The Covered Bridge at Phillipi, an ancestral homeplace remembered

 

In my last post I disussed the Roland heritage, beginning with the earliest person I can prove is in our ancestry.  But in this report, I want to look at the Anglin's early ancestors, about whom is a great deal of information back to the early 1700's.  Grandmother left with Shirley a list, that tells the names of our Grandfather's who resided in what became Yancey County. The earliest, like Charles Roland, was a pioneer, one of the early people in American History, of non native descent, to claim and build upon land granted to him for his service in the American Revolution.  We will discover, one by one, that each of our ancestral grandfathers was in service to the Revolution and was granted lands.  It used to be thought that only significant people could be considered sons and daughters of the Revolution, but if you have grandparents, who have grandparents in Yancey Co, NC, you probably have an ancestor who fought in the Revolution. And if like our family, your earliest roots go back on both sides, you find that once people got to Yancey, they tended to stay in Yancey.  So we have not two but many ancestors who fought in the American Revolution.

  The story about them is generally the same from about 1790  to about 1825 at least. The reason for this is that they were all members of a military company when their wagons first rolled into the mountains of Western NC.  Many had fought in Virginia Militia Units, against the crown of England, even though their fathers had been granted land through the Crown while still living in Virginia, Pennsylvania, and other points north.  Just as the earliest pioneers further north had spread westward, and Virginia had split intoVirginia and West Virginia, North Carolina was on the verge of becoming North Carolina and Tennessee. And as we discussed before, the names of counties changed rapidly, to conform to the habitations of settlers pressing ever west and south.

Before liberation from the Crown, men sought for land, and bought it from the "real-estate" brokers of the day, and the documentation on our ancestor Adrian Anglin's land purchase can be found on the sidebar link. He recieved a grant of land, which became his, only, when he met certain critera for keeping it. Adrian is thought to be the son of a man named William Anglin, who entered America by a ship from Europe. There were several men of similar names who lived in the developing Virginia Colony, and before Adrian, some of the documentation is fuzzy as to what belongs to whom. But much as I did, researchers have placed the timelines of documents found on maps and followed the movements by seeing who lived near where at what time, and were able to determine by ages and locations, some of what is absolute. It is absolute that Adrian had a son named William, who eventually moved to Barbour Co. in what became West Virginia. Much evidence of Adrian's life is beginning to accumulate. That evidence is given on several good websites. (See the side bar for links.)  As Adrian became old, his family moved west. I just read on one of the websites, that records show indications of Adrian's wife for years after William's father's death, as she remained in Virginia, at William's childhood home.

There are documents for Adrian's indenture, and how the court released him from that once he had worked enough years. There are documents for his purchase of land. It is written in more than one book that he owned a Mill, probably a grist mill. But some beleive he also had a lumber mill. The document that tells of his land purchase gives him full rights to mineral rights, to hawk, hunt, mine, build, farm, or what ever he chose, as long as he made improvements to the land. For every 50 he bought, he must make improvements to at least 3 acres according to a list of things considered improvements  whithin 3 years. Building barns, Inns, Forts, roads and homes, as well as clearing land, planting crops, and establishing trapping lines, were some of the things allowed. Adrian's mills, his home and crops allowed him to keep the lands, and his "rents and tithes" were paid on a Saint's celebration day.  Go to the links to the right and read the valuable information. Actual documents can be viewed from these links. ( http://homepages.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~kmparker/gen/Surname%20Reports/ang.htm , for example.)

But today, I am putting up a picture of a bridge. That bridge was built long after the Anglin families owned the land it was built on.  But it is, in my mind a landmark, for where the ford in the Tygart River once was. That ford was owned and operated by our ancestor, William Anglin, son of Adrian Anglin. The photo I used was posted on one of the many websites that give the history of the area now known as Phillippi, West Virginia - the county seat, all of which was built on lands once owned by William Anglin. And across the river, one of his sons, Samuel owned land and ran the business of crossing the river by ford on the opposite side from his father. So the bridge is said to span the river, about where the two ends of the Anglin Ford operated.

That business was not Williams initial plan. Instead, he operated an Inn, which by several accounts was a part of a fort William built in the earlist years as land owner. His fort was part of the improvements he made in order to keep his land, who like his father had to maintain it by making improvements to it.  In those early years, it was incredibly difficult.  At least one reliable story, historically tells of a family near by whose family was raided by Indians, and their daughter was taken hostage. As a result they kept attack dogs who would not allow persons to come near without a local to announce their coming. It was a wild and hostile world. It took rugged men to remain there. There is so much more to William's story that I intend to tell in time. But for now we introduce him as son of Adrian, and once the original settler of a place called Phillippi, West Virginia, where this bridge now stands. 

William had a large family, most of whom can be documented in a multitude of documents. He had two wives, the second after his first wife, who was our ancestral grandmother, had died. The recently expanding technology of DNA has been able to link us to this man named William through his son, named Issac. Let's go back and remember that Grandmother Nora Roland had left a list of her Anglin ancestors for Yancey Co., NC.  Well, I had followed the records back to Isaac's son William, named for his father.  I as yet didn't know Isaac's name, until I found the DNA records, nor did I know about Grandmother's list. The DNA Project gave the names of Adrian's grandsons, Sons of William Anglin of Anglin's Ford, Va. One of them was listed as having a land grant in, what became, Yancey, NC.  The only Anglin to come to Yancey NC. All of Williams other sons were attributed to other areas.  But I couldn't find Isaac in the records, but 1800 or 1810 was the earliest one I had.

Then I found a Nancy Anglin, and upon further research, discovered that she was the wife of an Isaac Anglin.  Once I found Isaac's birth and death dates, I realized why I couldn't find him.  He had passed away at a young age, leaving Nancy to be our Pioneer Matron. I looked back on more set of records and found him, listed in 1790, the earliest US Census, as a member of the companies who came to the mountains to claim the land, and protect it's borders, like so many others, as one who served in the Revolutionary War.  He had arrived by wagon just as other soldiers did, and began his family on the frontier.  Only heads of households are listed on these early Census Records, and had Isaac been alive, we might not have known Nancy's name.

Since Isaac died early, his son, also named William to honor his grandfather, established his home near Prices Creek, in what would become, Yancey Co. NC by 1833. When I heard of Grandmother's list, that went back to Isaac, and I knew the DNA record came down through Adrian to William to Isaac, to William, the connection was clear. This was our Isaac. Our William, Our Adrian, and possibly his father William as well. And one of their claims to fame is that the family once owned all the land upon which Phillippi was originally built, where the bridge now spans the River Tygart, at what was once Anglin's Ford, VA.  If you are keeping up with this, note the list so when I talk to you about a William at another date - you can understand which one.
William Anglin - from Europe
    Adrian Anglin  - Early 1700's in Virginia
         William Anglin - mid to late 1700's in Virginia and W. Virginia
             Isaac Anglin - Born in W. Virginia - established our line in NC, late 1700's
                   William Anglin - Early 1800's Buncombe and Burke Co's, NC, Mid-century as Yancey
                           William Anglin - Mid century to the Civil War, died from wounds received at Chicka mauga, GA in the battle of Chickamauga, buried at the Confederate Cemetery, Marietta
                                   Robert Anglin - Late 1800's to early 1900's, still keepers of the land Great Grandfather William aquired when it was still Burke/Buncombe Co. NC.
                                         Nora Anglin Roland - Born and raised on that same land, Early 1900's, she lived almost a century.

Well, that's your introduction to the Anglin family.  I will try to put up links to Phillipi and more about the bridge and the History of Barbour Co., W.Va. on the side bar. The above picture was listed as available to "Everyone." But I don't have the original person to attribute it to. Much thanks to that person for its public use.