Note: This is a new post inserted in January 2021
Isaac Newton Depew (IND) was born out of wedlock to Edward H Depew and Abigail Cupp. Without records, this parentage cannot be proven. However, it is highly probable based on DNA Forensic Analysis. Capt Isaac Depew was an uncle and William G. Depew was his cousin. Many researchers had previously thought William G. was his likely father, but the DNA, plus time and place strongly points to Edward.
Born around 1800 in Botetourt County, VA, Edward was the only son of John Depew Jr., and Mary “Polly” Seagraves. When John’s family migrated to Illinois, the first leg of their long journey followed the Wilderness Road through Southwest Virginia. There were encampments and resting stops along the way, as they traveled by wagon.
One regular resting stop was the settlement where the Wilderness Trail passed over Clinch Mountain through Moccasin Gap in Scott County. Today that settlement is called Gate City.
Abby Cupp was born about 1800 probably in Grayson County, Virginia. She was the daughter of Jacob S. Cupp and Sibitha “Sibby” Breeding. As a young woman, Abby lived as a single mother in Scott County, VA, through which the Wilderness Road passed. She apparently never married since she is found in every census from 1820 through 1850 as a single person. Although unmarried, Abby had a least six children by various partners.
One of her first partners around 1818 was evidently Edward Depew. Both still in their teens at the time, Edward and Abby would have had the opportunity to meet and interact during the Depew’s journey though Scott County. Whether this was a short romance between two young people, or just a transaction is up for conjecture. Their circumstances at the time are totally unknown. Regardless, Edward eventually continued on his way to Illinois, probably not realizing he had fathered a child, which would take the Depew name. This coupling scenario aligns very will with a story passed down through various Depew families that IND’s mother was a cook in a Virginia logging camp, and had a child with a man named Depew who subsequently left her.
Edward ultimately settled in Fayette County, IL. He married Priscilla Williams there in 1828 and had eight children with her before dying in 1848. The 1820 census for Scott County shows Abby living as a single mother with no young male in her household. However, her parent’s nearby household shows a very young male living with them. So, it is quite possible that IND spent part of his life living with his Cupp grandparents.
By 1830, the Jacob Cupp family along with many of their offspring, including Abby, had relocated to Claiborne County, TN, in an area which came to be known as Cupp Ridge. However, Abby still lived unmarried in a separate household up until she died before 1860. It appears that IND may have spent most of his early life in Claiborne County.
