JOHN JACOB ZOLLICOFFER FAMILY

John Jacob Zollicoffer was born in Halifax Co., SC and migrated to Tennessee in 1807, settling on land granted to his father, Captain George Zollicoffer, for service in the Revolutionary War. George's father was Baron Jacob Christopher Zollicoffer, who migrated from Switzerland to Virginia.

John Jacob's two sons by his first wife, Martha Kirk Zollicoffer, were Frederick (1806- - 1874) and Felix Kirk, born May 19, 1812 near Bigbyville in Maury County. Martha Kirk (30 March 1793 - 11 June 1815, was the daughter of Isaac Kirk of North Carolina. Frederick, who married Elizabeth Love, became a doctor and settled in Kosciusko, MS. Felix Kirk Zollicoffer studied in the "old field" log schoolhouse, attended Jackson College in Maury County, and was apprenticed to A.O.P. Nicholson as a printer in Columbia. He worked on newspapers in Paris, TN, Knoxville, TN and Huntsville, AL, and in 1835 became State Printer of Tennessee. He was editor and owner of the Columbia Observer and the Southern Agriculturist, and in 1843 was editor of the Republican Banner, state organ of the Whig Party. He later moved to Nashville and became State Senator. Felix married Louisa Pocahontas Gordon and had six daughters who survived the union.

Felix Kirk Zollicoffer served in the Second Seminole War and was a Brigadier General in the Confederacy. He was killed at the Battle of Mill Springs on January 15, 1862, and there is a park with monument dedicated to him near the small town of Nancy. Gen. Zollicoffer is buried in the Old City Cemetery in Nashville.

John Jacob and Martha Kirk Zollicoffer had two daughters, Ann Maria, who married a Swanson, and Leanna (1804-1848), who married a Williams. Martha Kirk Zollicoffer is buried in the Zollicoffer Cemetery on the John Abernathy place, off Campbellsville Pike, in Maury County.

Sources of information: "The Zollie Tree," by Raymond E. Meyers
"History of Maury County, Tennessee," by William Bruce Turner

Submitted by: Craig Hopkins
, great-great grandson of Frederick Zollicoffer

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