Category: Factoid

Famous Ayers Relations

May 3, 2011 Dennis Ayers No comments exist

Most Americans are related to someone famous. In fact over 100 million of us are related to at least one President of the United States. We Ayers who descend from John Ayre, the Immigrant from 1635 (see post of 16 March 2011), can claim at least two that I know about. Gerald R. Ford, the 38th President, had Ayers connections on his mother’s side reaching back to Robert Ayer, son of John Ayre. William Jefferson Clinton, the 42nd President, has Ayers connections on his father’s side through his grandmother, who descended from Nathaniel Ayers of Pittsylvania County, VA like us. Also of interest, Laura Ingalls Wilder, the author of the “Little House on the Prairie” book series was a descendant of Thomas Ayer, son of John Ayre, the Immigrant.

Famous Ayers Relations AYERS Line

May 3, 2011 Dennis No comments exist

The Founding of LaFollette, TN

April 18, 2011 Dennis No comments exist

In addition to the Cumberland Gap cutting through the mountains, heading south the next largest break in the mountains is in Campbell County, TN. In the 1890s, two LaFollette brothers arrived in the Big Creek Gap area as it was then known. Upon observing iron deposits, timber stands and abundant coal and water resources located in close proximity, they purchased over 37,000 acres and formed the LaFollette Coal, Iron and Railway Company. To attract workers for their new company, they built the town of LaFollette. As workers flooded into the new town, the population grew from 300 in 1900 to 3000 by 1920. At its peak, the LaFollette blast furnace was one of the largest in the Southern United States and the LaFollette brothers employed some 1500 people from all backgrounds. Ironically, the business failed during the height of the roaring twenties. By then the small town of LaFollette was already firmly in place.

Crayon Portraits

April 17, 2011 Dennis 1 comment

The picture below is Elihu Ayers (1819 – 1896). It is the oldest picture of the any ancestor that I have, and it is a copy of the original “crayon portrait”. I estimate the image was created in the 1880s when he was between 60 and 70 years old.

In days before color photography, many techniques were tried to enliven pictures. To create a crayon portrait, a photographer printed a light image and then artistically enhanced it using charcoal, paint and crayon. Sometimes the photographer would update the original image or remove flaws. Crayon portraits were popular from the 1860s to 1900. In this particular case, I don’t think the artist was very talented, as I have seen better examples elsewhere.

Why do they call it Stinking Creek?

April 15, 2011 Dennis Ayers No comments exist

Why do they call it Stinking Creek? Well, it turns out that there are at least a half-dozen streams named Stinking Creek across our country, with all of them arriving at their name due to some mishap in the past that caused a big stench. In the case of Stinking Creek in Campbell County, TN, it was long ago first called Sugar Creek due to the many Maple trees. The story of the name change as told by G. L. Ridenour in his book The Land of the Lake is:

“The winter of 1779-1780 was known as a cold winter. Snow began in late October. Intense cold followed for weeks. Streams froze over. Animals that had drifted to the cane breaks and timber perished in the bitter cold. When spring and summer came in the beautiful valley of cane and meadow, all the animals had perished from the cold. It was an animal charnel house. For months Indian and white hunters alike avoided the place by reason of the carrion stench. Turkey buzzards and animal scavengers that had dens in the cliffs gorged on the putrid flesh of the dead animals. From that time until the present the name of the creek and the beautiful valley has remained Stinking Creek.”

Stinking Creek

Men Never Get Lost

April 8, 2011 Dennis No comments exist

Men never get lost…or at least that’s what they think! Well, apparently this is not just a modern-day phenomenon, as it seems to have been true over the centuries. Take for example the story about the legendary wilderness pioneer and scout, Daniel Boone. When Boone was 85 years old, he was asked by a writer if he ever got lost in his long wanderings after game. He said “No, I was never lost, but I was bewildered once for three days.“

The Carolina Road

March 31, 2011 Dennis No comments exist

Colonial families migrating to the Southern Virginia and North Carolina Piedmont area had to traverse rutted dirt wagon roads no more than 10 feet wide with very few routes to follow. Before the French and Indian War in the 1750s, the preferred route going south first took them across the Potomac river via Noland’s Ferry, near what is now Point of Rocks, MD. The Carolina Road then took them east of the Blue Ridge Mountain along a trail which essentially followed Routes 15 and 29 in present day Virginia straight to the Piedmont area. The road was favored by Colonists – as it had been favored by their predecessors, the Algonquin and Iroquois Indians – because of numerous springs along its route, milder temperatures east of the mountains and relatively safe fords across major rivers and streams.

Colonial Naming Patterns

March 24, 2011 Dennis Ayers No comments exist

After reading the first half dozen of these posts, you now have seen many familiar Given (first) names like John and Mary used over and over again. Well, that is because the early settlers of our country more often than not followed the same customs used for naming children in Europe at the time, while also leaning towards Biblical names.

In many families the oldest son and daughter were named directly after the father and mother. In other families the eldest boy was ofter named after the father’s father and the oldest girl was typically named after the mother’s mother. The second boy was then named after the mother’s father, while the second girl was named after the father’s mother. These customs obviously created a high replication of names across generations. In early Massachusetts over 50 percent of girls were named Mary, Elizabeth or Sarah. Some of the popular names for boys were John, Benjamin, Joseph, Jonathan, Nathan and Samuel.

The prevailing use of so many of the same names, along with the general scarcity of records back then, sure make it tough on family historians today. In fact, I bet our ancestors are smiling down on us as they watch us struggle to put the pieces of the family puzzle together.

Naming Pikes Peak

March 22, 2011 Dennis No comments exist

As previously mentioned, Obadiah Ayer married Hannah Pike, daughter of John Pike who also came over from England on The James. This John Pike was the immigrant ancestor of General Zebulon Pike, the American soldier and explorer for whom Pikes Peak in Colorado is named. His Pike Expedition in 1806 mapped much of the southern portion of the Louisiana Purchase.