James Wade and Louisa Spradling Wade had one daughter they named Malinda Wade, who married Daniel Carden March 2, 1862. Daniel died in the “Battle of Chickamauga” in 1863, the same year his daughter Sarah Louise was born.
Malinda then married William C. Wattenbarger April 2, 1866, and was living in Celeste, Texas, when her mother died July 14, 1897. The following month she wrote the following letter to her brother Silas concerning the division of her mothers “things”.
Dear brother,
I seat myself to write you a few lines this morning. I have just received a letter from Mary stating to me the division of mother's things. I am not satisfied with the divide. I do not think they have treated me right. There is not but one way to do business and that is the right way.
I want you to have two good disinterested people make the division and if they cannot agree they can call in a third person and I will abide by the consequence. If they cannot agree put them all up and sell them and divide the money equally.
I will itemize the things they wrote me I got:
Father's counterpin, three quilts, two or three sheets, one blanket, one coverlid, two table cloths, two undercoats, one dress, they say the clothing went against the dishes, one shawl, one pair of stockings, one bonnet and some piller slips.
Silas, I do not want any hard feelings about those things and all I want is a fair divide. Right is right and it don't wrong noboddy. If I get enough for my part I will pay the express charges.
Well Silas, I close for this time hoping to hear from you soon.
Linny Wattenbarger
The letter evidently has reference to her half sisters born to Louisa and her stepfather, Hyram Brandon. Malinda’s brothers James and William were deceased and brother Granville was living in Rhea County. Silas purchased part of the Wade farm and Levi Wattenbarger the remainder.
Malinda bore six children to William C. Wattenbarger, the last being Carmenia who was called ‘Minnie”. Carmenia married Lee Carl Owens March 26, 1906, in Utica which was in Indian Territory at that time. They named one of their three sons Alvis Edgar who later became Alvis Edgar Sr. when he named his son Alvis Edgar Jr. Junior was known as “Buck” Owens and starred in the Hee Haw television series of the 1980’s. This was confirmed in a letter to Debbie (Wade) Brooks a few years before Buck’s death.
Friday Evening: 7:00 p.m. - at Mt. Olive Baptist Church, 2500 Maryville Pike, Knoxville, TN, 37920
(The easiest way to get to the church is turn right onto Maloney Road off Alcoa Highway, as you are driving north, toward Knoxville. This turn is exactly 7 miles from the hotel and right next to a large church called Sevier Heights Baptist Church. Then, go one mile and Maloney dead ends at Maryville Pike. Mt. Olive is immediately across the road. Enter the hall through the back of the building. I will put up a Sultana sign on the corner of Alcoa Highway and Maloney Road.)
Many of you will remember the great room we used in the past in the church’s fellowship hall. Plenty of space for 100 people plus a small stage we can use. Also, once again I want to encourage folks to bring display items to tell their ancestor’s story or some aspect of the Sultana tragedy. There will be tables available and an area set aside for this important part of our activities.
The theme for Friday night will be “Civil War Music.” Several talented musicians from Kentucky have offered to play at no cost but will have tapes and CDs for sale. Also, my wife’s group, the Appalachian Harmonizers, will sing a few songs as in prior meetings. I might come up with some other ideas, too.
Saturday Bus Tour–9:00 a.m. to 3:00 a.m. (load up at the Courtyard hotel)
Something we have never done before is have a tour of Civil War sites in Knoxville, following the route that our local Civil War Roundtable put together some time ago. I will be one tour guide, and I will find another for the second bus. The last stop will be our unique Sultana monument in the cemetery of Mt. Olive Baptist Church. I believe I can find a way during the tour to have a couple of wreaths tossed off one of our bridges into the Tenn. River like some of our Sultana men once did.
Two 48 passenger school buses are reserved for the tour. The cost will only be $10.00 each person which needs to be prepaid by mailing a check made out to me, Norman Shaw, to P. O. Box 30372, Knoxville, TN, 37930.
Lunch will be at one of the downtown restaurants. I hope there we will be able to eat at a favorite place called Calhoun’s on the River. Everyone will order off the menu.
Saturday Evening Banquet–7:00 p.m.
Our hotel will serve us a buffet meal at the reasonable cost of $18.34 per person (which includes tax and gratuity). We will have a choice of two meats, three vegetables, salad, rolls, dessert, and drink. This meal must be prepaid by mailing a check to me at P. O. Box 30372, Knoxville, TN, 37930. I will give the hotel a final number and pay for the reserved meals at least 72 hours prior to Sat., April 25th. Naturally, those not staying at the hotel can dine with everyone else by prepaying, as explained above.
That’s the details as of this writing. Expect some updates in the next newsletter which will come out near the reunion date. If you need to contact me, send an e-mail to shawclan4(at)bellsouth.net.
I look forward to seeing many familiar faces in April and, hopefully, several new ones. We always have a grand time!
- Norman Shaw
Living just south of Tranquility and near the Silas Wade family was a person of mystery and probably one of the few women in this area to receive a land grant.
It has been passed down that strangers came to her gate and were handed small packages. She had a little bag similar to a doctor's bag and in this bag she kept what was thought by the neighbors to be her magic potions.
Of all the children in the neighborhood she probably made the most lasting impression on little Janira Wattenbarger who, when she was very old, told the following story to her granddaughter.
It was back several years before the Civil War when my father first versed his suspicions of a witch in our neighborhood.
"Nonsense," said my mother and all us children in unison. But soon our opinions changed. I will try to tell you what the "witch" was like - She was a toothless old hag and must have been about 60 years old. She was of small stature and walked with a cane.
I remember well the first time I saw her. My brother and I were raking leaves when she came upon us. I looked quickly at my brother for a minute and then we took to our heels.
Next morn I learned the nature of her visit. She wanted my father to build her a house near us. Where she was originally from we never found out but here is where my story really begins.
Betsy Blessing, for that was her name, seemed to take me as an object for tormenting. She never wanted anyone to run her errands but me. One morning she came to borrow our churn, but I refused to lend it to her, as mother was not home. As she went out the gate she said "never mind Janira, I'll get even."
And she did. That night I suddenly awoke and found some unknown force pulling the covers. I awoke my sister Sarah who was sleeping by my side and the harder we pulled the harder it pulled.
Becoming alarmed we ran out the door to another section of the house. As we did a little light followed us all the way.
My cousin Sam then began to tell of a rabbit that crossed his path to and from work. Several times he had shot the rabbit but to no avail. Some of the neighbors told him to shoot it with a silver bullet. When he did just that the rabbit ran limping off through the bushes. Betsy sent for my mother saying she was ill. My mother found her with a bullet hole in her knee. To this condition Betsy gave no explanation.
One day she gave me a two month old calf. I told her I didn't want it and to give it to someone else but she insisted I take it. It was brought home and put in the pasture and there it stood for two days and nights, not moving out of it's tracks, until it died.
Then our cattle suddenly began dying. Someone told my father to burn the (dead) cattle. This my father did. No sooner had they started than Betsy ran to my mother screaming and wringing her hands begging my mother to put out the fire. Her hands and arms were burned to the elbows. She had bewitched father's cattle.
One evening as she lay asleep, someone said to stick a silver dollar to her feet and if she were a witch it would leave a blister. We finally got up the courage to do so. The old witch jumped up screaming and holding her foot. It was then she said, "Janira you'll never get anything that I have."
All this happened many years ago. Of course you will laugh and say it's an old lady's silly imagination but others than I really know her to be a witch. And to this day no one passes the place where her house stood without having that creepy chilly feeling. It was said that she had buried gold, and despite the fact that I dreamed of several places to find it I was never able to.
Following her death my parents opened her trunk and found faded dresses of fine materials and lace and silk garments. If you doubt her existence check the 1850 McMinn County Census and you will find her listed as Elizabeth Blessing, age 60, living near my father and mother, Michael and Nancy Wattenbarger.
I tripped across the information directly below at the Federal Military Rosters website. As noted in dad's post entitled WANTED (dated April 13, 2009 ), William, Silas, and James traveled to Huntsville, Tennessee to join the 3rd Tennessee Union Cavalry Regiment, Company C. Per the record below, they joined up on November 1, 1862...
When John Hart signed the Declaration of Independence in 1776, he and the other signers committed an Act of Treason against the Crown. John risked his life by returning to his home in Trenton, New Jersey, to be with his dying wife. Hessian soldiers rode after him and he escaped in the woods.
While his wife lay on her deathbed, the soldiers ruined his farm and wrecked his homestead. Hart, 65, slept in caves and woods as he was hunted across the countryside. When at long last, emaciated by hardship, he was able to sneak home, he found his wife had already been buried and his 13 children taken away. He never saw them again. He died in 1779 without ever finding his family.
When former McMinn County Sheriff James Franklin Hart retired to private life in the 1920’s, an article about him appeared in the local paper. In the article the former sheriff mentions the fact that the Hart family is of Scotch origin and came from South Carolina and settled in Roane County about 1812 or 1813.
Is there a link between John Hart of New Jersey and the Hart’s of South Carolina? With the data that is now accessible over the Internet, it might be possible to find out. Many of the persons listed in the Wade Family Data Base are directly descended from the Harts and all are related through Richard Spradling Sr., whose daughter Elizabeth married John Hart (1813-1902). This might be an interesting search for someone to pursue.
In February of 1865 the north began to exchange prisoners with the Confederacy and on March 20 the authorities began to move a group of prisoners to Vicksburg, the point to which all prisoners east of the Mississippi would be delivered. Some by train, some by steamer, and some by walking. Many died on the way and were left by the side of the road for strangers to bury.
Lt. Taylor Elliott of the 124th Indiana Infantry describes the scene as follows:
Coming like cattle across an open field were scores of men who were nothing but skin and bones; some hobbling along as best they could, and others being helped by stronger comrades. Every gaunt face with staring eyes told the story of the suffering and privation they had gone through, and protruding bones showed through their scanty tattered garments. One might have thought that the grave and the sea had given up their dead.
Camp Catlett, Tennessee
May 14, 1864
Dearly Beloved Wife,
It is a gratification to me to let you know that I received your kind letter of the 8th. of this month. I got it this morning and was happy to heare that you was still well. I got one at the same time from Brother Levi at Kingston of the same date and he was well.
I am in very good health though I am not quite as fleshy as I have ben but have not ben sick one hour in twelve months past. I hope these few lines will come to hand and find you and the children well. Our boys is most all well, there is some of them on the hurry order but nothing serious.
We had a dreadful storm here last Tuesday evening. It killed one man and wounded another and carried off a child not herd of since and blowed a train off the trestle at Nashville.
Louisa, I would give something if I could be there with you and go to Tranquility with you and the children tomorrow and hear old Brother Dugan preach. You mite think that I had been out here so long that I had got too bad to want to go to church but I hope I have not. If I was there I think I could go with you to church and enjoy myself very well and I hope I may live yet to meet with you at home again.
Louisa, tell James and Andrew that if I ever am so happy to come home I will bring them a knife. Tell Tennessee I will bring her something too and the baby also. I would love to see it one time.
Anyhow dear companion, though we are torn apart by disunion and war the dawn of day is coming. Time has ben that we could not heare nor see we was banished in darkness but thanks to God we can here converse with each other.
I esteam this great day and God only knows the joy it would give me to meet with my dear wife and little ones again. I think I would have to praise my God that he has been so merciful to me.
I will have to close, so give my Best Respects to all enquiring.
Your dear husband,
- Silas W. Wade Homeplace - 1895
- Wade Family - 1905
David Roy Wade, 56, of Decatur, went to be with the Lord on Monday, April 13, 2009, at his brother's residence.
He was a member of Grace Baptist Church, and was preceded in death by his parents, Norman D. and LaNelle McKinney Wade.
Survivors include one daughter, Crystal Wade of Decatur; two brothers and sisters-in-law, Alan and Judy Wade and Gene and Polly Wade, all of Decatur; one sister and brother-in-law, Susan and Dale Barnett of Riceville; and a host of friends.
Funeral services will be 8:30 p.m. Wednesday in the chapel of Bowers Funeral Home with the Rev. George "Dump" Armour officiating. Graveside services will be 11 a.m. Thursday at Decatur Cemetery.
Pallbearers will be Ben Wade, Jim Bowers, Jason Wade, Kike Keen, Bill Baker, Randy Underwood and Chris Johnson.
The family will receive friends from 5 to 8:30 p.m. Wednesday at the funeral home.
Bowers Funeral Home of Decatur is in charge of arrangements.
WHEN THE BOYS IN BLUE ARE GONE
When the comrades have departed, when the veterans are no more,
When the bugle call has sounded on that everlasting shore.
When life’s weary march has ended, when campfires slumber long;
Who will tell the world the story, when the Boys in Blue are Gone?
Who will tell about their marching, from Atlanta to the sea?
Who will halt and wait and listen, when they hear the reveille?
Who will join to swell the chorus, of some old, grand army song?
Who will tell the world the story, when the Boys in Blue are Gone?
Sons and daughters of this nation, you must tell of triumphs won;
When on earth our work is ended and the Veteran claims his own.
You must all cherish Old Glory, and its teachings pass along.
You must tell the world the story, when the Boys in Blue are Gone.
To that flag, our country’s emblem, you must pledge allegiance to,
To that flag, our country’s emblem, may your hearts be ever true,
That the nation be protected, ’gainst injustice and all wrong,
You must tell the world the story, when the Boys in Blue are Gone.
You must keep your country’s honor, from each stripe withhold all stain;
You must take the veteran’s places, and repeat the roll of fame.
You must keep your country’s honor, and your flag above all wrong.
Then we’ll trust you with the story, when the Boys in Blue are Gone.
In November of 1862, brothers William, Silas and James Wade traveled from their home just south of Tranquility to Huntsville, Tennessee, near the Kentucky border to join the 3rd. Tennessee Union Cavalry.
Appearing in the Athens Post some three months later on February 27, 1863, was the following:
$420 REWARD!
THE FOLLOWING PERSONS ENROLLED As Conscripts in the 3d Civil District, McMinn County, Tennessee, have failed to report as the law requires.
Silas Wade. . . 28 years old, 5 feet 8 inches high, fair complexion, black eyes, dark hair.
Also listed with their descriptions were James Wade, Thomas Wattenbarger, Christopher Wattenbarger, Peter Wattenbarger, and Levi Wattenbarger.
A reward of $30 each was offered for the apprehension and delivery of the above named deserters at the Camp of Instruction at Knoxville. Transportation furnished by the Government.
By order of Lt. Col. E. D. Blake
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