The First Harper in Tennessee

The weatherman announced that the rain would be ending this morning, so I gathered up my uncle and mother and we headed to Perry County.  Since my last trip to the country I had found a little more information about the location of the old Dudley Cemetery and was more confident we would be successful in finding it today.

Myself with my Grandmother and Grandfather

We met at my mother’s house and managed to drive about 5 miles before stopping for Cappuccino.  An overdose of sugar and caffeine is sure to help any search.  With the aid of the GPS and having been down Lost Creek Road a couple weeks ago, we were able to go right to the vicinity of the cemetery.  There was a country lane along the edge of a cow pasture which seemed to be the way to go.  However, there was a locked gate and a well placed “No Trespassing” sign between us and where we wanted to be.  After knocking on the door of the nearby house and getting no answer we decided to jump the fence.  The barbed wire was a little inconvenient and we had to be careful where we put our feet so a not to get in a cow pile, but we managed to avoid falling, cutting, or squishing.  But we also managed not to find the cemetery.  As we were making our way back to the truck, I noticed a clump of trees behind the house that looked like a swell place to put an old cemetery.  We hit the jackpot and found the marker of my great, great, great grandfather, the first of our line of Harper’s to settle in Tennessee around 1800.  Surprisingly, the stone was in really good shape.

Here we go--up...

and over.

Wiley V. Harper, my ggg grandfather.

From there we drove to Hickman County and past the farm my grandfather owned.  I can remember him telling me for years that the new road was coming and eventually it did, cutting his farm in two.  Well, it wasn’t his farm by that time because he did not live to see the new road he spoke of for so many years.  Their old log home had been sold and the new owner had taken it apart log by log and moved it to Georgia.  The barn which I played in as a child along with many of my cousins, has fallen down into a heap of decaying wood.  There is now a partially finished block house on the site of the long gone chicken coop and car house.  Nothing much remains of the place of so many of my fondest childhood memories.

We drove past the homestead without even stopping and continued on toward Wolf Creek Cemetery.  This short 3 miles or so took us past where my mother and uncle had both gone to school (that building is also long gone) and the grist mill where Edd, as a boy, had brought corn to be ground into meal. At the cemetery we found the tombstones of two women who were cousins of my grandmother, but we were unable to find the one I was most interested in—my grandmother’s aunt Josie.  Again, like in all the old cemeteries, there are many tombstones which are weathered beyond readability. Hers must have been among that group.

Wolf Creek cemetery

Our stomachs were starting to growl, so our next search was for lunch.  In our opinion, there is no better food to be had in Hickman County than at Breece’s Cafe on the square in Centerville.  It is good country cooking and today I had pulled pork BBQ, coleslaw, mashed potatoes, turnip greens, and white beans for a mere $4.99.  My lunch was less than the cappuccinos we’d had at the beginning of this adventure.  While I was eating, I noticed a statue of Minnie Pearl in front of the courthouse.  Minnie grew up in Hickman County so to end our day it seemed appropriate to have our picture made with this famous fellow Hickman Countian.

Us and Minnie

Another Cemetery Hunt

We finally got a day with no other pressing matters to spend in search of family burial grounds.  Knowing that Gene would not really appreciate curvy dirt roads, I studied the map and devised a route which accomplished my goal by staying mostly on primary country roads.  I lucked out and all the roads were paved, even the ones that had been dirt the last time I made this trek.  We got an early start, which was good because it took longer than I thought it would.

We drove down Hwy 100 to Centerville in Hickman County.  I had taken this same route hundreds of times over my lifetime.  When living in Nashville as a child, we visited my grandparents almost every weekend and my brother and I lived there during the summer months.  During these summer stays, my grandfather would drive me around showing me all his special places—where he went to school, where he lived, where my grandmother lived as a child.  I can very well remember going for those rides, but as a child I had no concept of direction or distance.  Today I can remember being in the car and seeing the building or house, but have no idea where those places are located.  I can also very well remember going for dinner on the ground on Decoration Day at the cemetery.

Today I wanted to visit Chessor Cemetery.  That wasn’t difficult to find.  I had been there often as a child, but also a few times as an adult.  Besides, it is on Chessor Cemetery Road which is very clearly marked on the map.  Luckily, HWY 438 was very near by.  We are related to several folks buried here, but the primary one I was interested in was my great grandfather John Dee Harper, my grandmother’s father.  We found the row of Harpers easily enough, but John Dee was not among the headstones in that row.  We found his brother Samuel and wife and we also found his sister Sally and her husband.  We even found his stepmother Helen Fain Harper, but not John Dee.  There are at least 3 other family members buried at this cemetery that I know of that we did not find.  There were, like in so many old cemeteries, many tombstones which were illegible.  They are, no doubt, among those that couldn’t be read.  I was disappointed.

Chessor Cemeetery

John Dee and Mary Etta Daily Harper, my great grandparents.

Back out on Hwy 438 we headed west to connect with Hwy 13 toward Lobelville in Perry County.  My grandmother was from Perry County.  Both her father, John Dee and his wife, Mary Etta Daily, lived there.  The Harpers came from Halifax, North Carolina in the early 1800s.  The first Harpers to settle in TN were Wiley V (John Dee’s grandfather) and his wife Sarah. They had several children born in Hickman County and then died in Perry Co.  I learned just this week in my research that Wiley V and his wife are buried in Perry Co on Lost Creek Road.  My goal today was to find that cemetery.

Carroll and Susan Daily,
my great great grandparents.

It just so happens that Lost Creek Road is intersected by Russell Creek Road.  It is on Russell Creek Road that the Daily’s are buried.  I know very little about the Daily’s.  I know that my grandmother’s grandparents were Carroll and Susan Daily.  Only this week did I learn from the 1850 US Census of Perry County that Carroll’s father was John Daily.  The Daily Cemetery on Russell Creek Road is a very small family plot with only 4 tombstones still standing and 2 field stones with no legible markings.  In searching the Perry Co Cemetery records I cannot find a John Daily or wife Sarah listed.  John died before the 1860 census, Sarah being listed as the head of household, and in the 1880 census Sarah was living in the household with her son Carroll and his family.  I would not surprise me if these two fieldstones were the grave markers for John and Sarah Daily.

Daily Cemetery

Down the street at Lost Creek Road we searched for the Dudley Cemetery where John Dee’s grandfather, Wiley V Harper, is said to be buried.  We made two trips down the road and found 2 other cemeteries, but not the one we were looking for.  Again, I was disappointed.  Finding this cemetery is a high priority for me so I will give it another shot another day.

Ice cream at McDonald’s on the way home and we called it a day.

A Day of Internet Research

We woke up to a very brisk day this morning.  Although our thermometer registered about 38, it must have been at least freezing because the left over ice that wouldn’t fit in the cooler was still frozen this morning on the picnic table.

After our walk, I settled into a day of research in an effort to find any information about my great grandparents (my mother’s mother’s parents).  My grandmother was a Harper—a very common name.  When I was a child, she often told me that she was part Native American.  She didn’t know how exactly, but she had always been told that.  In reading many, many entries on the Harper Genealogy Forum, I have discovered that apparently every Harper has been told the same story.  There was even one writer who suggested that Harper was a tribal family name.

I did find, however, one Annah Downing was a full-blooded Cherokee.  Annah married a Harper (no first name was given) and they had about 10 children.  One of those children was a daughter named Anna who married Archibald Connelly.  Anna and Archibald lived for a number of years between about 1820 and 1840 in Hickman County.  It is possible we could be related to Anna Harper (one-half Cherokee) and Archibald Connelly.  As yet, I have not found a connection.

Carroll and Susan Daily

My grandmother’s mother was Mary Etta Daily Harper.  The Daily’s have always been a mystery to me.  I know that my great grandfather was Carroll Dock Daily and his was married to Susan McCaig, both born in Perry Co.  I had never been able to find any other information about that family.  Today, I got a real break at the Perry Co GenWeb site.  In the past couple years, the volunteers there have really made some improvements in the site and added a tremendous amount of data.  One of the things they’ve added is the 1860 census. Carroll’s name popped up on that census and I was able to learn the name of my great-great-great grandfather—John Daily.  Plus there was a list of 8 other siblings.  That made an all day session with the internet worthwhile.  Another thing that the Perry Co GenWeb site has added is cemetery records.  It appears they have every cemetery in the county listed with it’s location, and tombstone information.  The Daily cemetery was listed along with the 4 tombstones there including Carroll Dock, Susan, and Mary Etta Harper.  I haven’t completed my search through all the cemeteries listed, but so far I have not found a tombstone for John Daily or his wife Sarah.

John Dee and Mary Etta Daily Harper

If we can get the refrigerator fixed tomorrow, then Friday we will make a trip to Hickman County.  The first order of business is the refrigerator, so that is what we will be dealing with tomorrow.