Family Histories

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April 2006

Randy has generously shared these for publication with the Christian County Mogen Web site.No data may be reproduced or published without permission of the author. Please note that web host to delete names and data of the living altered the manuscript.  

 

The early Inmans of Christian Co., MO came in three family groups:

-- The children of Ezekiel Inman (1804, TN-1879, Shelby Co., MO) from his first marriage to Sarah "Sally" Sanders, the daughter of Azariah Sanders and Zipporah Richardson. This couple was married in Hardin Co., KY Nov. 18, 1824 and moved to Parke Co., IN where Sally died c. 1834.

Ezekiel distributed the children to his Sanders in-laws and moved to Adams Co., IL where he had two more wives and families. The children, however, came to Greene Co., MO in the 1840s with their grandmother and two uncles, William and Elijah Sanders who settled in the area that became north-central Christian Co. in 1859.

The most prominent among the children were John William Inman/Inmon of Inman's Arch in Stone Co. who married Jayne Payne, the daughter of Archibald Payne and Tinney Jane Hartley of Porter Township; and James Westley Inman of Christian and Greene Cos., who married Sarah Ann Gilmore/Gilmer.

-- The children of the Rev. James William Inman (1760s-c. 1836, Giles Co., TN) from his second marriage to Martha Caroline Wilson. Only one of those children -- Elkanah Dulaney -- was male, but early Gambles and Wilsons of Christian and Greene Cos. were also descendants.

-- David Alexander Inman (Sept. 15, 1796-Aug. 6, 1892) of Nixa, his wife Elizabeth Carnes and their children who began emigrating to Christian Co. in the 1850s. By legend, Nixa gained its name from his second son, a blacksmith who came to the county before the Civil War.

Some researchers have concluded that James William Inman was the progenitor of all these Inmans -- and they may be correct.

James William Inman, whose bloodlines are murky at best, likely was the son of Lazarus Inman (c. 1730-1781) and Elizabeth White of Augusta Co., VA, but not all of James William's children and grandchildren have been identified. Lazarus was the apparent brother of an older Ezekiel, who settled for a time in Augusta Co., but moved east to Albemarle during the French and Indian War and to Rowan/Burke Cos., NC by Revolutionary times. Ezekiel appears to have died in what became Blount Co., TN before 1800. The children of Ezekiel and James William lived in the same mountainous area of East Tennessee. James William's daughter Louisa Caroline married William Sanders, the brother of Sally Sanders Inman, in a family that was given to cousin and in-law marriages common in Virginia.

David Alexander Inman almost certainly was the son of either James William or his brother David.

Researchers have devoted literally thousands of man-years to firmly tracing the origins of these families, without success.

 

Lazarus Inman and Elizabeth White

Lazarus Inman leaps into recorded history in western Virginia in 1760 with no known forebears. He likely was a brother to Ezekiel and Hezekiah Inman, also living nearby in the early 1750s. Hezekiah was cited in Augusta Co., VA records by the mid-1750s, and his dealings brought him in contact with men who later were close neighbors or associates of Lazarus. Ezekiel, too, lived in Augusta during this time, but, more importantly, he named his youngest son Lazarus.

 

These Inmans likely had origins in either greater Philadelphia/New Castle, DE or Baltimore, where they had settled upon their transport from England. Despite their distinctive given names, no references to these Inmans have been found in Maryland or Pennsylvania or elsewhere.

 

The sparse references to Lazarus begin on Feb. 19, 1760 when he witnessed a deed from neighborhood farmer John Hutcheson to Francis Alexander, which for five pounds transferred ownership of 265 acres on Long Meadow near the South River in Augusta Co.⁽⁷⁾ George Hutcheson had received the original grant in 1738 for the land, which lay on or near the site of modern Waynesboro, VA. Joining Lazarus as witness were two other Alexanders, James and John.

 

The picture builds for Lazarus during the 1760s of a quiet tenant farmer in the South River valley, which was dominated by Long Meadow. The other early citations in Augusta Co. court records are:

• Nov. 20, 1761 - James Hollis, George Wooldridge and Lazarus Inman were appointed jurymen.⁽⁸⁾ His service on the jury likely indicated that Lazarus was a property owner, but no grant or sale has been found.
• March 15, 1768 - Lazarus Inman was ordered to work on a road with Robert Allen Jr. as overseer.⁽⁹⁾

The records then begin to show a more mature family man when Lazarus was granted 200 acres on the South River adjoining Isaac White and David Henderson on Nov. 11, 1769.⁽¹⁰⁾ His presence is affirmed there in a lawsuit on a 1772 grant, involving the widow of Robert Allen Jr., that shows Lazarus' land came to a corner with the property of Thomas Walker, John Campbell and William Teas, whose family had owned the Waynesboro town site since 1755. Dr. Thomas Walker, one of the most famous frontiersmen in southwest VA, was reputedly the first English settler to visit Kentucky. On Sept. 29, 1779, Lazarus paid off a debt to Mary Reid Teas, the widow of William Teas,⁽¹¹⁾ and the 1779 tax lists show Lazarus had gone to Rockbridge Co.,⁽¹²⁾ an adjoining county created from Augusta and Botetourt Cos., the previous year; the citation may simply mean his farm lay in the new county.

The books on Lazarus close when the Augusta Co. Court minutes show that a lawsuit was dismissed May 24, 1782 because he had died.⁽¹³⁾ Rockbridge Co. records show no mention of Lazarus or any other Inman through the year 1800, including possible guardianship papers on his minor children.

The direct records provide no hint of a wife or family for this farmer. But probably in the early or mid-1760s, Lazarus married Elizabeth White (1740s), daughter of his neighbors, Isaac White and wife Jane Campbell, and the granddaughter of James (1682-1754) and Margaret Campbell.

Lazarus and Elizabeth appear to have had at least six sons: David (b. 1760s-1799), James William (1760s-1830s), Henry, John (1778-August 7, 1838), Joseph (1780-1855) and Isaac (1781-1841). One possible daughter has surfaced: Rebecca (aka Hinman), who married James Watts Nov. 2, 1792 in Augusta Co. These relationships are pieced together through wills, probate papers, tax lists and shards of other information that fail to document the kinships conclusively. But circumstantial evidence supports the marriage of Elizabeth White to Lazarus:

• Isaac White bought or was granted property in the same Long Meadow-South River area in 1769, and in 1770 he added property adjoining Lazarus Inman.
• Isaac White served in Capt. Thompson's Augusta Co. militia comp; Lazarus served in the same company from the beginning of the Revolution to c. 1781.
• Isaac White's will in 1774 notes that daughter Elizabeth is married, but fails to mention her married name.
• The 1753 will of James Campbell cites granddaughter Elizabeth White as a "child," placing her marriage and the birth of any children likely no earlier than c. 1760. All the children ascribed to Lazarus were born from the 1760s through 1781.
• Jane Campbell White was the sister of John Campbell, who is listed as the cornering neighbor of Lazarus Inman in 1772.
• The names of Lazarus' children followed the pattern of the Whites: David, James William , Henry (an exception), John, Joseph and Isaac among the sons and Rebecca among the possible daughters. Augusta Co. Land Commission records in 1780 show Isaac White was the son of John White, then dead, and his apparent brothers were David, John, William and perhaps Joseph (who moved from Augusta to the French Broad River of TN in 1790). According to Isaac's will, he had sons David, James, Isaac and Gordon (the youngest, b. 1761). David married Rebecca Robertson in the 1770s.

The data suggests an abrupt switch in the family naming pattern here: Lazarus, estranged at least by distance from elder brothers Ezekiel and Hezekiah, was influenced by his wife to adopt more conventional names than the obscure Old Testament monikers chosen by his parents. These names (James, John, Joseph and, to lesser but significant extents, David, William and Isaac) persisted in these families for generations. Lazarus' son Isaac, who moved eventually to Madison Co., AL, where he died, was said to be named Isaac White Inman.

Tax, land and census rolls in Augusta and Rockbridge Cos. provide few clues to the fate of Lazarus' family after his death; in fact, they are never mentioned again, with two exceptions:

• The rolls of VA militia in the Revolutionary War, besides Lazarus in Capt. Thompson's company, list David and William Inman in Capt. Finley's company from Augusta Co. William was listed as absent in a 1780 general court martial of the county militia.
• The 1787 tax list/census of Augusta Co. found William Inman as the only adult man of that surname in the county; he was living in a household with no other males over age 16, one horse and a cow, but no slaves. This household could have provided a home for very young male Inmans, such as James, Joseph and Isaac, or no other Inmans at all except for females. (This man apparently was James William Inman, second son of Lazarus.)

Jane Campbell White was still living in 1791, when final transactions took place to sell her late husband Isaac's farm to her nephew, Lt. (and county Sheriff) James Steele. The White sons all married in Augusta Co., but moved to Blount Co., TN where several Inmans settled. 

 

The last legal reference to Elizabeth White Inman apparently came in May 1790 in Greene Co., TN (then North Carolina) when she won a legal judgment of 45 shillings plus costs against Benjamin Davis.

Children of Lazarus and Elizabeth White Inman

Lazarus and Elizabeth White Inman had six known sons:

n      David Inman (1760s, Augusta Co., VA-1801, Grainger Co., TN)

n    James William Inman (1760s, Augusta Co., VA-c. 1836, Giles Co., TN)

n    John Inman (1778, Rockbridge Co., VA-Aug. 7, 1838, Giles Co., TN)

n    Joseph Jasper Inman (1780, Rockbridge Co., VA-1855, Giles Co., TN)

n    Isaac White Inman (1781, Rockbridge Co., VA-1841, Morgan Co., AL)

n    Henry Inman

David Inman (c. 1760, Augusta Co., VA-1799, Grainger Co., TN)

David appears to have been born in the early 1760s, the eldest child of Lazarus and Elizabeth. After his father's death, David left VA, based on 1787 tax records.

Little trail exists for David before or after his Revolutionary War service in Augusta Co., whose records contain NO mention of him. Some early Inman researchers said David appears after the Revolution in the records of St. Luke's Parish, which included Surry and Rowan Cos., NC, and he married the daughter of Hugh (or Jesse) Jenkins. However, Jenkins' will was witnessed by a John Inman, and no other connection has been found.

In 1792, David is found in Greene Co., TN on the tax list of Capt. McFarland. On May 20, 1793, David was still living in Greene Co., where he filed suit against his cousin, Daniel, son of Shadrach Inman. The jury found for Daniel.

On Oct. 10, 1796, David was elected and commissioned an ensign in the militia of Jefferson Co., TN, the home of his cousin Abednego, with brother James William as the unit's captain. Virtually all records on David thereafter involve his dealings in the civil court system as a plaintiff, defendant or commonly juror in Grainger Co., TN.

The available data suggests that David moved to Jefferson and then Grainger Co., TN to help his brothers, James, William and Joseph, work at a family saltpetre mine and/or mill.⁽¹⁴⁾ Later TN land survey records show an Inman family operated a mill on Inman's Mill Creek in Grainger Co.⁽¹⁵⁾; similar records show an Inman family mined a saltpetre mine/cave in modern Claiborne Co., TN. In 1798 brother John was asked to pay debts in saltpeter.

This largely undocumented life ended by May 21, 1801 in Grainger Co., TN when his brothers "William, Henry, Isaac, John or Joseph" are asked to step forward and tell why James "Cralley," a creditor, should not have control of the estate of David. David last appeared alive in the records on May 20, 1800 when he served as a juror.  This James Crowley (1763-1840),  a native Virginian who later died in Excelsior Springs, MO, had married Mary McClain and settled in the area.

Objections may have been raised but not recorded because Grainger Sheriff John Lea was appointed administrator of the estate. No further citations have been found until 1803, when Josiah Clark, the brother or father of David's sister-in-law and perhaps a brother-in-law himself, received from the estate on Jan. 1. Clark owned a gunpowder mill on Gap Creek, Carter Co., where John and James William Inman owned land in 1809. This gunpowder connection fits well with the likelihood that the Inmans were involved with a saltpeter mine in Grainger Co.

On Feb. 23, Major Lea, a county court judge, was appointed administrator of David’s estate. The inventory found that David had one slave named Jesse, 30 hogs and a grinding stone, which may have been part of the mill apparatus. The probate appeared likely to end on Nov. 9, 1803 when Isaac Inman verified the estate's accounts.

Nevertheless, the estate continued with the Leas' involvement. In November, the court recorded a bill of sale for a slave named George from Joseph Inman to his brother Isaac. Yet in 1805, John Lea -- David's administrator yet again -- recorded the sale of slave George to John Keene.

Many researchers have interpreted the Inmans who were asked to step forward as the sons of David. But considering his probable age and their known dates of birth, David was their older brother. He could have seemed like a father, however, especially to John, Joseph and Isaac, who were mere toddlers when father Lazarus Inman died.

The children of David, who are not named in the estate settlement, have not been traced, but they likely include:

1. Lazarus (1780s), who married Agnes Manuel in Greene Co., TN on March 3, 1814 at about age 30; they had three sons and five daughters, all under age 15, by 1830. The migration of the Augusta Co. White uncles to Blount Co. suggests strongly that Lazarus had been raised by them.  Agnes' father Henry had close ties to Elizabeth Crowley, who was the widow of James Dulaney/Delaney.
2. The Blount Co. census records suggest he had a brother or other relative, William (b.c. 1800) who lived next door and married Mary Weir/Wear there in 1823.
3. Rachel who married Solomon Webb in Grainger Co. The couple is found in Maury Co., TN in 1830. Solomon was born in the 1770s, Rachel in the 1780s. No records have been found documenting this marriage, which was asserted by an Oklahoma Inman descendant.
4. Wife of Josiah Clark of Carter Co., who received of David's estate.   Although Josiah was the same age or older than David, it is possible that he married one of David's daughters or, more likely, sisters. Josiah may have been paid simply for supplies for the mine, the expenses of caring for David's children and widow or tending to the estate.
5. David Alexander, (September 25, 1796, VA-Aug. 6, 1892, Christian Co., MO), who raised a family in Monroe and Loudon Cos., TN before the entire brood moved to Christian Co. between the 1850s and 1880s. David's contention that he was born in VA has complicated placing him in the Inman family structure.

Henry Inman

Little record has been found of this son of Lazarus except for tax-roll mentions in Williamson Co., TN in 1810 and 1815. He had moved to Williamson Co. by Nov. 20, 1809, when he is cited in the buyers at the estate sale of William Hunnel.  The Inman settlement in Hickman Co. was near the Williamson Co. line, and his brother Joseph Inman signed the marriage papers of Samuel Faught in Williamson Co. in 1810.

Major Joseph Jasper (?) Inman (1780-1855)

Left fatherless as a toddler in Augusta Co., VA, young Joseph Inman was always tied to his brother, James William, who may have raised him. The two moved together to TN, where they appear on the 1799 tax rolls of Grainger Co.; they apparently were mining saltpetre from a local cave for sale to ammunitions makers. They also likely were joined by brother David in helping run a mill in Grainger Co. on Inman's Mill Creek that cousin Abednego may have owned.

In 1799, Joseph was shown paying taxes on 133 acres in Grainger Co., TN that may have been jointly held with older brothers David and James William, who is shown paying poll tax there that year. (David died without real property in his probate.) Jointly held land, formed into a family compound, was a tradition that the Inman family followed until well into the 1900s in Missouri.

Around 1807, Joseph moved with James William to Hickman Co., TN, likely in connection with the wagon train of Adam Wilson, a long-time neighbor of the Inmans. Wilson in 1806 became the first permanent white settler of Hickman (then-Dickson) Co., TN, and his son William and grandson James became early leaders in the sparsely populated area.

The new county was established in January 1808, and in May, Joseph was elected second major in the new Hickman Co. militia, serving under Capt. John Holland and first Maj. Joseph Wilson, another son of Adam. The Hickman Co. records burned during the Civil War, and orally based histories of the county contain no other mention of Joseph.

Joseph appears as bondsman for the marriage of Samuel Faught, who had lived in Hickman and Warren Cos., and Nancy Dean in neighboring Williamson Co., TN in 1810. Joseph who was known as "Major Inman" his entire later life may not have lived in Williamson, because the families are believed to have resided near the Hickman-Williamson county line. Joseph's brother Henry appears in Williamson in 1810 and 1815 tax records.

Joseph's 1852 land bounty application shows he was living in Hickman Co. when he enlisted at Fayetteville, Lincoln Co., TN on Sept. 20, 1813 and became 2nd major in the 2nd Regiment of the West TN militia. Joseph was discharged April 20, 1814 after his service in the Creek War or War of 1812. He served under Col. Levi Hammonds and Capt. Alex Lowry. According to his military records, Joseph also fought in the Seminole War of 1817 and 1818.

The existing TN censuses of 1820 show no traces of Joseph, even though Hickman Co.'s list has been preserved. If the brothers had moved back to eastern Tennessee -- which James William did -- they do not appear because those censuses were destroyed.  But on Sept. 10, 1827, both James William and Joseph received 25-acre state grants in Giles Co., TN, where they appear in the 1830 census.

Many researchers concluded Joseph had two wives, but no documentation has been provided for the first. The 1850 census shows him living with wife 'Fanney' or Francis (per her gravestone), b. 1791/2, TN, and the dates match the figures for Joseph's wife in the 1830 census. Jymie Carol Ford Inman of Kerens, TX says this woman was Frances Chapman, a member of a well-established Giles Co. family who had settled there by 1820.⁽³⁹⁾

In 1850, Joseph and Fanny lived almost next door to James Chapman, b. 1780, TN, and the later Inmans had numerous dealings with Benjamin and Stanford Chapman of Ozark, MO, who had emigrated to Christian Co. from Middle Tennessee.

Fanny passed away on Jan. 2, 1855, and she is buried in Old Salem Cemetery on Dry Creek Road south of Campbellsville, TN. The cemetery was co-located with the now-destroyed Old Salem Methodist Church, a denomination that Inmans embraced after the great revival of 1800-1804 on the frontier.

Joseph's death followed shortly that year after he had written perhaps the first true will of this Inman line. He bequeathed his entire estate in 1855 to a daughter and three sons of his late nephew James C. Inman, James William's son who died September 11, 1844 amid the black tongue epidemic that swept Middle TN. After James C.'s early death, his family likely was taken in by Joseph and Fanny, both of whom were fondly remembered in dozens of namesake Inman offspring.

Joseph gave Susan Inman (Mrs. Porter) McAllister the land where she and her husband were living "and control of it without the husband's approval." Her little brother received $200. But the bulk of the estate "including a sizable number of slaves" went to their brothers, Joseph C. and John C., who also became executors of the estate.

Joseph's will shows that he cared deeply about the institution of slavery and the care of his slaves: "And it is my earnest wish and desire that my slaves who have always been dutiful and obedient should be kept together, and well fed & clothed, and in every respect well treated. And if either one of my two great nephews Joseph C. and John C. desire or be compelled to sell any of the slaves...that they will permit her or him or them to select & choose their homes and masters. And if either of them should die without selling or disposing of the...that then they so arrange it by their last will and testament that said slaves be sold, allowing them the privilege of selecting their masters or be kept together and not hired out...My great wish & anxiety being to secure to them kind and good treatment."

The will soon became one of the great legal cases on this institution in antebellum Tennessee history. On Sept. 13, 1855, John C. and the Rev. Joseph C. Inman freed their great-uncle's slave Elias, and the emancipation papers were filed in the Giles Co. register's office. Joseph C. then tried to annul the agreement. John C. died in 1858, but Joseph pursued the case as John C.'s co-executor because he was in serious financial straits - 'insolvent,' according to another lawsuit. In 1859, Elias himself sued by an unlikely 'next friend,' Quarles T. Mayfield, a Giles Co. slave trader and the other co-executor of John C.'s will and estate. Attorneys Thomas M. Jones and Calvin Clark of Pulaski represented Elias, and the local court ruled that he should be shipped to the west coast of Africa. The case went to the Tennessee Supreme Court, but its disposition couldn’t be found in a 2003 visit to the state archives.

Isaac White (?) Inman (1781-1841)

Likely the last of Lazarus and Elizabeth White Inman's children, Isaac may have been born after Lazarus' death - or at least after the death of grandfather Isaac White, who died in 1781.

Little is known about this man until he signs the verification of brother David's estate settlement in 1803 in Grainger Co., TN. In 1806 he signed a power of attorney, likely authorizing sale of his lands in Grainger Co., and he next is found in Smith Co., TN, on Aug. 6, 1806, petitioning with other residents for the formation of a new county called Warren centered on the seat of McMinnville, TN. The petition is remarkable for the number of Campbells and Rodgers/Rogers families that appears; Isaac's grandmother was a Campbell, and his aunt married Robert Rogers in Augusta Co., VA.

Also on the petition were John and Samuel Faught, the father and brother of Wiley Blount Faught Sr. who settled near Huntsville, AL and then Giles Co., TN before his family migrated to Christian Co., MO.

By 1817, Isaac White Inman had settled outside Huntsville, AL, near his cousins, John Ritchie and Ezekiel Inman, in Morgan Co. In 1817, he married in Morgan Co., AL to Martha Frost.

Isaac's will, dated 1841, notes his wife Martha and children Lucinda (Fuller), Green L. (likely Lazarus), James H. and Sarah (Mitchell). The naming pattern suggests that Isaac, too, was raised by James William after Lazarus' early death.

John Inman (1778-Aug. 7, 1838)

John Inman, the son of Lazarus Inman and Elizabeth White, married Susannah Clark on Nov. 6/8, 1796 in Dandridge, Jefferson Co., TN, the hometown of his cousin, Abednego Inman. He is believed to have married again because her name is rarely passed down in the family. Susannah is never mentioned again in official records.

 

The Inmans of Christian Co. who descended from Elkanah are descended from both James William and this man. John Sr. was the grandfather of Elkanah's wife, Sarah Jane Moore.

The first legal reference to John is found in land records of Carter Co., TN; when the area was part of Washington Co. John served as a chain carrier on the 1794 survey of a land grant to James Edens on Gap Creek. After his marriage in Jefferson Co., John is next mentioned in Grainger Co., where he was summoned by the court in his brother David's estate. He lived in the early 1800s in Carter Co., TN along Gap Creek.

Jane, his eldest daughter, was married in Carter Co. in 1814. There, in 1816, John Inman signed land papers as a witness for James Edens, who had owned land adjoining John's brother James (William) Inman in 1810 on Gap Creek. Later in 1816, John moved to Madison Co., AL, where he is listed in the territorial census.

Around 1820, John moved to Morgan Co., AL, across the river from his brother Isaac and two cousins who were sons of Abednego Inman of east TN: cotton merchant John Ritchie Inman and Ezekiel Inman. Most of the children married in Morgan Co. in the early 1820s, and Susannah Clark Inman probably died,⁽³²⁾ leaving John Inman Sr. with a lone son, Isaac, in the home in 1830 in Morgan Co.

Around 1836, with sons David and Isaac, John rejoined brothers James William and Joseph in Giles Co. John died there on Aug. 7, 1838, and he is buried in Campbellsville Cemetery. Virtually nothing is known of Susannah Clark Inman, whose burial site has not been located.

Children of John Inman Sr.

Jane Inman Moore (c. 1797-1820s)

Jane likely was named for her great-grandmother, Jane Campbell White, who was still alive in 1791 and likely played an active role in raising John Sr., who was left fatherless at age 3 or 4.

Jane Inman married James B. Moore (1794, NC) in Carter Co., TN on Feb. 16, 1814 with his father Daniel Moore as surety. Daniel Moore Sr. owned land on Gap Creek beside John and James (William) Inman, according to an 1810 Carter Co. deed.

The Moores had moved from NC to Carter Co. between 1796 and 1798. James Moore was the only child of Daniel Moore and Mary Brown of Carter/Washington/Greene Cos., TN, but after her death in 1798, Daniel remarried to Rebecca Broyles, daughter of Adam and Elizabeth Speck Broyles, on March 27, 1799 in Greene Co., TN.  Through Daniel’s second marriage, James Moore had nine half-siblings: Stephen, Wilson, Isaac, Daniel Jr., Violet, Sarah (Sadie), Barsheba, Moses and Mary, who all remained in northeast Tennessee.

Among the children of James and Jane Inman Moore were: Andrew Jackson (1815);  Frances "Fanny" (Nov. 20, 1816-April 2, 1838); and Sarah (1819-May 1894).

Andrew married his cousin Martha Inman (Nov. 1, 1820-July 1, 1840), the daughter of James Campbell Inman and wife Sarah and granddaughter of James William Inman; she is buried at Campbellsville Cemetery in Giles Co., TN. Andrew and Martha had a son William Tipton, who married cousin Sarah Isabelle Gilmore, daughter of the Rev. Nathaniel Riley Gilmore and Sarah Inman, the sister of Andrew; they also had a daughter Sarah Frances who married James Burch. After Martha's early death, Andrew married again to a woman named Sarah, had children Mary and John and moved to Arkansas. His son William Tipton moved back to Lawrence Co., TN and died there.

Frances, who died single, is buried beside her grandfather, John Inman Sr., at Campbellsville Cemetery.

Sarah Jane Moore (1819, TN-May 1894, Christian Co., MO) married her cousin Elkanah D. Inman, son of James William, in the 1830s in Giles Co. This couple moved to Christian Co., MO, but none of the Moores is known to have followed. (See separate section on Sarah Moore, who married Elkanah Dulaney Inman.)

A gap in the children suggests that Jane died in the 1820s in Morgan Co., AL. although the family likely lived for a period in Blount Co., TN. James then remarried to a woman unknown and had a son in the early 1830s, James Jr. (1833), daughter (1830/35) and son John S. or L. (1838/39). James resettled in Giles Co. by 1836 where the second wife died, probably in childbirth with son John S.

James B. married a third time to Nancy Lane Jan. 8, 1840 in Giles Co., and they had at least six more children: William J. (1841), Carson C. (1842), Nathaniel (1844), George W. (1846), Robin (1848) and Mary E. (1850). James Moore (Jr.), 17, was living with John W. and Hannah Simmerly Inman in 1850. He married Sarah Jane Long Dec. 19, 1855 before JP Thomas H. Noblitt.

James B. and Nancy Lane Moore are not found in TN, AR or MO in 1860.

Lazarus C. Inman (1797/8-1860s)

The paternity of Lazarus C. is unclear, although he was the son of John or James William Inman.

 

Lazarus C. (possibly Campbell) Inman, born in Grainger Co., according to Oregon sources, married Susannah Stover, daughter of Daniel Stover Jr. (b. 1770s) and Phoebe Ward of Carter Co., TN and relative of Presidents Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson, on Feb. 18, 1823 in Carter Co., TN before JP John Williams. Lazarus' name was recorded as Ingram in marriage records, but correctly in later legal documents.  The Stovers, too, had close ties to the Boone family in Pennsylvania and had roots in Augusta Co., VA.

Immediately after their marriage, Lazarus C. and Susan moved to Indiana, where they had four children including twins, and then moved back to Carter Co., TN, by the 1830 census, when he was living with or next door to his cousin Sarah (Mrs. Philemon) Lacey. The move to Indiana may have coincided with Stover family relocations, including those of the Lincolns to the KY-IL-IN triangle .

The 1836 Giles Co. tax lists indicate Lazarus moved there on the way to Madison Co., AL by 1840. He became or already had been close to Abednego Inman's son John Ritchie Inman and his children, and Lazarus C. moved to east-central MO in 1843 with John Ritchie's sons James Madison Inman, John W. Inman, Joel Cowan Inman and their sisters, Elizabeth W. Inman (Mrs. Joseph P.) Woodruff, Jane Inman (Mrs. George B.) Woodruff and Caroline Matilda Inman (Mrs. Benjamin) Woodruff. The Woodruffs settled in extreme southwest Franklin Co., MO while Lazarus and Susan went to Bourbeuse Township, Gasconade Co., MO nearby. Lazarus and Susan's eldest child, Elizabeth (1824, IN), however, went to Franklin County for her marriage license.

(The grandson of George B. and Jane Inman Woodruff, John Woodruff, became attorney for the Frisco Railroad, a land developer and one of the wealthiest men of 20th century Springfield, MO, developing the Hickory Hills Country Club and owning half of the spa village of Siloam Springs, AR.)

The 1850 census shows Lazarus and Susan living with Isaac (1827, IN), David W. (1830, IN), Teresa (1830, IN), Thomas (1845, MO) and L., a male (1850, MO), next door to daughter Elizabeth and her husband, Milton M. Childers, who had two small sons and a daughter.

At least Lazarus Inman, Joel C. Inman, Benjamin Woodruff and their families headed out on the Oregon Trail in 1852 and 1853. Benjamin died en route, although the family record says he died in the Colorado Gold Rush. Lazarus arrived in Oregon in September 1852 and claimed land there on June 22, 1853. He appears to have died by 1863 when son Isaac S. sold part of the claim.  .

David H. (c. 1800-1850)

David, possibly David Henry, married Martha Alexander (1805-1876) on July 18, 1822 in Morgan Co., AL. The name David Henry would have memorialized John Sr.'s two older brothers. Martha was the daughter of Revolutionary War veteran Jeremiah Alexander (July 4, 1763-Jan. 26, 1847), originally of Maryland, and wife Agnes McGaughey.

In the mid-1830s, David came to Giles Co. with his father, John, and remained there in 1840 with his family of six sons and three daughters as well as brother Isaac P.

David and his eldest son Alexander appear to have died at the same time, in an accident or epidemic, in late 1850. Both their probates were filed in January 1851 in Lawrence Co., TN, which borders Giles.

David H's wife Martha was still living, in Lawrence Co., TN, in 1860 with a possible daughter.

Among the children of David H. and Martha Alexander Inman:

1. Alexander (1820/25-late 1850) married Martha Ann ? (1824) and had four children: James T. (1845), Martha E. (1847), William (1850) and Sarah (1851). A fifth child, Mary (1852/3), is found in Martha Ann's household in 1860, probably the daughter of John C. and Sarah C. Inman, who died in 1857 and 1852, respectively, and are buried in Campbellsville Cemetery.
2. Joseph (speculative), who may have married Elizabeth (1831) and had one son Joseph J. (1856-1936) who married Mary Elizabeth ? and is buried at Choate's Creek Cemetery, Giles Co. Elizabeth is shown as a widow in 1860.
3. John C. (1827-1857) married Mary A. Lyles on March 9, 1844
4. James H.L. married Sarah J. Randolph Sept. 6, 1854 in Lawrence Co.
5. Louisa J. (possible) married Vines H. Cross on Oct. 31, 1850 in Lawrence Co.
6. Jeremiah M. (Milton?) (1836) married, first M.D.L. Redding in February 1856 and then Ruthinda J. Liles/Lyles (1838) on March 25, 1859, and they had one child by 1860, William David, born that year.
7. David L. (1840) married Mary M. Howard on Aug. 17, 1858 in Lawrence Co., and they had one daughter by 1860: Martha (1859). David L. was living next door to his mother Martha in Giles in 1860.
8. Two daughters, unknown, besides Louisa J. Probably one was Margaret M. who married James Randolph, probable brother of Sarah, on July 22, 1853 in Lawrence Co.

Isaac P. Inman (Jan. 3, 1803-July 24, 1873)

Isaac P., whose father is confirmed by a family Bible, was living with father John in Morgan Co. in mid-1830, but on Sept. 12, he married Nancy Jane Hunter Faught (Sept. 25, 1809, AL-Sept. 28, 1892) , the daughter of John Harrison Faught and Nancy Marillo Menasco and sister of Wiley Blount Faught Sr. of Alabama and Giles Co.

Isaac's middle name likely was Porter, possibly the surname of John's second wife.

Isaac's family was extremely well educated. Children Calvin W. and Martha M. were teachers at the old Ozark, MO high school, which was the leading secondary school in the frontier Ozarks and his peripatetic nature suggests he, too, was a teacher in the early days or perhaps a preacher and merchant. After moving to Giles Co. with his father in the mid-1830s, Isaac farmed a small acreage beside his brother Andrew and cousin Elkanah south of Campbellsville, TN. Isaac was a Giles Co. resident in October 1838 when mail was waiting for him at Pulaski.⁽³⁴⁾ Isaac and Andrew likely took over their father's holdings.

Isaac, though, was found in Weakley Co. of West TN in the 1850 census, where Andrew had been among the early pioneers.

He likely moved back to Giles or otherwise made contact with the family, joining the Inmans and Faughts on a late 1852 move to Christian Co., MO. By 1855, he was a merchant on the town square of the "old village" of Ozark, but he appears to have lost his town property in a legal dispute over delinquent taxes or bad debts.

He had a sizable farm, however, about five miles west of Ozark, near the current city of Nixa and the tobacco farm of cousin Elkanah Inman and his wife, also Isaac's niece, Sarah Moore.

Before 1870, Isaac, his family and many of the Faughts moved to the Denton, TX area, where Isaac settled at Pilot Point. He died there and is buried at its Skinner Cemetery with his wife.

Nancy and Isaac had seven children:

1. John (Nov. 13, 1831, AL-Feb. 5, 1848, Giles Co., d.s.p.),
2. Calvin W. (Feb. 3, 1833, AL, d.s.p.), who taught school in Ozark when the family was living in Christian Co., MO. Calvin is shown as "Carrollton" Inman, boarding with his sister Martha in Denton, TX in 1900.
3. Martha M. (Dec. 10, 1836, Giles Co., TN-Dec. 20, 1912) who married Judge Joseph A. Carroll Jr. (Nov. 28, 1832, Pike Co., MO).⁽³⁵⁾ He lived in Louisiana, MO until September 1853 when he headed for Tehuacano Springs, Limestone Co., TX, and hired himself out to a settler to make rails for a living. Carroll removed to Barnard's trading house on the Brazos, and in August 1854 he was appointed deputy surveyor of Denton land district, a huge frontier area. In 1857, after an examination, he was admitted to the bar in the district court at Gainesville. He laid out the town of Denton, was appointed commissioner by the county court to sell lots and practiced law until 1861. He married first to Celia J. Burrows, an orphan, on March 18, 1858. They had two children who survived infancy: Secesia and Sidney Johnston, who attended now-Texas A&M. Carroll enrolled in the Texas Confederate forces, in Welsh's Co., and became a lieutenant in a unit fighting in the Indian Territory, at Bird Creek, Round Mountain and Chustenallah. He became adjutant general at the battles of Bird Creek and Elk Horn. In fall 1862 he was elected major of De Morse's 29th TX Cavalry. He was discharged at Hempstead, TX in June 1865 and resumed the practice of law. His wife died in early May 1869. According to The Encyclopedia of the New West,⁽³⁶⁾ Carroll then married "Martha Inmon, daughter of Isaac Inmon, an excellent man, who had been one of the first settlers of Obion Co., TN,⁽³⁷⁾ since deceased, but his widow resides with Judge Carroll." In February 1876, Maj. Carroll was elected judge of the district and served until Jan. 1, 1881. He declined re-election and entered the banking business in Denton. Judge Carroll died by 1900, but Martha continued living on Oak Street.
4. Sarah Finney/Finley (Sept. 19, 1838-1920, m. James Flow).
5. Joseph Martin (April 23, 1841-Oct. 4, 1925, m. Delia Elmore).
6. Samuel (Sept. 24, 1842, probably d.s.p.).
7. Isaac Daniel (Jan. 9, 1851-March 27, 1939). An Isaac "S." Inman, probably Isaac D., from Christian Co., completed a late tour of Civil War duty from Sept. 25 to Nov. 14, 1864, chasing rebels in Ozark Co., under Capt. Stephen Sink of Nixa. Young teenagers, however, often lied about their ages and served in latter stages of the war when manpower in these depopulated counties was almost non-existent. Isaac Daniel married Malinda L. Montgomery, the daughter of Jefferson C. Montgomery and Mary Angeline Jones⁽³⁸⁾ Jan. 16, 1879 in Bloomfield, Cooke Co., TX. They are buried at Walling Cemetery in Denton Co., TX, and had five children: Otis J. (April 13, 1880-April 11, 1958, m. Phoebe Bates, 1913); Homer Edward (Aug. 24, 1882-Dec. 18, 1934, m. Eva Walker, 1911); Ethel (July 8, 1885-Nov. 16, 1962, d.s.p.); James Chandler (Sept. 27, 1887-Dec. 8, 1934, m. Jessie South, 1917); and Earl (Jan. 15, 1889-Dec. 25, 1974, m. Myrtle Flowers).

Andrew (1805-1872)

Andrew's paternity has not been definitely established, but signs point to John because of Andrew's close ties with Isaac P. Inman and old stories that he was a cousin to the sons of James William.

On the other hand, Andrew and his wife named his second daughter Martha, which by frontier tradition would have honored the husband's mother. James and Martha were names commonly given by Andrew's children. His oldest child, Mary Jane, named her first two children James William and Martha Caroline. (Another child was named Erasmus Wilson.)

He first appears as an adult, signing survey documents for Samuel Faught with apparent brother Isaac Inman on Feb. 29, 1827 in Giles. He had an independent streak, which took him that year to Weakley Co. of West TN among its first settlers, apparently with his first wife’s family.

By 1840, he returned to Giles Co., where he farmed on his land next to Elkanah and Isaac P., who then moved to Weakley Co.

Andrew first married, before 1829, to Margaret Perry or Peery; her parents are unknown, but Perrys were living in Pulaski by 1819 and owned a mercantile business there. The couple had at least eight children, all born in TN, before they, too, moved to southwest Missouri in the great migration of late 1852.

True to his independent streak, however, Andrew moved farther west than his brother Isaac, cousin Elkanah and nephew James C., settling in Lawrence Co., MO near Verona. At the time, a road ran from Springfield through Porter Township, Christian Co. to the site of modern Mt. Vernon in Lawrence Co.

Margaret died on May 24, 1858, and she was buried in Lee Cemetery, Verona. Andrew soon remarried to a widow, Mary Cooper Owens, and they had three more children before Andrew died in 1872. Mary then moved to Barry Co. by 1880, where she lived with her three children in King's Prairie Township.

Andrew is buried beside his first wife while Mary Cooper Inman (1821) is interred at Goss Cemetery near Phelps and Mt. Vernon, MO.

Among the children of Andrew by Margaret Perry:

1. Mary Jane (June 1829-March 1905) married Robert Hillhouse of Lawrence Co., TN in 1847.  Robert and Mary Jane lived on Spring River near Verona. They had 13 children: James William (Sept. 18, 1848-Feb. 21, 1940, m. Nancy Adeline Maxwell), Martha Caroline (Feb. 18, 1850-Jan. 17, 1947, m. James Gibson, Thomas Yardell), George Andrew (May 13, 1851-April 7, 1942, m. Mary Flow, Martha Kirby), Margaret Elizabeth (Feb. 4, 1853-March 13, 1934, m. James Willis Sutton), John L. (Nov. 1, 1856-Jan. 28, 1863), infant (d. November 1857), Thomas Jefferson (Nov. 2, 1858-Jan. 19, 1934, m. Susan Isabell Turner), infant (d. 1860 at birth), Erasmus Wilson (Dec. 8, 1861-May 25,1 944, m. Mary Jane White), Nancy Ann (Nov. 21, 1964-April 8, 1953, m. William Lewis Allen), Mary Jane (April 4, 1867-Aug. 31, 1950, m. Benton Roscoe Fenton), Ollie May (June 19, 1869-?, m. Ira Askins) and Robert Clinton (Nov. 7, 1871-July 9, 1959, m. Minnie Bell Pharris).
2. Martha C. (1832-1916) married Ottawa Nance in 1853 in Lawrence Co., MO. She is buried in Garrison Cemetery, Christian Co., MO. The couple had nine children: Mary Jane m. William "Billy" Else, Sarah m. Robert Nance, Amelia m. John Roller, Martha m. John Hollingsworth, Margaret m. George Vanlandingham, John William m. Jane Goad, George (d.s.p.), Jim (1870-1943, m. Bessie Stephens) and an infant.
3. Turzy Ann (1834-1861) married James Dobbins Springer in 1856, and they lived near Aurora, Lawrence Co., MO. She is buried in Lee Cemetery. The couple had three children: Robert Hillhouse (1856-d. in TX, m. Elvira Morris), Margaret Jane (1859-1924, m. John McDonald) and James Bowie (1861-d. in CA, m. Bell Roswell).
4. Dorcas Amanda (1836-d. in Lincoln, AR) married Steve Thomas and had two children: Susan and William.
5. Sarah H. (1836-1866) married William Davis on Nov. 15, 1855 and is buried in Lee Cemetery. They had four children: Rube, Robert, George (1856-1921 m. Mary) and John.
6. Frances Margaret (1840-1889) married Houston Marbut on March 7, 1861 and is buried in Calton Cemetery, Barry Co., MO. The couple had eight children: Vedas Houston m. Bessie Bridges, Clinton m. Emma Thomas, William Madison m. Nina Marbut, Annas m. Adell Powell, Mary Lucinda m. James T. Henderson, Tursie Elvira m. James Henderson, Leota m. Felix Jackson and Emma Frances m. Robert Ethridge.
7. Andrew Jackson (1843-1857).
8. William (1845-1865), who enlisted in Union troops  in the Civil War in 1863 and died of war-related consumption two years later.

James William Inman (c. 1765-1835)

 

This son of Lazarus and Elizabeth White Inman has provided an enduring source of mystery for Inman researchers at least for 50 years. He was the known brother of Joseph and John Inman who died in Giles Co., TN but thanks to destroyed records and confusion about his name, James W. Inman left little consistent trail.

While Joseph, Isaac and John were listed among the next of kin for the late David Inman of Grainger Co. in 1801 James is omitted from the roster of brothers that included the little-unknown William and Henry.

James, according to Giles Co. census records, almost certainly was the husband of Martha and father of several known children, but many descendants insisted that the couple's names were passed down over the generations as "William and Martha."

The only compelling solution came from Jymie Carol Ford Inman of Kerens, TX whose husband descends from this line and she forwarded the information that these relatives believed they descended from "James William and Martha Elizabeth Inman."

When the bits and pieces of information for James and William Inman are fitted together, few conflicts emerge but they are explained rather easily.

The principal difference concerns age. The only record of James' age comes from the 1830 Giles Co. census when the rolls show he was in his 50s or born in the 1770s. This census was notoriously erratic and error-filled as shown by duplicate columns that when transcribed could have been interpreted as completely different families. William who served in the Revolution and was of age and paying taxes in 1787 in Augusta Co., VA must have been born by the mid-1760s.

Otherwise the data on William and James fit together perfectly and the symbiotic relationship between this man and his little brother, the childless Joseph, flows without a hitch for 60 years. The question remains: why the name change?

The older children of Lazarus Inman grew up on the farm next to their grandfather Isaac White who had married relatively late in life and had a son James White not much older that James William. The family may have used the name William instead to differentiate between them. The Inmans with their strong adherence to family naming patterns also were apt for generations to give children family first names but use the middle names on an everyday basis to distinguish them.

By 1793 William had moved to TN close to first cousin Abednego (son of Ezekiel) and Mary Ritchie Inman. Their oldest son William Hardin (or Henry in some versions) Inman (born Sept. 28, 1779) was coming of age in the 1790s and James William Inman may have switched to his first name in legal documents -- James then was not widely found among Inmans -- to again distinguish the two men.

The author of The King's Mountain Men nevertheless appears to have been caught up in the confusion. He writes that Abednego Inman had two older sons: William Hardin Inman who married Eleanor Wilson, which was correct; and James Wilson Inman who married Annie Lea. James Wilson Inman, however, was the son of William Hardin and married Annie J. Lea in 1833; the author and/or his sources apparently had been caught up in the general confusion about James William who was associated with Abednego in the early years of Jefferson Co. TN.

'William' of Augusta VA and TN

The first reference to William comes in the Revolution when William and brother David served in Capt. Finley's company of the Augusta Co. militia. This militia formed the core of the Virginians dispatched south to help the Tennesseans of the Holston Valley battle the Indian allies of the British in the late 1770s and early 1780s.

In 1780 William is shown as absent during the general court martial of the Augusta Co. militia. According to Augusta Co. records the period also coincided with considerable turmoil in father Lazarus Inman's household. No evidence exists that James William left the Augusta Co. area, tending perhaps the farm of his grandmother until 1793. In 1787 "William" is found as a taxpayer with a horse, a cow, no slaves and no other adult males in the household; he may have had young Inman brothers in the household or neighboring related households.

In 1791 his grandmother Jane Campbell White completed the sale of the family farm to her nephew Lt. and Sheriff James Steele. By 1793 and 1794 "William" Inman had moved to the Jefferson Co. TN area where he enlisted as a private in Doherty's regiment of the Militia for the Territory South of the Ohio, which was the formal designation of Tennessee Territory.⁽¹⁷⁾

On Oct. 10, 1796, "James" was commissioned militia captain for Jefferson Co., TN, the home of his first cousin, Abednego. He had two ensigns: his brother David and cousin Daniel, son of Shadrach Inman. This militia election strengthens the theory that James and William were the same men; otherwise, James would have been elected captain by his men with no known military history. His election more likely occurred because he had Revolutionary War experience buttressed by formal action on the TN frontier of the 1790s, not to mention the probable considerable influence of his mentors and cousins, Abednego and Shadrack.

By 1799, "William" and Joseph were taxpayers in Grainger Co. Joseph, at the age of 19, appears to have held title to the family land, where the late David and other family members farmed, fished, hunted, mined and milled. This 133-acre plot probably represented the first of the Inman family compounds, a tradition that lasted until 1930 in Christian Co., MO. For generations, the Inman fathers, Lazarus, James William and Elkanah, had an unfortunate pattern of dying and leaving young sons, who banded together in these compounds.

Inman's Mill Creek lay in Grainger Co., marking the site of a grain or sawmill; David's estate included a slave, 30 hogs and a grindstone. But this mill may, in large part, have belonged to Abednego, whose 1786 mill, across the county line from Greene Co., may have been in Grainger Co.

The records of Grainger Co. that survive are dotted with further references to William Inman.

The first marriage of James William

By 1796, James William probably had married. While a marriage to Martha Wilson is possible, he more likely had a first wife named Elizabeth or Sarah Elizabeth. The recollections of descendants of James William's son James C. about Martha Elizabeth as the wife and mother are likely an amalgam of the two women.

A gap exists in the children of James from as early as 1802 to 1813. The early children appear to have remained in East TN when James went west as part of the Wilson expeditions of 1806 and later. All the later children became adults in Giles Co., TN and moved west in late 1852 to Christian Co., MO; only the wife and children of John W. Inman from the earlier offspring moved to MO; they settled in a different location; and as Confederate sympathizers, they returned during the Civil War to TN.

James William likely married in the early 1790s in VA to a Sarah Elizabeth, perhaps an Alexander neighbor, who died c. 1805. The naming patterns for James' early children appear to have differed with the known, eldest granddaughters named Elizabeth; the later children named their early daughters Martha:

1. The first possible son, David Alexander (Sept. 15, 1796, VA-1880s, Christian Co., MO), had a first daughter by 1830 who died and is not recorded in that family's personal records thereafter.
2. Possible son Lazarus C. (1797/8, Grainger Co.-1860s, OR) had an eldest daughter Elizabeth.
3. Son James C. (1798/9-Sept. 11, 1844), had two eldest daughters whose names were Martha Frances and Sarah, possibly Sarah Elizabeth.
4. Son John W. (1800) named his eldest daughter Elizabeth.
5. Possible son Ezekiel (1804) had an eldest daughter Elizabeth Ellen.

An early settler of Middle Tennessee

James William's trail over the six years after David's death vanishes. Around 1806 or 1807, he moved to Hickman (then-Dickson) Co. in Middle TN as one of its first settlers.

In 1806, Adam Wilson Jr. of Greene Co., TN and at least three of his sons (William, Adam III and Joseph) moved to Dickson Co., TN. Adam became the first permanent white settler of what was created as Hickman Co. on Jan. 1, 1808, according to Goodspeed's history of the area, and Spence's 1900 history of Hickman Co. notes that Adam planted the first corn crop there, simply clearing the canebrake to make room.

Between 1807 and 1810, Goodspeed's says, the first settlers of Lick Creek were James Inman and Henry Mayberry. James had moved there with his brother Joseph, who in May 1808 was elected second major of the county militia. They were joined by Samuel Faught, a blacksmith, who two years before had been a neighbor of their brother Isaac Inman in modern Warren Co., TN and whose family would become prominent among the Inmans in Giles Co. and MO.

James may have brought his young family, but the available evidence suggests otherwise. All these early children had ties through 1830 in Carter Co. or other East TN locales. James likely left his motherless children behind with brother John and Susannah Clark Inman or other relations while making the trip west, after the death of their mother. Such dispersal of children almost became an Inman family tradition. Possible son Ezekiel, after his wife Sally Sanders died in Parke Co., IN, simply left his children with Sanders in-laws and started two new families in Illinois. When Inmans died in Giles Co., the children appear to have been parceled out among relations. When Grace Inman McConnell died in 1927 in Greene Co., MO, her Inman siblings divided up the children.

Joseph had been living in Hickman Co., TN when he enlisted as a second major in a West TN unit in the Creek War, but no reference to such military service for James (then in his late 40s or early 50s) has been found. Like many men of Middle TN in the Creek War, James may have enlisted in the 1st Alabama (actually Mississippi Territory) militia, and such records usually are not listed in TN indexes.

Martha Wilson Inman

James' second likely marriage came to Martha Caroline Wilson (1780, NC-May 1860, Christian Co., MO) in either Hickman Co. or Carter Co., TN, where he had returned around 1810. She was the sister of Joel Wilson who was in Maury Co. in 1812 and may have been the daughter of William Wilson, the first presiding judge of the Hickman Co. Court in 1808, or his father, Adam, the first permanent white settler.

A McMinn Co., TN family history says that Adam (Sr. or Jr.) and his brother James came from Ireland to America, and James settled in East TN while Adam went to Missouri. This version truncates the family history, although Adam III of Hickman Co., TN did settle in Randolph Co., MO around 1823.

Adam (Sr. or Jr.) and James Wilson were assigned to road duty in Rowan Co., NC in 1775 along with Charles Wakefield, an Inman in-law, and Benjamin Inman, the brother of Abednego. In 1782, both Adam Wilson Sr. and Jr. and Abednego Inman began receiving numerous land grants (and re-grants) in Greene Co., TN as the war drew to a close. In 1784 in Greene Co., Adam Wilson witnessed a will with Abednego Inman as an executor and wife Mary 'Mollie' Ritchie Inman as a co-witness.

In Abednego's family, son William H. married Eleanor Wilson, and daughter Hannah married Daniel Wilson; but the parents of these Wilsons have not been determined. It likely was James or Benjamin, possible brothers of Adam; James became first sheriff of Greene Co., TN while Benjamin became a prominent East TN official.

Adam Wilson Sr. died by 1812, leaving property in Greene Co., TN, which son Adam Jr. of Hickman Co. paid taxes upon. Adam Jr. died in the 1820s, and his son moved to MO.

The family of Joel Wilson (NC, 1785) and wife Mary was intimately connected with James and Martha. Joel appears first in Maury Co. in 1811, age 26, paying taxes, and came to Giles by 1830. The couple had at least nine children.

Among the Wilson ties with James and Martha's children:

1. Daughter Eliza Louisa Inman Glover married James H. Wilson, son of Joel and Mary, as her second husband.
2. Son Elkanah had three sons who married James H. Wilson's daughters. Elkanah's son David, who married Cintha Charles, still named his eldest son Joel.
3. Daughter Nancy Ann married Francis P. Wilson, Joel and Mary's son. Their son married the granddaughter of Elkanah.

All these cousin marriages were, of course, legal, and a saying passed down was: "It's best to marry within the family."

To Giles Co., TN and Christian Co., MO

The records of Carter Co., TN indicate that James William Inman and his second wife Martha moved back to live on Gap Creek after his foray into middle Tennessee and remained there until the 1820s. In 1810, he witnessed a land transaction near his property on Gap Creek; in 1820 and thereafter he is mentioned among county jurors.

 

By early 1827, the Inmans had settled or resettled in Giles Co. for Andrew and Isaac Inman – sons of John Inman, brother of James William -- witnessed the survey documents for Samuel Faught on 25 acres along Dry Creek.

On Sept. 10, 1827, brothers James William and Joseph Inman received state land grants for 25 acres each, apparently in the Dry/Big Creek area of northwest Giles Co. The land lay just south of the village of Campbellsville. Andrew signed the occupant entry book in Weakley Co. of West TN, only age 18 to 22, but returned to Giles. (Joseph’s whereabouts from the War of 1812 until 1827 is not known, although he served in the first Seminole War in Florida.)

By the 1830 Giles Co. census, James, Joseph and their families are shown side by side with only one other Inman, Z. or Zachariah, living in the county. Zachariah had settled in the Lawrence Co.-Giles Co. area by 1812 with his father John and Uncle Meshack of SC and married Miticia Dickey. When his father and uncle, and their families, moved west, Zachariah stayed behind with the Dickeys.

None of James' early children is found in the county in the 1830 census with the possible exception of a daughter, b. 1790s, in his household, apparently with three children under 10. This woman, however, could have been another relation. The household does include all the known later children of James and Martha.

In the 1830s, James’ earlier children were drawn to the area. Both John W. and James C. Inman had come to Giles by 1833 when John sold him land. James C(ampbell) Inman may have been a circuit-riding Methodist minister who drew an assignment that included Old Salem Methodist Church on Dry Creek. The 1836 tax list for northeast Giles Co. includes Lazarus Inman and Philemon Lacey, who married James' daughter Sarah.

Brother John Inman moved to Giles Co. around 1836 with his son Isaac from south of Huntsville, AL, but John died Aug. 7, 1838.

James William died sometime during the 1830s, but all attempts to determine when have failed. No tombstones or records for Old Salem or Campbellsville cemeteries correspond to the man. Many stones in Old Salem were buried or permanently lost when the isolated cemetery went untended after the church was destroyed by a tornado and the congregation and its families dispersed. Restoring those stones is virtually impossible because a 2003 visit to the graveyard, on a steep hillside, found the site to be intensely overgrown and snake-infested; it is no longer marked, but is fenced with chain link.  If James William was a retired Methodist circuit rider, he likely is buried there.

After his death, Martha continued living with her son, Elkanah D., and his wife Sarah Moore, probably on James William's original grant, in the 1840 census. But as Elkanah's family grew, Martha moved in with widowed daughter Louisa Caroline after her husband Finley Glover died in 1846.

Martha and her entire family in late 1852 moved to the portion of Greene Co. that later became Christian  Co., along with dozens of settlers from Giles and Maury Cos. Joining them were all but two sons of John W. (the just-deceased son from the first marriage).

By Jan. 2, 1853, John W.'s son James C. Inman owned livestock and 200 acres on the tax rolls of Greene Co., MO, which then included northern Christian, and Elkanah's last son was born in Christian Co. in 1853.

Martha was still living by 1860 when the census found her with her daughter Nancy Ann and husband Francis P. Wilson in Porter Township, Christian Co., southwest of the current city of Nixa.

Some believe she died about May 1860, but no stones or other records document her death. She likely is buried with son Elkanah in a family graveyard that was destroyed in the late 1800s. The graveyard is believed to have existed along current Route M south of Missouri 14 in Christian Co., also southwest of Nixa.

Martha lived to see her family grow prosperous on the edge of Guin Prairie in the Ozarks frontier. She didn't witness the days of horror and depravity that followed as the Civil War laid waste to the area.

Children of James William and Elizabeth (?) Inman

David Alexander Inman (Sept. 26, 1796-Aug. 6, 1892)

David Alexander, a likely son of James William, raised a family in Monroe and Loudon Cos., TN before the entire brood moved to Christian County, MO between the 1850s and 1880s. David Alexander also could have been the son of James William's older brother David who died c. 1800 in Grainger Co., TN.

The name David Alexander, however, appears numerous times in the Inman genealogy and probably represents the full name of the David who died c. 1800 in Grainger Co.. His father Lazarus was close to the Alexanders of Augusta Co. by 1760. Even if James William was the uncle rather than the father of this David, he likely played an important role in this man's early life because David Alexander named his first known son James L.

A blacksmith, David married Elizabeth Carnes of Monroe Co. before 1830 and lived near her widowed mother, also named Elizabeth. In early tax rolls of Grainger Co., James William and Joseph Inman lived near Michael Sr. and Michael Jr. Carnes. The name Nicholas came from this Carnes family.

David and Elizabeth Carnes Inman had a daughter (who didn't survive in family records), and two men in their 20s 'perhaps brothers, in-laws or farmhands' lived with the couple in 1830.

Eventually, the couple had 11 children recorded in a later family Bible:

1. James L. (June 23, 1830, Monroe