Elihu Coleman Jobe and Mary W. Smith Descendants

Many of our family have left us a legacy of personal writings (Bible entries, diaries, letters, memoirs), which help us to visualize their daily lifes. We have attempted to collect as many of these letters as possible. By strolling downward, you may slowly linger over each one or quickly jump to a particuliar group - click on category below. Have a letter to post, please e-mail Freida Wells or myself, Ann Brown.

Randy Jobe writes:

We parked in the Tucker Cemetery next door to photograph the soldier and Dewitt's stone. Walking back to the car, I could see the outline of a house through the trees. I had read several times that day about the house still standing.

Peeking through the trees, it kinda looked like the old photo I copied from the Pittard Collection at MTSU.

Driving up the lane, then turning the corner of the house...there it was. Elihu Coleman Jobe's home.

1. June 1861 Benjamin Avant Jobe Letter to His Sister, Kate
2. DeWitt Smith's Jobe's Civil War Letters - September 30, 1861 - April 23, 1862
   ----These appear on a Seperate page
3. 1905 - Ben Avant Jobe letter to the Confedrate Veterans' Pension Baord in Nashville, TN
4. 1969 - Glynn Beesley Letter
5. 1969, July - Virginia Bowman Letter

June 1861 - Benjamin Avant Jobe Letter to Sister

Background of Letter

Randy writes:

As you now see, This is not written by Dee Jobe, but by his brother Benjamin Avant Jobe, and mentions his brother "D". It is addressed to Miss Kate Jobe Smyrna Tenn. This one made it into the collection at MTSU, collected by Dr. Homer Pittard, who was the featured speaker at a memorial program dedicating the Tennessee Historical Marker locating the site of Dewitt Smith Jobe's death.

No one knows how these letters made it into Pittard's collection to date. As far as we know, he is no relation to the Jobe family.

The letters are in acid-resistant covers, but the envelopes aren't.

Randy photographed these letters with a digital camera.

 
Camp Trousdale
June 11th 1861
 
 
 
Dear Sister
 
 
                    You
must not think of
me for not writing to you
before now I have such
a bad chance to write I
hate to undertake to write
I am very glad to inform
you that I am injoying remar
cably good health and have
bin so ever since I left
home I am Tenn times
better pleased with camp
than I thought I
would be it is a very
hard life to live through
not eny harder then I expe
cted we have to drill very
hard we go out and drill
from 3 to 4 hours in the
morning we come in at
 
 

(upside down at the top of page 2)
 
Your devoted Brother
Ben
 
 
11 oclock and then have to
bring water and wood &
Cook our dinners
cooking is the most inplesent thing
I find a bout the camp
life. we had our Regimentle
Election to day we maid
J B Palmer, Col. Carden
of Wilson cty Lieut. Col
Davis of Wilson cty Major
we are very well pleesed
with all of our
officers D will be in
Battles Regiment I see
him every day he is very
well to day I be lieve
he was sorter porley yesterday
but he is all right today
I think he is in a very
good companey I am very
much pleesed with his boys
so far
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
There is a great deal of
gambling going on at this
incampment but I
don't think D pertisipated
in eny of them he is
living quite a moril
life as far as I know
It is quite interesting to
be her and see C_____
soldiers parade
at one time 2000 is well
armed with the Mississippi
Rifle we will get our
Armes in a few days we
wil get the Mincy Rifle
that will kill a yankee
900 yds
sis I am very anxious to
her from home Miss Nannie
Boring is the best friend
I have she has ritten me
two letters and those are all
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
I have recieved from
Rutherford Miss Nannie sais
she is going to send me some
thing good to eat first oprtu
nity
I would ask you send me
something, but I know you
have no chance to sent it
I am in an exilent Mess
they are willing to dothere
part of eny thing that is to
do 5 of tem are members of
the Church we have family
Prayer evry night I find
no dificulty in living a
Religous life her I am as atten
tive to my religous duties her
as at home & I hope to have
your Prayers devied with me
give my love to all how
is Cousin Dince injoying her
Self.If we never meat on
Earth again-may we meat in Heaven
 
 
 
 
 

Confederate Veteran's Pension Board - Nashville, TN (abt 1905)

Background of Letter

Ben writes: "In this letter, my great-grandfather attempted to get the facts straight for the sake of a small pension. The facts speak for themselves. He was an unsung hero of the Civil War! His brother was DeWitt Smith Jobe, who died a martyr's death in the service of the Confederacy. (There are official state historical markers on two highways near Nashville about DeWitt Smith Jobe's courageous death under torture.) Ben Avant Jobe would have been about 67 or 68 at the time he wrote the letter. My father never knew whether his grandfather ever got a penny form the Pension Board."

Written about 1905 about time spent in Time Civil War, 1861-1863

"I was mustered into the service on May 20, 1861, under J. B. Palmer (afterwards referred to as Gen. Palmer). I went to Camp Trousdale where we spent the summer drilling and doing guard duty.

About October, we were ordered to Bowling Green, KY where we drilled and built fortifications until February when Buchner’s command was ordered to reinforce Fort Donelson. We fought there for four days in snow, slush and mud. No private soldier saw more of battle than I did. I received three bullet holes through my clothes. The day after surrender, I took pneumonia and was sent to a hospital in St. Louis where I remained for nearly two months. When I began to improve, I longed to return to the Confederate Army. Gen. Schofield proposed to release me if I would take the oath of allegiance to the United States. Of course, I agreed to this. I got back to Rutherford County, regained my health and reported to Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest. I was with Forrest at the taking of Murfreesboro in June, 1862.

I the enlisted in Company B, Fourth Tennessee Cavalry with Col. Baxter Smith. I had a good horse and Gen. Forrest began sending me as a courier with dispatches from one command to another. This service put me in touch with all the generals. I stayed close to Forrest during Bragg’s raid into Kentucky, acting as courier, scout, guard and sometimes as a spy. I did all I could to secure information for the army. I was in every battle on Bragg’s raid.

I got back to Murfreesboro in November, 1862. I stayed close around Nashville, was in a fight almost every day up to the Battle of Stones River. I fought in the front, on each flank and in the rear when we fell back to Shelbyville.

In February, 1863, Generals Wheeler, Forrest and Wharton went into Dover and attacked the fort (Donelson). A hard battle was fought. I was carrying dispatches from on general to another and saw it all.

About this time, Gen. Wharton conceived a plan to organize a company of hand-picked men from each command. This brought together about 80 of the bravest men I was ever associated with. I was commissioned a Second Lieutenant in the company known as "Wharton’s Scouts." This company rendered fine service capturing foraging parties, wagon trains, railroad trains, couriers and courier stands.

Just before the retreat from Shelbyville, I was ordered to report to General Polk there. When I arrived, Generals Wharton and Polk wanted me to choose about 30 men, go into Murfreesboro and capture (Union) General Rosecrans. While this was being planned, Rosecrans moved on to Bragg and we fell back to Chattanooga. I was commissioned a Captain by Gen. Wheeler and ordered into Tennessee to recuit a battalion of cavalry.

While engaged in this work, I was ordered by General Wheeler to ascertain the strength of (Union) forces at Shelbyville and report to him. I left my horse, pistols and papers with a lady and reported to the (Union) Provost Marshall as a deserter.

He did not believe my story and sentenced me to the guard house. I found they were going to try me and I knew that meant death. After four days in prison, I escaped that night. I went back to the house where I had left my horse, pistols and papers. I knew I must leave Middle Tennessee at once. I swam my horse across the Tennessee River by the aide of a little canoe and reported to Gen. Forrest at Jackson, TN. He sent me to the Henderson Scouts.

The duty of these scouts was to stay between our lines and the enemy, watch their movements, obtain information any way we could and report back to our command. While engaged in this service, Gen. Forrest sent me with dispatches to Lt. McConnell on the Mississippi River opposite Helena, AR. While I was at a blacksmith shop having my horse shod, I was captured by a regiment of cavalry. In the process of my capture, a pistol ball was shot through my hat.

I was taken down the river to Helena and put in prison. It was about two months before I could get an interview with Gen. Buford, who was in command. I took the oath of allegiance and was released. Buford gave me transportation to Memphis where I expected to get through the lines and report to my command.

I found there was no chance to get through at Memphis, so I took a boat to Hickman, KY. There was likewise no chance to get through enemy lines at this point, so I went on up to Metropolis, IL. I was never able to get to the Southern Army. Thus ended my days as a soldier in the Confederate Army."

Glynn Beesley Letter - 1969

Background of Letter

*On file at Peabody

Glyn was born October 10, 1917 Dallas Co. Texas and died October 30, 2001 Dallas Co., Texas.

June 28, 1969

Dear Brothers and Sisters:

So much to tell about a wonderful week of visiting relatives in Tenn.!

To begin telling a little of the exciting week, I am borrowing Betsy’s Sister Ruth’s typewriter. We are not home yet as we came by Tulsa, Oklahoma. We will drive home tomorrow. While the girls are visiting I thought I had better bang out a letter. Next week things will be hectic indeed and I might not have time to write. So here goes the journal which I will Xerox and mass mail Monday at the office.

On Saturday, June 21 (yeah, the longest day in the year) we left the house about 9:00 A.M. and drove through to Jackson, Tenn. Spent the night in a motel and Sunday morning drove to Paris, Tenn. With the intent of pitching camp at Paris Point. However, on reaching Paris at about 9:00 A.M., we decided to telephone Ben Jobe. If he were going to church he would not have gone yet; if he were lying in bed he should get up. As it turned out we called at the right time because he would have been out Sunday afternoon. We had a fine visit with Ben and his family. He took us to see “Cousin Marie” who lives in a nursing home there. Ben, Jr., happened to be in from Nashville and Marilyn was home but had to report to her summer job at noon. So we had a chance to visit with the children, too. Cousin Marie (Mary Jobe Pillow) is almost blind and is very hard of hearing. She is 95 and is in pretty good shape, I suppose, for one approaching a century on this earth. Her mind was sharp and she related the incident that occurred in Lancaster when she was dating Hal White and Tom McCarthy was courting Aunt Mena. Upon Ben’s recommendation we took a scenic route to Nashville which included lunch at Paris Landing Inn and the picking up of literature on “The Land Between the Lakes”, which promises to be the greatest camping area in the country. We proceeded to Cedars of Lebanon State Park, some 30 miles East of Nashville. We had located this point for a base camp in our Rand McNally Campground guide book. We camped here Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday nights.

In passing it is in order to recount that we had two rain storms in camp. These did no particular damage and we made out fine. Guess now that we are grandparents we can admit with all modesty that we are veteran campers. We have been at it for 23 years. We started when I quit G.E. and went with DP&L. At that point I did not want to spend another night in a motel or hotel and get on the rat race of making reservations, etc. Anyway, we thoroughly enjoyed another annual stint without the noise and telephones, etc., of civilization.

On the following four days, Monday through Thursday we thoroughly enjoyed visits with folks in Smyrna, Murfreesboro and Nashville. Had dinner with the Bateys and Moores on two of the nights. These are the cousins newly found per my last letter to you.

Had a nice visit with Ben Jobe Edwards, son of Lavenia Jobe (Grandma’s youngest sister and baby of her family). He is 85 and gets around well. His son, James, was there and we had a nice visit with him. James is the principal of Donelson High School in a suburb of Nashville. Both live on Lebanon Road on the eastern edge of town on the way to the Hermitage, home of Andrew Jackson. We also visited the Hermitage and spent several hours getting steeped in the setting and age where our grandparents grew up.

Between classes at Middle Tenn. U., we visited with Dr. Homer Pittard who earned one of his advanced degrees with a thesis* which covered in part the life of Dee Jobe. We also checked out of the Library at MTSU a copy of a thesis by Mabel Pittard, Homer’s wife. We sat in the reading room and read up on the Coleman Scouts which was the outfit that Uncle Dee served in.

We did not have enough time to stay as long as we wanted to at any one place. We especially were sorry that we could not spend more time with Mary Lou Beesley. She is 79 now and I pray that Old Father Time treats me so kindly. She asked for another copy of T.J. Beesley’s biography from “The History of Dallas County”. This I will run off and mail in the near future.

We visited the Stones River battleground where 13,000 Union and 10,000 Confederates died. Took pictures of about the oldest monument raised to Union dead. Native limestone was used by comrades of the dead to guild the monument before the unpleasantness was over (1863, I believe—picture records the date and of course at this writing have not developed the film.)

With “deliberate speed” we visited the Sam Davis home. Now I understand a little better what folks meant when they have said and written, “Dee Jobe was as big (or some would say a ‘bigger’) hero than Sam Davis:. Sam was also a member of Coleman’s Scouts and was hanged when caught with military secrets on his person. He was offered his freedom if he would divulge the names of the informers who had given him the number, location, etc., of the Union forces. Sam said no in a beautiful statement which I forgot to write down. The next day he was hanged. He is buried in the family cemetery behind the original mansion where he grew up. Sam’s birthplace still has the house standing and John Moore pointed it out to us at a site different from the forementioned preserved home which belongs to the State. Sam was not tortured but life must have been sweet to him, too, and he traded it for honor and died a hero.

THURSDAY, JUNE 26, 1969 – 2:20 to 5:40 P.M. – There were many thrills in the people we visited and the cordial reception we received all around. A visit to the Jobe home and a brief visit with the J.J. Fagans who live there was certainly one of the climactic events. We were allowed to stand in Grandma’s room!!! We took pictures of the house and will be forever grateful to the Fagans for receiving us so graciously.

If I had to pick out the event of the whole week which I would rank as being the most significant, I suppose I would have to say that helping to plant a bronze monument at the grave of Dee Jobe was the biggest “happening”. This was one of the things that had been scheduled and through the efforts of Bob Batey and John Moore, sure enough, we grand-nephews of Dee Jobe installed the 12” by 25” bronze plate furnished by the U.S. Army. Assistance was obtained in locating the correct grave from several people: a Mr. Neil and the barber in Smyrna described the location and Dr. Pittard furnished a picture he had taken in 1940 showing three graves. One of these was that of Dee Jobe but his research at that time did not reveal which of the three actually was that of Uncle DeWitt. John Powell, who took a half day off from work in the Moore Quality Market in Smyrna, helped pull the wheel barrow loaded with two sacks of sack-crete, tools, etc., up the hill and over four fences. This was quite a chore because the hill is not only 200’ high at about 45 degrees, it is covered with clumps and ledges of limestone and there are briars and brambles, etc., to impede passage. The manly young sons of Bob Batey, Tom, Jack and Jim, carried 4 gallons of water, the wood form and tie wire. My ever-faithful wife, Betsy, carried drinking water; her sharing in this event is deeply appreciated as I could never describe the event to her adequately; but she stayed by my side even in this place and knows the sight, sound and smell of sweat that was there. Wish you other descendants of Martha Ann Jobe Beesley could have been there, too.

As ever yours,

Glyn Beesley

Copies to:

• Ben Jobe
• Bob Batey
• Ben Jobe Edwards
• Dr. Homer Pittard
• Dr. & Mrs. Herbert Moore
• Mary Lou Beesley
• John Moore

Virginia Bowman Letter - July 1969

Background of Letter

Virginia is writing Dr. Homer Pittard, an educator of Rutherford Co., TN, regarding his request on Job(e) family.

Franklin, Tennessee

July 12, 1969

Dear Dr. Pittard,

I do not have anything worth Xeroxing from Col. Jordon’s History of Triune on Jobe. These articles appeared in the July 7, 14, 21, 28, and August 5, 1932 issues of the Review-Appeal, our local paper, and I simply have a type written copy of these articles. It might be that these Reviews are on microfilm in the archives. If they (the articles) were ever put in book form, I have not seen a copy. Col. Jordon has an interesting file in the archives from which I have copied at different times.

Did I spell the girl’s name as Betty Hayes? It is Haynes. I don’t know anything about her other than this portion: “In August, 1864, Jobe, after having breakfast at the residence of William Moss about half-way between Triune and Nolensville, on the pike, went into a cornfield on the Sam Waters farm, after talking with Miss Betty Haynes at the Waters home. A scouting party of 15 Yankee cavalry trailed him by his horse tracks and found him. He chewed up and destroyed important messages. His captors tied a leather strap around his neck and choked him into insensibility in an effort to make him tell what was in the papers, which he refused to do. He was beaten over the head with pistols, his front teeth knocked out and strangled to death by being dragged by a strap around his neck. The cursing of the Federal soldiers could be heard a mile away by neighbors. It is said that the leader of this squad of Yankees became a raving maniac from remorse of conscience.” Then it went on to tell about DeWitt Smith killing 50 Yankees in retaliation.

About 2 years ago I spent some time with Mr. Allen Green of Nolensville who died recently. I was looking for a Sandford cemetery at Nolenville to copy for our county records and I asked him if he knew where it was. He said it was on a high hill near there, but it had not been used since the War. I asked him why and he said they buried all the Yankees they could kill after Jobe’s death up there and nobody wanted to be buried near them so it was not used again.

Tom Joplin, who was often in the company of Sam Davis and Dee Jobe is buried in an unmarked grave in the Triune Methodist Church Cemetery. His granddaughter said a woman or girl by the name of Kate Kyle often helped them get and pass on information. She said she had the same information as Sam Davis did when he was captured and that she, too, was caught but managed to conceal it in such a manner that it was not found. This grand daughter is Mrs. Louis Gerard who did live at 2209 Crest Moor Ave. in Nashville. Tel-269-3086. Whether she still lives there or not I don’t know. Col. Jordon said that “Mary Overall of Triune who lived with her mother Mrs. John A. Jordon and sister, late Mrs. W.W. Crockett, risked her life many times as a spy in the Confederate services. Her beauty, daring and skill rendered her one of the most useful of secret agents….She married Capt. John W. Headley who was later Secretary of the State of Kentucky.”

Mrs. G.V. Arnold said she remembers the old roadbed that Dee Jobe was said to have been dragged on. She tried to tell me where it ran but I couldn’t understand exactly. She said it crossed from behind the old Claybrook house on 96 (now destroyed) and came out near the state sign telling of his death on Horton Highway. She said it was used while the new 96 was being built years ago. I guess that was “the pike” the William Moss house was on. I wonder if any of those old houses are still standing. She said Mrs. Atha Thomas at Triune lived one time at the old DeWitt Smith house which was log and now destroyed I guess. I want to talk to her about it. I cannot understand where it was. I must stop and not bore you further with these ramblings.

Yours,
Virginia M. Bowman