COMMENTARY by James W. Howard, Sr. - Balis Jackson, was my great-great-great grandfather who married Mary Plott (or Hunter).  Her maiden name has not been documented, since the records were destroyed by fire in 1828.  Balis Jackson and a brother, Elias Milton, moved to Macon County, North Carolina and bought land in the sale of Indian land.  Elias Milton also bought large tracts of land in lower Cherokee County and raised his family there. Another brother, Basil E., also lived in Cherokee and in the mid-1800's Balis Jackson moved to Cherokee County where most of his family is buried in Liberty Church Cemetery. Balis and Mary had ten children, one of which was Elias, my 2nd great uncle.

COMMENTARY by Shirley B. Keasler Reed - Nobody knows when our Balis Jackson died for sure.  We thought we had found his date of death in the church minutes of Liberty Baptist Church.  But I heard from the guy who found it and he said it was written as Basil. He didn't know that Balis had a brother Basil.  But a member of the Kilpatrick family was keeping the church minutes at that time, so surely she would know if it was Balis or Basil.

Balis J. Kilpatrick was born 2 Aug. 1796 in Greenville District, South Carolina.  He is believed to have been the son of Joseph Milton Kilpatrick of Haywood County, North Carolina.  Balis married his wife Mary probably around 1822-23, most likely in Haywood County and lived there a number of years.  Mary was born August 18, 1802 in Buncombe County, North Carolina.  There has been some debate over whether Mary's maiden name was Plott or Hunter.  Neither I, nor anyone I know, have been able to find any connection between the Plott and Kilpatrick family.  I understand that a granddaughter of Balis Jackson Kilpatrick, Jr., son of Balis Jackson and Mary, insists she has heard her mother say that Mary's maiden name was Hunter.  This coincides with the information that I have.  Two letters were received by  the Bureau of Indian Affairs from a grandson and a great grandson of Balis Jackson through his daughter Harriet.  Both were attempting to prove Cherokee lineage, one through Harriet's mother and one through John Partin's mother.  John Partin was the husband of Harriet Kilpatrick.  However, both letters stated that Harriet's mother Mary's maiden name was Hunter.

Balis Jackson and Mary Kilpatrick had ten children: Martha, Harriet, Joseph, Katherine, Elias, Abner, Thomas (died in infancy), Balis Jackson, Jr., and twin sons Elijah and Elisha.  It is interesting that twins also seemed to run in the family  of Andrew Kilpatrick, who was listed on the 1790 census of lredell County, North Carolina.  By 1840, Balis Jackson and Mary were living in Union County, Georgia.  They were still there for the 1850 census.  According to a guardianship bond regarding the guardianship of Balis' twin boys, Elisha and Elija, signed by Balis Jackson, his son Joseph and Ed Rogers, Balis Jackson was still there as late as May 1, 1852.  By June 1, 1860 Balis Jackson, Mary and the twin sons were in Cherokee County, North Carolina.  Mary died between June 1, 1860 and the 1870 census.  Balis Jackson died between 1870 and September 6, 1877.  According to some descendants still living in Cherokee County, they are both buried in Liberty Church Cemetery, although no stones have been found.

COMMENTARY by Arnett Kilpatrick - Elisha and Elijah Kilpatrick were twin brothers and the youngest of ten children born to Balis Jackson and Mary Kilpatrick.  They were born September 15, 1841 in Union County, Georgia and moved to Cherokee County, North Carolina with their parents in the 1850's.  Elisha was my grandfather.  My father and his brothers and sisters always thought that their father (Elisha) was born in Cherokee County and I didn't know any different until I started doing the family genealogy.

Elisha and Elijah both served in the Civil War, on opposite sides. Elisha was the first to enlist, enlisting in the Confederate States Army in Cherokee County as a Private on June 18, 1861.  He was assigned to Company A, Eighth Regiment, North Carolina Troops (2nd Regiment, North Carolina Cavalry).  He served through October 1863 when he was furloughed home because of a wound which he received, almost certainly at the Battle of Gettysburg.  He did not return to the Army because of his wound.

Elijah fought on the side of the North, enlisting in the Volunteers as a Soldier in the Army of the United States of America on August 10, 1864 at Cleveland, Bradley County, Tennessee.  He enlisted as a Private and was assigned to Company C, 5th Regiment, Tennessee Mounted Infantry.  He was sick in the hospital in Nashville during March and April 1865 but the nature of his illness is not known.  He was mustered out on July 16, 1865.

Apparently the fact that Elisha and Elijah served on different sides in the Civil War caused no family bitterness.  In their old age, Elijah lived for a time with Elisha and his wife.  In the early 1900s they had farms about one mile from each other and Aunt Icy, Elisha's only living child in 1980, recalled "we were always going over to Uncle Elijah's."

Elisha and Elijah were farmers by occupation.  They lived most of their adult lives in the Liberty Community of Cherokee County, North Carolina, although Elisha and his wife bought a farm in Polk County at Farner, Tennessee (adjoining the North Carolina boundary) and moved there about 1897, ten years before his death.

Elijah was married two times.  His first wife, Mary Coffee, the daughter of Rice and Jane Coffee, was born in 1852.  Her date of death is not known.  They were married September 6, 1877 in Shoal Creek Township, Cherokee County, North Carolina by  J.T. Burnett, Justice of Peace, in the home of Elijah's brother, Abner Kilpatrick.  His second marriage on November 24, 1901 was to Mrs. Vina Adams, a widow, in the bride's home in Shoal Creek Township.  Elijah had no children by either wife.

Elisha was also married two times.  His first wife, Lucinda Adams, was born about 1845 and died April 12. 1868.  Lucinda was pregnant and injured herself trying to help a cow out of a ditch.  She died as a result of the injury.  Lucinda and Elisha were married September 1, 1867 in Cherokee County.  Later. on March 20, 1879, he and Elizabeth Columbine Hood were married in Cherokee County in the home of Dorcus Uranus Dewese Hood, mother of the bride.  Elizabeth C. Hood was born March 27, 1857, in Cherokee County and died March 24, 1940, in Monroe County,  Tennessee.

It is believed that Elijah and both his wives are buried in Liberty Cemetery,  Cherokee County, but no headstones nor records have been found to substantiate this belief.  Elisha and his first wife, Lucinda, are buried in Liberty Cemetery, with headstones marking the grave sites. Elisha's second wife, Elizabeth, is buried in Christianburg Cemetery. Monroe County, Tennessee, with a headstone marking the site.

Elisha had no children by his first wife.  He had twelve children by his second wife: Mary Alice (died in infancy), George Washington, Clara Melvina, William Joseph, Jerry Theodore, John (died in infancy), Elias, Stacy, Benjamin, James Edmond (died in infancy),Claud and Icy Uranus.

After the death of my father and all of his brothers and sisters except Aunt Icy, the youngest of Elisha's children, Aunt Icy took a special place in my heart as the last of the "older" generation.  She was a remarkable woman.  One event will serve to illustrate what I mean.  In 1983, when she was 81 years old, she attended the family reunion in Tampa, Florida.  She traveled from Diana, Texas to Tampa, a trip of about 18 hours, straight through.  When she got to Tampa she put on her bathing suit and spent as much time in the swimming pool as some of the younger generation.  She said that she was going to live to be 100, but didn't make it, having passed away on November 30, 1985.

COMMENTARY by Shirley B. Keasler Reed - Elias Milton did not marry a Hastings.  His wife was Mary Wood, the sister of Silas Fain's wife.

From Appalachian Ancestors, a documented history of the Coleman, Kilpatrick, Stiles, and Sutton families, written by Stephen and Sandra N. Ratledge and privately published in 1983:
Elias Milton Kilpatrick, Sr., prominent farmer, millwright, and miller of Camp Creek Community in Cherokee County, North Carolina was born March 28, 1798 in Pendleton District, South Carolina to Joseph Milton Kilpatrick (c. 1776/c. 1851 -3) and Martha Harrison.  He died at home in Camp Creek on
January 10, 1881 after a prolonged illness being bedridden since at least 1880.

He wed about 1826 perhaps in Haywood County, North Carolina to Mary B. Wood(s) (Oct. 1798/4 Mar. 1884), a native of lredell County, North Carolina and a daughter of James Wood(s), Jr. who died in Macon County, North Carolina in 1831.  By 1830, they had settled in Macon County near her parents and remained there until 1842.

Mary bore eight children to Elias, seven of which were born in Macon County.  An exact birthplace in North Carolina for their  first-born, Martha Miranda "Mattie" (10 May 1827/20 Dec. 1909) is unknown.  They lived probably in or near Franklin since Elias, Jr. (28 Dec. 1837/21 Jan. 1930) was born there according to his death certificate.

When Indian land became available in what is now Cherokee County, Elias, Sr. took advantage of this economic opportunity situating his family on Camp Creek near the North Carolina-Tennessee border.  He purchased 597 acres there in Shoal Creek Township.  Soon after, family legend has it that he lost nearly everything except this land by signing a sheriff's bond in Macon County.

But with the familiar Kilpatrick industry, ingenuity, and initiatives he soon recovered.  Between 1843- 9, he built the Camp Creek gristmill powered by an under-shot water wheel and operated it throughout the 1850s.  His youngest child, Miles Dickson "Dick" Kilpatrick(11 Oct. 1842/4 Feb. 1908), repaired and ran the mill afterwards.  He married Elizabeth Jane Coleman, daughter of Spencer Coleman and Zilia Hicks; and they reared eight children.  Around the turn of the century, Dick's only son, Elias Patton Kilpatrick (11 Aug. 1866/6 Mar. 1927), became the third successive generation, and the last, to operate the old gristmill that served Shoal Creek farmers for more than ninety-two years.

Elias, Sr. ran a profitable farm producing large crops of corn, some rye, potatoes, and molasses.  Livestock included cattle, sheep, and hogs. Some of the produce he sold in his country store, one of few then operating in Turtletown (now Liberty, North Carolina).

Also, he established the Turtletown, North Carolina Post Office on December 23, 1847 and served as postmaster for years.  The name was changed to Patrick Post Office in 1895 by Elias Patton Kilpatrick, postmaster, and was successively operated by various family members until August 31, 1951 when it was discontinued.

Elias'  oldest son, Andrew Jackson Kilpatrick (21 Dec. 1828/17 Dec. 1910), opened the Turtletown, Tennessee Post Office in 1890 just ten miles from his father's.  Andy, a Cherokee County school teacher 1853-60, also owned and managed a rural grocery in Turtletown, Tennessee until 1910.  He married four times and survived every wife.

When the War Between the States was declared.  Elias, Sr. and Elias, Jr. converted all liquid assets to gold coin and deposited same in the Royal Bank of Canada at Montreal for the duration of  the war.  Therefore, during the Reconstruction, this family  stood financially sound and comparatively sheltered.  Dick enlisted as a second lieutenant in Company H, 39th North Carolina Regiment, serving the Confederacy well during the Battle of Chattanooga.  Elias, Jr. was appointed conscript officer for the Hiwassee Mines area in Polk County where Company F, 19th Tennessee Infantry was conscripted.

After being educated in Tennessee, Elias, Jr. married Gabrelia Arminda Bellew.  He established a very successful mercantile business in Ducktown and served as postmaster there for many years.  His Ducktown home still stands behind the business section.  He made large and profitable real estate investments on Turtletown and Nigger Creeks and following the Civil War through 1900 was closely involved in the Ducktown Banking Company.  His son, John Milton Kilpatrick (22 Dec. 1864/25 Sep. 1946). was head cashier there for some time.

Elias, Sr. and Mary had one unfortunate daughter, Mary Caroline "Polly" (23 May 1833/1 Jan. 1884), born retarded and incapable of caring for herself.  Her welfare was ever a constant concern as her father's will clearly illustrates.

The oldest daughter, Mattie, married Edmund N. McNabb, a well-known farmer who owned 640 acres on the Hiwassee River in the Pleasant Hill Community.  The old McNabb home is pictured in Marble & Logs.

Other daughters included Jane Elizabeth (9 Feb. 1831/23 Nov. 1908) who wed Reverend William Absalom Coleman, delineated in the William and Elizabeth (Vann) Coleman family and from whom this compiler descends.

Nancy Adeline (14 June 1835/10 June 22) was their fifth child.  She married William Franklin Bryant, Sr., a farmer and Justice of the Peace for Cherokee County.  Their son, W. F. Bryant, Jr., a well- known minister, became a leader in the founding of the Church of God denomination.  "Fields of the Wood" is located on the Bryant home place. Dick Kilpatrick donated land in Oak Park for the church and cut his timber to build the first Church of God now headquartered in Cleveland, Bradley County, Tennessee.

Charity Emeline (c. 1840/1897) married Martin Crowder Bridges.  Following the deaths of her parents, they moved to Van Buren County, Arkansas, where she died.