For several years there has been a movement all over our Country, State and in fact, all over the United States among some families to trace their ancestors back as far as possible. This move first came to my attention some four or five years ago when Mrs. Olin Johnson of Parrotsville came to see me to find out what I could tell her about her great grand-father. James Smith, who was a soldier in the Union Army with my father during the Civil War. There was but very little I could tell her about her great grand-father, but her grandmother and also her grandfather were both students at Parrotsville when I was only a boy in the same school. From what I have read in the papers, I think Mrs. Johnson has made quite a success of her work.The next instance that brought this trend of searching for information about people who lived in the Parrotsville neighborhood in my boyhood days was the frequent visits from Parrotsville people last spring when everybody seemed to be busy gathering material to be printed in the March 2 issue or PROGRESS edition of the BANNER. Some time last January there was a letter came to Parrotsville addressed to Ezra Bible and the P.M. at Parrotsville forwarded the letter to me. This letter proved to be from a distant cousin who lives in Cisco, Texas, and his great grandfather and my grandfather were brothers. His great grandfather was Abraham Bible and my grandfather was George Bible, both sons of Christian Bible. He said that his great grandfather married Cena Parrot of the Parrotsville family of Parrots, and he was seeking information on his relation to the Parrots who might still be living in Cocke County. I could not give him much information, but I did send him the address of Heber Parrot who lives here in Newport and is still older than I am, but Heber didn`t give him any information either. On the 4th day of last Oct. there was a lady from Tallahassee, Fla. called to see me. She was gathering information on the Bible family, especially on the family of Lewis Bible who came to Cocke County about 1851. This lady`s name is Mrs. Virginia Reichelt. Her address is 1710 Verina Court, Tallahassee, Fla. Her maiden name was Virginia Fawley and she said that one of the Fawleys married Phillip Bible, a son of Adam Bible Jr. and that she started out to locate that family, and soon got interested in the Bible family as well. She gave me more information on the Bible family than I ever dreamed of. We have known for many years that there was only three Bibles, all brothers, that originally came to America from Germany, but we did not know the names of the three brothers. Mrs. Reichelt has been to Germany, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Tennessee. She gave me enough information that I can now chronicle ten generation of the Bible family. Six generations have passed on, and four are still living. Also the names of their wives, all but the first. Henry Bible was the father of Martin Bible whose wife`s name was Catherine. Martin and Catherine were the parents of Adam Bible and his two brothers who came to America from Germany. Adam was born Jan. 4, 1732 in Konigsbach, Germany. He landed in Philadelphia, Penn. in 1750 when he was 18 years old. He lived in Penn. for a while and married Eve Ryan, who lived to be 114 years old. He later moved to Shenandoah valley in Virginia and farmed and raised his family there. Adam was the father of Christian Bible who married Catherine Folman and settled on Friends Run, a few miles west of wht is now known as Franklin in West Virginia. 12 children, 8 sons and 4 daughters. He later bought a large body of land in Greene County, Tenn. and moved his family there. The land he bought in Tenn. lays along the Little Nolichucky. His first wife died and was buried in the Gum Springs Cemetary, not far from Midway, Tenn. He later married Marguerett Spiegle, but never had any children by his 2nd wife. Christian Bible was the father of George Bible who married Marguerett Kyker. George and Marguerett raised nine children.Five sons and four daughters. The sons names were Moses, Joseph, Jacob, Aaron and Ezra. He moved from Greene County to Cocke County about 1840 or 1842 and entered a large body of land about three or four miles above Nough. George Bible`s youngest son, Azra Bible, married Martha Ann Elizabeth Davis who were the parents of Estil Barb Bible (the writer) who married Dora Catherine Rader, who were parents of Joseph Elmer Bible, who married Jean McMurry and are the parents of Jason Blake Bible, now ten years old. It is generally believed that Christian Bible`s first wife, Catherine, died and was buried in Virginia, and that he married his second wife in Tenn. and had part of his children by his second wife, but Mrs. Reichelt says that is not true. That his last wife was past the child bearing age when they were married. She also told me that she saw Catherine`s grave in the Gum Springs Cemetary. Another reason that I believe Mr. Reichelts version is correct, is that Christian Bible`s children were all born too close together to permit any lengthy time lapse which would naturally occur between the death of one wife and the courtship and marriage of a second wife. Now, my dear readers, and all the descendants of Christian Bible who wish to clip this story out of the Banner and preserve it for future reference, please bear in mind that I can not vouch for the absolute accuracy of the first four generations, but I do vouch for the accuracy of the last six.
Estil B. Bible
From the Cocke County BANNER, Newport, Tennessee, perhaps in the 1970`s. Transcribed by David Wood.
