Descendants of William Tell Kerby

Howell Cobb Born 1856, (date of marriage and death unknown). Married Sally Mathis, the information I have is that they had 9 children:

George Kerby
Frank Kerby
Fred Kerby
John Kerby
Willey (Wild) Kerby (Banjo Player and Dancer)
Grady Kerby
Henry Kerby
Lee Kerby
Etta Kerby

nate: (If this needs to be corredted, please let me know). Howell Cobb was considered the black sheep of the family. He was a heavy drinker and was always in trouble because of his lawless ways. Matilda, his mother, was constantly bailing him out of one scrape or another using up a considerable amount of her inheritance from the Plott family. He was instrumental in the deather of his mother. He was arrested in North Carolina for drunkenness and fighting. The authorities put him in jail, where a black man was sick with small pox. Howell Cobb became sick with the disease, when the authorities notified the family, Matilda went to north Carolina, paid his fines and brought him home where she nursed him back to health. She contracted the illness and died shortly thereafter. At that point, William Tell, his father, disowned him and told him to change the spelling of his name, which from that day forward was spelled with an (i), Kirby. Later, some of his descendants started spelling the name with an (e) again.