I need to talk
about Joseph Hacker’s other children. You will recall that in my last post I
talked about John and Cyntha Beeler Hacker. John was Joseph’s oldest son. He
and his brother Julius were born between 1802 and 1810—that mysterious time
between the dates of two marriage bonds that were filed by Joseph Hacker and
Priscilla Haggerty.
George Washington
Hacker, b. 1811, was the first son born to Joseph and Priscilla after their 1810
marriage. He was probably born in Roane County, Tennessee as that is where his
parents were living in 1810. The 1830
Federal Census for Roane County, TN lists the Joseph Hacker household with one
son between 10 and 15, two sons between 15 and 19, one daughter between 10 and 15, one daughter
between 15 and 19, a male and female both between 50 and 59, and two elderly
ladies between 80 and 89. The two sons
between 15 and 19 would be George W. and his brother, Joel. The name of the son under 15 is not known. The
two young girls were Margaret and her sister Elizabeth. Joseph and wife Priscilla were the two adults
between 50 and 59.
The identity of
the elderly ladies is not known. My
speculation is that they might have been the mothers of Joseph and Priscilla. If so, one of them would have been Martha
Beeler Hacker. However, the 1840 Federal census shows seven elderly ladies
between 80 and 89 living in Joseph’s household. These are not the same ladies
that were shown on the 1830 census, because those two ladies would be 10 years
older by 1840 and would be counted in the 90-99 age range. So, was Joseph
Hacker running a home for elderly women?
Did this give employment to his two daughters? We don’t know.
Getting back to
George Washington Hacker, he married Rebecca Hollingsworth on May 10, 1838 in
Grainger County, Tennessee. George Washington’s brother, Julius C. Hacker lived
in Grainger County by then. Was George visiting his brother when he met
Rebecca, whose mother was married to a prominent farmer in Grainger
County?
We should take a little
time to explain some family relationships here. Rebecca Hollingsworth was the
daughter of Anna Parker Hollingsworth Beeler. Anna’s first husband was “Somebody”
Parker, and she had children by him. He died, and she married Mr. Hollingsworth
and had children by him. Rebecca came from the second set of children.
After Mr.
Hollingsworth died, Anna married Joseph Beeler, a wealthy farmer whose wife,
Katy, had died. Joseph had several children by Katy. He and Anna did not have any children, but
Anna’s daughters lived with her in Joseph’s household from time to time.
Joseph Beeler was
the son of John Valentine Beeler who, in turn, was the son of Ulrich Buehler who had come to
the New World from Switzerland in 1734.
Ulrich and wife, Maria Elizabeth, had several children; four of them
were baptized and, therefore, proven to be Ulrich’s children. Four others have been attributed to Ulrich
and Maria Elizabeth, but there is no documentation to absolutely prove these family
relationships. One of the latter was Martha Beeler who married Julius Hacker, a
German immigrant who became acquainted with Ulrich Buehler in Fredericks Co.,
Virginia in the 1750s-1760s. It appears that Julius married Ulrich’s daughter.
When Ulrich
Buehler’s sons began to move from Virginia into these untamed Indian territories
that were, theoretically, part of the North Carolina Colony, Julius and Martha
Beeler Hacker moved right along with them. Around 1775, Julius settled his
family on land located on Beaver Creek near land claimed by John Valentine
Beeler.* Between 1770 and 1780, there
was no legal way for white settlers who began moving into Indian territories to
purchase land, although some Indians tried to sell land to them. These sales
were often declared illegal later. During that same decade, the Revolutionary
War was also fought, and won, by the rebels. After 1776, the area was
considered to be part of the new United States.
I am shortening a
long, complicated history here, but I want to explain some things while talking
about George Washington Hacker’s marriage to Rebecca Hollingsworth in Grainger
County—where Rebecca’s mother was married to the prominent and wealthy Joseph
Beeler. George Hacker was presumably Joseph’s distant cousin. As a child,
Joseph Beeler would certainly have known Julius Hacker, George’s grandfather,
because the Hacker farm was near his father’s large farm in Sullivan County. Julius
Hacker and John V. Beeler acquired their respective farms through North
Carolina Land Grants issued in the early 1780s. In Sullivan County, Julius
Hacker and John V. Beeler had served together on at least one committee that
oversaw the construction of an important road.
The 1840 Federal
Census for Grainger County lists the George Hacker family with an adult male
20-30, a female 15-19, and a child under 5.
The listing is at the top of the page; these people would have been
George, Rebecca, and their first child, Joseph Jerome. Four lines down from
George’s name, we find a listing for Joseph Beeler, Sr., a man between 70 and
79 years old. The household also
contains a woman, 40-49, a male teenager between 15 and 20, and two females
between 10 and 15. The woman would be
Anna Parker Hollingsworth, Joseph’s wife.
The teenage children were probably hers from former marriages. This
listing suggests that George W. Hacker and his wife were living close to
Rebecca’s mother and stepfather, and were included in Joseph and Anna’s family
circle.
Julius Hacker,
George’s older brother, was listed at the bottom of the previous page, meaning
that he lived close to his brother, George. In the listings above Julius’ name,
we find several other Beeler households:
Daniel Beeler, Jr.
Jacob Beeler
John Beeler
Daniel Beeler
Peter Beeler
Joseph Beeler, Jr.
Some of these men were sons of Joseph Beeler, Sr. One—Daniel—might
have been a brother; Daniel Jr. might have been this brother’s son. So, we see George W. Hacker, and his brother
Julius Hacker, living among the Beelers, their probable cousins.
Another
connection would come from Julius’s wife, Elizabeth Beeler, who was a great
granddaughter of Ulrich and Maria Elizabeth through her grandfather, Jacob
Beeler. This Jacob Beeler was one of the “probable” sons, and one Beeler
researcher has questioned whether or not he was
a “son.” I am assuming that he was. I am also explaining how the Hackers and
Beelers living close to each other in Grainger County lends weight to the
possibility that they were related.
Here is another
illustration of this relationship. From 1802 to 1810, John Hacker---who was a
brother of Joseph Hacker (George’s father)--also lived in Grainger County. He
moved there around the same time that John Valentine Beeler did. One of his
descendants told me of her family’s claim that John Hacker had a close
relationship with his “Uncle” John Valentine Beeler. In fact, John Hacker named
one of his sons Valentine after his uncle.
Again, John V. Beeler would have known John Hacker as the son of his
friend, Julius Hacker who was married to his “presumed” sister. He may have
wanted to help his nephew get started in life.
I want to point
out that all of those people back then knew
to whom they were related. It is only
some researchers, now, who say that they are not sure about these relationships
because they can’t find a piece of paper, or a record, that tells them who was
related to whom.
George W. and
Rebecca had four children rather quickly.
They are:
Joseph Jerome Hacker, b. 12 Mar
1838; d. 1 Mar 1912
Julius C. Hacker; b. 1840, d. 31
Jul 1902
William A. Hacker, b. 1843; d. AFT
Jul 1880
George W. Hacker, b. 1844; d. 1867
George, himself, died in 1844 leaving his widow with four
young children. Rebecca Hacker is listed
as Head-of-Household on the 1850 Tennessee Federal Census for Grainger
County. Her four sons are listed with
her on that record.
Rebecca learned
lessons from the way her mother managed to survive in a male-dominated world
where women only held property if they inherited it from a father or a
husband. By 1851, she had married again
to Henry Soard, a widower with young children who needed to be cared for. Henry
had first married Malinda Taylor about 1835 in Claiborne Co., and had five
daughters before she died in 1841. She
might have died in childbirth.
In 1842, Henry
Soard married Jane Rogers in Grainger County.
She took over the care of his daughters, and had four children of her
own. She died in 1849. Jane Rogers was
from Grainger County, and Henry Soard may have met Rebecca and George Hacker
when he married Jane there. But George
was still very much alive in 1842. Two
years later, Rebecca was a widow. When
Henry’s wife died in 1849, he might have thought about Rebecca as a possible
mother for his children. So he came
calling. Eventually, he and Rebecca
married in 1852.
Pinkney L. Soard
was Henry’s and Rebecca’s first child.
According to the 1900 Census record, Pinkney was born in September,
1851. However, Tennessee marriage
records show that Henry and Rebecca were married in November, 1851. Henry and Rebecca must have taken a little
too long to think it over, and the inevitable happened. They made it right
in the end, and Rebecca took over the care of Henry’s older children while he
supported this large family with farming. Rebecca gave birth to five more Soard
children which were added to the household. The 1860 Census shows the Henry Soard
household with three older Hacker children, two older Soard children, and the
five younger Soard children born to Henry and Rebecca.
Henry Soard died
in 1865. His last child was Samuel Brown Soard who was born in 1861. His widow, Rebecca, married one more time to
John Runnolds on November 26, 1867. She did not have any children by him. She lived out her life as his wife, and died
in 1880.
* The 1775 date is derived from the fact that Joseph Hacker,
Julius and Martha’s fourth son, was born in 1775, according to his 1850 Federal
Census record. He was 75 years old in 1850, and was born in North Carolina.
This listing suggests that, by 1775, the family had moved into this area that
was part of the North Carolina Colony, according to its charter from the King
of England. The area would soon be called Washington County; much later a
portion of that county would be broken off to form Sullivan County.
