Alleghany Historical-Genealogical Society, Inc.

P.O. BOX 817, Sparta, N.C. 28675

President: Wilma R. Foster			
Vice President: Peal Reeves
Secretary-Treasurer: Lou Reid Landreth

Vol. 6, No. 2	 	             	June 1984	 		 BULLETIN NO. 19

FROM THE EDITOR:

	This season finds all of us engage in many activities at home, work, church and around our communities.  The Society’s activities involve several changes at the present time.  

	Concerning our meetings (normally held the fourth Sunday each month at the County Library) our April meeting was cancelled due to the fact that it fell on Easter Sunday.  At our May meeting, we had Mr. Glenn Pless as guest speaker.  He is director of the Museum in Galax, Virginia and was very encouraging to us in the pursuit of our museum.  We are grateful for his ideas and encouragement.  The June meeting as Jeff Folly scheduled to conduct a program on Indian culture and artifacts as related to this section of North Carolina.  Our July program has not been finalized at the present time.  For August we are planning to join our neighbors, the Grayson County Historical Society for meeting and picnic.  Watch newspapers for particulars!  In September we are looking forward to a presentation by Una Lee Edwards and Tommye Sue Wiles of their trip to France last year.  Please plan to attend these meetings.

	Speaking of our museum, we have been notified that it will be necessary to immediately move the items that we have in storage at the old Charles Motel.  At this writing, we aren’t sure where our next storage place will be.  A couple of locations are being considered.  Look for more news on this at a later date.

	We are also losing our office space at the County Office Building where we have had our desk, telephone, file cabinets and a supply of the ALLEGHANY COUNTY HERITAGE book. We are most appreciative to the County Commissioners and the County Manager for permitting us to use this office.

	Our new home will be in the Floyd Crouse home—a room on the second floor. Our thanks to the Parks and Recreation Advisory Committee and to the Alleghany Arts Council for agreeing to share this space with us.  We are pleased to be located in this historical building and look forward to our new associations there.

	We have a continuing, though diminished, activity in connection with the book sales.  A special thanks to Lou Reid Landreth who keeps on top of all this as well as the Society’s correspondence and financial transactions.

	The 1984 Membership deadline was June 1st, so the attached list is our official membership for the current year.  We are still in need of more members, so lets not forget our recruiting responsibilities!

	We also solicit items of interest for this Bulletin.  Submit your items and suggestions to the Alleghany Historical-Genealogical Society, Inc.  

	Before we get into our historical article written in 1912, the following article concerns more modern history and was submitted by Lou Reid Landreth:

PLAIN HISTORY: Of course everything which happens is history but three things going on in Alleghany County right now are exciting history.

	One thing is that Sparta is getting a new motel, the Alleghany Inn, on North Main Street, which should open in early July.

	Secondly, recognizing that the scenic beauty and climate of Alleghany make tourism its most important commodity, a tourist Information Center has been opened on US 21 at High Meadows in the A-frame building west of the restaurant.  Since June1, many people have stopped to get literature, directions, ask questions about the county and what it has to offer.  They are very appreciative of the fact that the Information Center is available to help them.  One visitor wanted to see a moonshiner’s still or cabin.  This center was developed by the Alleghany Chamber of Commerce, the merchant and businessmen of the county and is manned by volunteers. 

	The third and most exciting development to us is that the Floyd Course house and ground are now being turned into a town park and recreation area.  The property was left to the Town of Sparta for recreation use only.  Parking lots are completed, outside restrooms have been built and drainage ditching is going on so that play areas, swings, walks, park benches and picnic areas can be located. This will be ideal for the elderly, for children and for all ages.  The house itself will be used for a youth center and various activities, the second floor being used for the offices and activities of the Alleghany Arts Council and the Alleghany Historical-Genealogical Society.

	Our main concern now is for a museum for the County.  Our earnest hope is that the above visitor can return and see a moonshiner’s sill in our long-planned museum.  A copper still was one of our first acquisitions but it is in storage with a trundle bed, early doctors’ saddle bags and other historic items of this county. 

	So, take hope.  Hold on to those valuable historical items you will want to contribute to the museum when we can acquire the appropriate and secure home for them.

HISTORY OF ALLEGHANY COUNTY

The following is the conclusion of the series of installments to
 appear in this Bulletin.  It was written by S.F. Thompson about 1912.

Early History

	Who was the first white man to visit the territory which is now Alleghany County is not known.  There seem to have been but a few settlers prior to the Revolution.  William Taylor and family, a few families of Coxes, Gambills and Reeves probably lived here at that time.  A Caption Cox who lived just on the Ashe side of what is now the line between Ashe and Alleghany was a Captain during the Revolution and is said to have served in Washington’s Army.  There were two Edwards who settled in this section at an early date: David Edwards and William Edwards.  The descendants population of the present day. 

	John McMillan came from Scotland in the year 1790.

	It appears that the eastern part of Alleghany County had no permanent settlers prior to the Revolution.  This section had been visited by hunters from both Virginia and the central part of North Carolina.  Among the first of these were three brothers from what is now Surry County by the name of Maynard.  These three men crossed the Blue Ridge and built cabins along Glade Creek.  This was about the year 1786.  They resided here for five or six years when Francis Bryan in 1790 from Orange County a man named Crouse and Wm. Woodruff settled along the top of the Blue Ridge.  There were then seven families in all the southern and eastern pars of Alleghany.  The Maynard brothers then said that the population had become too dense in this section of the County and so they left here and went to Kentucky.  

	Among the early settlers was Joseph Doughton, who came from Franklin County, Virginia.  He represented Ashe County in the Legislature of 1817 and his descendants have had a prominent part in the public affairs of this section of the State.  Among them was J.H. Doughton was the youngest son of the pioneer settler, Joseph Doughton, and was Surveyor for the Commissioners who laid out the County seat.

A Lost Battle

	A few years ago along New River near the northern border of this County was found what is believed to be indications of a battle, of which no one now living has any knowledge nor is there any tradition as to its occurrence among our people.

	On the land of Esq. John Gambill near the bank of New River after a severe rain storm and wash-out, some white objects were noticed lying about on the ground.  On examination these objects were found to be human skulls, and other parts of human skeletons.  Further examination revealed other marks of battle, such as leaden balls buried in old trees, lying on the ground, etc.  Esq. Gambill’s ancestors have resided in this section for one and a half centuries, yet they had never heard of the occurrence, or had any tradition of it.  Who fought this battle, why was it fought, was there a fort here, was it fought between the whites and Indians?  Answers to these questions would be interesting indeed.

Alleghany During the War Between the States

	Alleghany furnished companies during the war, one Company F, 22nd North Carolina Regiment with Jesse Reeves as the first Captain and Company I, 61st North Carolina Regiment with Dr. A.B. Cox as the first Captain.  Esq. J.H. Doughton later in the war organized another company but when he arrived on the field of service he found these two companies in such a depleted condition that he disorganized his company for the purpose of recruiting them.  Alleghany furnished a great many more soldiers besides these Companies who served in various commands, some in Virginia, some in Tennessee, but mostly in the 37th Virginia Battalion.  Companies F and I were constantly recruited but when the war was ended there were not more than about fifty or sixty men in both Companies.  

	Alleghany’s greatest trails were caused by deserters and bushwhackers.  These men would hide in the mountains in order to evade active service on the battle field.  At first they seemed to have stolen only necessary food and raiment, but later took to robbing and murdering.  With the able an bodied men in the Army the women and children were left at their mercy.  The few old men and others unable for active service constituted the homeguard, but were powerless to cope with these desperate outlaws.  Alleghany appealed to Surry County in 1863 for aid and Surry County sent about 100 men to aid the Alleghany homeguard.  These men crossed the Blue Ridge at Thompson’s Gap and camped at what is known as the Nick Williams Cabins.  They sent four of their number to Duncan’s Mill, about five miles distant, for a supply of meal.  These four had passed Little River Church and it was almost dark when the robbers snatched one of their number, Jeff Galyean, from his horse and hurried him off through the woods.  The other three men turned their horses and hurried back to the main body. Next morning early the whole force started in search of Galyean and the robbers.  They found neither and after hanging Levi Fender (the stump of the old dead sapling on which he was hung can be pointed out about one and one-half mile east of Sparta) they returned home.  Within a few days Galyean was found, within a few hundred yards of the place where the robbers disappeared with him, on his knees by a tree shot dead. One of the robbers, Tam Pollard, afterwards acknowledged to the killing and said he did it while Galyean was on his knees begging for his life.  It was decided by the officers to send General Price with his soldiers into this section.  These soldiers searched the County, captured a number of the robbers and carried them to Laurel Springs where a military court was organized and a number of them were hung.  Among those hung were: Lewis Wolf and Morgan Phipps.  Later Hakes cavalry was sent into the County, but still robbery, murder and lawlessness continued. 

	In October 1864 the fight at Killian’s Branch took place.  This is about one mile northwest of Sparta, on the main road leading from Sparta to Mouth of Wilson, Virginia.  Here the homeguard, under Captain J.H. Doughton, who had been wounded at Manassas, was ambushed by a band of bushwhackers under Henry Taylor.  The bushwhackers were concealed in a dense ivy thicket by the roadside and fired upon the homeguard as they were passing.  The homeguard promptly returned the fire.  Of the homeguard, Felix Reeves was instantly killed and Wiley Maxwell, Jesse Reeves and Martin Crouse were mortally wounded.  This was the last fight of any importance between the outlaws and homeguard.

	It was in this fight that Mrs. Cynthia Parks, wife of Col. Jas. H. Parks, then living in Sparta, who when she heard the firing and saw the horses of the wounded men running loose through the streets of the tow, mounted her horse and rode as fast as she could to the scene of combat in order that she might render what aid she could to the wounded homeguard, and later on the same day she brought the mail into Sparta.  The mail carrier had been fired upon and had deserted his mail.  He went to the place where the mail had been left and brought it to the Post Office.  

	During the reconstruction, Alleghany did not suffer from carpetbag, as did some of the other counties of the State, owing probably to the small number of negroes in the County and to the fact that most of the outlaws had fled.  But still we find instances where such men as Captain J.H. Doughton and Jesse Bledsoe, the first Sheriff of the County, were dragged before the Court.  Feudalism must not have existed to such a great extent as elsewhere in the South for J.C. Jones, who was Sheriff of the County during the war, continued to be Sheriff under the provisional government.
THE END

INQUIRIES:

	The following three inquiries are from Kathy Johnson, Littleton, Colorado:

1.	Trying to locate descendents of Gray Morgan, lived Surry and Alleghany Counties.  His daughter, Marzella Morgan married Peter V. Maines, lived in Alleghany County.  Some Morgan children moved to Craighead County, Arkansas and Kansas.  Does anyone know where the descendants are?
2.	Seeking information on John Perry who left a will 1841 Surry County, N.C. He names wife Salah (Celia?), sons John and Jesse, daughters Polly, Jane, Elizabeth, Martha, Susan, and wife’s daughter, Sarah.
3.	Can anyone help on a Zachariah Wells?