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Sim Cobb, far right Photo from Nicholas Cobb Descendants by Joe Cobb |
I have been researching the family of my second great grandmother, Lena Booth.
To me, one of the most rewarding parts of genealogy research is finding the information that uncovers your ancestor’s humanity. It’s always fun to start out with nothing more than a name and slowly see a real person begin to emerge.
I am very grateful that Joe Cobb included the diary of Simion Amherst “Sim” Cobb in his book “Nicholas Cobb Descendants, Neighbors and Relatives.” Sim was a close friend of Lena Booth’s father, Billy Booth and one of the sons of my fourth great grandparents, John Hardy and Harriet Castellaw Cobb and a brother of two of my direct descendants:
William Thomas Cobb
1833 – 1898
Married to Elizabeth Temperance Outlaw, 25 Jan 1866
Father of Mary Etta Cobb Brantley who was the mother of Henry Day Brantley, one of my maternal great grandfathers.Mourning Adeline Cobb
15 Mar 1838 – 30 Aug 1876
Married to Daniel Washington Watridge, 28 Nov 1877
Mother of Zula Zera Watridge Castellaw who was the mother of Elizabeth Williams, my paternal grandmother.
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Sim Cobb with his daughter Ida, left Photo from Nicholas Cobb Descendants by Joe Cobb |
Sim was physically a small man who weighed only 150 lbs at his heaviest. He fought in Company L of the Seventh Tennessee Calvary in the Civil War and later married his third wife when he was 63 and she was 32. She was younger than two of his children when they married but they were together 24 years and had four children.
Sim spent a great deal of time with many of my ancestors including W.C. Cobb, Tommie Rawls, J.C.W. Cobb, Sam Marbury, Sarah Elizabeth Steele, Daniel Watridge, Tinie White, Martha Watridge and many others in the late 1800s and early 1900s.
One misconception about farm life during that time was that is was somewhat lonely and filled with isolation. After all, they had no internet to facilitate their social networking, right? It turns out there were social networks before the world wide web.
Below are just some of the tweets…um, I mean entries that included W. G. “Billy” Booth in Sim’s 1875 diary. At the time, Sim was 35 and Billy was 59.
3 Jan 1875 – Sunday, in the morning at S. E. Steele; went home and fed, then went to W. G. Booth; went from there to S. E. Steele and returned home; cloudy all day, moderately cold; W. G. Booth was with me at night at home until eight o’ clock.
6 Jan 1875 – Wednesday, at father’s; very cold and cloudy; came home soon; went to W. T. Cobb and help him put sills under house; returned home after dinner and split rails; cloudy all day long and cold; James B. Booth (Billy’s son) came home from camp Hatchie and took meals at night.
10 Jan 1875 – Sunday, …I went to W.G. Booth and stayed until nearly night, then came home and got wood for the night.
19 Jan 1875 – Tuesday, fair and cold; cut and burned brush in the field; moved W. G. Booth’s fence; John F. White came over in the morning; J. C. W. Cobb and W. G. Booth was with me at night until bed time.
1 Feb 1875 – Monday, fair and pleasant; cut logs and wood; clouded up around 1 o’ clock; Mrs. Booth (Billy’s wife, Eliza White Booth) came over in the evening and took supper with us.
2 Feb 1875 – Tuesday, cloudy all day, rained during the day; split some wood and picked up trash in the new ground until dinner; after dinner, went to W. G. Booth and got my spade and worked on shelter by the smoke house.
15 Feb 1875 – Monday, cloudy and cold; burned logs and trash and hauled and put up rails; Pink (Harriett Outlaw) and Agatha ( Mrs. John Hardy Cobb) was here; Bet (his wife) went with them to W. G. Booth; J. E. Lott and W. G. Cobb came down at night to get some castor oil.
24 Feb 1875 – Wednesday, cloudy with some rain and warm; hauled manure in the garden and to the land for the Irish potatoes…caught a rabbit; Mrs. Booth (Eliza) and Lott were here; Ed came.
4 March 1875 – Thursday, cloudy; cut and split rails in the morning; in the evening went to D. W. Watridge (his brother, Daniel Watridge, father of Zula Zera Watridge Castellaw) and J. C. Cobb; Pink and Caroline spent the evening with Bet; Bet was at W. G. Booth when they came.
5 March 1875 – Friday, Friday, cloudy and misted rain in the morning; hauled rails in the morning; in the evening went and got the loom and put it up; split rails; Bet went to W. G. Booth in the evening.
15 March 1875 – Monday, cloudy in the morning; went to W. G. Booth; gubbed sprouts and fixed the water gap (a fence across a stream).
5 April 1875 – Monday; planted corn in the new ground next to W. G. Booth’s field.
2 May 1875 – Sunday, fair, went to Sunday School; D. W. Watridge and family was here and stayed until after supper; W. G. Booth, Willie (William L.) and J.B. (James Bembery) Booth and Mittie (probably Margaret) White was here and Roe Booth (Albert Cicero) also.
15 May 1875 – Saturday, fair; went to church at Zion; stopped at father’s and got dinner; W. C. Cobb and I went to the Risk Grange; E. J. Steele came to see Bet; Bet went to W. G. Booth.
8 June,1875 – Tuesday, fair and cool; Beth went to W. G. Booth; Albert hoed and replanted peas.
27 July,1875 – Tuesday, fair; went to take up hooks; came by John Herring’s and stopped a while; stopped at John White; came home and helped W. G. Booth get out wheat.
14 Sept 1875 – Tuesday, fair; me, Bet and Alice had chills; Mittie (possibly Margaret Booth) and John was here; Caroline White; E. J. Steele, Mag Watson and Mrs. Booth was here during the day; W. C. Cobb and W. G. Booth was here at night til bedtime.
7 November 1875 – Sunday. Cloudy; W. G. Booth came down and took dinner with us; in evening I went to Mrs. White.
It rained. They cut wood. He caught a rabbit. He went to Zion. His neighbor came down to borrow some castor oil. All very simple tasks that seem to not be important but they come together to create an interesting glimpse at the lives of my ancestors.
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Sim Cobb’s headstone in the Cobb Family Cemetery |
W. G. “Billy” Booth died in Haywood County on 16 Jun 1892 at the age of 76 and was buried at the Holly Grove Baptist Church Cemetery.
Sim’s wife, Bet, died in 1890 and was buried in the Cobb family cemetery. He married two more times then died in 1927 at the age of 87 and was also buried in the Cobb family cemetery.
For more, visit my Blog Home Page or the Haywood County Line Genealogy Page.