Born in northeast end of White County.
1880 census has name spelled FLINN.
1900 census has Josie Tucker living with them. She is the child of their son Wm. Landon and his consort Mary E. Tucker. 2005, 21 Oct. The TN Historical Committee approved a historical marker for "Red Fox" Flynn in Cumberland County.The following is taken from "Cumberland County's First Hundred Years" by
Bullard & Krechniak. Published by the Centennial Committee, Crossville,
Tenn. 1956.
note: Crossville and Flynn's Cove were originally in White County.
Cumberland Co. was formed November 16, 1855 out of a number of counties
that converged in this area.THE RED FOX
Our best-remembered here was a conductor and a Union scout on the
underground railway. Richard Flynn, the "Red Fox," was a great hunter
and woodsman. We find his story best told by his old friend and
fellow-unionist, Capt. Jim Lowe, who wrote this account for the
Crossville Chronicle in 1905: "Uncle Dick knew all the country from
Chattanooga to the Kentucky line, even on the darkest night that ever
came. When the Conscription Act was being put in force by the
Confederacy he conducted the underground railroad in order to assist
Union refugees from northern Georgia and Alabama in getting through the
Confederate lines. Now the modus operandi was this: A, B, C and D,
residing at Chattanooga, wanting to reach Federal lines in Kentucky,
would steal a canoe and cross the Tennessee River at night and go to the
house of Peter Thundergudgeon on Walden's Ridge. Peter is a conductor on
Uncle Dick's road. Peter gives them all the signs and passwords needed
for their journey. He then raises steam and calls out, 'All aboard for
Y. C. Sniprips,' which is the next station, in Sequatchie Valley. After
good Mrs. Sniprip has provided food for the refugees, Conductor Sniprip
calls for Red Fox Station on Big Laurel Creek in the third district.
They hear the little bell of the Red Fox tinkling in the laurels and they
follow for rest and food under the fond eye of Aunt Zilpha; then all
aboard for Possum Creek, Kentucky!"
The Red Fox sincerely believed it was wrong and contrary to the teachings
of the Bible to own slaves, and the thought of a division of the Union
seemed to him so destructive of liberty that he gave to the Union every
honorable assistance in his power. He was often heard to repeat that
immortal declaration of President Jackson: "The Federal Union! It must
and shall be preserved."
His duties as Union scout included the carrying of vital messages over
the mountain under the most trying and dangerous conditions. On one
occasion he had been entrusted with valuable papers by a colonel in
Sequatchie Valley and instructed to deliver them to Col. Stokes near
Sparta. He and a companion crossed the mountain and were within a few
miles of their destination when, turning a sharp bend in the road, they
came face to face with a band of Confederate soldiers. It was too late
to run. The rebels questioned him closely, but the Red Fox tactfully
evaded them. Finally, be told them that they were wasting time, and if
they did not hurry Col. Stokes' men would "gobble" them. Then they asked
him for his credentials. To the Red Fox this was a signal that it was
time to hunt his hole. He leaped over a high rail fence and took off so
fast that he lost his coon-skin cap. They yelled "Halt! Halt!" after
him, but he said afterwards he was going so fast he could not halt. He
could hear the bullets whizzing past, and one of them cut through his
coat sleeve, but he outfoxed them and delivered his papers.
When the rebels learned from his companion that they had let the Red Fox
escape, they were really disgusted, for they bad been searching for him
for years. They tore up his coon-skin cap and cursed each other for
bunglers.
Back of his farm along the bluff be had what be called a blockade. He
felled large trees in a way which prevented anyone from approaching his
house unless they knew the hole through which the Red Fox crawled.
Aunt Zilpha, his wife, recalled long afterward that once thirty-two Union
soldiers came to their home for the night. She fed them by "putting the
wash kettle on full of meat and baking dozens of pones of corn bread."
Early the next morning the Red Fox guided the band to the home of a man
in Fentress County.
The Red Fox played a part in one of the most famous exploits of the whole
war, the capture of the Confederate locomotive called the "General." This
was on the Western Atlantic Railroad between Atlanta and Chattanooga.
Andrews' Raiders, a crack band of disguised Union soldiers, was ordered
to board a certain train at Marietta, Georgia, and ride seven miles to
Big Shanty where they were to detach the engine, run north, obstruct the
track, cut wires and burn fifteen bridges en route to Chattanooga.
Between Tonggold and Graysville the enemy caught up with them and they
abandoned the exploit and took to the woods. All of them were captured
and eight were executed. Eight others escaped from prison in Atlanta,
and were rapidly passed along the underground route to the Red Fox's
place.
They were great heroes by this time and Aunt Zilpha gave them the
tenderest of care. Early the next morning she gave one of them named
Dorsey a small amount of money to assist him and his comrades on their
journey northward. The Red Fox delivered them safely across the Kentucky
border and within the Union lines. (In 1906, Mr. Dorsey paid Aunt Zilpha
a visit and when he was saying good-bye, be banded her the sum of money
she had given him 46 years before, plus interest.)FLYNN'S COVE
(information in part from John and Clint Flynn)
John and Richard Flynn were the grandsons of John Flynn, one of the early
settlers of the cove named for the family. Other early families are said
to have been the Stewarts, Norrises and Scarbroughs. The Christian
Church services were held in Richard Flynn's home in the early days.
Later on, the people here usually went to church and school at Lantana.
Uncle Dick Flynn's activities as a Union scout drew a great deal of
attention to Flynn's Cove during the Civil War. Besides food, money and
sometimes families, the men of the neighborhood had to hide a supply of
powder kegs for Union soldiers. They devised a safe hiding place in a
cave and called it "Bowling Green" after the Kentucky town from which the
kegs came.
The story of Dick Flynn's exploits as Union scout during the Civil War is
told in Chapter Four. Aunt Zilpha, his wife, who lived to be 101 years,
often told of these days and of the still earlier ones when she lived as
a girl with her father, John Wyatt, in what is now Crossville. The
Narramores were their only neighbors.
A lively account of doings at Flynn's Cove appeared in the Crossville
Times of Jan. 3, 1888. It read: "Notwithstanding the loneliness of this
section, Christmas came and brought with it plenty of fun. On Christmas
day 30 neighbors met at Uncle Dick Flynn's and partook of a sumptuous
dinner to which all did ample justice. On the Saturday evening
following, W. 0. Kearley gave the young folks a social party in honor of
Miss Flora Brown, who is spending the winter with them. Miss Flora is a
jolly girl who made the occasion pleasant for all 10 young gentlemen and
10 young ladies present. All but Tom Flynn, who was compelled to keep
his seat while the game 'snap up' was being played."note: Flora and Tom were married two years later.
1910 census son Philip listed as head of household. Image of her making quilt batting, in the Art Circle Library in Crossville.
James said that the first vote he ever cast was for Abraham Lincoln
They lived about 2.5 miles from Crab Orchard in what was then Bledsoe Co. Moved to Glen Alice in Roane Co, Nov 1888, where Mahulda died and was buried in the Ables Cem.
12. Lewis Howard
Obit. has d.o.b. as 15 Apr 1820, but head stone appears to read 1826.
Lewis' brother, Joab, was married to his 1st wife's sister. At least the first three children were born in Lumpkin Co., GA. They stayed in Polk Co., Arkansas before and after the death of his 1st wife, Esther in 1858. Where is he for the 1850 Census?
He re-married after the 1860 census in Polk Co., and moved to Missouri in the spring of 1862 at the outbreak of the Civil War. His family was accompanied to MO by the Richard Shockley family. Richard married Martha Ann May, the sister of Lewis' 2nd wife Elizabeth.
Lewis had 16 children, with two wives, three children died before him. All children married but one. He is buried in the Prosperity Cemetery, Rocky Comfort, McDonald Co., MO. His second spouse Elizabeth is buried next to him.The 1860 Polk Co. census has an 18 yr. old farm laborer helping Lewis. He is Maxwell Reece born in SC, and is the brother of his deceased wife Easter Reece.
The 1870 census has him in Franklin Twp, Newton Co. Homestead 160 acres.
Rocky Comfort was in Newton Co. until approx. 1880 when it became part of McDonald Co.
Living a few doors down is an unknown Howard family: Wm. age 54 b. SC; wife Louisa W. age 48 b. SC; Wm. A. age 19 b. IL; Martha L. age 13 b. TX; Benjamin L. age 10 b. TX; John H. age 8 b. TXThe 1880 census family still in Franklin Twp. of McDonald Co.
13. Elizabeth T. May
1850 census for Newton Co. gives her age as 19 (b. 1831).
Her son Hiram is probably named after her brother.
1870 census data has her born in IN.
1880 census data indicates that she was born in KY, and both parents born in VA.
14. Thomas Davidson
In 1880 Thomas' mother [age 64] living with the family in Rocky Comfort, Richwood Twp, McDonald Co. census dated 1 Jun 1880, pg.260, dwelling 232, family 245.
1900 census in Richwood. Birthdates given for children are apparently wrong!
In 1920 Thomas & Mary are still in Richwood Twp.
In 1930 Thomas is living with his daughter Grace [Mrs. Walter H. Montgomery] in Newton Co, Seneca Twp. MO.Newspaper obit: "Thomas Davidson, 93, died at 10:40 o'clock Friday night [27 Jan 1939] at his home, 903 West Florida street. Mr. Davidson was a retired farmer. He came to Springfield a year ago from Rocky Comfort, Mo., where he had spent most of his life. He is survived by four daughters, Mrs. H. A Brown of Greenfield, Mo., Mrs. J. Q. Biggs of Johnstown, Penn., Mrs. W. A. Biggs of Baker, Ore., Mrs Walter Montgomery of Granby, Mo., and four sons, A. W., of Wheaton, Mo.; J. C. of Seneca, Mo.; O. L. of Springfield, and J. M, of Rogers, Ark. The body will lie in state at the Alma Lohmeyer funeral home until Sunday, when it will be taken to Rocky Comfort for burial."
Where is Nancy buried?