There is some evidence pointing to the possibility that my 4-gr-grandmother, Elizabeth Hensley connected to this family line. The old researchers in Cabell County said that Elizabeth had maiden name Morrison. And definitely she and her husband, Solomon, were in Pittsylvania County when their first son was born c.1810.
It was a great weekend with lots of research done by everyone in the group! But more importantly it gave us a lot of time to talk and share ideas of theories of how our group fits together. We know through DNA that our Morrison lines are matches who have a common ancestor somewhere in time. My own DNA participant who carries the surname Morrison and matches the H2 lines is a man who now lives in Cabell County, WV where I live now.
William Morrison is Ed Griffith's ancestor with wife Rachel Witcher (William Morrison is the ancestor of the Morrison family lines in Cabell County, WV). I am editing this post in 2019. William Morrison was the son of Patrick Morrison of Pittsylvania County. Other sons of Patrick moved to TN and remained there or moved on further west. William moved his family to what is now Cabell and Wayne Counties in WV.
So on this last day of the homecoming, Luan and I sat out to find the grave of William Witcher, the father of Rachel Witcher and the father-in-law of William Morrison. Unfortunately I wasn't smart enough to have asked Ed Griffith how to locate this grave ahead of time. Nor was I smart enough to have Ed's phone number handy. All we knew for sure were the coordinates and the fact that the findagrave information wasn't right. So I put the coordinates into Google maps and found a general location. And we headed out. After a few wrong turns, we ended up beginning to ask people standing in their driveways. Finally one man became very excited and told us that we were on William Witcher's land, but that he didn't have a clue about his grave. We decided that it was enough to be standing on his land. The location was beautiful! This area is wonderful!
Here are a couple of photos that Luan took that give one an idea of how lovely the area is.
The first is just a particularly lovely photo that could be almost anywhere in Pittsylvania County.
The second is actually taken by Luan while we were standing on the land that had been owned by William Witcher. We were only about a mile or less from the spot where he and his family lived and where he is buried. Luan took this photo while we were on the road and it looks towards Smith Mountain in the background.
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To get back to the area, one follows route 40 (Gretna Road) west from mid Pittsylvania County until 635 turns to the left. I certainly took Luan a much harder way to get to the area using my map. It is only a short distance (perhaps a mile but less than two miles) from the intersection of 40 and 635 shown on the map below.
Luan and I were on the road labelled 635 on the above map when we talked to the man who said that the land that we were on had been Witcher land. I would guess that we were pretty close to the box with the 635 in it. The land was lovely.
Travis drove us on Friday to the area on which Patrick Morrison lived. This land is on the south side of 40 on the map below (40 and Gretna Road are two names for the same road....this happens a lot in Pittsylvania County). When we followed Travis, we were driving west on 40 (W. Gretna Rd.). We crossed Fryingpan Creek and then turned into the land on the left side of the road. Travis had a man locate Patrick's land on a modern day map and it was bordered by Fryingpan Creek and Highway 40. So it sits right in that corner on the south side of 40 and the west side of Fryingpan Creek.
The below map is to show the proximity of the land of Patrick Morrison with the land of William Witcher.
So if I have this correct, the lands of Patrick Morrison and William Witcher would have been about where the 635 is on the map below for William Witcher and just west of where the 794 is on the south side of 40 for Patrick Morrison.
Next, I want to add the land on which the Goad family was living in Pittsylvania County. The Goads were intermarried with the Morrisons who moved to TN. But we also have Goads here in Cabell County and I feel sure that they are the same family line. In order to add this land to the maps, I am using the book that I bought from the
Virginia-North Carolina Piedmont Genealogical Society
This books is available at the following site:
The book is Property Lines from the Survey Books Pittsylvania County, Virginia 1746 to 1840 by Roger C. Dodson
The Goad property lines are shown on page 13-I of the book.
As best as I can figure, John Goad bought land in Pittsylvania 15 Nov 1750. It was 400 acres on the north Fork of the Frying Pan Creek. From looking at above book and comparing information to a modern map, my computations make it seem as if he was next door neighbor to the land that we looked at for Patrick Morrison:
So while Patrick would have lived in the area bounded on East by Fryinpan Creek and on the north by route 40, John Goad lived sort of where Luster road is on this map. I believe that his waterway likely was the fork shown crossing Berryville Rd and flowing into Fryingpan Creek to the east. John Goad Jr. buys his land on Cedar Creek which is not shown on this map.
Last but not least, I am interested in where the land is located that William Witcher left to his daughter Rachel saying that it was the land on which Rachel and William Morrison now live. When I showed the map to Ed Griffith, he immediately recognized the neighbor to the east as Harmon Kook/Cook. Rachel and William sell it to Harmon when the leave Pittsylvania County for Cabell County. William Witcher bought this piece of land 10 January1782. It is 115 acres on the Pigg River and Harping Creek. I believe Harping Creek to be called Harpen Creek on the below map:
When Rachel and William sell this piece of land to Harmon Kook/Cook in preparation for move to Cabell County, it is described as by Pigg River as it meanders Harmon Cook Senior lines and William Parers lines .....it is also described as being on the south side of Pigg River. The survey book locates it in this general area as shown on above map. If you will notice the funny small road marked 888 on this map at the very top, it will help place this farm in relation to those of the Witchers and Morrisons. Sorry the below map did not turn out better. I will try to work on something that is better when I have time
And also as I have time, I would like to try to locate where the Hensley's and the Fosters were living as well. I believe it to be in this same area.
When I did a google on route 40 to see if it is historically much as it would have been in the 1700s I found the following information
With the frequent use of the road by John Hickey and his wagons, it soon became known as Hickey's Road, and kept that name for many years. By 1751, the road became so important that it was used as a reference point for land entries and surveys. Hickey's Road is shown on a map dated 27 April 1767, a plan of the division line between Halifax and Pittsylvania Counties, by John Donelson, Surveyor. The road crossed Pittsylvania County from east to west in a slightly northeast-southwest direction, and on 26 June 1794, the Pittsylvania Court used Hickey's Road as the dividing line for militia districts. The militia in the South District became the first regiment, and the militia in the North District, the second. A U.S. Department of the Interior Geological Survey map, surveyed in 1924, shows Hickey's Road west of Chatham. I just didn't want to loose this small piece of information.
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