The
History
Of
the Pioneer
Families
of
Conley
and Sage
By
Glen Harrison Sage
“This is the life accounts
of family members that contributed to the settlement
and development of the New
River and Clinch Valley Settlements of Southwest
Virginia and their
descendants that have continued to make America the great
nation that it is today!”
Preface
I developed an interest in
the accounts of my family, related to me by my
maternal grandmother, Mrs.
Nancy Conley, when I was a small child.
She was born
in 1875 and her world was so
vastly different from my own.
She would talk to me for
hours on end, about growing up in the mountains of N.C.
and her early years in
Southwest Virginia and later West Virginia.
I knew with
my passing that a lot of the
oral tradition and recorded records that I have
researched would be lost to
future generations if I didn’t place this
information in permanent
written form.
Over the past two decades I
have spent many hours in the Clerks of Circuit
Courts offices of Counties
in NC, VA and WV researching family historical
information. I have also made regular trips to libraries
with good genealogy
research available in order
to “flesh out” this book.
It is my hope that the
collection of this information will give our children and
our children’s children an
appreciation for who they are and a knowledge of some
of the great sacrifices that
their forefathers made to help develop this
mountain region and our
nation into the land that it is today.
This is not just a book of
who our grandparents and great-grand parents are but
through life accounts, they
will become people that are a part of who we are
today.
My hope is that this book
will instill in others an interest to add to this
volume of information so
that future generations will have even a greater
understanding of the proud
heritage of these hardy mountain families.
I would
hope when they mention they
are descendants of the Conleys and Sages of
Virginia, that a great sense
of pride would be part of that acknowledgment.
G.H.S.
Chapter One
“The Conley Family from
Ireland”
(Conley, Conlley, Connolly,
Conelly, Connaley)
1700-1800
The first Conley of our line
in Virginia is found in records of Augusta County.
This county stretched from
Orange County in eastern Virginia west to the
Mississippi and north to the
Great Lakes. Two brothers James, John
and were
found in the New River
Settlement area of Augusta County in the 1740’s. James
Conley is found mentioned in
court records of Augusta County in 1746.
He was
living on Reed Creek near
the modern day town of Wytheville Virginia.
In this
court session he was
convicted of killing 38 “red deer” contrary to law and was
fined. In 1749, prior to his death James Conley
the settler was commissioned
to lay off a road from Reed
Creek to the Woods River (New River) and worked on
this project from the
Calhouns’ house to the New River. A
branch flowing into
the New River was named
“Conley Branch”.
Later in Augusta Court
records we discover that James Conly died and his estate
was appraised by Tobias
Bright, Thomas Inglish, and Richard Hall.
On October 1,
1751, Day Throughgood was
charged with the murder of his master James Connely.
He confessed and was sent to
trial. During this time the records
indicate that
slaves that killed their
masters in Augusta County were hanged and their heads
were then severed and the
head was impaled and displayed along major roadways.
This murder and execution
happened in the year 1751, so we know James Conley
died prior to 1752 on Reed
Creek. In his estate, he had 7 head of
cattle and 2
horses and a number of
personal articles. In the settlement of
this estate it
was mentioned that he had no
wife or children. George Breckenridge
was named
administrator of the
estate. George was a friend of his
brother John Connley
the settler. From the information that we have listed, we
can deduct that James
Conley made his living as a
“Long Hunter”. This meant that he made
trips beyond
the forts to the wilderness
areas of present day West Virginia and Kentucky. He
was no doubt a skillful
shot. When he got in trouble with his
killing of the
“red deer”, his neighbors
were willing to go on bond for him. His
brother John
Conley doesn’t appear to be
as nearly well liked by the community.
John was always in trouble
with the law and at one point was chased out of the
state of Virginia into North
Caroline. An account of this is as
follows: “The
Emperor of the Cherokee
Nation had a very different grudge with Erwin Patterson.
Through his intepreter Watts he told Patton (Col. James Patton) a
story which
he asked to be sent to the
Governor. Watts said, “At Erwin
Patterson’s house
the Emperor of the Cherokee
nation being there was made drunk and afterwards
insulted and abused in a
very gross manner. Erwin Patterson
ordered him to be
layed which John Conley did
and in so doing, the Emperor was so much abused that
the blood gushed out of his
mouth and nose. Watts came and relieved
the
Emperor. He said it was well for him he was there
otherwise he believed they
would have killed him.”
“‘John Conolly who had
attacked the Emperor was a well-known trouble-maker on
New River. This was not the first complaint against
him. In 1749 George Draper
of Drapers Meadows went out
hunting and never returned. It is not
known if
Eleanor Draper suspected
Connolly of harming her husband but the same year he
disappeared she complained
of Connolly to the Augusta Court. (she also named
George Breckenridge in this
complaint).
John Sinclair also
complained that Connolly killed and skinned a deer and left
the carcass on his
fence. When Sinclair complained
Connolly killed his “two
find dog which guarded his
home. ”This was a great loss because the settlers
relied on their dogs to warn
them of the presence of Indians. Col.
James
Patton now issued a warrant
which read: “Connolly is a vagrant,
loose in his
morals and worse in his
behavior which he has verified for these three years
past on New River. During this time he has had no certain place
of abode but
sulking about and pretending
to be a hunter and has been very abusive to several
of his majesties subjects in
those remote parts. The Emperor says
unless he has
satisfaction he will inform
his nation who will have revenge on the white
people. Patton ordered “To all sheriffs and
constables and officers of the
militia and others of His
Majesty’s liege people of Augusta but in particular
Capt. Adam Harmon, Ebenezer
Waistcoat, Alexander Sayers, Joseph Crockett, Samuel
Stalnaker and Robert Box to
make diligent search for Connolly and when found
bring him before me. He will be dealt with according to law. I forbid all
persons to succor him.” Patton then notified Williamsburg, “I have
sent out
warrants against Conolly who
has since fled to Carolina.”
John and James Conley the
settlers also had a younger brother on the New River
in the 1760’s. He was Arthur Conley and the only one of the
three to have
children (James was not
married at the time of his death in 1751).
Our family line comes from
Arthur’s branch. Arthur was married to
Jean (last
name unknown). Arthur was the son of Edwund Connelly and
Mary Edgefield. Mary
named her son Arthur after
her father, General Arthur Edgefield of Charleston
South Carolina. Edward the father of Arthur was the son of
Henry Connelly and
Betsy Vaux Buckley of
Charleston SC. The Conley clan arrived
in the “New World
“ in the late 1600’s at
Albermarle Point near present day Charleston South
Carolina. Henry the “settler” was Henry II, son of
Henry I that was born in
Armagh County, N. Ireland
around 1635. Henry I died in Ireland
about 1700.
The natural children of
Arthur Conley are;
James Conley Sr.- born about
1755, served in the Revolution under Capt.
Patterson of Augusta County
and later as an Indian Scout in the western frontier
of Virginia.
Arthur Conley Jr. married to
Jane Dale, Dec. 19, 1785 , then married to
Elizabeth Levingston on Jan.
1787 in Augusta County, Virginia.
Sarah Connelly married John
Walker on Sept. 8, 1791 in Augusta County Virginia
Mary Conley married
Zechariah Perdue in Montgomery County Virginia on Sept. 18,
1792.
Thomas Connelly married
Margaret Walker, daughter of Alexander Walker Jr., prior
to 1767 in Augusta County
Virginia. Thomas served in the
Revolution with two of
his sons (Thomas Jr. &
Robert) under Reuben Harris.
David Conley married Polly
Strain prior to 1789. David served in
Capt. John
Adams’ Company from
Montgomery County Virginia, after March 12, 1777. James
Sage served in that same
unit and was listed on the same rooster with David
Conley.
Robert Connelly served under
Capt Givens of Col. Campbell’s Company and Reuben
Harris’ Company in 1776.
James Conley Sr. was the son
of Arthur Conley Sr., and is the second generation
of Virginia Conleys in my
family line. James Conley Sr. of Little
Sugar Run
branch of Walker Creek in
what was then Montgomery County Virginia,
was born
prior to 1755. James purchased land from John White in the
year 1792. This
land jointed the farm of
Joseph Eaton and Capt. Joseph Cloyd, a Revolutionary
War hero that fought at the
Battle of Kings Mountain and a number of other
important battles of the
Revolution. On the Joseph Eaton farm is located the
Eaton Memorial Methodist
Church and a cemetery with the cemetery predating the
century old church. This
land transaction was witnessed by the 3 sons of Joseph
Cloyd. The boys were less than 20 years old and
were close to the same age as
James Conley Jr. James Jr. was to name one of his sons after
General Gordon
Cloyd, one of the three
witnesses. This son, born in 1833 was
named Gordon
Cloyd Conley.
The first record that we
have of James Conley Sr. was a listing of “Scouts” that
watched the Indian trials of
the Clinch and New River Valley. These
records are
recorded in “The History of
Tazewell County and Southwestern Virginia”, by
Pendleton and a book titled
“History of the Middle New River Settlement” by
David Johnson. This role of “Scout” started in 1776 during
the “Dunmore War”.
In 1776 James was old enough
to serve in this kind of military capacity.
Some of these “scouts” were
only 15 years old at the time. Samuel
Lusk was only
15 at the time that he
served. He later was captured by the Shawnee, taken
north of the Ohio River
where he escaped and helped Virginia Wiley escape from
the Indians.
In order for us to
understand what James Conley did as a “Scout” we must also
understand the time and the
area during that era. The Clinch and
Upper waters
of the New River was the far
western frontier of America. No white
men lived in
permanent settlements beyond
this area. On occasions, white hunting
parties
would go into Kentucky and
what is now West Virginia, they didn’t live beyond
the line of forts that
stretched from “seven mile ford” near Abington to the
fort at Lewisburg West
Virginia, a distance of over 160 miles.
These forts or “Block
houses” included such names as Wynn’s Branch, Crab
Orchard, Maiden Springs, and
Burkes Garden in Tazewell County.
Linking Shear
Branch, and Bluestone Creek
Montgomery County, Beaver Pond near New Hope in
Mercer County WV and White
Sulphur in present day West Virginia.
The life and times of James
Conley of Walker Creek in Southwest Virginia was one
that was fraught with danger
and hardship. The area that he lived
was the far
western frontier of the
English Colony and later the American Colony.
The New River Settlement and
the Clinch River Settlement was made up of a few
brave souls scattered along
the creeks and rivers of the area. It
was not
uncommon in the mid to late
1700’s for your closest neighbors to live 5 or more
miles away. This land was a buffer zone between two
major Indian nations with a
number of smaller tribes
passing through from time to time. The
Shawnee tribe
wintered to the north along
the Ohio River and the Cherokee were to the south
along the mountains of
western North Carolina and Tennessee.
This placed the
new settlers squarely in the
middle of lands claimed by these Indians.
Both
these tribes used this area
as a hunting ground and later as a land to raid for
needed supplies. Some of these families were attacked and
suffered the loss of
family members captured or
killed on two or more occasions. Thomas
Ingles was
one such person. Some of these early settlers witnessed
infants from their
family being killed by being
“brained”. (Indians would grab a small child by the
ankles and hurl them against
a nearby log or tree) They would also
drown small
captive children that would
slow them in their escape from the settlements. If
infants were born of
pregnant women captives, on the trip back to Ohio, the new
born children were usually
killed in these ways.
Prior to 1775 there were
raids into this area as a by-product of the French and
Indian War. The French used the Shawnee to attack the
English settlements.
Following the French and
Indian War, Lord Dunmore decided to wage war against
the Indians along the Ohio,
in hopes of ending these attacks against the Crown
and to punish the Indians
for being pawns of the French. The
Battle of Point
Pleasant was the last
official battle of this campaign. The
end result was far
different than what had been hoped.
The decade following 1774
was one of the most difficult for the New River
Settlement and those along
the Clinch. It was during this era that
we get the
first real glimpse of James
Conley (Sr).
There was a major Indian
warpath that stretched from west of Kingsport TN. along
what is known as “The Trail
of the Lonesome Pine”. This trial went
through
southwest Virginia up
through the Clinch Valley and entered into modern day West
Virginia near the present
city of Bluefield.
There were a number of
Indian trails that intersected with this major trail
system. This placed these early settlers in
Tazewell, Bland, Giles, Mercer,
Wythe, Pulaski, and
Montgomery Counties in the middle of this trial system.
Following the Dunmore War of
1774-5 there was a great outbreak of attacks by the
Indians on the white
settlers. Col. James Graham and his family was attacked,
Donnally’s Fort was
attacked, the Mchensey family was attacked, John Pauley and
wife were attacked, Capt
James Moore and family were attacked, William Wheatley
was attacked, James Roark
was attacked, Virginia Wiley, John Davidson, Mitchell
Clay, Thomas Ingles, were
all attacked by Indians in the 1780’s and early
1790’s. In one year over 28 people were killed by
Indians in these settlements.
In some cases whole large families were killed or carried into
captivity. In
at least one case a whole
fort was wiped out in a single raid. At
times raiding
parties of 40 or more
Indians would make their way into the New River Valley.
Usually they came in parties
of 6 to 12 Indians.
This was also a time that
the Colonies were in a war for their life with the
“Greatest Military Power” in
the world, England. Many of the younger
men from
these mountain settlements
were called on to fight with the Colonial Army. This
left the New River
Settlement very short of man- power to protect them from
Indian attacks.
In order to protect the
remaining settlers while the troops were away fighting
the British, a group of
“scouts” or “spies” were used to detect impending Indian
attacks.
The following is a
description of the role of these men and a list of their
ranks;
“These men were to hold
themselves in readiness to act as circumstances might
demand. To make them more efficient, spies were
employed to hang upon the great
trails leading into the
settlements from the Ohio. Upon
discovering the least
sign of Indians, they
hurried into the settlements and warned the people to
hasten to the forts or
stations, as the case might be. They
received extra
wages for their services,
for they were both laborious and important and also
fraught with danger. For such an office the very best men were
chosen; for it
will be readily seen, that a
single faithless spy, might have permitted the
Indians to pass unobserved,
and committed much havoc among the people, before
they could have prepared for
defense. But it does not appear that
any spy
failed to give the alarm
when possible to do so. They always
went two together,
and frequently remained out
several weeks upon a single scout.
Great caution
was necessary to prevent the
Indians from discovering them; hence their beds
were usually of leaves, in
some thicket commanding a view of the warpath.
Wet
or dry, day or night, these
men were ever on the lookout. The
names of
several of these people have
been preserved, among them; 1
James Bailey Samuel Lusk
John Bailey Robert Lesley
Joseph Belcher Samuel Lusk
Robert Belcher James Martin
Thomas Brewster John Maxwell
Edward Burgess James Perry
Chrisopher Caffin John Pruett
James Conley Archibald Thompson
John Cottrell John Ward
John Crockett James Witten
John Evans, Jr. Michael Wright
John Evans Sr. Oliver Wynn
Joseph Gilbert Hezekiah Wright
Absalom Godfrey
William Hall
David Lusk
This role of “Scout”
continued for these men over a period of about eighteen
years from 1776-1794. With the victory of Col. Wayne over the
Indians in 1794,
raids into the Clinch and
New River Valley ceased. It was strange
that the
frontiers should have
furnished so many men for the army, when their absence so
greatly exposed their
families. But when we reflect that no
people are readier
to serve the country in the
day when aid is needed, than those of mountainous
regions, we shall at once
have an explanation to their desires, and consequent
assistance, in bringing the
war to a close. Beside, the people of
Tazewell have
ever been foremost in
defending the country; showing at once that determination
to be free, which so
eminently characterizes the people of mountainous
districts.
Another family connection
with these “Scouts” and forts was the name of James
Bailey. James was the great-great-great-great uncle
of the authors daughters
through their mother’s
family. James was noted for his great
running ability
and he also built a fort at
Beaver Pond, near the present Beaver Pond Fair
property about 1 mile from
New Hope in Mercer County West Virginia.
This fort
was where Mitchell Clay’s
wife ran after the Indians attacked her home at Lake
Shawnee and killed several
of her children. She ran over 6 miles
through the
forest to the safety of the
fort. James Bailey joined in the hunt
for these 11
Shawnee warriors and they
caught them in modern day Boone County West Virginia.
Serveral of the Indians were
killed in the battle that followed but there was no
loss of life among the
settlers. One of the Indians begged for
mercy in broken
English but mercy was not
granted after the savage attack and scalping of the
Clay children. Sections of
hide were removed from the backs of these slain
Indians by Edward Hale, a
neighbor of Thomas Conley, and used as razor straps by
the Hale family for many
years.
During this period of
“Scouting and Indian fighting along the frontier of
Virginia, people lived mostly
off the land. When Indians were
reported in the
area, settlers would often
leave their crops without harvesting them.
That
meant the following winter
they had to depend on wild game and what their
neighbors might share with
them. Game was very plentiful in the
area. The main
cash crop was the raising of
hemp for rope. Some of the hemp plants
have
survived until modern times
and cows have been know to eat the “crazy weed” and
then walk about as though
they had been drugged. The settlers
were unable to
raise hogs or pigs due to
the heavy bear population and the fact that bears
loved pork. There was a
great population of deer, bear, elk, and buffalo. The
main food items were deer
and bear and the hides of all these animals were used
by the settlers and taken to
Fincasle and traded for salt. It was
not unusual
for two men to go on a 2 to
4 week hunt and come back with as many as 50 deer
hides and 4 or 5 bear skins.
There was a man by the name of Ebenezer Brewster in
Tazewell County that died in
1850 and it was reported that he killed over 1200
bear in his lifetime. A friend of Brewster, William Peery killed
over 1000
black bear in his lifetime.
There are accounts that these settles would be
awaken in the morning to
nearby howling of wolves and at night hear the
screaming of a “Panther”
(eastern cougar). In the 1750’s Augusta
County (that
now covers the New River
Settlement) paid bounty on as many as 2000 wolf heads
per year. By the late 1700’s most of the wolf
population had vanished from the
New River Valley. The last of the panthers was killed in
Burkes Garden in 1903.
It was stuffed and placed in the museum at the state capital
building in
Charleston West Virginia.
Another threat to the mountain people was that of
rattlesnakes and
copperheads. These “pit vipers” were
abundant and snakebite
was not uncommon. It was usually treated with bear
grease. Most of the
clothing was made from deer
skin but many of the houses also had a spinning
wheel and a loom for
weaving. Feather and chaff filled tick
beds were usually
made after a settler
had time to finish building his log
house. Their sugar
came from “tapping” maple
trees in the Fall and some settlers had as many as 500
trees running at a
time. They would then boil the sap down
and make sugar from
it. They also had lots of beehives and when the
men went to war they would
carry a few swarm with them
for fresh honey. Most of the building
was done in
the winter because they
didn’t have to fear Indian attacks. The
Shawnee stayed
in their villages along the
Ohio River during the cold time of year.
They liked
to wage war in the warm
months when the settlers would be out in the fields a
long way from their
cabins. Many of the attacks recorded
showed the Indian
preference for this type of
warfare. During Fall and Winter, there
was no
foliage to help hide them,
if they had snow fall it would make it easy for the
settlers to track them on
their escape to Ohio. If they raided
the settlements
in winter, the cold icy rivers
were difficult to cross and food was more scarce.
The settlers would be in
their cabins, with bars on the doors and could fire
through the gun ports, thus
they would be able to ward off a good size raiding
party.
The next glimpse we get of
James Conley Sr. is a tax record in Montgomery County
when it is recorded that he
owns 3 horses. This is recorded in
1790. He is
involved in a land
transaction on Walker Creek in modern day Giles County but
what was then Montgomery
County. This was on December 24, 1793
when he
purchased land on “Little
sugar waters” of Walker Creek a branch of New River.
The land was purchased from
John White for a sum of four pounds Virginia money.
Joseph Cloyd owned the land
on the southern boundary of James Conley’s land.
Joseph had sons near the
same age of James Sr.’s son James Jr.
All three of
these sons were witnesses to
the land transaction. This included
David, Thomas,
and Gordon Cloyd.
In addition to the role of
spy and scout along the Indian trails, James Conley
would have been involved as
part of the Militia in three major engagements.
These were the battle of
Shallow Ford on the Yadkin River, the battle of Kings
Mountain and the Battle at
Guilford Courthouse. In September of 1780 a call went
out for “Backwater Men” of
the New River and Clinch to go to Sycamore Ford on
the Watauga River (near
Elizabethton TN. There were 200 men
from the Wolfe
Creek area of Montgomery
County that answered that call. One of
these men
referred to as the “Paul Revere
of the South” rode from near Christiansburg
Virginia to Elk Creek,
calling out the militia. He made this
ride in less than
12 hours and his horse died
on Elk Creek. He was given another
horse and he
rode it to Marion Virginia,
then secured another fresh horse and rode this third
horse to Bristol
Virginia. He completed this trip in
about 24 hours. The Army
of Virginia and Tennessee
backwoodsman made the march across the mountains to
Kings Mountain and arrived
there on September 26, 1780. These
“Backwater Men”
didn’t line up in formation
but fought from behind the rocks and trees.
They
would charge the British
lines and after their Deckard rifles had been fired
they retreated down the
mountain because they had no bayonets for “hand to hand”
fighting. When the British would follow, the
“Backwater Men’s” reserve units
would fire on the British
from the woods. The British would
retreat back up the
mountain and the Virginians
would be right on their heels with fresh loaded
rifles. This was the first major victory of the
Revolution and gave heart to
the people of the
colonies. Over 600 British were taken
prisoner and a number
were killed.
Following the Battle at
Kings Mountain, in October of 1780 a message was
delivered to Major Joseph
Cloyd, on Back Creek, that help was needed to put down
a Tory uprising on the
Yadkin River of N.C. He was ask to
raise three troops of
horsemen. No doubt he went to his close neighbors for
help. One of these men
was Thomas Farley of Walker
Creek and Captain Pearis, who wounded in the battle
that was to follow. I feel sure that James Conley, neighbor of
Joseph Cloyd,
and the owner of 3 horses
answered that call. There is no written
record of the
160 horsemen that served in
that battle but the half dozen names that we have
listed were neighbors of
Major Joseph Cloyd. In that battle
fifteen tories were
killed and the losses to
Major Cloyd was one Captain and 4 privates wounded.
These men that served under
Cloyd were called “Emergency or Minute Men.
On February 10, 1781, Col.
Preston ordered the militia of Montgomery County to
assemble at the Lead Mines
(Austinsville, near Wytheville Virginia) and on the
day appointed three hundred
and fifty men assembled pursuant to the order of
their commander, Major
Joseph Cloyd. One author has written”
that it to be
regretted that the names of
the men who went with Preston and Cloyd have not
been preserved. Only 6 Privates from the role of 350 men has
been recorded.
They are Matthew French,
John French, Edward Hale (the next door neighbor to
Thomas Conley), Joseph Hare,
Isaac Cole and Thomas Farley (father-in-law of
Garland Conley son of James
Conley Sr). One company of these men
from the
middle New River Valley was
commanded by Captain Shannon of Walker Creek.
I’m
sure that James Conley Sr.
the “Scout” was among that number. It
would have
taken every able bodied man
in the region to make up that large of a force.
Those in command were his
neighbors. On the way to North Caroline, they passed
through Adam Waggonors farm
and he furnished a steer for them and pasture for a
number of their horses. Thirty years later the granddaughter of Adam
Waggonor
would marry the son of James
Conley Sr.
These Virginia Militiamen
met the British on the sixth of March, 1781 at
Wetzel’s Mill and a severe
engagement took place. Preston’s horse
threw him,
Preston was a heavy man and
unable to keep up with the retreating army of
Virginia. Major Cloyd seeing his condition dismounted
from his horse and gave
his mount to Preston. During the battle one of the boys from
Walker Creek,
Matthew French, was watching
the supply wagon along with several other men.
When the battle broke out he
left the wagon and rushed into the middle of the
battle. The officer in charge wanted to Court
Martial him. Major Cloyd
remarked that “as French ran
not from the fight but towards it, if they court
marshaled him for such a
cause, he would never again draw his sword in behalf of
the country”. The British commander commented after the
battle that his troops
were badly hurt by the
Backwoodsmen from Virginia. After this
battle the men
returned home to provide
protection for their homes that were threatened by
Indian incursions. They had to station 20 men along Sugar Run,
the home of
James Conley Sr. to protect
it from the Indians. Thirty men were
placed at
Captain Pearis’, 25 men were
placed at the head of the Bluestone and 16 men at
the head of the Clinch
River, 30 men at Powell’s Valley, 20 at Richlands and 30
at Castlewoods. These men
were placed along a 164 mile line to defend the homes.
This was a difficult time for the early settles. George Washington committed
on hearing accounts from the
settlements along the New River, saying, I would
give my life to the Indians,
if I knew they would stop their raiding and
plundering of the western
settlements.
This is the last written
record in Virginia that we have on James Conley Sr.,
the “Scout” and Indian
fighter. He doesn’t appear in Giles
County records,
which means he must have
left the area prior to when Giles County was formed.
His father Arthur and
several of his brothers had moved to the Big Sandy Valley
of Eastern Kentucky after
General Wayne's victory over the Shawnee in 1792. We
find land records of James
Conley in Scott County Kentucky in 1794.
A number of
the Conley family went to
the "Big Sandy Valley of Kentucky" in 1763 along with
Henry and James Skaggs of
Reed Creek near Fort Chiswell Virginia, and Daniel
Boone. Harmon Connelly and Thomas Connelly were
part of this early expedition.
When the Connelly family
began to settle Kentucky in the 1790's they had
thousands of acres of
land. This land must have been claimed
back in 1763 whey
they made their first trip
into the "Wilderness of Kentucky."
I feel the Conley
family, Skaggs family and
Daniel Boone learned of this rich Kentucky land
covered with
"Bluegrass" from the James Conley that settled on Reed Creed in the
early 1740's and was a
"Long Hunter" in Kentucky and sold many of his skins to
James Skaggs. He was changed in Augusta County Court, in
1746 for having 38
"Red Deer Skins"
at the home of James Skaggs. In 1751
this James Conley was
killed by Day Thoughgood a
slave belonging to James Conley. James
Conley Sr.'s
son was later to move from
Walker Creek across the mountain into Burkes Garden
and marry at about the age
of 32 years old in the County of Tazewell.
This was
on May 22, 1806 when he
married Rachel Stobough, daughter of John Stobough and
Leah Corder. Leah and John were married in Montgomery
County on Nov. 3, 1787.
John Stobough’s father,
Henry Stobough took the “oath of allegiance” on the
courthouse in Philadelphia
Pa. steps in 1752. Henry married Elizabeth Waggonor
the daughter of Adam
Waggonor, one of the early settlers of the New River
Valley. Leah Corder’s grandfather was one Edward
Corder who got drunk and
robber a store in London in
1721. He was sentenced to be
transported to the
colonies and was to serve 15
years. He arrived in Virginia and rented from
Lord Fairfax.
James Conley Sr. son of
Arthur Conley had several children a few of which were
James Conley Jr., born in
1774, Garland Conley born in 1776, Bailey Conley, and
Bridget Conley. All these children were in Tazewell County
Virginia by 1803.
James Conley Jr. married in
Tazewell in 1806 and may have worked for his
father-in law in Burkes
Garden for several years before purchasing land of his
own but in 1832 he bought
100 acres of land from the Stobough’s for 100 dollars.
This land, lies near the “Blue Spring” in Burks Garden. This spring has a flow
of over 3900 gallons of
water per minute and is the largest in the state of
Virginia. He sold this land for 100 dollars in
1838. Then in 1851 he purchased
37 acres of land on Banks
Ridge in Burkes Garden, located in Clear Fork
District.
James Conley Jr. had several children and our family line
extends through
Gordon Cloyd Conley born in
1833. Gordon married Mary Jane Boling
on July 16,
1854. Mary Jane was the daughter of Harrison and
Martha Boling of Bount County
Tn. Gordon and his wife took care of James (Jr.)
and his wife Rachel all of
their livies. James lived to be 96 or 97 years old and
died in 1871.
The following is a Photo of
Gordon Cloyd Conley and Mary Jane Boling Conley.
This photo was made from a
painting.
During the time that the
Conley family was settling into the New River and
Clinch Valleys of Virginia,
the Sage family was moving into the South side of
the same valley and across
Iron Mountain unto the Elk Creek Valley.
Our next
chapter will follow the
migration and lives of the early Sages.
Chapter
2
The
Sage Family
Arrives
In America
The earliest records that we
have on James Sage “The Settler” was found in his
old notebook made with a
home tanned leather binding which is still owned by a
descendant. James recorded that he was born near London
England about 1749. He
referred to Shepton Mallet,
which is located in Summerset County of England as
his “dwelling place”. He also recorded in his notebook, “James
Sage, Baker, for
His Majesty, King George
III”. He made a notation about his
departure from
England, this note reads, “James Sage, Baker, from London 23 July, 1773.
We have learned from other
records that James sailed from Middlesex, where he was
sentenced to
transportation. He sailed on the
Hanover Planter and the Captain
was Master William
McColloch. James was sent to the “New
World” as a sentence for misconduct.
This was a common practice for even minor infractions. This may also
explain why James fought for the independence of the colonies against Great
Britain.
A record of his trail is
shown below. He was tried in London
England at the Old Bailey located in the western part of the city about 200
yards northwest of St Paul’s Cathedral.
It is also located next to the Newgate prison where James would have
stayed from May 31, 1773 until his trail on July 07, 1773. At that point he would have been returned to
the Newgate prison until he was loaded on the ship (Hanover Planter) on July
23, 1773 and he was transported to American to serve his 7 year sentence as an
exile from England.
·
Crime(s): theft
: simple grand larceny,
·
Punishment Type: transportation,
(Punishment details may be provided at the end of the trial.)
·
Verdict: Guilty,
·
Name search for: JAMES
SAGE,
405. (M.) JAMES SAGE was indicted for stealing a linen shirt, value 1 s. and two linen shifts, value 2 s. the property of Abraham Robbins, May 31. +
Abraham Robbins. I am a farmer at Kingsbury: my house has been twice broke open; the last time was on Whit-Monday; I was alarmed in the night; I missed a shirt off the clothes; the door was broke open, and there was all the appearance of somebody having broke into the house.
Edward Williams, I am son-in-law to Mr. Robbins: my mother waked me; I jumped up, opened the window, and saw the prisoner run from the house; I put my shoes, stockings, and breeches on: I went out and saw a man behind an elm tree; I went after him; I traced him as far as Davis's; there I got intelligence of him, and then took him at the Black Lion, at Kingsbury; there were three more, which three were in the house; whether those two were in the house or no I cannot tell; the house is a lone house 30 yards out of the lane, and a considerable way out of the high road; there is no other house near it. When I took him, his white stockings were all wet and dirty, seemingly as if he had been going through wet grass. I am sure the man I took at Kilburn is the same man I saw at the door; I know him by the clothes, and one shoulder was higher than the other.
John Sket. I saw him go through the farm yard; I said old acquaintance where are you going? he said down to Kew Green. The people came after him; I described him to them, and it appeared he was the same man they were in pursuit of.
Robert Smith. I lie in the room over the room where the people got in; I was waked by a cluttering at the window; I saw three men in the house, neither of whom were the prisoner. I heard them unlock the door, and heard them afterwards go out; I saw these three men turn round the corner by the yard, and immediately afterwards the prisoner went away from the wall of the house and went straight forward.
Prisoner's Defence.
I was going to Kilburn to see after a place; I heard it was disposed off, and so was returning back again.
The prisoner called three people who lived in White-cross-street, who said he lived in their neighbourhood, and gave him a good character.
Guilty. T.
From the court proceeding
above we learn a tremendous amount about this two-month period of James Sage’s
life. First we discover that he was a resident of Kilburn a section of
Kingsbury that was part of the old Middlesex County. This area is in the northwest part of London and most of his
friends lived near the White-Cross-Street area. This is a street that runs through much of London. He had friends that were willing to come and
testify on behalf of his character.
This was a great asset to him in the trial. The offence of breaking into a house was punishable by death at
that period of history but they tried him for the lesser offense of simple
grand larceny. We also learn that he at
least at this point had a shoulder injury (one shoulder was higher than the
other). James was required to stand in
the “Old Bailey” before a large mirror that focused light on his face so the
judge and jury could see his facial expressions clearly to assist them in
making a determination of guilt. After
the sentencing, he was returned to jail and on the 27th of July 1773
he has loaded in the lower galley of the Hanover Planter along with 44 other
prisons that were sentenced to transport to American. Three years later this practice of transporting people to
American would cease with the beginning of the American Revolution. In 1779 the British would began to send
those that they exiled to Australia.
The journey to American was
difficult on this ship that was at least over 70 years old in 1773. Water would become very bad on a cross
Atlantic crossing, and there was little occasion for sunlight and fresh air. Many people died on such a trip. Our line through James Sage continues
because of the mercy of the court, the providence of God and James being in
good health and only being 24 years old at this time. The ship that James was transported on was ship-wrecked near Long
Island off the coast of Scotland 6 years later with the loss of 3 lives.
James arrived in
Philadelphia and came down the “Great Wagon Road” that
stretches from eastern
Pennsylvania through the Shenandoah Valley into the New
River Valley. James settled in the New River Valley in the
late 1770’s on
Cripple Creek near where it
empties into the New River. It was
there he met his
wife-to-be, Lovis Ott the
daughter of a German settler, Sylvester Ott (Utt) and
they were married in
Montgomery County (now Wythe County) on December 25th,
1780. James Sage was the administrator for the
estate of Sylvester Ott and at
the time of Sylvester’s
death, around 1803, Sylvester owned 60 acres of land on
the New River, at the edge
of Peak Creek in Wythe County but was living in
Grayson County when he died.
James and Lovis continued to
live on Cripple Creek, Montgomery County (now Wythe
County) for few years after
their marriage. It was rumored that
prior to his
coming to Virginia that he
was with Gen. George Washington and that he was at
Yorktown when Cornwallis
surrendered. He served a number of
enlistments in the
Continental Army and most of
these were for six months at a time. He
was no
doubt part of local militia
call up for short local battles, mostly in NC.
In
his regular service he
served under Capt. Robert Sawyer’s company in 1779; 6
months in 1781 with Capt.
James Montgomery; 6 months with Col. John Montgomery
in 1782 and he also served
in Col. Crockett’s regiment in 1783.
James Sage was
listed in other publications
as serving in the Colonial Army in the battles of
Monmouth, Bunker Hill and
Sullivan’s Island. These engagements
took place from
1775-1778, this would have
meant that he served in the military from the time
that he arrived in American
until the end of the Revolution in 1783 and would
have still been a
private. I feel this is highly unlikely
that he served over
this span of time as a
private when he had the ability to read and write. The
first enlistment that we
have records for was shown as 1779. Therefore
the
battles that he may have
been involved in, under the commanders listed, would
have been the Chickamauga
Indian Villages around April 30, 1779.
The Tory
uprising on the Yadkin River
of North Carolina in October 1780. Col.
Joseph
Cloyd raised 3 troops of
horsemen (160 men) to ride south with him into North
Carolina. James Sage raised “high bred” saddle horses
and was a skilled
horseman and a patriot. These troops would have had to ride south
near James’
house on the way to
N.C. There is only a list of about 15
of these 160 men but
I feel James Sage would have
been one of those unlisted men.
“Backwater Men” also
answered the call to assemble at Sycamore Shoals near
Elizabethan Tennessee. This was for the purpose of confronting the British
at
Kings Mountain. A rider went from near modern day
Christiansburg Virginia into
the Elk Creek Valley, across
Iron Mountain into Cripple Creek then to Marion,
Seven-Mile-Ford and then
into Bristol. He rode three horses into
the ground as
he called upon the “Minute
Men of Virginia” to stop the advance of Gen.
Cornwallis and
Ferguson. These British commanders had
sent word to the people
of Virginia, warning them if
they joined the fight, that the English would march
into southwest Virginia and
hang those that served with the militia and burn the
homes and crops of the
general population. The battle that
followed was a great
victory for American and
gave new courage to the cause of freedom.
Again the
messenger gathering troops
passed the home of James Sage and this
brother-in-law, Fredrick Ott
(Utt) on Cripple Creek. James Sage was
listed as
serving with Captain John
Adams militia in his roster of March 12, 1783.
Others
listed on the roster include
David Connelly (Conley) brother of James Conley
Sr., David owned 400 acres
of land on Walker Creek in an area known as Crab
Orchard. Richard Chapman was among that militia
company, he married Susannah
Conley and this marriage
took place in Montgomery County on May 5, 1790.
Fredrick Ott (Utt) was
listed on the roster of Fredrick Edwards company of
militia on March 24,
1781. Details of the acts of bravery in
the Battle of
Kings Mountain are recorded
in chapter one of this book.
On February 10, 1781, word
was sent to Maj. Joseph Cloyd to gather troops to
assist Gen. Nathaniel Green
in North Caroline. A message went out
through
Montgomery County to
assemble at the lead mines (Austinsville) south of
Wytheville, on the New
River. Answering this call was 350
men. This was at a
time when the adult male
population of Montgomery County (present Montgomery,
Floyd, Patrick, Carroll,
Grayson, Tazwell, Wythe, Pulaski, Giles, and all the
counties of southwestern
West Virginia) was less than 1800 men.
Many of the men
in this 1800 total population
count, would have been too old, young or
physically unable to serve
in the militia. Therefore about every
able-bodied
man that was able to get the
word and get to the lead mine was there.
We have
no list preserved, but I’m
sure that the Sages, Otts and Conleys were well
represented. This meeting place was only about 8 miles
from the home of James
Sage and less than 20 miles
from the Conley clad. Details of this
engagement
are found in chapter one of
this publication.
There was a number of other
battles fought in North Caroline, through 1783 and
James Sage was listed as
being active in the militia through the ending of the
Revolutionary War. Some of these battles were Whitsels Mill,
Great Island,
Cherokee Indian Campaign,
Guilford Court House, Reedy Creek and the search for
Tories.
Other writings have
suggested that James Sage moved to Elk Creek in present day
Grayson County in about
1791. I believed that he moved there
over 7 years prior
to that date. On November 14, 1784 James Sage signed a
petition in Montgomery
County to give himself and
others title to land in present day Grayson County,
that “many of these people
had lived on for over 30 years”. This
land was part
of a 10,000 acre grant owned
by Peter Jefferson, Thomas and David Mealeweather,
and Dr. Thomas Walker. Those holding the land grant had sold land
to these
people of Grayson County
(the Montgomery County) but they had not given them a
deed. This
contest was settled by the people paying the government $4.22 per
100 acres to secure title to
their land. Stephen Austin, the father
of Stephen
Austin II later the governor
of the state of Texas also signed this petition.
Another indication That the
Sage family moved to Elk Creek prior to 1791 was the
wording in a survey
appointment; “On September 28, 1790 a survey was to be made
from the Elk Creek road to
where Sage’s wagon overset on the Dry Branch near
Spedwell.”
In the period of 1740-1800
the state would tax the people by having them raise
hemp for the making of rope
and other related products. Most of the
small land
owners on the western
frontier were busy raising enough crops to feed their
families, building cabins
and fending off Indian attacks and they had little
time to produce hemp. Most of the larger plantation owners didn’t
have this
problem. On May 24, 1782 James Sage signed a petition
in Montgomery County, to
be submitted to the Virginia
Legislators, requesting that a different system of
tax be approved for the
frontier. This would allow people to
pay with deerskin
rather than hemp. James Sage was more a hunter than a farmer
at this point in
his life. Using deerskin for currency is where the
term "buck" originated.
From the time that James
Sage arrived in America until the end of the
Revolution, every day was a
struggle for survival on the frontier.
The winters
were cold and brutal, summer
brought Indian raiding parties into the New River
Valley. Threats from wild animals were very real
(bear would kill hogs, bounty
was paid on wolfs heads,
rattlers and copperhead snakes were abundant).
From
1777 until 1794 almost every
family had close friends and relative to die or be
captured by Indians. Some of these families experienced loss at
the hands of
the Indians more than once
in their lifetime. In one year over 28
people in the
New River settlement lost
their life to Indian attacks. Many more
were wounded
or carried into captivity
beyond the Ohio by the Shawnee. These
Indian attacks
were more frequent on the
north and west areas of the New River Settlement.
This may have influenced
James Sage in his decision to move a little to the
south across Iron
Mountain. Just over the mountain to the
south of Cripple
Creek lay a very fertile
valley that was well watered by Elk Creek.
This valley
lay nestled between Iron
Mountain to the north, Point Lookout Mountain to the
southeast, White Top and
Mount Rogers to the west. These
mountains to the west
were over a mile high and
had a climate much like Canada, due to their high
elevation. The mountain ranges provided great hunting
conditions and the valley
was a wonderful farming
district. The Cherokee used While Top
as a major
hunting area. There remains evidence of this, even today,
around and in some
caves on the top of this
mountain.
A decision was made by James
and Lovis Sage to move across Iron Mountain unto
the banks of beautiful Elk
Creek. This decision was made in the
late 1780’s.
At this point all the
settlement in the Elk Creek Valley had occurred by
families moving up from
North Caroline through the gaps in the Blue Ridge
Mountains. The Sage family was the first to come from
the north across Iron
Mountain. There was nothing but “bridle trials” across
the mountain and James
had accumulated enough house
wares that a wagon was required for the move.
James packed up the family
and started up Dry Run Creek, he came to a waterfall
that was over 6 feet
high. James “scotched” the wheels,
unloaded the wagon and
then disassembled the wagon
and carried it piece by piece over the waterfall and
reassembled it on the
top. He re-hitched the horses and
became the first
settler into the Elk Creek
Valley from the Iron Mountain side. For
many years
this waterfall was know as
“Sage Falls”. There is also evidence
that James
Sage’s wagon overturned on
this trip across Iron Mountain. Mary
Kegley in her
book, “Early Adventurers on
the Western Waters”, noted a reference on a road
survey as, “ending at the
point of the Sage wagon upset”.
Following the move
across Iron Mountain, new
neighbors would join in to help construct a cabin.
These cabin raisings could
often be completed in as little as two days.
People
in Elk Creek were always
glad to see new settlers because neighbors were “far
and few”. Additional settlers meant greater safety
from both Indians and roving
rogues. James Sage was later to suffer greatly from
both elements.
In 1791 James Sage received
title to the land that he was living on in Elk
Creek. He purchased a superb stallion and began to
raise horses as a money crop
and for his own use. He also had a neighbor, that raised
horses, Mr. Cornute
(Cornett). In the summer of 1792 Mr. Cornett went to
check on a number of
horses that he was grazing
in a nearby pasture field and he discovered that
three of his horses were
missing. He found tracks and other sign
that would
indicate that his horses had
been stolen. He along with Michael Delp
and James
Sage begin to track these
horse thieves and their trial led toward White Top
Mountain. The trail divided but Sage and Cornett
continue on the trail leading
toward White Top. Near the summit in a saddle in the mountain,
in an area known
as Elk Garden, the horses
were found grazing and hobbled. Perhaps
the thieves
knew that someone was hot on
their trail, so they left the horses and ran for
their lives. If you stole a man’s horse, and was caught
you would be hanged.
The recovered horses were
brought back home to Elk Creek.
After several weeks James
and his older boys were clearing “new ground” for
future planting. His wife Lovis was washing clothes in the
creek and their five
year old daughter, Caty was
playing with a rag doll nearby. When
Lovis began to
look for the young girl, she
was nowhere to be found. There was the
small rag
doll lying where Caty had
been taken. It is thought that the
horse thieves may
have returned and kidnapped
her. Indians may have been responsible
for both the
abduction and trading of
Caty. A search was made by the
neighbors, James Sage
spent the better part of a
year trying to locate his missing daughter.
For
years after the abduction,
the family followed every lead to no avail.
At one
point James traveled to
North Caroline to confer with a fortune teller named
“Granny Moses”. Granny told him that Caty was alive and
well, but he would
never know where she was or
what happen to her. She added that late in life,
Caty’s mother would have
news concerning her but would never see her again. She
also said that Lovis, Caty’s
mother would outlive Caty. All of these
predictions came to
pass.
Caty (Catherine) was taken
to the top of White Top Mountain by the horse thieves
or Cherokee Indians and was
later traded to the Wyandotte Indians.
She was
taken by way of trails along
the New River into Ohio and was soon on the Great
Lakes at Sandusky Ohio. She and her tribe were moved west to Kansas
to a
reservation in the
1830’s. She was found by a brother in
1847. Her brother
Charles was hauling supplies
for the military on the “Old Santa Fe Trail”.
He
went to Fort Leavenworth,
Kansas in 1847, to pick up supplies for the U.S. Army
that was fighting in the
Mexican War in Mexico. When they were
about to leave,
a Wyandotte Indian told them
of an old white lady who had been with their tribe
many years. Charles wrote a letter to his mother and
brother with a description
of the white lady living
with the Indians. She had a “Ginger
bread” colored
birthmark and a scar that
she received from a burn prior to her being kidnapped.
Her oldest brother Samuel came and was able to identify her and
had to talk
with her through an
interpreter, she had forgotten how to speak English.
Letters were exchanged back
and forth between Elk Creek and Kansas and Caty was
planning a visit back to Elk
Creek but she died of Pneumonia fever before she
could make the trip. Caty’s death took place on January 21,
1853. In letters
written by her brother
Samuel, she described her conversion to Christianity
thirty years before and gave
an account of many of the events of her life.
Several books give
additional details of her life, these are “March of the
Sages,” by Ball; “ Red Trails and White”, by Bonnie Ball, “
Yourowquains, A
Wyandot Indian Queen”, by
Bill Bland.
James Sage lived out the
remainder of his life on Elk Creek where he and Lovis
raised 14 children of their
own and one grandson. In genealogical
listings
there are 15 children due to
the grandson that was raised by James and Lovis
(Martin Sage born in 1803)
and there is no paternal listing of his natural
parents. These children are as follows;
1. Samuel Sage – born August 5, 1781, Montgomery County
Va: M.
Charity_________?
2. John Sage –b Oct. 24, 1782. Montgomery County, Va: d.
in infancy
3. James Sage Jr. – b June 17, 1782 d. April 21, 1869; M.
Catherine
Canny, Grayson County Va.
4. Mary (Polly) Sage – b. Dec. 4, 1785; M- John Hall,
Oct. 30, 1804
in Grayson County Va.
5. Catherine (Caty) Sage – b. Jan. 5, 1787 Montgomery County
Va.:d.
Jan 21, 1853 in Wyandotte,
Kansas, married three times to Indians
6. Lovis Sage II – b. March 1, 1788 Montgomery County
Va.; M. Peter
Rauhoff, May 1811 Grayson
County Virginia
7. Margaret (Peggy) Sage – b. Feb. 1, 1790, Wythe County Va.; d.
Oct. 15, 1870 (unmarried)
8. Sampson Sage – b. Feb. 11, 1792 Grayson County Va. D.
March 25,
1872 Lee County Va.; m.
Lydia Fletcher in 1816 Lee County Va.
9. Esther (Hester) Sage – b. Oct. 26, 1793 Grayson County
Va.; m.
John Cooper, Sept. 17, 1817
10. Anna (Ann) Sage – b. Oct. 26, 1795,
Grayson County Va. ; m. James
Nelson
11. Charles (Comer) Sage – b. July 11,
1797. Grayson County Va. M.
Elizabeth Bryant
12. William Sage – b. May 11, 1800
Grayson County County. Va. D. Feb. 1,
1824
13. Ezekiel Sage – b. May 17, 1803 d. in
infancy
14. Elizabeth (Betsy) Sage – b. April 12,
1805; m. Jacob Delp in 1836
James died on March 17, 1820
on Elk Creek. Lovis died on August 28,
1854 and
they are both buried in the
Sawyer Cemetery at Elk Creek. This
cemetery is
located on a hill looking
down on the Elk Creek Dragway. A marker
was placed on
the grave of James Sage by
the D.A.R. in 1936. On Labor Day of
1995, a marker
was placed on Lovis’ grave
by 10 descendants. All the other graves
in the Sage
section appeared to be
marked with fieldstones and no inscription.
The infant
children, that was lost by
James and Lovis were buried on the Sage family farm
and today are marked only
with a fieldstone with no inscription.
My line extends from the
eighth child of James and Lovis Sage and I will now
continue to follow the
progression of that line. This was
Sampson Sage who was
born on Feb. 11, 1792 and
was married to Lydia Fletcher on Nov. 18, 1816 in Lee
County Virginia. Lydia was born on Feb, 3, 1798 in Montgomery
County (present
day Giles County). Lydia was the daughter of Aaron Fletcher and
Elizabeth
(Milam) (Davis) Fletcher,
who were married in Montgomery County in 1797.
Sampson’s oldest brother
Samuel made his way to Lee County Virginia in the early
1800’s. Sampson may have moved at the same time or a
little later than his
brother. Samuel was later to serve in the War of 1812
as a private in George W.
Camp’s Company, 4th
Regiment, Virginia Militia. He was
discharged at Fort
Norfolk in 1814. Sampson also served in the war of 1812.
Sampson Sage purchased a
farm on the foothills of Powell Mountain, near Wallen’s
Creek, at Stickleyville, in
Lee County Virginia. His land bordered
Claiborne
Young’s farm and his
Sampson’s grandson married Mr. Young’s granddaughter over 2
decades following Sampson’s
death.
Sampson’s wife Lydia served
as a midwife and traveled miles to perform her
services. According to reports her normal charge was
fifty cents. This usually
included staying with the
family for a few days and helping with house keeping
and nursing the baby and
mother.
For many years a legend
persisted that Lydia had buried a lot of money in a
small pottery jar. A number of People have searched for Granny
Sage’s lost
treasure but it has never
been discovered. Much of this money was
buried during
the Civil War. It was during this time was that the
renegade band called
“Witchers” killed and decapitated
her oldest son, John Davis Sage. In
chapter
four, I will trace the
family line through Sampson’s third son William Winfield
Sage.
Chapter
3
The
Conley Family from 1800
Through
the Civil War
Burkes Garden had been
discovered in the 1750’s and those that visited this high
mountain valley saw it as
“the garden spot of the world”. It is
the highest
valley in the State of
Virginia. In the 1770 and 80’s it was a
dangerous place
to live due to the Indian
threat from the north. In the early
1780’s there was
only two families living in
the valley of over 20,000 acres.
Following Wayne’s
victories over the Shawnees
in 1792, there was no more raids by the Indians into
Tazewell County. People began to move back into Burkes Garden
in the late
1790’s and early
1800’s. James Conley Jr. was one of the
first to move into the
area and was one of the
first marriages recorded in the newly formed County of
Tazewell. He was married to Rachel Stobaugh on May 22,
1806. From this union a
number of children were
born. Ambrose Conley, Gordon, Robert
Conley, Abiga
Thomas (also listed as
Abigale) Conley. James also had a two
brothers and a
sister that spent time in
Tazewell County shortly following it’s formation.
These were Bridget, Bailey
and Garland Conley. Garland later moved
to Logan
County West Virginia and
died there.
James Jr. and his new bride
lived near or on the farm of his father-in-law, John
Stobough. James and Rachel bought 100 acres of Land in
burkes Garden in 1832.
This land was purchased from
J. Stobough for a sum of $100.00. Prior
to this
land purchase, he helped
with the construction of a community church that was
built in Burkes Garden.
James Conley was listed on a historical list of those
that gave money and helped
with erecting this log building. This church was
built in 1826 and was the
oldest church in the area. The
Methodist, Lutheran
and Presbyterian worshiped in this building but later the
Methodist and
Presbyterian build churches
of their own and the Lutheran continue to hold title
to this pioneer church. This church was located on the Fancy
Gap-Tazewell
Turpike. James donated a pulpit chair and helped to
cut 16 pair of 17ft 6”
rafters. He assisted his father-in-law, John Stobaugh
with the rafter cutting.
The early Conleys in
Tazewell County had strong leanings to the Lutheran but by
the 1850’s the preference
seems to have been Methodist. Rachel
being from
German background on both
sides of her family would have been Lutheran but James
Conley grew up near a strong
Methodist community and would have been more
inclined to be
Methodist.
James Conley continued to
farm this fertile land until he made a decision to
sell. In 1838 he sold this farm for the same price
that he purchased it, one
hundred dollars. We are not sure where he lived at this point
but he purchased
a new farm of 37 acres 13
years later at the Banks Ridge section of Burkes
Garden, in 1851. He held on to this land and at his death it
went to his son,
Gordon Cloyd Conley that had
been keeping he and Rachel. He gave
this land to
Gordon through an agreement
that was entered into on March 25, 1862.
This was
in the middle of the Civil
War. Rachel died some time between 1862
and 1870.
James died in 1871 at the age
of about 96 or 97 years old.
During these later years of
James Conley Jr. and Rachel’s life, they made their
home with their son Gordon.
As the extended family lived together, grandchildren
would approach him and say
Grandpa tell us a story about when you were a boy.
One of the best forms of
entertainment of those days was telling stories of
their past. My Grandfather was one of those small
children that gathered around
the knees of James to hear
his accounts of growing up on the American frontier.
He no doubt related to them
stories of growing up on Little Sugar Run Creek that
flowed into Walker
Creek. James Sr.’s brother, Thomas lived on Walker Creek as
one of the first settlers
beyond “Big Lick” (modern day Roanoke Virginia). His
uncle Thomas died when James
Jr. was about 17 years old in about 1791.
James’s
Grandfather Arthur, and
great-uncles James and John were on the New River when
some of the first explores
came through (Dr. Thomas Walker in 1752).
The
Conleys were here at least
as early as 1746 according to court records.
John
and James Conley (this was
the James that was murdered on Reed Creek in 1751)
were “long hunters”, when
they first arrived at the New River Settlement. They
would spend months on end
hunting in areas of present West Virginia and
Kentucky. There were no permanent settlements in this
wilderness. James Jr.
would have spent time at his
Grandfather’s cabin hearing about his coming down
the “Great Wagon Road” from
Pennsylvania unto the “Valley of Virginia” and on
across the Allegany
Mountains into the western frontier where only the bravest
would venture. Just a few miles from James’ grandfathers
house in 1755 the
Shawnees raided the
settlement of Drapers Meadow and killed a number of people
and took Mary Draper Ingles
north into Ohio. After five months she
escaped and
made her way back to
Eggleston Springs where she was found almost dead, this was
in November of 1755. The man that found her was Adam Harmon a
neighbor of
Thomas Conley. When she returned home, her hair was snow
white. She left one
of her sons Thomas Ingles
when she escaped but he was ransomed later and became
one of the first settlers in
Burkes Garden of Tazewell County.
James Conley Jr.’s father
was a scout and served in this role while James Jr.
was growing up. His father would go out on the Indian trails
and look for sign
and watch for Indians coming
south out of their winter villages in Ohio.
These
scouts went out in parties
of two and sleep in the leaves and thickets.
If
Indians were seen the scouts
would have to run to all the cabins between the
forts or block houses, that
their watch covered, and help gather the people into
the forts. This required these men (some as young as 15
years old) to have both
speed and endurance in
running. The full list of scouts is
found in chapter one
of this publication and they
are listed in several history books that cover the
early history of southwest
Virginia. (Early Adventures on the Western Waters, by
Kegley, Tazewell County by
Louise Leslie and History of the Middle New River
Settlements and Contiguous
Territory by David E. Johnson). When
James Sr. was
out scouting, James Jr. was
the oldest boy left at home and had to help his
mother raise the crops and
defend the house. The “scouts” were out
all summer
because this was when the
Indians would raid.
James Sr. also served in
some Fall and Spring campaigns of the Revolutionary
War. His neighbor Joseph Cloyd would have called
on him when he raised 160
horsemen to go to North
Caroline in October of 1780. This was
to put down a
Tory uprising on the Yadkin
River. James Jr. as a six year old boy
watched his
dad, a backwoods farmer ,
saddle one of his three horses to ride south and
confront the “greatest military
power in the world.” Each time that
James Jr.
watched his dad leave home
to scout for Indians or fight the British, he was
unsure that he would every
see his father again. He also was not
sure if the
Indians had returned to the
Ohio by early October and if he and his mother and
brothers would be safe while
his father was away. To say that he
grew up
surrounded by danger is an
understatement.
On February 10 of 1781 the
call again went out along Walker Creek and throughout
Montgomery County that help
was needed in North Caroline to turn back the
British. They assembled 350 men at the lead mines of
Austinsville, near Grahams
Forge and Wytheville. James Jr. watched his dad again ride away
with his
neighbor, Maj. Joseph Cloyd,
this was nearing the time of year that the Shawnee
began their raids into the
New River Settlements. His neighbor,
Joseph Cloyd
was to dismount from his
horse in the battle of Wetzel’s Mill and give his horse
to Col. Preston. The Colonel had his horse to throw him and
he has so large he
could not run and keep up
with the retreat that the American Militia was making.
So, Cloyd gave up his horse to Preston and that saved Preston’s
life that day.
These North Carline battles
stretched on into March and the men from New River
began to get concerned about
Indian attacks on the homes. These men
rushed home
to watch the home front and
20 men were stationed at Sugar Run where James
Conley was living. So, in March 1781, 20 men from the Militia
were camped and
no doubt were coming and
going from the home of James Conley.
Here was James
Conley Jr. a seven year old
boy listening to the accounts of these battle harden
frontiersmen telling about
all their war stories of the Revolution and Indian
raids. When young James was nearly 100 years old,
during and following the
American Civil War he would
be setting around the fireplace at Gordon Conley’s
home, sharing these same
accounts from a century before with his grandchildren.
In 1871 James went home to
be with the Lord.
The children of James Conley
Jr. and Rachel Conley are as follows; Ambrose
Grayson Conley born in1830
and married Sarah Ann Molloy, Gordon Cloyd Conley
born in 1834 and married
Mary Jane Boling. These two children
are proven by
Tazewell County marriage
records. Other children that are not
proven are Layer
Conley that married Jacob
Snider on March 27, 1834, Robert Conley married
Tabitha Stratton on February
28, 1850. Peggy Conley married Elizah
Havens
February 26, 1833. My line continues through Gordon Cloyd
Conley.
Gordon Cloyd appears to be
one of the younger and perhaps the youngest of the
children of James
Conley. It is in the early 1800’s the
people in the New River
Settlement begin to give
their children a middle name and so James and Rachael
named Gordon after one of
James’ childhood friends and neighbors.
Gordon Cloyd
the son of Joseph
Cloyd. At the time that Gordon Conley
was born, Gordon Cloyd
had achieved the rank of
General in the American Army and was a major figure in
Virginia politics, he was a
member of the Constitutional convention of Virginia
in 1829-30.
Gordon Cloyd Conley married
Mary Jane Boling, the daughter of Harrison and
Martha Boling. Mary Jane was born in Blount County
Tennessee 1833.
1 History of the New River
Settlement, P. Johnson, page 144