Williamson Family Information

I found the following documents in a book in the city history section of the Milan Library in Milan, Tennessee. The book was "Hortons and their Kin - Yandells-Harlans-Pitts-Crutchers-Williamsons" by Virginia McKelvey Templeton of Memphis, now deceased. I thank her for this information.

The comments are in each individual authors words:

WILLIAMSON

The Hortons and Williamsons have had a very close relationship since the early eighteen hundreds. John Yandell and his wife Judith [Pitts] had many daughters and one son but Mary (Polly) born 1812 and Martha born 1816 probably had closer ties than any of the sisters. Mary (Polly) married Beverly Williamson in 1831 and Martha married George Horton in 1840. The lived with their families in Rutherford county, Tennessee, and later moved to Gibson county, Tennessee.

In a letter from Judge Yandell Haun, one of many Williamson descendants, he spoke of the two sisters in their widow's weeds sitting together in the old Milan Methodist Church. George Horton died in 1869 and Beverly Williamson died in 1872. Both being widows, a very close bond evidently existed between the two sisters for approximately twenty years. We Hortons have continued to feel close to this branch of the family and have had sincere affection for the Williamsons, Ragsdales, Holts, Hauns and other descendants of Beverly and Mary.

Before George Williamson's death in 1949, he was the instigator of Horton-Williamson reunions. Cousin Anne Ragsdale attended many of these and was heralded as matriarch of the clan, and she loved it.

In 1957, L.Y. Williamson, son of W.Y. Williamson, gave me the names of Beverly's and Mary's children. The list was not complete, but fortunately I have been able to find names and dates of births of the twelve children. [Please see Williamson family tree for this information]

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Gibson County Court

Jan. Tenn. 1874

Will Bk. G. p. 9

I Beverly A. Williamson do make and publish this my last will and testament, hereby revoking all others by me heretofore made.

I wish all my just debts paid out of any money on hand, notes or such of my estate as can be most conveniently spent. After my debts are paid I wish all my property kept together as though I was living. My wife and such of my children as live with her, to have the use and enjoyment. She in connection with my executor having the control and management of it for the purpose above named, and to board, clothe and educate such of my children as are not educated out of my estate free of charge to them or their interest in my estate. On the death of my wife I wish my estate equally divided among all my children, charging however, my son John with five hundred and fifty dollars, my daughter Fanny with seven hundred and fifteen dollars, and my daughter Martha with five hundred dollars, and my son William with two hundred dollars, and if at the death of my wife, any of my children's education should not be completed, I direct my executor to retain a sufficient portion of my estate for their education, free of charge to them.

If any of my children who have not heretofore married, should marry during the life of my wife, then she and my executor will hand over to him or her as the case may be, such portion of my estate as they may deem proper so as not to exceed his or her share in my estate, charging him or her with the amount so advanced.

When it becomes necessary to divide my estate, if division can be made without injury to the estate, I appoint Samuel Pearce, W. W. Yandell, and L.P. Yandell to make such division. Any two of whom may act and who are authorized to make deeds to the parties to their respective portions if necessary, but if a division cannot be made without injury to my estate, then my executors are authorized to sell the same for partition and divide the proceeds as before directed, such sale to be on such terms as they may deem most to the interest of the legatees.

In the event of my wife's marriage, I desire that she shall only take a child's portion of my personal property and a life estate in the homestead where I now live.

I hereby appoint son, John L. Williamson and my son-in-law A. M. Browne, my executors to this my last will and testament, and in the event of the death of either one, the other shall have full power to act, or if either moves away or declines to act, then the other shall have full power to act alone.

Given under my hand this Jany 7th. 1871.
 

B.A. Williamson
 

D.F.C. Rankin

Saml M. Pearce

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DIED - DECEMBER 6, 1873

Beverly A. Williamson, whose death occurred at his residence in Milan, Tennessee a few weeks ago, was one of the oldest and most respected citizens of that place. He saw the first house built in the town, and was identified with the movements set on foot there for the advancement of education, religion and indeed all material and moral interests. He was born in Amherst County, Virginia, October 21, 1805, and at the time of his death was a little over sixty-eight years old. His father, Lud Williamson, was one of the early settlers of Rutherford County, Tennessee, having removed to Stone's river in that County in 1811. In the neighborhood in which his father settled, the subject of this notice grew up from childhood, and received such education as his father was able to give him, working most of the time on his father's farm and growing up in habits of industry and virtue which resulted in the estimable character he displayed through life.

In 1831 he was married to Mary, second daughter of John Yandell, long known as one of the most honored citizens of Rutherford County. In 1839 Mr. Williamson removed to Gibson County, Tennessee, and settled on the farm which he cultivated as long as his health permitted him to labor. A little more than three years ago he suffered a paralytic attack from which he never recovered, but the immediate cause of his death was typhoid fever, of which he died December 6, 1873. In 1859 he made a profession of his faith in the Lord Jesus Christ as the Savior of sinners, and united himself with the Methodist Episcopal church, South, in the communion of which he died.

The paralysis of his organs of speech had cut him off for many months from nearly all social communion with his family and friends, and life had ceased to have its former value to him; but he bore his heavy privation without peevishness or moroseness, waiting in patient and calm resignation the will of his heavenly Father. He died at peace with the world and esteemed by all who knew him, for his life was one of kindness, justice, and gentleness toward all with whom he was ever called into social or business relations. An honest and fine man he was, yet gentle, forbearing, and respectful in his claims and assertions, and seldom if ever made an enemy. In all the relations of life as husband, father, and citizen he possessed those characteristics that go to make up a well-spent life, and left a noble example for those who mourn his departure.

LUNSFORD PITTS YANDELL

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BORN 1834 - DIED 1919

He was grandfather Horton's first cousin, and was known as "Cousin Billy."

PIONEER CITIZEN DIES

W. Y. Williamson died early yesterday morning of pneumonia. He was 85 years old. He was the oldest resident of the town living here when Milan was a farm owned by his father.

For a number of years he was station agent for the L. and N. Railroad. He was a brave and fearless confederate soldier enlisting in 1861 and being in Gen. Frank Cheatham's division army of Middle Tennessee throughout Georgia until the surrender in 1865. He was an Odd Fellow and Knight of Pythias. He was a life long member of the Methodist Episcopal Church South, and is survived by a wife and daughter, Mrs. Emma Blanks of Trezevant; five sons, Elden, Robert of Nashville, George, Lunnie and Ben Williamson of Memphis. One sister, Mrs. W. P. Ragsdale of Milan. Funeral services were held today by his pastor, Rev. W.S. Pickens, assisted by the other pastors of Milan. Interment followed in Oakwood Cemetery.

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Dear Virginia,
 

The history is this: John Yandell, my great grandfather, and your great, great grandfather, settled in the Salem neighborhood a way back before the Civil War. He was the owner of several hundred acres in there where your grandfather Horton and your uncle Sam Hughes lived, the land extending north and east for some distance. I never knew just how much there was of it, but there was enough for several of the grandchildren, including your grandfather Horton, cousin Sallie Hughes, my aunt, Martha Allen, and my uncles, S. B. Williamson and E.E. Williamson. (Uncle Eff as we called him), and Mrs. Fannie Brown, (wife of A.M. Brown, and mother of Mrs. Andrew Holt and others) to have nice farms.

John Yandell had two daughters, Martha and Mary, Martha married your great grandfather Horton, and their children were your grandfather, John N. Horton, Mrs. (your great aunt) Sallie Hughes, and Mattie Heathcock and Mrs. Miranda Taylor.

Mary Pitts Yandell (my grandmother) married Beverly A. Williamson, and to them a numerous posterity was born, or whom I was one.

You may not be old enough to remember it, but your mother will remember that "Aunt Martha Horton," as we all called her, lived most of her last years with Cousin Mattie Heathcock. Of course where one is able to go back as far as my years will permit these "Ancient Ones" to you were just part of my daily life. I do not know whether you are at all familiar with the old neighborhood or not, but I could go back there even now and point out landmarks that have existed for perhaps a century. My recollection is that great, great grandfather John Yandell was buried in a family burying ground on the old Frank Allen (husband of Martha Allen) place right at the head of a road that lead north from Bob Spellings' place. Some years ago, my uncle, S. B. Williamson, with others of the kin, had the graves of these older ones buried at this family cemetery opened and such bones as could be found removed to graves in Oakwood Cemetery in Milan. Maybe, and I suppose there were proper markers placed at the graves.

I am ashamed I do not know the line of descent down to John Yandell. I have never been able to learn definitely whether the name Yandell is English, Scotch, or perhaps Swedish. But in a biography, or autobiography, of one of the Drs. Yandell, (David or Lunsford), of Louisville Ky., I have read that one of our forebears, named William Yandell, who was a resident of Mecklenburg, N.C., at the time of the first Declaration of Independence, that ante-dated the one in 1776, and hence I judge he was English.

Now, how the line runs from this William Yandell to John Yandell I do not know. The wife of John Yandell was Judith Pitts. My mother had a sister named for her and as you will note my grandmother's name was Mary Pitts Yandell.

I seem to have been a bit confused myself on the first page when I undertook to give you the names of the children of John Yandell as being only Martha and Mary, for the man after whom I was named, William Wilson Yandell, was the brother of my grandmother, Mary Pitts Yandell Williamson.

A son of this W.M. Yandell, (whose grave is in Milan right near the entrance to the Cemetery) was another John Yandell, who moved to and now lives in California, (at Independence, I believe), and your grandfather, John N. Horton, were the very closest of boyhood friends, they being first cousins, and named for their grandfather. These are perhaps persons of whom you have never heard except rather as traditions.

So: To sum up: There was the family of Martha Yandell Horton, to which you belong; and the family of Mary Pitts Yandell Williamson, to which I belong; and the family of Dr. W.W. Yandell, who sprung from the John Yandell about whom you inquire.

Several years ago, one of our cousins from California, Emma Yandell Turner, the youngest child of Dr. W.W. Yandell, was visiting us here in Memphis. The first Sunday she was here she went to with my sisters to St. Paul to hear Jno. L. who was stationed thereat the time. When she walked in the door and saw him, (mind you she had never seen him before) she nearly fainted. She said he was so like her brother, just next older than herself, who had died some years before, that for the instant she was almost overcome. This dead brother was Ben Hart Yandell who was a prominent California lawyer. As a matter of fact I remember Ben Yandell vaguely, and he and your uncle John were of the same type, but I had never thought of it until Cousin Emma nearly passed out in church when she thought she was looking at the double of her dead brother.

Dr. Yandell Roberts, of Louisville, is a grandson of one of the famous Yandells of Kentucky, and he perhaps, and I doubt not he has a full history of the family, as these "big wigs" take more pride in ancestry than those of us who do not show to such good effect. I will some time write him to see if he has what I think he has, and if I can get a copy of it I will let you in on the family skeleton.

I am glad you wrote me, as I am always glad to know there is some one who takes pride in the name they bear or from which they derived their being, along with me. In other years I had a lot more of this "dope" than I am at present able to lay my hand upon. W.Y. Williamson of Milan, was rather fond of delving into family history, and no doubt at Milan there could be found much of value if one knew where to look.

It is a sort of gratification to know one springs from a line of good people, but I know of no surer way of telling whether a line is good or bad than by the way the descendants turn out. I think we of John Yandell's posterity may be excused just a little in feeling that perhaps the old man would not turn over in his grave in deep disgust if he could come to Memphis and make a survey of how his descendants have made out and how they have carried on since he passed to his long reward. In memory I can still see your great grandmother, Martha Horton, and my grandmother, Mary Williamson (sisters) in their widow's weeds sitting in the women's Amen corner at the old Methodist Church in Milan I saw them thus many times, now more than a half century ago.

And here I have run on and on to the bottom of a long sheet of paper, but I hope it will give you some light on what you wanted to know. Keep your head up and your chin out, and I'll wager that brood of yours makes you proud of them and of these, long gone, of whom I have spoken.
 

Yours,

Yandell [Haun]
 

Our cousin, Yandell Haun, was very interested in our family's history. When I obtained John Yandell's will, Yandell Haun came to our home immediately to read it. Being a judge, he scrutinized it carefully and was well pleased with the old gentleman's document.

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Rte. 3, Box 738

Aug. 11, 1929 
 

Mr. Robert K. Yandell

Long Beach, Calif.
 

My dear Sir:
 

Your letter of the 4th inst. to tray brother, L.P. Yandell of Costa Mesa, this State, is before me. Brother is in bed, not ill exactly, but laid up with injuries from a fall, and he sent your letter down to me with request that I write you. I am a Yandell, and like you state in yours, interested in all Yandells, wherever I find the name with the spelling in final syllables "d-e-l-l." I know we are from the same family tree; I therefore hope you may not take it as presumptuous and a bit fresh in me if I call you Cousin Robert. I am constrained to say I believe you will coincide with me as to our stock and lineage after briefly I shall have told you who I am, or who my younger brother is, to whom you wrote at Costa Mesa. I am of family of Yandell - 5 boys, 4 girls. Coming to California, Inyo County, in 1880. We started from Gibson County, Tennessee. Father, William Wilson Yandell, was a physician. Wore out his life in years of practice in a comparatively new country and died at Milan, Gibson County, Tennessee, at 54. His father, my grandfather John Yandell, and for whom I--the writer--am named, lived to 82 years and died in Gibson County. My father was only son, though 6 girls in family. I trace our name to William Yandell, Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, in census of 1790. He had 3 sons over age of 16 years, and 4 sons under 16, and 7 females in his family. I have data from Court Records in Knox County, Tennessee showing that John and Wilson Yandell were brothers, in transactions there in the year 1798. I infer these two brothers may have been sons of the William Yandell in North Carolina in the census of 1790, and in all probability were the original ones from whom both your and my ancestors began in Tennessee. Your grandfather Yandell and my father had the same name in full. Your grandfather Yandell was born in Maury County, you state. My grandfather, John Yandell, lived in Rutherford County when my father was born near Craggy Bluff in 1821, Aug. 11. I have not record of where grandfather was born. If my father were still living, this date would be his birthday, date 108 years ago. The proximity in which our grandfathers resided, and our fathers also, leads me to the conclusion that, as the boys used to say, we must be of the same breed of dogs. Pardon me, Cousin, if I should drop one word that might suggest disrespect or irreverence to and for our deceased parents, because I do not mean it. If I am anything, I am loyal to my kinfolks--the Y's especially. It was said of General Grant when he was President, that he fixed his friends and relations best he could. I cannot see that if he did that it was against his character, assuming that the ones he favored were as fit and worthy as average folks, etc. No, L.P. Yandell of Costa Mesa is not the man that Enid Y. called Lunsford P. Yandell (3) her brother. He is of the same family of people, however. Descended from a brother or cousin of the one that the Yandells of Louisville, Kentucky came from, as best I can ascertain.

In 1876 I visited at Dr. Vaid & Lunsford's in Louisville. Enid and Elsie (Mrs. Barber of whom you speak of meeting in N.Y. on your return from World War, were too young to remember me. I am not sure, but think Lunsford P., Third had not then arrived at Cousin Lunsford's (2). Cousin Lunsford P., M.D. (1) Sr., was then living with second wife, make home at Doctor Lunsford's, Jr. (2). In the sixties, during war, Cousin Lunsford MD (1) and a brother Doctor Burton (family name) Yandell of Mississippi made visit at our home in Tennessee. I can remember him as a large man, and ruddy complexion, He died in Yazoo Co., Miss., without children, I think I mistake not.

My grandfather John, like your great grandfather James, was in the war of 1812. He was too old for the Rebellion. He was a rampant Republican or Lincolnite. My other grandfather, Mother's father, was a fire-eating Seceshionist. So it was all over the state-politically divided. You gave the names of your brothers; mine are Wilson, William, Lunsford Pitts, Samuel Clark, and Benjamin Hart Yandell. Two last deceased. Writer of this is John Nathan, and the eldest of nine children, and 76 years of age; still unmarried, am ashamed to say.

Robert, I did not think of writing so long a letter when I began, and am quitting unfinished. I am interested in all Yandells. Write brother again, or try to drop in sometime. He married a Tennessee woman, and my word for it, they will treat you white. If you ever find yourself in this neck of the woods, hunt me up day or night. With love to yours and brothers, I am, your old Unknown Kinsman,
 

John N. Yandell
 

NOTE - This John Yandell was a first cousin of our grandfather, John Horton.

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(written June 1957 by Irene Holt and kindly forwarded to me by John Brown)

Beverly Adam Williamson was born in Amherst County, Virginia, on October 21, 1805. His father, Ludy Williamson, moved to Rutherford County, Tennessee, in 1811.

In 1831 Beverly married Mary Yandall and in 1839 they moved to the present site of Milan, Tennessee.

In 1858 Milan was established on land that was owned by Mr. Williamson, Jr. Sam Clark, and Mr. John Sandford.

Tradition says that the name Milan originated from an expression used by Mr. Williamson when a railroad official asked him, "Whose land is this?" (referring to the proposed depot site). His answer was, "My land."

Mr. Williamson donated the land for the Oakwood Cemetery and the city block for the high school campus. He also gave each child in his family a large farm or a small farm and a house and lot in town.

He had twelve children. One daughter, Mary [Catherine (?)], died when she was a baby. The others lived to be grown and most of them reached a ripe old age. The youngest daughter, Ann, died when she was ninety-six.

The daughters were: Judy and Sarah, who never married; Melinda (Shug), who married Bob Haun; Martha, who married Frank Allen; Frances, who married twice; and Ann, who married Bill Ragsdale. The sons were: Wilson, Williams (Billie), Sam, John, and Eff.

In 1860 his daughter Frances married J. D. Jackson. In 1861 their son, James B. Jackson (always called Jim), was born, in a little house which still stands on First Street. It was originally a log cabin, but it was later ceiled and weatherboarded. Jim was the first white child born in the town of Milan. While he was still a baby, his father died, and he and his mother moved into the home with her parents.

On January 10, 1866, Frances married Albert Manson Brown. To this union seven children were born: Herbert, Mary Elizabeth (Bessie), Georganna (Geordia), Hiram, Lydia, Leonard, and Marvin. Lydia died when she was fourteen months old. Hiram died before he reached fifty, and Leonard died before he reached eighty. The other four, ranging in age from seventy-eight to ninety, are still living.

Bessie was born in the "Stewart Johnson House" on the corner of Liberty and College in Milan, Tennessee, on August 21 [24?], 1869. When she was a year old they moved to Salem Community about two miles from Milan, and lived there until she was ten years old. Here she attended the Salem school which on one day had only two pupils, Bessie and Curtis Moore (Lallie Martin's brother).

While the Browns were living at Salem, the yellow fever swept through the county. To escape the plague, they and several other families went about twenty miles to Hickory Flat Springs and lived in tents until the worst was over.

When Bessie was ten, her father, his brother-in-law, Eff Williamson, and a neighbor, Bill Spellings, decided to move to Arkansas, a new country with rich land. Mr. Williamson, Mr. Spellings, and Jim Jackson made the trip in a wagon. They carried two hound dogs and some household goods. The trip required two weeks. Mr. and Mrs. Brown and the children went by train. Their new home was twenty-two miles from the railroad. They visited relatives in Polk County until the wagon came by. Then they all loaded into the wagon and drove on to their home. They spent one night enroute with a family from Tennessee.

The first home in Arkansas was a large, one-room log house. The family who rented the house to them had hogs which were allowed to roam anywhere. The Browns had two dogs. The hogs and dogs were not very congenial, so the Browns moved to another log house on a creek in the same community.

One day Bessie was trying to get some sweet gum from a tree that extended over the creek. She slipped and fell into the water. She would have drowned if her brother, who was fishing nearby, hadn't screamed. Mr. Brown, who was helping his wife wash in the back yard, ran and rescued her. He said "You're safe, you're safe." From that day Bessie has stayed a safe distance from the water.

When the first crop was gathered, Mr. Brown bought a home near a little community called Ferguson's Mill (now Belleville). They lived in an old log house for a year and then built a new house on a neighboring hill. It had a big room, a shed room, and porch downstairs. There was one bedroom upstairs. Later they built "an office" in the yard for the older boys to use as a bedroom. In it there were a homemade bedstead and a wood heater. The big family room downstairs was heated by a fireplace. Sometimes Mrs. Brown cooked on the open fire, but the main cooking was done on a cook stove in the "shed room."

The children had to walk a mile to school and church. The roads were very muddy in bad weather.

The school was very good for its day. The community built a nice building and employed three teachers from Mississippi. Pupils from other communities also came there to school.

The school had a recess in the morning and another in the afternoon. There was an hour period for lunch. The children in each family carried their lunch in a big bucket or basket and ate in a bunch.

On Friday afternoons some form of entertainment was given: spelling matches, dialogues, or "speeches."

At the close of school an "Exhibition" was given and everyone was invited. At one of these, Bessie first recited "Curfew Shall Not Ring Tonight." She was about thirteen years of age then, and she still recites it at eighty-seven.

One of the teachers taught her to crochet. If all the stitches she has made in the last seventy-four years were placed end to end they would reach for miles and miles.

Sometimes Sunday School and Church services were held in an old store building and sometimes in the schoolhouse. The Browns were regular attendants and Mr. Brown was Superintendant [sic].

One night during a revival, a call was made for those who would accept Christ as Savior to come forward. Bessie and Geordia were among those who went. The preacher took them by the hand and asked if they loved the Lord and wanted to live the Christian life. They had been reared to do this and the decision was soon made. Mr. Brown came to the altar, put an arm around each little daughter, and shouted. It was nothing unusual to hear shouts of praise during revival meetings in those days.

The young folks in the Brown family, as well as their parents, had good voices. Frequently they sat around the fireplace and sang together. They were considered unusually good singers for that time when the only voice lessons were given in "Singing School."

The social life of the young people consisted mostly of "Play Parties," given not too often, where singing games were played ---- and an occasional candy pulling (molasses candy). Besides this, they frequently spent the day with each other. Sometimes there were picnics for all ages.

At the picnics there were merry-go-rounds, each run by a little mule hitched to a pole in the center. He walked around this pole and gave the passengers a slow ride. Young men carried their girls for a ride. The most popular girl got the most rides on the merry-go-round.

Mrs. Brown had no help, and Mr. Brown had no hired hands so all the children worked whenever and where ever they were needed.

While the Browns were in Arkansas, their friend Bill Spellings lost his wife, following the birth of a baby that was stillborn. He had two small daughters, and both of them stayed at the Browns' for some time. One Sunday the younger daughter, who was about three years old, stayed with Mrs. Brown while everyone else went to Sunday School. Mrs. Brown wanted to do something special for the child because she had to stay at home, so she wrapped an egg in a wet paper and roasted it in hot ashes on the hearth before the open fire. The child was so pleased that she said, "Good, I'm glad Ma died, so I can stay with Mrs. Brown." However she didn't get to stay very long. In a few months Mr. Spellings married one of Mr. Brown's nieces who was living with the family. One Sunday morning the Methodist preacher came out and performed the ceremony. Then Mr. Spellings mounted his horse, the bride climbed up behind him, and they rode to their new home.

Mr. Brown bought a lot in the little town and was getting ready to build a house on it when several of the children took typho-malaria fever. This was a rather serious form of fever, but the children all recovered after five or six weeks. Marvin was so weak that he couldn't walk and was as thin as a shadow. All of Bessie's long, straight, black hair came out, and was replaced by a mass of black curls. Geordia wished she could have fever and grow curls like Bessie's!

Mr. Brown had been magistrate for some time and was planning to make the race for County Judge. But he decided to move back to Tennessee for three reasons: (1) The health of the family, (2) they had made only one good crop during the five years they had been in Arkansas, and (3) Mrs. Brown's bachelor brother, Eff Williamson, who lived on a farm three miles from Hickory Flat Springs (near Lavinia, Tennessee) wanted them to come live in his home and help him cultivate his land. This they did.

They lived with him two years. Bessie came to Milan to attend school. She lived in the home of an uncle, Mr. Bob Haun. She had to quit for lack of funds before the year was out. She went back home and assisted with the teaching at "Flat Land School" where the younger Brown children were enrolled. In this way she helped pay their tuition.

The family attended church at Pleasant Hill where Mr. Brown was Sunday School Superintendent. Sometimes he held services in the Flat Land Schoolhouse.

The next move was made to a farm near Milan, now known as the Joe Claybrook's place. Less than a quarter of a mile away was a school called "Barren Field." The entire faculty consisted of one man (twenty-two years of age) named Andrew D. Holt. His home was about four miles further in the country. He stayed at home and rode to and from school on horseback.

The Brown children who were younger than Bessie went to school to him. She had completed the course so she stayed at home and helped her mother with the sewing, cooking, canning, etc.

One Sunday afternoon, Andrew had a date with Geordia and Mose Carnes had a date with Bessie. After that Mose began to "date" Geordia and Andrew began to "date" Bessie. From that time on, he came to see her about once each week. In six months they were engaged, and in six more months they were married.

The wedding took place on Wednesday, February 15, 1888. It was performed about three o'clock in the afternoon in the "parlor" of the Brown home. The ceremony was performed by a Methodist preacher "Uncle Perry" Parker, who had married Bessie's parents. The most honored guest was Bessie's grandmother, Mary Yandall Williamson. The attendants were Addie Rust and Alice Carnes, John Martin and Geordia Brown. They "stood up" with the bride and groom.

The wedding party went to Andrew's mother's home for the wedding supper. For table decoration, there was at each plate an orange, peeled in sections which had been turned back like petals on a flower. The butter, piled high on a dish, was also decorated by flowers, made by forcing it through a knitted cloth. The main dish was peafowl and dressing. The dessert was boiled custard and loaf cake.

The bride and groom spent the first week of their married life with Andrew's mother. She was as good to Bessie as if she had been her own daughter. They went over to their new home every day and got "set up" for housekeeping. This little three-room house was less than a mile from the old Holt home. It was in a large grove of oak trees, and there was a pond a few hundred yards in front of it. It was in a beautiful location, but had much to be desired as a house. Of the three rooms, only one was well-built for winter use. So in the summer they used three rooms, but in the extremely cold weather during the winter they cooked on the fireplace in the one warm room, in which they also ate and slept.

At the time of their marriage, Andrew had one hundred dollars and a horse. His mother gave them six hens. Mr. Brown gave them a cow, a hog, and six hens.

Each mother gave bedding for one bed: pillows, feather bed, sheets, quilts, and pillow cases. Andrew's mother gave a blanket and a coverlet which she had woven herself. She also gave an overcast quilt to them which she had made before her marriage and had buried in an ash hopper during the Civil War to keep the Yankee soldiers from finding it.

Andrew went to a sale and bought six homemade chairs, a dining table, a dressing table (a wooden box with a curtain around it), and a small mirror to hang over it. Andrew bought one bedstead, and Mrs. Brown gave them another. He also bought a small cook stove and a "safe" in which to keep dishes and "victuals." Cooking vessels came with the stove. They paid for their furniture and dishes with the one hundred dollars.

The little trunk in which Bessie carried her hope chest is still in the Holt home in Milan. The first bed Andrew bought is also there. There wasn't a closet in the house so Andrew had a trunk for his clothes.

Andrew's mother owned a loom which she kept in a little house in her back yard. She helped Bessie weave a rag carpet for her best room.

Bessie made all their clothes except Andrew's best pants and his coats. Since she had no sewing machine she had to walk to Andrew's mother's and use hers. She also knitted their winter socks and stockings.

They were a hospitable couple and had lots of company. Frequently Harriet and Zada (Andrew's sisters) and Geordia visited them at the same time. There were a lively trio.

There was no rural delivery for mail and there were no telephones, so most of the guests came unannounced. Many times couples came to spend the night with them. The visiting wife would help Bessie prepare the meal and wash the dishes. The visiting husband would help Andrew feed and water the stock.

There was nothing fine in the house, but it was all paid for. They had what they really needed --- just as most of the young couples in that community. "A man's life consisteth not in the abundance of things which he possesseth," and they were happy.

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OBITUARY OF JUDGE JOHN L. WILLIAMSON

Died November 14, 1876

Judge John L. Williamson, died at his residence here Tuesday morning last (Nov. 14), after a lingering illness, aged 44 years. He was buried in the cemetery yesterday (Nov. 15) with the honors of Odd Fellowship. He was born in Rutherford County, Tenn., October 1st, 1832, where he resided with his father, the late Beverly A. Williamson, until his removal to this county in the year 18__ [1839]. His father and family have resided in and near Milan since their removal to Gibson county. John L. Williamson attended the Instutue [sic] at Murfreesboro . . . He studied law under the late Col. M. R. Hill of Trenton, and was admitted to the bar in 1857, at that place. . . He at one time represented the county in the lower House of the general assembly; was married twice, first to Miss Martha Zackory [Zachary], of Murfreesboro, and second to Mrs. Viola Mosely, of Owensboro, Ky. He leaves a wife and three children to moarn [sic] his loss.

Milan Exchange, November 16, 1876.

Gibson County Newspaper Historical and Genealogical Extracts. Compiled by Emily B. Walker, 1986, pg. 38

Bluff Springs Seminary. A Southern Standard reporter who signs himself VIRGINIUS covered the closing exercises on Thursday last. He states, so far as he knows, the only instance in the country now remaining of a high school of reputation uniting a male and female school in one. The report had intended to say something of the beautiful addresses of young friends, Brooks Robinson and John Williamson, Esqrs., but space would only permit him to say that they more than met the expectations of their friends, and gave promise of the brilliant future that awaits them. These were followed by a party at night given in honor of the school, and a more brilliant assembly of the beauty and chivalry of old Gibson, and her sister counties, has surely never been assembled within the shaded retreats of an academy of learning. Trenton, Tenn., July 2d 1858.

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B.A. Williamson

Beverly Adam Williamson, son of Ludy Williamson, born in Amherst County, Virginia, was one of the founders of Milan, Tennessee. The family moved to Rutherford County, Tennessee, in 1811. In 1831 Beverly Adam Williamson married Mary (Polly) Yandell. Their twelve children were John Lunsford Williamson m. Viola ?; William Yandell Williamson m. Fannie Moore; Sarah Williamson (unmarried); Judith Williamson (unmarried); Frances Williamson 1st m. James Jackson, 2nd m. Albert Brown; Malinda (Shug) Williamson m. Bob Haun; Martha Williamson m. Frank Allen; George Wilson Williamson m. Emma Smith; Samuel Beverly Williamson m. Katherine Taylor; Anne Williamson m. William Ragsdale; Emerson Etheridge (Eff) Williamson m. Mary Ann Pearce; 2nd m. Emma Harvey; Catherine died in infancy.

Beverly Adam, his wife and their first three children moved to Gibson County, Tennessee, in 1839. He began buying land until he owned about 500 acres. In 1850 when surveyors for the railroad came through Gibson County, they met Beverly Adam Williamson working on his farm. They asked him whose land they were on, he replied, "My Land, which was recorded as Milan. He sold many tracts of land in Milan. He and his son John, who was Milan's first City Attorney, helped map out plots of land for the town.

He donated 4 acres of land for the high school. Since he had little schooling and had to learn to read and write as he learned to farm, he had high regard for education. He directed the executors of his will to retain a portion of his estate for the education of his children. He gave 5 acres of land for the new cemetery.

He and Samuel Wheeler, for $1.00, sold 1-1/2 acres of land for the right of way for the L & N Railroad.

In 1868, he gave money to build the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. Ten years before this, he had made a profession of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. He and his wife were faithful members of this church. Effie Brasfield, their granddaughter, tells the story of a severe drought in the area; church members were meeting to pray for rain. As an expression of her faith, Mary (Polly) Williamson arrived at the church with an umbrella in her hand.

He suffered a stroke in 1870 from which he never recovered. He died in 1873 [1872] and was buried in a family cemetery. Some time around 1908 after a deathbed request of his son, Samuel Beverly Williamson, his body and those of his daughters, Sarah and Judith, were moved to Oakwood cemetery.

His descendants pursued a diversity of occupations including teachers, doctors, lawyers, a Milan Mayor, newspaper editors, judges, church leaders, engineers and architects. A great grandson, Andrew (Andy) Holt was President of the University of Tennessee 1960-1970.

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