Glad to get this message; I've been wondering why I wasn't getting any
WELLS messages. Thought maybe you all kicked me off the list because
last week my mailbox was down and messages bounced. All better now :-)
ceagle52(a)earthlink.net
Orin R. Wells wrote:
Is anyone still out there? You folks have been AWFULLY quiet lately.
Here is some inforamtion that was recently passed to me by Peggy Wilson.
Thought someone might find it useful.
http://members.xoom.com/jweaver300/nr-revo.htm
Cherokee and Shawnee incursions were constant sources of worry for the
inhabitants of the frontier, especially on the Holston and Clinch Rivers. The
white settlers had determined in their own minds that Indians were "savages"
and perhaps a sub-human species, as they had with the black slaves. Indians
impeded their westward expansion and if the Indians would not voluntarily move
out of the way, as many times they did, they were pushed away and their lands
were taken. By the mid-point of the 18th Century the Indians were pushed
beyond the crest of the mountains when the Indians were promised no further
molestation.
The Shawnee Indian Nation was as problematic to Appalachian settlers in the
central region as Cherokees were in the Southern mountains. By late 1773 the
Shawnees were putting pressure on white settlement in Kentucky and in the
Powell's Valley in extreme Southwest Virginia, as well as in Maryland and
Pennsylvania. Land surveys resumed in the disputed territory in 1773 and the
surveyors noted a tendency to flee and abandon home, furnishings and livestock
to escape the perceived imminent Shawnee attack. The Shawnee chief had issued
the order to kill any Virginian found on their lands or to rob and whip any
Pennsylvanian found there. This situation was unacceptable to the settlers of
the
trans-Blue Ridge in Virginia, and western Pennsylvania.
On September 9, 1774, Major Campbell lamented that he had not received any
reinforcement from Doak's or Herbert's Companies, but that the forts at Glade
Hollow, Elk Garden and Maiden Springs then had complete military complements.
Campbell expressed the opinion that he would never receive any reinforcement
from Herbert or Doak. By, September 17, however, Campbell had received 12
men from Doak's company, but still no one had arrived from Herbert's. Colonel
Preston explained to Captain Daniel Smith on October 9, 1774:
I would to God it was in my Power to give them [the Holston and
Clinch settlements] such Assistance as their Dangerous Circumstances
Demand. The scarcity of Men as well as Ammunition is very Alarming.
I have sent 24 men out of Capt. Herberts & 22 out of Capt. Doacks
Companies to Major Campbell; I have also ordered out Capt. Wilson
with about 30 Pittsylvanians. I am also in hopes that Mr. William Doack
and one Dougherty will take out upwards of 20 men in a very little time.
1780, Summer. Richard Allen noted, "served three short tours, the precise
length of each not particularly recollected, one of which was against a body
of Tories
assembled near the head of the Catawba river... the other against some Tories
in
the southern part of the State, and the other against some Tories on the
north-west side of the Blue Ridge."
Battle of Big Glades.
Benjamin Cleveland owned a "plantation" near Old Fields in current Ashe
County. The late war Tory leader was a Captain William Riddle who obviously
hated Cleveland as much as Cleveland hated him. On one occasion Riddle and a
small band of Tories happened on Cleveland and some of his men while at his
New River Plantation, and captured the rotund Whig. Only one man was wounded,
Richard Calloway on the Whig side who was shot by Zachariah Wells. The
accounts of the events here get a little elusive, but the situation began with
the capture of Riddle and ended in his death. Riddle apparently planned to
take Cleveland to the English Army, possibly for an reward. Cleveland was held
in the home of a Tory on the crest of the Blue Ridge, when he offended the
Tories and they threatned to kill him on the spot. Cleveland's brother Robert
heard of the capture, gathered 20 or 30 men together and marched across the
mountain to rescue Colonel Benjamin. One of the Whig band was William
Calloway, brother of William.
On the approach of the Whigs, the Tories prepared to hold Cleveland hostage
when
Cleveland got the woman of the house in front of him and kept her there and
avoid
being shot. The Whigs arrived, captured the some of the Tories, others
scatered
and liberated Cleveland. Wells, the Tory was wounded so badly that he was left
for
dead. In fact Wells recovered and was later captured by the Whigs and executed
for his part in the Battle of Big Glades. As for Riddle, Goss and Reeves they
escaped.
Riddle and his Tory band later captured David and John Witherspoon in the
"upper
end of Wilkes" and took them to the Watauga River area. The pair returned to
Wilkes County when Riddle released them and the Witherspoon brothers notified
Colonel Benjamin Herndon, next door neighbor of Ben Cleveland. Herndon, led by
the Witherspoons, crossed the Blue Ridge and surrounded the Tory's camp where
Riddle, and two other Tory leaders, Goss and Reeves, were captured, others
were
killed, still others fled. Herndon marched back to Wilkesboro, prisoners in
tow.
Cleveland held a rump court-martial, found them guilty and had them hung on
the
infamous Tory Oak in Wilkesboro. Wells was later captured by one of
Cleveland's detachments, taken to Hughes Bottom where Cleveland condemed him
to hang, while a young man, James Gwyn pleaded for his life. According to
Judge Hays, "Cleveland said it was necessary for the peace of the country, to
hang such dangerous characters." In fact Cleveland had no legal authority to
execute Tories or court-martial them. Court-martials can only be held for
members of one's one army, not another. Riddle, Goss, Reeves and Wells should
properly have been held as prisoners of war and exchanged for captured Whig
soldiers at some later point.
http://members.tripod.com/~jweaver300/ashedeed.htm
The land situation was quite different south of 36ø30' than in Virginia. North
Carolina was a proprietary colony, with the Earl of Granville holding title to
much of the land. Residents of the Old North State before the Revolution paid
a quit rent to the Earl for some years then perhaps could acquire title to the
land they lived on. In 1777 the North Carolina legislature passed a
confiscation act which took the Earl of Granville's holdings and transferred
title to the State.
The state in turn issued land grants to its citizens for a nominal fee, for
which the inhabitants or land speculators could acquire the land fee simple.
The problem of claim jumping was not as bad as it was in Virginia for reasons
which are not entirely clear. One reason may be the fees required to for land
grants made the land more affordable than in Virginia.
Grant in what is now Ashe County, North Carolina
GENERAL AREA GRANT # NAME
Boundary Branch 368 Zachariah Wells
Orin R. Wells
Wells Family Research Association
P. O. Box 5427
Kent, Washington 98064-5427
<ORWells(a)bigfoot.com>
http://www.rootsweb.com/~wellsfam/wfrahome.html
Subscribe to the "Wells-L" list on RootsWeb
==== ZachariahWells Mailing List ====
Don't forget to subscribe to the Wells-L(a)rootsweb.com
mailing list for general Wells research communication.