A History of The Middle New River Settlements and Contiguous Territory

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by David E. Johnston

Published: Huntington, W. Va, Standard PTG. & Pub. Co., 1906

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER I

1654-1753

VAST UNEXPLORED DOMAIN WEST OF THE ALLEGHANIES - CROWING AND CROSSING THE

SAME - FIRST WHITE MAN TO SEE NEW RIVER - FIRST WHITE MAN WEST OF THIS RIVER - ORIGIN OF NAME - PORTER SETTLES AT MOUTH OF EAST RIVER - SALLEY, HOWARDS AND ST. CLAIR ON MIDDLE - LOWER NEW RIVER - CLINCHE AND CASTLE IN CLINCH VALLEY PRIOR TO 1748 - THOMAS WALKER AND PARTY CROSS NEW RIVER, 1748 - SAME YEAR DRAPER'S INGLES' SETTLEMENT MADE - ADAM HARMAN AT GUNPOWDER SPRING - 1750 DR. THOMAS WALKER AND OTHERS ON THE HOLSTEIN AND AT CUMBERLAND GAP - CHISTOPHER GIST ON THE OHIO AND VISITS MOUNTAIN LAKE -PHILIP LYBROOK SETTLES AT MOUTH OF SINKING CREEK - JOHN LEWIS AND HIS SON ANDREW ON THE GREENBRIER - JAMES BURKE DISCOVERS BURKE'S GARDEN - SAMUEL CULBERTSON ON CULBERTSON'S BOTTOM - THOMAS FARLEY ON NEW RIVER - BUILDS A FORT - JAMES ELLISON BORN IN FARLEY'S FORT - FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR -WASHINGTON ON THE OHIO - INDIAN DEPREDATIONS.

CHAPTER II

1753-1766

EXPLORING THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY - FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR - WASHINGTON ON THE OHIO - VIRGINIA RAISES TROOPS - COLONEL FRY SICK AND COMMAND DEVOLVES ON WASHINGTON - FORT NECESSITY - GENERAL BRADDOCK DEFEATED ON THE MONONGAHELA - DEPREDATIONS ON THE VIRGINIA BORDER - DESTRUCTION OF DRAPERS MEADOWS SETTLERS - MRS. INGLES A PRISONER - PHILLIP BARGER KILLED - MRS. INGLES ESCAPES - CAPTAIN WILLIAM INGLES AND GOVERNOR DINWIDDIE PLAN AN EXPEDITION AGAINST THE OHIO INDIANS - MAJOR ANDREW LEWIS ORDERED TO RAISE A FORCE FOR THE DESTRUCTION OF THE INDIAN TOWNS ON THE OHIO - LEWIS MARCHES IN FEBRUARY, 1756, CROSSES NEW RIVER, NORTH FORK OF THE HOLSTEIN, THROUGH BURKE'S GARDEN, OVER THE HEAD OF THE CLINCH AND ON THE SANDY -

VAUX'S FORT DESTROYED - 1756 SETTLEMENTS WEST OF NEW RIVER - JOSEPH HOWE AND OTHERS ON BACK CREEK WEST OF NEW RIVER, 1760 - INDIAN MARAUDING PARTY NEAR INGLE'S FERRY ATTACKED BY INGLES, HARMAN AND OTHERS - CAPTAIN HENRY HARMAN, ADAM HARMAN - HERRMAN - ONE BRANCH OF THE FAMILY FROM NORTH CAROLINA AND THE OTHER FROM VIRGINIA VALLEY - NEW RIVER LEAD MINES DISCOVERED BY COLONEL CHISWELL - INDIAN INCURSION INTO JACKSON'S RIVER, ROANOKE AND CATAWBA SETTLEMENTS - PACK, SWOPE AND PITMAN ON THE NEW RIVER -

CAPTAIN AUDLEY PAUL ON LOWER NEW RIVER IN 1763 - MASSACRES BY INDIANS IN GREENBRIER SECTION IN 1763 - BUTLER, CARR AND OTHERS, HUNTERS ON HEAD OF CLINCH, 1766 - THIS YEAR FAMILY OF JOHN SNIDOW SETTLE AT MOUTH OF SINKING CREEK ON THE NEW RIVER.

CHAPTER III

1766-1774

FORMATION BOTETOURT COUNTY FROM AUGUSTA IN 1769 - COOKS, KEENEYS AND

OTHERS ON INDIAN CREEK AND THE GREENBRIER - BUILDING FORTS - COOKS ON

INDIAN CREEK AND KEENEYS AT KEENEY'S KNOBS - FORT AT LEWISBURG BUILT -

JOHN AND RICHARD CHAPMAN AND MCKENSY SETTLE AT MOUTH OF WALKER'S CREEK -

SNIDOWS, LYBROOKS AND CHAPMANS BUILD FORT AT THE HORSE SHOE - ABSALOM

LOONEY FROM LOONEY'S CREEK EXPLORES UPPER BLUESTONE WATERS - OTHER

SETTLERS ON THE HEAD OF CLINCH - JOHN MCNEIL FROM THE VIRGINIA VALLEY

LOCATES AT LITTLE LEVELS - ACCOMPANIES GENERAL LEWIS TO THE BATTLE OF

POINT PLEASANT - CAPTAIN JAMES MOORE, SAMUEL FERGUSON, THE PEERYS AND

OTHERS IN THE BATTLE OF THE ALAMANCE MAY 16TH, 1771 - IN 1772 EVAN SHELBY

AT KING'S MEADOWS, AND JOHN SEVIER FROM THE VALLEY, ON THE NOLICHUCKY -

REFUGEES FROM THE ALAMANCE, FROM FAIRFAX COUNTY, VIRGINIA, ON THE

WATAUGA - OVER MOUNTAIN MEN - BACK WATER MEN - PEACE MEN - FINCASTLE COUNTY CREATED AND COURTS HELD AT LEAD MINES - DANIEL BOONE, FAMILY AND PARTY FROM THE YADKIN - SQUIRE BOONE A BAPTIST MINISTER, WITH THE PARTY -

ON THEIR WAY TO KENTUCKY ARE ATTACKED BY INDIANS AND PARTY SCATTERED -

DANIEL AND SQUIRE WINTER NEAR CASTLESWOODS - DUNMORE'S WAR BEGINS IN THE SPRING OF 1774 - DANIEL BOONE IN COMMAND OF THE FRONTIER - CAPTAIN WILLIAM

RUSSELL'S COMPANY FROM THE CLINCH - REECE AND MOSES BOWEN WITH RUSSELL -

EVAN SHELBY, HIS SON ISAAC AND JOHN SEVIER ALSO LEAD A COMPANY - SEVIER

FROM NORTH CAROLINA BUT SUPPOSES HE LIVES IN VIRGINIA - GOVERNOR DUNMORE

RAISES AN ARMY AND COMMANDS NORTHERN DIVISION - GENERAL ANDREW LEWIS THE

SOUTHERN DIVISION - MARCH TO THE MOUTH OF THE KANAWHA AND BATTLE OF POINT

PLEASANT - AUGUST 7TH, 1774, INDIANS ATTACK THE LYBROOKS AND SNIDOWS AT

SINKING CREEK - HARMAN'S FORT - SHANNONS SETTLE AT POPLAR HILL, 1774 -

GRANT OF CLOVER BOTTOM TO MITCHELL CLAY.

CHAPTER IV - Part A, Part B

1775-1794

MITCHELL CLAY AND FAMILY SETTLED ON CLOVER BOTTOM - MATHEW FRENCH AND

FAMILY SETTLE ON WOLF CREEK - DECLARATION OF THE FINCASTLE MEN - FINCASTLE

COUNTY ABOLISHED AND MONTGOMERY, WASHINGTON AND KENTUCKY COUNTIES CREATED

- CAPTAIN JAMES MOORE VISITS ABB'S VALLEY - PETER WRIGHT, THE HUNTER, IN THE NORTHERN VALLEYS OF PETER'S AND EAST RIVER MOUNTAINS - GREENBRIER COUNTY CREATED AND ITS BOUNDARIES - REV. JOHN ALDERSON IN THE GREENBRIER VALLEY - JOSEPH CLOYD SETTLES ON BACK CREEK - THE FAMILY OF COLONEL JAMES GRAHAM ATTACKED BY INDIANS - DONNALLY'S FORT ATTACKED - MOREDOCK O. MCKENSEY AND FAMILY ATTACKED BY INDIANS - CAPTAIN THOMAS BURKE, MICHAEL WOODS, JOHN FLOYD, AND JOHN LUCAS IN COMMAND OF THE FORTS 1777-78 -LYBROOKS, CHAPMANS, SNIDOWS AND OTHERS ON THE FRONTIER - EDWARD HALE AND JOSEPH HARE IN NEW RIVER VALLEY 1779 - TORY UPRISING ON UPPER NEW RIVER SUPPRESSED BY CLOYD, CAMPBELL, CROCKETT AND CLEVELAND - DAVID JOHNSON AND FAMILY, FROM CULPEPER COUNTY, SETTLES IN THE NEW RIVER VALLEY - ILLINOIS COUNTY CREATED - THOMAS INGLES LOCATES IN WRIGHT'S VALLEY AND REMOVES TO BURKE'S GARDEN - IN SEPTEMBER 1779 JOHN PAULEY AND WIFE AND OTHERS ATTACKED BY INDIANS ON EAST RIVER - 1780, JOHN TONEY AND FAMILY, FROM LOWER VIRGINIA, SETTLE AT THE MOUTH OF EAST RIVER - FAMILY BY NAME OF CHRISTIAN SETTLE ON EAST RIVER - JOHN G. DAVIDSON AND RICHARD BAILEY WITH THEIR FAMILIES SETTLE AT BEAVER POND - WILLIAM WILBURN AND DAVID HUGHES, FROM NORTH CAROLINA, AND JOHN AND BENJAMIN WHITE, FROM AMHERST COUNTY, VIRGINIA, SETTLE ON SUGAR RUN - MAJOR JOSEPH CLOYD IN OCTOBER 1780 LEADS TROOPS TO NORTH CAROLINA AND FIGHTS BATTLES AT SHALLOW FORD OF YADKIN, CAPTAIN GEO. PEARIS WOUNDED - BATTLE OF KING'S MOUNTAIN, PART OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY MEN KILLED IN THIS BATTLE UNDER LIEUTENANTS REECE BOWEN AND JAMES MOORE, BOWEN KILLED IN ACTION - BATTLES OF WETZEL'S MILL AND GUILFORD COURT HOUSE - CAPTAIN THOMAS SHANNON LEADS A COMPANY OF NEW RIVER VALLEY MEN IN THESE BATTLES - CAPTAIN GEO. PEARIS SETTLES ON NEW RIVER IN THE SPRING OF 1782 - ADAM CAPERTON KILLED AT ESTILL'S DEFEAT - THE COUNTRY ALARMED BY THE ATTACK ON THOMAS INGLES, MILITARY CALLED OUT - SWARMS OF EMIGRANTS CROSS THE ALLEGHANIES IN 1782-3-4 AND SETTLE IN PART IN NEW RIVER VALLEY, AND OTHERS GO TO KENTUCKY - PETERS, WALKER, SMITH, STOWERS AND OTHERS COME IN 1782 - INDIAN RAIDING PARTY PENETRATE THE BLUESTONE AND UPPER WOLF CREEK SECTION, STEAL HORSES AND ESCAPE - MITCHELL CLAY'S FAMILY ATTACKED BY INDIANS AT CLOVER BOTTOM IN 1783 - CAPTAIN GEO. PEARIS KILLS AN INDIAN ON NEW RIVER - JAMES MOORE, JR., CAPTURED BY INDIANS IN ABB'S VALLEY - NEW STATE OF FRANKLIN, EFFORT TO ENLARGE ITS BOUNDARIES BY CAMPBELL AND OTHERS - "RUSSELL COUNTY CREATED IN 1785 - CAPTAIN JAMES MOORE AND HIS FAMILY ATTACKED BY FORTY SHAWNEE INDIANS IN 1786 AND KILLED, CAPTURED AND DESTROYED - 1787, FEDERAL CONVENTION ASSEMBLES IN PHILADELPHIA, FRAMES A CONSTITUTION AND SUBMITS IT TO THE STATES - 1788, NOVEMBER 12TH, CAPTAIN HENRY HARMAN AND HIS SONS FIGHT A BATTLE WITH THE INDIANS ON THE BANKS OF THE TUG - HARMAN'S BATTLE SONG - 1789, WILLIAM WHEATLEY KILLED BY INDIANS - FAMILY OF JAMES ROARK DESTROYED - 1789, OCTOBER, MRS. VIRGINIA WILEY CAPTURED - INDIAN MARAUDING BAND ON HEAD

OF CLINCH AND BLUESTONE IN 1790 - BIRTH OF JONATHAN BAILEY - WYTHE COUNTY

CREATED - FAMILY OF ANDREW DAVIDSON CAPTURED BY THE INDIANS IN 1791,

DAVIDSON'S LONG SEARCH FOR HIS WIFE AND HER RESCUE - UPPER CLINCH AND

BLUESTONE RAIDED BY INDIANS IN JULY, 1792 PURSUED BY MAJOR ROBERT

CROCKETT, GILBERT KILLED AND LUSK CAPTURED - LUSK AND MRS. WILEY ESCAPE IN

THE FALL OF 1792 - JOHN G. DAVIDSON MURDERED BY INDIANS AND A WHITE MAN,

ONE RICE, ON THE 8TH DAY OF MARCH, 1793 - INDIANS PURSUED, OVERTAKEN AT

ISLAND OF GUYANDOTTE, SKIRMISH FOLLOWS - PETITION OF ROBERT CROCKETT,

JOSEPH DAVIDSON AND FIFTY OTHERS TO THE GOVERNOR OF VIRGINIA - ALARM IN THE NEW RIVER SECTION AND GOVERNOR CALLS OUT A MILITARY COMPANY UNDER CAPTAIN HUGH CAPERTON WHICH IS STATIONED ON THE KANAWHA, DANIEL BOONE THE

COMMISSARIAT - MARAUDING PARTY OF INDIANS IN 1793, THE LAST ON THE WATERS

OF THE UPPER CLINCH AND BLUESTONE - WAYNE'S GREAT VICTORY OVER THE UNITED

INDIAN TRIBES IN OHIO ON AUGUST THE TWENTIETH, 1794, BRINGS PEACE TO THE

VIRGINIA BORDER - SWARMS OF LAND SPECULATORS AND SURVEYORS ON THE OHIO

WATERS, NORTH AND WEST OF THE SETTLEMENTS - NUMEROUS AND LARGE GRANTS OF

LAND TO ROBERT MORRIS, THE PATRIOT AND FINANCIER - GRANTS TO POLLARD,

HOPKINS, YOUNG, MCLAUGHLIN, MOORE AND BECKLEY, BLISS, DWIGHT AND GRANGER,

RUTTER AND ETTING, DR. JOHN DILLION, DEWITT CLINTON, ROBERT MCCULLOCK,

WILSON CARY NICHOLAS, WILSON, PICKETT, SMITH AND OTHERS - MANNERS AND

CUSTOMS OF THE BORDER PEOPLE, THEIR RELIGIOUS LIFE - EARLY MINISTERS.

CHAPTER V

1795-1836

MARRIAGES, BY WHOM CELEBRATED PRIOR TO THE PASSAGE OF TOLERATION ACTS -

REAL CIVILIZATION BEGUN - MONROE COUNTY CREATED, ITS BOUNDARIES, BRIEF

HISTORY OF - FORMATION OF TAZEWELL COUNTY, ITS BOUNDARIES, BRIEF HISTORY

OF - FORMATION OF GILES COUNTY, ITS BOUNDARIES, AND BRIEF HISTORY THEREOF.

CHAPTER VI

1837-1861

FORMATION OF MERCER COUNTY - ITS BOUNDARIES, ETC. - COURTS ORGANIZED -

FIRST GRAND JURY EMPANELLED - POPULAR ELECTION - INCLUDING ELECTION OF MEMBERS OF SECESSION CONVENTION.

CHAPTER VII Part A, Part B, Part C, Part D

1861-1865

THE ORGANIZATION OF MILITARY COMPANIES - THE CONCENTRATION OF ARMIES - THE

WAR BEGINS - GREAT UNION UPRISING IN NORTHWESTERN VIRGINIA - RESTORED

GOVERNMENT OF VIRGINIA - FORMATION OF WEST VIRGINIA - VARIOUS BATTLES AND

ENGAGEMENTS - CAMPAIGNS OF 1861, 1862, 1863, 1864, 1865 - THE WAR ENDS -

PEACE RESTORED - RECONSTRUCTION IN MERCER COUNTY.

CHAPTER VIII

1866-1905

RECONSTRUCTION IN MERCER COUNTY, W. VA - CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT

DISFRANCHISING CONFEDERATES - REGISTRATION LAW - COUNTY SEAT AGITATION -

THE "COMMITTEE OF SAFETY" - THE CREATION OF SUMMERS COUNTY - THE

RESTORATION OF THE ELECTIVE FRANCHISE - INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT - THE FLAT

TOP COAL FIELD - RAILROAD CONSTRUCTION - THE CITY OF BLUEFIELD.

APPENDIX A

THE COURTS, JUDGES, MAGISTRATES, ATTORNEYS, ETC.

APPENDIX B

COUNTIES IN VIRGINIA AND WEST VIRGINIA FORMED OUT OF THE TERRITORY

OF AUGUSTA AND FREDERICK, AND HOW OR FOR WHOM NAMED.

APPENDIX C - PART A, PART B

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES

APPENDIX D

ELECTED OFFICIALS

APPENDIX E

A LIST OF ATTORNEYS FOR THE COMMONWEALTH FOR GILES COUNTY FROM 1806

TO 1905.

APPENDIX F

CONFEDERATE OFFICERS

APPENDIX G

MILITARY ROSTERS

Read Online Here



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Happy Saint Patrick's Day !!!

St Patricks Day Glitter Graphics


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Virtual Jamestown website

Folks, this is just about the coolest thing I've seen lately. The Virtual Jamestown website has a ton of information, but a most interesting thing is where students at Salisbury State University used a technique to put the Indian towns on Google Earth.
This is from their site:

Indian Groups/Towns

The towns or Indian groups (usually having the same name) located on this map were taken from John Smith’s Map of Virginia. Smith created the map in 1608 from two voyages he took up and down the rivers that feed the Chesapeake Bay.

Working under contract to Virtual Jamestown, geographer Mike Smith and students at Salisbury State University employed a “rubber sheet” technique to fit the towns onto a modern map of Virginia. During the 2007 fall semester, students in Crandall Shifflett’s undergraduate research history class at Virginia Tech collected data on 16 Indian groups or towns: Accomack, Accohannock, Arrohateck, Chesapeake, Nansemond, Kecoughtan, Kiskiack, Monacan, Mannahoac, Nottaway, Meherrin, Patawomeck, Powhatan, Rappahannock, Weanock, and Werowocomoco.

Towns were chosen primarily on the basis of the quantity of data available on Smith’s towns. Students used research data from the Virginia Department of Historic Resources and secondary sources. In addition, courtesy of a special Google Earth (GE) Education Initiative (GE provided each student in the class with a license to Google Earth Pro), students could add their findings to the map. GE Pro allowed students to create pop-up windows of information on their assigned group according to a template with the following features: name, alternative names, meaning of name, geographical coordinates, distance from Werowocomoco, population with dates and sources, language group, link to report, and notes.

We have compiled them into a single kmz file (Google Earth file).

Continue here.

Penny Ferguson

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Non-Christian Servants Declared Slaves

In November 1682 the Virginia assembly enacted legislation specifying that

. . . all servants except Turks and Moores . . . whether Negroes, Moors, Mollattoes or Indians, who and whose parentage and Native country are not Christian at the time of their first purchase of such servant by some Christian, although afterwards, and before such their importation and bringing into this country they shall be converted to the Christian faith; and all Indians which shall hereafter be sold by our neighbouring Indians, or any other trafiqueing with us as for slaves are hereby adjudged, deemed and taken to be slaves to all intents and purposes, any law, usage or custom to the countrary [Hening 1809-1823:II:491-492]

Thus, all who were sold as slaves were considered slaves, whether or not they had been converted to Christianity. Moreover, Indians and other non-whites were considered slaves if they had been imported or sold as such. The new law also declared that Indian maid servants who were age 16 or older were considered tithables, i.e., they were considered taxable personal property.

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Indians of Norh America, David Bushnell

I'm trying a beta of this site, if this changes and doesn't show up in the future, go to this url for Bushnells book

Author: Bushnell, David I. (David Ives), 1875-1941

Subject: Indians of North America; Indians of North America -- Dwellings

Publisher: Washington, Govt. print. off.

Possible copyright status: NOT_IN_COPYRIGHT

Language: English

Call number: b1218906

Digitizing sponsor: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Book contributor: University Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Collection: americana; ncna

Scanfactors: 2

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The Secrets of Lincoln's DNA

by Janet Crain

Those who are serious Lincoln scholars probably already knew and the rest of us who watched "The Plot to Steal Lincoln's Body" last night on the History Channel now know that Lincoln's body is buried under 10 feet of concrete. This was done after a serious attempt to steal his body which could have succeeded and following many years of subsequent paranoia and anxiousness on the part of the custodians of his remains. Therefore one would assume that his DNA is safe from a prying public whose inquiring minds want to know. But that is not the case. Not all of Lincoln's earthly remains lie under those tons of concrete.

Quite a bit of Abraham Lincoln's DNA was left behind if it can only be retrieved. There is blood, hair and bone fragments capable of yielding their secrets if approached in the right way. And if today's technology isn't up to the job, tomorrow's probably will be. Of equal importance to learning whether or not Lincoln actually suffered from one or more of the three serious genetic diseases long suspected, is the possible answer to two other enigmas. What was his ethnic origin and who really was his father? Many have refused to believed a lowly uneducated farmer such as Thomas Lincoln could be his biological father. While others have speculated that the Lincoln surname and his grandfather's given name, Abraham, suggest the paternal line was Jewish. Maybe the questions will all be answered in the future, if not soon, then later.

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The Secrets of Lincoln's DNA

Come along with me, past all the bicentennial hoopla, to a quiet place north of the White House. Here, at the National Museum of Health and Medicine, you'll find a glass case housing the most incredible Lincoln memorabilia on the planet: the man himself. His blood on the cuff of a surgeon's shirt. Snippets of his chocolate brown hair. A handful of bone fragments removed from his skull.

Yes, Lincoln! Guess what that might mean? Lincoln's DNA! Scientists have been speculating about the president's health for decades. It's believed he had malaria, smallpox and depression. Syphilis has been debated. And there are hypotheses about three rare genetic disorders—Marfan syndrome, spinocerebellar ataxia 5 and multiple endocrine neoplasia 2B (MEN 2B). If scientists had access to Lincoln's DNA, might they be able to clarify the medical history of one of the world's greatest historical figures? Could they also sequence his entire genome, and perhaps trace his genealogical roots back to their origins? Should the 16th president's mortal remains be put to the test?

I'm not the first person to ask this question nor am I the first to think it's a very intriguing idea. As far back as 1991, a panel of experts gave scientists a "qualified green light" to test Lincoln's DNA for Marfan syndrome—decades after a physician proposed that the president might have had it. At the time, researchers decided it wasn't technically feasible to move forward, but genetic testing is far more sophisticated today.

Experts say it might be possible to extract chopped-up bits of DNA from these museum remnants, assemble them into the gene they're looking for, then make a diagnosis. There are, of course, considerable challenges: nobody knows whether there's enough DNA in good enough condition to do a gene test, or to do one conclusively. As for sequencing Lincoln's entire genome, "I don't think it's doable," says Dr. Philip Reilly, author of "Abraham Lincoln's DNA," because there are such small pieces left and there would likely be large gaps.

If Lincoln had ataxia 5, a neurological disorder, he'd have something in common with 90 relatives descended from his paternal aunt and uncle. University of Minnesotagenetics professor Laura Ranum says there's a 25 percent chance. If so, the president would be a great example of somebody overcoming physical challenges to achieve greatness, she says. She'd love to see a test. So would Josephine Grima, of the National Marfan Foundation. "It would help raise awareness exponentially," she says. "Like what Roosevelt did for polio."

Cont. here:

http://www.newsweek.com/id/184812

Cross Posted Here:
http://the-lost-colony.blogspot.com/2009/02/secrets-of-lincolns-dna.html



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Sign Petition to Save East Tennessee's The Heartland Series

It is critical that this region's history be portrayed accurately. Please sign the petition! JC

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Published by Philip Parker on Feb 13, 2009
Category: Television
Region: United States of America
Target: East Tennessee and the surrounding area
Web site: http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/group.php?gid=125590765531&ref=mf

Background:
On February 12, 2009, WBIR TV in Knoxville, Tennessee announced it will stop production of "The Heartland Series" in September. "The Heartland Series" is a long running show that highlights the history, and lore of East Tennessee and it's surrounding states and regions. The Knoxville News Sentinel reported that after more than a quarter century, WBIR will stop production of The Heartland Series. The series highlights local color and reenacts local historical moments. Per the article, the show has been a ratings booster for WBIR for quite some time, sometimes garnering as much as a 7.0 plus rating! Host Bill Landry and videographer Doug Mills will be with the show through it's conclusion and per WBIR, will then "look for the next step in their careers."

http://www.gopetition.com/online/25299.html

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Hidden America; Children of the Mountain

by Janet Crain
In an area where the people have been exploited time and time again, was the 20/20 documentary: Hidden America; Children of the Mountain with Diane Sawyer just another exploitation?

The show has angered many and prompted strong, too strong perhaps, denial that these conditions of poverty and neglect exist, by many other present or former residents of the central Kentucky region. Some others from outside the region have expressed much symphathy, others dismiss the Appalachian people as shiftless, drunken, drug addicted Hillbillies. They forget or never knew that these people's parents and grandparents contributed mightily to the defeat of Hitler and the Nazis. Signs were posted in the coal company stores, with a picture of Uncle Sam and the words; "Don't be a slacker, the country needs coal!"

And the older men and rejects from the draft board labored underground 12 to 16 hours a day in a mighty effort to meet that need. While their healthier sons and brothers died in greater numbers in battle than from any other region in WWII.

But to really understand the conditions and how they came to be, read Harry M. Caudill's 1963 book, Night Comes to the Cumberlands: A Biography of a Depressed Area
, the seminal work on the subject of how Big Timber and Big Coal destroyed the land and many of the people with it.

First the timber was sold off by people who had no idea of its value beginning back in the 1880's. And hard rains then washed away the topsoil making it much harder to earn a living by farming. The people were glad to see the coal mining come in and worked very hard for a few dollars a day. Most of their wages ended up in the company store and they drew little hard cash.
Many have been on the "dole" and prescription painkillers for over fifty years through no fault of their own.

Company doctors were unskilled and behind the times and begain the drug problem by dispensing pain killers for the slightest symptoms. Depression was the main illness from living in a dreary coal camp where women soon learned the futility of trying to keep their house clean. The company doctor would prescribe pain killers for "nerves" to dull their misery. Later when good doctors were brought in during the boom times when the industry was doing really well, they refused to prescribe the precious pills and the people would not go back to them. If they needed something serious like surgery they would go to the company hospital, but sought out the old doctors for their everyday complaints.

So you see the dependency started early. And just got worse. The land and the people have been exploited over and over again and I just don't know how this situation could be made better. But the young people are their treasure, if only their lives could be made better

Yes, many have excelled and prospered. And for many years in a row, only about 5% of High School graduates stayed in Appalachia. The region contributed their natural resources and their best and brightest young people to the rest of the nation and received very little in return.

How many times can your heart be broken until you just simply give up?

A wiser person than I once told me, "Just remember, there but for the grace of God go I."

And I will leave it at that.

Cross Posted at You Have to Be This Tall to Go on This Ride

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Doctor Thomas Walker's Journal

(6 Mar 1749/50 - 13 Jul 1750)

A Record of His Travels in

Present-day Virginia, Tennessee and Kentucky

From 1729 to 1749, the dividing line between Virginia and North Carolina was based on the 1728 survey "from the Sea to Peters Creek" by the Honorable William Byrd, William Dandridge and Richard Fitzwilliams, Commissioners, and Mr. Alexander Irvine and Mr. William Mayo, surveyors. During this period, white settlements on both sides of the line had already extended much further west than Peter's Creek as is shown in a map drawn by Joshua Fry and Peter Jefferson in 1751 which included Mulberry Fields on the Yadkin River in present-day Wilkes County, North Carolina, executed after "The Line between Virginia and North Carolina, from Peters Creek to Steep Rock Creek, being 90 Miles and 280 Poles, was Survey'd in 1749 By William Churton and Daniel Weldon of North Carolina and Joshua Fry and Peter Jefferson of Virginia." Steep Rock Creek is present-day Laurel Creek in Johnson, Tennessee's northeasternmost county, and stopping there was clearly short-sighted given Colonel James Patton's 1,946 acre Virginia grant of 1744, which included the Sapling Grove tract that is today part of Bristol, Sullivan County, Tennessee.

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A most obnoxious and dangerous population

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Black Texas Women
150 Years of Trial and Triumph

By Ruthe Winegarten
Janet G. Humphrey & Frieda Werden, consulting editors

Mary Madison's Galveston neighbors considered her "a very valuable citizen, in a variety of ways: especially in the capacity of a nurse." Eighty-two of them, many of whom had probably "experienced her kindness, her attention and watchfulness," signed a petition in 1850 for her to remain in the state and enjoy the "little property" which she had accumulated. Her request was one of the few granted by the Texas legislature.

Mary Madison's petition is a sample of the rare documents that preserve scraps of information about the lives of free women of color in Texas before the Civil War. She was one of many courageous women who resisted the law and struggled to protect themselves and their families. They used a variety of strategies, including the right of petition and the judicial process, to avoid being sold into slavery or banished from their homes. Many defied the law; when their petitions were denied, they remained anyway. Some women purchased their own freedom; some were purchased by their black husbands. Others married or became the concubines of white men or served so loyally that they were emancipated by their owners. This theme of resistance by black women would resonate through the history of the state.

Although the numbers of free blacks were much more significant in the Old South, Texas had enough to count. At the time of the Texas Declaration of Independence, an estimated 150 free blacks lived in the new republic. (Most antebellum African-Americans were, of course, slaves.) The 1850 census reported 394; ten years later, the figure was 355, including 174 women living in forty counties. Historian Randolph Campbell believes that the actual number of free people of color was probably double that counted by the census.

The rights of free women of color in Texas varied with the flag. Some free people of color were drawn to colonial Texas by the antislavery position of Mexico, the lure of the land, and the greater freedom of the frontier. The women employed their domestic skills as nurses, laundresses, cooks, house servants, seamstresses, boardinghouse keepers, stock farmers, and milk women. Some used their earnings to become prosperous business women, property owners, and even slaveholders. Since children took their legal status from their mothers, the children of free women were also free.

Despite their contributions as pioneers, free people of color were legally unwelcome from the days of the Republic of Texas. Slaveholders were apprehensive because free people of color constituted a threat to some of their most cherished assumptions—that whites were racially superior and that blacks were incapable of self-government. The Marshall Texas Republican editorialized that "free Negroes are certainly a most obnoxious and dangerous population ."4 Whites feared that free people of color might entice slaves to run away or rebel, but scholars have found no evidence of this.

Under Spanish and Mexican Rule

Among the first Africans in Mexico were men who arrived with the Spaniards in the mid-1500, like the famed Esteban, a slave who was the translator for an early expedition which included Cabeza de Vaca. They often married or took as mates Native American and Spanish women. As sovereignty over Texas passed from Spain and Mexico to the Anglos, some slave and free black Spaniards and mulattoes and their descendants lost their identity in the census records and were absorbed into history as persons with Spanish surnames. Among the earliest colonists were free women of color. An official Spanish census of Texas in 1792 counted 167 female mulattoes and nineteen female Negroes, a mixture of slaves and free citizens.

Since Spain recognized free people of color, Mexican Texas became a haven for runaway and freed slaves from the nearby United States South. This kind of immigration was fueled by word of mouth and continued even after Texas independence. Felipe Elua, a Louisiana creole and slave, purchased himself and his wife, Mary Ortero, a mulatto, and their children. In 1807, they settled in San Antonio to become landowners and farmers, educating their children in Spanish and French. Another fifteen male and female Negroes were recorded in Nacogdoches in 1808, where they had fled from North American masters.

Antislavery sentiment and equality for all people surfaced as major issues when the multiracial Mexican populace rebelled against Spain. In 1821, Mexico negotiated a treaty of independence that promised citizenship along with equal rights and opportunities for all Mexican people, even though it also made Catholicism the official and only tolerated religion. For the next fifteen years, Mexico (including the state of Coahuila and Texas) passed a number of ambiguous and contradictory measures relating to the legal status of slaves. Nevertheless, opportunity for free black immigrants from the United States in Texas reached its peak during Mexican sovereignty.

The main attraction of Texas—cheap and good land—convinced many Anglo colonists to brave a few legal problems with regard to slaves. The new colonists were skillful in negotiating the everchanging legal system. In 1823, Stephen F. Austin received approval from the newly independent Mexican government to bring settlers and their slaves from the United States. The "Old 300" colonists included slaveholders and slaves, but also a few free people of color: Lewis B. and Sarah Jones, Samuel H. Hardin, and Greenbury Logan. Lewis and Sarah Jones emigrated to Texas in 1826 from Mississippi, along with their two daughters. The barber Samuel H. Hardin married Tamar Morgan in 1838. She came to Texas as a slave in 1832, but purchased her own freedom with the proceeds of her labor. By 1840, this industrious Brazoria County woman had accumulated four town lots, one hundred acres, and four slaves. Greenbury and Carolyn Logan were another Brazoria County couple. He came to Texas in 1831 and purchased Carolyn's freedom with earnings from his blacksmith shop. He was granted legal title to land in Brazoria County. After he was wounded fighting for Texas independence, the couple operated a tavern, boardinghouse, and retail store in Columbia, the first capital of the Republic.

Some free women of color were married to whites. In 1828, David Towns moved from Louisiana to Nacogdoches with his wife, Sophia, and his family, who were also his slaves. He manumitted them, and they lived together in harmony, alongside their Mexican neighbors. Other white husbands manumitted their slave wives (or concubines) in their wills.

Celia Allen sought the legal assistance of William B. Travis, later a hero of the Alamo, to help protect her status as a free woman in 1833. Her owner had emancipated her along with her four children, but a prominent pioneer, William H. Jack, claimed her as a slave. With Travis's help, she won the case and lived free until her death in 1841. Her estate at that time was valued at $214.65 and included two horses, seven head of cattle, several pigs, two feather beds, and kitchen utensils.

Some single women came to Texas already free. The most famous, Emily D. West, is better known as Emily Morgan, "The Yellow Rose of Texas." A native of New York, she came to Texas with Mrs. Lorenzo de Zavala in 1835. When General Santa Anna was on his way to fight Sam Houston's forces in 1836, Emily took refuge with the de Zavalas at James Morgan's home. There the general captured her. Texas myth credits her with ensuring Houston's victory during the Battle of San Jacinto by sending word of Santa Anna's whereabouts and "distracting" him while his enemies approached. Her passport application to return home stated that she had lost her freedom papers on the San Jacinto battlefield. She is said to have returned to New York in 1837. Few academic historians credit the myth, although there was an Emily D. West who applied for a passport back to New York.

Cont. here:

http://www.utexas.edu/utpress/excerpts/exwinbla.html

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FREE PEOPLE OF COLOR PETITION FILED IN GRANVILLE COUNTY – 1771

Contributed by Deloris Williams

From “Colonial Records of North Carolina”, North Carolina State Archives, Miscellaneous Records in the Office of Secretary of State- transcribed from 2 different copies of the same document, by Deloris Williams).

Through the years of early Colonialism in North Carolina, a number of laws were passed in regards to the taxation of Free People of Color, whether they were Black, Negro, Mulatto, Mustee or even Native American Indian who lived in the State. Granville County was the home of many of these early settlers who are recorded in the very early records as being part of the community, and indeed did intermarry within the local population of frontiersmen and settlers. With these new laws came new burdens on the families who not only had to pay taxes for the males in their households, but also for all of the females of color in their home over the age of twelve, a very heavy burden indeed when one realizes that these were very large families. One of the petitions filed in protest of this was in 1771 by a group of Granville County residents who, at first glance may seem to have been just interested citizens in support of their neighbors, but for those who have researched the names or surnames on this petition, it becomes clearer that while some of the names themselves were indeed white settlers, many of these were probably some of the earliest ancestors of those who later became known as being Free People of Color. Of special note, by the way, while there is only one name on the petition which was clearly indicated to have been “Negro”, extant tax & Court records of the time identify quite a few others on the list also as being Negro, Mulatto or People of Color.

To the Honble. The Speaker and Gentn. Of the house of Assembly

The Petition of the Inhabitants of Granville County Humbly Showeth that by the Act of Assembly Concerning Tythables it is among other things enacted that all free Negroes & Mulato Women and all wives of free Negroes & mulatoes are Declared Tythables & Chargeable for Defraying the Public County & Parish Leveys of this Province which Your Petitioners Humbly Conceive is highly Derogatory of the Rights of Freeborn Subjects Your Petitioners therefore Pray that An Act may pass Exempting Such free negroes & mulatoe women and all wives other than Slaves of free negroes & mulatoes from being listed as Tythables & from paying any Public County or Parish Levys and Your Petitioners shall ever pray &c.

----see the list of names here----


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Old petition names 249 Powell Valley settlers

Old petition names 249 Powell Valley settlers

Hat Tip: Tari

Time Line

Reprinted with permission from Dr. Miller McDonald's book Campbell County Tennessee USA: A History of Places, Faces, Happenings, Traditions, and Things

Transcribed by Mildred Collins Wasser

In 1813, just seven years after Campbell County was established, a petition was filed with the house of Representatives of the Tennessee State Legislature to change the location of the county seat at Jacksborough.

The petition contained 249 names and was filed to locate the county seat closer to the Claiborne County line. The petitioners complained that, "They said seat having been unjustly settled within four miles.of Anderson County, where as the distance to.Claiborne County is seventeen miles."

No doubt the petitioners were mostly, if not all, located in Powell's Valley. The petition was referred to committee and went nowhere. It is significant, however, by revealing that in 1813 there were 249 residents of Powell Valley wanting to bring the county seat closer to them. Most importantly to us it shows the names of some of the early settlers in the area. The reader may want to look at the names listed on the petition to identify ancestors who were among the county's earliest residents.

Jacob Smith
Thomas Kincaid
John Cliburn
Cliburn
James Miller
James Miller, Senior
Jubellee Cliborn
Peter McCulley
Thomas Miller
Broadwater Mattenbee
John Miller
John Willoughbie
William Croley
William Littrel
William Basham
Jonathan Basham
Johnson Basham
William Showmake

Cont. here:

http://www.tngenweb.org/campbell/history/petition.html

John G. Burnett’s Story of the Removal of the Cherokees

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Bunch family picture used from Russ Klicker's website.

Birthday Story of Private John G. Burnett, Captain Abraham McClellan’s Company, 2nd Regiment, 2nd Brigade, Mounted Infantry, Cherokee Indian Removal, 1838-39.

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Children:

This is my birthday, December 11, 1890, I am eighty years old today. I was born at Kings Iron Works in Sulllivan County, Tennessee, December the 11th, 1810. I grew into manhood fishing in Beaver Creek and roaming through the forest hunting the deer and the wild boar and the timber wolf. Often spending weeks at a time in the solitary wilderness with no companions but my rifle, hunting knife, and a small hatchet that I carried in my belt in all of my wilderness wanderings.

On these long hunting trips I met and became acquainted with many of the Cherokee Indians, hunting with them by day and sleeping around their camp fires by night. I learned to speak their language, and they taught me the arts of trailing and building traps and snares. On one of my long hunts in the fall of 1829, I found a young Cherokee who had been shot by a roving band of hunters and who had eluded his pursuers and concealed himself under a shelving rock. Weak from loss of blood, the poor creature was unable to walk and almost famished for water. I carried him to a spring, bathed and bandaged the bullet wound, and built a shelter out of bark peeled from a dead chestnut tree. I nursed and protected him feeding him on chestnuts and toasted deer meat. When he was able to travel I accompanied him to the home of his people and remained so long that I was given up for lost. By this time I had become an expert rifleman and fairly good archer and a good trapper and spent most of my time in the forest in quest of game.

The removal of Cherokee Indians from their life long homes in the year of 1838 found me a young man in the prime of life and a Private soldier in the American Army. Being acquainted with many of the Indians and able to fluently speak their language, I was sent as interpreter into the Smoky Mountain Country in May, 1838, and witnessed the execution of the most brutal order in the History of American Warfare. I saw the helpless Cherokees arrested and dragged from their homes, and driven at the bayonet point into the stockades. And in the chill of a drizzling rain on an October morning I saw them loaded like cattle or sheep into six hundred and forty-five wagons and started toward the west.