USA > Virginia > Grayson County > Grayson County > Pioneer settlers of Grayson County, Virginia > Part 9
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Third daughter, Mary Hale married Willis Mckinney of Mt. Airy, N. C .; no issue.
Fourth daughter, Callie Hale married Rev. John Pugh; one daughter, Frances; one died young; other children; they live near Grant, Va.
Fifth daughter, Susan Hale, married George Lambert,
ELI C. HALE Thirteenth of the Family of Stephen Hale and wife, Frances Bourne
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Rural Retreat, Va .; two children.
Sixth daughter, Alvirda Hale, married Mr. Booher; they have children. Seventh daughter, Chatham Hale, married Mr. Booher; they have children. Alvirda and Chatham Booher live near Bristol, Tenn.
Sophia P. Hale and Dr. W. M. Mitchell had five daughters and one son.
First daughter, Malinda M., married Capt. William Cornett; their daughter married Stephen Nathaniel Nuckolls; one son, married in Missouri; children there.
Second daughter, Frances, married Rufus Thomas; no issue.
Third daughter, Mary, married Ephriam Gentry; sons and daughters; New River, Va.
Fourth daughter, Sena, married Dodge L. Phipps, Long's Gap, Va .; two sons, two daughters.
Fifth daughter, Virginia, married Newton Cox; one daughter, married.
Only son, Samuel Hale Mitchell, M. D., lives at the Mitchell homestead, Elk Creek, Virginia. He married Bessie Cornett, daughter of Monroe Cornett and wife, Jane McCarter; children: one son, died in infancy; first daughter, Katie May, teacher in Martha Washington College, Abingdon, Virginia. Second daughter, single.
Stephen Hale, Sr., sixth son of Lewis Hale, Sr., married Frances Bourne, daughter of William Bourne, Sr., and his wife, Rosa Jones; children: eight sons; first, Mastin, married Susan Perkins.
Second son, William B., married Matilda Jones.
Third son, Martin, married Jestin Hale, daughter of Dudley Hale and wife, Mary Burroughs.
Fourth son, Warner, who died young.
Fifth son, Fielden Lewis, married Evalina Anderson, daughter of Maj. James Anderson and wife, Martha G Nuckolls.
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Sixth son, Clarke, married Susan Garrett of Centre, Cherokee county, Ala.
Seventh son, Chapman G., married Margaret Isom, daughter of David Isom and wife, Sarah Choate.
Eighth son, Eli C., married Frances Scott, daughter of William Scott and wife, Elizabeth Porter, who was a daughter of Andrew Porter and wife, Miss Gleaves.
OBITUARY OF CAPT. FIELDEN LEWIS HALE
""Captain Hale is dead!' 'Yes, he is dead!' Often and tenderly these words have passed from lip to lip among the people of Carroll county since the news of the death of Captain Fielden L. Hale, of Florida, reached here a few days ago.
"Capt. Hale was born on Elk Creek in Grayson county, Va., on the 9th day of September 1814, and died at his home in Seville, Florida, November the 5th, 1894, aged 80 years, 1 month and 26 days. His grandfather, Lewis Hale, was a soldier in the war of the Revolution, and from data in our possession it seems nearly certain that he fought in the battle of King's Mountain under Gen. Wm. Campbell. His father, Stephen Hale, was a soldier in the war of 1812. Capt. Hale himself enlisted in the Confederate army and served as captain of a com- pany of volunteers.
"The prime of his manhood was spent in Hillsville. It was here that he had his largest and widest experience. He was here in business as a merchant when the county was formed.
"His store house then stood where D. A. L. Worrell's residence now stands. His name appears frequently among the records of the first courtever held in the county, which was the June term, 1842. B. F. Cooley was then appointed Sheriff and F. L. Hale became his surety; at the same term F. L. Hale, John B. Mitchell, and I. B.
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Coltrane, were appointed to superintend the building of the courthouse. On the 1st day of September, 1842, F. L. Hale was commissioned by the governor a justice of the peace and member of the county court for Carroll county. He held this office for several years. At the June term, 1849, he was appointed county clerk to fill a vacancy and held the office for the unexpired term. In 1858 he was elected clerk and held the office a full term. The records of his official life everywhere bear the impress of duty well performed. January, 1861, was ush- ered in amid such clouds of war as this country never saw before. The Legislature of Virginia on the 19th of that month passed the famous resolution for a peace conference, all the cotton states having just seceded from the Union. The same Legislature called a convention of the people to decide upon the course Virginia should pursue towards the Union. An election of delegates to this convention was held on the 4th of February, and F. L. Hale was elected as the delegate from Carroll.
"The convention assembled at once and Mr. Hale, with a majority of its members, was opposed to unconditional secession. The convention did but little the first sixty days of its session. But the time arrived when it was plain that the peace conference would accomplish nothing. On the 15th of April, President Lincoln issued his proc- lamation for seventy-five thousand troops, of which Virginia was called on to furnish her proper quota, to suppress the action of the seceding states. This proc- lamation was accepted by the south as a declaration of war, and three days later the Virginia convention passed the ordinance of secession, and cast her lot with that of her sister states of the South. Capt. Hale voted for and signed this ordinance. His familiar signature to that document may be seen hanging upon the walls of the State Library in Richmond. As an evidence of his sin-
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cerity and patriotism in this critical measure, Mr. Hale returned home and though past the military age entered the army and fought for the cause. He staked his for- tunes upon the success of the Southern Confederacy and lost. Capt. Hale's record as a private citizen is an inter- esting exemplary one. The statutes upon the subject of forfeited delinquent lands from 1832 to 1850 were in much confusion. The Ruston grant of 242,000 acres covered all the land in Carroll county north of the Blue Ridge, except a small corner in the southwest corner of the county. This survey in 1839 was declared forfeited for failure to enter it on the land books for the purpose of taxation. It was exposed to sale and purchased by D. Graham, Robert Rapert, F. Allison. As the statute declared the land forfeited, the people believed it was open for re- entry and survey, and numerous indeed were the small grants that were then obtained for lands inside of the Rus- ton grant. Capt. Hale procured between 50,000 and 100,000 acres of land inside the Ruston grant. He sold these lands in small tracts and people settled upon them in nearly every section of the county. The years rolled along and finally the supreme court decided the Ruston title to be good. This decision created a panic among Hale's purchasers. There were hundreds of them. They had erected homes, laid out plantations, and made large and costly improvements.
"It seemed to them that all was lost. Capt. Hale, though then in failing circumstances resulting from the war, effected a purchase of such portions of the Ruston title as completely protected every person who had purchased from him.
"This was no doubt a very trying period for Capt. Hale. It incurred a responsibility that a man of doubt- ful integrity would have shirked.
' On one of his last visits to Carroll he referred to it
1
LUCINDA HALE Daughter of Stephen Hale and wife, Frances Bourne, and wife of Ezra Nuckolls
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and a gleam of honest delight came over his face as he remarked in the presence of the writer that he had never sold a tract of land to a man who lost it.
"At the age of 26 Capt. Hale was happily married to Miss Evelina Anderson. She bore him four sons and one daughter. The daughter died in this town many years ago. She is still remembered by some of our people as a beautiful child; the joy and constant companion of her father; but just as prattling childhood was merging into womanhood her sweet spirit like a bird of spring returned to the bright land whence it came. The wife died in 1855. The sons all grew to manhood and all but Stephen, preceded their father to the grave. In 1859 Capt. Hale was married to Mrs. Elizabeth S. Burt, of Alabama, a lady of the most excellent and estimable qualities. For thirty-five years she bore him sweet com- panionship and with loving hands and loving heart sweetened his cares and soothed his sorrows.
"The hearts of the people of old Carroll go out for her in tender sympathy in her sad bereavement. As husband and parent no soul was more tender and loving than Capt. Hale. His love for her, and his attentions to his wife and children and grandchildren was proverbial and poetical. Amid the severest calamities and afflictions his face was a ray of light in his home. As a neighbor and friend he was faithful and constant to the end.
"Reverses of fortune, death of his sons, calamities that would have driven other men to madness and death. never soured his nature or caused him to murmur. Envy, jealousy and malice had no place in his soul. He was kind and generous to every creature he met with in this world. He made firm and lasting friendships with people in every rank and grade of society and appreciated the friendship of the humblest creature in our world.
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"His intellectual qualities were of a high order. He seemed to know, to comprehend and recollect every- thing. On his last visit to Carroll he could describe the corners and lines of lands he once owned, but which he had not seen for thirty years, with such accuracy that there was no trouble to go on the ground and indentify them.
"For about 12 years before his death he had made his home in Florida, but usually visited Carroll once a year. His return in the spring or early summer was looked for with delight by our people. He would usually get here by the June term of our court and it was often touching to witness the greetings he would receive from the people on the streets, especially from old soldiers, and from the plain country people that knew him and loved him so long. The time for his departure came and he knew it and felt it. The flowers of youth, and the strength of his manhood were gone; old age came and lingered, but its furrows on his face and its weight upon his head never dimmed or marred the beauty of his character. To look upon his snowy locks and tottering steps was to increase our love. He was a ripe shock and ready for the Master's garner. His peace with God had long been made.
"His faith and trust in the mercies and goodness of the everlasting Father grew and multiplied as his years accumulated; and when the summons came, with the radiance of immortality on his face and eternal life in sight, he went forth like one: 'Who wraps the drapery of his couch about him, and lies down to pleasant dreams."'
The five daughters of Stephen Hale and wife were: First, Lucinda, married Ezra Nuckolls, son of John Nuckolls and wife, Mary Garland, of Louisa county, Va.
Second, Rosa B., married Clarke S. Nuckolls, son of Robert Garland Nuckolls and wife, Margaret Swift. (See Nuckolls family.)
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Third, Mary, who died young.
Fourth, Amanda J., married Col. Ira B. Coltrane. (See Obituary of Col. I. B. Coltrane.)
Fifth, Sophia P., married Dr. William Marshall Mitchell, son of Dr. Zachariah Mitchell and his wife, Elizabeth Newland, of Blue Springs, Smyth county, Va.
COL. IRA B. COLTRANE
"A familiar form passed from mortal view when on the 13th day of May, 1894, at his home two miles west of Hillsville, Col. Ira B. Coltrane peacefully breathed his last, having attained the good old age of 78 years, 11 months and 15 days. Col. Coltrane's life was spent in our midst. He leaves behind him more monuments to his usefulness than perhaps any man that has lived in our section. When a boy fourteen years old he drove a team across the Blue Ridge at the Good Spur. On his return, in company with several wagons, when the foot of Good Spur was reached, all teams were hitched to the front wagon, and by hard pulling and tugging it was taken to the top of the mountain. The teams were all taken back to the foot and hitched to another wagon and it was taken up to the top as the first one was. This thing was repeated until every wagon landed safely on the mountain top. While this thing was going on the young teamster looked into the deep gorge just east of Good Spur, where Paul's Creek goes rippling down the mountain, and in his mind located a place for a better road. Years afterward when Virginia had embarked upon the policy of internal improvements, Col. Coltrane was a member of the General Assembly and procured an appropriation to open the Fancy Gap turnpike across the mountain along the very line his boyish eyes had mapped out. He then came home and by genius and skill located and opened the road across the mountain, which is one of the very best,
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if not the best, crossing of the Blue Ridge to be found in Virginia. This crossing will never be changed, neither its location nor its grade can be improved. It will remain there as a convenience and a blessing to the people of Southwest Virginia and Western North Carolina for ages after the face of its projector and constructor has faded from human memory.
"The bridge across little Reed Island Creek, two miles north of Hillsville, is a model of perfection. It was pro- nounced by the Chief Engineer of the N. & W. R. R. Co. to be as good a wooden bridge as can be built with human hands. This bridge was built by Col. Coltrane and will long stand as a monument to his memory. The court house at Hillsville is a model of beauty and symmetry. It is universally pronounced to be one of the soundest, most durable, as well as convenient, structures that can be reared. Col. Coltrane was its builder and its architect. Long before it was finished Col. Coltrane saw hat he would lose money on his contract; but he went on to completion without one inferior piece of material or one inferior piece of workmanship going into it. The stone wall and the stone steps in front of the court house and some of the cut stone in the building were not in his contract, but he was unwilling to turn off anything but a good job and so he did this work and received no pay for it. It would be next to impossible to tell how often Col. Coltrane has been appointed to draw plans for build- ings, to assess damages, to receive work that was being done for the county and to perform other duties of that kind, but just as often as he was appointed he performed his duties faithfully and well. He drew the plan for the first court house and jail ever built in our county. He was Colonel of Militia, and had served in both branches of the legislature. But of all the monuments he has erected the grandest one is his character for truth and honesty.
AMANDA J. HALE Daughter of Stephen Hale, Sr., and wife, Frances Bourne, and wife of Col. Ira B. Coltrane
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If there was ever a track of falsehood, flattery, deceit, or corruption in his composition it had been carefully rooted out. His manner sometimes seemed rough, and his words sometimes sounded harsh but they were utterances of the plain, unvarnished truth, nevertheless, without affixes, prefixes or adjectives.
"In his legislative life his name was a terror to all lobbyists. He would snap their heads off with as much composure as he would snap the idler who came around him to meddle with his business or his work. A person fond of feeding on flattery could never have enjoyed Col. Coltrane as a companion or associate. On the other hand a person contented with fair dealing, with firm and unyielding friendship unmixed with falsehood or deceit, would love him for his sterling qualities. Beneath his stern exterior there beat a kind and loving heart. Col. Coltrane was married to Amanda Hale of Grayson county, on the 9th of June, 1844. She and seven of the children born to their union preceded him to the grave. Mrs. E. L. Williams is the only child that survives to mourn his death. During the long, long months of his illness she sat at his side and administered to his wants as only faithful woman can do. Several small grandchildren by a deceased daughter, Mrs. G. T. Burroughs, and the children of Mrs. Williams, are his descendants. May the spirit and the mantle of the honest and upright grand- father rest upon them. For some time before his death Col. Coltrane knew that his days were numbered, and that he was lingering at death's door; but he was not afraid. He had not overlooked the subject of religion. He had read and studied the bible; he had examined the creeds and tenets of faith of the prevailing denominations in this section of the country ; but he never joined any church. He looked upon his own judgment and the promptings of his own conscience as his safest guide to a correct
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understanding of his duties towards God and towards man; and these he faithfully followed. He stated in his last sickness that he had yielded himself into the hands of God and trusted Him to do whatever was right. We know that he went into the presence of his Maker with no lie on his lips and no hypocrisy on his soul. He had lived long and no doubt met upon the other bank of the mysterious river thousands whom he had known in this life; but it is safe to say he met no one there upon whom he had com- mitted a fraud, or to whom he had in this life done inten- tional wrong. One of the largest crowds that ever assembled at our village cemetery gathered around his open coffin to take a last sad look at the face they had known so long and so well and then with loving hands the casket was interred close by his wife and children and among the relatives that for generations have been buried there.
"Were a star quenched on high, For ages would it light Still travelling downward from the sky Shine on our mortal sight; So when a good man dies
For years beyond our ken
The light he leaves behind him lies Upon the paths of men." B.
James Scott was from Ireland, and married Rachel Holmes. She was of the nobility of Scotland, and there was so much opposition and displeasure with her family that James Scott and his wife emigrated to America, and settled in Rye Valley, near Blue Springs, Va. ' Their son, James, married Margaret Porter; one son, Rev. Andrew Scott.
Their son, William, married Elizabeth Porter. Eliza- beth and Margaret were daughters of Andrew Porter and wife, Miss Gleaves, who was a sister of Maj. James
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Gleaves, of what is now Wythe county, Va. The descend- ants of William Scott and family are given on preceding pages.
Capt. Lewis Hale, fifth son of Lewis Hale, Sr., married Elizabeth Bourne, daughter of William Bourne and wife, Rosa Jones; they had four sons: First, Jackson, married Catherine Isom; second, Washington, married Nancy Hale, daughter of Francis Hale; third, Rufus, married Nancy Hale, daughter of Dudley Hale; fourth, Capt. Peyton N., married Amanda Cornett, daughter of Col. Eli Cornett and wife, Sena Hale.
Four daughters: first, Milly, married Levi Perkins.
Second, Celia, married Mr. Rutherford.
Third, Elvira, married Mr. Davenport.
Fourth, Rosa B., married Charles Daugherty; one son, Lindsey; others in Texas.
Maj. Peyton G. Hale was prominent in the affairs in both Church and State; was a member of the Senate in 1882 when the question of the state debt was discussed, and the question of Funding and Readjusting was coming before the Senate for a vote. Hale and three other members left the house, and were known as the "Big Four." They were Maj. Peyton G. Hale, Judge Lybrook, Mr. Williams and Mr. Newberry. They refused to follow Mahone into the Republican party; did not like Mahone's methods of conducting the affairs of the State.
DEATH OF MAJOR HALE
"Information has been received here of the death, at his home in Grayson county, yesterday, of Major Peyton G. Hale, one of the immortal'big four' who fought Mahone's methods in the Legislature, and did much towards clinch- ing the nails in his political coffin.
"Major Hale was what Albert Pike would call 'a Virginia gentleman of the olden time.' Honest, brave,
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patriotic, and true to every trust or responsibility, he was a typical Virginian, and his death will be mourned by all who knew him for his worth."
William Hale and wife had four daughters: first, Susan, married Morgan Bryant, a Methodist minister. Their first son, Shadrack, was also a Methodist Minister; he married Sallie Bryant, his cousin; they have sons and daughters.
Second son, Gideon, died single.
First daughter, Lucy, married Henderson Cheek; they have sons and daughters.
Second daughter, Sarah, married Archibald Edwards. Their first son, William Edwards, married Lucy Dicken- son. One daughter married John Murphy. Second, Morgan, married; Wythe county; one daughter married Prof. Gentry; one daughter, Rosa Bryant, married Columbus Fulton, Independence, Va .; one daughter married J. H. Rhudy, lawyer (see children); second daughter married Mr. Couch.
Elizabeth, second daughter of William Hale, married David Whitman, Wythe county, Va .; they had two daughters: first, Caroline, married George W. Gentry, and moved to Texas; second, Nancy, married Peter Gallagher; they had three sons, Emmett, Patrick, Marvin, and three daughters, Mary, Elizabeth, Nannie. Peter Gallagher's wife, Nancy, died while they lived in. Wythe- ville, Va. He was appointed under President Cleveland, and went to Pocatello, Idaho. Emmett is married and lives in the West; Patrick died in the West; Marvin is married, and lives in the West; Mary married and lives in Pocatello, Idaho; they have children; Elizabeth married Mr. Green and lives in Pocatello, Idaho; they have children. Nannie married, and died in California.
One son, Stephen Whitman, married Linnie Hale, daughter of Stephen M. Hale and wife, Rosa Bourne;
STEPHEN FRIEL NUCKOLLS
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they live in Texas. Clarke married and moved to Texas. David, Jr., married Malvina Porter, daughter of Stephen Porter and wife, Margaret McNutt, Cripple Creek, Va.
Mrs. Whitman died in 1882 at the family homestead, and is buried on Cripple Creek. After her death, the family moved to Wilmore, Ky. Their first daughter, Gertrude, married in Kentucky; second daughter, Margaret, married Dr. Haller; they live in Pocahontas, Va., and have children. Third daughter, Jennie, married Mr. A. H. Jordan, a druggist, in Pulaski, Va .; they have two children, Margaret and Elizabeth.
Fourth daughter, Blanche, married Mr. Galloway, cashier of the Bank in Pocahontas, Va. Fifth daughter, Lillie, is a teacher, single. Sixth daughter, Nannie, is a teacher, single.
William Whitman married Miss Sloan, Pulaski, Va. They have a large family of children, and live near Pulaski, Va.
Clay Whitman married Caroline Kegley; first son, John A. Whitman, married Miss Carrie Heuser and is editor of the Southwest Virginia Enterprise, Wythe- ville, Va.
William H. married Miss Gleaves; lives in Loudon county, Va.
Sidney married Rosamond Vaughn, daughter of Rev. T. C. Vaughn and wife, Lucy Hale.
Fifth, George, died single.
Nancy, third daughter of Wm. Hale, married David Gose, Cripple Creek, Va., one son, William, married Susan Umberger; one son, John, is mayor of Bristol, Tenn; one daughter.
First daughter, Rosa, married Lewis Perkins, moved to Texas; Matilda, first married Riley Moore; second time, married Leonard Sutherland, Elk Creek, Virginia; the fourth daughter of William Hale and wife, Rosa, married
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John Dickenson; they lived on New River; had sons and daughters. (See Martin Dickenson family history.)
Dudley Hale, third son of Lewis Hale, Sr., married Mary Burroughs; he was a soldier, and with his five brothers, went to Norfolk, Va., in the war of 1812. Capt. Lewis Hale, his brother, was in charge of the company. Dudley Hale died while they were in Norfolk. His wife died in a short time after her husband; his brothers took their children and reared them. There were five sons and five daughters; Preston, Franklin, and James, moved to Cherokee county, Alabama. Burroughs married Miss Sutherland and settled on Elk Creek; their first son, Alex- ander, first married a Miss Catron. Second wife, Miss Lucinda Wheeler, of Knob Fork. Second son, Eli, mar- ried Miss Hampton; one daughter married Hackler. Burroughs Hale's second wife was Miss Clara Houk; two daughters by second wife: first daughter married Haw- kins; second, Amanda, married Jacob Thomas, of Elk Creek; one son, Jo, married Bourne; one daughter, mar- red; Cora, first daughter, married Elbert Ring.
Lewis B. Hale, son of Burroughs Hale, married Margaret Huddle of Wythe county, Va .; their first son, Leftrick, married Miss Hale; Gideon married Jestina Bryant; Peyton died single; John married Miss Bryant; Mastin, Jr., married Caroline Hale; Lewis, Jr., married Miss James, of Wythe county, Va.
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