Author: Dennis Ayers

March 28, 2013 Dennis Ayers

Note: This is a new post inserted in January 2021.

While Capt Isaac Depew migrated to East Tennessee after serving in the Revolutionary War, some of his siblings took a different route, choosing to migrate westward in the early 1800s. Two took up homesteads in Kentucky, two went on to Indiana Territory, and two went even further into Illinois Territory. They traveled the Wilderness Trail through Southwest Virginia and the Cumberland Gap into Kentucky. Those who ventured further went across the Ohio River at Louisville into Indiana, and then some on to Illinois.

This was a dangerous time as these lands were still part of the old Northwest Territory, and heavily populated by the Confederacy of Indian Tribes lead by Tecumseh. The Indians were not happy about new settlers coming to their lands and began resistance efforts. They increased their attacks against American settlers and against isolated outposts, resulting in the deaths of many civilians. US militia forces lead by William Henry Harrison battled with them, but the land was not totally safe in which to live until Tecumseh’s death in 1813 and the Indian Confederacy ceased to threaten the settlers.

Our ancestor, John W. Depew, Jr. was one of those brave souls who took his family all the way to Illinois after first stopping for periods of time in both Kentucky and Indiana. Back in Botetourt County, VA, in 1792 he married Mary “Polly” Seagraves, the daughter of Samuel Seagraves a Revolutionary War soldier. John and Polly had three children by 1810 and sometime after that began their travels westward. Apparently they spent several years in Kentucky, perhaps waiting for the Indian matter to be resolved. The family finally settled in Fayette County Illinois around 1821 where they lived the rest of their lives. In Fayette County, John was a Methodist minister and the first Methodist meetings were held at his house. As a Justice of the Peace, he married many couples in the county, but was unsuccessful when he ran for other offices. Since there is no estate record for John, it appears he had given everything he owned away before his death.

March 20, 2013 Dennis Ayers No comments exist

Rev War FlagThe oldest child of John Depew and his wife Catharine was Isaac Depew, Sr., born in Sept 1758 in New Jersey. When the family moved to a farm near Fincastle in Botetourt County, VA. he moved with them, but at the age of 18 he enlisted in the militia to fight in the Revolutionary War. Per his pension application filed many years after the war, in 1776 and 1777 he served several 3 month tours of duty as a Private fighting the Cherokee Indians. These actions first brought him to be familiar with East TN. In 1780 he again joined the militia to repel the Cherokees, and earned the rank of Captain under Colonel Landon Carter.

 

In Oct 1780, Captain Isaac Depew was one of the 1040 volunteers from Tennessee called the Overmountain men who played a very significant role in defeating the British in the Battle of Kings Mountain. The men first gathered at Sycamore Shoals near Elizabethton, TN, and then marched 80 miles in 5 days across the mountains to join forces with about 400 North Carolina militia. Together they engaged the enemy led by Colonel Ferguson at Kings Mountain just below the South Carolina border. (Recall from a previous post about our AyersKINGS1 ancestors in the Rev War, that Elihu and Nathaniel Ayers fought with the NC militia.) The victory at Kings Mountain proved decisive in defeating the British in the South and eventually in gaining American independence. Isaac Depew also stated that he later took part in the Battle of Guilford Courthouse in 1781.

 

After the war, Isaac returned home to Virginia. However, by 1784 he had relocated to East Tennessee. By occupation he was a wheelright, cabinet maker and a farmer. He also became active politically when in 1799 he was appointed Commissioner of Jonesborough and in 1801 Commissioner of Washington County. He eventually settled at Rock Springs, in Sullivan County.  Between 1787 and 1850 he bought and sold land on a regular basis and at one point had accumulated 3000 acres on and near Bays Mountain.

 

Isaac Depew, Sr. married twice, first to Jane Jones in 1780, and then after she died to Virginia Grimes, a widow in 1804.  Altogether, he was the father of seventeen children. According to reports, the Depews were deeply religious people and highly skilled workmen. Isaac Depew had heirs Depew Chapelwho were magistrates, physicians, farmers and soldiers. A grandson, The Reverend William P. Depew, to whom he had given substantial land became a preacher in the Methodist Church and was held in very high regard by all who knew him. He gave the land, organized and help build Depew’s Chapel and served as its pastor. Several Depews are buried in the Chapel cemetery including Captain Isaac Depew. The church, located in the shadow of Bays Mountain near Kingsport, TN, is still in use today.

 

Captain Isaac Depew was one of the most respected men in his county. However, he became the subject of general notoriety when he became opposed in principle to the Congressional Act of 1832 which established pensions for service in the Revolutionary War. His complaint was that it allowed pensions to Isaac Depew TSpersons able to support themselves. He believed the Act was too liberal in its provisions, and those who did not need the aid obtained it too easily. He personally possessed property and good health and the ability to subsist without aid from the government. It is totally unclear then, why Isaac Depew eventually filed his own application in 1852. By that time he was already 94 years old and other volunteers who could have provided testimony of his service had already died before him. So the application was turned down due to lack of sufficient proof, and he died in 1854 without providing any additional information.

 

February 1, 2013 Dennis Ayers No comments exist

FactoidThe word Botetourt easily rolls off your tongue doesn’t it. Not for me! The local citizens of that county have no trouble with it though….they just pronounce it like “Bod – a – Tot”.  When I visited the area in 2000, I was amazed that they were able to twist the spelling to make it sound like that.

 

Botetourt County, VA is one of the oldest counties in the state and it was named in honor of Lord Botetourt, the governor of VA when the county was formed in 1770. The land consists of beautiful rolling foothills situated in the Shenandoah Valley between the Blue Ridge Mountain and the Appalachian Mountains. This is also where the James River originates before it travels to Richmond, VA and eventually to the lower Chesapeake Bay.

 

March 18, 2012 Dennis Ayers 2 comments

HelenSome things in life you just cannot clearly see or understand while they are happening, but can only fully appreciate in hindsight. This is the case with my mother, Helen Derrie Ayers. Growing up I knew her as a loving and nurturing mother. As an adult I knew her as a God loving and supportive mother and grandmother to my children. Only now looking back on her life, can I better appreciate the depth of her religious faith and her fierce determination to overcome any adversity.

 

Mom was raised in poverty as the ninth of eleven births, and she saw only a bleak world around her. During the 1930s Depression, she had to drop out of school in the eighth grade because she had no shoes to wear. Even though she was only 14 years old, she worked up the courage to get a job at a new shirt factory in town by telling them she was 16. Luckily, they needed women operators. Most of the money she earned doing piecework went to support her father and mother, but she got a first glimpse at how she could earn a better life with a good work ethic. It was about that time also that she first found her faith in God, after being drawn into a church when she heard wonderful music. From that time on she was determined to find a way to escape her unhealthy home environment and even leave her small town of LaFollette, TN.

 

In Jan 1942, Mom married Ira Ayers, Dad, when he returned to LaFollette for Christmas from Baltimore, Maryland where he had gone to find employment. She then  moved back to Baltimore with him for a few months. However, he was soon drafted into WW II leaving her back in LaFollette with an unborn baby (me), while he spent the next 4 years overseas. Knowing that Dad would someday take her away again, Mom began saving some of money that he sent home. She had faith that it would help them find a better life. After the war, they again moved to Baltimore where Dad returned to his job with the B&O Railroad. They also took on the responsibility of supervising two large apartment houses which allowed them to continue saving. Mom was always embarrassed and ashamed of her family background and was determined to provide a solid foundation and better life for her own family. She found a new church in the city, became a born again Christian, and became a Sunday School teacher.

 

In 1947 and again in 1948, she tragically lost babies at birth because her blood type was RH negative and the babies died because her body had developed antibodies against the fetuses. Determined to overcome this medical adversity, she allowed the doctors to experiment with a new drug to counteract the antibodies, and as a result my two sisters, Carol and Annette, survived when they were born. And that experimentation in which she participated, helped cure the RH factor problem for today and future generations.

 

In 1950 Mom and Dad bought a small farm in the country about 20 miles west of Baltimore City. Dad continued working for the railroad, but because of the extra commuting expenses, finances were very tight. Mom often went to God in prayer seeking guidance. The family went to church and tithed faithfully. Her deep faith helped her to remain optimistic. By the mid 1950s they began selling chickens, eggs, strawberries and vegetables produced on the farm. By 1960, their small business had grown to selling 300 dozen eggs per week year round, along with hundreds of bushels of strawberries, tomatoes and corn in the summertime. Between working for the railroad and on the farm, Dad worked 16 hours a day and was always very stressed. However, Mom also did her part as she spent countless hours picking, cleaning, crating and delivering their products by car along a home delivery route they established. This was extremely hard work that produced little profit in return. Mom knew that she had to find a job off the farm for the family to move ahead, but she had no high school diploma.

 

Again, she was very determined and while continuing to work the farm, she started home schooling herself and eventually received a GED diploma. This led to her getting a job in 1965 at a state mental institution where she did on-the-job training and classwork to become a Licensed Practical Nurse (LPN). Continuing to push ahead, by 1970 she obtained an Industrial Therapist job at another state mental institution where she helped patients train for job skills before they were released back into the community. She found her niche in helping others, and took great pride in her work before retiring in 1983.

 

Growing up under unfortunate circumstances, Mom always had great empathy for others less fortunate. She applied this empathy in all parts of her lifelong work for the church and her personal life. She often visited, comforted and prayed for sick people. On two separate occasions in the 1950s and 60s, there were large neighboring families who lived in similar households like she had experienced, where the father made bleak living conditions worse by excessive drinking. She reached out and befriended those families and did everything she could for the wives and children. In addition, she and Dad would gather up as many children as would fit in their old car and take them to Sunday School. She was determined to show them that there was a path of hope that eventually could lead them to future security.

 

Mom always looked out for her own family as well. She supported and strengthened Dad whenever his resolve seemed to weaken, or whenever stress caused him to erupt at some family member. She provided constant encouragement and guidance to my sisters and me. She was the bedrock of our family. Thankfully, she motivated me to go to college, although no one knew where the money would come from. But she had faith the answer would be found, and it was found outside the home with a scholarship. She died in 2005, and even though she is no longer with us, Mom will always be our inspiration. Helen Derrie Ayers was indeed a strong woman of faith and determination.

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March 16, 2012 Dennis Ayers No comments exist

Veatta Derrie was married to Marshall Whistleman in 1958. Although he never spoke of it, Marshall was a WW II veteran with horrible memories. Born in Staunton, VA, he was living in Baltimore Maryland when he enlisted in the Army in 1943 at the age of 18. It was during the middle of the war, and Marshall was assigned to the infantry and sent to the European Theater. There he saw action in France and Germany, earning three Bronze stars which are for “heroic or meritorious achievement or service”.

 

He was taken prisoner by the Germans near Strasburg, France on Nov 25, 1944. He was first taken to the Stalag 12A POW transition camp near Weisbaden and later transferred to the Stalag 9B work camp near Bad Orb. Thankfully, Marshall was freed May 8, 1945 when the Germans surrendered. The living conditions were especially awful at Stalag 12A and on the transfer trains. About half of all POWs died, but Marshall was one of the lucky ones.

 

After the war ended, he completed his service in the Army at Fort Myer, VA, where he served as a guard at the Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington National Cemetery.  He left the Army in 1947 at the rank of Corporal.

 

March 6, 2012 Dennis Ayers No comments exist

As mentioned earlier, Robert and Sarah Derryberry/Derrie had three daughters and four sons.  Their oldest son was my grandfather,Thomas Washington Derrie, who I knew only briefly before his death.  Sadly, Thomas never knew either of his two grandfathers. Both were killed in the Civil War fighting for the South before he was born. The death of his father’s father, James Derryberry, at age 25 in the battle of Atlanta was described in an earlier post. The death of his mother’s father, George Washington Clowers, at age 34 in the battle of Winchester, VA, will be described in a future post when I discuss the Clowers. I wonder how many other children have lost both grandfather’s to the devastation of war?

 

Thomas Derrie was born in 1883 in Greene County, TN. Tom, as everyone called him, grew up working on his father’s farm near Warrensburg. He only attended school until the second grade and by age 18 he could not yet read or write. In 1903 he lost his own father, Robert, and in 1904 at the age of 22 he married Myrtle Jackson. Myrtle was born in Washington County, TN, in 1888 but her family had moved to neighboring Greene County. Coming from a large and poor family she was turned out at a very early age to be a live-in servant to a local merchant. Tom must have met her when he went to the store where she lived. They married when Myrtle, with black hair and light blue eyes, was only 15 years old. She must have wanted to get away, because she later said that the family she had worked for treated her poorly and didn’t feed her very much. By 1910 Tom and Myrtle had started their family and moved to Jacksboro in Campbell County, TN, perhaps because Myrtle’s father and mother had earlier relocated there.

 

Tom Derrie was of medium height and a somewhat stout man. He had brown hair and brown eyes. In his early 30’s, he worked in the nearby Caryville coal mines until around 1915 when his left lower leg was severely mangled while operating a coal crushing machine. The story is that after the other miners freed him from the machine, they took him to his house where the doctor cut off his leg just below the knee while he laid on the kitchen table. How painful that must have been, but there were no hospitals in the county. He must have received a cash settlement from the coal mines, because in 1917 he and Myrtle purchased a house in Jacksboro for $300. However, continuing to make a living with only one good leg became extremely difficult.

 

Altogether, Tom and Myrtle had eleven children between 1905 and 1927. Unfortunately, only five of them grew to adulthood: Lillian, Alma, Alvin (Bud), Helen and Veatta. Most of the others died at birth or at a very early age, but nine-year old Dorothy died after the doctor lanced her tonsils and she bled to death. There is also the story that they lost two young ones during the great Spanish Flu epidemic of 1918-1919 which cost millions of lives around the world. Tom had to dig the graves while he too suffered from the flu. There was always sorrow in their household from the many lost children.

 

1913 Model T Touring Car
1913 Model T Touring Car

In an attempt to support his family after losing his leg, Tom bought an old Model T touring car with button-down side window curtains, and became a taxi driver. Fixing constant flat tires and making frequent repairs on that old car trained him to be especially good at fixing autos. As a result, he eventually gave up the taxi and became an auto mechanic. Perhaps seeking more work around 1923, he moved the family five miles down the road to LaFollette to a house on Tennessee Ave, which they rented for $10 per month. By 1937, the family moved into a house about a mile outside of town on Highway 25W at Coke Oven Hill which they rented for $5 per month. This house was unpainted and very drafty. In 1945, they were somehow able to purchase the house and property which had 160 ft of road frontage for $150. Tom then built a good-sized garage next to the house to repair cars. Unfortunately, business was not very good, and due to various reasons the years in LaFollette were not kind to the family as they often lived in great poverty with few clothes and barely enough food to eat.

 

Tom suffered continuously with his amputated leg, and his crude, wooden artificial leg never fit well, always causing sores on the stub. That together with his inability to make a decent income and his family sorrows, caused him to become a bitter man and a heavy drinker over the years. His drinking problems also eventually dragged down Myrtle, and others close to him into the same sad and deplorable situation. The heavy drinking only made their financial condition worse. Finally, in 1949, Tom suffered a ruptured appendix and after three days in the hospital died from complications at age 65. He was taken to a mortuary on the second floor above a furniture store. His oldest daughter, Lillian, had heard there were rats in the building and stayed with his body all night for protection. Tom is buried in the Jacksboro Cemetery.

 

Myrtle remarried in 1951 to Henry White, sold the house at Coke Oven Hill, and moved into his small house in LaFollette proper. It was a marriage of companionship and they lived comfortably for a few years. In 1956, she apparently developed breast cancer, but before treatment she died from a heart attack at age 66.  She is buried next to Tom in the Jacksboro Cemetery.

 

January 30, 2012 Dennis Ayers No comments exist

It is said that armies march on their stomachs. Well, it is also true that they march on their feet and good footwear is an absolute necessity. During the Civil War the roads were dusty in the summer and muddy in the winter, and both the Confederate and Union soldiers suffered greatly during marches. More Confederates were country-bred and accustomed to longer hiking, but on the other hand the Confederacy was always low on shoes. Ill-fitting shoes were also a problem. Confederate soldiers identified as shoemakers were encouraged to send home, or in some cases were given leave to go home and retrieve their tools. They were then put to work repairing shoes, being exempted from guard duty and other camp duties. However, the general shortage of footwear only got worse as the war continued on.

 

There were numerous accounts of Rebels marching barefoot for miles, even in winter months. On the march back from Gettysburg in the Summer of 1863, those whose shoes were worn out or whose feet were sore from wearing bad shoes, were organized into a separate command and allowed to pick their way along the grassy roadside. Shoes and boots were so valuable that special missions were made to procure them. They were even pulled from the feet of dead men on the bloodstained battlefields.

 

January 7, 2012 Dennis Ayers No comments exist

By the early 1800s, most of the Derryberrys of Burke County, had chosen to leave North Carolina for the still newer frontiers to the west in Tennessee. Why? Well, in 1790, North Carolina had ceded its western land from the Appalachian Mountains to the Mississippi River to the new state of Tennessee. New counties formed almost immediately in eastern Tennessee, but the rest of the state remained Indian lands for awhile. Eventually, by the early 1800s, treaties with the Indians allowed additional counties to form in the middle of the state. The allure of cheap land in Tennessee and Kentucky lead many in the eastern states to simply pack up their families and all their belongings and set off into the wild.  Some Revolutionary War soldiers were also collecting their warrant land grants provided by the NC government for war services. In some cases, others bought the land grants from soldiers and moved west.

 

Before railroads and highways, river travel was often the best way short of struggling over mountains and through dense forests. The most basic and affordable watercraft to employ was the boxy and awkward flatboat. It was so named because of its flat underside and shallow draft, which gave the hull the balance and strength to hold a large deck, but which made the vessel difficult to steer. At anywhere from 8 to 20 feet wide and sometimes up to 100 feet long however, the flatboat was considerably larger than any previous riverboats.

 

The Derryberrys most likely traveled westward on such flatboats navigating various large rivers in Tennessee which, beyond the Appalachians, are mostly flatwater. The Nolichucky River begins about 50 miles west of Morganton, NC and flows through the Smokey Mountains, where it is sometimes white water, into Tennessee where it joins the French Broad River.

The Nolichucky River

 

The Derryberrys undoubtedly traveled through gaps in the mountains by wagon before finding the flatwater of the Nolichucky in Green County Tennessee. After embarking on flatboats they continued down the Nolichcky to the French Broad River and then on to the Tennessee River at present day Knoxville. Some  travelers at that point apparently disembarked and continued westward by wagon following Avery’s Trace, one of the earliest routes to Nashville.  At present day Crossville, they branched off to the southwest to Middle Tennessee.   By 1820, there were 12 Derryberry families living in Warren and Maury Counties in Middle Tennessee.

 

However, there were some Derreberrys who stayed behind in North Carolina, and all are believed to have been descendants of John Derreberry Jr., who had died about 1789 and his wife Hannah. Their three sons, George William, Michael (Micah) and John all farmed their entire lives in North Carolina. Of special interest is Micah who was indeed a robust farmer until the end. In an old Derreberry family bible the following is found:

“Micah Derreberry in 1875, at age of 96, cut 90 Doz. wheat”. 

Although it is unclear how much wheat this represents, it still must have been quite an accomplishment for a man his age.

 

George William Derryberry, our ancestor, and his wife Edey also had three sons plus a daughter, Margaret, before Edey died in her 30s.  Little is known about Margaret or the oldest son John who also died early in his 30s.  Meanwhile, for reasons unknown, sometime in the 1850s their two youngest sons caught the migration bug. Samuel Derryberry went as far as Arkansas by following the Tennessee River all the way to the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. Samuel purchased land in Farm_in_Greene_CountyBenton County Arkansas which is where he died in 1878. George and Edey’s youngest son, William, who is our ancestor, also moved his family in the 1850s, but only as far as Greene County, Tennessee. Perhaps they intended also to venture further into Middle Tennessee or even to Arkansas, but for some unknown reason once the family got through the mountains their  journey ended earlier than planned. Greene County has gently rolling hills and wide flat farmlands in the river valleys. Could it have been the beautiful farmland in Greene County, which enticed them to stop there or was it some unknown necessity?  The actual reason is lost to history.

 

January 4, 2012 Dennis Ayers No comments exist

RW HeroAbout the time the Derryberrys were obtaining land grants in North Carolina, the Revolutionary War (1775 – 1783) was being fought in the colonies and eventually it affected their area.  From available records, it seems that the only Derryberry to have actually fought as a Patriot in North Carolina was Andrew Derryberry, who was likely the second youngest son of Hans Michael, born around 1765. Perhaps the others were too old to take up arms, or didn’t speak English well enough, or perhaps they remained neutral or loyal to the English crown. The actual reasons are unknown.

 

It is known that some of the Terryberrys and relations back in New Jersey remained loyal to England, and eventually migrated to Canada through New York by the early 1800s. On the other hand, there was a John Terryberry who applied for a pension from New York state who said he fought for the colonies in New Jersey.  So it was a mixed story for the descendants of Peter Dürrenberger, as it was for all the colonists. Historians have estimated that approximately 40 to 45 percent of the colonists supported the rebellion, while 15 to 20 percent remained loyal to the British Crown. The rest attempted to remain neutral and kept a low profile.

 

According to Andrew Derryberry’s pension application filed in 1832 from Tennessee, he first volunteered his services to the Burke County, NC militia at the age of 16 in the winter of 1781. He spent several months guarding forts in the area, and occasionally fighting Indians, before returning home. Then in August of 1782 he joined the Continental Army. This time he was sent to Charleston, but never saw any major action and was finally discharged in July 1783.  Subsequently, much later when living in Tennessee, Andrew received a pension of $39.27 per year for his services, and after his death his wife, Sarah, also received a widow’s pension.