Andrew and Rebecca McWilliams came from Ireland to Virginia in 1790 and settled near relatives in the Shenandoah Valley at Staunton. They were among the first white settlers of the Sequatchie Valley, and many of their descendants lived on Flat Top Mountain.
According to an account by descendant Evelyn McWilliams Wilson, Andrew McWilliams set out “in search of a new land - a place where he could raise his family and work the farm land. When he saw the beautiful fertile Sequatchie Valley, he knew what he wanted.” However, this was still Indian territory and the only whites in the valley were supposed to have permits. In April of 1809, Andrew McWilliams was among the “intruders” warned by Indian Agent Return Jonathan Meigs to “voluntarily remove.” McWilliams was among those who managed to remain in the Sequatchie Valley and to obtain recognized title to the land he settled. It was 1820 when he brought his family to the valley. This included a son, John, who was born July 30, 1798, in Virginia. They went with the Thomas family in two Conestoga wagons with covered tops. It was said that prior to the Indians being removed, McWilliams traded blankets and utensils to one of the chiefs for land.
Andrew and Rebecca McWilliams were charter members of the Welch Chapel Church along with their son, John, and his wife, Anna Borden McWilliams. Andrew and Rebecca were buried, along with a small child, on top of a small hill above a creek on their farm. The McWilliams farm later passed to a grandson, Samuel McWilliams, and later to Mrs. Sam Cooley and her daughter, Mrs. Wiley Harmon.
John McWilliams died in 1881 and Anna in 1878. Their graves - marked by slate-covered bench tombs following the old Irish custom - are at the McWilliams family cemetery at Dunlap. Their children, in addition to Samuel, were James, Sarah, twins Borden and Daniel, Rebecca, Riley, David and Andrew. Sarah and Rebecca never married. James was born in 1824, Sarah in 1826, Borden and Daniel in 1829, Rebecca
in 1831, Riley in 1833, David in 1835, Andrew in 1837 and Samuel in 1841.
Several of the McWilliams sons joined the Union Army. Borden was with Co. H of the Sixth Mounted Infantry, and Daniel was a scout for Gen. George H. Thomas in Co. D. It was said that Daniel McWilliams selected men for his scouting unit who were expert marksmen, good horsemen and who could “keep silent about their business. One wrong slip of the tongue could cause death to some or all of Co. D.” His younger brothers, David and Samuel, were among his enlistees. Mrs. Wilson said friends and relatives of the Union scouts would hide food for them in hollow trees, cliff sides or other secluded spots, though wild animals sometimes beat the scouts to the food. She said the McWilliams brothers were among those attacking the hideout of the Confederate guerrilla leader John Gatewood in McLemore's Cove Feb. 1, 1865. Gatewood escaped, but was later killed by Union soldiers.
After the war, Borden McWilliams traveled widely, spending time in New York and the New England states. He then returned to the Sequatchie Valley and was a justice of the peace. When he was 49 in 1878, he married Rachel Hughes Davis, whose husband, Tom Davis, had been killed in an accident. They did not have children. Rachel's daughter, Adline Davis, married Newton Hixson.
Riley married Vesta Adaline Cain in 1866. Their sons were George Tipton McWilliams and John R. McWilliams. George married Kitty Smith and John R. married Easter Graham. Children of John R. were Arthur R. who married Annie Hughes, Riley who married Nancy Narrimore, Margaret Vesta and Bertie who married Lester Johnson. Vesta lived to be over 100 years old, residing in her grandfather's log cabin. The older Riley McWilliams died June 10, 1887.
Andrew married Mrs. Nancy Shadrick. They adopted Nancy's grandson and named him Foster V. McWilliams. A World War I veteran, he was known as an excellent Bible teacher. He married Grace Bales. Their son, Wade McWilliams, married Geneva Harvey. Andrew died June 8, 1911.
Samuel married Nancy Flinn and then Sarah Jerusha Clark. By his first wife, he had Staunton who married Mollie Nipper, James who married Maggie Potter, Maggie who married Frank Boynton, Samuel J. who married Linda White, and Charlie who married Versa Lamb. By his second wife, he had Ellen who married Tom Ewton, Eliza who married Arthur Hixson, Robert who married Vena Lee Hixson, Roscoe, Frank who married Mai Belle Austin, Annie “Ida” who died young, Dan who was crippled in one leg, Bertie who died young, Wiley who died when he was five, and Laster who died young. Samuel died in 1927.
David married Easter Graham and then her sister, Caroline. By his first wife, he had a son, Lavander. Lavander's son, Anderson, married Eugenia Hixson. By his second wife, David had Andrew Jackson, David Jr. and Truett. Andrew Jackson McWilliams married Minnie Annie Hixson. He was killed on the steps of church just at the close of the Christmas service on Dec. 22, 1922. David Jr. married Keziah Graham. Truett lost a leg in an accident.
Daniel McWilliams married Mary Ann Graham, sister of the wives of his brother, David. The Grahams were daughters of John Graham Jr. and Elizabeth Sawyer of Bledsoe County. Daniel had settled on Flattop Mountain in the 1850s, building a two-room log cabin with a dog trot near a good spring. It was here Mary Ann Graham McWilliams fended for herself and her children during the difficult Civil War years. On several occasions, she drew her rifle on groups of men who stopped to eye her milk cow. They would pass on when she would say, “If you touch that cow, I will shoot one of you and you don't know which one it will be.” Daniel lived until just after the turn of the century, dying after he caught cold when he went down off the mountain on horseback in the snow to visit a new grandson, Edgar McWilliams, at Retro (Bakewell). A prized picture of him wearing his Union uniform and brandishing his sword was passed to his eldest child, Sarah. The sword was kept by a son, Byrd, hanging over his mantel at Daisy. Mary Ann Graham McWilliams lived until 1911.
The children of Daniel and Mary Ann were Sarah who married William Harrison Davis,
John who married Nancy Hughes Jones and then Delphia Ann Bowman, Ellen Minerva who married Samuel Hughes, Byrd who married Susan Bowman, Margaret who married John Hughes, Alfred Jefferson who married Tempie Hughes, Rebecca Craven who married William Edwards, and Emma Caroline who married John Peter Carpenter. Delphia Ann and Susan Bowman were daughters of Henry and Rebecca Hughes Bowman.
John McWilliams was a minister. His daughter by his first wife was Mary Elizabeth who married Oscoe Young. His son by his second wife was Gilbert McWilliams who married
Grace Jewell Bowman. Alfred Jefferson McWilliams, who was born just after the Civil War, had Douglas who married Lotha Standifer, Edgar who married Nellie Goode and then Marie Green Welch, Hubert who died when he was 16, Ibby, Wallace, Margaret and Hayden.
Many members of the McWilliams family attended Mt. Zion Methodist Church, which also served as a school. It was said the first church structure had a flat top, giving the name to the community.
Evelyn McWilliams Wilson, who currently lives in Fort Wayne, Ind., is a granddaughter of Byrd McWilliams. Her parents were Daniel and Delia Mae “Mamie” Ledford McWilliams. Other children of Byrd McWilliams were Margaret Ellen who married Henry Hamill, Lula who married Luther Green, Artia Elizabeth who married John Green, Laura who married Floyd Newman, Flora who married Charles Collier and then Elliott McKenna, Easter who married Robert Roberson, and Henry Harrison who married
Nell Ledford.