J.P. Acuff Estate--Van Buren Co. TN(1940)

James P Acuff died in November 1939, about 2 and a half months after his wife's death. They were both living in Madison County, Alabama, at the time they died but still owned land in Van Buren County, Tennessee.  Minnie Acuff Luna was living in Lincoln County, Tennessee.  Mildred Acuff is Ernest Acuff's daughter and the only grandchild listed presumably because Ernest had passed 5 years earlier. I'm not sure why Ovena's name is spelled Evena, but this is not the only case where her name has not been spelled as one would have expected.  

This notice was ordered to be published in the Southern Standard for 4 consecutive weeks.

Dates of publication were:

May 24, 1940
May 31, 1940
Jun 7, 1940
Jun 14, 1940

ORDER OF PUBLICATION

To Evena Sharp, Emma Sanders, Er-

nest Acuff, Mildred Acuff, Sarah 

Thomas and W.E. Acuff
------
W.E. Acuff, Administrator
vs
Minnie Luna et al

In the County Court of Van Buren
County, Tenn.

-------
In this cause it appearing from the
petition which is sworn to, that Evena
Sharp, Emma Sanders, Ernest Acuff,
Mildred Acuff, Sarah Thomas and
W.E. Acuff, the only heirs of J.P.
Acuff, deceased, are non-residents of
the State of Tennessee, they are
therefore, hereby required to appear,
on or before the 1st Monday in July,
1940, before the County Court of Van
Buren county, Tennessee, at the Court
House, in Spencer, Tennessee, and
make defense to the petition filed
against them in said Court, by W.E.
Acuff, administratior, or otherwise the
petition will be taken for confessed as
to them.

It is further ordered that this no-
tice be published for four consecutive
weeks in the Southern Standard, a
newspaper published at McMinnville,
Tennessee, there being no paper pub
lished in Van Buren County, Tenn.
Said petition seeks to sell the lands
of J.P. Acuff, deceased, as an insol-
vent estate, to pay his indebtedness.
This May 16, 1940.

W. B. Cummings, Clerk

4t-32

Source:

"Order of Publication," Southern Standard(McMinnville, Tenn.), 14 Jun 1940, Vol LXI, No 35, p 7, col 2; image,

FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QHK-C3TC-GX1H : accessed 25 Mar 2025), IGN 8992355, Image 75 of 1194.

Antioch news from Warren Co. TN(Sept 1933)

Before there was online social media, there were newspaper articles focused on specific areas where they posted about what all the citizens of that area were doing.  This one is from Antioch, a community in Warren County Tennessee(not to be confused with the city in Davidson County)

Notes of Interest Around Antioch  (Sept. 1933)

(transcribed as written)

Mss Aileen Johnson spent the week-

end with her sister, Mrs Evy Spark-
man of Cummingsville.
Andrew McElroy has malaria fever.
Sam Brady is some better.
Mrs. Charles Rogers is visiting her
daughter, Mrs Oda Grissom.
Andrew Hillis was in Sparta Satur-
day.
Mrs. Jim Breedlove and children and
Miss Della Chandler were Wednesday
guests of Mrs. Andy Acuff.
Miss Willie Maye Witt visited Mrs.
Bascomb Chandler Sunday.
Mr. and Mrs R.obert Wednestead
visited Mr. and Mrs. Ervin Wednestead.
There will be a box supper at Semi-
nary(near Bone Cave) Saturday night,
Sept. 23. The public is invited.


"Notes of Interest Around Antioch," Southern Standard(McMinnville, TN), Vol LIV, No 30, 21 Sept 1933, p 7, col 2; images, FamilySearch(https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QHV-B3RM-16VB : accessed 24 February 2025) IGN 8964042, Image 828 of 1152.

W L Acuff Released from 1882 Poll Tax--Van Buren Co. TN

W L Acuff mentioned in the above image is my 2nd Great-grandfather, William Leon Acuff. He was a Christian Church minister. According to family stories passed down, he met my 2nd Great-grandmother, Sarah McElroy when he came to the McElroy community in Van Buren County to preach.

orderdered(sic) by the Court that W L Acuff 
be Released of his poll tax for 1882 he being 
a minister of the gospel and the trustee and 
tax collector have a Credit the same

Source:  Van Buren County, Tennessee, Court Minutes 1872–1886, p 532, April 1883 Term, W L Acuff released from poll tax 1882; images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-C39N-BTYH : accessed Oct 18, 2024), image 482 of 612; IGN 8478553.

The Name's Wrong, The Identity's Right: Overcoming Record Errors

Yesterday, I received a notice from FamilySearch that they might have found my great-grandmother in a record.

The record on which my Great-grandmother Fannie Hale Acuff was listed was the 2nd marriage of her daughter Ovena Acuff to Owen Sharp.  I'd had the date of her marriage but never entered it. She didn't have children with Owen so that was not a priority for me.  Her name on their marriage record is wrong on two counts. She is listed as Lovena Hammonds.  She should have been listed as Ovena Damrel.  She had been married to Ben Damrel who had died about four years prior. At Ancestry, the record was buried in the hints for Ovena where it was indexed as it was written on the record and probably was only picked up as a hint because of the mention of her parents.

I'm used to names being indexed wrong but this was a case of it being wrong(on two counts) on the record.  I submitted a correction on Ancestry and the record is attached correctly to Ovena at FamilySearch.  I knew she was likely born in either White or Van Buren Co TN because her family lived there until just before the 1920 census when they moved to Madison Co AL for work in the cotton mills.  If I can believe this record gives her place of birth as Doyle TN which is just over the Van Buren County line in White County. 

Source:  
"Alabama County Marriages, 1809-1950", FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:939V-Z7LC-P : accessed 16 September 2024), Marriage Record Entry for Owen Sharp and Ovena Damrel(listed incorrectly as Lovena Dammonds), 24 Aug 1936.

Divorce: Emma Sanders vs Dallas Sanders--Madison Co. Alabama 1946

Image 1

Image of Folder 

Image 2 

Divorce Decree. The State of Alabama, Madison County. Circuit Court of Madison County, in Equity 23rd Judicial Circuit

No 8833  June 20th 1946  Emma Sanders(Plaintiff)  vs. Dallas Sanders(Defendant) 

Granted-Plaintiff’s pleadings were taken pro confesso since the defendant did not appear despite having been served a summons. 

Image 3 

Wrapper of Decree

Image 4 

Summons

May 18th 1946 Summons for Dallas Sander to be delivered by sheriff.

Image 5 

Outer Wrapper of Summons

Signed by register and execute on same day.

Filed May 20th 1946

Rec Bk 37 pg 594

Image 6
Plaintiff's pleadings ask for a vinculo matrimonii(absolute divorce)

Image 7

Wrapper of Plaintiff's pleadings

Image 8

Acknowledgement of served summons on defendant and defendants failure to answer.

Image 9

Decree Pro Confesso 

Order Bk  6 pg. 210

Image 10

June 23rd 1946 Complainant's submission for final decree

Image 11

Notice of Register's Submission

Image 12

Certificate of Commissioner regarding Oral Depositions

Image 13

Outer Wrapper Commission to take Oral Depositions

Image 14

Deposition of Emma Sanders witness sworn and examined under and by virtue of a commission issued out of the Circuit Court of Madison County in equity in a certain cause therein pending wherein they said Emma Sanders is Complainant and Dallas Sanders is Defendant. The said witness, being duly sworn to speak the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, deposes and says as follows:

My name is Emma Sanders. I am the Complainant in this cause and I am of full age and of sound mind. I am bona fide a resident of Madison County, Alabama having bona fide resided in the state for more than one year next before the filing of my bill for divorce. The Defendant also is of full age of sound mind and he resided at the time of the filing of my bill for divorce at 407 Rison Avenue, Huntsville, Madison County, Alabama and still lives in Madison County, Alabama. He and I were married on the 4th day of March 1933 by license regularly issued out of the probate court of Madison County Alabama and lived together thereafter as men and wife until the 12th day of May, 1946, at which time we separated while living in Madison County, Alabama, and we have not lived together since. During the time that we cohabited the Defendant drank to excess and was extremely quarrelsome when intoxicated. He has on more than one occasion struck me and has threatened my life. I was afraid that he might carry out his threats and separated from him at the time mentioned above and have not since cohabited with him.

Emma Sanders

"Alabama, Madison County Chancery and Circuit Court Records, 1829-1968," images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-897T-TXHD?cc=1978142&wc=9L3B-6MF%3A1080063303%2C1080497701%2C1080551102 : accessed 23 March 2023), Divorces and Disputed Estates > 1946 > Case no 8833 Sanders, Emma vs Sanders, Dallas > image 1 of 14; citing Madison County Record Center, Huntsville.

Emma Lou Acuff Sanders
1908-1994

Finding work and more in the cotton mills

My Acuff and Luna family were like many others who left the Upper Cumberland Plateau counties to find work after WWI.  My folks ended up in Madison Co Alabama working for the Dallas Mill(Dallas Manufacturing Company.) The Dallas Mill was located north of Huntsville.  If you read thru the census records for the Dallas community in the 1920s and 1930s you can see what a big part it played in the community and the different jobs that those employed there held.  An article from the Huntsville Times in August of 1923 estimated that there were about 800 employed at the Dallas Mill.  I'd imagine it was similar to the company towns but perhaps on a lesser scale.  

If you have ever worked for a larger company you also know that they have their own social network.  Not in the way we think of social networks today.  Likes, Dislikes, Friends list and blocking someone were done in different ways than they are on today's social platforms. My grandmother's 1st cousin, Josephine Acuff Woodlee and I used to exchange letters and she had told me about some of her memories as a child.  She would hear the grownups in the kitchen discussing the "happenings" of the day.  If you are using DNA in your research(and you should be) keep in mind a person's place of employment may play a role in how two "parties" met. My mother DNA tested in hopes of finding descendants of an older rumored paternal half-sibling conceived during this time period(no suprises so far.)  I'm sure that this is just one of many DNA discoveries that could potentially be made among the families of the mill workers.  Some of the family remained in the Huntsville area and others moved back to the farm in Van Buren Co. around the time of the depression.

Sources:

"Huntsville's Large Industrial Plants That Employ Thousands," The Huntsville Times(Huntsville, Alabama), 05 Aug 1923, p. 11, col. 1-3; digital images, Newspapers.com (https://www.newspapers.com : accessed 3 May 2022).

Woodlee, Sarah Josephine Acuff.  Letter to Marie Cooke Beckman(Granddaughter of 1st Cousin) postmarked 3 September 2002, Chattanooga, Tennessee. Personal Correspondence Collection of Marie Cooke Beckman. Letters from Sarah Josephine Woodlee spanning the years 2001-2004. In my possession. 

James Polk Acuff(12 Jan 1872-23 Nov 1939)--52 Ancestors

In the early 2000s, my maternal grandmother's 1st cousin, Sarah Josephine Acuff Woodlee and I exchanged letters.  I still have a large envelope of the letters she wrote to me.  In a letter written in Oct of 2001, she also included a small tin type picture of my Gr Grandfather James Polk Acuff(1872-1939) sitting on his Dad's lap.  It is one of my favorite and my most treasured possessions. I thought for sure I'd lost the picture in my move back to Tennessee in January of 2012.  Thankfully, I had not.  In packing up my desk, I'd inadvertently knocked the envelope into my box of backup discs and that was where I found it when I was going thru those discs in 2018.  

Polk looks to be around the age of 2 in the picture which would mean it was likely taken around 1874.  I have a copy of a picture of  Polk's parents, William Leon Acuff and his wife Sarah McElroy Acuff which would have been taken around the same time.  I can tell this because Polk's Dad looks exactly the same in both pictures(groomed and clothing wise.)  Polk grew up in Van Buren Co TN and later moved to Huntsville AL in the Dallas area of Madison County as many folks did in search of work. His oldest daughter(my grandmother) was living there in 1920 with her husband and his family and their two sons.  Many folks who moved to that area went to work in the Dallas cotton mills.  Polk and and his wife moved there some time after 1927. He is listed in the 1929 City Directory of Huntsville along with 4 of his children, his brother and nephew, all employed by Dallas Mills.  Polk and family are in the 1930 census there as well.  Polk's wife, Fannie Hale Acuff died in September of 1939 and Polk died that same year in November.  Any time I hear Rison Avenue mentioned I think of my Acuffs  I believe the section of Rison Avenue they lived on no longer exist after the Interstate 565 exchange was built 

To give you an idea of how small the picture is, I'm including a photo of it in my hand below.

John F Tipton--Charity Baptist Church Cemetery(Hazel Green, AL)

Information from the Death Notice of Husband of 2nd Cousin 3 times removed.

John F Tipton Age 55
Died: Sun 12 Feb 1950(8:30am)
Services and Burial
Mon 13 Feb 1950
Charity Baptist Church
Charity Baptist Church Cemetery
Rev Floyd Kilpatrick & Rev Johnny Jenkins
Laughlin - Service Funeral Home

Survivors
Wife: Mrs. Allie Moss Tipton
Sons:
Richard Tipton
Arthur Tipton
Arnold Tipton
Cecil Tipton
All of Route 1 Huntsville

Daughters:
Mrs. James Moore(Evans GA)
Mrs. Wilson Moon(New Hope, AL)
Mrs. Dewey L Boyett(Hillsboro, TN)

Brothers:
Lindsay Tipton(Elora AL)
William Henry Tipton(Meridianville, AL)
Marvin Tipton (Route 4 Fayetteville)

Sister:  Mrs. Martha Moss(Hazel Green AL)
7 Grandchildren and several nieces and nephews.

Active Pallbearers:
Wilburn Moss
Dewey L Boyett
Wilson Moon
James Moore
William Pierce
Roy Uptain.

Source: "John F Tipton's Rites held Today," The Huntsville Times(Huntsville, Alabama), 13 Feb 1950, p. 8 col 8, digital images, Newspapers.com (https://www.newspapers.com : accessed 17 Oct 2021).

Notes:  

Ethel Evelyn Tipton is Mrs. Dewey L Boyett

Allene Victoria Tipton is Mrs. Wilson Moon

Bertha Arietta Tipton is Mrs. James Moore

Allie Moss Tipton is kin to me thru our William Acuff and Magdeline Hall.  They are her Great grandparents(she descends thru their daughter Martha Ellen Acuff Thomas Pierce).  They are my  4th Great Grandparents(I descend thru their son Jonathan Acuff)

I was inspired to look for other descendants of Martha when one appeared as a hint in my Thrulines at AncestryDNA.

This 2C3R( Allie Moss Tipton) and her husband are buried in the same cemetery as my maternal grandparents.  The parents of my maternal grandmother are also buried in the same cemetery.  My maternal grandfather's Dad and his stepmom are buried in Charity Cemetery as well.

Bone Cave, Tennessee about 1951--Granny Minnie is shot

The David E Luna Family
Wm R Luna(son of D E Luna by 1st wife) is standing
first from right.  Minnie Acuff Luna is seated holding her son
Bert on her lap in this picture from about 1920 Huntsville AL

 A Facebook thread about a near miss from a bullet brought to mind a story my Mom had told me about my Grandmother, Minnie Acuff Luna.  I'd heard the story many times but called Mom for an interview of sorts.  Mom's parents(Wm Richard Luna & wife Minnie) were living in Bone Cave, TN on C.P Moore's place about 1951 where they were sharecropping.  The house they lived in had a rail fencing around the yard.  My grandmother was in the yard and my mother and her younger brother, Wayne were playing nearby chasing each other around a chair.  Mom's older brother, Ernest Luna and Douglas Deaton(Mom called him "Douger") were down the road talking near a tree that had fallen.  They heard the shot and then Granny told Grandpa she thought she'd been shot.  As far as Mom could remember they thought it was someone hunting on C P Moore property without his knowledge that was responsible for the stray bullet.  Grandpa went to get Florence(C.P. Moore's wife) so that they could get Granny Minnie to the hospital in McMinnville.  The bullet had went in her right leg missing the bone but hadn't exited.  Granny Minnie recovered but passed about 6 years later.  

Source:  This story is from the information I gathered from my Mom when I asked her about what she remembered from the incident.  If anyone else had ever heard about this I'd love to hear from them with any corrections if they have any.  My Mom would have been around 11 years old at the time this took place.  

Why I have not tested my mtDNA path

After reading Roberta Estes' blog post about mtDNA The Forgotten Test, I thought about the reasons why I haven't mtDNA tested.  Let's face it....I'm cheap.  I repurpose many fabrics and mend clothes til they are thread bare.  I save seeds and divide plants and bulbs every chance I get.  So my reason would be a financial one in that I can't justify the amount of money spent on a mtDNA test because it doesn't answer as many questions for me as an autosomal test.  If I did do the mtDNA testing I would want to do more than the minimal test and I don't have that kind of extra money available. The atDNA testing is all I have had and all I have bought for several others while they were on sale.  Thinking about this also made me want to recognize the ancestors who are responsible for passing me my mtDNA

Until then I remain a mtDNA carrying descendant of:
Beatrice Luna Cooke
Minnie Acuff Luna
Emma Frances Hale Acuff
Nancy Arminda Hitchcock Hale
Charlotta "Lottie" Fleming Hitchcock
Nancy Combs Fleming
Wife of Mason Combs Jr.

Visual representation of Chromosome mapping

This is my daughter Brittany's Chromosome map. She and I both have done the autosomal test as have her maternal grandmother and paternal grandmother.

In addition to her grandmothers testing she has a maternal aunt and a paternal uncle who have also tested as well as several Paternal Great Aunts & a Great Uncle.  This will help to sort thru her matches.

MGF--Cooke/King  & Jakes/Frizzell
MGM- Acuff/Hale & Luna/Pittman
PGF- Beckman/Folley & Harper/Mattox
PGM-Mosley/Hogland & Demonia/Brantley

This segment map is a screenshot from the GenomeMate Pro program which I use to help track my matches for kits I manage.

My 16 GG Grandparents(better late than never)

I've been meaning to make this post ever since Randy Seaver's Sat. Night Genealogy Fun idea to
Post your 16 GG Grandparents

Just now finding time. I've not attempted to determine exact percentages for my ancestral ethnicity mainly because I have very few of them back to their immigration date. Most of them were in what would become the US by 1770s and some of them earlier than that. I'd say that I'm probably over 90% a combo of English Scottish and Irish.

Paternal Lines(1-8)
Maternal Lines(9-16)

1. William Clifford Cook: born 4th April 1811 in NC, USA; married 27th of Sept 1831 in Williamson Co., TN, USA; died 1 Jan 1882 in Bedford Co., TN, USA.
2. Elizabeth Putman: born 1814 in Union Co., SC, USA; died 5th Sept. 1880 in Bedford Co., TN, USA.
3. William Benton King: born Feb 1819 in Bedford Co., TN, USA; married 30 Sept. 1841 in Williamson Co., TN, USA; died 1901 in Gainesville, Cooke Co., TX, USA.
4. Eliza Jane Manire: born 1818 in Williamson Co., TN, USA; died April 1896 in Gainsville, Cooke Co., TX, USA.
5. George Jakes: born abt. 1820 in Franklin Co.,VA, USA; married abt 1845 in Tennessee; died after 1880 census in TN, USA.
6. Catherine Morrow: born abt. 1830; died after 1880 census in TN, USA.
7. David Frizzell: born 23rd Oct. 1808 in Bedford Co., TN, USA ; married 15th Nov 1834 in ; died 27th Dec 1870 in Bedford Co., TN, USA
8. Rebecca Manley: born 1818 in Bedford Co., TN, USA ; died 1862 in Bedford Co., TN, USA.
9. Elisha Luna: born 5th Nov. 1825 in Smith Co., TN, USA; married 11th Dec 1851 in Dekalb Co., TN, USA; died 19th June 1889 in Dekalb Co., TN, USA.
10. Keziah Rigsby: born 1832 in White Co., TN, USA ; died 1909 in Dekalb Co., TN, USA.
11. David Pittman: born April 1838 in Jackson Co., AL, USA; married 22th Dec 1859 in Dekalb Co., TN, USA; died 11th Feb 1922 in Dekalb Co., TN, USA.
12. Mary D. Frances Adcock: born 20th of May 1842 in Dekalb Co., TN, USA; died 30th of Dec. 1902 in Dekalb Co., TN, USA
13. William Leon Acuff: born 25th of Jan. 1842 in Bledsoe Co., TN, USA; married 5th Jan. 1871 in Van Buren Co., TN, USA; died 3 Feb. 1898 in Van Buren Co., TN, USA.
14. Sarah McElroy: born 28th Nov 1847 in Van Buren Co., TN, USA; died 2nd July 1925 in Dallas, Madison Co., AL, USA.
15. William P. Hale: born 1849 in Van Buren Co., TN, USA; married abt 1871 prob. in Bledsoe Co., TN, USA ; died bet. 1920-1930 in Warren Co., TN, USA.
16. Nancy Arminda Hitchcock: born 6th Sept 1840 in Warren Co., TN; died before 1887 in TN(prob. Van Buren Co.), USA