JOHN MILLER YOUNG

The following bio was taken from page 463 of the book entitled "Rusk County History" compiled and edited and used with permission of the Rusk County Historical Commission.

Transcribed by Claudia Schuster

Submitted by Gloria Briley Mayfield, Rusk County TX Coordinator

John Miller Young was probably born in Dickson County, Tennessee in 1808. His family went to Perry County, Tennessee in 1818. His father or grandfather is believed to be the John Young who was the oldest man to come to Perry County and the only revolutionary soldier buried in Perry County. His grave is marked by a tomb of limestone rocks, finely dressed and put together, showing the workmanship of a skilled rock man. This grave is at the Blackburn Graveyard on Lick Creek.

The courthouse in Linden has burned three times and the old records were destroyed. "The Perry County History" and the United States census are the only sources I have on John Miller’s family. From these I assume he had at least four brothers: William born about 1800; Thomas born about 1809; Sam born in 1816; and George, born about 1824. Some may have come to Rusk County with John Miller Young and a sister who married into the Gray family of Perry County. Some of Sam’s descendants are said to be living there on lands granted to the ancestors.

John Miller Young married Hannah Jones around 1830. She is said to be half Cherokee Indian. The Cherokee were one of the friendliest Indian tribes, and many helped in the Revolutionary War. I do plan to find this family’s ancestors and descendants. Two of Hannah’s brothers visited Granny, Martha Jane Young Dennis Nix, around 1911 or 1912, when Granny was living with her daughter, Florence and William H. Waller in Rusk County. They were living in Oklahoma where they received lands from the United States. They were well-dressed, spoke very good English and had good manners. The only trace of Indian ancestry was their long-braided hair.

John Miller and Hannah came to Rusk County about 1853 and settled in the Church Hill Community. Some relatives may have come before him. According to the census in 1850, William Gray, age forty-seven and his family in house 699; Samuel Gray, age thirty-five, and his family in house 700, and Charles Young, age twenty-eight, in house 701. They were neighbors of George W. Strong as he lived in house 703. In 1860 this same William Gray was living in the next house to John Miller Young. In the same community, and four houses from John Miller Young was a William Young who came the same year as John Miller Young and brought his children born in Tennessee, and one age eight born in Texas. In the next house number was the same Charles Young who lived in Rusk County in 1850. This leads me to believe they were related.

There is an old Young Cemetery located near Church Hill, which can be reached by following Highway 43 toward Tatum to 1251, turning right to Church Hill, turning left on a dirt road just on top of the hill from Strong Store, going three and one-tenth miles to a locked gate. About five hundred steps to the right of the road in a pasture and woods is the cemetery. John Miller Young has a monument; however, Hannah does not. In 1938 and 1939 I was at the cemetery working. Many took lunches, which were served, at Uncle Andy and Aunt Tex Young’s house. The cemetery was behind Uncle Andy’s house. The men worked on the graves in the morning, and we all worked to finish them in the afternoon. Uncle Andy stood by John Miller Young’s marker and told me my Indian grandmother was buried by grandfather (G.G.), and his mother was buried in Prospect Cemetery. In 1972 my niece, Brenda McCasland, and I found the cemetery. I knew about where to look. All monuments are those of Youngs and Grays except one which is that of Mary C. Marlar. Uncle Andy and Aunt Tex are buried there.

John Miller Young died in 1883 and Hannah, born about 1810 in Tennessee, died about 1860-1866. They had eight children: John A. or H.; Elizabeth, who first married J.A. Wilson and later a Floyd, moved to Arkansas; Samuel, father of many Rusk County people, was in the Civil War. He married Mary Frances Gray, and he is buried in Crims Chapel; Martha Jane, my great-grandmother, who first married Samuel Dennis and had two children, George and Florence Octivia, and after Sam Dennis’s death about 1870-1873 married Clifton Nix and had one son, Benjamin F. All are buried at Crims Chapel with the exception of Grandfather Dennis, who is buried in the Young Cemetery. He does not have a marker. Aunt Maudie Hughes told me in August 1979 that Granny Nix had told her several times where Grandfather is buried—by a tall monument belonging to someone else. Granny died before I could take her there to show me. (See W. H. Waller family). Charles died in about 1850-1860. George W. married Mary F.?; Julie Ann married William Lewis Reid, and she was the first child born in Texas. The Reids had nine children. William H. married Emma?. He is buried in Prospect Cemetery.

John Miller Young’s second marriage was to Mrs. Elizabeth A. (James) McDonough, December 2, 1866. Their children were Andrew A. (Andy) and James S. (Jim). Andy married Tex Norris. (See Waller and Holdeman families.)

Submitted by Helen Holdeman Pearson