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Sarah Allen Hamell travels from Virginia to Illinois.
Submitted by Craig Allen
Submitter's Note: Sarah was born in Nelson County Virginia in 1846 the daughter of Jesse Jobalyn Allen b. 1813 Nelson Co., and Jane Mildred Small b. 1819, Nelson Co. m. 1836 in Nelson County, VA.
Nokomis (IL) Free Press December 6, 1923
MRS. SARAH E. HAMELL PIONEER RESIDENT, DIED LAST WEDNESDAY NIGHT
Came in Prairie Schooners to Illinois attended Sunday School taught by Abe Lincoln
The story of the early life of MRS. SARAH E. HAMELL, aged and respected citizen of Nokomis, who
dies at her home 311 South Maple Street, Wednesday evening, November 28, 1923, reads like a chapter
of early American history. She was the daughter of MR. and MRS. JESSE J. ALLEN and was born
in Nelson County, Virginia in 1846. Her parents, like many of our staunch old eastern forbears
heard the westward cry and started by wagon for Ohio when MRS. HAMELL was a very little girl.
They lived there (Ohio) until she was nine years old and then they started in a prairie schooner
with several other brave families for the "far west" Springfield, Illinois. There the Allen
Family lived for two years and the deceased was sent to Springfield to Sunday School, where a tall,
plain, uncouth man with a kindly face and sad eyes was the superintendent. That man’s
name was ABRAHAM LINCOLN and many, many years later the woman who used to be little SARAH ALLEN
loved to tell her children and grandchildren how ABRAHAM LINCOLN, the beloved martyr president,
used to conduct that Springfield School which she attended as a little girl. From Springfield,
the ALLEN family moved to a farm in Christian County. By this time SARAH ALLEN was no longer
a little girl, but a young lady. Here she met THOMAS HAMELL a young farmer who...their
neighborhood, and love... out of friendship. They were married October 3, 1863, and lived on
a farm in Christian County. Both young people had been raised in the church and the church became
one of the predominate interests of their lives. And so...1865 talk of a church in the....land
was started, THOMAS HAMELL and his wife were among its most ardent enthusiasts. MR. HAMELL cut
and ....ed the timber used in construction of this church -- the Center Grove Methodist Church in
Greenwood Township. He became a trustee and for years was the superintendent of Sunday School.
His children and other young men and women, still remember his Sunday School and how they
conducted its meetings. MR. and MRS. HAMELL became the parents of eight children, only two of
whom are now living. They are JOSEPH E. HAMELL of Rosemond, A.... TRUDE BUSBY of Witt, MAG....
CHENEY, CHARLES E. HAMELL and IRA .. Nokomis, IDA MARY RIFE, Will...RY and EFFIE R. HAMELL preceded
the couple in death.
(newspaper is nearly impossible to read beyond this point, paper is torn with pieces missing).
(article started on page 1)
Amherst families trace bloodlines.....
The following article was kindly submitted for posting here by Carol Joplin Clapshaw
Amherst families trace bloodlines to earliest days of county history
By Jessie Martin
Staff writer
ELON - Hannon Rucker has spent all of his 90 years in Amherst County.
A member of one of Amherst's first families, Rucker says he couldn't imagine
living anywhere else."The mountains sure are pretty," he said gesturing toward his backyard. His property has been in the family for more than two centuries.
He is the sixth generation of Ruckers, to live in the county since John Rucker patented 5,850 acres in 1739, 22 years before the county received its charter in 1761.
Rucker and his wife of 68 years, May, now live on Ambrose Rucker Road, in a brick house that over-looks the foothills of Tobacco Row Mountain. The home is several miles from where his family first settled along the James River.
His ancestors - Anthony and Benjamin Rucker - designed and constructed the first batteau in 1775. The boats, used for transporting cargo (mainly tobacco) along the James River, helped show Tidewater residents that their perceptions of Central Virginia as wilderness were incorrect.
Rucker, like his ancestors, grew apples and peaches, and learned the art of grafting new limbs and creating hybrids, 4 skill his ancestors passed on from generation to generation.
Indians had been there for thousands of years before the Ruckers and the other settlers arrived in the first half of the 18th century.
A census taken in 1761 shows 5,296 whites and 2,750 blacks - which included Indians.
Little is known about the Indians who lived in the Piedmont area because they kept only verbal records. Colonists, who did not venture into the Blue Ridge Mountains until the middle of the 1600s, recorded fear of crossing the paths of Indians.
To get into Virginia, the Indians had to overcome the physical obstacles of the land - the Allegheny and Blue Ridge Mountains, the Valley of Virginia, the Piedmont Plateau and the Coastal Plain.
Widespread disease and social disarray in. Indian villages during the late 1600s wiped out many details of American Indian culture from the Piedmont, or midsection of the state.
Historians believe the Indians were hunter-gatherers, meaning they moved throughout the year so as to best use available resources. Through archaeological digs, scientists have discovered the remains of Monacan Indian villages. The artifacts help confirm theories the local Monacans lived from above Otter Creek, on the southwestern edge of the county, to John Lynch's Ferry, at various times of the year.
Some of the first recorded travel into what is now Amherst County was written by John Smith, who explored Virginia in the early 1600s and later constructed maps showing five Siouan villages in the Piedmont.
According to folklore, one of the first settlers of Amherst County was "Trader" Hughes, a Scottish hunter and fur trader. Hughes was married to a full blooded Indian named Nicketti, supposedly a niece of the famous Indian Chief Powhatan.
Arriving in the colonies in the 1630s, it is uncertain exactly when Hughes and his wife set up a trading post by Otter Creek, about half a mile from the James River. The store, with a stone chimney that later served as a landmark, also served as a home for the family.
Although interracial marriages (white men and Indian women) were not looked favorably upon by aristocrats, they were fairly common in Amherst, where there were not many white women. The marriages also helped traders establish their business credibility with Indians.
During the early and mid-1700s, more immigrants arrived in Central Virginia.
Scots-Irish, Irish and Germans who had settled in Pennsylvania and northern Virginia began looking for a place to practice their religion freely. They moved when land became available in the Shenandoah Valley, and called themselves "Cohees" and their home "new Virginia."
In addition, settlers, mostly English, came from Tidewater with their slaves and indentured servants. Their culture centered largely on tobacco plantations, and the Cohees named the planters "Tuckahoes" and called their land "old Virginia."
During the period between 1730 and 1750, at least 500 settlers in the county are documented through official documents and personal diaries.
One of the settlers who arrived in the county at about that time was Dr. William Cabell, who married Elizabeth Burks, the great granddaughter of Trader Hughes.
Often credited with being one of the founding forces in the formation of the county, Cabell chopped out about 25,000 acres along the James River beginning above Howardsville and continuing to the present Amherst-Nelson county line. Upon his death, Cabell gave the majority of his land to his four sons and the children of his only daughter.
Cabell was a historian and religious doctor who treated Patrick Henry. Over the years, various Cabells located in Amherst, Nelson and Buckingham counties, on plantations that lasted until the 1800s.
Other families who permanently settled in the county at about the same time include: Howard, Nevil, Jopling, Rose, Taliaferro, Carter, Clark, Higginbotham and many others.
Some have vanished from the county. Others, like the Ruckers, have published volumes about the family's genealogy.
Nelson County Land Grants from the King
The following article was kindly submitted for posting here by Carol Joplin Clapshaw
Settlers' descendants live on five original grants
By Joseph Clement
Staff Writer
This article is the third in a series entitled "Nelson County:
Land Grants from the King," whose descendants still own land chartered to their
ancestors the settlers of Nelson County.
The first two stories in the series were about Dr. William Cabell
and the Rev. Robert Rose and their descendants. Cabell and Rose owned or shared
title in 155,000 acres granted from Kings George II and III of England.
This article is about other 18th century pioneers whose families
still own chartered land.
In the early 18th century, expansion westward to central Virginia
was encouraged by the King George II of England. The seemingly endless amount of
land was not useful to him unless it could be kept colonized, taxed and out of
the hands of enemies, according to 20th Century Cabells and Their Kin,
by Randolph Cabell.
As early settlers explored what was to become Nelson County, they
looked for unclaimed areas for which to apply for grants. The first settler,
Dr. William Cabell, chose the Wingina area for his home. The Rev. Robert Rose
established the Piney River and Roseland areas. Descendants of both still live
in the county.
Various regions of Nelson County were claimed in this way. At
least three other land grants from the king are still owned by descendants. The
original grants were given to William Harris, James Dickie and James Stevens.
William Harris was granted approximately 2,000 acres, beginning with
the first parcel in 1739 in what was then Albemarle County. His son, Maj.
William Harris Jr., built two homes, Dovecote and Rockford.
Rockford still stands near Faber and is owned by a descendant,
Catherine Hawes Coleman Seaman, and her husband, John. Their property consists
of approximately 450 acres.
James Dickie received three or more grants totaling at least 709
acres and perhaps as much as 3,500 acres in and around what is now the Roseland
area. According to Tuckahoes and Cohees: The Settlers and Cultures of Amherst
and Nelson Counties from 1607-1807, by Catherine Seaman, he received 2,700
acres in 1750.
The History of Nelson County, published by the Nelson County
Home Demonstration Clubs in 1965, records three additional separate land grants
to Dickie beginning in 1752 one being for 300 acres on the south side of Castle
Creek. The second was in 1758 for 190 acres on the north side of the creek and
the third grant in 1760 added 219 acres on either side of the creek.
A descendant, Emily Dickie Bugierre, currently lives at Breeze Hill
on 550 acres of the land with her husband, Tomas. Her son, Thomas Jr., also
lives on grant land and is the sixth generation to do so. The property has
been continuously farmed by the family since it was granted to them in the 1700s.
Another descendant of James Dickie who also owns grant land is Walter
Hoffman, whose mother was Emily Dickie Hoffman. Hoffman is a former West
District supervisor on the Nelson County Board of Supervisors.
The third family to continu-ously own land granted by the king is
the Stevens family. According to family historical records, sometime in the
1750s, James Stevens and his friend, John Loving, climbed up to the highest
mountain peak they could find in the middle of what was to become Nelson County.
"They viewed the landscape o'er" and agreed that one would
take as far as he could see on the right side of the road, and the other the
left. How factual the story is is not known. However, most of what is today
the Stevens lands lies to the west of the Old Stage Road. Family records
indicate land ownings of at least 2,000 acres, perhaps much more.
The Lovings' land was on the east side and included the area that
was named the village of Lovingston, which later became the county seat. The
size of John Loving's acreage at the time is not available. However, it is known
that he acquired 10,000 additional acres in 1758 from a man named John Reid.
Other areas of the county were established and settled by the
recipients of grant land as well.
Peter Lyon chose the Faber area and was given a grant of an
undetermined amount of acreage sometime after 1738, according to A History
of Nelson County.
The book cited some of the dimensions and landmarks of his property:
"His plantation embraced a large territory including the old Macy place,
just back of Old Mt. Shiloh Church, all of Colonel Shepherd's estate, the Tom
Martin estate and the John Hamner property."
James Wood was granted 2,346 acres in the Rockfish Valley between
1749 and 1760. He has been called "the first white settler to make his
home the Rockfish Valley," according to A History of Nelson County.
Thomas Massie came to Nelson County to build a home on the Tye River
in 1796. He acquired 3,111 acres from Col. John Rose, which was a portion of
the grant land of his father, the Rev. Robert Rose.
Massie moved in 1803 to the site of present day Massies Mill, where
he built Level Green. He had been com-mander of the Sixth Virginia Regiment of
Infantry and aide to Gov. Thomas Nelson at the Siege of Yorktown. He earned the
rank of major during his military campaigns and later became one of Nelson
County's first magistrates.
The pioneers of Nelson County are too many to name. A tribute to
their vision of the future, perhaps, would be that the county of today is not
that much different than the one they knew.
William CASHWELL of Nelson County:
The following information was kindly submitted for posting here by Carol Joplin Clapshaw
From Amherst County, Virginia, in the Revolution
CASHWELL, WILLIAM,-Amherst Co., Va., Sept. 17,1832: b. Feb., 1762; private, 1779, under Capt. David Woodroof, marched to Albemarle Barracks; vol. 1780, in Capt. John Morrison's Rifle Corps, marched to Ricbmond and stationed about three miles from Petersburg at Long's Ordinary; here were 1500 men under Gens. Lawson & Steuben. In Feb. drafted under Capt. James Franklin on Guilford Expedition; reached there in time to bear the guns at the battle of Guilford; fellow soldiers: William Hartless, Philip Smith & Benjamin Higginbotham. Drafted under Capt. John Stewart & was in the, Siege of York Town; marched with the prisoners taken in the siege to Winchester Barracks. He died (June 9. 1847). Betsy (Penn)Cashwell, pensioner's widow, aged 77, applied July 18, 1848; they were m. Nov. 7, 1791, by Rev. Crawford.
Thomas WARE of Nelson County:
The following information was kindly submitted for posting here by Carol Joplin Clapshaw
This is a copy of the application for Amherst Soldier;s Pensions from the book Amherst County, Virginia in the Revolution:
WARE, THOMAS,- Nelson Co., VA., October 19, 1832: b. Amherst Co., VA., 1762 or '63; enlisted as a private in Capt. Leak's Co., 1781, under Cols. Richardson & Lindsay, at Albemarle & marched to York; the French tool Pigeon Hill on Sunday & he was called on to work in plain view of the enemy's breastworks for 4 days & nights. While there the enemy kept up a brisk cannonading with little injury- only one of our men being killed After four day our army compelled to surrender, which they signified by hoisting a white flag; but their terms not being satisfactory to Gen.. Washington were rejected.. Finally they offered acceptable terms, marched out & ground their arms. The day following we, with other militia troops, marched with prisoners to Nolan's ferry on the Potomac River, where they were delivered to Maryland troops; 8 mos. service. He d. December 26, 1851, & Mildred Ware, pensioner's widow, applied July 3, 1853; they were m. in Buckingham Co., VA., October 15, 1787. M.L.B. Buckingham Co., VA,: "Thomas Ware & Milley Brayandt, October 8, 1787. Security, Randolph Jefferson," James Lyon, Nelson Co., March 3, 1854, aged 74, testified "he went to school with some of her children to a Mr.. Holman JOPLING, Thomas Ware & wife, Milley, raised 14 children." Mrs.. Elizabeth Pugh is the eldest, John Thomas, Martha, Nancey, Malinda, Mildred, William Edward, Peyton, Polly, Virginia, Almira & Robert. Her claim was allowed.
Hope this can be a help to someone in their research.
JOPLIN Family of Nelson County:
The following information was kindly submitted for posting here by Carol Joplin Clapshaw
Hello Joplins,
Below you will find information from Amherst County, Virginia in the Revolution by Sweeny:
JOPLING, THOMAS, Nelson Co. Va., April 29, 1832 aged 73: Enlisted February 9, 1776, Capt. Walker, Col. Russell's 9th Va. Regt., Gen. Muhlenberg's Brig.; discharged at Valley Forge, Feb, 19 1778. He died March 29, 1837, and Molly Jopling, pensioner's widow, applied same place, April 27, 1840, aged 69. Marriage bond accompanies declaration: "November 22, 1790, Thomas Jopling, Jr., bachelor & Mary Stephens, spinster, both of Amherst County. Consent of her father James Stephens, Sr." Her claim was allowed.
The aboved named Thomas Jopling was b. 1755 and died 1837. He was the son of Ralph Jopling and Katherine Farrar. This Thomas Jopling Jr. is the nephew of the Thomas Jopling who moved to Kanawha County WV and married Sarah Stevens.
I hope this is of help to someone in their research. I would also like to offer to look up information for anyone who feels that they may have ancestors listed in Amherst County, Virginia in the Revolution by Sweeny.
JOPLIN Family of Nelson County:
The following information was kindly submitted for posting here by Carol Joplin Clapshaw
Dear Joplins,
Thought you might enjoy an except from the Diary of Robert Rose. He was a VA parson whose diary was published.
247-On September 16, 1729, Thomas Joplin, and his "tithables" assisted in clearing the road from Tuckahoe Creek mill to the main "river road" (Three Chop Road), which traversed the area between Richmond to Woods (now Jarman's) Gap. Joplin's road was then Goochland County, Later in Albemarle County, Joplin replaced John Johns as surveyor of the road from Rockfish River to Hardware River (on June 27, 1745). Joplin's son married Catherine Farrar, daughter of John Farrar, (See Note 827) Joplin lived near where Joplin's Ford Bridge now crosses Rockfish River via Route 722 between Albemarle and Nelson County. In 1761, the river became part of the line between Albemarle and Amherst and Nelson (formed in 1808 from Amherst).
[Goochland County Order Book 1, p. 148; Albemarle County Order Book, 1744-48; Moore, p. 37; Hiden, p 52.]
938-Three families who lived on Rockfish River where Parson Rose might have had his breakfast were those of Thomas Joplin, John Farrar, and Allen Howard. From there , Rose rode to the new Ballenger's Creek Church near present Boiling Springs in Albemarle County, where his sermon text was: "God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life." The freat German reformer, Martin Luther (1483-1546) described this Bible verse as the Christian "Gospel in miniature."
JOPLIN Family of Nelson County:
The following information was kindly submitted for posting here by Carol Joplin Clapshaw
Article "James Rufus Jopling," in the book MEN OF MARK IN VIRGINIA; Ideals of American Life, Vol. III, by Lyon G. Tyler, LL.D., (1907) pp. 188 & 189:
"JOPLING, JAMES RUFUS, was born November 19, 1845, in
Bedford County, Virginia, and his parents were William W. Jopling and Julia Ann
Jopling. His father, who was a farmer and justice of the peace, was born October
27, 1815, and was the son of James Jopling, whose parents came from England to
Virginia in colonial days. In 1841, William W. Jopling married Julia Ann, daughter
of Rufus Thomas, whose parents came to Virginia from Scotland. She was born in
1821 and died August 3, 1856.
James Rufus Jopling was reared in the country, enjoyed good
health and did occasional manual labor on the farm. He attended the country
schools until eighteen years of age, when he quit them to enter the Confederate
army. He joined Captain R. B. Claytor's Company B, 10th battalion of artillery,
then stationed on Marion Hill, at Battery Number 2, Richmond defences. During
the winter of 1863-1864, mr. Jopling was detailed with the other members of his
company to guard Federal prisoners at Belle Isle, Libby prison and Barracks
Number 2 in Richmond, and the next spring he was assigned to the ordnance
department of the battalion, and so served until the close of the war.
After the war, Mr. Jopling went back to his father's farm and
worked like a day laborer until he was appointed in November, 1866, deputy
sheriff of Bedford county. He served in that capacity until September 1868,
when he resigned and worked as a clerk with Jones, Watts and Company in Lynchburg.
In June, 1871, he formed a co-partnership with them under the firm name of
Jones, Watts and Jopling. He removed to Salem, where he was a manager of the
partnership interest in a hardware store there. In September 1874, he removed
to Danville, where for five years he was manager of a similar store. In 1879,
he bought out the interest of Messrs. Jones, Watts and Company, and conducted
the wholesale and retail business there until 1897.
From 1893 to 1897 he was president of Merchants bank, when he
merged the Merchants bank into the First National bank of Danville, of which he
has ever since been president. He is also president of the Morotock Manufacturing
company; and a director in both the Riverside Cotton mills and the Dan River
Cotton mills. For two years he was president of the Virginia State Sunday School
association, and was a delegate to the World's Convention of this association,
which met at Jerusalem in 1904. He hasbeen the representative from Virginia on
the executive committee of the International Sunday School association for several
years.
In politics he is a Democrat; in religious preference, a
Methodist; in both, sincere and zealous. He is a steward and trustee in the
Mount Vernon church of Danville, the present church edifice being largely the
result of his own individual efforts and contributions. And for thirty-four
years he has been teacher of an adult Bible class, composed of young men
principally. He has also served as director in the Danville Methodist college
and in the Danville Street Car company. His biography has been written by
Dr. R. A. Brock, in "Virginia and Virginians," and to it the writer
is largely indebted for the facts contained in this sketch.
On October 4, 1871, he married Mollie, daughter of Samuel and
Margaret Phelps of Nelson county. Mrs. Jopling was born in Nelson county,
Virginia, on November 24, 1849. Mr. and Mrs. Jopling have had one child, Mary
Julia, who is now (1906) living.
His address is Danville, Virginia."
LAWHORNS of Virginia:
The following information was kindly submitted for posting here by Brian and Sandra Lawhorne Green
The Lawhorn family takes root in Virginia in the early 1700s with a Thomas Lawhorn in Goochland County. He is listed in June 1731 as a taxpayer tasked to clear a road from a ferry on the James River to the "Church" close to Goochland Courthouse. His tax was his labor and, later, his descendants would pay their tax in tobacco as "planters" moving up the James in search of new tobacco lands. Lawhorns moved into Buckingham County, then into Fluvanna, Bedford, Amherst, and Nelson Counties. After the Revolution they spread into southwestern Virginia and after 1812 on to Kentucky and from there on to Thomas Jefferson’s Louisiana Purchase.
Tradition says the family comes from Wales and the village of Laugharne on the Welsh south coast with its famous Laugharne Castle. The Castle was a scene of battle during the English Civil War in 1644 and this event may explain a family exodus to the colonies. A Thomas Laughorne is identified in 1720 on a ship bound from Bristol on the English west coast to Maryland, and he is the likely family originator and the same Thomas Lawhorn in Goochland.
Lawhorn land purchases in the 1700s are numerous in the surveyor books of Albermarle and Amherst County. A William Lawhorn in 1745 is shown living on the Slate River in Buckingham County close to the James. In 1750, a Thomas Lawhorn is on Rockfish Creek east of Scotsville owning 81 acres. In 1767, a Thomas and a Henry Lawhorn attempt to separately purchase land on Woodson’s Great Creek and Shepard Creek in Fluvanna County, again, close to Scotsville.
The Lawhorn’s entry into Nelson County occurred in 1773 with a Henry Lawhorn taking 48 acres on Davis Creek north of Lovingston. Henry didn’t stay however, and it wasn’t until 1791 when a Thomas Lawhorn transferred land warrants to a William Lawhorn that settlements on Thasher’s Creek and Indian Creek put the family firmly into Amherst and Nelson Counties.
The early records offer many interesting facts about the Lawhorns. In 1746 Thomas Lawhorn is listed as neighbor to Tuckahoe Plantation seated by Peter Jefferson father of a young Thomas Jefferson. A later Thomas Lawhorn is 18 in 1781 when he re-enlists for service in the Revolutionary War at Chesterfield Courthouse. In the War of 1812, four Lawhorns serve with one dying in 1815 at Camp Holly east of Richmond. In the Civil War, many Lawhorns serve, and one, an Isham Lawhorn, Private from Buffalo Springs, is killed in action on July 3, 1863 at Gettysburg as his unit, the Virginia 19th, under Major General George Picket attacks Union lines.
One of the more interesting facts of the family history is that Lawhorns never owned slaves according to Census records. Nearby neighbors did own slaves but the Lawhornes worked their own land it seems and shifted from tobacco to grain crops as the markets changed in the middle 1800s. Another interesting item is the supposed mix of Monacan Sioux Indian blood in family lines in the early 1800s. Strong hints say the mix is so but records are limited and the search continues on this and other family legends.
Sandy and Brian, Thanks once again for providing not only interesting but also valuable information regarding one of Nelson County's significant families. Wayne
Nelson County Currency:
The following information was kindly submitted for posting here by Samuel W. Shelton III
During the years of the Confederacy, 1861-1865, many Counties in Virginia were forced to issue as
currency, notes or scrip in sums equal to the amounts authorized for arming and equipping their
volunteers, to support the families of those indigent, and in service.
Many of those notes were typeset and printed locally, on any type of paper that was available.
Nelson County notes were issued on September 1, 1861, these notes were in 25 cent and one
dollar denominations. The notes were issued and hand signed by the County Sheriff, D. A.
Witt.
Nelson County notes were receivable for State and County taxes for 1861 and 1862. The notes
were redeemable at the Office of Sheriff Nelson County in Virginia Bank Notes when Five Dollars and
upward were presented.
HILL and SHELTON familes of Nelson Co.:
The following information was kindly submitted for posting here by Samuel W. Shelton III
First sheriff of Nelson County was John M. Shelton. appointed by Nelson County Court in1808.
First County surveyor of Nelson County was William Hill, appointed by Nelson County Court in 1808.
The Hill family held this job for 108 straight years until succeded by Samuel Saunders in 1916. Samuel
Saunders grandmother was a Hill. John M.Shelton and William Hill were my great-great-grandfathers.
McCue's of the Old Dominion:
The following information was kindly submitted for posting here by Brian and Sandra Lawhorne Green
I am helping my son do a history project for the University of Virginia regarding the Afton area and have come across the McCue family and the the book, The McCue's of the Old Dominion. It is a complete genealogy of the family that resided (and may still) in the Afton area. The book was published around the turn of the century. A copy is in the DAR Library in Washington D.C. and the Virginia State Library.
More AFTON area & LAWHORN family land records:
The following information was kindly submitted for posting here by Brian and Sandra Lawhorne Green
I have another item for Nelson County researchers with family locations up towards Afton, Virgninia; that is to look at Albermarle County records in Charlottesville. The old records are all in good shape and accessable for Xerox copy at $.50/page.
Also the old survey books (3) have parcel plots of land for the mid 1700's for owners that now are in Nelson, Amherst, Fluvanna, and Buckingham Counties. I found two land plots for my family interest area, the Lawhorne's, for parcels now in Fluvanna County (off the Hardware River) and in Buckingham County (off the Slate River). These were for Thomas Lawhorn and William Lawhorn.
LAWHORN/LAUGHARNE Castle of Wales:
Through information from Patricia Viellenave, here is a very interesting site on castles of Wales. The featured castle dates back to the early 12th century which the Lawhorn's of Nelson Co. may just have connections. Thanks Patricia for passing this information along for us.