Page 23 - People & Places In Time

county in about 1782 where his mother was then settled. Elizabeth was buried in the old Duff homeplace in Stickleyville, Lee county, Virginia. E
Robert soon become a landowner there. In 1792 he married Mary Powell Dickenson, my 3rd GGM. Mary was the daughter of Henry Dickenson Sr. and Mary Powell of Russell County. Henry had fought as a soldier in three wars the Indian Wars, possibly having enlisted from Prince Edward or Amherst Counties, participat- ing in the battle of Point Pleasant and finally the Revolutionary War in the Southern Campaign, culminating in the battle of Kings Mountain. Mary (Dickenson) Duff died in 1859 and is buried in the Duff family cemeteryD in Stickleyville. Robert remained in Russel county for a while then bought land previously owned by Archibald and Fanny (Dickenson) Scott, further south at the head of Wallens Creek in Lee county.C
Abbyville, South Carolina to Hawkins County, Tennessee
Solomon Mitchell, my 3rd GGF, was born on June 5th, 1759 in Granville North Carolina, to his parents Robert Mitchell and Jane Henderson so, that makes them my 4th GGP. There is an interesting account written of Jane as a young girl;
she was the only person left alive following an Indian massacre at a fort in South Carolina. (In my research all I can find are accounts from the Long Canes massacre near Abbyville).
Solomon married Nancy Broughton, my 3rd GGM, in May of 1787 in Ab- byville, North Carolina and they started a family that eventually included twelve children of their own Steven, their first child died at six and one young man, John inherited from a relative for whom I have no information, but he was raised as their own. As a native of South Carolina and as a patriot during the Revolutionary War, Solomon fought under General Andrew Pickens.
Following the war Solomon continued farming in Abbyville until about 1790- 91. Once more I can’t know the thoughts behind the decision to move his growing family of three children and his wife to Tennessee and Hawkins County, a trip of 220 miles. A trip that would have taken the better part of a month by wagon. No doubt this would have included farm animals and unsure passage through Indian land.
I’ve wondered at the reasons for the Mitchell family to move north and for the Duff family to come south into the Powell Valley, that stretches across the border of southern Virginia and northern Tennessee. J
It was during this time in the mid to late 1700’s that Daniel Boone was forging his Wilderness Road South out of Virginia and Tennessee and into Kentucky. Before the end of the 18th century, more than 200,000 Americans migrated to Kentucky/Virginia by following the route marked by Boone through the Cumber- land Gap. This passage through the Blue Ridge mountains lays at the intersection of Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee and North Carolina. Undoubtedly this will be the route taken by my family when moving west into Missouri later on. America was on the move west.
Nancy Mitchell, my 2nd great aunt, was born to Solomon and Nancy in Hawkins, Tennessee on October 29th, 1804. On about 1820-22 Nancy married Joseph Duff in Rogersville, Hawkins County. Lewis Mitchell, my 2nd GGF, was born
in Rogersville on November 24, 1792. He married Elizabeth Mary Duff and she became My 2nd GGM on February 3rd, 1819. So, now the connection is made for the Duff family in Lee County Virginia and the Mitchell family in Tennessee. These two families remained very close, exchanging many letters over the years. K
Daniel Boone was, from January 1782 until December 1791 a member of the Virginia house of delegates representing Fayette, Bourbon and Kanawha counties; Vir- ginia, Kentucky and Virginia (later West Virginia) respectively. Joseph Duff, my 2nd GU by marriage to Nancy Mitchell served in the Virginia house of Delegates representing Lee county, from 1782 to 1789. I want to believe that somehow the two men were acquainted. Boone eventually made his home in Bourbon county, Kentucky and so, would have passed up and down the Powell Valley between Virginia, Tennessee and Kentucky passing by or through both the Duff and Mitchell properties.
Early in the 1770’s Davie Crockett’s grandparents (David Crockett) lived
on property in Hawkins county Tennessee near Rogersville, adjacent to the land Solomon Mitchell later settled in 1791. Crockett’s Grandparents and most of their children were killed and scalped here on January 1st, 1777. Thirteen years later, much can change, yet I believe the possibility of Indian attack must have been a constant concern.
Richard Mitchell, my uncle, was Hawkins County Clerk from 1787 - 1812, he also served as trustee for a branch of the State Bank of Tennessee in Rogersville, opened in 1817. Lewis Mitchell, while living in Rogersville served as Justice of the Peace and Postmaster for fourteen years. In the Powell Valley both the Duff and Mitchell families were prominent in the politics of their respective counties.
As I mention these names, some of them famous, while those of my ances- tors, not so much, I’m fascinated with their part in the development of the country.
I can only speculate as to all that happened, but the Powell Valley and what were known then as the Overmountain Men would became a pivotal part of so much that happened in Virginia, Tennessee, Kentucky and the Carolinas, and by extension, for an emerging nation, America.
From Wilkes County, South Carolina to Howell County, Missouri
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Zadoch Thomas Smith
So now, as has been the case leading up to this point in time, it seems inevitable, the westward mo- mentum will continue.
Zadoch Thomas Smith, my 2nd GGF is the son of James Smith and Elizabeth Hutchins. He was born in Wilkes County North Carolina July 27, 1812 and died in West Plains, Missouri on August 2, 1879 age 76. He and his wife Candace Snow, my 2nd GGM, were born, reared and married in North Carolina.
In 1859, Thomas and a neighbor went to Missouri by horseback and being greatly impressed with the country around West Plains, they returned to North Carolina and both sold their farms. Thomas traded his