Are there any Bickleys here?

[KGC4Dixie]

Are there any Bickleys here?

A strange question but I suppose there shouldn't be an answer to this post unless there is one.

Gary Smith

 

Amazon Forum Fav 👍

A History of Mining on the Kenai Peninsula, Alaska - Grab it through Amazon!

[KGC4Dixie]

I had to ask if there were any Bickleys here because in the last two weeks have discovered a Binkley-Harris-Smith connection in my own family genealogy study and updated the below document accordingly with information from Russell Co., Va. censuses.

Strangest coincidence I've ever run into. To top it off there is in our KGC forum a member of the Harris family and Stratton whose ancestor was right in Russell Co., Va. also.

Gary Smith
_______

Martin Alexander Smith of Chatham Co., N.C. (A Comprehensive Search of Smiths in Virginia and North Carolina), by Gary Smith, September 30, 2008

Early in Virginia history are found Smiths and other identifiable surnames across the frontier and discovered in the below excerpt from The Cabells and Their Kin, 1895, by Alexander Brown:

"The neighboring county of Hanover had been taken from New Kent in 1720. The early records of both Hanover and New Kent have been destroyed. In 1742 the county of Hanover was divided, and the upper portion was formed into a new county called Louisa, for the Princess Louisa, daughter of George II. The records of this county are 'for the most part preserved, but in a very dilapidated condition.' The firs court was held on December 13, 1742, with the following justices: Robert Lewis (presiding), Christopher Clark, Ambrose Joshua Smith, Abraham Venables, Charles Barret, Richard Johnson, Thomas Merriwether, Robert Harris, John Carr, Joseph Bickley, Joseph Fox, John Starke, Joseph Shelton, and John Poindexter, Gents."

History of Formation of Russell Co., Va. -- Court

"Petition to form Russell County, Dec. 1785, The petition of sundry inhabitants of Clinch River, Moccasin Creek, Powells Valley, and others, citizens of Washington County humbly represent that your petitioners are situated from the line of Montgomery as it crosses near the source of the Clinch River, down the same eight miles; thence to the extreme settlements of Powells Valley forty more...We further pray a line may be fixed along Clinch Mountain to the Carolina line; or with the line at present dividing the county into two regiments to the aforesaid Carolina line; then with the said line to Cumberland Mountain including that existing county between Cumberland Mountain and Montgomery line and Clinch Mountain, or the aforesaid regimental line for the new county and southeast of the said Clinch Mountain remain Washington County; and we your Petitioners as in duty bound will ever pray. Among Petition signers are: Blackmore, James; "Caar?, Robert”; Friley, Frederick; Haris, James; Bickley, Charles; Martin, Alexander (future N.C. governor); Smith, Edward; Smith, Elijah; Smith, Ericus; Smith, Ericus Jr.; Smith, H.[enry]; Smith, James; Smith, John; Smith, William."

Of the above, the Bickley name can be found as with Charles Bickley in the 1792 and 1801 Russell Co., Va. census records. Other Bickley names are found in the 1824 List of Taxable Property for Russell Co., Va.: Bickley, Sebastian H.; Bickley, George; Bickley, Charles; Bickley, John and Bickley, Benjamin. Smiths in the 1796 Russell Co., Va. Land and Personal Property Tax Lists appear as: Smith, Briton; Smith, Eli; Smith, Ericus; Smith, George; Smith, George; Smith, Hardin; Smith, Harry; Smith, Harry; Smith, Henry; Smith, Moses; Smith, Robert; Smith, Robert, Jr.; Smith, Samuel; Smith, William; Smith, Henry; Smith, James and Smith, John. Other Smiths are found in the 1824 List of Taxable Proper for Russell Co., Va. as: Smith, John (Castle Woods); Smith, James (N.G.); Smith, Stephen; Smith, Harry; Smith, Peggy; Smith, Henry (New G.); Smith, William (Sandy); Smith, John (River); Smyth, James; Smyth, Henry and Smyth, Edmund (not all given names repeated). The Harris name is found in the 1792 Russell Co., Va. census as: Harris, John and Harris, Stanley. In the 1801 Russell Co., Va. census are found Harrifs, Lewis; Harrifs, Edward and Harris, John. In 1824 the Harriss name is represented by Harriss, John and Harriss, Joseph. For a Carr descendant see page 7, paragraph 2: "John Carr, who was born on Carr's Creek in 1773 refers to Dale's Fort on the Clinch, which was surely a reference to the Glade Hollow Fort."

Connections of Rowan Co., N.C. Smiths with Russell Co., Va. Smiths is seen with Ft. Blackmore and Bickley's Mill in Castle's Woods, Va. as unfolded in: "Frederick Fraley Pioneer Settler of Cassell's Woods Russell Co., Va.:

“Whether Frederick Froelich who appears in Augusta Co., VA, in 1750 (Augusta Will Book 1, pages 267, 348), was the same Frederick Fraley who having emigrated from Augusta Co., VA, to Rowan Co., NC, and back through the wilderness to Southwest Virginia, to make a settlement at Cassell's Woods, in the year 1769, is not definitely known. Some think Frederick of Cassell's Woods was a son of Frederick Froelich of Augusta Co., I think they were one and the same. ....

"...in Castle's Woods on both sides of Mill Creek on the south side of Clinch, 216 acres of which was surveyed the 21 March 1774.' The foregoing shows that Fraley got the land of John Lynch, which had the mill located upon it, and in turn sold the same to Henry Hamlin, which is again borne out by a letter written by Col. Daniel Smith, to Col. Arthur Campbell, dated May 19, 1783, (Calendar Virginia State Papers, Vol. 3, p. 485), in which he has this to say: 'On my return from Cumberland I come through Castle's Woods, just after the Indians had been at the Fort at Hamlin's Mill.' This is the same mill that later became the famous Bickley Mills of Castle's Wood, and which first belonged to John Lynch, may have even been built by Frederick Fraley, as it seems John Lynch was not a resident of this area, and certainly Fraley must have operated the mill while he owned and lived upon the land." http://vagenweb.org/wise/sketches/FrederickFraleyMA.html

Census, 1850 Russell Co., Va., M432-975, page 255B – Bickley/Smith and Fraley families, dwellings 498 and 499 – In 498: Bickley, William C., 30; Bickley, Harriet B., 22; Bickley, George A., 2: Bickley, Elisabeth B., 1; Bickley, Rosana, 3/12 and Smith, John H., 10. William C., George A., Elisabeth B., Rosanna and John H. born Russell Co., Virginia. Harriet B. born Illinois. In 499: Fraley, Martin, Jr., 24; Fraley, Polly, 25 and Fraley, George W., 8/12. Martin, Jr. And George W. born Russell Co., Va. and Polly born Scott Co., Virginia.

"It was a tense time among the scattered settlers along the Clinch River. On July 12, Colonel Christian wrote Preston that 'four forts [are] erecting in Capt. Russell’s Company; one at Moore’s, four miles below this, another at Blackmore’s 16 Miles above this Place [Castle’s Woods] I am about to station 10 Men at Blackmore's.' On the 13th, Captain Russell notified Preston 'there are four families at John Blackmore’s near the mouth of Stoney Creek, that will never be able to stand it, without a Commd. Of Men, therefore request you, if you think it can be done, to Order them a supply sufficient to enable them to continue the small fortification they have erected.' Thus the fort took the name of the man on whose land it was built." Fort Blackmore --
http://www.danielboonetrail.com/historicalsites.php?id=85
____________________

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/KnightsoftheGoldenCircleCD/