USA > Virginia > Tazewell County > Tazewell County > History of Tazewell county and southwest Virginia, 1748-1920 > Part 39
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It is apparent that my reason for writing about the Wittens and Cecils in one sketch, because of their intermarrying, is well founded. Thomas Witten's wife was Elizabeth, the sister of Samuel Cecil. Three of her sons, John, Thomas and James, married daughters of her brother Samuel; and two of her daughters, Keziah and Ann, married sons of her brother, Samuel Cecil. This was a pretty liberal exchange in the marriage relation of brothers and sisters already closely related by a previous marriage. And it made the children of each twain double first cousins of the children of all the other twains. By blood they were practically brothers and sisters.
John Greenup, who married Elizabeth, the eldest daughter of Thomas and Elizabeth Witten, remained with his family in Taze- well only a brief while after the county was organized. He had two grown sons, Thomas and Christopher, when the county was formed. When the county court, at its December term, 1800, recom- mended certain citizens to the governor of Virginia for appointment as officers of the militia, Thomas Greenup was named as one of the captains of the 2nd Battalion of the 112th Regiment.
In 1801, John Greenup and his family, including Thomas and Christopher, moved to Kentucky. The Greenups became prominent in the affairs of the State; and in 1804, Christopher Greenup was made governor. He was inaugurated June 1st, 1804, and served the State four years as its Chief Executive. He was so highly esteemed as a citizen that a splendid county in the Bluegrass State was given his name. Greenup County borders on the Ohio below the mouth of Big Sandy River.
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THE BOWENS OF TAZEWELL.
Rees Bowen was the second white man who brought his family to make permanent residence in the Clinch Valley. Therefore it is meet that he and his family should be the second considered in the sketches I am writing of the pioneer families.
The Tazewell Bowens are of Celtic blood. Their immediate ancestor was Moscs Bowen, a Welchman, who married Rebecca Rees. They came from Wales to America a good many years before the Revolution, and settled in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Their son John was a Quaker, and he married Lily McIlhany. Hc and his wife moved from Pennsylvania to Augusta County, Virginia, soon after the first settlements were made in the Shenandoah Val- ley, perhaps as early as the year 1732; and located in that part of Augusta now embraced in the county of Rockbridge. They had twelve children and Rees was one of their five sons. He married Louisa Smith, whose parents then lived in that section of Augusta now known as Rockingham County. It is said that, after his mar- riage, he took up his abode on the Roanoke River close to where the city of Roanoke is now situated.
In some way Rees Bowen learned of the fertile lands and abund- ance of game that could be found in the Upper Clinch Valley; and he concluded to abandon his home on the Roanoke River and settle in this region, where he could locate and occupy, without cost, a large boundary of fine unoccupied land. It is known from tradition that when he arrived with his family in the vincinity of the great spring, to which he gave a peculiar name, he had not then selected the boundary of land upon which he would settle. After they went into camp, on the evening of the day he reached the place that has since been the home of the Bowens, he went out to find and kill a deer to get a supply of fresh meat. While thus engaged he dis- covered the spring. Bickley thus tells of the discovery of the immense fountain and what followed:
"When Mr. Bowen first saw the spring, he discovered a fine young female deer, feeding on the moss within the orifice from which gushes the spring. He shot it, and when he went to get his deer, saw a pair of elk horns standing on their points, and leaning against the rocks. Mr. Bowen was a very large and tall man, yet he had no difficulty in walking upright under the horns. He chose
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this place for his, and the spring and river have since been known as Maiden Spring and Fork."
The first four years after he and his family located at Maiden Spring were free from any hostile demonstrations by the Indians against the Clinch settlements. He was possessed of great physical strength and was very industrious, and in the four years he erected
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General Rees T. Bowen, grandson of Lieutenant Rees Bowen, was born at Maiden Spring January 10th, 1809, and died August 29th, 1879. He was made a brigadier general of militia by Governor Henry A. Wise in 1856; and represented Tazewell County in the Virginia House of Delegates in 1863-1864. General Bowen was elected by the Conservative party to represent the Ninth District in the Forty-third Congress; and served in that body from December 1st, 1873, to March 3rd, 1875. He was the first citizen of Tazewell County that served in the National Legislature.
a large and strong log house, extended his clearings into the forests and added considerably to the number of horses and cattle he brought with him from his home on the Roanoke. Then came trouble with the Ohio Indians, in 1773, when the whole frontier of Virginia was threatened by the red men; and Rees Bowen built a heavy stockade around his dwelling, converting it into an excellent neighborhood fort.
In the meantime, his four brothers, John, Arthur, William and Moses had moved out from Augusta to find homes in the country west of New River. John settled at some point in the Holston
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Valley; Arthur located in the present Smyth County, four miles west of Marion; and William and Moses took up their abode in the Clinch Valley, but in what immediate locality is now unknown. When Dunmore's War came on the three brothers, Rees, William and Moses, went with Captain William Russell's company on the Lewis expedition to the mouth of the Kanawha River; and were prominent figures in the eventful battle at Point Pleasant. Moses Bowen was then only twenty years old; and on the return march from the Kanawha he was stricken with smallpox, from which frightful malady he died in the wilderness.
After his return from Point Pleasant, for two years Rees Bowen, like all the pioneer settlers, was actively engaged in clearing up fields from the forest and increasing the comforts of his new home. While thus occupied the war between the colonies and Great Britain began; and the British Government turned the Western Indians loose on the Virginia frontiers. This caused the organization of a company of militia, expert Indian fighters, in the Clinch Valley. The two Bowen brothers were members of the company, William being captain, and Rees, lieutenant. This company, composed of pioneers, did effective service for the protection of the settlers in the Clinch and the Holston valleys.
When Colonels Shelby and Sevier, in the fall of 1780, appealed to Colonel William Campbell to join them in the expedition to King's Mountain, with a volunteer force from Washington County, Virginia, the company from Clinch Valley volunteered to go. Owing to illness from a serious attack of fever, Captain William Bowen was unable to lead his men on the expedition, and the command of the company devolved upon Lieutenant Rees Bowen. He marched with his company and joined Campbell at Wolf Hill (now Abing- don), and thence on to the Carolinas, and gave his life for American freedom, while leading his men in the memorable battle at King's Mountain.
The widow of the pioneer hero, Louisa Bowen, bravely accepted the responsibility of rearing eight orphan children, none of whom had reached their majority. A chart of the Bowen family, which I have before me, shows that these children were: John, Rees, Nancy, Margaret, Rebecca, Lily, Louisa and Henry Bowen. The chart does not disclose anything in connection with John, the first mentioned among the children of Rees and Louisa Bowen. Rees,
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the second, married his cousin Rebecca, daughter of John Bowen, who had established himself in the Holston Valley; Nancy married Major John Ward, who was the first clerk of Tazewell County, and a son of David Ward the pioneer neighbor of Lieutenant Rees Bowen; Margaret married Thomas Gillespie, the first Gillespie to settle in Tazewell County; Rebecca married - Duff; Lily
married - Hildrith, of Kentucky; Louisa married John Thompson; and Henry married Elen Tate, daughter of Thomas Tate, and a neice of General William Campbell. Rees, the second, died without issue; and Henry and Ella Bowen (nee Tate) were the progenitors of all the Bowens who have since lived in Tazewell County. Their two sons were General Recs T. Bowen and Colonel Henry S. Bowen. General Bowen was distinguished in civil life and was a brigadier general of militia before the Civil War. Colonel Bowen was the gallant commander of a regiment of cavalry that did splendid service for the Confederacy.
THE WARD FAMILY.
From the descendants of David Ward, who are now living in Tazewell County, I have been able to procure but very little infor- mation about their worthy ancestor. He was one of the most promi- nent and useful of the pioneer settlers ; and I have fortunately found enough in the records of the county and certain publications to enable me to make proper notice of a man who had much to do with giving stability to the Clinch Valley settlements, and the creation and organization of Tazewell County.
The Wards were of Scotch-Irish blood; and came to America from Ulster during the great exodus from Ireland that took place early in the eighteenth century. William Ward, the immediate ancestor of the Wards of Tazewell County, about 1730 left Ireland and settled in Pennsylvania. From that province he migrated to the Valley of Virginia, and fixed his home in the present Augusta County where the village of Greenville is now located, about ten miles west of the city of Staunton. There he passed the remainder of his life and reared a family. In the year 1769, two of his sons, David and William, heard of the splendid country now known as Southwest Virginia, and they migrated to this section. William settled in the Black Lick in the present Wythe County; and David
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travelled on to the Clinch Valley and located in the Cove, on the place where his great-great-grandson, George Ward, now lives.
David Ward thus was made a neighbor of Rees Bowen, and he at once became a conspicuous figure among the frontiersmen, because of his intelligence and excellent courage. He was known as one of the best Indian fighters on the Clinch, and was a member of Captain Russell's company that participated in the battle at Point Pleasant. When the Revolution began he became a member of the militia company of which William Bowen was captain; and went to King's Mountain with Rees Bowen, where he fought with Campbell's rifle- men from the Holston and Clinch valleys.
After Russell County was formed, David Ward was made a jus- tice of the peace for that county. When the county of Tazewell was erected he became, by operation of statute law, a justice of the peace of this county; and he was the first presiding justice of the county court. His son, John, was made the first county clerk of Tazewell. David Ward was chosen, along with Thomas Witten, Jr., to represent the county in the House of Delegates at the ses- sions of 1801-02, and 1802-03; and represented the county again at the sessions of 1809-10 and 1810-11. His son, John, also repre- sented the county in the same legislative body at the sessions of 1812-13, 1813-14, 1814-15; and 1825-26.
John Ward married Nancy Bowen, and had a very large family, in all ten children, as follows: Levicie, married William Barns; Jane, married Robert Gillespie; Rebecca, married William Craw- ford; Lily, married John Hill; Nancy, married Hargrave; Henry, married Sallie Wilson; Rees, married Levicie Richardson; Rufus, married Elizabeth Wilson; David and John never married.
THE MOORES OF ABB'S VALLEY.
Bickley says that Captain James Moore settled in Abb's Valley in 1772, but I am satisfied he moved there as early as 1770. Bickley relied on tradition to such an extent that he is at fault in fixing most of the dates in connection with the settlements in the present Taze- well County.
The Moores were of the Scotch-Irish people who lived in Ulster. James Moore, the immediate ancestor of the Moore's of Abb's Val- ley, left Ireland in 1726, and settled in Chester County, Pennsyl- vania. He married Jane Walker, daughter of John Walker, who
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was one of the Scotch-Irish emigrants that came from Ireland and settled in Pennsylvania. After his marriage to Jane Walker, James Moore and his father-in-law moved with their families from Penn- sylvania to Rockbridge County, Virginia, then a part of Augusta County, and settled near the Jump Mountain. There Moore reared a family of five sons and five daughters. The sixth child and the second son of the James Moore, of Rockbridge, was Captain James Moore, who was killed by the Indians in Abb's Valley. Captain Moore married Martha Poage, whose parents then lived in Augusta, on the road between the Natural Bridge and the present town of Lexington. After their marriage they lived for several years on the same road, at a place which was subsequently known as Newel's Tavern.
Absalom Looney, a kinsman of James Moore, came to this sec- tion of Virginia prior to 1770, on a hunting expedition; and also for the purpose of digging ginseng, which was, even at that time, very valuable for exportation to China and other Asiatic countries. He discovered the valley which has since been called Abb's Valley, and remained there for more than a ycar, living in a cave to escape discovery by the Indians. When Looney returned to Rockbridge he told James Moore of the rich lands and abundance of game that he saw in the valley. This so impressed Moore that he made an exploring tour to the place, and found it as described by Looney, "the very paradise of the hunter and grazier." He was a breeder of fine horses and saw that the abundance of bluegrass would sus- tain a large herd, and this, together with other attractions, induced him to arrange for moving his family there. The author of "The Captives of Abbs Valley," who was a grandson of James Moore, says in his Legend of Frontier Life:
"In making his arrangements to take his family there, he went out in the spring accompanied by some labourers, built a cabin, planted a crop, and left an Englishman named Simpson, who had been an indentured servant in his family and was then free, but still remained in his employment, to cultivate the crop and enclose more land during the summer."
In the fall of 1770, James Moore moved his family out and fixed his residence at the place where the massacre of himself and other members of the family afterwards occurred. The place has ever
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since remained in the possession of his descendants, and is now owned by his great-grandson, Oscar Moore. Captain Moore was accompanied by his brother-in-law, Robert Poage, the latter, with his family, locating about one mile from the Moores. Poage re- mained but a few years in the valley. When the Indians began to attack the settlements in 1774 he moved back to Rockbridge. This left the Moores completely isolated, their nearest neighbor being ten miles distant from them.
Captain Moore, though aware of the dangers that threatened him and his family from attacks by the Indians, resolved to remain in the valley and face the dangers. When he came there with his family he brought out horses and cattle for breeding purposes, intending to pursue the life of a grazier and breeder of fine stock. He found some parts of the valley comparatively free of forest growth, and on these open spots bluegrass and wild pea vine grew in luxurious abundance. In the summer time his horses and cattle would feed and fatten upon the summer growth of herbage, and even in the winter time they required but little feeding, as there was an abundance of lodged grass to keep them in good condition. His horses and cattle increased rapidly in numbers, and at the time he was killed he had more than a hundred fine horses.
With the purpose of averting any probable danger from attacks by the Indians, Captain Moore converted his cabin into a block- house. The doors were made of heavy timber, too thick for a rifle ball to penetrate, and were secured with heavy bars for inside fastenings. The windows were small and placed high in the walls, and had heavy wooden shutters, that could be quickly closed .. Like all other frontier houses, this was equipped with loop-holes through which riflemen on the inside could shoot at the attacking enemy.
Ownership of the entire Abb's Valley was one of the fond aspi- rations of Captain Moore. With this in view, he secured all the land he could under settlers' laws then in existence in Virginia, and formulated plans for acquiring the balance of the valley by pur- chase. It is said that he was about to bring his cherished plans to a successful conclusion when he was killed by the Indians.
The eager purpose of this brave pioneer to acquire a splendid estate to bequeath to his children did not, however, deter him from a full performance of his duties as a frontier citizen and soldier. His worth was recognized by both the civil and military authorities,
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and he quickly became a leader among the hardy pioneers who were industriously engaged in converting the wilderness regions of Taze- well into an agricultural and grazing country that would be sur- passed in excellence by none on this continent.
James Moore served as a private in the army that Colonel Andrew Lewis marched to the mouth of the Kanawha in the fall of 1774, and did his part in winning victory for the Virginians at the battle of Point Pleasant. He was commissioned captain of a com- pany of militia "on the waters of Bluestone" on the 3rd of April, 1778; and in 1781 he led this company, which went with the rifle- men from Montgomery and Washington, under command of Colonel William Campbell, to the relief of General Greene in North Carolina. In the battle of Guilford Court House, Captain Moore, with his mountaineer riflemen, met the first charge of the British infantry; and he and his men won great distinction by their wonderful cour- age and superior marksmanship.
But three of Captain Moore's children, James, Mary and Joseph, escaped death at the hands of the Indians. The latter was not in Abb's Valley at the time the dreadful tragedy was enacted. A short time prior to the raid made by the Shawnees, Joseph had gone with his father to Rockbridge to visit his grandfather Poage. He became sick with measles and his father had to return to Abb's Valley without him. When James and Mary returned from cap- tivity they found Joseph at their grandfather's in Rockbridge.
James Moore, Jr., was captured in 1784 and remained in cap- tivity until the fall of 1789. In the spring of 1790, he and his sister Mary arrived at their grandfather's in Rockbridge. On the 16th of February, 1797, James married Barbara Taylor of Rockbridge, and very soon thereafter moved with his wife to Abb's Valley and settled upon the lands where his father had formerly lived. He had three children by his first wife, James Ruliford, born in 1799; Martha Poage, born in 1800; and William Taylor, born in 1802. Mrs. Moore died in 1802, shortly after the birth of her son William.
James Ruliford Moore moved to Texas with his family after that State was admitted to the Union. Martha married Rev. Still, who in 1824 went to Kansas as a missionary to work among the Indians.
William Taylor Moore settled at the place in Abb's Valley where his grandfather was killed in 1786. He married twice and
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had children by each wife. His first wife was Matilda Peery, daughter of George Peery; and his second wife was Mary Barns, daughter of William Barns, of the Cove.
Joseph Moore, son of Captain James Moore, married Rhoda Nicewander, of Rockbridge. He moved out to Tazewell in 1797, and settled in Wrights Valley, near where the present Bailey's Station on the Clinch Valley Railroad is now situated. He had one son, Harvey, and six daughters, Mattie, Mary Brown, Rhoda, Cyn-
William Moore, son of James Moore, the captive, was born in March, 1802, and died in December, 1894. He was one of the best men Tazewell County ever produced.
thia, Julia and Nancy. Harvey married his cousin Jane Moore, who after she became a widow married Charles Tiffany. She was a daughter of James Moore, the captive, by his second marriage. Mattie married her cousin, Joseph A. Moore; Mary Brown married William Shannon; and Rhoda married Elias Hale. Three of the daughters, Cynthia, Julia and Nancy died unmarried.
Joseph Moore remained with his grandfather while his brother, James, and sister, Mary, were in captivity for nearly six years, and during that time had excellent opportunity to obtain a liberal education, as there were good schools in the vicinity of Mr. Poage's. Hence, when he settled in Wright's Valley he was far better educated than most of the men of his age then living in the bounds
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of the present Tazewell County. He was a skillful surveyor and an excellent scribe.
When the county seat was located he laid the town off in lots; and was made deputy clerk of the county court shortly after it was organized. Hundreds of his descendants are now residents of the county.
When Captain Moore and his family were massacred he had a splendid herd of about one hundred horses. A number of them were colts of Yorick, the Arabian stallion. Joseph Moore, a brother of the Captain, was then living in Kentucky. He came to
Rose, a gray mare 29 years old in 1918, and the last known direct descendant of the famous stallion "Yorick" owned by Capt. James Moore when the Indians massacred the Moore family. Yorrick killed three of the Indians who tried to ride him, and was killed by the Indians when they failed to subdue him. The boy sitting on the mare is Oscar Moore, Jr., and is the great-great-grandson of Capt. James Moore. The photograph of boy and mare was taken near the spot of the massacre of the Moores.
Virginia and administered upon the estate of his deceased brother. When he returned to his home, he took a number of the horses from Abb's Valley, and disposed of them in Kentucky. It has been told, and it is a fact, that the colts of Yorrick had much to do with the production of the fine strain of horses from which Kentucky after- wards became famous. Some of Yorrick's colts were left in Abb's Valley. Above is shown the picture of a gray mare. She was 29 years old when the photograph was made, and is the last known direct descendant of Yorrick. The mare is owned by Mr. O. B.
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Moore, and the little boy seated on the mare is Oscar Moore, Jr., the son of O. B. Moore. The photograph of the mare was taken on the grounds of the Moore homestead near where the massaere of the Moore family occurred.
THE HARMANS OF TAZEWELL.
One of the greatest difficulties I have encountered in the prepa- ration of these sketches was in correctly distinguishing the several families of Harmans who were among the pioneer settlers of the Clinch Valley. There are many persons with the name Harman, who are descendants of the pioneers of that name, now living in this county; but they have furnished me with no family records from which I can draw any definite conclusions. Therefore, in writing about the pioneers of that name, I am compelled to rely for information upon the records that exist in the county clerk's office, and such facts as I have found in various histories, together with my personal acquaintance with these people for more than half a century.
The Harmans came to America from Germany. Some of them settled in Pennsylvania, but those from whom most of the Tazewell Harmans are descended settled in North Carolina, near the present town of Salem in that State.
The first Harmans that appear in the annals of this section were Adam Harman and his two sons, who were living on New River in 1755 at the site of the present Eggleston's Springs, in Giles County. They were the men who discovered Mrs. Mary Ingles, after her thrilling escape from the Shawnee Indians, as she was making her way back to Draper's Meadows, an account of which is given in a preceding chapter of this book. Adam Harman first settled in Pennsylvania after he came to America, and from thence came to New River, by way of the Shenandoah and James River valleys. He was a kinsman, possibly a first cousin, of the three brothers, Mathias, Henry and Jacob Harman, who settled in 1771 about one and half miles east of the town of Tazewell, on the lands now owned by the heirs of the late Captain Wm. E. Peery.
Bickley says that another Jacob Harman settled on Bluestone Creek in 1772. Thwaites, in his Dunmore's War, says: "Jacob Harman who settled on Bluestone, in 1771, probably was of the family of Adam, one of the early pioneers of New River." Captain TH .- 27.
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