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F 232 .A9 D9 Copy 2
AUGUSTA COUNTY, VIRGINIA IN THE HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES
BOUTWELL DUNLAP
THE KENTUCKY STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY
1900
S
Class
F232
Book
.A909
Copyright N.º.
company 2
COPYRIGIIT DEPOSIT.
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AUGUSTA COUNTY, VIRGINIA
AUGUSTA COUNTY VIRGINIA
IN THE
HISTORY
OF THE
UNITED STATES
BY BOUTWELL DUNLAP
,
FRANKFORT Published by The Kentucky State Historical Society 1918
Cary 2. 1
F232 .A909 Cofuer is
Copyright 1918 By the Kentucky State Historical Society All rights reserve
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Printed by The State Journal Company Frankfort, Kentucky Printers to Commonwealth of Kentucky
CCIA559342
SEP 18 1919 no !
Eltis 10 barr 1920
1
INTRODUCTION
In this astonishing array of men and women from Augusta county, Virginia, the author has given from his collections names of the period, 1735-1815, which are not found in the index of the "Descriptive List of the Manuscript Collection of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin," containing the Draper col- lections, valued at several hundred thousands of dol- lars. The Draper collections extend over the years, 1735-1815, and the field east of the Mississippi, with some trans-Mississippi material, such as that on the Lewis and Clark expedition. The writer of this study has investigated others after 1815 all over the United States, whom he shows. He has also as- certained the origin of literary people of southern antecedents whose names are not furnished by Lucian Lamar Knight's biographical dietionary in the "Library of Southern Literature." The author indicates for the first time in print the fountain head of many great Americans. There are here hundreds of names not in the two histories of Au- gusta county by two talented sons of Virginia, Joseph A. Waddell and John Lewis Peyton.
He intimates he may have missed some who should appear, but no history is ever complete. To represent positively that all of the various cate- gories below have been included would require a
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INTRODUCTION
knowledge of the ancestries in all lines of all Americans from the date of the founding of Augusta county to the present.
Unexplored Kentucky was once a part of Augusta county.
The names are arranged alphabetically, thus saving an index .- Mrs. Jennie C. Morton, Regent of the Kentucky State Historical Society.
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MENU
WOODROW WILSON
AUGUSTA COUNTY, VIRGINIA
B EING asked to write from my unpublished historical notes and collections relating to the history of the South and West-sections of the country heretofore neglected so much by in- vestigators-upon the "influence of Augusta county, Virginia, in the history of America," it is believed the title would be a better one if it were the "men and blood of Augusta county, Virginia, in the history of the United States."
When a historian saw the following, he exclaimed : "Is there any county in the United States or locality of equal population in the world, which has in so short a time produced so many famous states- men, soldiers and pioneers ?" I am not prepared to go so far as he, but the exhibit is remarkable.
There have been many unscientific generalizations upon ethnographic, geographic and political di- visions. Unfortunately, some American university professors and some American writers do not gather much new historical material. They vamp what has appeared in printed productions accessible to them. Roosevelt, who in his valuable "Winning of the West" in part covers the scope of this monograph, has to a great extent therein repeated secondary sources.
Therefore, if this lore be of any value to the historian, antiquarian or eugenist, it is pleasing, from what I happen to possess upon Augusta county, to designate some of the Augustans who resided within
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AUGUSTA COUNTY, VIRGINIA
the limits of the old county previous to 1776 and descendants in one or more lines of these and others who have at some time been its countymen and countywomen.
The authorities for the listing of individuals are always statements by the persons themselves or by those elaiming to be their kinsmen, or both this kindred and record evidence. There has been an endeavor to avoid errors.
But in a elose examination for a number of years of the ancestries of Americans in biographies and genealogies, I have been surprised at the number of misstatements discovered. It is amazing how many of our citizens would fail in a court of law to establish the marriage of their grandparents. Owing to the hundreds of pedigrees and Mss. collected and examined, there may be inaccuracies in this mono- graph. It would be more satisfactory to expand it with details into a large volume.
Where confliet in recitals of the ancestry or resi- dence of a person has been found, his name, without attempting to go into the evidence, is not contained herein .*
*President Andrew Jackson's parents are said to have lived in Augusta county, by another published as having lived in Frederick county, Virginia, and by still others published as having landed at Charleston, South Carolina, and having moved to what is now Union county, North Carolina, where he was undoubtedly born, although claimed sometimes by South Carolinians as a native of South Carolina.
There are assertions that President Andrew Johnson is of Augusta stock, but these are questioned. It is true he was collaterally related to a family by the name of Helvey, who lived in Wythe county, formerly a part of Augusta county.
The published pedigrees of President James K. Polk make no reference to a residence of his ancestor, William Polk, in Augusta county. H. M. Williamson, who has made as
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AUGUSTA COUNTY, VIRGINIA
I have positive declarations or belief expressed by antiquarians and historians that a number are of Augusta county origin. Because this information is
thorough a study of Augusta county pedigrees as any one of the hundreds with whom I have corresponded, announces he will soon print facts tending to establish the residence for a short time of William Polk in that county. If this be accomplished, not only President Polk, but among others, William Hawkins Polk, Minister to the Two Sicilies, Mem- ber of the United States House of Representatives from Ten- nessee, General William P. Hardeman, C. S. A., and General Lucius E. Polk, C. S. A., will be on an Augusta family tree.
It has been widely published that Vice President Adlai Ewing Stevenson is of an Augusta county root through the Stevensons of the Pastures, Augusta and Rockbridge coun- ties. This has been contradicted-properly so. However, some of my letters show an Augusta county ascent claimed through another line for Vice President Stevenson and for James Stevenson Ewing, Minister to Belgium.
The origin of the Oregon McBrides has been once pub- lished as in Kentucky and at other times as in North Caro- lina. It is quite probable that another article, attempting to prove their foundation in Augusta county, will soon ap- pear. Of this family there are James McBride, Minister to the Hawaiian Islands, George Wickliffe McBride, United States Senator from Oregon, and John R. McBride, Member of the United States House of Representatives from Oregon.
The author of a proposed history of a Tennessee locality writes me that there will be published therein the statement that John H. Savage, Member of the United States House of Representatives from Tennessee, is of Augusta county de- scent through one line. This will be an error.
It has been published and denied that the following are of Augusta county descent: Robert Trimble, Justice of the United States Supreme Court; William J. Bryan, Secretary of State; Thomas Ewing, Secretary of the Treasury, Secre- tary of the Interior, United States Senator from Ohio, pro- genitor of a celebrated line; General Lewis Wallace, Minis- ter to Turkey, Governor of New Mexico Territory; General Daniel W. Adams, C. S. A .; General Wirt Adams, C. S. A .; General Joseph E. Johnston, C. S. A .; Rear Admiral James Edward Jouett; General Jolin S. Roane, C. S. A., Governor of Arkansas; Stephen A. Douglas, United States Senator from Illinois, Member of the United States House of Representa- tives from Illinois; Joseph Benson Foraker, United States Senator from Ohio, Governor of Ohio; William McKendree Gwin, United States Senator from California, Member of the United States House of Representatives from Mississippi; Marcus A. Hanna, United States Senator from Ohio; George S. Houston, United States Senator from Ala- bama, Governor of Alabama, Member of the United States
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AUGUSTA COUNTY, VIRGINIA
not from the sources, as required above, they are omitted .* It is impossible in this space to present a critical estimate of this data.
House of Representatives from Alabama; Hamilton R. Gam- ble, Governor of Missouri; John Jameson, Member of the United States House of Representatives from Missouri.
I have a series of letters from a Presbyterian divine upon some of the descendants of Hugh Lawson, who seems to have been in Augusta county for a short time. There are so many contradictions in these, I have decided to omit the names of several claimed sometimes to be his descendants. Similar utterances from a relative of James D. Williams, Governor of Indiana, both affirm and deny for the latter an Augusta county grandparent.
The exclusions under this paragraph are not those con- flicts in recitals of ancestry from allegations of illegitimate descent. The toilsome endeavors both in print and Mss. to show in various ways the illegitimate origin of a deceased President of the United States, credited by legitimate birth and also by one of the illegitimate lines, to Augusta county, and also the attempt to show a resident of Augusta county to have been the son of an early President, one of the world's most illustrious, are shameless. Not any good has been done nor has any satisfactory proof resulted from this kind of a perversion of historical research.
*Among those are: William Burnham Woods, Justice of the United States Supreme Court, General Officer (supposedly from Woods); John Hay, Secretary of State, Ambassador to Great Britain (from Coulter); General Eli Bowyer (from Bowyer); General Ambrose E. Burnside, United States Sen- ator from Rhode Island, Governor of Rhode Island (from Burnside); General Thomas Duncan (from Duncan); General George L. Gillespie (from Gillespie); General John Porter McCown, C. S. A. (from Mccown); General James Stewart Martin (from Martin); General Thomas Armstrong Morris (from Morris) ; General Charles R. Woods (from Woods); Don- elson Caffery, United States Senator from Louisiana (from Caffery); Solomon W. Downs, United States Senator from Louisiana (from Downs); Job A. Cooper, Governor of Colo- rado (from Hadley); Joseph Duncan, Governor of Illinois, Member of the United States House of Representatives from Illinois (from Duncan); Daniel Lindsay Russell, Governor of North Carolina (from Russell); Linn Boyd, Member of the United States House of Representatives from Kentucky, Speaker of the House of Representatives (from Boyd); John P. Campbell, Member of the United States House of Repre- sentatives from Kentucky (from Poage); William W. Irvin, Member of the United States House of Representatives from Ohio (from Irvin); John Kincaid, Member of the United States House of Representatives from Kentucky (from Kin- caid); General Samuel Whiteside, pioneer, in honor of whom Whiteside County, Illinois, is named (from Whiteside); Josiah
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AUGUSTA COUNTY, VIRGINIA
There are others upon which there are notes which point to an Augusta county beginning. Having no conclusive proofs that these are of Augusta county lineage, they are not entered upon Augusta county's long roll of honor. Although this memoranda may be as interesting to the student as any as may be found in the collections, in order to prevent the ac- cumulation of errors-already too many before readers-and more confusion, it is not recorded.
An object has been to include only those who resided before 1776 within Augusta county's con- fines as they then stood and those who trace to one who was at some time a resident of what at the time of this residence was within the then Angusta county's limits. If the ancestor did not become domiciled in some county carved from Augusta county until the new county's organization, the descendant is excluded .*
Wilbarger, pioneer, in honor of whom Wilbarger County, Texas, is named (from mother).
Correspondence with relatives of the foregoing has not elicited much new material.
There is among my papers a statement by a member of the Augusta-Rockbridge family of Houston that David F. Houston, Secretary of Agriculture, is of this family. The Secretary writes me: "I regret to say that I have never un- dertaken to trace my family definitely back to its beginning in this country. I know that the original settlers went through Virginia, but where their stopping places were I cannot at this time say."
I have the suggestion of one who has prepared a Caldwell genealogy that some of the early Caldwells of Charlotte county, Virginia, who have several of note in the family, may have lived for a time in Augusta county. Similarly, another Caldwell family or a branch of the same Caldwells, with at least one member of distinction, it has been suggested from what I have, may have been originally seated in Au- gusta county.
*Therefore, those descending from the following who went to Southwest Virginia the year succeeding that section's withdrawal from Augusta county's jurisdiction, and those from other following little known later settlers to the south
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AUGUSTA COUNTY, VIRGINIA
Because of persons' inaccuracies in dates and ignorance of local geography, this has been difficult. Out of more than 800 names exhibited, there is only the family statement and either incomplete or no conclusive contemporary evidence in my posses- sion-I compile only from my papers-in the cases of about twenty men and women here set forth,
of the present Augusta county, some of whom are not men- tioned in Summer's "History of Southwest Virginia," are not catalogued, unless it is recognized they have an Augusta county derivation through some other ascendant.
Among these colonists are: Durst Ammen, from whom are General Jacob Ammen, General Richard T. Yeatman and Rear Admiral Daniel Ammen; Dr. John Apperson, from whom is the wife of George Hearst, United States Senator from California; "Trooper" James Armstrong, from whom are Leroy Percy, United States Senator from Mississippi, Gen- eral Francis C. Armstrong, C. S. A., Medical Director Wil- liam Taliaferro Hord, General Robert Armstrong, pioneer, brigadier-general commanding at Wahoo Swamp, bearer of the treaty settling the northwestern boundary and confiden- tial adviser of President James K. Polk; Major Francis W. Armstrong, pioneer, United States marshal of Alabama, and Major William Armstrong, pioneer, United States Indian agent; William Cocke, United States Senator from Tennessee, pioneer, United States Indian agent for the Chickasaw Na- tion, in honor of whom Cocke county, Tennessee, is named, from whom are Luke Lea, United States Senator from Ten- nessee, John Cocke, Member of the United States House of Representatives, pioneer, colonel of Tennessee riflemen at New Orleans, and major-general of Tennessee volunteers in the Creek war, and William M. Cocke, Member of the United States House of Representatives from Tennessee; Joseph Cul- bertson, from whom is Charles Culberson, United States Senator from Texas, Governor of Texas; Colonel John Floyd, pioneer, surveyor of 1774 in Kentucky, founder of Floyd's first station, at what is now the corner of Third street and the Ohio River, Louisville, founder of Floyd's station on Bear Grass, member of the assembly organizing the government of Transylvania and associate of the Boones and Clark, as hand- some as he was brave, killed by the Indians, in honor of whom Floyd county, Indiana, and Floyd county, Kentucky, are named; John Greenup, father of Christopher Greenup, Governor of Kentucky, Member of the United States House of Representatives from Kentucky; John McComas, from whom is William McComas, Member of the United States House of Representatives from Virginia; Colonel Evan Shel- by, pioneer, from whom are General Isaac Shelby, Secretary of War, Governor of Kentucky, and the wives of James Shan- non, Minister to Central America, and Beriah Magoffin, Gov-
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AUGUSTA COUNTY, VIRGINIA
many of them not conspicuous, that their stirps were inhabitants of Augusta county proper.
There is doubt when this is not offered. But it is certain at least the former had antecedents in another newer county which had been partitioned a few years before from Augusta county, who were, generally speaking, of the same historical type and characteristics as those who may have been earlier immigrants to Augusta county's original territory.
It would not be easy, if possible, to extend in- vestigations in some of these instances. The records relating to Augusta county are in some respects not as complete as some other Virginia counties. There are Virginia frontier families, to say noth- ing of individuals' names, whose cognomens are nowhere in Augusta county official archives or private documents. To learn the dates of the move- ments of people at the, at that time, far West, a century and a quarter to a century and three-quar- ters ago, has great obstacles.
Although the subject of my research, the results of which may be published later, celebrities, the praepositus of any one of whom was in either the present Orange or Frederick counties, Virginia, are of course omitted. Augusta county was a part of Orange county until the former was legislated.
ernor of Kentucky (Note-The Shelbys and others were con- sidered as living in what was believed to be Virginia, but afterwards surveys placed this habitation south of the Vir- ginia State line); Colonel John Todd, pioneer, first county lieutenant of the county of Illinois, killed at the Blue Licks, in honor of whom Todd county, Illinois, and Todd county, Kentucky, are named, father of the wife of Robert J. Wick- liffe, Minister to Sardinia; Peter Turney, from whom are Hopkins Lacy Turney, United States Senator from Tennessee, Member of the United States House of Representatives from. Tennessee, and Peter Turney, Governor of Tennesse.
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AUGUSTA COUNTY, VIRGINIA
into existence in 1738, being organized in 1745. Frederick county was also a portion of Orange county until the former date.
Those who lived before 1776 or have had their source in the large District of West Augusta, ex- cepting those of this who are of families of the adjoining county of Harrison, West Virginia, are for the present not used.
Some of eastern Virginia, who owned real prop- erty in Augusta county, became the forefathers of notables. These progenitors were never properly residents of Augusta county. Their offspring are not here.
Augusta county was at first large in area, but thinly populated. It has been the policy of the Vir- ginia legislature to equalize the populations of coun- ties, as these increased, by restrieting their bounda- ries, and also to make the court houses accessible to all people. The western counties of Virginia were, as a rule, larger in area than the older counties of eastern Virginia.
A commencement is made with him who is linked the culmination of the slavery struggle, after the French revolution one of the three most important episodes of history, and following with him of the third episode whose present vision in the universal war makes him the world statesman pre-eminent.
PRESIDENTS
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Abraham Lincoln.
Woodrow Wilson.
Samuel Houston, President of the Republic of Texas.
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AUGUSTA COUNTY, VIRGINIA
VICE PRESIDENTS
John Cabell Breckinridge.
:
John Caldwell Calhoun.
NATIONAL SUPREME COURT JUSTICES
The following are Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States of America and a Justice of the Supreme Court of the Republic of Texas. There have also been a number of justices of the courts of final appeal in the states of the Union :
John Catron.
John McKinley.
Anthony Bledsoe Shelby, Justice of the Supreme Court of the Republic of Texas.
CABINET OFFICERS
John Bell, Secretary of War.
Montgomery Blair, Postmaster General.
John Breckinridge, Attorney General.
John Cabell Breckinridge, Secretary of War of the Confederate States (supra).
John Caldwell Calhoun, Secretary of State, Sec- retary of War (supra).
John G. Carlisle, Secretary of the Treasury.
Samuel P. Carson, Secretary of State of the Re- public of Texas.
Jacob McGavock Dickinson, Secretary of War.
Richard G. Dunlap, Secretary of War of the Re- public of Texas.
John B. Floyd, Secretary of War.
David Rowland Francis, Secretary of the Interior.
Nathan Goff, Jr., Secretary of the Navy.
Felix Grundy, Attorney General.
James Guthrie, Secretary of the Treasury.
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AUGUSTA COUNTY, VIRGINIA
William H. Jack, Secretary of State of the Re- publie of Texas.
Robert T. Lincoln, Secretary of War.
William G. McAdoo, Secretary of the Treasury. Alexander H. H. Stuart, Secretary of the Interior.
William B. Preston, Secretary of the Navy.
William L. Wilson, Postmaster General.
DIPLOMATISTS
Eben Alexander, Minister to Greece, Roumania and Servia.
James G. Birney, Minister* to The Netherlands.
Clifton R. Breckinridge, Minister to Russia.
James Brown, Minister to France.
Charles Page Bryan, Ambassador to Japan, Min- ister to Belgium, Minister to Brazil, Minister to China, Minister to Portugal, Minister to Switzer- land.
Samuel P. Carson, Diplomatic Agent of the Rc- public of Texas to the United States (supra).
William R. Colhoun, Minister to France.
Charles Denby, Minister to China.
Andrew J. Donelson, Minister to Germany, Min- ister to Prussia, Minister to Texas.
Richard G. Dunlap, Minister of the Republic of Texas to the United States (supra).
William C. Dunlap, Minister of the Republic of Texas to Mexico.
David Rowland Francis, Ambassador to Russia (supra).
*James G. Birney was actually Minister Resident. The United States Government in earlier years denominated some of its chiefs of missions as commissioners, dragomans, con- suls-general, special agents and charges d'affaires. Biographi- cal collections and authors refer to these chiefs of missions as ministers. In this and several other instances the same usage is continued.
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AUGUSTA COUNTY, VIRGINIA
James Hamilton, Diplomatic Agent of the Re- public of Texas in Europe.
John Hays Hammond, Special Ambassador to the Crowning of King George V. of Great Britain.
Charles Hance Lewis, Minister to Portugal.
Robert T. Lincoln, Minister to Great Britian (supra).
Robert B. McAfee, Minister to New Granada.
Alexander K. McClung, Minister to Bolivia.
Cyrus H. McCormick, Envoy Extraordinary on Special Mission to Russia.
Robert S. McCormick, Ambassador to Austria- Hungary, Ambassador to France, Ambassador to Russia, Minister to Austria-Hungary.
Humphrey Marshall, Minister to China.
George T. Marye, Ambassador to Russia.
Thomas A. R. Nelson, Minister to China.
Balic Peyton, Minister to Chile.
Francis W. Pickens, Minister to Russia.
John T. Pickett, Commissioner of the Confederate States to Mexico.
William Preston, Minister to Spain, Minister* of the Confederate States to Mexico.
Ambrose H. Sevier, Minister to Mexico.
Harvey McGee Watterson, Minister to the Argen- tine Republic.
Henry Lane Wilson, Special Ambassador to the crowning of King Albert of Belgium, Ambassador to Mexico, Minister to Chile, Minister to Venezuela.
James Wilson, Minister to Venezuela.
E. Rumsey Wing, Minister to Ecuador.
*The sole diplomatist of that rank created by the Confed- erate States Government.
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AUGUSTA COUNTY, VIRGINIA
GENERAL OFFICERS OF ARMIES
The following are general officers in the Con- tinental, United States, Confederate States and for- eign armies. General officers of volunteers and by brevet in the United States army are included. Un- less within the foregoing classes, there are here no general officers of militia or state troops:
Andrew Jonathan Alexander.
J. Patton Anderson, C. S. A. Matthew Arbuckle.
John C. Bates. James Franklin Bell.
David B. Birney.
William Birney. Charles White Blair.
Francis P. Blair, Jr.
Jeremiah T. Boyle. Jolın Cabell Breckinridge, C. S. A. (supra).
Joseph C. Breckinridge. James P. Brownlow. John Buford. Napoleon B. Buford. Alexander W. Campbell, C. S. A.
William B. Campbell.
C. C. C. Carr. Christopher Carson. Thomas T. Crittenden. Robert Cunningham, British Army. Daniel S. Donelson, C. S. A. Henry C. Dunlap. James Dunlap. William McKee Dunn. John Edwards.
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AUGUSTA COUNTY, VIRGINIA
Jesse J. Finley, C. S. A. John B. Floyd, C. S. A. (supra). Frederick Funston. Randall Lee Gibson, C. S. A. Samuel L. Glasgow. B. Frank Gordon, C. S. A. John B. Grayson, C. S. A. Martin D. Hardin, 2nd. Harry T. Hays, C. S. A. Samuel Houston, Texan Army (supra). Benjamin Howard. Felix Huston, Texan Army. John D. Imboden, C. S. A. Thomas J. ("Stonewall") Jackson, C. S. A. W. L. Jackson, C. S. A.
Albert G. Jenkins, C. S. A. Adam Rankin Johnson, C. S. A. John R. Jones, C. S. A. William E. Jones, C. S. A. Andrew Lewis, Continental Army.
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