- Hail-Hale & Miser Records Blount Co-Final

Hail/Hale and Miser Records in Blount County, TN
Mary Fern Souder
October 2022

Since on his Revolutionary War pension application John Hale stated that he had lived in Blount County, TN, from about 1795 to 1799, a study of Blount County records for men with the surnames Hale and Miser was undertaken.

Blount County, TN, had courthouse fires in 1879 and 1906 and many records were destroyed at that time. Also, all the Blount County Census Records for 1800, 1810, and 1820 have been destroyed. However, other records of Blount County are available online, and some have been published in books that can be seen in regional libraries.

*The original hand-written Blount County, TN, Tax Lists have been alphabetized by military companies (which were small geographic areas), so one cannot see which households lived next to each other. John (4/8) Miser was listed on the 1800 tax list in Captain Caldwell’s Company in Blount County, TN. John Hail, Luke Hail, William Hail and George (4/6) Miser were all taxed in Captain Gillespie’s Company. Since John Miser, husband of Elizabeth “Betsy” Hail, did not live in the same township as any other Hail family or his brother, George (4/8) Miser, the location of the John Miser household on this tax list does not give a clue as to the family of Betsy Hail. See below companies:

Alphabetized Transcription of 1800 Tax List of Blount County, TN
Captain Caldwell’s Company

John (4/8) Miser

Alphabetized Transcription of 1800 Tax List of Blount County, TN
Captain Gillespie’s Company

John Hail
Luke Hail
William Hail
George (4/6) Miser

Alphabetized Transcription of 1800 Tax List of Blount County, TN
Captain Scott’s Company

John Ross

On 9 December 2011 I received a message through GenForum from Tim Williams who was studying a younger man named John Hale who had married Elizabeth Ross. Their child was James Hale who had married his own cousin, Sarah Hale. The family had moved to Madison County, AL, and a descendant had applied for membership in the Cherokee Indian Tribe. The request was rejected and details in Tim's email were not given. This younger Hale-Ross couple is mentioned here in case others are interested in researching the Hales of Madison County, AL. It appears that no families of the Ross surname came to Bledsoe County, TN. GenForum has been purchased by Ancestry.com and it it is no longer possible to communicate through GenForum.

Alphabetized Early Tennessee Tax Lists, Blount County, TN
by
Byron and Barbara Sistler

John (4/8) Miser: 1800 Blount County, TN Tax List.
George (4/6) Miser, 1799, 1801, 1802 Blount County Tax Lists.
George stayed in Blount County and in 1830 was taxed on three slaves.

Four men with the surname of Hail were on the published Tennessee Tax List for Blount County, TN:

Isom Hail in 1800, 1801
John Hail in 1800
William Hail in 1800 and 1801
Luke Hail in 1801, taxed on 50 acres. Luke’s name did not appear on the 1800 Sistler Tax List, but I found him in an alphabetized online 1800 tax list with the three above men. His name was almost illegible and if a person didn’t already know who he was he probably would not have been found.

Blount County, TN, Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions 1775-1818
Index
Transcribed by Elwin F. Lochner, Certified Genealogist,
P. O. Box 12873, Philadelphia, Pa. 19108
1 September 1973

This volume is an index-only list of the entries for each person. An attempt to locate the entire body of this document was unsuccessful. The first number is the number of times each individual is mentioned in this volume, and the second set of numbers are the page numbers on which each name appears. One can check matching colored page numbers in an attempt to link potential relationships:

Miser
George Miser (13): 52, 279, 180, 308, 451, 480, 496, 497, 521, 526, 527, 572, 599
Jasper Miser: (2): 527, 528
John Miser (3): 15, 74, 125

Hail/Hale
Alex Hail/Haile (11): 379, 384, 385, 398, 442, 475, 477, 514, 519, 553, 580
Elisha Hail (1): 43
George Hail (2): 170, 387
Alex Hail (2): 326, 361
Isam/Isham Hale (5): 25, 27, 30, 33, 87
James Hail (6): 84, 142, 174, 385, 389, 390
*John Hail (18): 38, 85, 89, 96, 174, 406, 427, 462, 463, 477, 511, 514, 515, 532, 538, 547, 553, 570
Luke Hail (10): 54, 83, 84, 85, 145, 154, 158, 235, 238, 243
Mary Hail (1): 187 (widow of William Hail)
Roseanna (2): 243 (widow of Thomas Hail)
Thomas (8): 141, 148, 152, 157, 236, 238, 243, 247
William (3): 72, 187, 427
*John Hail was on the same page as Luke Hail on p. 85.
John Hail was on the same page as William Hail on p. 427.
John Hail was on the same page as James Hall, p. 514.
Luke Hail was on the same page as Roseanna Hail on p. 243.
John Miser and James Hall each appear on page 514.

*Based on the page numbers on which the above names were recorded one might conclude that John (4/8) Miser, Isam Hale and John Hail were the oldest men in this study in Blount County, TN, followed closely by Elisha and Luke Hail. However, we know that George (4/6) Miser, who was mentioned less frequently than John (4/8) Miser, was almost seven years older than John (4/8) Miser. Further, due to circumstantial evidence, John (4/8) Miser was has been placed as the son-in-law of John Hail.

Hall: James Hall: (32): 123, 124, 145, 146, 147, 164, 269, 271, 173, 310, 311, 318, 363, 395, 399, 403, 510, 507, 508, 514*, 522, 527, 535, 540, 569, 574, 585, 586, 590, 596, 597.
John Hall (2): 508, 527
Nathaniel Hall (1): 233
*Was page 514 actually for James Hall or James Hail? Were George Miser and his son Jasper Miser involved in the same transaction on page 527 with James Hall and John Hall? Were these men actually James Hale and John Hale?

Blount County Tennessee Deeds

22 Feb 1802: Andrew Miller sold to Thos Taylor 400 A for $2,500 on the N. Side of Little Tennessee River adj. Col Kelly, Muddy Branch, Isaac Heale, land which Miller purchased from Archibald Lakey, John Mayer, & Isham Hale. Wit: Jas. McCandess & George Vance
10 March 1810: Alexander Hale sold to James Montgomery a Negro woman named Hannah
29 March 1810: James Montgomery sold to James Hail
1812: Luke Hail lived near land which was sold

Blount County Court Records, Book 1, 1795-1804, Book 2, 1804-1807
These volumes contain information for our Hail family
Preface

“WPA Records, for the most part, were carbon copies of the original, typed on onion skin paper during the Depression. Since these records were typed on poor machines by people who did not type well, and read by persons not always sure of older handwritten material the results are often less than perfect.”   It appears that only this index of the above court records may have survived. –M. F. Souder

1810: Alexander Hail: The sale of two negroes by Alexander Hail to James Montgomery was acknowledged.

1797: Isham Hail: Served as a juror
1797: Isham Hail: One of 35 men who returned the Venire facias Vis?
1798: Isham Hail: Served on a Grand Jury
1801: Isham Hail: Served on a jury
*This Isham Hail was likely a brother (or father??) of the Revolutionary veteran, John Hail, who named his own son Isham Hail as a namesake.

1803: James Hail served on a jury
1804: James Hail was sued by Thomas Humes and the jury found for Humes. James Hail had to pay him $2.80.
(Later date): James Hail was sued by Lowery & Waugh. Jury found for the plaintiffs and James Hail was to pay $75.19.
1805: James Hail in a jury pool

1802: John Hail: Among 40 men who reported for jury duty, but was not chosen
1805: John Haile: served on a jury.

1799: Luke Hail: Insolvent for that year
1801: Luke Hail: In a jury pool of 40 men but was not among the 12 chosen
1804: Luke Hail on a jury to regulate church finances
1804: Luke Hail heard case of Lee Arms vs. George H. Hindle. Defendant had not kept his covenant and jury assessed Plaintiff damages of $201.
May 1807: Luke Hail on a jury to mark the nearest way from Maryville & return the nearest and best way from Maryville to Shaw’s Ferry on Holston River.

1804: Thomas Hail: Served on a jury of 12 men
May 1807: Rosanna Hail served as administrator of the Estate of Thomas Hail, (Jr.?) & entered into bond with Patrick Beard and Capt. James Gillespie.
May 1807: Peter Key was appointed guardian of the orphans of Thos. Hail, decd. Peter Key entered into bond with Luke Hail. William Walker, his security.

Nov 1800: William Hail served as a juror in the case of the State vs. Reuben Beggs. The jury found the defendant guilty and fined him $64, plus 6 cents court costs.
July 1806: It was ordered that administration be granted Mary Hail on the Estate of William Hail, and ordered to sell by law.

John Miser

Dec. 1796: John Miser served on a jury of 12 men re: Matthew Gilmore vs. William Lackey. The jury found for Gilmore and fined Lackey $52 and 6 cents interest. (Page 48)

1805: “Ordered by the Court of Pleas & Quarter Sessions that an orphan child Rebecca Ten now six years old be bound to John Miser until it is eighteen years old.”

In about 1808 John (4/8) Miser and Elizabeth “Betsy” Hail/Hale left Blount County, TN, and moved to McMinn County, TN, as per Miser family birth records.

Hall Family

1805: James Hall was overseer of road from South Fork of Trimble ferry to Greenaway Branch.
1805 : James Hall was on the on same jury as was the above John Haile.
May 1806: James Hall, Sr., was overseer from road south of Trimbles Ferry to Greenaway Branch

Nathaniel HALL vs. James Lusk & John Woods. Defendant was not paid and jury assessed damages at $13.38, plus court costs.

Book 3, of the above Blount Records, 1808-1811, contained only entries for Alexander Hale. Our Hail/Hale family was gone or almost gone from Blount County, TN, by 1808. The Archives Section for Blount County, TN, has only the index for the above volumes. The original books may have been destroyed. An officer in the courthouse said there are no copies of the original books in the Blount County, TN, Archives in the county seat in Maryville, TN.

Tennessee Early Land Registers
(1778-1827)
County Not Listed

(Unknown date): Luke Hail & Thomas Hail jointly patented 315 acres for $461.15 in five installment payments. (Was Luke the father of Thomas?)

*Based on the frequency of entries for Isham Hail, he may have been older and wealthier than the other men who migrated to Bledsoe County, TN. M. F. Souder

Research on Alexander Hale suggests that he was not related to most or even any of the other men who lived in Blount County, TN. Alexander Hale was born 1786 in Maryland and was married to Sarah. They were enumerated in 1850 at ages 82 and 77. He died in Blount County in 1862 and is buried in the Bakers Creek Cemetery. He was definitely wealthier than all the other Hail/Hale men who had migrated to Bledsoe County, TN.

*In 1830 Alexander Hail was enumerated in Blount County, TN, age 60-69, with wife, two children, and 11 slaves. He is not on the 1840 Blount County, TN, census, but A. J. Hail, (Jr.?), age 20-29, was in Blount County, TN, with no wife, three young children, and no slaves.

The 1850 US Census for Blount County, TN, said that Alex Hale had had the following slaves:
Female, age 65
Female, age 46
Male, age 27
Male, age 17
Female, age 14
Female, age 12

In 1860 Alexander Hail owned the following slaves:
Female, age 55
Male, age 36
Male, age 27
Female, age 25
Female, age 5
Female, age 3
Female, age 1

All of the above given names listed for Hail/Hale men in Blount County, TN, even the ones listed as deceased (except Alexander) can be found on the 1813 Tax List in Bledsoe County, TN. This indicates that the deceased men had namesakes who made the trip to Bledsoe County, TN.

The fact that Robert Hail was not listed above in Blount County, TN, records may have been because he did not own land or serve on a jury in Blount County. The names of Isham Hail/Hale and Luke Hail/Hale, later seen on records in Bledsoe County, TN, may have been Isham Hale, Sr., and Luke Hail, Sr., or sons of other adult men who moved to Bledsoe County, TN.

Blount County, TN, Marriage Records:

There were no early marriage records for Hail/Hale or Miser. John Miser’s brother, George (4/6) Miser who had married Mary Drunkenmiller, stayed in Blount County, TN, and died there at Miser Station. Marriage records for his children and grandchildren can be found in Blount County beginning in the 1820’s.

The Miser and Hale families left Blount County, TN, by 1809 and moved southwest to McMinn County, TN. Because of the location of the two counties, this move could have encompansed a mere 20-25 mile relocation. By ca. 1813 they had moved about 35 miles further west to Bledsoe County, TN. An online search stated that there are Land and Property Records from 1808-1826 for Bledsoe County, TN, and in the future it would be a good idea to check these records.

A request for Interlibrary Loan copies of the original, non-alphabetized Bledsoe County, TN, Petitioners List of 1813 and the original 1815 Bledsoe County Tax List, was unsuccessful, and these original lists may have been lost.

The Meisser/Meiser/Miser Family

Due to the extensive Miser records that have been published, it is well known that John (4/8) Miser and his brother, George (4/6) Miser, came from Pennsylvania to Blount County TN, by the mid-1790’s. Before 1797 my ancestors, John (4/8) Miser and Elizabeth “Betsy” Hale, were married in Blount County, TN. Bible records show that John (4/8) Miser was born 16 November 1779 in Northumberland County, PA, and Elizabeth Hale was born 17 April 1779 in Blount County, TN. The only tax list on which John (4/8) Miser was listed in Blount County, TN, was for 1800. The following information is useful in analyzing relationships in the Miser and Hale families:

A Study of John Hail/Hale