Legislative Acts

One of the possible sources for research is public records. There are many kinds of public records and their usefulness varies from area to area. But I found an odd one that surprised me just how useful it was in one particular case.:Legislative Acts. The site of the Cane Creek Massacre is very close to the county line between Lewis County and Hickman County in Tennessee. So close that when the line was redrawn in 1897, the bill passed by the state legislature actually named the land owners who would stay in Lewis County. Some of these names are very familiar to me. This has helped me narrow the time window to determine when members of the Cane Creek Branch returned to Tennessee. In the list is Elisha Talley, a member who had returned from Colorado, Ruben Mathis and Solomon Hinson who were both vigilantes, and W. J. Garrette who was the son of Tom Garrett who was a close friend of the missionaries but never a member. And that isn't all the names I know. Lancaster, Willis, Bastian, tons of Hinsons and even a Crowe.

Including in the said county of Lewis the lands, farms, and homes of the following, to-wit: G. W. Skelton, Sr., R. A. Mitchell, G. W. Hinson, G. W. Skelton, Jr., Thos. James, E. C. Bastian, L. W. Hinson, J. R. Duncan, P.K.J. Hensley, W. H. Crowe, Bryant Mathis, D. C. Anderson, S. J. Downing, Elisha Talley, S. H. Hinson, A. H. Whylie, Budd Mathis, J. E. Sisco, E. M. Hinson, Richard Willis, W. W. Brown, D. D. Humphreys, C. W. Moody, A. T. Wylie, J. P. Talley, Ruben Mathis, W. H. Bastian, J. H. Brown, W. W. Quillin, J. A. Sisco, R. Lee Hinsley, William James, John Harper, D. L. Hinson, W. A. Pace, F. J. Cheatham, J. A. Goodman, C. A. Lancaster, "land" by Union Bank and Tr. Co., Executor; J. H. Sisco, W. A. James, J. M. Carson, Solomon Hinson, J. D. Brown, J. E. McCullom, W. T. Duncan, W. J. Garrette, Jonathan Duncan; and also all other farms and lands and homes embraced within said metes and bounds, as hereinbefore expressly set forth.