Tennessee Frontiersman,
Utah Pioneer
written by Gary Dean Young, ggg-grandson
William Alma Young was born 28 Aug 1805,
the son of Jacob Young and Mary Boren, in Smith County Tennessee near the
present town of Springfield. He was named after his Grandfather William
Young who had come to Tennessee with his wife Elizabeth Huff and family.
Evidence suggests that the Youngs and Borens had been neighbors in the
Yadkin Valley of North Carolina. The Borens were relatively long-time
residents of this area of North Carolina, where Mary Boren Young was born.
Her father Bazel Boren, was a close personal friend of another resident of
the Yadkin Valley, Andrew Jackson -- later President of the United States.
Both the Borens and Youngs were part of the
post revolutionary war migration to the Southwest Indian Territory through
the Cumberland Gap. This was before the state of Tennessee existed, and
the entire area was considered to be a part of North Carolina. At the
conclusion of the Revolutionary War, it became Washington County Virginia.
The book, 'Kings Mountain Men' by Katherine Keogh White, page 150, shows
"Baile Boran was a Lt. in the militia of Washington Co Virginia in
Sept 1780." In 1775, a group of land speculators called the
Transylvania Company bought a large area in present-day Tennessee and
Kentucky from the Cherokee. In fact, the word 'Tennessee' came from the
name of a Cherokee Indian village. Early maps show little more than the
names of streams and widely spaced family cabins, around which grew small
settlements. Mary Boren's great uncle, Daniel Boone (also a resident of
the Yadkin Valley, NC) was hired to blaze a trail from Virginia across the
mountains at Cumberland Gap to open this Transylvania land to settlement.
His trail, the famous Wilderness Road, became the chief route to the new
settlements. Mary Boren Young named her oldest son Squire Boren Young
after Daniel Boone's father Squire Boone (Daniel also had a brother named
Squire).
It is believed that the Youngs were of
Scots-Irish origin, as were so many of the early North American frontier
people. In support of this theory is an article written by Tennessee
Governor David Campbell in 1911 entitled "Old Washington,"
(Submitted to USGenWeb Archives by Jean Schneider in 1999). Governor
Campbell wrote, "Some account of the first settlers of old Washington
County, Virginia, would, no doubt, be interesting to many of the readers
of the Virginian, and I could tell them something on that subject....
Hunters visited the county as early as 1745, but no families came and
settled permanently until about 1767 or 1768. In two years from that time
many emigrated, so that in 1770 the county was dotted all over with
improvements. The first great migration was from Augusta County, but the
spirit was immediately caught, and large numbers of families, and, indeed,
whole connections, came from Frederick County and the (Shenandoah) Valley
- from the Augusta line to the Potomac - from the upper counties of
Maryland and from Pennsylvania. Botetourt and the country on each side of
it sent members. The first large connections were the Edmondsons, of whom
there were ten or twelve families of the same name. Then the Vances,
Newells, Blackburns, and several others of that connection; the Campbells,
five or six families, the Davises, four brothers - Nathaniel, John, James
and Samuel Davis, the Craigs, three brothers - David, Robert and James
Craig, two or three families of the Colvilles, and the same number of
Briggses, two families of Logans, John and Benjamin Logan, a large number
of Buchanaus, and several families of Beatys and their connections, the
Rayburns and Dysarts, also a large connection of the Berry family; five or
six Lowrey families; the Sharps and Laughlins, a large connection,
including the Kings and Youngs. These Youngs were not the German family,
they were of Irish descent."
The story of the Scots-Irish people may be
traced back to the days of King James I (1566-1625) of England. James was
born in the castle at Edinburgh Scotland on 19 Jun 1566, the only son of
Mary, Queen of Scots, and Henry Stewart, Lord Darnley. He was crowned King
James VI of Scotland at the age of 13 months on 20 Jul 1567, upon the
abdication of his mother. James' early tutors were George Buchanan and
Peter Young. When his cousin Queen Elizabeth I of England died in 1603, he
became king of England. The first permanent English colony in America
established in 1607 was named Jamestown in his honor. He had the bible
translated into English in 1611, and it became known as the King James
Version.
King James seized lands in north Ireland
and colonized them with Scottish settlers in the first half of the 1600's.
The Irish rebelled repeatedly, but the English crushed every uprising.
These so-called Scotch Irishmen felt that the Roman Catholic church had
strayed from the true teachings of the bible and so they practiced the
Protestant religion or Anglicanism as it was called. They were known as
Protestant-Anglicans from which the Presbyterian Church developed. Nine
out of ten of the Irish were Catholics and hated the Scotch intruders and
their Protestant religion. As a result, many of the Scotch Irishmen who
could afford it, chose to escape persecution by migrating to the American
Colonies. Most of them settled in the Northern Neck of Virginia and
eventually congregated in the western area that became known as the
Shenandoah Valley.
Augusta County is located on the western
boarder of Virginia, at the base of the Blue Ridge Mountains and the south
end of the Shenandoah Valley. It was named in honor of Princess Augusta of
Saxe-Gotha, wife of Frederick Louis, Prince of Wales, the father of George
III. It was formed from Orange County in 1738, when it included all
western territory including present-day Kentucky, Illinois, and Tennessee.
Because of the unsettled state of the region, county government was not
actually established there until 1745. The county seat was Staunton. Many
of the settlers were Scotch-Irish. Early Augusta county court records show
William Young, Robert Young, John Young, James Young, Mathew Young,
Patrick Young and Hugh Young. Their properties may be found among the
original grantees of the 1736 Beverly Manor Grant (GenWeb, Augusta Co Va).
Scots-Irish settlement moved southward
through the Shenandoah Valley during the 1730's and 1740's following the
Great Philadelphia Wagon Road. This was the famous 'backcountry' where
their presence was welcomed as a reinforcement against the Indian threat.
Most of the movement into North Carolina took place between 1740 and 1756,
with the surge into Tennessee developing about 1770-80. Scots-Irish
families were the vanguard of the push west. Moving across the mountain
barriers, many would leave Virginia for Kentucky, or North Carolina for
Tennessee, while many others migrated from eastern Pennsylvania into the
Ohio Valley. They were taught wilderness survival skills from childhood.
Boys were trained in the art of making and shooting a bow and became
skilled hunters. Men wore buckskin clothing, coonskin caps and moccasins,
and always carried a long rifle. Men and boys both, were seldom seen
without a hunting dog by their side. Women and girls wore homemade
dresses, and excelled in preparing clothing and food from wild plants and
animals. They were descended from generations of American pioneers and
explorers and enjoyed the wilderness, using the resources that nature
provided to their advantage. They built log cabins and planted corn and
melons in the forest clearings. Each family raised hogs to suppliment
their diet of wild meat, and most kept a cow for milk and butter. They
kept a good riding horse whenever possible and transportation was by
horseback on land or by canoe on the waterways.
Although there were a few settlers in the
Rowan Co North Carolina area by 1745, the largest numbers began to arrive
in 1749. Listed among the Scots-Irish contingent of that year was Morgan
Bryan, whose daughter Rebecca married Daniel Boone. Morgan was a
Scots-Irishman born 1671 in Denmark where his family had gone to seek
exile. He married Martha Strode 1719 in Chester Co Pennsylvania and then
migrated to the Yadkin River country NC where he died on 3 Apr 1763. His
son Morgan Bryan Jr was the grandfather of Mary Boren Young -- wife of
Jacob Young of Springfield, Robertson Co Tenn. Mary's father Bazel Boren
was a descendent of settlers who had come to the Yadkin Valley from
Currituck County on the northeast coast of North Carolina. Bazel &
Susannah Bryan Boren's grandson, Jacob Young and his brothers were all
accomplished gunsmiths, and the town of Salisbury in Rowan County was the
gateway to the west and significantly in those turbulent years leading up
to the Revolutionary War it became the main gunsmithing center for the
Carolina Piedmont, with Rowan-manufactured rifles an important tool of
survival.
Bazel and Susannah Bryant Boren were
married 7 Oct 1780 in Rowan Co No Carolina. Shortly thereafter, Bazel
joined the famous 'Kings Mountain Men.' Losses at Charleston and Camden in
the Revolutionary War had discouraged many patriots, but new encouragement
came as Thomas Sumpter, Francis Marion, and Andrew Pickens launched
guerrilla attacks against the British. In September 1780, Cornwallis
invaded North Carolina and on October 7th, Col. William Campbell's 900
American frontiersmen destroyed a force of 1,100 Loyalists under Maj.
Patrick Ferguson, covering Cornwallis' left flank. The loss, sustained at
Kings Mountain, just over the boarder from North Carolina into S.C.,
forced the British to retreat and became one of the pivotal battles of the
war.
News of the abundance of game and fertility
of the soil traveled fast, and settlement continued to move westward.
Between 1777 and 1788, six North Carolina counties were formed to give the
people a political voice and some form of organized government. Three
counties were in the east of what is now the state of Tennessee --
Washington, Sullivan, and Greene, and three were in middle of the present
state of Tennessee -- Davidson, Sumner, and Tennessee. The Sumner County
Tennessee tax list of 25 Aug 1789 lists a John Young (868 acres land) and
William Young (640 acres). They are again listed on the 1790 Sumner Co tax
list. North Carolina ceded this area to the federal government when it
ratified the United States Constitution in 1789, and congress designated
it as the 'Territory of the United States South of the River Ohio, better
known in history as the 'Southwest Territory.' It was first divided into
three districts -- two for eastern part, and the 'Mero District' where the
Youngs and Borens moved on the Cumberland River. Taxes were levied to pay
for the militia employed in cutting roads and escorting families from
Virginia through the Cumberland Gap. The area in which they resided was
first a part of Washington County Virginia, then Sumner, Smith and
Robertson Counties Tennessee. The Cumberland River was the boundary
between Sumner and Wilson Counties. On the southwest was Mansker's Creek,
which formed the line between Sumner and Davidson Counties. Robertson
County was formed beyond the western edge of Sumner. By 1795, a
territorial census showed enough population for statehood. Congress
approved the admission of Tennessee on 1 Jun 1796. It became the sixteenth
state of the Union.
The question of locating the seat of
justice was the most difficult and perplexing one the people of Smith
County had to settle. It continued for years to be a source of strife and
division. The Legislature appointed commissioners to locate the town of
Smithfield for this purpose, but evidently they failed to act. In August
1804, the Legislature appointed new commissioners to hold an election of
the voters of the county to decide between Bledsoeboro and the lands of
William Walton, at the mouth of Caney Fork, as the location of the county
seat. Andrew Green, John Gordon, and James Ballow were appointed in the
Act authorizing it to superintend the election. It was held at the house
of Mr. Walton, for three consecutive days, as soon after the passage of
the law as notice could be given. Colonel Walton furnished unlimited
supplies of venison, beef, and barbecued bear meat, nor was a full supply
of whiskey lacking. Parties between the two places were nearly equally
divided. The contest was fierce, and for a long time doubtful. The
Bledsoeboro people called the Caney Fork men the 'Moccasin Gang' and the
Caney Fork men retaliated by naming their opponents the 'Pole Cats.' In
the forenoon of the last day, the polecats took possession of the polls
and raised the defiant shout of victory. Nothing daunting however, the
Moccasin Gang formed a solid column, pushed the head of it to the voting
place and stood while their friends walked over their shoulders to vote.
Victory at the close was found perched upon the standard of the moccasins,
and the county seat of Smith became Carthage. This result was largely due
to the personal popularity of Colonel William Walton, and to his abundant
supply of refreshments during the days of the election. There was ill
blood on both sides for years, and many a fight occurred between them in
consequence whenever they should meet at Carthage.
It is believed that upon their arrival in
Tennessee, Wm & Elizabeth Huff Young settled on Sulphur Fork of the
Red River, which empties into the Cumberland. They had property on
Sullivan's Bend, and on Indian Creek that empties into the Caney Fork of
the Cumberland.
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