Virginia

Biographical Sketch of James T. Allen, M. D.

James T. Allen was born in Botetourt, Botetourt county, Virginia, July 16, 1833. He lived with his parents until he was sixteen years old, then attended the Presbyterian High School for one year, and was a student one year at Princeton College, New Jersey. In 1851 he began reading medicine under Dr. Matthew Wallace, of Pocahontas County, Virginia, and continued under his preceptorship until 1853. During the winter of 1854 and 1855 he attended medical lectures at the Virginia Medical College, at Richmond. He came to Missouri in the spring of 1855 and settled at Auberry Grove, now Jamesport, and … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Thomas B. Yates

Thomas B. Yates was born near Culpepper, Rappahannock county, Virginia, February 3, 1836. He lived with his parents until he was twenty and received a common school education. On leaving home, in 1856, he came to Gallatin and engaged in school teaching until 1860 when he was elected superintendent of schools for Daviess county. On account of the troubled condition of the schools in 1861, they being suspended, he resigned and engaged in farming. In 1865 he removed to Chillicothe and engaged in the drug business, in which he continued until 1874. In that year he returned to Gallatin and … Read more

Slave Narrative of J. W. Stinnett

Person Interviewed: J. W. Stinnett Place of Birth: Grayson County, Prairie Grove, Texas Date of Birth: 1863 What with raising nine grandchildren whose mammy is dead, this old head of mine has too many troubles to remember much about them slave days, but anyways I was born in 1863, at a place in Grayson County, Texas, name of Prairie Grove. My mammy come from Virginia, where pappy come from I don’t know, and where he went I don’t know, because he take off to the north during the war and never come back. His name was George Stinnett and mammy’s name … Read more

Slave Narrative of Jim Threat

Person Interviewed: Jim Threat Place of Birth: Talidiga County, Alabama Date of Birth: September 1851 We all sung dat song and had a lot of fun singing it but it was true jest the same. Dat was one of the things dat the niggers dreaded most, was a patteroller. Slaves would have a little party all the niggers would gather at one of the cabins and lock the door so the patterollers couldn’t git in. When the party was over and they started home the patterollers would stop them and demand their passes. Woe to the nigger that didn’t have … Read more

Slave Narrative of Nancy East

Person Interviewed: Nancy East Location: Middletown, Ohio Place of Residence: 809 Seventeenth Ave., Middletown, Ohio Butler County, District #2 Middletown MRS. NANCY EAST 809 Seventeenth Ave., Middletown, Ohio “Mammy” East, 809 Seventeenth Ave., Middletown, Ohio, rules a four-room bungalow in the negro district set aside by the American Rolling Mill Corporation. She lives there with her sons, workers in the mill, and keeps them an immaculate home in the manner which she was taught on a Southern plantation. Her house is furnished with modern electrical appliances and furniture, but she herself is an anachronism, a personage with no faith in … Read more

Slave Narrative of John W. Fields

Interviewer: Cecil Miller Person Interviewed: John W. Fields Location: Lafayette, Indiana Place of Birth: Owensburg, KY Date of Birth: March 27, 1848 Age: 89 Place of Residence: N. 20th St., Lafayette, Indiana Cecil C. Miller Dist. #3 Tippecanoe Co. INTERVIEW WITH MR. JOHN W. FIELDS, EX-SLAVE OF CIVIL WAR PERIOD September 17, 1937 John W. Fields, 2120 North Twentieth Street, Lafayette, Indiana, now employed as a domestic by Judge Burnett is a typical example of a fine colored gentleman, who, despite his lowly birth and adverse circumstances, has labored and economized until he has acquired a respected place in his … Read more

Slave Narrative of Edna Boysaw

Interviewer: Walter R. Harris Person Interviewed: Edna Boysaw Location: Brazil, Indiana Age: (about) 87 Special Assignment Walter R. Harris District #3 Clay County LIFE STORY OF EX-SLAVE MRS. EDNA BOYSAW Mrs. Boysaw has been a citizen of this community about sixty-five years. She resides on a small farm, two miles east of Brazil on what is known as the Pinkley Street Road. This has been her home for the past forty years. Her youngest son and the son of one of her daughters lives with her. She is still very active, doing her housework and other chores about the farm. … Read more

Slave Narrative of H. H. Edmunds

Interviewer: Albert Strope Person Interviewed: Rev. H. H. Edmunds Location: Elkhart, Indiana Place of Birth: Lynchburg, Virginia Date of Birth: 1859 Place of Residence: 403 West Hickory Street Elkhart, Indiana Albert Strope, Field Worker Federal Writers’ Project St. Joseph County-District #1 Mishawaka, Indiana EX-SLAVE REV. H.H. EDMUNDS 403 West Hickory Street Elkhart, Indiana Rev. H.H. Edmunds has resided at 403 West Hickory Street in Elkhart for the past ten years. Born in Lynchburg, Virginia, in 1859, he lived there for several years. Later he was taken to Mississippi by his master, and finally to Nashville, Tennessee, where he lived until … Read more

Slave Narrative of Henrietta Jackson

Interviewer: Virginia Tulley Person Interviewed: Henrietta Jackson Location: Fort Wayne, Indiana Virginia Tulley District #2 Fort Wayne, Indiana EX-SLAVE OF ALLEN COUNTY [MRS. HENRIETTA JACKSON] References: A. Ft. Wayne News Sentinel November 21, 1931 B. Personal interview [TR: There are no ‘A’ and ‘B’ annotations in the interview.] Mrs. Henrietta Jackson, Fort Wayne resident, is distinguished for two reasons; she is a centennarian and an ex-slave. Residing with her daughter, Mrs. Jackson is very active and helps her daughter, who operates a restaurant, do some of the lighter work. At the time I called, an August afternoon of over 90 … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Rev. Thomas Johnson

Rev. Thomas Johnson, for twenty-six years a missionary among the Shawnee and other Indian tribes of Kansas and one of the prominent characters in American Methodism of his day, was born in Virginia, July 11, 1802. When comparatively young he came to Missouri and in 1826 entered the Methodist ministry. His first charge was at Mount Prairie, Arkansas, and in 1828, having been received into full connection, he was appointed to Fishing River. In 1830 he was appointed to the Shawnee mission, which was in the Missouri district, and served as its super-intendent until 1841, when he resigned on account … Read more

Biography of George Octavius Boone

George Octavius Boone had been a resident of Kansas since 1881. In that year he embarked on a career as a commercial traveler, and had been a traveling man now for more than thirty-five years. For several years he represented a Boston shoe firm with headquarters in St. Louis, Baxter Springs, Arkansas City and Longmont, Colorado. Since 1897 his home had been in Topeka, and with the exception of three years he had been connected with the Topeka Daily Capital. The Boone family from whom he is descended had an authentic record of ancestors as far back as 1516. Originally … Read more

Biography of Patrick H. Coney

In many ways the State of Kansas during the last half century had had no more interesting, patriotic, versatile figure than Patrick H. Coney of Topeka. He came to Kansas after making a brilliant record as a soldier in the Civil war. He had been extremely successful as a business man, and his interests as a business man have extended over a wide and diversified field. No man in the country had exhibited a more intense loyalty and devotion to the welfare of the veterans of the great struggle between the North and the South. Mr. Coney is a lawyer, … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Gen. John A. Halderman

Gen. John A. Halderman, a Leavenworth lawyer and a Kentnckian by birth, made an honorable reputation in the public and military affairs of Kansas, as well as in the diplomatic service of the Far East. In the spring of 1854, at the age of twenty-one, and soon after his graduation from the University of Louisville, he came to Kansas and began the practice of law at Leavenworth. He served as private secretary to Andrew H. Reeder, the first territorial governor, and in 1855 was secretary of the first Territorial Council. He was appointed the first probate judge of Leavenworth County; … Read more

Casey Co., Ky

CASEY CO. (R.L. Nesbitt) While slavery existed in Casey Co., as in other counties of the State, before the Civil War, there are no negroes living the the county today who were born into slavery; and very few white people who can remember customs, incidents, or stories of the old slavery days. It is known that the first slaves in the county were those brought here from Virginia by the early white settlers of the county; and that until they were given their freedom, the slaves were well cared for and kindly treated. They lived in comfortable cabins on the … Read more

Clark Co., Ky

CLARK CO. (Mayme Nunnelley) The first records of Slaves in Clark County was given by a descendant of one of the members of the little band of resolute Revolutionary soldiers who had been comrades and mess mates throughout the long bloody war. These fifteen families, some from Virginia and others from Maryland, started westward in the early spring of 1783 for Kentucky. They bought with them some horses, a few cattle, thirty or forty slaves and a few necessary household articles. After many hardships and trials, borne heroically by both men and women, they halted on the banks of the … Read more

Biography of Edward Payson Allen

One of the most conspicuous figures in the financial and civic life of Southern Kansas was removed with the death of Edward Payson Allen at his home in Independence, November 27, 1915. He had already passed the age of three score and ten and with many ripe achievements to his credit and with the honorable associations of a long and useful life he went to his reward. He was a Civil war veteran, a pioneer in Montgomery County, Kansas, had filled public offices and had long borne the responsibilities of managing one of the largest banks in the state. His … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Andrew T. Still, Dr.

Dr. Andrew T. Still, founder of the American School of Osteopathy at Kirksville, Missouri, was a resident of Kansas for over twenty years, during which he farmed, practiced medicine and fought in the Civil war. He was a native of Lee County, Virginia, born in 1828, and the family moved to Tennessee when he was a young boy. He was educated in that state, for nearly three years attending Holston College, at Newmarket. As his father and older brother were physicians, he decided to take up the study of medicine himself. When qualified to practice he was of great assistance … Read more

Slave Narrative of Rev. John R. Cox

Interviewer: Carl F. Hall Person Interviewed: Rev. John R. Cox Date of Interview: December 23, 1936 Location: Catlettsburg, Kentucky Date of Birth: 1852 It is probable that slave labor was more expensive to the white masters than free labor would have been. Beside having cost quite a sum a two-year old negro child brought about $1,500 in the slave market, an adult negro, sound and strong, cost from $5,000 up to as high as $25,000, or more. The master had to furnish the servant his living. The free employee is paid only while working; when sick, disabled or when too … Read more

Slave Narrative of Bert Mayfield

Interviewer: Eliza Ison Person Interviewed: Bert Mayfield Location: Lancaster, Kentucky Place of Birth: Garrard County KY Date of Birth: May 29, 1852 Garrard County. Ex-Slave Stories. (Eliza Ison) Interview with Bert Mayfield: Bert Mayfield was born in Garrard County, May 29, 1852, two miles south of Bryantsville on Smith Stone’s place. His father and mother were Ped and Matilda Stone Mayfield, who were slaves of Smith Stone who came from Virginia. His brothers were John, Harrison, Jerry, and Laurence, who died at an early age. He lived on a large plantation with a large old farm house, built of logs … Read more

Native Americans of the Shenandoah Valley

Shenandoah Valley

An Exclusive to AccessGenealogy: The following series of articles takes a look at the early Native Americans of the Shenandoah Valley region. Who peopled the area before European contact? How did these Native American’s influence the early events of American history? What archeological evidence remains of these people’s? Part one looks at a couple of unusual clues to the identity of early Shenandoah Valley residents. In part two the history of the Shenandoah Valley after the arrival of Europeans is summarized in order to understand why the Native American history has been largely forgotten. Part three explores the pre-European past of the Shenandoah Valley. Part four looks at many of the early European eyewitness accounts of the Shenandoah Valley and it’s peoples. Part five reviews the professional archaeological studies carried out in the Shenandoah Valley in recent years.