Person Page 625

Bennet Searcy (b.1765), Judge of the 5th Judicial Circuit of TN, died instate at age 54. He was a son of Reuben Searcy (b.1729). Judge Searcy was “..among the first settlers of TN and one of those who braved all the dangers of the Indian Depredations.”

Bennet Searcy left his wife Mary B Xxx Searcy, one daughter Marcia S. McLean, then the wife of Charles D. McLean and two granddaughters. Marcia Searcy McLean, Bennet’s daughter died intestate on 29 NOV 1818, leaving the two children, Maria D McLean and Marcia S McLean as Bennett’s heirs. Their father Charles D McLean was granted guardianship on 19 JAN 1819. Legal proceedings relating to the heirs took place in Montgomery Co, TN and are documented in a state Supreme Court case. Note: The Intelligencer stated Bennet’s death date as 11 JAN 1818. Reports of Cases Argued and determined in the Supreme Court of TN During the Years 1834-35. Vol VII; George S Yeager; S NYE & Co State Printers, Nashville, 1836, pp 615-17. Marriage and Death Notices of the National Intelligencer. George A Martin & Frank J Metcalf. Washington, DC 1800-1834. Issue 6 FEB 1818.

From Terry Searcy (FEB 2005):

I posted an article (Post 1125) in which Pleasant Henderson; the youngest brother of Richard Henderson wrote about his sister's family: Susannah Henderson married Reuben Searcy (b.1729). Bennett and Robert Searcy were two of their children who settled in TN. He stated:

Bennet(t) their secon(d) son, studied law, obtained license and removed to Nashville & I believe was eventually promoted to Judgeship. His brother Robert went also to Nashville & soon in consequence of a strong & well regulated mind and gentlemanly deportment became very popular. They [the brothers] married sisters and soon both (of the sisters) died. Their father married a Miss Jett and soon afterward resigned his Clerkship, sold his lands and removed to Kentucky he again sold out and then removed to Tennessee. He lived to be a very old man. He had many children by his last wife.

Bennett Searcy and his brother Robert Searcy married Wendel sisters. Both Bennett and Robert remarried after the deaths of their first wives. Robert Searcy was tied into a Wendle estate as he had children by his first wife. I'll have to do some digging at home to determine if Bennett had any children by his first wife; I don't think so, as I think he had only one child from his second marriage in his will.

Bennett studied law with future President Andrew Jackson and was appointed to a federal district judicial post. The two traveled together to Tennessee in 1788.

Bennett Searcy took the oath of office as Attorney in Davidson Co., TN on 5 JAN 1789. He appeared briefly in two records in Madison Co, KY; one was the witnessing of a deed of his father's from Richard Henderson's estate on 5 MAY 1789 and the other was the recommendation for license as an attorney on 2 JUN 1789. This license was never issued nor oath taken.

Bennett Searcy was occasionally mentioned in the KY Gazette for TN court cases involving KY citizens; his title was Clerk & Master of the Court in Equity for the Territory South of the Ohio, Mero District (middle TN).

Source: Red River Settlers: Records of the Settlers of Northern Montgomery, Robertson, and Sumner Counties, Tennessee, by Edythe Johns Rucker Whitley, page 74. Some genealogies show an alternate marriage date 29 AUG 1798, a son Wilkins Tatum and a daughter Sarah of this marriage. However these two children are not mentioned in the Red River Settlers. There was a Wilkins Tatum, born about 1805, who lived for decades at P.O. Belles Depot/Bellville, Haywood County, Tennessee, however he consistently reported his birth location as North Carolina. DLB 2013.

On 16 NOV 1853 Rosannah applied for pension on the basis of Howell Tatum's Revolutionary War service. Her application was denied as she had been divorced from Howell Tatum. Per Red River Settlers: Records of the Settlers of Northern Montgomery, Robertson, and Sumner Counties, Tennessee, by Edythe Johns Rucker Whitley, page 74.

Source: Red River Settlers: Records of the Settlers of Northern Montgomery, Robertson, and Sumner Counties, Tennessee, by Edythe Johns Rucker Whitley, page 74. Some genealogies show an alternate marriage date 29 AUG 1798, a son Wilkins Tatum and a daughter Sarah of this marriage. However these two children are not mentioned in the Red River Settlers. There was a Wilkins Tatum, born about 1805, who lived for decades at P.O. Belles Depot/Bellville, Haywood County, Tennessee, however he consistently reported his birth location as North Carolina. DLB 2013.

George Michael Deaderick, uncle of Rosannah Wendel Tatum, and Howell Tatum operated a banking and mercantile partnership in Nashville, 1802-1805. Deaderick later served as president of the Nashville Bank, and as captain of Tennessee Volunteers during the War of 1812. Howell Tatum was a veteran of the Revolutionary War, in which he attained the military rank of Major, he held various offices for short periods; attorney general and treasurer of the Mero District, Judge of the Superor Court, military storekeeper at Nashville. (Notes in letter to Henry Dearborn from Andrew Jackson, Nashville, 13 Jan 1804; The Papers of Andrew Jackson, Volume II, 1804-1813, page 5).

Howell Tatum (1753-1822), Revolutionary War veteran, was treasurer of the Mero District, 1794-96, and judge of the superior court of law and equity, 1797-98. (Caldwell Bench and Bar, 16; John W. Green, Lives of the Judges of the Supreme Court of Tennessee 1796-1947, knoxville, 1947, p. 28).

Howell Tatum was a revolutionary veteran, lawyer, merchant, surveyor, and officeholder in Nashville for the Mero District, served as topographical engineer to the Tennessee Militia ant to the U.S. Army, 7th Military District, from February 1814 to June 1815. (Notes of letter from Andrew Jackson to John Williams, Nashville, 18 May 1814; The Papers of Andrew Jackson, Volume III, 1814-1815, page 75).

"In 1853 Stephen Cantrell of Jefferson County, Arkansas stated that he became acquainted with Howell Tatum about 1804 and that afterwards he went to live with the firm of Deadrick and Tatum in the city of Nashville, of which firm Howell Tatum was a member, and that in 1809 he married Howell Tatum's wife's sister." (He erred on the year, it was 1807). Per Red River Settlers: Records of the Settlers of Northern Montgomery, Robertson, and Sumner Counties, Tennessee, by Edythe Johns Rucker Whitley, page 74.

"In 1853 Stephen Cantrell of Jefferson County, Arkansas stated that he became acquainted with Howell Tatum about 1804 and that afterwards he went to live with the firm of Deadrick and Tatum in the city of Nashville, of which firm Howell Tatum was a member, and that in 1809 he married Howell Tatum's wife's sister." (He erred on the year, it was 1807). Per Red River Settlers: Records of the Settlers of Northern Montgomery, Robertson, and Sumner Counties, Tennessee, by Edythe Johns Rucker Whitley, page 74.

Source for Cantrell descendants data: Cantrill - Cantrell Genealogy, Susan Cantrill Christie, 1908.

Findagrave.com:

Professor Lunsford Pitts Yandell was born on July 4, 1805 near Hartsville, Sumner County, Tennessee. His father, Dr. Wilson Yandell, a native of North Carolina, was a physician of high standing. His mother was Elizabeth Pitts, a Virginian by nativity. He acquired the rudiments of an education in his native county. In 1818, he was a student in the Bradley Academy in Rutherford County, Tennessee and there, studied Greek and Latin and the physicial sciences. In 1822, he began the study of medicine with his father, Doctor Wilson Yandell, previously mentioned. In the following winter, he attended a course of medical lectures at Transylvania University. While atending the lectures in the Transylvania Medical College he became favorably known as a young man of industry, good attainments, and ability, and of popular manners.

Lunsford Pitts Yandell was married, in 1825, to Susan Juliet Wendel, daughter of David Wendel and Sarah "Sally Hale (Nielson) Yandell, of Murfreesboro, Tennessee. Throughout his career, as outlined below, eight children were blessed to their household, only three living to adulthood: David W., Lunsford P.Jr, and William Martin Yandell, all physicians. Five others d. as young children: Wilson P.(1830-1836); Margaret,1834-?); Elizabeth P,Oct1833-Dec1833); John B 1840-1843; Sarah Nielson,Apr1846-?).

Lunsford P,Sr, was called in 1831--after he received the degree of M.D. from the University of Maryland--to occupy the Chemical chair in the Transylvania School. On March 16, 1831, Professor Lunsford Pitts Yandell,Sr., M.D. was called to the Chair of Chemistry and Pharmacy in the Medical Department of Transylvania University. He removed to Louisville in 1837, to join in the establishment of the rival school, the Louisville Medical Institute. Dr. Yandell taught in the combined chairs of Chemistry and Materia Medica. In 1849, Dr. Yandell was placed in the chair of Physiology, for which subject he had a decided taste, and occupied this chair with great credit until he resigned in 1859, to accept a chair in the Medical School of Memphis, Tennessee. During the Civil War he dedicated himself to hospital service. In 1862, he was licensed to preach by the Presbytery of Memphis, and in 1864, was ordained pastor of the Dancyville Presbyterian church. He resigned his pastorship in 1867, and returned to Louisville to resume the practice of medicine.

While resident in Lexington for some years, he was sole editor of the Transylvania Journal of Medicine, to which he contributed several able papers. In Louisville he was editor for some time of the Western Journal of Medicine and surgery, in both cases filing the editorial chair with characteristic activity and ability. He was always a contributor to the medical literature of his day in numerous papers, especially in biographical sketches and obituary memoris of medical men of Kentucky and Tennessee.

His social qualities made him always welcome and prominent in all public assemblies of his medical brethen. In 1872, he was elected President of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Louisville, and at the time of his death he was President of the Medical Socity of Kentucky.