The Cobbs of Northwest Tennessee and Southeast Missouri
NOVEMBER 2007
Let me begin by saying I
am not quite satisfied with the results of this study. Although I have been working on it as time
permitted for almost two years, I was hoping to have more data compiled by this
time. The counties included in this
study are those lying in the upper (northern) half of the map shown above. By no means do I infer that all Cobbs who
lived in the specified area are included; but I do think it will come close.
I am continuing to work
on this as time permits and will update as often as needed. Additions and corrections are earnestly
solicited. Anything you can offer will
be appreciated. Email me at the above address.
LET'S GET STARTED
There is an overwhelming
temptation to credit the settlement of northwest Tennessee to four factors:
- 1. The acquisition of the Louisiana Territory in 1803.
- 2. The Bollinger Migration from North Carolina to Missouri.
- 3. The Great Chickasaw Cession of 1818.
- 4. The "Funnel Effect". I have failed utterly to
discover the location of a ferry across the Mississippi River
anywhere in the area concerned; but it is obvious there had to be one there
somewhere. It seems most likely a ferry
must have been located in what is now Obion
County, crossing over to New Madrid County, Missouri. Wherever the location, it was the only
crossing for a considerable distance in either direction. Anyone wishing to enter Missouri
had to ferry over at that one
point.
THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE
From Wikipedia:
The Louisiana Purchase was the acquisition
by the United States of approximately 530 million
acres (820,000 sq mi or 2,100,000 km)
of French territory in 1803, at the cost of about 4c per acre (7c per ha);
totaling $15 million or 80 million French francs.
Including interest, America
finally paid $23,213,568 for the Louisiana territory. The land purchased contained
all of present-day Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa, Oklahoma, Kansas,
Nebraska, and parts of Minnesota south of the Mississippi River, much of
North_Dakota, nearly all of South Dakota, northeastern New Mexico,
northern Texas, the portions of Montana, Wyoming, and Colorado
east of the Continental Divide, and Louisiana on both sides of the Mississippi River,
including the city of New Orleans.
(The Oklahoma Panhandle, and southwestern portions of Kansas and Louisiana were still
claimed by Spain at the time of the Purchase.) In addition, the Purchase contained small
portions of land that would eventually become part of the Canadian provinces of
Alberta and Saskatchewan. The land included in the purchase comprises around 23% of
the territory of the modern United States. The purchase was an important moment in the
presidency of Thomas Jefferson. At the time, it faced domestic opposition as being
possibly unconstitutional. Although he felt that the Constitution did not contain
any provisions for acquiring territory, Jefferson decided to purchase Louisiana
because he felt uneasy about France and Spain having the power to block American
traders' access to the port of New Orleans.
With the stroke of a pen
President Thomas Jefferson doubled the size of the United States in the largest real
estate transaction in recorded History.
It was arguably the largest acquisition of territory in History that was
not accomplished by military conquest.
THE BOLLINGER MIGRATION
From Wikipedia:
George Frederick
Bollinger (1770-1842) was born in Tryon County, North Carolina. Both
Bollinger County, Missouri and Fredericktown, Missouri are named after
him.
He was the eleventh of the
twelve children of Heinrich Bollinger. George Frederick persuaded twenty other
families to leave North Carolina in the fall of 1799 and settle
in a region immediately east of what is now Cape Girardeau, Missouri.
To acquire the
land, Bollinger first had to sign of a document asserting that he and his
fellow settlers were all Catholics. In reality, most of the group were members
of the German Reformed Church, and none were
Catholic. However, Don Louis Lorimier, the Spanish Land Commandant of
Cape Girardeau, Missouri, had been impressed by
Bollinger on an earlier visit and was willing to bend the rules for him and his
fellow settlers.
From Wikipedia:
Bollinger County, Missouri
The county was named
after George Frederick Bollinger, the eleventh
of the twelve children of Heinrich Bollinger. George Frederick Bollinger
persuaded twenty other families to leave North Carolina in the fall of 1799 and settle in a region immediately east
of what is now Cape Girardeau, Missouri. To acquire the
land, Bollinger first had to sign of a document asserting that he and his
fellow settlers were all Catholics. In reality, most of the group were members of the
German Reformed Church, and none were
Catholic. However, Don Louis Lorimier, the Spanish Land Commandant of Cape Girardeau,
had been impressed by
Bollinger on an earlier visit and was willing to bend the rules for him and his
fellow settlers.
Making the journey from North Carolina with
George Frederick Bollinger were his brothers, John, Daniel and Mathias
Bollinger and two nephews Mann Henry Bollinger and William Bollinger. Several
friends also joined the expedition, brothers George and Peter Grount (Grounds)
along with Peter's young son Daniel Grount, brothers Peter and Conrad Statler,
Joseph Neyswanger, Peter Crytes, Jacob Cetner, John and Isaac Miller, Frederick
Limbaugh, Leonard Welker and Frederick Slinkard. All had immigrated with their
families from Germany in the
early 1700's and later migrated down the Shanandoah
Valley into North Carolina by the late 1700's.
The Bollinger-led group
of German Reformed families moved into the area in January of 1800, crossing
their wagons over the Mississippi River after an unusually cold stretch of
weather had frozen the surface all the way across. Meanwhile, ownership of the
region shifted in quick succession from Spain to France, and
then, in 1803, to the United States via the Louisiana Purchase.
The region west of
Cape Girardeau was organized as a county
in 1851 and named Bollinger County in honor of George Frederick Bollinger. In the next
county to the west, Madison County, the settlement of Fredericktown was also named after George
Frederick Bollinger.
It is clearly established
that large numbers of Carolinians began moving to Missouri
in the early 1800's; particularly from the border region between North and South Carolina.
The genealogical researcher who finds himself
stumped by the sudden mysterious disappearance of someone from either of the
Carolinas during this period would probably be surprised to discover they had
moved to Missouri.
However, it is also
clearly established that many people who started for Missouri did not get there.
Many dropped out along the way; or changed
their minds and moved up into Kentucky and
southern Illinois. There are also instances where people reached
Missouri,
decided they didn't like it, and turned around and went back where they came
from.
THE GREAT CHICKASAW CESSION OF 1818
A treaty signed in 1818 by Chickasaw and United States representatives relinquished all
lands between the Tennessee and Mississippi Rivers. In this treaty, the Chickasaw ceded what was to become known
as West Tennessee or, in other words, all of their land west of the western
waters of the Tennessee River. Only a few small
Chickasaw tracts or reservations avoided cession at that time.
"...the Chickasaw Nation of
Indians cede . . . the land lying north of the south boundary of the State of Tennessee. . . Beginning
on the Tennessee River, about thirty-five miles by water below Colonel George
Colbert's ferry, where the thirty-fifth degree of north latitude strikes the
same; thence west, with the said degree of north latitude, to where it cuts the
Mississippi River at or near Chickasaw bluffs; thence up the said Mississippi
River, to the mouth of the Tennessee River; thence up the Tennessee River to the
beginning."
All West Tennessee Counties
were formed from land ceded in this Great Chickasaw Cession.
Historically and typically, by
the time a treaty was signed between the United States government and any
indian tribe, non-indians had been living on indian land for at least a
generation. I personally believe this is
the main reason why so many researchers automatically (and mistakenly) assume
they have a native-American ancestry.
Another personal opinion: My
take on it is that the purpose for any treaty, and subsequent removal of a
tribe, was to make it possible for whites to legally own the land they most
likely already lived on. Being primarily
of English extraction, a white man was not keen on the idea of developing and
working land he did not own. And it was
not until counties and townships were established, surveyed, and platted that
legal ownership of a specific piece of land was made possible.
THE FUNNEL EFFECT
Although there are now
numerous means of crossing the Mississippi River,
in that era there were only two ... ferry boat; or to wait until the river
froze in winter, then risk driving across.
Forgive the pun; but the very thought of the latter literally sends cold
chills up my spine!
In the beginning there
was only one ferry, and thus "the Funnel (or Hour Glass) Effect."
Migrants from a wide area on the Tennessee side of the
river merged at the point of crossing.
Then after getting across to Missouri,
they fanned out again to cover another wide area.
In 1820, the total population of west Tennessee was 2500 and by
1830 it had climbed to over 100,000.
County Formation: Alphabetical Order
County Created From
1835 Benton Humphreys
1821 Carroll Indian Lands
1871 Crockett Dyer, Gibson, Haywood, and Madison
1823 Dyer Indian Lands
1823 Gibson Indian Lands
1821 Henry Indian Lands & Stewart
1870 Lake Obion
1835 Lauderdale Haywood, Dyer, and Tipton
1823 Obion Indian Lands
1823 Weakley Indian Lands
County Formation: Chronological Order
1821 Carroll Indian Lands
1821 Henry Indian Lands & Stewart
1823 Dyer Indian Lands
1823 Gibson Indian Lands
1823 Obion Indian Lands
1823 Weakley Indian Lands
1835 Benton Humphreys
1835 Lauderdale Haywood, Dyer, and Tipton
1870 Lake Obion
1871 Crockett Dyer, Gibson, Haywood, and Madison
Census Checklist: Cobb(s) are found on the
following census reports in the counties listed.
1830 Carroll
1840 Carroll Dyer Obion
1850 Benton Carroll Dyer Gibson Henry Lauderdale
Obion Weakley
1860 Benton Carroll Dyer Gibson Henry Lauderdale
Obion Weakley
1870 Benton Carroll Dyer Gibson Henry Lauderdale Lake Obion Weakley
1880 Benton Carroll Crockett Dyer Gibson Henry Lake
Lauderdale Obion Weakley
1900 Benton Carroll Crockett Dyer Gibson Henry Lake
Lauderdale Obion Weakley
1910 Benton Carroll Crockett Dyer Gibson Henry Lake
Lauderdale Obion Weakley
1920 Dyer Gibson Lauderdale Obion
1930 Dyer Lake Lauderdale Obion
FAMILIES
There are currently just over 1000
individuals in this database, divided among 13 separate families. The lack of descendant and DNA participation
in this study makes it extremely difficult to assign the majority of these
people to any known common ancestor.
For purposes of this study, the search was done by
spelling the name only three ways: Cob, Cobb, and Cobbs.
Note from
Betty Harris on 27 Jun 2014:
Separate Lines of Cobb folks in Northwest TN... As is currently unknown or understood.
Recent research found 11 different families in this database. To help sort them out we've posted this list below and links to other pages if we know which line they are. Other are encouraged to help us identify these folks more. Please email ---- if you know more about them.
- 1. Jacob Cobb who m. Wini Benefield,
a descendant of Henerich Kopp from Germany
- 2. Jesse Cobb who m. Nancy Reese,
a descendant has tested to be from the Ambrose Cobbs line
- 3. Jesse Cobb b. abt 1815 m. Emily Whitehurst,
a descendant of Nicholas of IOW.
- 4. William Marshall Cobb m. Dorothea Groom,
a descendant of Henry the Elder of Barnstable
- 5. William H. Cobb m. Louisa UNKNOWN, ancestor not known.
- 6. Charles E. (Edwin) Cobb b. 1836 ME,
(a delayed birth certificate for his son John Edwin Cobb gave parents as Charles Edwin Cobb and Emma Wilson)
descendants of Henry the Elder of Barnstable
- 7. Charles Sargent Cobb, a grandson of William H. and Louisa Cobb
- 8. William E. Cobb m. Sisely King, parents not documented
- 9. Robert L. Cobb m. Clara UNKNOWN, no other info on this family at all
- 10. E. Tracy Cobb was Ephraim Tracy Cobb,
a descendant of Henerich Kopp from Germany
- 11. Adam Cobb m. Rebecca UNKNOWN, parentage unknown
The Cobbs of Northwest Tennessee ---
Surnames ---
Individuals