| This page is dedicated to the descendants of John Housley, who was born in 1814, probably in Campbell County, Tennessee. He was the eldest child of Joseph and Phoebe Housley (nee Owsley). He was the father of at least seventeen children, by three women. John Housley is noted as the Justice of Peace who performed many marriages in the years around 1850. He died in 1894 and is buried at Baker's Forge Memorial Cemetery, in Campbell County.
John's first wife was Caroline Hinshaw whom he married on August 12, 1832* in Grainger County, Tennessee. The marriage record shows the name of the couple as John Ousley and Caroline Hinchey. with Samuel Gilmore as the bondsman. Although the name was recorded as Hinchey, it should have been Hinshaw. Caroline was born October 5, 1816 to George and Anna Hinshaw. The 1850 census reflects the couple residing in Campbell County. John Housley is recorded as being thirty-six years old and employed as a farmer. His wife was thirty-four years old. Together they had ten children. Caroline died on May 4,1858.
John Housley and Nancy J. Riggs
On October 26, 1858, five months after the death of his first wife, John married Nancy J. Riggs, daughter of Thomas and Millie Riggs. She was the widow of John Clark whom she had married on the twenty-fifth of August, 1847 in Campbell County. She was born in January of 1832 and died on the eighteenth of April, 1910. She and John apparently produced no children, but Nancy was a step-mother to John's other children by Caroline Hinshaw and Rebecca Chapman. John Housley, while married to Caroline Hinshaw had relationships with two other women, Rebecca Chapman and Caroline Woods. Caroline was the first to bear him a child, Joseph in 1846.Three other children followed Rebecca Chapman gave birth to John's child, Thomas in 1848. She had a concurrent relationship with John Kincaid, a man of notorius reputation who is frequently named in various discussions of Campbell County History. When John became aware of this he took his three children borne by Rebecca, to live with him and Nancy Riggs.
*Owsley Family Historical Society newsletter, Volume XXX, No. 1; March 1998, Page 21
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