My own family started off in England as greives in what is now South Yorkshire, after leaving Hatfield we settled in Whitgift and did well as small farmers and clerks. After a family dispute over religion and inheritance my branch of the family left for Virginia (the way paid by dishonorable means, my patriarch stole what was supposed to be his inheritance from his father to pay way to Virginia for himself, wife and first born child).
Once in Virginia we purchased land from Sir Peyton Skipwith at a total cost of 40 pounds. The brother in law of my patriarch, also of Yorkshire, had been an indentured servant of Sir Peyton Skipwith who had violated the terms of his indenture by leaving early. Because of the knit nature of our culture we took him in resulting in a dispute.
After the death of our patriarch the family migrated to Rutherford County, North Carolina for a brief period afore coming to settle in the Mountain District of Middle Tennessee. Once in Tennessee the family came to own $300 worth of land bought at 12.5 cents per acre (on average) by 1850 (exact acreage is not known as the documents were destroyed in a fire, the estimate given the math is around 2,400 acres), the new patriarch served as elected Constable for Overton County, Tennessee. By 1860 the land holdings were valued at $1,000 with other personal property valued at $400, the patriarch was also father to two Confederate soldiers. In 1870 his land holdings were valued at $800 with other personal property owned being valued at $500.
During the Reconstruction the land was split between male descendants (one of whom was my great great great grandfather).
My great great grandfather's share of the land (again split between the sons of his father mentioned briefly above) was taken from him during the New Deal initiatives and is now part of Standing Stone State Park, my great grandfather as a result had to fend for himself and wound up purchasing 100 acres of land in Allons, Overton County, Tennessee. During the Great Depression he had to migrate to Ohio with his wife to temporarily raise his children while he worked in the rubber factories. After enough money was saved he was able to construct a proper home on the farm in Tennessee where he kept 40 head of angus cattle. After a fire in the 1970's the land was sold off, the family since split, some owning land in Tennessee still others owning land in Ohio.
My grandfather had abandoned the prospect of owning land in Tennessee after a while and resolved to build a home in Ohio on 4 acres of land, he wound up becoming superintendent for a large construction company and as such was able to afford to send his children to private school and also was able to afford to make regular trips back to Tennessee, time permitting.
Because my father did not pursue a collegiate education in changing times he wound up becoming a long haul truck driver while in Tennessee. The money was not great but he had prospects of purchasing land in Overton County, Tennessee as to settle down but a divorce got in the way. During the divorce my mother went through a period of insanity and we were evicted from our rental in Tennessee, she intentionally hid me from my father contrary to the law and we had to panhandle in Cookeville, Tennessee until I was ditched at a nanny's residence (my father eventually found where I was and reclaimed custody), I do not say this to slander my mother as she is now a charitable and upstanding citizen just to acknowledge a very real history. I was taken to Ohio at the age of 11 as my father could no longer work as a long haul trucker in Tennessee while having full custody, mind we made regular trips back to Tennessee as to not lose touch and I still hold a savings account back in my hometown.
While in Ohio I lived on my grandfather's property and had a decent life from then, I've worked and hope to work again in the near future as a day laborer for my uncle's construction crew, and am now pursuing a collegiate education in philosophy and potentially law (my paternal grandmother's cousin, from a West Virginian family, was a lawyer and former Ohio State Senator, through my mother I am also a descendant of the same family who founded Red Rose Tea Co. and the same Cleveland lineage as that of former US President Grover Cleveland).
I now live as a tenant in an apartment, temporarily I may add.
Bookmarks