Route of the Wilderness Road
Of Kentucky's 75,000 population in 1790, about 90% had arrived by way of the Wilderness Road.
The Cumberland Gap is about 510 highway miles from Washington D.C.

Located at the Virginia-Tennessee border, the little village of Cumberland Gap, TN, is about 25 miles farther west than the meridian of Detroit, Michigan. Today, Cumberland Gap National Historical Park  commemorates Daniel Boone and the surge of people who traveled westward after the Revolution.

Some suggest that the origin of the Wilderness Road was at Fort Chiswell (Ft. Chissel) on the Great Valley Road where roads converged from Philadelphia and Richmond.  Others claim the Wilderness Road actually began at Sapling Grove (now Bristol, VA) which lay at the extreme southern end of the Great Valley Road because it was at that point that the road narrowed, forcing travelers to abandon their wagons.  It moved through the Allegheny Mountains at Cumberland Gap, at what is now the junction of the State boundaries of
Kentucky, Tennessee and Virginia.

Heading northwest, it splits at Hazel Patch--with one route creating Boonesborough, the other Frankfort.
Today one can follow the main route from Bristol, VA to Middlesboro, KY, then to Pineville, Mt. Vernon, and on towards Lexington on Interstate 75.

Scots Migrated to Northern Ireland

Estimated that 200,000 Scots migrated to N. Ireland,  They were Lowlanders, mostly coming from the border regions of Galloway, Dumfries, Renfrewshire, Ayrshire, Argyllshire and Lanarkshire in the west and Edinburgh, the Lothians and Berwichshire in the east.  They spoke English and were Protestant, specifically Presbyterian.   In turn, some TWO MILLION of their descendants migrated to America during the 18th -- 19th -- and during the early part of the 20th centuries.   I have to remember that translates to the 1700's -- 1800's and early 1910-1920's.  From ULSTER: IRELAND< < the primary ports of US entry were Boston, MA  into New York, into Philadelphia PA and into Charleston NC. 

By 1776 -- the year of America's Independence -- almost half of Ulster had crossed the Atlantic Ocean.  About one -out-of-every-seven colonists was Scots-Irish.

How should we describe these immigrants?  In Boston, they tended to be intolerant, rough, unruly and poverty stricken... via not a welcomed group.   Thus, they moved South to Philly.  In about 1760 -- Ben Franklin estimated that 1/3 of Philly was ENGLISH -- 1/3 was GERMAN -- and 1/3 was Scots-Irish.

Next,  they moved West through the Cumberland gap -- thru Virginia -- thereby heading west towards Missouri, and southward thru Kentucky, Tennessee, North and South Carolina.
 
Initial migration to Missouri was made by Scotch-Irish who came through the Ohio Valley, and most of these earliest settlers claimed to come from Kentucky and Tennessee.  One such settler, Daniel Boone, is thought to have started the stream of migration from eastern Kentucky through the Cumberland Gap (KY) sometime in the years 1769 through 1771 (Rafferty, p.54). 

The gap, named for the Cumberland County in northern England, made way for two hundred and fifty thousand people, most of whom were Scotch-Irish.  Groups that traveled along the Ohio River from Pittsburgh were mostly comprised of Ulstermen, as well (Gerlach, p.16).  Other groups came from the Old Southwest, traveled up the Mississippi River valley, and entered both Arkansas and Missouri river systems that led them into the Ozarks.


They settled in the Southwestern frontier .. bearing the brunt of Indian hostilities, they were clannish, fierce, wore coonskin caps, carried Kentucky rifles and were really fond of whiskey!  The were hot tempered, fighters, great boasters, and compulsive storytellers.   They had a keen ear for a striking phrase.   Some of the Scots-Irish moved south into Texas -- the most notorious being Davy Crockett at the Alamo. 

The Scotch-Irish Hillbillies made stills and brewed "moonshine." They used words like a-huntin, a=fishin, afeared, hex, plum right, plum crazy, and coined the expression of you-all.  (Information cited: McCrum, Robert ~ The Story of English, Penguin books, 1986)

There is an old Appalachian saying: When English settlers arrived they built a house, the Germans built a barn, and the Scotch-Irish built a distillery

Scot-Irish Beginnings in the Sipuel family

Founding of Slavery 1600's

Excerpt from Article by Tavis Smiley // 
 . . . . . .This year marks the 400th anniversary of Jamestown, Virginia - the first permanent English settlement in North America and where the first Africans set foot in America. While the slave trade in the 1700s is well documented, recent historical discoveries have shed light on the first Africans who arrived a century earlier.
Known as the site of the John Smith-Pocahontas legend, Jamestown has otherwise been overshadowed by stories of Pilgrims seeking religious freedom in Massachusetts' Plymouth Colony.

But many of the foundations of modern America, such as free enterprise, representative government and cultural diversity, began in Jamestown. Those first cultures included English settlers, Powatan Indians and the first Africans to set foot in America.

Historians had believed that the first Africans came from the West Indies on a Dutch warship. Now, new research has shown that the first documented Africans came from Angola and were not immediately enslaved. The Portuguese slave ship on which they traveled was raided by British pirates and arrived in Jamestown in 1619, where the Africans were traded for provisions.

While the institution of slavery did not yet exist in Virginia, White indentured servants from England were already common. Some of the first Africans worked side-by-side with English servants, clearing land, cutting trees and building houses.

Although the Africans' status was uncertain early on, and they were treated in a variety of ways, "there were some Africans that moved from indentured servant status to being free," says Dr. Rex Ellis, Vice President of the Historic Area at Colonial Williamsburg. During their indentured servitude, they were obligated to work for a master for 5-7 years and learned carpentry, blacksmithing or other skills. After that time, they became free and were usually given "freedom dues," such as a plot of land and supplies.

One Black man who gained his freedom was Anthony Johnson. His story is one of the only ones known about the first Africans in America. Called "Antonio the negro" in the 1625 Virginia census, he was brought to Jamestown in 1621 and worked on a plantation for a wealthy White family. He married, had four children and eventually became free. To proclaim his freedom, he changed his name to Anthony Johnson, because most servants did not have last names or used their master's name. Johnson soon owned land, cattle and even indentured servants from Africa.

In 1640, the same year Johnson bought his first property, one Black and two White indentured servants ran away from a farmer in Jamestown. When they were captured, the White men had their servitude extended four years. But John Punch, the Black man, was ordered to serve his master for life. He became the first documented slave.


Starting with John Punch, indentured servitude gradually evolved to lifetime slavery. By 1662, several Virginia laws were enacted that recognized slavery. One statute said that children would be born bonded or free depending on their mother's status, which began the transformation to slavery as we know it today.

Treasuring My USA History

"Jamestown VA changed the world in many ways, but perhaps it shaped our nation most profoundly the day Africans arrived."--Tavis Smiley

1790 ~ The First Census USA

On August 2, 1790, Federal representatives fanned out across the original 13 states, tabulating information on American households, just as they have every 10 years since. The information was used to estimate taxes, assign congressional representation and generally make demographic sense of U.S. society.

The enumerators (census takers) counted 3,929,326 people (later revised to 3,929,214 by some counts), “excluding Indians not taxed.” Of those counted, nearly 700,000 were slaves.

In Maryland, Virginia and South Carolina, slaves outnumbered free white men. Vermont, population 85,539, reportedly contained 16 slaves, a number later corrected to zero.

New York and Philadelphia were the new nation’s big cities, with 33,000 and 28,000 inhabitants respectively.

A complete set of the schedules for each state, with a summary for the counties, and in many cases for towns, was filed in the State Department, but unfortunately they are not now complete, the returns for the states of Delaware, Georgia, Kentucky, New Jersey, Tennessee, and Virginia having been destroyed when the British burned the Capitol at Washington during the War of 1812.

You can read more on the Census Department's web site at http://www2.census.gov/prod2/decennial/documents/1790m-02.pdf

Monday Madness and with Gladness

Family Scrap album.... starting to rearrange & reorganize again -- today! These are actually my adopted darlings.... via Calvin...uhhhh... Oh yea-- Wilson!!!

Important Voting day in Oklahoma

As a native... can I please call my state.... REDneck!

   But I say

Ada Lois Sipuel Fisher Scholarship Golf Tournament

http://www.ou.edu/content/dam/alumni/images/Events2010/Golf2010_low.pdf

2010 University of Oklahoma
Scholarship Golf Tournament

Inaugural Poem Blair facility/library back in 2001

THE ALPHABET AS PART OF WHAT WE ARE

Some of what we came from came for a chance.
Others came indentured, others in chains,
to these potential--then united--states,
except for those who crossed the Bering Straits,
but they were immigrants, too, although they came
before there was a colony to name.
We're still astounded to find ourselves here,
children of brave and slave and musketeer,
coolie and buccaneer and wetback,
what we call white and yellow, red and black,
believing in living together and learning to.
 
Knowing how flesh can fail, minds misconstrue,
we have to wonder how we have come this far
toward what we want to be, being what we are.
 
Part of what keeps us restless and dreaming ahead
is paper printed with ink, words to be read,
thoughts to be spread about, newspapers and books,
journals and magazines--for lingering looks,
on slow strolls in the garden called the brain,
at long impressions where a truth has lain.
 
 
Miller Williams

Hi Tuesday - 2010 --- FPL stands for . . . .

Fayetteville Public Library -- Blair facility in Arkansas!

I dropped in, paid 30 bucks for an AR library card, and did my overview/research for about an hour!



........ i'll be back!

ABOVE  Lancaster PA.
These Scotch-Irish people were prototypical of the Davy Crockett-type Alleghenies frontier Americans that have figured so prominently in American folklore. After the American Revolution, these frontiersmen migrated to Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama and even to Texas. It has been said that almost every prominent figure in the history of South Carolina until after the Revolution was born in Pennsylvania or Virginia and moved into the Carolinas during this period. Among these could be found the parents of Andrew Jackson, Andrew Pickens, Daniel Boone, Kit Carson, John C. Calhoun, Wade Hampton, Thomas Sumpter and numerous others. It is very likely that some of our ancestors were part of this mass migration of Scotch-Irish to the Carolinas.

Below: SC map

Generation No. 2 



Children of John Anderson and Margaret are

1. Elizabeth Anderson
2. Francis Anderson
3. John Anderson, born Bef. 1714; died Abt. 1787 in Augusta Co., Virginia.
4. James Anderson, born Bef. 1719; died 1779 in Barren County, Kentucky.
5. George Anderson, born Bef. 1720; died Bef. April 21, 1789 in Augusta Co., Virginia.
6. William Anderson, born Abt. 1721; died Bef. June 1794 in Augusta Co., Virginia.

Generation No. 1 

Anderson, John  born abt 1690 Ulster, Ireland       married in Ulster, Ireland abt 1710 to Margaret  born abt 1695 Ulster, Ireland d: 1761-1764 in Augusta, VA

Wordless, Speechless -- Wonderful Wednesday

I found some of the 1690 generations of Andersons!

Read any good books lately????

     [1] David Blight, in Thomas C. Holt and Elsa Barkley Brown, eds. “The Burden of African-American history: Memory Justice, and a Usable Past,”Major Problems in African American History, Volume 1: From Slavery to Freedom, 1619-1877 (New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2000),    

     

Frederick Douglass believed that history shapes the identity, the motivation, and the meaning of a person

Bowl it along!

Every experience deeply felt in life needs to be passed along -- Whether it be through words or music, chiseled in stone, painted with a brush, or sewn with a needle -- It is a way of reaching for immortality!

Just reminding myself.....

A surname can be called a last name, a given name, or a family name.
In much of Western Europe and the US, the surname is the last name of the father, or in the absence of married parents, the last name of the mother

I didn't forget....

But it was late evening... Also, there was a buzz in the OKC air, ponds and newscasts via the flash flooding around town. So I was at home all day, and didn't log=in as this is my usual diary @ the workplace.


JUNE 14,


Howard Huggins moved from earth to eternity on 06-14-1997:


Aunt Hattie moved on 06-14-2000: and Sis AnnieMae Anderson moved onto glory 10:30pm 06-13-2010.

I took Mama out to dinner Thursday evening @ the new Golden Corral.... enjoying each day given to me!

National Archives blogsite....

The National Archives blogsite....

is a good site I'll add to my reading list. They highlight "Facial Hair Friday" !!
along with history tidbits. Here at Prologue, we’ve been collecting these “Pieces of History” — from hero pigeons to FDR’s globe — and have built up quite a stockpile! Join us as we share and discover what’s inside the National Archives.

Freedom seekin' Fun Fridays

Born 12-29-1930: Pearl Myrtle was a 5-yr old child back in 1935 just like this Great-Grandson of hers' - forward generation 2010... a child ponders a gravesite / / /

And then to imagine WHEN Pearl was a little girl: we treasure the foot-stepping onto her headstone! we imagine sacredness - family connections!


As I was saying... WORDLESS

Wordless Wednesday 2010.....

Wordless but pictures say it best...


oh well... the photo upload is not working at the moment....

the REAL Burial Ground

Now, let's recall the REAL Burial Ground!
Which we visited my daddy's great soul - he is laid to rest at Rose Hill Cemetery in Chickasha, Grady County, Oklahoma.

Death-like Fun Friday

Why was I among the tombs, today??? I finally fulfilled three FIND-A-GRAVE requests from my zip code area. Feelin pretty useful!

Then, backtracked on my brother's info that our daddy - Howard Huggins Jr - purchased two lots at Chapel Hill Cemetery, 8801 NW Expressway, Oklahoma City, OK County, OK


The area is called "Garden of Everlasting Life"







ARE U READY FOR THE GREAT PRE-PLANNER???

Purchase deeds are dated September 11, 1980 purchase of two lots total sum of $260.00 (a pymt plan no less)





My only problem is that 30-yrs ago, the place was not yet enlarged... so not this part of the original Chapel Hill is located in the very far-far back seat - area!

Cotton pickin

Cotton pickin times
....slaves developed not only a spirit of self-reliance but experienced a measure of autonomy. These skills, when added to other talents for cooking, quilting, weaving, medicine, music, song, dance, and storytelling, instilled in slaves the sense that, as a group, they were not only competent but gifted.
Slaves used their talents to deflect some of the daily assaults of bondage. They saw themselves then as strong, valuable people who were unjustly held against their will rather than as the perpetually dependent children or immoral scoundrels described by so many of their owners. Indeed, they found through their artistry some moments of happiness, particularly by telling tales which portrayed work in humorous terms or when singing satirical songs which lampooned their owners

My old Mistis promise me
Dat when she died, she gwine set me free.
But she lived so long and got so po'
Dat she lef me diggin' wid er garden ho'.

-- plantation song recalled by Abram Harris, former slave from near Greenville, South Carolina

I think I'll link this blog into the preparation of our Tulsa 2011 Family Reunion!

Wordless Wednesday! May 2010

Another Tuesday.... YIPPEE

Just past a great Memorial Day Weekend!

2010

Tombstone Tuesday

As I reflect on my family tree, there may be just the one Chickasha cemetery that I can name wherein I know of my family Smith-Sipuel-Huggins/Fisher/Factory members are buried: (oh... Aunt Nan in IL, and Earnystene in TN) and one Illinois and one Mississippi cemetery that I know of my Travis-Morgan-Huggins family members are recorded deaths.


A tomb is a repository for the remains of the dead. It is generally any structurally enclosed interment space or burial chamber, of varying sizes. Tombs are generally located in or under religious buildings, such as churches, or in cemeteries or churchyards


Graves are usually located in special areas set aside for the purpose of burial, such as graveyards or cemeteries.

the matrilineal line

I was inspired and read thru the Black Georgia Crackers I-Google list that I marked as a favorite.


And here's what I did:

List your matrilineal – your mother, her mother…back to the first identifiable mother. NOTE: this is how the mitochondrial DNA is passed from generation to generation….

1. Beverly Jean Huggins Kirk b. 1-9-1954
2. Helen Marie Sipuel Huggins b. 7-25-1926
3. Martha Belle Smith (Cavers) Sipuel b. 1-09-1885 d. 03-17-1971
4. Lucinda Smith b. abt 1847 d. abt 1910

On my paternal side, the matrilineal line of my father is:

1. Pearlie Travis Morgan-Huggins b. 7-10-1900 d. 02-17-1968
2. Cornelia Salter b. 1873 d. 06-28-1952

Ever-Present in my Mind….

Memories in the seedlings that Prior Family Generations planted…. Giving life and beauty to me 2010 !

Lest we forget!

I think often about Lucinda and her parents.....

My name is Charity McAllister. My mother first b'longed to John Greene. She got in de family way by a white man. Dey sold my brother. He wus as white as you is.


http://www.slaveryinamerica.org/narratives/nar_charity_mcallister.htm

I tell you, I was whupped durin' slavery time. Dey whupped us wid horse hair whips. Dey put a stick under our legs an' tied our hands and we could not do nuthin' but turn and twist. Dey would sure work on your back end. Every time you turned, dey would hit it. I been whupped dat way and scarred up.

Dey did not give us any holidays, [not even] Christmas in Harnett County. Dat wus 'ginst de rules. No prayer nor nuthin' on de plantation in our houses. Dey did not 'low us to go to de white folks' church. Dey did not 'low de slaves to hunt, so we did not have any wild meat. Dey did not 'low us any [garden] patches. No, sirree, we did not have any money.

We had no overseers on master's plantation, and no books and schools o' any kind for slaves. I cannot read and write. No, sir. I wish I could read and write.

Yes, sir. I seed de patterollers. Oh, oh, de Ku Klux, huh-huh. Reubin Matthew's slave, George Matthews, killed two Ku Klux. Dey double-teamed him and shot him, and he cut 'em wid de ax and dey died.

How about "TELL -it- ALL - Tuesday!!!

How about my dream of a book of the Sipuel family legacy.....

My Monday's . . . . . .

always thinking of my FAMILY AFFAIRS as I plan a visit to the state of OHIO....

Make this a MARVELOUS Monday posting....

Easter - Mother's Day - Memorial Day...

I luv this time of the year!

Her story.... ...

It is a most appropriate time to reflect

Lest we forget . .

... his life, sacrifice, and legacy!   Stoney the road we trod....   Jan 15-1929 ~  April 4, 1968

Wordless Wednesday... Jubilant Expressions of Life and JOY !

I thank God – whom I serve . . (from my forefathers) . . with a pure conscience --- that without ceasing,


I have remembrance of   THEE   in my prayers Night and DAY!

II Timothy Scripture:  Chapter 1:  verse 3

Tuesday New Life

Sixth generation offspring of Lucinda!    the news is comin in from TX

Family Reunion Planning ~2011

SMITH~SIPUEL - 90 YEARS AGO ~

May 1921 . . . May 2011

Mad Monday--- New Family breakaway!!!

   
I am overjoyed..... I visited three cemeterys on my husbands family tree..... headstones are as precious as to see them face to face.

Now, back to Roots Magic to connect the dots and to fill in the stories told by his Uncle Plum !!

Monday Madness ~ T.B. Sipuel

Madness Monday calls for the creation of a post whose main focus is on a relative who may have suffered from some form of mental illness?   Are we afraid to say so...???  OK -- so how about an ancestor who keeps me frustrated beyond madness in trying to locate them....??? 

It is the great TB ! 

But first... this quilt is how I'll feel when his discovery is finally made! It's home, movement, nature, rejoicing stars

COMMENTARY.....And I am beginning to see the end of my life in the 2040's. My search of today.... will be the foundation stones of remembrance for my son and daughter's to take up the search.