Murder! No Murder.

The Nashville Republican(March 1843) printed news that it received from the Sparta Gazette(Sparta TN) about a murder that was said to have taken place in Van Buren Co Tennessee.  Last names were mentioned but no first names and the details about the incident and the persons involved were not very clear,but the paper did mention the confusion.

The Tennessean (Nashville, TN) Wednesday  15 March 1843 pg 2
(at that time the paper was called the Republican Banner)

In the end the story that the Gazette had printed ended up being a false report.  The Sparta Gazette printed a retraction of sorts which the Republican Banner also passed along to it's readers.  

The Tennessean (Nashville, TN) Wednesday  22 March 1843 pg 2
(at that time the paper was called the Republican Banner)

While this was a rumor, over the next 130 years in the Van Buren and Warren Co TN area there would be murders and lynchings that would make the national news. I heard my Mom talk about some of these as she knew the Bratcher, Gibbs and Yates families from having grown up in that area. Victor Hillis was married to my maternal Great Grandmother's sister.

• 1894--The murder of Carroll Martin during a robbery. 
• 1896--William and Victor Hillis(Brothers) were tried for the Martin's murder TWICE. The first trial resulted in hung jury, They were convicted and sentenced to death as a result of the 2nd trial but were lynched by a mob shortly after that.. 
• 1943--Novella Johnson Yates killed her husband with an ax. She served a number of years in a mental institution. 
• 1955--Four members of the Bratcher family were killed by Billy Gibbs. 

1840 Van Buren Co TN Will of Robert Boyd--caught in the middle of a county formaton

The above image is a snippet from the inventory of the Estate of Robert Boyd.  Robert's will was written in 1837(Oct 26th) in Warren Co Tennessee.  Van Buren Co TN was formed from part of Warren Co TN along with parts of White County & Bledsoe County. The act to form Van Buren county passed on January 3rd 1840 but according to the information in the act at the TN.gov site, it appears records didn't start until April 1840.

It looks at though Robert Boyd's probate records were caught in the middle of the formation of Van Buren Co. TN.  A note from Will Armstrong, Warren County Clerk states that it(the will in the Van Buren Co Record Book) is a true copy of the original will on file in his office.  So although the probate records start in Warren Co TN...they end in Van Buren Co TN but do have a copy of all the will there.  In the will Robert left pretty much everything to his wife Jane to use in the support of his "little daughter" Ann. He appointed William Logue and John Boyd as executors. The listing of inventory along with the sale starts May of 1840 and wraps up July the 8th of 1840.  I should note that although Wm Logue is listed on the will as executor along with John Boyd I don't see any more listings of him as a witness or purchaser at the estate sale.  This adds more weight to this being William Marrs Logue, Robert Boyd's Father-In-Law who is known to have passed before September 4th 1839(I need to do a blog post on his estate info.). Wm Marrs Logue was the maternal 1/2 brother of my 4th Great Grandfather, John Fleming.

Person making purchases at the estate sale:  John Boyd, Isaac Hillis, James Hillis, Lemuel Romons, Wm L. Fleming, D. C. Russell, Wm McDonald, Jacob Romons, Wm Johnson, J.A. Miller, Thomas Meders,  Isaac? Tomas, Jesse Mooneyham. Wm McDaniel, Elisha Mayfield, George Ledbetter, Wiley Johnson, and John Russell

"Tennessee Probate Court Books, 1795-1927," images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QSQ-2RKT-G9?cc=1909088&wc=M6QQ-L38%3A179830201%2C179855401 : 22 May 2014), Van Buren > image 3 of 186; county courthouses, Tennessee.