Dudley Evans/Charles Martin/Edward Dulin/ Peter Peppino/Indian Van Swearingen/ Submitted by: Bill Davison 2. Dudley Evans, born March 30, 1766 in Loudon County; died May 4, 1844. He was a member of the Virginia House of Delegates for thirteen years from 1803 to 1816, and in 1812 was designated Colonel of one of two regiments of the Western Virginia Brigade which saw service (including the battle in which Tecumsah was slain) in the Northwestern Army under Maj. Gen. William Henry Harrison. Dudley married, March 24, 1787, Annarah Williams (1766-1844). They raised a large family in Morgantown: i. Nancy Evans 1788-1857, m Richard Wells. ii. John Willliams Evans 1790-1874, m Nancy Wells. iii. Phebe Evans 1792-1882, m Thomas Wells. iv. Margaret Evans 1793-1878, m Jacob Miller. v. James Evans 1796-. vi. Nimrod Evans 1799-1873, m Betsy Rhea. vii. Rawley Evans 1801-1869, m Clarissa Cox. viii. Cynthia Ann Evans 1804-1869, m Thomas Pratt. In his will drawn in 1840, Dudley Evans directed that the girls would share silver teaspoons, Cynthia would get his desk, the boys would divide the family property and a few "family slaves"...all other slaves to be freed. Charles Martin All the accounts say that he was born about 1715 but this seems early if his sister Ann was born in 1738 and his children were born between about 1764 and 1777 when he would have been 49 to 62. Also, as noted below, he was charged with assault and battery as late as 1794 when he would have been 79. Core also questions the birthdate. I think it is more reasonable to assume a birthdate of around 1735. This would make him 23 in 1758; a good age for a militia sergeant. Charles Martin came to the Monongahela around 1767, and built Fort Martin in 1773. He commanded a regiment of rangers during the Revolution, and served as a commissary for the State in West Augusta. In 1778 he organized one of the first Methodist churches west of the Alleghenies. In 1782 he served as a delegate to the Virginia Assembly and was a land commissioner in 1788. He was a large landowner and one of the prominent leaders of the area. He died in 1800. Martin was said to be over six feet tall, of dark complexion, with keen piercing black eyes. He also seems to have been quick to take offense and take matters into his own hands. Court records between 1785 and 1799 show the following: Charles, James, and William Martin and John Harrison summoned to answer Thomas Laidley on a charge of trespass, assault, battery, and false imprisonment, damages £1000, 1 October 1789. Charles Martin summoned to answer Thomas Pindall in a plea of trespass, assault and battery, damages £500, 10 August 1790. Pindall complained that Martin assaulted him in the town of Morgantown. Thomas Wilson, attorney for Martin, pleaded Martin not guilty as he (Wilson) knew it was the plaintiff's own wrong that caused the assault. Charles Martin summoned to answer John Wickwire in a plea of trespass, assault and battery, $500 damage, 17 October 1794. Some idea of Charles Martin's wealth can be gained by reading his will, written in 1798: To wife Mary: one half of home tract, bounded by Stuarts Rd. and the State line, during her life, Negro woman Selvey and two of her children called Lucy and Win (Selvey's other children to return to the estate), one third of my personal estate except the Negroes. After my wife's death Silvy is to be a free woman. To my oldest son Jesse: my Monongahela tract of land (400 a. including mouth of Crooked Run). To son George: 307 a. on Buffalo Cr. where he now lives and my Negro man Arthur. To son William: Negro boy Litt. To son Spencer: 400 a. adj. tract where Spencer now lives and situate on waters of Traverbough. To dau. Ann Harrison: Negro girl Pegg. To son Presley: 400 a. where I now live except that belonging to his mother during her life, one Negro boy Abraham and one of the negro girls bequeathed to his mother after her death and any other children of Negro woman Silvey. Rest of my personal estate to be sold and divided equally among my sons George, Wm., Spencer, Presley, and daus. Elisabeth Randall, Ann Harrison and gson Charles Martin, the son of Jesse Martin. Exors.: wife, Stephen Gapen, son Presley. Edward Dulin had made a settlement in Ohio County, VA, along the Ohio river, having three tracts surveyed in 1785. The land was granted to him in 1787. Presley Martin was visiting the area when Indians attacked Dulin. Presley heard the shot that killed Dulin, buried him on the spot and took his widow Susannah and daughter Sarah to safety at Graves Creek. Presley then purchased the land from Susannah and erected a house on the north forks of Big Fishing Creek and the Ohio River. The nails that he put in the house were made by a blacksmith in Morgantown and he carried them to the new location in pack saddles. On the Dulin land he laid out the town of Martinsville but when it was incorporated by the Virginia Assembly, the name was changed to New Martinsville because there was already a Martinsville in Henry County. According to James Popenoe's deposition, his mother was living with him in 1820 (and probably had lived with him since Charles Martin died in 1800). It was said in our family that Presley was very rich and had a hundred slaves! He represented Tylor (now Wetzel) County in the Virginia legislature. In trying to straighten out the land mess Sargent found that grants had been made by the French, the British, and the courts set up by the Virginians. There were many forgeries. Between 1779 and 1783, 26,000 acres of land had been granted, and from 1783 to 1787, when Col. Harmer checked the abuse, another 22,000 acres had been granted, generally in parcels of 400 acres. All of this is to give some background by which we might fit Peter Popino into the Vincennes time and place. He claimed two plots of land: 340 acres under a court deed and 244-400 acres by right of improvements. The first was probably one of those dispensed by the French court operating loosely under the Virginia government. 340 acres equals 400 arpents, the French measure. That there was some such deed is evidenced by the fact that Luke Decker later got this land, listing Peter Pappino as original claimant. It was located along the river Des Chis, a few miles south of Vincennes. Decker was a big wheeler-dealer and the largest slaveholder in Vincennes. The area where Peter had his land is now part of Decker Township. A claim in right of improvements means that the claimant lived on the land for at least a year, planted a crop and built a house. A later listing of American militia in 1790 showed that most of the men had arrived around 1785. Such was probably the case with Peter. He probably did some militia duty around Vincennes from time to time Thomas Swearingen III was an early resident of Shepherdstown and ran a ferry there. In 1758 he ran against George Washington for the House of Burgesses and was badly defeated. (or was this another Thomas?) He was married to Sarah ---- and he died in 1760. Thomas and Mary's children included Samuel Swearingen, Captain Joseph Swearingen, 1754-1821, Major Thomas Swearingen IV, 1752- <1786; Captain “Indian” Van Swearingen; and Benoni Swearingen. At the outbreak of the Revolution, “Indian” Van raised an independent company of riflemen which, in 1776, was attached to the Eigth Pennsylvania Regiment. In 1777, in the battle of Stillwater, he was wounded and taken prisoner. Upon his release, he served with the regiment until resigning in 1779. He became the first sheriff of Washington County, 1781-84. He was a trustee of a church near New Geneva and was also one of the largest slave owners in the county with 13 slaves. In 1779, Colonel William Morgan, one of Richard Morgan's sons, led a party of twelve through the Shenandoah Valley to Boonesborough, Kentucky that included Thomas and Benoni Swearington and two of their slaves, and John Strode and John Constant Jr. Major Thomas Swearingen was married to Mary Morgan, sister of Col. William Morgan. Thomas went to back to Kentucky in 1780 with one of the Vans, probably his son Van (1762-1793), John Constant, Jr., John and Evan Morgan, and others. Strode built Strode's Station, about 2.5 miles south of Winchester in what is now Clark County, All of these people were listed among the residents of Strode's Station when it was attacked in 1781. Van served with John and Peter Popeno in a company of Kentucky rangers that was called up in 1783. Indian Van and his nephew Van were in General St. Claire's abortive expedition against the Indians in 1973; the younger Van was killed during the fighting.. The accounts are confusing and with all the Vans it is not surprising. It does not seem that the Swearingens who were in Kentucky in the 1780s were from the Monangahela but they were closely related to the ones that were. How this ties in with the Popenos who went to Kentucky remains to be seen. The above are contained within: Popenoe/Popnoe/Poppino Family ... Slavery was not permitted in Pennsylvania, so slave owners moved across the border into Virginia or on ... County, Pennsylvania militia. He named in his will the following children ... www.popenoe.com/Settlers.htm - 414k - Cached - More from this site
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