"That in 1771, Francis Fugate purchased the land in question from William
Carr, a 'Negro man of color,' and that Carr was supposed to have bought the
land from John Morgan, one of the first settlers in that area."
In the same suit John Montgomery, another witness said
"William Carr is supposed to be a near relation to General Joseph Martin."
In connection with Agness Fugate Mahan's statement about William Carr being
a Negro man of color, John Redd tells this intriguing story
"William _____ was born in Albemarle County, Virginia. He was the first son
of his mother; notwithstanding his mother and her husband were both very
respectable and had a fine estate, yet when William was born he turned out
to be a dark mulatto. The old man being a good sort of a fellow and withal,
very credulous, was inducted by his better half to believe the color of his
son was a judgement sent on her for her wickedness. William was sent to
school and learned the rudiments of an English education and, at the age of
eighteen, he was furnished with a good horse, gun and some money and
directed by his reputed father to go to the frontier and seek his fortune
and never return."
"In the early part of the spring of 1775, I became personally acquainted
with William at Martin's Station in Powells Valley. He was then about forty
years of age; he never married, and had been living on the frontier
something like twenty years. He lived in the forts and stations and lived
entirely by hunting. Notwithstanding his color he was treated with as much
respect as any white man. Few men possessed a more high sense of honor and
true bravery than he did. He was possessed of a very strong natural mind and
always cheerful and the very life of any company he was in. He had hunted in
the 'brush' for many years before I became acquainted with him. He was about
the ordinary height, little inclined to be corpulent, slightly round
shouldered and weighed about 160 or 170 pounds and very strong for one of
his age."
One William Carr was in Captain Robert Doak's militia company June 2, 1774,
and a William Carr was also in the Cherokee Campaign under Colonel Christian
in the same year. Bickley, in his "History of Tazewell County," tells of a
hunter named Carr making an early settlement in Tazewell County, Virginia.
from Early Adventurers on the Western
Waters by Kegley & Kegley, Vol.1 Page 81-84 "No group on the Western
Waters was more adventurous than those men who were hunters. Always on
the front line of each new frontier, the hunters learned to travel, hunt
and explore lands just beyond the settlements. They were the first to
bring reports of excellent rivers, bold springs, and fertile lands.
They were among the first to bring reports and evidence of a wide
variety of animals which could be found easily enough to earn the hunter
$1,600 - 1,700 per season, a sum not often realized in the entire
lifetime of a farmer of the same period. The hunts into the wilderness
usually began in October and extended into March or April of the
following year. During this period the furs and hides were of the
finest quality and brought the highest prices. As it became necessary
to travel greater distances the hunting expeditions became even more
extended, lasting nine to eighteen months and sometimes even two years.
When this happened the men who went on these expeditions became known as
the Long Hunters. The hunters usually dressed in hunting shirts,
leggings and moccasins. Their equipment included two pack horses each,
a large supply of powder and lead for their rifles, a small vise and
bellows, a screwplate and files for repairing their rifles, traps,
blankets, dogs, and supplies. Although they met and moved into hunting
areas in groups of fifteen to thirty men, once the hunting ground was
reached they divided into twos and threes and set out from station camp.
Although hunting had been going on since before 1750 on the Western
Waters, it appears that perhaps Daniel Boone revived the interest in
1760 when he traveled into Southwest Virginia to hunt. The following
compilation includes the names of those who hunted or were associated
with the Long Hunters on their trips in the fifteen-year period
1760-1775. The names came from several sources noted at the end of the
list, but many more were certainly on these trips and their names have
not yet been found. The list of hunters is as follows:
James Aldridge, William Allen, John Baker, Joseph Baker, William Baker
and slave, Thomas Berry, William Blanton, Abram Bledsoe, Anthony
Bledsoe, Isaac Bledsoe, John (Jack) Blevins, William Blevins, Daniel
Boone, Squire Boone, Castleton Brooks, Cassius Brooks (same ?), Joseph
Brown, WILLIAM BUTLER (my gggggrandfather), William Carr, David Carson,
Jeremiah Clinch, William Collier, William Cool or Colley, Charles Cox,
Edward Cowan, William Crabtree, Robert Crockett, Benjamin Cutbird,
Joseph Drake, Ephraim Drake, James Dysart, John Finley, Thomas Gordon,
James Graham, William Harilson, James Harrod, Jacob Harman, Valentine
Harman, Isaac Hite, Humphrey Hogan, Joseph Holden, John Hughes, Joshua
Horton and slave, Henry Knox, James Knox, Isaac Lindsey, David Lynch,
William Lynch, Humberson Lyons, Captain William Linville, John
Linville, Casper Mansker, James Maxwell, William Miller, John
Montgomery, James Mooney, Robert Moffett, Lawrence Murray, William
McGeehee, Alexander Neely, William Newman, Walter Newman, William
Pittman, John Rains, "Old Man"Russell, Nathan Richardson, Charles
Skaggs, Henry Skaggs, Richard Skaggs, Charles Sinclair, James Smith,
Henry Smith, Christopher Stoph(er), John Stutler, Uriah Stone, Michael
Stoner, John Stuart (Stewart), Obediah Terrell, Elisha Wallen, Samuel
Walker, James Ward, John Williams, Edward Worthington." Sources:
Williams "Dawn of Tennessee" , Chalkley "Chronicles", Waddell
"Annals
of Augusta County", Ramsey "Annals of Tennessee", Haywood "Civil and
Political History of the State of Tennessee" , Draper Manuscripts,
Arnow "Seedtime on the Cumberland", Bakeless "Daniel Boone",
"Filson
Club Quarterly" (second series) volume 5 number 4, Collins "History of
Kentucky", John Redd's Narrative "Virginia Magazine of
History&Biography" Vol.6,7
"In Wallen's party of 1761, some were known to hunt as far away as the
Cumberland River in western Tennessee. Among those known to have been in
this party, besides Wallen, there was his father-in-law Jack Blevins, his
brother-in-law, William Blevins,
arles Cox, William Newman, William Pittman, Henry Scaggs, Uriah Stone,
Michael Stoner, James Harrod and William Carr. "Two other long hunters of
Powell Valley were William Crabtree and James Aldridge, both of whom were
probably in Wallen's hunting part
of 1761.