Footnote Friday – July 25, 2008

Feature Friday posts will feature relevant information from a chosen online resource. This month, the database is Footnote.

Theoretically, this should have been posted yesterday – but, let’s not let that worry us 🙂

For this post, I decided to look at the Southern Claims Commission collection at Footnote.  These files are records of people who had items taken by the U.S. government during the civil war.  More than 20,000 claims were filed. They come from all over the country, and in the Footnote collection are 18 from Blount County residents:

• Absalom L. Sparks – his claim was for 600 bushels of corn
• Amos Thompson – claimed 2 mules, a two horse wagon, a harness, a mare and a beef cow ($650) taken by Col. James P. Brownlow
• George W. Bowerman – claimed corn, fodder, hogs, beef cattle ($2400). He was deceased by the time of his claim.
• James Scott – hay & a beef cow ($290)
• Jeremiah Simmerley –  he is noted as being of “very bad character” and his witness is unknown to the neighborhood
• John Colter –  claimed $275 worth of stuff. His farm was nine miles east of Maryville and describes getting threats from the Union army of being killed all the time.
• John Gamble – claimed $668
• John McNabb – claimed $474
• Joseph Ambrister – claimed $498 – had a 268 acre farm two 1/2 miles east of Maryville. He describes being of ill health and needing to stay home all the time.
• Matilda Dunlap – claimed $420.  Describes being threatened and abused by the army and they told her they would burn her house down.
• Michael Harvey – claimed $286
• Moses Gamble – claimed $385. “…his actions at time during the war was such as to leave us some doubts as to the sincerity of his loyalty…”
• Nimrod Byers – claimed  $184 . He had 4 witnesses.
• Samuel A. Humphreys –  claimed $50 for 50 bushels of corn.
• Torrence Davis – claimed $396. He was 52 years old at the time of his claim in 1872.  He had a brother and a brother-in-law in the Union army. Among his possessions taken were a horse and ox.
• William C. Young –  claimed $125.
• William E.  Scott – claimed  $155 for a horse.
• Wm. S. Griffiths –  claimed $172.  One of his witnesses was 29 year-old Clerk of the County Court, James A. Green.   William operated a molasses mill.

These reports when there is testimony included is fascinating, and above I have put just a few snippets from some of them.  If you are researching the county, you should check these reports out if you can!

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