History of The Middle New River Settlements - Appendix C Part A



Appendix C
Biographical Sketches Part A

The Bailey Family
Richard Bailey the elder, was a soldier in the American Army during the
War of the Revolution, and his residence was on the Black Water, in that
portion of Bedford County, Virginia, which subsequently became a part of
Franklin County. Richard Bailey married Miss Annie Belcher, and their
family consisted of ten children, eight sons and two daughters. The sons
were John, James, Eli, Micajah, Archibald, Reuben, Richard, and Henry. Mr.
Bailey came with his family to the Beaver Pond Spring in the year of 1780,
and together with John G. Davidson, built the block-house or fort near
that spring which was afterwards known as the "Davidson-Bailey Fort."
Aside from Mr. Davidson and his family, Mr. Bailey's neighbors were
Captain James Moore, in Abb's Valley, some ten miles away; Mitchell Clay,
on the Bluestone at the Clover Bottom, about twelve miles away; Joshua
Day, at the mouth of Laurel Fork of Wolf Creek, about fifteen miles away;
Hickman Compton, on Clear Fork of Wolf Creek, eight miles away, and Gideon
Wright, at the head of the South Fork of Bluestone, twelve miles away. The
sons of Richard Bailey, especially the elder ones, were great Indian
scouts and fighters, and were splendid specimens of physical strength and
manhood and of great personal courage.

John Bailey, the eldest son, married Nancy Davidson, the daughter of John
G. Davidson, and in 1789, he built a log house on the south side of
Bowyer's Branch, on the farm now owned by Thompson Calfee--this building
is still standing at this writing--and in which Mr. Jonathan Bailey, their
oldest son, was born in 1790, and when he was but four days old an Indian
incursion into the neighborhood caused Mr. Bailey to take his wife and
child on horseback to the fort at the Beaver Pond.

Henry Bailey, the youngest son of Richard the elder, married a Miss
Peters, daughter of John Peters, of New river. Among the sons of Henry
were John P., Elijah, Colonel James M., Philip P., and Major William R.
Bailey. John P. Bailey went to Texas in the forties. Elijah was quite a
prominent citizen in his day, having been a member of the House of
Delegates of Virginia from the Counties of Giles and Mercer, and was
afterward Sheriff of Mercer County and long a Justice of the Peace of said
county. Colonel James M. also represented Mercer County in the House of
Delegates, and was a Colonel of Militia; and William R. was likewise a
Major in the Mercer Militia.

Nancy, one of the daughters of Henry, married Charles W. Calfee, who was
long the Clerk of the Mercer County Court. Elizabeth first married William
Ferguson and subsequently the Rev. Carroll Clark. Jane married Wilson D.
Calfee, and Polly first married James Bailey, and after his death, married
John Bailey; she was a woman of strong good sense and intellect.

From the elder Richard Bailey, the first settler, descended all the
numerous families by that name, now scattered over several of the counties
of West Virginia, particularly Mercer, McDowell, Wyoming, and Logan, and
in Tazewell County, Virginia.

Robert H. Bailey, a great grandson of the elder Richard, has been
prominent in county affairs. Estill Bailey, another great grandson, is now
the Clerk of the County Court of Mercer County. Many of this family are
prominent citizens of adjacent counties; among them may be mentioned
Theodore F. Bailey, of Wyoming. Nearly all who bore that name, during our
great civil strife, were gallant and brave soldiers.

The Bane Family of New River Valley
This family is of Scottish origin. The founder thereof in America--at
least of those of the name who came across the Alleghanies--was James
Bane, who came, in 1688, to New Castle, Delaware. He had left his country
because of political ostracism, and sought shelter in the land soon
destined to be free. He bought valuable lands of William Penn in what was
then, or had been, Pennsylvania.

James, one of the descendants of the first named James, came into the
Virginia Valley about 1748, and there married, in 1751, Rebecca McDonald,
a granddaughter of Bryan and Mary Combs McDonald, of New Castle, Delaware.
It would seem most probable--as some of the McDonalds were settled between
1738 and 1744 in Beverly's Manor, near to where the present city of
Staunton, Virginia, is situated--that he married his wife, Rebecca, in
that neighborhood, and thence removed to the Roanoke section near where
Salem now stands, about 1763, where he remained until a flood in the
Roanoke River drove him to and beyond the summit of the Alleghanies, into
what is now Montgomery County. He came, probably, about 1775--at any rate
he had frequently to take shelter from the Indians in Barger's Fort, on
Tom's Creek. His son, James, married Bettie, the daughter of John Haven,
of Plum Creek, in Montgomery, about 1776, and from thence he removed to
Walker's Creek in 1793. He had a large family of children, viz: 12; Mary
married John Henderson, Howard married Miss Hickman, and a daughter of
Howard married Colonel Erastus G. Harman, of Bluestone; Colonel James
married Mary Henderson December 31st, 1801; Annie married .......Wilson,
Sara married John Carr, Rebecca married .......Burke, John married Mary
Chapman, Jesse married Jane Carr, Edward and Joseph died unmarried,
Elizabeth married William Carr, William married Sallie Snidow.

Colonel James Bane and his wife, Mary Henderson Bane, had the following
children: Sallie, who never married; Elizabeth married Tobias Miller;
Maria married Madison Allen, John H. married Nancy Shannon, Jane S.
married John Crockett Graham, William married Jane Grayson, Nancy married
Thomas Jefferson Higginbotham, and Samuel married Lucy B. Baker. A
daughter of William Bane married John D. Snidow, and Mr. William Bane
Snidow, a prominent lawyer of Pearisburg, Virginia, is their son. All of
this family of Banes, who were in the war 1861-5, were good soldiers; a
number of them were killed and wounded. Joseph Edward Bane was killed in
the first battle of Manassas, and Major John T. Bane was a distinguished
soldier in Hood's Texas Brigade. Of this family have come some of the very
best citizens of Giles and surrounding counties. Donald Bane succeeded
Malcolm III as King of Scotland between the years 1093-1153.

The Belcher Family.
Isham Belcher married a Miss Hodges, in Franklin County, Virginia, and
came to what is now Mercer County, then Wythe, in 1796, and settled on
what is known as the Waldron Farm, about two miles Southeast of the
present city of Bluefield. He was a nephew of Phoebe Clay, the wife of
Mitchell Clay, the elder. Isham Belcher and wife had a family of thirteen
children, eleven sons and two daughters; the sons were Obediah, Isham,
Jesse, Asa, Henry D., John, Micajah, Jonathan, Moses, James, and Robert D.
From Isham Belcher, the elder, descended all the people of that name
scattered over a number of the counties of Southern West Virginia. Captain
George W. Belcher, a grandson of the elder Isham, Alexander Belcher and
many of that name and blood were bold, courageous Confederate soldiers in
our Civil War.

The Family of Black, of Montgomery.
The Rev. Dr. Samuel Black, a minister in the Presbyterian Church--of
Scotch extraction--was born in 1700; educated in Edinburg, Scotland, and
licensed to preach at Glasgow; came to America in 1735, and first located
at and had charge of the church in Brandywine Manor in Chester County,
Pennsylvania. Later he removed to Albemarle County, Virginia, where he was
Pastor of Joy and Mountain Plains Churches for the remainder of his long
and useful life.

His sons, John and William, came across the Alleghanies and settled nearby
where the town of Blacksburg, in Montgomery County, is now situated. The
year of their coming seems not definitely known, but it was during the
border Indian wars. John had married Miss Jane Alexander, who, with an
infant son, he brought with him into the wilderness, where with the aid of
a servant he erected a dwelling house which was shortly thereafter burned
by the Indians, he and his family escaping to the woods and finally to
Augusta, where he left his family until he could erect another dwelling,
which he turned into a fort for protection against the Savages. He served
in the American Army during our War for Independence, under General
William Campbell, and was with him at the time of the treaty with the
Indians, at Long Island, Tennessee. Two of his sons were in the War of
1812, and one of them, Matthew, died in the service. Five of his sons went
to the state of Ohio, where their descendants now live. His daughter,
Susan, who married Stephen McDonald, went to Missouri; Mary, another
daughter, married Walter Crockett, and they went to the Pacific coast;
while the son, Alexander, remained at Blacksburg. John Black lived to the
age of ninety-four years; his wife, Jane Alexander, was of the family of
that name, some of whom settled in the County of Monroe.

William Black gave the land on which the town of Blacksburg, Virginia, now
stands, and which was incorporated by the General Assembly of Virginia, in
the year of 1798. By this act George Rutledge, John Black, James P.
Preston, Edward Rutledge, William Black and John Preston were made
trustees. William Black removed to the County of Albemarle in the year of
1800.

The Barns Family.
Robert Barnes, born in Ireland in 1765, first settled in Maryland, removed
to Rockbridge County, Virginia, and from there to the Clinch River
section, now in Tazewell County, Virginia. He married Grace Brown, and
they had two sons: William Barnes, born 1790, and John Barnes, born 1793.
William Barnes married Levicie Ward. John Barnes married Lilly Heldieth as
is first wife, and as his second Eliza Allen.

The names of the children of William Barnes are as follows: Robert,
married Ella Gibson; Clinton, married Sarah Gillespie; Oscar F., married
Mary Gillespie; John, married Margaret Smith; Mary, married William T.
Moore; Nancy, married James Harrison; Amanda, married Moses Higginbotham;
Rebecca, died unmarried; Sallie W., married Captain D. B. Baldwin; Eliza,
married A. J. Copenhaver.

John Barnes had one son, William, who died unmarried, in the Confederate
Army.

John Ward, who married Nancy Bowen, was the father of Levicie, who married
William Barnes; and the children of the said John Ward and Nancy Bowen are
as follows: Levicie, married William Barnes; Jane, married Robert
Gillespie; Rebecca, married William Crawford; Lilly, married John Hill;
Nancy, married Mr. Hargrave; Henry, married Sallie Wilson; Reece, married
Levicie Richardson; Rufus, married Elizabeth Wilson; David and John,
unmarried.

The Bowens, of Tazewell.
This family is of Welch extraction, and the immediate ancestors of those
that came hither were, long prior to the American Revolution, located and
settled about Fredericktown, in western Maryland. Restive in disposition
and fond of adventure, like all of their blood, they sought, fairly early
after the first white settlements were made in the Valley of Virginia, to
look for homes in that direction. How early, or the exact date, that Reece
Bowen, the progenitor of the Tazewell family of that name, came in to the
Virginia Valley from his western Maryland home, cannot be named with
certainty; doubtless he came as early as 1765, for it is known that for a
few years prior to 1772, when he located at Maiden Spring, he was living
on the Roanoke River, close by where the city of Roanoke is now situated,
then in Augusta County, he married Miss Louisa Smith, who proved to him
not only a loving and faithful wife, but a great helpmeet in his border
life. She was evidently a woman of more than ordinary intelligence and
cultivation for one of her day and opportunity. She was a small, neat and
trim woman, weighing only about one hundred pounds, while her husband was
a giant in size and strength. It is told as a fact that she could step
into her husband's hand and that he could stand and extend his arm,
holding her at right angle to his body.

Prize fighting was quite common in the early days of the settlements, by
which men tested their manhood and prowess. The man who could demolish all
who chose to undertake him was the champion, and wore the belt until some
man flogged him, and then he had to surrender it. At some period after
Reece Bowen had settled on the Roanoke, and after the first child came
into the home, Mrs. Bowen desiring to pay a visit to her people in the
Valley, she and her babe and husband set out on horse-back along the
narrow bridle way that then led through the valley, and on the way they
met a man clad in the usual garb of the day--that is , buck-skin trousers,
moccasins, and hunting shirt, or wampus. The stranger inquired of Mr.
Bowen his name, which he gave him; proposed a fight for the belt. Bowen
tried to beg off, stating that he was taking his wife and child, the
latter then in his arms, to her people. The man would take no excuse;
finally Mrs. Bowen said to her husband; "Reece, give me the child and get
down and slap that man's jaws." Mr. Bowen alighted from his horse, took
the man by the lapel of his hunting shirt, gave him a few quick, heavy
jerks, when the man called out to let him go, he had enough.

It is also related of Mr. Bowen, that in a later prize fight, at Maiden
Spring, with a celebrated prize fighter who had, with his seconds, come
from South Carolina to fight Bowen, and when he reached Bowen's home and
made known to him his business, he, Mr. Bowen, did what he could in an
honorable way to excuse himself from engaging in a fight; but the man was
persistent and Bowen concluded to accommodate him and sent for his
seconds--a Mr. Smith and a Mr. Clendenin. The fight took place and the
gentleman from South Carolina came off second best.

Just when Reece Bowen first saw the territory of what is now Tazewell
County cannot be definitely stated. Whether he was one of the large
hunting party organized of men from the Virginia Valley, North Carolina
and New River, which rendezvoused at Ingles' Ferry in June, 1769, and
hunted on the waters of the Holstein, Powell's River, Clinch, and in
Kentucky, is not known; his name does not appear among the number, but the
writer, "Haywood's Civil and Political History of Tennessee," does not
profess to give all the names of the party. Nevertheless it is highly
probable that Bowen was along, or he may have gone out with the party the
next year, or he may have met with the Witten's, and others, on their way
out in 1771, and joined them. He seems not to have made his settlement at
Maiden Spring until the year of 1772. He went with Captain William
Russell's company to the battle of Point Pleasant, in 1774, leaving home
in August of that year, and leaving Daniel Boone in command of that part
of the frontier. As already stated in this volume, Boone had been forced
to give up his journey to Kentucky in September, 1773, on account of the
breaking out of the Indian War, and had spent the winter of 1773-4 in the
neighborhood of Captain William Russell, near Castleswoods.

Captain Russell's company belonged to Colonel William Christian's
Fincastle Regiment, the greater part of which did not participate in the
battle of Point Pleasant, being in the rear in charge of the pack horses
carrying provisions for the army; but Shelby's and Russell's companies
went forward with the main body and took an active part in the conflict.
Moses Bowen, a relative of Reece, was with Russell's company, but died on
the journey, from smallpox.

From 1774 to 1781, when Reece Bowen marched away to the battle of King's
Mountain, the border on and along the Clinch was harassed by bands of
marauding Indians, and in many of the skirmishes and troubles Reece Bowen
took a hand. During the period from the date of Bowen's settlement at
Maiden Spring until his death, to procure salt, iron, and other necessary
materials he had to travel across the mountains to Salisbury, North
Carolina, carrying them on a packhorse, and would be absent for weeks,
leaving his wife and children alone. His trips, however, were always made
in winter, when there was no danger from the Indians. He left rifle guns
and bear dogs at home, and with these his wife felt safe from danger, for
she was a good shot with a rifle, often exceeding the men in ordinary
rifle practice. Mr. Bowen had selected a lovely country for his home, and
around and adjacent thereto, prior to the fall of 1780, had surveyed and
secured several thousand acres of that valuable land, of which his
descendants today hold about twelve square miles.

When it was known that Lord Cornwallis' Army was marching northward
through the Carolinas, and that Colonel Ferguson, who commanded the left
wing of his Army, had sent a threat to the "Over Mountain Men" that if
they did not cross the mountains and take the oath of allegiance to the
King, that he would cross over and destroy with fire and sword, Evan
Shelby, John Sevier, and William Campbell determined to checkmate Colonel
Ferguson by crossing the mountains and destroying him and his army.
Colonel Campbell commanded the Washington County Military Force, and
William Bowen a company that belonged to Campbell's Command, though a part
of his company lived on the Montgomery County side of the line. In this
company Reece Bowen was a First Lieutenant, his son John a Private, and
James Moore a Junior Lieutenant. When the order came for Bowen's company
to join the regiment it found its Captain, William Bowen, sick of a fever,
and this situation devolved the command of the company upon Lieutenant
Reece Bowen, who led it into the battle of King's Mountain, and there,
together with several of his men, was killed and buried on the field. His
remains were never removed, for the reason that when opportunity was
offered for their removal the spot in which he was buried could not be
identified. Campbell's Regiment lost in this battle 35 killed and wounded;
among the killed, other than Lieutenant Reece Bowen, were Captain William
Edmondson, Robert Edmondson, Andrew Edmondson, and Henry Henninger, and
among the wounded, Charles Kilgore and John Peery, the two latter and
Henninger from the Upper Clinch Waters.

Reece Bowen has in Tazewell County many highly respected, prominent and
influential descendants, among them Mr. Reece Bowen, Colonel Thomas P.
Bowen and Captain Henry Bowen, all brave and distinguished Confederate
Soldiers; the latter, Captain Henry, being frequently honored by his
people as a member of the Legislature of Virginia, and a Representative in
Congress. The present Mr. Reece Bowen married Miss Mary Crockett, of
Wythe; Colonel Thomas P., Miss Augusta Stuart, of Greenbrier, and Captain
Henry, Miss Louisa Gillespie, of Tazewell.

The Calfee Family.
This family is of German origin, came out of Pennsylvania into the Valley
of Virginia and settled in the County of Shenandoah, and from thence came,
shortly after the close of the American Revolution, to what was then
Montgomery, now Pulaski County. The earliest of the Mercer County Calfees
was James, who came to that county about 1829, and settled at Gladeville,
one mile west of the present village of Princeton. He subsequently moved
to Harman Branch, and later to Clover Bottom, on the Bluestone. He had
five sons and five daughters. His sons were Charles W., who married Miss
Nancy Bailey; Andrew J., who married Mrs. Brown; Davis, William, French;
the daughters, Polly, Jane, Betsey, Virginia, and Cynthia, none of whom
ever married.

Charles W. Calfee and his wife, Nancy Bailey Calfee, had six sons and two
daughters; the sons, Albert B., William McHenry, George, Harvey M., John
C., and William D. The daughters, Virginia, who married Dr. John H.
Robinson, and Fannie, who married John Boggess. Charles W. Calfee was long
Clerk of Mercer County Court. Mr. Davis Calfee was a farmer, and lived for
many years at New Hope Church, where he died in about 1879; he was a large
man, weighing about 450 pounds.

A short time after James Calfee settled in Mercer County, came Samuel T.,
Wilson D., and James Calfee, Jr.; the latter a minister in the Church of
the Disciples, a man of fine character and good ability, representing the
County of Mercer in the Constitutional Convention of 1872.

Mr. Wilson D. Calfee and his wife, Jane Bailey Calfee, had a considerable
family of children; the sons are, Augustus B. Calfee, Robert M. Calfee, R.
Kohler Calfee, and Luther Calfee. Mr. H. Sayers Calfee, a brave
Confederate Soldier, is a son of Mr. Samuel T. Calfee, and Mr. Thompson
Calfee, who resides near Bluefield, is a son of Elder James Calfee; a
daughter of James Calfee married Alexander W. Bailey; another daughter
married Captain William A. Cooper.

The Capertons.
Partly from the manuscript of this family, furnished the author by the
late Mr. John Caperton, of Louisville, Kentucky, it is learned that it was
one among the early settlers of the New River Valley, and was originally
from the South of Scotland, near Melrose, where they were called
Claperton; dropping the l they became Caperton; that they afterwards
emigrated to Wales, and that John Caperton was the first, and probably the
only one of the name, who came to America. He had three sons: Adam, Hugh,
and William, and from these three sons descended the Capertons of Monroe
County, West Virginia; the Capertons of the New River in Giles County,
Virginia, and Mercer County, West Virginia; and the Capertons of Richmond,
Kentucky, and of Mississippi.

Adam was the progenitor of the Monroe Capertons; Hugh of the New River
Capertons, and William of the Kentucky and Mississippi Capertons. Hugh
Caperton, the son of Adam, was born in Monroe County; was taken to
Kentucky when an infant, where his father, Adam, in March, 1782, was
killed at Mt. Sterling, by the Indians, in the battle known as Estill's
Defeat, when his son, Hugh, was only two years old. Hugh returned to
Virginia when twelve years of age, and in part was brought up by his Uncle
Hugh, of New River. He lived in his native county until his death, which
occurred in 1847. He was a self taught man, and represented his county in
the State Legislature several years, one session in Congress (1816), was a
member of the Board of Public Works of Virginia for many years and until
his death. He amassed a large fortune for that day, his property being
worth at his death $600,000.00. He stood guard against the Indians when
only twelve years old. He married Miss Jane Erskine, and had a family of
nine children. His son, Allen T., became a most prominent man, serving
often in the Legislature of Virginia, both in the House of Delegates and
in the Senate, and in the Constitutional Convention of 1850-1; in the
Confederate Congress, and was serving as United States Senator from West
Virginia at the time of his death. Mr. Allen T. Caperton married Harriet
Echols, of Virginia, the sister of General John Echols.

John Caperton, another son of Hugh of Monroe, was a prominent citizen of
Louisville, Kentucky, and died recently at a very advanced age.

Hugh, the progenitor of the New River Capertons, was a man of much
distinction, having served in the Indian wars as a Captain of a company,
in 1793, at the mouth of the Elk River, on the Kanawha; he served in the
Legislature of Virginia much over one hundred years ago.

William Caperton, the progenitor of the Kentucky and Mississippi branch of
the family, as an orator was without a rival. It is said that Henry Clay
spoke of him as a very eloquent man. George and John Caperton, brothers of
Hugh, settled in Northern Alabama, where their descendants still reside.

The Chapmans.
The Chapmans (Note: It appears that the first place of settlement of this
family, after leaving England, was in the state of Connecticut.) were
English people, and some of those who emigrated to this country came from
Connecticut to Charles County, Maryland, long prior to the American
Revolution. After the settlement in Maryland, and before the beginning of
the Revolution, some of them came to Culpeper County, Virginia, and
settled. Among those who came was Isaac Chapman, who married, in Culpeper
County, Miss Sara Cole, by whom he had three sons and one daughter. The
sons were Isaac, John, and Richard, the daughter, Jemima. Isaac went
South, and finally located in Alabama, where his descendants still reside.
His grandson, Honorable Reuben Chapman, was a member of Congress from
Alabama in 1841. John married Sallie Abbott and Richard married Margaret
Abbott, daughters of Richard Abbott of Culpeper County, Virginia; the
daughter, Jemima, married Moredock O. McKensey, (Note: McKensey died on
Five Mile Fork of East River, in the year 1805.) a Scotsman from the city
of Glasgow, Scotland. Richard Abbott having died, his widow married a man
by the name of Tracey, by whom she had two children, Bettie, who married
James Rowe, and a son, William Tracey, the ancestor of the Traceys of Wolf
Creek of New River Valley.

In November 1768, John Chapman, Richard Chapman, and Moredock O. McKensey
removed from Culpeper County to the Shenandoah, in the Valley of Virginia,
and from thence, in 1771, came to the New River Valley and settled at the
mouth of Walker's Creek, where John Chapman had two dwelling houses
destroyed by the Indians; his family being forced to flee to the Snidow
Fort for protection. In the spring of 1778 McKensey removed to the mouth
of Wolf Creek., where his family, in May of that year, was attacked by the
Indians, and a portion of them killed and another portion carried into
captivity. Some years afterward, time not definitely known, Richard
Chapman removed from Walker's Creek to Wolf Creek.

The children of John Chapman were Isaac, who married Elian Johnston;
George, who married Patience Clay; John, who married Miss Napier; Henley,
who married Mary Alexander; Sallie, who married, first, Jacob Miller of
Franklin County, Virginia, and by whom she had a daughter and three sons:
Jacob, who married Mrs. Polly Harman; John, who married Sallie Peck;
Tobias, who married Elizabeth Bane; Barbara, who married Morton P. Emmons.
After the death of the elder Jacob Miller, his widow Sallie, married David
Johnston, and they had the following children: Oscar F., who married
Elizabeth French; Chapman I., who married Elian C. Snidow; Olivia, who
married William M. Gillespie, of Tazewell County, Virginia; Louisa A., who
married Colonel Daniel H. Pearis, of Mercer, and Sallie C., who died
unmarried.

Jemima Chapman married Charles Hall and had the following children:
Benjamin, who went to Cook County, Illinois, at an early date, and Chloe,
who married John Brian.

Annie Chapman, who married John Lybrook, had a numerous family, of whom
was Philip Lybrook, the father of the present Major Samuel E. Lybrook, a
great grandson of Philip, the settler.

Isaac Chapman and his wife, Elian Johnston Chapman, had the following
children: John, a lawyer of distinction and often a representative of
Giles County in the Senate and House of Delegates, who married Ann Freel;
Doctor David Johnston Chapman, who married Sallie Pepper; William Chapman,
who married Nancy McDonald; Rachael, who married John Snidow; Priscilla,
who married Doctor Thomas Fowler; Polly, who married John Bane; Nancy, who
married Joseph McDonald; Sallie, who married William Kyle, and Rebecca,
who married Samuel P. Pearis.

John Chapman, the son of Isaac, had one daughter, Adeline, who married
Colonel William H. Snidow, by whom she had three children, viz: John C.,
who married Anne Hoge; James P., who married Fannie Hale; Annie, who
married Dr. Harvey G. Johnston.

Doctor David J. Chapman had the following children, Viz: John, drowned in
his youth; William, who married Miss Mather; James, who went west many
years ago; David J., Jr., who now lives in Giles County and is unmarried,
and who is the only Chapman in Giles County; Annie, who married Colonel
James W. English; Jennie, who married Major Samuel E. Lybrook, and
Malinda, who married Samuel S. Dinwiddie.

William Chapman, who married Nancy McDonald, had the following children:
Isaac E., who married Eliza Gillespie; John who went to Texas and was
drowned; Louisa, who married Rev. Mr. Chanceleum; and Keziah, who married
Isaac Chapman Fowler.

John Snidow and Rachael, his wife, had the following children: Christian,
who married Sylistine Goodrich; they had no children; James H., who
married Elvina Lucas and had the following children: John D., William R.,
Cornelia, who married Eugene Angel, and some daughters who are not
married; David J. L., who married Malinda Pepper, but left no children;
Elizabeth, who married John Tiffany, and had the following children:
Captain Hugh S., killed in the first battle of Manasses; Charles C., who
lives in Kansas, and Elizabeth, who married Andrew B. Symns; Mary B., who
married John S. Peck, and had the following children: James P., killed in
the battle of Cold Harbor in 1864; Hugh T., who lives in the State of
Maryland; Chapman I., who lives in Giles County; John, who died a few
years ago; Annie, who married John P. Peck; Elizabeth, who married Harvey
Snidow, and Eliza, who married .....Williams.

Elian Chapman Snidow, who married Chapman I. Johnston, had the following
children: David Andrew, John Raleigh, Sarah Ellen, who married Honorable
William A. French; Annie C., who married Charles D. French; Rachael S.,
who is now dead, and who first married ........Daugherty, and secondly
Joseph Alvis. Ellen J. Snidow, daughter of John and Rachael Chapman
Snidow, is unmarried.

Samuel P. Pearis and Rebecca Chapman Pearis, his wife, had three children:
Dr. Robert A., who married Amanda Fowler; Dr. Charles W., who married
Electra Pearis; and Rebecca, who married honorable Frank Hereford.

The children of Joseph McDonald and Nancy Chapman McDonald, his wife, were
W. W. McDonald, of Logan; John C. McDonald, Isaac E. McDonald, Lewis
McDonald, Floyd McDonald; Sallie, who married John Sanders; Nancy, who
married Lewis McDonald, Elizabeth, who married John Anderson; John C.,
Isaac E. and Floyd, who died unmarried.

Dr. Thomas Fowler and wife had the following children: Thomas, Isaac C.,
Allen, Elbert; Mary, who married Captain James D. Johnston; and Amanda,
who married Dr. Robert A. Pearis.

Henley Chapman and his wife, Mary Alexander Chapman, had two sons and
three daughters. The sons were General Augustus A. Chapman, who married
Mary R. Bierne, and Manilius, who married Susan Bierne; the daughters,
Araminta D., married Captain Guy D. French; Elvina married Colonel Albert
G. Pendleton, and Isabella married Major William P. Cecil.

John Chapman, son of the settler, and brother to Isaac, George, and
Henley, married Miss Napier; was killed by a horse, and his widow and
children removed to Cabell County about the year of 1800, where his
descendants now reside. Captain John Chapman, who was a son of Andrew
Johnston Chapman, son of the above John, was a distinguished Confederate
soldier, and died only a few years ago at his home in Lincoln County, West
Virginia.

Colonel Albert G. Pendleton and his wife, Elvina Chapman Pendleton, had
three children: Nannie, who married Judge Philip W. Strother; Sallie, who
married Van B. Taliaferro, and Alberta, who married Samuel Crockett.

Major William P. Cecil and his wife Isabella Chapman Cecil, had one child,
Mary, who married Charles Painter.

Captain Guy D. French and wife, Araminta Chapman French, had four sons:
Henley C., who married Harriet Easley; Captain David A., who married,
first Miss Williams, second Miss Jennie C. Easley; William A., who married
Nellie Johnston; Charles D., who married Annie C. Johnston; they had
daughters Sarah M., who first married Dr. W. W. McComas, second, Captain
F. G. Thrasher; Mary, who married William B. Mason; Fannie, who married J.
H. D. Smoot, and Susan, who married Dr. R. T. Ellett.

John Chapman, son of Richard, married Jemima, a daughter of the Elder
David Johnston, and they had a daughter who married William Wilburn, of
Sugar Run; and James H. Wilburn, whose photograph appears opposite this
page, is a grand son of the said John Chapman, and a great grandson to the
first William Wilburn, who came in 1780 to what is now Giles County,
Virginia.

James W. Chapman, a grandson of John, of Wolf Creek, is the only
descendant of John Chapman bearing that name who now resides in this
section of the country; the remaining members of the Richard Chapman
family went at an early date to the Big Sandy and Eastern Kentucky region,
some of them removing to the State of Ohio. Some of the descendants of
Richard Chapman still reside in the Counties of Lincoln, Logan, Mingo, and
Wayne, West Virginia.

The Elder John Chapman, and his son, Isaac, were soldiers during the
Indian wars on the border, and were stationed during the years of 1774 to
1779 in Snidow's, Hatfield's, and Barger's Forts.

The family of George Chapman, who married Patience Clay, consisted of
three daughters and two sons. Sallie Chapman married Hugh Jordan,
Elizabeth Chapman married Joseph Peck, and Lucretia Chapman married
William McClure; the sons, Isaac and Archer, went to the state of Ohio at
an early day. Opposite page 396 is a photograph of the dwelling house
built by George Chapman, in 1794, on the East Bank of New River, near
Ripplemeade, Virginia, and which still stands and is on land now the
property of Mr. Harvey Phlegar and Mr. H. B. Shelton.

The Christian Family.
This family came from the Isle of Man, and as early as 1732 Gilbert
Christian, with his family, removed from Pennsylvania, where they lived in
1726, to a point near where Staunton, Virginia, now stands, and on a creek
to which they gave their name. The family of Gilbert Christian, which
consisted of himself, wife, three sons, John, Robert, William, and a
daughter, Mary, became near neighbors of the celebrated Lewis family.

Captain Israel Christian settled in the Valley in 1740, where he married
Miss Elizabeth Starke; removing later to what is now Botetourt County, he
gave the land for the town of Fincastle, and still later he came across
the Alleghanies, and settled on the New River, near Ingles' Ferry. The
town of Christainsburg was named from him. His son, Colonel William, was
born near Staunton, in 1743; he married Anne, a sister of Patrick Henry.
He was long a prominent figure of the border; representing the New River
Valley district in the State Senate in 1781; was the Colonel and
Commandant of the Fincastle troops, and led a regiment from that county to
the battle of Point Pleasant, in October, 1774. Only two companies of his
regiment participated in the battle; the remainder, with Colonel Christian
were in charge of the supplies for the army of General Lewis. Colonel
Christian, with a few men, in pursuing a marauding band of Indians across
the Ohio, was on the 9th day of April, 1786, killed on the spot whereon
how stands Jeffersonville, Indiana.

A part of the same Christian family from near Staunton, in the Valley,
settled on East River, in what is now Mercer County, in 1780. Some of
these people served with great distinction on the Confederate side in our
Civil War.

The Cecil Family.
The Cecils crossed over to England with William the Norman; and the family
in the United States is said to be of the Lord Baltimore stock (Calverts),
descendants of Sir William Cecil of England (Lord Burleigh). Samuel W.
Cecil and his two brothers came in 1700, and settled in Maryland.

Samuel W. married Rebecca White in Maryland, about 1750, and removed to
the New River Valley in what is now Pulaski County in about 1760. He died
in 1785 and his wife in 1815. They left a family of seven sons and three
daughters. The sons, William, born in 1752, married Nancy Witten, and
settled in Tazewell; Thomas, born in 1755, married Nancy Grayson, and went
to Ohio; James married Miss Wysor; Benjamin married Priscilla Baylor and
went to Kentucky; Zechariah married Miss Mitchell, and went to Kentucky;
Samuel married Mary Ingram, and went to Missouri; Rebecca married James
Witten, of Tazewell;' Malinda married Samuel Mitchell; Eleanor married
Thomas Witten, of Tazewell.

Zechariah Cecil, son of Samuel W., married Julia Howe, daughter of Major
Daniel Howe, from whom Daniel R. Cecil, of Giles County, Virginia,
descends, and who married Ardelia Pearis, granddaughter of Colonel George
Pearis, a soldier of the American Revolution, and first settler where
Pearisburg station, N &. W. Ry. Co., is now situated.

The Clay Family.
The Clays of Virginia and Kentucky, the descendants of their English
ancestry by that name, emigrated to America and settled in Virginia prior
to the American Revolution. One brother, the father of Henry Clay, of
Kentucky, a Baptist minister, settled in the Slashes of Hanover; one, the
ancestor of General Greene Clay, settled in Powhatan, and was the ancestor
of General Oden G. Clay of Campbell County, Virginia. The one who settled
in Franklin County was the ancestor of the elder Mitchell Clay, who came
from Franklin to the Clover Bottom on the Bluestone, in 1775.

Mitchell Clay married in Franklin County, Virginia, in the year of 1760,
Phoebe Belcher. In April, 1774, there was granted by Dunmore, the Royal
Governor of Virginia, to Mitchell Clay, assignee of Lieutenant John
Draper, 800 acres of land on Bluestone Creek, Clover Bottoms, then
Fincastle County, Virginia, and Mercer County. By the terms of this grant
Clay was required to take possession of this land within three years,
clear so much per year, and render so much ground rent to the King of
Great Britain. A copy of this grant is on file in the Clerk's office of
Mercer County Court. In payment for this tract of land, Clay gave Draper a
Negro woman and her children, executing to him therefor a bill of sale.
Many years afterward, and after the death of Mitchell Clay, which occurred
in 1812, this trade gave rise to two interesting law suits; one, by the
Negro for their freedom, which they succeeded in establishing ; and
thereupon the representatives of Draper sued the executors of Clay and
their sureties, recovering a large decree against them, resulting in the
bankrupting of Captain William Smith and the estate of Colonel George N.
Pearis, sureties of the executors of Clay.

Mitchell clay and his wife had fourteen children, seven sons and seven
daughters. The sons were Mitchell, Henry, Charles, William, David,
Bartley, Ezekiel, the latter captured and Bartley killed by the Indians on
Bluestone, in 1783. The daughters were Rebecca, who married Colonel George
Pearis; Patience, who married George Chapman; Sallie, who married Captain
John Peters, a soldier of the War of 1812; Obedience who married John
French, a soldier of the American Revolution; Nannie, who married Joseph
Hare, also a soldier of the American Revolution; Mary who married William
Stewart, and Tabitha, who was killed by the Indians on Bluestone, in 1783.

From Rebecca, who married Colonel George Pearis, descended a family of
Pearis of the New River Valley. From George Chapman and wife descended a
numerous progeny, of whom Sallie married Hugh Jordan, of Giles County.
From Mrs. Peters descended a large part of the family of that name now
living in the New River Valley. From Mrs. French descended a numerous
posterity, and among her descendants is Colonel James M. French, a
distinguished lawyer and one of the bravest soldiers that drew his sword
for Virginia in our Civil War. Mrs. Hare left no living descendants. Mrs.
Stewart left a large number of descendants, many of whom are among the
most respectable and prominent citizens of the County of Wyoming and
adjacent territory.

After the destruction, in part, of the family of Mitchell Clay, on
Bluestone, he removed to New River, purchased a farm which is now owned in
part by Mr. J. Raleigh Johnston, opposite Pearisburg Station on N. & W.
Ry. Co.'s railway line, and upon which he erected a dwelling house in
1783, which is still standing, a photograph of which will be seen opposite
this page.

The Cloyd Family.
This family were Protestant Irish people, and some of that name were in
the siege of Londondary in 1689. Some portion of the family emigrated to
America, long prior to the Revolution, and settled in Pennsylvania, where
David Cloyd married Margaret Campbell, and from thence removed to James
River, in the now County of Botetourt, where, in March, 1764, Mrs. Cloyd
and her son John were killed by the Indians; Joseph, another son, on the
day of the killing of his mother and brother, was working in the field,
and the Indians, by a ruse, succeeded in getting between him and the
house. Perceiving that they were Indians that had attacked the house, he
ran to the neighbor for aid, hastening back only to find that his mother
had been tomahawked and his brother killed.

Joseph Cloyd in about 1774 or 1775, when quite a young man, came with
Colonel William Preston to the Draper's Meadows settlement. He
subsequently married Miss Mary Gordon, and it is said, at her request,
built a brick church near where Dublin, Virginia, is now situated, being
the first church building erected west of the Alleghany Mountains. Mary, a
sister of Joseph Cloyd, married James McGavock. The children of Joseph
Cloyd were David, Gordon and Thomas. David married Sarah McGavock, Gordon
married Betsie McGavock, and Thomas married Mary McGavock. Joseph Cloyd,
the elder, became possessed of a very large and valuable estate on Back
Creek, now in Pulaski County, a portion of which is now owned and
possessed by his great-grandson, David Cloyd. Joseph Cloyd was a soldier
in the American Army during the Revolution, and Major of the Montgomery
County Militia. In the year of 1780 there was a great Tory uprising in the
northern counties of North Carolina, consequent upon the advance of the
British Army into that state in October of that year. Major Cloyd raised
three companies of horsemen, among them one commanded by Captain George
Pearis, and marched to the Shallow Ford of the Yadkin, being joined on his
way by some North Carolina companies, raising his force to 160 men. On the
14th day of October he fought a severe battle with the Tories at the
Shallow Ford, in which he defeated them with a loss on their part of 15
killed, and four found wounded and left on the field; on the American side
Captain Pearis and four privates were wounded.

General Greene was retreating before the British Army and was hard
pressed, and not only called on the Governor of Virginia for aid, but
wrote letters to Colonels William Preston, William Campbell, Evan Shelby,
and John Sevier for help. On the 10th day of February, 1781, Colonel
William Preston ordered the assembling of the Militia of Montgomery County
at the Lead Mines, and on the 18th day of February he marched with Major
Joseph Cloyd, at the head of 350 horsemen, and joined General Greene near
Hillsboro, North Carolina, and was ordered to report to General Pickens,
then in command of General Greene's left wing, operating on the Haw and
Deep Rivers. Preston marched to join General Pickens, but lost his way and
camped the night preceding his joining Pickens between the outposts of the
two armies, almost within musket range of the British pickets.On the 2nd
day of March a part of Preston's men were engaged with Lee's Cavalry in a
brisk skirmish with the British outposts, in which the British came off
second best, losing about thirty killed and wounded, the Americans losing
but few men. On the 5th of March Preston proceeded across the country to
Wetzell's (Whitsell's) Mills, where on the 6th a severe battle was fought
with a portion of the British Army commanded by Lord Cornwallis, the
Americans being commanded by Generals Pickens and Williams. In this battle
Preston's men took a prominent part and fought bravely and gallantly, but
were finally forced to yield the field to the British. Near the close of
the engagement Colonel Preston's horse took fright and ran with him into
and across a mill pond in the very face of the British. He finally threw
Colonel Preston, who made his escape into the American lines just as the
retreat began, and being a very heavy, fleshy man, was unable to keep up
with the retreating army, whereupon Major Joseph Cloyd dismounted and gave
him his horse. Colonel Preston being injured by the fall from his horse,
his troops were placed under the command of Colonel William Campbell. The
retreat continued until the forces engaged at Wetzell's Mills had reached
Guilford Court House, where on the 15th of March the battle between
General Greene's army and that of Lord Cornwallis was fought, resulting in
the defeat of the Americans. In the battle of Guilford Court House
Preston's men, under Colonel William Campbell, occupied the extreme left,
which was assailed by the British Infantry and Cavalry under Colonel
Tarleton, who in his book entitled "Southern Campaigns, 1780-81," says:
"That the backwoodsmen stood their ground until the British Infantry
pushed them off the field, and that the greatest injury done to the
British in the battle was by the Virginia Backwoodsmen."

On receiving information at the Davidson-Bailey Fort of the massacre of
Captain James Moore and his family, in Abb's Valley, by the Indians, on
July 14th, 1786, a messenger was at once dispatched to Major Cloyd, who
immediately gathered a body of men and marched to the Valley, reaching
there, however, two days after the Indians had departed with their booty
and prisoners, and too late to overtake them.

Major Joseph Cloyd was a representative from Montgomery County in the
Legislature of Virginia in the year of 1788, and his son, General Gordon
Cloyd, was a member of the Constitutional Convention of Virginia, 1829-30;
and his grandsons, Major Joseph Cloyd and Mr. James M. Cloyd, were
prominent citizens of Pulaski County.

The Davidson Family.
John Goolman Davidson, born in Dublin, Ireland, a cooper by trade, came to
America about 1755, and settled in Beverly Manor, in what was then Augusta
County. Subsequently he removed with his family to the Draper-Meadow's
Settlement, and from thence in the year of 1780, he removed and located at
the head of Beaver Pond Creek, in what was then Montgomery County,
Virginia, now Mercer County, West Virginia. During the same year he was
joined by Richard Bailey and family, and they erected a block house, or
fort, a short distance below the head of Beaver Pond Springs. From John
Goolman Davidson has descended all of the people of that name now in this
and the adjoining counties. A portion of the city of Bluefield is built on
lands formerly the property of Mr. Davidson. His descendants, or quite a
number of them, have been prominent in civil affairs in the Counties of
Mercer and Tazewell. Honorable A. C. Davidson (Note: Died December 19,
1905.) , of Mercer County, is a great great grandson of John Goolman
Davidson.

The Emmons Family.
James Emmons (Note: This family is reputed to be of Swedish origin.) , the
ancestor of the New River and Giles County family of that name, was an
American soldier, as shown by his declaration for a pension made in 1832.
He enlisted in the County of Fauquier, and served under General Daniel
Morgan in his Southern campaign; was in the battle of the Cowpens, and in
many skirmishes in the Carolinas. In 1781 he substituted for his brother
William and went in his place to Yorktown, was in that battle and after
its close guarded the British prisoners who were there taken, to
Winchester, Virginia. At the close of the war he removed with his family,
and with Charles Duncan and others, to Stokes County, North Carolina, and
from thence to the New River Valley abut 1795, where his son, Morton P.
Emmons, intermarried with Barbara Miller, the daughter of Jacob and his
wife, Sallie Chapman Miller. All of the people of the New River Valley of
the name of Emmons descended from James Emmons. Morton R., who resides in
Bluefield, West Virginia, is a great-grandson of the said James, as well
also as Morton Emmons, of Atlanta, Georgia.

The Frenches.
The ancestors of this family lived in Scotland, thence removed to Wales,
and from thence, long prior to the American Revolution, came across the
Atlantic and settled in the Northern Neck of Virginia--Westmoreland
County, within the grant to Lord Fairfax. It was in Westmoreland, about
1735, that John French married a lady of Welsh extraction. Among the
children born to them was a son, Matthew, in 1737. Settlers were pressing
across the Blue Ridge and on to the south branch of the Potomac, and on
and along the Big and Little Cacapon. As information came back from these
people of the wonderland they had found, others became interested and made
up their minds to go; among them John French and his family, in about
1750, made their way up the Rappahannock and over to the south branch of
the Potomac, locating at a place since well known as French's Neck, a
beautiful and valuable body of land on the south branch of the river
mentioned. John lived but a short while after reaching his new home, and
his widow shortly after his death married Captain Cresap. The district in
which John French settled soon became the County of Hampshire. There were
several sons in the family other than Mathew, among them William and
James, and a daughter Esther, who married John Locke.

Matthew and his step-father soon had differences of such a nature as to
lead to their estrangement and separation; Matthew, who had not yet
attained his majority, sold out his interest in his fathers estate to his
step-father, Captain Cresap, and went back over the mountains to Culpeper,
where he married an Irish girl whose name was Sallie Payne. In 1775
Matthew, with his wife and seven children, four sons and three daughters,
crossed the Alleghanies into the New River Valley, and settled at what is
now known or called the Boyd place, on Wolf Creek, in Giles County, then
Fincastle. The names of the sons of Matthew were John, Isaac, James, and
David; the latter, the youngest child, was born in Culpeper in 1772; the
daughters were Martha, Mary and Annie. John, the son of Matthew, married
Obedience Clay in January, 1787; Isaac married Elizabeth Stowers for his
first wife; his second was a Mrs. Fillinger; James married Susan Hughes, a
half sister to the elder William Wilburn; his second wife was Margaret
Day; David married Mary Dingess.

Martha, the daughter of Matthew, married Jacob Straley; Mary married Isaac
Hatfield; Annie married General Elisha McComas.

The following are the names of the children of John French and his wife
Obedience Clay French, viz: William, Ezekiel, Charles C., James, George
P., John, St. Clair, Hugh and Austin, and the daughters, Annie, Sallie,
Orrie, Obedience, Nancy and Rebecca.

Isaac French and his wife, Elizabeth Stowers French, had the following
named children, viz: Sallie, Elizabeth, Docey, and Isaac.

The children of James French, by his first marriage, were three sons,
Isaac, Rueben, and Andrew; and five daughters, Mary, who married Daniel
Straley; Sallie, who married William Hare; Elizabeth, who married James
Rowland; Isaac married Sallie Straley; Reuben married Miss Meadows, and
Andrew L. married Miss Day; and by the second marriage James had two
daughters, Esther Locke, who married Kinzie Rowland, and Martha, who
married William Milan.

The names of the children of David French and his wife, Mary Dingess
French, are as follows, viz: Guy D., who married Araminta D. Chapman;
Napoleon B., who married Jane Armstrong; Dr. David M., who married Miss
Smoot, of Alexandria, Virginia; Rufus A., William H., and James H., who
died unmarried; the daughters, Cynthia, who married Judge David McComas;
Harriet, who married Samuel Pack; Minerva, who married Colonel Thomas J.
Boyd.

Matthew French died on Wolf Creek, in Giles County, in 1814. Mrs. Sallie
Fletcher, a grand daughter of Mathew French, and 95 years old in 1892,
gave to the author in writing a personal description of Mathew French and
his wife, whom she well recollected, being a married woman and about
seventeen years old at the date of the death of her grandfather. Mrs.
Fletcher says: "Matthew French was a small, spare made man, light hair and
blue eyes; his wife was a very large woman, quite fleshy, fair complexion,
light hair and blue eyes."

Matthew French and his eldest son, John, were American soldiers in our War
for Independence, and served in Colonel William Preston's Battalion of
Montgomery County Militia, of which Joseph Cloyd was Major, and Thomas
Shannon the Captain of the company to which the Frenches were attached.
They were with their company in the battle of Wetzell's Mills, March 6th,
1781, and again at Guilford Count House, on the 15th of the same month.

The names of the children of Guy D. French and his wife, Araminta D. are
as follows, viz: Henley C., who married Miss Harriet Easley (both now
dead) ; Mary, who married William B. Mason (both now dead) ; Fannie, who
married J. H. D. Smoot (the latter dead) ; Sarah, who first married Dr. W.
W. McComas (killed in battle of South Mills) , and secondly married
Captain F. G. Thrasher; Susan, who married Dr. R. T. Ellett (the latter
dead).

Captain David A. French first married Miss Williams, for his second wife
Jennie C. Easley; William A. married Sarah E. Johnston; Charles D. married
Annie C. Johnston. Opposite this page is a photograph of Hon. William A.
French, a great grandson of Matthew the Settler. William A. died in April,
1902

The descendants of Matthew French are scattered far and wide over the
South and West. Among them were many brilliant men and women; the men have
been magistrates, sheriffs, clerks, lawyers, judges, statesmen and
soldiers. David McComas, one of the descendants of Matthew French, was an
eminent jurist; William McComas, another, was a member of Congress from
1833 to 1837; Dr. W. W. McComas was a distinguished physician and gallant
Confederate soldier; Colonel James Milton French, now of Arizona, served
his country with devotion and honor both in military and civil life.

The Gillespies, of Tazewell County.
These people are the descendants of Scottish ancestors who came to America
prior to our War for Independence, and settled first in Pennsylvania, and
then removed to western North Carolina, from whence they traveled westward
over the mountains into what is now the State of Tennessee, from which
came the immediate progenitors of the family to the Clinch Valley section,
about 1794. The Gillespies were quite a distinguished people in Scotland,
especially in the affairs of church; the Rev. Thomas Gillespie, a
Presbyterian minister of Scotland, is mentioned as being prominent in the
affairs of his church in 1752.

Gillespies' Gap is a well known pass in the Blue Ridge, in North Carolina;
and Haywood, in his Civil and Political History of Tennessee, at pp. 196-
7, mentions a Captain Gillespie as serving under Colonel John Sevier in
1779 in the Indian wars in that state, mentioning an incident in
connection with this Captain Gillespie, which shows him to have been a man
of great personal courage, firmness and magnanimity. It appears from
information furnished the author by the Honorable Albert P. Gillespie, of
Tazewell, that two brothers, James and Thomas Gillespie, came from the
Cumberland country in Tennessee, about 1794, and that James settled near
Chatham Hill, in what is now Smyth County, and that some of his
descendants still reside in that section, and some are residents of the
County of Tazewell. Thomas Gillespie is the ancestor of the larger part of
the family of that name in Tazewell County, and he left the following
sons: John, Rees, B., Henry, William and Robert; and daughters, one
married James Harrison, and another married a Mr. Thompson.

William M. Gillespie, son of the preceding William, married Olivia
Johnston, of Giles County (he and his wife are both now dead), and they
had the following children, viz: David J., who married Elizabeth Sanders;
Joseph S., who married Mary Higginbotham; Albert P., who married Nannie
Higginbotham; and daughters, Sarah, who married Clinton Barnes; Margaret,
who married Colonel Joseph Harrison; Mary, who married Oscar Barnes, and
Ella, who married Dr. J. L. Painter. The daughter of Thomas Gillespie, who
married James Harrison, was the mother of Colonel Joseph Harrison, now
living near Tazewell, Virginia.

The Hales of New River Valley.
This family is of English origin, descendants of the Hales of Kent. The
first American emigrant of the name coming in 1632, bore the coat of arms
of the Kentish Hales--three broad arrows, feather white on a red field.
The traditional story in the family of these New River Hales is, that the
family was quite numerous in Massachusetts and Connecticut, and that some
time prior to the beginning of our War for Independence there were in one
family of this name seven brothers, all of whom joined the American Army;
a part of them served through the war under General Washington in and
around Boston, in the Jerseys and in Pennsylvania; that one of the older
brothers, who had a family, drifted south to Virginia some years prior to
the beginning of the Revolution, and located in what is now Franklin
County, Virginia; that this settler had a son Edward, who served in the
American Army in the early period of the Revolution, and later, in 1779,
came across the Alleghanies into the New River Valley, and later married a
Miss Patsy Perdue and settled on Wolf Creek. Edward Hale was born about
1750, was a man of rather small stature, fair complexion and blue eyes,
was a man of information and intelligence, and became a prominent figure
on the border in his day, engaging in the Indian wars, fights and
skirmishes. He was with the party under Captain Matthew Farley, that
followed the Indians in the summer of 1783, after their attack on Mitchell
Clay's family, on the Bluestone at Clover Bottom, and was in the skirmish
had with a part of these Indians on Pond Fork of Little Coal River, in
which he killed an Indian at the first fire. From the back of this Indian,
killed by Edward Hale, William Wiley, who was in the party of pursuers,
took a strip of the Indian's hide, which he gave to Hale and was used by
him and a number of his family for many years as a razor strop. Opposite
this page is the photograph of Dr. James W. Hale, a descendant of the
Captain Edward Hale above mentioned.

Edward Hale marched with Captain Shannon's company to North Carolina, in
February, 1781, and was in the engagement at Wetzell's Mills, on the 6th
day of March, and at Guilford Court House on the 15th day of the same
month. In 1785 Edward Hale married Miss patsy Perdue, a daughter of Uriah
Perdue, then recently removed from what is now Franklin County, Virginia.
Mrs. Hale was a sister of the wife of the elder Joseph Hare. The names of
the children of Edward Hale and his wife are as follows, viz: Thomas,
Isaiah, Charles, Jesse, Isaac, Daniel, Elias and William; and the
daughters, Mary and Phoebe. Thomas married Miss Lucas, Isaiah married
Margaret Lucas, Isaac married Miss Lucas, Jesse married Margaret Watts,
Elias married Nancy Peters, William married Miss Williams; Mary married
John Williams, and they moved to the state of Missouri, and Phoebe married
John McClaugherty, son of James.

Thomas Hale had sons, Charles, Edward, Lorenzo D., Green, Thomas, and
Ralph; daughters, Priscilla, who married William H. French; Martha, who
married, first David F. Alvis, second William Shannon; Rhonda, who never
married.

Isaac had one son, Daniel P.; daughters, Eliza, who married Captain James
F. Hare; Martha, who married Russell G. French; Miriam, who married Isaac
H. Day; Mary, who married Charles E. Hale; Sarah, who married, first,
Rufus Brown, second, Luke Wells; Daniel P., married Martha Shumate.

Daniel had sons, Thomas, Charles E., John A., and Daniel F., and
daughters, Elizabeth, who married William Shumate; Paulina, who married C.
W. Tolley; Linney, who married R. G. Rowland; Cornelia, who married
William Brown.

Charles had sons, John D., William H., and Isaac (the latter died young);
daughters, Hulda, who married Andrew Fillinger; Martha, who married John
Walker.

Isaiah had sons, Erastus (who died young), Luther C., who married Miss
Alice Peck; the daughters, Charlotte married William Moser, Louisa married
Jacob Snidow, Juliana married Wolf Crotching, Virginia married James
Kinzie, Wilmoth married Andrew J. Hare. Isaiah Hale married a second wife,
Mrs. Sallie Lybrook, whose maiden name was Hall; they had daughters,
Lizzie, who married George Spangler; Sallie L., who married J. Harvey
Dunn, and the son, Luther C., above mentioned.

Jesse had sons, Hamilton J. (died during the Civil War), Edward C., who
lives in Giles County; daughters, Julia, who married ............
Pettyjohn; Martha, who died unmarried; Mary, who married David French;
Eglentine, who married Henry W. Broderick (both dead); Newtonia, who
married Erastus W. Charleton.

For want of correct and sufficient information the names of the children
of William Hale and his sister, Mrs. Williams (both of whom died in
Missouri) cannot be given in this work.

The children of Elias Hale and his wife, Nancy Peters Hale, are as
follows, viz: John E., who married Miss Moore; Charles A., who married
Miss Bailey; Captain Rufus A., who married Julia Bailey; Comrad married
......; daughters, Mary who married Calvin Harry; Ardelia, who married
John T. Carr; Julia, who died unmarried.

Edward Hale died about 1820, and his descendants are among the most valued
citizens of the country; they have occupied prominent and important
positions in the civil and military affairs of the district of country in
which they have lived. They have been farmers, physicians, lawyers,
merchants, magistrates, members of the Legislature and judges. As soldiers
they have always been the equals of any that the country has sent forth;
they fought, bled and died on nearly every important battlefield of our
Civil War. Dr. James W. Hale--formerly a distinguished physician--now an
able lawyer, residing at Princeton, West Virginia, was a valiant
Confederate soldier in the Civil War, losing an arm at the battle of
Piedmont, Virginia, June 5th, 1864. He is a great-grandson of Edward Hale.
Edward McClaugherty, another great-grandson of Edward Hale, was a
lieutenant in Company A, 17th Virginia Regiment of Cavalry, and died in
the service. Honorable Robert C. McClaugherty, also a great-grandson of
Edward Hale, is a prominent lawyer residing at Bluefield, West Virginia.
He served four years as Judge of the 9th Judicial Circuit of West
Virginia. The late Captain Rufus A. Hale, of Mercer County, was one of the
bravest men in his regiment, serving throughout the war 1861-5 with
distinction, and was more than once commended by his superior officers for
his gallantry and good conduct on the battlefield. Charles A. Hale, a
brother of Captain Rufus A., was a highly reputable citizen, made a good
record and name as a valiant soldier of the 8th Virginia Regiment of
Cavalry.

James Perdue, who died in Mercer County in 1900, at the age of one hundred
and one years, was a relative of Captain Edward Hale.

Joseph Hare, the Huguenot.
The ancestors of Joseph Hare left France in the days of the fearful
religious persecution, and sought refuge for a short time in the Barbados,
from which, about 1710, they came to South Carolina, where the family
remained a number of years, and thence traveled northward until it reached
the southern border of the State of North Carolina, not far from the
present city of Fayetteville. The breaking out of the American Revolution
found in this family eight boys and three girls, all born in South
Carolina, among them Joseph, who was born in 1749. The great Tory or
Loyalist uprising in the spring of 1776, in the neighborhood of
Fayetteville, North Carolina, under the leadership of General McDonald,
brought the patriot forces of that section together under Colonel Richard
Caswell, to whose command Joseph Hare had attached himself. Colonel
Caswell, learning that this body of Loyalists, 1500 strong, was preparing
to march to Wilmington and would on their route have to cross Moore's
Creek Bridge, repaired thither with his troops, and prepared for action,
which took place on February 27th, 1776, resulting in the complete
overthrow and defeat of the Loyalists Army, and the killing and capturing
of a large number, including their commander.

After the term of service of Joseph Hare had expired he came, in the year
of 1779, to the New River Valley, and finally settled on Wolf Creek, in
what is now the County of Giles. He became very distinguished Indian
fighter, spy and scout, and was in many of the skirmishes along the
border, between 1779 and 1794, among them the skirmish with the Indians on
Pond Fork of Little Coal River in the summer or early fall of 1783, in
which several of the Indians were slain. The Indians killed in this action
were a part of the band that had a few days previously attacked the family
of Mitchell Clay, at Clover Bottom, on the Bluestone, killing a son and
daughter of Clay, and carrying away as a prisoner his young son Ezekiel.
Joseph Hare was a member of Captain Thomas Shannon's Company, with which
he marched to the state of North Carolina in February, 1781, and with his
company participated in the action of Wetzell's Mills on the 6th day of
March, and on the 15th of the same month in the Battle of Guilford Court
House. In April, his wife, Phoebe Belcher Clay, by whom he had two
children, who, together with the mother, died young. He then married
Phoebe Perdue, and daughter of Uriah Perdue, then lately removed from the
County of Franklin. This Perdue family was of French extraction, and
possessed of all the eccentricities, peculiarities and nervousness of
their French ancestry. Joseph Hare had by his second marriage but one
child, a son, William H., who married Sallie French, a daughter of James
French and his wife Susan Hughes French.

William H. Hare and his wife had the following named children: Joseph, who
married Julia A. Duncan; Andrew J., who married Wilmoth Hale; James F.,
who married Eliza Hale; Isaac, who first married Miss Rowland, second,
Miss Kirk; William H., who married Miss Lambert; John D., who died
unmarried; and daughters, Phoebe, who married Rev.Elisha G. Duncan;
Susannah, who married James W. Rowland, and Sallie, who married William P.
Shumate. The elder Joseph Hare died in 1855, at the age of one hundred and
five years.

Dr. Joseph H. Hare, a prominent physician of the city of Bluefield, is a
great-grandson of the elder Joseph Hare, and his photograph will be seen
on the page facing this. The descendants of Joseph Hare were bold and
determined soldiers, among them Captain James F. Hare led a company in the
36th Virginia Regiment of Infantry. Hamilton, a son of the younger Joseph
Hare, and a brother of Dr. Joseph H. Hare, was killed in the battle of
Piedmont, Virginia, June 5th, 1864.

The Hoges.
In addition to other sources of information, we gather from "Foot's
Sketches of Virginia," and from a pamphlet entitled "Historical and
Genealogical of the Cumberland Valley, Pa.,"by William H. Egle, M. D., M.
A., the following particulars in regard to the early history of the Hoge
family.

William Hoge, the first representative of this family, distinguished in
church and state, came to America in 1682; was the son of James Hoge, of
Scotland, who lived in Musselburg, near Glasgow. On board the Caladonia,
the vessel that brought him over, there was a family named Hume,
consisting of father, mother, and daughter; they were Presbyterians,
leaving Scotland to avoid persecution. The Humes were from Paisley,
Scotland, and the father was a Knight and a Baron; both father and mother
died during the voyage to America, leaving their daughter, Barbara, in
charge of young William Hoge, who placed her with her relations, the
Johnstons, in the city of New York, whilst he decided to make his home at
Perth Amboy, New Jersey, on land owned by a Scotch company, at the head of
which was Governor Berkeley, and of which he was a member. Subsequently
William Hoge returned to New York, married the girl Barbara Hume, who had
been his protege, and from this rather romantic marriage a long line of
distinguished men and women have written their names on history's page.
After the birth of their first son, John, William and his young wife made
their home for some time in Chester County, Pennsylvania, and John, when
grown, married Miss ......... Bowen, a Welch woman, and settled about nine
miles west of Harrisburg and laid out the little village of Hogestown.
From this marriage sprang a long line of descendants who have fitly
adorned the history of Pennsylvania, Ohio, and other western states, many
of our country's most distinguished men being numbered among them, but the
line is too long to trace these descendants, but rather of the father and
remainder of the children, all of whom came to Virginia about the time
John was establishing the little village of Hogestown.

The children that came with William Hoge to Virginia, in 1735, were as
follows: Solomon, James, William, Alexander, George, Zebulon, and Nancy,
making their home about three miles from Winchester, in Frederick County.
In the old graveyard of old Opequon Church--the deed for that land on
which the church stands was made by William Hoge on February 14th, 1745--
is buried William Hoge and Barbara, his wife, and many of their
descendants. The first Pastor of this church was Rev. John Hoge, grandson
of William, and son of John, his eldest son, who had remained in
Pennsylvania. Solomon married a Quakeress and was the progenitor of that
vast family of Hoges in Loudon and other lower Valley and Piedmont
counties. Alexander was a member of the Constitutional Convention of
Virginia that adopted the Federal Constitution, and was a member of the
first Congress.

James, the third son, of the descendants of whom this narrative will
especially treat, and who has been said by one in writing of him, to be a
"man eminent for his clear understanding, devout fear of God, and the love
of the Gospel of Christ," was married twice; the name of the first wife
was Agnes, the second Mary, their maiden names unknown; the records of
Frederick County show that he and his wife Agnes join in a deed in 1748,
and that he and his wife Mary in a deed in 1758. He and his wives are
buried in old Opequon graveyard, he having died June 2nd, 1795. His first
wife, Agnes, gave him two sons, John and James, and a daughter, who was
the mother of General Robert Evans, founder of Evansville, Indiana, and of
Mattie Evans, one of the captives of Abb's Valley. John, the eldest son,
becoming dissatisfied with his father's marriage, left home and was never
definitely heard from afterward, though he was supposed to have been
killed in Braddock's defeat on the Monongahela.

The younger brother, James, left home a few years afterwards to search for
his brother John, but after reaching what is now Pulaski County, Virginia,
gave up the search, and stopped with a new found friend, Major Joseph
Howe, a gentleman of English decent, who had several years previous found
a home in the then mountain wilds. After staying with him a short while
young James Hoge married his daughter, Elizabeth, in 1763, and they made
their home near the father-in-law, and this is the old southwestern
Virginia Hoge homestead, now owned by the late Governor James Hoge Tyler,
a great-grandson of the founder. James Hoge was born January 12th, 1742,
and died April 5th, 1812, seventeen years after the death of his father,
and is buried in the old Hoge burying ground. James Hoge and Elizabeth
Howe Hoge, his wife, had five sons and six daughters: Joseph, John, Agnes,
Martha, General James, and Sarah, Elizabeth, Mary, Daniel, and William; of
the sons General James was a man of most marked characteristics, and
attained very eminent distinction. He was a distinguished officer in the
War of 1812; served his county and district in the Senate and House of
Delegates several terms; was five times Presidential Elector for his
district on the Democratic ticket. He was born July 23rd, 1783, and died
July 28th, 1861; is buried by the side of his wife, Eleanor Howe Hoge, in
the old Howe burying ground. His wife was his first cousin.

Joseph Hoge, the eldest brother, removed to Tennessee, and left a large
number of descendants in that and other states. John and William both
lived and died in Pulaski, Virginia, and are numerously represented in
that and adjoining counties. Daniel lived and died in Wise County,
Virginia; he has descendants in southwest Virginia and some in the South;
his sons were James, Stafford and Dr. John H.

To briefly revert to the elder James Hoge, grandfather of General James
and son of William Hoge and Barbara Hume, will state that by his second
marriage there was several sons and perhaps daughters; the names of three
of the sons were, Solomon, Edward and Moses, the latter a distinguished
minister, was president of Hampden Sidney College and Professor in Union
Theological Seminary. He died in 1820, July 5th; is buried in the church
yard of the Third Presbyterian Church, Philadelphia. He was the
grandfather of the eminent Divine, Rev. Moses D. Hoge, of Richmond,
Virginia, whose reputation is worldwide, and of the late William J. Hoge,
D. D. Their father was Rev. Samuel Davies Hoge, who was brother to Rev.
James Hoge, D. D., late of Columbus, Ohio, and Rev. John Blair Hoge,
father of Judge John Blair Hoge, of West Virginia.

The Howes.
There are difficulties in the way of tracing back this family to its
English origin. Tradition has to be largely relied upon, and this, as
presented by different branches of the family, differs as to the first of
the family that crossed the Atlantic, and as to the place of first
settlement. One statement is that a Joseph How, belonging to a family of
that name long domiciled in the state of Massachusetts, enlisted and
served as a soldier in the French and Indian War, in which he was supposed
to have been lost, but was afterwards found in the New River Valley, where
later he added the letter "e" to the name, the original spelling of the
name being How, afterwards Howe. How much of this statement is correct
cannot be determined. The author has chosen to follow copies of the "Howe
MSS.," furnished him by Honorable J. Hoge Tyler, late Governor of
Virginia, who is a direct descendant of the Joseph Howe, a sketch of whose
family here follows:

The Howe family, not unlike the Hoge family, with which it is so nearly
related, also commences with a little romantic episode in the lives of the
first American representatives. Joseph Howe, an English gentleman, first
cousin of Lord Howe and General Wayne of Revolutionary fame, came to
America in 1737. On board the vessel that brought him over was a beautiful
and captivating girl by the name of Eleanor Dunbar; the two young people
fell in love with each other on the voyage and married soon after landing
and settled near Boston, Mass., from which point they drifted southward
and finally settled in the rugged regions of southwestern Virginia when
the country was quite a trackless wilderness. They made their home on Back
Creek, as nearly as can be established, in 1757 or 1758, and this old
homestead, the scene of many pleasant revelries and charming reunions, is
still in possession of one of the representatives of the family, Mrs.
Agnes Howe DeJarnette, a great-granddaughter of its founder. Joseph Howe
had three sons, Joseph, John and Daniel; of Joseph there is nothing known,
he having left home in early life; John seems to have left no family.

Daniel was an officer in the Revolutionary War, was a man of strong mind
and high character. He married Nancy Haven and had three sons, Joseph H.,
John Dunbar, and William H.; and seven daughters, Ruth, Julia, Eleanor,
Elizabeth, Lucretia, Nancy, and Luemma. Joseph married Margaret Feely;
John D. married Sarah Sheppard; William married Mary Fisher; Ruth married
Thomas Kirk, and removed to Missouri; Julia married Zecharia Cecil;
Eleanor married General James Hoge; Elizabeth married Colonel George
Neeley Pearis; Lucretia married Colonel William Thomas; Nancy married
Honorable Harvey Deskins, and Luemma married Dr. Jackson.

The children of John Dunbar Howe and Sarah, his wife, are as follows:
Margaret, who married George Shannon; Susan, who married J. M. Thomas;
Eliza Jane, who married Charles J. Matthews; Ellen Mary, who married J. G.
Kent; John T., who married Sallie DeJarnette; Samuel S., who died a
prisoner of war at Point Lookout; Haven B., who married Kate Cloyd;
Willie, who died in infancy, and Agnes, who married Captain E. G.
DeJarnette and lived at the old place.

The children of William H. Howe and Mary Fisher Howe are: Belle, who
married Dr. Charles Pepper; Lizzie, who married W. W. Minor; William G.,
who married Alice Brown, Augusta, who married Dr. Hufford; Sallie, who
married Mr. Harmon; Alice, who married Charles Bumgardner; Ellie, who is
unmarried. A daughter of Thomas Kirk and Ruth, his wife married a Mr.
Peery.

The children of Julia Howe, who married Zecharia Cecil, are: Russell,
Giles, Daniel R., Zecharia and Nancy. The children of Eleanor, who married
General James Hoge, are: Daniel, James, Joseph H., William; and Eliza, who
married George Tyler, of Caroline, the father of Governor J. Hoge Tyler.
The names of the children of Elizabeth, who married Colonel George N.
Pearis, are as follows: George W. Pearis, Daniel H. Pearis, Nancy, who
married Archer Edgar; Rebecca, who married George D. Hoge; Ardelia, who
married Daniel R. Cecil; and Elizabeth, who married Bejamine White. The
children of Lucretia who married William Thomas, were Giles, William, Mary
Anne and Julia. Nancy, who married Harvey Deskins, had no children. The
children of Luemma, who married Dr. Jackson, are: Mollie, Sue, and Luemma.

John Howe, son of the first Joseph and his wife Eleanor Dunbar Howe, was
an active business man, engaged largely in the acquisition of wild land by
survey and grant in the early years of the settlements along the
tributaries of New River, in what is now Giles County, Virginia, and
Mercer County, West Virginia. He made a survey and obtained a grant for a
tract of four hundred acres of land on Brush Creek, near where the village
of Princeton is now located.

Major Daniel Howe, an officer in our War for Independence, was often on
detached service in search of Tories. The story is told that one John
Haven, of Plum Creek, was suspected of being a Tory, and that Major Howe
was sent on more than one occasion to arrest Haven, but was unable to do
so, and that finally a pretty, black-eyed daughter of Haven, whose name
was Nancy, caught the Major and she became his wife, as already stated.