BIO ~by B. Bradford updated 2-29-2020
Martha Patty Harris was the 8th child of Jason L. Harris and Nancy Hensley, born on their farm in Higgins Creek area of Flag Pond, Tennessee. In the 1860 Washington Co., TN Census, Flag Pond area, HH #1045, she was noted as "Martha" age 9. The Civil War broke out and Patty was 14 years old when her father died in a POW camp in Asheville. She helped her widowed mother Nancy with raising her younger siblings William F., Manerva, Jason C., Deadrick and Nathan D. Patty continued living with her mother and siblings in both the 1870 and 1880 censuses in Flag Pond, TN. Sometime around 1885, Patty developed a relationship with Andrew King who lived nearby in the household of Andrew and Lydia Crain working as a laborer. Patty became pregnant with her only child James who was born in 1886. Patty was 13 years his senior. They never married and Patty continued living with her aged mother taking care her and raising James on her own. After the death of her mother sometime after 1893, Patty, her son and brother David lived together in Flag Pond as noted in the 1900 Unicoi Co., TN Census, HH #15. They were both noted "single". I could not find David or Patty on the 1920 Census. In the 1930 Unicoi Co., TN Census, Patty was age 65 living in her son's household #183 in the Fishery area on the northside of Erwin. James married Bessie P. Coffee (d/o Elizabeth Read) and they had 3 children at that time: Belle, Joanna and Fred. The family lived next door to George Tapp on one side and William A. McInturff on the other. A year later, Patty died. Her death certificate stated she was buried at the Fishery Cemetery and her plot is unmarked. Her son was killed by lightening as 6 years later and James is also buried in an unmarked grave at the Fishery.