Claunch and Stewart Families

Biographical Sketch

John Bearden, Jr, was married to Nancy Ann Langston and had the following children:
Eli M. Bearden (my line), William "Billy", Mary,John W. III, Benjamin Franklin, Pleasant B., Elizabeth Bearden.

There were likely other wives and other children.
Late in life, he came to Flat Creek to join his sons Eli and Billy. Mary Came also. All of them Died in Bedford Co.
Years after the Revolution Congress provided a pension of these soldiers, providing they produced proper documentation.

The following is taken from sworn testimony of JOHN BEARDEN to William Heaslett, acting Justice of the Peace, in Bedford County, in May 1833, in order to document his service in and receive a government pension, passed by Congress in June 1832, about 50 years following the Revolution.
.....born in 1744 in Spotsylvania and entered the service of the United States as a private volunteer in a company of Rangers or Spies commanded by Captain Joseph Worford and Lieut. D. Graham in Spartenburgh District and State of South Carolina, sometime in the month of April 1777.....and marched up on the head of Jnosee River to Prices Fort and was there stationed, but was frequently out on spying and scouting expeditions against the Cherokee Indians and a Tory family by the name of T. Bates......
There he remained in service until some time in January 1778, when he was dismissed after serving not less than nine months in actual srevice........
About a month afterward, in February- he volunteered again and joined a company of spies or Rangers under the command of Captain John Gowen.......
He moved shortly after that down into Union District, South Carolina, and there entered the service of the United states again about one week before the "Siege of Ninety-Six"
He was then transferred from Captain Blessengame's company to a company of volunteers....... of not less than four months, when he was finally dismissed from service after serving in all a time of actual service of not less than nineteen months, for which he claims a pension...........
He remained a citizen of South Carolina until the year 1824, when he removed to Bedford County.......
Tennessee Pension Roll 1835 shows the following "John Bearden, Private, South Carolina Line- $63.38 annual allowance, $148.33 amount received May 17, 1833, pension started at age 79"

Added by Reva Staggs

Family Members
Parents
Photo
John William Bearden
1717–1797

Photo
Lettice Caty Winn Bearden
1723–1797

Siblings
Photo
Richard Daniel Bearden
1760–1861

Photo
Mourning Bearden Smith
1763–1842

Children
Photo
John William Bearden
1784–1846

Photo
Eli M Bearden
1785–1831

William Bearden
1786–1876

Family History

Chapter IX
THE BEARDENS, ANCESTORS
AND OTHER RELATIVES
It is because of Manerva Bearden, daughter of Eli M. and Nancy
Bearden, that this chapter is written. Manerva Bearden married William
Penn Hix, son of John and Milly Key Hix. From this union came Joshua
Wilson Hix, the writer's maternal grandfather. More information on Wil
liam Penn and Manerva Bearden Hix is found in the William Penn Hix
section of Chapter XIII.
Not only because of his own Bearden ancestry but also because of the
prominence of the Bearden family in the affairs of the Flat Creek Com
munity, the writer would have liked very much to have presented a com
plete story of the early ancestry of this family; but exhaustive research on
the family was abandoned for two reasons. First, a considerable amount of
documentation has been presented by Mrs. A. Evans Wynn in her book,
Southern Lineages, Records of Thirteen Families, published in 1940,
which presents a general trend of the Bearden family without establishing
definite lines of descent. Second, neither the documentation thus supplied
nor any which the writer has been able to discover provides a definite and
complete line of ascent from Manerva Bearden Hix to her ancestors who
first came to America. Feeling that continued research might be more ex
haustive than productive, the writer has considered it more prudent to deal
in generalities concerning the early Beardens.
The Bearden family is thought by most who have studied it to have
been French in origin, probably being one of the French Huguenot families
which came to America to escape religious persecution. In early records the
family name has been spelled Beardon, Bearding, Beardin, Birding, and
Bairden, as well as Bearden. The earliest recorded date of Beardens in
America which has been made available to the writer is March 11, 1744.
In 1833 John Bearden of Flat Creek, Tennessee, gave this date for his
birth in Spotsylvania County, Virginia. No documentation has come to the
attention of the writer which proves how this John Bearden, the grand
father of Manerva Bearden Hix, was related to other Beardens whose
names are recorded in Caroline County, Virginia, in Granville County,
North Carolina, and in the upper districts of South Carolina. Both the fre
quency with which early Beardens named their sons John and the seeming
preference of Bearden males for wives named Nancy complicate the
study of records for the purpose of identifying the various lines of ascent
or descent.
It is obvious from the citation of records in Mrs. Wynn's book that
there were at least three, and possibly six, other John Beardens who lived
during the life span of the John Bearden who was born in Virginia in 1744
and migrated from South Carolina to Bedford County, Tennessee, in
1824. It seems reasonable that all of these John Beardens were related.

196

The Beardens 197
Except for the record of his application for pension, however, none of the
records cited by Mrs. Wynn seem definitely to apply to the John Bearden
who is the connecting link between the Beardens of Flat Creek, Tennessee,
and their immigrant ancestors.
John Bearden's application for pension is a six-page document, photo
copy of which can be obtained from the National Archives in Washington,
D. C. Since it is the most revealing record of which the applicability is not
questioned, attention is directed to some of its most significant items.
Aside from military considerations which make his descendants eligible to
membership in patriotic societies, there are a number of other important
events in John Bearden's life recorded in his application for pension.
1 . John Bearden, according to his own deposition, was born in Spot
sylvania County, Virginia, March 11, 1744.
2. In April, 1777, at the age of 33, John Bearden became a soldier of
the Revolution in the Spartanburg District, of South Carolina.
3. Soon after August, 1778, between two separate periods of mili
tary service, John Bearden removed to Union District, South Carolina.
4. John Bearden saw in all not less than nineteen months of actual
military service after which he remained a citizen of South Carolina until
1824.
5. During the year 1824, at the age of eighty, John Bearden removed
to Bedford County, Tennessee, where he was living on May 15, 1833. On
this date, at the age of "Eightynine years two months and four days," John
Bearden appeared before his neighbor, William Heaslett, a Justice of the
Peace, in the Flat Creek Community, who took the deposition in applica
tion for the pension.
6. The deposition was signed by both John Bearden and William
Heaslett, but it was written in the handwriting of neither. The first reference
in the text of the application to the deponent was as "John Bearden, Senr."
Thereafter in the deposition, he is referred to as "the applicant" or "the
deponent." John Bearden's signature is less legible than the text of the
deposition; but there was a suffix in the signature which appears to be
"Sr.," though it might possibly have been "Jr."
7. The last paragraph of the deposition states that John Bearden
". . . is known to the Rev. William Martin and Jacob Fuller in his pres
ent neighborhood."
It is inconceivable that a man eighty years of age would leave a settled
community in South Carolina to live under the pioneering conditions of
Bedford County, Tennessee, in 1 824, unless it was to accompany or join a
close relative. Eli M. Bearden, son of John Bearden, had been in the Flat
Creek Community since 1818. A letter, written in 1899 by the Reverend
Allan Bearden Philputt and explained later in this chapter, is quite en
lightening on this point. "Our great-grandfather John Bearden," wrote the
Reverend Philputt, "was a revolutionary soldier. He came from S. C. to
be with his son and he drew a pension from the government. Uncle Wynn
remembers him. Grandfather [Eli M. Bearden] built him a house in his
yard where he lived with a maiden sister." It is not clear whether the maiden
lady was the sister of John Bearden or of Eli M. Bearden.

198 The Beardens
Apparently changes had taken place by the time the census was
taken in 1830. Near the home of Eli Bearden (listed in the census report as
"Eli Birding") lived the family of Jacob Fuller, age 50-60. Listed also in
the Fuller household was a male, age 80-90. It is a reasonable assumption
that the old man living in the Fuller household was John Bearden and that
Jacob Fuller was his son-in-law. Jacob Fuller had purchased land in Bed
ford County as early as 1813 (Deed Book E, p. 81) ; but for some reason,
possibly that he had returned for a while to his native South Carolina, he
was not listed as head of a household in the Bedford County Census Report
of 1820. Lending weight to the conclusion that Jacob Fuller by 1830 had
married the "maiden sister," referred to earlier, or another daughter of
John Bearden, is action taken by the Bedford County Court during the
December Term in 1 850. William Bearden, another son of John Bearden,
was appointed administrator of the estate of Mary Fuller, a native of
South Carolina, who died at the age of sixty-eight after the census had been
taken (Bedford County Court Minutes 1848-1852, p. 255). It is quite a
reasonable assumption that Mary Fuller was both sister of William Bearden
and widow of Jacob Fuller. If she was the "maiden sister" who had lived
with her father in the house in Eli Bearden's yard, she must have been
Jacob Fuller's second wife, for he had children more than ten years of age
in 1830. Another indication of relationship between the Beardens and the
Fullers is that in 1850 the two widows, Nancy Bearden and Mary Fuller,
each had Smiths living in their homes. Although he has found no way to
prove it, the writer suspects that Sarah and May Smith, ages twenty-six and
four, in the home of Mary Fuller, as well as James Smith, age eleven,
in Nancy Bearden's home, were children of another of John Bearden's
daughters.
Both land records and the Census Report of 1850 indicate that Wil
liam Bearden, son of John Bearden, did not come to Tennessee to live un
til 1828. On December 28, of that year, he witnessed the signature of
Abraham Haner of Lincoln County, who sold land on the headwaters of
Big Flat Creek to Pleasant Bearden, not yet identified as a
son of John Bearden. William and Patience Bearden's daughter Mourning Bearden,
who was born in 1827, was listed in the 1850 Census Report as anative of
South Carolina. An interesting excerpt from an unpublished paper pre
pared by Charles Gowen in 1905 confirms the relationship between Eli
and William Bearden. "Two old Beardens, Billy and Eli. Billy, Finis'
father—Eli, Willis and Winn's father. I have it from Jim Bearden that
John Bearden and Billy and Eli's father came to this country and
is buried at Flat Creek. He was a Revolutionary soldier and many years ago the
government sent some parties to locate the grave in order to erect amonu
ment, but his grave could not be found." (Further reference to the paper
by Charles Gowen can be found in the John Hix, Maternal Ancestor section
of Chapter XIII.)
In all probability John Bearden had children other than those named
or suggested in this chapter, but no documentation has been found for their
identification. The inference in his pension application that there was a
son John Bearden, Jr., has not led to his discovery. How long John Bearden,

Eli M. Bearden and His Family 199
the progenitor of the Flat Creek Beardens, drew a pension is not known. No
record of him has been found for a date later than his application for it.
Eli M. Bearden and His Family
No South Carolina record of Eli M. Bearden or of his wife Nancy has
been made available to the writer. About half of their fourteen children,
however, appear to have been born before the family moved to Bedford
County, Tennessee, to settle near Flat Creek. Mrs. EUza Byrom Stephens,
of Shelbyville, Tennessee, reported in 1958 that she had heard Manerva
Bearden Hix, daughter of Eli and Nancy Bearden, tell many times about
the trip from "old South Carolina" in covered wagons and how they baked
a barrel of biscuits to eat along the way and how good they tasted. Records
in the Tennessee Archives indicate that Eli Bearden received five grants
of land from the State of Tennessee, the first being dated September 1,
1818 (Tennessee Grant Book V, p. 772).
In the 1820 Census Report for Bedford County, Eli Bearden was
listed twice as "Eli Bairden." The double listing was due probably to his
owning land in two separate civil districts. At that time he had five boys and
five girls. Living near him, as indicated by one entry in the census report,
was Richard Horn from whom he later bought land on April 5, 1823, "on
the waters of Little Flat Creek" (Bedford County Deed Book Q, p. 152).
This seems to have adjoined, or at least to have been near, a seventeenacre tract which he received from the State on August 13, 1823, "on the
ridge dividing Little Flat Creek from Big Flat Creek." This seems to have
been within the vicinity of where he was living at the time of his death and
where his widow lived for many years afterwards. Descendants continued
to own this land for at least two more generations.
Another of Eli Bearden's neighbors in 1 820 was William Heaslett, who
witnessed Richard Horn's signature to the deed and who took the deposi
tion for John Bearden's pension application thirteen years later. In the
1830 Census Report, Eli Bearden is listed as "Eh Birding" along with Wil
liam Heaslett, his neighbor of at least ten years. The exact date of Eli
Bearden's death is not known, but Chancery Court records indicate that
it occurred about 1831. There is a family tradition that he died in 1830
from "typhus fever brought on by overwork."
Nancy Bearden, widow of Eli M. Bearden, was listed in the 1840
Census Report as head of a household of four boys and three girls. Seven
of the fourteen children apparently had either died or left home. Nancy
Bearden was listed twice in the 1850 Census Report. In the Twenty-third
Civil District of Bedford County she was listed as head of her household,
age 61. Her youngest daughter, Elizabeth, was listed as age 21. Living with
them were Nancy McGuire, a granddaughter, age 12, and James Smith,
age 11, whose identity has not been established but who was probably a
close relative also. Nancy Bearden's home in the Twenty-third District, no
doubt, was the same as when her husband was living at the time of his
death. Living near Nancy Bearden in 1850 were Wynn and William Bear
den, her son and brother-in-law, respectively. In the Twenty-fourth Civil
District of Bedford County the census taker listed Nancy Bearden as age 63,

200 The Beardens
living in the home of her son Willis Bearden. Listed also in this home was
"Eliza Bearden," age 16. This must have been an erroneous listing for
Willis Bearden's sister Elizabeth Bearden; for nowhere else has there been
found any evidence that Willis Bearden had a daughter by the name of
Eliza.
It is assumed that tradition is correct that Nancy Bearden died in 1 859
and that both she and Eli were buried in Old Flat Creek Cemetery. There
is also the tradition that Nancy Bearden was a Wynn before marriage; but
the lack of verification has prompted the writer to omit its use in the
numerous references to this well established ancestor. In her application
for membership in the Daughters of the American Revolution on John
Bearden's military service, Mollie Sherman Reagor Parker gave the names
of her great-grandparents as Eli Bearden and Nancy Langston (National
D.A.R. No. 31899). Eli Bearden's mother may have been a Wynn.
Information about Eli and Nancy Bearden's children has come largely
from four sources: 1) a letter written in 1899 by the Reverend Allan
Bearden Philputt, 2) a Chancery Court record of 1843, 3) family rec
ords and traditions obtained from a number of Bearden descendants,
and 4) United States Census Reports.
For about twelve years after Eli M. Bearden's death, his estate re
mained intact. Meanwhile a number of his children had married and some of
them had died. On June 26, 1843, a petition was granted by the Chancery
Court of Bedford County, Tennessee, to divide the estate into suitable
tracts and sell (Bedford County Chancery Court Records 1837-1845,
p. 244). Kindred Pearson, who was first appointed as commissoner to lay
off a dower for the widow and sell the remaining land, was unable to serve
because of poor health. In December, 1843, D. D. Hix was appointed in
his stead (Ibid, p. 263). In order to provide a documented list of some of
Eli and Nancy Bearden's children, a portion of the petition to the Chancery
Court is quoted: ". . . that Eli Bearden departed this life about the year
1831, leaving Nancy Bearden his widow and Willis Bearden, Minerva now
wife of William B. [P.] Hix, Nimrod Bearden, Charlotte, now wife of
James H. Claunch, John T. Bearden, Nathan Bearden, Nancy now wife of
George T. Walsh (adult children and heirs of said Eli) and Wynn Bearden,
Allen Bearden, and Elizabeth Bearden minor."
A later reference in the Chancery Court records (Ibid, p. 296) to
the division of this estate uses the name E. M. Bearden. This is the only
record known to the writer in which the middle initial is used. The above
petition, of course, does not contain the names of the children who had died
prior to 1843. A complete list of the names of the fourteen children is found,
however, in the Philputt letter of 1899. This letter by Allan Philputt was
written to his brother James McBride Philputt, also a nationally recognized
minister, after a visit to Flat Creek, Tennessee. During this visit he held a
revival meeting at the Church of Christ and made special effort to gather
information about the Bearden and Philpott families from which he had
descended. The names of the fourteen children, as contained in the letter,
are as follows: Sallie, Willis, Richard, Manerva, Nimrod, Charlotte,
John T., Nathan, Nancy, William, Wynn, Allen, Elihu, and Elizabeth C.

Eli M. Bearden and His Family 201
Bearden. From the various sources previously mentioned, information
has been obtained for the sketches which follow.
1. Sallie Bearden, first child of Eli and Nancy Bearden, is reported
by the Reverend Allan Bearden Philputt to have died in 1840, at about
35 years of age. This would place the date of her birth in or about 1805.
She is reported to have married a McGuire and to have had a daughter
Nancy McGuire, who married Dave Finney. Nancy McGuire has been
mentioned previously as having been living with her grandmother Nancy
Bearden in 1850. In 1947 the Reverend E. R. Steagall, grandson of
Manerva Bearden Hix, wrote that Dave and Nancy Finney had lived near
Golconda, Illinois, and had reared a family of two boys and eight girls.
2. Willis Bearden, second child of Eli and Nancy Bearden, was born
in South Carolina, January 2, 1810, and died at Flat Creek, Tennessee, on
June 4, 1892. On an unknown date, presumably before 1832, he married
Mahala Rogers, who was born in Kentucky in 1 805 and died at Flat Creek,
Tennessee, August 11, 1889. Mollie (Mary) Sherman Reagor Parker
gave her grandparents' names as Willis Bearden and Mahala Claunch
(National D.A.R. No. 31899). She should have known her own grand
mother's name. The dispute over her grandmother's name may be an indi
cation of a prior marriage. They are buried in Old Flat Creek Cemetery,
where their tombstone inscriptions provide the dates for their birth and
death. They lived in the Flat Creek Community and reared to maturity
seven children —Elizabeth Jane, Richard Calvin, Mary Elizabeth, Martha
Ann, William Eli, James C. J., and Louisa Bearden. The marriage of two
of them, Richard Calvin and Martha Ann, into the Reagor family, as well
as the prominence of most of them in the Flat Creek Community, prompts
the inclusion of a subsequent section of this chapter for brief sketches on
these seven children of Willis and Mahala Rogers Bearden.
3. Richard Bearden, third child of Eli and Nancy Bearden, is reported
by his nephew Allan Bearden Philputt to have been born in 1812 and
to have died about 1831. The Census Report of 1830 lists him as head of a
household at an age of 1 5-20 with one female in the same age bracket and
in addition a boy between five and ten and a girl between ten and fifteen.
Though young, he probably was married. The younger people in the house
hold probably were his wife's brother and sister. Since his sister Manerva is
known to have been born July 8, 1812, Richard Bearden must have been
born in 1811, unless he was Manerva's twin brother;
4. Manerva (spelled as on her tombstone) Bearden, fourth child of
Eli and Nancy Bearden, was borrTin South Carolina, July 8, 1812, and died
in Bedford County, Tennessee, March 2, 1895. On an unknown date, about
1833, she married William Penn Hix, who was born May 20, 1811, and
died June 16, 1893. Their children who lived to maturity were Nancy,
Elizabeth (Betsy), Mary M., Louisa, William Taylor, Elifus Columbus,
Sarah Caroline, and Joshua Wilson Hix. The last named was the writer's
maternal grandfather. Additional information on this family is found in
the section, William Penn Hix, of Chapter XIII.
5; Nimrod Bearden, fifth child of Eli and Nancy Bearden, was re
ported as the head of a household in the Census Report of 1840 for the

202 The Beardens
Twenty-fourth District of Bedford County, Tennessee. He and his wife
were between the ages of twenty and thirty. They had three sons, two of
them under five and the other one between five and ten. Apparently they
had left Bedford County before the census was taken in 1850. The Philputt
letter of 1899 reports that Nimrod Bearden died in Texas in 1878.
6. Charlotte Bearden, sixth child of Eli and Nancy Bearden, according
to the Chancery Court records referred to previously, married James K.
Claunch. Just when the family left the Flat Creek Community is not
known; but it probably was before 1850, since their names have not been
found among their relatives in the Census Report of that year. From an
old deed in the possession of Cecil M. Bearden in 1960, evidence comes
that James K. and Charlotte Bearden Claunch were residing in McNairy
County, Tennessee, on December 20, 1853. Charlotte and her husband
sold to her brother Willis Bearden her share in her mother's dowry.
Thomas Riggs, a Justice of the Peace of McNairy County, witnessed their
signatures to the deed.
7. John T. Bearden, seventh child of Eli and Nancy Bearden, married
Jane Floyd, daughter of Elijah Floyd, and died before the census was
taken in 1850. His estate was administered jointly by Wynn Bearden and
Watson Floyd, brother of the deceased and presumably brother of the
widow, respectively (Bedford County Court Minutes, 1848-1852, p. 188).
Later John T. Bearden's widow married Joshua Coleman, a widower with a
number of children of his own. He was appointed guardian of the four
Bearden children. They were Rilley (or Rilda) Bearden, who married
William Marion Stephens; Argile Bearden, who married Mary Burrow;
Hugh Lawson White Bearden, who married Mary Gaddis; and Sarah
Caroline Bearden, who married James B. Hix, son of Demarquis Dews and
Malinda Stewart Hix. Additional information on the family of James B.
and Sarah Caroline Bearden Hix is found in the section Children of
Demarquis Dews and Malinda Stewart Hix in Chapter XIII.
8. Nathan Bearden, eighth child of Eli and Nancy Bearden, was living
in 1 843 when the petition was made to Chancery Court for a division of his
deceased father's estate. Since his name is not found in the 1850 Census
Report, he is assumed to have died before that year. The date of his birth,
like that of his death, is not known; but family tradition is that he died at
the age of twenty-seven without having married.
9. Nancy Bearden, ninth child of Eli and Nancy Bearden, according
to the Chancery Court records of 1843, married George T. Welsh. The
Census Report of 1850 indicates that she was born about 1820 and that she
married about 1840. George T. Welsh, who by the same census report
seems to have been born in 1819, apparently died before the census was
taken in 1860. Since Jane Welsh, their youngest child, was listed as two
years of age in 1860, he apparently died after 1857. Nancy Bearden
Welsh was still living in 1899. The Philputt letter indicated that she was
about ninety years of age at that time, but actually she could have been
only about eighty. Efforts in 1960 to locate either her place of burial or
any descendants were unsuccessful. George T. and Nancy Bearden Welsh's

Eli M. Bearden and His Family 203
children were Mary, George, Marian, Elizabeth, Sarah, Cordelia, and Jane
Welsh.
10. William Bearden, tenth child of Eli and Nancy Bearden, accord
ing to the Philputt letter of 1899, died at about twenty years of age. Since
he was not mentioned as an heir in the petition to Chancery Court on
June 26, 1843, he must have died before that date.
11. Wynn Bearden, eleventh child of Eli and Nancy Bearden, was
born near Flat Creek, Tennessee, October 19, 1823, and died there
March 27, 1903. On an unknown date, presumably about a year before
the birth of their first child in 1 847, he is reported to have married Eliza
beth Jane Tribble, daughter of James Tribble. She was born in the Flat
Creek Community, July 18, 1826, and died there January 7, 1913. The
unexplained residence of fifty-three-year-old Susan Hudson and four
younger Hudsons in Wynn Bearden's home in 1850 leads to the specula
tion that Elizabeth Jane might have been a Hudson before marriage; but
there is no record or family tradition to verify this or to explain the as
sociation. From Wynn Bearden's will, dated September 24, 1898, and
proved April 7, 1903 (Bedford County Will Book No. 2, pp. 148-149),
from the settlement of his estate (Administrator's Settlement Book E,
p. 212), from census reports, and from family records, we are able to de
termine the children's names and the names of their husbands and wives.
According to available information the eleven children of Wynn and
Elizabeth Jane Tribble Bearden in the order of the dates of their birth are
as follows: John O., James M., Arnetta Frances, Harvey M., Malissa
Elizabeth, Josie B., William Newman, Eddie B., Laura D., Oscar Elmo,
and Allen McBride Bearden. Additional information on each is found in a
subsequent section of this chapter, Children of Wynn and Elizabeth Jane
Tribble Bearden.
12. Allan Bearden, twelfth child of Eli and Nancy Bearden, according
to the Philputt letter of 1899, was born in 1825 and was living in Texas
in 1899. He is reported to have married a woman by the name of Sarah
and to have been the father of Henry Bearden and of Margaret Bearden
who married Bailey Stone.
13. Elihu Bearden, thirteenth child of Eli and Nancy Bearden, is re
ported in the Philputt letter of 1899 as having died at the age of nine.
Nothing else is known of him.
14. Elizabeth C. Bearden (C. probably for Cordelia, since she gave a
daughter that name) was the fourteenth and last child of Eli and Nancy
Bearden. The date of her birth, October 9, 1829, was obtained from her
tombstone in Livonia, Indiana. By November, 1850, she had reached
twenty-one years of age, and her guardian, J. L. Couch, had made settle
ment with her for her share in her father's estate (Bedford County Court
Minutes, 1848-1852, p. 252). In May, 1852, Betty Bearden, as she was
called, married Barton Philpott, who was born in Henry County, Virginia,
March 25, 1825. The first child born to this union was Cordelia, who died
at the age of two from typhoid fever. On May 6, 1856, the first child to live
to adult life was born in this family. Betty gave him the name of her young

204 The Beardens
est living brother, Allan Bearden. This first son later became an outstand
ing minister, being pastor for many years of the Central Christian Church
of Indianapolis. It was he who wrote the letter of 1899 to his brother
James McBride Philputt, also a famous minister, who served twenty-five
years as pastor in New York City and had many other important assign
ments. James McBride Philputt's autobiography, "That They May All Be
One," has provided interesting family history and background for these nar
ratives. He was born September 17, 1860, soon after the death of his sister
Nancy Ann, who had been born in 1858 and had died from falling into an
open fireplace. Three other children born to this union were Aurelia
(Rilla) in 1863; Charles Wynne in 1867; and Mary Elizabeth, or "Mollie,"
in 1870. All of these five grew to mature age.
When the Civil War broke out, most of the people in Flat Creek were
in support of or in sympathy with the cause of the Confederacy; but Barton
Philpott, like most, if not all, of his Bearden in-laws, was in sympathy with
the Union. As need for manpower grew more acute, family responsibilities
no longer permitted him to avoid military service. Rather than fight on a
side for which he had no sympathy or against some of his neighbors, Barton
Philpott rented his farm and fled with his family to Livonia, Indiana, where
he worked at the saddlers' trade until the war clouds had passed. At the
close of the war, in 1865, the Philpott family returned to their farm, near
Flat Creek, Tennessee. After three years of the rigors of the Reconstruc
tion Days, however, Barton and Betty Bearden Philpott decided to return
to Livonia, Indiana, where they could give their children a better educa
tion. Just when and why the family name was changed to Philputt is not
known by the writer; but that is the name by which the two famous minis
ter sons, Allan Bearden and James McBride, were known. Betty Bearden
Philpott died April 14, 1871, just three years after the family returned to
Indiana. It was during the period of sadness caused by her death that her
fifteen-year-old son Allan Bearden Philputt is reported to have made reso
lutions which led to his outstanding ministry. After a second marriage—to
Tirzah Richardson in 1875—Barton Philpott died April 3, 1879, and was
buried by the side of his first wife in Livonia, Indiana. For information
about Elizabeth (Betty) C. Bearden Philpott and her family, the writer
is indebted to Mrs. Grace Young, daughter of Allan Bearden Philputt,
and to Mrs. Helen Cauble Rogers, of Bloomington, Indiana. Mrs. Rogers
is the daughter of Aurelia Josephine Philputt, who married the Reverend
Peter Commodore Cauble. Neither of these granddaughters of Betty
Bearden Philpott has a descendant; but Mrs. Roger's brother, the late
Charles Allan Cauble, did leave descendants who in 1960 were living in
Phoenix, Arizona.
The Children of Willis and Mahala Rogers Bearden
Willis and Mahala Rogers Bearden, about whom sketches were in
cluded in the preceding section of this chapter, reared to maturity in the
Flat Creek Community seven children. In the order of their births, as best
can be determined from family records and traditions, they were Elizabeth
Jane, Richard Calvin, Mary Elizabeth, Martha Ann, William EH,

The Children of Willis and Mahala Rogers Bearden 205
James C. J., and Nancy Louisa Bearden. A brief sketch on each follows.
1. Elizabeth Jane Bearden, first child of Willis and Mahala Rogers
Bearden, was born in November, 1832, and died October 16, 1906, without
ever marrying. She is buried in Old Flat Creek Cemetery near the graves
of her parents.
2. Richard Calvin Bearden, second child of Willis and Mahala Rogers
Bearden, was born March 4, 1835, and died March 26, 1893. He is re
ported to have been the first to have been buried in Rosebank Ceme
tery at Flat Creek. Buried by his side is his wife Emily Catherine Reagor
Bearden, daughter of Abraham and Elizabeth (Betsy) Lacy Reagor. She
was born February 28, 1835, and died July 17, 1911. They were married
December 8, 1859. They had the following eight children: Henry Clay,
Cora Ann, George Alexander, Robert Lacy, James Mathews, Carrie M.,
Elizabeth (Betsy) Edna, and Samuel Reagor Bearden. A brief sketch on
each follows.
Henry Clay Bearden, first child of Richard Calvin and Emily Cath
erine Reagor Bearden, was born October 3, 1860, and died January 24,
1923. On October 1, 1885, he married Bettie Shofner. They had two sons,
Leland, who died young, and James Lonnie Bearden, Sr., who married
Mary Lillian Frost, the writer's aunt. Uncle Lonnie has been helpful in
assembling information on the Bearden family.
Cora Ann Bearden, second child of Richard Calvin and Emily Cath
erine Reagor Bearden, was born January 5, 1862, and died May 23, 1945.
On September 4, 1884, she married Jefferson (Jeff) Davis Gardner, who
was born August 11, 1861, and died January 27, 1930. They had the fol
lowing children: Frank, Clyde Watson, Arlene, Allie B., Florice, and Kelley
Reagor Gardner. (See the section, The Children of James Brock and Eliza
beth Covey Reagor, in Chapter V for additional information on this family.)
George Alexander Bearden, third child of Richard Calvin and Emily
Catherine Reagor Bearden, was born August 18, 1863, and died June 5,
1949. He married 1 ) Susie Grubb on January 26, 1888, by whom he had
two children, Grace Arvel and George DeWitt Bearden; and 2) Lena Woll,
the mother of Lillie W. Bearden. They lived in Oklahoma.
Robert Lacy Bearden, fourth child of Richard Calvin and Emily
Catherine Reagor Bearden, was born February 21, 1865, and died June 13,
1945. On September 17, 1893, he married Neomia Hix, daughter of
Christopher and Lucinda Stanfield Hix. They had two sons, Richard
Christopher and Ross Hix Bearden.
James Mathews Bearden, fifth child of Richard Calvin and Emilj
Catherine Reagor Bearden, was born February 12, 1867. On May 8, 1892,
he married Ida Woosley. They had three sons—Rollie, Clifford, and
James Calvin Bearden.
Carrie M. Bearden, sixth child of Richard Calvin and Emily Catherine
Reagor Bearden, was born February 2, 1869. In 1911 she married
Jessie L. Hobbs. Her family records and her letters to relatives have pro
vided much of the information on her brothers and sisters as well as on
other Beardens and Reagors. No children were born to this union.

206 The Beardens
Samuel Reagor Bearden, seventh child of Richard Calvin and Emily
Catherine Reagor Bearden, was born July 10, 1871. On September 6,
1906, he married Ida Martin. They had two sons, Robert and Samuel
Bearden.
Elizabeth (Betsy) Edna Bearden, eighth child of Richard Calvin and
Emily Catherine Reagor Bearden, was born July 13, 1873. On January 18,
1905, she married Will Lacy. They had two sons, Wallace Bearden and
Wayne Lacy.
3. Mary Elizabeth Bearden, third child of Willis and Mahala Rogers
Bearden, was born March 14, 1837, and died August 3, 1921, according
to her tombstone inscription in Old Flat Creek Cemetery near the graves
of her parents. On an unknown date she married Wesley Evins, who ac
cording to his daughter Margie Evins Gordon, died at the age of sixty in
March, 1884. No tombstone for him has been located, but he is reported
to have been buried in Old Flat Creek Cemetery. Wesley and Mary Eliza
beth Bearden Evins had four children —Gertie, Samuel, Myrtle, and Mar
gie. A short sketch on each follows.
Gertie Evins, first child of Wesley and Mary Elizabeth Bearden Evins,
was born December 31, 1875, and died April 6, 1951. She married first
Walter C. Dillingham, who was born January 25, 1869, and died from an
appendectomy on April 26, 1901. He was the father of her two children,
Walter and Innis Dillingham. Many years later she married Watt Ray, who
had been married previously to Bettie Dillingham, sister of Gertie's first
husband.
Samuel A . Evins married Rosanah Hix, daughter of Christopher and
Lucinda Stanfield Hix. Their children were Mary Lou, Douglas, and Sara
Evins.
Myrtle Mahala Evins, third child of Wesley and Mary Elizabeth
Bearden Evins, married John A. Harrison. Their children were Hazel,
Hilda, Berrys, and Walton W. Harrison.
Margie Evins, fourth child of Wesley and Mary Elizabeth Bearden
Evins, married Will Gordon, son of Richard and Callie Burrow Gordon.
They were the parents of Cecil, Lacy, Leo, Felix, and Hoyle Gordon. This
family moved to California in 1923.
4. Martha Ann Bearden, fourth child of Willis and Mahala Bearden,
was born April 7, 1839, and died July 16, 1919. In 1860, according to
Reagor family records, she married Elijah Anthony Reagor, who was born
December 9, 1836, and died July 25, 1904. He was a brother of Emily
Catherine Reagor who married Martha Ann Bearden's brother Richard
Calvin Bearden. Elijah Anthony and Martha Ann Bearden Reagor are
buried in Rosebank Cemetery, at Flat Creek, where their tombstone in
scriptions furnish the dates of their births and deaths. They had six chil
dren—Fannie Elizabeth, James Emmett, Mollie Sherman, Lawson Anthony,
Edward Everett, and Walter Newton. A brief sketch on each follows.
Fannie Elizabeth Reagor, first child of Elijah Anthony and Martha
Ann Bearden Reagor married William Word Hix, son of William S. (Bull)
and Martha Word Hix. Their children were Ernest Levoy, William Claude,
Lena Vivian, and Aetna Gertrude. (For additional information on this

The Children of Willis and Mahala Rogers Bearden 207
family see the section, The Children of William S. and Martha Word Hix,
in Chapter XIII.)
James Emmett Reagor, second child of Elijah Anthony and Martha
Ann Bearden Reagor, married 1 ) Sally Ingle, who died at the birth of still
born twins, and 2) Avie Jane Henderson, mother of Ruth Reagor whose
collection of Reagor records has been very helpful in supplying informa
tion on the Reagor family.
Mollie Sherman Reagor, third child of Elijah Anthony and Martha
Ann Bearden Reagor, married 1 ) Will Sutton by whom she had one child,
Lillian Sutton, who died young, and 2) Charles George Parker, son of
Isaiah and Mary Rosier Parker. To this second union were born Isaiah and
Mary Reagor Parker. (For additional information on this family see the
section, The Children of Joseph and Faner Howard Parker, in Chapter
VIII.)
Lawson Anthony Reagor, fourth child of Elijah Anthony and Martha
Ann Bearden Reagor, married Hattie Gaston. No children were born to
this union.
Edward Everett Reagor, fifth child of Elijah Anthony and Martha
Ann Bearden Reagor, married Julia Hasty. They had two sons, Paul and
Edward Reagor.
Walter Newton Reagor, sixth and last child of Elijah Anthony and
Martha Ann Bearden Reagor, married Mamie Bailey. They had three
children —Robert, Morris, and Audrey Reagor.
5. William Eli Bearden, fifth child of Willis and Mahala Rogers
Bearden, was known in the Flat Creek Community as "Will" and "W. E."
He was born February 3, 1842, and died March 17, 1923. He served in the
Union Army during the Civil War and as Justice of the Peace in the
Twenty-fourth District of Bedford County afterwards. On August 25, 1872,
he married a distant cousin Victoria Bearden, the daughter of John W. and
Nancy Tribble Bearden. John W. Bearden is thought to have been a brother
of his wife's first husband, William Bearden, Jr., the two brothers being
grandsons of the Revolutionary soldier John Bearden. After the death of
her second husband, Nancy Tribble Bearden is thought to have married
a man by the name of Cox with whom she and her daughter Victoria
Bearden moved to Illinois. It was in Marion County, Illinois, that the mar
riage between William Eli Bearden and Victoria Bearden took place. They
are buried in Rosebank Cemetery, about one mile south of the home
where they reared ten children. Family records, supplied largely by their
youngest son, Cecil Bearden, have provided most of the information on
these ten children —Inez Bearden, who was born April 5, 1874, and who
died January 31, 1889; Walter Emmett Bearden, who was born Novem
ber 6, 1875, and married Zula Parker about whom more information is
found in the section The Children of Joseph and Faner Howard Parker
in Chapter VIII; Ura Bearden, who was born March 15, 1877, and mar
ried Alpha Williams; Floyd Bearden, who was born September 27, 1878,
married Ada Reagor, daughter of James D. and Laura Bobo Reagor, and
became the father of Floy, Inez, William Wilson, Raus Wynn, and James
Alton Bearden; Elma Bearden, who was born August 19, 1880, and mar

208 The Beardens
ried Mike Womack; Laura Bearden, who was born August 28, 1882, and
married Edd S. Long; Cora Bearden, who was born August 5, 1884, and
married Y. B. LeCrory; Ruby Bearden, who was born October 6, 1888, and
married Jesse Jones; Roscoe Bearden, who was born November 16, 1890,
and married Grace Mays; and Cecil Bearden, who was born June 20,
1 892, and married Alta Mai Rudd, daughter of Frank and Hattie Campbell
Rudd.
6. James C. J. Bearden was the sixth child of Willis and Mahala
Rogers Bearden. According to family records, he was born January 24,
1845. He is reported to have been killed while in the service of the Union
Army during the Civil War. In Old Flat Creek Cemetery is a small monu
ment to "Corp'l J. C. Bearden, Co. C, 10th. Tenn. Inf." This monument
in all probability was erected to the memory of James C. J. Bearden, young
est son and next youngest child of Willis and Mahala Rogers Bearden.
7. Nancy Louisa Bearden, seventh and last child of Willis and Ma
hala Rogers Bearden, was born September 11, 1848, and died Decem
ber 30, 1901. On a date not known by the writer she married John Bryant,
who served in the Confederate Army. He was born December 10, 1843,
and died June 29, 1929. They are buried in Rosebank Cemetery, at
Flat Creek. They had ten children as follows: Florence Bryant, who mar
ried Louis Pearson; Etta Bryant, who never married; James C. Bryant, who
married Myrtle Motlow; Maggie Bryant, who became the second wife of
James D. Reagor; Addie Bryant, who married Hilbert Keith; Emma Bryant,
who married W. D. Green; Grace Bryant, who married Karl Bradley;
Johnnie Bryant, who married David Clark; Walton Bryant, who married
Bessie Tilman; and Jesse Bryant, who never married.
This special section on the children of Willis and Mahala Rogers
Bearden, as indicated earlier, was included because of their prominence in
the Flat Creek Community as well as because of their intermarriages with
other of the writer's relatives. The amount of space used for each subject
has been determined by the availability of information as well as the close
ness of the double relationship with the writer.
The Children of Wynn and Elizabeth Jane Tribble Bearden
Wynn and Elizabeth Jane Tribble Bearden, whose sketches were in
cluded in an earlier section of this chapter, were the parents of eleven chil
dren—John O., James M., Arnetta Frances, Harvey M., Malissa Elizabeth,
Josie B., William Newman, Eddie B., Laura D., Oscar Elmo, and Allen
McBride Bearden. A brief sketch on each follows.
1. John O. Bearden, first child of Wynn and Elizabeth Jane Tribble
Bearden, was born March 5, 1847, and died July 4, 1898. On Septem
ber 25, 1867, he married Sarah A. Snell, the daughter of A. G. and
Casandra Snell. By June, 1864, Sarah A. SnelFs father had died, and her
future father-in-law was made her guardian. The Census Report of 1870
lists John O. and Sarah A. Snell Bearden living in the home of her mother,
Mrs. Casandra Snell. Sarah was listed as nineteen years of age. On May 15,
1873, the young couple acknowledged receipt of $159.29, the amount due
from Wynn Bearden as guardian for Sarah (Bedford County Guardian

The Children of Wynn and Elizabeth Jane Tribble Bearden 209
Book D, p. 217). They are buried in Pisgah Cemetery, in Bedford County,
about half way between Flat Creek and Singleton. They are reported to
have had five children —Addie, Albert, Clarence, May, and Will Bearden.
2. James M. Bearden, second child of Wynn and Elizabeth Jane Trib
ble Bearden, was born October 5, 1848, and died in April, 1865. He is re
ported to have been buried in the National Cemetery in St. Louis, Mis
souri, a casualty of the Civil War in which he fought as a Union soldier.
Nothing further is known about him; and no verification is offered for his
military service, though, no doubt, it is available in the National Archives.
3. Arnetta Frances Bearden, third child of Wynn and Elizabeth Jane
Tribble Bearden, was born September 6, 1850, and died February 11,
1938. On May 4, 1871, she married James M. Finney, who was born in
1848 and died June 17, 1896. They are buried at Winchester, Tennessee.
Their six children were Olliver F., Hattie, Ethel, Emma, Edgar B., and
Elma Finney.
4. Harvey M. Bearden, fourth child of Wynn and Elizabeth Jane Trib
ble Bearden, was born November 6, 1852, and died December 23, 1917.
On September 20, 1 89 1 , he married Mary Elizabeth Gunn. She died June 6,
1936. They are buried at Bessemer, Alabama. They are reported to have
had five children —Ethridge, Estell, Mabel, Edward, and Edith Bearden.
5. Malissa Elizabeth Bearden, fifth child of Wynn and Elizabeth Jane
Tribble Bearden, was born October 9, 1855, and died July 22, 1910. She
is buried in Rosebank Cemetery, at Flat Creek, near the graves of her
parents. She had not married when her father made his will on Septem
ber 24, 1898; but by the time her father's estate was settled on March 27,
1903, she had become the second wife of William G. Smiley, who was
born April 1, 1833, and died January 5, 1915. He was buried in Willow
Mount Cemetery near the grave of his daughter Otha Smiley Hix, wife of
James R. Hix.
6. Josie B. Bearden, sixth child of Wynn and Elizabeth Jane Tribble
Bearden, was born March 5, 1857, and died July 17, 1945. She is buried in
Rosebank Cemetery near the grave of her husband William A. Williams,
who was born May 12, 1852, and died March 30, 1912. Like her sister
Malissa, Josie Bearden married at an advanced age—on August 21, 1900;
and also like her sister, she had no children.
7. William Newman Bearden, seventh child of Wynn and Elizabeth
Jane Tribble Bearden, was born February 11, 1859, and died June 19,
1936. On September 24, 1887, he married Mary (Mollie) Elizabeth Hix,
daughter of William S. (Bull) and Martha Ann Word Hix. She was born
June 12, 1863, and died May 3, 1953. They are buried in Willow Mount
Cemetery, in Shelbyville. They had the following children who were
reared in the Flat Creek Community before the family moved to Shelby
ville: Eva, Roy Newman, and Lillie Bearden. Both Eva and Roy Bearden
have shared in the collection of information on the Bearden family. (For
additional information on this family see the section The Children of
William S. and Martha Ann Word Hix in Chapter XIII.)
8. Eddie B. Bearden, eighth child of Wynn and Elizabeth Jane Tribble
Bearden, was born April 2, 1861, and died September 30, 1942. On

210 The Beardens
August 31, 1884, he married Ellen C. Williams, who was born Janu
ary 22, 1867, and died June 19, 1939. They are buried in Willow Mount
Cemetery in Shelbyville. Their children were Eula, Hubert A., and Gladys
Bearden.
9. Laura D. Bearden, ninth child of Wynn and Elizabeth Jane Tribble Bearden, lived for a little more than two months from April 22 to
June 28, 1865.
10. Oscar Elmo Bearden, tenth child of Wynn and Elizabeth Jane
Tribble Bearden, was born July 18, 1866, and died June 16, 1932. For
many years he was a rural mail carrier while Flat Creek had a post office
and two rural mail routes. On December 14, 1893, he married Susie E.
Harrison. They had no children. They are buried in Rosebank Cemetery
where their monuments record the dates, "1866-1932" for him and "1865-
1922" for her.
11. Allen McBride (Mack) Bearden, eleventh and last child of Wynn
and Elizabeth Jane Tribble Bearden, was born February 6, 1871, and died
February 13, 1940. On January 24, 1901, he married Ellie R. Bomar,
who was born November 21, 1876, and died August 21, 1943. They are
buried in Wellington, Kansas. They had no children.