Joseph (Runnion) Runion Jr (1817 - 1903)

Born 25 Aug 1817 in Tennessee, United States

Ancestors

Died 24 Mar 1903 at age 85 in McKinney, Collin County, Texas, United States

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Biography

Joseph (Runnion) Runion Jr served in the United States Civil War.
Enlisted: February 12, 1862
Mustered out: Jul. 22, 1863
Side: CSA
Regiment(s): Co. F, 39th Tennessee Mounted Infantry Regiment (Confederate)

Joseph (Runnion) Runion Jr served in the United States Civil War.
Enlisted: September, 1863
Side: USA
Regiment(s): Btry C, 1st Tennessee Light Artillery Battalion (Union)

Joseph was born to Joseph Runnion Sr. and Elizabeth (Shepherd) Runnion, who were born in Virginian in 1776 and 1774, respectively. This was a frontier family on the move. His parents were married in Wilkes County, North Carolina, and moved west to Buncombe County, where their first children were born. In 1810 the family moved west across the Appalachian ridge into Cocke County, Tennessee. After the war of 1812, they settled in Sevier County, where Joseph Jr. was born (according to his military records). His gravestone gives the date as August 25, 1817, and other records are consistent with that date. Union military records describe Joseph as having a dark complexion, blue eyes, dark hair, a height of 5' 10", and a farmer by occupation.

In 1824, Joseph’s father secured ownership of 80 acres in Sevier County, but in 1827, when Joseph was 10, his father bought land back in Cocke County and the family moved there. Some of his older brothers bought land there as well. Around ten years later the family moved to Blount County, where Joseph, now 20, worked on the family farm. His brother George bought a farm of his own there, and the family of his married sister Elizabeth Leatherwood lived nearby, but beginning in 1842, other brothers secured land grants in neighboring Polk County. Around that time his mother Elizabeth died.

On October 27, 1842, Joseph was married in Blount County to Elizabeth Laurence, daughter of James Laurence. Four months later his father, Joseph Sr., was married to Jane Parks, and they moved to Polk County, leaving Joseph Jr. and his wife on the farm in Blount County. They had seven known children:

1. Sarah A. (Runnion) Davis 1844 – AFT 1870
2. Mary Jane Runnion 1844–1850
3. William B. "Bill" Runnion 1846–1918
4. James Morgan Runion Roman 1849–1925
5. Alexander W. "Alex" Runnion 1850–1910
6. Margaret E. “Betty” (Runnion) Douglass 1855 – BET 1900–1920
7. Samuel L. Runnion 1858 – BET 1860–1870

By 1860 Joseph’s farm in Blount County had become prosperous, with 75 acres under cultivation in corn and oats and 125 acres woodland, all valued at $1500. They had 4 horses, 2 milk cows, 3 beef cows, 14 sheep, 20 swine, with the livestock valued at $550. At the time, an average monthly wage was $10, so all this was equivalent in value to 17 years income.

1861 Tennessee seceded from the Union, against the wishes of the citizens of East Tennessee. Citizens of Blount County had voted 4 to 1 against secession, and with other eastern counties they had tried to separate from the rest of Tennessee and remain part of the Union, but they were occupied by Confederate forces. With this came pressure for men to join the Confederate army, and on February 12, 1862, Joseph enlisted for one year as a musician. He was enrolled in company B and then F of the 31st Tennessee Infantry Regiment (Confederate), later renamed the 39th. His regiment was sent to defend Vicksburg, on the Mississippi River. Meanwhile, Joseph’s brother George was active in the Unionist resistance to the Confederate occupation, helping those being conscripted to escape to Kentucky, where they could join the Union army. He also served in a local militia loyal to the United States, but his family were persecuted, and he narrowly escaped being executed.

As for Joseph, the Confederates reneged on his one-year enlistment and extended it for the duration of the war. But events began to turn in his favor. On July 4th, after two months of siege, the Confederate forces at Vicksburg were depleted of food and ammunition and had to surrender to General Grant of the Union Army. So Joseph became a prisoner of war. On July 10, the Union army paroled Joseph and most other prisoners, on pledging not to fight until they were exchanged for Union prisoners. So on July 22nd, Joseph was furloughed to go home to eastern Tennessee and await an exchange of prisoners. Then in September of 1863, Union forces under General Burnside liberated the southeastern counties of Tennessee, where the population received them with jubilation. Joseph immediately enlisted in the Union Army at Knoxville, lying about his age in order to qualify, and served in Battery C of the 1st Tennessee Light Artillery Battalion. That November the Confederate forces besieged Knoxville, and the artillery nearly annihilated them. They withdrew, never to return.

Joseph and his family settled back into life. They were living near Ducktown, in civil district 9. Joseph became a director of that school district in 1867 and served a two-year term. His nephew James M., also of Ducktown, served in district 7.

The people of Tennessee suffered greatly during the war, not only from the fighting but from marauding soldiers as well. Farmers suffered the confiscation of their crops and livestock by soldiers passing through. This is described in some detail in a deposition by Joseph’s brother George. After the war, Joseph and his family moved to Polk County, where they had many relatives, and started over on a new farm. By 1870 they had only 20 acres under cultivation, with 158 of woodland. Their farm was valued at only $300, with only $15 worth of farm implements. They had built up $481 worth of livestock, but that was still less than before the war. On the other hand, in 1868 they sent their son William to preparatory school at Cumberland University in central Tennessee, and that would have been costly as well. Their son James Morgan left home as well and moved south to Monroe County. Perhaps James was avoiding someone, because he used the names Morgan Roman and Jasper M. Morgan. He was married under this latter name in 1872, to Catherine Cynthia Hedgecock, and they lived there on a farm with her mother.

People in East Tennessee were angry at the how their state had suffered from the war which the Confederacy brought upon them, and from corrupt Confederate officials and marauding Rebel soldiers, and they vented their anger on Confederate veterans. The state government even disenfranchised them from voting or holding office and enjoying the rights of citizens, and it encouraged people to dispossess them. This applied to everyone who had taken up arms against the US, no matter how reluctantly, even if they deserted and joined the Union army. As a result, beginning around 1870, many Confederate veterans left the state. In 1872 Joseph and his family moved to Texas. This included his wife Elizabeth and single children Alexander and Margaret, along with William and his wife Virginia (Stout), while their James Morgan Roman stayed in Monroe County. Their daughter Sarah was married to Mitchel Davis in 1862, and living in Blount County in 1870, but her subsequent life has not been discovered. Joseph’s brother Isaac and his family moved to Texas at that time as well, and settled in the south of Fannin County, near Wolfe City. Later some of the children of his brother James moved there as well from Missouri. Joseph and Elizabeth and their son Alexander lived in the village of Weston in Collin County and developed a farm nearby. Their daughter Margaret was married there in 1872 to James W. Douglass. They lived on a farm in Collin County but they eventually moved to the town of McKinney, where James worked as a painter. William Runion and his wife Virginia lived in Weston and had two sons, but he died after 1875, and in 1881 his wife remarried. In 1886, Joseph and Elizabeth’s son James/Jasper Morgan Roman moved to Texas as well, with his wife Catherine and their many children, but they settled onto a farm near Bridgeport in Wise County.

In 1884 Joseph applied for a Union veteran’s pension on the basis that he was unable to work. In 1889 Joseph’s wife Elizabeth died. Two years later he was married to Mary E. Griffin, who had been born in Tennessee in 1840. Other relatives came to Collin County as well. A young cousin, Russell Manning Runyan, came to Collin County, perhaps to work on Joseph’s farm. Nearby he met his future wife Moodie Mantooth. After their wedding they moved to Indian Territory (Oklahoma), where they settled alongside other Runyan and Mantooth relatives.

In 1893 Joseph evidently retired and sold the farm, because that’s the last year he was listed on a tax schedule. He and his wife moved to McKinney, in Collin County, where his daughter Margaret lived, while his son Alexander and his family remained in Weston, where he worked as a grocer. On March 24, 1903, Joseph passed away, age 85. He was buried near his first wife Elizabeth. His estate included 3129 acres of land, half of which went to his surviving wife Mary. On May 12, 1903, Mary applied for a government pension as the widow of a Union veteran, but she died the next month, on June 9, while in Scurry County, Texas, age 61.

Sources

• Find A Grave: Memorial #11784950 for Joseph Runion