WILLDEN FAMILY---Covered Wagon Days 1852

Leaving Council Bluffs, Iowa

Crossing the Missouri River

Around the campfire

Camp Scene

Oxen team and wagon

Mormon Trail onn Platte River

Chimney Rock, Nebraska

Scott's Bluff, Nebraska

Fort Laramie, Wyoming

Independence Rock, Wyoming

Devil's Gate,Wyoming

South Pass, Wyoming

Fort Bridger, Wyoming

Up the steep mountains

Echo Canyon, Utah

Salt Lake Valley, Utah

In the last blog, we followed Charles William WILLDEN and his family from Yorkshire, England, to their arrival in Council Bluffs, Iowa, in May of 1850. Once Charles and the pregnant Eleanor arrived with their six children, they purchased a farm of 50 acres or more, including two houses, for the sum of $20, which left the WILLDEN family with a total of $2.00.
Here they grew corn and wheat, churned butter, raised cows, chickens, and sheep, while Feargus and Ann attended school in Council Bluffs. Their early neighbors were mostly Scottish immigrants, some Mormon, some not, but here is where Charles and Eleanor planned to stay for awhile. The 1851 Iowa State Census lists Charles as a "steelmaker" who owned his on farm. In November, Eleanor gave birth to Mary Ellen Elizabeth, her eighth child, and everything seemed to be settling down for the WILLDEN clan....but it was not to be.
Mormon missionaries arrived in Council Bluffs, bringing the news that all Mormons were to gather in Zion (the Utah Territory) as soon as possible, which of course meant once again selling the family home, packing all of your belongings that you could into a wagon, and traveling for months to an unknown place. Many residents of Council Bluffs were not happy with that decision, as the land was fertile in Iowa, and they had heard the Trail stories since 1847. One Mormon pioneer wife later wrote in her journal, "What would people say today of a woman who was to start off with a family of six or seven children in an old wagon and four yoke of unbroken cattle to take on a journey of over a thousand miles in the wilderness. They would land her in the asylum." Ann WILLDEN, Charles and Eleanor's daughter, also wrote later of the journey, that she had wanted to know why someone "couldn't worship the Lord she knew and loved on her beautiful farm in Iowa" ...I can only imagine these thoughts coming back to her a few years later when she found herself living in a "dugout" ( a depression dug in the dirt with a roof on it) in the Utah Territory...but that's a later story.
At any rate, in the Spring of 1852, Charles and his sons began gathering timber wood to construct a wagon for the trip, and a man named Montieth was hired to do the job. The WILLDEN wagon was well-made, and above average for the Trail, and was pulled by horses rather than the common oxen or cattle team. The canvas cover over the bowed rib wagon top was double ply, which helped keep the wagon occupants safe and dry during the thunderstorms of the Great Plains. Two small carts pulled by horses, nine head of cattle, and a small flock of sheep driven by the children would round out the WILLDEN team. Charles appointed Milton Huff to sell his farm for him, which Milton promptly did, selling all 50+ acres and buildings for a second-hand watch....which he forwarded to Charles in Utah.
Mormon wagon trains were organized much better than other pioneer trains, in that they traveled together as a cohesive unit with a common goal, unlike the wagon trains composed of hundreds of individuals, and a few small groups traveling together. Other trains were made of gold seekers, soldiers, merchants, those running from the law, and many others who had no idea of their destination....just going West in hopes of a new and better life. Charles WILLDEN and his family became part of a Mormon "Company" of 50 wagons led by Thomas C. D. Howell, from Gibson County, Tennessee, who at age 38 had served in the Mormon Battalion and already made two trips across the desert. Howell would keep the wagons together until they were clear of the "hostile" Pawnee and Omaha Indians, then divide them into groups of ten wagons, still under his charge. In the first week of June, 1852, Charles WILLDEN and his famly began the journey along with nearly 300 other pioneers that would take them over a thousand miles during the next three months.
The WILLDEN family crossed the Missouri River most likely by private Ferry Company, and headed west from today's northern Omaha, NE, on a route that had existed for years as a trading path with the Pawnee settlements on the Loup River, about 90 miles from the Missouri. When only a few miles from Council Bluffs, Charles realized they had forgotten their axe, so young John was sent back to retrieve it. The plan was to follow the north side of the Platte River all through present-day Nebraska to Fort Laramie, Wyoming, a distance of about 525 miles. By remaining on the north side of the Platte, they would avoid any confrontations with the Oregon Trail traffic which was on the south bank of the Platte. From Fort Laramie, the WILLDENS would join the rest of the Oregon Trail traffic to Fort Bridger, Wyoming, another 400 miles, and then follow the tracks of the Donner Party into the Salt Lake Valley....a total trip of 1,031 miles according to the LDS Emigrant's Guide published in 1848. Charles would average about 11.2 miles per day while in the Platte River Valley the first two months, and about 9.4 miles per day once he entered the bluffs and mountains of the West, and that's without traveling on Sunday.
Each night the wagons were circled and guards were posted, having learned from the thousands of emigrants who had gone before them. Anne WILLDEN wrote in her journal, "One day an old Indian chief came to our wagon. I saw him coming and ran to the far end of our 'prairie schooner'. He saw that I was afraid of him, so to tease me, ran his long spear as far into the wagon as he could reach. I surly was frightened for I thought he was going to kill me. There were still Indians living on the plains, mostly only curious or friendly. The pioneers treated them well and traded with them, being always aware that there might be a renegade among them who could cause trouble". Eleanor WILLDEN explained to her daughter that the old brave probably got a chuckle out of scaring the little white girl. Anne writes about other moments, like when she was walking behind the wagon barefoot and stepped on cactus hidden under the tall prairie grass.....or the time she was accidentally knocked down and the wagon wheel ran over her back, but as she said, "I must have been made of India rubber", and was fine the next day.
The WILLDEN wagon would have passed the "Liberty Pole", a forty foot high pole with a white flag to mark the Trail joining the Platte River, and signed by every emigrant that could climb it until there was no more room. By the second week of June, they would cross Shell Creek, where earlier traders had built a bridge, but the Pawnee Indians often showed up to demand a "toll" to cross, normally a small amount of food or other items....which was always smartly paid. Travel was fairly uneventful for the wagon train across Nebraska, although there were some interesting moments. Some of the wagons had their canvas shredded during rain and hailstones, the storms so intense the occupants crawled under their wagons for safety.
One journal entry of the WILLDEN wagon train was by an emigrant whose wife had just died along the Trail, saying, "The brethren were very kind to us in this our affliction though there was no boards to be found in the camps by of which to make a coffin--they took pains to go over the river nearly a mile distant and bring timber to lay over the corpse then filling the grave with dirt to preserve it from the wolves. This was on the river Platte, 250 ms. W. of Mo. [Missouri] river[.] Thus terminated the life of my old and worthy companion[.] a life which had been checkered with many afflictions & hardships & anxieties—but they have passed away now[.] I hope she is where the weary pilgrims are at rest".
Anne WILLDEN wrote of another bit of Trail Knowledge, "The stock would stampede if they saw a dead animal by the roadside. At one time some women were walking ahead of the wagons, when they came upon a dead ox. They knew there would be trouble if something were not done, so they stood in line between the dead ox and the road, holding out their long skirts at their sides, thus making an effective screen while the long train passed by".
Many of the wagons were pulled by oxen or cattle, and as the days wore on, the animals tired of the heavy loads. Anne WILLDEN wrote, "The traveling was so hard that their stock had given out, and so to lighten the loads, many of the household goods were thrown out and left behind; pots, pans, tubs, heavy articles of wearing apparel, and feather beds, were strewn all along the roadside. Our party would have liked to have picked up many of these things, especially the feather beds. Our teams were in good condition, and we could have carried many of these things, but we did not do so for fear of disease".
Charles and his sons hunted rabbits, prairie dogs, birds, deer, and even buffalo when sighted. The buffalo meat would be dried over a "slow fire" and packed in cloth for travel. After one such buffalo hunt, Charles and a hunting companion did not return when expected. Anne WILLDEN wrote, "The train could not wait for them, as camp had to be made further on so they were left behind. At nine o'clock that night they had not reached the camp and the company became uneasy about them. A lantern was hung on a tall tree and guns were fired every few minutes. About three o'clock in the morning an answer came to the watching and anxious people. The answer was a gunshot fired by the lost ones". Anne's brother Charles had been missing once for four days, as he had gone back to find a wagon that had taken a wrong turn, and Charles guided them back to the main element.
From the area of present-day Sutherland, NE, the Trail west would become a challenge with its' foothills, bluffs, steep mountains, and narrow rocky canyons. Along the way the WILLDEN wagon passed all the famous Oregon Trail icons such as Chimney Rock, Scott's Bluff, Fort Laramie, Register Cliff, Independence Rock, and Devil's Gate. At Fort Laramie, journal entries note that there were no white families, only a few mountaineers living among the Indians. Not far from Fort Laramie the WILLDEN wagon crossed "Raw Hide Creek", so named because at this spot a trader shot and killed a nursing Indian squaw, and the braves responded by skinning him alive. Probably not a story shared with the children in the wagon train. And their journey along the Sweetwater River was not an easy stretch, as a journal entry tells, "The Sweetwater is a very crooked stream; one day we forded it 12 or 14 times. There was heavy emigration that summer, both of Saints and gold-seekers. The cholera was bad, but we didn't get it in our company. There were fresh graves all along the way for miles. In one place wolves had dug up a body; it was lying by the side of a grave. The men got their shovels and buried it again". On a more positive note, between Fort Laramie and Fort Bridger, Wyoming, was a place called Ice Spring or Ice Slough. Here was a place where underground water froze in winter amid peat-like soil that insulated the ice even into summer. The emigrants could dig down a few inches and find ice...in the middle of nowhere...a welcome and somewhat unusual treat.
In the first week of September,1852, Charles and Eleanor finally entered Echo Canyon, only about 60 miles from the Salt Lake Valley. Anne WILLDEN recalled in her journal, "While passing through Echo Canyon, we found it to be a very wonderful place, for there were great rocks and high cliffs, the fist we had ever seen. We children shouted, 'Hurrah,' and there came back to us, the answering 'Hurrah.' Again we called, 'Who are you?'and again came the answer. 'Who are you?' So we called, yelled, and shouted just to hear that mysterious, answering voice, echoing from the rocky cliffs. The older people soon tired of our noise, and we were forced to stop. It was also feared that our commotion and noise would stampede the cattle".
On September 13, 1852, Charles and Eleanor WILLDEN entered the Salt Lake Valley of the Utah Territory, ending their thousand mile ordeal, the trip described in a journal entry as "a long, hard, tedious journey through a tractless wilderness". Questions/comments to graveyardgossip@gmail.com

WILLDEN FAMILY--English Preacher and Mormon Pioneer

1852 Kanesville, Iowa

Sheffield, England Baptist Church

Missouri River Steamboat

1850's Sidewheeler

1851 Port of New Orleans, La

1850's Oceanic Sailing Vessel

On a hot August day in 1839, in the little market village of Sheffield, Yorkshire, in England, a Baptist Minister by the name of Charles William WILLDEN made a choice that would forever transform the lives of his English wife and their four small children. The 33 year-0ld ironworker from Anston, a small town down the road in Yorkshire, would on this day be baptized into the recently founded "Church of Christ", as the Mormon church was originally called. Having already made a previous social risk of leaving the Church of England to become a Minister of a Protestant Baptist Church, the decision to join the new "American" religion of the Mormons so soon after England had lost the Revolutionary War, must have also been an interesting time for the WILLDEN family. His wife Eleanor, not so easily convinced of the new theology, would remain a member of the Baptist Church for four more years before her baptism into her husband's faith. Charles and Eleanor WILLDEN are the 2nd great grandparents of Tonya WILLDEN MARTINI, on her father's side.

The WILLDEN family remained in England for the next ten years, until responding to the call of their Church for the "gathering of Zion" in the American western Territory of Utah. On October 25, 1849, Charles and Eleanor WILLDEN said goodbye to their England farm, and began the trek to the port at Liverpool, where they would board the ship to America. After sleeping for five nights on the dock in Liverpool, the WILLDEN family boarded and set sail on the ship "Zetland" on November 10, 1849, one family among 200 Mormon converts traveling together. The oceanic voyage would take six weeks before they arrived in New Orleans, Louisiana, with less than a penny to their names, but over 100 pounds of oatmeal to eat and sell. Journals tell us that the ocean-trip was very cold, and the seven WILLDEN children were bathed in the salty sea water in barrels and tubs. The little ship averaged around 6 or 7 knots, and passengers began getting seasick from the very first day, a problem which caused unrest and altercations among the English and Irish immigrants onboard. A glimpse of how long and boring this journey could be is found in the journals, which recorded every time they spotted another "vessel"...and on some days noted only "no vessel in sight". There was at least one marriage, one death, several worship services, hymn singing, and as on all ships in the 1800's....plenty of prayers. There were rains and water in the hold of the ship which had to be pumped twice daily.
Eventually, the "Zetland" reached the mouth of the Mississippi River, and following the joyous prayers of thanks, and journey's end celebrations, ...the ship promptly got stuck on a sand bar for several days, until two tug boats brought it into the Port of New Orleans, at 9 p.m, on Christmas Eve. The WILLDEN family had arrived in America.
The Captain gave his crew a holiday on Christmas Day, and the families were not able transfer their belongings off the ship until the next day. Charles WILLDEN planned to take his family upriver to St. Louis, but found he did not have enough money to pay the fare, so he and his sons cut firewood and performed other odd jobs until they all boarded the steamer "Ben West" on December 29, 1849. Charles described the "Ben West" steamboat as "a miserable boat" with "no room to breathe", and "scarcely fit for passengers"...and it would get worse for the WILLDEN family. Fog and mist caused them to anchor for hours, and when under way, the Mississippi River was dangerous with fallen tree snags and driftwood damaging the side-paddle wheels of the boat. On January 4, 1850, little Maria WILLDEN, the less-than two years old daughter of Charles and Eleanor, died onboard the "Ben West". The boat anchored near Council Bend, Arkansas, and a burial service was held at a spot that today has been re-claimed by the Mississippi River and its many course changes. One week later, January 11, 1850, the saddened WILLDEN family arrived in St. Louis, Missouri, soon to face a long and difficult thousand-mile overland journey to the Utah Territory.
In St. Louis, once again Charles WILLDEN and his sons would have to work to make enough money to finance the next leg of the trip....another steamboat ride, this time on the already historic Missouri River that had carried Lewis and Clark and thousands of others... fur trappers, explorers, Indians, and settlers...toward the ever-expanding American West. The steamboat "Correy" left the dock in St. Louis on April 12, 1850, and after an uneventful journey along the wide Missouri River, even with its cottonwood tree snags threatening the little boat at every bend, the WILLDEN family arrived at Kanesville (now Council Bluffs), Iowa, on May 4, 1850.
Next Blog Entry......WILLDEN FAMILY---Covered Wagon Days. Questions/comments to graveyardgossip@gmail.com

MARTINI FAMILY---JESSE DODSON Frontier Preacher

Old Mill, Birch Creek VA

Collins River, Warren Co. TN

headstone of Rev. Jesse Dodson

Pittsylvania Co. VA

Cumberland Gap TN

Holston River TN

1795 Big Springs Baptist Church,TN

Eastanallee Baptist Church, TN

Thanksgiving of 1752 had a special meaning for Reverend Thomas DODSON and his wife Elizabeth ROSE, for on November 22nd they welcomed a new child into their Virginia family, Jesse DODSON. Not much is known about Jesse DODSON as a youth...one of at least 10 children in his family....but plenty is known about his adult life. Unknown to his father, a Virginia Baptist minister, Jesse would follow in his footsteps and change the lives of many settlers in the early days of America.
At the time of the American Revolution, the dominant religious force in the colonies was the Church of England, the mother country for so many of its settlers. To be a minister of any church that had broken ties with England was difficult in many social settings, but by the time Jesse DODSON was 23 years old, he was living on land given to him by his father in what is now Pittsylvania County in Virginia, and starting his life as a Baptist preacher, . Jesse and his wife Ruth were married in 1774, one year before the gunfire at Lexington and Concord would start the colonies on a path of thier own, and in 1777, Jesse's name is on the list of those taking an Oath of Allegiance to the State of Virginia. While there is no evidence of military service for Jesse DODSON during the War, we can feel confident that he served in some capacity, for at the end of the War he received a Land Grant in North Carolina, which would become Tennessee.
We know Jesse was still in Pittsylvania County, Virginia when the Revolutionary War ended in 1781, for he obtained property on Birch Creek, or Burches' Creek in some records. The following year he sold that land on "Jeremiah's Fork of Birches Creek" to relatives, and headed for Tennessee, leaving behind his brother William, also a Baptist minister.
Rev. Jesse DODSON is listed as a member of the County Line Baptist Church, also known as the North on Holston River Baptist Church, in 1785 Hawkins County, Tennessee. Rev. Jesse DODSON joined the Big Springs Primitive Baptist Church in what is now Springdale, Tennessee in 1801, and became the Pastor of the congregation from November 1801 until November of 1805. In 1803, Jesse DODSON was listed in the tax records of what is now Claiborne County, in the northeast part of Tennessee, which includes part of Cumberland Gap National Park. The path from Virginia to Tennessee through Cumberland Gap had been widened by none other than Daniel Boone, and opened to wagon traffic after Rev. Jesse DODSON and his family passed through. The Big Springs Primitive Baptist Church that Jesse led was constructed in the winter of 1795-96 from hand-hewn logs, and is still standing today near Springdale, over two centuries later. It is one of the oldest churches still standing in the State of Tennessee.
Jesse and Ruth DODSON left Claiborne County in 1806 and moved to Warren County, Tennessee, where they are listed on the 1812 Tax List, and the 1820 Census. While in Warren County, they were involved with the Collins Creek Baptist Church and several others in the area.
Reverend Jesse DODSON was described by his peers as "earnest and fervent in exhortation", and "successful in Revivals". He was also said to have had the "Welsh fever" in describing his ancestrial traits and style of preaching, and is mentioned in the 1919 Baptist historical sketches as a Tennessee Pioneer Baptist Preacher.
Around 1820, Rev. Jesse DODSON was called to lead the Big Springs Baptist Church on Mouse Creek, near Niota in McMinn County, Tennessee...only a year after the Hiwassee Purchase Treaty with the Cherokee Indians had opened that land to settlement. Jesse was a founder of the Eastanallee Baptist Church, and his son Elisha donated the land for the structure. Over the years Rev. Jesse DODSON would be involved in the early McMinn County churches of Salem, Hiwassee, Friendship, and New Hopewell. Owning 300 acres of land in the Eastanallee Valley, his wife Ruth had obtained ten slaves from her father's Will, and when Ruth died in 1828 Jesse set the slaves free stating that "a Bill of Sale of Negroes in my pocket would be a bad passport at the Gates of Heaven"....another brave act in a Southern State over 30 years before the Civil War. After more than 60 years of preaching from the pulpit, and inspiring many pioneer churches, Jesse DODSON died on his 91st birthday in 1843. He is buried in the Eastanalle Church Cemetery in McMinn County, Tennessee. The cemetery photo used at the top of this page in the header is the Eastanallee Cemetery, with the two broken headstones on the left side being those of Ruth and Jesse DODSON...and the Eastanallee Church is planning to replace them. Pioneer and Frontier Preacher, another good story in the ancestral book. Jesse is the 5th great grandfather of Anthony Martini, on his mother's side. Comments/Questions to graveyardgossip@gmail.com

MARTINI FAMILY---Roland WARE, Patriot Minuteman

Roland Ware headstone

Lindley's Grist Mill

Montgomery Co. NC

a 1781 NC flag

British Union Jack

Minutema

During the American Revolution, there were three kinds of citizens in the colonies....Patriots who supported the Independence movement...Tories, or Loyalists to the King of England who saw the Patriots as traitors....and those who could care less either way. Roland WARE, the fifth great grandfather of Anthony Martini, on his mother's side, was an American Patriot.
Born in Brunswick County, Virginia in 1760, Roland WARE was a teenager when the action started in 1775, and by that time he had moved across the colonial line to Northampton County, North Carolina. At age 19, Roland enlisted for three months as part of the militia used to augment the Continental Army, and began the first of two tours he would serve fighting the British troops and Tory Loyalists. The North Carolina militia soldiers were local citizens who were called out on an "as needed" basis, and these "Minutemen" were to defend the homeland when the Regular Army wasn't available. Under Major James Crump, Captain Buckner Kimbrell, and Lt. Harris, Roland WARE was a horse soldier, part of the Light Horse Cavalry that could travel quickly to any "hot spot" that developed.
In late July and early August, 1780, Capt. Kimbrell's Company of Cavalry traveled south from North Carolina to join General Griffith Rutherford on the Pee Dee River in South Carolina. From there, Roland WARE rode toward Camden, South Carolina and American Gen. Horatio Gates, where one of the most important battles of the American Revolution was about to take place. Roland's Cavalry company was ordered to stay at Cheraw Hill on the Pee Dee River in northeastern South Carolina to hold captured prisoners and wagons of ammunition, which they did by taking them across the river to a Mill. There they remained for several days, until August 16, 1780, when an express rider came from Camden and told them that General Gates had been soundly defeated and was in retreat, suffering about 2,000 casualties. Capt. Kimbrell ordered Roland and the others to stash some of the ammunition in the river, and hide the rest in an old house. Once done, the Cavalry crossed to the north side of the Pee Dee River, taking the prisoners along, and traveled north up the river to Haley's Ferry, Anson County, North Carolina.
After several days of receiving no orders, Capt. Kimbrell dismissed the militia unit, and Roland WARE and the others disbanded for a few days. Most went home, but not for long. A few days later, the Cavalry Company was reformed under Captain Harris, where until November, 1780, they protected the beef cattle used to feed the Continental Army in North Carolina.
Throughout the winter of 1780, the Tory Loyalists continued to harass, murder, and even torture Patriot homes in North Carolina. In at least one instance, Tory raiders used a burning wagon to set fire to a Patriot home with women and children inside. In the Fall of 1781, Roland WARE found himself back in the Cavalry under Major James Crump, this time assigned to protect the North Carolina Legislature from Loyalist actions. Though minor skirmishes kept Roland busy constantly, there were really no major battles between the Tory raiders and the militia....that is, until September 13, 1781. The day before, Tory soldiers under Colonel David Fanning had made a surprise raid on the State Capital in Hillsborough and captured the Governor of North Carolina and thirteen of his Council. Col. Fanning was enroute with his prisoner, Governor Burke, to Wilmington, where the British Army awaited their new captive.
The Patriot militia, with Major Crump leading Roland WARE's company, planned to cut off the Tory force before they could reach the British Army, and chose their ambush near Thomas Lindley's gristmill on Cane Creek in Alamance County. The Patriot's knew the Tory soldiers would probably use this well-known fording place, and positioned themselves on a hill nearby.
When the 300 militia men opened fire on the 600 Loyalist troops, it was a complete surprise to the Tories. Almost immediately, one of the Tory commanders was killed in their first charge up the hill. But, Fanning regrouped his forces and at the end of the battle, with over 100 casualties on each side, the Patriot militia was forced to withdraw. The Loyalists continued on with all of their prisoners to Wilmington, but Roland WARE had been in another adventure that he could tell for many years.
When Roland returned to Montgomery County at the war's end, he married Temperance WHITE, and they moved to Lincoln County, TN, then Warren County, TN, and finally settled near Athens, McMinn Co., Tennessee. Roland WARE drew his pension and lived until June, 1864, when he died at the age of 103. He is buried in the South Liberty Cemetery south of Athens. A good ending for a good American Patriot. Comments/Questions to graveyardgossip@gmail.com

WILLDEN Family---HUDDLESTONs Go West

Blue Ridge Mountains

Bedford County, VA

In the last blog, we mentioned that Abraham HUDDLESTON and several of his brothers moved from Pennsylvania to Bedford County, Virginia around 1770. Abraham HUDDLESTON is the 4th great grandfather of Tonya Kim WILLDEN via her mother Clara Archer WILLDEN.
When Abraham left for Virginia, the County of Bedford was only 16 years old, and didn't have a County seat of its own until 1782, making the HUDDLESTON brothers some of the first frontiersmen in western Virginia, along with Thomas Jefferson. Abraham had been born on January 6, 1744 in Bucks Co., PA, and married 18 year old Mary PATTERSON in 1761 prior to leaving for Virginia. They settled in the southern part of the County, near present day Chamblissburg, and bought land on the Stony Fork of Goose Creek, an area bordered on the west by the majestic Blue Ridge Mountains which drained its springs and creeks down into the fertile farm lands below. Unlike his father who remained near Philadelphia, Abraham HUDDLESTON did not experience the closeness to the American Revolution way out in the mountainous west of Virginia, but most likely had his hands full during the French and Indian War on the frontier. There is no record of any HUDDLESTON being involved in any of these military events as a soldier, and that could be due to lack of records, or the Quaker influence within the family. When the American Revolution ended, the local citizens decided to place a County Seat in the middle of Bedford, and named it Liberty in 1782...it later became Bedford, Virginia. Liberty had a two-room 700 sq. ft. courthouse, and a 240 sq. ft. "prison".
On a cold November morning in 1785, Abraham HUDDLESTON died at the old age of 41, and was buried on the Sheldon Epperly farm (as of 2013) on a hillside pasture grave next to a telephone pole, on property at 12895 Dickerson Mill Road (hwy 746) just east of Chamblissburg, leaving his young wife Mary and eight children on their own. But Mary HUDDLESTON's life was far from over, and the new widow continued to farm the land with the help of her teenage children.
In 1798, the widow Mary HUDDLESTON met a Revolutionary War Veteran whose wife had died only three years earlier....his name was Abraham SLACK (more about him later). As fate would have it, Mary's daughter Nancy and Abraham's son John became engaged and planned a wedding for November 29, 1798....so the widow Mary HUDDLESTON and widower Abraham SLACK decided to make it a double wedding, and the two couples were married the same day. To make matters even more confusing, Mary HUDDLESTON's son George married Abraham SLACK's daughter Susannah the following year in 1800. If you missed all of that....here it is briefly....two HUDDLESTON brothers married two SLACK sisters, and then their widowed parents also married. It would not be the last time in the WILLDEN family story that the widowed parents of married children would find each other. At any rate, Mary PATTERSON HUDDLESTON SLACK died in the 1820's in Bedford Co. Virginia, followed by her second husband Abraham SLACK in 1833. They are buried with Abraham HUDDLESTON on the Epperly farm, the only marker for the three being the Revoluntionary War headstone of Abraham Slack, put there in 1930.  There is also a town of HUDDLESTON in Bedford County, Virginia, but its' namesake is no immediate relation to our line here. And the HUDDLESTON story continues......... Comments/Questions to graveyardgossip@gmail.com

Headstone is on far right side just below horizon

 

Next to this grave are rocks marking the graves of Mary Patterson Huddleston Slack and Abraham Huddleston

Willden Family--- HUDDLESTON Colonists

Low Ellington, Yorkshire, England

1690's home of Henry Huddleston Sr.

Not the cereal...the religion

Christ Church, Philadelphia

Ben Franklin's newspaper 1754

In 1685, the new King of England was James II, a Catholic ruler in a mostly Protestant country. The result of his attempts to put Catholics in high English positions created dissent, rebellions, and the departure of many families from England. Many of these persecuted Protestants fled to America, one being Henry HUDDLESTON Sr., the 6th great grandfather of Tonya WILLDEN via her mothers's side of the family, in 1685. Henry, about 25 years old in 1685, left his home in the village of Snapt in Low Ellington, Yorkshire, England, and came to an area of Pennsylvania settled only 3 years earlier by William Penn and his Quaker religion followers. Although not a Quaker, the Anglican Church member sought the same freedom of religion they had not found under a Catholic King.
In December of 1688, Henry HUDDLESTON bought 100 acres of land at the junction of two major Indian trails, ...a place that would be known as "Four Lanes End" (later the village would be named Attleboro, and today Langhorne), in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. In 1699, he bought another 80 acres to add to this holdings, where he built a home in 1690 that still remains standing in 2010. The home at 154 West Marshall Avenue in Langhorne, Bucks Co., Pennsylvania included two ponds behind the house for keeping the milk containers cold until they could get to market.
In 1701, at about age 41, Henry HUDDLESTON met and married Elizabeth COOPER, the 28 year old daughter of a Quaker family who had only been in America for 3 years, coming from Henry's hometown of Snapt, in England. With the marriage came 200 acres of land that Elizabeth had inherited at the deaths of her father and sister. Around 1705, Henry and Elizabeth HUDDLESTON built a new home at 303 Maple Street in Langhorne, and it also remains today.
Unfortunately for Elizabeth, after only 5 years of marriage, Henry HUDDLESTON made his will on May 17, 1706, and died soon after at age 46. Elizabeth, now 33 and pregnant, was left with a 3 year old son, a 2 year old daughter, and her unborn baby she would name Henry Jr., and Elizabeth herself died in 1720, at only age 47.
Henry HUDDLESTON Jr. never met his father, and his mother died when he was 14, but he remained in Four Lanes End until he met and married Mary WILKINSON in the Anglican Christ Church in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the same church attended by Benjamin Franklin.
Mary had inherited 200 acres near Middletown in Plumstead Township in Bucks County, and that is where Henry and Mary HUDDLESTON settled. In 1739, Henry HUDDLESTON Jr. went to the office of Benjamin Franklin's newspaper, the Pennsylvania Gazette, and entered the following ad:
"Run away on the 5th Inst from Henry Huddelston, of Plumsted Township, Bucks County, an Irish Servant Man, named Charles Cambell, aged about 24 Years, indifferent tall and well set, with long blackish Hair, and long visag'd: had on when he went away, a homespun Coat and Jacket of a yellowish colour mix'd with black, and brass Buttons on both; took with him a pair of old leather Breeches, and white linnen Drawers, two new felt Hats, two pair of new Shoes with peeked Toes, and steel Buckles in one of the pair, two homespun Shirts much worn, white thread Stockings, a Barcelona silk Handkerchief, and a small Gun. N.B. He is suppos'd to be in Company with one Martha Bostuck, a short well set Woman, with red Hair, and pockbroken; and has a Child with her of about 5 Years old, who has red Hair also. Whoever secures the said Servant, so that his Master may have him again, shall have Three Pounds Reward, and reasonable Charges, paid by HENRY HUDDLESTON."
In 1770, Henry Jr. and Mary were saddened when 3 of their 4 sons, including direct ancestor Abraham HUDDLESTON, moved about 400 miles away to Bedford County, Virginia. For the next ten years, Henry and Mary remained on their 300 acre farm, with its 3 horses, 3 cows, and 10 sheep. In December, 1776, General George Washington's Army was in and around Bucks County before and after the crossing of the Delaware River to surprise the enemy at Trenton, New Jersey. Henry and Mary must have observed the American Revolution from very close up, as General Washington even buried 166 of his soldiers in a small cemetery across the street from the old HUDDLESTON home in Four Lanes End.
It is not known whether the young HUDDLESTON men, who were in their 30's and 40's, went to Virginia during the Revolution because of their Quaker heritage, or for other reasons, but we can find no HUDDLESTON soldiers in that period. On February 21, 1780, Henry HUDDLESTON Jr. wrote his last Will and Testament, the first paragraph of which is a pleasure to read:
"In the name of God Amen. I, HENRY HUDDLESTON of Plumstead in the County of Bucks in the Province State or Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, yeoman, being weak in body but of sound and perfect mind and memory. Thanks be given to Almighty God for the same and considering that is appointed for all men once to die, do make, ordain, and publish this my last Will and Testament, in manner and form following. First and principally I commend my soul to God who gave it, and my body to the earth, to be buried in Christian like and decent manner, at the discretion of my executors hereafter named and as touching such worldly estate as lands, goods, chattles and effects whatsoever wherewith it has pleased God to bless me in this life. I do give, devise, bequeath and dispose of the same in the following manner, that is to say;"
Here is the end of the HUDDLESTON line in Pennsylvania, from religious refugees to colonial landowners, to be continued in Virginia at a later time.

WILLDEN Family--HOLLOWAY Patriot of 1776

Crossing the Delaware

Valley Forge, PA

Six-Mile Cemetery, TN

Billy Holloway headstone, TN

We will start the WILLDEN history in this blog at with the gravesite of a Revolutionary War veteran named Billy HOLLOWAY. Only 22 miles from our house, Tonya and I stood in the Six Mile Baptist Church Cemetery in Blount County, Tennessee, and marvelled at the upright unmarked fieldstones that had survived the Smoky Mountain winters for almost two centuries.
There is more than one Patriot of the American Revolution in this little cemetery, but our interest is William "Billy" HOLLOWAY, Tonya Willden's 1st cousin, five times removed...or, more directly, the nephew of Tonya's maternal 4th great-grandmother, Agnes HOLLOWAY.
Billy was born in 1754 Virginia, at a time when conflicts with native Americans seemed more important than Independence from the British. Growing to manhood in these exciting and dangerous times was a battle with the odds, but Billy met and married Nancy Senter around 1774, and two years later found himself 22 years old at the start of a Revolution. In Cumberland Co., Virginia, Billy enlisted on February 14, 1776 into the Continental Army, led by General George Washington. Billy was assigned to the 7th Virginia Regiment commanded by Colonel William Dangerfield, in Capt. Fleming's Company. In September, he was transferred to the 5th Virginia Regiment commanded by Colonel Charles Scott, in Capt. Gross Scruggs' Company.
Billy HOLLOWAY was about to embark on a great and memorable journey.
On a cold and windy Christmas night in Pennsylavania, 1776, Billy Holloway boarded a boat and crossed the Delaware River with the rest of General Washington's troops, and participated in a complete surprise attack on the Hessian troops at Trenton, New Jersey. It was a total one-sided victory for the Patriots, and a badly needed boost for the young nation-to-be. The celebration would have to last awhile, as Billy and the Continental Army would be bottled up by the British in Pennsylvania for the next 9 months. On September 11, 1777, Billy Holloway found his back facing Philadelphia, and his rifle facing the British coming from Chesapeake Bay toward Brandywine Creek. When the smoke cleared from the battlefield, Gen. Washington and his troops were in retreat as the victory went to the British, who marched into the revolutionary capitol of Philadelphia, shortly after the Patriot leaders had abandoned the city.
On October 4, 1777, Billy Holloway was part of General Washington's attempted surprise attack on the British at Germantown, Pennsylvania, which failed due to delays while marching in the fog, and the Patriots were forced to retreat once again. Billy and the others avoided the British for the next few weeks, and finally settled down for the winter at a place called Valley Forge. Billy remained through that difficult winter of disease and hunger at Valley Forge, and was discharged from the Army on June 19, 1778. He would return to fight for a brief period with the Continental Army again in 1781, the year the British would be defeated.
After the War, Billy Holloway and his family moved into what would become Tennessee, and were among the first settlers in Blount County, south of Knoxville. In 1811 he was a founder of the Six Mile Baptist Church, and in 1812 became an ordained Baptist Minister for the remainder of his life. When he died, his will stated that he left "to my wife Nancy, 1/3 of all I have of all kinds, to my son Barnes Holloway the remaining 2/3, and my pension if any due me after September, 4, 1829, to be divided as my friends see best". Patriot, Pioneer, Minister....a good story from the Willden family past. Comments/questions to graveyardgossip@gmail.com