Crutcher v Crutcher

FamilySearch. Davidson County, TN. 1861.

Chancery cases can be a great resource for unraveling a complicated family tree. An example is Crutcher v Crutcher, which found its way to the Tennessee Supreme Court in 1850. The citation is 11 Humphrey 377 (or 30 Tenn 377), although I haven't yet found a full copy of the decision. This case provides a helpful description of the extended Crutcher family, and I found this using FamilySearch Full Text search.

FamilySearch. Davidson County, TN court records.

The purpose of this journey down the records from Frances Carter Curtis has been to identify possible maternal line descendants who could potentially take a mtDNA test and help resolve the mystery of the wives of John Carter. I've thankfully been joined in this hunt by distant cousin and fellow blogger Jacqi Stevens of A Family Tapestry.

The case is part of a complex set involving the Crutcher siblings, particularly the estate of Thomas Crutcher. He was a one-time mayor of Nashville in 1819, and importantly the executor of the will of Frances Carter Curtis. For our purposes the Crutcher case helpfully names the heirs of Thomas' brother Anthony and sister-in-law Elizabeth Curtis Crutcher, including the states of residence for those who left Tennessee. This is an essential piece of the puzzle, connecting several of the daughter lines descending from Frances Carter Curtis into the era of census records.

Daily Nashville Patriot. 19 Oct 1858.

James Crutcher of Hardin County, Kentucky brought a suit in Davidson County Court stating that John Crutcher owed him $1262. John did not own property in Kentucky, but he did in Tennessee, and also had an interest in the estate of his brother Thomas who had died without heirs and an unsigned will in Davidson County in 1844. Thomas had a sizeable estate of his own, worth about $60,000 in 1844, which is about $2.5 million or more today. James challenged the validity of the will, noting that John Crutcher and Thomas' siblings would be due to inherit some of the funds, and those would be payable to James. In his complaint, James described the descendants of his brothers and sisters, which is incredibly useful for our efforts today.

FamilySearch. Davidson County, TN.

According to the complaint, Elizabeth Crutcher Earhart and her husband John, and her sister Mary Crutcher Maxey and husband Albert, had moved to Illinois. I was able to trace them to Clinton County, Illinois, where John Earhart became Justice of the Peace. Another daughter of Elizabeth Curtis Crutcher, Sarah, had moved with her husband Washington Rogers, to Missouri. It looks like she lived into the 1880s and had at least five daughters, so her path is a promising one for maternal line descendants from Frances Carter Curtis.

James Crutcher died while the case was progressing through the courts, and his suit was revived by Thomas S. Crutcher, executor of his estate. After a lengthy series of proceedings up and down the Tennessee court system, it looks like James prevailed in the case, and funds were paid out to the heirs between 1858-1861. The image below is important for our pursuit going forward.

FamilySearch. Davidson County, TN.