Uncle Claude remembers stories

Claude Brown of Noel, Mo “remembers stories”

[undated, unsigned transcript]

Old Joe Hendry who was a brother of great grandma Sarah Hendry

Brown [actually a nephew, son of William and Nancy Carter Hendry],

was shot in Henry hollow (4) by his son-in-law then some

say the son-in-law then shot himself in the yard.  the family waited

untill daylight and found him. Others say he was shot by the family

after he shot Joe Hendry.  Joe Hendry had a son named Jim and he

and Joe fell out.  Jim went to hunt his dad down to kill him and

when he fired the gun blew up and Jim Hendry lost his arm because

of it.  Joe Hendry and Uncle Henry Brown ran around together during

the civil war and made moon shine whiskey untill Uncle Henry came

to Arkansas. I talked to one of Uncle Henrys nieces and she said her

dad Uncle Will Brown told her that he and Uncle Henry were scouting

during the civil war and heard some southern soldiers comming so

they hid in the brush and waited then Uncle Henry shot both of the

soldiers and cut their heads off and hung them on a sapling.  Uncle

will was just a small boy and was almost scared to death.  A year or

two later he past the place and the limbs had sprouted and grew

around the heads still hanging there. I visited Hendry hollow and

saw the Hendry place.  Uncle henry later lived on Brown’s mountain

(6) untill he came to Arkansas.

Uncle Henry’s boy Will got in to some slight misunderstanding with

the law and hit out for Kentucky wher he lived for some time. While

there he had a disagreement with a fellow and when Will was talking

to a neighbor one day this fellow come along and being drunk he

had a notion he would just cut Will’s head off or his liver out

and feed it to the dogs. Will run around the house while the man

he was talking to keep telling him that the man would kill him.

Finally the man threw Wll a gun and he killed the fellow.  The man

talking to Will was afraid to testifie and will went to the penin

[blank] for life and died there.  Either some one went and got him or

he was shiped back and burried on Brown’s mountain. I talked to his

son in Greenville about July 4, 1974 and he had just put a tumbstone

up for his dad. The Grave is at the point of Brown’s mountain the

back toward Baileyton at the head of a hollow. This is where uncle

Henry lived along with Ramsey Harris when he came to Arkansas.

The old timers still tell how mean old Joe and Jim Hendry were.

One of the old timers told me he found one of the old pistols

where Joe and some of his folks were having a battle years after

but after he washed it and oiled it years later someone stold it.

I would like to have had it. It was the old musle loading type.

Grandma Mathilda Brown’s old home place has been bulldosed down

for the new interstate 81 which has been finished to Bullsgap.

We saw it before it was taken down but the old house was long

since gone with a few of the chimney bricks left. It was reported to

us by a niece, Uncle Matt Pierce’s granddaughter that Great grandpa

Jimmy Pierce was a law-in-forcement officer at that time. We were

unable to find his burial place but all the rest of the emediate

family were buried at Mt.Carmel where grandma Brown went to church.

The following is a list of Pierces buried at Mt. Carmel:

W.E (Willie) Pierce-1884-1965 -Nephew Grandma’s

Ova Jeffer Pierce-1893-1918-Willie’s wife- I had meet both of these.

Joel N. Pierce -1882-1918

H.M (Matt) Pierce -1854-1924-Grandma’s brother

Louise Hendry Pierce -1862-1913

[handwritten]

Guy Pierce 1902-1966 - Teddy Pierce 1941-1965

Willie Pierce 1907-1957 Chas Pierce 1883-1959 wife Ida -1884-1952

Chas B Pierce 1887-1942

Today in Family History: death of John H. Brown, Andersonville prisoner

On the 28th of October 1864, after 3 months of imprisonment at Andersonville, my ancestor John H. Brown died.


John H. Brown, memorandum

Several of his records say that he died at Andersonville Prison, but apparently he actually died while being transferred from Andersonville to the prison at Florence, SC. It is not known where he is buried.

He and several men from his unit, including his cousin Sgt. Oliver M. Brown, were captured at the Battle of Utoy Creek, Georgia on the 6th of August 1864. Another cousin, Sgt. Jotham Brown, was killed that day. They had all three mustered for service out of Greene County, Tennessee into Company D, 8th Tennessee Infantry Regiment on 15 May 1863.

The battle itself was not an important battle, just a small part of Sherman's Atlanta Campaign.

Battle of Utoy Creek, Georgia: After failing to envelop Hood’s left flank at Ezra Church, Sherman still wanted to extend his right flank to hit the railroad between East Point and Atlanta. He transferred John M. Schofield’ s Army of the Ohio from his left to his right flank and sent him to the north bank of Utoy Creek. Although Schofield’s troops were at Utoy Creek on August 2, they, along with the XIV Corps, Army of the Cumberland, did not cross until the 4th. Schofield’s force began its movement to exploit this situation on the morning of the 5th, which was initially successful. Schofield then had to regroup his forces, which took the rest of the day. The delay allowed the Rebels to strengthen their defenses with abatis, which slowed the Union attack when it restarted on the morning of the 6th. The Federals were repulsed with heavy losses by Bate’s Division and failed in an attempt to break the railroad. On the 7th, the Union troops moved toward the Confederate main line and entrenched. Here they remained until late August.

Result(s): Inconclusive

[Emphasis mine. -tkp]

Oliver Brown is listed as having "survived Andersonville", but he, too, had simply been transferred to Florence, SC Prison and he died there.

To quote from the diary of Samuel Elliot who was also among the majority of prisoners being transferred out of Andersonville because of the proximity of General Sherman:

Monday [October] 31.-While at Andersonville I did not suppose the rebels had a worse prison in the South, but I have now found out that they have. This den is ten times worse than that at Andersonville. Our rations are smaller and of poorer quality, wood more scarce, lice plentier, shelters worn out, and cold weather coming on. I have stood my prison life wonderfully, but now I am commencing to feel it more sensibly, and am getting too weak to move about. To add to my misery I have the scurvy in the gums.

John H. Brown's first wife, Sarah W. Hendry, had passed away in 1861 and he had remarried Eliza Starnes. At his death he left 8 children, 5 of them minors (though the other 3 were just 13, 15 and 17, they were all over 16 when the pension was created).

children by Sarah W. Hendry:

Nancy C. Brown
Joseph Henry "Henry" Brown
William Amos Brown
Massey Jane Brown
Sarah Ann Brown
John Emerson Brown
Alfred Wilkerson Brown

child by Eliza Starnes:

James Leonard Brown

The pension received by John E. Hendry was $2.00 per child per month, ending when they turned 16. Eliza Brown, as widow, received $8.00 for herself as long as she remained a widow and $2.00 additional for James. Some of Eliza's documents give also a Dec. 1864/Jan. 1865 death date for her husband, but the rest of the documents say that he died the 28th of October.

You can search a database of 32,000 Andersonville prisoners at the Macon County, Georgia website. They can be quite detailed. John H. Brown's entry looks like this:

Andersonville Prisoner Profile
Code No: 37321
Grave No: NOT BURIED AT ANDERSONVILLE
Last Name: BROWN
First Name: JOHN H
Rank: PRIVATE
Company: D
Regiment: 8
State: TN
Branch of Service: INFANTRY
Date of Death: 10/28/1864
Cause of Death:
Remarks: REPORTED TO HAVE DIED AT ANDERSONVILLE. LISTED AS GEORGE H. BROWN, [105].
Reference*: PG145[105]
Place Captured: UTOY CREEK, GA
Date Captured: 8/6/1864
Alternate Names:
Status: REPORTED TO HAVE DIED AT ANDERSONVILLE
More Information
Available: YES