| Q State your full name and present Post Office address: |
| William Poindexter Timberlake, 601 E. Main St., Jackson, Tennessee |
| Q State your age now: |
| Eighty four years old, January 6th 1922 |
| Q In what State and county were you born? |
| Tennessee, Henderson County |
| Q In what State and county were you living when you enlisted in the service of the Confederacy , or of the Federal Government? |
| Tennessee, Henderson County |
| Q What was your occupation before the war? |
| Farmer |
| Q What was the occupation of your father? |
| Farmer |
| Q If you owned land or other property at the opening of the war, state what kind of property you owned, and state the value of your property as near as you can: |
| My father gave me two hundred acres of valuable land worth about $5000 dollars. About six thousand dollars in personal property including Negros and money. |
| Q Did you or your parents own slaves? If so, how many? |
| My father owned thirty slaves. |
| Q If your parents owned land, state about how many acres: |
| About twenty two hundred acres of land. |
| Q State as near as you can the value of all the property owned by your parents, including land, when the war opened: |
| Land worth $22,000.00. In cash and note $29,000.00 and other personality including stock and grain $3000.00. |
| Q What kind of house did your parents occupy? State whether it was a log house or frame house or built or other materials, and state the number of rooms it had: |
| Seven room house, two rooms built of logs, ceiled and weatherboarded. Three frame rooms first floor, two rooms, second floor. |
| Q As a boy and young man, state what kind of work you did. If you worked on a farm, state to what extent you plowed, worked with a hoe, and did other kinds of similar work: |
| When not in school, my father required me to work with his negro laborers, such as hoeing and planting and assisted in gathering the crops in fall - cotton picking, etc. When 16 years old, I taught six months
in country school instead of farming. |
| Q State clearly what kind of work your father did, and what the duties of your mother were. State all the kinds of [work] done in the house as well as you can remember -- that is, cooking, spinning, weaving, etc.: |
| My father overlooked his property. My mother was a home keeper directing her servants, in spinning, weaving, and sewing for her children and negro slaves. |
| Q Did your parents keep any servants? If so, how many? |
| Yes -- four |
| Q How was honest toil -- as plowing, hauling and other sorts of honest work of this class -- regarded in your community? Was such work considered respectable and honorable? |
| It was. |
| Q Did the white men in your community generally engage in such work? |
| They did. |
| Q To what extent were there white men in your community leading lives of idleness and having others do their work for them? |
| No idleness, everybody worked who was able. |
| Q Did the men who owned slaves mingle freely with those who did not own slaves, or did slaveholders in any way show by their actions that they felt themselves better than respectable, honorable men who did not
own slaves? |
| Yes. Everything depended upon the moral character of the man. |
| Q At the churches, at the schools, at public gatherings in general, did slaveholders and non-slaveholders mingle on a footing of equality? |
| They did. |
| Q Was there a friendly feeling between slaveholders and non-slaveholders in your community, or were they antagonistic to each other? |
| They were friendly. |
| Q In a political contest in which one candidate owned slaves and the other did not, did the fact that one candidate owned slaves help him in winning the contest? |
| It did not. |
| Q Were the opportunities good in your community for a poor young man -- honest and industrious -- to save up enough to buy a small [farm?] or go in business for himself? |
| Yes. |
| Q Were poor, honest, industrious young men, who were ambitious to make something of themselves, encouraged or discouraged by slaveholders? |
| They were encouraged. |
| Q What kind of school or schools did you attend? |
| First a country pay school. Attended advance school in Lexington, Tenn. where Latin and Greek were taught and advanced mathematics. Attended Union University at Murfreesboro, Tenn. and graduated at
Chapel Hill, North Carolina. |
| Q About how long did you go to school altogether? |
| About eight years. |
| Q How far was it to the nearest school? |
| About half a mile. |
| Q What school or schools were in operation in your neighborhood? |
| Private pay school. My first teacher, Mr. Sam Howard, who was afterwards my brother-in-law. |
| Q Was the school in your community private or public? |
| Private |
| Q About how many months in the year did it run? |
| Nine months. |
| Q Did the boys and girls in your community attend school pretty regularly? |
| The children of property owners did. |
| Q Was the teacher of the school you attended a man or a woman? |
| Man |
| Q In what year and month and at what place did you enlist in the Confederate or of the Federal Government? |
| Joined the Army at Lexington, Henderson Co., Tenn. July 1861. Reorganized at Trenton, Gibson Co., Tenn. in August 1861. |
| Q State the name of your regiment, and state the names of as many members of your company as you remember? |
| 27th Tenn. Col. Christopher Williams. John Sharp Williams' father was my first Captain while I served as First Lieutenant. I was later made Captain when Christopher Williams was made Colonel. John Barham was made First Lt., Joe Ringgold, Second Lt., Felix W. Henry, Third Lt. |
| Q After enlistment, where was your company sent first? |
| Went to Columbus, Kentucky afterwards to Cynthiana, Ky and to Bowling Green, Ky. Thence to Murfreesboro, Tenn. thence to Corinth, Mississippi. |
| Q How long after your enlistment before your company engaged in battle? |
| No important battle until Battle of Shiloh. In which I was engaged. |
| Q What was the first battle you engaged in? |
| Battle of Shiloh. |
| Q State in your own way your experience in the war from this time on until the close. State where you went after the first battle – what you did, what other battles you engaged in, how long they lasted, what the
results were; state how you lived in camp, how you were clothed, how you slept, what you had to eat, how you were exposed to cold, hunger and disease. If you were in the hospital or in prison, state your experience here: |
| After the battle of Shiloh our command was sent to Tupelo, Miss. and was there reorganized. I ran for Lt. Col. of the Regiment, was defeated, remained sometime with the Regiment acting as Commissary. Returned to Henderson County, Tenn. and organized a company. Joined Col. Wilson's Regiment of Cavalry serving under Gen. N.B. Forest. Never wounded or taken prisoner during the war. |
| Q When and where were you discharged? |
| Was with Forest of Gainesville, Ala. when notice was given to go to Grenada, Miss. for parole about May 1865. |
| Q Tell something of your trip home: |
| Came home to Henderson Co., Tenn. riding my fine horse Dallas. |
| Q What kind of work did you take up when you came back home? |
| Speculating in farms, mules and cotton. While living in Lowndes Co., Miss. I married 1867 to Miss Susan Josephine Gilmer, daughter of N.J. Gilmer and wife Collen Barnett. Was in commission, business with James Allen in Mobile, Ala. and in 1869 located in Madison Co. Tennessee. |
| Q Give a sketch of your life since the close of the Civil War, stating what kind of business you have engaged in, where you have lived your church relations, etc. If you have held an office or offices, state
what it was. You may state here any other facts connected with your life and experience which has not been brought out by the questions: |
| Then went to Lowndes Co., Miss. where I invested in land, cotton and grain and merchandised in Crawford, Miss. before my marriage in 1867. |
| Q Give the full name of your father; born at; in the county of; state of , Give also any particulars concerning him, as official position, war services, etc.; books written by, etc. |
| Richard Timberlake; Franklin Co., N.C.; lived near Louisburg, N.C. and in 1828 moved to Henderson Co., Tenn.; served in Franklin Co., N.C. as a Captain of the Militia. |
| Q Maiden name in full of your mother. She was the daughter of____ and his wife ____ who lived at: |
| Tabitha Trice, [daughter of] Harrison Trice and Gillie Barbee; in Orange Co, N.C. near Chapel Hill and moved to Henderson Co., Tenn. |
| Q Remarks on ancestry. Give here any and all facts possible in reference to your parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, etc., not included in the foregoing, as where there they lived, office held, Revolutionary
or other war services; what county the family came to America; where first settled, county and state; always giving full names (if possible) and never referring to an ancestor simply as such without giving the name. It is
desirable to include every fact possible and to that end the full and exact record from old Bibles should be appended on separate sheets of this size, thus preserving the facts from loss: |
| My father, Richard Timberlake, was born in 1788. His father Francis Timberlake married Nancy Poindexter from Petersburg, Va., and emigrated from Va. to N.C. before the Revolution, where he taught in
school. His children were James, Eppison, Fran, Julius and Richard, my father. His daughters were two in number, Mrs. Murphy and Mrs. Fayton. |
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