Morgan v. M'Ghee
| Decision Date | 30 September 1844 |
| Parties | MORGAN v. M'GHEE. |
| Court | Tennessee Supreme Court |
Margaret Morgan instituted this action of detinue, for slaves, in the circuit court of Monroe county, against John McGhee. McGhee pleaded that plaintiff was the wife of Gideon Morgan, and, being a feme covert, had no right to sue. Issue was taken on this plea, and the case was tried by Judge R. M. Anderson and a jury of Monroe county, at the September term, 1844.
It appeared that McGhee had purchased the slaves at execution sale against Gideon Morgan; that Gideon Morgan and Margaret Morgan, alias Sevier, were married according to the usages of the Cherokee tribe of Indians in that part of the territory of the Cherokees which was within the limits of the State of Tennessee, in 1813; that all that was necessary by their usages was a public agreement to live together as man and wife; that they afterwards lived together as man and wife; that in 1818 they were married according to the ceremonies of the laws of Tennessee, in the Cherokee country, and before the laws of Tennessee had been extended over it; that Margaret Morgan and Gideon Morgan removed to Monroe county, and had some five or six children, who went by the name of Morgan; that he was a white man, and she was a halfblood Cherokee, and that he prosecuted her claim to a portion of land in the Cherokee territory, reserved by treaty; that the slaves in controversy were delivered to Margaret Morgan, in 1828, by her mother, etc.
The judge charged the jury that, if Margaret Morgan, alias Sevier, was married to Gideon Morgan, within the limits of the Cherokee territory, according to the usages of that tribe, the laws of Tennessee would recognize the marriage as valid.
The jury returned a verdict in favor of the defendant, and judgment was rendered thereupon, from which the plaintiff appealed.
Van Dyke and Gaut, for plaintiff in error.
Lyon and Crozier, for defendant in error.
The defendant pleads, in abatement, that the plainti?? is a feme covert, upon which plea there is issue. The proof shows that the plaintiff, Margaret Morgan, and one Gideon Morgan were married in the Cherokee Nation of Indians, according to the forms and ceremonies of the tribe, some time in the year 1813; that Margaret was a Cherokee woman residing in the Nation; that she and Morgan lived together many years as man and wife, and had a large family of children; that they are now living apart, and that he is alive. Upon this proof the jury found that the plaintiff was a feme covert.
We think the testimony supports the verdict. Our courts of justice recognize as valid all marriages of a foreign country, if made in...
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Madewell v. United States
...in Alabama, became a valid and subsisting marriage also as to all other states and so continued until the insured's death. Morgan v. McGhee, 1844, 24 Tenn. 13; Pennegar v. State, 1889, 87 Tenn. 244, 10 S.W. 305, 2 L.R.A. 703, 10 Am.St.Rep. 648; Keith v. Pack, 1945, 182 Tenn. 420, 187 S.W.2d......
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Old Republic Insurance Company v. Christian, Civ. No. 3-74-274.
...the Court, the Tennessee courts have not similarly looked to domicile in determining the validity of an out of state marriage. Morgan v. McGhee, 24 Tenn. 13 (1844); Smith v. Mitchell, 185 Tenn. 57, 202 S. W.2d 979 (1947); Madewell v. United States, 84 F.Supp. 329, 336 (E.D.Tenn. 1949); cf. ......
- Kinchelow v. State