b. 1785 Dinwiddie Co., VirginiaDinwiddie County, Virginia, tax rolls (1782-1806) list William Watlington along with George Watlington (1802-1807). William was evidently the father of George, and died in 1806.m. July 14, 1814, Knox Co., to Catherine Tabler (Katherine Dobler in German)
d. 1866, Madison Co., Tennessee
pd. Farm home, one mile east of Five Points, Pinson, Tenn.
pb. Evidently in Old Pioneer Cemetery at Mason Wells.
George left Dinwiddie County after 1807 and was next recorded as having paid poll tax in 1810 in Knox County, Tennessee. He evidently lived there until after 1828 as he also paid poll tax in that year.
He married Catherine Tabler, (b. April 14, 1790) of whom we have learned a great deal, in Knox County in July 1814. She was of German parentage born in Maryland and christened in a Lutheran Church at Fredericksburg, Md. Most of her immediate family came to West Tennessee but some settled in East Tennessee and Northern Alabama.
George and Catherine came to Henderson County before 1830, and about 1831 moved to Madison County. Catherine's brother, a Dr. Alfred N. Tabler, evidently came later but settled in Henderson County, near Jack's Creek, which in 1882 became a part of Chester County, with Henderson as its County seat. Dr. Tabler had a son Ephraim N. Tabler, who later was active in business and politics in the new town of Henderson (b. 1840, d. 1911). He married Eliza Palmer (b. 1854, d. 1884) and their daughter Jo (Joanna Kendall) married N. Brodie Hardeman, a Church of Christ preacher, who helped start the Freed-Hardeman College at Henderson. Dr. Tabler died May 30, 1859 and was buried at a crossroads cemetery near Jack's Creek that bears his name. Joanna, his wife is buried with McCorkle relatives in Henderson City Cemetery. E. N. Tabler and his wife Eliza Palmer have impressive markers in the Henderson City Cemetery along with two of their infants.
George and Catherine had a large tract of land on the southern edge of Madison County, Civil District 17, east of Pinson, Big Springs and Five Points. It laid across what is now known as Diamond Grove Road. His oldest son Billie (Wm. Tabler) stayed on the family farm and cared for his parents. Evidently the old folks died (1865 and 1866) and were buried near the farm in an old pioneer cemetery at Mason Wells.
Their children and grandchildren continued to live in southern Madison County and parts of what later became Chester County. Dedicating themselves principally to agriculture, they intermarried with prominent families of the region and their members spread to Henderson, Pinson, Selmer, Jackson, Memphis, Newbern and on to Fulton and Paducah, Kentucky. Several of the relatives have now migrated to California also.
Most of the Watlingtons of West Tennessee are descendents of George and Catherine. Some who use a `d' instead of a `t', `Wadlington', are mostly from Kentucky and if related, are more distant cousins, descendents of one Watlington family (Wadlington) of the Revolutionary War Period from western Virginia and found later in South Carolina and Kentucky.
-- January 1975, Revised 1995
A Good Name,
Like Good Will,
Is Got by Many Actions,
And Lost by One.
-- Lord Francis Jeffrery, Scottish Jurist