Tag: Kentucky

William Lafayette Depew, Man of Many Skills

March 16, 2016 Dennis No comments exist

Ira Ayers’ grandfather on his mother’s side was William Lafayette Depew. Some called him Bill, but most folks called him Will. He was born in 1872 in Hancock County, Tennessee, as the oldest child of Henry and Sarah Depew. Will grew up farming and raising and shearing sheep with his brothers on his father’s farm. However, he eventually developed skills that would lead him into other occupations. Although various records indicate that he was a farmer his whole life, his daughter, Elizabeth Suckel, claims that although they lived on a farm, he never did very much farming. Instead, at various times, he was a butcher, a grocer, a surveryor and a carpenter.

In 1893 at age 20, Will Depew married Matilda Seal who was two years younger. Very little is known about her. She apparently was mostly called Tilda, but maybe also Grilla at times. Her grand daughter Rose Jordan never knew her, but remembered the name sounded like “Gorilla” to her as a little girl. Will and Tilda had four children until Tilda’s tragic death around 1904, perhaps as a result of her last childbirth. No record of death is available.

The Louisville & Nashville (L&N) Railroad was one of the first railways built in the South starting in the 1850s. After the Civil War it grew rapidly and by the turn of the century it had pushed into the coalfields of the Southern Appalachians. At Jellico, a small town on the KY and TN border, the L&N tied into the Southern Railway and continued down through the Elk Valley in Campbell County on the way to Knoxville and then Atlanta. Because of his grocer experience, around 1900 Will Depew was hired by the L&N to run its commissary at the train depot in Jellico. So, he moved his family from Hancock County to Campbell County, TN.

Unfortunately, in September 1906 Jellico was the scene of a horrendous disaster when a train car at the depot loaded with 11 tons of dynamite exploded killing 12 people nearby, and wounding some 200 more. 500 people were left homeless as the town of 3000 was devastated. It was very fortunate that Will was not a victim, but the incident apparently ended his job with the railroad as the town of Jellico had to be rebuilt.

After Tilda died, and about the time of the Jellico incident, Will met Florence Ada Ayers and they were later married in 1907. Florence was a loving and loyal wife. Between 1909 and 1932 Bill and Florence had seven daughters and two sons. Tragically, one daughter died at only one year old from measles and whooping cough, one son died from typhoid at age 20 and one son died at age 15 when struck by a car while riding a motor scooter to school. Two of their daughters, Estelle and Ethel, were twins. Their youngest daughter, Lena Elizabeth, born in 1926 still lives in Long Beach, California. She is a delightful lady and loves to talk about her memories of earlier times.

Will Depew was about 5 foot 9 inches tall with a slender build. He never was called to serve in any military capacity. According to Elizabeth, he was a quiet man who only spoke as needed. He was strong willed, determined, and sustained by his faith and perseverance. He was very strict with his children as he was raised himself. Will did all the shopping for the family. While attending a turkey shoot in his thirties, he was shot in the hip, but recovered. Elizabeth, also remembers him playing the fiddle and the organ, so he must have had a good ear for music.

After Will married Florence, he continued working as a grocer, but also learned carpentry. He eventually went on to build houses and restore churches. By 1910 Bill and Florence and their family were living in the Hickory Creek area next to Florence’s father, William Riley Ayers. In the 1920s, when Florence’s brother, Martin, decided to build a new house on Walnutt Mountain, Will helped with the carpentry work. He told Elizabeth that when work became scarce during the 1930s Great Depression, he “nickeled and dimed’ to keep the family going by fixing up places, sharpening tools and saws, and helping neighboring families with “how to” advice on many things.

Unfortunately, as he grew older, Will became badly crippled with severe rheumatoid arthritis in his hips and legs, and needed to depend on canes and crutches to get around. By 1940 he was unable to work. It was hard for him to sit with one stiff leg, so he designed a special high stool/chair to be able to sit at the table. He designed, built, stained and polished the chair with a cane seat to match the other dining chairs. Will was very innovative that way.

Florence died of cancer in 1942 and for awhile Will lived in an “old folks” home. However, about 1945 he moved to LaFollette to live with his daughter, Della Cornelius. That’s where he later died in 1956 at age 84 from a heart attack. Will is buried in the Hall Cemetery on Stinking Creek where both of his wives and both sons are also buried.

Was it Henry Eli or Eli Henry Depew?

April 19, 2013 Dennis Ayers No comments exist

As mentioned earlier, Isaac Newton Depew and his wife, Betsy, had a total of 16 children. With so many names to hand out they became quite creative with some. For example they named two sons George Washington Depew and Thomas Jefferson Depew after famous presidents. Their fourth son was Henry Eli Depew born in 1848 in Harlan County, Kentucky. Some records show his name as Eli Henry while some other records show his name as Henry Eli. So, what was his true name? Unfortunately, without a birth certificate we will never know for sure. However, in the end his headstone shows the name as Henry Eli, giving whoever provided the headstone the last word in the matter. Besides, everyone just called him “Hen”.

By 1860 when he was 12 years of age, Hen had moved with his family to Hancock County, Tennessee, near Sneedville which is where he remained for most of his life. When the Civil War brokeout, he was too young to join the fighting like his two older brothers, William and Joseph. This no doubt was fortunate for us descendants since we would not be here if he had fought and perished like so many did. Hen became a farmer like most everyone else in the county, and he grew everything possible to make a go of it. According to his granddaughter, Elizabeth Suckel, he also raised sheep to sell wool.

Henry Depew married a number of times. At age 23 his first wife was Sarah Ellen McCollum whom he married in 1871. As an interesting side note, Sarah’s father James McCollum had left home in the 1860s to venture to northern California to try his hand at gold mining. When that didn’t work out so well he still remained there as a farmer for a few years. Finally, he returned to Hancock County, Tennessee after being away some 20 years. Together, Henry and Sarah raised ten children. Unfortunately, Sarah died in 1909, but by then all their children were grown with the youngest being 15.

According to an article published in a Hancock County newspaper in 1999, Hen soon married a second time to Myrtle Johnson who was 47 years younger. This marriage did not go well for reasons unknown today, and it was not long before Hen fell in love with Virginia (Vergie) Rhea who was also very young, but 4 years older than Myrtle. However, when he asked Myrtle for a divorce she did not want to easily give up her new home and refused. Following some poor advice from his brother Thomas, Henry thought he could avoid legal complications by going to another state to get married. So, in 1910 Henry went just across the border to Lee County Virginia with Vergie, and apparently got married under the name of Henry D. Pugh. When he returned to Hancock County, Hen learned that the Sheriff was soon coming to arrest him. Since he and Thomas had heard from others about the good life in Texas and the fortune they could make growing cotton there, they decided it was a good day to depart for Texas. The trip took them six weeks.

Myrtle got everything Henry owned but his land. Somehow Henry’s son James was able to save the land from Myrtle. According to letters he wrote back to his son, Henry did not fare well in Texas being sick most of the time. Eventually, he and Virgie were able to move back to Hancock County, Tennessee, and they were officially married in 1912 in nearby Grainger County. Hen had three more daughters with Virgie before he died in 1925 at the age of 76. He is buried in the Depew Cemetery in Sneedville where his first wife, Sarah is also buried. Vergie lived for over 50 years longer and died at the age of 88. She is buried in the Burke Cemetery.

Depews in the Civil War

April 3, 2013 Dennis No comments exist

In the Derrie chapter of our family history, I told the story about the William Derryberry family in Greene County, TN having sons who fought on opposing sides in the Civil War. Read on and you will hear another similar story about Isaac Newton Depew’s family.

First, it is worthwhile to set the scene. Isaac and his wife Betsy were married and started their family in Hawkins County, TN. However, in 1844 the part of the county where they lived was removed from Hawkins and became Hancock County. The new small county was nestled up against the Virginia line on the north and separated from Hawkins County and most of East TN by Clinch Mountain on the south side. The seat of the new county was originally called Greasy Rock, but the name was later changed to Sneedville. Consisting of small valleys and hollows squeezed in between 800 foot taller mountains, Hancock County was from the onset very rural and very poor. Still there were some slaves, even in an area that was comprised mostly of small farmers. In 1860 there was a total of only 66 slaveowners and 243 slaves.

Isaac’s two oldest children were sons. When the Civil War broke out in 1861, William Rufus was 20 years old and his brother Joseph was 19. Like the rest of East TN the county was divided by the war. With slavery not a big issue for county residents there was not much at stake except perhaps southern pride. You can imagine the Depew family conversations or arguments over the war especially since Isaac was a preacher. Being very close in age, William and Joseph must have been very close brothers, but they ultimately decided to choose different sides of the conflict.

William was the first to jump in when he joined the Confederacy along with some others from the county by enlisting as a Private in the 29th Regiment Tennessee Infantry in Nov of 1861 at Knoxville. The 29th Infantry was part of the Army of Tennessee and it participated in various campaigns in central TN including the Battle of Murfreesboro in late 1862. Around that same time records show that William appears on a list of casualties as slightly wounded. However, he actually died later on Jan 28, 1863 from measles while in the hospital in Chattanooga. He was buried in an unmarked grave at the Chattanooga Confederate Cemetery. More than 135 years later, a Depew descendant sought to rectify the injustice of William Depew’s unmarked gravesite. Billy Edwards took action to have authorities erect a nice headstone for William at the Cemetery in Chattanooga.

When Joseph Depew decided to join the fighting he enlisted as a Private with the Union Army. He joined the 47th Kentucky Mounted Infantry Regiment at Irvine, KY in Sept 1863. His unit operated mostly in Eastern KY during the war guarding the railroads and saw little fighting and almost no casualties. Finally, Joseph was mustered out unharmed in Dec 1864. Since Joseph didn’t even join until months after his brother William had died in a hospital farther south, they never came close to opposing each other in battle. Still this story is similar to that of many families divided by the Civil War.

Isaac Newton Depew, Circuit Riding Preacher

April 1, 2013 Dennis Ayers No comments exist

Isaac Newton Depew was born in 1818 in Hawkins County, TN, according to records. He was apparently named after the English Physicist and Mathematician, Sir Isaac Newton who lived 1642-1727. He also had one brother named George Washington Depew and another named John Wilson Depew. As you will see going forward, the Depew line of men were often named after famous people before them. At the age of 22, Isaac married Mariah Elizabeth Setzer, born 1822 in North Carolina. Over the next 30 years, they had a huge family of 16 children with about half of them being male and half female. They lived in Hancock and Hawkins counties in Northeast TN and Harlan and Clay counties Southeast KY. Perhaps so much moving around was because in addition to being a farmer, Isaac was a Circuit Riding Preacher.

In the earlier frontier times, Circuit Riders were clergy in the Methodist Episcopal Church who were assigned to travel around specific territories to minister to settlers and to organize congregations. Because of the distance between churches, these preachers rode on horseback. Popularly called Circuit Riders or Saddlebag Preachers, they were officially called Traveling Clergy. Always on the move, they traveled with few possessions, carrying only what could fit in their saddlebags. They traveled through wilderness and villages, preaching every day at any place available. Typically they traveled the same circuit for a year before being reassigned to a different territory. There is some evidence also that Isaac served as a contract mail carrier for at least part of the time, perhaps along with his circuit riding.

There is an amusing story provided by Bruce Johnson which has passed down through the generations about when Isaac was a preacher. Once when he was away on one of his trips, a man came to his log cabin during the night. Mariah and the children heard the man walking outside and were afraid to go out. It was customary for visiting neighbors to call out their name when approaching someone’s house in the dark, but this person did not do that and they knew he was up to something. The man stuck his bare feet between the logs to climb the side of the house to get at their corn stored above the ceiling. The house had eves under the roof left open for ventilation and it was easy for the man to reach in and get the corn. Also, the mud chinking had been removed between some of the logs to allow the flow of air in to relieve them from the summer heat. They heard the man filling his sack with corn and he left when it was full.

Isaac came home after a few days and was told about the incident. Apparently the man did not know that Isaac had come home and he returned the next night for more corn. As he stuck his toes between the logs to climb up the wall, Isaac gave both feet a good whack with a hammer. The family heard a scream followed by a thud as the man hit the ground. The thief left in a hurry. Isaac suspected the person who did it, and a few days later Isaac was at a local store when he saw this man hobbling around with both feet bandaged up. He asked him what happened to his feet and the man replied, “A cow stepped on them.” Isaac said, “Yes, and I know exactly which cow it was too.”

Isaac died in Clay County, KY in 1890 at the age of 72. His wife, Mariah Elizabeth, called Betsy who had bore him sixteen children died the following year.

Some Depews Bravely Migrate to the Old Northwest Frontier

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.

Elihu Ayers in the Tennessee Mountains

April 15, 2011 Dennis No comments exist

Bailey Ayers had four sons. By about 1840 they had all moved from Kentucky across the border into Tennessee. The sons names were John (Jackie), Elihu (Lihu), James (Jim), and Elcanah (Cain) with our ancestor being Elihu Ayers. They eventually homesteaded in the mountains of Campbell County in a remote area called Stinking Creek, which is a long valley with Pine Mountain on one side, Walnut Mountain on the other and the the unfortunately named stream running the length of the valley for about 20 miles.

The first people, other than the native Indians, to inhabit these mountains and valley lands were the long hunters like Daniel Boone and a few before him. Liking the abundance of game, clear water and fertile land in the valleys, these hunter-explorers became the first settlers to make their homes in an untamed wilderness.

The first settlers actually sought out isolation, and perhaps this is why the Ayers brothers too moved to the Stinking Creek area from Kentucky which was quickly gaining population in the 1800s. For these backwoods settlers, however, death was a constant concern. Disease and accidents were prevalent. There was a continuous threat of being killed by wild animals or even other humans. Hospitals were nonexistent, and doctors were few and far away. Children were delivered by midwives, and many infants and mothers died in childbirth. They lived in log cabins, farmed and hunted the land, and had large families.

Their homes were built by cutting logs by hand, and they also made crude furniture from logs. They split logs to make fence rails. It was back breaking work. Big open fireplaces were built out of rocks and used for preparing meals. They raised corn, tobacco, cotton, and potatoes as crops, and had gardens for other vegetables. They raised cattle, sheep and hogs as livestock with kept chickens for eggs. The hogs and chickens usually ran free around the farm and adjacent fields and woods. The forests furnished deer, wild turkeys, squirrels, fish and rabbits. Their clothes were hand made from the cotton and the sheep wool. They made lye from hickory wood ashes and boiled it with animal grease to make soap.

The Ayers brothers certainly did their part of propagating the family genes as they gave the Stinking Creek area many descendants. For example, our ancestor, Elihu Ayers, married Theresa (Thursey) Wilburn and together they had eleven children, eight of which were boys, and the boys that lived to adulthood in turn had large families. So, the Ayers name quickly became prominent in that part of the county with many of the same given names such as Elihu, John, James, William, etc., repeated over and over again through generations.

Crayon Portrait of ggGF Elihu Ayers 1818-1896 — **“Lihu” Ayers**

In 1860, Elihu was age 41 and already had his large family. He had a farm valued at $600 (~$15,000 in 2010) which was larger than his two next door brothers, and a personal estate of $275. He is said to have had a high tempered nature.

In 1861, the Civil War became a tragedy both nationally and locally. Just prior to the outbreak of the war, Campbell County had a population of 6712 with only 61 people owning a total of 366 slaves. Since the ownership of slaves directly impacted only a few, and no one in the mountains, there was little sentiment in Campbell County for the Confederate cause. In fact, this was true for most of the counties of Eastern Tennessee, but despite their resistance to separate from the Union, they were outvoted by the rest of the state. So, Campbell County became an island of Union sympathy surrounded by a sea of Confederate support, with many men in the county joining Union regiments formed not far away in Kentucky. Early in the war, the nearby Cumberland Gap at the border of Virginia, Kentucky and Tennessee, was thought to be of strategic importance to both sides. As a result, Campbell County suffered greatly at times in 1862 and 1863 as both armies fought and scavenged in the county as they tried to secure the Gap for their side.

It is totally unclear the extent to which Elihu Ayers and his various relations in the Stinking Creek area may have participated in the Civil War. Many records were lost, especially for the Confederate service. Existing Confederate and Union service records simply do not list any Ayers from Campbell County. Perhaps his age and family situation, and the fact that he was a farmer living far off the beaten path on the backside of nowhere in the mountains, allowed Elihu to somehow avoid the conflict. Interestingly, he had cousins in Virginia and in southern TN, (tracing back to old Nathaniel Ayers in VA) also named Elihu, who did in fact fight in the war for the South.

Elihu was a farmer his whole life. He died at age 77 in 1896 just a year after his wife Thursey died.

Bailey Ayers in the War of 1812

April 9, 2011 Dennis Ayers No comments exist

Bailey Ayers was born in North Carolina and moved to Kentucky around 1800 with his family. At the age of 19, Bailey became one of many Kentucky volunteers in the War of 1812.

As a result of the treaty after the Revolutionary War, the U.S. gained control of the land between Kentucky and the Canadian border, called the Old Northwest Territory. However, despite the treaty, the British still kept forts in the territory, and continued to supply the Indians with arms. The renowned Indian chief, Tecumseh, formed a Confederation of numerous tribes, and the Confederation’s brutal raids hindered American expansion into potentially valuable farmlands in the territory. Americans on the western frontier greatly resented this interference, and this aggravation was just one of numerous insults by the British that led up to the U.S. declaring war.

Some of the major battles of the ensuing War of 1812 were in the Old Northwest Territory, along the Canadian border, and fought in large part by Kentucky militiamen. After a British victory and subsequent massacre of a large number of Kentuckians in the area that is now Michigan, the governor of Kentucky asked for 2,000 more reinforcements. Instead 4,000 enthusiastic Kentucky volunteers were formed in August 1813 in Newport, KY, (near present day Cincinnati) and sent to aid. Bailey Ayers was one of those brave individuals, and he joined the Kentucky Mounted Volunteer Militia commanded by Colonel Taul.

After the Americans recaptured Detroit, they continued to pursue the retreating British and their Indian allies across the Canadian border. They caught up with them about 50 miles away in Ontario where the key Battle of the Thames River took place. When American scouts reported that the British lines were spread extremely thin, General Harrison decided on a daring strategy: a cavalry assault by the Kentucky mounted troops directly on the British lines. The British were not prepared for this type of assault and when the first wave of horseman quickly rode through the British lines, and then turned on the British from the rear, British troops quickly surrendered. The American forces then went on to defeat the Indian allies, killing most of them including their leader, Tecumseh, who had refused to flee. This victory for the Americans was the final battle in the Northwest and most of the Indian tribes abandoned their association with the British. The Americans had defeated the British and the Indians in the territory once and for all.

War of 1812 Map — **War of 1812 in Northwest**

As a member of the Mounted Militia, Bailey Ayers was no doubt one of the horsemen involved in the victory. He later returned home to the mountains of Wayne County, KY where he married Mary Guffy and they eventually raised a family of four sons and three daughters. Sometime before 1820 the family moved slightly east to Whitley County, Kentucky, and then before 1840 moved across the Tennesee border into Campbell county, Tennessee. He died there after 1860.

Becoming Kentucky Pioneers

April 7, 2011 Dennis Ayers No comments exist

As can be clearly seen from stories up to now, our Ayers ancestors possessed a pioneering spirit that kept urging them ever onward to new lands of promise and hope. Nathaniel Ayers in North Carolina was like those before him.

Up until the mid 1700s, the French had control of land west of the Appalachian Mountains, and essentially kept the English settlers hemmed in the East by playing the Indians against them, and by relying on the seemingly insurmountable mountains. However, after the British defeated the French and Indians in 1763, the French conceded all contested lands to the Mississippi River. This initially was a cause for celebration for the settlers wanting to move to the new frontier lands. However, the royal proclamation of 1763 did much to dampen that celebration as it in effect closed off the frontier to colonial expansion, ostensibly to calm the Indians and regulate trade and settlement.

Daniel Boone, the legendary wilderness scout, was born in Pennsylvania and raised as a Quaker. Like the Ayers family from Maryland, Daniel’s family was one of the many that migrated southward, settling in western North Carolina in 1750. As a young man, he was known to be fearless and for taking long hunting expeditions into Indian territory. The region beyond the settled borders of Virginia and the mountains was called Kentucky and it was a total wilderness. Despite the proclamation and some resistance from American Indian tribes such as the Shawnee, in 1775 Daniel Boone blazed his Wilderness Trail through the Cumberland Gap in the Appalachian Mountains over into Kentucky. He pushed even further into the state beyond the mountains and founded the Fort Boonesboro settlement in the fertile central region. See map at the end.

After the colonists finally defeated the British in the Revolutionary War, all the land to the Mississippi was then ceded to the Americans, and some adventurers began traveling there. However, in the early years, many travelers fell victim to hostile Indians. Soon though, with this new opportunity to homestead and a new route through the mountains marked by Boone, more than 200,000 settlers migrated to the Kentucky frontier by 1800. Nathaniel Ayers and his family from North Carolina were among these early pioneers.

It is believed Nathaniel’s wife was Mary Leake and they had at least one child in NC about 1794, named Bailey Ayers. Kentucky was admitted as a state in 1792, and the Wilderness Trail was widened to accommodate wagons pulled by oxen. It is difficult to pinpoint, but it is believed the family relocated to the new state around 1800. We know for certain though, that by 1810 they were living in Wayne County, KY, a mountainous area near the border with Tennessee. The family had 3 males and 6 females. It took hardy souls to homestead in this area, which was nothing but wilderness, and still occupied by scattered Indians. At this time there were less than 800 families in the county. Settlers lived within riding or walking distance of each other and they had large families, with their children and grandchildren inter-married into each others families. This area today is part of the Daniel Boone National Forest.

Nathaniel Ayers is mentioned as helping with a land survey in 1808 in Campbell County, Tennessee, and in county court records in 1815 and 1818. At that time Campbell County was larger than today and the western part of it was just across the state border from Wayne County, KY. Did he actually move to TN for a time? I think the answer is probably not because he apparently lived in an area close to the border between KY and TN which was in dispute and not officially settled until 1820. So, the border moved around him.

Nathaniel then disappears from all other records until he applied for his Revolutionary War pension from Laurel County, KY in 1836. It must be assumed he was living with the family of one of his daughters and was not a head of household. It is also assumed that he died sometime after 1836 in Laurel County which is a short distance northeast of Wayne County.

When Nathaniel Ayers first came into Kentucky, why did his family settle in the mountains instead of pushing further into the central area of KY where the land was certainly more amenable to farming? One strong possibility was that he already knew other family or friends who had previously relocated there. Another reason is that all the best lands had already been settled on before he arrived. The actual reason is unknown today. Whatever the reason, the mountain way of life he entered set the course of history for the next five generations of Ayers families.