Hello,
My names is Robert Cowan and I am a member of the Cowan and Wigton-Walker
groups and recently sent the following e-mail to my list members. Because of
the importance to other surnames I have decided to make this offer for a copy
of James Hagy's thesis available to your group. This work is not copywrited
and I would never offer any research material that was under copy protection
without first obtaining permission of the author. That said, this is a
wonderful opportunity to acquire a rather obscure document that is well
researched and footnoted. If you have southwest Virginia, east Tennessee or
even Shenandoah Valley roots then I would recommend you take a serious look
this thesis which gives us a wonderful look at life on the Virginia frontier
just before Boone heads off for Kentucky. I had seen references to Hagy's
thesis for years, but only recently was able to purchase an original copy of
this work.
"I have recently obtained an original copy of the following thesis which was
presented to the faculty of the Department of History, East Tennessee State
University, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of
master of arts. It was published in June 1966 as follows:
CASTLE'S WOODS: FRONTIER VIRGINIA SETTLEMENT, 1769-1799 by James Hagy
This is one of the most fascinating bits of research I have ever read and it
is an excellent research tool for anyone with Clinch River connections which
is just about all of us. It is exceptional because of its extensive foot
notes which reminds me of Carolina Cradle.
There is one long passage which begins, "The first settlers apparently were
William Snoddy, William Cowan, John Cowan, and Patrick Porter. Others soon
followed. To some extent the settlement was a family affair......... The
Cowans and Porters had moved from County down in Ireland to Pennsylvania
about 1726..... it goes on and on and is the same story we have all heard
many times over and always either attribute it to White or family legend.
Sometimes we get so used to calling something undocumented or unsubstantiated
because we forgot where the original source came from. At the end of this
long paragraph, Hagy gives us a real clue and suggests we look at the
following: M.B. Wood to Draper, August 23, 1883, Draper MS 4C27; William
Russell to Governor Harrison, September 25, 1783, in William Palmer, Calendar
of Virginia State Papers and other Manuscripts, from Jan 1, 1782, to Dec. 31,
1784, p. 532, and Thomas W Carter to Draper, Draper MS 4C26 and other sources
including Maxwell History and genealogy by Florence Houston and Laura Cowan
Blaine.
The Draper Manuscripts, Wisconsin Historical Society, Madison are cataloged
by letters and numbers the C being the papers of Daniel Boone. I am not
talented enough to wiggle through all of Lyman Drapers papers but I bet Laura
Cooper could find what is in these two Draper conversations."
I would be willing to make copies of this 140 page thesis for $25.00 which
includes priority mail shipping. If anyone is interested please respond to
me privately at cscunc(a)aol.com.
Thank you for your interest.
Regards,
Robert Cowan
525 Harrogate Rd.
Matthews, North Carolina 28105