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



Appendix C
Biographical Sketches Part B


The Johnstons.
In the 13th century, says Lieutenant Charles Johnston in his history of
this family, "There lived in the mountainous district of Annandale,
Dumbriesshire, Scotland, just north of Firth of Solway, a small but hardy
clan of borderers, whose chief was called John. They were doubtless of
Saxon origin, and up to this time were little known. Their clanbadge was
the Red Hawthorne. As the clan grew stronger their Chieftain became
ambitious to take his place among the chiefs of the larger clans. Their
motto was: "Viva ut vivas." A little after the middle of the 13th century
of chief of the clan applied to the Earl of Annandale, who was the
grandfather of Robert Bruce, to purchase a tract of land near the center
of the district; the deal was consummated, and it thereupon became
necessary to give name to the tract in question; Bruce, in the charter,
called it Jonistourn (or Johnston) , and this chieftain, now Lord
Jonistoun, was called Sir John de Jonistoun. His clan was thereafter known
as Jonistoun, or Johnistouns, the name now being spelled Johnstone or
Johnston. Some writers have fallen into the error that the name is
synonymous with Johnson, but a glance at the derivation of the names
easily discloses the error; Johnson is derived from and means the son of
John, while Johnston signifies John's Town; the one shows locality, the
other indicates descent.

"The Johnstons were a prolific clan as well as hardy, and in the next two
centuries after adopting the name, they became strong enough to excite the
jealousy of their neighbors, the much stronger clan of Maxwell of
Nithsdale, and many a bloody fight took place before the Johnstons
established their supremacy at the battle of Dyfe-Sands, in 1593, in which
the Maxwells were completely routed, leaving their chief, Lord John
Maxwell, dead on the field. At this time the chief of the Johnstons was
Sir James, who was succeeded by his son James, who was created Lord
Johnston in 1633; both were of the Peerage and served in the English House
of Lords. The Johnstons and Scotts, it seems, were near neighbors in
Scotland. Sir Walter Scott, in his "Fair Maid of Perth," gives
considerable prominence to the Johnston Clan, and adds some verses which
run as follows:

Within the bounds of Annandale
The gentle Johnstons ride,
They have been here a thousand years
And a thousand more they'll bide.

The seat of the Johnston Clan was at Lockerby, near the center of the
district of Annondale."

After the fall of Londondary, and religious persecution continuing in
their country, a large number of the Johnstons migrated to Ireland,
settling in County Antrim and near Eniskillen, in County Fermanagh, mostly
in the latter county. As early as 1700 several of these Fermanagh
Johnstons came to America, locating in Piedmont, Virginia, along the base
of the Blue Ridge, in what is now the Counties of Culpeper and
Rappahannock, then probably Essex County.

James Johnston, of Fermanagh, had two sons, James and David, the latter
born about 1726. The father having died and the estate under the laws
belonging to the older brother, James, the younger son David, seeing
nothing favorable to his remaining in Ireland, at the age of about ten
years, viz: about 1736 or 1737 sought an opportunity to join his kinsfolk
in America and succeeded in hiring himself to a ship captain as a cabin
boy, and finally landed at Norfolk, Virginia, and made his way across the
country to his relations on the waters of the Rappahannock. He became the
ancestor of the New River Johnstons. When about twenty-five years of age
(1751), he fell in love and married a pretty Irish girl by the name of
Nannie (or Annie) Abbott, a daughter of Richard Abbott of Culpeper, and
selected his home on Hazel River, near old Gourd Vine Church, in that
county.

John Chapman and his brother Richard, had also married daughters of
Richard Abbott. Moredock O. McKensey, from Glasgow, Scotland, had married
Jemima, the only sister of the Chapmans. In November, 1768, the Chapmans
and McKensey sold out their holdings in Culpeper, and crossed the Blue
Ridge and settled on the Shenandoah, where they remained until the year of
1771, when they removed to the New River Valley, locating at the mouth of
Walker's Creek, in the then County of Botetourt, now Giles. The peculiar
spelling of McKensey's name will be noted; the author examined the record
of deeds in the clerk's office of the County Court of Culpeper County,
finding a deed made by Mr. McKensey and wife in November, 1768, conveying
a tract of land on Burgess's River, to which deed the name of McKensey is
spelled "Moredock O. McKensey." Burgess's River has disappeared from all
the maps, if it ever had a place thereon, and diligent inquiry of the
Culpeper people failed to disclose its locality; it is believed however,
that the name has been changed to "Hedges' River."

In September, 1758, Hennings' Virginia Statutes, the House of Burgesses
made an appropriation to pay David Johnston, of Culpeper, a sum of money
for food furnished by him to friendly Indians. David Johnston remained in
Culpeper until 1778, and then came across the Alleghanies, settling on the
plateau or territory between Big Stoney Creek and Little Stoney Creek at
what is now know as the John Phleger farm, where he died in 1786, his wife
in 1813, and they are both buried on this farm. The house which he built
in1778 is still standing and forms a part of the residence of the late
John Phleger, and is no doubt the oldest structure in the County of Giles.
David Johnston and his wife, Nannie, or Annie, Abbott Johnston, had eight
children, three sons and five daughters, all born in Culpeper, the eldest;
Sallie, had married Thomas Marshall before the family left Culpeper.

James Johnston, the eldest son of David, had visited the New River Valley
in 1775, no doubt on a visit to the Chapmans and McKensey, and on his
return to Culpeper, and in January, 1776, he enlisted in a volunteer
company commanded by Captain George Slaughter, which company was attached
to the 8th Regiment of Virginia Infantry commanded by Colonel Muhlenberg.
James Johnston served two years in the American Army; his first service or
a part thereof was in South Carolina and Georgia; his command then marched
north and was under the immediate command of General Washington. James was
in the battles of Brandywine and Germantown, marched through the Jerseys,
and spent the winter at Valley Forge.

David Johnston and Nannie Abbott Johnston had the following children:
James, who married Miss Copley; Sallie, who married Thomas Marshall;
Elian, who married Isaac Chapman; Jemima, who married John Chapman, of
Wolf Creek; Virginia, who married Isaac McKensey; David, born in 1768,
married Mrs. Sallie Chapman Miller, the widow of Jacob Miller; Andrew,
born in 1770, married Jane Henderson of Montgomery County; Annie, the
youngest daughter, married George Fry, Jr.

This George Fry, Jr., was a son of George Fry who married the widow of the
elder David Johnston, the Settler. Captain George W. Caldwell, of Mercer,
is the grandson of Annie Johnston Fry, and the great grandson of the elder
David Johnston. James Johnston and his wife, ....... Copley, had several
children; sons, Reuben and David. The family, except David, went to
Indiana about the time of its admission into the Union. David married a
Miss Peck, of Botetourt County, and resided on Sinking Creek, where his
descendants still live. Thomas Marshall and his wife, Sallie Johnston
Marshall, who settled near the present dwelling house of George L. Snidow,
Esq., in Giles County, had four sons and two daughters; the sons: John,
David, James and Thomas; the daughters, Nancy and Aggie. The family of
Thomas Marshall removed at an early date to Powell's Valley, Virginia.

John Chapman, of Wolf Creek, the son of Richard and Jemima Johnston
Chapman, had quite a numerous family; one grandson, J. W. Chapman,
residing on Wolf Creek, in Bland County, is the only one of that family
now bearing that name that lives in this country. John Chapman and wife
had a daughter who married William Wilburn, of Sugar Run, and Boston and
John Howard Wilburn are her sons. The late John Chapman Wilburn was also a
grandson to the said John Chapman.

Isaac McKensey and family went to Kentucky quite a hundred years ago.
George Fry and his wife, Annie Johnston Fry, had a number of children,
among them two sons, David and James, who went to Cabell County, Virginia,
as early as 1820, and their descendants live in Cabell and Wayne, some of
whom were men of prominence, among them Chapman Fry, grandson of James,
was long Clerk of the County Court of Wayne; William, another grandson, is
a lawyer and now the Prosecuting Attorney of Wayne County; Johnston Fry, a
son of James, was for many years Deputy Sheriff of Wayne County. Some
members of this family settled in Boone and Logan Counties, and their
descendants still live there.

Sallie, a daughter of George Fry, Jr., and Annie Johnston Fry, married
David Croy; another daughter of George and Annie Fry, Eliza, married John
Caldwell, who resided for many years in Mercer County, where he and his
wife both died and are buried. They left a number of children, among them
Captain George W. Caldwell, who was a faithful and brave Confederate
soldier, and was for a number of years surveyor of Mercer County.

The children of Isaac and Elian Johnston Chapman and who they married,
will be seen by reference to the biographical sketch of the Chapmans.

David Johnston and his wife, Mrs. Sallie Chapman Miller Johnston, had two
sons and three daughters; the sons: Oscar Fitzalan Johnston, was born
June, 1807, married Elizabeth French, daughter of Isaac and Sallie Straley
French; had three children, David E., who married Sarah E. Pearis; Sallie
V. (Note: Died December 2d, 1905.) who married, first, Jesse N. Simmons,
second, George O'Rayburn; Oscar H., who died in 1879, unmarried. Chapman
Isaac Johnston, born January, 1809, died December, 1891, married Elian
Chapman Snidow, daughter of John and Rachel Chapman Snidow; they had sons,
David Andrew, who married Fannie Shumate; J. Raleigh, who married Nona
Peck; Sarah Ellen, who married William Augustus French; Annie Chapman ,
who married Charles Dingess French; Rachel Snidow, who married, first,
......... Daugherty, second, Joseph H. Alvis. Olivia Johnston married
William M. Gillespie of Tazewell County; had three sons, David Johnston,
who married Elizabeth Saunders, Joseph Stras, who married Mary
Higginbotham; Albert Pendleton, who married Nannie Higginbotham; the
daughters, Sarah, who married Clinton Barnes; Margaret, who married
Colonel Joseph Harrison; Louisa, who married Captain Henry Bowen; Mary,
who married Oscar Barnes; Barbara, who married George W. Gillispie; Ella,
who married Dr. J. L. Painter. Louisa Adeline Johnston married Colonel
Daniel H. Pearis; they had three children, two daughters and one son:
Virginia, who died in 1860, unmarried; George Daniel, who when little
above the age of sixteen years, joined Bryan's Virginia Battery and was
killed in the battle of Cloyd's Farm, May 9th, 1864; and Sarah E., who
married David E. Johnston. Sallie Chapman Johnston died unmarried.

Colonel Andrew Johnston and his wife, Jane Henderson Johnston, had five
children;  three sons and two daughters: James D., a lawyer of great
prominence, married Mary A. Fowler, daughter of Dr. Thomas Fowler and his
wife, Priscilla Chapman Fowler. Andrew Henderson Johnston married Mary
McDaniel, and they had two children, Walter McDaniel, who married Annie
Hays; Jennie, who married Honorable Thomas H. Dennis. Dr. Harvey Green
Johnston married, first, Annie Snidow, by whom he had four children;
secondly, he married Mrs. Mary Fowler Halsey, by whom he had four
children. Mary Johnston married James M. Carper; they had two sons and
three daughters. Eliza Jane Johnston married James Hoge, of Montgomery
County; they had a large family of children.

The children of James D. Johnston and his wife, Mary Fowler Johnston,
were:  Roberta, who married Dr. John Izard; Allene, who died unmarried;
Sydney F. (now dead), who married miss Hattie Carey; Mamie, who married
Mason Jamison, and James D., a brilliant young lawyer of Roanoke, Virginia.

The children of Dr. Harvey Green Johnston are: Dr. William A., who married
Mrs. Dennis; Carrie, who married Mr. J. E. Triplett; Jennie, who married
Mr. William Black; Loula, who married Mr. B. E. Bransford; Fowler, who
died young;  Harvey, Vivian and Ada are unmarried.

Annie Hoge, daughter of James Hoge and Eliza Jane Johnston Hoge, married
Major John Chapman Snidow; had two sons and two daughters; the sons,
William and Walter;  daughters, Florence, who married John T. S. Hoge;
Annie C., who married John W. Williams, who was Clerk of the Virginia
House of delegates. The sons of James Hoge and Eliza Jane Johnston Hoge
are Dr. Robert, James, Joseph, Rev. B. Lacey and Tyler, and a daughter,
Jane Nellie.

The descendants of the settler David Johnston, or many of them, together
with the descendants of the settlers John and Richard Chapman, have not
only been prominent and influential people in both civil and military
affairs in the New River Valley, but even in other sections of the
country. In every constitutional convention held in Virginia, except those
of 1776, and the "Black and Tan," of 1869, this Johnston-Chapman blood has
had representatives. Henley Chapman was in the Convention of 1829-30;  his
son, General Augustus A. Chapman, was a member of the Convention of 1850-
1; his son, Mannilius, a member of the Secession Convention of 1861; a
great- grandson of David Johnston and John Chapman was a member of the
late Constitutional Convention of Virginia in the person of Honorable
Albert Pendleton Gillespie, of Tazewell. The second David Johnston, Andrew
Johnston, Isaac Chapman, and his son, John, were frequently in the
Legislature of Virginia; and later, Oscar F. Johnston, Augustus A.
Chapman, and Manilius Chapman were members of the Virginia Legislature. A
grandson and great- grandson of the settler, John Chapman, together with a
great nephew, were members of the House of Representatives of the United
States, in the persons of General A. A. Chapman, David E. Johnston, and
Honorable Reuben Chapman, the latter of Alabama. Two great-grandsons of
the elder David Johnston and John Chapman have been Circuit Judges in West
Virginia, and one of them, Honorable Joseph M. Sanders, has recently been
elevated to the bench of the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia.
Honorable James French Strother, a great-great-grandson of John Chapman,
is now a judge in West Virginia. Major Samuel E. Lybrook and William A.
French, great-grandsons of John Chapman, represented Giles County in the
Legislature of Virginia; and Samuel Lucas, a great-grandson of the elder
David Johnston, was also a member of the Virginia Legislature.

About the year of 1800 there came to what is now Giles County and settled
in what is known as the Irish settlement, an influx of the Johnstons from
Fermanagh County, Ireland. Adam Johnston married in Ireland Elizabeth
Stafford, of County Tyrone. Adam, and his wife, Elizabeth Stafford
Johnston, had a numerous family, among them, John, Adam, James Edward and
others. John, James and Edward had large families, who with their
descendants mostly reside in Giles County. Adam is the ancestor of the
larger part of the Mercer County Johnstons. Edward, usually called "Squire
Neddy," was Clerk of Giles County Court for several years. Some of the
descendants of John and James Johnston reside in Mercer County, among them
Dr. Charles A. Johnston, George S. Strader, and the family of Jacob L.
Peters. Among these Scotch-Irish settlers who came about 1800 were the
Eatons, Staffords, Egglestons and others.

The Kirks.
John Kirk, the ancestor of this family, came from Scotland, and had
located, several years prior to the beginning of the American Revolution,
in Piedmont, Virginia. John, the son of this emigrant, came to the New
River Valley at an early date, as shown by his written application, made
in 1832, for a pension for military services rendered as an American
soldier in the Revolution; he was born in the County of Fauquier, October
10th, 1754. He had a son, Thomas, who was also an American soldier, and
had received, in one of the battles of the War of 1812, a severe wound in
the hand. The Kirks, Duncans and Emmonses were neighbors in Fauquier.

The John Kirk who came to Middle New River married Elizabeth O'Brien, and
his son Thomas married Ruth Howe, a daughter of Major Daniel Howe. John
Kirk enlisted in the spring of 1776, in the company of Captain John
Chilton, of Fauquier County, which company was attached to the 3rd
Virginia Regiment of Infantry commanded by Colonel Hugh Mercer, of which
Thomas Marshall, father of Chief Justice John Marshall, was the Major.
This regiment, after its organization, marched to Alexandria, Virginia,
then to Williamsburg, and from there to New York and was posted on Long
Island. Colonel Mercer, having been promoted to Brigadier General and put
in command of a brigade consisting of the 3rd, 7th, 11th, and 15th
Virginia Regiments, Colonel Weeden was placed in command of the 3rd
Regiment, Thomas Marshall becoming Lieutenant Colonel, and Captain Leak,
Major. In the battle of Long Island, in August, 1776, Major Leak was
killed and Captain Lee was promoted to Major. The brigade of Mercer
marched to White Plains, then into New Jersey and on to Pennsylvania,
camping on the banks of the Delaware, from whence on the evening of
Christmas, 1776, the army crossed the Delaware through floating ice, and
surprised the Hessians at Trenton, New Jersey, capturing more than 1,000
prisoners, who were safely brought away. The army rested in the vicinity
of the Delaware, where it was confronted by the British Army, which, on
the night of the...... day of January, 1777, it eluded and by a circuitous
route attacked a British force at Princeton, which it defeated. The
brigade to which John Kirk belonged opened this battle; its brigade
commander, General Mercer, fell mortally wounded. Mr. Kirk was also in the
battle of Brandywine, in September, 1777, in which his Captain Chilton,
was killed, as was Major Lee, of his regiment; he was likewise in the
battle of Germantown and wintered at Valley Forge. His term of enlistment
for two years expired in the spring of 1778, and he received his
discharge. All the people of the New River Valley, who bear the name of
Kirk, and many others who do not, are the descendants of this family. John
Kirk represented Giles County in the House of Delegates of Virginia in the
years of 1818-19, and was also Sheriff of that county.

The Lybrooks.
The progenitor of this family came from Holland (Note: George Lybrook was
killed by a runaway horse, about 1835, at a point about one half mile
south of Pearisburg, Virginia.) to Pennsylvania. The original name was
Leibroch, but anglicized into Lybrook. The first and only one of this name
that sought and found a home in the New River Valley was Philip Lybrook,
who came from Pennsylvania between 1748 and 1755, locating at the mouth of
Sinking Creek, in what is now the County of Giles, then Augusta. He did
not come with the Draper's Meadows settlers in 1748, as he is not
mentioned, nor does his name appear in connection with that settlement or
the people who made it until August 7th, 1755, the day before the butchery
of the Draper's Meadows settlers by the Indians, when young Preston had
been sent by his uncle, Colonel Patton, over to Lybrook's to get him to
help with the reaping of the grain. Mr. Lybrook is again mentioned by
Hale, in his "Trans-Alleghaney Pioneers," in connection with the retreat
of the Indians with their prisoners, taken at Draper's Meadows, and the
leaving of the head of Philip Barger at Lybrook's. It may be mentioned in
connection with the remarkable escape and tramp of Mrs. Ingles from Big
Bone Lick, in Kentucky, up the New River to Adam Harman's at the Gunpowder
Spring, that she would not have stopped two miles below at Lybrook's; she
had been taken to Lybrook's by the Indians on their retreat, and there
would seem to be no reason why she should not have sought shelter at Mr.
Lybrook's. The only reasonable conclusion is that either Lybrook had
become fearful of the Indians and gone away to a place of greater safety,
or that Mrs. Ingles, in her worn and enfeebled condition, had lost all
knowledge of the locality of Lybrook's cabin, lost her bearings, and that
in avoiding the high cliff of rocks jutting into the river just below the
mouth of Sinking Creek, had been compelled to leave the river, keeping,
however, the general course thereof along the hills, and in this way
reached the river at a point along the hills, and in this way reached the
river at a point above Lybrook's without knowing exactly where she was.
There is no information obtainable that Mr. Lybrook had abandoned his
settlement between the dates referred to; in fact, there is no other
mention of him until the year of 1774, though, beyond doubt, he had been
visited by John Snidow, from Pennsylvania, in 1765, as Snidow's family
settled near him in 1766. The Lybrook-Chapman-Snidow Fort stood at the
extreme upper end of what is known as the "Horse Shoe" farm, a short
distance below the mouth of Sinking Creek. In the early days of August,
1774, there had been made known to the settlers that Indians were prowling
around. John Chapman was away from home that day, Saturday, the 6th day of
August, that information was conveyed to his family that Indians were in
the neighborhood. Mrs. Chapman gathered her children and such of the
household goods as they could carry, crossed the river and struck for the
fort, and as they passed through the little bottom above the mouth of
Little Stoney Creek they found the fresh remains of a hog that had just
been killed by the Indians; this tended to hasten their pace and they
reached the fort in safety. Mr. Lybrook and an Irishman by the name of
McGriff were cultivating a small crop of corn at the mouth of Sinking
Creek, had erected a couple of cabins in which their respective families
resided; these men treated the statement that Indians were in the
neighborhood as idle stories. On the morning of Sunday, the 7th, some of
the young people from the fort, among them the Snidows, went up to Philip
Lytbrook's, where during the day six Indians attacked the young people in
and about the river, and also Mr. Lybrook in his little mill on the Spring
Branch. They killed a young woman by the name of Scott, and five small
children of Lybrook and Mrs. Snidow,wounded Mr. Lybrook in the arm,
captured three small boys, and ran a foot race after John Lybrook, eleven
years old, who escaped to his father's house.

Mr. Philip Lybrook had a number of children, but it is only proposed to
follow John and his descendants. Opposite this page is a photograph of
Major Samuel E. Lybrook, a great grandson of the elder Philip, the
settler, and grandson of John, who out ran the Indian. John lived and grew
to manhood and old age. When he was about twenty-five years old he fell in
love with Annie Chapman, daughter of John and Sallie Abbott Chapman. Annie
had another lover in the person of James French, son of Matthew French,
whom she had agreed to marry; the day of the wedding was fixed, the
license procured and the wedding supper cooked, the minister present to
perform the ceremony, all the invited guests had arrived, save one--and
that was John Lybrook--who arrived, however, about dark. He rode up,
hitched his horse, walked in and made inquiry for Annie, and having found
her in a room with her bridesmaids, inquired, "Annie are you ready?" She
replying in the affirmative, walked out with him, sprang on his horse
behind him, and off they went for the home of John's father, leaving James
weeping and disconsolate. John seems to have had a license also, at any
rate he captured Jimmy's girl, and married her, as the marriage bond shows
under the name of Annie Chapman. The marriage bond bears date January
11th, 1787, and the marriage bond authorizing her marriage to James French
is dated January 1st, 1787. John Lybrook and Annie, his wife, had a number
of children, among them Philip, the first surveyor of Giles County, and a
man of prominence in his day. He married Miss Marrs and they had quite a
large family of sons and daughters; of his sons, David Johnston Lybrook
went to Australia at an early day, dying there some five or more years
past; a son, Major Samuel E., who resides in Giles County, and who married
miss Jennie Chapman; a son, John, of Montgomery County, who is the father
of John Barger Lybrook, of Washington, D. C., an employee in the office of
the Inter-State Commerce Commission.

John Lybrook, who escaped from the Indian in 1774, by jumping a ravine
twelve feet wide, became a famous hunter and brave, bold Indian fighter;
serving for several years in the various forts along the New River Valley
frontier under Captain John Floyd, and Lieutenant Christian Snidow. Mr.
Lybrook lived to about the age of eighty years.

The M'Claughetys.
This family is of Scottish origin, and about 1688, with the large tide of
emigration then moving from Scotland to Ireland, on account of religious
persecution and other causes, emigrated to County Down, from whence sprang
the American representatives of that family. James McClaugherty, of County
Down, Ireland, married Agnes McGarre, and came with his family to America
in the year 1786, settling at Sweet Springs (now Monroe County, West
Virginia). In 1809 he started with his family to Tennessee, and on
reaching New River found a heavy flood of water had carried away all the
boats within reasonable reach, and he stopped at the new River, settling
where the late James Floyd McClaugherty and family resided for many years.
The sons of James McClaugherty and Agnes, his wife, were James, John and
Hugh, and one daughter, Jane. On May 8th, 1813, in crossing New River, Mr.
McClaugherty, his wife, Agnes, and daughter Jane were drowned.

John, the son of James, married Miss Dingess, daughter of Peter Dingess,
and they had a family of sons and daughters. James, the son of James,
married Miss Sallie Mullins, and they had sons, James, John and William,
and daughters.

Captain John McClaugherty became a prominent figure in the affairs of
Giles County, and was for long years a magistrate, Deputy Clerk, sheriff,
and Deputy Sheriff; lived a long life of usefulness, dying at the age of
about ninety-three. John, son of James McClaugherty, married Phoebe Hale,
a daughter of Captain Edward Hale, and they had sons, John, Joseph H.,
Nelson H., Edward, who died in the Confederate military service; D. W.,
and Robert C., and a daughter, who married Dr. Evan H. Brown; another, who
married W. F. Heptinstall; another, who married Mr. Fillinger, and
another, who married Charles A. Deaton.

James Floyd McClaugherty, son of Captain John, married Miss Martha
Cunningham, and had sons, John, George and Robert, and a daughter, Sallie,
who married George Walker; John died young and unmarried.

Charles W., son of Captain John, married first, Miss Anne Kyle, second,
Mrs. Shanklin; by his first wife he had sons, Robert and J. Kyle; Robert
died young; a daughter, Henrietta married Charles W. Walker, and Virginia
married John Adair, of New River.

The M'Comases and Napiers.
In 1776 John McComas and his brother-in-law, Thomas H. Napier, came from
western Maryland to the New River Valley. McComas was of that bold,
adventurous, Scotch-Irish stock that feared no danger, and was always
anxious to get away from restraints of all kinds, and to be free and
happy. McComas and Napier first took up their abode at what is now known
as Ripplemeade, but shortly removed to the territory where Pearisburg,
Virginia, now stands, and as a protection against the Indians, built in
connection with the Halls Fort Branch on the land lately owned by Mr.
Charles D. French, and which is about three-fourths of a mile to the
southeast of Pearisburg. McComas very soon afterward entered and surveyed
some lands around or near the location referred to; and in 1782, the land
where Judge Philip W. Strother now resides, or a part thereof, was taken
up and surveyed by Moredock O. McKensey, and afterward conveyed to Thomas
H. Napier.

The first or elder David Johnston died in 1786; his will bears date in
July of that year, and John McComas is one of the subscribing witnesses to
that instrument. John McComas and his wife had a considerable family of
children; among the sons were: Elisha, David, Jesse, John, William and
Moses, and there were several daughters. John McComas, the elder, died in
Giles County, Virginia. Elisha McComas, son of the elder John, and who is
referred to as General Elisha, obtained his title after he went to Cabell
County, being commissioned a Brigadier General of militia. He married in
January, 1791, Annie French, daughter of Matthew, of Wolf Creek, and
removed to Cabell County about 1809. His brothers, or some of them,
preceded him by seven or eight years, and settled on the Guyandotte and
Mud River waters, then in Kanawha County, Cabell not being created until
1809.It will be noted that Elisha was there in 1810, either in Guyandotte
or vicinity, for he is made, by the act of the Legislature creating that
town, one of the trustees, as well as a trustee of Barboursville in 1813.
David McComas, son of the elder John, married Miss Bailey, a daughter of
the elder Richard. David died early, leaving a widow and one son, James,
the latter the ancestor of the Mercer McComas', viz: Archibald, Eli and
others.

General Elisha McComas and his wife had sons, David, William and James,
and daughters, one of whom married John Shelton, and another
married....... Keenan, from whom descended Patrick Keenan McComas, the
eccentric lawyer of Logan County, West Virginia.

David, the son of General Elisha, married Cynthia French, daughter of
Captain David and Mary Dingess French, and he became a distinguished
Judge; was a member of the General Court of Virginia; Judge of the Kanawha
Circuit Court, and was at one time a State Senator from the Kanawha
District. He was born about 1795 and died in Giles County, Virginia, in
1864. He was a jolly man, full of wit and humor, but a most negligent man
about his dress. Some good stories of his life as a judge have been
preserved, and are worth relating. As has been said, he was Circuit Judge;
his circuit, was a large one, and his mode of travel was on horseback.
Before he started on his circuit his wife made up and arranged his
clothing for the trip, which often lasted for weeks, and on his return his
wife would search his saddle bags for his soiled clothes, frequently
finding none; he had simply, by his forgetfulness, left them at his
boarding houses. On one occasion, when he was about to start off for his
courts, his wife prepared for him and packed in his saddlebags a dozen new
shirts, and enjoined upon him that he should exercise prudence in taking
care of the same. On his return, on examination by his wife of the
saddlebags, she found not a single shirt, whereupon she said: "Just as I
expected, Mr. McComas, you have brought back no (Note: line appears to be
missing from book.)stop throwing off shirts until he had unburdened
himself of eleven. His wife and himself, while he was Circuit Judge and
lived in Charleston, made a visit to his relations in Cabell County, and
after they had made the rounds, he remarked to his wife, "Well, we must go
and see old brother.........." to which his wife inquiringly said, "Mr.
McComas, isn't he in the poorhouse?" "Yes," said the Judge, "but there is
no difference between him and myself; he is on the county and I am on the
state." While Judge McComas was in the Senate of Virginia, it is said that
he made the first straight-out secession speech that up to that time had
been made in Virginia. He and his wife left no children.

William McComas, son of General Elisha, married Miss Ward, lived for some
years at Malden, in Kanawha County, and while living there in 1832 was
elected to the Congress of the United States. He was a member of the
Virginia Secession Convention of 1861. William McComas and his wife had
the following children: Elisha W., Hamilton, William Wirt, Mat, and
Benjamine Jefferson, and a daughter, Irene, who married Major McKendree.
Elisha W. was in the Virginia Convention of 1850-1, and was also
Lieutenant Governor of Virginia, afterward dying at Fort Scott, Kansas.

Dr. William Wirt McComas married Sarah M. French, daughter of Captain Guy
D., and Araminta Chapman French; he was an eminent physician, and at the
beginning of the Civil War raised in Giles County a company of artillery,
which he led into the service, and at the Battle of South Mills, North
Carolina, April 19th, 1862, he was slain, leaving his widow and two small
children, Guy F., and Minnie, surviving him. The Napiers removed from
Giles county to Cabell about the time of the emigration of the McComases.

The Meadows Family.
Two representatives of this family came to the New River Valley after the
surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown. The exact date of their coming cannot
be fixed with certainty, but was about 1782 or 1783. Jacob Meadows came
from the County of Rockingham, in the Valley of Virginia, and was a
neighbor of the elder John Peters, who came to the New River Valley in
1782. It appears by the application of Jacob Meadows for a pension made in
1832, that in 1781 he served in the Virginia Militia under Captain Coker,
in the regiment commanded by Colonel William Noll; his first service was
for three months, during which time he was engaged in a number of
skirmishes with the British in and around Norfolk and Portsmouth; the last
three months he served as a substitute for Adam Hansberger, and was at the
Battle of Yorktown, serving in LaFayette's Corps. John Peters, who gives
his affidavit of the service performed by Jacob Meadows, shows that he saw
him at Yorktown, serving as a soldier. Jacob Meadows settled on lower East
River, and is the ancestor of the Meadows family in that vicinity.

The other Meadows was Josiah, who came from the County of Bedford,
Virginia. He, too, was an American soldier, having served for two or more
periods; a part of the time on the frontier against the Indians, and
another part in the American Army against the British. The facts here
stated are taken from his declaration made for pension in 1832, when he
was seventy-four years of age. He enlisted in the early spring of 1778,
under Captain Joseph Renfroe, and marched with his company to Jarrett's
Fort, on Wolf Creek, now in the County of Monroe, where the company was
divided, and part thereof, he among the number, was sent to Keeney's Fort,
on the Greenbrier, where he was stationed at the time of the attack made
by the Indians on Donnally's Fort. Upon the expiration of the term for
which he enlisted he again entered the service in the company of Captain
Isaac Taylor, and with his company and regiment, the latter commanded by
Colonel John Montgomery, marched through the Holstein country to the
Indian town at Chicamauga, which they destroyed; from thence going to the
Illinois country, under Colonel George Rogers Clark. After his return he
was with a portion of the American Army that had charge of the British
prisoners captured at Yorktown. Mr. Meadows as a Baptist minister in the
last years of his life; locating on the north of the Bluestone, and among
his sons were Josiah and John Meadows. From this Josiah Meadows, the
soldier, has descended the large family of that name in Mercer and
adjoining counties.

The name Meador came later, whether it originated from Meadows is not
definitely known, but is altogether probable. Closely connected with this
Meadows family is that of Lilley, whose first representative in the New
River Valley was Robert, who came from Franklin County, Virginia, and who
lived for a few years about the mouth of East River, settling there in
about 1790; then locating in the North Bluestone section where many of his
descendants now live. He was long a magistrate of Mercer County. The first
Josiah Meadows, the American soldier, was the great-grandfather of Hon. R.
G. Meador, of Mercer County.

The M'Donalds.
The name suggests its Scottish origin, and Glencoe as the original home of
the family. After the close of the revolution of 1688 many of the Scottish
clans continued in arms for King James against William and Mary. In
August, 1691, the government of William and Mary issued a proclamation
offering amnesty to such insurgents as should take the oath of allegiance
on or before the 31st day of December then next ensuing. All the chiefs
submitted within the prescribed time, except the aged Macdonald of
Glencoe, whose clan inhabited or lived in the pass of Glencoe. He went to
Fort William on December 31st and offered to take the oath, but the
officer in command, not having authority to administer it, referred the
matter to the Sheriff, before whom Macdonald took the oath on January 6th,
1692; this, however, did not satisfy the adherents of King William, who
determined to avail themselves of this unintentional delay to effect the
destruction of the clans. On February 12th a body of 120 soldiers,
commanded by Campbell, murdered Macdonald and two of his attendants, and
so wounded his wife that she died the next day. About forty persons were
killed that night. Detachments of soldiers sent to guard the outlets of
the valley arrived too late, and many of the clans escaped half naked to
the mountains, where a considerable number of the women and children
perished of cold and hunger--("McCauley's His. of England, Vol. IV").

Shortly after this massacre, supposed to have been between 1692 and 1700,
Bryan McDonald and Mary Combs McDonald, with their family, having first
migrated to Ireland, came from thence to America, and settled at or near
New Castle, Delaware, then in the Province of Pennsylvania, and presently
purchased of William Penn, the proprietor, a large and valuable tract of
land. Bryan McDonald and family came, in 1756, to the Virginia Valley,
having been preceded some years earlier by two of his sons, Joseph and
Edward. In a battle with the Indians, in 1761, near Amsterdam, in what is
now Botetourt County, Edward, a bright and promising young lawyer, was
killed. He left four daughters, two of whom married Campbells, one married
a Greenway, and one a Russell. Their descendants are numerous, prominent
and influential people; one of them, David Campbell, was Governor of
Virginia; William went to Tennessee; Dr. Edward McDonald Campbell and
Judge John A. Campbell were their descendants.  The Russells lived in
south-west Virginia, and the Greenways in Lynchburg and Baltimore.

Joseph McDonald married Miss Elizabeth Ogle, whose ancestors had come from
Castle Ogle, Northumberland County, England. They, the Ogles, came to
England with William the Norman. Joseph McDonald, who was born April 4th,
1722, after his marriage came, in 1763, over the Alleghanies and settled
in what is now Montgomery County, then Augusta. He died in 1809. In the
American Revolution he served in Captain Kirkpatrick's Company. He had six
sons in the American Army; Richard was a Major, Edward was a Captain, and
Alexander served in Captain Thompson's Company. Powder for the Patriot
Army was manufactured on his farm, and a government tannery established,
as well as provisions gathered there. All these supplies had to be
largely, if not altogether, transported to the army on horses, and this
proved a dangerous business, on account of Indian forays. Captain Edward
McDonald was in the Border Wars against the Indians, and in scouting
expeditions toward the Ohio.

Joseph McDonald had ten children in the following order as to ages: Bryan,
who married Mary Bane; John, who married Miss Sawyers, second Miss
Cannaday; Joseph, who married Nancie Sawyers; Edward, who married Keziah
Stephens; Richard, who married Mrs. Mary Martin; Alexander, who married
Elizabeth Taylor, niece of President Taylor; William, who married Ursula
Huff, daughter of Dr. Huff; Elizabeth, who married Samuel Ingram; Jonas,
who married Elizabeth Foster; James, who married, first Elizabeth New,
second Mary Flournoy. The descendants of Joseph McDonald have scattered
over many states of the union, and have held many prominent positions,
many of them able and distinguished persons. A great many of them were
slain, or died, in the war between the states.

Joseph McDonald Sanders, a bright young lawyer of Mercer County, West
Virginia, who served eight years as Judge of the 9th Judicial Circuit of
West Virginia, and who was recently elevated to the bench of the Supreme
Court of Appeals of West Virginia, is a great-great-grandson of Joseph
McDonald, and great-grandson of Edward McDonald and Keziah Stephens
McDonald.

During the American Revolution one David Hughes, formerly of North
Carolina, and a Tory, while scouting through the wilderness country toward
the Ohio River, discovered that beautiful body of valuable land on the
Clear Fork of Guyandotte, in the now County of Wyoming. He informed the
above mentioned Edward McDonald of his discovery, with whom he agreed for
one blanket and a rifle gun to show him this land, which he did, and in
1780 McDonald entered and surveyed the same; and in 1802, together with
his son-in-law, Captain James Shannon, removed to the Guyandotte Valley
and took possession of his valuable property; his son-in-law, Captain
Shannon, settling a few miles away on the Big Fork of the Guyandotte. When
Captain Shannon took possession of his land he found still standing on the
bottoms the Indian wigwams.

Edward McDonald had several sons and daughters. The sons, Joseph, William
and Stephen, settled on the lands given them by their father out of the
homestead. One daughter married Captain James Shannon; one Captain Thomas
Peery; one Augustus Pack; one William Chapman. Joseph McDonald married
Nancy Chapman, daughter of Isaac Chapman and his wife, Elian Johnston
Chapman, and their children were Sallie, who married John Sanders;
Juliett, who married John Tiffany; Elizabeth, who married John Anderson,
and Nancy, who married Lewis McDonald. W. W. McDonald, of Logan, married
Miss Scaggs; Lewis, the son of Joseph, married, first Miss McDonald,
second Miss Keffer. John C., Floyd and Colonel Isaac E. were never
married; the two former died in the army during the Civil War. Colonel
Isaac E. lived on the McDonald homestead, in Wyoming County, until 1876,
when he purchased, by exchange, the valuable farm of Mr. George Pearis
George, on Bluestone, in Tazewell County, Virginia. Colonel Isaac E. was a
member of the Virginia Legislature in 1861, and of the West Virginia
Senate for several years.

The family of William McDonald, son of Edward, consisted of one son,
Edward, who married a Miss Black, of Montgomery County, and daughters, of
whom one married Harmon Newberry, one William G. Mustard, one Zachary T.
Weaver, and one Captain Robert H. Bane.

Stephen McDonald's family went west many years ago. He had two sons,
Andrew McDonald and Crockett McDonald; the latter married Miss Ellen Hall,
then of Princeton, West Virginia. He died several years ago, leaving three
children, two sons and a daughter, who, with their mother, live in the
state of Kansas. Joseph, William and Stephen all died about the beginning
of or during the Civil War. Colonel Isaac E. died a few years ago, leaving
the major part of his valuable estate to his nephew, Walter McDonald
Sanders, who also died some two or three years ago, leaving a widow and
three or four infant children, who, with their mother, reside on the
Bluestone farm.

Before closing this sketch of the McDonald family it is desirable to
present a photograph of the oldest dwelling go that family now standing in
Virginia, which is at Greenhill, in Montgomery County.

The Packs
The progenitors of this family now in this section of the country were on
the New River, about the mouth of Indian Creek, as early as 1763. Pack,
Swope and Pittman, hunters, discovering Indian signs, started, one for the
Jackson's River, and the other for the Catawba settlements, to warn the
people, but the Indians had traveled faster than the hunters and the
warning did not reach them. The given name of this hunter, Pack, is not
obtainable; it is probable that he was the ancestor of the Samuel who was
born in Augusta, in 1760, as members of this family, soon after 1764, are
found along the New River between the mouth of the Greenbrier and Indian
Creek. A history of this family, from the Pack MSS., is interesting and is
here inserted:

A Mr. Pack and several sons came to Jamestown, from England, with the
early settlers on the James. Owing to the hardships encountered there they
went back to England; later, however, three of the sons returned to this
country; two of them went to the South, and the other remained in
Virginia. There were born to the last mentioned Pack two sons, one of whom
was named Samuel, who was born in 1760, in Augusta County. He had seven
sons, whose names were: John, Matthew, Samuel, Bartley, Lowe, William and
Anderson; the daughters were: Betsey, who married Jacob Dickinson; Polly,
who married Joe Lively, and Jennie, who married Jonah Morriss.

John and Bartley settled at Pack's Ferry, now Summers County; Matthew died
on the west side of the New river, opposite Pack's Ferry; Samuel settled
on Glade Creek, in what is now Raleigh County; Lowe lived on Brush Creek,
in what is now Monroe County; William went West; Polly Lively and Betsey
Dickinson lived in Monroe; Jennie Morriss moved to Missouri.

John, the son of the above named Anderson Pack, was taken prisoner on Flat
Top Mountain during the Civil War, and Colonel Hayes, afterward President
of the United States, claimed relationship with John and told him that his
wife's mother was a Pack (this was Jennie, who married Jonah Morriss), and
by reason of this John was allowed the privilege of the camp.

John Pack, who lived at Pack's Ferry, had great trouble with the Indians;
he frequently had to plow with his rifle strapped to his shoulder. After
friendly relations were secured with the Indians, an old Indian came to
John Pack's house one day and told him that on one occasion he conceived
the idea to steal two of John's little girls, and when he saw them coming
he hid in an old stump to capture them as they came by, but that they were
in the course of a foot race when they came up, and they passed so quickly
that he could not catch them.

Alderman Pack, an ancestor of the above mentioned Packs, was a member of
Parliament during Cromwell's time, and he moved that body to confer the
title of Protector on Cromwell. There is authority for saying that a Mr.
Pack, an English General, who fought in the Peninsula Campaign and in
France and Portugal against Napoleon, was one of the ancestors of the
Packs who came to America and settled on New River. Mrs. Emily Landgraff,
who lived near Pack's Ferry, said that she had seen her grandfather,
Samuel Pack, the first Samuel, and that he was an old gentleman of the
English type, who dressed in the frock coat and knee breeches peculiar to
the eighteenth century and that he wore a cue.

The aforesaid John Pack, who married Jane Hutchinson, was the father of
the following named children: Samuel, who married Harriet French; Rebecca,
who married Robert Dunlap; Archibald, who married Patsey Peck; Polly, who
married Richard Shanklin; Rufus, who married Catharine Peters, and Julia,
who married Elliott Vawter.

Samuel Pack and his wife, Harriet French Pack, who was a daughter of
Captain David French, had four sons and one daughter; the sons were:
Captain John A., who married Miss Mary Gooch; Allen C., who married Miss
Sue Lugar; Samuel, who married Miss Sallie Douthat; Charles D., who died
unmarried; the daughter, Minerva, married Dr. John W. Easley. Samuel Pack,
who married Harriet French, was a lawyer by profession, and long practiced
in Giles and adjoining counties.

The Peck Family.
This family comes of German stock. Jacob Peck, born in Germany, in 1696,
came to America, first locating in Pennsylvania, and then removed to the
Valley of Virginia and settled in the neighborhood of where the city of
Staunton is now situated, prior to 1744. He married, about the year last
mentioned, Elizabeth, a daughter of the elder Benjamine Burden, who had
come to America as the agent of Lord Fairfax to look after his large
landed estate in the Northern Neck of Virginia. Benjamine Burden, on his
coming to the country, first visited the Virginia capitol at Williamsburg,
where he met some of the sons of John Lewis, who had then recently located
in the Valley, and he went with them to their home. On a hunting
expedition with the sons of Lewis he captured a white buffalo calf which
he presented to Governor Gooch; whereupon the Governor ordered certificate
to be issued to Burden, authorizing him to locate 100,000 acres of land on
the rivers James and Sherando, which he did, securing a large and valuable
body of James River bottom lands, now in the County of Botetourt, then
Orange.

Benjamine Burden, the elder, died about 1743, and by his will he gave the
James River lands to his five daughters, one of whom was Elizabeth, who
afterward became Mrs. Jacob Peck. There was a long litigation over this
land between Peck and wife and Harvey, a full history of which can be seen
by reference to the reported case in the Court of Appeals of Virginia, 1st
Munford's R. 518-28. Jacob Peck and his wife died before the litigation
ended, which was in 1810; the suit was decided for them, and their
children received the land, moved to it, and became citizens of Botetourt
County. The children of Jacob and Elizabeth Burden Peck were Jacob, John,
Joseph and Hannah, the latter marrying Peter Holm.

This name Burden is frequently spoken of as Borden or Burton. One of these
three sons of Jacob Peck was the father of Benjamine Peck, who settled on
the Catawba or Sinking Creek about 1785. This Benjamine Peck, grandson of
the first Jacob, and great-grandson of the elder Benjamine Burden, had
sons John, Jacob, Benjamine and Joseph. John married Elizabeth Snidow, a
daughter of Colonel Christian Snidow. Benjamine married Rebecca Snidow,
also a daughter of Colonel Christian Snidow. Jacob married Malinda Givens,
of Botetourt. This name Givens appears in the list of persons located
between 1738-43, in Beverly Manor near Straunton.

John Peck and his wife, Elizabeth Snidow Peck, had the following sons:
William H., Christian L., Joseph A., Dr. Erastus W. and Charles D., and
daughters: Mary, who married Benjamine Burden Peck; Margaret, who married
Charles L. Pearis; Clara, who married John H. Vawter; Josephine, who
married .......Phillips; Ellen, who married Dr. Robert B. McNutt; Martha,
who married Judge John A. Kelley; and another daughter, who married Edwin
Amos.

William H. Peck and family removed to Logan County, West Virginia; Joseph
A. and family removed to Texas; Christian L. died in Giles County, but
left a family, among them a son, Charles Wesley, who died in the service
of his country, and sons Erastus and John H., who were gallant Confederate
soldiers, receiving in battle severe wounds, from which the former has
never recovered.

Dr. Erastus Peck was thrice married and left some children, among them,
Amos Peck, Miss Josie Peck and the wife of Walter V. Peck. Charles D., who
married Miss Thomas, had but one son who attained his majority, John K.; a
daughter, Lucretia, who married Dr. D. W. McClaugherty; another, Maggie,
who married Judge Hugh G. Woods; another, Clara, who married J. Kyle
McClaugherty; another, Fannie, married John Adair, and Rachael married Mr.
Fulton.

Benjamine Burden Peck and wife had six sons: Pembroke P., Charles L.,
James H., Jacob A., Erastus H., and B. Wallace, the latter yielding up his
life for his country in the battle of Gettysburg. Mr. Phillips and family
went to Alabama. Judge John A. Kelley and family lived in Smyth County,
Virginia. Charles L. Pearis and wife had but one child, a daughter,
Electra, who married Dr. Charles W. Pearis. Dr. Robert B. McNutt and wife
had three sons, viz: John W., Joseph P., and Charles R.; and daughters,
Josie, who died young; Mary, who married Colonel James B. Peck; Neta, who
married George B. Sinclair.

John H. Vawter and wife had several children; among the sons are: Charles
E. and Lewis A., and daughters, Josephine, who married B. Frank Sweeney;
another who married Lewis Peck; Virginia, who married William Farrier.
Benjamine Peck and his wife, Rebecca Snidow Peck, had four sons, viz:
William H., Christian S., Frank, John S. and Andrew J., and daughters,
Eliza, who married James Sweeney; Mary, who married William Farrier, and
Margaret, who married John A. Calfee.

Jacob Peck and his wife, Malinda Givens Peck, had the following children,
viz: Benjamine Burden, who married Mary Peck; William G., who died
unmarried; Elisha G., who married Margaret Peters; Daniel R., who died
unmarried; George Harrison, who married Sarah J. Handley; James Preston,
who married Elizabeth Scott; Jacob H., who married Ann Handley; Patsey C.,
who married Archibald Pack; Rhoda E., who married James McClaugherty;
Louisa S., who married Lewis Payne, and Rebecca, who married John A.
Peters.

The Pearis Family.
The ancestors of this family were Huguenots, who fled from France,
stopping temporarily in Barbadoes, thence about 1710, to South Carolina,
locating on an island about five miles from Port Royal, to which they gave
the name "Paris Island." This name is sometimes spelled "Pearris," again
"paris," and "Pearis" ; the modern spelling being Pearis. The settler was
Alexander Pearis (Parris), who became quite a distinguished man in the
early days of the history of South Carolina. Opposite this page is a
photograph of the late Captain George W. Pearis, a grandson of the New
River Settler, Colonel George Pearis.

Judge McCrady, in his History of South Carolina under the Proprietary
Government, 1670-1719, gives considerable prominence to Colonel Alexander
Pearis, whom he shows to have been Commissioner of Free Schools,
Commissioner for Building Churches, Member of House of Commons, of which
Colonel William Rhett was Speaker; as a military officer and one of the
judges to try pirates, and as commander of militia in the Revolution of
1719. Colonel Alexander Pearis had a son, Alexander, who made some
conveyance of property in 1722-26. Alexander Pearis, Jr., had a son, John
Alexander, who likewise had a son, John Alexander, as shown by his will
probated August, 1752. The last mentioned John Alexander had a son,
Robert, who spelled his name as did his father, John Alexander "Pearis."
This Robert Pearis died about 1781; he had a daughter, Malinda, who
married Samuel Pepper, who removed to the New River Valley prior to 1770,
and located at the place where, about 1780, he established a ferry, and
which place has since been known as Peppers. His two brothers-in-law,
George and Robert Alexander Pearis, sons of the preceding Robert, came
with him, or about the same time. At the date of the coming of Pepper and
the Pearises, in fact, before that date, there lived in the neighborhood
where Pepper located, a gentleman by the name of Joseph Howe, who had some
pretty daughters, and it did not take long for these young Huguenots to
fall in love with these girls, at least with two of them. An examination
of the Pearis Bible discloses that George Paris was born February 16th,
1746, and was married to Eleanor Howe February 26th, 1771. Robert
Alexander Pearis was probably two years younger than his brother George.
He married also a daughter of Joseph Howe, and about 1790 removed with his
family to Kentucky and settled in what is now Bourbon County, and from
whom it is said the town of Paris, in that county, is named. He had a son
who in the early history of that state was a member of its Legislature.
George Pearis remained in the vicinity of Pepper's Ferry until the spring
of 1782; prior to this time he had been made a Captain of one of the
militia companies of the County of Montgomery.

On the advance of the British Army into the Carolinas, in the fall of
1780, there was a Tory uprising in Surry County, North Carolina, of such
formidable proportion as to impel General Martin Armstrong, commanding
that military district, to call on Major Joseph Cloyd, of the Montgomery
County Militia, to aid in its suppression. About the 1st day of October,
1780, Major Cloyd with three companies of mounted men, one of which was
commanded by Captain George Pearis, marched to the State of North
Carolina, where he was joined by some of the militia of that state,
augmenting his force to about 160 men, with which he, on the 14th day of
the month, attacked the Tories at Shallow Ford of the Yadkin, defeating
them with a loss of fifteen killed and a number wounded; Major Cloyd had
one killed and a few wounded, among them Captain Pearis, severely, through
the shoulder. This fight cleared the way for the crossing of General
Green's Army at this ford, which the Tories were seeking to obstruct.
Captain Pearis returned home wounded, and in addition to his suffering
from his wound had the misfortune to lose his wife by death in a few days
after his return, she dying on November 14th. Captain Pearis' wound
disabled him from performing further military service, and having
purchased from Captain William Ingles, about the year of 1779, for seventy
pounds sterling (about $350.00), the tract of 204 acres of land on New
river--whereon is now situated Pearisburg Station on the line of the
Norfolk & Western Railway, and which land was known for years as the Hale
and Charleton tract--he, in the spring of 1782, removed thereto, erecting
his dwelling house at a point nearly due south of the residence of Mr.
Edward C. Hale, and a little to the southeast of where the road from Mr.
Hale's house unites with the turnpike. Two or three years after Captain
Pearis made his location, he had a ferry established across the New River,
and kept a small stock of goods, and later kept public entertainment. On
October 5th, 1784, he married Rebecca Clay, daughter of Mitchell Clay. The
children of Colonel George Pearis and his wife, Rebecca Clay Pearis, were:
George N., Robert Alexander, Samuel Pepper, Charles Lewis; their
daughters, Rebecca, Julia, Rhoda, Sallie and Eleanor.

Colonel George N. Pearis married Elizabeth Howe, daughter of Major Daniel
Howe; Robert Alexander Pearis married Miss Arbuckle, of Greenbrier County;
Samuel Pepper Pearis married Rebecca Chapman, daughter of Isaac and Elian
Johnston Chapman; Charles Lewis Pearis married Margaret Peck, daughter of
John and Elizabeth Snidow Peck; Rebecca married John Brown, they went to
Texas about 1836, leaving a son, George Pearis Brown, who lived for a
number of years in Mercer County; Julia married Colonel Garland Gerald;
Rhoda married Colonel John B. George; Sallie married Baldwin L. Sisson,
and Eleanor married Captain Thomas J. George.

The children of Colonel George N. Pearis and his wife, Elizabeth Howe
Pearis, were: Captain George W., who never married, died in 1898 at the
age of nearly eighty-nine years; Colonel Daniel Howe, who married Louisa
A. Johnston; Rebecca, who married George D. Hoge; Nancy, who married
Archer Edgar; Ardelia, who married Daniel R. Cecil, and Elizabeth, who
married Benjamin White. Robert Alexander Pearis and his wife had no
children, and after the death of said Robert Alexander, his widow married
Colonel McClung.

The children of Colonel Garland Gerald and Julia Pearis George were:
George Pearis George, who married Sarah A. Davidson; Jane, who married
Judge Sterling F. Watts. The names of the children of Captain Thomas J.
George and wife are as follows, Viz: A. P. G. George, W.W. George, Robert
and John; the daughters, Larissa, who married Jacob A. Peck; Matilda, who
married a Mr. Austin, and Rebecca, who married George W. Jarrell.

Charles Lewis Pearis and his wife, Margaret Peck Pearis, had but one
child, a daughter, Electra, who married Dr. Charles W. Pearis, and they
had no children.

As already stated, John Brown and family went to Texas prior to 1836; some
of his older sons were soldiers in the Texan Army. Brown settled in that
part of the state that became Collin County. George Pearis Brown, the son
of John, remained in Virginia; he married a Miss Mahood, a sister of the
late Judge Alexander Mahood, and he and his wife left numerous
descendants, among them the wife of Mr. Robert Sanders, the wife of Edward
A. Oney, the wife of M. W. Winfree, a son, Cornelius, who was killed on
the retreat for the Confederates from the battlefield at Clark's house,
May 1st, 1862.

The elder Colonel George Pearis, the settler, was long a magistrate of
Montgomery and Giles Counties, and sat in the courts of both counties, and
was for a term the Presiding Magistrate of the latter county. The first
court of the County of Giles was held in a house belonging to him, and the
land for the county buildings and town was given by him and the town of
Pearisburg took its name from him. He died on November 4th, 1810, and his
ashes repose in the burying ground on the farm on which he died, on the
little hill just southwest of Pearisburg Station. His widow married Philip
Peters and she died April 15th, 1844.

The Peters Family.
John and Christian Peters were of a German family of that name, who had
located in the Valley of Virginia shortly after 1732. The place of the
settlement was in the now County of Rockingham. The inscription on the
tombstone of Christian Peters shows that he was born October 16th, 1760,
and died October, 1837; it is possible that John was older. In 1781 the
British Army under Lord Cornwallis invaded Virginia, finally fixing its
base of operation at Yorktown. In May of the year mentioned, the Governor
of Virginia called out the militia of the state, placing them under the
command of General Nelson, who joined and became a part of General
LaFayette's Corps, then operating against the Army of Cornwallis. John and
Christian Peters obeyed the call of the Governor and served through the
campaign, and were at the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown, on October
19th; the militia was then disbanded and returned to their homes. The war,
now regarded as ended, and the services of the militia no longer needed,
John and Christian Peters, with their families, together with their
brother-in-law, Charles Walker, in the spring of 1782, left their Valley
homes, crossed the Alleghanies, and located in the New River Valley; John,
on the farm on which Mr. Charles D. French now resides, and Christian
where the village of Peterstown , named from him, is now situated. The two
or three years immediately following the surrender of Cornwallis brought
over the Alleghanies swarms of people, and while many of them went to
Kentucky, a goodly number halted in the New River Valley.

John Peters married Miss Simms, of that part of Rockingham that afterwards
became Madison County. Christian Peters married Miss Katharine Belcher, of
Rockingham, who spoke the German language, and kept in her house her
German Bible.

The following are the names of the children of John Peters and wife:
Elijah, William, John, Philip, Christian; and daughters, one who married
Henry Bailey; and Frances, who married Captain Christianos H. A. Walker,
son of Charles, heretofore mentioned.

The families of Conrad Peters, Captain John Peters, of Peterstown, and
that of the late James M. Byrnside are descendants of Christian Peters.

John Peters, Jr., the son of the settler, and who married Sallie Clay,
daughter of the elder Mitchell, was the Captain of a company in the war
with Great Britain of 1812; was long a Magistrate, and represented Giles
County in the Legislature. The names of the sons of Captain John Peters
and his wife, Sallie Clay Peters, are as follows: Oliver C. Peters, long
an honored citizen of Giles County, dying at a ripe old age; Andrew J.
Peters, Thompson H. Peters, William P. Peters, Jacob Peters, Augustus C.
Peters; and two daughters by the second marriage, one of whom married
Andrew Johnston, and Miss Jane, who never married. The grandsons and
descendants of Captain John Peters were among the best, truest and bravest
Confederate soldiers that fought for the South, among them James M.
Peters, William D. Peters, John D. Peters and William H. Peters.

The Shannons of New River Valley.
The Shannons came from Ireland at a period anterior to the beginning of
our War for Independence, and located in what is now the County of
Amherst, in Virginia, then probably Albemarle County. Samuel, the New
River Valley settler, came with his family over the Alleghanies in 1744,
and located at the place now called Poplar Hill, in the then County of
Fincastle, now Giles County. After a residence of ten years, and after the
marriage of his oldest son, whose name was Thomas, he, in the spring of
1784 (Shannon MSS.), with his family, except Thomas and his wife, who
remained, removed to a point near whereon now stands the city of
Nashville, Tennessee.

Thomas married Miss Agnes Crowe, and continued in possession of the Poplar
Hill property, which is still in the hands of his descendants. He became a
man of prominence in civil and military affairs; was long a Magistrate of
Giles County, Sheriff thereof, and a Representative in the Legislature. In
the month of February, 1781, the British Army advanced northward through
the Carolinas toward Virginia, and Colonel William Preston, the military
commandant of the Montgomery troops, and of which Joseph Cloyd was Major,
called out the forces to go to the help of the American Army commanded by
General Greene. Thomas Shannon was the Captain of the Middle New River
Company, in which one Alexander Marrs was a Lieutenant, and among the
members thereof were Thomas Farley, Isaac Cole, Matthew French, John
French, Joseph Hare, Edward Hale, the Clays, and others. Captain Shannon
and his company joined the battalion at the New River Lead Mines about the
middle of February, 1781, and on the 18th day of that month the command
under Colonel Preston and Major Cloyd, 350 strong, marched to the Haw
River section of North Carolina, in the vicinity of which was the Army of
General Greene, as was that of Lord Cornwallis. Being in a strange
country, and not being advised of the positions of the respective armies,
Preston's men went into camp, finding themselves the next morning between
the combatants, and close by the British pickets. Colonel Preston had been
ordered to report to General Pickens, and was on his way thither when he
halted and camped between the armies. On the 2nd day of March Lee's Legion
and Preston's Battalion had a spirited encounter with Tarleton's Cavalry,
inflicting upon it considerable loss. Again on the 6th of March, at
Wetzel's Mills, Pickens' command, including Preston's and Cloyd's men, had
quite a battle with the British advance. General Pickens retreated to
Guilford Court House, where the troops of Preston and Campbell, under
Colonel William Campbell, were posted on the American left, and put up a
good fight. They were attacked by Colonel Tarleton, who led the British
right wing, and he says in his "His. of His Southern Campaign," that his
troops were badly hurt by the Backwoodsmen from Virginia; that "they were
behind a fence, and stood until the British Infantry, with their bayonets,
climbed the fence." Captain Shannon lived to the age of ninety years,
leaving a son, Thomas, who married Julia Allen, and their children are:
Thomas, Joseph, James R., all three of whom are dead; William R., who
married a Miss Bush; Nancy, now dead, who married John Henderson Bane;
Eliza, who married James B. Miller; and Samuel B., who resides on the old
homestead. The second Thomas Shannon served as a Magistrate in his county,
and sat as a member of the County Court for long years, and was more than
once a member of the Virginia Legislature. At the beginning of the Civil
War in 1861 he was reckoned the wealthiest man in Giles County. His sons
were all gallant Confederate soldiers.

Opposite this page is seen the photograph of Mr. William R. Shannon, the
great-grandson of the settler.

The Smiths of New River.
This family is here designated as of "New River," otherwise it might not
be known to what family of Smiths reference is made, and hence, they are
styled "The Smiths of New River." Isaac Smith was a soldier of the
American Revolution, and served with the Corps of LaFayette at Yorktown.
He lived in that part of Rockingham County now embraced in Madison. The
territory in which it is supposed and believed that he was born, was then
Augusta County, and was still Augusta when, in about 1770, he married Miss
Simms. After the Battle of Yorktown and the return of the Virginia Militia
to their homes Mr. Smith, together with several of his neighbors and
relations, in the year of 1782, passed over the Alleghanies into the New
River Valley. Mr. Smith was brother-in-law to John Peters and Larkin
Stowers, and they, together with Christian Peters, Charles Walker and
others, came to New River. Smith settled on the Long Bottom on New river,
nearly opposite the place of settlement of John Peters. Among the sons of
Isaac Smith were: Ezekiel, Benjamine, and William, the latter born in
1774. Ezekiel went to Texas before the war for its independence, was
captured by the Mexicans and kept a prisoner for five years. His son,
French C. Smith, a man of talent and brilliancy, followed his father to
Texas, and became a prominent figure in that state, having been the Whig
candidate for Governor, but was defeated by General Sam Houston, the
Democratic candidate, by a large majority. Benjamine Smith lived in the
County of Mercer and had several sons-- among them Theodore, who went
West--Thomas, and Allen. Dr. French W. Smith, of Bluefield, and Judge
Charles W. Smith, of Princeton, West Virginia, are the grandsons of
Benjamine Smith.

Captain William Smith married a Mrs. Neal, whose maiden name was Dingess,
a daughter of Peter Dingess, a Revolutionary soldier, who served in
Trigg's Battalion of Montgomery County Artillery in LaFayette's Corps at
the Battle of Yorktown.

Opposite page 454 will be seen the photograph of Captain William Smith,
taken when he was a very old man. He lived to about the age of eighty-
four. Mr. John B. Smith, of Willowton, in Mercer County, is a son of Mr.
Benjamine Smith, and was a heroic and devoted Confederate soldier.

The Snidows of New River Valley.
This family is of German origin and the first of the family to come to
America was Christian Snyder, who landed at Philadelphia in 1727. The
record kept at the Port of Philadelphia of the arrival of emigrants does
not disclose that Christian brought a family with him; if he had done so
the same would have been recorded. He no doubt was a young man at the
time, and had crossed the ocean to seek his fortune in the New World. The
spelling of this name is no index as to who he was, as the original German
spelling, is Schneider. It is spelled as originally also Snyder, Snider,
Snido, and Snidow. There is, however, something in the use among these
German people of the given name; as the same given names in families are
handed down from one generation to another. In this family the name
Christian seems to have been handed down for more than a hundred years.
When, or who Christian Snidow married is not now known, but there came in
1765 to New River, from Pennsylvania, John Snidow, who had married
Elizabeth Helm; he came to see the country, and visited Philip Lybrook at
the mouth of Sinking Creek. It is likely, in fact more than probable, that
Lybrook had been his neighbor in Pennsylvania. The circumstances show that
he had made up his mind to settle in the New River Valley, as he went back
to Pennsylvania and the next year, 1766, started for the New River with
his family, and on the way was taken suddenly and violently ill and died.
His widow, Mrs. Elizabeth, with her children, some of them very small,
made her way to Philip Lybrook's, or to his neighborhood. The exact place
of her settlement is difficult to locate, but from circumstances it is
believed that she made her home near the mouth of Sinking Creek, in what
is now Giles County. Mrs. Snidow's family consisted of five sons and three
daughters; the sons, Philip, Christian, John, Theophilus, and Jacob;
daughters, Barbara, and two small girls, killed by the Indians in 1774.

Philip married Barbara Prillman, Christian married Mary Burke, Jacob
married, first, Clara Burke, second, Miss Pickelsimon, and third, Mary
Hankey; John was killed, being thrown from a horse; Theophilus, when quite
a lad, was captured by the Indians in 1774, and after being detained in
captivity a number of years returned in bad health, and soon died;
Barbara, the daughter, married Jacob Prillman, of Franklin County. Among
the children of Barbara Prillman Snidow, was Christian, called the
Blacksmith, to distinguish him from his uncle, Colonel Christian.

The children of Colonel Christian Snidow and his wife, Mary Burke Snidow,
were: Sons, John, Lewis, and William H.; the daughters were, Elizabeth,
Mary, Rebecca, Clara, Nancy and Sallie. John married Rachael Chapman,
daughter of Isaac and Elian Johnston Chapman; their children were,
Christian, James H., David J. L., Elizabeth, Mary, Elian C., and Ellen J.

Lewis Snidow married Barbara, the daughter of the blacksmith, Christian,
and his wife, Sarah Turner Snidow; their children are, William Henry
Harrison and George Lewis; the latter married Josephine Snidow; the former
unmarried. After the death of Lewis Snidow his widow, Barbara, married
Jacob Douthat, by whom she had several children.

William H. Snidow married Adeline Chapman, daughter of John Chapman; the
names of their children are: John Chapman Snidow, now dead; James Piper
Snidow and Annie, the latter now dead, and who married Dr. Harvey G.
Johnston.

Elizabeth, the daughter of Colonel Christian Snidow, married John Peck, of
Giles County; Mary married Major Henry Walker, of Botetourt, later of
Mercer County; Rebecca married Benjamine Peck, of Monroe County; Clara
married Conrad Peters, of Monroe County; Nancy married James Harvey, of
Monroe County; Sallie married Haven Bane, of Giles County. Among the
descendants of John Peck and his wife, Elizabeth, are, in part the Pecks
of Giles, the Vawters of Monroe, the Kelleys of Smyth, the McNutts of
Mercer, and the Pecks of Logan County, West Virginia.

Some of the descendants of Major Henry Walker and wife reside in Mercer
County; the descendants of Benjamine Peck reside in Monroe, Mercer, Giles,
and in the State of Kansas. The descendants of James Harvey and wife
reside in Monroe County, among them, the Adairs of Red Sulphur, and the
family of the late Allen Harvey.

Colonel Christian Snidow, when quite a young man, was a lieutenant in
Captain John Floyd's Company, and did service in Barger's, Snidow's and
Hatfield's Forts, and in scouts and skirmishes with the Indians. His
father-in-law, Captain Thomas Burke, born 1741 and died 1808, and whose
wife's given name was Clara, was also a Captain in the Indian wars, and at
one time in command at Hatfield's Fort. Colonel Christian Snidow was for
long years a Justice of the Peace, in both Montgomery and Giles Counties;
was Sheriff of Giles County, and frequently represented the same in the
House of Delegates of Virginia. Among his descendants were some of the
best and bravest soldiers in the Confederate Army.

The New River Straleys
Jacob Straley (German, Strahle) was a German, born at Frankfort-on-the-
Main, in Germany; his wife was Susan Barbor, whom he married in Germany,
and came directly after his marriage to America, in 1758, and found his
way to James River, where the city of Lynchburg now stands. Jacob Straley
had a brother John, who came over to America with him, and they are
supposed to have landed in New York; John had a wife and several children.

Jacob came South with other emigrants to Virginia, and John went into
Pennsylvania; separating, they lost sight of each other and seem never to
have heard of each other after their separation. Jacob, as before stated,
found his way to where Lynchburg now stands; there he bought land of his
brother-in-law, Jacob Lynch, and here the children of Jacob Straley and
his wife, Susan, were born, to-wit: Andrew, Elizabeth, Catherine and
Jacob. Jacob Straley and his wife Susan both died and were buried at
Lynchburg. Andrew was twice married, but had no family; he was a soldier
of the American Revolution, and Jacob, his brother, a youth of about
sixteen at the close of the Revolution, served in what was called the
Reserves, or Home Guards. Elizabeth married a man by the name of Caldwell,
by whom she had two or three children; her husband died, she then married
a man by the name of Marshall Burton, by whom she had a son called Isaac,
who married a Snodgrass, and who left a son, Green, living now in Giles
County, and three daughters, Lucretia, who married McCauley; Sallie, who
married Albert, and the name of the husband of Jane is not known.
Catherine Straley, daughter of the elder Straley, went to Kentucky.

Jacob Straley, son of the elder Jacob, was a brick mason by trade, and
about the year of 1782 came to New River, in what is now Giles County, and
in June, 1785, married Martha French, daughter of Matthew and Sallie Payne
French, by whom he had nine sons and two daughters. His sons were: James,
Daniel, John, David, Charles, Jacob, French, Joseph and Leland; the
daughters were Sallie and Nancy. James married Betsey Vaught, Daniel
married Mary French, John married Betsey Wilson, Charles married Betsey
McComas, Jacob L. married Eliza Bergen, French died unmarried; Joseph
married Jane Brown, David married Elizabeth Perkins, Leland died young and
unmarried, Sallie married Isaac French, and Nancy married Edward Morgan.

James Straley and his wife had one son, Madison, and six daughters:
Martha, who married Joseph Summers; Talitha, who married Hampton Brown;
Almira, who married George C. Stafford; Rebecca, who married James H.
Wilburne; Serilda, who married John Stafford, and Maharald, who married
James P. Thorn.

Daniel Straley and his wife, Mary, had two sons and two daughters; the
sons were James F. and Jacob C., both of whom died childless; Julia T.
married Colonel James M. Bailey, of Mercer County, and by him had five
children, two sons and three daughters. The sons, Gaston C. and Daniel M.,
and daughters, Lizzie, died unmarried; Belle, married James D. Honaker,
and Alice married a Mr. Lee.

Sallie F. married Elijah Bailey and had two children, Robert H. and Mary J.

John Straley and Elizabeth, his wife, had two sons and six daughters; the
sons, Charles D. and Harrison W.; the daughters, Louisa, married Claudius
Burdett; Araminta, married Elijah Bailey; Dorcas, married Benjamine
Tinsley; Martha, married Andrew J. Davis; Harriet, married J. McThompson;
Valeria, married John Q. Spangler. Charles D. Straley died in 1890,
unmarried; Louisa has a large family; Dorcas, Araminta and Martha have no
children; Harriet has two children; Valeria has three living children.
Harrison W. Straley, now dead, married Delia A. Byrnside, who died in May,
1888, and by her he had four children who reached their majority.

Charles Straley, by his wife Betsey, had nine children, and by his second
marriage with Miss Warneck, whom he married in the state of Illinois, had
one son, Hugh. Charles Straley removed to Texas, where he died.

Jacob Lynch Straley and his wife, Eliza, had three children, all
daughters. Margaret married a Mr. Eldridge, of Tennessee; Caladonia
married Joseph Taylor, and Sallie married David C. Straley, son of Joseph.
Jacob L. Straley was a minister of the Methodist Church. Joseph Straley
and his wife Jane had but two children, William D. and David C.

David Straley and Elizabeth, his wife, had two sons and three daughters.
The sons were: Granville P. and David B., the latter dying young; the
former is a lawyer by profession, and lives in Maury County, Tennessee.
The daughters, Martha T., married Dr. George A. Long, now dead; Mary,
married Girard Willis, of Chattanooga, Tennessee, both being now dead.
Sallie married Mr. Anderson, and they live in South Carolina.

Sallie Straley married Isaac French, and had two children: Harvey and
Elizabeth, both dead. Harvey never married; Elizabeth married Oscar F.
Johnston.

Nancy Straley, who married Edward Morgan, had four sons and three
daughters; the sons are, Rufus, John, Newton, and Joseph; and the
daughters, Martha, who married Mr. Noffsinger; Virginia, who married
Richard Gilliam, and Sallie, who died young and unmarried. This Straley
people have been quiet, law-abiding and unpretentious, never seeking
public position, always ready and serving their friends, especially their
relations. Three of the sons of Jacob Straley and his wife, Martha French
Straley, served in the war of 1812; they were James, Daniel and John. Our
Civil War, 1861-5, produced from their ranks some magnificent soldiers,
among them Captain Jacob C., son of Daniel, who led, as Captain, a company
in the 17th Virginia Regiment of Cavalry; he was bold and fierce on the
field of battle, and rode boldly in to the thickest of the conflict and
abreast the storm as if on parade. His courage was not exceeded by that of
any man who ever drew sabre. There is presented opposite this page the
photograph of Harrison W. Straley, the great-grandson of the emigrant.

The Wittens of Tazewell.
This was a Saxon family from Wittensburg, in Prussia, and a part of the
family emigrated to America at a very early day and located in Maryland,
about the time of the first white settlements therein. They were neighbors
to the Cecils, with whom they married and intermarried for long years. A
few years prior to 1771 Thomas Witten, whose wife was a Cecil, and who,
with his family, had removed to the neighborhood of Fredericktown,
Maryland, came along the Valley of Virginia and over the Alleghanies,
living for a year or two at the large spring on Walker's Creek near what
is now known as the William Allen farm, and becoming close neighbors of
Samuel W. Cecil, who had come from Maryland. The Wittens decided to move
to the Clinch, and on the 16th day of March, 1771, they located on that
stream; Thomas settled at the Crab Orchard, west of the present Court
House of Tazewell; James near what is now Pisgah Church, and Jerry at a
point west of the Court House. James Witten, born near Fredericktown, in
1759, married Rebecca Cecil, and William Cecil married Nancy Witten. The
Wittens are among the most prominent citizens of Tazewell County; several
of them having been honored with important civil positions. Mr. J. W. M.
Witten was a Senator in the Virginia Legislature, and also represented
Tazewell in the House of Delegates. Upon information derived from Mr.
James R. Witten, Governor Greenup, of Kentucky, son of John, of the Clinch
Valley, was born near what is now known as Pisgah Church, in Tazewell
County. It is said that James Witten carried the first Negro slaves into
what is now Tazewell County.