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Facts and Events
Name[1][2][3][4][5] |
Jesse David Hughes |
Gender |
Male |
Birth? |
Abt 1750 |
Elk Creek, Augusta County, Virginia |
Residence[1][4] |
From 1771 to 1772 |
Augusta, Virginia (later Lewis, West Virginia)settled 400ac on Hacker's Creek, adjoining lands afterwards owned by Col. William Lowther |
Marriage |
Abt 1773 |
Virginiato Grace Tanner |
Residence[1] |
Bet 1797 and 1798 |
"moved to the Wabash" (not sure if they mean present day Indiana?) |
Residence[1] |
Abt 1798 |
Kentucky, United Statesmoved to eastern Kentucky |
Residence[1] |
Abt 1799 |
Jackson, West Virginia, United Statessettled at the mouth of Turkey Run in what is now West Virginia |
Residence[1] |
Aft 1799 |
Sandyville, Jackson, West Virginia, United Statessettled on Sand Creek near where Sandyville was afterwards built |
Death[1][4] |
1 Oct 1829 |
Ravenswood, Jackson County, Virginiaage abt 79 - died at the home of George Henshaw, his son-in-law, at the mouth of Turkey Run just above the town of Ravenswood |
Burial[1][2] |
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Ravenswood Cemetery, Ravenswood, Jackson, West Virginia, United States |
About Jesse Hughes
Jesse Hughes (c. 1750 – c. 1829) was a frontiersman, hunter, and scout who was an early settler in the western region of Virginia that became West Virginia and Kentucky. Hughes was noted for his hatred of Native Americans, and is said to have killed many in battle, and murdered several others. "He was as savage as a wolf, and he liked to kill an Indian better than to eat his dinner", said the wife of one of his descendants in 1902.
Hughes married Grace Tanner in 1771. They lived in a cabin on Hacker's Creek, near a stream that is now known as "Jesse's Run", located in present day Lewis County, West Virginia.
Hughes is believed to have been one of the first American colonists to explore the Hughes River in West Virginia. It may have been named for him, or for others of the same surname residing in the area during roughly the same time period.3
Records in Virginia
- 1772: Early Explorers in the Valley of the Little Kanawna: Long before white men found their way to the valley of the Little Kanawha Indians wandered through it in making their visits to distant tribes east of the mountain and west of the Ohio River. No one knows who the first white visitors were, nor when they came. One false tradition followed by several local historians states that Jesse Hughes, Elias Hughes and William Lowther, who in 1772, passed down the river from about the site of Glenville, were its earliest white explorers. But Christopher Gist and his assistants saw the lower part of the valley as early of 1751, and French hunters and fur traders probably say it still earlier. [Pioneer West Virginia, pg. 34]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 Jesse Hughes, in McWhorter, Lucullus Virgil. The Border Settlers of Northwestern Virginia from 1768 to 1795: Embracing the Life of Jesse Hughes and Other Noted Scouts of the Great Woods of the Trans-Allegheny. (Hamilton, Ohio: Republican Publishing Co., 1915)
1915. - ↑ 2.0 2.1 Jesse D Hughes, in Find A Grave.
[Includes headstone photos]
- ↑ Jesse Hughes (frontiersman), in Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Jesse Hughes, in Haymond, Henry. History of Harrison County, West Virginia: from earliest days of northwestern Virginia to the present. (Morgantown, West Virginia: Acme Publishing, 1910)
377.
Jesse Hughes. Jesse Hughes the noted border and Indian scout was it is supposed born on the South Branch of the Potomac and came to the West in 1770 and located his 400 acres on Hacker's Creek adjoining lands afterwards owned by Colonel William Lowther. He participated in many expeditions against the Indians and was perhaps better known and had a wider reputation for daring that any man on the Upper waters of the Monongahela and he did much to protect the settlers from the forays of the savages. He had a fierce temper and bore an intense hatred to the Indians, and no one of that race was safe with him either in war or peace. Some of his exploits are mentioned in other parts of this volume. He lived to a great age and died at the house of his son-in-law George Henshaw in Jackson County, West Virginia, about 1830.
- ↑ 25. Jesse David Hughes, in Hackerscreek.com.
Jesse David Hughes, a son of Thomas Henry and Susannah (Baker) Hughes, was born in VA about 1751 and died in 1829 on Turkey Run, Jackson County VA (WV). He married Grace Tanner in 1771 or 1772, the same year that he settled on Hacker's Creek in Harrison County VA (WV). Grace, a daughter of Edward and Rachel Tanner, was born in VA in 1753 and died in Roane County VA (WV) January 18, 1842. Jesse served in the Harrison County militia, was an Indian trader and became one of the most famous of the frontier scouts of his time. A payroll of Captain William Lowthers Company of VA militia credits Jesse with 132 days service in Lord Dunmore's OH Campaign in 1774. Order book No.1 of Harrison County VA records shows that Jesse was twice elected captain of Harrison County Militia and further shows that on May 17, 1786, "Jesse Hughes came into court and took the oath of allegiance and the oath of Capt. of Militia according to law". Jesse seems to have been paid for his militia services in the form of a land grant, for he transferred 164 acres of land to Peter Hartman and 200 acres to John Waggoner on July 11, 1791. This land was described as being part of "...a pre-emption warrant of 1,000 acres No. 2411 date March 20, 1783, lying and being on Jesse Hughes Run in the County of Harrison..." In 1778, a party of Indians murdered Jesse's father, Thomas Hughes and in 1787, another party of Indians led by the white renegade, Leonard Schoolcraft, captured Jesse's daughter. Although Jesse was able to purchase his daughter's freedom the following year, the two incidents turned Jesse and his brother Elias into implacable enemies of the Indians.
Folklore and popular historians, writers who were more interested in bloodshed and attention getting stories than in historical accuracy, have amplified Jesse's savagery beyond its actuality. An example is the accusation that Jesse and four other men of butchered an entire Delaware Indian town of "more than 100 people" in June of 1772. This massacre was first reported in A.S. Withers' "Border Warfare", published in 1831. Withers was not certain that the story was true and gave the names of only two of the alleged assassin, William White and William Hacker. L.V. McWhorter, in a footnote to the Withers story, added the names of Jesse Hughes and John Cutright. An anonymous writer of an article in "Awhile Ago Times", reprinted in "The Hacker's Creek Journal" states that Chief Bull and his Delawares had moved from Bulltown a month before the alleged massacre and terms the entire story "A Ridiculous Tale." The writer references a number of documents proving that the Delawares moved south to the lower Mississippi, where Chief Bull died. There are a number of incidents recorded where Jesse tracked down and killed Indians, but these seem to have been Indians who had attacked white settlements or who had ambushed white settlers. In short, Jesse seems to have treated the Indians in the same manner that they treated whites.
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