b. February 2, 1826, Knox Co., Tenn.(b. ca. 1831, d. May 30, 1910)
whose mother Luona was said to be a Cherokee Indian.
d. February 20, 1887, Chester Co., Tenn.
Born to George W. Watlington and Catherine Tabler in Knox County, Tennessee, young Mack came to Henderson County, near Jack's Creek, prior to 1830 and came to the Pinson, Madison County, Tennessee, area about 1831 with his parents. Two maternal relatives, Dr. Alfred N. Tabler and Charlotte Tabler Harris (m. Meredith Harris) settled at Jack's Creek. Mack grew up on the family farm one mile east of Five Points and Mason Wells in the southern part of Madison Co., Civil District 17. Not being the eldest son, he was free to leave the farm (though there was land enough for all the children, such as it was) and it appears that he did leave the farm for Fredonia Parchman, and that he worked the Parchman home place southeast of Five points for a few years. The exact location of his farm is still under investigation but it was between Jack's Creek and Five Points.
Having married about 1850-52, he was well settled and had a large farming operation (perhaps partly financed by his father-in-law, James Parchman) with several slaves by the time the Civil War started. His oldest living child, Michael Roberts Armstrong, my grandfather, was nearly nine years of age when the Battle of Shiloh (Pittsburgh Landing) was fought some twenty miles south of their farm. Whether fact or fancy, he reported they could hear the cannon. Since gunboats were used extensively, this is possible to believe.
James Parchman, sometimes written Parchment, was a pioneer settler in southwest Henderson County, Tennessee in the 1830's. He is said to have come into the region with ``a bag of gold and a Cherokee wife.'' The Henderson County Census of 1840 indicates that he was born ca. 1807, and that his wife was born about 1811. By 1840 they had two sons and three daughters under fifteen years of age. The eldest that grew to manhood was Jacob; the second was John H., born ca. 1838, with Fredonia being the eldest surviving girl. At that time he was farming near Jack's Creek in Henderson County, Civil District #4, with Wm. Latham and Nicolas Tull among his neighbors.
Whether fact or fancy about the bag of gold, James Parchman soon had lots of land and several slaves to work it. Jacob married Mahala and left two children before his early death. His other son, John H., married Mary E. Tull, and Fredonia married Michael C. (Mc) Watlington, son of George W. Watlington, an early settler who had moved to the nearby 17th District of Madison County. There was plenty of land and the new families may have worked part of the Parchman land. At different times both Michael and John lived on the James Parchman homeplace.
The Census of 1850, Henderson County, reveals the following family:
| Age | Age | |||
| James Parchman | 49 | wife Luona (Liona?) | 38 | |
| Jacob | 20 | Fredonia | 18 | |
| John | 12 | Saffronia | 15 | |
| James | 9 | Elizabeth | 11 | |
| Jesse | 3 | Nancy | 7 |
By 1860, Jacob and Fredonia had families of their own but were still in the same area, and farming.
During the Civil War (Spring 1861 until Spring 1865) West Tennessee became a no-man's land with rival Federal and Confederate troops ravaging the land, seeking troops, horses, food for man and a horse, and plunder. John H. Parchman joined the ranks of the Confederates and was in action and a Federal prison, bearing in his body a crippling wound the rest of his life. Jacob may have lost his life in the hostilities at home or with the army. Michael C. Watlington felt little sympathy for the Southern cause in spite of his record as a slave-holder. He was in good company, for Henderson County was the only county in West Tennessee which voted against secession when the referendum election was held. Slaves were held in Henderson County but it was not a place for large cotton plantations and they did not depend heavily on slave labor.
Michael C. Watlington's whereabouts and the story of his activities during the war are not very clear. Most of what we know is through his son Mack Rob (b. 1853), who was only eight and a half years of age at the time of the nearby Battle of Shiloh (Pittsburgh Landing). Michael C. seems to have been drafted for service with the Confederate States Army, to have gone ``absent without leave'' more than once ``to return home and check on the wife and kids.'' For this he spent some of the war years in Confederate stockades. He was not able to farm, and there were no horses or mules left on the place with which to do the plowing. Later in the war years there were no slaves either. The burden of caring for the children and the farm fell upon his wife, Fredonia Parchman, and Mack Rob, the oldest boy.
Fredonia Parchman Watlington became a legend in her own lifetime among friends and relatives who knew and heard of this hardy frontierswoman in West Tennessee. Stories about her took on a special interest to many because she did not try to hide her Indian parentage on her mother's side, and so represented that hardy strain of mestizos which did so much to expand the frontier and foster understanding among the races.
While other women (and men) were in terror at traveling during these years, she would get the old horse left on the farm and ride day or night to attend to the business of the farm and family. She was known for her ``war-whoops'' that could be heard for great distances, and would let her friends know she was on the road. She feared neither Yankees, thieves, nor the Devil, and rode fast and fearlessly into the night. Though it was a tragic time, and fortunes in horses and slaves were lost, Fredonia held things together for her family during some of the most trying years that West Tennessee has ever known.
When the war was over, the family fortune was down though not exhausted. Michael C. sold out and ventured with his young family as far west as Dallas County, Texas (Winter 1867-68; the dates for this trip are not confirmed.) After a bad crop year (1868) he returned to Arkansas and made one crop there (1869), near the White River, probably Prairie County, where Fredonia's brother James (Jake) Parchman lived. It did not prove to be a good year either, and the third year he was back in the 4th District of Henderson County, bringing with him several Indian ponies purchased in Texas. His resources salvaged from the pre-Civil War years were nearly exhausted by this time and he settled down to farm life near the Holly Springs Methodist Church. The 1870 Census indicates that the family was at that time composed of:
| Age | ||
| M.C. Watlington | 44 | |
| Fredonia | 39 | |
| Michael (Mack Rob) | 16 | (m. Eula Daniel) |
| Friona E. (Betty) | 14 | (m. J. C. Winningham) |
| Susan M. (Susie) | 11 | (never married) |
| Emma Eula | 7 | (m. (1) James, (2) Cagle |
| (3) Moody, d. Atlanta, Ga.) | ||
| Evaline E. (Eva) | 4 | (never married) |
| Mary Houston | 1 | (m. in Georgia, d. near Atlanta, Ga.) |
Their last child, Ora, was born in 1873. Fredonia's father, James Parchman, presumably died in 1873 for a family farm was sold in January 1874 by the heirs. So far as we know Michael and Fredonia ``settled down'' there and he was buried in the Holly Springs Methodist Church Cemetery in 1887. Four years later, Ora, his youngest child, was buried there also.
About 1890 or '91, while Mack Rob was in Red River County, Texas, Fredonia fell and broke her hip. It healed improperly and she used crutches for the rest of her life. She and her daughters Susie and Eva made their home principally with Betty and Joe Winningham in Henderson but often spent the winter months on the farm with Mack Rob and family. She died in the new Chester County seat town of Henderson, May 1910. Her grave is unmarked but is believed to be on the lot beside her husband in Holly Springs Cemetery. Her brother John H. Parchman was an early Sheriff of the new county, formed in 1882 out of the corners of four adjoining counties, and Joe Winningham was a prominent businessman and Notary Public there at the turn of the century.
-- March 1995