WILLDEN FAMILY---ROWLEYs IN NEW ENGLAND

     Near the end of the last Blog about the ROWLEY family, Moses and Elizabeth FULLER ROWLEY had moved from Massachusetts to East Haddam, Connecticut in 1692, where the direct ancestral line of ROWLEYs would be born until 1766.  Moses ROWLEY Jr. was born in Barnstable, Massachusetts, in 1654, and at age 19 he married 15-year old Mary FLETCHER of Chelmsford, Massachusetts. The young couple had 9 children over the next 24 years, farming, attending church, and raising kids. In 1685, Moses Jr. was a Constable in Falmouth, MA, when he and a partner were attacked by Christopher Gifford during a routine investigation. The official report says Moses Jr. was "struck on ye head with a certain stick or club, thereby fetching blood and severly wounding him to his great hurt and damage".  The Court fined Mr. Gifford and made him pay damages to Moses ROWLEY Jr.  
    After a few years in Colchester, Massachusetts, the family moved in 1704,  to East Haddam, Connecticut, where they joined the First Congregational Church on November 12th, the first year of organization. Mary FLETCHER ROWLEY died sometime between the 1704 move to East Haddam, and 1715, and Moses married not long after to a woman in her 40's named Mary Crippen Corbe, the widow of Samuel Corbe who had died in 1694....she would live to be 97 years old, outliving her second husband by almost 30 years, Moses Jr., who died in 1735. In his Last Will and Testament, Moses Jr. gave his land to his sons, unless they did not want to use it, then "I do give and bequeath it to that use for the Gospel in this place".  His household goods were given to his daughter Hannah, his carpentry tools to his son Jonathan, his clothes divided among his other sons, and 20 shillings to each married daughter.  There was no mention of his 2nd wife Mary in the Will.

East Haddam School where Nathan Hale taught in 1773 after graduating from Yale at age 18

     Moses ROWLEY III continued the direct line of ancestors, with his birth in 1679, in Falmouth, Massachusetts. Not much is known about the achievements of Moses III, but his married life was one of tragedy not uncommon in early America.  He first married between the ages of 18 and 22, to a young lady who's name is unknown so far in our research. Together, the young couple had a daughter in 1703, and then the first tragedy, Moses III's wife died sometime between the birth and the next 3 years.....she may have died giving birth to daughter Abigail, or shortly thereafter, or not. Men and Women in early America did not stay single/widowed long when children were in the house already, due to the daily hardships of life making a companion and helpmate a blessing and a necessity.  Twenty-eight year old Moses III married a second time in 1707, to twenty year old Martha PORTER, and they would have eight children together over the next 22 years....and then tragedy again for Moses III.  Two days after giving birth to their eighth child, Reuben, Martha passed away at age 42, on Sep 25, 1729, leaving Moses III with six children at home under age 16.  Once again, Moses III remarried, this time the following year to 40 year old Sarah Chapman.  Moses III and Sarah would have two more children by 1733, totaling eleven descendants for Moses ROWLEY III, nine of which were still living when he wrote his Will.  He and his third wife Sarah died in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, he in 1749, and Sarah in 1757.

Ft. Ticonderoga aka Ft. Carillon in the French/Indian War

     Carrying the ROWLEY line forward was Moses ROWLEY IV, born 1713 in Colchester, Connecticut, who married Mary FULLER in 1735 at East Haddam, Connecticut.  There they joined the local Church in 1736, and settled down to have 10 children in the next 19 years, before War would separate them over the next few years. Moses IV and Mary had moved in 1744 to Kent, Connecticut, on land west of the Housatonic River, in "Scatacook", where his house was near Macedonia Brook in Kent, near the New York/Connecticut border.  The French and Indian War was exactly as it's name sounds to the British colonies, and Moses IV joined the 2nd Connecticut Militia, where he saw military service against the French along the shores of Lake George, first near Fort Anne in September 1755,  Ft. Ticonderoga in 1758,  Crown Point in 1759, and Montreal in 1760. It was during this War that a young 22-year old Officer was surrounded at a place called Fort Necessity, and forced to surrender to the French forces from Canada....that defeated Officer's name was George Washington.  Moses IV ROWLEY is listed as a "deserter" on the roster in May 1756, eight months after the birth of his last child, at which time his wife Mary died unexpectedly, but obviously was back in action later as indicated. "Deserter" simply means the soldier did not report for roll call, sometimes due to capture, injury, or death....although it is more likely that Moses IV just went home for awhile to grieve and take care of his family, also not uncommon in the War, especially for militia forces.  It is important to point out, that Mary FULLER ROWLEY was responsible for 10 kids ranging in age from newborn to 18 while her husband was off in battle, a feat as worthy as any soldier's experiences.

  After the War, Moses IV and Mary ROWLEY lived in Kent, Connecticut until 1772. Moses IV had a minor incident in 1771 when he was accused by the General Assembly of deceiving it in representing that a grant of land which the state had given him was small when it was large, the gift being made on account of his having bought of Robert Watson a section of land belonging to the Scatacook Indians. The resolution of this matter has not been located to date. Moses IV ROWLEY, after the French and IndianWar,  had lived in the Oblong Area of New York, and in Connecticut, and then finally in Richmond, Massachusetts, where he died in 1773.
    

Crown Point with both British and French fort ruins

Montreal at the French Surrender

     The next torch-bearer in our direct line of  ROWLEY's was NOT named Moses, for the first time since 1629, but was Timothy ROWLEY, born 1737 in Colchester, Connecticut.  As a youth, he moved around to New York, Massachusetts, and a few places in Connecticut where he married Elizabeth "Bethia" CROCKER in 1761, after a short 3-month stint in the 6th Connecticut Militia Regiment during the French and Indian War. He enlisted the day after the Battle of Lake George NY, and any fighting he saw is a mystery to date.  His marriage certificate stated that Timothy ROWLEY was from "Ye Oblong", a territory along the western length of Connecticut and its border with New York.  By 1766 Timothy and Bethia lived in Stephentown, New York, and in 1774 they were in Lansingburgh, New York, just north of Albany.
     When the American Revolution started, 39 year old Timothy ROWLEY enlisted in the 4th Regiment of the Albany County Militia, also known as "Van Rensselaer's  Regiment", taking the name of the commander at the time. As a Militia unit, their first priority was to defend the citizens of Albany County, then the State of New York, and from time to time they were called on to assist the Continental Army when needed. The high point of Timothy's action came in 1777 around Lake George in New York, at the Battles of Saratoga and Fort Ticonderoga. The 4th Militia Regiment with Timothy in tow, marched off to Fort Edward near the south end of Lake George, in the summer of 1777. The British had captured Fort Ticonderoga at the north end of the Lake in July, and they were headed south to capture New York City.  Timothy ROWLEY and his fellow Americans, under the leadership of Horatio Gates and Benedict Arnold, defeated the British Army near Saratoga in September and October of 1777, forcing British General Burgoyne to retreat, then surrender, a victory that convinced France to join the Americans in the War.

Surrender of British General Burgoyne at Saratoga

 Nothing more is known of the life of Timothy ROWLEY, except that after the American Revolution, he appears on the 1790 Census of  Stephentown, Albany County (now Rensselaer County), where most of his children were born and raised. He died in 1799, and his wife Bethia's death date is unknown.  Their daughter, Elizabeth "Bethia" ROWLEY born 1766, will be discussed in her husband Anthony ZUFELT's narrative in the future. Timothy ROWLEY is the 4th great grandfather of Tonya Kim WILLDEN MARTINI.

WILLDEN FAMILY-----ROWLEYs of PLYMOUTH COLONY

     Henry ROWLEY saw the American coastline for the first time only a decade after the Mayflower had brought the Pilgrims to Plymouth Colony in 1620. He had sailed from Leyden, Holland, where the Puritan Separatists had fled to practice their religion after being "watched carefully" in their native England, most likely in the County of Kent.  It is even possible that Henry ROWLEY was one of that group that escaped when the leader of their group, Rev. John Lothrop, was thrown in prison in the Tower of London. Once Rev. Lothrop promised to leave England forever, and take as many followers as he could, he was released and led them to Holland.
     Henry's in-laws, William and Frances PALMER,  were already in Plymouth Colony as early as 1621, and now Henry was bringing his 21 year old wife, Sarah, to be with her family once again. But it was not for long, as Sarah Ann ROWLEY died a year or two later, leaving Henry with 3 small children. Death was not uncommon in Plymouth Colony, and the need for survival called for action by those left behind, so Henry soon found a widowed mother for his children in Anne Blossom, whom he married in 1633.

Cape Cod coastline, Barnstable, Massachusets

            Henry and Anne ROWLEY moved to the recently founded community of Scituate, as did many others from Plymouth around 1634. There the family joined the Congregationalist or Independent Church of the Rev. John Lothrop in Scituate, and followed him to Barnstable, Massachusetts, in 1638. Rev. Lothrop, also linked to the WILLDEN genealogy by marriage, was the faith leader of the Plymouth Colony following the break with the Church of England, and his residence in Barnstable is now part of the Public Library.
                                              

Rev. John Lothrop's residence in 1600's Barnstable

     Henry had found his place in the Barnstable community, and was elected as a Deputy to the General Court, and performed the task of surveying "highways" in the new lands between 1646 and 1653. He later moved to Falmouth, also known as Saconessett in period writings, and Henry ROWLEY died there in 1673. A monument to the "Men of Kent" England is found in the town of Scituate today, with Henry's name etched in stone. He is the 9th great grandfather of Tonya Kim WILLDEN MARTINI.
                                         

"Men of Kent" monument in Scituate MA

     Henry's son Moses ROWLEY in 1652 married Elizabeth FULLER, the daughter of the Commander of the Plymouth Colony Militia, Capt. Matthew FULLER, and grand-daughter of the Mayflower passenger Edward FULLER.  Five years later, Moses took the Freeman Oath, which made him a voting member of the community council in Barnstable, where he remained for many years until moving to the village of Falmouth, founded in 1660. In 1681 Moses ROWLEY was made a Constable in Falmouth, and in 1692 became a Deputy to the General Court. Moses, like his father and grandfather, could not remain in one place for long, and purchased 60 acres from Jonathan Gilbert in East Haddam, Connecticut in 1692, and once again the family started over. East Haddam is north of Long Island, NY along the Connecticut River, quite a distance away from Cape Cod in the 1690's.
                                       

Old Cove Burial Ground, East Haddam Connecticut

       By the summer of 1705, Moses ROWLEY had died, leaving his wife Elizabeth and their eight grown children. But there is an indication that there was "trouble in Paradise" before Moses died,  for in 1714, Elizabeth ROWLEY, now in her 70's, appeared in the Middlesex County Court in East Haddam to fight for property rights for her children, claiming that her husband Moses ROWLEY had sold their land in Falmouth without her consent before he died. We do not know the outcome of this claim, so we will leave this argument to those who have gone before us, possibly hearing their raised voices only in the cemetery on a cold, dark night. . Moses and Ellizabeth ROWLEY are the 8th great grandparents of Tonya Kim WILLDEN MARTINI.

WILLDEN FAMILY------EDWARD FULLER AND THE MAYFLOWER

     At age 66, Robert FULLER a local butcher of Redenhall, England in Norfolk, sat down to write his Last Will and Testament. Born in 1548, his first dying written request was to be buried in the St. Mary's Churchyard in Redenhall, forever his home. He left to his second wife Frances, "a tenement" with "a little orchard", to his son Edward 20 pounds, and to his son Samuel 15 pounds.  Robert's first wife of only a dozen years, Sarah DUNKHORNE, the mother of Edward and Samuel, had died a decade earlier and was also buried in the St. Mary's Churchyard, underneath the shadow of the towering cathedral built in the 1300's.....still there in use today.

Starston Church of England...marriage of Robert/Sarah

 

St.Mary's Church in Redenhall, England

     When his father died in 1614, Edward FULLER and wife Ann had two young sons, Matthew, and Samuel. They were a family of Puritan Separatists, wanting reform within the Church of England, but unlike the regular Puritans, they were tired of waiting and sought to leave the Church and go their own way. The Separatists had already begun to leave for Leyden, Holland, as early as 1607, to escape the watchful eyes of the Church of England, and by 1617 Edward had sold all of his belongings and moved to Leyden with his wife, and son Samuel.  Son Matthew stayed behind, perhaps to finish schooling in England before rejoining his family....but he would never see his parents again.  In Holland, the Puritan Separatists would find life difficult there due to a slow economy and no jobs for their skills. Once again, the little religious group decided to move.....this time to the English colonies in the New World.
     In 1620, Edward FULLER and the others contracted two ships for the voyage to America and the Virginia Colony.....the Mayflower, a 110' long vessel that would carry about 135 passengers, and the somewhat smaller Speedwell.  On August 5th, the two ships headed into the Atlantic Ocean, but the Speedwell began to leak and had to return for repairs, leaving the Mayflower to make the voyage alone at sea.   There were about 50 crew members and Officers aboard, while there were 102 Puritans and Puritan Separatists from England and Holland. The travel was cramped and uncomfortable, with animals, weapons, and farm/building tools taking much of the space.
    After a little over two months of ocean voyage, the Mayflower anchored at what is now Provincetown harbor, Massachusetts, in November, missing Virginia entirely, and after further exploring, came to rest in a harbor where the Plymouth Colony would be settled on December 16th, 1620.  As for the myth of Plymouth Rock, there was one referenced as a town boundary many years later, but the story of landing there came over a century later.  The ship Mayflower would eventually return to England, where it was later broken up and the timbers used to build a barn in Buckinghamshire, where it still exists.  Two passengers had died on the two month long journey, but that was only the beginning of hardship at Cape Cod.  While aboard the ship in November, and realizing that they were not under the Virginia Colony rule as planned, the adult men created a written guideline of rules to be used as their government in the new colony....it would be called the Mayflower Compact, and was signed by our own Edward FULLER.  It was the first such independent declaration of its type in America.

Replica Mayflower II built to original design

      Arriving in Massachusetts in December would prove deadly. The cold winter was upon them already, and before the Spring of 1621, 45 of the 102 Pilgrims were dead from disease and diet and inadequate shelter.....including our ancestors Edward and Ann FULLER.  Their 13 year old son Samuel FULLER moved in with Dr. Samuel FULLER, his uncle skilled in medicine, and a deacon in the Church, who had also made the journey on the Mayflower.  Edward and Ann FULLER were buried nearby on what became known as Cole's Hill Burial Ground, in unmarked sandy graves, graded level so that the Indians would not know how many of the invading settlers had died.

Tomb on Cole's Hill containing bones of Pilgrims

 Young Samuel FULLER thrived in the Plymouth Colony, obtaining land at the age of 15, and is listed in the Division of Cattle in 1827 when he was 19. Samuel married Jane Lathrop at the home of James Cudworth in 1635 in the village of Scituate.  The wedding was performed by none other that the famous Captain Miles Standish of Plymouth, an English Officer, assistant Governor, Treasurer, and Commander of the Militia. Samuel and Jane settled in Scituate in 1636, later moving to Barnstable, Massachusetts.  Samuel must have longed to see his older brother Matthew FULLER, who had stayed behind in England.

Pilgrims at the first Thanksgiving feast

    Our direct ancestor Matthew FULLER had married Frances in 1635 in England, and then decided to make the move to America.  He first appears in the colonies in 1640 when he is recorded in land deeds that year. In 1642 he was granted ten acres and served on a jury, and had settled in to life in Plymouth Colony with his wife and five children, and once again able to visit with his long-lost brother Samuel. In 1643 Matthew was appointed a Sergeant in the militia and served in the English-Narragansett Conflict under Captain Miles Standish. His Uncle Samuel FULLER gifted two acres of land to Matthew, and the family moved to the village of Barnstable by 1650, where he studied medicine and became a physician, most likely learning from his uncle Dr. Samuel FULLER.

Plymouth Plantation site

    In the 1650's, Matthew FULLER found himself in Court twice, and was fined on both occasions....once for publicly taking a stand in support of the unpopular Quakers, and once for "speaking reproachfully to the Court" concerning the law governing the "maintenance of ministers". Matthew continued to rise in the community, and in 1652 was appointed a Lieutenant in the Barnstable Militia, and a year later represented the village in the General Court proceedings.  On June 20, 1654, Captain Miles Standish organized a 50-man militia to fight against the Dutch near present-day Manhattan, and chose Matthew as his Lieutenant for the expedition. Peace came before the expedition was needed.  In 1658 he was elected to sit on the Council of War, and in 1671 named the Chairman of that group, and one of the Magistrates of the Colony. Also in 1671, Lieutenant Matthew FULLER  prepared the militia to go to war if necessary with the Saconet tribe, but a peace was negotiated once again.
   A man of many talents, Dr. Matthew FULLER was appointed Surgeon General of the Plymouth Colony on Dec 17, 1763, at a pay rate of 4 Shillings per day, and named Captain of the Plymouth Colony Militia in 1675, a position originally held by Captain Miles Standish.  Dr. Fuller had told the Colonel in charge that he was hesitant to take the Captain's position, as he was now in his 70's  and had become "ancient and heavy".
The first physician in Barnstable, Matthew lived in the village's northwest corner in an area called Scorton Neck, but also owned land in Middleboro and Falmouth, given to him for his service to the Plymouth Colony. On July 25, 1678, at the age of 75, Matthew FULLER wrote his Last Will and Testament....then died within the next few weeks.  In his will, he left all to his wife Frances until her death, at which time the lands and belongings would be given to the specified children. To our direct ancestors, he gave to daughter Elizabeth FULLER ROWLEY, "ten pounds in money",  and the her husband, son-in-law Moses ROWLEY, "five shillings", and to Matthew's grandaughter Sarah ROWLEY, he gave her "all my sheep" and appointed and paid Jedediah Jones to oversee them for Sarah.  Physician, Militia Officer, Magistrate......a man for the times at the beginning of America.
      Edward FULLER, who came over on the Mayflower in 1620, is the 10th Great Grandfather of Tonya Kim WILLDEN MARTINI


    

MARTINI FAMILY------A SLAUGHTER IN GEORGIA

The SLAUGHTER Family history begins for us with a ship from England finally reaching its destination on the Atlantic Coast of the American colonies. Although unsure exactly where and when they docked, it was the start of the SLAUGHTER line which debuts in our story in 1735 St. Peters Parish, New Kent County, Virginia Colony, with the birth of John SLAUGHTER.  New Kent County's first official visit had been from Captain John Smith, founder of Jamestown in 1607, who met with Native Americans and organized a friendly feast.
   By the time John reached 22, already a well-to-do farmer and slave owner,  he had fallen for a young woman who also attended St Peters Parish Church, an Anglican congregation near present-day Talleysville, Virgnia. The young woman was  Frances BROTHERS, also age 22, the daughter of a plantation owner and slaveholder. The young couple married in the St. Peters Parish Church in 1757.  Of interest is that a young woman in her 20's also attended their small church, a widow of only a few months, left with two kids and a 15,000 acre plantation......her name was Martha Dandridge Custis....the future Martha Washington, and First Lady of the U.S.  Our newly married ancestors, John and Frances SLAUGHTER, must have known Martha and possibly met George Washington in person. Two years later, in 1759, Martha Custis married George a few miles up the road at her plantation called "the White House", a probably name source for our current Presidential residence.  It is entirely possible that the two couples attended each other's weddings as church peers.    

St. Peters Episcopal Church, built 1701, Talleysville, GA

Martha Dandridge Custis in 1757

     In 1762, while our little family seemingly avoided the hazards of the French and Indian War that raged mostly north of them until 1763, John and Frances SLAUGHTER packed up their two sons, and moved to Cumberland County, Virginia, where they settled  for the next 20 years, and had the remainder of their 11 children together. But the peaceful life would end soon for all colonists.  In the 1760's, the British began a series of taxes on stamps, documents, and trade goods, and passed a law that said American colonists must let British soldiers live in their homes and feed them to offset expenses in England. The colonists, who felt they were being taxed to the limit without any representation in Parliament, began to organize and speak out against the King and Parliament. In 1770 in Boston, British troops facing an angry mob of unarmed colonists, opened fire on them in what became known as the Boston Massacre. Three years later colonists were tossing crates of tea into the waters of Boston Harbor in protest, and in April of 1775, shots were fired in skirmishes at Lexington and Concord. The American Revolution was on.....
                                              

     John SLAUGHTER served during the Revolution as a Private in the Virginia Continental Army, and before the War was over in 1783, his sons Nathaniel, Thomas, and George would also join the fight for freedom. Son Nathaniel SLAUGHTER joined in March of 1777 at the age of 19, and entered the service of George Washington's Virginia Continental Army, in the 10th Virginia Regiment. He fought in the battles of Brandywine and Germantown in the defense of Philadelphia, then spent the winter of 1777 at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. Nathaniel was with Gen. Washington at Monmouth Court House in 1778, and eventually fought the British at Charleston, South Carolina, in 1780, where most of the 10th Virginia Regiment was captured.....all for a little over $6.00 a month. When the Revolution ended officially in 1783, John SLAUGHTER had given the lives of two of his sons, Nathaniel and Thomas, for the cause of freedom. Son George had been in the Cavalry of the Virgina Continental Line as a private, and managed to live through the years of fighting, for which he would get a pension of $21.00 a year.
    With the War over, the 1780's allowed the new American citizens to get back to their routine farming.
Among the children of John and Frances SLAUGHTER born during the revolution, was our next ancestor, Henry G. SLAUGHTER,  in the memorable year of 1776. By the time Henry was 14 in 1790, his parents were plantation owners in Cumberland County, with 10 members of the family living there, along with 10 slaves. For his military service, John SLAUGHTER was awarded a Land Grant in the state of Georgia, as well as being paid for "providing supplies" to the American Army during the War. Once again the family and laborers packed up to move to the next adventure.
                                          

Greene County, Georgia

     The SLAUGHTER family settled in Greene County, Georgia, near present-day Greensboro, where John purchased 287 acres in addtion to his Land Grant in 1795. Life was good for the SLAUGHTER family in Georgia, but shortly after President George Washington left office in 1797, our first known ancestor in this line would finally get to rest. John SLAUGHTER died on a hot and humid summer day on August 5, 1798.  In his will of 1796, he basically left his 365 acre plantation and slaves to his wife Frances, and specified to his children who-got-what after her death. Eighteen slaves were mentioned specifically by name in the Will. His son Henry SLAUGHTER, our direct line, was a co-executor with his brother William, and was given one slave named "Scotland", a horse, saddle, some furniture, a feather bed, and a musket gun. An interim of his estate at one point had the value at over $4800, with about $3500 of that being the slaves. Frances SLAUGHTER died two years later on November 23, 1800, ending the first generation of SLAUGHTERs from Virginia.
     With their parents gone, the eight remaining children would eventually scatter through Georgia, Texas, Alabama, Arkansas, Tennessee, and beyond. Our line comes from son Henry SLAUGHTER, who would die a terrible death at the age of only 41, a major player in the first hanging to take place in Jasper County....patience reader.  Sometime around 1798, Henry married  19 year old Frances JONES, or "Fanny" as she was called, and a few years later the young couple moved to Jasper County, Georgia, not far from their beloved Greene County. The reason for the move was simple.....Henry had won property in a drawing of the Georgia Land Lottery of 1805, while his other brothers had come up empty handed, and the land was in today's Jasper County, near what would become the town of Monticello. Soon after their arrival, however, Creek Indians became a matter to be dealt with to the west.

Creek War (1813-1814) Part of War of 1812

     At the end of August, 1813, the Creek Indians attacked and destroyed an American outpost called Ft. Mims. The Creek War, as it was to be called, forced the border county of Jasper to raise a volunteer Army under the command of Major General David Adams.  Henry SLAUGHTER joined the 2nd Georgia Regiment of Militia, listed on the rosters under the command of Colonel James R. Jenkins. A few months later, the Army met the enemy Creeks, called "Red Sticks", near the Tallapoosa River in present Alabama, forcing the Indians to move out. The next year, General Andrew Jackson would win a major victory at Horseshoe Bend, and the Creek War ended, leaving Jackson to deal with the British portion of the War of 1812, which ended in American victory at the Battle of New Orleans.
     When Henry SLAUGHTER returned, he was soon elected to office as a Justice of the Peace in Jasper County, Georgia, a post he held from 1814 to 1817......when our story comes to a shocking and violent moment in the family history. According to the journal of Dr. J. P. Welch of Monticello, in Jasper County, on the afternoon of Oct. 30, 1817, Henry SLAUGHTER and a man named John Castillow (there are several spellings), had been drinking in a pub in Monticello, and began to argue over some issue, probably a judgment Henry had placed on Castillow while Justice of the Peace. They were seen to leave town together on horseback, still arguing as they rode toward their homes. Suddenly, Castillow pulled a knife, leaned over while still on his horse, and sliced Henry SLAUGHTER across the throat.  Henry fell off of his horse, bleeding greatly, and his stead took off running for home. Castillow, the murderer, also fled.  Henry's bloody horse returned home, and soon a search party of friends and relatives went into the night to find him, which they did in darkness. Henry's body was lying in the road, with his hand clenched around his bloody throat. Some time later, John Castillow was caught and brought to trial in Monticello, where the jury found him guilty of murder, and given the sentence "death by hanging".  The fateful day arrived, and a crowd of thousands had gathered from adjacent counties to see the first death sentence carried out in the area's history.  Castillow was brought out dressed head to toe in all white. It was a mile walk from the jail to the hanging spot, and Castillow walked slowly behind his own coffin, pulled on a small cart by a team of oxen. Following a short prayer, Castillow climbed onto the cart and stood atop his own coffin, while the Sheriff placed the noose around his neck. Castillow bid farewell to his wife, children, and friends, then the oxen started forward with the cart, leaving the murderer to swing by the rope until death.

Jasper County, Georgia Courthouse  

     Henry's death had left his Frances a 37-year old widow, with ten childen. For the next 18 years, the Jasper County Court would make sure that Frances would keep the plantation she and Henry had built, along with the slaves who worked the land, for the "maintenance and education" of her minor children. Frances lived until the 1850's in Jasper County, her date of death undiscovered as of yet.
     Our next generation is led by Henry and Frances SLAUGHTER's son Hugh Jones SLAUGHTER, born September 3, 1799 back in Greene County, Georgia, and who grew to manhood in Jasper County, Georgia where his father was murdered when Hugh was just 18 years old.  Around 1818, Hugh married Lucinda SAVAGE, the Georgia born daughter of Jesse SAVAGE and Bersheba HILL.  Within months, Hugh and Lucinda SAVAGE moved to Warren County, Tennessee, along with her parents, and are found living near each other in the 1820 Census.

    

Warren County, Tennessee

  Through the years, Hugh J. and Lucinda would have only one child, Jesse SLAUGHTER, born in 1821 Warren County, Tennessee. The family listed 3 slaves in 1820, 1 in 1830, 1 in 1840, and 3 in 1850....none were listed in 1860 just prior to the start of the American Civil War, and there is no indication that son Jesse served in either Army.  The farm of Hugh and Lucinda in the 1860 Agricultural Census is listed as having 200 acres, with 11 horses, 4 milk cows, 2 oxen, 4 other cattle, 7 sheep, and 15 hogs.   Hugh SLAUGHTER died in 1876, and Lucinda in 1880, both having lived long lives into their 70's.
     Jesse SLAUGHTER married a 14 year old girl, twenty years his junior, named Sarah Lucinda BLAIR, in November of 1858. They would raise seven children over the next thirty years together on their Warren County farm, one of which was our next direct ancestor, Sarah Elizabeth SLAUGHTER.  Sarah was born in 1866 shortly after the end of the Civil War, and married Elkana Thomas CURTIS just a few weeks short of her 22nd birthday.
    So, the SLAUGHTER line came from England, settled in Virginia through the American Revolution, obtained land in Georgia as a reward for military service, and following a tragic murder of one of our direct ancestors, moved to Warren County, Tennessee before 1820, where my mother was born more than a century later.  JOHN SLAUGHTER of Virginia is the 5th Great Grandfather of Anthony MARTINI.

Willden Family---HUDDLESTONS Continue West

1892 Premium School, Crooked Cr. Twp Illinois

We saw in the last blog where George HUDDLESTON married Susannah SLACK in Bedford Co., Virginia, November 19, 1800. (George HUDDLESTON is the 3rd great grandfather of Tonya Kim WILLDEN). George was 22, and Susannah, 2o, when they married, and by 1835 they had raised 9 children together. From 1819 to 1832 there are several land deeds in County records showing that George and Susannah HUDDLESTON bought and sold land several times to/from other family members. Around 1835, George and most, if not all, of his children went West one more time. They moved to Breckinridge County, in the northwestern part of Kentucky, about 100 miles southwest of Louisville near Hardinsburg, where they bought and sold land through 1850. George HUDDLESTON died here in 1851, and his widow Susannah moved with her children once again, this time to Illinois.

Willis and Sarah Ann Huddleston

Our next direct-line ancestor is Susannah's son Barnett G. HUDDLESTON. Born May 28, 1811, he had made the trip from Virginia to Kentucky with his family, bringing his wife Susannah MINTER, whom he had married Nov. 20, 1832. In 1851, Barnett and Susannah loaded their children and all earthly possessions in the wagons, and headed west to the northeast corner of Jasper County, Illinois. They would call the townships of Grandville and Crooked Creek their home as America began to come apart in the decade prior to the Civil War, a war that Barnett HUDDLESTON would not see, as he died September 8, 1858, age 47, and is buried in the DeBord Cemetery.

As the 1860 Census came around, both Barnett's mother and widow would be found in Jasper County, southeastern Illinois, near the town of Yale. Susannah SLACK HUDDLESTON, Barnett's mother, would live with her children until her death December 21, 1864. As for Barnett's widow, Susannah MINTER HUDDLESTON, she remained in Yale until her death at age 81, in 1892. Her Post Office in 1861 is listed at Ste. Marie, Jasper Co., Illinois.

Apparently, in keeping with their ancestors Quaker origins, no HUDDLESTONs of our direct line fought in the Civil War, or at least for which we have a record.

1880 mineral springs in Arkansas

1894 Jasper Co. MO Courthouse

Kentucky and the Ohio River

near Rogers, Arkansas at present

When the Civil War began in 1861, 14 year old WILLIS HUDDLESTON,  was living at home with his widowed mother and two siblings. Willis was too young at the start of the War to participate, but there also is no record of him doing so later. An interesting side note is that if Willis did join the Union Army as many men did in Illinois, then he would have fought against his future son-in-law's family (James Elmer Archer).  Willis met and married a Jasper County girl named Sarah Ann Rowe, April  12, 1866, and they are listed on the 1870 Census in Crooked Creek Township, Jasper Co., Illinois.  In the tradition of the Westward Movement, Willis and Sarah packed up their three children in 1879 and moved to Arkansas....at that time a state bordering the Indian Nation to the West, and within five years of the massacre of General George Custer.  The 1880 Carroll County Census shows that they had a farm in the Ozark mountains about two miles south of present-day Eureka Springs, Arkansas. Goodspeeds History describes the region in 1880, as an almost unbroken wilderness. "Farther down the valley of the creek there were cultivated sections, but the whole of Cedar Township was very sparsely settled. The hills and gulches about the springs were covered with a forest of pine and oak, and with an almost impenetrable growth of scrub and bushes.  Rocks of every every geological formation lined the hills, and loose stones of every conceivable shape rolled down the sides of the gulch below. Despite this bleak outlook, people began coming from all over to soak in the "healing mineral springs" of the area.  By 1885 the Huddlestons were  living in Rogers, Benton County, Arkansas, where daughter Clara Belle Huddleston was born the 22nd of February. (More about her later, as she is the family link, and the last of the Huddleston name)
The 1890 Census in America was destroyed by a major fire, so there is no record of the Huddleston family between 1885 and 1900. However, in 1900 we find that for whatever reason, Willis and Sarah were now divorced...he living with his daughter Ella whose husband had recently died, and Sarah living with the family of William McCowan, all in Jasper County, Missouri. Although Willis told the census takers he was "widowed", I suspect Sarah would have taken issue with that, had she known.
Willis remarried in 1901 to Mary L. Black, and lived out the remainder of his years in Aurora, Lawrence Co., Missouri, where he died March 3, 1924. His obituary stated that "he was an old resident and widely known here, having been engaged in work for the city for a number of years until his health failed him. He leaves to mourn his wife and three daughters, one of whom lives in Oklahoma, and the funeral was delayed to await her arrival from there."  As for Sarah Ann Rowe Huddleston, she never re-married, and eventually went West to California to live with her daughter Ida in Long Beach, where she died March 5, 1922.   The Huddleston lines in this article had moved from Virginia, to Kentucky, to Illinois, to Missouri, and one person even making it to California...a very active Century for the family's gradual movement West.  Willis and Sarah Huddleston are the great-grandparents of Tonya Willden Martini, on her mother's side.

WILLDEN FAMILY---The BALLEW Frontier Family

 In our last blog story, we learned about Revolutionary War Capt. William Moore and his wife Margaret Patton...and of the birth of a daughter Charity Moore at the closing moments of the American Revolution.  Charity Moore, born about 1780, was the in the first generation of children to grow up in the new nation, and she did so along Hominy Creek, in Burke County, North Carolina.  When she was about 17, she married a young man in his mid-20's, Jesse Ballew.  Jesse and his brother Thomas had been charged with trespassing in April, 1797, the Burke County Court case ended in a mistrial, and Jesse's father paid the Court costs....trespassing....unable to accept boundaries....that would define Jesse and Charity Ballew for years to come.  Three years later, the new family was listed in the 1800 Buncombe County Census with two young daughters.
In April, 1806, the new Haywood County boundary line was being drawn by the North Carolina legislature, and the description of the Haywood/Buncombe County border included "with said road to the top of Mt. Pisgah, thence a direct line to the mouth of the first branch emptying into Hominy Creek, on the side of Jesse Belieu's", and the County was to construct a road "from the North side of Swannanoa River and Hominy Creek from wherewith the Indian Path leaves the head of said creek to where the Indian Path strikes a creek that runs into the Pigeon River, at the head of the locust field to the last crossing of Hominy above JESSE BALLEW'S.  This "ford at the head of the locust field" is now the town of Canton, North Carolina. Jesse and Charity had bought this 130 acre tract of land for only five shillings the same month from Henry Cook.
 When the 1810 Buncombe County Census was taken, Jesse and Charity Ballew had seven daughters living at home, but the traditional comforts were about to change. Daniel Boone, a famous frontier man and former state legislator from Kentucky and Virginia, was living in retirement in Missouri, when he acquired a contract for mining and shipping ammunition needs such as nitre, saltpetre, and lead found along the Niangua River basin near Laclede County, Missouri. When asked by a newspaper reporter why he had left Kentucky, Daniel Boone replied, "Too crowded, too many people, I need some elbow room"....and so would Jesse Ballew.   Jesse , along with hundreds of other North Carolina settlers, went to work for Boone's company with the promise of free land.   Before leaving, Jesse settled his financial interest in a store/tavern he co-owned with two other men in Haywood County in 1812, and served several times as a juror in the local courts. There is some evidence that Jesse Ballew went to Tennessee for a year or so, then on to work in Missouri, before he brought his family from North Carolina. What we do know, is that in 1817 or 1818, working for Daniel Boone's company, Jesse Ballew led a wagon train of 300 settlers/employees and their families into the area of the Niangua River Basin and surrounding lands of Missouri.
Jesse and Chairty Ballew crossed the Gasconade River where the Indian Trail was, later known as Stark's Ford, and settled down on this land about 14 miles southwest of present-day Waynesville, Missouri, and about 5 miles southwest of a "nitre cave" mined nearby.  The Indian Route the Ballew wagon followed is today the famous Route 66 (I-44).  The Ballews built a log cabin here, near the junction of the Gasconade River and the Osage Fork just south of Hazelgreen, Mo, and according to the History of Laclede County, Missouri, became the first white settlers in Laclede County.  The history books also say that the first Court Session of Pulaski County was held in the log home of Jesse and Charity Ballew.

Daniel Boone portrait

Hominy Creek on Jesse Ballew property

Pulaski County first courthouse

Gasconade River and Route 66

When Daniel Boone died in 1820, his son continued the mining operations, but we do not know how long Jesse Ballew continued to work for the company. To protect the land they had been given to settle, the early Boone employees signed a Gasconade County Tax List in 1828, to prove their early claims....Jesse Ballew's name is on that list, with only 353 men in the entire County. Two years later, on the 1830 Crawford County, MO, Census, we can find Jesse  Ballew living there with children David M., Rachel , and Susan....his wife of over 30 years, Charity, had passed away. At this point, it appears Jesse made the decision to stay in Missouri, and began to sell his land on Hominy Creek back in North Carolina. In October of 1830, he sold his 120 acres on Hominy Creek for "one thousand twenty dollars"...apparently the same land he had paid "five shillings" for in 1806. In 1834, Jesse sold 220 acres on Hominy Creek to John Hays. The final evidence we have of Jesse Ballew's life comes from a legal document in the Buncombe Co, NC, deeds in October, 1838, when Jesse's son-in-law William Bird appointed an attorney, "to collect from David M. Ballew any legacy due Bird from the Estate of JESSE BALLEW, deceased, late of Pulaski County, Missouri". Jesse Ballew had died, and his only son David M. Ballew had inherited the holdings of his father.
And once again, a good story....one of early America, of moving West, of Cherokee Indians, of Daniel Boone, and of how the descendants of Jesse and Charity Ballew can be proud of their origins.  Jesse and Charity Ballew are the 4th great grandparents of Tonya Willden Martini, on her mother's side.

WILLDEN FAMILY--IMMIGRANT, PATRIOT, MILITIA MAN

British Col. Ferguson grave at Kings Mtn

Hominy Creek NC the Moore home

Balsam Gap NC on Indian route

Tonya with Capt Moore and wife

Tuckasegee River home of Cherokees

William Hamilton Moore was a civic and military leader in the American Revolution...with ties to the  Scottish colonists loyal to England. William had been born in Ulster County, northern Ireland, in 1726, with Scottish parents who had fled the Roxburghshire area of Scotland to Ireland due to persecution of the Protestant Presbyterians there. He and his brothers left Ireland as teenagers, and came to the American Colonies in 1739, after their father, and grandfather, had been killed in the Protestant-Catholic Irish Wars. It would seem likely that their future did not shine bright. William came to Philadelphia...later to be the seat of power and the heartbeat of the American Revolution, and home to many other Scotch-Irish immigrants. Family tradition says that upon arriving in America, William and his brothers "entered a tavern, bought a round of drinks, and toasted to a colorful past and a promising future"....true or not, it is always the hope of the immigrant to America.

William traveled south and settled in Augusta County, Virginia, where he married a girl 17 years his junior, Ann Cathey, around the year 1760...they had five children and moved to present day Burke County, North Carolina, on Muddy Creek about 38 miles east of Asheville, NC. Here, less than 30 years old, William's wife Ann died of causes unknown to us. But it is not Ann Cathey that is the direct ancestor in our family, it is William's second wife Margaret Patton that gives another angle to our story in North Carolina.  Margaret Patton, born 1749, married William Hamilton Moore, 23 years her senior, in then Rowan County, NC (now Burke) on a hot, humid day in August of 1774.  Some researchers claim that Margaret's mother was a full-blood Cherokee, but DNA testing in 2014 shows zero Native American for her descendants. Her parents were Robert Patton, and Charity.   Margaret Patton Moore, and  William had an uncertain number of children (at least 8) during their 38 year marriage.  One of those daughters was named Charity Moore, after the baby's grandmother.....and this baby would later marry Jesse Ballew, moving to Missouri and creating a whole story of their own to write later. But I digress....

William and Margaret Moore lived on the western edge of the American colonies....the western border was confusing but generally understood to be the Appalachian range of mountains from North Georgia to Pennsylvania. William and Margaret Moore were there at the start of the American Revolution, surrounded by Scottish immigrants  loyal to England on the East, the Spanish watching the British in Florida, and the Cherokee Nation to the West, being armed by the British to keep the western settlers busy. William knew by 1775 that he would be called to fight against the Cherokee in the mountains of western North Carolina. In late 1775, William Moore became a Captain of a Militia Company in the 2nd Rowan County Regiment under Col. Chris Beekman. A few months later, Captain Moore and his men marched to confront Scotch-Irish British sympathizers in the Battle of Moore's Creek Ridge (no relation) near Wilmington, North Carolina, on Feb 27, 1776. This Patriot victory gave a needed push to the American recruitment of southern colonists, and stopped the British from being able to depend on their local soldiers.  Captain Moore returned home and built a stockade/fort, which came to be called "Moore's Fort" in western Burke County to help defend the settlers from Cherokee attacks, which soon developed in July of 1776.  In August of 1776 General Griffith Rutherford was ordered to organize an Expedition to attack and destroy the Cherokee Villages in the western mountains, and to put an end to Indian raids on the frontier settlements.

Captain William Moore enlisted his men on Oct 19, 1776, and when equipped marched to Cathey's Fort to join other militia forces under General Rutherford, totalling about 2500 men. Capt. Moore took 97 men and headed out as assigned to find the Cherokee and punish them enough to discourage any further attacks. The route he travelled on a current North Carolina map would go from Black Mountain on I-40 east of Asheville, along the Swannanoa River to Asheville, then west to Canton, south to Bethel, west to Waynesville, then followed U.S. 74 to Whittier, then Hwy 19 to Cherokee, NC. Captain Moore wrote a detailed report of the Expedition to General Rutherford, giving his route and skirmishes.(You can read his report online if you "google" the book "Southern Indian Studies" and go to page 56). In his report, Captain Moore stated that they burned several villages and the Cherokee crops set aside for the winter, and captured some horses and a few Cherokee,  but the Cherokee villagers would flee each time before they arrived, avoiding any major fighting. After this Expedition, the Cherokee would never be a major problem to the settlers of western North Carolina again.

Captain Moore returned the next year, 1777, and built a log cabin along Hominy Creek about 7 miles west of present-day Asheville, NC, but before he could settle-in, the American Revolution called again.  The British Army led by Lt. Col. Patrick Ferguson had marched British troops and Loyalist sympathizers to a point near King's Mountain, South Carolina.  William Moore commanded a Company of militia in Colonel William Campbell's Regiment, who surrounded the British and after several hand-to-hand combat charges, the British Colonel Ferguson was dead, and the rest surrendered to the Patriots. Captain Moore's Regiment lost 13 officers and 18 enlisted men (some reports say 1 enlisted men), one of the wounded being Captain Moore himself.  A "Captain William Moore" had taken a lead ball through the leg, it was amputated on the field of battle, and he was taken to a nearby farmhouse. When his wife heard this, she mounted a horse, brought him back home, and nursed him back to health. There are some sources that say this Capt Moore was from Virginia or east Tennessee, and all we know for sure was that our William Moore was in Campbell's Regiment.  The Battle of King's Mountain was called "a great advantage" by General George Washington, as it turned the tide in the Southern Colonies against the British.
The War ended in 1781, and in 1783 the North Carolina Legislature opened the lands west of the Blue Ridge Mountains for settlement, and in 1784 William and Margaret Moore received 640 acres from Governor Richard Caswell for Revolutionary War service. William and Margaret returned to the cabin built during the War, bringing the first wagon ever to cross the French Broad River, and built their home on the lands they owned on both sides of Hominy Creek, just west of the Creek's junction with the French Broad River.  William and Margaret Moore grew in wealth along Hominy Creek, and William served as Sheriff of Burke County until 1785, and was a Trustee on the Board of the Morgan Academy school as well. William died Nov. 11, 1812, at age 86. Margaret died Aug. 27, 1814.  Both are buried in the Captain William Moore Cemetery, on Captain's Drive, Asheville, North Carolina. The Militia man and his  wife....another good chapter in the family history.  William Hamilton Moore is the 5th great-grandfather of Tonya Kim Willden Martini, on her mother's side.