John Hughett

John Hughett (1824-1908) was an early Scott Countian and the patriarch of the Hughett family at Robbins and Brimstone. He was a Civil War veteran who served as a justice of the peace (now known as county commissioner) for 44 years. His son, Jasper Hughett, was the first postmaster at Hughett (Brimstone) and later a noted merchant in Robbins.

Biography

Born in 1824, John Hughett is believed to have been the son of William Hughett (1813-1865) and Jane Jeffers (1808-1905). The dates are problematic; William Hughett would have only been 11 years old when John was born if he was truly born in 1813 and John was truly born in 1824. However, William Hughett told census enumerators in 1860 that he was 67 years old, which would have placed his birth around 1793.

John’s siblings included Allen Hughett, William Alexander Hughett Jr., Robert Hughett, Pherbia (or Pheriba) Hughett Lloyd, and Bettie Hughett Robbins. Other siblings may have included Malona Hughett and Pleasant Hughett.

John Hughett married Christena Lewallen (1829-1875), the daughter of Joel Lewallen (1803-1892) and Rachel Sue Taylor (1798-1892). Her sister, Lavicy Ann “Vicy” Lewallen, married Jacob Lee Lawson, the son of David Lawson of the Winona area. Christena and Vicy were the granddaughters of Anderson Grant Lewallen, the first person to settle at Black Wolf Creek near Glenmary.

John and Christena had children including Frank Hughett, Lucinda Hughett Sexton, Jasper Hughett, Rachel Hughett Newport, Amanda Hughett Newport, and Mary Hughett Walker. Frank Hughett served as Scott County Sheriff, and Jasper Hughett was the first postmaster at Hughett, which was located near Huntsville Branch on Brimstone Creek.

Following Christena’s death — she’s buried at the Hughett Cemetery at Brimstone — John lived partnered with Lucinda Lewallen Robbins, who was a sister to Christena and Vicy. It is sometimes said that they were married; however, they did not marry because Lucinda was receiving a Civil War widow’s pension. Her first husband, William Robbins, died of illness while serving in the Union army during the war. He was the first person to sign the oath of allegiance to the Scott County Home Guard, which led to a Confederate regiment raiding his home at the Battle of Brimstone.

John is said to have fathered several additional children with Lucinda, including Horace Maynard Robbins, Joe L. Robbins, and Etta Robbins. All three were born between 1867 and 1879, before the death of John’s first wife, Christena. John’s youngest daughter with Christena, Bettie Hughett Robbins, was born in 1871, between the births of Horace Maynard Robbins and Joe L. Robbins.

Professional Life

According to attorney Edward East Barthell in Mountain Stories, written in 1933, “Squire Hughett was one of the most prosperous men in that section of the country. His reading and writing were rather limited, but his vigor and activity were great. As was all other mountaineers, he was very familiar with the law of ‘possession’ of land, and in the course of twenty or thirty years he had recorded numbers of deeds made to him by first one person and then another, some of whom were not even known around the country; and in due time he was able to prove that he had had possession of the land for seven years, sometimes by a little patch that had been cultivated away up in the valley, sometimes by evidence that he had raised cattle on it, and sometimes otherwise. The result was that at one time I paid him over $150,000 for lands which he had thus acquired and on which his title had been adjudicated good. Squire knew the lines of his lands, and with a twinkle in his eye would explain to me or my representatives just how he had drawn that boundary and the other boundary, this line and that line, in the deeds which he had taken, there or other places, and always would wind up by stating that ‘I always look after my possessions!'”

Hughett served as a justice of the peace, which is known today as county commissioner, for 44 years. That earned him the nickname “squire,” which justices of the peace were known as in those days.

Death

John Hughett died in 1908, at the age of about 83, and was buried at Robbins Cemetery.

According to Barthell: “When I first met him Squire Hughett was about eighty years old, but strong and vigorous and looked as if he had never had a sick day. Several years afterwards when standing on the railroad platform at Helenswood one day, I saw Squire Hughett with several men around him, and joined them. The Squire had a lump half as big as a grape on his lip on the left side of his face. The Squire’s son Jasper, who was standing by, touched the lump with his finger and said, ‘I tell Pap that is gwine kill him some day.’ And sure enough it developed that it was a cancer and Jasper’s prophecy came true.”

Barthell wrote that Hughett “settled up with all his woods-colts” (illegitimate children) before his death.