Lineage: Pauline McClanahan Cooper > Leona Alton > Isabella Texas Davis >
(14) Barney Davis (my 3rd great-grandfather) was born about 1814, probably around Hamilton County, Tennessee. According to my research, Barney was likely the illegitimate child of James Davis and Sarah Eastridge. This will be covered in more detail below. Barney was a soldier and farmer.
(15) Nancy Reed (my 3rd great-grandmother) was born around 1822 in the Hightower, Georgia, a Cherokee town near what is today the Cartersville, Geogia. This area is in the northwestern part of Georgia near Tennessee. She was the daughter of William and Susan Reed. Susan was part Cherokee. Click here for a detailed accounting of our Cherokee Ancestry.
On 25 Jul 1836, Barney and his 3 brothers Sullivan, James, and Wesley are all listed as members of Captain Benjamin B. Cannon’s Company of Tennessee Mounted Militia. They were enlisted for 12 months to serve in the Sabine War. This is more commonly called the Sabine Expedition. As a result of Mexican and Native American attacks along the Western Frontier, Major General Edmund Pendleton Gaines, was put in charge of protecting the Sabine River, as a boundary between Mexico, Texas, and Louisiana.
On 27 Jun 1837, all four brothers were mustered into Captain Benjamin B. Cannon’s Company First Regiment Tennessee Volunteer Infantry. This time they were supporting the rounding up and organizing of Cherokee Indians, in preparation for the forced migration of the Cherokees west. This march would begin in May of 1838 and would become known as “The Trail of Tears,” as approximately 4,000 Cherokee would die along the way.
A year later, Barney would marry Nancy Reed and his brother, Wesley, would marry Nancy’s sister, Nellie Reed. These two sisters were members of the Cherokee Nation.
For some reason, around this time, Barney would begin going by the name of Barney Eastridge. I do not have a good answer for why Barney Davis began calling himself Barney Eastridge, but as you will see this is clearly the same Barney and his children returned to using the name Davis after his death. My belief is that he was illegitimate and perhaps him and his father had some falling out. But it does seem that he stayed close to his brother Wesley.
Our first evidence of this comes from the papers of William Holland Thomas. Thomas was a merchant, lawyer, and a representative of the Eastern Cherokee, who remained in the East, after the forced removal of 1838. From 1835 to 1844, he worked to enforce the 1835 New Echota Treaty and to have the remaining Cherokee recognized as citizens. Eventually, in 1866, the Eastern Band of the Cherokee were recognized as a distinct tribe and given a reservation in North Carolina.
In 1840, he was trying to document all the Cherokee families in Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, and North Carolina and where they were living in 1835 when the Treaty of New Echota was signed. According to his notes, in 1840, he was in Cleveland, Tennessee on some business and travelled 15 miles to visit the families of Eastridge and Wesley Davis. (The city of Ootlewah in Hamilton County, where Barney and Wesley’s families were living, is approximately 15 miles south of Cleveland.)
In his notes, he lists Barney Eastridge as the head of a family consisting of 2 people (Barney and Nancy). He also notes that Barney’s wife was part Cherokee, the daughter of William Reed, and that in 1835, she was living in Hightower, Georgia.
The Cherokee town of Hightower was once located near what is today Rome, GA, but the people relocated to what is today Cartersville, GA, in 1792, after attacks by whites.
He notes that Wesley Davis was the head of a family of 4 (Wesley, Nellie, Eliza, and Cynthia). He also notes that Wesley’s wife was part Cherokee, the daughter of Susana Reed, and that in 1835, she was living in Hightower, Georgia.
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| Typical Cherokee Homes from 1800s |
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| Typical Inside of Home |
In the 1850 census, we find Barney Eastridge [Davis] living in Hamilton County, TN with their children Eliza, James, Newton, Wesley, and Sarah. The names of their children give some clues to family relations. James is the name of Barney’s father and brother. Wesley is the name of Barney’s brother and Sarah is the name of Barney’s mother, who is also in this census living directly next door. Barney is listed as a farmer.
The family of Nancy and Barney Davis is listed in the 1851 Silas and Chapman Rolls for Hamilton County, Tennessee. The Silas roll was a listing of those Eastern Cherokee entitled to a per capita payment based on the 1835 Treaty. The Chapman roll was a listing of all those that were approved for payment based on the Silas roll. These payments were made in December of 1851 and January of 1852 to 2,134 individuals.
The children of Nancy and Barney Davis are listed as: Eliza, James, Newton, Wesley, and Sarah Ann. This, to me, is very strong proof that Barney Eastridge is Barney Davis. It might be a coincidence to have a wife of the same name and a child or even two, but to have a husband and wife and 5 children in the same order with the same names, is not possible. Nancy’s sister, Nellie’s, and Barney’s brother, Wesley’s, family is also listed.
It should also be noted that in the 1883, Hester Roll of the Eastern Band of the Cherokee Indians Eliza Going, Tennessee Davis, and Texas Alton are listed and referenced as the daughters of Nancy and Barney Davis. And in the 1909, Guion Miller roll, Tennessee (Davis) Gillespie and Isabella Texas (Davis) Alton list their parents as Nancy and Barney Davis. Tennessee also lists her father’s mother as Sarah Davis, her mother’s parents as William and Susan Reed, and her aunt as Nellie Davis nee Reed.
In the 1860 census, Barney and Nancy Eastridge [Davis] are still living in Hamilton County, TN with their children Eliza, James, Newton, Wesley, Tennessee, and Isabella Texas. Barney’s mother, Sarah, is now living with them and their daughter, Sarah, has passed. Barney is listed as a farmer with a personal estate value of $200 ($7,000 in 2022).
Civil War and Deaths
Barney and his family seem to be staunch Unionists during the Civil War. Actually, before the war, East Tennessee had a strong abolitionist and pro-union sentiment. In fact, the vote of all 30 counties from East Tennessee was 34,023 against secession to 14,872 for secession. Once war started, Tennessee provided more soldiers to the Union Army than any other Confederate state, totaling 31,092 white troops and 20,133 black troops. At the beginning of the war, many Unionists in East Tennessee actively worked to sabotage the Confederate Army by blowing up bridges, interrupting supply lines.
On 23 Jan 1864, Barney and Nancy’s sons Newton and James E enlisted at Harrison, Tennessee, for a 3 year enlistments. They were both privates in the 4th Tennessee Cavalry, Company L. Their cousin, Lafayette Davis, was in the same company.
Around January 26, 1864, Barney Davis, Willis Biggs, and John Connor were arrested at their homes, taken into North Georgia, and shot in the back of their heads by a Confederate Rebel Guerrilla group known as Snow’s Scouts. Barney was just 50 years old and left behind 6 children, including my 2nd great-grandmother, Isabella Texas, who was just 4 years old.
On 12 May 1868, the United States Congress held hearings on Confederate treatment of prisoners of war. Below is the relevant testimony of A. M. Cate. Notice that the above article refers to the victim as Barney Davis, but the testimony here refers to him as Barney Eastridge. This is irrefutable proof that Barney Davis and Barney Eastridge were the same man.
Question. Please state your name, age, and place of residence.
Answer. A. M. Cate : I am forty - five years of age ; I reside at Ooltewah, Hamilton County, East Tennessee
Q. How long have you resided at Ooltewah and vicinity?
A. Since November, 1849
Q. State if you were in the service of the United States; and if so, in what capacity.
A. I was; as second lieutenant of Company G, Sixth Tennessee infantry.
Q. State what, if anything, you know as to the murder of Willis Biggs, John Connor, and Barney Eastridge [Davis]; and if you knew these men.
A. I was personally intimate with them; I know they were Union men and devoted to the Union cause. On or about, the 26th of January, 1864 , they were arrested at their respective homes and taken over the State line into Georgia , and were shot down and killed; where they were found about three months afterward and identified by their families and friends, brought home and buried.
Q. Did you see them in their coffins?
A. I did, when they were brought home.
Q. State whether there was any cause for the murder, except the fact that they were Union men?
A. None whatever.
Q. By whom were they shot?
A . At the instance of William Snow, who headed a band of rebel guerrillas.
This tale only confirms the horrors that were faced by those that remained loyal to their country during the Civil War, especially those that lived behind enemy lines.
In her application to the Guion Miller Roll of Eastern Cherokees daughter, Isabella Texas, stated that her father died “in the war time,” and her mother “near the end of the war.”
It is not surprising that Nancy Davis died before the end of the war. It is just amazing that all of their children survived, given the treatment of Unionists during the war. In the same testimony mentioned above, A. M. Cate describes the treatment of Unionists during the war:
They indiscriminately patrolled Union men's houses, searched for their private retreats, and way laid the highways of the country, shooting them both before and after their capture; hung innocent men for sentiment, and tortured them in a most barbarous manner to make them give up, or tell where their money or property was; their houses were robbed, and destroyed by fire; rebel officers would authorize the taking of their horses, logs, cattle, sheep, hay, corn, wheat, flour, bacon, &c., except a scant allowance for the family, which the private rebel soldier or guerrilla would go and get, and thus reduce the families of federal soldiers and Union citizens to extreme want for food and clothing.
It was not uncommon for a mother to take a meal with her children of corn bread and water or wheat or rye coffee, and frequently compelled to use Irish potatoes, or cow peas as a substitute for bread, and sometimes for several mealtimes destitute of either. It was with the greatest difficulty that many of them could provide the ordinary means of subsistence by the mothers, wives, daughters, and children of federal soldiers and Unionists cultivating such fields or lots as they could keep fenced, with worthless jacks, jennies, single ox or calf, and I have understood that milch cows have been used to plow and haul rails to replace those burned or destroyed by rebels, as well as firewood.
Women, without regard to condition, were placed under the necessity of taking their little sacks of corn and walking for miles through the heat of summer or the storm of winter to a mill to get it ground, and under the same difficulties cut and haul or carry their firewood, make rails and fence, and various other hard ships, doubtless less enduring, but too tedious to itemize , and even then would many times have to give the last mouthful to a guerrilla, rebel soldier, or their sick…
I have seen multitudes composed of old men, women, and children of all classes exposed to all the severity of winter in the most pitiable conditions, thinly clad in cotton, and so ragged and dirty as to be unable to cover their nakedness, bare-headed, bare-footed, without tent or shelter, and frequently denied the comforts of fire. Language cannot represent their sufferings…
I believe thousands of Union men were forced into the rebel army, many of whom deserted, escaped to the federal lines, enlisted and proved their patriotism to be equal to any on the battle-field, while many died, and many others too timid to run the risk of desertion have left the stigma of their involuntary record clinging to their posterity as part of their father's history.
After the War
In the 1870 census, Barney and Nancy’s children Eliza J, Tennessee, Isabella Texas, and Barney Jr. are living with Barney’s mother, Sarah. They are all listed with the last name of Davis, including Sarah. They are also all listed as Indian (Native American), except Sarah.
In 1870, Barney and Nancy’s son, James, leaves for Cherokee territory in Oklahoma. James gets sick along the way and they stay 2 years in Missouri. They finally make it to the Cherokee Nation around 1878.
At some point, after the Civil War, Newton Davis also migrated to Cherokee territory out west. He died on 8 Aug 1899 near Bartlesville, Indian Territory. He was given a veteran’s gravestone.
Barney Eastridge Davis and Nancy (Reed) Davis:
- Eliza J. m. _____ Going
- James E. m. Elizabeth Thornton
- Newton
- Wesley
- Sarah Ann
- Tennessee “Tennie” m. William Gillespie
- Isabella Texas m. Robert H. Alton
- Barney Jr.
Appendix:
Tennessee "Tennie" Davis 1906 Guion Miller Roll Application (pdf)
Texas (Davis) Alton 1906 Guion Miller Roll Application (pdf)
Lafayette Davis 1906 Guion Miller Roll Application (pdf)
Leona "Ona" (Alton) McClanahan's 1907 Guion Miller Roll Application (pdf)
Burduir Alton 1906 Guion Miller Roll Application (pdf)
Sources:
“Some Tennessee Heroes of the Revolution, Vol. 1,” by Zella Armstrong, 1933, p. 10.
“Early Hamilton Settlers,” by John Wilson, (https://www.chattanoogan.com/2001/11/6/14587/Several-Davis-Families-Settled-Early.aspx)
“The History of Hamilton County and Chattanooga, Tennessee, Volume 1,” by Zella Armstrong, 1993.
“Diary 1840-1842 / William Holland Thomas,” https://dlg.usg.edu/record/dlg_zlna_cm001?canvas=66&x=127&y=89&w=843
“The Nashville Daily Union, June 16, 1864,” (https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83025718/1864-06-16/ed-1/seq-4/)
“Sheriff William Snow,” The Sheriffs of Hamilton County, (https://www.hcsheriff.gov/gen_info/past_sheriffs/william_snow.asp).
“Reports of Committees, 16th Congress, 1st Session - 49th Congress, 1st Session - Vol. 4,” by United States. Congress. House, 1869, pages 1018-1021.
The Weekly Herald (Cleveland, TN), 21 Jun 1877, page 2.
