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I think by now you must know this story. A Lucy Gordon found me online doing McLAIN research in Lawrence County. My ggg grandfather Charles McLAIN and wife Perlina A. UNKNOWN had a daughter Chrisitana / Christeny born about 1830 TN who married a James SMITH. They had a daughter named Perlina / Polina Anna SMITH. She married John Thomas TEWELL / TUELL in 1879.
Then on Dec.25 1883 at a Christmas party / dance in Lawrence County AR, a Lewis CISSEL pulled a gun on TEWELL in an argument over a horse. Polina's brother Charles apparently jumped to his brother-in-law TEWELL's defense and shot CISSEL. Because the family feared that always-in-trouble Charley SMITH would be strung up on the spot for the shooting, John Thomas TEWELL took the blame. Unfortunately he was convincted of the murder and sentenced to 15 years in jail ... BUT before he could be moved to prison in Little Rock, "the brothers" busted him out of jail and the family went on the run for the rest of their lives.
The sister of Polina Anna was Nancy C. SMITH who married E. Wesley LINGO and they had a son James LINGO. I wonder if all the SMITH family as well as Nancy and her husband went on the run. Lucy never did finish telling me the story, or perhaps it was all she knew. I can't find my LINGOs after 1880, so I wonder if they changed their name and were on the run. And what happened to the brother Charley SMITH ... who was supposed to have felt very responsible for his sister Polina Anna and her children all the rest of his life. Where did Charley go? And was Christiana McLAIN SMITH, the mother of Polina Anna, already deceased when the family transferred /sold land as heirs of Christeny SMITH? Or were they just selling what they would have inherited from her---perhaps to raise money?
The man Squire McLAIN (who bought the land that John Thomas TEWELL and Polina Anna had bought in lawrence County) was a brother to Christiana. Squire was born Nov. 1842 to Charles McLAIN b 1809 IL and Perlina A. Unknown b 1811 TN. Squire married Melinda / Malinda Caroline HARDIN. You might have noticed a HARDIN sherrif had signed the land transfer documents .. and I'm reasonably sure this was Malinda Caroline's family, though I've never pinned down her family. Another brother to Christeny McLAIN SMITH was William California McLAIN b 1853 Lawrence County, and my gg grandfather John Henry McLAIN who was born 1835-37 TN.
This TN line of McLAINS was living in Weakley County TN prior to coming to Lawrence County AR and before that were in KY and IL, probably in VA, and I personally think in Indiana and maybe MO before going into TN by 1827. Perlina Anna and her TEWELL husband were on the 1880 census in Indiana near where my great grandfather William David McLAIN went and brought home to AR his 1st wife Cordelia MOSIER (Loogootee, Daviess, ID) in 1879.
I think you and I have talked before on some aspects of my McLAIN research, but I don't recall talking to you about this TEWELL and CISSEL story.
Hope to hear from you ...
Audrey in East TN
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