I have been researching the family of my second-great-grandmother, Sarah Evelena “Lena” Booth Marbury (1868-1949).
To me, one of the most rewarding parts of genealogy research is finding the information that turns a name and a date into a real person.
I am grateful that Joe H. Cobb included the diary of Simion Amherst “Sim” Cobb (1840-1927) in his book “Nicholas Cobb: Descendants, Neighbors, and Relatives, 1613-1983.” Sim was a close friend of Lena Booth’s father, William G. “Billy” Booth (1816-1892), and a son of John Hardy Cobb (1798-1880) and Harriet Warren Castellaw Cobb (about 1805-1869), who appear in my direct family line on both sides of my family.
Two of Sim’s siblings also connect directly to my family.
William Thomas “Tom” Cobb (1833-1898) married Elizabeth Temperance “Bet” Outlaw Cobb (unknown-after 1920) on Jan. 25, 1866. They were the parents of Mary Etta Cobb Brantley (1871-1935), who was the mother of William Day “Willie” Brantley (1897-1969), one of my maternal great-grandfathers.
Mourning Adeline “Addie” Cobb Watridge (1838-1876) married Daniel Washington Watridge (1835-after 1880) on Aug. 18, 1860. They were the parents of Zula Zera Watridge Castellaw (1875-1940), who was the mother of Elizabeth Castellaw Williams (1915-1998), my paternal grandmother.
Sim Cobb with his daughter Ida May Cobb (1879-1958), left, and niece Nora Cobb Gordon (1879-1970), right, in 1891.
Photo from “Nicholas Cobb: Descendants, Neighbors, and Relatives, 1613-1983” by Joe H. Cobb
Family accounts describe Sim as a small man who weighed only about 150 pounds at his heaviest. He fought in Company L of the Seventh Tennessee Cavalry during the Civil War.
In 1995, Deloras Ballard wrote about Sim when his son, Bill Cobb, was inducted into the Real Sons of the Confederacy, group of living men whose fathers were Confederate soldiers in the Civil War. Bill shared a few of his father’s war stories with Ballard.
Ballard wrote that as a Confederate soldier, Sim was working as a courier and as the No. 4 man in his unit, which meant he helped care for the horses. One day, while serving as a courier, he accidentally rode straight into a Union camp. The Union soldiers apparently found the frightened young Confederate more amusing than threatening. They invited him to get down and have breakfast. Sim accepted, ate with the enemy, thanked them, climbed back on his horse, wished them a good day, walked out of camp and then galloped away.
Sim escaped the worst of the war. He did contract malaria, but two women at the log cabin hospital at Britton Lane Battlefield in Madison County nursed him back to health. According to Ballard’s article, Sim suffered only one war-related injury. He was sleeping beside a log when his own horse jumped over it and accidentally landed on him. 1
Sim later married his third wife, Caroline Fletcher “Callie” Betts Cobb (1871-1935), when he was almost 63 and she was 32. She was younger than two of his children when they married. They remained married for nearly 24 years and had four children together.
Sim Cobb, far right, in 1888 with other members of the Haywood County
Fifth District School Commission, Ichabod Herring and Mr Rooks.
Sim spent a great deal of time with many of my ancestors and other relatives, including William C. Cobb (unknown-unknown), Thomas “Tommie” Rawls (unknown-unknown), John Charles Warren Cobb (1830-1914), Samuel “Sam” Marbury (unknown-unknown), Sarah Elizabeth Steele (unknown-unknown), Daniel Washington Watridge, Harriett Ann Justina “Tinie” Cobb White (1845-1918), Martha Perry Watridge (unknown-after 1875) and many others in the late 1800s and early 1900s.
Below are a few of the diary entries, that included Billy Booth in Sim’s 1875 diary. At the time, Sim was 34 and Billy was about 58.
| Jan. 3, 1875, Sunday: In the morning at S. E. Steele’s; went home and fed, then went to W. G. Booth’s; went from there to S. E. Steele’s and returned home. Cloudy all day and moderately cold. W. G. Booth was with me at night at home until eight o’clock. Jan. 6, 1875, Wednesday: At father’s. Very cold and cloudy. Came home soon; went to W. T. Cobb’s and helped him put sills under the house. Returned home after dinner and split rails. Cloudy all day long and cold. James B. Booth came home from Camp Hatchie and took meals at night. Jan. 10, 1875, Sunday: I went to W. G. Booth’s and stayed until nearly night, then came home and got wood for the night. Jan. 19, 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 were with me at night until bedtime. Feb. 1, 1875, Monday: Fair and pleasant. Cut logs and wood. Clouded up around 1 o’clock. Mrs. Booth, Billy’s wife, Mary Elizabeth “Eliza” White Booth (about 1825-1889), came over in the evening and took supper with us. Feb. 2, 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’s and got my spade and worked on the shelter by the smokehouse. Feb. 15, 1875, Monday: Cloudy and cold. Burned logs and trash, and hauled and put up rails. Pink and Agatha were here. Bet, his wife, Nellie Elizabeth “Bet” White Cobb (unknown-1890), went with them to W. G. Booth’s. J. E. Lott and W. G. Cobb came down at night to get some castor oil. Feb. 24, 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 and Lott were here. Ed came. March 4, 1875, Thursday: Cloudy. Cut and split rails in the morning. In the evening, went to D. W. Watridge’s and J. C. Cobb’s. Pink and Caroline spent the evening with Bet. Bet was at W. G. Booth’s when they came. March 5, 1875, 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’s in the evening. March 15, 1875, Monday: Cloudy in the morning. Went to W. G. Booth’s. Grubbed sprouts and fixed the water gap, a fence across a stream. April 5, 1875, Monday: Planted corn in the new ground next to W. G. Booth’s field. May 2, 1875, Sunday: Fair. Went to Sunday school. D. W. Watridge and family were here and stayed until after supper. W. G. Booth, Willie Booth, J. B. Booth, Mittie White and Roe Booth were here also. May 15, 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’s. June 8, 1875, Tuesday: Fair and cool. Bet went to W. G. Booth’s. Albert hoed and replanted peas. July 27, 1875, Tuesday: Fair. Went to take up hooks. Came by John Herring’s and stopped awhile. Stopped at John White’s. Came home and helped W. G. Booth get out wheat. Sept. 14, 1875, Tuesday: Fair. Bet, Alice and I had chills. Mittie and John were here. Caroline White, E. J. Steele, Mag Watson and Mrs. Booth were here during the day. W. C. Cobb and W. G. Booth were here at night until bedtime. Nov. 7, 1875, Sunday: Cloudy. W. G. Booth came down and took dinner with us. In the evening, I went to Mrs. White’s. |
It rained. They cut wood. He caught a rabbit. He went to Zion. His neighbor came down to borrow castor oil. All of that sounds ordinary, but those ordinary details come together to create something valuable. They let us see our ancestors not just as names in a chart, but as people who borrowed tools, put up fences, visited neighbors, went to church, worked in the fields, got chills and sat together at night until bedtime.
Sim Cobb’s headstone in the Cobb Family Cemetery
Sim died in 1927 at age 87 and was buried in the Cobb Family Cemetery.
For more of my genealogy research, visit rscottwilliams.info.
- Delores Ballard, “Time to Eat Out,” The Jackson Sun, July 23, 1995, 13. ↩︎
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