USA > Virginia > Grayson County > Grayson County > Pioneer settlers of Grayson County, Virginia > Part 7
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Stephen Friel Nuckolls accumulated a large estate and was a man of wide influence. His wife died in Salt Lake City, and he died soon thereafter, February 14th, 1879.
There were born to Ezra Nuckolls and wife, Lucinda Hale, six daughters; all born in Grayson county, Va. :
Polly, the oldest daughter, married Rice Schooler; he was from Eastern Virginia. He and his wife settled near Grayson C. H., afterward moved to Missouri and settled at Rock Port. Their children were born in Grayson county, Va.
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Frances, their oldest daughter, married after they moved to Missouri. She married a kinsman, and came back to Roanoke, Va.
Ellis, the oldest son, lives at Rock Port, Mo .; Kent, second son, married in Missouri a Miss Bradley, formerly from Abingdon, Va .; has a family of children in Rock Port. Houston, another son, lives at Rock Port. They have a stock farm in Missouri.
The second daughter of Ezra Nuckolls and wife was Frances H., who married Harvey Gordon-Bourne, son of William Bourne, Jr., and wife, Mary Johnston. Harvey G. and his wife first settled on Little River, in Grayson county, Va .; afterwards, moved to Missouri; both died out west; they had one daughter, Mary Bourne, one son, Houston Gordon. Houston Gordon has one daughter, Mrs. Pearl Bourne Dameron; her husband is a lawyer, the county attorney and council for the A. T. & S. F. R. R .; they live at La Junto, Otero county, Colorado. They have two sons, seventeen and fifteen years old, and one daughter seven years old.
Rosamond B. Nuckolls, the third daughter of Ezra Nuckolls, went to Missouri with her brother, S. F. Nuck- olls, and married out there a Mr. Bourchees. They lived at Hamburg, Iowa; both died there; have sons and daughters.
Sena, fourth daughter, married Mr. Martin; lived and died at Colorado Springs, Colorado; have children there.
Elizabeth, fifth daughter, married Thomas E. Metcalf, a lawyer; lives at Long Beach, California. Mr. Metcalf died recently. They have two sons, both lawyers, who live at Long Beach, Cal. Elizabeth Metcalf is the only one of the children of Ezra Nuckolls and wife, Lucinda Hale, who is now living.
Ezra Nuckolls and his brothers were of much help in the formation of the county of Grayson. They had been
WILLIAM SWIFT NUCKOLLS
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well educated and had good family training in Eastern Virginia. The men and women were tall in stature, a number of them seven feet in height and well proportioned. Several of them inherited from their Colonial ancestry at Jamestown, a liking for the mercantile business, and with some of the present generation it is still kept up.
Ezra Nuckolls was for a term sheriff of Grayson county. He, with Creed and Clarke Nuckolls, sons of Robert G. Nuckolls, formed a partnership with William Oglesby, and went into the goods business at Grayson C. H., Va. They were the first merchants at the place and had branch houses at Elk Creek and Bridle Creek and continued in business until after the close of the war of 1861-1865. The style of the firm was then changed to Nuckolls and Dick- enson. Another firm at Grayson C. H. was Nuckolls and Jennings. James Waugh began the mercantile business at Grayson C. H. before the war. After the war, his sons, William P. and John B. Waugh continued the business. William P. Waugh was in the mercantile business at the time of his death at Old Town, Va., in 1896.
His brother, John B. Waugh, continued in business at Old Town until the North Carolina Extension of the N. & W. R. R. was built to Galax. He then transferred his business to Galax, built a handsome home there and resides there now with his family.
When the county of Grayson was divided and Carroll county formed from the east end, the courts were moved sixteen miles west, to Independence, Va. The firm of Nuckolls & Jennings, of Old Grayson C. H., opened a branch house at Independence. Ezra Nuckolls built the first store house, and also the first hotel at Indepen- dence, and continued in business until he sold outand moved to Missouri, about 1853. Robert G. Nuckolls built and opened the first hotel, or ordinary, at Grayson Old C. H. William Bourne built the first clerk's office and was the
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first clerk of the courts held first at his house, and later at the court house. The office is still standing in good repair after over one hundred years' service. It is a good oil brick with dressed stone foundation and is now used as post office and supervisor's office. This building still. belongs to the County of Grayson.
NATHANIEL NUCKOLLS
The subjects of the following sketches are not resi- dents of Virginia, but as they are descended from the Jamestown Nuckolls family, and the history is inter- esting, we insert it:
Nathaniel Nuckolls, of Muscogee county, Ga., was the fifth child of Thomas and Ann Nuckolls, and was born in Louisa county, Va. One of the brothers, who were mer- chants in Jamestown, had married a Miss Duke in England. Her father was a prominent physician, came to America with his son-in-law, and practiced medicine extensively in Virginia. Dr. Duke had a large family, and the Dukes have for many years been prominent in Virginia and North Carolina. From this Nuckolls brother, who married Miss Duke, Nathaniel Nuckolls was descended. Thomas and Ann Nuckolls had six sons and four daughters; the sons were Duke, Stephen, Alexander, Samuel, Nathaniel, and George Bias. Duke, Stephen, Alexander, and Samuel were farmers; George Bias was a lawyer; Nathaniel was a mechanic. Two of his sisters were named Mary (Polly) and Lucinda; names of the other two not given. Nathaniel owned an interest in a gold mine in North Georgia, then bought a farm in Alabama, and taught some of his negro men to work at the mechanics trade, and he studied architecture, and planned and built many houses. He was a merchant for a while in Columbus, Ga., and planned and had built for himself there a handsome residence, where he lived for twenty years before his death on
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September 17th, 1868. His wife died in June of the same year. They left three sons, Thomas J., Nathaniel A., and James T., and seven daughters, Elizabeth A. Ware, Louisiana A. Hawkins, Mary V. Kyle, Cornelia L. Richardson, Laura C. Freeman, Adella L. Nowlin. The will of Nathaniel Nuckolls was recorded in Muscogee county, Ga., October 5th, 1868, and copied on the records of Cherokee county, Ala. (at Centre, Ala.), in 1911. In his will he gives to each of his three sons, farms valued at six thousand dollars each, and to each of his seven daughters, farms valued at six thousand dollars each, and directs that all of his other property be equally dis- tributed among his children. The will states that the farm given to Mrs. Freeman was deeded to her by Martin Hale, and A. H. Mackey, administrators.
Of the ten children of Nathaniel Nuckolls, there are now only two living-Mrs. Laura A. Freeman, who lives with her son, Thomas N., on her farm near Centre, Ala., and Mrs. Adella L. Nowlin, who lives in Gadsden, Ala. There are a good many descendants, however, living in Alabama, and in different parts of the country.
JOHN NUCKOLLS OF SOUTH CAROLINA
About the years 1765-75, John Nuckolls moved from Virginia to South Carolina, settling near Spartanburg. He was probably a great-uncle of Nathaniel Nuckolls, as William T. Nuckolls (his grandson), was a cousin of Nathaniel Nuckolls. Mrs. C. F. Marsh, of Morristown, Tenn., is a descendant of John Nuckolls, and gave the author the following information: "John Nuckolls is buried at Whig Hill, S. C .; following is the inscription on his tombstone:
"'In memory of John Nuckolls, Sr., who was murdered by the Tories for his devotion to liberty, on the 11th day of December, 1780, in the 49th year of his age.'
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"""Rest, noble patriot,
""Rest in peace
"""The prize you sought
""Your country won.'"
The Revolutionary records of South Carolina were many of them destroyed when Columbia was burned, but one record tells where John Nuckolls was a commis- sioner of election in 1776. Mrs. Marsh also sent the fol- lowing copy from the Carolina Spartan:
NUCKOLLS AND DAWKINS
TWO FAMOUS FAMILIES-WHIG HILL-TORY RAIDS- REVOLUTIONARY SCENES
"In a recent issue of the Carolina Spartan there appears some very interesting local history under the title of Nuckolls and Dawkins. Hoping that it will be of interest to our subscribers, especially the older residents of the country, we publish the piece entire.
"Now and then a question, or a suggestion, sets the train of thought or investigation in motion that keeps moving and widening as it moves. A few days ago a lawyer of the city asked for some information about Elijah Dawkins, who died in Union county in 1834. A lawyer from another State wanted some information about the Dawkins estate. The necessary information was furnished but the investigation did not cease.
"A sketch of General Dawkins and his family would prove most interesting at this time. Elijah Dawkins married Nancy Nuckolls. It must have been between 1793 and 1800. They had eight children, whose names we cannot give in order of birth. They were Elijah, Joshua P., Thomas N., Benjamin F., James B., Susan, Nancy and Elizabeth. All of these married except Elijah. Joshua P. married a Miss Davidson. Both of
SUSAN B. HALE Daughter of Martin Hale, and wife of William Swift Nuckolls
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them are dead, but their two children, Benjamin and Mrs. Nannie Trench are living in Florida. We believe these are the only survivors of this large family. Judge Thomas N. Dawkins married Miss Mary Polton, who is living in Union, S. C. Benjamin F. Dawkins married Miss Elize Cleveland, of Greenville. These died without children. James B. Dawkins married Miss Carrie Taylor and moved to Florida. He is dead, but his wife is living at Gaines- ville. Susan married Wm. T. Nuckolls, both of whom died years ago without children. Nancy married Gen. James Rogers. She was the tall woman that Major James E. Henry did not wish to be seen walking with in Wash- ington.
"Gen. Rogers and Mr. Nuckolls were both members of Congress.
"Mrs. Rogers had one son, Dawkins, a young man of fine progress, who was killed early in the war. Elizabeth married Abner Benson. He was also a Congressman. She had twins, both of which died young and she soon followed. What became of Abner Benson is unknown to the writer of this sketch. About 1830 it was said that Mrs. Elizabeth Benson and Mrs. Clarissa Henry were two of the handsomest women in the up-country. They were noted for their striking appearance and gracious manners.
"This leads us back to the Nuckolls family. John Nuckolls married Agatha Ballock in Virginia, perhaps in Dinwiddie county. The Nuckolls family came over from England and settled in Virginia. Their history runs back to 1452, when the "War of the Roses" began. They were adherents to the house of York, the emblem of which was the white rose. When the original Nuckolls emigrated to America, he brought a bush of that rose with him. Each member of the family kept a bush of this famous rose. When John Nuckolls and his wife Agatha, came to
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South Carolina, they brought the rose with them and planted it at Whig Hill, near Grindall Shoals. From that plant their decendants got cuttings or roots, and several members of the family had the white rose until 1860, when sentiment was knocked out of the hearts of many of our people. If the rose of York is now living, it is at the residence of John D. Jeffries, who owns the W. T. Nuckolls homestead. "Aunt Nancy" Dawkins had the rose until the time of her death, about 1861 or 1862, and T. D. Littlejohn now owns the famous homestead.
"About 1765 to 1775, John Nuckolls and his wife, with some of their older children, came to this state. They settled between Thickety and Pacolet, at the place after- wards known as Whig Hill. There they were living when the war came on. They had accumulated considerable property and owned some negroes. Mr. Nuckolls went into the war at the beginning. Owing to the nature of the service in upper Carolina the patriotic soldiers could often get to their homes and remain a few days, or a few weeks. When the necessity arose they would rally at some appointed place and enter the field again. It was perhaps in the fall or early winter of 1780, just before the battle of King's Mountain, that John Nuckolls visited his home at Whig Hill. The meal tub was nearly empty. He went with his son John, a mere lad, over to a mill on Broad river, about fifteen or eighteen miles from home. This mill was perhaps at the Sam Jeffries mill above Smith's Ford. The distance being so great, Mr. Nuck- olls had to remain all night. It is said that millers in those days provided a room in the mill house, or in their dwelling for customers thus detained. Nuckolls was well known and recognized as an uncompromising rebel. On his way to the mill tradition says that a man by the name of M. Keown saw him. «Learning that he was going to stay all night, he mustered up a crowd of tories in the
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neighborhood, getting some of them from the York side of the river, and went to the mill and awoke Nuckolls and killed him. When they aroused him they said: 'We've come for you.' He knew what they meant. He asked permission to wake his son so that he could give some messages for his people at home. They refused and said that if he awoke his son they would kill him also. They then took Nuckolls out a short distance from the mill and prepared to shoot him. He asked permission to pray five minutes. This was granted. He prayed aloud. After he had uttered a few petitions, one of them said: 'If he continues praying that way much longer, we will not be able to kill him.' Some one then fired a ball through his head. He was thrown into a ditch or gully and some rock and brush thrown over the body. Some- time after that Mrs. Nuckolls had the bones gathered up and buried at Whig Hill. The tombstone, which is stand- ing, has this inscription, 'Killed by Tories'. Mrs. Nuckolls, about 1782 to 1785, married Joshua Petty. He was as much loved by the children as if he had been their father. He managed the farm so as to increase the property and gave the daughters the best education possible. He never had any children of his own. The Nuckolls children were Nancy, who married Elijah Dawkins; Susan, who married Charles Littlejohn; Frankie, who married a Goudelock. John Nuckolls was the boy who was at the mill when his father was killed by Tories. He married a Miss Tompson, daughter of gentleman Bill Tompson, and had two children, William T. and Melissa. William married his cousin Susan Dawkins, and Melissa married Major William Norris.
"If one wished to follow out the different branches of this family tree he would get somewhat confused. The Goudelocks, the Morgans, the Littlejohns and one branch of the Jeffries family would come in for consideration.
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"As we have said before, W. T. Nuckolls and his wife, Susan Dawkins, had no children. His sister, Mrs. Norris, had four or five children, only two of whom are living. John D. Norris is in Texas and Miss Julia Norris is living with her nephews, children of her sister, who married Major Frank Anderson, of this county. Their home is at Bethpage, Tenn. Of the descendants of Gen. Elijah Dawkins, only two are living. They have been mentioned before in the sketch, and their home is at Gainesville, Fla. Major S. M. Dawkins and his sister, Miss Ophelia, now living in Spartanburg, are descended from a brother of Gen. Elijah Dawkins. Their grandmother was Frankie Nuckolls, daughter of the original John Nuckolls. They were perhaps the only persons in this state bearing the name of Dawkins, except the two children of Major Morgan Dawkins.
"Several times the Tories made raids on Whig Hill. One band of them had their headquarters at Anderson, or Thickety Fort, which stood on the north side of Goucher Creek, about two and a half miles from its junction with Thickety. Col. Patrick Moore, a stalwart Irishman, six feet seven inches tall, was the Loyalist who had com- mand of the fort. There was another band of Tories down on the Enoree, that played havoc with the property of the patriots. The famous raid made on Whig Hill was, in the winter of 1780, a short time before the battle of Cowpens. They made a clean sweep of everything in the house. Mrs. Nuckolls had been well brought up and educated, and she had many pieces of artistic needle work in her house. Everything was taken, and the only bed for the youngest child was a sheep skin used as a saddle blanket. After these raids John Nuckolls and one of his sisters would mount horses and go out and search for their stolen property. At one time they went as far as Lynch's Creek and brought back some stolen negroes.
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They also went over into Laurens county and found some of their stock which they would drive home. In one of the searches they entered a house and saw some of the fine work of their mother's hanging in the room. Such were the scenes through which the patriots and their families had to pass during the revolution of 1776.
"This is a very imperfect sketch, dealing only with a few historical facts. Long ago they could have been res- cued from oblivion by the pen of a ready writer. But they are passing away and will soon not be remembered by any one. The material for the colonial and early history of upper Carolina is very meagre. We hope by writing this sketch that some one will be induced to continue the subject. We hope there are persons living who will be able to give interesting sketches of Wm. T. Nuckolls and his wife; Gen. James Rogers and his wife, and Aunt Nancy Dawkins. The intelligent readers of the Spartan would take special interest in reading about the people who helped to make our early history."
In the preceding sketch reference was made to the "War of the Roses," stating that the Nuckolls family in England were adherents of the Duke of York, whose emblem was the white rose, and that the white rose was brought to America by the Nuckolls emigrants, and that John Nuckoll's family took roots of the rose to South Carolina with them, and planted them at Whig Hill.
John Nuckolls, the ancestor of the author of this history, also brought the rose from Louisa county, Va., about the year 1790, and planted it in Grayson county, and it is still growing on the old Nuckolls home place near Old Town, Va.
CHAPTER IV
THE FLOWER SWIFT FAMILY
The Swift family were Colonial Settlers in America, and are now found in all parts of these United States.
Flower Swift was one of the pioneer settlers of the New River Valley. He came here from North Carolina, secured quite a boundary of land on the river, near the place first selected to build the Court House for Grayson county. Flower Swift and Charles Nuckolls donated one hundred acres of land for the purpose of building the first court house and public buildings for the county, reserving to themselves three choice one-half acre lots, after laying off the lots for the public buildings and the streets. The town was first named Greenville; the post office, Grayson C. H. After the courts were moved, and Carroll county formed, the post office was changed to Nuckollsville. There was already a post office in Scott county, Va., Nickelsville, and the names being so near alike gave trouble with the mail, so the legislature made another change to Old Town, which name remains at the present time.
Flower Swift was a magistrate in Wythe county. He and William Bourne, Lewis Hale and Minitree Jones were instrumental in getting the territory of Grayson county cut off from Wythe county, two years after its formation.
The following is copied from "Proceedings of First Court at William Bourne's house":
"Under a commission from Henry Lee, Governor of the Commonwealth, directed to Flower Swift and others, bearing date of the 10th day of December, 1792, being
MARGARET SWIFT Daughter of Flower Swift, and wife of Capt. Robert Nuckolls
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read, and thereupon, Flower Swift took the oath of Allegiance to the Commonwealth, the oath to support the Constitution of the United States, the oath of a justice of the county court in chancery, which oath was administered to him by Minitree Jones and Nathaniel Frisbie. Then the said Flower Swift administered all the aforesaid oaths to the others." (See proceedings of the first court at William Bourne's House.)
Flower Swift was the leading justice of the courts, as the readers will see from the first chapter in this book, copied from the first book of records of the first court for Grayson county.
He had been living here for some time, as stated before. He came here from North Carolina, secured lands on the east side of New River, and paid for same by the sale of a lady's side saddle. There was also a boundary of land on the west and north side of New River, bought with a flintlock rifle gun.
Flower Swift married Mary Bedsaul. They opened up a field near the bank of the river, one mile west of where Old Town now is, and built a cabin with board roof, weighted on with logs and with puncheon floor. He also built a blacksmith shop, and set out some peach and apple trees. He reared a large family; after his family had grown up, he and his wife and part of his family moved farther west, as the western country was opened up. The family records were taken off with the family, and we cannot give the names of all the sons and daughters. We have the names of four sons, Thomas, John, William, and Elisha; these sons all moved west. There were three daughters who married here: First, Miss Jestena Swift, married a Mr. Jones. They moved to North Carolina. Alfred Swift married Miss Julia Jones, daughter of Minitree Jones.
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The second daughter, Margaret Swift, married Capt. Robert G. Nuckolls. They opened up the first hotel, or "ordinary" (as it was then called) at the new court house. On the first court records we find the following: "On motion of Robert Nuckolls, who, having produced the receipt of the Clerk of this Court for the sum of Twelve Dollars and Fifty Cents, a license is granted him to keep an Ordinary at his house in Greenville, one year from the first of May last, whereupon he entered into bond, with security accordingly."
Before this, sometime, John Nuckolls and Mary Garland, his wife, Charles Garland, Asa Nuckolls, Ezra Nuckolls, and Martha Nuckolls came to this county from Louisa county, Virginia. John Nuckolls and Mary Garland returned to Louisa county, and died there; the others remained, and bought a boundary of land of about 400 acres, and built on Meadow Creek, one mile from Greenville. This land is still in the Nuckolls family.
Capt. Robert G. Nuckolls and Margaret Swift were married in 1805. Court record by William Carrico, Sr., a Methodist minister, who was also an early settler here, on west side of New River. Rev. Carrico came to the house of Col. Swift to perform the ceremony. He found Col. Swift busy working in his blacksmith shop. Mr. Carrico went into the shop and asked if he had any objec- tion to the marriage. He said, "No, but Bob Nuckolls will carry off my best spinner." She was a good spinner; she spun wool and flax until her old days and died at the age of ninety-one, honored and respected by all.
There were born to them two daughters and eight sons: Creed, Clarke, James, George, Nathaniel, Thomas, Hugh, Andrew; two daughters, Martha, Sena. (See Nuckolls History, page 65.)
The third daughter, Martha Swift, married Maj. George Currin of Montgomery county, Va. They were
MARTHA NUCKOLLS Daughter of Robert Nuckolls and wife, Margaret Swift, and wife of John Brown, Sr.
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married at the same place, one mile from Greenville, on the river.
Maj. Currin and Martha Swift, his wife, bought six hundred acres of land on Chestnut Creek, of the Buch- anan Survey; they built, settled, and brought up their family there. Maj. George Currin died, and is buried on his old home place. He and his wife were worthy, useful citizens, and reared a nice family of sons and daughters; his wife, in her old age, moved to Missouri, died there, and is buried on Red River, Mo.
Maj. Currin was a man well educated, and was a rep- resentative in the Virginia Legislature and State Senate, for several years. He owned the lands on which the town of Galax is built. His grandsons also own farms on the old tract of land, and his grandson, Thomas F. Roberts, owns the old homestead. There is a Memorial window in the Methodist Church in Galax in memory of Maj. Geo. Currin, Martha Swift, Capt. Robert G. Nuckolls, Margaret Swift, Thompson Roberts, Clarke S. Nuckolls, Surphina S. Currin, Rosa B. Hale. This is a triple art glass window, on the front to Centre street, put in by the descendants of Maj. George Currin and wife, Martha Swift, and Capt. Robert G. Nuckolls and wife, Margaret Swift. The author of this history, B. F. Nuckolls, had put into the brick wall under this window, a walnut chest, in which we expect to deposit family history to be read by future generations.
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