The Hatley Family
by Inez Hatley Hughes

Tapley Bynum Hatley (born 1819 in Tennessee and died December 1851, Florida) in 1839 came from Hardeman County, Tennessee to Harrison County, Republic of Texas, where he made his plantation, Reelfoot, four miles southeast of what later (1869) became Hallsville.  His ancestry has been traced to John Hatley, who was knighted in 1653 by King Charles II of England.  During the colonial period, the Hatley brothers settled in North Carolina, where Tapley's father Josiah was born.  From North Carolina he migrated in the early 1800's to Alabama where her met and married Ann Tapley around 1815.  They soon migrated to Hardeman County, Tennessee where Tapley was aborn in 1818 or 1819.  His father, Dr. Josiah Hatley, represented Fayette, Hardeman, McNairy, Shelby and Tipton Counties during the 19th and 20th General Assemblies, 1831-1835; in 1835 he assisted in laying off the boundary line of Hardeman County.  At the time of his death in 1844 he had a Cotton Commission business in New Orleans.

On May 20, 1845, Tapley Bynum Hatley married 16 year old Nancy Ann Crain (1828-1853), daughter of plantation neighbor Rodden Taylor and Sarah McKenza Crain, also from Hardeman County, Tennsesse, who had come to East Texas in 1832.

Richard Alexander Hatley (born 5/10/1846 at Reelfoot, Harrison County and died 12/4/1873 in Hallsville) the son of Tapley and Nancy Crain Hatley, is buried in the Dollahite Cemetery, 4 1/2 miles southwest of Hallsville on Quail Road.  Richard's wife's parents, Thomas Harvey Etheridge (born 1818 in Currituck, North Carolina and died 1867 in Harrison County, Texas) and Elizabeth Ann Katharine Rogers Etheridge (born 1828 in Tennessee and died 1858 in Camden, Texas) are both buried there also.  Carolyn Elizabeth Etheridge Hatley (born 18846 in Sharon, Tennessee and died April 19, 1933 in Alpine, Texas) is buried beside her daughter, Alma Hatley Van Sickle (born June 7, 1870 in Hallsville and died Oct 10, 1944 in Alpine), her husband Judge Wigfall Van Sickle (1862-1941) and their son Hatley Wigfall Van Sickle (born 1899 in Alpine and died 1920 in Alpine).

Richard Alexander "Dick" Hatley, a planter and one of Hallsville's first merchants, married Caroline E. Etheridge on December 11, 1867and took her to the plantation home he had built for her at Reelfoot.  Their two children were Mary Alma and Tapley Bynum Hatley