John
A Wineinger was my g-g grandfather. He was born in Hawkins County,
Tennessee, and spent his adult life in Dubois County. He
married
Catherine Wineinger, a second cousin, about 1827, probably in Hawkins
County, Tennessee, or Scott County, Virginia. He had a trading post in
Hillham, (then called Davis Creek), and later developed a freight or
trade business between Dubois County and the river towns of New Albany
and Louisville.
In October, 1843, he wrote a letter to his
mother-in-law, Julia Ann (Slusher) Wineinger, regading the will of his
father-in-law, Peter Wininger. The letter clearly depicts him as a
businessman. In the first part of the letter, he mentions the death of
an unnamed infant, and the birth of another, also not named at that
time. That second infant was Jesse Wineinger, who with his brother,
Stephen were killed in a portable sawmill boiler explosion in
"Grapevine Hollow", in Orange County. Jesse and Stephenare
buried in Pace-Robinson
Cemetery.
The letter was found in the Kingsport Tennessee Public
Library, and
later published in the July, 1981 issue of The Winegar Tree. The 1843
letter,
Peter Wininger's will, and a transcript from George W Milburn's
"Historical Notes On Dubois County" may be accessed below.
