DeKalb Trails - Meet Matlock Roberts and Families

Date: [unknown] [unknown]
Location: DeKalb, Tennessee, United States
Surname/tag: Roberts

DeKalb Trails, Episode #1

It is only through the journey of understanding of our past, and the roads our ancestors took, that we can understand ourselves. Please join me on a journey through DeKalb’s past.

In 1985 I inherited a precious image, from my great grandmother Minnie, of my 3rd grandmother Zilpha from about 1870. An image of a woman she never met in person, carefully entrusted to me by her guardian angels to document the past of our family.

DeKalb County, formed in 1837 from land in the Warren, Cannon, and White counties, was developed by the pioneers who first settled the area about 1797. Many assume that their ancestors would have been restricted in the distance moved by the minimal road networks maintained at the time by toll keepers. However, it was common for the opportunistic pioneer families to travel the river network in search of their fortune . Many of these families would earn income by finding a landowner with excess land and obtaining permission to grow a crop such as tobacco or corn. They would then deed the crop back to the landowner, or others, to cover their rent, plus a small amount of earned income for their living needs.

Matlock Roberts and his family were one of those brave pioneer families, leaving Cumberland County, Kentucky about 1829 and finding themselves in Lincoln, Jackson, Smith and Wilson County over the decades. During that time their family is seen growing crops of tobacco and corn and deeding them to others. They finally purchased land in the Dismal area of DeKalb, near Helton Cemetery, about April 1870. By this time, only their youngest, James Henry, was seen listed as living in their home. It is more likely they moved to the area about 1860, as many of their daughters lived in the dismal community near them, with Sarah marrying Thomas Driver in December of 1857.

Zilpha Roberts est 1870

While Matlock and Zilpha are largely unknown to local researchers; several hundred of their descendants still live in the DeKalb area. We see their sons moved elsewhere, while their daughters remained and became the great grandmothers to many locals. Their descendants include the families of the Driver’s, Clayborn’s, Corley’s, Parkers, Joines, Browns, Malones, Banes, Bates, Neal’s, Corley’s, Dockery’s, Johnson’s, among others.

The land they purchased in 1870 initially belonged to Jane Driver Johnson and was sold as part of her estate with possible previous owners of the Waufords. Interestingly they placed the land title in Zilpha's name, not Matlock's; several theories exist on why they went against the contemporary practices of the husband owning everything, but none have been confirmed yet.

My great-grandmother Minnie (Matlock's granddaughter) believed that he left 17 children about $700 each when Matlock passed away in 1890. Reality is a stark contrast, as when Matlock passed away about 1890, he left 11 heirs who received $4.38 each, and Jane Bane, who "received a cow as her interest in the estate."

Matlock and Zilpha are buried in the Dismal area on the family property. The Dismal Cemetery, or Fullers Church Cemetery, is home to numerous other family members. These include Matlock 's daughters Martha Roberts Corley Bess, Jane Jennie Pink Roberts Bane, Amanda Roberts Driver, and likely Diannah Roberts Driver. There is nothing more humbling then walking through a cemetery where you are related to 185 out of the 225 souls buried there.

Although the area was called Dismal, the beauty of the area is anything but dismal.

Matlock Roberts Image 1

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Kristina Wheeler is a Genealogist with many ties to pioneer families of DeKalb County and an interest in documenting the pioneer families of DeKalb County. If you have family Bible records, photographs, special ancestors you would like to know more about, or stories that you would like documented and/or shared, she can be reached at kris.family.research at gmail.com for further information or click on my link above and send me a message through wikitree.