The Scales Family Tree

Members of the scales family came to this country from England in the Early part of 1700. Joseph, Henry and Nathaniel Scales were brothers who lived for a time in Patrick County, Virginia. They migrated to Rockingham County, North Carolina. Henry and Nathaniel served as members of the General Assembly from Rockingham. John scales was the son of Joseph Scales and Mary.

Abslom scales

Abslom scales, the pioneer, was born in North Carolina December 3, 1769, and moved to Tennessee at an early age. He married Nancy Dalton and built a comfortable home in Rutherford County’s western section near the community of Eagleville in the 1790s. He cleared the land with the aid of his slaves and built his home with bark covered timbers and limestone. He died in 1835 and his wife died five years later. They had eight children

In pioneer Absalom Scales’ Will dated July 1833, he left his estate to his beloved wife Nancy and to his children 321 Acres of tract land and slaves or cash equivalents. “At the death of my wife, the balance of my estate is to be equally divided among all my children.” Each of his children did receive agers of land and one negro apiece.

The Absalom scales house at 432 rocky Glade Road is another departure from more common architectural forms. The house was one of the first buildings in Rutherford County listed individually on the National Register of Historic places and until recently it was still in the hands of the Scales family. A contemporary of John Smith, William Lytle, and Hardee Murfree, Abslom Scales and his wife settled on six hundred acres near present day Eagleville in 1790. The Scales, with the help of their slaves, built a four room house of yellow poplar using whole trees and plentiful limestone rocks for the foundation. Finished to an unusual degree for this time, the floors were of wide poplar planks, and walls, upstairs and down, were wainscoted.

After the death of his father Absolom in 1835 and his mother in 1840, Noah Scales inherited the plantation. He and his wife Mary Batie Sayers built a spacious addition to the original four rooms. To add contunity between old and new sections, windows of uniform size were installed (all six over six panes but slightly shorter in length on the second floor) and the entire house was bricked, creating a Federal style to which they added a one story Creek Revival Portico. Through the off center portico is the entrance to an oval hallway dominated by a cherry staircase with scrolled carving. A second front entrance has a Creek Rvival surround with pediment.

Joseph Griffin Scales

Joseph Griffin Scales (1798 - 1870) the third child of “Pioneer Abslom” married Fanne Webb in June 1, 1818. They moved to Williamson County, Tennessee and had fourteen children.