Larry Anderson - Families and Individuals

Notes

Meshack JESSUP

Conscripted 16 Oct 1862.  He left the compnay 10 Nov 1862 for Drewry's Bluff.  CO E 53 REG NC

+   30 vi. Mesheck Jessup (1161) Mesheck (1161) was born 6 Mar 1833.  He married Sarah Ann Dearmin (1207) 13 Apr 1854 in Stokes Co., N.C.  He married Eliza Goins (1209) 20 Nov 1869 in Surry Co., N.C.

    30.  Mesheck3 Jessup (1161) (Nancy2 Smith, Bartlett1).  Mesheck (1161) was born 6 Mar 1833 in Stokes Co., N.C.  He married Sarah Ann Dearmin (1207) 13 Apr 1854 in Stokes Co., N.C.  He married Eliza Goins (1209) 20 Nov 1869 in Surry Co., N.C; Meshack was living near Albion Baptist Church in Surry County when his first wife Sarah Ann died, but he settled near Mount Herman Methodist Church in the Chestnut Ridges, Surry County, after marrying Eliza Goins.  Mesheck (1161) died 17 Oct 1906 at age 73; Cause of death was listed as paralysis in the Moody Funeral Home records.
Burial was in the Mt. Herman Methodist Church Cemetery.  

The following documents some of the activities of Meshack Jessup during the Civil War.

In the "Surry County Soldiers in the Civil War" by Hester Bartlett Jackson, published by the Surry County Historical Society in 1992 the following information is found about Meshack Jessup.

   Meshack Jessup entered service as a conscript for the Confederacy on 16 October 1862 when he was 31 years old, in Company E, 53rd Regiment of North Carolina Troops.  He left the company 10 November 1862 from Drewry's Bluff, a fort just south of Richmond, Virginia.  This was less than one months service.  No other information about where he went. (There were no battles there in November, 1862 which leads one to suspect that perhaps Meshack deserted and at that time went to the Union side.)

   A Winston Salem Journal newspaper article about him states that at the beginning of the war he enlisted in the Federal army and served throughout the war.  See below.

The Union Army records show Meshack Jessup as follows:
UNION NORTH CAROLINA VOLUNTEERS
3rd Regiment, North Carolina Mounted Infantry
Organized at Knoxville, Tenn., June, 1864. Attached to 2nd Brigade, 4th Division, 23rd Army Corps, Dept. of Ohio, to February, 1865. 2nd Brigade, 4th Division, District East Tennessee, Dept. of the Cumberland, to August, 1865.
SERVICE.-Scout and patrol duty about Knoxville, Tenn., and in East Tennessee till December, 1864. Scout from Morristown, Tenn., into North Carolina June 13-July 15, 1864. Camp Vance June 28. Russellville, Tenn., October 28. Big Pigeon River November 5-6. Moved to Paint Rock December 7. Expedition into Western North Carolina March 21-April 25, 1865. Moved to Boone, N.C., April 6, and to Asheville, N.C., April 27-30. Duty in North Carolina and East Tennessee till August, 1865. Mustered out August 8, 1865.

This unit was formed in June 1864.  Meshack Jessup left his unit at Drewry's Bluff in November 1862.  Where was he for a year and a half?  ;

The following article was taken from the March 1, 1894 issue of the Mt. Airy, N.C. Times.

   Mr. Mesheck Jessup of Westfield, is a quiet unassuming industrious and thrifty man, a good farmer and an excellent citizen.  While not an educated man, he has traveled a good deal, seen much of the country and observed everything closely.

   In some things he is what some people would call peculiar.  His ideas along certain lines are unique.  For instance, he believes it is unwholesome to sleep in a bed, something he has not done since the war (the Civil War).     At the beginning of the war, he says he was threatened with something like dyspepsia.  The outdoor life of the army agreed with him so much that he came out of the Army with a constitution sound in every particular.  Since then he has always slept on the floor with nothing under him but sheepskin, and without any covering whatever.  He believes that sleeping under cover is a fruitful cause of disease, as the covering prevents the ready escape of the vapors arising from the heated body which contains the germs of disease.  In cold weather he keeps a fire burning all night and sleeps close to it so he does not suffer any from the cold.

   He neither smokes nor chews, nor does he drink any coffee, whiskey, tea or anything but water.  He will not eat hog meat of any kind; says it is too strong and consequently not wholesome.   He will not eat sugar nor anything that has sugar in it, such as cakes, pies, etc.

   He is now about sixty-five years old and says a sounder, healthier man cannot be found anywhere.  He has not taken a dose of medicine since 1850.  In that year he says he was a little sick and took some medicine.

   Mr. Jessup was a Whig and when that party went to pieces he became a Republican and has voted that ticket ever since.  At the beginning of the war he enlisted in the Federal army and served throughout the war.

   Mr. Jessup expects to live to be a hundred years old and his strong, vigorous constitution at present indicates that his expectation is not altogether groundless.

According to family tradition, Meshack was eccentric!....and not necessarily well thought of after his second marriage to Eliza Goins.  The Goins family in that area were known as mulattos.  This was also documented in an article in the National Genealogical Society Quarterly in March, 1992 about tri-ethnic families in the Upper South.   Considering the generally conservative nature of the Jessup family of Westfield it is easily understood why the family might have thought him to be odd.  According to oral family tradition Meshack Jessup was a spy for both sides during the Civil War. The following document shows that he had other unexpected activities during the war which possibly explain the oral tradition.

This is a genealogy and history of William Hickman of Mount Airy, NC, which also gives a little of the flavor of the Civil War times.

1. WILLIAM RUSSELL4 HICKMAN (WILLIAM HARD1N3, WILLIAM2, WILLIAM1) was born September 6, 1846 in Mount Airy, Surry, County, North Carolina, and died November 11, 1932 in Guthrie, Logan County, Oklahoma. He married (1) RHODA CORDELL September 9, 1869 in Cedar County, Missouri, daughter of SPENCER CORDELL and REBECCA DRAIN. She was born 1850 in Washington County, Arkansas, and died October 27, 1878 in Charleston, Greenwood County, Kansas. He married (2) MARY ELIZABETH VARNUM July 3, 1879 in Altoona, Wilson County, Kansas, daughter of AMOS VARNUM and SUZANNAH WHITE. She was born January 8, 1857 in Williams County, Ohio, and died October 14, 1937 in Guthrie, Logan County, Oklahoma.

Notes for WILLIAM RUSSELL HICKMAN:

Pension Records dated May 5th, 1926, state that at enlistment William Russell was 6 feet 1 inch, fair complected, blue eyes, dark hair. On this document he stated that his disabilities were Rheumatism causing numbness of hands and limbs. He stated that at 79 years of age he could not dress or undress himself. Frequently can do no manual labor. Deafness in left ear. Sight of both eyes almost gone. He lists his occupation as farmer.

On December 26, 1882, War Department record states: On rolls from October 3, 1864 to February 28, 1865, present. March and April 1865 absent on detail service since April 29, 1865. May and June 1865 present. He was mustered out with Company August 8, 1865. No rolls on file in this office previous to September and October 1864. Reports show him October 8, 1864 absent sick in hospital. November 23, 1864, returned from General Hospital, Knoxville, Tennessee. Company returns for October 64 shows him absent sick. Company returns for December 64 shows him sick in General Hospital, Knoxville, Tennessee since December 10. Company returns for July 65 absent sick in hospital since July 13, 1865. Nature of illness not stated. Regular Hospital records not on file. signed M. Barber, Assistant Adjutant General Claimant's testimony. February 22, 1883 states: that at Bull's Gap, Tennessee on or about October 9th, 1864, he was relapsed with measles, and placed in Regimental Hospital at Bull's Gap. Thence taken to Knoxville, Tennessee at General Hospital, U.S., that rheumatism at Knoxville, Tennessee, set in and located itself in the muscle and joints; rather of a general character and has remained so from that time up to now, worse at times than others. That he has not been in the military or naval service of the U.S. Service since this discharge in August 8th, 1865.

William Russell Hickman left home, at age 17 years, to travel to Tennessee. He enlisted July 24, 1864 in Elizabethtown, by a story written in 1930 of his travels. He served in the 3rd North Carolina Mounted Infantry, 2nd Brigade, 2nd Division, 23rd Corps, Company A.

GRANDPA HICKMAN'S STORY OF THE CIVIL WAR (as dictated to Muriel Seaman in 1930).
 
William Russell Hickman
The Civil War as William Russell Hickman saw it - -

"Well, I don't know where to begin unless I begin at the beginning! We had three elections in North Carolina to hold the state in the Union. The Union won every time. Finally, Governor Ellis issued a proclamation declaring the state out of the Union. Virginia, on the north and South Carolina, on the south, had already seceded. When they started to enlist soldiers, Senator Chesnut from South Carolina came up to Mount Airy, North Carolina to make us a speech. "Come on boys," he said, "one southern man can whip a dozen Yankees, and we don't even need a gun. All we need is a polk stalk, show a bold front and they'll duck tail and run". In an hour he had a hundred enlistments. I was 14 when he made that speech, but I remember it as plain as yesterday. Seemed to me he was putting it a little strong.

I stayed in Mount Airy three years after that. Force was used to compel those over 18 to enlist. My brother, John enlisted in 1862 in the Union Army. He got away from Mount Airy all right but he didn't get outside North Carolina until he was captured by Witcher's Cavalry, with 6 companions. They were taken to camp, but Union men made a raid and in the retreat, the captured boys made their escape. They crossed the Ohio River and signed up for the Union. Gabriel had already enlisted in the 12th Kansas Infantry. John was in the 39th Kentucky Mounted. He went in a Private and came out a Lieutenant.

Before I was 17, I made up my mind that I'd never fight for Jeff. (Jeff Davis) When I decided to enter the Union Army, it was not to free the Negro, I was just fighting for the Union. Just after Harper's Ferry, my dad had to fight a fellow for jumping onto him over the Negro question. Someone had said that he thought the Harper Ferry incident would bring on a war: Dad said maybe it would end with freeing every slave in the U. S. A slave holder jumped onto him for saying that, but Dad gave him two bad looking eyes.

In July 1864, two Union recruiting officers slipped into Mount Airy. We had Union men all through the settlement, and every one of us, knew our neighbor's convictions. The union recruiters had a regular route they traveled once a month or more. This route we called an underground railway. At this time, I decided to enlist for Uncle Sam. Thirty-six of us from the Mount Airy neighborhood, mostly boys, started out with these two officers on the night of July 24, 1864.  We traveled until about 4 o'clock the next evening, then stopped at a spring to rest. I leaned back against a tree and went to sleep. I remember hearing a gun fire, but I must have run in my sleep for the first thing I knew I hit my head on the limb of a tree and that woke me up. I leaned down to pick up my hat, when another gun shot cut a tree limb right off. It was a second cousin of mine who had fired. He belonged to the Local Home Guard of the Confederates. I ran on as fast as I could through the heavy woods.  Meantime, some of my companions had joined me - 16 out of the 36 - and we went on together until dark. When crossing an open road, a musket clicked and the flash passed just a few inches in front of me. Other muskets were fired, but they were discharged into the air. Their idea was to frighten us. Most of the Home Guards were old friends, and many were really sympathetic toward the Union. In this fight we lost one of our recruiting officers. We started running again. I fell and struck a pine knot under the ball of my eye. You can still see the scar. (I could, the lower lid was always droopy and inflamed). I sat up and decided I had just as good a chance staying right there as to go on running. My eye hurt terribly. While I sat there, four of my companions came by. I caught at them and whispered for them to stop. We stayed right there from Saturday night until Monday morning. Then the five of us set out and got to Bob Bryant's place. Bob was one of Jeff Davis' congressmen, but he was home for a while from Richmond. He told us to sit under an apple tree while he and his wife brought us some food. I forgot to tell you that before we got to Bob's all 16 of us had gotten together again. In a short time Bob, his wife and a slave came with a wash tub full of grub- pie, cake, beans, bacon and coffee and set us a meal right there under the apple tree. When we started on our way again, Bob wished us good luck. We thanked him and traveled on for a week.

Meantime Jeff Davis had sent out a company of Hoke's Division to head us off. We heard from a Union man that we didn't have a chance to get through. We were then in the northwest corner of North Carolina, close to Crab Orchard, Tennessee. We sat down, on the ground out in the timber, and held a council of war. The recruiting officer started around the ring asking; "What are you going to do"? "Going home," some answered. And so it went. Only five of us said we were going through or die on the way. Then the officer and the five of us took the others, a two week journey, back showing them the way home. We escorted them within 8 miles of Dobson, North Carolina. There we told them "Good bye", turned right about face and started back over the road again.

One day we sat down in a wood's pasture, when we saw a company of Home Guards going by. We flattened ourselves on the ground and they didn't see us. Next day, we came to the home of a friend, Sam Spicer. He was Captain of the Home Guard near Wilkesborough, North Carolina. We went into the yard. Sam's wife was standing in the doorway and said, "You men hurry up; we've been waiting for you all this time. Twenty Rebels were sitting at the table. We played we weren't afraid, but every bite I ate got bigger and bigger. I just couldn't eat, so I said, "I'm awfully dry. Can I have a drink"? She said, "you'll have to go to the spring to get it". The five of us went to the spring. By and by, Sam's wife came out and told us that food would be in the spring house for us that night and as many nights as we needed it. She said she thought the Confederates were completely fooled and would not suspicion a thing. We stayed 3 days until the Home Guards disbanded for a few days. Then we started on again.

A week or so later, we got into a Yankee farmyard, but the farmer warned us to go back because a troop of confederates had been there a few minutes before. So we retreated 11 miles south and found out from a widow woman that we could go 70 miles southwest and cross the Blue Ridge without any danger of interference.

We traveled steadily through drizzling rain for four days and a half with not a bite of food in all that time. Blackest nights I ever saw. We got lost and went in a circle, but at noon on the fourth day we came out nearly on top of the Blue Ridge. A bunch of sheep were in sight. The recruiting officer was going to kill one but two of us grabbed him. He begged to kill just one but we held on. About that time a wind storm came up and a flying limb off a tree frightened the sheep away, so we turned Meshack Jessup loose. About that time, we sighted a Confederate camp not 60 yard away. It had been hidden by the heavy clouds. What would have happened to us if we had shot a sheep? Now, we ran for it again. I began to think what a close call we had had, and the fright made me fall in the mud three times.  About four o'clock that afternoon, we came into a clearing where we saw a farm house. I went to see if we could get something to eat. An old gray headed woman was sitting knitting. She cried when I told her what I wanted and told me we could have food. She had a son hiding out, too. We had a good meal. Three days later we were met by Colonel E. W. Kirk (I believe this must be Colonel E. W. McCook) about six miles out from Bull's Gap. Here I began my military service in the 3rd North Carolina Mounted Infantry, 2nd Brigade, 2nd Division, 23rd Corps, Company A; with W. T. Sherman, my commanding officer".

"The engagements I fought in were:

-Bull's Gap - this was two weeks after I arrived and was a Union Victory.
-Morristown, Tennessee - we got licked and the Confederates chased us like the dickens. -Red Banks, Tennessee and Pigeon River, North Carolina - both were victories for us.
-Waynesville, North Carolina - also a victory for us but I lost my horse in action there".

"I was cut out of Sherman's march to the sea by being detailed, after the march began, to the duty of helping guard 1,600 prisoners, which were taken in the battle of Salisbury, North Carolina. We marched our prisoners to Nashville, Tennessee and there, we learned that the war was over".

Mustered out with Company on August 8, 1865 in Knoxville, Tennessee.
Claimant's Testimony dated March 3rd, 1883. State of Kansas, County of Greenwood

"In the matter of the application Invalid - Pension #390964 - of William R. Hickman, personally comes the claimant, who being first sworn on oath, says: "That his P.O. address was MT. Airy, Surry County, North Carolina, up to his enlistment all the time, and after discharge, up to about March 1866. From that time to April 1866, was moving. From April 1866 to November 1864, Osawatomie P. 0., Miami County, Kansas. Thence Stockton, Cedar County, Missouri, up to 1874, in March. Thence Charleston, Greenwood County, Kansas, up to now. Occupation was and is yet, farming".

"On or about 9th of October 1864, at or near Bull's Gap, Tennessee, I was placed on detail to chop timber. When returned, placed on picket. Heavy rain ensued upon me, taken relapse from measles, which terminated in rheumatism. Used lineament treatment myself, up to time. The time of moving to Miami County, Kansas was treated by Dr. "Collida" in 1866 and he is now dead. In Cedar County Missouri, was treated by Dr. Bolton, now dead". "In 1874, April, 0. P. Smith treated me, now dead (in Greenwood County, Kansas). Since that, by Dr. D. W. Johnson, Elk County, Kansas and Dr. B. F. Pugh, Greenwood County, Kansas. P. 0. Address of each: Fall River, Kansas. I have done some manual labor since discharge and prevented about 1/3 of my time from labor by said disease. I don't know the address of any of my commission's officers". "My Post Office address is Charleston, State of Kansas, County of Greenwood. Signed "Wm. R. Hickman".

Wm and Mary Hickman were living in Langston, Logan County, Oklahoma, on February 10, 1898. Later lived in Guthrie, Logan County, Oklahoma at 614 W. Logan.  William Russell and Mary Elizabeth Hickman are buried in Summit View Cemetery in Guthrie, Oklahoma.

Source for the above history: .

    Children of Mesheck3 Jessup (1161) and Sarah Ann Dearmin (1207) all born in Surry Co., N.C, were as follows:
+   113 i. Robert W.4 Jessup (2326) Robert (2326) was born 8 Aug 1855.  He married Elizabeth 'Betty' Lynch (683) 18 Jul 1886 in Stokes Co., N.C.
+   114 ii. Ruth Jessup (2328) Ruth (2328) was born 4 Oct 1857.  She married William Washington Simmons (1479), son of John Alexander Simmons (7033) and Emiza R. Harrison (7034), on 17 Feb 1884 in Surry County, NC.
+   115 iii. John W. Jessup (2324) John (2324) was born 11 Sep 1860.  He married Betty Virginia Hill (2325) 6 Jan 1881 in Surry Co., N.C.
116 iv. James Jessup (2327).  James (2327) was born circa 1862.  James (2327) died 1935.
James Jessup was reared by William S. 'Shep' Jessup and his wife Elizabeth Jessup (sister of James father Meshack Jessup) after the death of his mother Sarah Dearmin Jessup. Ruth and John went to live with Sam and Susan Jessup Hill.  Susan was their cousin.
    Children of Mesheck3 Jessup (1161) and Eliza Goins (1209) were as follows:
+   117 i. Jacob4 Jessup (1208) Jacob (1208) was born 13 Oct 1875.  He married Melissy Goins (2370) 20 Sep 1898 in Surry Co., N.C.  He married Ella King (2953) 7 Dec 1902 in Surry Co., N.C.
118 ii. Betty Jessup (2368).  Betty (2368) was born 1880.  She married Samuel Goin (2369) 7 Aug 1900 in Patrick Co., Virginia.

Robert W. JESSUP

+   113 i. Robert W.4 Jessup (2326) Robert (2326) was born 8 Aug 1855.  He married Elizabeth 'Betty' Lynch (683) 18 Jul 1886 in Stokes Co., N.C.

Meshack JESSUP

Conscripted 16 Oct 1862.  He left the compnay 10 Nov 1862 for Drewry's Bluff.  CO E 53 REG NC

+   30 vi. Mesheck Jessup (1161) Mesheck (1161) was born 6 Mar 1833.  He married Sarah Ann Dearmin (1207) 13 Apr 1854 in Stokes Co., N.C.  He married Eliza Goins (1209) 20 Nov 1869 in Surry Co., N.C.

    30.  Mesheck3 Jessup (1161) (Nancy2 Smith, Bartlett1).  Mesheck (1161) was born 6 Mar 1833 in Stokes Co., N.C.  He married Sarah Ann Dearmin (1207) 13 Apr 1854 in Stokes Co., N.C.  He married Eliza Goins (1209) 20 Nov 1869 in Surry Co., N.C; Meshack was living near Albion Baptist Church in Surry County when his first wife Sarah Ann died, but he settled near Mount Herman Methodist Church in the Chestnut Ridges, Surry County, after marrying Eliza Goins.  Mesheck (1161) died 17 Oct 1906 at age 73; Cause of death was listed as paralysis in the Moody Funeral Home records.
Burial was in the Mt. Herman Methodist Church Cemetery.  

The following documents some of the activities of Meshack Jessup during the Civil War.

In the "Surry County Soldiers in the Civil War" by Hester Bartlett Jackson, published by the Surry County Historical Society in 1992 the following information is found about Meshack Jessup.

   Meshack Jessup entered service as a conscript for the Confederacy on 16 October 1862 when he was 31 years old, in Company E, 53rd Regiment of North Carolina Troops.  He left the company 10 November 1862 from Drewry's Bluff, a fort just south of Richmond, Virginia.  This was less than one months service.  No other information about where he went. (There were no battles there in November, 1862 which leads one to suspect that perhaps Meshack deserted and at that time went to the Union side.)

   A Winston Salem Journal newspaper article about him states that at the beginning of the war he enlisted in the Federal army and served throughout the war.  See below.

The Union Army records show Meshack Jessup as follows:
UNION NORTH CAROLINA VOLUNTEERS
3rd Regiment, North Carolina Mounted Infantry
Organized at Knoxville, Tenn., June, 1864. Attached to 2nd Brigade, 4th Division, 23rd Army Corps, Dept. of Ohio, to February, 1865. 2nd Brigade, 4th Division, District East Tennessee, Dept. of the Cumberland, to August, 1865.
SERVICE.-Scout and patrol duty about Knoxville, Tenn., and in East Tennessee till December, 1864. Scout from Morristown, Tenn., into North Carolina June 13-July 15, 1864. Camp Vance June 28. Russellville, Tenn., October 28. Big Pigeon River November 5-6. Moved to Paint Rock December 7. Expedition into Western North Carolina March 21-April 25, 1865. Moved to Boone, N.C., April 6, and to Asheville, N.C., April 27-30. Duty in North Carolina and East Tennessee till August, 1865. Mustered out August 8, 1865.

This unit was formed in June 1864.  Meshack Jessup left his unit at Drewry's Bluff in November 1862.  Where was he for a year and a half?  ;

The following article was taken from the March 1, 1894 issue of the Mt. Airy, N.C. Times.

   Mr. Mesheck Jessup of Westfield, is a quiet unassuming industrious and thrifty man, a good farmer and an excellent citizen.  While not an educated man, he has traveled a good deal, seen much of the country and observed everything closely.

   In some things he is what some people would call peculiar.  His ideas along certain lines are unique.  For instance, he believes it is unwholesome to sleep in a bed, something he has not done since the war (the Civil War).     At the beginning of the war, he says he was threatened with something like dyspepsia.  The outdoor life of the army agreed with him so much that he came out of the Army with a constitution sound in every particular.  Since then he has always slept on the floor with nothing under him but sheepskin, and without any covering whatever.  He believes that sleeping under cover is a fruitful cause of disease, as the covering prevents the ready escape of the vapors arising from the heated body which contains the germs of disease.  In cold weather he keeps a fire burning all night and sleeps close to it so he does not suffer any from the cold.

   He neither smokes nor chews, nor does he drink any coffee, whiskey, tea or anything but water.  He will not eat hog meat of any kind; says it is too strong and consequently not wholesome.   He will not eat sugar nor anything that has sugar in it, such as cakes, pies, etc.

   He is now about sixty-five years old and says a sounder, healthier man cannot be found anywhere.  He has not taken a dose of medicine since 1850.  In that year he says he was a little sick and took some medicine.

   Mr. Jessup was a Whig and when that party went to pieces he became a Republican and has voted that ticket ever since.  At the beginning of the war he enlisted in the Federal army and served throughout the war.

   Mr. Jessup expects to live to be a hundred years old and his strong, vigorous constitution at present indicates that his expectation is not altogether groundless.

According to family tradition, Meshack was eccentric!....and not necessarily well thought of after his second marriage to Eliza Goins.  The Goins family in that area were known as mulattos.  This was also documented in an article in the National Genealogical Society Quarterly in March, 1992 about tri-ethnic families in the Upper South.   Considering the generally conservative nature of the Jessup family of Westfield it is easily understood why the family might have thought him to be odd.  According to oral family tradition Meshack Jessup was a spy for both sides during the Civil War. The following document shows that he had other unexpected activities during the war which possibly explain the oral tradition.

This is a genealogy and history of William Hickman of Mount Airy, NC, which also gives a little of the flavor of the Civil War times.

1. WILLIAM RUSSELL4 HICKMAN (WILLIAM HARD1N3, WILLIAM2, WILLIAM1) was born September 6, 1846 in Mount Airy, Surry, County, North Carolina, and died November 11, 1932 in Guthrie, Logan County, Oklahoma. He married (1) RHODA CORDELL September 9, 1869 in Cedar County, Missouri, daughter of SPENCER CORDELL and REBECCA DRAIN. She was born 1850 in Washington County, Arkansas, and died October 27, 1878 in Charleston, Greenwood County, Kansas. He married (2) MARY ELIZABETH VARNUM July 3, 1879 in Altoona, Wilson County, Kansas, daughter of AMOS VARNUM and SUZANNAH WHITE. She was born January 8, 1857 in Williams County, Ohio, and died October 14, 1937 in Guthrie, Logan County, Oklahoma.

Notes for WILLIAM RUSSELL HICKMAN:

Pension Records dated May 5th, 1926, state that at enlistment William Russell was 6 feet 1 inch, fair complected, blue eyes, dark hair. On this document he stated that his disabilities were Rheumatism causing numbness of hands and limbs. He stated that at 79 years of age he could not dress or undress himself. Frequently can do no manual labor. Deafness in left ear. Sight of both eyes almost gone. He lists his occupation as farmer.

On December 26, 1882, War Department record states: On rolls from October 3, 1864 to February 28, 1865, present. March and April 1865 absent on detail service since April 29, 1865. May and June 1865 present. He was mustered out with Company August 8, 1865. No rolls on file in this office previous to September and October 1864. Reports show him October 8, 1864 absent sick in hospital. November 23, 1864, returned from General Hospital, Knoxville, Tennessee. Company returns for October 64 shows him absent sick. Company returns for December 64 shows him sick in General Hospital, Knoxville, Tennessee since December 10. Company returns for July 65 absent sick in hospital since July 13, 1865. Nature of illness not stated. Regular Hospital records not on file. signed M. Barber, Assistant Adjutant General Claimant's testimony. February 22, 1883 states: that at Bull's Gap, Tennessee on or about October 9th, 1864, he was relapsed with measles, and placed in Regimental Hospital at Bull's Gap. Thence taken to Knoxville, Tennessee at General Hospital, U.S., that rheumatism at Knoxville, Tennessee, set in and located itself in the muscle and joints; rather of a general character and has remained so from that time up to now, worse at times than others. That he has not been in the military or naval service of the U.S. Service since this discharge in August 8th, 1865.

William Russell Hickman left home, at age 17 years, to travel to Tennessee. He enlisted July 24, 1864 in Elizabethtown, by a story written in 1930 of his travels. He served in the 3rd North Carolina Mounted Infantry, 2nd Brigade, 2nd Division, 23rd Corps, Company A.

GRANDPA HICKMAN'S STORY OF THE CIVIL WAR (as dictated to Muriel Seaman in 1930).
 
William Russell Hickman
The Civil War as William Russell Hickman saw it - -

"Well, I don't know where to begin unless I begin at the beginning! We had three elections in North Carolina to hold the state in the Union. The Union won every time. Finally, Governor Ellis issued a proclamation declaring the state out of the Union. Virginia, on the north and South Carolina, on the south, had already seceded. When they started to enlist soldiers, Senator Chesnut from South Carolina came up to Mount Airy, North Carolina to make us a speech. "Come on boys," he said, "one southern man can whip a dozen Yankees, and we don't even need a gun. All we need is a polk stalk, show a bold front and they'll duck tail and run". In an hour he had a hundred enlistments. I was 14 when he made that speech, but I remember it as plain as yesterday. Seemed to me he was putting it a little strong.

I stayed in Mount Airy three years after that. Force was used to compel those over 18 to enlist. My brother, John enlisted in 1862 in the Union Army. He got away from Mount Airy all right but he didn't get outside North Carolina until he was captured by Witcher's Cavalry, with 6 companions. They were taken to camp, but Union men made a raid and in the retreat, the captured boys made their escape. They crossed the Ohio River and signed up for the Union. Gabriel had already enlisted in the 12th Kansas Infantry. John was in the 39th Kentucky Mounted. He went in a Private and came out a Lieutenant.

Before I was 17, I made up my mind that I'd never fight for Jeff. (Jeff Davis) When I decided to enter the Union Army, it was not to free the Negro, I was just fighting for the Union. Just after Harper's Ferry, my dad had to fight a fellow for jumping onto him over the Negro question. Someone had said that he thought the Harper Ferry incident would bring on a war: Dad said maybe it would end with freeing every slave in the U. S. A slave holder jumped onto him for saying that, but Dad gave him two bad looking eyes.

In July 1864, two Union recruiting officers slipped into Mount Airy. We had Union men all through the settlement, and every one of us, knew our neighbor's convictions. The union recruiters had a regular route they traveled once a month or more. This route we called an underground railway. At this time, I decided to enlist for Uncle Sam. Thirty-six of us from the Mount Airy neighborhood, mostly boys, started out with these two officers on the night of July 24, 1864.  We traveled until about 4 o'clock the next evening, then stopped at a spring to rest. I leaned back against a tree and went to sleep. I remember hearing a gun fire, but I must have run in my sleep for the first thing I knew I hit my head on the limb of a tree and that woke me up. I leaned down to pick up my hat, when another gun shot cut a tree limb right off. It was a second cousin of mine who had fired. He belonged to the Local Home Guard of the Confederates. I ran on as fast as I could through the heavy woods.  Meantime, some of my companions had joined me - 16 out of the 36 - and we went on together until dark. When crossing an open road, a musket clicked and the flash passed just a few inches in front of me. Other muskets were fired, but they were discharged into the air. Their idea was to frighten us. Most of the Home Guards were old friends, and many were really sympathetic toward the Union. In this fight we lost one of our recruiting officers. We started running again. I fell and struck a pine knot under the ball of my eye. You can still see the scar. (I could, the lower lid was always droopy and inflamed). I sat up and decided I had just as good a chance staying right there as to go on running. My eye hurt terribly. While I sat there, four of my companions came by. I caught at them and whispered for them to stop. We stayed right there from Saturday night until Monday morning. Then the five of us set out and got to Bob Bryant's place. Bob was one of Jeff Davis' congressmen, but he was home for a while from Richmond. He told us to sit under an apple tree while he and his wife brought us some food. I forgot to tell you that before we got to Bob's all 16 of us had gotten together again. In a short time Bob, his wife and a slave came with a wash tub full of grub- pie, cake, beans, bacon and coffee and set us a meal right there under the apple tree. When we started on our way again, Bob wished us good luck. We thanked him and traveled on for a week.

Meantime Jeff Davis had sent out a company of Hoke's Division to head us off. We heard from a Union man that we didn't have a chance to get through. We were then in the northwest corner of North Carolina, close to Crab Orchard, Tennessee. We sat down, on the ground out in the timber, and held a council of war. The recruiting officer started around the ring asking; "What are you going to do"? "Going home," some answered. And so it went. Only five of us said we were going through or die on the way. Then the officer and the five of us took the others, a two week journey, back showing them the way home. We escorted them within 8 miles of Dobson, North Carolina. There we told them "Good bye", turned right about face and started back over the road again.

One day we sat down in a wood's pasture, when we saw a company of Home Guards going by. We flattened ourselves on the ground and they didn't see us. Next day, we came to the home of a friend, Sam Spicer. He was Captain of the Home Guard near Wilkesborough, North Carolina. We went into the yard. Sam's wife was standing in the doorway and said, "You men hurry up; we've been waiting for you all this time. Twenty Rebels were sitting at the table. We played we weren't afraid, but every bite I ate got bigger and bigger. I just couldn't eat, so I said, "I'm awfully dry. Can I have a drink"? She said, "you'll have to go to the spring to get it". The five of us went to the spring. By and by, Sam's wife came out and told us that food would be in the spring house for us that night and as many nights as we needed it. She said she thought the Confederates were completely fooled and would not suspicion a thing. We stayed 3 days until the Home Guards disbanded for a few days. Then we started on again.

A week or so later, we got into a Yankee farmyard, but the farmer warned us to go back because a troop of confederates had been there a few minutes before. So we retreated 11 miles south and found out from a widow woman that we could go 70 miles southwest and cross the Blue Ridge without any danger of interference.

We traveled steadily through drizzling rain for four days and a half with not a bite of food in all that time. Blackest nights I ever saw. We got lost and went in a circle, but at noon on the fourth day we came out nearly on top of the Blue Ridge. A bunch of sheep were in sight. The recruiting officer was going to kill one but two of us grabbed him. He begged to kill just one but we held on. About that time a wind storm came up and a flying limb off a tree frightened the sheep away, so we turned Meshack Jessup loose. About that time, we sighted a Confederate camp not 60 yard away. It had been hidden by the heavy clouds. What would have happened to us if we had shot a sheep? Now, we ran for it again. I began to think what a close call we had had, and the fright made me fall in the mud three times.  About four o'clock that afternoon, we came into a clearing where we saw a farm house. I went to see if we could get something to eat. An old gray headed woman was sitting knitting. She cried when I told her what I wanted and told me we could have food. She had a son hiding out, too. We had a good meal. Three days later we were met by Colonel E. W. Kirk (I believe this must be Colonel E. W. McCook) about six miles out from Bull's Gap. Here I began my military service in the 3rd North Carolina Mounted Infantry, 2nd Brigade, 2nd Division, 23rd Corps, Company A; with W. T. Sherman, my commanding officer".

"The engagements I fought in were:

-Bull's Gap - this was two weeks after I arrived and was a Union Victory.
-Morristown, Tennessee - we got licked and the Confederates chased us like the dickens. -Red Banks, Tennessee and Pigeon River, North Carolina - both were victories for us.
-Waynesville, North Carolina - also a victory for us but I lost my horse in action there".

"I was cut out of Sherman's march to the sea by being detailed, after the march began, to the duty of helping guard 1,600 prisoners, which were taken in the battle of Salisbury, North Carolina. We marched our prisoners to Nashville, Tennessee and there, we learned that the war was over".

Mustered out with Company on August 8, 1865 in Knoxville, Tennessee.
Claimant's Testimony dated March 3rd, 1883. State of Kansas, County of Greenwood

"In the matter of the application Invalid - Pension #390964 - of William R. Hickman, personally comes the claimant, who being first sworn on oath, says: "That his P.O. address was MT. Airy, Surry County, North Carolina, up to his enlistment all the time, and after discharge, up to about March 1866. From that time to April 1866, was moving. From April 1866 to November 1864, Osawatomie P. 0., Miami County, Kansas. Thence Stockton, Cedar County, Missouri, up to 1874, in March. Thence Charleston, Greenwood County, Kansas, up to now. Occupation was and is yet, farming".

"On or about 9th of October 1864, at or near Bull's Gap, Tennessee, I was placed on detail to chop timber. When returned, placed on picket. Heavy rain ensued upon me, taken relapse from measles, which terminated in rheumatism. Used lineament treatment myself, up to time. The time of moving to Miami County, Kansas was treated by Dr. "Collida" in 1866 and he is now dead. In Cedar County Missouri, was treated by Dr. Bolton, now dead". "In 1874, April, 0. P. Smith treated me, now dead (in Greenwood County, Kansas). Since that, by Dr. D. W. Johnson, Elk County, Kansas and Dr. B. F. Pugh, Greenwood County, Kansas. P. 0. Address of each: Fall River, Kansas. I have done some manual labor since discharge and prevented about 1/3 of my time from labor by said disease. I don't know the address of any of my commission's officers". "My Post Office address is Charleston, State of Kansas, County of Greenwood. Signed "Wm. R. Hickman".

Wm and Mary Hickman were living in Langston, Logan County, Oklahoma, on February 10, 1898. Later lived in Guthrie, Logan County, Oklahoma at 614 W. Logan.  William Russell and Mary Elizabeth Hickman are buried in Summit View Cemetery in Guthrie, Oklahoma.

Source for the above history: .

    Children of Mesheck3 Jessup (1161) and Sarah Ann Dearmin (1207) all born in Surry Co., N.C, were as follows:
+   113 i. Robert W.4 Jessup (2326) Robert (2326) was born 8 Aug 1855.  He married Elizabeth 'Betty' Lynch (683) 18 Jul 1886 in Stokes Co., N.C.
+   114 ii. Ruth Jessup (2328) Ruth (2328) was born 4 Oct 1857.  She married William Washington Simmons (1479), son of John Alexander Simmons (7033) and Emiza R. Harrison (7034), on 17 Feb 1884 in Surry County, NC.
+   115 iii. John W. Jessup (2324) John (2324) was born 11 Sep 1860.  He married Betty Virginia Hill (2325) 6 Jan 1881 in Surry Co., N.C.
116 iv. James Jessup (2327).  James (2327) was born circa 1862.  James (2327) died 1935.
James Jessup was reared by William S. 'Shep' Jessup and his wife Elizabeth Jessup (sister of James father Meshack Jessup) after the death of his mother Sarah Dearmin Jessup. Ruth and John went to live with Sam and Susan Jessup Hill.  Susan was their cousin.
    Children of Mesheck3 Jessup (1161) and Eliza Goins (1209) were as follows:
+   117 i. Jacob4 Jessup (1208) Jacob (1208) was born 13 Oct 1875.  He married Melissy Goins (2370) 20 Sep 1898 in Surry Co., N.C.  He married Ella King (2953) 7 Dec 1902 in Surry Co., N.C.
118 ii. Betty Jessup (2368).  Betty (2368) was born 1880.  She married Samuel Goin (2369) 7 Aug 1900 in Patrick Co., Virginia.

Eliza GOINS

Said to be Malotto and so created talk in the family of eccentric ol" Meshack!

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