John B. Hawkins

I am going to start another blog entry about John B. Hawkins.  Several of the researchers that I have communicated with over the years believe that he could have been father to my Thomas R. Hawkins.  Every time that I tried to make it work, I talked myself out of this possibility.  Now that I know more about all of the Hawkins families, I want to look at it one more time.  So here is what I know, suspect, and am trying to prove about this man.

John B. Hawkins may have been named John Bourne Hawkins.  But I have never seen anyone who had proved that fact.  He was the son of Benjamin and Nancy/Ann Bourne Hawkins.  Both Benjamin and Nancy/Ann died in Mercer County, Kentucky.  They had moved to Kentucky by 1790.

Benjamin was probably the son of John and Elizabeth (Butler?) Hawkins who died in Richmond County, Virginia leaving six small children.  In John's will, he asked Henry Wood to take the oldest son, William, as apprentice to learn the trade of plasterer.  He asked Richard and James Butler to take the smaller children to raise. He named the children as Sarah, Elizabeth, John, Benjamin, and James.  James Butler died soon after the death of John Hawkins and thus Richard Butler was left to raise the five younger children while Henry Wood took William.

You can see a transcription of John's will made by Janet Shahmiri at:

http://jaceychasinghistory.blogspot.com/2012/07/transcript-of-john-hawkins-will.html

Mid 1700's Benjamin Hawkins moved to the area of Orange County that is near Chestnut/Clarks Mountain.  My blog entries dated Wednesday, November 28 and Sunday Feb 24 explain this in more detail.  I think it likely that others of the six orphans may have moved there in that time frame as well.

Benjamin and Nancy/Ann Bourne Hawkins were married in Fauquier County, Virginia 29 Oct 1764 according to Fauquier County, Virginia, Marriage Bonds: 1759-1854 and Marriage Returns: 1785-1848 by John K. Gott.  [I would like to take time to figure out why married there?  Was that where the Bourne family was living in this time period?]

I remember why I kept throwing out the idea that John B. Hawkins was NOT father to Thomas R. Hawkins!  It was because researchers who look at the family of Benjamin and Ann/Nancy Bourne Hawkins tell me that indeed the couple had a son named Benjamin born about the right time for Thomas R. Hawkins' Uncle Benjamin, BUT this Benjamin moved to Kentucky with the rest of the family and was married to Elizabeth Harmon and owned land in Anderson County, Ky

Hawkins in Orange County in 1815

I am looking at the 1815 Landowners Directory for Orange County, Virgnia abstracted by Roger Ward and published by Iberian Publishing Company of Athens Georgia.  My Thomas R. Hawkins would have been about 18 in this year.  He is NOT a landowner in Orange County.  There are many possibilities.  He could have been living somewhere attending school.  He could have been in another county.  His father could have died and he was living with his mother who had remarried and carried a different surname from Hawkins.  However, the most likely possibility is that he was in a Hawkins household.  Two years earlier he had been in attendance at a meeting to found the Zion Baptist Church that was attended by his uncle Benjamin Hawkins and fifteen other men.  This meeting had likely taken place in his Uncle Benjamin's home as it said that they met in Brother Hawkins' home.  In the article describing this meeting they described it to have taken place 3 and a half miles south of Orange which would have been more or less where where we see my circle on the below map.  It is not impossible that the meeting could have taken place at Mallory's Ford.

In 1815, there are four  Hawkins men and no female Hawkins landowners listed in Mr. Ward's compilation.  Benjamin is 2 miles SW of Orange.  He is a likely candidate for being my Thomas R. Hawkins' uncle.  Arcalus and James are both described as being 21 miles East of Orange ...Arcalus is on Middle Flat Run and James is on Lower Flat Run and Middle Flat Run.  On the map below, ignore the circled area.  If you look at the bottom left hand corner, you will see Orange on the map with only the last letters showing on Route 20.  All the way up in the far upper right corner you will find Flat Run.  You may have to adjust the map to really view it...but this is almost certainly where James and Arculus were living---close to Germanna.  One can not help but guess that they may have been descendents of William Hockings who had run the ferry and had the run in with Governor Spotswood who accused him of being drunk.  

The fourth Hawkins male is another Benjamin who is described as being on Southwest Mountain Run, 17 miles Northeast.  I do not know who this man is.  But you can see all of the possible places that he might have lived if you follow Moutain Run north and east on the map starting at the Orange County Airport area.

I pushed publish, and then thought of the possibility that Thomas R. Hawkins' family was living in an adjoining county at this time in his life.  So I have pulled out the 1815 Directory of Virginia Landowners compiled by Roger Ward for both Louisa County and for Culpeper County.  I realize that Spotsylvania County is not totally out of the question, either, but I do not own Mr. Ward's directory for that county.

In Louisa County the three pieces of land that are connected to the Hawkins surname are:
Elijah who has an asterick by his name.  The book explains that the asterick denotes that there is neither miles nor direction from the courthouse for this land and that often meant that the landowner was a non-resident.  The other two are the estate of John and the estate of Jas which has notation: Little RV  You can see on the below map that the Little River is in the far eastern part of Louisa and continues into Hanover before it runs into the North Anna.  It is my gut feeling that these men did not come from the north of Orange County, but rather from Hanover County.  But that is just a gut feeling this morning.

Map of Louisa County circa 1745.  From Louisa County, Virginia, Deed Books A and B, 1742-1759.  By Rosalie Edith Davis.

There are more Hawkins land owners in Culpeper than in either Orange or Louisa.  Again this information is from the 1815 Directory of Virginia Landowners for Culpeper County compiled by Roger Ward.  

The first one that pops out at me is John B. Hawkins of Orange County.  His land is at Raccoon Ford; 7SE.  Remember we are now talking about the county seat of Culpeper---not Orange County.  Where was John B. Hawkins living in 1815?  Why did he own land in Culpeper?  He had married Ann Ford in 1812.  Were they living with her parents?  Did he have children by his first/second wife?  Could he be father to Thomas R. Hawkins?  Others tell me that John B. Hawkins moved to Kentucky about 1825.

Benjamin Carter Hawkins and wife Susan Lee

On Saturday, Feb 24th, Linda Keefer and I spent several hours looking at her Hawkins family.  I am editing this post in 2021 as at the time I originally wrote this we thought that Linda's line could connect to my line.  DNA has shown since then that Linda's family is connected to family group #5 in the Hawkins yDNA project.

Linda's earliest proven ancestor is Benjamin Carter Hawkins.  Benjamin's wife was Susan Lee.  Susan's mother was Sarah Terrell.

Linda shared an article with me written by Judy Kellar Fox, CG that was published in the National Genealogical Society Quarterly 99 (June 2011): 85-96 about Documents and DNA Identify a Little-Known Lee Family in Virginia.  I will copy one paragraph from the article that is found on page 86:

"Charles Lee Bought land in Orange County on 24 September 1767.  "Being part of a Tract of Land the said Joseph Boston bought of the Estate of John Spotswood, Dec'd which....Contains Sixty acres,"  The parcel was half a 120-acre lease to Robert Boston and his son Robert, carved out of Alexander Spotswood's tract on 27 August 1746.  (I might want to look at this deed as Ms Fox says that there is a plat of the parcel in the deed:  Orange County Deed Book 10:397-401, Spotswood to Boston FHL microfilm 33,014)  On 13 April 1767 executors of Spotswood's son John had sold the parcel to Joseph Boston, who four months later resold it to Charles Lee.  Since Joseph Boston had held the parcel for such a short time, it likely was known as Robert Boston's land.  Lee's deed names neighbors Sleet, John Boston, and Willis."

There is proof later in the article that Charles Lee of Orange County, Virginia is the same man as Charles Lee of Richmond County, Virginia.  And there is proof that Absalom Wood is a relative of this Lee family by marriage....his wife was Kathrine Lee born in Richmond County.

I will quote one more paragraph from Ms. Fox's article.  I recommend anyone interested in these families read the article for oneself.  She is describing the migration of many families from Richmond County to the Rapidan River that is the boundary between Culpeper and Orange Counties.  Richmond county is in the Northern Neck of Virginia which would be the land between the Potomac River and the Rappahannock River on the map below.  Richmond County was on the Rappahannock east of the marker for Route #3.

"Local History sheds some light on the migration of Charles Lee and other Richmond Country natives to Orange County.  Destined for unsettled frontier land, they followed the 1716 Spotswood expedition route, up the Rappahannock Valley and along the Rapidan River. ....In 1742 Charles Lee and thirty neighbors lived on Chestnut Mountain, a low ridge within the Spotsylvania tract south of the Rapidan River.  They sought a court order to repopen a road so they could roll hogsheads of tobacco to Fredericksburt.  William Croucher, John Branham, and several Thorntons----all from Richmond County----signed the petition."

[Note:  Chestnut Mountain and Clark Mountain are the same mountain....just different names in different time periods]

This map taken from:  The History and People of Clark Mountain Orange County, Virginia by Patricia J. Hurst.  I have filed an e-mail that shows a map by Joyner in conjunction with the map shown here that helps put some of the neighbors in relationships.  The e-mail is in my mail program and also inside the book that I own by Patricia Hurst.

I have other posts on this blog about these families and these areas.  Use Northern Neck and Chestnut Mountain in the search window to get to some of the other posts.  

Beuhring Home in Huntington, WV

Frederick George Louis Beuhring and his wife, Frances Dannenberg moved to Cabell County shortly after their marriage in 1820.  They were married at Chateau Blanche which was the country home of the brides uncle, Frederick Konig.  It seems that FGL had already moved to Barboursville as: 

It is not clear just when FGL moved to Barboursville.  Court records show that he served as a jury man May 3, 1819.  That would have been before his marriage.  FGL served as postmaster of Barbarboursville from August 7, 1820 until Sept 9, 1822 and then again from May 12 1823 until April 22, 1829. At that time it was called Cabell Court House, Cabell County, VA.  The name  was changed to Barbarboursville May 10, 1882. 

 In 1837 FGL sold his Barboursville property and purchased for the sum of $6000 the property that had been the home of Major Nathaniel Scales.  I have more information about the property in my possession that I am happy to share.  I believe it possible  that Nathaniel Scales had built this home that FGL and Fannie bought 20 years before the Beuhring family moved from Barboursville.   The oldest Beuhring child (of four children) would have been about 16 when they moved to the farm on the Ohio River.

FGL and Fannie had only one son:  Frederick Konig Dannenberg Beuhring.  Fred's father, FGL, died in 1859 and his mother in 1841 and both were buried in a grave yard on the property.  I am unclear whether Fred and his wife, Fannie Miller lived in the old Beuhring home or if they lived in another home.  This research needs to be done.

I am editing this blog post in 2022 after chatting with Melba Guard.  Melba reminded me that in the obituary for Fannie Miller Beuhring, it is stated that:

The following information was taken from her death notice that I copied from Eleanor and Nancy Taylor:

       ....Such a trial was Mr. F.D. Beuhring called upon to endure last Thursday might, the 12th when his wife of a quarter of a century, after a short illness with tyhoid fever, closed her eyes to look no more upon the things of this world. 

     Mrs. Fannie Beuhring, daughter of Henry and Eliza Miller, was born in Guyandotte in 1838, (and consequently 44 years old), where she lived with her parents until November 11, 1857, when she was united in wedlock to Mr. Beuhring--Shortly after they removed to Mr. Beuhring’s old home, where she remaind till death claimed her as a victim.

Clearly, Fred Beuhring would have been too young to have owned an old home.  It had to have been the home in which his parents had lived.  Fred's father FGL was still living at the time of the wedding, but Fred's mother had died in 1841.  So almost certainly Fred and Fannie had moved into the house with FGL.

Below is a photo of Fred Beuhring and another of his wife, Fannie Miller Beuhring

Frederick Konig Dannenburg Beuhring

My 2-gr-grandfather was Frederick Konig Dannenburg Beuhring.  He married Frances Eleanor (Fannie) Miller 11 Nov 1857 in Guyandotte, Virginia.  F.D. was born 17 July 1828 in Barboursville, Virginia.  Fannie was born 12 March 1838 in Guyandotte, Virginia.  They were a very attractive couple as you can see by the photos.   F.D. been sent to Germany to be educated.  I have been told that the log cabin in Ritter Park was originally used by the vineyard keeper for F.D. Beuhring.

Frances Eleanor (Fannie) Miller Beuhring

I was going through piles and files today and found the following letter that was published in the Kyowva newsletter in the summer of 1998.  You can manipulate it in order to read it more easily.

Here is a map of Huntington.  I interpret the foot of seventh street to be where seventh street meets the river but far enough back to have been safe from high water.  However, I believe that the letter should have stated the foot of 9th Street as that is where Pullman Square is.  It is said that the Beuhring family had a wharf.  F.D. Beuhring's father had been involved in importing  goods from all over the world in Baltimore, MD before his move to what is now Cabell County, WV.  The A on the arrow is not indicative of anything.  It was placed there by google maps.   There farm would have had northern boundary of the Ohio River and west and east boundaries would have been straight lines going south into the hills.  There farm ran through what is now Ritter park.  When Fred sold the farm to the holding company for the city of Huntington, Mr. Huntington was only interested in the land along the river and the land that lay in the hill above the city was sold to Mr. Ritter.

 The Beuhring farm  would have contained what is now Ritter Park as part of their farm.  Now fast forward to 2022.  I have wondered about the Beuhring home for many years and looked every place that I could think of for a photo.  The Colonial Dames of WV held a luncheon this month at the Huntington Museum at which Geoffrey Fleming ( the Director of the Huntington Museum) spoke about his new book.  As a part of the slide show he showed a painting by Marion Vest Fors that the book says is the Baltimore and Ohio Depot and was painted circa 1965.   The painting is shown on page 92 of Geoffrey K. Fleming's book Eclectic Rhythms The artists of Huntington, West Virginia 1871-Present

I purchased Geoff's book after the presentation.  Geoff gave me permission to use the photo of the painting and suggested that the building is still in use in Heritage Station.   Scroll down to see the building today.  You will see it to be true.

Here is a photo of the building circa 1970

https://mds.marshall.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1005&context=lib_manu

Another source suggests that this was not the Beuhring home.  That the building was built in 1892 by the

Ohio River Railroad.  I believe that I found this on the Marshall University Special Collections site. 

In working on solving this puzzle of which idea is correct, I reread the information by John Salyer.  And it crossed my mind that Albert Laidley was not the man who was associated with the Central Land Company. And that Mr. Salyer had been wrong....thus discounting his information.   But then I found the following on the Marshall Special Collections site in the information done by Jack Dickinson about the early businesses in Huntington and it clearly states that indeed Albert Laidley was the man who acquired the farms.  Found in Marshall Digital Scholar:

https://mds.marshall.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1005&context=lib_manu

Leatherwood

Below is a map taken from Ruth Sammons Nassar's book, My Begetters, Salmons.  I am wondering if the Salmon and Rowland families were in the general area around the creek that is named Leatherwood 

Creek.

In Nov of 2013 I was looking something up for my closest autosomal DNA match in Ruth Salmons Nassar's book and see that Thomas Salmons who was born in 1802 to Rowland and Frankie Carter Salmons is said to have been born at Leatherwood in Henry County, Virginia.

In 1766 Pittsylvania County was created, but it was still wild, very sparsely settled.  In these early raw days the Rowland and the Salmon family settled in an area later to be cut off to form Henry County, on Smith River in a location called Leatherwood because of the tough, leather-like willows which grew on the banks of the river.  

What caused me to spend a bit of time this evening scanning the map and adding it to my blog was a note on the Granville, NC mail list about a man named John Watson who lived on the Leatherwood Creek, Horse Pasture, and Cherry Stone area of Henry and Franklin Counties.  It might be interesting to look into where the Watson and Johnson had moved from and also if they are mentioned as neighbors of the Salmon or Rowland families.  

Another thought to pursue is that Patrick Henry may have lived on land in the same general area

Genealogy Serendipity

Sometimes I wonder why I spend the hours on this hobby.  It is the most "hour eating" hobby that there is!  Other times I have a day like today that reminds me how much fun the hobby is!  I received an e-mail on the Granville County, NC mail list about an area of NC that has water ways of Nutbush and Grassey Creeks.  I don't even remember why I originally joined this particular mail list.  Do I have family in Granville County?  So I look for a map that shows Nutbush and Grassey Creeks....


I find a map that is perfect on a website that has surnames of Graves and Hawkins.  This is almost certainly NOT my Hawkins line even though there is the surname Simms.....But no....these are not my people....still I share the map on the mail list....and then!

Other researchers begin to respond to my message.  One lady tells me where to find a better version of the map....that is great "stuff"!  another lady tells me that she found her "people" on the map....I had not even realized that the map had information on where people lived!  Another person sent me information on a website:

http://dc.lib.unc.edu/cdm/singleitem/collection/ncmaps/id/3419

as I scrolled down through the information, I found


 (5)  Delores Crumrine Rutherford, Carmichael, CA, in a letter dated 11 Apr 1988 stated that Henry Graves was married to Mary Williams.  She did not present documentation, but later partial documentation is found in Alvahn Holmes, SOME DESCENDANTS OF FARRAR'S ISLAND.  Others quote Martha Hiden's works which specify Mary Williams was second wife of Henry Graves.  Other historians state that Mrs. Henry Graves was a daughter of John Williams, [Sr.] and thus inferred is she was an aunt to Charles Williams.  However, there is evidence that another Mary Williams, perhaps a sister of Charles and the others, was married to Willia fferrar/Farrar (qv) in Goochland Co. in 1755.  Even students of the Farrar family are unable to separate the contemporary William Farrars.  A John Farrar was associated with the Transylvania Co.  See Virginia Calendar of State Papers. 

So then I spent the rest of the evening ordering Alvahn Holmes' books about the Farrar family.  Who would argue with me that this is soooooo much fun.  You just don't know when you are going to find something wonderful in the craziest of places?

Stafford County records returned to Virginia

I have been reading an old issue of Broadside the magazine of the library of Virginia Winter 2012.  There is an article by Sandra Treadway, Librarian of Virginia about the "Joyous Homecoming" of Eighteenth-century Stafford County records discovered in New Jersey that were returned to Virginia.  If I want to reread the  article,  it can be found at:

http://www.virginiamemory.com/blogs/out_of_the_box/tag/stafford-court-house/

This is the kind of article that makes genealogy so much fun.  We all dream of finding a document or a clue somewhere that has never been seen before (at least by us) that will break down a brick wall of some sort in our research.  This takes it a step beyond that in making available clues that no one has seen in more than 150 years.  

As I read the article I felt the need to remind myself of where Stafford County is located and if there was anyone in my research who might have lived there in the time period that the new records would illuminate.  The above is what I found in my files.  Benjamin and Sarah Willis Hawkins'' son, Moses Hawkins, married Susannah Strother in 1770.  Moses Hawkins was killed at the battle of Germantown during the Revolutionary war, so there are many records of this couple because four very young orphans were left to be provided for.  

I am not going to spend any more time on this today, but I want to remember that the  Northern Neck Historical Society includes both Stafford and King George County in it's definition.  I will want to look at these records at some point to see if there is anything of interest for my research.  Other families who were living in Stafford in the time period?  Remember that  Fauquier County and Culpeper and Spotsylvania counties adjoin Stafford.

New Castle, Chester, and Philadelphia Ports in 1600's and 1700's

I am going through old messages and all of those old piles of things that I want to look at this morning and one message popped out at me.  It is a message from Saturday 27th Feb 1999.  Mac McCutcheon wrote it to the Scotch-Irish mail list as an answer to a question posed by Ron Gaddis. 

 "Was New Castle an Irish Center for debarkation?"  Mac says "Yes.  Leyburn concludes (and documents) that about 200,000 Scotch-Irish arrived in the 18th C., and that a great majority of them landed in New Castle, Chester, and Philadelphia, all three ports within a 40-50 mile stretch on the Delaware River.  He quotes some interesting newspaper articles from the Pennsylvania Gazette that in 1728 " there arrived forty-five hundred persons, chiefly from Ireland".  Another news item (August 14, 1728, from New Castle) said, "There is come in this last week about 2,000 Irish people, and abundance more is daily expected."  The numbers I've seen for Philadelphia are similar (perhaps lower); and I've seen no figures on Chester."

Mac was, of course, quoting from 

The Scotch-Irish, A Social History by James G. Leyburn.  

I can not remember how many times I have read about settlers disembarking at New Castle.  I thought today would be a good day to figure out just where it was, and what was the relationship of these three early ports and Philadelphia, Old Chester County, and New Castle Delaware.  All of us who do research know that the land close to this area soon was very crowded and many of our ancestors moved west and south to find cheap land once they arrived in any of these ports.

Port at New Castle

According to Wikipedia, New Castle was originally settled by the Dutch West India Company in 1651 under the leadership of Peter Stuyvesant.  Prior to the establishment of Penn's Philadelphia, New Castle was the center of Government in the area.  Between 1634 and 1674 it moved back and forth between Dutch and English ownership several times.  In 1680 it was conveyed by the British to William Penn.  Delaware's English, Dutch, and Swedish settlers were used to the more relaxed culture of the Restoration Monarchy grew uncomfortable with the more conservative Quaker influence.  Delaware formally broke from Pennsylvania in 1804.  New Castle was Penn's landing place when he set foot on what is now American soil on October 27, 1682.

I enjoyed reading about Penn's landing in a book found:

http://archive.org/details/voyageofwilliamp00phil

The Dutch chose the location of New Anstel (New Castle) in the 1650's for its good harbor at a bend in the South (Delaware) river.  The street they laid out between the site of their fort and the marshes next to Delaware Street has had wharves ever since.  in the late 1700's, the new federal government chose new Castle, Port Penn, Marcus Hook and Chester as sites to protect during severe winters.

Good information on how the water front has changed and what it looks like now at:

http://nc-chap.org/waterfront/

Port at Philadelphia

The Philadelphia port is located as it might seem along the Delaware River at Philadelphia.  It and Chester ports are farther up the Delaware River than New Castle:

It is still one of the major inland ports today:

http://articles.philly.com/2009-08-21/business/24986211_1_cargo-ships-philadelphia-regional-port-authority-packer-avenue-marine-terminal

Port at Chester

The below is from Wikipedia's article on Chester, Pennsylvania

The first European settlers in the area were Swedes. They called the settlement that became Chester first Finlandia, then Upland. They built Fort Mecoponacka in 1641 to defend the settlement.^[1]

Hendrickson House, built in Chester in 1690 by Swedish farmers, was moved to Wilmington, Delaware, in 1958

By 1682, Upland was the most populous town of the new Province of Pennsylvania. ....

Chester served as the county seat for Chester County, which then stretched from the Delaware River to the Susquehanna River. In 1789, the city became the county seat for the newly created Delaware County (whereupon Chester County became landlocked, with West Chester as its county seat), .....

Chester's naval shipyard supplied the Union during the Civil War, and the United States in subsequent wars until the shipyard at Philadelphia became dominant after World War II. America's largest postbellum shipyard, John Roach's Delaware River Iron Ship Building and Engine Works, was also located at Chester. The Sun Shipbuilding & Drydock Co., later Pennsylvania Shipyard & Dry Dock Company, was located in Chester until it closed in 1990. 

http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/topo/pennsylvania/txu-pclmaps-topo-pa-chester-1894.jpg

I am rereading another e-mail from 2002 on the Scotch-Irish mail list that mentions the fact that there is also a port at Wilmington, Del.  This is a separate port from New Castle and is still in use.  It is at the site of the confluence of the Christina River and Brandywine Creek

he Port of Wilmington is located on the Christina River on the spot where Swedish settlers landed in 1638. The settlement, called Fort Christina, is the oldest permanent European settlement on the Delaware River. In 1655, the Dutch captured Fort Christina and, in 1664, they were driven out by the British.

For its first century, the Port of Wilmington was a small agricultural village. When the Quakers moved there in the 1730s, the Port of Wilmington began to develop, and the city became a busy market town. In 1739, the Quakers got a borough charter from the proprietor of Pennsylvania, Thomas Penn, who named the town for his friend, the Earl of Wilmington.

The Port of Wilmington was the biggest town in Delaware by the time the American Revolution began. In 1777, British troops occupied the town. After United States independence, the Port of Wilmington grew quickly due to its proximity to other ports, the plentiful waterpower in the area, and the rich farmlands. By the 1790s, the Brandywine Creek was dotted with gristmills, paper mills, and sawmills, and the flour mills in the Port of Wilmington were the biggest in the United States

(information from:  http://www.worldportsource.com/ports/review/USA_DE_The_Port_of_Wilmington_158.php

Scroll to the beginning of this blog post to see the map that shows where the four ports are in relationship to each other.