The Family History

~ ~ ~ JEREMIAH FRYAR, JR. ~ ~ ~

   Jeremiah Fryar, Jr., was one of eleven children born to Jeremiah and Rebecca Lovelady-Fryar, Sr.  He was born Abt. 1809 in Roane/Bledsoe County, TN and died September 7, 1860, in Wauhatchie, TN.  (Wauhatchie is now Tiftonia, Hamilton, TN.  He came to the Chattanooga area, with his father, in 1823 and in the early formation of Hamilton County. 

    Jeremiah lived on the North side of the Tennessee River, with his parents, in the vicinity where Mountain Creek enters the Tennessee River.  He lived in three locations along the banks of the Tennessee in the days when Indians still occupied portions of Hamilton County and before the Civil War soldiers arrived.  Jeremiah furnished wagons and was a wagon master in Indian campaigns after mustering in at Ross's Landing in 1837.

      One of his homes was just across the creek from what is now Cummings Bottom.  This cabin was thought to have been the same home that was occupied by Silas Williams and may have originally been an Indian cabin.

      Jeremiah was married twice, first to Martha Lovelady and second to Ingobo "Engie" Hixson.  He had many children, including a daughter, Nancy Elizabeth, by his first wife Martha.  Nancy Elizabeth was married twice, first to George Washington Monds and second to Jesse Walden. Nancy and Jesse are buried side by side in Sardis Cemetery in Victoria, TN.

       In 1851 Jeremiah, Jr., purchased a house, at the foot of Lookout Mountain, that dates back to the ones built around 1802 by Casper Vaught.  He bought Brown's Tavern from William Cummings in 1857, he and his family were occupying Brown's Tavern at the time of the Civil War. 

      The Confederates first held Lookout Valley but after the arrival of Ulysses Grant on October 26, 1863, the Union Army surprised pickets at Brown's Ferry to break the crippling siege of Chattanooga.  The midnight battle of Wauhatchie was fought just down the road from Brown's Tavern where the tavern was used as a commissary by the Federal army.

     Edgar Boydston purchased Brown's Tavern from Sevier Fryar in 1903.  The tavern and 130 acres were sold to the West Chattanooga Land Company in 1911.

      Jeremiah, Jr., purchased land, on the Ocoee Land Sale, in the South Chattanooga area at the mouth of Chattanooga Creek and the Tennessee River in the vicinity of Scholze Tannery.  He later sold this property to the Chattanooga Railroad and it became known as the Cravens Yard.    

      The second wife of Jeremiah, Jr., was Ingobo Hixson, together they raised a family of ten children.  Some of these Fryar children married into the Parker family from a nearby farm and some married into the prominent Hixson family. 

      A son, Will Fryar, lived near the home place at the property where the freeway now cuts through in Lookout Valley.  The site is now known as Cummings Bottom.  Will was killed in a buggy accident near his home in 1897.

      Rebecca Fryar, a daughter of Jeremiah, Jr., married John Cummings, who became a large landowner in the valley.  One of their sons was Judge Will Cummings.

       The Fryar house can be seen in a painting of the Civil War battle of Lookout Mountain.  The Civil War "Battle above the Clouds" was fought on the North Slope of Lookout Mountain, Tennessee, November 24, 1863.  Military artist James Walker witnessed the battle and sketched scenes to render this historically accurate 13' by 30' painting.  The painting, completed in 1874, is now on public display at the Point Park Visitor Center.

      Jeremiah Fryar died in late 1860, thus missing the Civil War fighting that was around his home place in late 1863. Jeremiah's widow, Ingobo, who was born 1798, survived until 1902.  She achieved the rarity of living in three centuries.

      Several Fryar slaves are buried at the Fryar Cemetery.  These include Nancy Fryar who was born in 1796 and died after 1880.  Another was Brittain Fryar who was born in the 1790s and died in the 1870s.

      There are 166 people buried there and most of them have been identified, some are in unmarked graves but identified in a map of the cemetery.  The cemetery dates back to around 1855 when two of the Fryar children died. The Jeremiah Fryar house survived until it burned in the early 1940s.

      The elder Jeremiah Fryar, Sr., was born abt. 1780 and died abt. 1850.  He fought in campaigns under John Sevier.  He was also in the War of 1812 under the Company of Capt. William Christian of Roane County.

      Jeremiah Fryar, Jr., had several brothers, including William, who was killed in the Mexican War in 1848 and his older brother, John, who was married Margaret Hixson and later Elizabeth Guthrie

      Jeremiah and Ingobo "Engie" are buried on a hillside located on their homeplace.  Many other Fryars, their relatives and neighbors are buried there. This Fryar's Cemetery is located in what is now known as Cummings Bottom in Tiftonia, TN.

Several Fryar family members contributed names, facts and dates for this history.  Some marriages, births, and deaths were also from many trips to churches, courthouses, cemeteries to obtain records of the Fryar family of Wauhatchie, Hamilton, TN.  My brother Robert A. Tanner, Jr., began his search in the early 60s and I joined him in the early 80s.

      Also, portions of this summary was written by: John Wilson, News-Free Press Staff Writer and appeared in the Chattanooga News-Free Press.

Submitted by June Tanner Cooper
Penny0608@aol.com