Andrew Bogle McTeer

Children

Notes

In 1850 Andrew McTeer aged 30 years was a resident in the 13th district, Blount County; his household included his wife Nancy aged 27 and four children, William aged 6, Elizabeth aged 5, Hetty aged 3 and Mary aged 7 months.

On 18 September Andrew B. McTeer enlisted at Maryville, Tennessee as a private in Company A 3rd Tennessee U. S. Volunteers; on 16 November 1863 he was promoted to 1st Lieutenant and Regimental Quartermaster, a position he held until his discharge on 26 September 1864. But on 24 September 1864, two days before the date of his official discharge, while he was with a detachment under Colonel Wallace Campbell, Lieutenant McTeer was captured at Athens, Alabama, by Major N. B. Forrest; from that time until he was exchanged on 6 December 1864, he remained in Confederate hands, and it was the first of the next year before he was able to get back home. The receipt of his discharge at regimental headquarters while he was a prisoner-of-war together with the loss at the time of his capture of all the quartermaster's records, invoices, vouchers and overdue reports, created such a snafu that Lieutenant McTeer was obliged to spend all of 1865 and most of 1866 in correspondence with government agents in an effort to collect his final military pay (from September through December 1864) and to satisfy their inquiries regarding various discrepancies in his lists of properties, animals (mules and horses), harness, forage, clothing (down to canteens, shirts and boots) and general supplies (such as inkstands, camp desks and foolscap paper).

The Invalid Pension Declaration of Lt. Andrew B. McTeer, dated 29 April 1882 reports disability as a result of 'Poison and did not get it out of my system. It occurred in the Barracks at Covington, Kentucky, on or about the last of November 1862 and rendered me a good portion of my time unfit for service, sometimes better, sometimes worse ... he rendered me unable for labor and still growing worse from pains and stiffness of limbs and inward suffering.'

Then after the War while the late lieutenant was still struggling with ill health, arguing with the government over his back pay, and trying to reconcile his confused accounts, he was receiving also vague threats from the Freedmen's Bureau citing some alleged mistreatment of the 'Col'd people that have been engaged in working your Mother's farm.' A letter of 1 September 1865 continues, 'These people will be protected by all the force at the disposal of the agents of the Bureau in their just rights. ... I am authorized to seize and rent for the use of the aged, infirm and the young, all Estates from which the late masters drive away the poor and destitute Col'd people. This authority I shall use as circumstances demand therefore be carefull what you do.'

Considering the very general rapport between the McTeers and their slaves, both before and after emancipation, the whole affair now seems a ridiculous display of bureaucracy, but at the time it must have been one more distressing, disturbing and frustrating harrassment to the ailing Union veteran.

On 7 September 1885 William A. McTeer was appointed Administrator of the Estate of Andrew B. McTeer, who had died on 13 June 1885, Nancy McTeer the widow having declined to act as Administratrix. Bond was set at $2000 with A. B. McTeer, J. G. McTeer and S. J. McCulloch as sureties.

On 21 October 1885 a committee appointed by the Court set off for Nancy McTeer the widow's 'one year's provisions' as follows: three horses, one milk cow, two steers, two heifers, one calf, five sheep, four 'fatning' hogs, seven shoats, wheat on hand, present corn crop, hay and fodder on hands, one turning plow, two small plows, two pair of gearing (harness), one harrow, two cultivators, one wood saw, all household and kitchen furniture, $25 cash.

A sale notice of 4 September 1886 listed four parcels of land in the 13th Civil District, Blount County, being 'all the real estate owned by Andrew B. McTeer at the time of his death', to wit: 91 acres adjoining J. A. McTeer, Cal Davis and others; 84 acres adjoining J. A. McTeer, Gillespie, Graves and perhaps others (this title in dispute); also revisionary interest of dower to Nancy McTeer, S. A. McCulloch, Samuel Cameron, Robert Murrin's heirs and perhaps others. All four tracts were sold to Nancy McTeer for $1605 and conveyed to her 17 September 1886 by Ben Cunningham, Clerk and Special Commissioner.

After a law suit in April 1888 to quiet title in the case of James A. McTeer and Nancy McTeer versus Samuel Gillespy, James Gillespy and Ann E. Blackburn, James A. McTeer and Nancy McTeer (his widowed sister-in-law) divided certain lands held as tenants in common; Nancy's residual part was 170 acres near the foot of Chilhowee Mountain.

This last named property known as the 'Mountain House Land' together with 84 3/4 acres on Ellejoy near Chilhowee Mountain (the second tract mentioned in the estate sale above) was deeded on 25 January 1895 from Nancy McTeer to her son Will A. McTeer. On that same date she deeded to her son Josias G. McTeer and Alexander B. McTeer, 135 acres more or less, all the remaining land from her husband's estate. Actually the finincial considerations specified in these deeds constitute the settlement of Nancy McTeer's estate.

Source: McTeer - Mateer Families of Cumberland County Pennsylvania, Frances Davis McTeer, 1975, p 91-93.