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.

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