the 1815 timeframe. > > > >p.172, line 10, Anderson County, Tennessee, 1830 > >Peters Henry 0200001-21001 > > > > 00-04 0 2 1826-1830 Mary Jane Peters > > 05-09 2 1 1821-1825 > > 10-14 0 0 1816-1820 > > 15-19 0 0 1811-1815 > > 20-29 0 1 1801-1810 Jane England > > 30-39 0 1791-1800 > > 40-49 1 1781-1790 Henry Peters Jr. > > > >And indeed, based on the ages of the children in this census entry, I list > >Henry Peters Jr. and Jane England as having been married about 1820, when > >Jane was about 20 years old. Well, it easily could have been 1818 or 1819 > >or so. > > > >Given these facts, I am forced to conclude that John W. Peters born about > >1815 who married Catherine Lea was probably the son of Thomas Peters and > >Sarah (Sallie) England. Then, the only place I can put my John W. Peters > >born about 1822 who married Ruby Smith was as the son of Henry Peters Jr. > >and Jane England. This is certainly a revisionist history, although as I > >said the two John W. Peters in question were first cousins and the common > >ancestors in either case were Henry Peters Sr. and his wife Mary Wiatte. > > > >Let's look again at John Wesley Peters and Catherine Lea in the 1850 census > >in Missouri. > > > >Washington Twp, Johnson County, Missouri, 23 Sep 1850 > >p.28a, HN 338, FN 340 > >Peters John Westley 35 m w farmer $500 TN > > Kitty 28 f w TN > > Sarah 9 f w TN > > Robert W. 7 m w TN attended school > > Thomas S. 5 m w MO > > Mary L. A. 1 f w MO > > > >Robert W. Peters age 7 was surely named for his grandfather Rev. Robert H. > >Lea. But notice that there is a Sarah and a Thomas. It surely makes sense > >that Sarah age 9 was named for her grandmother Sarah (Sallie) England who > >married Thomas Peters, and that Thomas S. Peters age 5 was named for his > >grandfather Thomas Peters. The only child that doesn't fit this pattern is > >Mary age 1 because Rev. Robert H. Lea's wife was named Jane D. But perhaps > >there was a Jane Peters age 3 who died (note the gap between Thomas age 5 > >and Mary age 1). Perhaps Robert Lea's wife was Mary Jane. Perhaps the > >family simply didn't follow the naming pattern for the fourth child. Or > >perhaps this whole theory isn't correct at all. But an extremely large > >number of the pieces fit extremely well. > > > >Finally, let's return to the settlement of Ruby Smith Peters and look at > >why it suggests that John W. Peters born about 1822 was the son of Thomas > >Peters rather than the son of Henry Peters Jr. as I now believe. > > > >As I said, it was just an estate sale and in general does not provide a lot > >of genealogical information. The administrator was W.B. Peters. This was > >Washington Blair (Blair) Peters, oldest son of John W. Peters and Ruby > >Smith. But Blair Peters was already known to have been their son, even if > >the settlement didn't exist. Many of the names of people purchasing items > >were just neighbors. Peters family members were as follows: > > > >* J.H. Peters (John Henry Peters, son of John W. Peters and Ruby Smith) > >* Alex Cross (William Alexander Cross, son of Alfred Carter Cross and > >Zipporah Peters and grandson of Thomas Peters) > >* F.A. Peters (Francis Asbury Peters, son of Henry Peters Jr.) > >* James Sample (James Samsel, husband of Mary J. Peters and son-in-law of > >John W. Peters and Ruby Smith) > >* P.W. Shannon (Preston William Shannon, husband of Sarah Emily Peters and > >son-in-law of Thomas Peters) > >* G.H. Peters (probably bad transcription, probably C.H. Peters - Henry > >Clark (Clark) Peters, son of either Thomas Peters or of Henry Peters Jr., > >there is conflicting evidence on this point) > >* A.C. Cross (Alfred Carter Cross, husband of Zipporah Peters and > >son-in-law of Thomas Peters) > >* W.B. Peters (the aforementioned Washington Blair (Blair) Peters, son of > >John W. Peters and Ruby Smith) > >* John Scarbrough (John W. Scarbrough, husband of Mary Peters and > >son-in-law of Thomas Peters) > > > >So there were definitely people associated with Henry Peters Jr. in the > >list in addition to people associated with Thomas Peters. And in any case, > >Henry Jr. and Thomas were brothers and they lived next door to each other. > >So they would have had the same friends, neighbors, and family. Looked at > >alone, I still believe that the settlement suggests that John W. Peters > >born about 1822 who married Ruby Smith was the son of Thomas Peters. But > >the settlement is not definitive, and I believe that the 1830 and 1850 > >census data along with the naming patterns of the children of John Wesley > >Peters and Catherine Lea force me to revise my history. > > > >By the way, I am still descended from Thomas Peters. In my previous > >history, I listed myself as descended from Thomas's children Zipporah > >Peters, Jane Peters, and John W. Peters. In my revisionist history, I list > >myself as descended from Thomas's daughters Zipporah Peters and Jane > >Peters, and from Henry Jr.'s son John W. Peters. Thomas and Henry Jr. were > >brothers, sons of Henry Peters Sr. > > > >Jerry Bryan > > > > ==== TNANDERS Mailing List ==== > Post your questions and inquiry about your Ancestor regularly...Someone may find a relative. > http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/index/TNANDERS > >

Jerry, I just read Phyllis Peterson's reply to you and wonder about her Key relatives!!! Do you think there could be any connection to the Keys who might (with a good probability) be connected to our William Cole? Ann Scarbrough Perrine On Dec 6, 2004, at 11:21 AM, Jerry Bryan wrote: > I posted the following to the Peters list at rootsweb over the > weekend. I thought it might be interesting to a few people on the > Anderson County list as well. There are a few parts I would probably > have written slightly differently if the original intended audience > had been the Anderson County list, but here it is just as I wrote it > for the Peters list. > > Jerry Bryan > > >> There are a lot of puzzles associated with men named John Peters in >> Anderson County, Tennessee. I have posted about them several times >> before, and now I have some new information. >> >> A basic working assumption is that all the Peters in Anderson County >> were descended either from Henry Peters Sr. or Tobias Peters Sr. >> This assumption seems to hold up at least from the arrival of Henry >> and Tobias in Anderson County in 1797 until some other Peters lines >> showed up in Anderson County in the late 19th century. I have never >> seen any evidence that contradicts this working assumption. >> >> This working assumption limits the possibilities for who the various >> early John Peters in Anderson County might have been. I think there >> are four main possibilities. >> >> #1 Henry Peters Sr. -> Thomas Peters -> John Peters >> #2 Henry Peters Sr. -> Henry Peters Jr. -> John Peters >> #3 Tobias Peters Sr. -> John Peters >> #4 Tobias Peters Sr. -> John Peters -> John Peters >> >> John Peters #3 is known to have existed from the will of Tobias >> Peters Sr. and from deeds where the heirs of Tobias Peters Sr. sold >> his land after his death. However, very little is known about John >> Peters #3, for example whether he married or had children. >> Therefore, the existence of John Peters #4 (son of John and grandson >> of Tobias Sr.) is highly speculative. I include the possibility of >> John Peters #4 only for completeness and only because there were so >> many John Peters that I need a place to put them all. >> >> John Peters #1 is known to exist from tax records and a deed. Thomas >> Peters paid taxes on 134 + 50 acres in 1839. John W. Peters paid >> taxes on 134 + 50 acres in 1840. John W. Peters paid taxes on 184 >> acres in 1841. John W. Peters and William Peters sold 184 acres to >> George W. Keith on 31 Dec 1841. The land was adjacent to land of >> Thomas Peters. G.W. Keith paid taxes on 184 acres in 1842. There >> was no extant deed that transferred the land from Thomas Peters to >> John W. Peters and William Peters between 1839 and 1840. Under these >> circumstances, I think it is extremely likely that John W. Peters and >> William Peters were sons of Thomas Peters. >> >> The existence of John Peters #2 is speculative. But there were so >> many John Peters, that #2 seems likely to me to have existed. See >> below for more discussion on this point. >> >> There are a number of records about various John Peters, but the >> records that interest me the most are two marriage records. John W. >> Peters married Ruby Smith on 26 Jun 1840 in Anderson County. John W. >> Peters married Catherine Lea on 26 Jan 1841 in Anderson County. But >> of #1, #2, #3, and #4, which one married Ruby Smith and which one >> married Catherine Lea? >> >> I am descended from John W. Peters and Ruby Smith. My John W. Peters >> died in 1861 in the Civil War, and my Ruby Smith died in 1867 in >> Anderson County. Ruby filed for a widow’s Civil War pension before >> her death, and one of her children filed for a Civil War pension >> after her death, based on John’s very short Civil War service. These >> documents are very interesting reading, but they do not provide any >> information about John’s ancestors. >> >> I have found no will or settlement for my John W. Peters. I have >> found an 1867 settlement for the widow Ruby Smith Peters. It really >> is just an estate sale. But many of the names involved in the estate >> sale were associated with Thomas Peters, suggesting that my John W. >> Peters was the son of Thomas (and hence was John Peters #1). >> >> For many years, John W. Peters and Catherine Lea seemed to have >> vanished from the face of the earth after their marriage. The only >> clue I had was that there was a Robert H. Lea enumerated in the 1840 >> census for Anderson County. I probably did not pursue this clue >> aggressively enough, because I now believe that Catherine Lea was the >> daughter of Robert H. Lea. Here is the 1840 census entry for Robert >> H. Lea as I currently have it transcribed. >> >> p.5a, line 14, 1840, Anderson County, Tennessee >> Robt. H. Lea 0010101-0210201, 1 male slave 21-24, 10 people total, 4 >> in agriculture >> >> 00-04 0 0 1836-1840 >> 05-09 0 2 1831-1835 >> 10-14 1 1 1826-1830 >> 15-19 0 0 1821-1825 >> 20-29 1 2 1811-1820 Dr. Jesse L. Lea, Catherine Lea >> 30-39 0 0 1801-1810 >> 40-49 1 1 1791-1800 Rev. Robert H. Lea, Jane D. >> >> I believe this was the Rev. Robert H. Lea. One of his sons was Dr. >> Jesse L. Lea, born in 1820 in Cocke County, Tennessee. The family >> was enumerated in the 1830 census in Jefferson County, Tennessee. By >> 1840, they were living in Anderson County, Tennessee where I believe >> Catherine met and married John W. Peters. But I lost track of them >> after that. >> >> I now believe I have found them in Missouri. >> >> Washington Twp, Johnson County, Missouri, 23 Sep 1850 >> p.28a, HN 338, FN 340 >> Peters John Westley 35 m w farmer $500 TN >> Kitty 28 f w TN >> Sarah 9 f w TN >> Robert W. 7 m w TN attended school >> Thomas S. 5 m w MO >> Mary L. A. 1 f w MO >> >> Kitty is a common nickname for Catherine, but that is not what >> persuaded me this family was from Anderson County, Tennessee. After >> all, Tennessee is a big state and John Wesley Peters of Johnson >> County, Missouri did not have to have come to Missouri from Anderson >> County. What started to persuade me is that living next door to John >> Wesley Peters and Kitty was Welcome Raymond McCart and his wife >> Fanny. >> >> Washington Twp, Johnson County, Missouri, 23 Sep 1850 >> p.28a, HN 337, FN 339 >> McCart Welcome W. 27 m w farmer $125 TN >> Fanny A. 26 f w TN >> Mary L. M. 1 f w MO >> >> I don’t know who Fanny was, but Welcome McCart was the son of Robert >> McCart Sr. and Hannah Peters. The family of Robert McCart Sr. was >> closely connected to the Peters family. There’s the obvious >> connection that Robert married Hannah Peters. I don’t know how >> Hannah fits into the families of Tobias Peters Sr. or Henry Peters >> Sr. She could have been the sister of one or the other of them (or >> both, since we don’t know for sure of Tobias and Henry were >> brothers), or she could have been unrelated. But of more import, >> Robert McCart’s daughter Rebecca married James Peters, son of Tobias >> Peters Sr. And a probable son of Robert McCart, given name unknown, >> married Agnes Peters, daughter of Tobias Peters Sr. (Tobias named a >> daughter Agnes McCart in his will). >> >> But there’s more. Living next door to the McCarts was Dr. Jesse L. >> Lea, son of Rev. Robert H. Lea. So surely, Kitty in house number 338 >> was Jesse’s sister Catherine Lea. >> >> Washington Twp, Johnson County, Missouri, 23 Sep 1850 >> p.28a, HN 336, FN 338 >> Lea Jesse L. 30 m w physician $1000 TN >> Harriet 34 f w VA >> Mary J. 2 f w " >> >> Dr. Jesse L. Lea is known to have arrived in Johnson County, Missouri >> in 1844. He married Harriet Tandy in 1846 in Johnson County. >> Despite the ditto marks in the census entry for their daughter Mary >> J. Lea, Mary J. was surely born in Missouri rather than in Virginia. >> The ages and the birth places of the children of John Wesley Peters >> and Kitty suggest that they also arrived in Missouri about 1844, so >> the families probably traveled together. >> >> Finally, old Rev. Robert H. Lea himself was also in the Washington >> Township of Johnson County in 1850, although he wasn’t living next >> door to the rest of the family. >> >> Washington Twp, Johnson County, Missouri, 17 Sep 1850 >> p.20a, HN 242, FN 243 >> Lea Robt. H. 55 m w M. clergyman $1000 NC >> Jane D. 54 f w VA >> Thomas 25 m w farmer TN >> Brunetta A. 20 f w TN >> Mary E. 17 f w TN >> Mirinda J. 15 f w TN >> >> So now that I seem to have found John W. Peters and Catherine Lea, >> which John Peters was he? My first reaction was that he had to have >> been #3 or #4, which is to say that he had to have been either >> Tobias’s son or grandson. The reason is that it was descendants of >> Tobias Sr. rather than descendants of Henry Sr. who seem to have >> interacted with the McCart family. >> >> Tobias Sr. and Henry Sr. both moved originally to the part of >> Anderson County that is called the Scarbrough community. Scarbrough >> is in the southwest corner of the county. Henry and his sons Henry >> Jr. and Thomas continued to live in Scarbrough. But Tobias purchased >> land that I believe was not in Scarbrough, but rather was on the >> northwest part of the county. I need to do some additional work to >> try to figure out exactly where Tobias’s land was, but it almost >> certainly was not in Scarbrough. I don’t find Tobias’s descendants >> in Scarbrough. For example, Tobias’s son James lived in Morgan >> County, not far across the county line from the northwest part of >> Anderson County. The McCarts were in the same part of Morgan County. >> >> But I ran into trouble trying to fit John W. Peters who married >> Catherine Lea into the Tobias Peters family. John W. Peters who >> married Catherine Lea was born about 1815. Most researchers list the >> birth date of John Peters #3 as about 1800. I’m not sure exactly >> where that date comes from. Tobias was married in 1797, his first >> son James was born in 1798, and John #3 was the second son. Maybe >> it’s only natural to assume that John was born in 1800. But the next >> known son was Wesley who was born in 1816. There were three >> daughters in between – Rebecca 1800/1803, Agnes 1805 (this is a >> guess), and Mary 1813. So John Peters #3 didn’t have to have been >> born in 1800; he could have been born considerably later. On the >> other hand, John Peters #3 and his brother James were named executors >> of their father’s will and guardians of their sister Rachel in 1831. >> So I think John Peters #3 was at least 21 years old in 1831, and >> therefore was born prior to 1810. >> >> By the same token, the earliest that John Peters #3 could have been >> born was 1800, so I think it would have been unlikely that he married >> and had a son by 1815. Women often married that young, but men >> seldom did. Therefore, I don't think that John Peters #3 or John >> Peters #4 could have been the John W. Peters who married Catherine >> Lea. >> >> That gets us back to the hypothetical John Peters #2, son of Henry >> Peters Jr. So it seems to me that John W. Peters born 1815 who >> married Catherine Lea and John W. Peters born 1822 who married Ruby >> Smith had to have been first cousins, with one of them being #2 son >> of Henry Peters Jr. and the other being #1 son of Thomas Peters. But >> which one was which? >> >> The Anderson County marriage book didn’t start until the 1830’s. We >> know from his War of 1812 pension application that Thomas Peters was >> married in 1812, so he could have been the father either of John W. >> Peters #1 or of #2. His first known child was Zipporah Peters born >> 1813/1814. It is not known when Henry Peters Jr. was married. He >> was born in about 1790 and his wife Jane England was born about 1800 >> (age 50 in the 1850 census). Jane would have been young in 1815 to >> have been the mother of the John W. Peters who married Catherine Lea, >> but it is far from impossible. Henry Jr.’s first known child was >> Mary Jane Peters born 1827. But there are definitely some gaps in >> the knowledge of Henry Jr.’s children. >> >> Here is the 1830 census entry for Thomas, with children placed >> according to my best current knowledge of the family. >> >> p.172, line 8, Anderson County, Tennessee, 1830 >> Thomas Peters 0120001-1211001 >> >> 00-04 0 1 1826-1830 Susan Peters >> 05-09 1 2 1821-1825 John W. Peters, Mary Peters >> 10-14 2 1 1816-1820 Henry Clark (Clark) Peters, William F. >> Peters, Jane Peters >> 15-19 0 1 1811-1815 Zipporah Peters >> 20-29 0 0 1801-1810 >> 30-39 0 0 1791-1800 >> 40-49 1 1 1781-1790 Thomas Peters, Sarah (Sallie) England >> >> Here is the 1830 census entry for Henry Jr. Note in particular the >> absence of any male born in the 1815 timeframe. >> >> p.172, line 10, Anderson County, Tennessee, 1830 >> Peters Henry 0200001-21001 >> >> 00-04 0 2 1826-1830 Mary Jane Peters >> 05-09 2 1 1821-1825 >> 10-14 0 0 1816-1820 >> 15-19 0 0 1811-1815 >> 20-29 0 1 1801-1810 Jane England >> 30-39 0 1791-1800 >> 40-49 1 1781-1790 Henry Peters Jr. >> >> And indeed, based on the ages of the children in this census entry, I >> list Henry Peters Jr. and Jane England as having been married about >> 1820, when Jane was about 20 years old. Well, it easily could have >> been 1818 or 1819 or so. >> >> Given these facts, I am forced to conclude that John W. Peters born >> about 1815 who married Catherine Lea was probably the son of Thomas >> Peters and Sarah (Sallie) England. Then, the only place I can put my >> John W. Peters born about 1822 who married Ruby Smith was as the son >> of Henry Peters Jr. and Jane England. This is certainly a >> revisionist history, although as I said the two John W. Peters in >> question were first cousins and the common ancestors in either case >> were Henry Peters Sr. and his wife Mary Wiatte. >> >> Let’s look again at John Wesley Peters and Catherine Lea in the 1850 >> census in Missouri. >> >> Washington Twp, Johnson County, Missouri, 23 Sep 1850 >> p.28a, HN 338, FN 340 >> Peters John Westley 35 m w farmer $500 TN >> Kitty 28 f w TN >> Sarah 9 f w TN >> Robert W. 7 m w TN attended school >> Thomas S. 5 m w MO >> Mary L. A. 1 f w MO >> >> Robert W. Peters age 7 was surely named for his grandfather Rev. >> Robert H. Lea. But notice that there is a Sarah and a Thomas. It >> surely makes sense that Sarah age 9 was named for her grandmother >> Sarah (Sallie) England who married Thomas Peters, and that Thomas S. >> Peters age 5 was named for his grandfather Thomas Peters. The only >> child that doesn’t fit this pattern is Mary age 1 because Rev. Robert >> H. Lea’s wife was named Jane D. But perhaps there was a Jane Peters >> age 3 who died (note the gap between Thomas age 5 and Mary age 1). >> Perhaps Robert Lea’s wife was Mary Jane. Perhaps the family simply >> didn’t follow the naming pattern for the fourth child. Or perhaps >> this whole theory isn’t correct at all. But an extremely large >> number of the pieces fit extremely well. >> >> Finally, let’s return to the settlement of Ruby Smith Peters and look >> at why it suggests that John W. Peters born about 1822 was the son of >> Thomas Peters rather than the son of Henry Peters Jr. as I now >> believe. >> >> As I said, it was just an estate sale and in general does not provide >> a lot of genealogical information. The administrator was W.B. >> Peters. This was Washington Blair (Blair) Peters, oldest son of John >> W. Peters and Ruby Smith. But Blair Peters was already known to have >> been their son, even if the settlement didn’t exist. Many of the >> names of people purchasing items were just neighbors. Peters family >> members were as follows: >> >> * J.H. Peters (John Henry Peters, son of John W. Peters and Ruby >> Smith) >> * Alex Cross (William Alexander Cross, son of Alfred Carter Cross and >> Zipporah Peters and grandson of Thomas Peters) >> * F.A. Peters (Francis Asbury Peters, son of Henry Peters Jr.) >> * James Sample (James Samsel, husband of Mary J. Peters and >> son-in-law of John W. Peters and Ruby Smith) >> * P.W. Shannon (Preston William Shannon, husband of Sarah Emily >> Peters and son-in-law of Thomas Peters) >> * G.H. Peters (probably bad transcription, probably C.H. Peters – >> Henry Clark (Clark) Peters, son of either Thomas Peters or of Henry >> Peters Jr., there is conflicting evidence on this point) >> * A.C. Cross (Alfred Carter Cross, husband of Zipporah Peters and >> son-in-law of Thomas Peters) >> * W.B. Peters (the aforementioned Washington Blair (Blair) Peters, >> son of John W. Peters and Ruby Smith) >> * John Scarbrough (John W. Scarbrough, husband of Mary Peters and >> son-in-law of Thomas Peters) >> >> So there were definitely people associated with Henry Peters Jr. in >> the list in addition to people associated with Thomas Peters. And in >> any case, Henry Jr. and Thomas were brothers and they lived next door >> to each other. So they would have had the same friends, neighbors, >> and family. Looked at alone, I still believe that the settlement >> suggests that John W. Peters born about 1822 who married Ruby Smith >> was the son of Thomas Peters. But the settlement is not definitive, >> and I believe that the 1830 and 1850 census data along with the >> naming patterns of the children of John Wesley Peters and Catherine >> Lea force me to revise my history. >> >> By the way, I am still descended from Thomas Peters. In my previous >> history, I listed myself as descended from Thomas's children Zipporah >> Peters, Jane Peters, and John W. Peters. In my revisionist history, >> I list myself as descended from Thomas's daughters Zipporah Peters >> and Jane Peters, and from Henry Jr.'s son John W. Peters. Thomas and >> Henry Jr. were brothers, sons of Henry Peters Sr. >> >> Jerry Bryan > > > > ==== TNANDERS Mailing List ==== > Post your questions and inquiry about your Ancestor > regularly...Someone may find a relative. > http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/index/TNANDERS >

Hi Ann, Right now I wish I were a "Peters" (smile) I don't know if I am in your line but if you have "Key" in your tree from Anderson Co., I bet I am . I'm so mixed up on this line and have been for over 30 years & I tossed it a side but now I'm having a book printed and must try again and what I did have is wrong as of this weekend as I thought my great grandmother went to Texas (Sarah F. Key who married Thomas Jefferson Prosise) went to Texas because other "Keys" were there but they went there because the Hoskins were there.I've never seen so many John, James, William, & etc in my life.Bet they didn't miss Peter. By 1850 when they first listed all the names some of the Children had marrieid and left home. I've heard they had 12 children but can only find 9. John Wesley Key, born in Tennesse 1797\1798. He died in Anderson Co., 1882 and is buried at the Key-Hoskins Cemetery, in Anderson Co., He married Elizabeth ? who was born in Va. some say she was an Allred & I don't think so & others thought John W. Key married an Matilda. I find she married his son James W. Key. I believe that Elizabeth died before the 1880 census. Here are their children: James Wesley Key, born 20, Aug. 1819 in Anderson Co., married Matilda Early 20, Nov. 1845.died , 15, Dec.1892 & is buried at the Key - Hoskins Cem. Anderson Co., Female Key, Some say she is a Louisa Henderson but I find she married Tobis Peters. She as born in 1822, In Anderson Co. Isaac Miller Key, born 22, April 1824 in Anderson Co., Married Lodema Caroline Hoskins on 30 Dec. 1850 in Anderson Co., He died 2, April 1863 at Panola, Texas. & is bried there in the Youngblood Cem. Male Key, born 1825\1829 in Anderson Co., Male Key, born 1825\1829 in Anderson Co., they may be twins or as much as 4 years apart. William A. Key, 26, July 1834 in Anderson Co., Married Nancy E.V, Hoskins 23, Dec. 1869 in Anderson Co., died 24, July 1880 buried at the Sunset Cem. Anderson Co., Polly E. Key, born 1836 in Anderson Co., no infor. Sarah F. Key, born in 1838 ( my Great Grandmother) married Thomas Jefferson Prosise abt.1846 and died 20, Feb1869 along with two daughters. Bef. she is buried in the old Baptist Cem. Anderson Co., Male Key, born 1837. no Infro. Now if you really want to be confused get the 1850 census from Sumner Co., Tenn. and find John W. Key there with his wife & children and in the 1850 census in Anderson Co., they are there too. Now you have to admitt this is wonderful work that took 30 years to find (just kidding). I'll keep my fingers crossed until I hear from you & thanks a bunch. Phyllis ----- Original Message ----- From: "Ann Perrine" <perrineap@mindspring.com> To: <TNANDERS-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Monday, December 06, 2004 10:52 AM Subject: Re: [TNANDERS-L] FW: [PETERS] John Peters update, Anderson County, Tennessee > Jerry, I just read Phyllis Peterson's reply to you and wonder about her > Key relatives!!! Do you think there could be any connection to the > Keys who might (with a good probability) be connected to our William > Cole? > > Ann Scarbrough Perrine > On Dec 6, 2004, at 11:21 AM, Jerry Bryan wrote: > > > I posted the following to the Peters list at rootsweb over the > > weekend. I thought it might be interesting to a few people on the > > Anderson County list as well. There are a few parts I would probably > > have written slightly differently if the original intended audience > > had been the Anderson County list, but here it is just as I wrote it > > for the Peters list. > > > > Jerry Bryan > > > > > >> There are a lot of puzzles associated with men named John Peters in > >> Anderson County, Tennessee. I have posted about them several times > >> before, and now I have some new information. > >> > >> A basic working assumption is that all the Peters in Anderson County > >> were descended either from Henry Peters Sr. or Tobias Peters Sr. > >> This assumption seems to hold up at least from the arrival of Henry > >> and Tobias in Anderson County in 1797 until some other Peters lines > >> showed up in Anderson County in the late 19th century. I have never > >> seen any evidence that contradicts this working assumption. > >> > >> This working assumption limits the possibilities for who the various > >> early John Peters in Anderson County might have been. I think there > >> are four main possibilities. > >> > >> #1 Henry Peters Sr. -> Thomas Peters -> John Peters > >> #2 Henry Peters Sr. -> Henry Peters Jr. -> John Peters > >> #3 Tobias Peters Sr. -> John Peters > >> #4 Tobias Peters Sr. -> John Peters -> John Peters > >> > >> John Peters #3 is known to have existed from the will of Tobias > >> Peters Sr. and from deeds where the heirs of Tobias Peters Sr. sold > >> his land after his death. However, very little is known about John > >> Peters #3, for example whether he married or had children. > >> Therefore, the existence of John Peters #4 (son of John and grandson > >> of Tobias Sr.) is highly speculative. I include the possibility of > >> John Peters #4 only for completeness and only because there were so > >> many John Peters that I need a place to put them all. > >> > >> John Peters #1 is known to exist from tax records and a deed. Thomas > >> Peters paid taxes on 134 + 50 acres in 1839. John W. Peters paid > >> taxes on 134 + 50 acres in 1840. John W. Peters paid taxes on 184 > >> acres in 1841. John W. Peters and William Peters sold 184 acres to > >> George W. Keith on 31 Dec 1841. The land was adjacent to land of > >> Thomas Peters. G.W. Keith paid taxes on 184 acres in 1842. There > >> was no extant deed that transferred the land from Thomas Peters to > >> John W. Peters and William Peters between 1839 and 1840. Under these > >> circumstances, I think it is extremely likely that John W. Peters and > >> William Peters were sons of Thomas Peters. > >> > >> The existence of John Peters #2 is speculative. But there were so > >> many John Peters, that #2 seems likely to me to have existed. See > >> below for more discussion on this point. > >> > >> There are a number of records about various John Peters, but the > >> records that interest me the most are two marriage records. John W. > >> Peters married Ruby Smith on 26 Jun 1840 in Anderson County. John W. > >> Peters married Catherine Lea on 26 Jan 1841 in Anderson County. But > >> of #1, #2, #3, and #4, which one married Ruby Smith and which one > >> married Catherine Lea? > >> > >> I am descended from John W. Peters and Ruby Smith. My John W. Peters > >> died in 1861 in the Civil War, and my Ruby Smith died in 1867 in > >> Anderson County. Ruby filed for a widow's Civil War pension before > >> her death, and one of her children filed for a Civil War pension > >> after her death, based on John's very short Civil War service. These > >> documents are very interesting reading, but they do not provide any > >> information about John's ancestors. > >> > >> I have found no will or settlement for my John W. Peters. I have > >> found an 1867 settlement for the widow Ruby Smith Peters. It really > >> is just an estate sale. But many of the names involved in the estate > >> sale were associated with Thomas Peters, suggesting that my John W. > >> Peters was the son of Thomas (and hence was John Peters #1). > >> > >> For many years, John W. Peters and Catherine Lea seemed to have > >> vanished from the face of the earth after their marriage. The only > >> clue I had was that there was a Robert H. Lea enumerated in the 1840 > >> census for Anderson County. I probably did not pursue this clue > >> aggressively enough, because I now believe that Catherine Lea was the > >> daughter of Robert H. Lea. Here is the 1840 census entry for Robert > >> H. Lea as I currently have it transcribed. > >> > >> p.5a, line 14, 1840, Anderson County, Tennessee > >> Robt. H. Lea 0010101-0210201, 1 male slave 21-24, 10 people total, 4 > >> in agriculture > >> > >> 00-04 0 0 1836-1840 > >> 05-09 0 2 1831-1835 > >> 10-14 1 1 1826-1830 > >> 15-19 0 0 1821-1825 > >> 20-29 1 2 1811-1820 Dr. Jesse L. Lea, Catherine Lea > >> 30-39 0 0 1801-1810 > >> 40-49 1 1 1791-1800 Rev. Robert H. Lea, Jane D. > >> > >> I believe this was the Rev. Robert H. Lea. One of his sons was Dr. > >> Jesse L. Lea, born in 1820 in Cocke County, Tennessee. The family > >> was enumerated in the 1830 census in Jefferson County, Tennessee. By > >> 1840, they were living in Anderson County, Tennessee where I believe > >> Catherine met and married John W. Peters. But I lost track of them > >> after that. > >> > >> I now believe I have found them in Missouri. > >> > >> Washington Twp, Johnson County, Missouri, 23 Sep 1850 > >> p.28a, HN 338, FN 340 > >> Peters John Westley 35 m w farmer $500 TN > >> Kitty 28 f w TN > >> Sarah 9 f w TN > >> Robert W. 7 m w TN attended school > >> Thomas S. 5 m w MO > >> Mary L. A. 1 f w MO > >> > >> Kitty is a common nickname for Catherine, but that is not what > >> persuaded me this family was from Anderson County, Tennessee. After > >> all, Tennessee is a big state and John Wesley Peters of Johnson > >> County, Missouri did not have to have come to Missouri from Anderson > >> County. What started to persuade me is that living next door to John > >> Wesley Peters and Kitty was Welcome Raymond McCart and his wife > >> Fanny. > >> > >> Washington Twp, Johnson County, Missouri, 23 Sep 1850 > >> p.28a, HN 337, FN 339 > >> McCart Welcome W. 27 m w farmer $125 TN > >> Fanny A. 26 f w TN > >> Mary L. M. 1 f w MO > >> > >> I don't know who Fanny was, but Welcome McCart was the son of Robert > >> McCart Sr. and Hannah Peters. The family of Robert McCart Sr. was > >> closely connected to the Peters family. There's the obvious > >> connection that Robert married Hannah Peters. I don't know how > >> Hannah fits into the families of Tobias Peters Sr. or Henry Peters > >> Sr. She could have been the sister of one or the other of them (or > >> both, since we don't know for sure of Tobias and Henry were > >> brothers), or she could have been unrelated. But of more import, > >> Robert McCart's daughter Rebecca married James Peters, son of Tobias > >> Peters Sr. And a probable son of Robert McCart, given name unknown, > >> married Agnes Peters, daughter of Tobias Peters Sr. (Tobias named a > >> daughter Agnes McCart in his will). > >> > >> But there's more. Living next door to the McCarts was Dr. Jesse L. > >> Lea, son of Rev. Robert H. Lea. So surely, Kitty in house number 338 > >> was Jesse's sister Catherine Lea. > >> > >> Washington Twp, Johnson County, Missouri, 23 Sep 1850 > >> p.28a, HN 336, FN 338 > >> Lea Jesse L. 30 m w physician $1000 TN > >> Harriet 34 f w VA > >> Mary J. 2 f w " > >> > >> Dr. Jesse L. Lea is known to have arrived in Johnson County, Missouri > >> in 1844. He married Harriet Tandy in 1846 in Johnson County. > >> Despite the ditto marks in the census entry for their daughter Mary > >> J. Lea, Mary J. was surely born in Missouri rather than in Virginia. > >> The ages and the birth places of the children of John Wesley Peters > >> and Kitty suggest that they also arrived in Missouri about 1844, so > >> the families probably traveled together. > >> > >> Finally, old Rev. Robert H. Lea himself was also in the Washington > >> Township of Johnson County in 1850, although he wasn't living next > >> door to the rest of the family. > >> > >> Washington Twp, Johnson County, Missouri, 17 Sep 1850 > >> p.20a, HN 242, FN 243 > >> Lea Robt. H. 55 m w M. clergyman $1000 NC > >> Jane D. 54 f w VA > >> Thomas 25 m w farmer TN > >> Brunetta A. 20 f w TN > >> Mary E. 17 f w TN > >> Mirinda J. 15 f w TN > >> > >> So now that I seem to have found John W. Peters and Catherine Lea, > >> which John Peters was he? My first reaction was that he had to have > >> been #3 or #4, which is to say that he had to have been either > >> Tobias's son or grandson. The reason is that it was descendants of > >> Tobias Sr. rather than descendants of Henry Sr. who seem to have > >> interacted with the McCart family. > >> > >> Tobias Sr. and Henry Sr. both moved originally to the part of > >> Anderson County that is called the Scarbrough community. Scarbrough > >> is in the southwest corner of the county. Henry and his sons Henry > >> Jr. and Thomas continued to live in Scarbrough. But Tobias purchased > >> land that I believe was not in Scarbrough, but rather was on the > >> northwest part of the county. I need to do some additional work to > >> try to figure out exactly where Tobias's land was, but it almost > >> certainly was not in Scarbrough. I don't find Tobias's descendants > >> in Scarbrough. For example, Tobias's son James lived in Morgan > >> County, not far across the county line from the northwest part of > >> Anderson County. The McCarts were in the same part of Morgan County. > >> > >> But I ran into trouble trying to fit John W. Peters who married > >> Catherine Lea into the Tobias Peters family. John W. Peters who > >> married Catherine Lea was born about 1815. Most researchers list the > >> birth date of John Peters #3 as about 1800. I'm not sure exactly > >> where that date comes from. Tobias was married in 1797, his first > >> son James was born in 1798, and John #3 was the second son. Maybe > >> it's only natural to assume that John was born in 1800. But the next > >> known son was Wesley who was born in 1816. There were three > >> daughters in between - Rebecca 1800/1803, Agnes 1805 (this is a > >> guess), and Mary 1813. So John Peters #3 didn't have to have been > >> born in 1800; he could have been born considerably later. On the > >> other hand, John Peters #3 and his brother James were named executors > >> of their father's will and guardians of their sister Rachel in 1831. > >> So I think John Peters #3 was at least 21 years old in 1831, and > >> therefore was born prior to 1810. > >> > >> By the same token, the earliest that John Peters #3 could have been > >> born was 1800, so I think it would have been unlikely that he married > >> and had a son by 1815. Women often married that young, but men > >> seldom did. Therefore, I don't think that John Peters #3 or John > >> Peters #4 could have been the John W. Peters who married Catherine > >> Lea. > >> > >> That gets us back to the hypothetical John Peters #2, son of Henry > >> Peters Jr. So it seems to me that John W. Peters born 1815 who > >> married Catherine Lea and John W. Peters born 1822 who married Ruby > >> Smith had to have been first cousins, with one of them being #2 son > >> of Henry Peters Jr. and the other being #1 son of Thomas Peters. But > >> which one was which? > >> > >> The Anderson County marriage book didn't start until the 1830's. We > >> know from his War of 1812 pension application that Thomas Peters was > >> married in 1812, so he could have been the father either of John W. > >> Peters #1 or of #2. His first known child was Zipporah Peters born > >> 1813/1814. It is not known when Henry Peters Jr. was married. He > >> was born in about 1790 and his wife Jane England was born about 1800 > >> (age 50 in the 1850 census). Jane would have been young in 1815 to > >> have been the mother of the John W. Peters who married Catherine Lea, > >> but it is far from impossible. Henry Jr.'s first known child was > >> Mary Jane Peters born 1827. But there are definitely some gaps in > >> the knowledge of Henry Jr.'s children. > >> > >> Here is the 1830 census entry for Thomas, with children placed > >> according to my best current knowledge of the family. > >> > >> p.172, line 8, Anderson County, Tennessee, 1830 > >> Thomas Peters 0120001-1211001 > >> > >> 00-04 0 1 1826-1830 Susan Peters > >> 05-09 1 2 1821-1825 John W. Peters, Mary Peters > >> 10-14 2 1 1816-1820 Henry Clark (Clark) Peters, William F. > >> Peters, Jane Peters > >> 15-19 0 1 1811-1815 Zipporah Peters > >> 20-29 0 0 1801-1810 > >> 30-39 0 0 1791-1800 > >> 40-49 1 1 1781-1790 Thomas Peters, Sarah (Sallie) England > >> > >> Here is the 1830 census entry for Henry Jr. Note in particular the > >> absence of any male born in the 1815 timeframe. > >> > >> p.172, line 10, Anderson County, Tennessee, 1830 > >> Peters Henry 0200001-21001 > >> > >> 00-04 0 2 1826-1830 Mary Jane Peters > >> 05-09 2 1 1821-1825 > >> 10-14 0 0 1816-1820 > >> 15-19 0 0 1811-1815 > >> 20-29 0 1 1801-1810 Jane England > >> 30-39 0 1791-1800 > >> 40-49 1 1781-1790 Henry Peters Jr. > >> > >> And indeed, based on the ages of the children in this census entry, I > >> list Henry Peters Jr. and Jane England as having been married about > >> 1820, when Jane was about 20 years old. Well, it easily could have > >> been 1818 or 1819 or so. > >> > >> Given these facts, I am forced to conclude that John W. Peters born > >> about 1815 who married Catherine Lea was probably the son of Thomas > >> Peters and Sarah (Sallie) England. Then, the only place I can put my > >> John W. Peters born about 1822 who married Ruby Smith was as the son > >> of Henry Peters Jr. and Jane England. This is certainly a > >> revisionist history, although as I said the two John W. Peters in > >> question were first cousins and the common ancestors in either case > >> were Henry Peters Sr. and his wife Mary Wiatte. > >> > >> Let's look again at John Wesley Peters and Catherine Lea in the 1850 > >> census in Missouri. > >> > >> Washington Twp, Johnson County, Missouri, 23 Sep 1850 > >> p.28a, HN 338, FN 340 > >> Peters John Westley 35 m w farmer $500 TN > >> Kitty 28 f w TN > >> Sarah 9 f w TN > >> Robert W. 7 m w TN attended school > >> Thomas S. 5 m w MO > >> Mary L. A. 1 f w MO > >> > >> Robert W. Peters age 7 was surely named for his grandfather Rev. > >> Robert H. Lea. But notice that there is a Sarah and a Thomas. It > >> surely makes sense that Sarah age 9 was named for her grandmother > >> Sarah (Sallie) England who married Thomas Peters, and that Thomas S. > >> Peters age 5 was named for his grandfather Thomas Peters. The only > >> child that doesn't fit this pattern is Mary age 1 because Rev. Robert > >> H. Lea's wife was named Jane D. But perhaps there was a Jane Peters > >> age 3 who died (note the gap between Thomas age 5 and Mary age 1). > >> Perhaps Robert Lea's wife was Mary Jane. Perhaps the family simply > >> didn't follow the naming pattern for the fourth child. Or perhaps > >> this whole theory isn't correct at all. But an extremely large > >> number of the pieces fit extremely well. > >> > >> Finally, let's return to the settlement of Ruby Smith Peters and look > >> at why it suggests that John W. Peters born about 1822 was the son of > >> Thomas Peters rather than the son of Henry Peters Jr. as I now > >> believe. > >> > >> As I said, it was just an estate sale and in general does not provide > >> a lot of genealogical information. The administrator was W.B. > >> Peters. This was Washington Blair (Blair) Peters, oldest son of John > >> W. Peters and Ruby Smith. But Blair Peters was already known to have > >> been their son, even if the settlement didn't exist. Many of the > >> names of people purchasing items were just neighbors. Peters family > >> members were as follows: > >> > >> * J.H. Peters (John Henry Peters, son of John W. Peters and Ruby > >> Smith) > >> * Alex Cross (William Alexander Cross, son of Alfred Carter Cross and > >> Zipporah Peters and grandson of Thomas Peters) > >> * F.A. Peters (Francis Asbury Peters, son of Henry Peters Jr.) > >> * James Sample (James Samsel, husband of Mary J. Peters and > >> son-in-law of John W. Peters and Ruby Smith) > >> * P.W. Shannon (Preston William Shannon, husband of Sarah Emily > >> Peters and son-in-law of Thomas Peters) > >> * G.H. Peters (probably bad transcription, probably C.H. Peters - > >> Henry Clark (Clark) Peters, son of either Thomas Peters or of Henry > >> Peters Jr., there is conflicting evidence on this point) > >> * A.C. Cross (Alfred Carter Cross, husband of Zipporah Peters and > >> son-in-law of Thomas Peters) > >> * W.B. Peters (the aforementioned Washington Blair (Blair) Peters, > >> son of John W. Peters and Ruby Smith) > >> * John Scarbrough (John W. Scarbrough, husband of Mary Peters and > >> son-in-law of Thomas Peters) > >> > >> So there were definitely people associated with Henry Peters Jr. in > >> the list in addition to people associated with Thomas Peters. And in > >> any case, Henry Jr. and Thomas were brothers and they lived next door > >> to each other. So they would have had the same friends, neighbors, > >> and family. Looked at alone, I still believe that the settlement > >> suggests that John W. Peters born about 1822 who married Ruby Smith > >> was the son of Thomas Peters. But the settlement is not definitive, > >> and I believe that the 1830 and 1850 census data along with the > >> naming patterns of the children of John Wesley Peters and Catherine > >> Lea force me to revise my history. > >> > >> By the way, I am still descended from Thomas Peters. In my previous > >> history, I listed myself as descended from Thomas's children Zipporah > >> Peters, Jane Peters, and John W. Peters. In my revisionist history, > >> I list myself as descended from Thomas's daughters Zipporah Peters > >> and Jane Peters, and from Henry Jr.'s son John W. Peters. Thomas and > >> Henry Jr. were brothers, sons of Henry Peters Sr. > >> > >> Jerry Bryan > > > > > > > > ==== TNANDERS Mailing List ==== > > Post your questions and inquiry about your Ancestor > > regularly...Someone may find a relative. > > http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/index/TNANDERS > > > > > > ==== TNANDERS Mailing List ==== > To See Previous Posts http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/index/TNANDERS > >