Lewis Jarvis Interview

Lewis M. Jarvis
1903 Interview
Published in the
Hancock County Times

[Note: Lewis Jarvis was a local attorney, born in 1829 in nearby Scott County, Virginia and living most of his life in Hancock County, Tennessee, who knew many Melungeons, including Vary Collins and other early Melungeons.]

To read the interview:
Click Here.

Note: This is a re-blogging of an entry made here over a year ago and is the first in what will be a series of previous MHS Blog entries sporadically re-blogged due to their importance to Melungeon studies. Of all such entries, none is more important than this one, which is why it was chosen to be the first. The Jarvis interview is the best, most reliable contemporary account we have of the 19th century Melungeons, by a man who did not simply visit the Melungeons or repeat stories head about them, but who actually knew them over the course many decades.

Westward Into Kentucky

The Narrative of Daniel Trabue

An Excerpt

The same Fall or beginning of Winter Col. G. Rogers Clark from Hanover was Fixing for a Campaighn to go down the Ohia to the Falls. The Virginia Legislator had authorized him to raise an army and go westward, and my Oldest brother—to wit, James Trabue---agreed with him to inlist some men and go with him as Lieut.

I agreed to go with him. I got well and hearty and in the last of January or February 1778 we set out for our Jurney. The most of the men that had enlisted with my brother had gone on to kentucky before christmas.

To continue reading: Click Here.

Note: This link takes you to Dave Tabler's excellent Appalachian History blog, which is always worth a read and has a permanent place in the Appalachian section of this blog's "Links of Interest" page.

Dateline: Sneedville

Pictures from the Second Day
Of the 33rd Annual Hancock County Fall Festival

Here's one:


For more: Click Here.

The MHS booth, wonderfully decorated by Robert Davis, pictured above on the right, was a great success and a number of copies of Jack Goins' new book, Melungeons: Footprints from the Past, were sold. Our thanks go out to all who helped make the MHS participation in the Fall Festival a success, and to all who visited our booth.

Hot Off the Presses!!

The First Day of the 33rd Annual
Hancock County Fall Festival

Penny Ferguson
MHS Vice-President for Research

Reporting from Sneedville

Saturday, Oct. 3, 2009

The Fall Festival dawned with beautiful weather. There was a large crowd and the booths were interesting and filled with talented people. The Melungeon Historical Society booth was busy greeting old friends, making new friends and discussing genealogy, DNA, and local history. The Festival runs through Sunday, Oct. 4, so try to make it if you missed it today!

Click on pictures to enlarge.
For a lot more pictures: Click Here.

Appalachian Traveller Pioneer Guide

How to . . .

• Build A Log Cabin
• Dress Meats
• Make Moonshine
• Make Soap
• Plant by the Signs
• Recipes

Build A Log Cabin

Unlike the round log building that Abraham Lincoln slept in, the pioneer Appalachian log cabin was constructed of hand split boards measuring 6" to 8" thick and 16’ to 24’ long, locked and fastened together by half-dovetailed hewn notches connected at the corners. The spaces between the boards were chinked in with clay. The home itself was usually a square or rectangular single room, one and one-half stories high, with a front, and maybe, a back door or a window at the opposite end of the fireplace. Later, cabins were expanded by adding a kitchen ell or building another cabin alongside the original. A "dog trot" cabin is two cabins with chimneys on opposite ends and connected by a breezeway; a "saddleback" is two cabins with a chimney in the middle.

To continue reading: Click Here.

Valentine Collins Timeline

Compiled by MHS President Jack Goins
With References to a Collins Timeline
Compiled by Frankie Blackburn and Brenda Collins Dillon

Wilkes County NC Tax list, 1787

Ambrose b. 1752
George b. 1754
David b. 1756
Martin b. 1758
Valentine "Vol" b. 1760
Vardy Collins b. 1764

1789 NE Part of Wilkes Co. NC Samuel Collins ( 0 poll means he was under 16 yrs) Volentine Collins (1 poll) Benjamin Collins (1 Poll....first appearance) (from Brenda Collins Dillions timeline http://www.saponitown.com/brenda-collins-dillon/collins-timeline.htm

1790 FEDERAL CENSUS (1st in USA) Ambrose Collins 1m ov 16,1m und 16,2f George Collins 1m ov 16,3m und 16,3f David Collins 3m ov16,2m und 16, 6f Vardy Collins 1m ov 16,1 m und 16, 4f Volentine Collins 1, ov 16, 2f Martin Collins 1m ov 16, 3m und 16, 4 f David Collins 3 2 6 Hardy Collins 1 3 1 Vol Collins 1 2 Ambrose Collins 1 1 2 George Collins 1 2 4 Martin Collins 1 3 4 1790 Wilkes Co. Dist. 4 Ambrose Collins 1 poll Volentine Collins 1 poll Elisha Collins 1 poll (From BCD Timeline)

To continue reading: Click Here.

Note: The BCD Collins Timeline may also be found in the MHS Blog archives: Click Here.

Defining mixed-blood Indians in Colonial Virginia and the Carolinas

By Steven Pony Hill

Augusta County, VA (Orders 1773-1779)

19 AUG 1777….Nat, an Indian boy in the custody of Mary Greenlee who detains him as a slave complains that he is held in unlawful slavery. Commission to take depositions in Carolina or elsewhere.

17 SEP 1777….On the complaint of Nat an Indian or Mustee Boy who says he is to be set free from service of Mary Greenlee…nothing appeared to this Court but a bill of sale for ten pounds from one Sherwood Harris of Granville County, NC that through several assignments was made over to James Greenlee deceased, late husband to the said Mary….said Mulattoe or Indian Boy is a free man and no slave.
( Nat was most likely half-Indian, so therefore Mulatto or Mustee could be used interchangeably, use of these terms were influenced by the status of his servitude)

To continue reading these research notes taken from primary sources: Click Here.