Sarah Chumley

SARAH CHUMLEY was born about 1819 in Claiborne County, Tennessee. She died sometime before 1900 in Claiborne County, Tennessee. She married John “Jack” Lingar (son of John V Lingar and Mary Polly) on 15 Feb 1838 in Claiborne County, Tennessee. He was born about 1815 in Mingo Hollow, Claiborne County, Tennessee. He died in 1899 in Claiborne County, Tennessee.

John “Jack” Lingar’s father, John V Lingar, came to Claiborne County from Gilford County, North Carolina. John V Lingar served in the War of 1812. He enlisted in North Carolina on September 6, 1814, and he served in the Union Army’s 24th Infantry Regiment under Captain Silas Stephens for 5 years. For his service, he was granted a US War Bounty Land Warrant for 160 acres in Chariton County, Missouri. Six year later on April 18, 1820, John sold this land to Thomas R. McClary of Claiborne County, Tennessee. The deed was filed with the State of Tennessee. _[1] John was only 52 when he died; leaving his wife, Mary to care for John “Jack” age 13 and James Harvey age 7. Their oldest child, Sarah was married with children of her own when her father died.

John and his wife Mary (Polly) were believed to have married and had 3 children in Claiborne County, Tennessee. All 3 children were married into our Chumley family line and 2 of them moved with the Chumley families to Missouri, which is why we were interested in the land their father had been granted after the War of 1812. We speculated that the father had passed on the land to his children, but thanks to our Chumley Research Member, Sharon Ford, the deed was discovered that the land was sold after the children had settled in Missouri.

However, John “Jack” Lingar, who married our Sarah Chumley, stayed in Claiborne County, Tennessee and they had 9 children together. Their sons Rufus and Robert served with Company A, 2nd Tennessee Cavalry during the Civil War on the Union side. This regiment was organized at Cumberland Gap, Tennessee in August and September of 1862 and was composed of loyal citizens of Claiborne, Knox, Blount, Sevier & surrounding counties, numbering about 1,175 men. _[2]

This family line settled in the areas of Cumberland Gap and Forge Ridge in Claiborne County, Tennessee. There are 2 Lingar Cemeteries in the area. The one is located on Indian Creek in Forge Ridge and the other is located further down the river, where eventually Indian Creek empties into the larger Powell River. The locations indicate where the family farms were located.
 
Sarah and Jack’s grandson, Charles H Lingar married Minnie Lee Hunter on March 22, 1901 in Flat Lick, Knox County, Kentucky. They were married for 57 years before Charles passed away in 1958. Photos were shared by Penny Lydic Daughtry, granddaughter of Charles and Minnie Lingar.

Charles and Minnie Lingar 50th Wedding Anniversary 1951 Charles and Minnie Lingar family photo 1913

Some memories shared by Charles’s daughter, Esther, written by Penny Lydic Daughtry, Esther’s daughter:

In his early adult life, Charlie Lingar, was a farmer.  Later, as the mining industry began to grow, he got a job as a carpenter – building company housing in and around Harlan County, Kentucky.  He saved enough to buy a grocery store in Combs, Kentucky (not sure about the year, maybe the late teens to early 1920s).  When Esther was young (around 8 years old), she would hide under the counters and ate oranges and fruit.  Pappy used to say that she was “eating up all of the profits.”   When they lived there, she also remembered that they lived near Vernie, Charlie’s half-brother.

Some of her early memories were of his farming during the growing season and then going “away” to find work during the fall and winter.  It was difficult during those times when he and his sons in later years would have to travel away from home most often by train to find work.  He would pay his room & board and send the rest of the money home to the family.

She remembered that the towns (areas) where they lived during those years when the children were born, were near rail lines.  It was hard traveling in this mountainous area and the nearest neighbors and towns were often a difficult trip away.  Mom remembers that they had attended Cove School.  On Memorial Day in 1927 [3], the family lost everything in a flood.  They were living in Combs, Kentucky at that time.

With not much more than the clothes on their backs and a determination to make it together, they left Kentucky and moved to Western Pennsylvania.  Their first home was in the town of Tunnellton in a section called Coaltown(?).  The men of the family worked at the mine.  Other places they lived in the late 20s & 30s were Ehrenfeld, Mecco, Harttown, North Apollo, Twin Rocks, and Nanty Glo.

From the early 1940s through mid-1950s, “Pappy and Mammy” lived on a small farm in Huff, in the southeastern corner of Indiana Co.  The house was small with no running water or inside plumbing.  But it was spotless and a source of wonderment for the grandchildren who had never seen hand water pumps, woodstoves, outhouses, chickens, cows, or bulls.  All of them could probably recall a special memory from those Sunday visits.

SOURCES

[1] Sharon Ford research on john v lingar FHL 898,405, Tennessee, Claiborne Co, Deeds Vol E, Sep 1816 – Apr 1822, pg 435-436.

[2] History of Tennessee from the earliest time to the present: together with an historical and a biographical sketch of from twenty-five to thirty counties of east Tennessee by Goodspeed Publishing Co, 1887

[3] “Night Comes to the Cumberlands” by Harry M. Caudill pg 149