Stewart County TN Archives

Our great friends over at the Bedford County Archives are keeping history alive, and keeping public records public.

Now online at the Stewart County Archives website:

County Court Minute Book, 1804-1807 (typed version)
Settlements and Bonds Book, 1804-1807 (typed version)

These typewritten transcriptions were created circa 1940s to preserve the original 1804-1807 County Court Minute book and 1804-1807 Settlements and Bonds book.

The original Minute Book has been accessible on microfilm for decades (and now FamilySearch), but the Settlements and Bonds book has never been microfilmed due to its fragile condition; its contents were only available in a 1936 transcription made by the WPA and accessible at the State Library and Archives.

Of special note in the Settlements and Bonds book are eighteen marriage bonds from 1804-1805. They are the only surviving marriage records in the county before 1838.

Scans of these two typed books are now available via the Records page of the Archives website, at
https://www.stewartcountyarchives.org/records.html

A direct link to the 1804-1807 Minute book is
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1cSCghntMsB5HEwT3F5D5zbadc-eWVzno/view?usp=drive_link

A direct link to the 1804-1807 Settlements and Bonds book is
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1I6g7jRmmKEycpYkfp7U2Ph0B4k6q5MQa/view?usp=drive_link

Chancery Court Case File Index Now Available

The volunteers at the Archives have finished the processing of the Chancery Court case files. While the Chancery Court minute books and dockets survive back to 1865, few of the corresponding case files survive prior to 1925. The case files at the Archives mostly span from 1930-1970. Later case files are still held by the Clerk and Master's office.

Cases heard in Chancery Court often involved the sale of family farms, and required every member of the family to be identified in order to determine each heir's share of the sale proceeds. For this reason, Chancery case files can be very genealogically rich, tracing the ancestors and the family's history of ownership of the farm, and can span dozens or sometimes hundreds of pages.

In the sample shown here, the Kendrick family had come to Chancery Court in 1940 for help in selling their family farm, located north of Legate in what is now Ft. Campbell. The case file spans 179 pages and includes many depositions from family members and neighbors.

The Chancery Court case files have not been digitized, and likely won't be for years to come, but they are available for research during Archives' business hours. Individual files can be digitized on request.

The case file index can be viewed from the Records page of the Archives' website. A direct link to the index is:
https://www.stewartcountyarchives.org/uploads/1/4/6/5/146559459/chancery_court_case_files.pdf

Oops, he did it again. Chancery Court Clerk Brandon Lewis also saved this May 14, 1937 issue of the Stewart County Times - the only copy known to exist.

The headline of the day was a special bill aimed at abolishing the office of County Judge, essentially a bill to legislate Judge N. A. Link out of office.

The list of teacher assignments for the upcoming school year was published, recalling the days when Stewart County had dozens of schools, many of which had only one teacher.

There's a tender obituary of 14-year-old Carl Wallace, who died from an accidental gun shot.

In addition to the Neighborhood News, you can also read how to maintain a healthy flock of turkeys.

Court clerks were required to post notices of court cases in the newspaper if there were non-resident defendants. Many case files at the Archives include this required newspaper clipping.

Thank goodness that Clerk & Master Brandon Lewis chose to put the entire August 20, 1937 issue in one case file, as it's the only known copy of that issue.

Obituaries in this issue include that of George W. McIntosh, longtime Houston County Sheriff.

Read about a car wreck involving two of the Martins from Dover.

It must have been a slow news week, as this issue is full of neighborhood gossip!

We love seeing old school photos from Stewart County, and trying to identify everyone in the photos. We are grateful when we can just scan a copy of your photos for the Archives and share them with researchers.

These photos were donated to us by someone who dropped them off at the Visitor Center upstairs. Thank you to whoever you are!

One of them is identified as Center Point School, 1912.
Another is identified as Paul's Chapel School, 1911.
One we recognize as the old Dover School, sometime before 1917.
The other two are not identified, but we look forward to figuring them out.

If you have old Stewart County school photos, we'd love for you to drop by and let us make a copy of them for preservation and sharing.

Our friends over at the Houston County Archives and Museum shared with us this great photo of Spring Street in Dover. The photo probably dates to the late 1920s-early 1930s, as the photo is printed on thin, glossy paper stock.

At the top of Spring Street you can see the courthouse. Can you spot the automobile parked in the public square? At the rear of the vehicle is a large spare tire.

Everyone is wearing a hat of some sort, and a couple of the ladies are holding parasols.

Notice the telephone pole? The telephone office was close by, in the rear of the building that is now Barrow's barber shop and the K&S Cafe.

At right, you can see the double porches of the Lane or "old Banister" brick store house, which stood where the post office is today.

Tinie (Wofford) Settle Photo Album

The photo album of Nancy Albertine “Tinie” (Wofford) Settle (1863-1922) of Stewart County was recently digitized by the Stewart County Archives. The album had been in the care of the late Charles Albert Settle (1929-2018) of Dover, a first cousin of the album’s previous caretaker, Ruby H. (Waggoner) Evans (1913-2001). Both Charles and Ruby were grandchildren of Tinie Wofford Settle.

Tinie Wofford Settle was the youngest daughter of Albert Green Wofford (1823-1902) and Nancy Lavinia Grimes (1824-1896), who married 30 January 1845 in Stewart County and lived on Lost Creek. On 27 Jan 1887, Tinie married John Alphis Settle (1860-1933), also of Stewart County, and they also raised their family on Lost Creek.

On the inside cover of the album in blue ink is written “Tinie Settle’s Album.” The pages of the album are numbered in pencil in the top outside corner, and each page has a slot for sliding a photograph up into a cut-out window. The album contains 24 pages and 25 photographs, 19 of which are tintypes. The 25th photograph is not in a page, but loose within the album, presumably since all 24 pages of the album were occupied.

All tintypes shown here are mirror-images of the originals, since tintype photos generate mirror images of the subject.

Identifications are written on the first three album pages only, beneath the photo, apparently by the hand of Tinie (Wofford) Settle. Identifications, and possible identifications, of 13 of the photographs are written on a separate sheet of paper tucked into the album, whose numbers correspond to the numbered pages of the album. This sheet is by the hand of Edgar Green Settle (1891-1981), son of Tinie (Wofford) and John A. Settle, and father of Charles Albert Settle.

All photographs were removed from their album pages for digitization, but a few of the photographs were also digitized in situ to show the album’s composition.

The album also includes a newspaper clipping of the obituary of Benjamin Franklin "Frank" Wofford (1854-1937), who is photo #3 in the album. The obituary appeared in the otherwise-lost August 27, 1937 issue of the Stewart County Times.

People identified in the album so far are:
John Alphis Settle (1860-1933)
Allen Elias Wofford (1856-1941)
Benjamin Franklin “Frank” Wofford (1854-1937)
James Franklin “Frank” Sykes (1855-1936)
Mary Ann McCallister / McAlister
Ann Pauline (Milam) Settle (1832-1913)
Elisha Green Causey (1880-1926)
John Wesley Wofford (1866-1929)
William Eldridge McGee? (1864-1953)
Missouri A. “Tina” (Wofford) Whitford? (1865-1914)
James W. “Jim” Whitford? (1857-1928)
Robert Sidney Jones (1872-1943)
Joseph W. “Joel” Brightwell (1869-1904)
James Maston Thomas (1875-1953)

There are also photographs of two men who may be brothers of John A. Settle, and others who may be Woffords.

Armstrong – Shelton –Shrader – Ezell families
Of Trigg Co., Kentucky and Stewart Co., Tennessee
Family Bible, Bible Pages and Family Dates

An Armstrong-Shelton family Bible was donated in July 2025 to the Stewart County Archives by Tara Hodges Wallace of Clarksville, TN, who had received it from a cousin. Shout out to Randy Rubel for arranging the donation.

The Bible includes family pages of the Armstrong and Shelton families, but also the family pages from an Ezell family Bible, as well as family notes from the Shrader family. These families lived around Roaring Springs in Trigg County and Bumpus Mills in Stewart County.

The four generations represented in the Bible pages are:
Michael W. Shrader (1796) and wives Elizabeth Ross (1794) and Mary Jane Hardie
Caroline A. Shrader (1837) and husband John E. Armstrong (1840)
Nora E. Armstrong (1864) and husband Thomas C. Shelton (1859)
Vida V. Shelton (1893) and husband Green Ezell (1889)

Item 1 - Armstrong-Shelton Bible (1873)

(page 1)
Marriages
J. E. Armstrong and C. A. Shrader was younited in the holy bonds of wed lock on Jan the 10 1861.
Thomas C. Shelton and Nora E. Armstrong was united in the holy bonds of wedlock on December the 31 1885.
Alva H. Armstrong and Alice James was united in the holy bonds of wedlock on Oct. 6 1898.
Manson Armstrong and Jennie B. Joiner was united in the holy bonds of wedlock on November the 16 1899.
Minus L. Armstrong and Evie E. Skinner was united in the holy bonds of wedlock Feb. the 28 1904.
Atha V. Shelton and Annie Ezell was united in the holy bonds of wedlock Aug. 29 1909.

(page 2)
Births
Thomas Shelton was born Aug. 29, 1859
John E. Armstrong was born in the year of our lord May the 3 1840
Caroline A. Armstrong, the wife of John Armstrong, was born June the 16 1837
Micheral Calvin Armstrong, the son of John and C. A. Armstrong, was born in the year of our lord Oct. the 26 1861
Mary E. Armstrong, the daughter of John and C. Armstrong, was born Aug. the 23 1863
Norah E. Armstrong was born in the year of our lord Sept. the 8 1864
William E. Armstrong was born in the year of our lord March the 14 1867
Alva Houston Armstrong was born in the year of our lord May the 18 1869
Manson Armstrong was born in the year of our lord Oct the 2 1873
Minus Linn Armstrong was born in the year of our lord July the 27 1876

(page 3)
Births
Henry Herman Shelton, the son of Thomas C. and Nora E. Shelton, was born in the year of our lord February the 14th 1887
Atha Vernon Shelton, son of Thom. C. and Nora E. Shelton, was born Oct. 23 1888
Vida Valeria Shelton, daughter of Thom. C. and Nora E. Shelton, was born Feb 19, 1893
Alva Henry Armstrong, the son of Alva H. and Alice Armstrong, was born in the year of our Lord Jan the 10 1900
Harvey Chester Armstrong, the son of Alva H. and Alice Armstrong, was born in the year of our Lord April the 24, 1901
Ethel Lilian Armstrong, the daughter of Manson and Jennie Armstrong, was born in the year of our Lord Sept the 17 1900

(page 4)
Deaths
Mrs. Nora E. Shelton died May 3, 1940, Fri. 4:30 pm
Maggie Shelton, wife of Herman Shelton, died Feb. 24, 1927
Mary Elizabeth Armstrong, the daughter of John and Caroline Armstrong, was born Aug the 23 1863 and died the date
William Edward Armstrong, the son of John and C. Armstrong was born March the 14 1867 and Died August the 17 1875
Michael Calvin Armstrong, the son of John and C. Armstrong, was born the 26 of Oct. 1861 and died August the 12 1877
John E. Armstrong departed this life January the 20 1877 aged 36 years and 8 month
Alva Henry Armstrong died Jan the 12 1900
Ruel Morris Died Dec. 10, 1918 aged 22 years 8 months 28 days.
Ethel Lillian Armstrong died Aug 1922, 22 years 11 months
Ema Ellen Ezzell Died Oct. 17, 1920
Thomas C. Shelton died June 29, 1938

Another page from the same Bible has two entries in pencil:
Eller J. White departed this life November the 24 1896, aged 21 years
Edna Armstrong, daughter of Minus L. and Evie E. Armstrong, was born in the year of our Lord Dec the 28, 1904 and dyed the date

Item 2 – Armstrong-Shelton Family Notes
Written on lined note paper; not part of a Bible

(page 1)
Births
John Thomas Armstrong, the son of Manson and Jennie Armstrong, was born in the year of our lord June the 28 1902.
Annie Caroline Shelton, the daughter of Tom and Nora Shelton, was born in the year of our Lord Aug. the 7, 1901
Clara Myrtle Armstrong, the daughter of Minus L. and Evie E. Armstrong, was born in the year of our lord May 16, 1907.
Mamie Beatress Shelton, the daughter of Atha V. and Annie L. Shelton, was born in the year of our lord Aug. 29, 1910.
Linard Huston Armstrong, the son of Manson and Jennie Armstrong, was born in the year of our Lord Feb. the 11, 1905.
Edison Wilford Armstrong, the son of Manson and Jennie Armstrong, was born in the year of our Lord Jan the 2 1908
Ira Edmonson Armstrong, the son of Manson and Jennie Armstrong, was born in the year of our Lord Dec the 25 19[--]

(page 2)
Births
Edna Armstrong, the daughter of Minus L. and Evie E. Armstrong, was born in the year of our Lord December the 28, 1904
Minus Desmond Armstrong, the son of Minus L. and Evie E. Armstrong, was born in the year of our Lord December the 7, 1905
Clara Myrtle Armstrong, the daughter of Minus and Evie Armstrong, was born in the year of our Lord May the 16 1908.
Lowry Dallas Armstrong, the son of Minus and Evie Armstrong, was born in the year of our Lord Dec the 4, 1910.
Manie Pearl Shelton, wife of H. H. Shelton, was borned June 15, 1892.
Offie Irean Armstrong, the daughter of Alva and Alice Armstrong, was born in the year of our Lord Nov the 26, 1909
Clarence Ray Ezell, son of Green and Vida Ezell, was born in the year of our lord May the 23, 1911.
Bracy Woodrow Shelton, son of Herman and Maggie Shelton, was born in the year of our lord August 23, 1911.
Herbert Loid Armstrong, the son of Alva and Alice Armstrong, was born in the year of our Lord Aug 24, 1911

(page 3)
Marriages
Herman H. Shelton and Maggie Wallace was united in the holy bonds of wedlock Dec 31, 1909
Green Ezell and Vida V. Shelton was united in the holy bonds of wedlock May 29, 1910.
Annie Shelton and Ruel Morris was united in the holy bonds of wedlock Aug. 17, 1917.
Manie Cunningham and Herman Shelton was united in the holy bonds of wedlock Aug. 6, 1929
Atha V. Shelton and Annie L. Ezell was united in the holy bonds of wedlock August 29, 1909.

Emma Ellin Ezell died Oct 17, 1920

{Births}
Henry Shelton, son of Atha and Annie Shelton, was born Jun 9, 1920.
Verna Shelton, son of Atha and Annie Shelton, was born Nov 3, 1917.

(page 4)
Sadie Marie Ezell, the daughter of Green and Vida Ezell, was born March 28, 1913
Lillie May Shelton, daughter of Herman and Maggie Shelton, was born Jan 6 1913
Lewis Thomas Shelton, son of Atha [and] Annie Shelton, was [born] 27 Aug 1915
Emma Ellin, daughter of Green and Vida Ezell, was born 18 Sep 1915
Dorothy Shelton born 15 of Aug 1920.
Alda Ruth [Shelton] born May 18 1923
Shellie Shelton daughter of Herman and Maggie Shelton born 18 Dec. 1915, died date
Sarah Ellin, daughter of Herman and Maggie Shelton, born 14 March 1918, died date
Walter Jacon, son of Green and Vida Ezell, born June 1 1917
Earl Vernon, son of Atha and Annie Shelton, was born Nov. 3, 1917.
Mary Aline Shelton was borned Aug 18, 19[--]

Item 3 – Green Ezell family Bible pages
The front and back of a Bible page, with names/dates written, attached to a black page that was apparently an endpaper from a small family Bible.

(page 1)
Virgie Mae Ezell was born Aug 13, 1925 Hutchison
Green Junior Ezell was born June 15, 1923
Margie Pauline Ezell was born April 12, 1921 Bogard
Carline Elizabeth Ezell was born May 23, 1919 Wallace
Walter Jason Ezell was born June 1, 1917
Sadie Marie Ezell was born March 28, 1913 Bogard
Clarence Ray Ezell was born May 23, 1911
Vida Velara Shelton Ezell was born Feb 19 1893
Nathan Green Ezell was born Dec 15 1889

(page 2)
Mrs. Nora Shelton

Mildred Thomas Knight Ezell was born April 24 1927
Carolyn Dale Ezell was born Jan 5 1952.
Mr. Green Junior Ezell was born June 15th 1923.

Item 4 – Shrader family notes
Written on a sheet of lined note paper in blue ink; not part of a Bible. The entries all appear in the same 19th-century handwriting and all appear to have been written at the same time, sometime after 1864.

(page 1)
Elisabeth Ross was Born in the year of our lord December 26th 1794
Micheal W. Shrader was born in the year of our lord November 16th 1796
Carman Ross was born in the year of our lord February 18th 1814
Hulda Shrader was born in the year of our lord April 17th 1825
Nancy Shrader was born in the year of our lord September 10th 1827
Katherine Shrader was born in the year of our lord June 2nd 1829
Mary E. Shrader was born in the year of our lord September 14 1830
Martha Shrader was born in the year of our lord December 6th 1831
Zerelda Shrader was born in the year of our lord August 4th 1833
Caroline A. Shrader was born in the year of our lord June 16th 1837
Rutha Ellen Shrader was born in the year of our lord August 11th 1839
William Henry O. Shrader was born in the year of our lord July 25th 1855
Theodocia Ann Shrader was born in the year of our lord October 7th 1856
Rebeca Alice Shrader was born in the year of our lord March 5th 1858

(page 2)
James Micheal W. Shrader was born in the year of our lord November 12 1859
Charles Thomas Marion Shrader was born in the year of our lord April 16th 1861
John Acy Lewis Shrader was born in the year of our lord September 29th 1862
Nova Zembla Shrader was born in the year of our lord April 11th 1864

Micheal W. Shrader and Elisabeth Ross was married April the 9th 1823
Micheal W. Shrader and Mary Jane Hardie was married August the 9th 1854

(in pencil) The old bible was printed in 22

Huldah Shrader and John Peacher was married June the 29th 1843
Ruth E. Shrader and Henry Wilson was married January the 10th 1854
Rutha E. Wilson was married to William McGregor Oct the 8 1856
Caroline A. Shrader was married to John Armstrong January the 10 1861

The Stewart County Archives is always appreciative of being allowed to make copies from family Bibles, but especially honored to be the next caretaker of these family treasures.

We are always excited to receive old Stewart County newspapers. Today, Kanina Bagwell Davis and Lora Bagwell Black donated this only-known-copy of the March 29, 1923 Stewart County Times.

The obituaries of R. C. Greenhill and Mrs. R. L. Moseley are in the issue.

Read about a to***co warehouse being built in Paris by the Dark To***co Growers Cooperative Association.

Read the Farm Facts and Lost Creek Items columns for local news.

And of course the Local and Personal column for all the gossip!

Death records in Tennessee didn't exist before 1908.

Except in the larger cities.

And in District 10 of Stewart County...

The family of the late Rachel (Chandler) Settle let us copy a fascinating list of about 460 deaths in District 10, spanning 1870-1954. District 10 included Lost Creek, Short Creek and Standing Rock Creek.

The list was started by James Madison Williams (1860-1939) and continued by Edgar Green Settle (1891-1981), Rachel's father-in-law.