Maury County Tennessee

Days 8 to 10, Tuesday to Thursday, 9/15 - 17, Maury County Archives

We took a three-day detour from touring to research Tammy’s family history at the Maury County archives. Besides making great headway in our search, we also learned how professional historians and genealogist do their research, and got to know the staff at the archives and the local history buffs who stop by. Genealogy seems to be of interest to many local residents. Besides the Director and County Historian Bob Duncan, Archivist Michelle Cannon, and Genealogist Cindy Grimmitt, a regular group of local residents stop by to volunteer and swap stories. When we visited, volunteers were brushing debris from 19^th century deeds and court records for microfilming and indexingThe archives are in a one-story, art deco building in Columbia, the Maury County seat.  The building used to be the county jail.

Maury County Tennessee Archives

We wanted to find out more about the history behind Tammy’s grandparents, Walter and Katherine Hadley, who married in Maury County and moved to Oklahoma in 1907.

Tammy had already traced back to her great-great-great-grandfather, Ambrose Hadley, who was born in 1758 in Halifax, North Carolina, fought in the Revolutionary War, and in 1807 moved to the newly formed Maury County  Like other North Carolinians, Ambrose went westward in search of greater opportunity. Ambrose may have moved his family to Tennessee because Revolutionary War veterans were offered land advantageously there.  Ambrose lived into his 80’s, and married 3 times and sired 17 children. Tammy wanted to search for records such as deeds, legal proceedings, and newspaper articles, to shed light on what happened to Ambrose’s heirs before and after the Civil War, pinpoint the property owned by the Hadley family, and locate their grave sites.

We had success and failure in the hunt for grave sites. Tammy knew that Ambrose Hadley and many of his immediate family were buried in Lasting Hope Cemetery near an area called Carters Creek.  It was easy finding Lasting Hope Cemetery, but not so easy finding Ambrose’s grave. The inscriptions on many headstones have eroded because they are made of soft limestone and lichens obscure inscriptions. 

Chickens peck around Lasting Hope Cemetery

Tammy started a systematic search and quickly found the headstone she was looking for in the far side of the cemetery.  She found Ambrose Hadley’s headstone! This a crowning achievement for Tammy genealogical work.

Tammy and her great-great-great-grandfather 
Ambrose Hadley's headstone.  Notice the resemblance?

It proved harder to find the burial site of Ambrose’s son, Tammy’s great-great-grandfather, also named Ambrose Hadley.  He died in 1847 at the age of 43 and was buried on family property near the small town of Santa Fe. (“Fe” is pronounced “fee,” not “fay” as in Santa Fe, New Mexico.) Also, if we found this burial site we would also know the location of at least some of the Hadley property in Maury County.

Tammy had found an online rendition of book written in the 1980’s that had an inventory and map of cemeteries in Maury County.  Sleuthing revealed that a family cemetery called “Haley” in this book was actually the old Hadley family cemetery we were looking for.

Map to Hadley family cemetery near Santa Fe

The book also has directions to the “Haley” cemetery--one mile beyond the Fitzgerald family cemetery, on top of the hill behind Rainey’s neighbor’s property directly below TVA power lines.

Directions to Hadley family cemetery near Santa Fe

From this information, Tammy and archivist Michelle Cannon figured out that the Hadley family grave site was near the intersection of Tom Fitzgerald and Roy Dodson roads.  Local resident Glenn Hill (who turns out to be a distant relative) overheard Tammy and Michelle talking about the location of Ambrose’s grave. He thought he knew where the cemetery was and offered to show us. We followed Glenn’s truck down country lanes until we reached a ridge near the intersection of Tom Fitzgerald and Roy Dodson roads.  No TVA power line, but Glenn thought we should talk to the property owners nearby We knocked on the doors of two houses, but no one answered. We walked up and down old Fitzgerald road looking for TVA power lines or access to top of the ridge, but didn’t find any.  Oh well.

Michelle looked again at the map Tammy found and compared it to a Google satellite view of the area and thought she had found a road to the top of the ridge near the Tom Fitzgerald and Roy Dodson intersection. With her directions, we hurried back. We found a road. Although it was gated, we hiked up it to the ridge. Alas, we did not find TVA lines or the family plot.  Maybe next time.

Farm lane where we didn't find TVA lines or the Hadley family cemetery

We did, however, find an 1878 subscription wall map of Maury County that showed approximate locations of the land and businesses of later Hadleys, near both Santa Fe and Carters Creek.  One tract appeared substantial and was named, “Sunnyside”.  Again, Michele the archivist went to work matching the old map with a Google satellite view of the area and sent us down a road to look at a valley she thought might have been their property.  

Land off Mahon Road in Carters Creek area may been been Hadley land

While Tammy worked with Michelle and Cindy, Bob Duncan was filling Martin in about history, personal and otherwise.  Bob may look the part of an aw-shucks good old boy, with his overalls and general demeanor, but he is quick-witted and well-read, and can do combat with any comers.  Although he claims conservative politics, he teases with glints of liberalism.  Could he be a clandestine child of the 60’s?

Bob Duncan, Director, Maury County Archives

Bob comes from a family who were yeoman farmers before the Civil War, and feels the War’s aftermath and Reconstruction harmed his family and the South immeasurably.  He is quick to tell of visiting battlefields as a boy with gandparents who pointed out canons and debris still in place and hearing about fallen relatives.

Bob recommended a book Tammy is now reading, Confederates in the Attic: Dispatches from an Unfinished War, by Tony Horowitz.  Horowitz quotes the historian and novelist Shelby Foote who says that even in the 1930s the sting of the Civil War defeat was so vivid that Mississippi refused to observe 4^th of July, the day Vicksburg fell.

Bob invited us to his Presbyterian church Wednesday night family dinner, where we met his wife, the minister, and parishioners. We also heard about a charity that the church was working with.

Meanwhile, there were so many deeds, court proceedings, and wills to look at that we couldn’t finish. Good thing.  We have good reason to return to the archives.