Obion County, Tennessee Genealogy

Obion TNGenWeb County Coordinator

OBION RIVER TIDBITS

Obion County was Created 1823 from Indian lands; named for the Obion River, chief watercourse of the area, the origin of the name of which is obscure: possibly an Indian word meaning “many prongs” or the name of a French-Irish explorer.

Obion River, c.50 mi/80 km long, W Tenn.; formed in Obion co. by confluence of canalized North (c.45 mi/72 km long), South (c.55 mi/89 km long), and Rutherford (c.50 mi/80 km long) forks; flows SW past Obion, to Mississippi R. 13 mi/21 km NW of Ripley; 35°54'N 89°38'W. Receives Forked Deer R.

Obion Creek, c.50 mi/80 km long, SW Ky.; rises in S Graves co., c.15 mi/24 km S of Mayfield; flows NW through Obion Creek Wildlife Management Area, then SW to Mississippi R. 2 mi/3.2 km NE of Hickman.

BAYOU DE CHEIN -  The "River of the Dogs" flowed through the area before the earthquakes formed Reelfoot Lake, and it can still be traced through the lake to the Obion River.  

Charles Craig Wren, Henry Co., TN http://www.drewa.com/Descendants%20%20of%20Robert%20Wren.htm
An act of the General Assembly of the State of Tennessee which was passed on November 7, 1821, created this new county from the western part of Stewart County.  It was named Henry in honor of Patrick Henry.  In 1819, James B. House and Adam Rowe settled on the Obion River, then a part of Stewart County.  

Jesse Carraway Registered July 21 1852 To Deed B.F. Wilson
This Indenture made and entered into this day 22^nd of June in the year of our Lord One Thousand Eighty Hundred and fifty two between Jesse Carraway of the county of Obion and State of Tennessee of the one part and B.F. Wilson of the County of Gibson and State of Tennessee of the other part witnesseth that for and in cause diration of the sum of Three hundred and fifty Dollars to him in hand paid by the said B.F. Wilson the receipt of which is hereby acknowledged the said Jesse Carraway has this day bargained and sold and by these presents doth bargain and sell _____ and confirm unto B.F. Wilson his heirs and assigns forever a certain tract or parcel of land situated lying and being in the State of Tennessee and Gibson County in Range three and four and section five and on Rutherford fork of Obion river Beginning at the north east corner of Quincy Grady, tract for thirty and one half acres running thence West 149 poles to a hickory thence South one hundred and six and one eighth poles to a beach thence east one hundred and fifty four poles to a stake thence north one hundred and six and one eighth poles to the beginning the same is intended to include and exclude the said thirty and one half acre tract in the name of said Graddy and containing by Survey Seventy acres by the same more or less. To have and to hold the same to him the said B.F. Wilson his heirs and assigns and the said Jesse Carraway for himself his heirs and assigns doth covenant and agree that he has a gone rights and title to the said land and thereby is authorized to convey the same and that he will warranty and defend the rights title and claim to the said seventy acres of land to the said B.F. Wilson his heirs and assigns and from the claims of all other person or persons whatsoever In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and seal this day and stated above written.
Signed & sealed in the presence of us Jesse Carraway (SEAL)
B.D. Pate -  A. Brickhouse
State of Tennessee Personally appeared before me, James A. McDearmon clerk of the county , county of said county the within named Jesse Carraway with whom I am personally acquainted and who acknowledges that he executed the written deed for the purpose of therein contained Given unto my hand at office in Trenton this 19^th day of July 1852
J. A. McDearmon Clk
Filed July 20, 1852 at 1 o'clock pm and noted in note book No. 3 page 85
L.B. Gilchrist Regr

David (Davy) Crockett - As Crockett never desired to be too close to civilization, and upon the legislature adjourning, he set out westward, actually to look for a place toI remember but one North Carolina claim, a special entry, I believe, being made in West Tennessee on Tennessee river; which was for 1,800 acres in the name of William P. Anderson, at and including the mouth of Birdsong creek, some miles below Johnsonville, including the only extensive body of good land I met with on that river, which I meandered from Reynoldsburg up about ten miles and found it one of the worse jobs I ever undertook on account of canebrakes, in one of which I spent an uncomfortable night. Isaac Robards, only, of the surveyors named above entered West Tennessee from its east side and he from opposite the mouth of Duck river, thence ran west to Big Sandy at a bluff where he made a corner and from it four 5,000-acre tracts were granted to my grandfather, Memucan Hunt; Robards made another corner in the forks of Beaver creek, of Obion river, and located other grants of 5,000 acres each to my grandfather on one of which Huntingdon now stands until he had 75,000 acres in his name; he had as partners, however, Thos. Polk, Jas. Galloway, Jesse Benton (father of Thomas H.), Pleasant Henderson, who settled on one of the tracts near Huntingdon, and died there, and A. Murphy. This company, including Isaac Robards, owned 140,000 acres all together. In 1827 or 1828, I had occasion to perpetuate the testimony of Henry Blair, then of Wilson County, as to a corner made in 1783 two miles east of Huntingdon, when I am pretty sure he told me his powder horn was shot from his side by an Indian on this expedition and not in Middle Tennessee as stated in Haywood’s history. build a new home, where water and game were bountiful. After traveling about 150 miles he found himself to the extreme west area of Tennessee, on the Obion River.

Memucan Hunt Howard, Transcribed from The American Historical Magazine, Vol. 7, No. 1 (January 1902), pp. 55-78.
Robards made another corner in the forks of Beaver creek, of Obion river, and located other grants of 5,000 acres each to my grandfather on one of which Huntingdon now stands until he had 75,000 acres in his name; he had as partners, however, Thos. Polk, Jas. Galloway, Jesse Benton (father of Thomas H.), Pleasant Henderson, who settled on one of the tracts near Huntingdon, and died there, and A. Murphy. This company, including Isaac Robards, owned 140,000 acres all together.

History of 46th Tennessee, Co. K., Organized at Paris, Tennessee November 29, 1861. As this regiment was answering a second "call to arms", a large proportion of this regiment was made up of young men with wives and children. The regiment went into camp at Union City, Obion County, Tennessee, on December 16, 1861 at Camp Brown. The regiment was ordered to start building winter quarters, while Company "C" was detailed to guard the Mississippi and Ohio Railroad bridge over the Obion River. Before winter quarters were completed, the 46th was ordered to Island Number 10 in the Mississippi River. En route, Co. E and Co. F were left as provost guard for the town of  Hickman, KY and the remaining seven companies went on to Island 10 aboard the steamer "Winchester ".  While at Island Number 10, the regiment suffered severely from an outbreak of measles. It was only partially armed with shotguns, squirrel rifles and old muskets. One company only had seven guns. Oct. 24, 1863 the company was consolidated with Companies "E" and "H"

Union Forces of Dyer Co., TN
2nd Illinois Cavalry Regiment - At 1st and 2nd Skirmishes of Merriwether's Ferry
6th Illinois Cavalry Regiment - At Wood's Springs Skirmish and Obion River Skirmish
11th Illinois Cavalry Regiment - At Dyersburg Bridge Skirmish (also at Yorkville Skirmish)(two men from Dyer County enlisted in this regiment)
15th Illinois Cavalry Regiment - At Plank Road Crossing Skirmish (Snow's Ferry)
54th Illinois Infantry Regiment - At 1st Merriwether's Ferry Skirmish (at least Colonel Harris was present)
3rd Michigan Cavalry Regiment - At Dyersburg Bridge Skirmish and deployed for an ambush on the Obion River
22nd Michigan Cavalry Regiment - Arrived late at the Dyersburg Bridge Skirmish (also at Yorkville Skirmish)

Units that camped at Porter's Farm, South of Sharp's Ferry on the Obion River. These units were stayed from March 24th to March 26th 1864 and were on there way to Okolona:
2nd New Jersey Infantry Regiment Regiment
2nd Illinois Pioneer Infantry Regiment
4th Missouri Infantry Regiment
7th Indiana Infantry Regiment
19th Pennsylvania Pioneer Regiment

Units on Expeditions and Scouts through Dyer County
Degoylyer's Michigan Battery - (1 section) Deployed for an ambush on the Obion River.
52nd Indiana Infantry Regiment - At Chestnut Bluff Expedition, Obion River Crossing and Key Corner incident
Elements of Colonel Fielding Hurst's Command - (Scouting etc.) This group was known to have captured Rev. G. W. D. Harris of Dyer County. Harris was held prisoner at Fort Pillow and is believed to be part of the reason that Forrest attacked the fort. There is at least one other report of this unit in Dyer County.

Forrest's Raid into West Tennessee (1862-63) 
On December 19, after the Battle of Jackson, Forrest regrouped his force at Spring Creek for further raids on Federal installations to the north. On the 20th at Humboldt a detachment of Forrest's cavalry captured both railroads running into the town, destroyed track, trestles, and rolling stock, and burned stores and munitions. Meanwhile, Forrest led part of his brigade northward and captured the Federal garrison at Trenton, entrenching around the railroad station on the west side of town. During the day's activities Forrest's men took 700 prisoners. After pausing for regrouping at Trenton, he moved northward with his entire brigade capturing two companies of Federals and destroying stores at Rutherford. On the 21st, a detachment of Forrest's brigade captured Company K, 119th Illinois Infantry, at Dyer, while burning stores and tearing up track to the north and south of town. That same day another detachment, moving north from Rutherford, captured the Federal garrison of 250 men, including Col. Thomas J. Kinney, commanding the 122nd Illinois Infantry, at Kenton. They also tore up the 5 miles of track between Rutherford and Kenton. By noon on the 22nd, destruction was completed so Forrest's men moved toward Union City. After destroying 15 miles of railroad track and trestles in the Obion River bottoms, Forrest's brigade captured the Federal garrison at Union City on the 23rd, while destroying railroad lines running northeast and southwest into Federal territory as well as railroads running northward and southeast toward Dresden. Moving to McKenzie on the 24th, Forrest's brigade captured the 100-man garrison south of the village. Here they spent Christmas Eve, while working parties completed destruction of 4 miles of trestles and bridges between the forks of the Obion River while other parties completed destruction of the railroad running to Dresden. Forrest's brigade, rearmed and re-equipped with material and horses captured from the Union storehouse which they had plundered, passed through McLemoresville, Huntingdon, and Clarksburg on the 29th and 30th enroute to Lexington and their re-crossing of the Tennessee River at Clifton.

Parker's Crossroads was preceded by an attack on Union City on December 21, where he bluffed the Union captain into surrendering his garrison. On Christmas day he cut the railroad between Union City and McKenzie. Attempting to escape, he dragged his artillery along the swollen Obion river, using sacks of looted flour and coffee to give traction to the wheels. Discovering a large federal force moving at them from Huntingdon, he chose to fight rather than try to outrun his spoils-laden wagons. there.

Henning Von Minden - On May 3rd [1862], in accordance with orders from Colonel Lowe, a detachment under command of Major Schaffer de Boernstein, consisting of Companies E, Captain Nott, F. Captain Haw, and G. Captain Von Minden, left Camp Lowe to reconnoiter beyond Paris and the neighborhood of the Obion River. On May 6th, at 5 o'clock pm, the detachment went into camp near Lockridge's Mill. Company F camping half a mile from the other two companies on the road towards Dresden. Pickets had been thrown out, and the usual precautions to guard against a surprise had been taken. Supper was being prepared, when the pickets were fired upon and driven back to the reserve, which, in turn, was driven to the camps, the rebel force making the attack upon both camps at the same time.

April - May 1882 Samuel L. Clemens' comments: May 8--Got up at 4 A.M. in a roasting-room--some idiot had closed the transoms & I was over the boilers--& went on watch. Fog--Geo. Ritchie steered the watch out by compass, using his & Bixby's patented chart for the crossings & occasionally blowing the whistle. The chart is a great thing--many pilots use it, now.
- Mark Twain's Notebooks & Journals, Vol. II, 1877-1883 On this leg of the trip Clemens spotted another steamboat which bore his name, the Mark Twain. Recalling the incident, he wrote:
Far along in the day we saw one steamboat; just one, and no more. She was lying at rest in the shade, within the wooded mouth of the Obion River. The spy-glass revealed the fact that she was named for me - or he was named for me, whichever you prefer. As this was the first time I had ever encountered this species of honor, it seems excusable to mention it, and at the same time call the attention of the authorities to the tardiness of my recognition of it.
- Life on the Mississippi

THE 15TH IL CAVALRY - Adjutant General's Report from the State of Illinois
SERVICE:
April 9, 1863 Near Obion River
April 15-May 8, 1863 Expedition from Corinth to Courtland, Alabama & North Alabama
April 14, 1863 Burnsville, Alabama
April 17, 1863 Dickson's Station
April 17, 1863 Great Bear Creek and Cherokee Station
April 19, 1863 Dickson's Station
April 22, 1863 Rock Cut, near Tuscumbia
April 23, 1863 Tuscumbia and Florence
April 28, 1863 Town Creek
May 2-8, 1863 Expedition from Burnsville to Tupelo, Mississippi
May 5, 1863 King's Creek, near Tupelo, Mississippi
May -, 1863 Obion Plank Road Crossing
May 18, 1863 Greenville, Mississippi (detachment)

Samuel P. Dunn Service: Civil War, Private, 119th Regiment, Company A. Samuel P. Dunn, b. about 1843 in Ohio d. January 23, 1864, Obion River, Tennessee, marker in Salem Cemetery, Porter Twp., Porter County, Indiana. Not known whether he is actually buried there. doc - Executive Department, Indiana, Adjutant General's Office, Indianapolis, May 28, 1981. This certifies that the official records of which I am the lawful custodian on file in this office show that Samuel P. Dunn joined for duty and was enrolled as a private of Company A, 119th (7th Cavalry) Regiment, Indiana Volunteers, at Valparaiso on the 14th day of July 1863, by Capt. Febles, and that he was duly mustered into the Military Service of the United States at Indianapolis on the 24th day of August, 1863, for the term of three (3) years, by Capt. Miller, United States Army, Mustering Officer. age: 20, eyes: blue, hair: light, height: 5'6", complexion: ruddy, nativity: Athens Co., Ohio, Ocp'n: farmer. Accidentally shot at Obion River, Tenn., Jan. 3, 1864, place of burial not reported. This certificate is given as official evidence of enlistment, service, and record of Samuel P. Dunn of Company A, 119th (7th Cav.) Regiment, Indiana Volunteers. Witness my hand and official seal. Edwin J. Howell, Director. "7 Cav. Ind. Samuel P. Dunn Pvt., Col A, 7 Reg't Indiana Cavalry. Appears on Company Muster Roll for Oct. 31, 63 to Feb. 29, 1864 . . . Remarks: Accidentally killed by the discharge of his revolver, 23", Jan. 64." Samuel Dunn is the brother of Lyman C. Dunn listed above and has the same parents and siblings. He was not married and had no children. 
Source for this information is [10] and Jane Sanders at email jsanders@netnitco.net

Mills' Point (now Hickman)
Levi Reed operated a cabinet business on Clinton Street in Hickman, one door below the tailor shop of Dannelly and Gordon.  Bowers and Davis Grist and Sawmill, situated on the North Fork of the Obion River, about 13 miles from Dresden, and 22 miles from Mills' Point (Hickman), was the oldest mill upon that river.

THE PIONEER, Jackson, Tenn., July 28th, 1823, #9, by A. C. & D. A. C. Hays
Notice Given, I have purchased from heirs at law, the claim of DAWSEY PENTECOST, deceased, for his service in Revolutionary War. Said warrant drawn by Col. THOMAS HENDERSON, Trustee for University of N. C. Tract of land, 356 acres, on Walnut Fork of the N. fork of Obion River. RICHARD A. McREE. Dec. 23, 1822

Abner Burgin was a North Carolina State Representative (1824-1834) and State Senator (1842-43). There were those who were convinced that the reason he was not re-elected was because he so strongly opposed the law that forbade teaching the Negroes to read and write - even though he, himself was a slave owner.  Alleny Burginfell ill shortly after returning from Texas and is said to have died in 1837, or there-a-bouts. He was buried in the Old Bluff Cementery (now plowed over) overlooking the Obion River in Gibson County. His wife Margaret and son Benjamin Franklin were listed in the 1840 and 1850 census for Gibson County. Margaret died sometime between 1850 and 1860 and was also buried in the Old Bluff Cemetery.

SAMUEL WILSON died 1821 in Williamson Co. TN. He died shortly after making a trip in September 1821 to the Western District to see his land tract on the Obion River near Paris and another tract lying near the Kentucky line.  He went there with his son-in-law Bailey Hardeman, James Wilson and James H. Wilson. (John Wilson vs. Bailey Hardeman, 1823)

Robert Hall <http://www.tamu.edu/ccbn/dewitt/kingjohng.htm> When game became scarce Robert Hall's family moved from South Carolina in 1828 to the new District of Tennessee. They had the first house built by whites on the Choctaw Bluffs in Memphis at the mouth of Wolf Creek. Then they settled on the Rutherford fork of the Obion River in Gibson County (Tennessee).

Also making the trip to the new lands in West Tennessee were Elisha Fly and several other families including the Cochranes and the Sedwicks. According to the Carroll County Occupant Entry Book, William settled on 239¾ acres of land in Range 1, Section 4, between 1820 and 1825. On March 5, 1826, William bought 21 additional acres in the same area from his father-in-law Elisha Fly for $63. This piece of land was part of a 640 acre tract that Elisha Fly had purchased from Joseph B. Porter who was a representative of the State of Tennessee. Joseph Porter was probably selling land the State had obtained from the Chickasaws in The Cumberland Pact. The land on which William Capps and Lucy Fly settled was just north of the North Fork of the Obion River in the area known as
"Flytown". The area is now known as "Staffords Store".

Luther Davis (L.D.) Summers http://www.hal-pc.org/~jbsum/family/ldsummersbio.html
L. D. Summers was baptized, Jones Old Mill, on north fork of Obion River.

James Patton, http://www.obcgs.com/patton.htm#JAMES
In 1831 their daughter Elizabeth Patton Crockett, wife of David Crockett, came home from West Tennessee for a visit, and when it came time for her to go back, Robert decided to move to West Tennessee with her, as he had a stake in that part of the country.  He had had 1000 acres of land granted to him out there by Col. Griffith Rutherford on April 1, 1784, when it was still part of North Carolina.  He died there in Gibson County, Tenn. on November 11, 1832, just about a year after making his move, and is believed that he was buried on a bluff overlooking the Obion River.

Benjamin Morton Goode http://home.comcast.net/~p.a.miller/genealogy/narr/goodebenjamin.htm 
Another bequest in John Goode's will had been some land "on the Obion River" in Tennessee. This land was given to Jane for life and then to their sons John Hopson and Henry Goode.

1928 Flood Control Act River Commission made a report on the 26th day of October, 1912, recommending a
levee to be built from Tiptonville, Tennessee, to the Obion River in Tennessee ...

I don't remember moving to Gum Flat Road. I awoke one morning and there I was, in an old sharecroper shack on the bank of the Obion River.

Joe W. Stout Tuesday, December 30, 2003  More on Forked Deer & Obion River >You might want to use excerpts from this page in creating the page on the Obion River or enter a link to this site. It gives more detail on the survey of this area. http://www.lakereelfoot.com/Lake_Info/History/history.html