136. Job Crabtree
Marriage record, Job Crabtree to Rebecca Smith, Abingdon Co, Va, 17 Dec 1790.
140. Elder William "Billy" Rogers
Wm. was known far and wide as "Elder Billy", being ordained in October 1834. In the 40 years he was a minister, he baptized 2052 people. He sired 22 children, with 14 reaching adulthood. At his death on 8 Jan 1869, he had 207 grandchildren.
Mart Williams remembered Elder William Rogers ability to hold his audience's attention. He also told how he would bring his gun (protection from the animals) to church. Billy had long, flowing, white hair and wore a heavy shawl in winter.
William had little formal education. He could not read or write until his young wife, Abby, taught him. Abby was 13 when she married; Billy was almost 17. A famous sermon Wm. used compared the Old and New Testiment with a long rifle. He said you needed both parts of the Bible like you needed both the front and hind sight on your rifle.
Wm. preached along the Three Forks of the Kentucky River. Wm. impressed Elder Samuel Rogers so much that he devoted several paragraphs to him in his book, "The Toils and Struggles of Olden Times". Wm. and Abigail are buried at Mountain Springs Cem, Estill Co, Ky. Wm's stone stands silently in the cemetery lot. Revelation 14:13 is a reminder of all his work: "And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, sayeth the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow them."
From "The Rogers Family", Rogers & Rogers, c 1990.
144. Elias Palmer
Deed, John Hamaker to Elias Parmer, Stokes Co, NC, 9 May 1816.
Deed, A. Crawford to Elias Parmer, Breathitt Co, Ky, 5 June 1852.
152. Robert Steele
Document copies in family possession:
(1) Last Will and Testiment, entered 6 May 1821.
(2) Deed, Robert & Rebecca Steele to Thaddeus Cooly?, Wythe Co, Va, 9 Apr 1805.
(3) Montgomery Co, Va, Militia List, Capt. John Adams Company, shows Robert Steele, several entries.
182. John Raiford
John Raiford is recognized as a Patriot by the DAR
1) Hall's Co., 2nd Regt., Commissioned 1777, Resigned 1 Feb 1778 (Sanders, Vol. 16, Pg. 1142).
2) Payroll of Capt. John Stith;s Co., 4th Virginia Regt., June 1778, Pvt. Senate proposes for Officer to command State Troops, July 11, 1781. (ibid., Vol. 17, Pg 858).
3) Army Accounts of NC Line from Sept 1, 1784 to Feb 1, 1785, received by H. Monfort for Lt. John Raiford (ibid., vol. 17, Pg 242).
4) He took his land grant in Georga c. 1791. Grand Juror, Jefferson Co., GA, July Term, 1797. (LUCAS, Pg. 179).John was with Lafayette in his famous retreat in Va., was first to assist that general when wounded at Brandywine, was with Greene in his whole campaign through the Carolinas to Charleston, was seriously wounded at Stone River near Charleston on 27 Aug 1782, discharged from the Army in Nov 1782, and settled in Burke Co, later Jefferson Co, GA, where he died in 1812.
Transcribed from "News and Farmer", Louisville, GA, 11 July and 25 July, 1872, and Hamilton Raiford,
" Reminiscences of Old Border Times" in "Savannah Daily Advertiser", 1872.
183. Lucy Rebecca Spell
This information from Georgia Historical Society Library, Savannah, through Ms. Shanna English, curator of the "Old Jail & Museum", Barnesville, Ga., 2 Nov 2001. "Lucy Rebecca Spell b. c. 1766 d. bet. 1802/10. Heroine of Oconee Wars in Georgia. Born in NC as only daughter of Joseph Spell, who brought his family from Buncombe County to Galphin's Indian Agency in GA shortly after the Revolution. There she met John Raiford, a vet of that war who was staying at the Agency with other vets and Indian scouts. They married about the latter part of 1784.
They settled about 3 miles from Galphin's Agency, further down the Ogeechee River. In one of the bloody fights at Old Town between the whites and Indians, Lucy hid a young Indian boy, thereby saving his life. After nightfall, she slipped the boy down to the Ogeechee, and he escaped to his tribe west of the Oconee. The youth became the famous Gen. Wm. McIntosh, chief of the Creek Indians.
As a result of her act of mercy, the Creeks secretly adopted and named her 'White Bird', due to the color of her hair (she was small of stature, a beautiful woman with large black eyes). The Creeks always warned her of impending raids, enjoining her to be quite and at home. She invariably warned the neighbors, and on two occasions at risk of her life."Transcribed from "News and Farmer", Louisville, GA, 11 July and 25 July, 1872, and Hamilton Raiford,
" Reminiscences of Old Border Times" in "Savannah Daily Advertiser", 1872.