On Top of the Blue Ridge

Did your ancestors migrate through the beautiful Shenandoah Valley along the Great Warrior Trail? For many years the valley was a major route for migration and travel between Pennsylvania and North Carolina. This 1751 map shows dramatically how the mountains in Virginia limited westward migration and controlled the direction of travel. Today Interstate 81 parallels the old trails.

Map from Library of Congress

Some of your ancestors, like Thomas Jefferson and like some of mine, may have chosen to live in the Shenandoah Valley or surrounding mountains. Whenever I drive through that area, the beauty awes me and I understand their choice.

Soon, for the first time in his life, my younger brother will spend a few days in the magnificence of the lower Shenandoah. If you are a cousin, do read on to see if one of our shared ancestors lived in this beautiful area. Someday you might even wish to follow the trail yourself.

So, brother, this post is for you!





Near the orange marker at Glen Wilton, John Derrick owned land and it was the area where he died about 1790. It is also where he married Anna Maria Dunkelberger. Here Philip Fry married Maria Magdalena Derrick in 1781. The Fry family migrated on to Tennessee and Alabama. Philip had 25 children and many of our DNA matches are from this line in my father's ancestry.

Switching to my mother's family, the dark red marker is in Pocahontas County, West Virginia, formerly Greenbrier County. Members of the Greaton family were taxed in this area. David Greaton moved on to Ohio and Illinois. His daughter Elizabeth married Lazarus Maddox in Ohio in 1816.

Also in Greenbrier County, John Kelly was born about 1779. He moved on to Tennessee where his  great-granddaughter married Benjamin Franklin Pryor.

The dark pink marker is at the community of Hanging Rock. In this area a large group of Swiss Anabaptists made their home near the end of the 1700s. Today this group is known as Church of the Brethren. Our ancestors and relatives who settled here included members of the following families: Peffley, Rettinger, Gerst/Garst, Bosseck, Graybill, Borndragar, Mangus, and many more. My ancestors moved on to Indiana and Kansas, but many family members stayed in Virginia.

Lastly the purple marker sits near the stunning Blue Ridge Parkway. Nicholas Allee in 1797 was granted 38 acres that adjoined land he already owned. The land is partially described as

... Lying and being in the County's of Montgomery, and Franklin, the greater part thereof, in the County of Montgomery on the dividing Ridge, including the heads of Daniel's Run, the waters of Black water, and bounded ... top of said ridge ...

What amazes me about this grant is that it specifically mentions the Blue Ridge (dividing ridge) and lists the watercourses in a way that the land can be identified within a few miles. The counties no longer have a common line, as Floyd County was carved out of Montgomery County in 1831. The creek named Daniel's Run no longer appears to begin at the Blue Ridge, but its probable course can be seen on topographical maps. Using Deed Mapper software to determine the shape of the property and researching the watercourses,  I believe that it included land that today is part of the Blue Ridge Parkway, including milepost 144.8, the Pine Spur Overlook. I'm looking forward to visiting this site and seeing what my ancestors saw. 

Nicholas Allee died in 1808 and his descendants moved on to Kentucky, Missouri, Alabama, Arkansas and Texas. His legacy lives on in hundreds of descendants and his land enchants thousands of visitors to the Blue Ridge each year.

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: #46 Philip Fry, Patriot Soldier

When I began my genealogical journey, I had hoped to identify Revolutionary War soldiers. I expected to find them in my Mom's ancestry, but not my Dad's. His ancestors were mostly 19th-century immigrants. Surprisingly, his ancestry was the first to reveal one of those early patriots, and a well-documented one at that. My fourth-great-grandfather was honored at his 1840 death with a lovely obituary.

The Democrat

Huntsville, Ala., Saturday Morning, May 2, 1840

Another Revolutionary Soldier gone.

Died -- At his residence in Marshall County, Alabama, on the morning of the 18th of April, instant, Mr. Philip Fry, in the 83rd year of his age. Mr. Fry was a native of Pennsylvania, from whence he emigrated to Virginia, from thence to East Tennessee and thence to Alabama. He was one of that glorious band of patriots who, under god, assisted in achieving for us the liberties we now enjoy; he was truly the kind husband, the affectionate father, the obliging neighbor, the honest and industrious citizen. Mr. Fry had many trials through life, having buried an affectionate wife and six children; but he is now gone, leaving a disconsolate widow and nineteen children, one hundred and thirteen grand and great grand children, together with a numerous circle of friends, to mourn their irreparable loss; but to them we say, sorrow not as those that have no hope, for if you believe that Jesus died and rose again, them also that sleep in Jesus will god bring with him, then blessed are the dead that die in the Lord, yea saith the Spirit, from henceforth they rest from their labours, and their works do follow them.

Elements from American Flag, ClubScrap, 2010

Philip Fry was born about 1757, somewhere in Pennsylvania. There has been much speculation about his parentage, but to date it's a mystery which will likely be solved only through DNA.

Virginia's Shenandoah Valley was a migration path into and out of Pennsylvania and it's on that path that we find Philip. Two sources tell us a bit about his life in the Shenandoah.

A HISTORY OF SHENANDOAH COUNTY VIRGINIA, pg. 743:
1781, June 11 - Philip Frye married Mary Dirick [Derrick]

VIRGINIA SOLDIERS OF 1776, VOL. III, pg. 1265:
Philip Fry served from 2 Aug. until 5 Oct. 1781 as a private in Capt. Linchfield Sharpe's Company of Shenandoah County, under the command of Col. Elias Edmundson, of Gen. Stephen's Brigade.

Philip also was one of the Overmountain Men led by Colonel William Campbell. They fought at the Battle of King's Mountain, the turning point of the American Revolution, on October 7, 1780.

My ancestor, Philip and Mary's daughter Kezziah, was born in Tennessee about 1809. Her brothers and sisters were born in both Virginia and Tennessee. Their births show that the family moved about 1795. Mary Magdalena Derrick Fry died between 1812 and 1819.

Philip married Mary "Polly" Davis in Jefferson County, Alabama on December 4, 1819. They had several more children before his death.

Philip was buried in the Fry Cemetery near Arab in Marshall County, Alabama. The Fry family has placed a nice monument and the Heroes of King's Mountain DAR chapter has also placed a plaque. Thanks goes to the generous photographer for allowing me to use his FindAGrave photo of Philip Fry's markers and to Suzy Burt for all her research, writing and explanations about the Fry family.

For my confused cousins, our Fry ancestry is through this line:

• Ruth Dorothy McFarlane
• Mary Ellen Vossler McFarlane
• Elizabeth M Childers Wilson Vossler
• Kezziah D Fry Childers
• Philip Fry and Mary Magdalena Derrick

 

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: #7 The Prayers of Kizziah D Fry Childers

My great-great-great-grandmother Kizziah was one of 25 children born to Philip Fry (Frye) and his two wives. Her mother was Maria Magdalena Derrick (Dirk), the first wife of Philip. Kizziah was born in Tennessee, about 1809, near the end of Maria's child-bearing years.

The German language was often used in the Fry home, although both parents were American-born. I envision a young German-American girl with many older siblings to spoil her. By the time she was 11, the family had moved to northern Alabama, her mother had died, her father had married a young wife who was not Germanic and more children were being added to the family. Kizziah's life surely changed as her older siblings married and she had to accept more responsibility to help her step-mother and to care for the younger ones.

On May 1, 1828, Kizziah D. Fry wed James C. Childers (Childress), in Madison County, Alabama. James was a farmer and, at times, a Justice of the Peace. The marriage continued Kizziah's transition from the German culture to the English-American. The family was of the Methodist faith and there were ministers among both Kizziah's descendants and the extended family.

James and Kizziah raised ten children, with William dying between 9 and 14 years of age, after being thrown from a horse. Eight of the children were daughters, leaving only one son, born in 1845, to assist with farming. James, who owned no land in 1850, died between 1855 and 1860. By the age of 50, Kizziah was a widow with four minor children. She hired out as a domestic, as did her eldest daughter Mary Jane, also widowed young.

As the Civil War brewed, Kizziah would surely have leaned on her faith and on prayer. Her brothers, cousins, nephews and sons-in-law were called to serve. The safety of her only son, James, must have been heavy on her heart. She would have prayed that the war would end without costing his life. She prayed for her daughter Frances who was raped or seduced and left pregnant and unmarried. She prayed for daughters Sarah and Elizabeth who were widowed and fled to the North. She prayed for daughters Sophronia and Hannah, wherever they might be. She prayed for the safety and souls of her grandchildren. As the war came to an end, leaving behind destruction and devastation, Kizziah would have prayed for her family to merely survive each day.

As did many other Southerners, some of the Fry and Childers family members packed their meager possessions and moved to Texas. Kizziah and five of her children arrived in Texas by 1873. The other four daughters had been severed from the family by the war and contact was lost. Kizziah died at age 67, in the family's new home of Erath County, Texas, in 1876.

Through the magic of the internet, the descendants of two of the lost daughters, Sarah and Elizabeth, have been able to connect with the rest of the family. But daughters Sophronia C. Childers and Hannah Ann Childers Williams are still lost to history. We're looking for their descendants. Along with my cousins, I'm still praying to know what happened to our missing family members.