Julius and Martha Beeler Hacker had four sons: Julius Jr., John, Jacob, and Joseph, and
three daughters: Elizabeth, Susan or
Susannah, and Catherine. My theory is
that Martha named three of her sons after her brothers---John Valentine, Jacob,
and Joseph Beeler—and two of her daughters after her sisters—Susan and
Elizabeth (Betsey). Her last daughter
was born around 1781-83 after she and her husband had moved from Virginia to
this frontier on the border of Indian Territory. She might have been named after Catherine
Peters who was the daughter of her sister, Maria Elizabeth and her husband,
John Peters. Catherine Peters married
Frederick Weaver and lived out her life in Sullivan County.
Catherine Hacker, ironically, married a man named Jacob
Peters. Family records from a Peters family
Bible have been posted about this person and his brothers, and the story seems
credible. Jacob and Catherine ended up
living in Scott County, Virginia and had many children. One of their sons was named Jacob Hacker
Peters.
Jacob Peters bought some land in Scott County, and the deed
had a reference to land formerly owned by Joseph Hacker. Joseph was Catherine’s brother. However, the researcher who reported this was
unable to find a deed for land that Joseph might have owned. This would have been the first record that
showed where Joseph Hacker was during the first decade of the new century
(1800).
Joseph and Jacob were gone from the Hacker family home
before 1796. That was the first year that
Tennessee existed as a state, and had tax lists, which were the closest thing to a census
in those days. They provided a record of
men who owned, rented or occupied land in the county. Males between the ages of 20 and 50
(inclusively) also paid a poll tax that allowed them to vote and gave them
other privileges of citizenship. Females
paid taxes on land if they were the head of household, but did not ever pay the
poll tax. The 1796 Sullivan County Tax
List shows the following: Julius Hacker-
640 acres-no white poll, John Hacker-1 white poll, and Julius Hacker Jr.-1
white poll. Father Julius did not pay
the poll tax because he was over 50.
So, where were Joseph and Jacob? I’ll cover Jacob first because he seemed to
be more settled. Jacob
Hacker's name appears for the first time on a tax list in 1798.
"Taxables of Captain William Crawford's Company for the year 1798." I assume this was Jacob, the son of Julius Hacker,
based upon the year and probable age that this person was. In 1798, Jacob
s/o Julius Hacker, would have been about 29 years old, plenty old enough
to establish his own household apart from his father. It was about
1798 that Julius Hacker Sr. sold his land in Sullivan County
and purchased land in an area that eventually became Roane County, Tennessee.
This probably triggered Jacob's move to Greene County.
Jacob married Martha
Register, daughter of James and Deborah Chance Register, in 1794. The Register family may have come from
Maryland, but Jacob and Martha were married in Monroe County. But by 1798, they had moved to Greene County.
I have tried to speculate
on how couples like Jacob and Martha got together. Her parents lived in Maryland, but they moved
to Monroe County in the area that became Tennessee. Then, Jacob was just wandering around the
countryside, not sure what he would do with his life, and he met her. They fell in love, quickly, and got
married. They set out to find a new life
somewhere and found their way to this
new county that had just been organized.
I am speculating. I don’t know
if any of that story is true. But, they
were a couple whose families did not live in the same place. Jacob did not marry the girl next door. So, we can wonder how it all happened. The movement of families from one place to
another was highly influenced by when land to the West opened up after being
cleared of Indians who were originally living there.
Greene County was a new county that was formed
in 1783 out of land that was originally part of the large Washington County,
North Caroline (or Virginia) area. It
was organized by James Brown on land leased from the Cherokee Indians. This was one of the arrangements between the
Indians and white men that were later deemed to be illegal. But during the 1770s and 1780s,white settlers
and Cherokee Indians fought many battles over land. Gradually, the Indians vacated land, and
white men moved in. Counties were formed
on the former Indian land.
In 1798, Greene County
was a new place to which a young couple could move and build a family. Jacob “Haker” is listed on a tax record for
1800 under the heading: “Taxables of
Whitehead’s Company for the year 1800.”
Jacob is taxed for “1” white poll and 12 squirrel scalps. I’m not sure what squirrel scalps are. They might be the skins of squirrels that
were killed while Jacob was hunting. The
family ate the meat, and he cut the skin off and dried it out. Skins of animals could be used for blankets and
clothing. They must have been valuable
if a person had to pay a tax for owning them.
Jacob and Martha had the
following children:
- · Isaac C. Hacker – 1797-1883
- · James Register Hacker – 1798-1870
- · Jacob Hacker – 1802-1870
- · Francis Hacker – 1803-unknown
- · Margaret Hacker – 1804-unknown
- · Deborah Hacker – 1805-1881
- · Elizabeth Hacker – 1807-unknown
By 1840, Jacob had moved
his family to Monroe County which was further south. Monroe County was organized in 1819 and was
deeper in Cherokee Indian territory.
There was much conflict between Cherokee and white settlers until the Cherokee finally abandoned the area.
(Source: Wikipedia) That was often the case in Tennessee and
other Southern states. White settlers
would trickle in; Indians would sometimes sell them land hoping to control the
number that came. But when the Indians
were overwhelmed by increasing numbers, they would fight for a while and then
leave the area. The white settlers would
move in and begin acquiring land.
Treaties and agreements were made with the Cherokee Indians, but these
were often broken, especially by white settlers. Indians also broke treaties.
Jacob Hacker died before 1850 in Munroe County. I have not researched how he made a living,
but most men of this era were farmers.
His sons, however, seemed to have become educated and moved into other
professions. One or two of them taught
school. One of his grandsons, Newton
Hacker, became a lawyer and eventually became a judge. Another, W. R. Hacker, moved to Joplin,
Missouri and developed, and owned, lead mines that became the basis of the Jasper County economy. He was quite well off. A third grandson was an accountant, and
officer of a bank.
Some of Jacob’s children
were born in Greene County, Tennessee, and they tended to stay there as
adults. Others were born in Monroe
County, Tennessee, and some of them moved around a bit. One son—James Register Hacker—moved his
family to Johnson County, Illinois.
James had numerous children by his wife, Sabra Cole. Many of those children stayed in
Illinois.
One of the most colorful
of Jacob’s descendants was a great granddaughter named Alice Belle Hacker,
known as Belle. She was the daughter of
John C. and Lucinda Coleman Hacker and was born in Johnson County, Illinois. As I researched her, Ancestry.com kept
supplying me with records about her several marriages. She first married Christy Reed in 1888. Soon they had a little girl and a little
boy. But Christy died in 1891. In 1892 she married Tolliver A. Dalton, and
they moved to Arkansas. Eleven months
later had a son whom she named Doctor Earnest Dalton. The “Doctor” part was a name, not a
title.
Soon, I had a hint for
another marriage for Alice Belle in 1893.
I said to myself, “Wait a minute.
She just married Tolliver, and it took me a while to sort that one out. How could she be getting married again so
soon. I mean, she just had a baby and
all.” Well, she and Tolliver parted
company after a very short marriage. I
think I saw something in a story record about him mistreating her
daughters. So, she left him in spite of
the new baby.
Alice Belle was now
living as a divorcee in Arkansas with three small children, far away from
family in Illinois. But she found a
savior in Henry D. Littreal and married him by October, 1893. She had married Tolliver Dalton in May
1892; she had their son Doctor in April 1893.
She must have left Tolliver in mid-summer of 1893 because she found
Henry B. Littreal and married him in October 1893. Wouldn’t you have liked to be a fly on the
wall watching all of this transpire?
Henry Littreal managed to
stay alive and be a good husband to her and father to her children until
1908. She and Henry had two daughters to
add to the growing family. But then,
Henry died and she was once again a widow.
Enter Harvey Matthews whom Alice Belle married on April 4, 1909 in Logan County, Arkansas. Harvey had children by a former marriage; his
wife had presumably died. So the
household was now filled with some of Belle’s children and some of Harvey’s
children. I’m sure they all got along
just fine.
Alice Belle was 46 when she married Harvey, and it would
have been nice if they could have had many years together. But such was not to be. Harvey died in 1918, nine years after they
had wed. Alice Belle must have been tired of
breaking in new husbands because she did not get married again. Instead, she lived out her life quietly in Arkansas. She died in 1925 when she was 65 years
old. I have had a bit of fun
telling her story. I am sure there times
when she had great difficulties. It is
true, however, that women who were widowed with children had a big problem. They could not go to work to support the
children as women can today. They needed an able-bodied man to take care
of them and the children. So they looked
around for the most available man. Alice
was probably attractive, and she certainly had a lot of personality. She used her charms to solve her problem.
The same would be true if a
man’s wife died (for instance, in childbirth) and left him with several
children. It happened frequently. The man would find a wife PDQ because he just
could not take care of those children by himself. There was too much work involved. So he would look around for an available
woman. Many young women were willing to
take on this challenge because, frankly, they could do nothing else with their
lives. An adult woman usually lived at
home until she married. If she never
married, she would just be supported by her parents. Of course, she would work in the household
because there was always plenty of work to do.
If, however, a widower
with some children came calling, she would willingly trade her status as a
spinster for that of a wife. Inevitably,
she would have children of her own to add to those her husband already
had. This can be seen in 19th
century census records. When a couple got married, it was a sure thing that they would soon have a bunch of
children.
Frequently, men who were
widowers with children would look for a woman who was a widow with small
children. Such a woman might be more
willing to take on the burden of raising his children in return for him
supporting hers. One hopes that love was part of the equation,
but we really don’t know.
I have a feeling, though,
that Alice Belle loved all of her husbands, although she might have been
deceived somehow by Tolliver. She would
probably have been just as happy if Christy Reed had lived to a ripe old age;
or if either Henry or Harvey had lived longer.
But they did not, and she had to get on with life, and take care of
those children. And so she did.
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