Transcribed by Janette West Grimes

October 16, 1952

* CAL’S COLUMN *

We are leaving off the old records of the County Court of Smith County for the time being and will give this week some family history.

One of the families that once had quite a lot of members here in Tennessee, which is now nearly out of the "picture," is the Winkler group. The oldest member of the family, of whom we have any information, was Ephraim Winkler. He is believed to have married a Miss Sloan. He came long years ago from Virginia to the Pleasant Shade section of Smith County, settling on one of the branches of Peyton's Creek about two miles northeast of Pleasant Shade.

His children were: John Winkler, married first a Piper, but the second wife's name is not known; Arthur, commonly know as "Arter" Winkler, married a Sanderson, daughter of Edward Sanderson; Alfred Winkler, and here our information concerning this man ends; Levi Winkler, believed to have married a Hiett; and Samuel Winkler, who settled in the present Macon County, and for whom Winkler's Cross Road, a few miles north of Red Boiling Springs, is supposed to have been named.

We have information about only two of these five brothers. Arthur and Alfred Winkler. Arthur Winkler and his wife, the former Miss Sanderson, were the parents of : Hardin Winkler, married Elmira Austin; Henderson Winkler, married Barthenia Climer; Scott Winkler, committed suicide as a young man, and we believe unmarried; Andrew Winkler, also a suicide; Wilson Winkler, died as a young man; Joanna Winkler, married Howard Kemp; and Emily Winkler, married Andrew Cartwright.

Alfred Winkler married a Miss Bradley and became the father of the following : Henry Winkler, died as a young Confederate soldier and never married; Martha Winkler, married Jimmie, son of Milton, son of Little Bill Gregory, a brother of our own great-great-grandfather, Jeremiah Gregory; Mary Ann Winkler, married Frank Kemp; Laura Winkler, married Henry Gregory, son of Jabe Gregory, a brother of the Milton Gregory above mentioned; Fannie Winkler, married William Smith, son of Calvin Smith, and a brother of the late P. D. (Did ) Smith; Tennie Winkler, married Kinney Kemp; Alice Winkler, married W. H. (Buck) Piper; one other daughter whose name is believed to have been Susan Winkler, married a Williams; John Bell Winkler, married Margaret, a sister of Henry Gregory; and Wade Alfred Winkler, married a Baker.

Martha Winkler and her husband, Jimmie Gregory, were the parents of: John Gregory, Henry Gregory, living at present in Nashville; Ella, married Tom Smith; and Ollie, married Charlie Oldham, son of Templeton Oldham. Mary ann and her husband, Frank Kemp, were the parents of a son, Walter Kemp; Laura Winkler and her husband, Henry Gregory, were the parents of one son, Bell Gregory, now living neat Gallatin; Fannie and her husband, William Smith, went to Texas, and we have no further record.

Tennie Winkler and her husband, Kinney Kemp, were the parents of one daughter, Maude, who married Howard Gregory, son of another Jabe Gregory, who was the son of Gid (Bethel) Gregory, still another brother of the Milton Gregory above mentioned. Alice Winkler and her husband, Buck Piper, had two sons, Willie, who died at four years of age; and D. Henry Piper, who is one of the leading citizens of Lafayette.

Herbert Winkler, a Church of Christ minister who resides in Nashville, is a distant relative of the Winklers above mentioned. We believe we have his line of descent somewhere, but lack of time forbids our looking it up at present.

If any member or relative of the family can give us additional information, we shall be glad to publish same. We should have added that both John Bell and Wade Winkler died without issue.

We have recently learned a few things about the Massey family, to which Elder C. B. Massey belongs. Our information is very limited, and is so incomplete that we publish it only with the hope that some reader can furnish us the additional information needed.

The first member of the family of whom we have any information was Pleasant Massey, born most probably in Virginia and came to Smith County, Tennessee, prior to 1842, for our first known instance of this man was during the "great fresh" of May 19, 1842, when streams were higher in this part of Tennessee than ever before known. Pleas Massey and his large family lived at the time in a house that stood then on the present site of the Johnnie Sloan home in Pleasant Shade, known in the boyhood of the writer as the Johnnie Miett Hotel. Here Massey that night 110 years ago, finding his house surrounded by water, decided it was time to get out. He took two or three of the smaller children on his back and started wading through the swift waters toward the higher ground at the rear of the main business part of the present Pleasant Shade, hardly being able to make any noticeable headway against the raging waters. One of the children he was carrying kept on saying, "Come on, pap," and finally the heavy-laden father made the higher ground and escaped with his family intact. We are not sure, but memory seems to be that the house washed away shortly after the family left it.

This was the same flood that took the lives of a man named Leftwich and his wife, a former Miss Garrett, who lived farther down the same stream, near the present entrance to the Nixon Hollow.

How long Pleasant Massey had been in Tennessee before the episode above referred to, we do not know. He married Miss Eva Shaver, a Virginia girl. Their children were: James Massey, Anderson Massey, Dick Massey, Leonard Washington Massey, commonly known as Lon Massey; Columbus Massey, Nan Massey and Fannie Massey. The names of another son and four daughters could not be learned. Anderson Massey had one daughter, Amarantha, who married a Hesson. Dick Massey once lived on upper Dixon's Creek. Lon Massey, married Miss Nancy Gammon first and later Miss Millie Jent. One of the children of the last union was our good friend and church brother, Elder C. B. Massey. Lon Massey, who was a soldier in the Union Army in the Civil War, died rather early, perhaps about 1873. Elder Massey was born June 16, 1867 and is now in his 86th year.

Nan Massey married a Dycus, and Fannie married a Clark. We wish we had more information on the family, but this is all we have available at present. If any reader of the paper can supply the editor with additional information on this family, please do so and we will do our best to get it into print.

A family once quite numerous, but now having comparatively few members is the Nash group. Once in the long ago, William or Bill Nash married Ann Boston, a sister of one of our great-grandmother's Kate Boston Gregory. They had a number of children and quite a group of grandchildren. One of the sons, Hoy Nash, was killed during the Civil War. Dick Nash, of the Hillsdale section, is one of the grandsons. He has a son, Reggie Nash.

Jack Shoulders, a son of Malachi and Polly Gregory Shoulders, married first to a Nash, but we are not able to learn whose daughter she was. Major Gregory, one of our great-grandfathers, married first time to a Miss Nash, but we do not know whose daughter she was. However, we are made to wonder if she were not a sister to the Miss Nash who married Jack Shoulders about 130 years ago. If any reader can give the desired information, your help will be greatly appreciated.

Another Nash family, not related to the Nash's above mentioned, so far as we can learn, has long lived in Macon County. It is still quite numerous. William Nash is the oldest member of this branch, so far as we can learn. He appears to have had one brother and perhaps more. William Nash, of the Macon County group, was not the William Nash above referred to. We do not know whom he married, but he had three sons, Edmund Nash, Sampson Nash and Nick Nash. Edmund Nash was the father of Arthur, Asa, Alfred, Alvis, Ad, Alice, Ada and Alta Nash, part of whom are still living. But they know only a few things of their line of Nash descent and say that they are not related to the Smith County Nash family above referred to. One peculiarity is that all this man's sons and daughters had names beginning with the letter A. We hope to learn more of this branch of the family in the near future.

The Nash family has long been identified with Tennessee history. Our capital city of Nashville was named for Col. Francis Nash, and received the name as early as 1784, 12 years before Nashville became the capital. Francis Nash was a native of North Carolina, and was a captain as early as 1771, when he served as captain in the "Regulation." Those identified with the "Regulation movement" became known in time as the "Regulators," and fought a battle with the men of Governor Tryon of North Carolina. This battle was fought on May 16, 1771 in Alamance County, North Carolina, on a creek of the same name. The "Regulators" were defeated and some of them left North Carolina for East Tennessee. This place is not far from the home of our niece, Mrs. C. M. Ector, of Graham, North Carolina, who has very graciously invited the editor of the Times to come to her home and spend a vacation in this month or next month. She reports that the battle of Alamance Creek is shown on a marker and that there is but little now to be seen of this historical event that marked the first battle of the American colonists against the unlawful taxation of the American settlers by Great Britain. She also reports that a movement is on foot in North Carolina to have the Alamance Creek section and adjoining territory made a State Park and be made open to the public. We truly hope that these things may be done.

Francis Nash was made Lieutenant Colonel of the first Regiment in the Continental service on September 1, 1775 by the North Carolina Congress. At the battle of Germantown in Pennsylvania, he was made Brigadier-General.* While engaged in leading his brigade, he was mortally wounded and died for his country, as did Colonel Davidson for whom Davidson County was named. However Davidson did not fall in the same battle that claimed the life of Nash.

Abner Nash was the govenor of North Carolina in 1781. We have no additional information on Govenor Nash. William Nash was a captain in Tennessee in 1793, but this is the extent of our information about him.

Ant correction will be welcomed, if such be found in our articles of a historical nature. We are proned to make mistakes and your help with corrections is solicited.

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Transcriber Note : * This section did not appear in the Book of Cal’s Column