No. 2 Who was Jacob M. Oakes?

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Who was Jacob M. Oakes?

Family tradition holds that Jacob was bound out to be raised by another family when he was young.  Elmer Oakes (his son) thought that this family may have been Hodges.  There are Hodges in this area at the time.  Tradition was that there were other siblings that were bound out as well.  Elmer Oakes thought that the parents had moved west for some reason and left the children.  The 1860 Jefferson County, TN Census shows Jacob Oaks, age 7, born in TN, attending school and living with Joseph McCuiston, age 85, a farmer born in NC and his wife, R. McCuiston (I believe this to be Rachel) age 75, born in TN.  (Census entry 1647).  (Could these folks be related to Jacob?)  The McCuiston family came from Guilford County, NC.  .  I've researched the McCuistion family but find no relationship.  Joseph and Rachel died in 1862 and 1866 respectfully.  Apparently Jacob Oakes was passed on to another family to be raised. Possibly it is at this time that he went to live with a Hodges family.   The 1850 Census for Jefferson Co. shows a 12 year old Gideon Oaks, birth place unknown.  Could this be a relative? He is living with a Counts family (Henry and Mary; in their early 50's).

The 1870 Jefferson Co. Census indicates that Jacob Oakes was a farm laborer with A. J. Mountcastle and his family.  Mountcastle held real estate worth $28,800, a large amount compared to his neighbors.  Jacob is listed as being 19 years old in the census.   The Census record shows that Jacob lived in the area of the Mapy (probably Mossy) Creek Post Office. Mossy Creek is now Jefferson City.  

The 1860 Jefferson Co., TN Census also shows that Thomas Hodges lived next door to Lafayette Coile (Jacob's father-in-law) at the time that Matilda Elizabeth Coile (Jacob's wife) was 1 year old.  This could be the Hodges Family that took Jacob Oakes in?  The same Census record shows that a 12-year old girl named M. J. Oaks was living with the family of S. A. Hall. He was a Saddler, born in Kentucky.  Their next door neighbors were Samuel S. McCuistion (age 42) who is listed as the Circuit Court Clerk.  Also living in the McCuistion household is William D. McCuistion, laborer. and Jo McCuistion.  It appears that these are single men.   Could M. J. Oaks be Jacob's sister?  The fact that she lives next door to McCuistions, the family name that took Jacob in when he was small leads me to believe that she is his sister.

I find no Oaks/Oakes in the 1830 or 1840 Census for Jefferson Co., TN.  This leads me to speculate that Jacob's parents arrived there after 1840.