When Cordy Clifton died in 1851 in DeSoto County, his brother-in-law Samuel Johnston was appointed administrator of Cordy’s estate.[3] Then on 22 January 1866, something noteworthy happened regarding Samuel Johnston and his sister-in-law Matilda Caroline Clifton: on that date, Samuel petitioned the DeSoto county court to be released from his bond with Matilda as guardian of her minor children.[4]
Why did Samuel Johnston make that request? His petition states that “he has recently been hated as an enemy by Mrs. Clifton and Thomas L. Clifton the other Security….” Further, the petition says Samuel believed that “Mrs. Matilda C. Clifton is pursuing a bad policy in not receiving the currency of the United States willingly in payment of debts due her as guardian and thereby endangering the future interest of the heirs of Cordy Clifton and perhaps your petitioner’s interest.”
What’s this all about? Look at the January 1866 date. The Civil War had just ended. Matilda’s son Thomas Leonard Clifton had been a Confederate soldier. Matilda was refusing to accept payment of debts in U.S. currency and she and son Thomas had recently shown hatred for her brother-in-law Samuel Johnston, who was administering her deceased husband’s estate.
The only possible conclusion to draw here: Samuel Johnston was either a Unionist or someone willing to accept the defeat of the Confederacy and move forward by cooperating with the federal government. Matilda was not willing to do that. So the family split over this “hatred.” The loose records court files in DeSoto County show Matilda being issued a court summons on the day her brother-in-law Samuel Johnston filed his petition, and subsequent court minutes show that he was granted his request to be absolved of his bond with Matilda for guardianship of her children — his nieces and nephews. This set of records demonstrates the extent to which the bitterness and rancor produced by the attempt of some states to secede from the Union, followed by war and bloodshed, could sunder families, even after the war had ended.
[1] As the previous posting states, a family bible belonging to Matilda and Cordy’s son Thomas Leonard Clifton and wife Rebecca Thomas Worthen preserved in DAR files records Cordy and Matilda’s full names. It also states Cordy Claiborne Clifton’s date of death. A DAR deposition given on 12 June 1957 by Maude Clifton Johnson in Shelby County, Tennessee, also cites this bible record and state these full names for Matilda and Cordy. Maude Clifton Johnson’s DAR deposition states that this family bible was lost in a fire at the house of her sister Rebecca Thomas Clifton Weatherby in Mobile: see the genealogical forms for Maude Clifton and Thomas Leonard Clifton in Daughters of the American Revolution National Genealogical Records Committee, Genealogical Forms, Series 11, Volume 15 (1966).
[2] Limestone County, Alabama, Marriage Bk. 1832-1862, p. 109, #1318. Minerva and Samuel were married by Rev. Jeremiah Tucker, pastor of Round Island Baptist church: on Jeremiah Tucker and Round Island Baptist church, see this previous posting.
[3] DeSoto County, Mississippi, Probate Minutes Bk. 4, p. 278.
[4] DeSoto County, Mississippi, Probate Court Final Record Bk. 1862-6, p. 393.
BEGATS AND BEQUEATHALS 
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