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Bad Boys on the Family Tree
and the
1861 Courtroom Murder in Dover, Tennessee
Foreword
For decades,
I was equally fascinated and repelled by family stories of antebellum gun-toting,
slave-owning patriarchs. They were Tennessee bad boys—rough, tough,
independent. Then, during a Daniel family
gathering, a cousin’s spouse, Dan Covington, recounted two tales of murder that
involved my Daniel and Sexton ancestors, stories that were so violent and
brutal, I wanted to erase the patriarchs’ names from my mother’s 1960s pedigree
chart.
The
first murder was a horrendous account of a stepmother who was shot and killed
in her rural home around 1833 in front of her toddler. Imagine the scene in Dexter when he
remembers his mother’s brutal slaying. Some descendants speculate that a
stepson murdered her, possibly my great-great-great-grandfather, Simon Daniel,
who was undoubtedly skilled with lethal weapons by age ten. I kept the
stepmother’s murder in the back of my mind while rummaging through antebellum
court records. I didn’t even know her name and court records regarding her
killing seemed nonexistent. On the other hand, there were plenty of handwritten
records on an 1861 courtroom murder.
The second murder described by Dan Covington
was just as bloody and even more audacious than the stepmother’s killing. Allegedly
involving two of my kinsmen with the last names “Daniel” and “Sexton,” the assassination
occurred during an 1861 hearing before a magistrate and dozens of spectators. After
Daniel’s gun misfired, Sexton shot and killed a man on the witness stand. Their
arrogance and flagrant disregard for the law appalled me. I wondered who were
these people? Who were these men who
executed a woman in her home and a witness in a courtroom? As chilling as the
prospect was, I wanted to know if I was truly related to the murderers with
surnames that land on two branches of my family tree.
Those
questions compelled me to investigate the antebellum courtroom murder by
gathering court documents and sorting through family stories that were
sometimes flimsy and unreliable. I researched my Tennessee ancestors' court records,
culture, and genealogy for five years, absorbing facts, dissecting stories, and
discovering lives lost to history. A
true-crime narrative evolved during the investigation, with intriguing
questions and details about my ancestors and their Southern backgrounds. Bad Boys on the Family Tree and the 1861
Courtroom Murder in Dover, Tennessee, however, did not develop into just another
book about murder and entertaining bad-boy stories. It also expanded into personal discovery and reflection
as I unraveled mysteries surrounding these ostensibly brutal backwoodsmen.
Bad Boys on the Family Tree
and the 1861 Courtroom Murder in Dover, Tennessee
Because
of its many facets, my nonfiction book about bad boys and an 1861 murder appeals
to a diverse audience by blending true crime, genealogy, memoir, and historical
investigation. I occasionally use
various fonts to help the reader navigate through personal reflections and
citations of printed and handwritten documents.
Calibri
italics designates creative storytelling in the chapter
introductions and musings in the body of the work. Italicized passages are my
words to help tell the story.
Times
New Roman indicates nineteenth-century printed documents, such
as newspapers.
Lucida Calligraphy conveys hand-written testimony, letters, and other documents.
To
build excitement and intrigue, the book introduces most chapters with creative storytelling,
borrowing details from 1861 court documents, including over sixty pages of
witness testimony. Three chapter introductions display transcriptions of
original, hand-written court documents, which often reveal the defendants'
signatures and names of attorneys and judges.
The
chapters following these introductions chronicle my mother’s family history, immersed
in the Southern culture of bad boys. By
the third chapter, the narrative expands into facts surrounding the 1861
courtroom murder. Witness testimonies provide crime details, including the
victims' and defendants' identities and personalities, and why their quarrels
ignited a deadly “difficulty.”
Knowing
that Daniel family storytellers often sacrifice facts for entertainment value,
I began digging for realities behind the courtroom murder story. My initial questions involved the fates of
Daniel and Sexton as described by family raconteurs. Did Sexton shoot the witness in the head in
front of a judge and gallery? Did the absconders—Daniel and Sexton--flee out
the front door of the courthouse, run down the streets of Dover, jump into the
Cumberland River, and escape to Mexico? Or were they conscripted by the
Confederacy to fight and die in the Civil War?
Among
documented facts that answer those questions, Bad Boys on the Family Tree
and the 1861 Murder in Dover, Tennessee offers a Midwestern exploration of
my contempt for antebellum ancestors who enslaved individuals and revered
violence—a contempt often energized by embellished family stories that
exacerbated my stereotypes of the aggressive, “redneck” Southern male.
As
the narrative progresses, I make note of my mother’s continued enthusiasm for the
South and the Confederate Flag, which clashes with my championship of the
North’s causes. I wrestle with biases and try to understand my Southern roots.
Curiously, my exploration evolves into something unpredictable. As I gather
data and transcribe witness testimony, I become acquainted with antebellum
souls whom I had judged to be misogynistic, racist, ignorant, and cruel. I discover voices of the past-- justices of
the peace and murderers, jailers and gentleman farmers, and mothers, sisters,
and daughters.
Bad
Boys on the Family Tree and the 1861 Courtroom Murder in Dover, Tennessee
thrives on those voices.
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