Ahnentafel Report - Southern Illinois University

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Ancestors of Roy Melvin Bearden-WhiteMargaret married John Hiett Jr. 66 in Jan 1720. 66 John was born between 1693 and 1696 in Gloucester, England 66and died before 4 Dec 1764 in Frederick County, Virginia. 66278. Captain Jeremiah Smith 66 was born in 1711 66 and died in 1787 66 at age 76.General Notes: Capt. Smith Was One of the 1st to Tame Early Western Frontier.Was Capt. Jeremiah Smith, of what is now called Gore, the first settler in the western lands beyond theShenandoah Valley? Well, yes, and no. Local tradition and folklore all but suggest that he was; however,Wilmer Kerns, in his exhaustive history of the Back Creek Valley, somewhat mitigates this claim.Kerns maintains that Owen and Isaac Thomas were the first to put down roots as farmers west of theValley in the 1730s, and that Jeremiah Smith, a native of New Jersey, resided as a squatter on Owen's land.However, as fate and history would have it, the Thomases receded from view, perhaps as early as 1755,while Smith attained prominence as an Indian fighter, road builder, mountain man, land developer, andpatriarch of a large clan.When Smith and two other men, presumably the Thomases, first laid eyes on Back Creek Valley, GreatNorth Mountain was the western boundary of the American frontier. By all accounts, Smith and hiscompanions, on more than one occasion, ventured down from New Jersey and slipped through a gap in themountains, to the lands watered by Back Creek.By the mid-1730s, Smith was here to stay. It is known that, in 1736, he assisted Col. James Wood insurveying a plantation farm for Isaac Thomas near present-day Gainesboro. He was then living, as a virtualsquatter, on the 806 acres owned by Owen and Sarah Thomas. Come 1749, however, when Thomas, SixthLord Fairfax made his initial land grants in the upper Back Creek Valley, the original Thomas tract was splitbetween Owens widow, Sarah, and Smith.In time, Smiths holdings would exceed 1,000 acres. He claimed, by squatters rights, some 450 additionalacres in 1750 when several neighbors joined him in a petition to Lord Fairfax to grant him the property. Thispetition, in part, said that the, Rye Land, on Smiths original tract was, so Hilley and Stoney that very littleof it is tillable. He received the land, and then an additional 263 acres in two grants, one dated 1754, theother 1762.By then, the erstwhile squatter had made quite a name for himself. In 1742, he and a certain Robert Heatonwere ordered by the Orange County court (Frederick County had yet to be formed out of Orange) to "viewand lay" a road between the home of James Caudy (of "Caudys Castle" fame) in what is now Capon Bridge,W.Va., and Isaac Parkins mill near Winchester. This road, for all intents and purposes, was the forerunner ofthe current U.S. 50. At that time, it seems, Smith built a house along the road; still standing today, it wasstrategically constructed on a gentle slope so that Indians could be seen coming down off Little TimberRidge to the west, or through a gap in Great North Mountain to the east.In due time, Smith would fight these Indians. In 1756, following the decisive defeat of British Gen. EdwardBraddock near the falls of the Ohio, a band of 50 warriors, led by a French officer, crossed the Allegheniesand began preying on frontier settlements. After a meeting of local militia captains, called by Lord Fairfax,proved indecisive, Smith took it upon himself to raise a small company of 20 men and marched in asouthwesterly direction to intercept the marauding Indians.Near Lost River in present-day Hardy County, W.Va., the two forces collided and, in fierce fighting, Smithand his men killed five of the enemy, including, so the story goes, the French captain, slain by none otherthan Smith himself. Allegedly, he found instructions on the officers person detailing plans to attack FortFrederick in Maryland and blow up its powder magazine.Records indicate, or, at least, suggest, that Smith sired 12 children by as many as three wives. The story of43
Ancestors of Roy Melvin Bearden-WhiteThomas, his first-born, is the stuff of legend. Supposedly, the boy and his mother, Smiths first wife, weresnatched by Indians sometime between 1740 and 1745. Mrs. Smith died in captivity, but Thomas remainedwith the Indians, eventually adopting their culture.From time to time, Jeremiah would seek information about his son from the myriad traders and hunters whopassed by his homeplace heading to and from Winchester. Some said they remembered seeing the boy, butcould never pinpoint his whereabouts.In his later years, Smith received word from Jacob Shade, a local Revolutionary War veteran, that his sonwas living with the Catawba tribe in western North Carolina. Summarily, he dispatched a friend with amessage for Thomas, asking him to come home, for he, Smith, was getting old. Thomas, it is said, rejectedhis father's entreaty, saying that he was content living with the Indians.Later local historians, T.K. Cartmell, for one, tell a different story. Thomas, Cartmell maintains, went to livewith his mothers people in South Carolina and was killed in the Revolutionary War.Whatever the case, Jeremiah died in 1787, without ever seeing his first-born son again. However, his place inlocal history is secure as one of the first men to tame the lands west of the mountain wall in old FrederickCounty.Adrian OConnor is editorial page editor of The Winchester Star.#- Back Creek Farm, Gore, VA: The plantation house was built around 1742. The original log house builtby Captain Smith is still present today in the front half of the structure. It is believed to be one of the oldesthouses in Frederick County, present day. The house sets up on a knoll overlooking the roadside which wasthe first wagon road constructed in old Frederick County. So, when Captain Jeremiah Smith was not battlingIndians with the militianman in Old Frederick County or being a guide for early surveyors by Lord Fairfax,he was building a road. This road was ordered to be built by Orange County Court from James Coudy'sresidence, now Capon Bridge, to Isaca Parkins Mill, now known as Winchester. This road was theforerunner for the great wagon road between Winchester and Romney. Part of this pioneer road is still in usetoday (RT 50). From 1729 to 1742, prior to the road being built, only trails and paths existed for travelersgoing between Winchester, Virginia to South Branch Valley Region in West Virginia. The famous "OldWagon Road" ran past Captain Smith's house.In 1777, a Mill was constructed and operated by Harrison Taylor. He was also known as "honest oldTaylor." The Mill set just below Captain Smith's house right off the Old Wagon Road. A short distanceaway on the left side of the road was Taylor's house on land he purchased from Captain Smith. This houseis still present and inhabitable. The Mill became famous after Pulitzer Novelist, Willa Cather, a great, greatgranddaughter of Captain Smith's, portrayed it as a site in her novel, "Sapphirra and the Slave Girl."- A roadside marker in Lost City, West Virginia, provides historical information on a famous battleJeremiah fought with a band of 20 men in the spring of 1756 near Lost City in current Hardy County, WestVirginia.# Note:(Research):Captain Jeremiah Smith’s Deed to Sons Andrew, George, and Jonathan:"This Indenture of three parts made this 29th day of March in the year of our Lord one thousand EightHundred and ten Between Andrew Smith of Frederick County and State of Virginia of the one part, and44
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