Hog Deals, Horse Thievery, and Murder: Champ VS. the Zachary and Evans Clans

Champ with his guards

In 1857, Stokley Evans (my 4x great grandfather), and his two older twin brothers Alex and Floyd made their way from Fentress County, Tennessee to Clinton County, Kentucky to purchase a number of hogs from the three Ferguson brothers; Ben, Jim, and Champ. At this time, the now infamous Champ Ferguson was a farmer with a wife and daughter who was known to have violent tendencies.

Floyd Evans left a note for payment with the Fergusons, they had arranged a meeting in Albany to complete the transaction. When the Fergusons went to collect the money, Alex told the men that Floyd had skipped town with the money. Champ and another man filed a lawsuit against Floyd.

As time went on and Floyd still had not been seen or heard from, Champ got it in his head that the Evans’ were pulling an elaborate hoax to get out of debt. The Ferguson’s decided that whenever Stokley or Alex were around that they would take their horse as payment. They caught Alex in Clinton County and stole his horse.

Floyd returned in late June or early July 1858, secured his debt, and the lawsuit Champ had filed was dropped by the Clinton County Court on July 5, 1858. Around the same time, Alex filed charges against Champ for his horse thievery.

The Evans brothers were furious with Champ for stealing their horses and trying to claim it was a repossession by a creditor when Floyd was the one who owed the money. Alex and Stokley began speaking out publicly, which  the paranoid Champ Ferguson took as threats on his life.

Champ and the Evans brothers attended a camp meeting in Fentress County on Lick Creek on August 12, 1858. Ferguson decided to leave, mounted his horse, and realized the Evans brothers along with other men were hurling rocks at him. As he rode away, he realized the men had also mounted their horses and were chasing him down. Champ, realizing that his young mare could not outrun the other horses, dismounted and took off on foot. Floyd Evans came up, still throwing rocks and Ferguson returned them in his direction. Then, Sheriff Jim Reed approached Champ intending on arresting him for his horse thievery. A scuffle between the two occurred, Champ stabbed him until the sheriff fell and died. He then attempted to stab Floyd, but changed his mind.

Fentress County Justice of Peace James Zachary, Sr. (my 5x gg-father) charged Champ for killing Jim Reed. During his time in jail, a deal was made with Champ, he would be released if he agreed to help the confederacy. This agreement altered the course of the war for my ancestors and others in Fentress, TN and Clinton, KY.

On April 1, 1862 Champ encountered 16 year old Fount Zachary near Champ’s mother in law’s home. Fount had been put in charge of keeping an eye on the main road leading into Tennessee for the Union Home Guards, he was armed, but surrendered his weapon willingly. When asked his name, he gave it, and Champ immediately shot Fount down from his horse. He then walked over and stabbed the boy through the heart. Fount was the nephew of James Zachary, Sr., the man who had charged Champ for killing the constable Jim Reed. The Zachary’s were also some of the most outspoken and influential unionists in Fentress County.

The Nashville Daily Union made mention of the incident, but changed the details to make Champ sound more monstrous:

“A promising little boy, 12 years old, by the name of Zachary was taken from his sickbed and cut open by Champ Ferguson,” – Daily Nashville Union

On June 2nd 1862, Champ payed a visit to the farm of James Zachary, Sr. He chased Zachary through the orchards while his daughter Esther stood on the porch. She heard the shots that ended her father’s life and Champ’s accomplices telling him, “not to shoot a dead man.” Ferguson came inside the home and took a pair of the magistrate’s spurs with him. Esther Zachary Jackson later stated that her father’s head looked like “jelly”. Stokley Evans was apparently accompanying Ferguson as a prisoner for this murder. She said during the trail that Lafayette Allen was the first to fire at her father.

“On the morning on which old Mr. Tabor was killed, while we were taking breakfast, Ferguson sat down by me and asked me what old man Zachery’s sons said about their father being killed. I told him they said they intended to kill the fellow who did it. He wanted to know who they thought did it, and I told him, ‘Fayette Allen’. He said they need not blame Allen with it, that he was the man that killed him and was responsible for it.” – the testimony of William Thrasher

Stokley Evans was killed in front of his young children by troops of some sort on August 3, 1862. His wife Louisa Poor Evans had died a year prior during childbirth. Their orphaned children were sent to live with Stokley’s sister, Amanda Evans Beaty, in Clintion County, KY. As no one ever confessed to killing Stokley, it is unlikely that his murderer will be identified.

My 4x great grandfather, John “Jackie” Zachary hid in Hale’s Mill in Pickett County, TN and killed a C.S.A. soldier named Lafayette Allen on September 15 1862.

New Year’s Day 1863, Champ killed another 4x great grandfather of mine, Peter Allen Zachary along with his brother James Allen Zachary in Russel County, Kentucky in what Champ called the “most desperate struggle of his life“. He never asked them to surrender.

My Zachary and Evans lines were united by the marriage of William Osker Zachary (grandson of Peter Allen Zachary & great grandson of James Zachary) and Oda Cansada Evans (granddaughter of Stokley Evans) who were married January 31, 1901 in the same area of Tennessee.

The children of Wm. O. Zachary and Oda Evans, about 1916/7 in Tennessee.

The Life and Death of Hiram Deval Anderson

December 27, 1910 – Henry D. Anderson, of Belleville, switchman, was killed in the St. Louis and O’Fallon Coal Company’s No. 1 mine, French Village, St. Clair county. Deceased was struck by empty cars being pushed in by a motor at the mouth of the 12th east entry on the north side of the shaft. He supposed the trip was going north and he stood in the twelfth east and thought he was out of the way.

Hiram “Henry” Deval Anderson is my 4x great grandfather on my father’s paternal line. He was born January 12, 1846 to William N. Anderson and Eleanor “Ellen” Claisen Bronaugh. In the early days of his parent’s marriage, they lived on the plantation of Taliaferro Bronaugh, Eleanor’s father, in Christian County, Kentucky until moving to Missouri around 1840-3, were Henry was born. While living in Kentucky, William and Eleanor had one slave in 1840.

Perhaps due to their family’s roots as slave owners in Kentucky, at least three of the Anderson sons (James Garland Anderson, William Toliver Anderson, and Hiram Anderson) joined the Confederacy in the Civil War. Of those three, only Hiram would survive. William and Hiram both served in the 10th Missouri Infantry. William Tolliver was wounded in the battle at Helena Arkansas on July 4, 1863 he died a few days later. Hiram was captured during the battle and sent to the Alton Prison for almost two years, deaths at the prison were more common than at other Union prisons, and prisoners faced harsh conditions and regular outbreaks of diseases such as smallpox and rubella. 1,534 Confederate soldiers are known to have died at the prison. After being released (or escaping, accounts vary) he went to O’Fallon, St. Clair, Illinois. He began working in the mines there.

Mary Ann Kinsey Anderson and Hiram D. Anderson, probably around 1900-1910.

On May 23, 1869 in St. Clair County, he married Mary Ann Porter Kinsey, who was born in Staffordshire, England. The couple had the following children: John Franklin Anderson, Mary Ann Anderson, Katie Marion Anderson, Emily Anderson Pfiffner, Henry Lewis Anderson, Charles Lewis Anderson, James Arthur Anderson, George Cleveland Anderson, and Joseph Troutt Anderson.

On December 27, 1910 the mines Hiram worked in for so many year claimed his life. He was struck by a motor and killed instantly.

Oscar M. Vanness

Oscar M. Vanness was the older brother of my 4x Great Grandfather, Lewis Vanness Sr. He was born 1834 in New Jersey to Euphemia Dey and Aaron Vanness. The Vanness family (including Aaron, Euphemia, Oscar, Lewis, Anna, and boarder Jabez Tucker) settled in Afton, Dekalb, Illinois.

On September 22, 1859 he married Samantha A. Duffey (b.abt 1840, she may have been the daughter of George & Sarah Duffey) in Dekalb County, Illinois. On the 1860 Census he was listed twice; once with his parents and again with Samantha and their son William H. Vanness who was born in May or June of that year. Oscar worked as a carpenter. I couldn’t find any further records on Samantha or William beyond that, but I assume that they died or that Oscar and Samantha divorced by 1870…

Oscar enlisted as a Private in the 42nd Illinois Infantry, Company K on August 10, 1861 in Chicago, Illinois. He was discharged December 20, 1862 in Atlanta, Georgia due to re-enlisting with the 16th United States Infantry, Co. D as a Sergeant and resumed his service on December 24, 1862. He was honorably discharged August 10, 1864 near Atlanta due to his term ending.

Once out of the service, Oscar married a woman by the name of Ann Ellis who was born in Wales. In 1870, they were living in Newton, Jasper, Iowa along with their two daughters; Helen (3), and Mabel (2) and Oscar still worked as a carpenter there. By 1878, Oscar and Ann had divorced and she was remarried to Martin L. Phillips on November 9, 1878 in Pottawattamie County, Iowa. Ann and her new husband, along with Helen Vanness were living in Chicago, Cook, Illinois in 1880. Mabel isn’t listed with them – she may have passed away but I was unable to locate Oscar on the 1880 Census, so I cannot conclude anything.

At 61, on March 20, 1894 Oscar was admitted to the Illinois Soldier and Sailors Home. He listed Lewis Vanness, his brother, of Shabbonna Grove, Dekalb County, Illinois as his nearest living relative. Oscar was 5’8″, had a light complexion, dark hair, and blue eyes. He was a carriage-maker living in Chicago, Illinois before coming to The Solders and Sailors Home. Curiously, he also wrote that he was a widower.

Oscar died at the Illinois Home for Soldiers and Sailors on May 12, 1899. Thirteen days later, his ex-wife Ann Ellis Vanness Phillips filed for a pension, her second husband had died some point previous to 1888 and she had been running a boarding house. In 1900, Ann was using the surname Vanness again and still taking boarders in, she was the mother of 10 children out of which 4 were living in 1900 and 3 in 1910. She died in Chicago in 1912.

Helen Vanness had married at sixteen on January 23, 1883 in Chicago to Charles Dougherty and again at age 20 to Albert E. Connolly on February 4, 1887 also in Chicago. I couldn’t locate her after that.

Oscar M. Vanness is buried in the Sunset Cemetery in Quincy, Adams, Illinois under a military headstone.

Three Sheets of Paper

Sometimes, you bring home a stack of papers with details on the lives of your ancestors. Sometimes, you bring home lost family photographs gifted from a distant relative. Sometimes, you bring home three sheets of paper…

That’s all I got. Three sheets. But, this is the best lead I’ve had on William G. Bender in years. 

My three pages are all from a guardianship of estate record dated 1875. For twelve hundred dollars of a deceased man by the name of Henry Bender’s money. The guardian was Lavina Bender of Mercer County. Henry’s children were named Charles J. Bender (19), John H. Bender (16), William Bender (13), and Eliza A. Bender (9).

Of course, William is my primary interest. When looking at his name on the record it appears to say “William B McC Bender” but what is that little thing between his first name and the letter “B”?

This page states that Lavina Bender was in charge of the money and that she is the guardian of Charles J. Bender, John H. Bender, William B. McClellin/McClellan Bender, and Eliza A. Bender. William’s other middle name peaked my interest because Martha M. Fast Bender’s second husband, James Couts whom she married after divorcing William, shared that middle name. Couts was born in 1863 and this particular William Bender was probably born between 1862-1865. So, I did a simple Google search for “McClellan Civil War” and I found George Brinton McClellan. So, if William was named after this Union General turned Democratic President Nominee in 1864, his name would be William George Brinton McClellan Bender. It’s a long name, but I think it is a possibility. It also would explain those little marks between William’s name and the middle initial “B”. It kind of looks like someone attempted to stick in a “G”.

I’ve already begun looking into this family but I don’t have enough to share yet, when I do I will post more about them!