Tag: 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.Methodist Circuit Rider 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.

 

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.