WATAUGA COUNTY, NC - HISTORY - A History of Watauga County, North Carolina
			       Sketches of Prominent Families, Part 4
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A History of Watauga County, North Carolina

John Preston Arthur

Sketches of Prominent Families

NOTE: These family histories are from the last 75 pages of A History of
Watauga County, North Carolina, with sketches of prominent families by John
Preston Arthur, Copyright 1915 John Preston Arthur.

Page 310

Elmore, who was born April 18, 1840, and Married Mary Harman; Mary, born in
1842, but never married; Jesse, born in 1844, but died when twenty or twenty-
one years of age; John Watts, who was born February 15, 1848, and married
Adeline Rivers in 1876.

Rev. Reuben P. Farthing was the son of Rev. William Watkins Farthing and his
wife, Phoebe.  He was born June 28, 1808; married Sallie Brown, and died
December 20, 1889.  He was early admitted to the ministry of the Baptist
Church and preached for nearly all his adult years, litterally "without money
and without price."  He was one of the foremost educators of his day, and did
much for the advancement of the religious and educational status of the people
of Watauga County.  He answered every call from all who needed his aid and
assistance.  His life was one of devotion to duty.  When he died the late
Major Harvey Bingham paid a tribute to his worth and excellence of which any
man might well hve been proud.  This was published in one of out newspapers
and is preserved by the family as a sacred memorial of a great and good man,
for in it was said that, while not a college graduate, Reuben Farthing was
nevertheless a highly educated and very learned man, having unaided and alone
dug out from the classics and from scientific books a store of knowledge that
was not only abundant, but pratical.  A distinguished visitor to his home was
struck by his erudition, and was surprised to learn that he had acquired it
all by dint of hard work and unremitting study.

Franklin Family.--Levi Franklin was the father of Lawson A., and resided at
what is now Altamont on Linville River when that was a part of Watauga County.
His sister married Leroy McCanless, who is now a resident of Florence,
Colorado, and a brother of D. Colvard McCanless.  Rev. William Colvard
Franklin, of Altamont, bears part of his name, and is now about sixty years of
age.

Gragg Family. --William Gragg was of Irish descent and settled, first, in West
Virginia, from which he came with his wife, born Elizabeth Pulliam, to John's
River, Caldwell County, soon after the Revolutionary War, in which he had been
a soldier

Page - 311

under Washington, having fought from the first to the last battle of the war.
Their children were: John, born September 7, 1781, in Virginia; William,
Obediah, Robert, James, Benjamin, Susan and Elizabeth. Of these, John married,
first, Elizabeth Majors, and, second, Susannah Barrier. The children by the
first marriage were: Tilmon, John, Tipton, Major, Elisha, Nelson and Hamilton.
Those by the second marriage were Harvey, Empsey, Alexander and William
Waightstill. There was one daughter by the first marriage, Nicie, and six by
the second, Irene, Elvira, Margaret, Eliza and twins, Adeline and Carolina.

William married Celia Boone, a grandniece of Daniel; Obediah married Elizabeth
Webb; Robert married Rhoda Humphrey; James married Nancy Humphrey; Benjamin
married Nancy Dyer; Susan married Isaac Green; Elizabeth married Alfred
Pritchett.

Tilmon married, first, Hila Layell, and, second, Jane McNeely; John married a
Miss Morris in Georgia; Tipton married Rachel Greene; Major married Celia
Wilson, first, and Polly Ollis, second; Elisha married Selina Piercey; Nelson
married Violet Greene; Hamilton married, first, a Cobb, then a House, and,
third, Martha Strickland, and Harvey married Melinda McLeard.  Empsey married
Serena Ford, first and then Susan Barrier; Alexander married Carolina Munday;
William W. married Martha McGhinnis, first, and second, a lady in the State of
Washington.

Nicie married James Calloway; Irene married Samuel Barrier; Elvira married
Wiley Holtsclaw; Adeline married W. W. Pressly; Carolina married Madison
Gragg; Margaret married Archibald Qualls; Eliza died young and unmarried.

Green Family.--From "The Greene Family of Watauga," by Rev. G. W. Greene, we
learn that the first Greene to come to America came from Wiltshire, England,
to Massachusetts about 1635.  His name was John, but he was a Quaker and soon
joined Roger Williams in Rhode Island, and from him in the fifth generation
sprang Gen. Nathaniel Greene, of the Revolution.  Early in the eighteenth
century one branch of this family went

Page 312

to New Yourk State and settled near Brooklyn, but soon passed on to New
Jersey, where many of its members became prominent.  But about the middle of
the eighteenth century Jeremiah Greene came to North Carolina with the Jersey
settlers and bought 541 acres of land on the waters of Pee Dee, near Linwood. 
This was about 1762.  Jeremiah's son, Isaac, and himself remained in the
Jersey settlement, but "Stephen Greene, who was probably a younger son of
Jeremiah Greene, in 1784 settled in the Forks of the Yadkin, and has left in
Davie County a large and honorable progeny."  Soon after the Revolution three
sons and two daughters of Jeremiah Greene left the Jersey Settlement and moved
to what is now Watauga, then a part of Wilkes.  These brothers were Richard,
Jeremiah and John, all them married, as were their sisters, Joanna, to
Landrind Eggers, and Sarah, to a man named Wilson.  Richard, the eldest,
settled at Blowing Rock and was accompained by his father-in-law, an old man
named Sullivan. He brought a tombstone with him and died February 27, 1794.
His coffin was hewed out of a poplar tree when the wood was frozen hard.  The
stone still stands in the graveyard of the German Reformed Church, one mile
from Blowing Rock.  This is the inscription: E. E. S 1794.

It will (was) noticed that the S is upside down.  But, according to Mr.
Greene's sketch, the inscriptin is: F 27 1794.

If he is right, then F probably stands for February and 27 for the day of that
month on which he died.

The brothers, Jeremiah and John, settled in the middle of the eastern part of
the county, while the sisters, Mr. Greene thinks, probably lived nearer the
borders of Tennessee, which is true of the one who married Landrine Eggers, at
least, and possibly of the other also, according to the Wilson she mrried.
Richard Greene's children were eight in number, the first five of whom had
twelve each, two others had ten each, while one had to be contented with
seven.  Jeremiah Greene, whose wife was Polly Wiseman, an aunt of J. W.
Wiseman, of Farmington, had

Page 313

eleven children, his oldest son, Isaac, living to be seventy-nine years old.
At his deth he counted eleven children, 102 grandchildren and 100 great-
grandchildren.  Isaac's son, Solomon, lived to be quite old, eighty-five, and
had twenty-one children, 160 grandchildren and 160 great-grandchildren, and
two or three of the fifth generation.  This was in 1886, and he lived two or
three years longer.  His eldest sister, Mrs. Elizabeth Norris, was then
ninety-two years old.  John "Moccasin" Greene with part of his family moved to
Mitchell, then a part of Burk, while his brother moved to Rutherford.  John
"Moccasin: died in Madison Counyty in 1852 when more than ninety years old.
The most noted member of the fmily was Judge L. L. Greene, of the Superior
Court, of whom a sketch is given below.

Judge Leonidas L. Greene.--He was born in Watauga County, at Blowing Rock, on
the 11th day of November, 1845, and was elected judge of the Superior Court in
1896 and served till his death in 1898. He was a son of Robert Greene and his
wife, Chaney Elrod. He was a consummate politician and managed party affairs
adroitly. On March 1, 1876, he married Martha Horton, a daughter of Col. Jack
Horton, who survives him. Judge Greene's portrait hangs over the judge's desk
in the county court house in Boone. He left two children, Albina, who married
Frank Mandefield, of Duluth, and Wilhelmetta, unmarried.  Judge Greene was
also United States commissioner. He was considered a good lawyer and enjoyed a
large practice. He was a good neighbor and well liked.

Greer Family.--Benjamin Greer was a soldier of the Revolution.  His Wife was a
Miss Wilcox, and their childredn were John, who married nancy Owen; William,
who married Hannah Cartright and died when 103 years of age; Jesse, who
married Mary Morris; Thomas, who married a Ketron; James, who married a
Hampton; David, who married a Ketron; James, who married a Hampton; David, who
married Nancy Hodges; Samuel, who married Sallie Church; Joshua, who married
Jennie Church; Rachel, who married Robert Judd and moved to Kentucky; Ann, who
married Thomas Holman and went West.

Benjamin Greer married a second time, after the death of his first wife, Mrs.
Sallie Atkinson Jones, widow of Thomas Jones,

Page 314

who died from a wound received in the Revolution.  She reared children by both
husbands.  They moved to Green River, Ky., where he died in 1810.  Samuel
Greer has three children living here:  Elizabeth Hendrix, now ninety-four
years of age; Finley Greer, ninety-two years of age; Riley Greer, ninety years
old.

Mary Ray Greer was born September 22, 1813, and died March 26, 1906, at the
Critcher hotel.  Her grave is in the cemetery at Boone.  She was the daughter
of William Ray, of Elk Creek, above Todd, and the wife of Thomas Greer.  Her
daughter, Jennie, married J. L. Phillips, while Evelyn became the wife of
George Grubb; Martha the wife of Julius Elliott, of Rowan, and Millie the wife
of Thos. J. Coffey.  Her son, Larkin, was killed in the Civil War.  The latter
was about to marry Sarh Ferguson, of Meat Camp, when he was at home once
during the Civil War on furlough, and was on the way to the magistrate's to be
married when they were met by her sister, Martha Ann, who faced them about and
prevented the marriage.  Sarah afterwards married Zecharih Moretz.  Martha Ann
never married.

The Grider Family.--John Grider married Agnes Flowers in 1844 and their
children were:  Adolphus, killed in Civil War; Mary, born in 1848 and married
George P. Sherrill; Sarah, who married Duke Glenn, and Martha, who married
Monroe Harman.  John's father was John, who married  Nancy Gibbs, of Alexander
County, and their children were:  William, who married Amanlda Rector after
the death of his first wife; Cameline, who married; Rufus, who married Betsy
White; Wiley, who married Malinda _______; Sally, who did not marry, and
Betsy, who did not marry; Pickney, who married Becky Bool.  All these lived in
Alexander County, near Taylorsville.

Grubb Family.--The first of this family were a Grubb and his wife who started
from Germany with their children, but the parents died at sea.  Their sons,
George and John, married two sisters of the name of Leonard and went to
Indiana, while Henry, another son, married a Miss Michael, first, and then a
Miss McBride; Jacob married Susannah Hedrick; Conrad and David were Twins,
David marrying a Young and Conrad a

Page 315

Hedrick; Frederick married a Gordon; Daniel married a Thistle, first, and then
a Miss Grubb, and Jacob, whose son, John, married Martha, a daughter of John
Morphew.

Hagaman Family.--Thomas Hagaman married Sarah Reese, and their children were: 
John, who married Mary Shoun; Hamilton, who was killed in the Civil War; M.
Granville, who married Mary Winkler, a daughter of Joshua; Thomas, who married
a Miss Blackwelder; Joseph, who married a Crawford; Louisa, who married
Captain A. J. Critcher; James Roby, who married a Crocker of linconton, and
Epsy, who married Jerome Moretz.  Joseph Hagaman was a brother to Thomas, but
never married.  Thomas was born, according to his tombstone on Brushy Fork, in
1810, and died about 1876.  Isaac Hagaman married Joanna Reese, and his son,
Hugh, married Elizabeth Wilson, daughter of ALexander.  Their children were:
Smith, who married Blanche Sherrill; Millard, who married Grace Isaacs;
Emmett, who married Florence Cook; AMerica, who married Wm. Smith; Ennis, who
married Roy Dotson; Alice, who married Ellis Moody, and Nancy, not married.
Isaac Hagaman was the father of Theron, who married, first, a Greene, a sister
of Jeremy on Cove Creek, and, second, Mary Dougherty, daughter of Elijah and
sister of D. B. Dougherty.  The children by the first marriage were; Rev.
Jacob G., who married Helen Hayes; Brazilla C., who married Dilly Scott, and
W. Jasper, who married Amanda Wilson, daughter of Alexander.  Children of the
second marriage were:  Raleigh, who died at about twenty years of age, was
unmarried; Isaac Hagaman, Jr., married Hilah Dougherty and moved away long
ago, their three children, Annie, John and Carey, living near Asheville for
awhile and moving to South Carolina.  Jacob Hagaman, son of Theron, had the
following children;  George, who married Margaret Sherrill, and Cora, who
married Lee Qualls and lives in Tennessee.  John Hagaman, son of Isaac, had
the following children;  Alexander, who married Anna Farthing; Daniel, who
married Mary Harmon; Hugh, who married _______; Thomas, who married _______;
Francis, who married a Gambill; also two daughters, names not recalled by
informant.

Page 316

HARDIN FAMILY.--Henry Hardin came from England and settled in Pennsylvania.
His sones were: Wilburn, John and Richard. His daughter was named Catharine.

Wilburn Married and lived on Beaver Creek, Ashe County. His children were:
John, who married a Ray; Joseph who married __________; Martin who married a
Hawthorne; Marcus who married __________; William who married __________, and
Catharine who married a Burkett, who was killed in the Civil War.

John, who lived at the old Hardin place east of Boone, married Charlotte,
sister of the first Jordon Councill. On a tombstone in the Boone Cemetery is
found: "Charlotte Hardin, born April 16, 1795, died November 1, 1843". Their
children were: Henry W., born December 29, 1821, died January 11, 1904; his
wife was Lucinda Horton, born May 27, 1824, died March 8, 1909; Sarah, who
married George Snider; Martha, who married John Snider; Elizabeth who married
John Powell; and Jordan C., who married Julia Williams.

Richard married a Ray(?) and settled on Beaver Creek in Ashe County. Their
children were: Hence, who married an Oliver; Frank, who married Rhoda Howell;
George, who married a Ray; Catharine, who married a Graybeal; John, who
married a Goodman; and Ida, who married a Reeves.

Catharine, who married Thomas Sudderth, settled in Caldwell County. Their
children were: Wilburn, Tolliver and John.

Henry C. Hardin's children were: James H. born October 19, 1847, married Emma
Sutherland; John F., born February 1, 1850, who married Martha H. Councill;
William H. born February 13, 1852, married Sarah Winkler; Jordan C., born May
17, 1854, married Nancy Kitzmiller; H. Joseph, born October 24, 1857, married
Alice McRary; L. Cornelia, born April 19, 1859, married first, Wm. Churchm and
then John Snider; Ida N., who was born October 13, 1862 and marred Wm.
Spainhour.

HARMAN FAMILY. -- In 1791 Cutliff Harman came from Randolph County and bought
522 acres of land on Cove Creek from James Gwyn, to whom it had been granted
August 6, 1791, according to Malden C. Harman in Watauga Democrat of April,
1891.

Page 317

Cutliff married Susan Fouts, and was about ninety years of age when he died in
1838, his wife having died several years before, and he having married
Elizabeth Parker, a widow. He had ten children by his first marriage; none by
his second. Among his children were: Mary, who married Bedant Baird; Andrew
who married Sabra Hix; Eli, who married the widow Rhoda Dyer (born Dugger);
Mathias, who moved to Indiana; Catherine, who married Benjamin Ward and went
west; Rebecca, who married Frank Adams and moved to Indiana; Rachel, who
married Holden Davis; Sarah, who married John Mast; Nancy, who married Thomas
Curtis; Rev. D.C. Harman was a son of Eli Harman and was born April 17, 1826
and died December 23, 1904.

***** Note here: the tenth child, I believe was Elizabeth Harman, who married
Duke Ward. Family legend says that soon after Andrew Harmon died (a tree fell
on him), Duke took off with Sabra for Tennessee. Elizabeth was said to have
died of a broken heart. Duke died in 1830 in a wrestling match in Clinton Co,
IL -- Linnea's note.

*****

Hartley Family.--Waightstill Hartley came to America from Shropshire, England,
in 1740, and settled near Frederick, Md.  His children were:  John, who
married Elizabeth Becket; Mahala, who married John Dinwiddie, and Nancy, who
married David Tucker.  It is said that Elizabeth nursed Thomas Jefferson.
John Hartley had seven children:  Nancy, who married George Tucker; Elizabeth,
who married General Wilson; Ava, who did not marry; Finley, who married Sarah
Brooks; George, who married Elizabeth David; James, who married Anna McCrary;
Reuben, who married Jane Fullenwider.  John Hartley was a weaver and died in
Virginia, after which his family came to North Carolina in 1783, finally
settling in Rowan, while others of the connection settled in Caldwell and
Burke.  George had six children: Clinton, Larkin, George, Alfred, Waightstill
and Mahala.  George Hartley, Sr., was a saddle and harness maker.  He died in
1834, aged seventy-two.  Clinton never married.  He was a colonel of the
militia and sheriff of Burke and one of the commissioners who located Lenoir. 
He was a Whig, and died at the age of ninety-five.  Larkin never married.  He
was a blacksmith and a great hunter, and died at the age of fifty-three.
George married Catharine Fincannon, and they had five children:  Rufus, Jason,
John, Polly and Mahala.  Rufus married Piety Kirby, and they had four
children:  Jason married Sarah Ann, daughter of Waightstill Hartley; Polly,
daughter of

Page 318

John W. Hartley, married W. W. Sherrill, and her son, George P. Sherrill, now
lives on Beaver Dams, Watauga County.

Hayes Family.--Ransom Hayes died in March, 1868, aged about sixty-three years.
He married Sallie Greene, daughter of Joseph.  Joseph Green had married
Elizabeth, daughter of Robert Shearer, Sr.  Ransom Hayes' children were:  1.
Joseph, who died in 1911, aged about seventy-five, on Brushy Fork, He married
Eliza, daughter of Larkin Hodges, of Poplar Grove.  His son, Joseph, now lives
there.  2. Elizabeth, who married Thomas Storie, son of Joshua, and died in
1875.  Robert, who married Rebecca Hately, daughter of William, who lived
about Watauga Falls postoffice.  4. John, who married Eliza Cook, daughter of
Rev. John Cook, of Vergil.  John died in the army at Richmond, Va.  Hsis widow
is still living. Their one son, John Lee, was one of the builders of Blowing
Rock.  5. William, who married Benjamin Brown's daughter, Clorinda, and lived
near Todd.  William lived near Poplar Grove, but went first to Tennessee and
then to Oregon, where he died about 1900. 6. Thomas, who was killed in the
second battle of Manassas in the 37th North Carolina regiment.  He never
married.  7. Nancy, who married Harvey Dougherty, of Johnson County,
Tennessee.  He was a brother of D. B. Dougherty.  Nancy died in Blount County,
Tennessee, in May, 1913.  8. Sarah, who married W. L. Bryan December 12, 1865.
They moved to Meat Camp in 1865 within a mile of Soda Hill, where farming was
carried on till the fall of 1868, when they returned to Boone.  9. George, who
married, first, Emily, daughter of Riley and Violet Hodges, and, second,
Louisa Bumgarner, of Howard's Creek.  They live near Boone.  10. Ransom, who
was born in 1846 and married a lady in Texas.  He died in 1910, his wife
having died several years before.  They had two daughters, one of whom died
young and without having married, and the other, Nannie, now Mrs. Yeagel,
lives in Dallas, Texas.  11. Richard, born about May, 1849, and married
Delphia Hayes, a distant cousin, of Caldwell County.  After having lived in
Mitchell County, they returned to Caldwell and now reside in the Globe.

Hodges Family.--Thomas Hodges came from Virginia and settled at Hodges Gap,
two miles west of Boone, during the

Page 319

Revolutionary War. He was a Tory. His family came with him. His son, Gilbert,
married Robert Shearer's daughter. Robert died about 1845.

Gilbert Hodges lived where I. W. Gross now lives, about one-hald mile east of
hodges Gap. His children were; 1. Thomas, who married Mary Ingraham. 2.
Robert, who died in the summer of 1914 near Hodges Gap, at the home of George
Teague, who had married his niece. His wife was Peggy Ingraham. 3. Holland,
who was born July 18, 1827, and still lives near the place of his birth. In
1856 he helped Jordan McGhee kill 432 rattlesnakes on Rich Mountain. 4. Riley,
who is still alive and lives on the waters of Laurel Fork. He married Violet
Moody, of Watauga. 5. Elizabeth, who married Edward Clawson, her cousin. 6.
Lousia, who married John Greene. He was killed in the Civil War. She
afterwards married John Dougherty, who still lives, having married Martha Cook
after the death of his first wife. 7. Larkin, who married Miss Eliza Gragg, a
daughter of John Gragg, who lived where David F. Baird now lives at Valle
Crucis. Larkin Hodges lives in Buncombe County.  William Hodges lived a
quarter of a mile east of the cabin in which Jacob M. Councill was killed by
Stoneman's men in March, 1865. That cabin is still called the Mark Hodges
house, as William's son, Mark, built it. It is almost due north from Benjamin
Councill's present residence. William was a brother of Gilbert Hodges, and
married a Miss Mullins, sister of Jesse Mullins, who was a great hunter and
lived on the South Fork of New River three miles from Boone. His children
were: 1. Larkin, a preacher, who married Miss Polly Moody. 2. Adam, who
married twice. He lived and died in Knox County, Tennessee. 3. William, who
married Miss Morris, of New River, and lived near Todd. 4. John or Jack, who
married Fanny Morris, sister of William's wife, and lived near Boone. 5.
Burton, who married Miss Northern and lives in Tennessee. 6. Jesse, who
married and lives in Knox County, Tennessee. 7. Demarcus, who married a Miss
Calloway, daughter of Isom Calloway, who lived on Elk above Todd.  8. A
daughter, who