WATAUGA COUNTY, NC - HISTORY - A History of Watauga County, North Carolina Sketches of Prominent Families, Part 5 ==================================================================== USGENWEB NOTICE: In keeping with our policy of providing free information on the Internet, data may be used by non-commercial entities, as long as this message remains on all copied material. These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or for presentation by other persons or organizations. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material for purposes other than stated above must obtain the written consent of the file contributor. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store the file permanently for free access. This file was contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by: Sharon Williamson ==================================================================== 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 320 married Soloman Green. 9. Sallie, who married Rev. John Cook, son of Michael, Sr. 10. Delphia, who married Adam Cook, brother of John. Jesse Hodges was a brother of William and Gilbert, and married Polly Clawson. He lived a mile and a half north of Soda Hill, at the head of Little Grassy Creek. His children were: Frank, who married Nancy Ingraham; William, who married Nancy Triplett; Elbert, who married Katie Davis; Larkin, who died young and unmarried; Jack, who was killed by bushwhackers during the Civil War; Thomas, who died in the Confederate Army unmarried; Patsy, who married Jesse Stanberry; Cynthia, who married Edmund Blackburn; Elizabeth, who married Jacob Jones, first, and then Captain William Miller, son of Hon. David Miller, and moved to Middle Tennessee, where they died. Jones, her first husband, was lost in the Confederate army; Nancy, who married Thomas Griever, of Johnson County, Tennessee. Jesse Hodges sold his farm to David Lookabill about 1858 and moved to Johnson county, Tennessee, where he and his son, Jack or John, were killed by renegades in the Civil War. Holtzclaw Family.(1)--James T. Holtzclaw came from Germany and settled first in Virginia, near what is now Gordonsville, about 1735 or 1740, wher John Holtzclaw was born, and his brothers, Henry, William, Joseph and Benjamin. John Holtzclaw served in the Revolutionary War under a Captain Lewis, after which he settled on Watauga River, near Valle Crucis, where he married Catharine Hicks (sometimes spelt Hix). Their children were: John Hicks, Henry, Benjamin, Marcus and William, agnes and Nancy. Of these, John married Lurana Dugger and lived on Banner's Elk; John Hicks married Sallie Hartley and lived near Watauga River; Henry moved to Albany on the Ohio River below Louisville, Ky.; Joseph moved to Alabama and settled near what is now Birmingham; Benjamin married Nancy Hately and settled on waters of Watauga River; Marcus married Lena Green and settled on Brushy Fork four miles west of Boone; William __________ Note: (1)This was the original spelling, but it came to be spelt Holtsclaw. Page 321 married a Miss Smith and lived near Cranberry Forge; Agnes married William Dugger and lived in Johnson County, Tennessee; Nancy married James Morgan and lived in Ashe till the death of her husband, when she moved to Tennessee. To John Holtzclaw and Nancy were born Wiley, Rufus, William and Sally. To Marcus and Laura were born Pemberton, Crawford and Wesley, Catharine, Agnes and Lena, and by Marcus' third wife, whose name was Elizabeth Munday, were born Thomas C., Lafayette, Eliza, Mary, Laura and Nancy. Pemberton married Catharine Pharr and lived in Haywood County, North Carolina; John Wesley married Martha Williams and made his home mostly in Watauga County; Thomas C. married Carrie Munday, first, and, second, a Miss Cairns, and lives in Transylvania, N. C. Horton Family.-- Nathan Horton settled in Rowan, near the Jersey Settlement, but afterwards moved to a farm near Holman's Ford in Wilkes County. Then he came to Cool's Gap in the Blue Ridge, the very gap through which Daniel Boone, in May, 1769, had passed on his first trip to Kentucky. With Horton came also his own wife and William Miller and wife, Mary, and their son, David Miller, and Ebenezer Fairchild and family. Horton went into a hunter's camp at Cook's Gap, Miller into another hunter's camp at Buck's Gap, while Fairchild went on to what is now called Howard's Creek. All these became members of Three Forks Baptist Church, which had been orgnized in November, 1790. There is a tradition in the Horton family to the effect that the camp into which Nathan went belonged to Richard Green, and that on one occasion, when the fire went out and Mrs. Horton went to a neighbors; several miles distant to get some live coals, she found this Green in posession of this camp, which was their first acquaintance with ech other. But there are among the Fairchild papers receipts from Jonathan Tompkins, (1) tax collector for 1780, showing that he collected taxes in this settlement at that early date. There is also a knob of the Blue Ridge, near Deep Gap, which bears his __________ Note: (1) Wm. Temple Coles collected taxes from E. Fairchild in 1769 . Page 322 name. There is also a tradition that the Greens were members of the Jersey Settlement, and that James Jackson, Willim Miller, the three Bucks, Tompkins and Horton himself were members of the Jersey Settlement. They were all members of the Three Forks Church between 1790 and 1800, and the probability seems that Richard Green told Horton where his camp was and invited him to take possession of it and that Buck extended the same invitation to Miller with regard to his own camp near by. Nathan Horton lost his little daughter, Hannah, at Hagerstown, Md., on his way from New Jersey, she having sickened and died there. William Horton was an infant in arms when the family arrived at Cook's Gap, and he became the grndfather of Hon. Horton Bower, afterwards members of Congress, William having married Millie Dula and settled at Elkville, Wilkes County. James, another of Nathan's sons, married a daughter of James Webb and settled where Noah Brooksher now lives on South Fork of New River, half a mile below Three Forks Church. David Eagles, named for his mother, who was born Elizabeth Eagles, married Sallie Dula and settled one mile above Elkville. Phineas, another son, married Rebecca Council, daughter of the first Jordan Councill, and settled on the land now occupied by J. C. Horton, his house having stood in the bottom in front of J. C. Horton's present home, though Phineas afterwards built a log house on the ridge, just above the present J. C. Horton home. Sarah and John, two of Nathan's children, died when children, while Jonathan, another of Nathan's sons, married Malinda Hartzog and settled whee R. F. Vannoy now lives. Elizabeth, daughter of Nathan, married Zephaniah Horton, of Yancey County. William Horton, of Elkville, had eleven children. James Horton's children were: Colonel Jack, who married, first, Rebecca Mast, and then Mary Swift; Lucinda, who married Henry W. hardin and lived where Joseph Hardin now lives; Elvira, who married Mathias Bledsoe near Todd; Eveline, who married Hamilton Ray, of Roan Mountain Station, Tenn.; William, who married a Shull and lived on Cove Creek, afterwards removing to Roan Creek, Tenn.; Polly, who married Thomas Ray, of Three Tops, Ashe County. Page 323 The children of David Eagles Horton were: Thomas, who married Clara Perkins and lived in Burke; David, who married Jane Young, of Yancey, and now lives on the Yadkin one mile from Elkville; Adeline, who married C. P. Jones and lives on the Yadkin above Elkville; Larkin L., who married Louisa Isbell and lived on King's Creek; John and Jane died unmarried; James, who married Rosa Lynch, of Yadkin County; Louisa, who married James M. Isbell, of King's Creek. Phineas' children were: William, who married Rebecca Blair and settled at the J. C. Horton place; Nathan, who married Jeliette Gentry, of Jefferson, and settled on the opposite side of New River from the J. C. Horton place; Jonathan and James died in the Civil War. Jonathan Horton had no children and died in Boone November 24, 1895. His widow, Malinda, died April 17, 1911. Elizabeth's children were: Nathan, James and David, and lived near Burnsville, Yancey County. The children of William, son of Phineas Horton, were: James Crittenden, who married Mary Elrod, of New River; Jonathan Blair, who married Miss Smith, of Elkin; Julia, who died unmarried; Wm. Phineas, who married Emma Wyn, of Warren County, North Carolina; Emma, who married Lewis P. Moore, of High Point; Addie Elizabeth, who married J. S. Winkler, of Boone; Henry Walter, who married Susan Usher, of Charlotte, and lives in North Wilkesboro; Sallie Hill, who died when eight years old. Col. Jack Hortonn's children were: James W., who married a Miss Councill, and David, who married a Miss Mast, and Mattie, who married Judge L. L. Greene. Col. Nathan Horton was born at Chester, N. J., February 25, 1757, and married Elizabeth Eagles in New Youk City July 10, 1783. She was a daughter of John Eagles. Nathan and wife removed to NOrth Carolina about 1785. Elizabeth Eagles was born in New York City December 1, 1766, and Hannah, their first child, was born at Chester, N. J., October 15, 1784; William, their second child, was born on New River August 15, 1786; James was born there February 28, 1789; David Eagles was Page 324 born there May 5, 1792, as was Phineas January 9, 1795; Sarah was born September 19, 1794; John was born June 11, 1800; Elizabeth, September 15, 1803; Jonathan, February 26, 1806. Malinda, Jonathan's wife, was born May 10, 1820. Col. Nathan Horton died on New River July 22, 1824, and his wife died there May 19, 1854. Nathan Horton bought in Richmond, Va., in 1803, a negro boy fourteen years of age, and Vinie, a girl, eleven years old. Vinie's first child was born in 1806 when Vinie was only fourteen years old. This child was named Tempe. Among J. C. Horton's heirlooms is a grandfather clock seven feet high, with a mahogany case and a face showing the rising and setting of the moon, a hand to mark all the seasons and several other devices. This was Nathan Horton's property, wihch hae hauled all the way from new Jersey to North Carolina on his journey down. There is still in the family a shot gun or rifle with a bore capable of chambering three buck shot, on top of which a bullet the size of the barrel was rammed home encased in buckskin, thus making a load that was apt to "git 'em, both a-goin' and a-comin'." It has a flint- lock, and it was used by Nathan in guarding Major Andre when the ltter was executed as a spy. Col. Nathan Horton was buried in Three Forks churchyard, and on his tombstone is carved the fact that he was a soldier of the Revolutionary War. He was several times in the legislature, and built the wagon road through Cook's Gap and on the Beaver Dams, called Horton's Turnpike. Horton Family Genealogy.--In 1876 the Home Circle Publishing Company, Philadelphia, Pa., published the "Horton Genealogy, or Chronicles of the Descendants of Barnibas Horton, of Southold, L. I., 1640" It was complied by George F. Horton, M. D. There is a picture of the old Horton homestead, erected by Barnibas Horton, Esq., in 1660, and was still standing at Southold, L. I., in June, 1873. Barnabas was probably the son of Joseph Horton, of Leicestershire, England, and was born in the little hamlet of Mouseley of that shire. He came over in the ship "Swallow" in 1633-38 and landed at Hampton, Mass., but in 1640 he and his wife and two children were in New Haven, Conn., in company with Rev. John Youngs, Wm. Welles Page 325 Peter Hollock, John Tuthill, Richard Terry, Thomas mapes, Mathias Corwin, Robert Ackerly, Jacob Corey, John Conklin, Isaac Arnold and John Budd. There, on the 21st day of October, 1640, they formed a Congregational Church and sailed for the east end of Long Island, now Southold. They had all been members of Puritan churches in England. These were the first to settle the east end of Long Island. The genealogy of the family is then traced down to 1876 and includes the North Carolina family whose history has been given above. Ingram Family.-- David ingram was reared in New England, from which section he came to North Carolina before anyone now living remembers. He married a Miss Frieze from near Winston-Salem. His son, Jacob, was born near Jefferson and married Peggy, daughter of John Greene, who then lived half a mile from Sand's Postoffice, Watauga County. John Ingram, son of Jacob, was born on New River one mile from Sands December 24, 1823. John Greene, father of Jacob's wife, was a soldier of the Revolutionary War. Besides John, Jacob had a son, Richard, who died in Texas during the Civil War unmarried, and Susan, who married Daniel Miller, of Ashe; Eliza, who married Ben. Greer; Mary, who married Thomas Hodges; Hannah, who married Isaac Greer; John, who married, first, Martha Ray, of Ashe, and , second, Louisa Gragg, widow of Edward Hodges; Nancy, who married Franklin Hodges, and Peggy, who married Robert Hodges. Isaacs Family.--Richard Isaacs was the first of this family and came from Ireland about 1790, and his wife was a Miss Robbins, of Randolph County, from which place he moved to settle in the Cherokee country, but when he got to Morganton he heard of Watauga River and expecially of Cove Creek, when he came through Linville Gap up Elk and Beech mountain to Hiram Hix's ford of Watauga, from which place he struck up Cove Creek to the Cove Creek Church, where Wm. Williams' family now lives, close to the old graveyard. Their children were: James, born 1791, married Rachel Reese; Richard, born 1793, married Lily Swift; Solomon, born 1795, April 1st, and married Lily Giles, first, and after her death, Sarah Eggers, a Page 326 daughter of Hugh Eggers; Massy and Mary, twins, born in 1789, of whom Massy married Samuel Swift and Mary a man named Massagee, but they left this section and went west before Hugh M. Isaacs was born. Solomon was married twice. the children by his first wife were: Elijah who married Sally Hartly; Peggy, who married Milton Davis; William, who married a Norris in Missouri. His second wife's children were: Hugh M., born may 13, 1839, and married, first, Nancy Thompson, and second, Leona Presnell; Martha, born June 17, 1841, married, first, John Wilson, who was killed at Chickamauga, and, second, Sherman Swift; Solomon, born June 2, 1845, and Richard, born August 15, 1847. Hugh M. joined Company I, 58th North Carolina; William Miller, captain, and Fred. Toby, adjutant. Walter W. Lenoir.-- He was born in Caldwell County about 1823 and died at Shull's Mills, Watauga County, July 26, 1890. He graduated with high honors at the North Carolina University, studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1845, and married Miss Cornelia Christian, of Staunton, Va., in 1856, but she died soon afterward. He lost a leg in the Civil War at the battle of Ox Hill, September, 1862. He was a descendant of Gen. William Lenoir, a lieutenant in Rugherford's expedition against the Cherokees in 1776; was a captain at King's Mountain battle; wa first president of the board of trustees of the university of North Carolina; was president of the Senate in 1790-94; was a member of the constitutional conventions of 1788-89; was chairman of the county court of Wilkes; was major-general of militia.(1) Lewis Family.--The sons of Richard Lewis the first were: Jacob, who married Hannah Waters and lived on Yadkin Elk. Their children were: 1. Betsy, who married Abraham Younce; Allie, who married Charles Hayse; Nancy, who married Abraham Lewis; Sallie, who married Jacob Council. 2. Daniel, who married Sallie Allen, their children being: James, who went to Texas in 1840; David, grandfather of P. C. Younce. By his second wife (Betsy Vanderpool) Daniel Lewis had Abraham, __________ Note: (1) Note by Dr. K. P. Battle, of U. N. C. pp. 40-41, No. 6, of Sprunt Hist. Monograph series. Page 327 and John, who went to Texas in 1840; Richard, who went to Arkansas; Jonathan, who went to California in 1849; Daniel, who married Martha Hendricks; Louisa, who married A. Younce. By his third wife, Louisa Franklin, Daniel had Andrew, who married Victoria Reese; Elizabeth, who went to Georgia; Emeline and Columbus, who also went to Georgia. J. David Lewis married Polly Hendricks, and their children were; Sallie, who married Daniel Brown; Betsy, who married Alfred Simmons; Minerva, who married Joseph Bingham. 4. Richard Lewis married Phoebe Vanderpool, and their children were: Rebecca, who married Thomas Robbins; Nancy, who did not marry; Malinda, who married a Day, and William. Margaret Lewis was buried at Cove Creek Church. Daniel Lewis settled where Jacob Lewis now lives, one mile from Sherwood on the Vancerpool Mill Creek, where the Vanderpools lived and where Lewis married a lady of that house. Lewis is said to have come to this section prior to 1800. Jonathan Lewis, son of Daniel, left Zionville for California in 1848, settled at Fresno, Cal., and became rich. Romulus Z. Linney.--He was born in Rutherford County December 26, 1841; was educated in the common schools of the country, at York's Collegiate Institute, and at Dr. Millen's school at Taylorsville; he served as a private in the Confederate army until the battle of Chancelloresville, where he was severely wounded, and was discharged. He then joined a class in Dr. Millen's school at Taylorsville, of which Hon. W. H. Gower was a member; studied law with the late Judge Armfield; was admitted to practice by the Supreme Court in 1868; was elected to the State Stnate in 1870, 1872, 1874, and again in 1882; was elected to the 54th and 56th Congress as a Republican, receiving 19,419 votes against 18006 for Rufus A. Doughton, Democrat, and 640 for Wm. M. White, Prohibitionist. He married Dorcas Stephenson in Taylorsville. In 1880 he became interested in Watauga so much that he bought property there, and in September, 1902, he bought a track of land he called Tater Hill on Rich Mountain, where he built two rock houses. He was influential in getting a wagon road built along the top of Page 328 the Rich Mountain range from the gap above Boone to a gap just north of Silverstone. He contributed $500 to the Appalachian Training School. Above the front door of the chief building of this college is written in marble the folllowing quotation from one of his speeches delivered July 4, 1903: "Learning, the Handmaid of Loyalty and Liberty. A Vote Governs Better than a Crown." He died at Taylorsville, April 15, 1910. His mother was a sister of the late Judge John Baxter. Col. Edward F. Lovill.-- He was born in Surry County February 10, 1842, married Miss Josephine Marion, of the same county, February 15, 1866, and moved to Boone in 1874. He was admitted to the bar in February, 1885, and was commissioner to the Chippewa Indians from 1893 to 1897. He was captain of Company A of the 28th North Carolina Infantry, and on the second day of Chancellorsville commanded that regiment in the absence of Col. Samuel D. Low. Of this incident Colonel Lowe reported: "While absent, Generl Stuart again commanded the line forward, and my regiment charged through the same terrible artillery firing the third time, led by Captain (Edward F. Lovill, of Company A, to the support of our batteries which I had just got into position on the hill from which those of the enemy had been driven." Captain Lovill had commanded the same regiment during the midnight attack of the night before. Upon the death of Col. Asbury Speer at Reems Station and the resigntion of Major Samuel Stowe, Captain Lovill was senior officer of the 28th till the surrender at Appomattox, and commanded the regiment of the battle of Jones; farm near Petersburg in the fall of 1864, where he was severly wounded. He returned to duty in March, 1865, and was recommended for promotion to the colonelcy of his regiment at the time that James Lineberger was recommended for the lieutenant-colonelcy and George McCauley for the majority, but the end came before these appointments were published. He was wounded in the right arm at Gettysburg. At Fredericksburg "Captain Lovill, of Company A, the right company of the regiment, stood on the railroad track all the time, waving his hat and chering his men, and neither he nor Martin (who had just Page 329 shot down the Federal color bearer) was Struck." Soon after the battle of Jerico Ford, in September, 1864, Nat Nixon, a seventeen-year-old boy of Mitchell's River, Surry, was desperately wounded, and at night Captain Lovill and Private M. H. Freeman, a cobbler of Dobson, went to get him, as he had been left within the enemy's lines. They called him and he answeree, saying the Federals were between him and them, but had been to him and given him water. Freeman put down his gun and accoutrements and shouting in a loud voice, "Natt, I'm comming after you. I am coming unarmed, and any man who shoots me is a damned coward," started. It was night, but no one fired at him, and he brought his stricken comrade back to Captain Lovill, but the poor boy died near a farm house to which he had been borne before daylight. Cononel Lovill is a director of the Oxford Orphanage, having been appointed by Governor Aycock. He is chairman of the board of trustees of the Appalachian Training School and a lawyer of ability. McBride Family.--John McBride came from the north of Irelaand and settled in New Jersey, from which place he moved to Rowan County with the New Jersey settlers. He married Mary Baird in Rowan, and their children were: Brazilla, who married Rachel Wilson in Rowan; Timothy, who went to Missouri, where he remained, and William, who married a Miss Swicegood in Rowan and died there. One of the daughters married Levi Heath; Ellen married Landrine Eggers, while another daughter married David Goss, who moved to Missouri. Brazilla was in the War of 1812 and named his first son for Andrew Jackson. Brazilla's children were: Andrew Jackson, who married Polly Green; Hiram, who married Mary Farthing; Silas, who married Emily Green; Brazilla Carroll, who married Catharine Brinkley, of West Tennessee; Sarah, who married Harrison Johnosn; Ann, who married Squire Green; Mary Amanda, who married John Combs; Emily, who married Jonathan Green. Brazilla's second wife was Elizabeth Eggers, and their children were: Manly, who married Martha Norris; John, who married Miss Greer; Rachel, who married George Hilliard;