7. Jacob SILVER was born on 22 Feb 1791 in Frederick County Maryland. Copy of Baptismal record from Evangelical Lutheran Church, Frederick County Maryland, indicates baptism on May 8, 1791 and lists George Silber and his wife Nancy as parents with Jacob Mayer as a witness. Also this baptismal record seems to indicate date of birth as Mar 8, 1791 or this could be the application date for his baptism. He died on 23 Apr 1887 in Kona (Mitchell) NC. He was buried on 23 Apr 1887 in Kona (Mitchell) NC. He served in the military and fought in War of 1812. Wife Nancy applied for a War of 1812 widows pension on 8 Jun 1887. George enlisted in Capt James Lowry's Company of NC Militia, 3rd Regiment at Crabtree in Buncombe County on Oct 20 1813 and was discharged nov 15 1815. He is described on his pension claim as being six feet tall with dark hair, black eyes, fair complexion, very stout. At the time of the application for a pension, he was eighty-seven years old, living in Mitchell County, NC six miles south of Bakersville. He was a Baptist minister and primarily a farmer. He served several churches in the North Toe River area, among them were Green Mountain, Double Island and Big Ivy Baptist Churches.
The following is but another rendition of the Silver family history. The first is appended
as a note to the George Silver Sr entry. Most entries in parentheses are notes
from copies of legal documents or other surviving histories.
The Kona cemetery crowns the top of a gentle hill overlooking a quiet valley.
It is beautifully located, with the Baptist Church (a recent addition) standing
close by. In the near view rise the Roan and Celo mountains, with many smaller
mountains and valleys in between, and in the far view lies Mt. Mitchell low against
the horizon. It is a small cemetery but very old. Yet we don't know just how
old it is. The first graves have unmarked stones at their heads and we don't
know when they were erected or who lies beneath them. The ashes and unburned
bones of Charles Silver were buried here, and he was slain in the 1820's (1831).
So we know it is that old, but we don't know how much older than that it is.
But it is not its age, or its size or the beauty of its location, that gives
this cemetery its main attraction; it is the fact that, in addition to being
a community cemetery, it is also the ancestral burying ground of the Silver generations.
Here among their neighbors and descendents lie George Silver the younger, latest
common and second earliest recorded ancestor of the Silver family; George's son
Jacob, builder of the first permanent and oldest existing ancestral home; and
Jacob's son David to whom the home and family traditions fell. Here also lie
Jacob's wife Nancy, David's wife Sally, and David's daughter Nancy Anne Who married
Lace Woody. And down in the valley live David's son Will, present owner and
occupier of the home; Will's three sons, Melvin, Gordon, and Homer; two of his
grandsons, Edd and Jimmy; and his two great-grandsons Paul and Harold Dean; making
in all seven successive generations of this family, living and dead, who keep
watch on this hill and in the valley below.
The ancestral home still stands at the head of the valley. It is a large,
two-story log structure, and stands just as it was built except for normal repairs
and the addition of modern conveniences. Yet it does not look old, nor is it
a museum piece; it is just what it always has been - a home. Built before the
Monroe Doctrine was enunciated, it is the oldest existing ancestral home of the
Silver generations, and is also the oldest inhabited house in this area and perhaps
in Toe River valley. It has a most enviable record. It has never been bought,
sold, mortgaged, rented, or insured, and has never been vacant but been lived
in continuously by successive generations of the same family - seven in all,
counting minors. Here lived and died its builder, Jacob Silver, preacher and
veteran of the War of 1812; its builder's father, George Silver the younger,
patriot and Revolutionary War veteran; and its builder's son David Silver, schoolteacher
and Confederate veteran. And here lives its builder's grandson, Will Silver,
carpenter and head of the fifth generation - and here, he says, he hopes to die
and be gathered to his fathers. Only George Silver the elder, founder and first
head of the family, did not live and die here and does not lie on the hill; he
lived and died in Pennsylvania (Frederick County Maryland) and lies in an unknown
grave in that state. And that takes us back to the beginning.
George Silver the elder came to America from the Old World in the 1750's
(circa 1749 - 1751 aboard the ship Speedwell from Germany via Scotland) as an oldish young
man. His nationality is not remembered (German), but it is thought that he was
of Dutch origin and came from Germany or Holland. On the ship coming over he
met and fell in love with a fellow emigrant, an Englishwoman by the name of Ellis
(probably Syssy Market Ellis), and on landing they married and settled in Pennsylvania
(Frederick County Maryland). In 1760 there was born to them their first and
only child (a daughter Elizabeth is mentioned in his will), a son, whom they
named George after his father. It is this George who lies buried in Kona.
When the Revolution broke out the elder George enlisted on the side of freedom
and served under Washington for three years (1776-1779), when he returned, old
and broken in health, and his son, the younger George, a youth of eighteen, volunteered
in his stead and served under Washington till the war's end four years later
(1783) - military records that entitle their descendents today to full membership
in those very select brother-and-sister organizations known as the Sons and Daughters
of the American Revolution.
The war over, young George did not go home (George Sr's will indicates George
Jr was in Frederick County Maryland in 1785 so he obviously went home after the
war); his father and mother having died during his absence, he came south from
the place of his discharge, and we find him next in Morganton, North Carolina,
where he is married and has a family. Whether he married before or after he
arrived we don't know; all we know is that his wife was a Griffeth (Griffin)
and that he had six children - Jacob, Henry, Rachel, Tom, Nancy, and Greene (Greenberry).
(A Marriage License was issued to George Silver and Nancy Ann Griffin in Frederick
County Maryland on 12 Apr 1782.)
In process of time Jacob (George Jr's son) married, became a widower, and
married again. No one remembers who his first wife was (Elizabeth Wilson), but
his second wife was Nancy Reid (Reed or Reede), a great woman if ever there was
one - refined, gentle, and courageous. Soon after their marriage (they were
both very young) they gathered together their belongings and, with Jacob's small
son Charles by his first wife, took their journey over the mountains and down
Toe River to what is now Kona, in Mitchell County, where in a pleasant little
hill-rimmed valley they halted, pitched their tent, and began clearing fields
and hewing logs for a house.
We don't know the exact time of their arrival (24 December 1806), but according
to family tradition Jacob did not enter formal claim to his land until about
ten years later - not until neighbors began crowding in - and his grant bears
date of 1819. So we fix the time at about 1809 (see above). But we do know
this, that the region was a wilderness and they were its first entrants. As
far as the eye and ear could reach there was no sign of human habitation other
than their own - no tinkling of cowbells or slashing of axes and mauls, no baying
of hounds or echoing of horns, no opening of clearing or spiraling of friendly
curling smoke. They did not then know it, but their closest neighbors were on
Bear Creek and in the Deyton Bend section of what is now Yancey county, and in
between the silence of the wilderness was broken only by the roar of the river
and of the weather and by the noise of the birds and wild animals in the vast
unexplored ....
Their first near neighbors were a family of ..... the French Broad and settled
opposite the mouth of Roses Branch, five miles down the river, and their next
were a family of Robinsons (George Robertson) who came from (Franklin
County) Virginia and settled just over the river in what is now Double Island.
But before either of these came they were joined by Jacob's father George, now
a widower, and George's remaining (unmarried or young) children, all of whom
moved in with Jacob. Thus, more than half a century after the founding of the
family, there was still but one household of them. But they now had a permanent
home in an unspoiled land, and from then on they multiplied and spread rapidly.
Continuing as a widower, George lived with Jacob till he died, but his other
children married and moved out to build homes and found families of their own;
and each became the head of a mighty clan.
The accompanying (not posted here) family-tree chart on the opposite page helps to indicate
their growth and spread. Some branches of the family are today as much as ten
and even twelve generations removed from the beginning, but only the first seven
generations are listed on the chart. The first three generations are listed
in full, but because of the rapid increase in numbers only a few representative
members are listed for each of the four succeeding generations. All members
of the first three generations are dead; only one member of the fourth generation
is still alive, Mrs Linda Laws, of Yancey County, at this writing (1952) a very
eldery woman; and most members of the fifth generation are either dead or very
old. Members of the sixth generation range in age from very old (Alice Thomas
is 94) to oldish young, and members of the seventh from great-grand-parents to
babes-in-arms. The central part of the chart is given more fully than the outer
parts, both because it is the part through which the ancestral home passes (it
came from Jacob to David to Will) and because it is the part with which the author
is most familiar. But it is hoped that enough members of all parts are listed
to enable any descendent to locate his place and generation on the chart, to
see his relation and kinship to all other members, and to trace his ancestry
back to the beginning.
To illustrate the use of the chart let us consider the case of Ruth Ward.
Ruth doesn't know that she is even remotely related to the Silvers, but she
knows that Wilborn Thomas is her greatuncle, her grandfather's brother, and when
she sees his name listed in the column of the seventh generation she deduces
that she also is a descendent. She is thus able to see at a glance her place
on the chart (in the ninth generation), to establish her kinship with the other
members of the family, and to trace her ancestry back to its source. If she
inquires deeply enough she will find much along the way to entertain and interest
her. She will .........
The Silver family is rich in history and tradition. Many members of the
early generations were men of great spiritual and intellectual stature, and they
lived life to the full and left a rich heritage. The lost family treasure, The
place of leadership achieved by the Silver home, The beheading of Charles by
his wife Frankie, The dying of John in his brother Marvel Alexander's stead,
The withdrawal of Billy to study alone and without teachers - These are all great
stories and should be known by everyone who loves our early mountain folklore.
But as much as it is regretted, lack of space forbids their retelling here.
The family has gown until it is today a very great family, with offshoots
in many and far places. But no matter how far it has spread, if you are a Silver
or have Silver blood in your veins, your ancestry traces back through this valley
and comes to rest on the hill. If all who are thus descended were to regather
here to pay their respects to his house through which they passed and to do homage
at the gravesides of their common ancestors, the hill and valley would hardly
hold them, they would be so vast a multitude. They would come from almost every
section of Toe River valley and from beyond, and many would be Silvers but by
far the largest number would be collateral descendents with other family names
- Buchanans, Burlesons, Chandlers, Conleys, Davises, Duncans, Edwardses, Ellises,
Freemans, Gurleys, Halls, Howells, McClellans, Phillipses, Pittmans, Robertses,
Sparkses, Tiptons, Turbyfills, Willises, Wilsons, Woodys, Youngs, and many others,
including a very great crowd of Robinsons and Thomases. They would also be a
very diverse multitude. They would be of all ages and both sexes and of every
stage of health, fat, lean, and in-between; they would be Christian and non-Christian,
Democrats and Republicans, rich and poor, learned and unlearned, in style and
out of style; and they would be of many trades and professions. They would be
farmers, housewives, students, businessmen, wage-earners, mechanics, merchants,
miners, dairyists, horticulturists, carpenters, railroaders, craftsmen, teachers,
preachers, registered nurses, typists, bookkeepers, loafers, lawyers, cow-doctors,
and of many other trades and professions, skilled and unskilled. But with all
their diversity they would be bound and knit together by a great common tie -
that of blood brotherhood, of a single ancestry. For some of them the lines
would come together in David; for more of them they would join in Jacob; and
for all of them they would close in George, their latest common and second-earliest
recorded ancestor.
- From the Recollections of Maggie Thomas, Daughter of David Silver as gleaned by son Monroe Thomas
Kona NC April 17 1952
Jacob Silver was married to Elizabeth
WILSON in Frederick County Maryland.
Elizabeth WILSON died on 3 Oct 1812 in Burke County NC while in
childbirth with their first child Charles whom Frankie Stuart Silver killed with
an axe on Dec 22 1831. Jacob and Elizabeth had:
+32 i.
Charles SILVER.
He was married to Nancy REED (daughter of
Samuel REED) on 6 Oct 1814 in Double Island (Buncombe now Yancey) NC.
Nancy REED was born on 25 Jan 1795 in Burke County NC. She died
on 15 Apr 1890 in Kona (Mitchell) NC. They had 12 Children.
Jacob and Nancy had:
+19 i.
Margaret (Peggy) SILVER.
+20 ii.
Alfred L SILVER.
+21 iii.
John SILVER.
+22 iv.
Milton SILVER.
+23 v.
Rachel SILVER.
+24 vi.
Lucinda (Cindy) SILVER.
+25 vii.
Marvel Alexander SILVER.
+26 viii.
William Jacob SILVER.
+27 ix.
David R SILVER.
+28 x.
Samuel Marion SILVER.
+29 xi.
Reuben SILVER.
+30 xii.
Edmond SILVER REV.
+31 xiii.
Charles SILVER.