Holding space

Yes, I know I started looking at the families of the siblings of Grandpa times 3 greats Micajah Clack Rogers. And I've paused. I've got a newsletter to put together before the first of the month, and it's going pretty well. So I'll be back here collecting what is known and sharing it in my own vernacular verbiage.

While on isolation, I've been researching ancestors again. There are so many waiting to meet, I'm now on fourth great uncles and aunts. What a hardy bunch of people if they made it past childhood! Even those women who had a dozen children lived long lives (unless they died in childbirth.) Well, they did have fulfilling busy lives, and the dates and places on census records give but a glimpse of them.

Just as entertaining as watching Netflix, which I've tried to do a few times.

Hope everyone is safe and healthy in the time of Covid-19.

Next in line of Rev. Elijah and Catharine Clack Rogers' children

My great times 3 grandfather, Micajah Clack Rogers, was the oldest. Then Robert, then Mary Ellen Rogers Randles, and then came...

Josiah Rogers, born in 1802, who has no other record of his existence. It is surmised that he died young.

Elizabeth Clack Rogers McCroskey was first mentioned HERE last year as I tried to understand the McCrorskey connection to my family.

She was born 15 Aug 1805, and married David McCroskey in 1828. In Sevier County, Tennessee.  They had 10 children.  Her last son was born in 1848 when she was 43 years old.

Elizabeth died on Dec. 8, 1864.
The 1850 census for Eastern Subdivision 12, Sevier County TN lists her and her husband and all 10 children. By the 1860 census they are living in District 7 of Sevier County TN. I don't know if they moved, or the districts were renamed.

In the 1860 census they have 6 McCroskey children living with them. And the household has 8 people in the Reed family, as well as 3 of the Hardin family.  This speaks of how mountain communities often merge families (especially on farms where they can work together) and even the mother-in-law might live where she can either help or be cared for.

Now that I've guessed that the Reeds and Hardins are families of married McCroskey daughters, I'm going  to go check to see who married whom.

Ha, that's a joke. I found Rachel Reed on the census, and there was a McCroskey daughter named Rachel. But she married Sylvanus Ball, not Sam'l Reed. And the mother in law (age 67 to David and Elizabeth's 55 years) doesn't seem related to them. Who were the Reeds anyway?

Then how about the Hardins? No luck there, because wife Sarah Hardin was 4 years older than Sarah (Sally) McCroskey, who is already listed on the census.

So the household had 2 other families, as well as the younger 6 children McCroskeys in 1860.

The last record of Elizabeth Rogers McCroskey is her headstone.

In the Trundle Family Cemetery, Sevierville, Sevier County, Tennessee

And David McCroskey remarried in 1865 and had 6 more children before his death in 1885.

Mary Ellen Rogers Randles

The third child born to Rev. Elijah Rogers and Katherine Clack Rogers was Mary Ellen Rogers, born in Sevier County, Tennessee on Sept. 24, 1799. Not many records usually exist for women from that time, but Mary Ellen was lucky to be part of families which had a lot of pride as their descendants wrote about them.  I've recently written blogs about her two older brothers, Robert H. Rogers, and my great times three grandfather Micajah Clack Rogers.

One descendant's writing shared this about the early families who settled in western North Carolina which became east Tennessee.

The Randles, Clacks, and Rogers came from Virginia about the same time.  A group marriage took place in a fort in 1791. Rhoda Clack married James Randles Sr., Elizabeth Randles married George Rogers, and Mary Randles married Raleigh Clack in 1791.  In 1794 Katherine Clack married Elijah Rogers. SOURCE: "The Saga of the Herd Family" by G. Ronald Herd.

Raleigh Clack was the son of Spencer and Mary Beavers Clack.  Katherine Clack Rogers was his sister.

George Rogers was the son of Henry Rogers and Elizabeth Langford Rogers, and the brother of Rev. Elijah Rogers.

Historians say the Randles, Clacks and Rogers all came to Tennessee (then North Carolina) at the same time, with the Hufaker family.  A letter indicates that Richard Randles (John Randle's grandfather) and his family came to the Sevier County area around the spring of 1786.

Mary Ellen Rogers married John (Jack or Jacky) Randles, the son of Rhoda Clack Randles (1776-1840) and James Randles (1768-1816) in Sevier County, TN in 1816.  John (Jack) Randles had served as a private in the War of 1812, as had Mary's two older brothers, Micajah and Robert Rogers.

By 1828 they had their first 6 children.

Then in the early 1830s they moved to Wayne County, Kentucky.  Then about 1837 they moved to Missouri, settling on the Niangua River in what was then Polk County, but now is Dallas County. John was a farmer in a bend of the river, and became the first county assessor after Dallas County was formed in 1841.  This information comes from "The Saga of the Herd Family by G. Ronald Herd," as shared on Ancestry by RosalieBennettChruma in 2015.

A bit of difference in Missouri's history was found on Wikipedia (which isn't always accurate either.) It says the county was originally called Niangua,in 1842, then renamed Dallas County in 1844.

Mary's last daughter (of her 8 children)  was born in 1840 in Missouri.  Though all of her children (listed at this time on Ancestry) lived to adulthood, three of them died before Mary did in 1869. Her husband only outlived her by 3 years.

I'm not sure who of the Randles was the ancestor of G. Ronald Herd.  If I have time, I may trace their tree. But for now I want to find out more about my Great Aunts and Uncles - the siblings of GGG Grandfather Micajah Rogers.

A brother of Grandpa Micajah Clack Rogers

Uncle times four Robert H. Rogers was the next younger brother of my great times three grandfather, Micajah Clack Rogers.

GGG Grandpa Micajah lived from 1795-1873, while GGGG Uncle Robert lived from 1796-1869. Robert was the next younger brother of Micajah, both among the 12 children of Rev. Elijah and Catharine Rogers born in Sevier County, TN.

Both Micajah and Robert served in the War of 1812 as teenagers. But Robert Rogers is also on a role list as having fought in the Seminole Florida Wars (no date given so I don't know which one of the 3.)

There was a cousin born in Sevier County TN, about the same time, also named Robert Rogers. He was the son of Rev. Elijah's brother James Rogers. So I'm not certain all the information about my Uncle Robert is actually his. That's what happens when two people have the same name, live around the same time At least there wasn't another Micajah!

I want to let you know I've got 4000 people on my father's father's tree...over on Ancestry. That doesn't count my mother's mother's tree, which has 2700, and my father's mother's tree, another 2304 people. My daughter's in law's families have smaller trees, and my ex-husband's family tree which I started for him, now has 547.

There are bound to be some errors, and as I learn about them, I do try to correct the information. So in case you are a descendant of Robert Rogers, let me know if anything here is not true.

Uncle Robert married in 1820 in Blount County, Alabama to Malinda Ann Henderson, who used Ann as her given name on the official documents.  According to Ancestry, they had already had a daughter born probably the prior year. This would have been pretty ordinary where new communities were being settled, where preachers didn't visit but a few times a year. However, there are numerous documents of their wedding being performed by Lewis White, the Justice of the Peace.

The R. H. Rogers of Blount County, Alabama appear in the 1830 in a household of men, with 2 female children under 5, and 10 slaves. The men include four who were ages 20-29, three who were ages 30-39, and one between 50-59 years old.  Robert would have been around 34 at that time, and I have no idea who all the others were, because he is listed as the head of household.

By 1840 R. H. Rogers is living in Winston, Mississippi. Now their household is just 3 members - one male 30-39, one male 40-49, and one female 20-29.

I should mention that he and his wife had had 3 daughters born sometime between 1826-27 and 1828. Mary Katherine F. Rogers would live a long life and have many descendants. I may share a photo of them later. There isn't much information at this time about Amanda and Matilda.

The family trees over on Ancestry say Malinda Ann Henderson Rogers died in 1835, but there are no records of such.

But there are quite a few records of yet a second marriage by Robert H. Rogers in 1834 to Lucinda Hale, by the same Justice of the Peace in Blount County Alabama. There are some notes from an unknown source that one of my Ancestry friends posted about Robert H. Rogers, and I find they don't really hold much validity. But I'll let you know how they effect his second marriage. They say Lucinda Hale was actually Malinda Ann Henderson Rogers' niece...that she was the daughter of Malinda Ann's sister Lucinda Henderson who married Shadrach Hale. But other records show Lucinda Henderson married George Hale, and didn't have a daughter named Lucinda. That's how these misinformations get passed along.

However, let's see what else we can about R. H. Rogers.

The Census of 1850 finds R. H. Rogers (age 54) in Natchitoches, Louisiana, as a farmer. His wife Lucinda is listed as well, she is age 37. And there is also a Henry Rogers, age 17. (Nothing indicates at this point if he is their son.)

The 1860 Census finds them in Oktibbeha, Mississippi where he is 53 and a farmer. Lucinda is the only other person in the household, and she's 45.

R. H. died probably in 1869 in Blount County, MS. Lucinda's death date and place are unknown.

But the daughter of Malinda Ann Henderson Rogers and Robert Rogers, Mary Katherine F. Rogers Gibson, lived a long life, until 1904.

I just have to share this wonderful photo of her when she was a matriarch, surrounded by descendants.

So we Rogers have a lot of Gibson cousins too!

The letter from Micajah to Spencer C. Rogers

Here is a more legible copy of the letter, which unfortunately is in sections. But they are in order!

First I'll turn it upside down so you don't have to, to read the pointed finger P.S. at the top. My comments as editor are in italics. There will be some duplication as I pulled the copies from the original digital image (which is on Ancestry.) Please leave comments if you find alternative interpretations to my transcription efforts!

(Is there a name for the pointing finger symbol?)

"I think our Sabbath School will shortly give you an order for Sabbath School Books. I wrote to you some months ago but I suppose it was lost on the way."

The the beginning of the letter itself: Upper right:

Huntsville, Texas

14 Feby. 1866

S. C. Rogers Esq.

    Dear Borther. - Your very welcome letter of the 28 (unclear) comes

to hand by mail this morning. I wa truly glad to hear from you

after the terrible war through which our country has passed, but

thought it a little strange that you said nothing about your (?)

family, and whether the yankees left you amy property to Sustain

yourself. I am anxious (?) to know if you stood your ground

through out the war and whether they treated you as a friend

or an enemy. I am also anxious to know Something about

my only living child, my Son Wm L. and how he's getting

along, and how he fared during the war. I learn that

unhappy times yet exist in old Tennessee, which state is

my mother state and will always be dear to me. M(---?) 

that many union men are S-?-ing Secepion(?) man for having 

damages for wrongs perpetuated during the war, and that

in the Eastern portion of the State many Southern men do not

yet think it Safe to return home; party remor runs So high.

These are sad things if so, and if Governor Brownbery (?) is

fomenting these things, as reported, and encouraging these

unhappy lawuits, he is not th eman he should be he

lacks that Soul he Should have. And if he has any desires

from the prosperity(added above -)of the state he Should pour the oil of kindness on

the troubled waters in place of fomenting Strife and contentions (?)

"By gones Should be by gone" - and peace and fraternity

should be cultivated. It is (?) (above-) to be hoped that the good of both

parties may take a wise counsel and do what they can

to quiet the peope and restore good feeling once more, for

100 years will not restore the South to the prosperity that

existed before the war. The deed is done and it is the

.

---(repeated copy from above)

utmost folly to discuss the questions now. All both

north and South, but especially the South will feel

the ruin spread over them for many long years to come.

Page 2

I was at first bitterly opposed to Secession, on the grounds that

although we felt oppression's hand b..? heavily, we had

better bear the ills we knew than fly to those we could not

see - better have contested and claimed our rights in the

Halls of Legislation, then to have seceded. We would not have

suffered by encroachment in 100 years which we lost in 4 short

years - Be it so - we fought- we lost the blood stained fields

and our a...? ones, if honest, must say they found pluck in

the south, while pluck was of any avail, but numbers will

triumph over the weak.  We gallantly acknowledged ..men?..

were overpowered, - dutch and Irih immigration was more

than we had bargained for. And had we been taken back

cheerfully and promptly into this Old Union the break

might have been s---?-- healed. But no, magnanimity is wanting.

They who feel conscious of having committed untold injuries

are shy of their former adversary and feel selfish in holding

them at arms length. They have freed the Black race, and with

but with few disgraceful exceptions, a lasting injury has been inf-

...inflicted on them. All who had kind and good masters, who

consulted the interest of their slaves felt conscious they were consu-

lting their own best interests. Now no one is interested in taking

care for them and they must suffer greatly. They in my humble

opinion, before the war, were increasing faster than any portion

of the population of the U. S. That showed they were cared for

and their wants supplied. They will now decrease, and

disappear from the South faster than ever did the Red

Men of the Forest before the American People

I am, however happy to say that the f. m. c. have quietly(?)

in our region, made contracts and gone to work, but but not(?)

with that vim as when they were Slaves, for much.

now takes the place of coercion. They will gradually

decline and become a very degraded people and the result

will be that but few will have any thing to do with them.,

and then comes the winter of their discomfiture. The Freedman's

Bureau is to haten this catastrophe. If they are free, why

not let them make their own contracts without the agency of

any one? Whats past would now me aloof from from contracting

.page 3

with a freed man I could not bear the idea of an Agent

coming along months after the service was rendered in

good faith and paid for in the same spirit, and say

to me "Sir you have not paid this man enough for his

Services, you must pay so much more per month to him

instantly or I will order the Seizure of your property to make

it." All this too, when they are moving heaven and earth

to make the negro a voter. Not able to contract without

the Sanction of an Officer of the Freeman's Bureau, but

quits Sufficiently enlightened to vote judiciously. O Shame 

where is thy blush? If the north can carry their points

the South is forever a doomed people. Let me drop this

dark picture. Perhaps I am too gloomy.

.

(Hand pointing) You name the idea of writing a memoir of our

revered father. I wish it could be properly done, but I do

not know how I can aid much, as I have nothing written

upon the subject and memory at the age of 70 is too frail

to enable me to say scarcely any thing that would be interesting.

I could begin with the name of my Grandfather Henry Rogers

and give the names of my uncles and aunts.  Then my G. father

Spencer Clack and give the names of uncles and aunts, but

to show how little attention I have paid to genealogy, I will

write an instance. A young friend of mine, after I was a

married man, and children around me, went a long journey

expressly to see and converse with an aged Grand Father

he had never seen. When he returned he told me he did not

regret his visit, that he had found his G.F. though very aged,

a man of strong mind, who gave him much information

.and the genealogy of the family correctly for 100 years back.

I said, that itself is worth your trip. I began to think on a

new subject. I found I knew nothing of my ancestry for I had

never made it a Subject of inquiry. Our people had left East

of the Blue Ridge in Va. at an early day - The Rogers family

From Farquier County and the Clack family from Loudoun

County and thus the two families were cut off from all their

connection and only became acquainted when the arrived

in a wild unsettled region which afterward proved to be part of

.

Page 4

what is now Sevier County, East Tennessee, where civilization

began to assume that Shape.  I Some how or other had

minded that my G. M.'s maiden name was Mary Beavers.

And (?) there I met impenetrable darkness. I turned to see what

I could make of my other G. M.'s name, but had to my surprise

never heard her maiden name on the paternal side of his

house. I laughed to my self in the presence of my young friend

and told him he was far ahead of me in genealogy. When

next I saw my father I told him of this incident. He said

my young friend was very far ahead of him in that particular

-that he had crossed the Allegany when quite a lad with his

parents and knew but very little of the connection he had left

behind. We both consoled ourselves that we lived in a happy

country where "Every test had to Stand upon its own bottom(?)"

that ancestry could not avail us much - that if ever we did any-

thing worth of making its "footprints on the sands of time,"

it would have to be without ancestral aid. He, however, was

able to say his mother's maiden name was Elizabeth Lankford, (Sankford?)

.

.

and that his knowledge of his name ended. He had people "to

that brown farm where no traveller returns." I should be

glad to aid you but you see my means for information.

shoud you publish a memoir of our father I would like

to take as many copies for distribution as my limited means

will allow, for you must know that when this war did come

I had no hesitancy in saying on which side I stood.  All my

little means, or (?) so, was (?) in the Southern cause

and at the close I found all my finances in (?) Confederate

Bonds. I do not regret it. I did must do my duty as I honestly

believed, - And although I desire peace and prosperity to our

unhappy country and wish to spend the remainder of my life

as a Loyal Citizen under the Same circumstances I would

do the same thing over again. My health is very good for a

person of my age. I live with Thomas Gibbs who has his second wife.

She was a Miss Mary Blake from Fayetteville N.C. She is a good

lady. Nanny's two interesting children have never know the loss of

their natural mother. Happy and fortunate children. She has 3 of her

own, bright little fellows - has had (fun?)

Write me (freely?) if you can find time

} Your brother, (in Christ?) very scratchy signature

}(M. C. Rogers) (someone else's handwriting)

I wish I knew the provenance of this letter. Who kept it all these years? If it was sent to Spencer, and he wasn't living with any of his family, how did it get back into the ancestry files for him? And where is the original, if it still exists?

I like the little hand pointing on page 3, which brings out that Spencer must have written to Micajah as it says "You mentioned..."

And it also mentions that he had contact with his father Rev. Elijah Rogers and conversed briefly about their ancestry, to little help except that Elijah remember his mother as Elizabeth Lankford. Since Elijah died in 1841 in Sevier County, I think that conversation was perhaps in Micajah's memory rather than within the time he received the proposal of a memoir from Spencer. 

Micajah lived until 1873 and Spencer till 1886. It wasn't until much later that a historian did some research on the "Sketches Of Tennessee's Pioneer Baptist Preachers"... including Rev. Elijah Rogers. 

Jane Chandler's father, John C. Chandler

John Chandler (1786-1875) is listed as the father of the wife of my 4 times great uncle (Spencer Clack Rogers.)

I wanted to learn about him because he lived through the Civil War in Sevier County, TN, where some of my ancestors lived about that time also.

He is noted as having built the newer building of Wheatlands after the original one burned in 1824. He had inherited it in 1819 from his father Timothy Chandler #1 who had settled the area after serving in the Revolutionary War...receiving land as payment for serving for North Carolina's militia.

John C. was the youngest son, out of at least 11 children in his parents' home. I haven't looked further to see if there were indeed 2 daughters named Rebecca, but born 4 years apart and both living to be adults. I have just merged them into one person on my tree for now.

John C. Chandler was born in Wheatlands (the original building) in 1786. He was the youngest son, with at least 2 older brothers, so I wonder why he inherited the homestead. Perhaps because he was still living there when his father Timothy died age 91. John's mother Hetty (Mahetible Jane Temple or Terrell) had been much younger that her husband and lived 5 years more until 1824 when she was 84.

Both of John's parents had been born in Virginia, but John himself was born in Wilkes County NC. Many of his older siblings had also been born in Virginia, but the family apparently lived in this western county near the blue ridge mountains of North Carolina by the 1770's. At one time Daniel Boone also lived in Wilkes County NC, but we don't know if it was at the same time as the Chandlers.

There aren't any records of when the Timothy Chandler family crossed the Appalachian Mountains and settled in Sevier County TN, just west of the area that would late become the Smoky Mountain Park. But his hand written deed for land from the State of Tennessee in 1807 describes some of his property in Sevier County. It's quite possible that he already was living there in the community that became known as Boyds Creek, where his family has lived until the twentieth century. But all the children of Timothy and Hetty had been born before they moved west. Remember North Carolina owned the lands that became Tennessee until 1796.

Oh my. I just found a SAR (Sons of the American Revolution) installed headstone for Timothy Chandler #1, the Revolutionary War patriot from North Carolina, (placed in Boyds Creek TN.) It says he died in 1794...not 1819.

So how did Find A Grave published the date Timothy Chandler had died on April 25, 1819 while including this picture of the memorial stone from the SAR?

OK, back to John C. Chandler. He married Eleanor "Ellen" Shahan Chandler who had been born in Sevier County in 1790. That's about the time that my Rogers ancestors also arrived in that community. Ellen lived until 9 April 1826, dying just at age 36. She had an infant son who died that year, and she gave birth that year to a daughter. The records don't say if there was illness at that time, or if the daughter died as well.

John and Ellen had 9 children, 7 of whom lived to adulthood, including my Great times four Aunt Jane Chandler Rogers (1816-1855.)  She was their 4th child, and born before the new brick plantation home was built around 1825.  I don't know where Ancestry came up with her birth and death dates, so I'm going with them until I find anything different.

Just before the Civil War, John Chandler had married again in 1859 when he was 73, and had his new wife's youngest 2 children living with them in 1860 census. 

"John Chandler (1786–1875), inherited Wheatlands in 1819, and under his direction the plantation grew to become one of Sevier County's largest farms, covering 3,700 acres (1,500 ha) by 1850. With free slave labor his 1860 census shows he had real estate at value of $20,000. But with emancipation he freed his slaves, but offered to pay them to remain and work for him."

Chandler's freed slaves inherited part of the land of Wheatlands when John died in 1875, and formed the Chandler Gap community in the hills south of the plantation.  The 1860 slave schedule index is all that is available on Ancestry, but for a large plantation, with wheat as its major crop, I would imagine there were a lot of farm workers. The information that I've found on the freed slaves is not precise, but I do know a bit about the families of the black workers who were in the house as servants. See my last post here.

Family secrets maybe revealed

Sam McMahan & "Willie Katherine Chandler McMahan" - no date. I just found out who she is, because his wife was named Blanche Carter Clabough.  Willie Katherine Chandler (not McMahan) was a cousin to Samuel Timothy Chandler McMahan. Her father John Chandler Jr, was Sam McMahan's grandmother's brother. But they must have all lived in the same area, and visited between families. Incidentally, Willie Katherine was quite a few years older than Sam McMahan, her cousin. Why were they posed like this, I wonder...

This family had many secrets.

And as noted in my last post, their servants knew about them, and their cook, Padge Chandler, even told someone who wrote it down in remembering the 4 generations of Chandler black people being part of the family. There were a couple of sisters who outlived Padge, living till they were 99 or 100, and one who lived until 2013.

But I want to investigate the rest of the records to see if I can find out any more. Did the son murder his father in a fight, as Padge's family record described it? (see yesterday's post).

Here's a copy of Samuel Timothy Chandler McMahan's death certificate.

Whatever caused his death was something from a soft injury to his bowels...I am not sure what the details are, but it looks like perforation.  But under number 21, "If death was due to external causes, fill in the following" the physician just checked, "means of injury." He avoided accident, suicide or homicide, date of occurrence etc.

Samuel Timothy Chandler McMahan's date of birth is in 1899, not 1896 as he gave to the draft board when he registered for the first world war in 1918. I wonder why he wanted to be 3 years older...and did he serve?

But the fight that he had with his 19 year old son (called Sonny because he had the same name), which Padge Chandler had probably witnessed, is not mentioned.

I originally thought the son was probably at fault, the way Padge worded his "murdered his father." However, perhaps the father was to blame.

I am also reminded how the father had been mentioned earlier in Padge's reporting of family events that Timothy McMahan Sr. had impregnated Padges' 22 year old sister Celia when a teenager. And that she had been married at the time.  So I'm going to see if there are any records about that and what might have happened to the McMahan child.  Off I go in another direction on Ancestry.

These are distant relations after all, the McMahans were descendants of the wife (Mary Chandler) of my great times 4 Uncle Spencer Clack Rogers.

And the way things seem to always have stumbling blocks, in Sevier County there were 2 black families with the head named Lewis Chandler. So I have to find the mother or Padge in the census records...as well as Celia.

Ah ha. I've got some of the facts (and probably a few mixed up ones to boot).

Walter Padge Chandler turns out to not have been real certain about his birth date. Neither did Celia.  But without any church records, or state records, it all depended upon family members remembering the date.

Celia may have lived to 100, as her headstone records. Her descendants (many) listed her as being born a year earlier than some census data.  She was married for a while, and probably divorced from a black man, Charlie E. Chandler.

There are photos of news clipping about her, as would be expected of a centurion. Unfortunately the photo is blurred, and we only get an idea that Mrs. Celia Chandler looked pretty good at whatever age the article was written. (I'm pretty sure if I looked for the Knoxville Journal I could find it however.)

The same source also had another photo of another news article, which may have been the source of the information "Four Generations," which I've shared onto many of this family's tree pages over on Ancestry. I quoted the whole article in yesterday's blog post.

You can go blind trying to read this, but it's amusing to see Padge Chandler cooking, when he was fairly young apparently. (Another article probably from Knoxville' paper.)

We also can remember that he worked until 1952 when he was probably 55 (or maybe 68) according to either the article "Four Generations of Chandlers" or the census reports.

And I think I figured out who was the daughter of Celia and her rapist, Samuel Timothy Chandler McMahan. As mentioned before, Celia had been married at the time, to Charlie Chandler. Going by the census reported date of Celia's birth and Padge's article which said she was 22 when raped, then a birth of Rosa Hazel Chandler born on July 15, 1914, when Celia was 23 would be the most likely child.

And in 1913 Celia's husband had had a child with another woman. So perhaps there was a separation. We don't know for sure who the fathers of some of her children were.  And though several siblings lived quite long lives, they worked in domestic situations. Rosa lived until 2013, having just had her 99th birthday.

So I'm going to leave this family for now. I've found a few answers and discovered more questions, the way genealogy frequently happens.

Oh, where is Chandler Gap? Sevier County definitely. But there's a zip code, and that's about all I can find. It's near the Smoky Mountain National Park, where some older buildings have been saved.

 The Ogle homestead in the great Smoky Mountain national Park. (NOT any of the housing of the Chandler families.)

Ruined homes with only the fireplaces are scattered throughout the woods of Tennessee, (indeed all of Appalachia.)

Boyds Creek TN is between Sevierville and Seymour. It is probably where Wheatlands, the Chapman plantation home is located, if it's still standing.

Wheatlands, Sevier County, TN, built 1825.

Padge Chandler, and the freed slaves families

I found this interesting article about freed slaves, who took the Chandler name, and their descendants living in Sevier County, and then Knox County, TN. My notes are in italics.  

Walter Padge Chandler was born in 1887 and worked most of his life as a cook and butler at Wheatlands Plantation

 The Black Candlers at Wheatlands Plantation

Walter Padge Chandler, known as Uncle Padge was born in 1887. Both of his parents, Lewis and Flora Chandler were born as slaves at Wheatlands. His Great-Grandmother was named Jenny and was the first slave that Timothy Chandler (#1 who built Wheatlands originally) purchased in the late 1700's. When Timothy Chandler passed away, Jenny and another slave, Ester, were responsible for preparing meals for the Chandler family. The two women would carry all the water from the spring and cook in the open fireplace in the kitchen. 

The original house burned down in 1825 and John Chandler rebuilt the house. Jenny and Ester were the first cooks in the new house. Jenny earned a reputation as an excellent cook and as she grew older taught her daughter Polly and another slave girl named Liz how to cook. By the time Jenny was no longer able to work, Polly and Liz took over the cooking duties. The spring which Jenny used to draw water was replaced by a hand-dug well after the spring went dry. 

During the Civil War, Union forces encamped at the plantation while the Chandler men folk, who were confederate sympathizers, hid out in an undisclosed location away from the plantation. The soldiers raided farms throughout the county and returned with turkeys, hams and vegetables with which Polly prepared a big feast that was enjoyed by the soldiers, the Chandler women, and the slaves alike. 

After the Civil War John Chandler allowed his former slaves, who wished to, remain on the Wheatlands Plantation and he paid them to work there doing essentially the same jobs they had done in the past. Padge’s Grandmother Polly was among those who stayed and continued working there as the cook. Up until this time the slaves never had a surname. Understandably, those who remained at Wheatlands began using the name Chandler as their last name. 

Born about 1860, Flora Chandler grew up assisting her mother Polly in the kitchen at Wheatlands. Polly passed down the recipes to Flora that her mother Jenny had taught her. Although Flora married Lewis Chandler in 1878 and began raising a family that grew to include eleven children, she continued to work as a cook for Adela Chandler McMahan who inherited the place from her father. (Timothy #2)

Flora’s children began working at Wheatland’s which was called Ler- Mac for a number of years after Adela married Isaac Newton McMahan. Flora’s second oldest child, Padge began working there as a houseboy when he was a young teenager. Padge’s duties were similar to those of a butler. He also assisted his mother in the kitchen and became an excellent cook. 

When Flora was no longer able to work Padge was the natural choice for the position as cook. While Padge worked in the dual roles of butler and cook, several of his siblings worked in domestic jobs at Wheatlands as well. Padge remained at Wheatlands through an uncomfortable situation in which his sister Celia, who worked there as a maid, became pregnant by Adela’s teenaged son (Samuel) Timothy McMahan. At the time Celia was 22 and married. 

Both Adela (Chandler McMahan) and her husband died in 1936 and their son and daughter-in law, (Samuel) Timothy and Blanche (McMahan) took charge of Wheatlands. Padge remained there as cook preparing the recipes the Chandler- McMahan family had enjoyed for generations. He supervised smoking hams using smoldering fires of corn cobs. An especially good desert Padge was known for was Lemon Pie using a handed-down recipe which he improvised to make it his own. 

Throughout its history, there had always been more than one cook at any given time at Wheatlands until Padge assumed the duties. Never married, he lived on the premises of the mansion for many years. 

Padge was living there in 1942 when an unimaginable tragedy occurred. During a heated dispute, (Samuel) Timothy McMahan Sr. was brutally beaten to death by his 19-year-old son, Timothy, Jr. 

After the murder, Padge remained at Wheatlands for more than a decade before deciding to follow other family members and move to Knoxville. Although he missed certain aspects of working at Wheatlands where he had always taken pride in the meals he served, Padge adjusted to life in the city. Padge worked as a janitor for Swans’ Bakery in Knoxville for a few years before he retired. He passed away in 1966 at the age of 79. He was fondly known by his numerous nephews, nieces and extended family as Uncle Padge.

dgarrity11 originally shared this on 08 jul 2017 to Ancestry

Thank you so much for a very interesting history of the 2 families, living side by side! 

Final Note by editor of blog:
Samuel Timothy McMahan Sr.'s death certificate shows he was hospitalized from Oct. 14-19, 1942 when he died.

I'll look a bit closer to his life soon.
But first: a recap of the Wheatlands family Chandlers...look for underlined portion about freeing of slaves.

Wheatlands, named after its large annual wheat crop, was established as a family farm by Revolutionary War veteran Timothy Chandler in 1791. Chandler's son, John Chandler (1786–1875), inherited Wheatlands in 1819, and under his direction the plantation grew to become one of Sevier County's largest farms,... Chandler's freed slaves inherited part of Wheatlands in 1875, and formed the Chandler Gap community in the hills south of the plantation. State Highway 338 roughly follows what was once a section of the 18th-century Native American trail known as the Great Indian Warpath. 

... By 1850, Wheatlands had become one of the largest farms in Sevier County, covering some 3,700 acres ... John Chandler and fourteen slaves produced 3,000 bushels of corn, 400 bushels of oats, 200 bushels of sweet potatoes, 12 bushels of buckwheat, 10 tons of hay, 150 pounds of wool, 200 pounds of butter, and 200 gallons of honey. The plantation's distillery produced 6,000 gallons of whiskey, worth $4,500 (US$124 thousand in present terms[6]).[3]

 When Southern slaves were emancipated during the American Civil War (1861–1865), Chandler started paying his freed slaves to remain at Wheatlands. Upon his death in 1875, Chandler left his former slaves a portion of land along the south side of Wheatlands known as Chandler Gap. The Chandler Gap community remained a predominantly African-American community well into the 20th century. 

SherryWhaley2

SherryWhaley2 originally shared this on 14 Jun 2013

My Notes:
Where is Chandler Gap?
Who was the child of Timothy (teenager) McMahan and (married) Celia Chandler (?)
Why did the Chandler men not serve in the Confederacy? Did they buy their way out of service? I haven't heard that that happened during that war.
I've found some children of Flora Chandler, was Padge the second oldest as mentioned above?
Now to create a family tree of the freed slaves based on Padge's account...