The Loveladys settled at Soddy at an early date after coming down from Greene County, Tenn., with many of their kinsmen. A number of Lovelady descendants from this prolific family are still here.
Thomas Lovelatty was on the Haw River in Orange County, N.C., by the 1750s. By the time that Marshall Lovelatty and others had moved on to Greene County in the Tennessee frontier, the name was spelled Lovelady. There the Loveladys were neighbors of the Kennedys, Fryars, Hugheses and other families that made their way to Hamilton County not long after it was formed. Other Loveladys appearing in the Greene County records include Joseph, John, Thomas, Ann and Sally. There was a Lovelady Island in the river at Greene County.
Clarissa Hughes Lovelady was in Hamilton County by 1830 with her large family. She is said to be the wife of John Lovelady, who was in the War of 1812 from Bledsoe County. He is believed to have died in Bledsoe County.
Rebecca Lovelady is listed as the wife of Jeremiah Fryar Sr., who resided at Mountain Creek. Another Rebecca Lovelady is believed to be the first wife of Jeremiah Fryar Jr., an early settler at Lookout Valley. Other daughters of John and Clarissa Hughes Lovelady are given as Ingobo who married Jonathan Williams, Eleanor who married Simon Adams and Sarah who married a Ruddles and moved to Bourbon County, Ky.
The sons include Henry who moved to Greene County, Ark., Pleasant and Sevier. Sevier Lovelady moved to Jackson County, Ala. The Loveladys had known the Seviers in Greene County. Another son was John Lovelady, who was born about 1787. His wife was Mary. This John Lovelady witnessed the deed in 1830 when John Brown of the Cherokee Nation sold his 640-acre reservation to Ephraim Hixson. John Lovelady had a 50-acre tract nearby. John Lovelady, though he was age 65, made the move to a new home in northeast Arkansas in 1852. His eldest son, Joseph Lovelady, was able to obtain “200 acres of wild lands” in compensation for his services in the Indian wars in Florida. His wife was Deborah Harris, a native of Virginia. Robert, the second son of Joseph and Deborah Lovelady, became a doctor in Greene County. He was eventually “well fixed financially” though he had no capital upon completing college.
The other children of John and Mary Lovelady included William who married Tennessee, Elbridge, Elbert, Ephraim and John. William Lovelady, while he still lived in Hamilton County, fought in the Second Seminole War and the Sabine War. Some of the Fryars also moved to Greene County, Ark. William and Sevier Fryar had fought in the Indian wars.
Gideon Lovelady, a younger brother of John Lovelady, married Easter Varnell. They resided at Soddy. Their children included Jane who married John Hughes, Jerome, James, William, Mariah, Nancy who married Michael Mysinger, Lewis, Margaret who married William Isaac Thomas, Isabel and Tennessee who married Frank Burns. Children of William and his wife, Julia A., included Tennessee who married Thomas L. Varner in 1879. Gideon Lovelady lived near the pioneer Hasten Poe, and one of his sons was named Hasten Lovelady. Hasten Poe in 1835 sold Gideon Lovelady 100 acres “on the valley road where Gideon Lovelady now lives.” The price was $150. Children of Hasten Poe Lovelady and his wife, Susan, included Thomas, Virginia, George, Burke, Florena and Gideon. Gideon Lovelady lived near Catherine Lewis and several of his children married into the Lewis family. James married Rebecca Lewis, Hasten married Susan Lewis, Mariah married James Lewis, Lewis married Margaret Lewis, and Isabel married Amos Lewis.
Jerome married Sarah M. Julian, whose father, George Julian, was an itinerant minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Children of Jerome Lovelady included Mary M., Catherine, Paulina, James Gideon, Easter, George J., Joseph, Melvin A., Laura A., Charles C. and Hubert. Mary M. Lovelady married Alfred A. Windham in 1878. William, son of Gideon and Easter Varnell Lovelady, married Julia Ann Miller.
George Lovelady, another of the brothers, married Minerva Bryant. She was apparently a daughter of John Bryant and the sister of Mary E. Bryant, the wife of Samuel Poe, son of Hasten Poe. The Bryant sisters were born in Virginia. George Lovelady lived at Dallas near members of the Adams family. In 1838 he had purchased from Elizabeth Gann 256 acres for $450. It stretched to “the ridge at Cozby's corner across the valley to George Rogers' line, to the foot of the mountain.” He lived until 1903 when he was 96. Minerva died in 1899. They are buried at Jackson Chapel. The children of George and Minerva Lovelady included Clarissa, George, twins Margaret and John, Joseph, Tennessee Elizabeth, Ellen, Mary and Sevier. Clarissa married John Hixson, while Mary was the second wife of James Foster Hixson. Sevier married Malissa Hixson, and their children were Arthur, Fred, Frank who married Jessie Stulce, May who married Thomas Dedmon and Pearl who married James Motely and then Ramon Rodriguez. George fought for the Union in the Civil War. He married Tennessee Millsaps, and their children were Elmer, Edith, and Della who married Earnest Hauger. George died in 1911 and was buried at Jackson Chapel. Joseph married Mary Lewis, and their children were George Walter who married Allie Frizell, James who married Cecil McAfee, and Mary. Ellen married William Rogers, and Tennessee married James Rawlston.
Another brother was McKinney Lovelady. Several early Hamilton County families used McKinney as a first name. McKinney Lovelady fought in the Sabine War and the Cherokee War. The wife of McKinney Lovelady was Jane. Their children included Julia, George, Anna, Sevier, Sarah, Milly and Tennessee. Sevier Fryar married Julia Lovelady in 1868 and then Milly Lovelady in 1872.
Margaret Anna Lovelady married Houston Hixson, a son of David and Malissa Hixson, in 1871.
Lewis Mattison Lovelady, a son of James and Rebecca Lewis Lovelady, lived until 1948. His daughters were Mrs. Blanche Young and Mrs. Ruth Shipley of Soddy. The sons were J.J. of Red Bank, E.R., P.M. and Alfred of Soddy and D.R. of Daisy. His brother, Daniel A. Lovelady, was still living at Soddy.
The Lovelady Cemetery is on Dayton Pike near Daisy. Those buried here include Gideon, Jerome, Hasten and W.A. Lovelady. Many of the Lovelady family records were kept by daughters of John Henry Lovelady at his homeplace near Soddy. John Henry Lovelady was a son of James and Rebecca Lewis Lovelady.
James Holcomb of Hixson compiled ancestral charts on the Lovelady family.