Person:William Williams (32)

the Cocke-Sevier County line (according to

Served Private, E Co, Reg 1, 1st Tenn Light Artillery (Union) in Civil War, September 17, 1863 to August 1, 1865. Lived near present-day U.S. 321 highway at the Cocke-Sevier County line (according to his granddaughter Mamie Williams Davenport). In Cocke County in 1870 census. In Sevier County in 1880 census. 1880 census lists only William, Sarah C., and Patterson C., 12; where were the rest?

Alexander Preston Shults received a land grant of 1,000 acres and another of 4,000 acres in the early 1840s. This is the largest grant known to this author in Sevier County. It is not clear to this author upon what basis the grants were made. Perhaps it was because his father had participated in the Revolutionary War. The land was bounded by the East Prong of the Pigeon River, Webb's Creek, the Cocke/Sevier County line, and a line well up on the slope of the Western escarpment of the Smoky Mountains. Shortly after 1870, Alexander Preston moved to Grainger County where the farm land was much better and where some of his offspring lived. From historical documents, he had difficulty in selling all of his Sevier County land. William Williams (1843-1921) bought 600 acres from him at one dollar per acre. The sales receipt, which my mother, Mamie Williams Davenport (1911-), had in her possession in the 1970s was a simple statement of the acreage and selling price, handwritten on simple ruled notepad paper. William's land lay along the Cocke/Sevier County line and extended from well up on the mountain to down almost to the Jones Cove Community.