--------- Forwarded message ----------
From: John K. Bryan <jkbtwo(a)juno.com>
To: RandyPel(a)aol.com
Cc: Cavett-L(a)rootsweb.com
Date: Sat, 15 Jul 2000 20:46:32 -0400
Subject: Re: Nancy Cavett Lones
Message-ID: <20000715.204637.-129717.0.jkbtwo(a)juno.com>
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Full-Name: John K. Bryan
On Tue, 27 Jun 2000 19:16:39 EDT RandyPel(a)aol.com writes:
Jack,
You are absolutely right. Joseph and Nancy are buried in Mars Hill
Cemetery
about 20 yards from a Sons of the Revolution Marker proclaiming that
the
cemetery is the exact site of Cavett Station, the place where
Alexander
Cavett and his family were massacred by the Indians in the fall of
1793.
I faintly recall seeing some information about a litigation between
the heirs
of Moses Cavett, Joseph Lones and a third party whose name escapes
me. I
really don't remember the particulars.
Please share with me your theories about Nancy Cavett. I am at wits
end
trying to find her parents. With ties that close to Moses and
Alexander, she
has to be in that Tennessee line somewhere.
Please answer a question for me: Yesterday I noticed that there has
been no
activity on the Cavett webpage on Rootsweb for the year 2000. Have
you gone
to another service or has there been no new information on the
surname?
Thank you, and I am eager to hear your theories.
Randy Peltier
Randy:
Sorry to have had to put you on hold. Been away on an extended trip.
Up front, let me remind you that I'm not an expert on Cavitts. I just
know a little about that branch which includes my wife's
great-great-great-grandmother, Mary Cavitt Armstrong (1777-1857). So in
preparing this response, I checked my files and surprise!! .... I was too
hasty in my first reaction to your query about Nancy Cavitt's parents.
Happily, I've got much more for you that I thought I had.
But to set the stage: I have an incomplete copy of a transcription made
in 1969 of the statement offered to "the Honorable Judges of the Superior
Courts of Law and Courts of Equity, etc. now sitting as Judges in Equity
for the District of Hamilton" by orators "Richard Cavatt, John Cavitt,
John Hollaway and Rebecca his wife, William Shoemaker and Susanna, his
wife, Moses Cavitt, Thomas Cavitt, and Agnes Cavitt, all of the County of
Knox and County of Roane in said District...." Cavitt vs Hutchings,
Tennessee Superior Court, Hamilton District, 1807.
As you probably know, brothers Moses, Richard and Michael Whitley Cavitt
fell heir to the property of their older brother, Alexander Cavitt, who
died with his entire family in the Cavitt Station massacre of 1793.. The
Minutes of the Knox County Court of 10 December, 1798, set forth the
terms of the agreement among the three and indicates that brother Moses
got the 640-acre Cavitt Station tract. Moses and family were, in fact
already living there as of that date. Alexander had bought the land
c1790 from a Thomas Hutchings.
In the 1807 lawsuit, Hutchings' heirs tried to show that Moses Cavitt's
widow, Agnes Meetch Cavitt, and their children had no right to the
property because the deed of conveyance from Thomas Hutchings to
Alexander Cavitt had not been filed in the State and the Cavitts could
not produce the deed. The Cavitts contended that the deed had been
destroyed when the Indians burned the house and butchered the family.
Fortunately for them, the Hawkins County Court of CP&QS had recorded in
1790 Hutchings' acknowledgement in open court that he had conveyed the
640-acre tract to Alexander Cavitt. The litigation was resolved in favor
of Moses Cavitt's heirs.
The 1807 lawsuit names Agnes Cavitt (the widow) and Richard Cavitt (the
eldest son who then lived in Roane County, TN), the married daughters
Rebecca Hollaway and Rebecca Shoemaker, and sons John, Moses and Thomas.
John was apparently the second-oldest son.
According to Clara Smith of Knoxville, John married a Mary Graham in
1800. Their daughter, Nancy, was born in 1807 in Knox County and it was
she who married Joe Lonas in 1823. The following year, Nancy's uncle
Thomas conveyed the Cavitt Station tract to the newlyweds.
Presumably, Ms. Smith dug this information out of Knox County records.
It would appear that Thomas Cavitt, youngest son of Moses and Agnes
Meetch Cavitt, inherited the Cavitt Station tract when his mother died -
perhaps because he had been living there and caring for her.
I'm sure I don't have to suggest that you contact Ms. Smith. She is
descended from John and Mary Graham Cavitt and seems to be quite
knowledgeable about the early Knox County Cavitts. Don't know whether
she has e-mail. It's Clara P. Smith, 325 Russfield Drive, Knoxville, TN
37922.
As to your question about the Cavitt list, I suppose the lack of current
activity is due to the fact that subscribers have posted their
information and their pleas for help, digested the responses, and are now
sitting back waiting for some new Cavitt researcher to weigh in with new
information. To me, there's nothing the matter with that. Moreover, I
find the restraint demonstrated by the Cavitt list administrator in not
incessantly trying to artificially generate dialog among subscribers,
most refreshing. One Rootsweb list to which I subscribe has a honcho who
apparently thinks subscribers should become pen pals, so the list has
degenerated into a "chat room." No serious genealogist can get question
or observation in edgewise.
I subscribe to six or seven surname lists. Most are simply "open lines"
which are monitored by people who are ready to react to postings which
are personally relevant. And that's great. I, for one, am not
interested in swapping recipes and jokes with "cousins" with whom I have
nothing in common but a surname.
Jack