The McClure home in Smyth County VA

It's great that a lot of the history of the McClure family has been preserved.

This could be considered one of the most historically-important, recent discoveries in Southwest Virginia - a log fort house built in 1768 by Nathaniel McClure, Jr (1747-1796) located in the St. Clair's Bottom area of present-day Smyth County, Virginia. This frontier-era landmark had been effectively "hiding in plain sight" until I [Robert Reid Edmonds] was fortunate enough to purchase it from Nathaniel's direct 5th great-granddaughter. Amazingly, this property had remained within the original McClure family for the last 257 years - a family seat bravely established on the Virginia frontier during a time when the colonies were still under the thumb of the British monarchy. This discovery effectively rewrites what we thought we knew about the oldest still standing (in situ) structure in Smyth or any of the surrounding counties.

According to family lore, sometime in the late 1760s several members of the McClure family of Rockbridge County, Virginia would make the decision to head out towards the state of Kentucky in search of a better life. The settling party would consist of Nathaniel McClure, Jr and his cousin, Halbert McClure along with his wife and children. Along the way, somewhere on the frontier, Nathaniel would meet his first wife with whom he would have his first child, Sarah, born in 1770 in the fortified log house that he would eventually build two years prior to her birth. Eventually the party would make their way to the area in Virginia known as St. Clair's Bottom, which was located in Augusta County at the time (current day Smyth County) - this area had previously been explored and settled some years prior, led by a man named Colonel James Patton who in 1748 had erected a substantial home a short distance away known as "Town House".

The story goes that Nathaniel and his new wife were so enamored with the area around St. Clair's Bottom that they would make the decision to stop their journey and put down roots there, a decision which didn't sit too well with cousin Halbert - this would cause a heated argument between the two men resulting in Nathaniel staying put and Halbert going on towards Kentucky without him. Halbert wouldn't make it to Kentucky - he would make it as far as nearby Rich Valley, stopping there and establishing a homestead for himself and his family, a decision which would end up being a fatal one years later when he and much of his family were killed by Native Americans - read about that terrible tragedy here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/HSWCV/posts/3658269327600747/

Nathaniel built his fortified log house out of large chestnut logs, using hand-chiseled limestone blocks for its massive chimney. He decided to build the house as a typical one-over-one setup with only a front door, a back door with two gun ports located in the loft above - he knew the dangers of the frontier and this setup was his safest option for him and his future family. This layout is extremely similar to the Kilgore Fort House located in nearby Scott County, Virginia.

No one really knows what happened to Nathaniel's first wife but in 1780 he would marry a woman by the name of Dorcas Cole, who was the direct 4th great-granddaughter of the Mayflower passenger Stephen Hopkins. They would end up having several children together, effectively ensuring a long-term presence in the area for the McClure family.

Over the years Nathaniel's fortified log home would go through several changes; the first change would come in the 1830s when a large wood-frame addition was added to the rear elevation. Then, in the 1890s, a man named John Dolinger, a local woodworker, would marry one of the McClure girls and update the rear sections with his own touch, adding an amazing walnut staircase inside the rear addition and covering the log section of the house with clapboard siding; he would also remove the original winder staircase out of the log section, add extra windows to this part of the house, including enlarging the front gun port to insert a paned window.

The house would then be passed down to several more McClure family members until it was last lived in during the late 1980s.

Two entrances

Since purchasing the home, I've started peeling back some of the layers of the more contemporary remodels, removing old drywall and drop ceilings to reveal the original tongue and groove which is still covered in its original old milk paint. After removing the old drywall in the first floor of the log section, I was amazed to uncover the original cock-beaded beams in the ceiling and the old hand-scraped and square-nailed planks on the walls, still covered in their old butternut yellow paint. Amazingly when the old exterior wooden siding was removed from the logs under the porch, several names were revealed that had written in pencil on the old chinking, also showing where children had been practicing their ABC's.

The McClure family has also generously donated several items original to the home including the original rope bed that belonged to Nathaniel and Dorcas. Many items have also been discovered in the attic, including an oval portrait of Squire McClure and another red-washed rope bed. The portrait that hangs over the fireplace is of Nathaniel's son, John James McClure (his name is inscribed on the reverse). The palace-sized Smyth County loomed rugs seen on the floor of the blue bedroom are believed to be original to the house - these were sold out of the house decades ago but were graciously returned to me by a very good friend and local historian in nearby Seven Mile Ford, so they're now finally back in their rightful place.

Thanks to FaceBook page Robert Reid EdmondsEarly American

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And wait till you see  more "McClure homes" I found when searching for this one before posting!

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Today's goddess:

Goddess on the Throne from the Vinča culture circa 5100 BC

Thanks Jenny Mendes Ceramics on FB

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Winter Solstice is just five days away. Some cultures call it Yule.

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Thanks Girl Scouts!

As far back as I can go...farther

Well, the fun of Ancestry took me back across the seas to Ireland and Scotland.

But I also found information suggesting this ancestress (Margaret Beattie Hansford) lived to be at least 97 years of age.  That is if the census taker didn't mess up, or the interviewie didn't lie too much.  There was an error in the age of her son, who was head of the household, saying he was only 59 when in actuality he would have been closer to 66.  So maybe mom's age was not quite accurate either.

Anyway, that 1860 census is the source of her age.

And the Ancestry folks connected her to parents as well, who came through Virginia and then the Cumberland Gap to Kentucky, actually to Somerset, Pulaski County, KY...as well as Crab Apple, KY.
So I've gone ahead and saved various tidbits from Wikipedia about the great trek of my ancestors from VA to KY.

 The Appalachian Mountains form a natural barrier to east–west travel, from Pennsylvania to Georgia. Settlers from Pennsylvania tended to migrate south along the Great Wagon Road through the Great Appalachian Valley and Shenandoah Valley. Daniel Boone was from Pennsylvania and migrated south with his family along this road. From an early age, Boone was one of the longhunters^[3] who hunted and trapped among the Native American nations along the western frontiers of Virginia, so-called because of the long time they spent away from home on hunts in the wilderness. Boone would sometimes be gone for months and even years before returning home from his hunting expeditions

The route of the Wilderness Road made a long loop from Virginia southward to Tennessee and then northward to Kentucky, a distance of 200 miles (320 km).

From the Long Island of the Holston River (modern Kingsport, Tennessee), the road went north through Moccasin Gap of Clinch Mountain, then crossed the Clinch River and crossed rough land (called the Devils Raceway) to the North Fork Clinch River. Then it crossed Powell Mountain at Kanes Gap. From there it ran southwest through the valley of the Powell River to the Cumberland Gap.

After passing over the Cumberland Gap the Wilderness Road forked. The southern fork passed over the Cumberland Plateau to Nashville, Tennessee via the Cumberland River. The northern fork split into two parts. The eastern spur went into the Bluegrass region of Kentucky to Boonesborough on the Kentucky River (near Lexington). The western spur ran to the Falls of the Ohio (Louisville).^[8][9] As settlements grew southward, the road stretched all the way to Knoxville, Tennessee, by 1792.^[10]

Because of the threat of Native American attacks, the road was so dangerous that most pioneers traveled well armed. Robbers and criminals also could be found on the road, ready to pounce on weaker pioneers.^[11] Although the Transylvania Company had purchased the region from the Cherokee, and the Iroquois had ceded it at the Treaty of Fort Stanwix, other tribes, such as the Shawnee, still claimed it and lived there.

Often entire communities and church congregations would move together over the road to new settlements. Hundreds of pioneers were killed by Indian attacks^.

Defensive log blockhouses built alongside the road had portholes in the walls for firing at Native American attackers. They were often called "stations". No one knew exactly when the next attack would happen. The Shawnee came from the north, while the Chickamauaga (Cherokees who rejected the land sale treaty) came from the south. The tribes were resentful of the settlers taking their ancestral hunting lands, and the French and Indian War had further stirred up their passions against the white man.^[13]

The Scots-Irish were great fighters. They had lived in Ulster, an English colony in Northern Ireland, for a hundred years before coming to America. They had taken over land previously owned by the Irish and had much experience as fighters in defending their homeland.^[14]

In 1774, Richard Henderson, a judge from North Carolina, organized a land speculation company with a number of other prominent North Carolinians called the Transylvania Company. The men hoped to purchase land from the Cherokees on the Kentucky side of the Appalachian Mountains and establish a British proprietary colony. Henderson hired Daniel Boone, an experienced hunter who had explored Kentucky, to blaze a trail through the Cumberland Gap into central Kentucky.

Judge Richard Henderson had made a treaty with the Cherokee at Sycamore Shoals in 1775, purchasing over 20,000,000 acres (8,100,000 ha) of land between the Cumberland and Kentucky Rivers. On March 28, 1775, he left Long Island (Kingsport, Tennessee) with about 30 horsemen on the grueling trip down the Wilderness Road to Kentucky. At Martin's Station 40 to 50 additional pioneers joined the venture. On their way, they met nearly a hundred refugees fleeing Native American attacks further down the road. Despite the danger, the party kept going toward Kentucky. Since some of the streams were flooded, the pioneers had to swim with their horses. On April 20, they arrived at Boonesborough, a fortified town, named by Judge Henderson in honor of Boone

After 1770, a surge of over 400,000 Scots-Irish immigrants arrived in the colonies to escape the poor harvest, high rents and religious intolerance of Ulster. Since the better lands had already been taken, they constantly pressed onward to the western frontier of the foothills of the Carolinas.

The flood of Scots-Irish, German, and others immigrants kept coming. Over 200,000 pioneers came over the Wilderness Road, enduring severe hardships. In the winter of 1778-79, the weather was so cold that the Kentucky River froze to a depth of two feet. The frontier settlements alongside the road struggled to survive. Many of the cattle and hogs froze to death. The settlers had to eat frozen cattle and horses to survive

Often the Chickamauga, under the leadership of Dragging Canoe, would hide in ambush for weeks between Cumberland Gap and Crab Orchard, a distance of 100 miles (160 km). They would not attack large groups but wait for weaker ones who were not able to defend themselves. More than 100 men, women and children were killed in the fall of 1784 along the Wilderness Road. Many families, even in ice and snow, crossed the creeks and rivers without shoes or stockings; they often had no money and few clothes. They lived off the land by hunting in the woods and by fishing in the streams.^[19]

Since they had hardly any money, entire families sometimes walked hundreds of miles after landing in America. They even used cattle as pack animals to carry their heavy loads. Cabins were built and land was cleared of trees and undergrowth so crops could be planted.

George Bingham's painting of Daniel Boone coming over Cumberland Gap

 Kentucky the 15th State

According to a 1790 U.S. government report, 1,500 Kentucky settlers had been killed in Indian raids since the end of the Revolutionary War.^[27] In an attempt to end such raids into the state, George Rogers Clark led an expedition of 1,200 drafted men against Shawnee towns on the Wabash River in 1786, one of the first actions of the Northwest Indian War.

After the American Revolution, the counties of Virginia beyond the Appalachian Mountains became known as Kentucky County.^[29] Eventually, the residents of Kentucky County petitioned for a separation from Virginia. Ten constitutional conventions were held in the Constitution Square Courthouse in Danville between 1784 and 1792. In 1790, Kentucky's delegates accepted Virginia's terms of separation, and a state constitution was drafted at the final convention in April 1792. On June 1, 1792, Kentucky became the fifteenth state to be admitted to the union. Isaac Shelby, a military veteran from Virginia, was elected the first Governor of the Commonwealth of Kentucky.

The Wilderness Road served as a great path of commerce for the early settlers in Kentucky. Horses, cattle, sheep and hogs found a waiting market in the Carolinas, Maryland and Virginia. Hogs in groups of 500 or more were driven down the Road to market. Beef in Eastern markets had become a main source of income for farmers in Kentucky.^[22]

A postal road was opened in 1792 from Bean Station, Tennessee through Cumberland Gap to Danville, Kentucky. This was due largely to the efforts of Governor Isaac Shelby of Kentucky. This connection of Kentucky to the East was a great advantage. Frontier settlers considered the postal riders heroes and waited eagerly for their arrival for news from settlements along the trails as well as getting their mail and newspapers.[23

I'll next post some info about her father, Francis Beattie (born 1715 in Ireland, died 1791 in Washington County, VA) who wrote a will, which summarizes well what his holdings were, and who his children were.  His wife, Martha Tate Beattie was also born in Ireland in 1720, and died before he did, but there's no documentation of her death.  They had around 8 children, all born in VA.