Individual Details
James Greer Jr.
(September 21, 1774 - October 8, 1851)
"Very shortly after my grandmother's (David's Mother) death my Grandfather (David's Father) married Mrs. Rachel Williams, a widow who was poor and a near neighbor of my Grandfather's who was then living in the town of Paris, Tennessee. By her first husband she had two children, Isaac Williams and Miriam Williams.
"Mrs. Rachel Williams Greer, I remember in a vague sort of a way to have been in my infancy, as I also recall my Grandfather. She was about medium height, blue eyed, quite stout, of a quick temper, possessed of much ambition, had many generous impulses, and was disposed to use some of the money which my grandfather had accumlated or aquired in making their home elegant, their surroundings as showy as they were substantial and hospitaable. She does not seem to have been a bad step-mother nor to have shown much favortism to her own children so far as certain comforts were concerned. My father has told me that she had but little to do with him, and he was suffered to do as he pleased with his time. As my grandfather was a man of large wealth when the second set of children were growing up, than during the childhood of the first set, they naturally had some advantages, which the first set especially the older ones of the first set did not have.
"I shall now resume copying from Uncle David's book so as to give you the names and births of the second set of children. (Names and birthdates of the second family of five children as given in this genealogy.)
"My Grandfather, as I vaguely recall him, and as I have had him vividly described, was about 5 feet 10 inches in stature, was blue eyed, rather stout, after passing middle life and weighting about 175 lbs. He was a man of no culture and possessed only the rudiments of an English education. He read but little and did less writing, but was a practical surveyor and very keen and quick about arithmetical calculations, possessed of an energy of the most indomitable kind, he was naturaly restless, and but little harmony with the quiet, ceremony and repose of other older communities. When only a boy of 17 he ran away from home, and evidently with but little money, traveled all through the Northern and then Western parts of the union. Returning home at the end of a year he settled to work on the farm in Georgia, where his father then lived.
"I have no date of the precise time of the marriage with my Grandmother Susannah (Searcy) but know it must have accured in Georgia, since the first four or five children of the marriage were born in Georgia. He must have moved to Sumner County, Tennessee about 1815. He did not live long in Sumner however, not longer than four or five years, when he moved to Paris, Tennessee. He there established a brick yard in the edge of town, while with the bulk of his slaves he continued farming, as I have heard both my father and Uncle David say that he owned a store, it must have been at this period of his life. They mentioned this curcumstance as an oddity in his career and as out of harmony with him as none of the family has been Merchants or Traders. There was one form of speculation or trade with him, which amounted almost to passion and to which he devoted the best energies of this life, this was the acquisition, buying or entering direct from the state of wild lands.
"Every spare dollar that he made he would invest this way, and it was through desire to enter the first lands, which were open to settlers that he came to Paris, Tennessee, thence to Holly Springs, Mississippi, and finaly to Duvalls Bluff, Arkansas, after acquiring these lands he seemed always to part with reluctance and when he did sell, it was after settlements had been made all around his land, then he would generaly take the money from such sales, to go farther west and buy or enter yet wilder lands. Being a man of robust health, great courage, and of simple and temperate havits, he sould go on horse back alone or in company with one or two persons to undertake and accompolish journeys of hundreds of miles, through wilderness inhabited principaly by Indians with here and ther a settler and every where wild animals. He came to be known to the chiefs of the Chickasaws and other tribes, whose names I don't recall.
"Many of his land titles, rested on purchases made from Indians and both my Uncle David and Pa recalled with pride that whilst many considered him a close man, no man had ever accused him of over-reaching, misrepresenting or cheating white or Indian.
"He came to Holly Springs, Mississippi, to take up his home, I think as early as 1830. He had been many times through this section of the country before he brought his family to the then little frontier village. He had already entered or bought thousands of acres of land, in what are now the counties of Marshall, Benton, Pontotac, Lafayette and Desoto Counties, Mississippi, which then belonged to the Chickasaw Indians.
"He moved from Holly Springs to Duvall's Bluff, Arkansas, or Clarenden, Arkansas, for he owned a house at either place about 1849 and 1850. His restless spirit was not to carry him any further, and so in October 1851 on the 8th day of that month, he died at Duvall's Bluff, Arkansas at 77 years of age.
"With all of his illiteracy, his judgement was very sound, and his intellect evidently above mediocrity. He accumlated a fortune which was large enough to make each of his 14 heirs comfortable, and he kept clean and free from trickery, the name he had received in the same manner from his father. He was all his life a staunch and unshacken believer in the Christian religion, but was never a zealous churchman, though a member of the Baptist denomination, his children say they saw him drunk only once in the course of his long life, and that he was heartily ashamed of the occurence. They also say that he was never tetotallist, believed a man had the right to drink in mederation, or use tobbacco though he refrained from this latter vice altogether. His sense of humor was good, though it never lead him beyond a joke or two at times. He was quiet in demeanor never boisterous or argumentive, believed in keeping his own counsel, was generally liked and respected, but seems to have had very few intimate friends, his physical courage was unquestioned but he seems never to have had a personal difficulty.
"His negroes of whom he had quite a number many of whom I have talked with, said he was the kindest of masters, exacting no heavy tasks and always keeping them well clothed and sheltered. he employed overseets, but limited their rights to punish very greatly, and it seems to have made money in no other way out of his slaves than their natural increase. Whilst he believed slavery right, he did not think an owner ought to buy and sell negroes as a money business, and I think I am accurate in saying, though born a slaveholder, and though he bought many in his life time, he never sold one.
"At the time of his death, every tooth was in place and all were perfectly sound. Without any culture as we now use the word he was as delicate and refined in his feelings toward women as a Beyard, and naturaly held in contempt a roue!
"He seems to have taken but little control over his children though he gave them all, excepting the first three, the opportunity of aquiring such education as was attainable in village schools and colleges, where he lived. He was by politics a Democrat." (THE GREER'S by Judge James Micajah Greer of Memphis, Tennessee, May 1885, pages 5-9.)
"James Greer was a surveyor. This family moved several times and ended up in Arkansas. They lived in Sumner County, Tennessee for about five years before removing to Paris, Tennessee, where the last four children (of his first marriage) were born. There he farmed and ran a brick yard for a while. Mrs. Rachel Williams was a widow with two children who lived nearby in Paris, Tennessee. After Susan died, James married Mrs. Williams and the family moved to Holly Springs, Mississippi." (MISSISSIPPI REVOLUTIONARY SOLDIERS, pages 129 and 130, and the research notes of the Greer Family of Mr. L. L. McNees (deceased) of Ebenezer, Mississippi.) (NOTE FROM RALPH TERRY: This information appears to have been taken from the writings of Judge James Micajah Greer, above.)
"Upon petitition of Reuben Searcy, William Searcy, William Bracken (in the right of his wife, Penelope), Jesse Searcy, Richard Searcy, James searcy, John B. Howard (in the right of his wife Harriett), William C. Rodgers (in the right of his wife Jane) and Charles D. McLean (guardian of the minor heirs, Martin McLean, deceased), Joshua Smith (in the right of his wife Elizabeth) and James Greer (guardian of the minor heirs of Susanna Greer, deceased). Humbly complaining sheweth to your worshipful on the 25th day of July 1822, a grant issued from the state of Tennessee for 5000 acres of land to ...... is to say 3000 acres to bartlett Searcy and his heirs, 1000 to Asa and his heirs, and 1000 to Reuben Searcy and his heirs, ..... Reuben Searcy died, leaving ..... as his sole heirs: James Searcy, Jesse Searcy, Richard Searcy, Reuben Searcy, William Searcy, Penelope Searcy, Harriett Searcy, Jane Searcy and Susan Searcy, Polly Searcy, Elizabeth Searcy, Bennett Searcy and Asa Searcy. ..... James Greer inter - married with the said Susanna Searcy, deceased, and had by her nine children and that he is intitled to one seventeenth part of 1000 acres of land granted to the said Reuben Searcy ..... as guardian of said nine children ..... etc." (Henry County, Tennessee Court, December 16, 1825, page 34, "William C. Rogers vs Reuben Searcy's Heirs and others.)
1840 Marshall County, Mississippi census.
1850 Marshall County, Mississippi census.
"Mrs. Rachel Williams Greer, I remember in a vague sort of a way to have been in my infancy, as I also recall my Grandfather. She was about medium height, blue eyed, quite stout, of a quick temper, possessed of much ambition, had many generous impulses, and was disposed to use some of the money which my grandfather had accumlated or aquired in making their home elegant, their surroundings as showy as they were substantial and hospitaable. She does not seem to have been a bad step-mother nor to have shown much favortism to her own children so far as certain comforts were concerned. My father has told me that she had but little to do with him, and he was suffered to do as he pleased with his time. As my grandfather was a man of large wealth when the second set of children were growing up, than during the childhood of the first set, they naturally had some advantages, which the first set especially the older ones of the first set did not have.
"I shall now resume copying from Uncle David's book so as to give you the names and births of the second set of children. (Names and birthdates of the second family of five children as given in this genealogy.)
"My Grandfather, as I vaguely recall him, and as I have had him vividly described, was about 5 feet 10 inches in stature, was blue eyed, rather stout, after passing middle life and weighting about 175 lbs. He was a man of no culture and possessed only the rudiments of an English education. He read but little and did less writing, but was a practical surveyor and very keen and quick about arithmetical calculations, possessed of an energy of the most indomitable kind, he was naturaly restless, and but little harmony with the quiet, ceremony and repose of other older communities. When only a boy of 17 he ran away from home, and evidently with but little money, traveled all through the Northern and then Western parts of the union. Returning home at the end of a year he settled to work on the farm in Georgia, where his father then lived.
"I have no date of the precise time of the marriage with my Grandmother Susannah (Searcy) but know it must have accured in Georgia, since the first four or five children of the marriage were born in Georgia. He must have moved to Sumner County, Tennessee about 1815. He did not live long in Sumner however, not longer than four or five years, when he moved to Paris, Tennessee. He there established a brick yard in the edge of town, while with the bulk of his slaves he continued farming, as I have heard both my father and Uncle David say that he owned a store, it must have been at this period of his life. They mentioned this curcumstance as an oddity in his career and as out of harmony with him as none of the family has been Merchants or Traders. There was one form of speculation or trade with him, which amounted almost to passion and to which he devoted the best energies of this life, this was the acquisition, buying or entering direct from the state of wild lands.
"Every spare dollar that he made he would invest this way, and it was through desire to enter the first lands, which were open to settlers that he came to Paris, Tennessee, thence to Holly Springs, Mississippi, and finaly to Duvalls Bluff, Arkansas, after acquiring these lands he seemed always to part with reluctance and when he did sell, it was after settlements had been made all around his land, then he would generaly take the money from such sales, to go farther west and buy or enter yet wilder lands. Being a man of robust health, great courage, and of simple and temperate havits, he sould go on horse back alone or in company with one or two persons to undertake and accompolish journeys of hundreds of miles, through wilderness inhabited principaly by Indians with here and ther a settler and every where wild animals. He came to be known to the chiefs of the Chickasaws and other tribes, whose names I don't recall.
"Many of his land titles, rested on purchases made from Indians and both my Uncle David and Pa recalled with pride that whilst many considered him a close man, no man had ever accused him of over-reaching, misrepresenting or cheating white or Indian.
"He came to Holly Springs, Mississippi, to take up his home, I think as early as 1830. He had been many times through this section of the country before he brought his family to the then little frontier village. He had already entered or bought thousands of acres of land, in what are now the counties of Marshall, Benton, Pontotac, Lafayette and Desoto Counties, Mississippi, which then belonged to the Chickasaw Indians.
"He moved from Holly Springs to Duvall's Bluff, Arkansas, or Clarenden, Arkansas, for he owned a house at either place about 1849 and 1850. His restless spirit was not to carry him any further, and so in October 1851 on the 8th day of that month, he died at Duvall's Bluff, Arkansas at 77 years of age.
"With all of his illiteracy, his judgement was very sound, and his intellect evidently above mediocrity. He accumlated a fortune which was large enough to make each of his 14 heirs comfortable, and he kept clean and free from trickery, the name he had received in the same manner from his father. He was all his life a staunch and unshacken believer in the Christian religion, but was never a zealous churchman, though a member of the Baptist denomination, his children say they saw him drunk only once in the course of his long life, and that he was heartily ashamed of the occurence. They also say that he was never tetotallist, believed a man had the right to drink in mederation, or use tobbacco though he refrained from this latter vice altogether. His sense of humor was good, though it never lead him beyond a joke or two at times. He was quiet in demeanor never boisterous or argumentive, believed in keeping his own counsel, was generally liked and respected, but seems to have had very few intimate friends, his physical courage was unquestioned but he seems never to have had a personal difficulty.
"His negroes of whom he had quite a number many of whom I have talked with, said he was the kindest of masters, exacting no heavy tasks and always keeping them well clothed and sheltered. he employed overseets, but limited their rights to punish very greatly, and it seems to have made money in no other way out of his slaves than their natural increase. Whilst he believed slavery right, he did not think an owner ought to buy and sell negroes as a money business, and I think I am accurate in saying, though born a slaveholder, and though he bought many in his life time, he never sold one.
"At the time of his death, every tooth was in place and all were perfectly sound. Without any culture as we now use the word he was as delicate and refined in his feelings toward women as a Beyard, and naturaly held in contempt a roue!
"He seems to have taken but little control over his children though he gave them all, excepting the first three, the opportunity of aquiring such education as was attainable in village schools and colleges, where he lived. He was by politics a Democrat." (THE GREER'S by Judge James Micajah Greer of Memphis, Tennessee, May 1885, pages 5-9.)
"James Greer was a surveyor. This family moved several times and ended up in Arkansas. They lived in Sumner County, Tennessee for about five years before removing to Paris, Tennessee, where the last four children (of his first marriage) were born. There he farmed and ran a brick yard for a while. Mrs. Rachel Williams was a widow with two children who lived nearby in Paris, Tennessee. After Susan died, James married Mrs. Williams and the family moved to Holly Springs, Mississippi." (MISSISSIPPI REVOLUTIONARY SOLDIERS, pages 129 and 130, and the research notes of the Greer Family of Mr. L. L. McNees (deceased) of Ebenezer, Mississippi.) (NOTE FROM RALPH TERRY: This information appears to have been taken from the writings of Judge James Micajah Greer, above.)
"Upon petitition of Reuben Searcy, William Searcy, William Bracken (in the right of his wife, Penelope), Jesse Searcy, Richard Searcy, James searcy, John B. Howard (in the right of his wife Harriett), William C. Rodgers (in the right of his wife Jane) and Charles D. McLean (guardian of the minor heirs, Martin McLean, deceased), Joshua Smith (in the right of his wife Elizabeth) and James Greer (guardian of the minor heirs of Susanna Greer, deceased). Humbly complaining sheweth to your worshipful on the 25th day of July 1822, a grant issued from the state of Tennessee for 5000 acres of land to ...... is to say 3000 acres to bartlett Searcy and his heirs, 1000 to Asa and his heirs, and 1000 to Reuben Searcy and his heirs, ..... Reuben Searcy died, leaving ..... as his sole heirs: James Searcy, Jesse Searcy, Richard Searcy, Reuben Searcy, William Searcy, Penelope Searcy, Harriett Searcy, Jane Searcy and Susan Searcy, Polly Searcy, Elizabeth Searcy, Bennett Searcy and Asa Searcy. ..... James Greer inter - married with the said Susanna Searcy, deceased, and had by her nine children and that he is intitled to one seventeenth part of 1000 acres of land granted to the said Reuben Searcy ..... as guardian of said nine children ..... etc." (Henry County, Tennessee Court, December 16, 1825, page 34, "William C. Rogers vs Reuben Searcy's Heirs and others.)
1840 Marshall County, Mississippi census.
1850 Marshall County, Mississippi census.
Events
| Birth | September 21, 1774 | Stanton River, Bedford County, Virginia | |||
| Marriage | October 29, 1798 | Pulaski County, Georgia - Susannah "Susan" Searcy | |||
| Marriage | 1820 | Paris, Henry County, Tennessee - Rachel Bracken | |||
| Death | October 8, 1851 | De Vall's Bluff, Prairie County, Arkansas | |||
| Burial | Elmwood Cemetery, Memphis, Shelby County, Tennessee |
Families
| Spouse | Susannah "Susan" Searcy (1780 - 1819) |
| Child | Elizabeth Searcy Greer (1799 - 1819) |
| Child | Ann Haynes Greer (1801 - 1885) |
| Child | David Searcy Greer (1804 - 1881) |
| Child | Diana "Diannah" Greer (1806 - 1876) |
| Child | Jane Greer (1808 - 1829) |
| Child | Robert Searcy Greer Sr. (1811 - 1872) |
| Child | Sally Lowe Greer (1813 - 1884) |
| Child | James Madison Greer (1816 - 1878) |
| Child | Susannah Elizabeth Greer (1818 - ) |
| Spouse | Rachel Bracken ( - ) |
| Child | Henry Greer (1820 - 1880) |
| Child | Aquilla Pike Greer (1822 - 1885) |
| Child | Mary Greer (1824 - 1888) |
| Child | Elkanah Bracken Greer (1825 - 1877) |
| Child | Martha Greer (1829 - ) |
| Father | Lt. James Greer (1742 - 1825) |
| Mother | Ann Nancy "Nannie" Haynes (1744 - 1832) |
| Sibling | Parsha "Persha" Greer (1767 - 1825) |
| Sibling | Henry Greer (1769 - 1849) |
| Sibling | David Greer (1772 - 1840) |
| Sibling | Diana "Dinah" Greer (1776 - 1845) |
| Sibling | Nancy Ann Greer (1777 - 1846) |
| Sibling | Elizabeth Greer (1779 - 1845) |
| Sibling | Sarah "Sally" Greer (1780 - 1825) |
| Sibling | Lt. Aquilla Greer (1782 - 1843) |
| Sibling | Priscilla Greer (1783 - 1852) |
| Sibling | Lucy Greer (1784 - 1825) |
| Sibling | Delilah Greer (1786 - 1856) |