John Estes Goes to Jail – fifty two Ancestors #265

Posted On Jan 11, 2020 By admin With Comments Off

I wasn’t even looking for John Estes- either one of them. There were two, of course, living in Claiborne County at the same time, both my predecessors. This couldn’t be simple, could it?

I was reading the unindexed court memoes page by sheet, from 1829 -1 842, 13 long and deplorable years, looking for the deaths of or more detailed information on 3 ancestors who, it turns out, died between 1833 and 1840. As prosperity would have it, “theyre all” changed into this story kind of like a kudzu vine- because these class were all near neighbours in Claiborne County, Tennessee and intermarried.

And there was drama…so much drama.

John Campbell been killed in September of 1838. About 1795, “hes had” married Jane Dobkins, the daughter of Jacob Dobkins who died in March of 1833.

I actually started learn the Claiborne County court memoes searching for information about John Campbell and Jane Dobkins’s other daughter, Jane Campbell, who married Johnson Freeman- then got divorced- unheard of in that day and occasion. Whoo doggies, that’s some narrative and will get an section all to itself.

John Campbell and Jane Dobkins’ daughter, Elizabeth Campbell, had married Lazarus Dodson about 1820, but predeceased her father, John Campbell, sometime before 1830.

When John Campbell been killed in 1838, a guardian was appointed for Elizabeth Campbell Dodson’s progenies because they had an inheritance from their granddad. Yes, their father Lazarus Dodson was still living. I thoughts for years that he had died, but he hadn’t. The court records never say “deceased” after him identified and I attained him last-minute, remarried and live elsewhere. Subsequent court records reveal solely that the Dodson children inherited through “Elizabeth Campbell, deceased.”

No, I don’t know why Lazarus Dodson wasn’t appointed guardian, but I’d wager it had something to do with the ever-present drama in this extended family. I suspect because those children were being raised by their grandmother, Jane Dobkins Campbell. Several of Elizabeth Campbell Dodson’s infants married spouses who lived near the Campbells on Little Sycamore, neighboring the Liberty Church today. You can’t marry who you don’t see to court.

Their father, Lazarus Dodson lived several miles north near Cumberland Gap.

The Receipt

John Y. Estes, carry in 1818, married Rutha( Ruthy) Dodson, daughter of Lazarus Dodson and Elizabeth Campbell on March 1st, 1841 in Claiborne County, Tennessee. Rutha was also a legatee of her grandfather’s estate and in fact, on September 5, 1842, John Estes ratified a receipt for $54.35 for receiving fund from her guardian. He signed at the same time that he received $1.50 fee from that property for 1841, and likewise accepted the balance still owed was $56.61.

Back then, that was a LOT, LOT, LOT of fund. Enough to purchase a farm- but John didn’t. In the 1850 census John and Rutha are listed as living beside William Devenport and in 1851 a deed is imparted between land owners noting that William Devenport and John Estes live on that land- but neither were owners.

There’s something else strange about that 1850 census. John and Rutha were married for 9 years and had only one child, Lazarus, senility 2. There ought to have been approximately 4 infants by this time. Yes, demise was a constant companion, but there might have been something more.

This receipt is important, but I’m getting ahead of my own story.

Let’s step back in time.

Two John Esteses

John R. Estes( 1787 -1 885) and spouse, Nancy Ann Moore left Halifax County, Virginia about 1820 when their lad, John Y. Estes, was about 2 years old. John R. Estes had served in the War of 1812.

In Claiborne County, in 1826, John R. Estes made a land entry, but appeared to sell the entry after it was surveyed but before it was completed.

In 1850, John R. Estes is listed as a shoemaker with no estate, and in 1860, a miller with no land.

John applied for bounty land from his 1812 serving in 1850, but apparently sold that ground claim to his son George who moved to Missouri. He sold a second claim some years later too.

To the best of my knowledge, John R. Estes never owned country. He lived very near or perhaps even beside John Campbell along Little Sycamore Creek.

John appeared to live a pretty quiet life. He’s never in the court records as a juror, because jurors are required, among other things, to own land. But of note, he’s also never found in the court records for anything else either- although the Claiborne County memo are incomplete.

John, like “his fathers”, George Estes, lived to be a awfully, very old man. John died in 1885 at nearly 98 years of age.

In 1842, John R. Estes would have been about 55 years old. His son, John Y. Estes would have been 23, turning 24 that December.

Court Minutes

When I spoke courtroom greenbacks at FamilySearch, which I try NOT to do very often, I read for any of my family names of course.

I thought that I had already told the story of both John Esteses and candidly, I didn’t expect to find anything more than a note to add to their existing commodities, if that.

Sometimes I browse tribunal notes late at night. They are appeasing, so tranquilize, in fact that often they leant me to sleep.

With the political theatre the past few months in our own lives, sometimes I need that. I was well into time 13, thousands of sheets previously predict , nodding off that night, trying to keep my eyelids open.

Suddenly, I peeked something that waken me right up.

John Estes’ figure in the court notes.

I shook sleep off and started back at the beginning of that sheet again. It wasn’t a ordinary entering which constituted a predictable pattern.

No, this was something different.

October 3, 1842

Alexander Fullington jailor for Claiborne County must be able to the following sums for the following purposes to wit: the State vs John Hodge $ 32.50 for 76 dates timber and 4 turn key. The State versus Thomas Ursery (?) $32.87/ 2 for 85 periods timber and 2 turn keys. Also the State vs John Estes for $36 for card and turn keys and that he have ticket to the county trustee for the same.

What? John Estes in prisons?

If Alexander Fullington is being paid for these hostages, where was the tribulation in the court of accounts observes? Had I missed it?

These court notes seem to be mostly civil suits and domestic things like street successions and maintenance combined with sporadic estate villages. While some tests are mentioned, that simply seems to happen when a jury was called.

Noticeably absent are criminal prosecutions. But something had apparently passed, because the jailor plainly petitioned for repayment. So did other district officials, regularly, in this court.

Not all “state”( versus civil) subjects say why the person is being tried, but the few I’ve found that do during this timeframe are mostly for lewdness and one for usery. Lewdness, by definition in the legal documentation of the day pertains, for lack of a better description, to sexual relations between a man and woman outside of marriage.

My next thought was maybe that John wasn’t actually In prisons. The record territory the number of members of epoches for the other servicemen, but given that John’s amount is MORE than the other 2 husbands, that’s unlikely. Why else would the jailor be petitioning for reimbursement if John wasn’t IN jail. So much for that idea.

How long was John Estes in the clink for? John Hodge’s cost per era was 43 pennies and Thomas Ursery was 39 cents. But Hodge had more turnkeys than did Ursery. Did turnkeys cost extra, and what was a turnkey anyway?

Research into other examples about this time tells us that Fullington was allowed 50 cents per turnkey, so we need to reduce the total by that amount to obtain the daily board proportion per prisoner.

I googled for turnkeys, but the best I could find was that a turnkey was the person, or polouse, who literally turned the key to release captives. Reading other Claiborne County records, I determined that the number of turnkeys related to the number of periods the person was removed to be taken to court. I’m unclear whether the final turnkey is the last time the door was opened, implying the time they were released.

Using the 38.5 pennies average amount per era for lodge, minus turnkeys, John Estes probably provided about 94 days.

The Margin Note

But then, there’s a pesky perimeter should be pointed out that says the following address 😛 TAGEND

“ticket 2nd for Estes amt $36 6 Octr 1842 ”

Three days later, the court computed the second ticket to this same note. Oh boy.

Which suggests that there is ANOTHER ticket for John Estes- for ANOTHER 94 days.

Was that two of the same offense, or two separate offenses?

This means that John devote roughly 6 “months imprisonment” during 1842. But was John’s jail time actually during 1842?

I examined back at the other enterings for Alexander Fullington in the court of accounts hours and discovered that he referred tickets for fee regularly: April 1841, July 1841, October 1841, January 1842, April 1842 and July 1842.

If John Estes has now completed his sentence by July 1842, probably either of them, Fullington would have submitted his claim by then. This tells us that very likely, John Estes was in prison from about April 1842 until about October 1842. If I’ve misunderstood this note and there was only one convict for 94 dates, it still tells us that John went out of jail sometime between July and October 1842, given that Alexander apparently referred his statutes every to three months.

Jail Time

What was penitentiary like during that time? In some instances, incarcerates were actually enclosed orbits, or grounds, in which hostages were kept and trusted not to step over the line.

Was that the kind of jail John was in?

Nope- this was John’s jail.

By Brian Stansberry- Own work, CC BY 3.0, https :// commons.wikimedia.org/ w/ index.php? curid= 4034000 5

The old Claiborne County jail, built in 1819 was in use until 1931. Yep, it’s this building where John Estes deplete approximately six months of his life.

The National Register of Historic neighbourhoods provides the following information 😛 TAGEND

Built in 1819 the confinement is composed of stone on the first story and brick on the second story. The incarcerate likewise features metal grate over the window and door openings.

The two-story jail is rectangular in shape, with a breast gable roof. The entrance faces west towards the highway. The gable missions of the jail are twenty-six feet across. The surfaces of private buildings( north and south) are thirty-two feet long. The first degree is created of reduction limestone cliffs and mortar. The walls are eighteen inches thick, with the duration of individual stones measuring up to five hoofs. The roof is covered with metal and a brick chimney rises from the pinnacle on the west half of the building.

The west facade features a center entrance to the building that measures two hoofs wide and six and one-half feet tall. The door on this entering is of a grate designing, consisting of two-and-one-half inch circles of metal loping horizontally and vertically within a metal frame. A rounded bolt president protrudes at each point of metal cliques. This metal grate is an original boast. The second legend of the penitentiary is brick laid in common bond. In the centres of the second story is a door-sized opening, enclosed with vertical council shutters. A circular duct opening with a metal “X” grate is located in the crest of the gable.

The north and the south elevations of the confinement each have four opening openings, two on each flooring. Each opening is covered with a enclose metal grate according the breast doorway, and vertical board screens. Some of the grates are original, and some are( historic) substitutions. These openings assess two hoofs wide and between four and six feet towering. A got a couple of the screen committees have become separated and currently lean against the building. Large metal thunderbolts protrude from the brick walls in the back two-thirds of the second story. The east( or back) raising of the incarcerate is solid stone across the lower level; the brick second tier has one window with an original metal grate enveloping and horizontal screen councils. A circular duct, matching the process of drafting that in the figurehead gable, is located at the top of the east gable. A short, brick chimney rises from the metal ceiling at nearly one-third of the distance from the figurehead of the jail.

At the jail’s entrance, one step results down into the front portion on the first floor, with a stairway on the south wall. This fraction of the building is ten and one-half feet penetrating, or nearly one-third of the building’s depth. The floor of the requirements of this regulation is brick, and the walls of this room are of mortared, cut limestone.

A door-less opening leads to a larger back apartment. To the north of this doorway, a hearth has been removed, but its flue is still intact. The back chamber historically consisted of a center hallway flanked by smaller gangs to each side. Neighbourhood historian Mary A. Hansard wrote in 1979 that the confinement had “a large stack chimney in the centre for human rights, with two hearths on the lower floor and two on the upper floor. There were two rooms on the first floor. One was used as a kitchen and breakfast nook, and the other as a vault in which to keep criminals.

Hansard wrote that “[ t] here were three accommodations on the second floor, all nicely plastered.”

As on ground level, the individual chambers of the second floor has been eliminated. The back, largest portion of the second floor is open. Local historian Alexander Moore Cloud noted that the jail was built with double walls. “The inside walls were of wood while the outer walls were made of stone.”

Some of the original interior wood backing remains; vertical slats of lumber still hang on the east and west walls of the rear area on the second floor. The metal shafts noticeable on the exterior, protruding from the north and south hills, can be seen on the interior walls. These thunderbolts were installed for buttres of the jail’s security; as explained by a offspring of Josiah Ramsey, a member of the committee that undertook the building of the confinement, the thunderbolts nursed grove siding to the interior of the brick walls, avoiding hostages from chipping out the mortar. As mentioned previously, the north and south walls have two spaces with original metal grid submerges. The original grove floor remains. The ceiling is open, revealing exposed rafters and the under side of the metal roof.

According to early the recording of the Claiborne County Court, pay was one of the most common piques. Obligation, and other non-violent piques, extorted the reward of slamming at the county beating post, which was located between the jail and the courthouse and consisted of a bondage, same to an ox harness.

The county jail contained a area, eighteen square hoofs in size, specifically for debtors; it was one of the units on the second floor. There, the sheriff comprised people who made no attempt to resolve their indebtedness. It was the sheriff’s responsibility to make debtors, two at a time, from the prison to the post for beating until they promised to find work that would pay off their indebtedness. Crimes of assault and battery likewise showed frequently; legal disputes between men were also common. Trespass, libel, and carnage were rare commissions. A more serious crime, such as horse steal, was punishable by branding( “H.T.” on the thumb ), practiced as late as 1822. The court of accounts often listened to cases of “bastardy, ” an offense, assumingly by a male, of fathering a child and refusing to support that child.

During the period between from the 1830 s to the Civil War, very little specific reference to the county jail exists other than that it was, of course, in use.

The court records a sheet or so after John’s mention apply us a uncommon peek when the keeper asked for mends including an cast-iron door’s hinges to be fixed, handcuffs, etc.

Report of the ail commissioners to with: We the board members of the confinement of the city of Tazewell report to your adores now in session do be mentioned that the keeper even further as he is concerned has done his duty for we have examined the jail from time to time when the prisoners were in jail and representing great objections against the jaelor but when we examined into the matter we always found that the prisoners got a plenty to eat and glas as the law directs.

And further we report that the incarcerate ought in our opinion to be restored as follows to wit 😛 TAGEND

First the intrude entrance ought to be hung and constituted sufficiently strong so that when any of them contravenes to employ them back into the dungen and keep them there till they do better.

Here’s that metal doorway that reverberated shut behind John Estes.

Further we believe it would be better to have the inside bord seasoned oak board one inch thick-witted and tong and groved together this ought to be done on the floore as well as the wall and furthermore we wish the court to appoint 5 commissioners to superintend? the work and let it out to? able parties that will have the work done in proper manner so that the jail will be secure this 4th daylight of October 1842.

Jail would be glum in the best of circumstances. Obviously, it’s meant to be punishing, a plaza to be avoided.

Jimmy Emmerson took these two photographs of the inside of the Claiborne County confinement, fixing them available, here. Thanks Jimmy.

This would have been John’s view of the nations of the world, every day for 6 months- and that’s IF he wasn’t in the dungeon.

I wonder if John was one of those “residents” complaining about the jailor and conditions. It induces me wonder since this entry in the court record resulted immediately after the request for reimbursement for board for John and two other prisoners.

The regional newspaper wishes to report that at least some hangings were carried out from the upper space, here, although I have my doubts.

Joe Payne writes about the incarcerate here, with some interesting age-old photos.

Fullington’s Records

I speak Alexander Fullington’s submissions for remittance to the court with the hope of obtaining enlightenment into cases during that timeframe.

Monday April 5, 1841- prescribed by the court that Claiborne County get paid to Alexander Fullington the following address government claims for turnkey and council as captor to clevernes 😛 TAGEND

State vs Benjamin Young $13.36 State vs Edward Slavens $5.50 State vs Obediah Norris $ 15.37/ 5 Government vs Jas Asberry $ 24.87/ 5 Commonwealth vs Thomas Cox and bride $7.62/ 5

July 5, 1841 elected that Fullington be allowed 😛 TAGEND

Sum of$ 1 for 2 turn keys receiving to jail Ruth Collins

October 1, 1841 Alexander Fullington allow for impeding 😛 TAGEND

Azariah Watson in jail 83 eras and two turn keys resources in the amount of $33.12/ 5 John Hodge in jail 7 days two turn keys/ holter chain and steeple resources in the amount of $ 5.62/ 5

I could not determine what a holter series and steeple was, but I’m wagering it was a restraint.

January 3, 1842 Fullington granted the following address rewards 😛 TAGEND

Jessie Lyndsey in prisons 36 periods and turn key $17.50 Ruth Collins ditto and turn keys $19.75 Ditto Zachariah Hicks 7 days and 2 turn keys $3.62/ 5

April 4, 1842- Fullington earmarked 😛 TAGEND

Ruth Collins, 2 turnkeys-$ 1

Ruth seems to have been a frequent flyer.

July 4, 1842- fullington stood 😛 TAGEND

Azariah Watson- ludeness Steven Ouseley- usery Burdren Bussell and Sarah Baltrip- ludeness- 41 daylights in jail $ 53.79 and 6 turn keys Jacob Pike and Elizabeth David in jail 9 dates $3.57/ 5 and 8 turn keys 4.00- acquitted

October 4, 1842 Fullington permitted 😛 TAGEND

103 periods boarding Sarah Nunn in jail@ 2/3 2 turnkeys @3- $39.62 Bartley( or Barthey) Nunn in jail 60 days at 2/3 and 2 turn key @3- $23.50 Veyena( or Verena) Nunn 67 daylights at 2/3 2 turn key at$ 3- $26.12/ 5

This tells us that Fullington is allowed 50 cents per turnkey.

I sure wish they had recorded their crimes.

Why was John in Jail for 180+ eras?

I wish I knew.

Most of the cases, above, don’t have a corresponding test record , nor do we have a crime rolled with Fullington’s report. The best good I can do is to note that during this timeframe, there are only two crimes found.

Usery, which is an illegal pattern of giving. John clearly wasn’t doing that.

The only other specific crime is lewdness which, as I understand it, expects two people.

It’s unlikely, especially given that John was married, that he was engaged in lewdness with the status of women not his wife. Furthermore, it is not possible to corresponding girl being prosecuted.

If duos married in a situation where the female got pregnant, it doesn’t appear that they were prosecuted for lewdness.

These court memoes are more concerned with running the county- in other words, compensating the guard. I have to wonder if there is another set of law records someplace, then or now, that we’re missing.

Which Doggone John?

Do we have ANY clues at all as to which John might have been in jail?

It’s possible.

Let’s look at their history. John R. Estes was older, 55 years of age, and had never, to the best of my knowledge, been in hardship before.

John Y. Estes was young and his life seems to have been somewhat troubled.

Unlike other young men, John never bought land.

In the 1860 s, John fought for the Confederacy. It’s unclear how he wound up in the entrusts of the north, but he did after being reported as a deserter.

Most of the soldiers from Claiborne County fought for the North, but John didn’t. This would probably have driven a wedge between John and his wife’s family along with neighbors. Having said that, this region was clearly split over allegiances.

After his handout from the Northern prison camp, John sauntered from Illinois back to Tennessee, exclusively to subsequently deed all of his property to his son, Lazarus, only 17 years old and living at home with his mothers. Given John’s absence, it’s quite likely that Lazarus has been shouldering the brunt of the work. John did not own land, but deeded his sheep, pony, swine, moo-cow, etc. to his son.

What happened next isn’t quite clear, because in 1870, John is still living with his wife and they have another baby, and another would be born 1871.

In 1879, John Y. Estes ratified a deed awarding two men access to create a road across his estate to access the ground they had just purchased from Lazarus Estes, John Y.’s son. This is the first hint that John owned shore, and there are no deeds to back that up.

However, in 1880, Rutha is living with her 5 children and is noted as divorced in the census. John has trodden to Texas on a butt leg, is boarding with someone, and lives the rest of his life there, dying in 1895.

John’s life seemed troubled starting in 1842. That’s poignant because it includes his part married life to Rutha Dodson. She became disabled with arthritis the last 22 years of her life, dating to about the time John Estes left for Texas.

We find potential indicates about this situation with John in the court mentions having to do with the settlement of Charles Campbell’s possession relative to the Dodson children.

On July 5, 1841, Wiley Huffaker procreated accommodation with the heirs of Lazarus Dodson and reported to the court. Generally, agreement was stimulated once a year until the child was no longer a child, or all of the minor offsprings were of age.

However, the next year, we find something different.

July 6, 1842- “That Wiley Huffaker have until next term to reach settlement as guardian.”

August 1, 1842- “Ordered that Wiley Huffaker protector to the minor heirs of Lazarus Dodson have until the next turn of this tribunal to see agree as guardian.”

Was this because John Y. Estes, as Rutha’s husband was legally the recipient of her fraction and was in prison?

September 5, 1842- “For satisfactory reasons materializing it is required by the court that Wiley Huffaker champion to the minor heirs of Elizabeth Dodson decd have the further day until the next expression of this tribunal to conclude village as guardian aforesaid.”

Note that John Y. Estes signed the receipt that he received a portion of his wife’s inheritance on this same day, September 5th, stating additionally that he was paid for the moor lease for 1841, along with how much was outstanding.

October 3, 1842- “A second village made by the clerk of this field with William Fugate one of the heads of the possession of John Campbell decd which was examined by the court and ordered to be filed and recorded.”

October 4, 1842- “This day came on the resolution of Wiley Huffaker champion to the minor heirs of Elizabeth Dodson decd which colonization was by the court examined and ordered to be filed and recorded.”

The actual detail of the filing is recorded in the Probate book, but does not supplemented any previously unknown information.

If John Y. Estes was the John in jail in 1842, he would have still been incarcerated in July, or Fullington would have submitted his receipt for fee at that time.

We know that John was out by September 5, 1842. If he was in jail for 94 days, twice, and came out the first part of September, he would have gone to jail the last part of February or the first part of March.

He was approximately in jail from either January through June, or from March through August, or sometime in-between those dates.

John and Rutha were married on March 1, 1841. If Rutha got pregnant immediately, their first juvenile would have been born in the end of November. If she got pregnant shortly after their marriage, their first brat could have been born while John was in jail.

Rutha was likely pregnant before the end of 1841, so afforded birth to the child while John was in the clink. Regardless, this would have left a wife and newborn child during implant season in uncharted and perilous circumstances.

That progeny did not survive to the 1850 census, so could have died at birth or maybe shortly thereafter.

Not a good way to start a marriage. No wonder the wedlock eventually was concluded in what she noted as divorce on the census- although no divorce records exist.

John volunteered for the Civil War as well, probably in August of 1862, leaving Rutha to raise and collect their children for 3 long years. Given what appeared to be an icy reception upon his return by signing his worldly good over to his son, they appeared to have a bumpy relation. The ice apparently thawed for a least some time, because the next babe was born in February 1867.

Perhaps tied into that somehow was that Rutha started life with a bonus, wanting her legacy from her granddad. Yet, they didn’t own land on any census. At that time, males prepared those types of decisions and woman had little if any input. Where did that coin lead, and why?

Sadly, they never seemed to be happy, as best I can tell from what I can see peering through a keyhole from great distances of 150+ years.

Of course, after all of this tying the breadcrumbs together, I could still be quite wrong about which John was in jail. I only have a combination of coincidence, this circumstantial testify and speculation.

It’s unlikely that I will ever unravel this braid. The only thing I know sure as shooting is that John Estes was, indeed, in prisons, probably for more than 6 months, and the only two John Esteses in Claiborne County at that time were both my ancestors.

If only those jailhouse walls could talk.

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