Much credit is due Miss Mary Lou Beesley and her sister, Mrs. Alien Prince, Sr., who have come forward with information on the early history of the Beesley family and genealogical data on their line of descent. Having known both of these ladies for a number of years, I have found them to be kind, helpful and gracious persons.

Solomon Beesley and his wife, Cassander Acklen with their four year old daughter, Rachel, and others reached Rutherford County, Tennessee on the afternoon of July 4, 1804. I do not know of any other family who came to settle any earlier in the community. They were natives of Newbern, North Carolina. The family says they set up camp for the first night on a rise about two hundred yards south of Beesley's Church, near where the Frank Beesley home stands. Before nightfall, the men went out hunting. The women set up a tripod and hung the kettle to cook supper. While they were cooking, a deer was jumped by the hunters. It ran through the camp area and jumped over the tripod and kettle. This must have been an exciting and romantic era!

Nearly all, if not all the Beesleys now living in Rutherford County are descendants of Christopher Beesley and his wife, Susan Jane Ridout. Christopher was the son of the settler, Solomon Beesley. Susan Jane Ridout was the daughter of William Ridout and is not to be confused with Anne Rebecca Ridout who married R. C. Blackman. Tradition says they were cousins. Christopher and Susan Beesley were the parents of twelve children. The Beesleys were industrious and enterprising people and, In time, owned much real property in the county. The Goodspeed History of Rutherford County lists only three of the children of Chris Beesley - William, John and Christopher, Jx. Below are excerpts from the short biography of each of the three. 

WILLIAM BEESLEY, farmer, was born December 23, 1838 and is the eldest child of Christopher and Susan (Ridout) Beesley, natives of Rutherford County, Tennessee.   He was reared on the farm and secured a good common school education. At the age of twenty one, he began trying to make a living by farming for Arthur Miller and others, and so continued up to the time of the Civil War. In 1866 he rented a farm in the seventh district where he lived for twelve years, at the end of which time he was able  to buy land. In 1878 he purchased the property where he now resides. Mr. Beesley has met with evident success in his occupation of farming and at present, (1886) owns 112 acres of land. He married Miss Alice Elliot, a native of Rutherford County, Tennessee, and to this union was born eight children - Adelaide S., Christopher E., Mattie T., Carrie E., Susan W., Ethel L., William A., and John R. Beesley. In 1861 he enlisted in        Company I of the First Tennessee Regiment as a private. He was engaged in many of the noted battles, such as the battles of Shiloh, Chickamauga, Perryville, Murfreesboro, Bentonville and Franklin. (Author's note - This regiment first went to Virginia and was at Cheat Mountain and Bath and Romney. Part of this time they were under the command of Robert E. Lee and later in the command of Stonewall Jackson.)  He was wounded at Chickamauga and again at Franklin. After the war he returned home and resumed his business of farming. He was an influential citizen and a good  neighbor."  "JOHN BEESLEY, brother of William and Christopher Beesley, was born March 20, 1853 in Rutherford County, Tennessee. He was reared on the farm and received a good education at Salem Academy. At the age of twenty two he engaged in farming on vented land, and four years alter purchased land in the fourth district where he remained for three years. He then sold and bought land where he now resides, an excellent farm of 100 acres. In 1865 he married Miss Martha A. Job (a sister of the
martyr, Dec Job) and by her, became the father of two children, Minnie P. and Mary S. Beesley. In January, 1883 he married a second time to Miss Marry E. Mathews, a native Of Weakley County, Tennessee. Life his brother William, he was a member of Company I of the First Tennessee Regiment where he remained until the close of the Civil War. (See battles under William Beesley)." 

 'CHRISTOPHER BEESLEY, a Prominent farmer of the seventh district was born March 20, 1853 in Rutherford County, Tennessee. He was the son of Christopher and Susan (Ridout) Beesley. The father, a well known pioneer farmer, died at his old homestead in this county on March 9, 1879. He attended the common schools Of the county. He started arming by renting land the first few years after which he purchased the farm on which he is now living. It consists of 261 acres of well improved land. In November of 1876 he married Miss Bettie O. Pope, a native of Williamson County, Tennessee and they had three children Hary O., Huston D., and Sarah G. Beesley. He and his wife are rembers of the Primitive Baptist Church."   George Beesley, born in Rutherford County in 184 was 1180 a son of Chris and Susan Beesley. Goodspeed did not include the other Beesleys, only those who agreed to buy his history. Descendants of George Beesley are more numerous in Rutherford County than any of his brothers or sisters. (See chart) Mr. Beesley enlisted in Company I of Nixon's Cavalry in the Civil War. This unit was also called the 22nd Tennessee Cavalry Regiment. It was organized in the spring of 1864 and paroled at Gainesville, Alabama in May, 1865. During November and December, 1864, Nixon's Regiment was in Colonel T. H. Bell's Brigade, of Forrest's command, in the invasion of Tennessee by General Hood, ending with the Battles of Franklin and Nashville. George Beesley was only eighteen when he enlisted. After the war, he, like his brothers, was engaged in farming and related business. He owned one of the finest large farms in the western part of the county. Cotton was the major crop of the time and Mr Beesley owned his own gin, which was located east of the home and just west of the road to Blackman. He ginned cotton for the public and this plant was in operation until around 1912. It was a steam powered plant and the water was hauled from Overall Creek, just south of Black Gnat Academy. There is a slight depression in the ground near the road that shows where the scales were. In later years, around 1920, I can remember an old negro man who lived in a tiny log cabin in the corner of the lot who made cotton baskets. He made various sized and shaped baskets from hickory bark. I was unaware of it at the time, but they say that he also furnished moonshine whiskey for most of the neighborhood. Mary Lou Beesley says that her father, George Beesley, built the fine old home which still stands and is now owned and occupied by Red Owen. The George Beesley farm contained 375 acres and nearly a mile of road frontage. Its west boundary was the Rucker Lane and ran west to the Jack Beesley place. The family thinks the house dates back to around 1880, Mr. Chris Beesley donated the land for Black Gnat Academy. Mr. Beesley was a very successful farmer and business man, a good neighbor and a great asset to his community. 

SOLOMON BEESLEY HOME 

The old home is located two hundred yards south of Beesley's Church on the Blackman Road, It is now covered with weather- boarding and is the residence of Mrs,  Frank Beesley. Mr. Henry Grady Beesley, a gentleman of 80 plus years, says this house, the first of the Beesley homes in the area, was built very soon after Solomon Beesley cameto Rutherford County in 1804. It is a large cedar log house and originally contained two large rooms and a hall in the center. Solomon Beesley's youngest son was born here shortly after the arrival of the family from Newbern, North Carolina. The other two children, Rachel and Durant, were born in North Carolina. Beesleys have lived here all these years and about the only thing to distinguish this house is it's age. There is little doubt that it is the oldest house in the area, since the Beesleys were the first settlers, as far as we know. Some of the family think Christopher (Kit) Beesley was the first child born in the Blackman Community (1804).  

CHRISTOPHER BEESLEY HOME 

This home is located one half mile north of Solomon Beesley's home, on the same road. It is now the residence of Henry Grady Beesley, a grandson of the builder, Chris Beesley. The first house at this location was in what is now the backyard of the "resent house". It was a cedar log house of one room and had ~ lean-to for a kitchen. Henry Grady Beesley thinks this house was built around 1830 and was the birthplace of eleven of the thirteen children born to Christopher and Susan Jane (Ridout) Beesley. In the 1850's, the log part of the present house was built. It was also of cedar logs and had two large rooms and a "dog trot" in the center. Later, weather boarding was used to cover he logs and, still later, an addition was made on the left side to match and enlarge the house to it's present look. The present owner says the farm has been in the family all these years without change. It is a rich,flat, 180 acre farm on the southwestern part of the Blackman Community. To this date, all buildings and land are well preserved and in a high state of cultivation. Mr. Beesley is justly proud of this beautiful ancestral home. (See chart for genealogy.)  

GEORGE BEESLEY HOME

This home was built by a third generation Beesley in Rutherford County. George Beesley was very young when he enlisted in the Civil War, and it is believed that he started construction of this fine home shortly after the war was over. It too is built of logs and was later covered with white siding. The house is one of the most imposing homes in the county. It is surrounded by 375 acres of Rutherford County's richest soil and is shaded by beautiful and ancient oaks that have aged little over the years. The cottage, just east of the big house, was built by Mary Lou, a daughter of George Beesley, and it is still in good repair. It is located in what was called the "gin lot" The home remained in the Beesley family until about 1945 when it was sold. It was the birthplace of Jesse, Lucy, Mary Leu, Sarah, Lillian, Margaret and Susan Beesley. Hoyt (Red) Owen is the present owner of the farm.  
 

Beesley Cemetery