Re: Staggs of Wayne Co. Tn

I am a descendant of Wm Nesbitt Staggs and Elizabeth Jackson.I probably do not have much more info than you have, but would be glad to share anything I have.

I had not ever known Mary Jackson's maiden name (West).Do you know anything more about the Jacksons or about Mary's family?I noted in a census, I believe 1860, that Mary was widowed and living in Elizabeth's household (Eliz. later married Luke Lee), and that she could not read or write.I believe I also noted from a census that Samuel was an idiot (I think they used this term for anyone who was mentally disabled.)

I visited the Walnut Grove Cemetary where this family are buried.Someone had put up a lot of new, very nicegravemarkers for the Jackson family members but I did not get the info as to who had done so.They did mix up John Jackson's wives, Polly being the first and Mary being the second.There were two graves for Elizabeth.I tend to believe her Staggs sons (George, James and William) must have buried her with the Staggs family, nearby but not with the Jacksons or Lees.There are a lot of old, small and apparently unengraved stones there.Her gravemarker gives her name as Mrs. E.A. Lee.I tend to think the small stone next to her was William's grave.He died of a fever in 1851 or 1852, within the month of his brother Robert's death from the same cause.

It was passed down to me that "they had copper mines back east but the inlaws got the inheritance with the help of a crooked lawyer."From what I could tell, Elizabeth had bought her father (John Jackson)'s land from the Court and had kept it til her death.There was iron ore on the land but it may not have ever been mined.Her husband (Luke Lee) had sold his "share" of the land to the railroad before Elizabeth's death; he got more for his 1/3 than the kids did, and his payment was contingent on delivering her children's deeds, which they signed almost immediately after her death.My ggfather, Hiram Green Staggs, and his brother (I forget whether it was James or George) held out and wouldn't sell at first, then did sell for less than the Lee kids got for their shares.Hiram then sold his own land and moved to Nashville.I never heard any mention of Wayne County -- they said they were from Hickman County.I suspect they bore their grudge against the entire county to the grave, and passed it down.