| Sources |
- [S104] Cocke County, Tennessee, and its People, Cocke County Heritage Book Committee, (Walsworth Publishing, 1992), 55, 141, 239.
- [S24] The Newport Plain Talk, (http://www.newportplaintalk.com), 9B, 31 Jan 2012.
Last Civil War widow died in August of 2008
with the death of Maudie white Hopkins on august 17, 2008, at age 93, another living link to the Civil war ended.
Hopkins, who died in Helena, arkansas, was the widow of Confederate veteran william M. Cantrell, whom she married on February 2, 1934, when he was 86. In later years, Hopkins said she married Cantrell when she was a young widow with a child to rear. at the time, Cantrell received a Confederate pension of $25 per month.
the last known union widow was Gertrude janeway of blaine, tn.
janeway, born july 3, 1909, died january 17, 2003. she married john janeway, an offcer in the 14th Illinois Cavalry in 1927, when she was 18 and he was 81. Following janeway’s death in 1937, his widow continued to live in a log cabin the couple shared in the rutledge County community and received a $70 pension check for veterans’ benefts every two months.
In Cocke County, the last known Confederate widow was nannie emaline (sisk) Huff justus.
she was born in the long Creek community of Cocke County at the home of her parents, william sisk and his frst wife eleanor Chapman, in 1867. Her father was a Confederate veteran.
she frst married stephen Huff, who was 17 years her senior. a native of del rio, he and nannie became the parents of six daughters and one son. of their children, one daughter died in infancy, and the couple’s only son died young, also. the surviving daughters were eliza, willie, josephine, Kate, and annie.
In 1902, stephen Huff died suddenly, leaving his wife and daughters in a precarious fnancial situation. various members of the Huff family helped by taking the daughters into their homes.
Meanwhile, another del rio native, reuben justus, born in 1839, frst married elizabeth bryan (not to be confused with the bryant family of english Creek), and they had two children: john wesley and Florence.
justus was a son of reuben allan justus, a Mcdowell County, nC native, and his wife, the former Polly Stokely.
when Civil war broke out, reuben justus cast his lot with the Confederacy, enlisting on october 4, 1862, in warrensburg, tn. within a month or so, he suffered serious injuries when he leaped from a train near vicksburg, Mississippi.
some accounts claim the train was under union attack at the time. He was a member of Captain w. n. bewley’s Company, a part of Colonel vaughn’s 81st regiment.
by december of 1862, approximately two months after his enlistment, reuben received a medical discharge from service. He had not participated in any battles as such, but because of his medical injuries, which plagued him for the remainder of his life, he qualifed for a disability pension.
He returned to del rio where he owned a large farm in the dry Fork community and supervised its prosperous operation. elizabeth (bryan) justus died in 1868, and reuben remained a widower for nearly 40 years.
sometime after stephen Huff’s death in 1902, reuben began courting the attractive and much younger widow, and the two married in March of 1907 and set up housekeeping on his 275-acre farm.
all of nan’s children returned home, and their much older stepfather is said to have adored them. the marriage of reuben and nan justus lasted 16 years until his death in 1923 at age 84.
nan, only 56 at the time, remained at dry Fork, until she sold the farm to john Garfeld Ford and spent the remaining 33 years of her life alternating her time between her three married daughters willie, eliza, and annie.
she also continued to receive a pension for reuben’s Civil war service. she died in 1961. reuben is buried in big Hill Cemetery in dry Ford, and nan is buried in union Cemetery in newport.
Smoky Mountain Homeplace
- [S24] The Newport Plain Talk, (http://www.newportplaintalk.com), 26 May 2013.
Aunt Nan would have been so proud
‘As It Was Give To Me’
Duay O’Neil
Aunt Nan Justus would have been so proud Monday evening when portraits of two of her grandchildren were unveiled at Walters State Community College’s Sevierville campus in recognition of a new scholarship endowed by family members in memory of Ruth Stokely Lee and her brother John Stokely.
Aunt Nan was a sister of my grandfather, Robert Sisk, a child of the ? rst marriage of William Sisk to Eleanor Chapman. Following Eleanor’s death in 1874, he married Martha Whitaker and my grandfather was a child of that union.
At birth, Aunt Nan was christened Nannie Emaline. She was born March 25, 1867 in the Long Creek community, most probably in a log house built well before the Civil War. In later years, Easterly Freshour and his family lived in a frame house built slightly in front of the older homesite.
Aunt Nan received what her grandson John later described as a “sound basic education” from subscription schools. Living where they did and considering the fact that she would have arrived at school age during Reconstruction Days, it’s somewhat of a miracle she was able to attend school at all.
She also joined in the family’s work on the farm. Weekends would have been devoted to religious thoughts, most probably along Baptist lines since her grandfather Toliver Sisk was one of the pillars of Big Pigeon Primitive Baptist Church.
On November 9, 1885, at age 18, she married Stephen Huff, a man nearly twice her age.
He was of the Del Rio Huffs and rather well-to-do for the day. A year later, the ? rst of the couple’s six daughters, Willie Jane, was born. Quickly following were daughters Eliza, Kate, Annie, Josephine, and an infant. The only son, Stephen Huff III, was born in 1898 and died at age eight months.
Four years later, in 1902, tragedy struck again when Aunt Nan’s husband died of pneumonia. Widowed at 35, she desperately tried to keep the farming operation going and died so until September of 1903, when ? re destroyed the family’s home and all its contents.
Willie Jane and Eliza, the two oldest daughters, were away at school. Aunt Nan moved in with relatives and Kate and Annie were “farmed out” to other sympathetic relatives. This interruption of the family unit continued for three and one-half years and was the bitterest experience of Aunt Nan’s life.
However, another older gentleman soon came courting. Confederate veteran Reuben A. Justus eventually proposed married and they married on March 13, 1907 with W. V. Jones performing the ceremony. They then set up house
keeping on Mr. Justus’s 250-acre farm at Dry Fork.
Uncle Reuben had been injured at the Battle of Vicksburg and was physically unable to engage in farming, but actively supervised other workers. The farm ? ourished and Aunt Nan’s children returned home. Their stepfather adored them and they him and for the next sixteen years the family enjoyed happy times.
Uncle Reuben died March 26, 1923, leaving Aunt Nan a widow again, this time at age 56. Willie, Eliza, and Annie were all married by this time and had their own homes.
Josephine had died as a teenager. For ? ve years, Aunt Nan continued the farming operation alone, but ? nally sold the place to John Gar? eld Ford and “broke up housekeeping.”
For over 30 years, she divided her time with among her daughters, mostly in Asheville, Nough, and Newport. At her death on September 6, 1961, she was one of the few remaining Confederate widows in Tennessee receiving a pension.
Of his grandmother, John Stokely wrote:
It was my good fortune to know Grandma Justus well; to sit at her knee to learn to read, to recite my Bible verses, to recite favorite poems of hers which she taught me; to be inculcated with her moral lessons. In thinking of her today, I see in my mind’s eye a tall, imposing, neat, scrupously (sic) clean, courteous, personable individual, a great conversationalist with a wonderful sense of humor, a person with high moral standards and to whom family and church were everything.
And now we come to the present day.
Aunt Nan’s daughter Annie married John Stokely of Del Rio. They had two children Ruth Stokely Lee and John Huff Stokely, Jr.
Ruth became the mother of two boys: John William and Robert, who attended elementary schools in Del Rio and later Cocke County High School.
John Stokely, Jr., after serving in World War II, returned to East Tennessee and devoted his life to education in Jefferson and Hamblen Counties.
At one time, he served as principal of Maury High School in Dandridge. His widow, the former Virginia Hodges, now resides on Woodlawn Avenue.
This past spring, Cousin Robert Lee noti? ed me that he, his brother John William, and their Aunt Virginia have jointly endowed a scholarship to Walters State Community College in memory of Ruth and John, Jr.
It is reserved for Cocke County students who live in the Big Creek area south of Del Rio and who will probably graduate from Del Rio Elementary and Cocke County High Schools. The in-perpetuity scholarship, the Ruth Stokely and John H. Stokely, Jr. Scholarship, honors the memory of two people devoted to education and who were proud of the deep Cocke County roots.
This past Monday, May 20, family members and friends attended the annual Walters State Community College’s Foundation Board of Trustees annual meeting at the Sevier County campus.
A highlight of the dinner came when portraits of Ruth and John were unveiled. Other portraits of the late Vivian Litz Merhoff and Henry Merhoff, formerly of Morristown, and of Ronnie E. Sartain of Jefferson City were also unveiled. The portraits will hang in the President’s Trust Gallery at WSCC’s Morristown campus.
The evening was devoted to education and the continued growth of Walters State. The school’s impact on Cocke County over the past 40 years has been immeasurable and now, with yet another scholarship designated for a Cocke County student, that impact will grow some more.
I know Aunt Nan would have been very, very proud of her family that night.
- [S112] Census, 1900.
Name: Nannie Huff
Titles & Terms:
Residence: Civil District 1, Cocke, Tennessee
Birth Date: Mar 1867
Birthplace: Tennessee
Relationship to Head of Household: Wife
Spouse: Stephen Huff
Spouse's Titles & Terms:
Spouse's Birthplace: Tennessee
Father:
Father's Titles & Terms:
Father's Birthplace: Tennessee
Mother:
Mother's Titles & Terms:
Mother's Birthplace: Tennessee
Race or Color (expanded): White
Head-of-household Name: Stephen Huff
Gender: Female
Marital Status: Married
Years Married: 15
Estimated Marriage Year: 1885
Mother How Many Children: 7
Number Living Children: 5
Immigration Year:
Enumeration District: 0158
Page: 15
Sheet Letter: A
Family Number: 268
Reference Number: 15
Film Number: 1241562
Image Number: 00238
Household Gender Age Birthplace
Self Stephen Huff M Tennessee
Wife Nannie Huff F Tennessee
Daughter Willie J Huff F Tennessee
Daughter Lizza E Huff F Tennessee
Daughter Katie Huff F Tennessee
Daughter Annie M Huff F Tennessee
Daughter Josie E Huff F Tennessee
- [S147] Find a Grave, (Memorial: 50786049).
- [S58] Marriage Certificate.
Name: N E Huff
Also Known As:
Suffix:
Event: Marriage
Event Date: 13 Mar 1907
Event Place: Cocke, Tennessee, United States
Gender: Female
Spouse: R A Justus
Spouse's Also Known As:
Spouse's Prefix:
Spouse's Suffix:
Page: 106
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