Compiled by Roy H. Parks, Attorney at Law, Lynchburg, Tennessee
Copied exactly from original by: Nova S. Anderson, 110 Winslow Road, Franklin, Tenn.
Original copy owned by: Mrs. Hattie Rogers, Lynchburg, Tennessee
The proper spelling of this name is Phelps, but it has always been spelled "Felps" by those of the name which settled in Lincoln Co., Tennessee in the early part of the nineteenth century.
Britain Felps, a North Carolinian by birth, was the first of the Felps name to settle in Lincoln Co., Tennessee and is the founder of the family in that section. On Deed Book A-1 page 53 in the office of the register of Lincoln Co., Tenn. there is registered a deed from Jacob Waggoner to Brittain Felps dated Feb. 10, 1810 conveying 125 acres of land. This deed recites: That said Jacob Waggoner has sold unto the said Brittain Felps a certain tract or pacel of land lying and being in the county of Lincoln on the waters of Mulberry including the improvements where upon the said Felps now lives, containing 125 a. which was entered and patented in the name of Newton Cannon", this deed was witnessed by Hardy Holman and Andrew Waggoner.
Another deed dated Jan. 27th, 1824, registered in deed book G-1 page 119, in said registers office is from Kelin Felps to Brittain Felps, and conveying the interest of Kelin Felps in the estate of Thomas Felps to Brittain Felps.
On page 290 of deed book G-1 is registered a deed from George Ingle to Brittain Felps, dated Jan. 13, 1825, and another deed from Ingle to said Felps conveying 11a. of land, is dated Jan. 18, 1825, and is registered in deed book G-1, page 288 in said office.
Brittain Felps and wife Susan (Waggoner) Felps and Jacob Waggoner, brother of Susan Felps, were North Carolinians who came to Tenn. about the year of 1800.
It is a tradition of the family that they first settled near Nashville, Tenn. where they remained for a year or so, or perhaps as long as three years, after which they came to Lincoln, Co., Tenn. Brittain Felps settled in that section of the county called Gattistown on the farm, on which Thomas Mitchell now lives and ownes (1925).
Their son, Thomas felps, was born at this place, the Felps home then being a small log cabin like those of the early settlers of this country, Ezekiel Felps an older son of Brittain Felps and wife Susan, was a baby when the Felps emigrated to Tenn. from North Carolina. The trip from North Carolina to Tenn. was made on horseback and Susan carried Ezekiel in her lap from North Carolina to Tenn.
Brittain Felps on July 15th, 1826, by a deed bearing that date, recorded in deed book G-1 page 478 in the office of the register of Lincoln Co., Tenn. acquired a tract of land from Collins or Colin Campbell containing 640 acres. This was the land on West Mulberry Creek as the deed recites owned by Brittain Felps when he died. The tract is now in the 8th Civil District of Moore Co., Tenn.
Brittain Felps died many years ago, prior to his wife, the latter dying some time just before the beginning of the Civil War.
Mrs. R. A. Parks, a grand-daughter of the Felps, born in the year ______, remebers her grandmother, Susan, also does Mrs. Matt Dickey another grand-daughter - but neither remembers their grandfather. But Mrs. Dickey remembers being at a burying when quite small, but she can not say whether it was that of her grandfather, Brittain, or that of her Uncle John, a son of Brittain. Mrs. Park and Mrs. Dickey agree that their grandmother, Susan was very old when they first remember her, and that she died before the beginning of the Civil War. They describe her as a stockily built woman, low of statue, blue eyed and of fair complexion; that her hair was very thin and white, but that they have always understood that the natural color of her hair was sandy or reddish. She was thoroughly Dutch, and had Dutch Bible, from which she would sometimes read. She was born in North Carolina, during the Revolutionary War. Mrs. Parks says has been her understanding.
Susan would often relate things that happened in her North Carolina home during this war. One of which was that when the "Tory" army was passing, her home, one of the army stragglers, a woman, left a child with the family which was kept and raised by them, being named Joe.
Prior to her death on July 24, 1903, Roy H. Parks secured a statement from Mrs. Jean (called "Jane") Holt, his grandmother who was the daughter of Brittain and Susan (Waggoner) Felps. In this statement Mrs. Jean Holt says she was born in Lincoln Co., Tenn. June 26, 1822; that her fathers full name was Brittain Felps, and that he always so signed his name. That he was born in North Carolina near the Yadkin River, and the maiden name of the mother of Britain Felps was Jean Smith. That Jean Smith was born in Rowan Co., North Carolina (and in this connection Mrs. Parks says she always understood that Jean Smith Felps lived near Salisburg, N. Carolina, the county seat of Rowan Co.). The brothers and sisters of Brittain Felps (also spelled Britton & Brittain) were: Abner Felps Jr., Ferby, a sister who married Ned Williams; John Felps; Thomas Felps; Samuel Felps; William Felps; Keeling or Keelin Felps; Ezekiel Felps, Sr., Eddie who married Owen Norman; and Jean or Jennie who married Frank Williams. She states that Brittain Felps father was named Abner Felps and that Abner Felps, as she supposes emigrated from England, and settled in N. Carolina.
Abner Felps lived and died in N. Carolina, and is buried there. He was not a soldier of the Revolutionary War. That he was not a Tory, however.
Mrs. Holt states that her grandmother was named Susanna Waggoner, Susan Ann most probably; that the name of her brothers and sisters were, Daniel Waggoner, John, Mollie who married Jake Lopp (?-NSA); Sarah who married her cousin Jake Waggoner; Amelia who married Henry Leonard, Kate who married Daniel Leonard, Jake, George and Davy, making five bros. and three sisters, a family of nine children in all of the family.
She states further that Susan Waggoner was born during the Revolutionary War in Rowan Co. N. Carolina. Mrs. Holt pronounced the name as it spelled Roanne.
That Susan died at the beginning of the Civil War on West Mulberry Creek in what was then Lincoln Co., Tenn; and that she is buried in the Cariger Graveyard near what is the village of Booneville, Lincoln Co., Tenn. She states that Susan was Dutch, and was educated in the Dutch langugage, and spoke English with an accent. Susans father’s name was Jake Waggoner, he was not a soldier of the Revolutionary war. He was a cripple, and a patriot. Jake Waggoner was Dutch also and had emigrated to North Carolina from Europe. Jake Waggoner lived and died in North Carolina, is buried there.
The mother of Susan (Waggoner) was Kate Yant - Yant was her maiden name, she was Dutch and spoke Dutch - never spoke English at all. She died in Lincoln Co., Tenn. Katie Yant was born in Germany and emigrated from that country to N. Carolina.
Mrs. Holt remembers, too, the tradition in the family about the child being left with the parents of Susan (Waggoner) Felps by the Tory army. She states that a woman who was following the Tory Army or English Army left her child at the home of the parents of Susan, when the army passed through that section of North Carolina and that they named the child Joe, and after the war was over the woman came and reclaimed her child and took it away with her.
She states that David Waggoner, Uncle of Susan, was a Revolutionary soldier. She states that Brittain Felps - her father died July 16, 1847, on West Mulberry Creek, and was buried in the Carriger Graveyard. She states that Brittain and Susan were married, she supposes about 20 years after the Revolutionary War; that they married before coming to Tennessee. That they first settled near Nashville on the Stone River and from there moved to East Mulberry Creek in Lincoln Co. and then to West Mulberry Creek where they lived until they died. Mrs. Holt says that Brittain and Susan (Waggoner) Felps had 13 children namely : Edith, Katie, Davy, Jake, Susan, Tom, Brittain, Ezekiel, John, Pop, Jean Sallie, Jasper also called Jasper Newton. David Felps lived and died in Texas near Austin. Brittain lived and died in Texas near Austin too. Jean Felps married Jordan Cain Holt as a second husband. Mrs. Holt died July 24, 1903.
Susan (Waggoner) Felps survied her husband Brittain Felps some 10 or 12 years. Mrs. Matt Dickey Mrs. Parks remember her well, she always wore a fine lace cap and carried a large bunch of keys tied to her waist band. She owned many negro slaves, most of whom had grown old with the family, and she looked after the management of the large farm on Mulberry Creek which Brittain Felps owned when he died. She spoke English with an accent, and would often complain about the black sticky mud of this section saying she was raisey in a sandy country where there was no muc.
Mrs. Dickey and Mrs. Parks remember one of these old slaves, his name was Jake, and he was regarded as a very mean negro, while back in North Carolina this negro slave became involved in an insurrectionary plot among the slaves, was detected in the plot, in a raid made on the slaves, a box of soldiers trapping, consisting of swords and a uniform, was found in this negro’s possession. He was tried and convicted, and sentenced to undergo a severe whipping. He was then brought to Tenn. by Brittain Felps, but was always regarded as a mean and dangerous negro.
Mrs. Dickey has heard her father, Thomas Felps, say a number of times that Brittain Felps (his father) made thirteen trips back to N. Carolina to assist in winding up the estate of his parents and the parents of his wife, Susan - that these trips were made on horseback, their little dog accompained them on each trip.
Brittain and his wife, Susan, first settled on Stone River where they remained for yr. or so - or perhaps as long as three years. Then moved to Lincoln Co., Tenn. and settled on a farm in Gattistown - on a farm now owned by Thos. Mitchell. Here they built themselves a log cabin, and here their son Thomas was born, when they emigrated from North Carolina their son, Ezekiel, was a baby in arms, and his mother carried him in lap on horseback from N. Carolina, near Salisbury in Rowan Co., to where the family settled on Stone River.
The children of Brittain Felps and Susan (Waggoner) were:
Mary called Pop or Polly married Hugh Hurst and moved to Arkansas before the Civil War... had daughter named Susan, son named Benton.
Sallie (or Sarah) who married Byars Logan , their children:
(a) Susan Elizabeth, married John H. Sullivan
(b)George Cass (called Pone) married Elizabeth Parks, sister of Elisha Parks their children:
Benjamin, a son
Anna, a daughter who married Jim Middleton
Reuben Butler who married Ruth Rutledge, daughter of Isaac Rutledge. their children:
Rutledge Married
David married
Claude, married Nannie Smith - have 8 children
Clyde, married Sarah Waggoner - has 3 children
William (Bill) married
Fanny - married - has 1 daughter
Mary - married Bill Clark, they have 5 children
1. Georgie Lee married Tom Erwin
2. Lela married Edd Taylor
3. Martha married Tipps
4. Buster married
5. Billie married
Mollie who married William Womac
Joseph H. calley Boy married _________ Robertson
Nannie - married Thomas Wiggins, Children are: Clarence, Robert, Fred and others
(Note: I have not undertaken to decipher this in any way at all ... simply copied it as the gracious Lady gave it to me - Nova)
Thomas Benton Felps, b. _______, d. 1888
Moriah Susan Winchester Black, m. Oct. 1, 1835
Children:
1 - Ezekiel Felps, b. Aug. 28, 1836, d. 1867
2 - Claiborne Winchester Felps, b. Mar. 3, 1838, d. Sept. 1912
3 - Susan Jane Felps, b. Nov. 11, 1839, d. 1880
4 - John C. Calhoun Felps, b. Dec. 13, 1841, d. 1864
5 - Thos. H. Benton Felps, b. Sept. 19, 1843, d. Dec. 31, 1845
6 - Matelda Evaline Felps, b. Oct. 26, 1845, d. March 30, 1930
7 - Mary Commons Felps, b. April 2, 1847, d. 1914
8 - William Lafayette Felps, b. Nov. 18, 1849, d.
9 - Moriah Josephine Felps, b. April 8, 1851, d. Nov. 26, 1916
10 - George Brittain Felps, b. 1853, d.
11 - Bettie Victoria Felps, b. 1854, d. June 1932