"Frank" joined the Confederate forces in 1861, becoming a member of Company H, Colonel Shaver's regiment of infantry. When he returned from his duties, he returned to the duties of farm life. Politically he was a Republican.
Family members have different stories about Frank. Most agree that he was on furlough from his duties and did not ever return to his infantry during the Civil War. Everett Lee Sutton says that he was told as a small child that when the soldiers came to Frank's house to see if he was home, that he would go into a trap door in the floor of the cabin. Ann would pull a braided rug over the door and put her rocker over it and sit there when the soldiers would come to the door. When they asked her where her old man was, she would tell them that "he's where Dick's dollar is". Louise Kincade Jansen was told a similar story,
that he lived in the old homeplace, grandpa Sutton dug a hole and made a trap door. When the soldiers came to the house, he would climb into the trap door, go out the back of the house, and hide in the woods until they left. He was sure that if they found him that he would be killed for desertion. The soldiers would steel the chickens and cows.
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CASE OF JAMES McNEESE AND ANDREW J. McNEESE
VS. ISAAC A. McNEESE AND WILLIAM McMILLION
GILES COUNTY, TENNESSEE, CASE-774
DEPOSITION OF JAMES F. SUTTON
The deposition of James F. Sutton taken by defendants at the office of James McCollum, Clerk and Master, in Pulaski, Tennessee on the sixth of October 1849 in presence of parties and counsel to be used in the above case now depending in Chancery at Pulaski, Tennessee. The said witness being first duly sworn forth.
That he is acquainted with the parties to this suit. He is also acquainted with the land in controversy. That in the year 1847 somewhere between July and September at the Barren Spring (spelled Barn Spring in other documents) on Pigeon Roost, I heard a conversation between James McNeese, Andrew J., and Isaac McNeese in which the said Andrew J. and James said that Isaac A. had paid them up for the land and have over (meaning overpaid). Then said Andrew J. and James said they would not pay Isaac A. McNeese anything back because he had got the land cheap enough without their doing so. The conversation was in reference to the fifty acre tract of land in dispute. I had before on several occasions heard them say they had sold the land to Isaac A. McNeese. I had before the conversation at the Barren Spring heard James and Isaac A. say the latter had let James McNeese have fifty dollars to buy him a hatter’s kettle (?) and this at the Barren Spring was admitted by both to have been toward the payment of the land.
I know that William Hall took the benefit of the Bankrupt Law and before he did so he placed in the possession of Isaac A. McNeese a horse to indemnify him as his (Hall’s) security in a debt to Jo McMillion. After he had given up the horse to Isaac A. he applied to him to get him again per the ground he had no horse to make a crop. Isaac A. lent him the horse to make the crop and was to have him back when he called for him. Hall refused to let him have him. And Thompson, Isaac took the horse away from him and Hall Thompson had a warrant issued against Isaac A. for horse stealing.
I am a nephew of said Andrew J., James, and Isaac A. McNeese. My mother was their sister.
Cross examination - I shall be 22 years old eighteenth day of February next. I now live in Marshall County, Tennessee. I have lived there 12 or 15 years and it is about 26 miles from where the said Andrew J., James, and Isaac A. lived. I lived in Giles before I moved to Marshall. My mother is dead. I was in the habit of visiting my relations in Giles some two, three, four times, and sometimes more a year and was in Giles some three or four times in 1847. I heard awhile after their father died that there had been some trading as to the land in dispute between complainants and Isaac A. I am unable to say how long their father has been dead but would suppose some seven or eight years. I can’t say that there was anybody present at the conversations at the Barren Springs or the other conversation given in this deposition except complainants, Isaac A., and myself. All the conversations I heard were either at the hatter’s shop or the Barren Spring. There was no one living at the Barren Spring at the time. The parties had no pen, ink, or paper at the Spring. They made calculations in their heads and totaled (?) accordingly. None of them could write. They sat awhile and stood awhile. It was in the evening. The land in dispute is fifty acres and lies on the bridge.
I can’t say I am unfriendly to complainants at this time. When my deposition was not being taken in Marshall County sometime before this, James McNeese jumped on Isaac A. McNeese and I struck James with a stick. Before then I was generally friendly with all of them. I hit him with the stick but most of the lick was knocked off by then (or other). He had me arrested and it cost me $5.00 on the next morning. The Barren Spring is in sight of the old residence where their mother lived and was fine water where people passing generally stopped to get water. And further he saith not.
his
Sworn to and subscribed before me 6 October 1849James F. X Sutton
James McCollum, C&Mmark
Ann NOBLIN and James Franklin M. SUTTON had the following children:
+143 i.
Celia E. SUTTON.
144 ii.
John W. SUTTON was born on 29 Jun 1852 in TN.
(33) He died on 1 Sep 1852 in TN.(33)
+145 iii.
William A. SUTTON.
+146 iv.
George Washington SUTTON.
+147 v.
Francis Marion SUTTON.
+148 vi.
Nancy Ann SUTTON.
+149 vii.
Mary Elizabeth SUTTON.
+150 viii.
Martha Jane SUTTON.
151 ix.
James F. SUTTON was born on 29 May 1869 in Pocahontas, Randolph Co, AR.
(33) He died on 21 Feb 1875 in Pocahontas,
Randolph Co, AR.(33)
+152 x.
Thomas Samuel SUTTON.
+153 xi.
Benjamin F. SUTTON.
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