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[Begins on the right column - page 7. Crye/Cry
Family Newsletter Issue 3
Vol. I Summer, 1998 Anita Green Crye ed.]
From Larry Crye in Ohio:
This family history is a written memorial history
from Uncle Frank.
For the first generation
of which I have any knowledge of are the three Crye brothers that set sail
from Ireland in the latter part of the 17th Century for the shores of America
and perhaps there might have been a fourth of which we have no name which
will be mentioned more extensively in these articles, at least his ancestors
will get honorable mention later on in these writings, but for the present
we shall endeavor to set forth our knowledgeable information of the three
brothers who, after landing on the bleak shores of New England, made their
way to what is now called Blount County, Tennessee and took up residence
on the fertile soil of Nine Mile Creek bottoms. There great grandfather,
whose name was John Crye reared his family which consisted of seven children;
six girls and one son. Their last baby's name was John Shimmon Crye,
my grandfather. (The name Shimmon gets into the picture because he
married a girl whose maiden name was Shimmons.) The first John Crye
herein mentioned, the father of these six girls consisting of two sets
of twins. Two of these girls married Carpenters, who also were citizens
of Blount County, TN. Elisha Carpenter and Mathew Carpenter.
I have heard my father mention their names quite often referring to them
as Uncle Lish and Uncle Matt. Another of these six girls married
a Lee which gave my father a host of cousins also. Another one of
these girls married a Scott. Allison Scott, a farmer and a blacksmith,
living in the region of Greenback. I remember seeing him quite often
there. My father John Riley Crye had more cousins, one named
Joe Scott, whom I loved dearly, about the age of my father. Allison
lived in Louden Co, TN. in a town then known as Morgantown situated
on the bank of the Tennessee River and was a shipping point by boat to
other markets. That town is now extinct.
I remember each of these elder folks
as my father would visit them. Tom's wife's name was Mahalla.
They had one son named John Anderson, an M.D. I remember Mahalla's bushy
hair. It stood East, West, North, South. She never would comb
it down like other girls did. It really looked very odd. I
might add that the Joe Scott mentioned was a merchant in Greenback for
years, a city in Louden County which still is a thriving whistle stop.
The sixth and perhaps the youngest of these girls married a Matt sloan.
They have visited with us. Her name was Josephine. They They
had one son named Obie who was my senior by approximately six of seven
years. They lived across the Tennessee River in a town known as Vonore,
in Monroe County, which is yet a bustling little town. This concludes
the history of John Crye and his family. He rests in the home cemetery
known as Williamson cemetery. His other two brothers were also residents
of that community of Blount County called the first district.
They were also farmers. I shall not try to give any history of them
or their families, only to say the woods was full of Cryes, descendants
of Elihew (Elihu) and Elais Crye, but they especially the latter descendants
have scattered hither and there, but these two elderly gentlemen's graves
are marked with headstones in Williamson cemetery, same as my great grandfather,
the first John Crye, whose grave is there in this cemetery in the first
district of Blount Co. TN.
I might add , the Crye farm on Nine Mile Creek was
entered by the first John Crye, my great grandpa. John Shimmon Crye,
that has been mentioned earlier as the brother of these six girls fell
heir to this creek farm of 300 acres, more or less, and owned it until
his death. I shall elaborate more fully upon, who he married, and
his family, the three children of whom my father was the youngest.
"Grandpa" John Shimmon Crye
married a lady whose name was Caroline Best, usually called Sally.
She had four brothers, Riley, John, Jim, and Daniel. Its easy to
see who she named her last baby after, John Riley Crye, my father.
To this union of Shimmon
Crye and Caroline Best were born two other Crye Children. George
the oldest and Martha Jane, the girl. Father being the youngest of
the three children. Please bear in mind the six girls that I have
mentioned along with John Shimmon Crye their brother are of the second
generation we are talking about.
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Grandpa, John Shimmon Crye
was not a religious man, but Grandma was a devoted Christian. My mother
told me grandma's knees were black from kneeling on the floor to pray.
Oh how I loved my Grandma Crye. I am sure she prayed often for me
because she told my mother she loved me more than she loved any of her
grandchildren. She took me to a picture gallery and had our pictures
made together when I was around five years old. It's a tintype with
her arm around my waist as she sat posing for that picture. I was
ten years old when she passed away. That really broke my little heart,
her going. Still, so often I think of her. My love for her
has never died, the little things she would do for me shall live on as
long as I live. Grandpa Shimmon Crye was 33 years old when he was
martyred. That's what it says on his tombstone. "Martyred."
The Civil War was at white
heat in 1863. Grandpa Shimmon hadn't yet enlisted, still around home
waiting for his third child to be born, John Riley Crye, my father.
He was born July 13, 1863. In October, grandpa and two other friends
of his were persuaded to go with these strangers who wanted also to enlist.
There were four of them attired in Union uniforms. They were Rebel
bushwhackers, strolling over the neighborhood pilfering, stealing, and
killing. Grandma Crye was very much opposed for him and his
two friends to leave with these characters. She even told them to
their faces that they were nothing but a pack of Rebels, but they won out
and Grandpa and his two friends left with them. Grandma never saw grandpa
Shimmon Crye alive any more. In about an hour and a half all three
of the men were killed only 3-1/2 miles from home. The other two
men's names were Loss Fields and Lark Anderson. There Grandma Crye
was left a young widow with three little children, but she had a good home
and a good farm to support here and the children. Then at her death,
all three of her children inherited a farm a piece. Grandpa Crye
was buried at Williamson's Cemetery and Loss Fields is buried in the same
grave with grandpa Shimmon Crye, but no recognition of him is mentioned
on the rock, all because the Field people would not help pay for the tombstone.
Continued next issue...Top