To Claude & The Zach Wells Group,
A while back I came across a guy that had some info on Zach, He is a
Sturgill. He believed that the Zach we are searching is the son of the Zach
that was hung. However, after an inital he mail, he failed to respond any
more.
For your records and to add further confusion, here is a copy of that text.
Greg
Your letter of 11/24/98 to Jeff Weaver was sent on to me for a reply.
I will soon be 82 years of age but I grew up and now live within two miles
of the original homesite of "old" Zacharia Wells. I worked in Washington DC
for thirty years {1938-68} and during that time I spent manydays
researching the US Archives and the Library of Congress as well asthe State
Archives and State Libraries of both VA and NC and many county records of
both states and KY, IL, IN.In my research I collected data on all my known
family lines but very little on the Wells family as I am not a lineal
descendant of this family.
First a bit of history of western VA which you may already know.
Prior to 1776 all of VA west of present Patrick Co. to the present KY line
was called the Fincastle District and all of KY was Kentucky Co. VA. In
1776-77 the Fincastle district was discontinued with the eastern part
becoming Mintgomery Co. and the western end becoming Washington Co. Both
counties were later subdivided into more and smaller counties.
About 1797/98 John Sturgill who was a brother of my ggg grandfather,
Francis Sturgill, married Jemima WELLS and in 1812they moved to present
Wise Co. VA but later crossed the mtn into Letcher Co. KY where Jemima died
in 1856 so what research I did on the Wells family was in an attempt to
identify Jemima. Her death record identifies her parents as Zacharia Wells
and Abagail Osborne.
Now to back up a bit::In Sept. 1780 Gen Cornwallis, then in SC,
dispatched Col. Patrick Ferguson and his troops to "clean out" the
rebels in the mountains before he began his own planned northward march to
attack George Washington in NY. Their own spies kept the mountain Militia
informed so when Ferguson started north the Militia units of the upper New
River valley decided to intercept himbut before the two groups met
Fergusons tory spies informed him of the men coming to meet him so he
decided to retreat to SC and the protection of Cornwallis. When he saw that
he could not make this retreat in time he selected Kings Mtn as a placxe he
was sure he could defend. His arrogance and overconfidence proved to be his
undoing and in the first two hours of this battle Ferguson and 500 of his
men were killed, the rest surrendered.
When the men of Capt Enoch Osbornes Co. who lived along the New Riverin
present Grayson Co. VA and Alleghany Co. NC received word of the coming
battle they knew that they would not have time to meet with the other VA
units so they crossed over the Blue Ridge mtn. to go with Col, Ben
Cleveland of Wilkes Co.
The battle of Kings Mtn was fought on Oct 7 1780. About a week after
the battle was over and the New River men had returned home Col. Cleveland
decided to try to identify the spies who had sent word to Ferguson so he
came to Grayson Co. VA where he rounded up about half a dozen of the
militia men and went to question Zacharia Wells who was a known Tory
sympathizer. They met Wells riding up the river about a mile from his home
and if Wells had not panicked and fired his musket at them he would
probably have been questioned and released as others had been. His musket
ball struck Cleveland in the leg and while two of the militia men took care
of the wound the others cut over a ridge where they intercepted and
captured Wells. As one of the militia men was a Magistrate they decided to
tyry Wells on the spot, found him guilty and hung him on a big sycamore
tree on the bank of the river.
That hugh sycamore tree became known locally as the "hanging tree" and
it stood until the New River flood of 1916 undermined the roots and it fell
along the bank of the river. In time the limbs rotted off but the log
remained until another flood in 1940 washed it out. The log did not make it
to the Fields dam about five miles down river so it either broke up or is
still buried in the river mud somewhere. Through the years it lay along the
river bank it had become a favorite fishing spot for many people and I
myself caught severaL fish from that log when I was a boy.
At least three different accounts of the hanging of Zacharia Wells
have been published in histories of this area but they do not agree. That
which I believe to be the most authentic was published in 1850 by a man
named COUCH who published a small newspaper in Wilkes Co. NC Couch grew up
within two miles of the home of Zacharia Wells and could have easily
questioned people who had first hand knowledge or perhaps even participated
in the event so he certainly had no reason to guess about what actually
happened.
I have seen all the records on the list you sent to Jeff Weaver and
have copies of some of them. For some time I thought that the Zacharia
Wells of the FincASTLE RECORDS AND THE zACHARIA OF THE wILKES cO. nc
RECORDS WERE ALL OF THE SAME MAN AND PUBLISHED THIS OPINION IN MY
PRELIMINARY HISTORY OF THE sTURGILL FAMILY IN 1960
After finding more records later I changed my mind. One thing is certain,
such records dated after 1780 could not have been of "old " Zacharia. Both
local traditions and some piblic records leave little doubt that old
Zacharia {I} had a son named Zacharia {II} who married Abagail Osborne
about 1797 . She was probabvly a daughter of Capt. Enoch Osborne who had a
daughter named Abagail born 2//26/1778
but she may have been a niece.
There is a very old local tradition that after Zacharia {II} heard
about the hanging of his father without giving him a chance to prove his
innocense he swore that he would hang Ben Cleveland. There must be some
truth in this because Cleveland either sold or abandoned the property he
had in NC and moved to SC where he later died
There is still some uncertainty about which Zacharia the early records
of Fincastle refer to but in my opinion the first records refer to old Zack
{I} He was a known tory sympathizer and twice during the revolution the
underground tory militia tried and failed to capture the lead mines.
However, it is equally certain that old Zack did not serve as a scout for
the Fincastle militia in 1774 so this must have been his son Zack {II} who
disagreed with his father
Ot is also uncertain which Zack bought the two tracts of 100a each in
Wilkes Co. NC in 1778 but I believe that this was old Zack. but there is no
doubt that it was Zacharia {II} who sold this land to Francis Sturgill Sr.
in 1798.
During the 1960s while researching some records in the Wise Co. VA
library I came across a history of the Wells family of western VA which had
been published in the CRAWFORDS WEEKLY in Norton VA 1923
This history was written by Walter F. Beverly who stated that the
information came from Johathan Brickley Wells, a grandson of Zacharia Wells
and Abagail Osborn. This history states that Zacharia was born in eastern
VA and came to Grayson Co. as a young man where he met and married Abagail
Osborn. Nothing was said about any military service during the revolution
but it did include a list of the ten children of Zacharia and Abagail.
Zacharia Jr {III} who married Rebecca Shepherd was listed as the second
child and Jemimaw
who married John Sturgeon {Sturgill} was listed as the seventh.
Jeremiah Wells who was listed as the fourth child was the father of
Johnathan B. who gave the information for this history and he should have
known who his uncles and aunts were.
I too found the pension applicatrion filed by a Zacharia Wells from
Sullivan Co. TN and I see no connection between him and the Wells families
of western VA. but no doubt there was an earlier connection in England.
This Zacharia said he was destitute and had owned no property since 1818
except a few farming tools. Yet the Zacharia Wells of Wise Co VA was a very
prosperous man who bought and sold several tracts of land in VA after 1819
Excuse my poor typing, if I accidentally hit two keys this computer
prints both of them and I usually fail to see it.
I hope this gives you a few more clues. I probably have a few more
records buried deep in my files and dont know where to look.
You can find my web page at
http://www.planet-NC.com/fiddler/
banjoman.html Dave Sturgill