MAJOR MOSES WINTERS

In The Story of Oliver Springs, TN and Its People, vol. IV, Snyder E. Roberts devotes about 19 pages to this family. I am going to just list his descendants, and refer interested researchers to the book.  PMcD

This Moses Winters is not to be confused with a Moses Winters who came from SC to the Holston Settlement in East TN where he joined with James Robertson to travel overland to Middle TN, and arrived there Dec 15, 1779. His wife, Elizabeth (Head) Winters and their seven daughters followed in the famous John Donelson's Flotilla down the Tennessee River, and arrived in April of 1780. This Moses Winters died in Robertson County in 1798.

It was Major Moses Winters (1760/70--4-11-1846), old Indian fighter, from VA by way of Carter's Valley in upper East TN who settled before 1799 in the valley between the northern boundary of the McClung 5000-acre survey and Walden Ridge to become the first white settler in the old part of present-day Oliver Springs, TN.

Site of Old Salt Well in Oliver Springs, TN

His birthdate has not been definitely established. The Anderson County 1840 census shows his birth as between 1760 and 1770, but he may have been born slightly earlier since he is on record as fighting Indians in Carter's Valley in 1775. He and his wife ELIZABETH CHARLTON WINTERS are buried in the one-half acre Winters' family graveyard now the site of the Robert Parton home in Oliver Springs. They were the parents of seven girls and one son as follows:

LOUISA WINTERS married on April 12, 1817 JACOB LEMMONS.

ELIZABETH WINTERS b 1792 VA married 22/24/1820 ELIAS BUTLER b 1794. He was the son of Jacob and Martha Manley Butler. They had the following children: William Preston Butler (1826) mar Emily Jane Butler (1831); Moses F. D. Butler (1831) was a civil engineer and unmarried; Boliver Butler (1835) married Laura Ruffner; Obediah Butler (1837) unmarried, blind; Jacob Butler (1829) probably unmarried, went west in the "Gold Rush."; Elizabeth Butler(1834) married Nick Lawson; Lou Butler married William Adkisson; Patsy Jane Butler married a Galbraith; Angelina Butler married a Shaw.

MARY "POLLY" WINTERS b 1797 married ELIJAH CROSS (1795). Anderson County Deed Book Q, p 196 dated 1853, "Elijah Cross and his wife Mary as heirs of Moses Winters deceased deed lands in Anderson County for the consideration of one dollar." Elijah and Mary appear in the Morgan County 1850 and 1860 census with the following children: John (1839), Jacob (1832), Mary C. (1834) and F. D. Cross (1839).

MATILDA WINTERS married HARVEY RUSSELL (see next, below)

MALINDA WINTERS married THOMAS ALEXANDER RUSSELL Anderson County Deed Book Q, page 201 dated 15 Nov 1853, "Harvey Russell and Matilda Russell wife of said Harvey and daughter of Moses Winters deceased, and Thomas Alexander Russell and Malinda Russell, wife of said Thomas Alexander Russell and daughter of said Moses Winters deceased of the County of Henderson and State of IL, parties of the first part, in consideration of one dollar paid by Moses C. Winters of the County of Roane. Relinquishing our claims on lands in Morgan, Anderson, and Roane Counties, known and described as being our right, title, and interest as heirs at law of said Moses Winters to said Moses C. Winters....."

JANE WINTERS (1801) married WILLIAM G. BUTLER (1802) son of Henry Butler. Jane and William G. owned 131 acres in the present-day "Frog Level" section of Oliver Springs. After her husband's death, Jane had the tract surveyed May 10, 1856 shown as survey No. 456, page 77. Jane and William G.'s home was probably the log structure on the old Hen Valley Road, later known as the Preacher Bill Brummitt home and later the site of the Elden Brown home. Jane and William G. Butler had the following children: Mary Jane Butler (1827-1901) married William Galbraith, William P.Butler (1820), Thomas A. Butler (1833), Malinda Butler (1835), Moses H. Butler (1838)

NANCY WINTERS (1807). Evidently Nancy never married. The Roane County 1860 census shows her living in the Thomas Butler home.

MOSES CHARLTON WINTERS (or Wineters, as he spelled it) was born 1806 at Winters Gap, Roane County and died 1874 near Rockwood, Roane County. He was married February 10, 1840 by Justice of the Peace, J. E. Nelson, to LEAH SHAW (1822) who was thought to be the daughter of Jesse Shaw (b 1780 VA).

There are several pages in the book about Moses Charlton Winters. Most of his children scattered to various states, and only a few remained in the Rockwood area. The children of Moses C. and Leah Shaw are:

  1. Preston C. (1842) m Susan Bruce. Removed to Choctow Indian Ter, Ataka Co. in 1882

  2. Mary M. (1843) m (1864) John B. Lawson. In Knox Co, TN in 1882.

  3. Lucinda Jane (1845) m Daniel Bell. To Kansas City, MO

  4. Moses W. (1848) was in Choctaw Indian Ter. by 1882

  5. Martha C (1849) m Christopher F. Bowers. was in Kansas City by 1882

  6. Pierce (1853) unmar

  7. William Walker Winters (1854) m Artemissia Staples. Lived at Post Oak in Roane

  8. Harvey R. (1857) no children

  9. James J. (1859) moved to MO

  10. Sterling P. (1861) unmarried

  11. Louisa I. married John C. Nelson. Lived in Dayton TN.

Moses C. Winters and his wife were members of the Baptist Church at the Sulphur Springs.  It was he who gave the one-acre lot on which the large log church building was erected after the Church was organized at the Sulphur Springs shed in 1846.  At least some of Moses' sisters and daughters were members of this Church because the minutes show that hey were reprimanded for the offense of dancing.  

In 1868, Moses C. Winters moved his family to his 453 acre farm on the waters of the Tennessee River near Rockwood.  In old age, his mind evidently was free from many of the trials and tribulations that had beset him for so many years, and was concerned with his spiritual welfare because among the names of the Charter Members of the Caney Creek Ford Baptist Church organized in 1870, is the name Mose C. Winters.  Moses C. died July 12, 1874 and is buried in the Delaney Cemetery.

John C. Nelson, a son-in-law, was appointed Administrator of the Moses C. Winters ' estate.  several small tracts and lots in the Oliver Springs area were sold.  The estate was divided among the ten living children of Moses C. and Leah Winters, and these ten (Book U, p 354) agreed to share equally, or a one-eleventh, with a half-sister by the same father. 

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