Just looking at those 3 characters, 2 letters and 1 number, probably caused you to do one of three things:

• Cringe reflexively (that’s me)
• Roll your eyes, thinking, “what a nothingburger”
• Wonder, what’s Y2K?

Twenty years ago last evening, I spent the day, and night, fully awake and worrying. Probably obsessing is more like it.

I was responsible for the smooth transition of several governmental clients into the new millennium – and that meant, specifically, making sure we had found and addressed all of the potential Y2K bugs and issues both apparent and inherent.

Y2K, for those of you young whippersnappers in category three, was a computer issue in which the date did not roll correctly from the last day of 1999 to the first say of the year 2000 – the new millennium. Specifically, the date incremented to 1900 (best case,) not 2000. Computers failed and came crashing to a halt with all types of unexpected issues, a combination of both hardware and software – operating systems and applications both.

If you’re thinking to yourself, “how stupid,” there were actually good historical reasons that happened, given the few bytes of memory that programmers had to work with in the decades before the year 2000. Ah, the law of unintended consequences. No one thought about or imagined that foundation code would still be in use decades later. But, it worked and it was.

The biggest issues turned out to be in buried or embedded systems – like systems used in wastewater treatment plants. Systems that literally no one thought about until they stopped working for some reason.

If you’re in category two and think that absolutely nothing happened, that’s not quite accurate either. Lots of things either didn’t work or didn’t work correctly – especially interconnected dependent systems.

More to the point, the very REASON that nothing catastrophic happened is exactly because of the thousands of people who did obsess, who did prepare and who, like me, sat watch just in case. Fortunately, few had to spring into action.

Y2K was a nothingburger because we were successful.

You can read more about Y2K, what did and didn’t work, here.

I Almost Forgot

It’s somehow ironic that I almost forgot about this significant anniversary. Not only did Y2K consume about 2 years of my professional life, ramping up to what we surely hoped was literally nothing at all, Y2K also culminated the literal “decade from Hell” for me personally.

I was incredibly glad to see the new millennium arrive, shepherding out the old and welcoming new opportunity. A transition I desperately needed.

Here’s my Y2K story. What’s yours?

Where were you and what were you doing?

The 1990s

The 1990s began with so much promise. I was living the dream; all-American kids who danced and played football, white picket fence home with a few cats and 2 rescue dogs, along with my husband as my business partner in a high-tech consulting firm. However, tragedy quickly reared its ugly face.

In 1978, I had found my only sister and become quite close. In June of 1990, Edna, who had survived breast cancer, or so we thought, died of a massive heart attack while on vacation in another state. Her loss struck at the core of my being, a devastating loss. I would stand in the hot summer sun burying her ashes, only having 12 short years with her.

My beloved step-father’s health began declining.

In June of 1993, my husband, young and vibrant, in his 40s, suffered a stroke, but didn’t die. We would find a way to survive, feeling like we escaped a very close call.

A month later, in July, he suffered a second, massive stroke, but still didn’t die. Your reaction might be that was good – but trust me – his quality of life was terribly diminished. He was paralyzed and his brain was approximately half destroyed. There was no recovery. That stroke upended the life of everyone in our family, permanently, in indescribable ways.

In the blink of an eye, I became the only bread-winner, inheriting all of the bills while losing his income, plus his massive medical bills. Oy! I had to figure out how to provide full time care for a severely disabled spouse – and work at the same time.

Not to mention, I had children who suffered immensely and whose needs didn’t abate because their parents had become incredibly challenged.

In September of 1994, my step-father died.

My mother struggled, and a year later, she left the farm and moved to town.

You might guess that I was reeling by this time – and you’re right, I was.

Everyone in my family was struggling mightily.

I was and am incredibly grateful for my high-tech profession and the ability it afforded me to work in a less-structured environment – meaning not 8-5, 5 days a week. I don’t think I would have survived otherwise. My clients were incredibly helpful and understanding, and did not abandon me when I needed them most.

My son and husband both were volunteer firefighters. God bless them all, including the fine people of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, better known as the Mormons, of which I am not and was not a member. I was, however, a regular weekly visitor to the Family History Center at the local church and they stepped forward to help.

We were in desperate need for so much help. I, we, would not have survived that first year without them, all of our friends. Nothing in my small 1960s ranch home was wheelchair accessible – but a few months later, it was, allowing my husband to come home, at least for awhile.

My life, however, was upside-down and in a constant state of turmoil where it would remain for the next several years.

Y2K

People didn’t think much about Y2K until about 1998 or so. Generally, there was a widespread belief that either nothing would happen because it was nothing but a lot of hype, or software vendors would magically ‘take care of it.” It wasn’t until we began actually testing hardware, specifically specialized governmental hardware and software combinations that we discovered problems that no one even thought about.

For example, a small computer controlled a drawbridge that raised and lowered the bridge for ships to pass beneath. That “computer” didn’t look like a computer, per se, and no one even thought about the fact that it had an embedded clock and/or date. It did, and yes, when testing, we made the discovery that it wouldn’t work. However, that system was so old there was no “fix” and another solution had to be found, and quickly.

I developed a Y2K evaluation process for governmental clients and prayed that we had unearthed all of the potential issues. If not, then my next prayer was that no one got hurt. That the issues weren’t with something like stop lights, railroad crossing signals or anything that could endanger people.

No Vacation

After I thought I had everything Y2K in hand and was attempting to plan a vacation, to Machu Picchu, to welcome in the millennium far away from any computer, my client announced that they had a different idea entirely.

They did not wish me to be absent.

What I had not told my client was that the visit wasn’t just to be a vacation, but potentially a wedding.

That’s kind of when everything began to unravel, like dominoes falling in a row.

I stepped outside at a client’s office to take a “difficult” personal phone call when I turned around to discover the client standing behind me. He didn’t mean to eavesdrop, but given what had just transpired, and the fact that I was in tears, he couldn’t exactly ignore the situation.

Suffice it to say that neither the trip, nor wedding, was going to take place.

Don’t ever say, “what the hell else can go wrong?” because fate always takes that as a challenge.

We began counting down to the great unknown of Y2K.

Thanksgiving 1999

The phone woke me ringing at 4:32 AM. Those calls are never good news.

However, I was on call for clients – but the chances of a client calling me before 5AM on Thanksgiving was virtually slim to none.

I grabbed the phone.

“Hello”.

In response, my mother said one word, my name, like she didn’t know what else to say.

I barely recognized her voice.

I knew something was very, very wrong.

“Mom, what’s wrong?”

“Gary’s dead.”

Gary was my brother.

I got in my car and drove home, immediately.

Investigators were everyplace.

Gary died unexpectedly, in suspicious circumstances.

The events surrounding Gary’s death would ricochet through my family like a deadly, stray, bullet – and never be resolved.

Christmas Cometh

We were literally counting down, day by day then hour by hour to Y2K. What was initially circumspect confidence on the part of my municipal clients had turned to nervous paranoia – and not necessarily without reason.

Other municipalities continued to find previously undiscovered issues, especially with custom code, sending everyone scurrying to check and recheck everything.

Everyone wanted me to be on site at the same time the last few weeks of the year. If I could have cloned myself, I would have made a small fortune.

Mom was driving to my house on the 22^nd for Christmas because I had to work the day before and after. In fact, Mom was pretty much in charge of Christmas that year, because I couldn’t be.

On the morning of December 21^st, my phone rang again.

Mom called to inform me that her brother, Lore, had died.

Lore’s death wasn’t exactly unexpected, given that he suffered from advanced Alzheimer’s. His death had been approaching for a long time. In many ways, it was a release. However, for numerous reasons, the timing was terrible .

Lore was mother’s only sibling, and his death left mother as the last of her generation.

Mom never got over Dad’s passing in 1994 and Gary’s death was less than a month old when Lore died. I wasn’t with her when this news arrived and Mom was already feeling extremely sad.

I was entirely overwhelmed.

Worse yet, the funeral was to take place on Christmas Eve – in North Carolina – a day and a half drive from where Mom lived – on icy roads. Who schedules a funeral on Christmas Eve anyway??? Mom made it clear that she was going, with or without us.

Thankfully, my only living sibling and his wife stepped up to the plate and drove Mom to North Carolina, over ice covered mountain roads for her brother’s funeral. Mom could do nothing but cry, for days.

In my world, in 1999, Christmas simply didn’t exist.

New Year’s Eve

While the rest of the world was celebrating the arrival of the new millennium, I was preparing to handle a disaster.

I didn’t know what disaster, but given the way my life had been unraveling recently, I was just SURE that I’d be dealing with SOME disaster.

Thanks to cousin Kelly for this memory:)

We tested and tested and retested in the days before New Year’s Eve. Every governmental and military agency had people on site and on stand-by with backup plans for how to function if necessary. Emergency preparedness fully deployed.

In the days of inter-dependence, no person and no governmental unit is or was an island.

We began by watching municipalities as the international date line began to roll over to January 1. Our major concern was the power grid.

The first large city was Sydney, Australia. I watched the celebrations closely and carefully, not the fireworks, mind you, but the news channels.

I’ve never watched more New Year’s Eve celebrations in my entire life.

Finally, it was time in Europe, then Iceland, then in Maritime Canada, then in the eastern US. The ball dropped.

Nothing major.

Then, it was time for my clients.

I held my breath.

Nothing, absolutely nothing.

What a HUGE relief.

Finally, about 5 AM, I fell asleep – Champagne untouched.

Epilogue

Y2K came to represent much more in my life than a technology issue. The arrival and non-event of Y2K itself heralded a new millennium – and a new beginning.

The 1990s were indescribably brutal, both due to the unexpected illnesses and deaths, and the surrounding circumstances.

I left that behind when 2000 arrived.

I never thought much about where I would be or what I would be doing in another two decades.

Two decades earlier, on New Year’s Eve of 1980, I would celebrate a milestone of a different sort – my first New Year’s Eve after having moved away from Indiana. I don’t recall what I did, exactly, but my life was new, a bit frightening and full of hope. Wonderful career opportunity in a new location – making new friends.

At Y2K, I was ever so grateful to be shed of the 1990s and that 2000 entered sheepishly, with no fanfare of the type I had been fearing. It was almost like we were being mocked for our feverish anxiety, much like millions of ants scurrying from place to place. It’s ironic that “nothing” was the measure of our success.

It was exactly that OCDish preparation that prevented large-scale catastrophe.

Once again, in spite of the 1990 tragedies, I was full of hope for the future.

Uncharted Path

Unbeknownst to me, Family Tree DNA, the company that would establish the genetic genealogy industry was a fledgling startup in Houston, Texas, with two principles and little else on that fateful New Year’s Day. I found them through genealogy, little dreaming of what the next two decades would hold.

Within a few years, my life would realign in many ways. I would remarry and gradually shift my profession, focusing on DNA, genetic genealogy and writing Personalized DNA Reports.

One day at a time, my career morphed from one type of technology to another.

Never in my wildest dreams could I have imagined where I would be, literally and figuratively, twenty years out from Y2K. The technology and science that I depend on today didn’t yet exist in 2000.

As I sit in the sunshine this beautiful New Year’s Day, looking forward to the future and embracing a journey I never imagined, I can’t help but wonder where I will be and what I will be doing in 2030, and beyond. What wonderful gifts await? What does DNA hold, for me, and for all of us? Which ancestors are just waiting to be discovered? Who will I discover and get to know?

I’m oh so grateful for this uncharted path. Y2K wasn’t just a technology event. For me, the new millennium signified molting the heavy past in order to embrace a promising future. A transition – an exit from a dark tunnel into the light.

And I thought Y2K was just an inopportune catalyst for change in the computer industry.

I wasn’t even looking for John Estes – either one of them. There were two, of course, living in Claiborne County at the same time, both my ancestors. This couldn’t be simple, could it?

I was reading the unindexed court notes page by page, from 1829-1842, 13 long and miserable years, looking for the deaths of or details about 3 ancestors who, it turns out, died between 1833 and 1840. As luck would have it, they are all twisted into this story kind of like a kudzu vine – because these families were all near neighbors in Claiborne County, Tennessee and intermarried.

And there was drama…so much drama.

John Campbell died in September of 1838. About 1795, he had married Jane Dobkins, the daughter of Jacob Dobkins who died in March of 1833.

I actually started reading the Claiborne County court notes searching for information about John Campbell and Jane Dobkins’s other daughter, Jane Campbell, who married Johnson Freeman – then got divorced – unheard of in that day and time. Whoo doggies, that’s some story and will get an article all to itself.

John Campbell and Jane Dobkins’ daughter, Elizabeth Campbell, had married Lazarus Dodson about 1820, but predeceased her father, John Campbell, sometime before 1830.

When John Campbell died in 1838, a guardian was appointed for Elizabeth Campbell Dodson’s children because they had an inheritance from their grandfather. Yes, their father Lazarus Dodson was still living. I thought for years that he had died, but he hadn’t. The court records never say “deceased” after his name and I found him later, remarried and living elsewhere. Subsequent court records indicate specifically that the Dodson children inherited through “Elizabeth Campbell, deceased.”

No, I don’t know why Lazarus Dodson wasn’t appointed guardian, but I’d wager it had something to do with the ever-present drama in this extended family. I suspect because those children were being raised by their grandmother, Jane Dobkins Campbell. Several of Elizabeth Campbell Dodson’s children married spouses who lived near the Campbells on Little Sycamore, adjacent the Liberty Church today. You can’t marry who you don’t see to court.

Their father, Lazarus Dodson lived several miles north near Cumberland Gap.

The Receipt

John Y. Estes, born in 1818, married Rutha (Ruthy) Dodson, daughter of Lazarus Dodson and Elizabeth Campbell on March 1^st, 1841 in Claiborne County, Tennessee. Rutha was also a legatee of her grandfather’s estate and in fact, on September 5, 1842, John Estes signed a receipt for $54.35 for receiving money from her guardian. He signed at the same time that he received $1.50 rent from that estate for 1841, and also acknowledged the balance still owed was $56.61.

Back then, that was a LOT, LOT, LOT of money. Enough to purchase a farm – but John didn’t. In the 1850 census John and Rutha are listed as living beside William Devenport and in 1851 a deed is conveyed between land owners noting that William Devenport and John Estes live on that land – but neither were owners.

There’s something else odd about that 1850 census. John and Rutha were married for 9 years and had only one child, Lazarus, age 2. There should have been roughly 4 children by this time. Yes, death was a constant companion, but there might have been something more.

This receipt is important, but I’m getting ahead of my own story.

Let’s step back in time.

Two John Esteses

John R. Estes (1787-1885) and wife, Nancy Ann Moore left Halifax County, Virginia about 1820 when their son, John Y. Estes, was about 2 years old. John R. Estes had served in the War of 1812.

In Claiborne County, in 1826, John R. Estes made a land entry, but appeared to sell the entry after it was surveyed but before it was completed.

In 1850, John R. Estes is listed as a shoemaker with no land, and in 1860, a miller with no land.

John applied for bounty land from his 1812 service in 1850, but apparently sold that land claim to his son George who moved to Missouri. He sold a second claim some years later too.

To the best of my knowledge, John R. Estes never owned land. He lived very near or perhaps even beside John Campbell along Little Sycamore Creek.

John appeared to live a pretty quiet life. He’s never in the court records as a juror, because jurors are required, among other things, to own land. But of note, he’s also never found in the court records for anything else either – although the Claiborne County notes are incomplete.

John, like his father, George Estes, lived to be a very, very old man. John died in 1885 at approximately 98 years of age.

In 1842, John R. Estes would have been about 55 years old. His son, John Y. Estes would have been 23, turning 24 that December.

Court Minutes

When I read court notes at FamilySearch, which I try NOT to do very often, I read for any of my family names of course.

I thought that I had already told the story of both John Esteses and frankly, I didn’t expect to find anything more than a footnote to add to their existing articles, if that.

Sometimes I peruse court notes late at night. They are calming, so calming, in fact that often they put me to sleep.

With the political drama the past few months in our own lives, sometimes I need that. I was well into year 13, thousands of pages already read, nodding off that evening, trying to keep my eyelids open.

Suddenly, I glimpsed something that woke me right up.

John Estes’ name in the court notes.

I shook sleep off and started back at the beginning of that page again. It wasn’t a typical entry which formed a predictable pattern.

No, this was something different.

October 3, 1842

Alexander Fullington jailor for Claiborne County be allowed the following sums for the following purposes to wit: the State vs John Hodge $32.50 for 76 days board and 4 turn key. The State versus Thomas Ursery(?) $32.87/2 for 85 days board and 2 turn keys. Also the State vs John Estes for $36 for board and turn keys and that he have ticket to the county trustee for the same.

What? John Estes in jail?

If Alexander Fullington is being paid for these prisoners, where was the trial in the court notes? Had I missed it?

These court notes seem to be mostly civil suits and domestic things like road orders and maintenance combined with sporadic estate settlements. Although some trials are mentioned, that only seems to happen when a jury was called.

Noticeably absent are criminal prosecutions. But something had obviously occurred, because the jailor obviously petitioned for reimbursement. So did other county officials, regularly, in this court.

Not all “state” (versus civil) cases say why the person is being tried, but the few I’ve found that do during this timeframe are mostly for lewdness and one for usery. Lewdness, by definition in the legal documentation of the day pertains, for lack of a better description, to sexual relations between a man and woman outside of marriage.

My next thought was maybe that John wasn’t actually IN jail. The record states the number of days for the other men, but given that John’s amount is MORE than the other 2 men, that’s unlikely. Why else would the jailor be petitioning for reimbursement if John wasn’t IN jail. So much for that idea.

How long was John Estes in the clink for? John Hodge’s cost per day was 43 cents and Thomas Ursery was 39 cents. But Hodge had more turnkeys than did Ursery. Did turnkeys cost extra, and what was a turnkey anyway?

Research into other cases about this time tells us that Fullington was allowed 50 cents per turnkey, so we need to reduce the total by that amount to obtain the daily board rate per prisoner.

I googled for turnkeys, but the best I could find was that a turnkey was the person, or guard, who literally turned the key to release prisoners. Reading other Claiborne County records, I determined that the number of turnkeys related to the number of times the person was removed to be taken to court. I’m unclear whether the final turnkey is the last time the door was opened, meaning the time they were released.

Using the 38.5 cents average amount per day for lodging, minus turnkeys, John Estes probably served about 94 days.

The Margin Note

But then, there’s a pesky margin note that says the following:

“ticket 2^nd for Estes amt $36 6 Octr 1842”

Three days later, the court added the second ticket to this same note. Oh boy.

Which suggests that there is ANOTHER ticket for John Estes – for ANOTHER 94 days.

Was that two of the same offense, or two separate offenses?

This means that John spent roughly 6 months in jail during 1842. But was John’s jail time actually during 1842?

I looked back at the other entries for Alexander Fullington in the court minutes and discovered that he submitted tickets for payment regularly: April 1841, July 1841, October 1841, January 1842, April 1842 and July 1842.

If John Estes had completed his sentence by July 1842, probably either of them, Fullington would have submitted his claim by then. This tells us that very likely, John Estes was in jail from about April 1842 until about October 1842. If I’ve misunderstood this note and there was only one sentence for 94 days, it still tells us that John got out of jail sometime between July and October 1842, given that Alexander apparently submitted his bills every 3 months.

Jail Time

What was jail like during that time? In some cases, jails were actually enclosed areas, or yards, in which prisoners were confined and trusted not to step over the line.

Was that the kind of jail John was in?

Nope – this was John’s jail.

By Brian Stansberry – Own work, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=40340005

The old Claiborne County jail, built in 1819 was in use until 1931. Yep, it’s this building where John Estes spent roughly six months of his life.

The National Register of Historic places provides the following information:

Built in 1819 the jail is composed of stone on the first story and brick on the second story. The jail also features metal grating over the window and door openings.

The two-story jail is rectangular in shape, with a front gable roof. The entrance faces west towards the highway. The gable ends of the jail are twenty-six feet across. The sides of the building (north and south) are thirty-two feet long. The first level is constructed of cut limestone rocks and mortar. The walls are eighteen inches thick, with the length of individual stones measuring up to five feet. The roof is covered with metal and a brick chimney rises from the peak on the west half of the building.

The west façade features a central entrance to the building that measures two feet wide and six and one-half feet tall. The door on this entrance is of a grate design, consisting of two-and-one-half inch bands of metal running horizontally and vertically within a metal frame. A rounded bolt head protrudes at each juncture of metal bands. This metal grate is an original feature. The second story of the jail is brick laid in common bond. In the center of the second story is a door-sized opening, enclosed with vertical board shutters. A circular vent opening with a metal “X” grate is located in the peak of the gable.

The north and the south elevations of the jail each have four window openings, two on each floor. Each opening is covered with a framed metal grate matching the front door, and vertical board shutters. Some of the grates are original, and some are (historic) replacements. These openings measure two feet wide and between four and six feet tall. A couple of the shutter boards have become detached and currently lean against the building. Large metal bolts protrude from the brick walls in the back two-thirds of the second story. The east (or back) elevation of the jail is solid stone across the lower level; the brick second level has one window with an original metal grate covering and vertical shutter boards. A circular vent, matching the design of that in the front gable, is located at the top of the east gable. A short, brick chimney rises from the metal roof at approximately one-third of the distance from the front of the jail.

At the jail’s entrance, one step leads down into the front portion on the first floor, with a stairway on the south wall. This portion of the building is ten and one-half feet deep, or approximately one-third of the building’s depth. The floor of this section is brick, and the walls of this room are of mortared, cut limestone.

A door-less opening leads to a larger back room. To the north of this doorway, a fireplace has been removed, but its flue is still intact. The back room historically consisted of a central hall flanked by smaller units to each side. Local historian Mary A. Hansard wrote in 1979 that the jail had “a large stack chimney in the center, with two fireplaces on the lower floor and two on the upper floor. There were two rooms on the first floor. One was used as a kitchen and dining room, and the other as a dungeon in which to confine criminals.

Hansard wrote that “[t]here were three apartments on the second floor, all nicely plastered.”

As on ground level, the individual rooms of the second floor have been removed. The back, larger portion of the second floor is open. Local historian Alexander Moore Cloud noted that the jail was built with double walls. “The inside walls were of wood while the outer walls were made of stone.”

Some of the original interior wood siding remains; vertical slats of wood still hang on the east and west walls of the rear section on the second floor. The metal bolts visible on the exterior, protruding from the north and south elevations, can be seen on the interior walls. These bolts were installed for reinforcement of the jail’s security; as explained by a descendant of Josiah Ramsey, a member of the committee that undertook the building of the jail, the bolts held wood siding to the interior of the brick walls, preventing prisoners from chipping out the mortar. As noted previously, the north and south walls have two windows with original metal grid coverings. The original wood floor remains. The ceiling is open, revealing exposed rafters and the under side of the metal roof.

According to early records of the Claiborne County Court, debt was one of the most common offenses. Debt, and other non-violent offenses, drew the punishment of lashing at the county whipping post, which was located between the jail and the courthouse and consisted of a yoke, similar to an oxen harness.

The county jail contained a room, eighteen square feet in size, specifically for debtors; it was one of the units on the second floor. There, the sheriff held people who made no attempt to resolve their indebtedness. It was the sheriff’s responsibility to take debtors, two at a time, from the jail to the post for whipping until they promised to find work that would pay off their debts. Crimes of assault and battery also appeared frequently; legal disputes between individuals were also common. Trespass, libel, and murder were rare charges. A more serious crime, such as horse theft, was punishable by branding (“H.T.” on the thumb), practiced as late as 1822. The court frequently listened to cases of “bastardy,” an offense, assumingly by a male, of fathering a child and refusing to support that child.

During the period between from the 1830s to the Civil War, very little specific reference to the county jail exists other than that it was, of course, in use.

The court records a page or so after John’s mention give us a rare glimpse when the jailer asked for repairs including an iron door’s hinges to be fixed, handcuffs, etc.

Report of the ail commissioners to with: We the commissioners of the jail of the town of Tazewell report to your worships now in session do say that the jailer so far as he is concerned has done his duty for we have examined the jail from time to time when the prisoners were in jail and making great complaints against the jaelor but when we examined into the matter we always found that the prisoners got a plenty to eat and drink as the law directs.

And further we report that the jail ought in our opinion to be repaired as follows to wit:

First the meddle door ought to be hung and made sufficiently strong so that when any of them transgress to put them back into the dungen and keep them there till they do better.

Here’s that metal door that clanged shut behind John Estes.

Further we believe it would be better to have the inside bord seasoned oak plank one inch thick and tong and groved together this ought to be done on the floore as well as the wall and furthermore we wish the court to appoint 5 commissioners to superintend? the work and let it out to ? able persons that will have the work done in proper manner so that the jail will be secure this 4^th day of October 1842.

Jail would be glum in the best of circumstances. Obviously, it’s meant to be punitive, a place to be avoided.

Jimmy Emmerson took these two photos of the inside of the Claiborne County jail, making them available, here. Thanks Jimmy.

This would have been John’s view of the world, every day for 6 months – and that’s IF he wasn’t in the dungeon.

I wonder if John was one of those “residents” complaining about the jailor and conditions. It makes me wonder since this entry in the court record occurred immediately after the request for reimbursement for board for John and two other prisoners.

The local newspaper reports that at least some hangings were carried out from the upper window, here, although I have my doubts.

Joe Payne writes about the jail here, with some interesting old photos.

Fullington’s Records

I read Alexander Fullington’s submissions for payment to the court with the hope of obtaining enlightenment into cases during that timeframe.

Monday April 5, 1841 – ordered by the court that Claiborne County pay to Alexander Fullington the following state claims for turnkey and board as jailer to wit:

• State vs Benjamin Young $13.36
• State vs Edward Slavens $5.50
• State vs Obediah Norris $15.37/5
• State vs Jas Asberry $24.87/5
• State vs Thomas Cox and wife $7.62/5

July 5, 1841 voted that Fullington be allowed:

• Sum of $1 for 2 turn keys receiving to jail Ruth Collins

October 1, 1841 Alexander Fullington allowed for keeping:

• Azariah Watson in jail 83 days and two turn keys the sum of $33.12/5
• John Hodge in jail 7 days two turn keys/holter chain and steeple the sum of $5.62/5

I could not determine what a holter chain and steeple was, but I’m wagering it was a restraint.

January 3, 1842 Fullington allowed the following fees:

• Jessie Lyndsey in jail 36 days and turn key $17.50
• Ruth Collins ditto and turn keys $19.75
• Ditto Zachariah Hicks 7 days and 2 turn keys $3.62/5

April 4, 1842 – Fullington allowed:

• Ruth Collins, 2 turnkeys – $1

Ruth seems to have been a frequent flyer.

July 4, 1842 – Fullington allowed:

• Azariah Watson – ludeness
• Steven Ouseley – usery
• Burdren Bussell and Sarah Baltrip – ludeness – 41 days in jail $53.79 and 6 turn keys
• Jacob Pike and Elizabeth David in jail 9 days $3.57/5 and 8 turn keys 4.00 – acquitted

October 4, 1842 Fullington allowed:

• 103 days boarding Sarah Nunn in jail @ 2/3 2 turnkeys @3 – $39.62
• Bartley (or Barthey) Nunn in jail 60 days at 2/3 and 2 turn key @3 – $23.50
• Veyena (or Verena) Nunn 67 days at 2/3 2 turn key at $3 – $26.12/5

This tells us that Fullington is allowed 50 cents per turnkey.

I sure wish they had recorded their crimes.

Why was John in Jail for 180+ days?

I wish I knew.

Most of the cases, above, don’t have a corresponding trial record, nor do we have a crime listed with Fullington’s report. The very best I can do is to note that during this timeframe, there are only two crimes found.

Usery, which is an illegal form of lending. John clearly wasn’t doing that.

The only other specific crime is lewdness which, as I understand it, requires two people.

It’s unlikely, especially given that John was married, that he was engaged in lewdness with a woman not his wife. Furthermore, there is no corresponding female being prosecuted.

If couples married in a situation where the female became pregnant, it doesn’t appear that they were prosecuted for lewdness.

These court notes are more concerned with running the county – in other words, paying the jailer. I have to wonder if there is another set of court records someplace, then or now, that we’re missing.

Which Doggone John?

Do we have ANY clues at all as to which John might have been in jail?

It’s possible.

Let’s look at their history. John R. Estes was older, 55 years of age, and had never, to the best of my knowledge, been in trouble before.

John Y. Estes was young and his life seems to have been somewhat troubled.

Unlike other young men, John never bought land.

In the 1860s, John volunteered for the Confederacy. It’s unclear how he wound up in the hands of the north, but he did after being reported as a deserter.

Most of the soldiers from Claiborne County fought for the North, but John didn’t. This would likely have driven a wedge between John and his wife’s family along with neighbors. Having said that, this region was clearly split over allegiances.

After his release from the Northern prison camp, John walked from Illinois back to Tennessee, only to subsequently deed all of his property to his son, Lazarus, only 17 years old and living at home with his parents. Given John’s absence, it’s quite likely that Lazarus has been shouldering the brunt of the work. John did not own land, but deeded his sheep, horse, hogs, cow, etc. to his son.

What happened next isn’t quite clear, because in 1870, John is still living with his wife and they have another baby, and another would be born 1871.

In 1879, John Y. Estes signed a deed granting two men access to create a road across his land to access the land they had just purchased from Lazarus Estes, John Y.’s son. This is the first hint that John owned land, and there are no deeds to back that up.

However, in 1880, Rutha is living with her 5 children and is noted as divorced in the census. John has walked to Texas on a bum leg, is boarding with someone, and lives the rest of his life there, dying in 1895.

John’s life seemed troubled beginning in 1842. That’s sad because it includes his entire married life to Rutha Dodson. She became disabled with arthritis the last 22 years of her life, dating to about the time John Estes left for Texas.

We find potential hints about this situation with John in the court notes having to do with the settlement of Charles Campbell’s estate relative to the Dodson children.

On July 5, 1841, Wiley Huffaker made settlement with the heirs of Lazarus Dodson and reported to the court. Generally, settlement was made once a year until the child was no longer a minor, or all of the minor children were of age.

However, the next year, we find something different.

July 6, 1842 – “That Wiley Huffaker have until next term to make settlement as guardian.”

August 1, 1842 – “Ordered that Wiley Huffaker guardian to the minor heirs of Lazarus Dodson have until the next turn of this court to make settlement as guardian.”

Was this because John Y. Estes, as Rutha’s husband was legally the recipient of her portion and was in jail?

September 5, 1842 – “For satisfactory reasons appearing it is ordered by the court that Wiley Huffaker guardian to the minor heirs of Elizabeth Dodson decd have the further time until the next term of this court to make settlement as guardian aforesaid.”

Note that John Y. Estes signed the receipt that he received a portion of his wife’s inheritance on this same day, September 5^th, stating additionally that he was paid for the land rent for 1841, along with how much was outstanding.

October 3, 1842 – “A second settlement made by the clerk of this court with William Fugate one of the administrators of the estate of John Campbell decd which was examined by the court and ordered to be filed and recorded.”

October 4, 1842 – “This day came on the settlement of Wiley Huffaker guardian to the minor heirs of Elizabeth Dodson decd which settlement was by the court examined and ordered to be filed and recorded.”

The actual detail of the filing is recorded in the Probate book, but does not add any previously unknown information.

If John Y. Estes was the John in jail in 1842, he would have still been incarcerated in July, or Fullington would have submitted his receipt for payment at that time.

We know that John was out by September 5, 1842. If he was in jail for 94 days, twice, and got out the first part of September, he would have gone to jail the last part of February or the first part of March.

He was roughly in jail from either January through June, or from March through August, or sometime in-between those dates.

John and Rutha were married on March 1, 1841. If Rutha got pregnant immediately, their first child would have been born in the end of November. If she got pregnant shortly after their marriage, their first child could have been born while John was in jail.

Rutha was likely pregnant before the end of 1841, so gave birth to the child while John was in the clink. Regardless, this would have left a wife and newborn child during planting season in unknown and precarious circumstances.

That child did not survive to the 1850 census, so could have died at birth or maybe shortly thereafter.

Not a good way to start a marriage. No wonder the marriage eventually ended in what she noted as divorce on the census – although no divorce records exist.

John volunteered for the Civil War as well, probably in August of 1862, leaving Rutha to farm and raise their children for 3 long years. Given what appeared to be an icy reception upon his return by signing his worldly goods over to his son, they appeared to have a rocky relationship. The ice apparently thawed for a least some time, because the next child was born in February 1867.

Perhaps tied into that somehow was that Rutha started life with a bonus, meaning her inheritance from her grandfather. Yet, they didn’t own land on any census. At that time, men made those types of decisions and woman had little if any input. Where did that money go, and why?

Sadly, they never seemed to be happy, as best I can tell from what I can see peering through a keyhole from a distance of 150+ years.

Of course, after all of this tying the breadcrumbs together, I could still be quite wrong about which John was in jail. I only have a combination of coincidence, this circumstantial evidence and speculation.

It’s unlikely that I will ever unravel this knot. The only thing I know for sure is that John Estes was, indeed, in jail, probably for more than 6 months, and the only two John Esteses in Claiborne County at that time were both my ancestors.

If only those jailhouse walls could talk.

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