Person:Claiborne Self (1)

Notes

From Genforum Message Board:

Claiborne Self (12/23/1808 – 10/21/1889) was the third child and oldest son of Thomas and Elizabeth Roark from Northumberland County, VA. Thomas and his brother Jesse (my direct line) and possibly their father, Joseph, came to Tennessee around 1800. Joseph has a land grant in the Watauga Settlement from North Carolina about 1792 but I haven’t found anything to directly find him, Thomas, or Jesse, until about 1804.

Claiborne married Margaret Frasier (11/10/1805 – 4/13/1869) in Greene County, Tennessee on Sept 12, 1828. Both are buried in Greene County.

Claiborne’s brother, Harrison Self, was one of the infamous Bridge Burners in the Civil War. Five men were hanged by Confederate Troops but Harrison and his son were sent to Knoxville to stand trial. On the day he was to be hanged, his daughter sent a telegram to Jefferson Davis’ secretary asking that he be spared. He received life in prison instead. There are a couple of web sites that have published the transcripts of his trial and the story of the Bridge Burners.

[Source: http://genforum.genealogy.com/self/messages/1641.html].