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How the Weather's Family came to Coal Hill
In the first part of our story we will try to tell how the Weathers family came to Coal Hill. We will start on April 18, 1818,
when Henry
J. Weathers was born. Henry’s father was Wilson Weathers and lived in York County, South Carolina in the
Camden District, when Henry was
born.
Some time in the 1820’s Wilson moved to Alabama. Lots of the Weathers families moved about this time. I would like to
think they all
moved together. Edmond, James, and John Weathers moved to the north side of the Tennessee River in
Lauderdale County, Alabama. I don’t know
what kin these Weathers were to Henry, but I believe they were cousins.
Wilson and his brothers, William and Jeptha moved to the south side of the river in Lawrence County. Wilson’s sister Rebecca married
James J. Jackson and moved to Sweetwater, Tennessee.
Henry married Elizabeth West on November 5, 1840 in Lawrence County, Alabama. Elizabeth was born
February3, 1818 and was raised in
Lawrence County. Before and after Henry’s marriage, he and Wilson farmed
river bottom land together. They owned slaves, as many of cotton farmers did, in
that day and age.
On October 3, 1841 Elizabeth gave birth to a son. He was named Thomas L. Weathers. I think he could have been
named after Elizabeth’s
father or brother.
On August 30, 1843, they had a baby daughter, named Mary Susan. On November 22, 1843, Thomas died and
was buried in Lawrence County. On
May 22, 1846, Elizabeth gave birth to a son named Joshua. Among their slaves was a black girl named Evaline. She helped deliver the babies
when Elizabeth gave birth and took care of the children
and do the housework.
In 1847, Henry and Wilson decided to move to Sweetwater, Tennessee. Just why they decided to leave the rich
bottomland is not known. They
loaded their furniture in wagons and moved in the spring. Another family named
Conway moved to Sweetwater with them.
Henry was not satisfied here with the creek bottom land and wanted to move where they could get some river bottom land.
Wilson wanted to
stay here so Henry stayed to please him. For the next few years, Wilson and Henry raised cotton and
other crops. Late in 48, Henry decided to move to Arkansas. He tried to get
Wilson to take his family and move with him, but Wilson was almost 60 years old, and thought it was to late in life for him to move again.
Wilson and Henry tried to divide up the farming equipment and the slaves. Wilson agreed that Elizabeth should
take Evaline to help her,
so Henry took her family and one other family. There were probably two or three wagons because he was loaded with lots of farming tools and
all of their belongings necessary for their survival. Henry had the
slaves to shell corn for the horses to eat on the trip as hay or grass
would not be enough to keep up their strength on the long hard trip. In January 1849, they started for Arkansas. The wagons were so loaded that almost everybody had to
walk some. The roads were quite rough
so it’s doubtful if they wanted to ride all day. Of course the children rode often
when they were tired. In the evenings they would stop and make camp for the night. Henry would get out and hunt game for the evening meal. He would bring in
game, such as rabbit, squirrel, and deer. Henry’s gun was a muzzle load. It did
not shoot shells. It was loaded by pouring powder into the
barrel, a cotton wad, and then a lead ball. All this was tamped in with a rod that went along with the rifle. As long as it took to reload,
you didn’t get a second shot. After they had been on the road about a month, they decided to take a rest. At this time they were at the
Mississippi
River and were just about to cross over into Arkansas.
While they were resting, Henry found a ferry up the river that would take them across for a small fee. The wagons could
be driven on to
the barge-like ferry. The ferry would then be pulled across by cable. After crossing the river, they found the roads much worse. In fact they were only trails. The trail they came in on later became known as
"The Old Wire Road". Sometimes they had to push the wagons or hook two teams to one wagon to
get over a steep hill or through a mud hole.
When it rained they would stop and get under the wagons. Sometimes they would stop early to rest and cook a hot meal
over the open fire.
Other times they stayed on the trail until late evening and have a quick supper, such as dried meat and cold beans.
Under the Homestead Act, a pioneer such as Henry could settle on 160 acres of land without paying for it. Henry stopped at Clarksville to
find out where in the county he could find river bottomland. They sent him to the southwestern corner of the
county. They came on the wire
road from Clarksville to the Mt. Vernon community, then turned south. They came down
the trail into this part of the county on what is now
Highway 164.
About two miles before reaching the river, the Conway family decided to start looking for a place to live. They turned
west and finally
settled on the hill just northeast of Coal Hill. Out of the first families that settled this part of the county, the Conway’s settled closer
to what is now Coal Hill than any of the rest.
The William Bates family lived on the level after coming over the hill (They lived about where Marvin Weathers lives today)
Henry stopped
and talked to Mr. Bates. It seems they had come here in 1836 and settled. They became friends right away
and decided to set up camp there.
Bill showed Henry around his 160-acre farm and tried to get Henry to settle next to him.
But he had farmed upland before and now wanted to
farm river bottomland. Henry sure did like the Bates farm and would have been proud to have owned it.
Bill Bates told Henry about the Levi Whittle family that lived in the bottoms. The Whittle family had moved here at the same time the
Bates had. Bill said they were cotton farmers and friendly people.
He also told him of Richard and Elizabeth West that lived on the hill, about one mile northwest of where Coal Hill is today.
Henry wanted
to know why they lived on the hill, because that land wasn’t fit to farm. Bill told him they liked to hunt and
there was plenty of game out
there. It was also good land to raise livestock on. Bill said the West family had came here in 1844 and were making a good go of it. The
Bates had 4 children and they helped him in clearing his land. They had most
of the land cleared for farming.
The next morning Henry took one of the horses and rode over the hill into the bottoms. He was gone all day. Upon his
return at dark, he
told Elizabeth he had found a spot for them to build a house on, near the river. They could use the river water for washing and other
things. There was some tall cottonwood trees on the land that could be used for
building a log house.
Bright and early the next morning they harnessed the teams, hitched up the wagons, and started for the bottoms. They
had to cut some
trees and bushes in spots to get the wagons through. In places they shoveled dirt into the big holes along
the way, to make it passable.
They finally reached the place Henry had picked out the day before. They stopped on a little
knoll, as this would be a good place to build
their house, because it was a little higher land, than the surrounding area. This was very close to the river so there would be no problems
getting water. They unhitched the horses and set up camp.
Though tired and worn out, everyone was so happy to have the long hard trip behind
them. |
