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Wilkes July 20, 2025 Remembering the 1790s in
Wilkesboro: Part 2 of 3 We’ll pick up where we left off in part
1 by looking at the depositions of three men who lived in or near Wilkesboro
in 1859: John Ashley Reynolds, Wesley
Reynolds, and Anthony Foster. Read Part 1 for a short explanation about
the court case Rebecca Welborn v. John Finley and the reason for these
ten depositions. When words are
underlined, it means I had trouble reading the handwriting.
Page
2 of 3, depositions in the 1859 case Welborn v. Finley. At the top of the page is a list of
deeds involving the property where the 50-acre town of Wilkesboro was laid
out in 1800. A land grant to John
Pitman in 1779 included the eastern half of the town, and it was divided and
sold multiple times over the next twenty years. Jno. Reynolds
Owen Hall as to Jno.
Reynolds Jno. Reynolds
deposition. Was married 17 day of
March 1795. lacked 3 days of being
21. Mary Gordon, Milly Humphries lived at Barbers, then
east near Court House. Thos. Robbins lived there 2
or 3 years before Andrew Bry- an __ ___ before. Jno. Dobson lived there 2 years before his widow & Mary
Gordon, several years before. (’95) Jas. Patton lived there in
’96, Vannoy’s tavern. Knew Wilkesboro 8 or 10
years before he was married. He knew
the place & Mary Gordon
& Reuben Smithers lived there when I first knew the place. The first deposition on the page is for
John Reynolds, but the first line is a note from Owen Hall. He might have been reporting that John
Reynolds was initially delayed or unavailable due to sickness. We’re fortunate that John gives us two good
clues to identify him in his first statement.
We learn that he was married on March 17, 1795, and that he was three
days short of his 21st birthday.
That means he was born on March 20, 1774. John Ashley Reynolds is usually listed
as being born “about 1774” and marrying “about 1795”, but until now I’ve
never seen a document that gives the exact dates. He grew up four miles east of town along the
north side of the Yadkin River, the son of Francis Reynolds and Anne
Blackburn. In 1795 he married Nancy
Cleveland, the fourth child of Capt.
Robert Cleveland who lived on Lewis Fork.
Nancy died in 1846, and John married Elizabeth Brooks. John died on November 20, 1859, at the age
of 85 which must have been only a few months after he gave this
deposition. That puts Owen Hall’s
statement about John’s health into context, suggesting that John died soon
after as a result of that sickness.
Owen Hall was John’s son-in-law, having married his daughter Micah
(Mickey) Reynolds. John remembered that Mary Gordon and
her daughter Milley Humphries lived “at Barbers then east near the court
house”. Land and court records show
that they lived at the courthouse in the 1790s, but it’s not clear where John
is saying they lived before then. He
might be saying that the ladies lived near where Rev. Richard Wainwright
Barber was living in 1859, which appears to be about a mile east of town. He said that Thomas Robins lived on the
town property 2 or 3 years before Andrew Bryan. The handwriting is hard to read, but he
also said that John Dobson, Mary Gordon, and James Patton lived there in the
1790s. He also mentioned “Vannoy’s
Tavern”, presumably indicating that it was also on the property during that
time. Records show that Spencer and Milley
Humphries operated a tavern beside the courthouse during this time, and maybe
this was the same place. It was
located 200 feet west of the Wilkes Heritage Museum. John said that Reuben Smithers also lived
there, and he was the business partner of Spencer Humphries until they parted
ways after a disagreement. Significance: We now have confirmation of the birth and
marriage dates for John Ashley Reynolds in his own words. He also provided the names of several people
who lived in the town. This is the
first time I’ve seen “Vannoy’s Tavern” mentioned, assuming that I’m reading
the handwriting correctly. I wonder
which Vannoy it was? Wesley Reynolds
Knew Wilkesboro in
1795. Born in ’87, went to school near W. when 5 years
old. Went to school two years. Wesley Reynolds did not have much to
say. He only tells us that he was born
in 1787 and that he remembered the town of Wilkesboro as early as 1795. He attended school in town for two years,
between 1792 and 1794. He is probably
the son of Elisha Reynolds (born 1755) and Judith Eddins. Significance: Census records and online family trees are
inconsistent about the year of birth for Wesley Reynolds, ranging from 1785
to 1800. If this is the same man, the
son of Elisha Reynolds, then we now know that he was born in 1787. Anthony Foster
Anthony Foster was born
1780. When 12 or 13 (’92 or ’93)
Robbins came in Feb’y as Lenoir’s tenant. Next Aug. came to Robbins, lived at Lewis’s
Fork two years. Then came to Porter’s place (’95 or ’96) in
Feby. Came then two years in last year
election for capt. (’97 or ’98). After
Porter place, lived 2 or 3 years (’97 to ’99)
on Lewis Fork & 9 mo. with Geo. Jones.
Then 5 years (till 1805 to 07) with Robbins in 1807 went to Buncomb,
lived there 5 years (1810 to 12), then two years in W. and was married in
’13. Anthony Foster said he was born in
1780, and when he was 12 or 13 years old, Robins came to live on the property
that became the town. William Lenoir’s
documents and the 1798 federal tax list show that Thomas Robins was the
superintendent of Lenoir’s property before the creation of the town. In fact, Lenoir’s
1800 map of the town shows a house marked “T. R. House” located behind what
is now the Wilkesboro Police Department. As a teenager, Anthony Foster moved
every two or three years, living on Lewis Fork, at Porter’s place, and with
George Jones. In his mid 20s, he moved
to Buncombe County where he stayed for five years. He returned to Wilkesboro, and was married
in 1813. The Wilkes marriage bonds
show that Anthony Foster married Lucy Goforth on April 30, 1813. Significance: We have an in-depth look at where Anthony
Foster lived before he married in 1813.
For many people, we only have the census and tax lists to show where
they lived during this time.
Particularly as a teenager, Anthony Foster did not own land, and his
movements were not documented in county records. Other Depositions To Come We’ll take a look at the final page of
depositions in the next article: John
Rousseau, Gen. Patterson, Ben Clary, and William Smithey.
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