Alleghany Historical-Genealogical Society, Inc.

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

President : Marvie Shelor			
Vice Preside nt: Pauline Jolly
Secretary-Treasurer :  Elvira Crouse

Vol. 9, No.2	 	             	  June 1987			BULLETIN NO. 31

FROM THE PRESIDENT:

	We are sorry to appear negative, but everything seems to be in a “hurry up and wait” stage for the time being!

	Right now, our most important project is to find storage space for our museum items.  The place where we’ve had this material stored for some time is no longer available for that purpose.  We are desperately in need of a safe, dry building or a small portion of a building in which to retain these items until we are able to properly display them in our museum.  We urge those of you in this area to think abut this problem and see if you can come up with some ideas.

 	We have no further information on the possibility of obtaining the old bank building for our museum.  We still have hopes, but there’s nothing we can do except wait.  

	In connection with the Brinegar Cabin project, we are also at a standstill for the present.  U.S. Park Ranger Barry Sullivan has left the post, so we will have to work with is replacement at a later date.

	A our June meeting, Ronald and Janet Key gave a slide presentation on their recent missionary-dental work in Haiti.  They shared their interesting experiences with us and showed some articles they brought from that poverty-stricken country.  We are grateful to them for this delightful-educational program.

	At a previous meeting, Charlie and Louise Caudill shared their experiences in connection with a friendship they have developed with two young men from India.  Our thanks to them, also.

	We have had three new family history books donated to our library: Larry King from Henderson, Tennessee has provided a copy of RECTOR RECORDS, Una Lee Edwards contributed a book which includes data on local TOLLIVERS, and Ina McMillan has give us a book on THE MC MILLAN FAMILY.
	The following is the last in a series of letters submitted by Marvie Shelor.  This one is written by I.B. (Doiser) Shelor to his wife, Elizabeth sometime in 1863.  The top of the letter was torn:

--------omitted writing to her-------do so out of any bad------had toward her, for I am----there is nobody remembers-----mothers love and a mothers kindness and friendly advice with more heart felt gratitude, and kindly remembrance than I do, and if I have mortified her feelings I crave her pardon, and while I write I cant keep the tears from starting in my eyes.  Tell Pa and Mother both I write to you thinking that they will hear from me the same as if the letter was addressed to them therefore I call it writing to you all.  Tell Oliver I was very glad to get his letter and see that he has not entirely lost his youthful spirits.  Tell Pyrhus I was highly pleased with his letter.  I was pleased with his style of writing and Jeff’s letter was exactly to my notion.  I also received your roll of butter very gladly.  I took my breakfast this morning on a wheat hoe cake and butter and good old coffee well sweetened.  I tell you it was great.

	I was glad to see you---some work done, you---try and pile as many of----on the clover fields as you can------if you attempt to burn them, you better be as cautious as possible------that dead grass is very dangerous about fire.

	Benton is complaining of a very severe cold and hoarseness at this time but keeps about.  Tell Charly and Nancy that Jacks health is good at the present and in fact all the Mountain Boys are well.  Give my respects to Friend Massey and Family.  Tlel Miss Sue I am doing all I can Electioneering for her and hope she will return the favour.  Tell Cousin Thomas Scott I would be happy to get a few lines from him- and when you see Friend Langhorne give him my respects and tell him to write to me.  So I will finish my scattering letter by telling the children to learn their books, and mine their Ma and may the Lord take care of you all until we meet, whither on Earth on in Eternity is the wish of your Husband.

								I.B. Shelor

	Dosier Shelor and his brother-in-law, Henry Webb were captured at Spottsylvania Court House May 12, 1864. They were first taken to Point Lookout, Maryland. Later they were transferred to Elmira, N.Y. Henry was exchanged October 25, 1864 with a large group of invalid prisoners.  Dosier died February 16, 1865 at Elmira.  He is buried there.

	Dosier’s wife never remarried.  She raided her four children with no help from the State or Government.  Confederate widows were not entitled to any benefits.  She lived to be one hundred years, plus five months, old.  She died in 1932.  Sometime in the early 1900s the State of Virginia gave a pension to all widows of men who had died in the war.  It was a grand total of $5.00 a month.

	Henry Webb was my great-great-Grandfather.  He married Susan Shelor.  They had a large family in a troubled time.  They had two children die in the summer of 1859 and three died in the summer of 1862.  The youngest son died in his late teens.

								Marvie Shelor
	
THE JONES FAMILY
By
David A Sturgill

	During the 1930’s Martha Rebecca Doughton, then of Greensboro NC, joined the DAR on the Revolutionary war record of Francis Sturgill Sr. whose wife was Rebecca Has.  Francis & Rebecca Sturgill were the great great grandparents of Miss Doughton and where my great great great grandparents.  They were buried in the original Sturgill family cemetery on New River.  This farm is now a part of the New River State Park.

	Early in the 1940’s, while living in College Park MD, I began in depth research on the history of the Sturgill family.  When researching in the DAR Library in Washington DC I came across the papers filed by Miss Doughton whom I did not known at that time, through an exchange of several letters we soon became acquainted.  In her papers she only listed seven children of Francis and Rebecca Sturgill and insisted that this was all the children they had.  I did not accept this because it was a tradition in or family and in the Ashe Co. branches of the family that they had six sons and six daughters.  Francis Sturgill died intestate in 1807 and his estate was not finally settled until 1839.  By the many deeds and bills of sale records in Ashe Co.  I was finally able to prove that the tradition was correct and that they did in fact have six sons and six daughters.  

	While researching the Sturgill history I was also collecting data on other family lines including Jones.  My parental grandmother, Tabytha Amanda Fowlkes Sturgill, was a great grand daughter of Daniel Jones and his first wife, Eleanor Long, who lived in Alleghany Co. near Scottsville NC.  Her mother was Amanda Toliver who was a daughter of Charles Toliver and Patience Jones.  This research again brought me into contact with Miss Doughton as she was a great granddaughter of this same Daniel Jones and his second wife Elizabeth Sturgill who was a daughter of Francis Sturgill Sr. and Rebecca Hash.
	In another exchange of letters Miss Doughton said that she had researched this branch of the Jones family thoroughly and that the John and Daniel Jones who settled in Alleghany County near Scottsville were brothers and sons of John Jones Sr. and his Hudson Jones who settled near them was a half brothers whose mother was a second wife of John Jones Sr. named Judith Lynch.  She stated that Daniel and John married sisters to a point.  She had no knowledge of a third brother of Daniel and John who was a full brother, this was William Jones who married Jane Sturgill a sister of Elizabeth.  It was tradition in my grandmother’s family that William and Jane, who lived in Grayson Co. VA had introduced Elizabeth, a widow with small children who needed a husband, to William’s brother Daniel, a widower with small children who needed a wife.

	As proof of the lineage she had established Miss Doughton sent me abstracts of deeds showing that John Jones Sr. had deeded land to John Jones Jr. and to Daniel Jones.  The DAR had accepted her evidence and had granted her a bar for her DAR pin and many times since and is included in the current Alleghany and Ashe county Heritage books.  I, as had several to hers, accepted Miss Doughton’s findings despite the fact that I still had some questions abut a Daniel Jones with a wife named Miriam who also lived in Grayson Co. during that period.  When I questioned her about this Daniel she said that she had seen the same records and that this Daniel was of another unrelated line so I did no more research on the Jones family at that time.  

	During the past two years while researching another family line, the Fowlkes family, I got in contact with Thomas D. Hamm and discovered that we had common ancestors in both the Fowlkes and the Jones families.  I also discovered that he had some questions about the often published Jones genealogy so once again I began in depth research on the Jones families of Grayson Co. VA.

	In a recently published history of Carroll Co. VA by Mr. John P Alderman, a well known historian and genealogist, I found several pages on the family of John Jones Sr. and Annie Norman and to my surprise found that his proven list of their children did not include Daniel, John or Hudson Jones of Alleghany Co. NC.  Further research into the deed records of Grayson Co. showed that John Jones Sr. did make deeds to John Jones Jr. and to Daniel Jones as Miss Doughton stated but this and was sold at the current price and was not a gift.  This land was also in the extreme eastern end of Grayson Co. on the waters of crooked creek near the Carroll Co. line.  Further research showed that his Daniel Jones was a son of a William Jones who died in 1824 and named him in his will.  This Daniel married Elizabeth Florer in 1819 and lived out his life in Grayson Co. The John Jones Jr. of the other deed was a son of John and Annie but he was not the John Jones who moved to Alleghany Co. Grayson Co. deeds show that Annie, wife of John Jones Sr., was still living in 1804 and census records show that Hudson Jones was born in 1796 so if Hudson was a half brother of Daniel and John of Alleghany Co. then John Jones Sr. and Annie Norman could not have been the parents of Daniel and John.  No record of a Judith Lynch could be found or no record to indicate that John Jones Sr. married a second time.

	The next important discovery in this Jones genealogy was made by Thomas Hamm.  He discovered a book published in 1903 entitled “Men of West Virginia”, a collection of biographical sketches of several people who had made history in West Virginia.  One of these people was a Dr. Hiram Jones.  This historical sketch stated that Dr. Hiram Jones was a son of Drury C Jones and Mary Ann Faw, that Drury was a son of Thomas Jones and a Miss Phipps of Grayson Co. VA and that Thomas was a son of John Jones and Leah Long of Alleghany Co. NC.  This lineage agrees with what other Jones researchers have published.  This sketch also states that John of Alleghany Co. was the son of a Daniel Jones who was originally from Bedford Co. VA, a revolutionary war soldier who settled first in SC and later moved to Alleghany Co. where he married a second time (wife not named) and became the father of Hudson Jones, a half brother of Daniel and John of Alleghany Co.

	As further research showed, this historical sketch of Dr. Hiram Jones also appears to be correct only up to a point.  It is true that in 1903 the writer could have interviewed several people then living who would have had first hand information about the Jones family but the record does not state that this was done and there is a lot of evidence that it was not.  So this leaves a question abut just who was the older Daniel Jones referred to.  He was said to have been a wealthy man who lost his fortune as a result of the revolutionary war.  He was also said to have been one of the family of ten children.

	Further research into the early Jones families in America brought forth some more interesting discoveries.  In 1749 William Jones who had emigrated from England, formed a company of Militia in Somerset Co. MD.  Among those who joined his company were three of his sons, Daniel, William and Thomas.  In 1752 a Thomas Jones lived in James City Co. VA and it has been proven that this Thomas later settled in Grayson Co. VA.  In 1774 Daniel and William Jones enlisted in an English Militia Company in eastern VA which was called the “Kings Rangers”.  This unit patrolled as far south as South Carolina.  William deserted after ten months but Daniel served out a two year enlistment and was granted large tracts of land in present Amelia Co. VA where he had previously settled.  In the records of Amelia Co. he is referred to as “Captain” Daniel Jones.  His will dated in 1772 and probated in 1782 names his son Daniel and also names over fifty slaves in various bequests showing that he was a wealthy man.

	Daniel (Jr.) disappeared from the records of Amelia Co after 1783 but the name appears soon thereafter in the records of Franklin Co. NC where he was taxed for 19 slaves.  In the census of 1790 he is shown as having three sons under 16 years of age and five females in his family.  He was not found in the Franklin Co. records after 1790.  A Daniel Jones filed on land in Wilkes Co. NC in 1794 but no record of a grant was found.

	Before the American Revolution all land grants were made by the English government or by their agents such as the Loyal Land Company which made some grants in present Ashe, Alleghany and Grayson counties.  After the war was over some of these grants were declared void by the states if the grantee had actively participated in the Troy Militia against he patriots or otherwise acted against them.  One well known Tory who is named in the “Draper Papers” is in John Preston Arthurs “History of Western North Carolina” which was largely written from the Draper Papers, was Timothy Perkins who had received land grants in present Ashe Co and in Grayson Co VA.  One tract of 400 acres at the “old fields” was taken from him and given to Ben Cleveland of Wilkes Co.

	A few years ago Dow Perkins, a descendant of Timothy Perkins of Ashe Co. published a short history of the Perkins family.  He had found records to prove that Timothy had married Miriam Sperry in Connecticut and that they came to Ashe Co. from there.  He had also identified most it not all of their children.  As he found no further records of Miriam Perkins after 1778 he concluded that she had died about that time.  Dow Perkins and his cousin Don Perkins who both now live in Ft. Lauderdale FL have both been working on a revision of this Perkins History for the past few years.  Old Timothy who died in 1834 was buried alone in the Sturgill cemetery (now Zion Hill Cemetery) on Helton creek in Ashe Co.  In researching the Sturgill family I discovered that he had married Ann Sturgill, daughter of Francis Sr. and Rebecca, about 1812 and that she died in 1813, probably as a result of childbirth.  Her child who was named Lydia (after her oldest sister Lydia Sturgill Parsons) was raised by her brother Francis Sturgill Jr. who later bought 2500 acres of land on Helton Creek from William Perkins and moved there.  This daughter of Ann and Timothy married a Price but nothing is known of their family, if any.  Don and Dow both agree as to the second marriage of Timothy Perkins but the mystery of where his first wife Miriam was buried still remains.  Ann was buried in the original Sturgill family cemetery on New river where her parents and grandparents were buried.  
	A Daniel Jones with a wife named Miriam lived on the “waters of Fox creek” in Grayson Co. VA about 1795, about two miles east of Grant.  Some of this land was sold in 1796-97 and the deeds were signed by Daniel and Miriam Jones.  The Grayson Co. marriage record of Lucy Perkins and Joseph Young in 1796 names her as a step daughter of Daniel Jones.  Daniel was surety for the marriage of William Perkins in 1819 and Frances Jones who married William Perkins were children of Timothy Perkins and Miriam Sperry so the conclusion is inescapable that Miriam did not die 1778-9 but that she and Timothy Perkins were divorced and that she later married Daniel Jones.  Don and Dow Perkins agree with this conclusion.  The land where Daniel and Miriam lived is still known locally as the Perkins place.  The original grant to Timothy Perkins was probably made in Montgomery Co as no record of this was found in Grayson Co.

	Deeds show that Miriam Jones was still living in 1817 and marriage records show that Daniel was alive in 1823.  In 1824 Hudson Jones and six females named Jones, who are assumed to have been his sisters, sold this land on Fox creek to Stephen Perkins.  This deed was obviously made to settle an estate but does not say whose estate.  The only conclusion here is that Daniel Jones died 1823-24 and Miriam had died before this.  This deed also leaves no doubt that this Daniel Jones of Grayson Co. who married Jane Sturgill and the Daniel and John Jones who moved to Alleghany Co. Ashe Co records show that Daniel and Eleanor moved from Grayson to Alleghany Co. Levi Jones, son of John, married Nancy Dickey in Grayson Co. in 1882 and it is believed that they lived on this land until it was sold in 1843 to John Landreth.  Hudson Jones moved to present Alleghany Co soon after VA land was sold and married Barsheba Williams in Ashe Co in 1825.  He lived near Daniel and John at Peden and is buried in a small family cemetery there.  Hudson’s daughter, Matilda, married Joel Sturgill, son of James Sturgill Sr. and Mary Herrin.  Joel was killed in the Civil war and buried in the Confederate cemetery at Richmond.  Matilda never remarried and was buried in the old South Fork Baptist church cemetery on Kings creek.  William Jones and wife Jane Sturgill sold their farm on Wilson creek to Nathaniel Vanhoy in 1832 and moved to Wise Co. VA.  Nothing is known for their family. 

	No doubt it was Daniel Jones (II) of Amelia Co. who lost his fortune as told in the “Men of WV” story.  He did serve in the Tory militia and probably had land grants voided as did Timothy Perkins in Ashe Co. NC.  Amelia Co. tax records of 1772 show that Daniel (I) had nine children.  His will dated in 1772 and probated in 1772 names the following children; Daniel Jr., Edward, Richard, Sarah, Mary, Martha, Rebecca, Elizabeth and Prudence.  The tax records for Montgomery Co. VA 1782 (area now Grayson Co) show the following; William Jones, Edward Jones, Thomas Jones, Richard Jones and some other members of the Jones family who were probably unrelated.  The executors named for the above will were; brothers Richard and Peter Jones and son Daniel Jones.  
	No direct proof has yet been found that the Daniel Jones Jr. who disappeared from the Amelia Co. VA records after 1783 was the same Daniel Jones who appears in the records of Franklin Co. NC 1786-90, in Wilkes Co 1794 and in Grayson Co. VA 1796 where he died in 1824.  However there is strong evidence that all these records refer to the same Daniel Jones.  Note that the “Men of WV” story apparently lost one generation.

	John Jones of Alleghany Co, was born in 1772 and his brother Daniel in 1775.  Census records show them as born in VA and Daniel (II) above was still in Amelia Co. VA at that time. The 1830 census of Grayson Co shows William as born before 1790.  These three fit the census record of Daniel (II) of Franklin Co. NC who listed three sons under 16 in 1790. later census records show Hudson Jones born in VA in 1796 at which time Daniel was living in Grayson Co.  

	The farm on which Daniel Jones and Miriam lived in Grayson Co. has been positively identified, the 40a sold by Hudson Jones, and those assumed to be his sisters or half sisters, in 1824 was definitely a part of this farm which is still called the Perkins place.  This and other deeds leave no doubt that Daniel Jones (II) and Miriam Perkins Jones were parents of Hudson Jones and that Daniel was the father of Daniel Jones (III) and John Jones of Alleghany Co and William Jones of Grayson Co who married Jane Sturgill.  It is believed that Daniel and Miriam were buried in a family cemetery on this farm but they do not have marked stones.  The grave of Stephen Perkins is marked.  The first wife of Daniel is unknown but a marriage record may exist in Amelia Co. VA. 

	As I have learned to my own dismay, when a genealogical error has been published it is soon multiplied and propagated in other publications.  Many people are now very much interested in their family history but too many of them are doing all their research in libraries by searching the publications of others and not taking the time to search the original sources of information to verify the accuracy of such publications.  If I had continued my research on the Jones Family forty years ago when I first became involved in it I may not have discovered who were the parents of John and Daniel Jones of Alleghany Co. but I could have proven that John Jones Sr. and Annie Norman of NJ, Patrick and Grayson Co. VA were not.

	Some of the descendants of John and Daniel Jones of Alleghany Co. may not agree with the conclusions which I have reached and I agree that there is some speculation but the many public records found do speak for themselves.  Further research into the public records of Amelia, Montgomery and Grayson counties of VA and in Franklin and Wilkes Co NC is needed to tie it all together firmly and as such records come to light they will be published in the Historical Society quarterly.

 NOTE: The will of Daniel Jones Sr. of Amelia Co. VA was dated Apr 4 1772 and file for probate Jun 25 1772 but the tax records continued to show the estate of Daniel Jones Sr. through 1782.  Only a varying number of slaves were listed as “estate of”.  The will of William Jones of Grayson Co. was dated 1805 but not filed for probate until 1824 so the date of his death is uncertain.33

INQUIRES:

 	Mrs. Orella (Holloway) Chadwick Tillamook, OR would like any Bible, Death, Birth, Marriage Records of those McBRIDES who married into Moses and Allen WOODRUFF lines; HAMPTONS that married into Emanuel ROSE line; HALLS that married widow MARY HAMPTON ROSE.  Did Mary and John Hall, Sr. have children? Did Mary marry again after John’s death in 1815? What MARSH did Phebe who married Moses WOODRUFF belong to?  Was the Cassia (Keziah) who married Reuben sparks, A SISTER TO Timothy Buttrey and who were their parents?

 	Also from Mrs. Chadwick: Did Rebecca BROOKS, the mother of Stokes M. and Nathan Young BROOKS go by another name than Rebecca or did she live with Ashe County records as a female with two sons b. VA 1802 and 1805 respectively.  Did she have other children?  Was Aaron, James or John BROOKS her father?  

 	B. Burgess Crouse, Burlington, NC asks: Joseph Yarborough b. ca 1800 married Margaret “Peggy” Neal.  Who was Joseph’s father, grandfather, brothers, sisters?