Some Webster County, Kentucky Families

SOME WEBSTER COUNTY KENTUCKY, FAMIUES Baker, Bassett, Givens, Johnson, Payne, Price, Rice, and Others TH,.«kln! School Ht Donated to the Genealogical Society Library by Mine rva Bone Bassett 7409 Beverly Road Bethesda, Md. 20014 Form 0790 3/80 1 5C 165f Printed in USA DATE MICROFILMED •^s^'- I I trf? ^' PBOJECT aaG G.S. ROLL# CALL# XL1B7-10<^ \b^]Okfi # J22 •;s^ ^• SOME WEBSTER COUNTY, KENTUCKY, FAMIUES Baker, Bassett, Givens, Johnson, Payne, Price, LU Rice, and Otliers CI,UJ„„o Compiled by Minerva Bone Bassett LU D Indexed by UJO Patricia Randle Gillespie O ^ iS %^"'^'"k GATEWAY PRESS, INC. Baltimore 1983 Copyright © 1983 Minerva Bone Bassett All rights reserved Permission to reproduce in any form may be secured from the author Please direct all correspondence and book orders to: Minerva Bone Bassett 7409 Beverly Rd. Bethesda, MD 20814 Library of Congress Catalogue Card Number 83-81064 Published for the author by Gateway Press, Inc. Ill Water Street Baltimore, MD 21202 ^U Made in the United States of America "] TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Foreword LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Page Partial map of Webster County from map by J. D. Palmer, I903 End papers Old Webster County Courthouse from sketch by Linda Nims 2 Shiloh Cumberland Presbyterian Church from painting by the Rev. Alfred Bennett 7 Isaac Newton Baker, Sr. *20 Isaac Newton Baker, Jr. *20 Brush Automobile *21 James Miles Baker Family *21 John Daniel Bamhill *24 John Frederick Dobyns *2k Gustavus Adolphus Bassett Family *24 Elizabeth R. Christian Givens *25 Eleazer Johnson and wife *25 Judith Gary Bell Gist Givens *23 Thomas Karr Givens *25 William Cavanah Lisman and wife *3^ Henry Dolores Mitchell Family *3^ Cornelius Payne *35 Louisa Ann Walton Payne *35 Thomas Buford Payne *35 John Lee Payne *35 Tobacco workers ^2 Frances Bassett Price *72 Richen Price and daughter *72 Laban Lacy Rice *73 Gale Young Rice *73 Sylvester Haywood Williajns *73 Sarah Jane Bassett Williams *73 Wm. S. Coleman'^ Male & Female Academy 85 Old Broadway School from sketch by Jane Kehrt 91 Tobacco patch 97 Music pupils of Maria Anna Givens Coleman 100 Coil Coal Mine from sketch by Gene Brooks 120 Logging team 131 Tobacco workers 13^ Home of Rachel Taylor Rice Givens Smith *1^0 Home of Eleazer Johnson *1^0 Partial map of Providence from map by George Beeson, 1902 Between 1^0 & 141 Home of John Wier Givens *^^^ Home of Thomas Karr Givens *1^1 * Opposite . FOREWORD This began as a record of the Baker and Bassett families. It quickly became apparent why almost everyone in Providence was called "cousin" and the only way to understand how people were related was to wilte down names of members of other families, too. The intention here is not to present a complete record of any of the families, but rather to record the inter-relationships of these people who were kin and who lived within a small area for much of the nineteenth century. The ma- terial about these families is far from complete and though a sincere effort- has been made to have it correct , no doubt errors are present The information about these families has come from many sources; census records, marriage records, wills, deeds, vital statistics, ceme- tery records, newspaper clippings, the 19^0 Providence Enterprise Cen- tennial Edition and books about local history and about individual families. I am especially indebted to those people who shared family records, including those of Blanche Mitchell Barnhill, Amelia Givens Sugg Givens, Sallie F. Hill, W. Gamett Johnson, Fannie Bassett Price, Pearl Baker Sugg, Emma Sue Williams and Rachel Whittinghill Withers and many others. Many, many other people have furnished information about their own families and have answered any number of questions. Their patience and kindness is greatly appreciated. I am most grateful to the late John Bassett Price who was my ever-willing consultant and mentor. Most of all I am indebted to my husband, William Kerr Bassett, who is my claim to Webster County. He has always been most helpful, encouraging and patient. Too, I am most grateful to Patricia Randle Gillespie for her encouragement, help and the tremendous task of index- ing over seven thousand names. In order to trace a lineage, find the name and the page number in the index. To find the next older generation, omit the last numeral in the family number, which precedes the name. A child is numbered by using his father's (or mother's) number plus his own order of birth. When there are ten or more children, the double digit number is set off by a period. To eliminate duplication, later generations have not been list- ed in some families. The numbering system and space-saving abbrevia- tions are simple. I trust readers will be charitable. Minerva Bone Bassett 7^09 Beverly Road Bethesda, Maryland 2081^ 12 July 1983 O 6 > •H O 0)^ \o x: CO CO -P nj TJ o +J o ,^ •H •H 00 c xi • o H CD -p CO .H o 'd Ch rH e 13 ON .a •H O rH CQ ^ -p o I T3f rH ^ IS £>- .H rH cn o 00 x: >, Oj r-^ -P -P C H 03 Hi CO ^ o :=) -p o rH o X w Q) 0) -p x: Ph w -p t^ o - 13 rH 0) o O r-^ S: -P O .H >-i CO x: ^ 0) Xi c - O -H :=i 0) • O O W)Ch :3 .H W -P -o ^ Eh O x: CO CD -p >3x: -p CO g ^ o o o o -p o •H cfl x; CO cti O ^H rH -p d Cfl 12 "^ O -H :=s CO O +J o -p CO CO ^ .H ?H IS c3 M s: •HOG CO H -P CO <+H Q S INTRODUCTION Long before there was a Webster County, settlers began coming to the western part of Kentucky. Kentucky became a state in 1792 and Henderson County was formed from Christian County in 1799. Red Banks had been a rec- ognized stopping point on the Ohio River since I765 when the river was first navigated past what is now Henderson. The town was permanently settled in 1784. Land warrants for service during the Revolutionary War began to be issued by Virginia about I783 for bounty lands in the district of Kentucky below the Green River. William Jenkins is likely one of the first into the area with a military land warrant . William Givens and Eleazar Givens were also among the earliest to settle here. They are said to have turned off the extension of the old Natchez Trace, sometimes called the Red Banks Trail, about 38 miles south of Henderson. William settled on land near the trail and Eleazar went a few miles farther west and settled on the Tradewater River. One historian says they had come north from Fort Nashboro in Tennessee and another says they came from Clark's Creek, near present Danville, Kentucky, where Samuel Givens had established Given 's Station about I78O. After 1800, the earliest pioneers began to be joined by ever increasing numbers of relatives, friends and strangers from the east - mostly from Virginia and North Carolina. By I8O6 Hopkins County was formed from Hender- son County because of the rapidly growing population. Robert Robertson was at Red Banks by 1797 and is said to have been the first surveyor in what became Hopkins County. The two dozen pioneer families that are included in this compilation arrived early in the nineteenth century and records about them can be found in Christian, Henderson, Hopkins, Union, Caldwell, Crittenden and Livingston Counties. Many pioneers migrated in groups and came to join relatives and friends who had sent back encouraging word of their new homes. There are two groups of particular significance: those from Bertie County, North Carolina, and those from Augusta County, Virginia. What is now Bertie County, North Carolina, was on the first map drawn of North Carolina in I585. It was at the head of Albemarle Sound and on the waters of the Chowan River. The first settlement on the Chowan River, in 1655, was by settlers from Virginia who were of Scottish, English and Scotch- Irish descent. The rich bottom land of the area's rivers attracted new families and Bertie County was formed from Chowan County in 1722. The earliest land grants and deeds show many of the same names that were common in Ken- tucky many years later: Baker, Early, Godwin, Hunter, Jenkins, Johnson, Mit- chell, Nichols, Parker, Rice, Skinner, Stallings, Williams, Williford, Wynn, etc. Three items selected at random from Bertie County Court House Minutes are: "August Court 1774. Proved a deed from Richard Williford to Josiah Nicholas (sic) in open court by the oath of James Early one of the subscrib- ing witnesses." "Nov. 1774. Ordered that Josiah Stallings, the orphan of Jacob Stallings, deceased, aged about ten years, be bound and apprenticed to James Jenkins to learn the Trade of a Cart Wheelwright." "August 1779- Ordered that Robert Jinkins (sic), Aron Askew and Shadrack Early be ap- pointed Patrollers in Gapt. Watkins William Wynn's District." A Jenkins may have been the first from Bertie County to come to what is now Webster County, but James Baker and a group of friends and relatives were here by about I8O3. They may have included the Jenkins, Parkers, Rices, Williams, Willifords and Wynns. In the summer and fall of 1808 another group of 50 or 60 people came to join them. This group was led by Noah Nichols and possibly included the Earlys, Johnsons, Mitchells, Prices and others.

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