yesterday's tennessee

SELECTIVE TOMBSTONE INSCRIPTIONS IN THE HART CEMETERY

Jonathan Kennon Thompson Smith

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This graveyard was formerly located in Civil District 4 of Henderson County but since 1879 has been sited in Chester County. At a point a few miles west of Jacks Creek on Highway 100 turn south onto Spears Road, drive .7 mile to this burial ground on the south side of this road.

DANIEL C. MUSE
Died Jan. 2, 1866 aged 54 y'rs. 11 mo's. 2 da's.

ELIZA, wife of D. C. MUSE
Born May 1817 Died June 17, 1876
Our mother is gone but not forgotten

MARY A. E. dau of D. C. & E. MUSE
Born Jan. 28, 1841 Died Oct. 7, 1842

JUDITH ROYAL STONE
Born in Pittsylvania Co., Va.,
Mar. 12, 1811 Died Aug. 20, 1891

MATILDA F. dau. of D. C. & E. MUSE
Born Dec. 3, 1835 Died Nov. 15, 1847

ISAAC J. son of D. C. & E. MUSE
Born Jan. 20, 1838 Died May 22, 1852

REBECCA wife of Isaac STONE
Died Aug. 28, 1861
Aged 87 ys. 7 mos. 11 das.
Emery & Young, Humboldt, Tenn. (stonecutters)

In memory of
JOHN N. BUTLER
was born May 21, 1832
Departed this life Sep. l4, 1864 aged 32 yrs. 3 ms. 23 ds.

MARGARET MUSE dau of Jno. & E. HART
Born June 1, 1835 Died March 4, 1836
Suffer little children to come unto me.

Within a metal fence:
JOHN M. HART
Born July 1, 1794 Died Oct. 12, 1865
Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God.

 

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(continued within metal fence)
ELIZABETH HART
Born May 11, 1799 Died Dec. 2, 1876
Rest, mother, rest in quiet sleep
while friends in sorrow o'er thee weep.
J. J. Snyder, Humboldt, Tenn. (stonecutter)

 

Through the courtesy of Edgar Maurice Stansell, Sr., Jackson, Tennessee the present writer used his collection of MUSE genealogical data to present the following account.

DANIEL CHATTIN MUSE was born in Pittsylvania County, Virginia, February 2, 1811; according to the marriage records of that county he was married to ELIZA STONE (1817-1876), November 19, 1832; she was a daughter of Isaac and Rebecca Stone; a few years later the Muses migrated to southwest Henderson County where they lived on a farm in the Jacks Creek vicinity. He died there January 2, 1866. The Muse children were THOMAS CHRISTOPHER MUSE (January 23, 1834-November 29, 1892), twice married, a law graduate of Cumberland University, Lebanon, Tennessee, 1855; a lawyer and an ardent unionist during the Civil War who served in the state senate in 1865 and again in 1880 and was long a resident of Jackson, Tennessee. MATILDA F. MUSE (December 5, 1835-November 15, 1847). ISAAC J. MUSE (January 20, 1838-May 22, 1852). MARY A. E. MUSE (January 28, 1841-October 7, 1842). ELIZA JENNIE MUSE (July 3, 1843- January 7, 1897), wife of Milton Samuel Edwards. JOHN ROBERT MUSE (March 12, 1846-April 26, 1912), a physician of Pinson, Tennessee. HENRY LAWSON MUSE (born 1848), resident of Johnson County, Texas. WILLIAM ASHER MUSE (1852-February 11, 1907), Rutherford, Tennessee. CALLIE ARIS MUSE (January 12, 1855-January 12, 1876), wife of Edward L. McCollum, Henderson, Tennessee. EMERSON ETHERIDGE MUSE (September 29, 1857-October 10, 1925), resident of Henderson County. IDA LILLIAN MUSE (March 8, 1860-May 1, 1903), wife of Dr. Riley Howard Davidson, Lexington, Tennessee. JAMES DANIEL MUSE (February 19, 1863-January 24, 1911), Collins County, Texas.

On page 161 of TENNESSEE KNIGHTS TEMPLARS (Nashville, 1883) is found:

 

MUSE, THOMAS CHIRISTOPHER. Lawyer.  Born Pittsylvania county, Virginia, January 23, 1834. Married.  Master Mason, Jackson, September 5, 1872; Royal Arch Mason, same city, August 8, 1873; Knight Templar, Jackson Commandery 13, September r6, 1S73; been Senior Warden of Lodge.   Address-Jackson.

 

In a biographical sketch of Thomas C. Muse, appearing in SKETCHES OF PROMINENT TENNESSEANS by William S. Speer, published in Nashville, Tennessee in 1888, page 320, it is stated that he was a son of Daniel Muse and grandson of William Muse, a Virginian of Scots-Irish derivation. However, this latter claim seems almost certainly incorrect as no William Muse appears of the appropriate generation in Pittsylvania County or environs.

Walter Lee Hopkins, in his book, HOPKINS OF VIRGINIA AND RELATED FAMILIES (Harrisonburg, Va., 1931), page 164, relates that DANIEL CHATTIN MUSE was one of the several children of THOMAS MUSE (February 7, 1757-March 7, 1832) and his second wife, Nancy Ann Wren, the former parent having died in Pittsylvania County a few months before Daniel C. Muse was married there. The interested reader may peruse the Hopkins book and decide for him/herself the merits of its author's claim for D. C. Muse's parentage.

Rebecca Stone (January 17, 1774-August 28, 1861) and her husband had besides their younger child, Eliza, a son named Asher Stone (1806-1841) who married in Pittsylvania County, October 31, 1827, with his father, Isaac, consenting to his marriage, to Judith Royall (1811-1891),

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who is buried in the Hart Cemetery along with her mother-in-law, Rebecca Stone and other relatives, including an older daughter of Isaac and Rebecca Stone named ELIZABETH STONE (May 11, 1799-December 2, 1816) who married John Muse Hart (179)4-1865) in Pittsylvania County, December 15, 1817 and along with the Muses and other kindred moved to Henderson County, Tennessee where several of the connection are buried in the Hart Cemetery. In the county's 1836 tax list, Civil District 4, J. M. Hart was credited with 540 acres valued at $2700; 9 slaves valued at $5600. (Isaac Stone was also listed but he only paid a poll tax.)

According to Hart genealogical data of the late Richard C. Wadley (in the Tennessee Room, Henderson County Library, Lexington) the Harts had children: MARY TEMPLETON HART, born June 6, 1820; WILLIAM JAMES HART, born December 28, 1822 (who married Sept. 14, 1848, in Mifflin, to Lucy Elizabeth Purdy, supposedly a daughter of Colonel John Purdy); ELIZABETH HART, born June 11, 1825; THOMAS HART, born ______ 19, 1827; MARTHA HART, born February 27, 1830; REBECCA HART, born December 4, 1832; MARGARET MUSE HART, born June 1, 1835; JOHN MUSE HART, JR., born April 17, 1839; JAMES HART, born December 28, 1840.

John M. Hart and wife, Elizabeth, were accepted into membership of Clarks Creek Primitive Baptist Church near Jacks Creek, in April 1843 and he was its clerk, 1848-1865. Mention of him in the congregation's minute book one, page 145 (held by Houston Carroll, present church clerk, Henderson, Tennessee):

 

Eliza Muse

John M. & Elizabeth Hart

Butler child

 

Other works by Jonathan K. T. Smith can be found at the Madison County Records Repository at TNGenWeb.