Samuel and Mary Jameson Ferguson
From
FERGUSON FAMILY GENEALOGICAL
HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY
WEST VIRGINIA,
(Early Cabell and Kanawha, Virginia)
By Evelyn Booth Massie
Samuel FERGUSON was born 3 March 1744, and died 12 February 1825 in Cabell County, Virginia (now Wayne County, West Virginia). On the pages of the family Bible record of his son William is written the following, “Samuel Ferguson departed this life February 12 between the hours of 7 and 8 o’clock in the afternoon in the year of our Lord 1825, aged 80 years and eleven months and nine days.”
Samuel married Mary Jameson, who was born 21 March 1746 (monument reads 27 March). She died 21 September 1827.
We find the first recorded evidence of our progenitor Samuel Ferguson in the Augusta County records. He bought land 21 August 1765 in that county, being one-fourth acre in Staunton. The deed was delivered 17 August 1772 and recorded in Deed Book 12, page 191. Samuel, along with John Peary, was added to the tithables of that county 17 November 1767. These accounts were written by Chalkey in Volume 1, page 141, and Volume 2, page 430 of Chronicles of the Scotch-Irish Settlements in Virginia.
Samuel, along with Capt. Moore and Peerys, was at the battle of the Alamance 16 May, 1771 (David E. Johnson, New River Settlements). The battle was part of the French and Indian Wars.
On 17 August 1772, Samuel delivered a deed for record, written by William and Margaret Jameson. The following day, 18 August 1772, Samuel and Mary Ferguson sold their land in Staunton to John Readpath, per Deed Book 18, page 433. These transactions were written by Chalkey in Chronicles of the Scotch-Irish Settlements in Virginia, Volume lll, pages 493, 523.
Records indicate that about this time, Samuel moved to the Bluestone Country, which lay successively in Fincastle, Montgomery, Wythe and Tazewell Counties. Lewis Preston Summers states in Annals of Southwest Virginia 1769-1800, page 1431, that Samuel came from the Virginia Valley and settled on Bluestone Creek in 1772. This account is also written by William C. Pendleton in History of Tazewell County and Southwest Virginia 1748-1920, pages 515-6; and by David E. Johnston, History of the Middle New River Settlements and Contiguous Territory, page 141. After 1772 it seems that Samuel did not change geographical location until about 1804 when he came to the present Wayne County. His native county name was changed because of the birth of several Virginia counties in that period.
In 1774, when men and supplies were being gathered for Dunmore to fight at Point Pleasant, Samuel paid for one hog. His name was found on the Auditor’s Accounts for Dunmore’s War, Virginia State Library, Richmond, Virginia, as printed by Mary B. Kegley in Soldiers of Fincastle County, Virginia 1774.
Samuel swore allegiance to the United States on 30 September 1777 from Montgomery County, Virginia. The original list is in the Revolutionary War Book at Christiansburg, Montgomery County Court House, Virginia. It is also on page 149, Volume 1 of Mary B. Kegley’s Early Adventures on the Western Waters. Samuel was at the Battle of King’s Mountain, South Carolina, 7 October 1780. He is listed as going with Thomas Peery (the distiller), Thomas Peery (the blacksmith), William Peery and John Peery. The above account was written by David E. Johnston in History of the Middle New River Settlements, Page 145. He was appointed Ensign in Capt. James Moore’s Company of Montgomery County, Virginia Militia on 3 April 1781 per Summers in Annals of Southwest Virginia, page 751.
In 1782 Samuel appears on the Montgomery County, Virginia tax list with one tithe over 21, 11 horses, 15 cattle, and is recorded as having land. This was transcribed by Mary B. Kegley in Tax List of Montgomery County, Virginia 1782. He received land by right of settlement on head of Bluestone, entered in Survey Book D, page 706. He is on the tax list again in Montgomery County in 1789 with two white males 16-21. These two findings were written by Yantis in Montgomery County, Virginia Circa 1790, pages 19,71. In the same book, page 91, under “Locating Residences of Taxpayers,” Samuel appears on Clear Fork, Wolf Creek, heads of Bluestone and Clinch Rivers, Abbs and Wrights Valley, Cove Spring.
In 1793 his name appeared in the tax list of Wythe County, which was carved from Montgomery County in 1789. Samuel was among the inhabitants of Wythe County in the late 1790’s who signed the petition to form the new Tazewell County, per Yantis, Archives of the Tazewell County. In 1796 Samuel purchased from Daniel and Nancy Harmon 40 acres on the waters of Clinch, as recorded in Wythe County, Virginia.
On 5 March 1799, Samuel Ferguson purchased from John and Rachel Turman 100 acres on Little River in Montgomery County, per Deed Book C, page 85. From the writings of Pendleton in History of Tazewell County, page 515, Samuel Ferguson was among the first settlers in that section and became one of the conspicuous figures in the history of Tazewell County. Samuel and William Peery deeded the land for the present site of the Court House and jail in Tazewell County. The transaction is recorded by Yantis in Archives of the Pioneers of Tazewell County, page 1. A monument has been erected in honor of Samuel Ferguson and William Peery for their gift of Land.
In November 1802, Samuel was patented 15 acres—surveyed January 1801—located on the waters of Clinch River, adjacent to his own land. He was a member of the Grand Jury in 1801, 1802 and 1803. In 1802 he was on the Personal Property Tax List of Tazewell County with two white males over 16, and 8 horses. (His youngest son Thomas married that same year.) He was also in the Land Tax Record for 1802 with three tracts recorded of 80, 40 and 62 acres. On 28 September 1804 Samuel was a purchaser at the estate sale of Joseph Belshee. In October of that year, two deeds from Samuel and Mary to Thomas Harrison were mentioned in Order Book No 1. This information was gleaned from Yantis’ Archives of Pioneers of Tazewell County. Yantis also included an annotated Enumeration of all Taxpayers from 1801 through 1820 in that county. Her list included two Samuel Fergusons from 1800 through 1803. In 1804 only one Samuel Ferguson is in the county. Which one—Samuel or his son, Samuel, Jr.—left Tazewell County before the tax list was made in 1804?
Sometime around 1804 Samuel Ferguson, his four sons, and one of his four daughters, came to Kanawha County which lay successively with Cabell and Wayne Counties.
Samuel and Mary had eight known children, although only seven are named in his Will. One daughter, Jane who married William Clark, had preceded him in death. Samuel made no provision for his grandchildren, per the following declaration, “But and if any of my own children as mentioned in this Will should be dead before the execution of this Will or division of my estate among them, then and in that case I wish to be fully understood that it is my will that my estate be equally divided among the remaining part of my own children that may survive and not among my grandchildren or among my sons’ wives that may survive their deceased husbands.”
Children of Samuel and Mary (Jameson) Ferguson
John, born circa 1766-7
Jane, born circa 1768
Samuel, Jr., born circa 1773
Isobel, born circa 1776
William, born 22 September 1777
Sarah, born circa 1779
Elizabeth, born circa 1781
Thomas, born 2 September 1784