Sally Goodner

Sally (“Maria Saloma”) Goodner, born 5–21–1786. Guilford County, North Carolina; died in Bradley or Smith County, Tennessee, 1–27–1872.  Interred in Alexandria Cemetery, Alexandria. Tennessee.  Married James Browning in Smith County, Tennessee, about 1804–6.

James Browning was undoubtedly of the Browning family that resided in Guilford County, North Carolina, and probably of Scotch–Irish descent.  A John Browning owned 225 acres of land in the Chatham District in Orange County, adjoining Guilford, in 1791.  Sally and her husband accompanied her parents to Illinois about the year 1812, and resided in St. Clair County.  Browning turned out to be a man of bad character, and Sally divorced him.  She then left Illinois and returned to Tennessee and lived with John, her favorite brother.  She had no children. After the death of John, or even prior to that, she must have lived with other relatives in or near Alexandria, and she may not have accompanied John when he moved away from Smith County and went to Bradley County, since she passed away in or near Alexandria at the age of 86 years.

Some amusing things are told of James Browning, one being that the Sheriff had called for him at home just at meal time, to arrest him for some infraction of the law.  But Browning got the drop on the Sheriff, and at gun point made him "sit down at the table and eat, and eat, and eat until he could eat no more.  At another time, the Sheriff and his deputies surrounded the house and ordered Browning to surrender, which he refused to do.  So they decided to wait him out, not wishing to attack.  Dusk finally came, and Browning got tired of being penned in the house.  Putting on one of his wife's dresses and sun bonnets, he took up a pail and made for the spring. The sheriff. thinking that it was Sally, made no effort to stop him, and so he got away.  This is probably the last time that Sally saw him.  I do not know in what particulars he broke the law, but apparently they were of a serious nature.