Person:Alexander Samples (2)

Alexander Samuel Samples

• British Soldier

28 Sep 1781 - As British Soldiers, John and Samuel Semple are present at the Siege of Yorktown, York County, Virginia

19 Oct 1781 - The British Surrender Yorktown - John and Samuel Semple under the command of General Lord Charles Marquis Cornwallis. The brothers were with Cornwallis when he surrendered to General George Washington, at the Battle of Yorktown. At this time both are prisoners of war.

20 Oct 1781 - John and Samuel Semple are marched toward POW's Barracks in Winchester Virginia - The prisoners of war were marched from Yorktown to a prison camp at Winchester, Virginia. Along the way, many prisoners escaped. They were encouraged to do so, for every one that escaped, meant one less for America to feed.

21 Oct 1781 - John and Samuel Semple(s) Escape to the Great Dismal Swamp, Virginia and North Carolina - They lived one winter in a large cypress tree in the Dismal Swamp. After that the brothers became separated and never saw each other again.

1792 - Samuel Semple married Lucinda in Green River, Kentucky

17 Jul 1806 Samuel Semple dies in Adair County, Kentucky

• Alexander Samples, with his wife Lucinda, lived in Green River, KY, not in Greenup County. Green River is a tributary of the Ohio River. Tributaries of the Green River include the Barren River, the Nolin River, the Pond River and the Rough River. Today, Adair and Green Counties, together with Taylor County and possibly Russell County, contain most of the Green River, which has been dammed to form a lake.

• Alexander and Lucinda died young. Their children were transported back up the Ohio River, where they were apprenticed to Henry Ralston in lieu of being adopted by any other family. This is directly across the Ohio River opposite Ironton, Ohio. Alexander and his wife Lucinda both died, leaving four small sons. Their names were William Samples, Robert, Samuel Samples, and Hiram Samples, the youngest of the four.

• The boys were bound out, as was the custom when the parents died, in those days, to Henry Ralston, to serve apprentice in the blacksmith trade. Henry Ralston's shop was located in Ironton, Ohio which is on the opposite side of the river from Adair City, Kentucky. On arriving at the shop one morning, a note was found on the door saying "Bob's Gone". Another account tells this a little differently! On coming to the shop one morning they found a note on the shop door. It said Bob's gone to H---, and they never heard from him again.

• Under the strict rules of apprenticeship, indentured children were required to serve their task master until they became twenty one years of age. Samuel Samples and his brother Hiram thought that they were being worked too hard and mistreated. They planned an escape, crossing the Ohio River into Kentucky. Samuel told his brother Hiram that he heard there was a lot of game up on Elk River and that he was going to go up there and hunt. Hiram wanted to go, too. Sam protested saying Hiram was too young, but Hiram went. They ran away by swimming the Ohio River at night and came up on the Elk River and hunted and killed a lot of game.

• Hiram Samples courted and married Bathsheba Alderson in Adair City, Greenup County, Kentucky. He later moved into Virginia (now West Virginia) and settled on Elk River. He settled near present Clendenin, and from there he moved up in Porters Creek. He went up a hollow that is a tributary to Porters Creek and built his house there. This hollow has its confluence with Porters Creek about three quarters of a mile from Bomont. Today, his hollow is called Samples Hollow. Their Family Record from his Bible remains with his descendants.

• Samuel Samples brother of Hiram went up the Ohio River to Pomeroy and while there he courted and married Jane Samples who was living in (then) Virginia. She was the daughter of Robert Samples, and twin sister of Ralph Smith's wife, Sofa, daughters of old Peter Samples. They raised a large family. Samuel later moved to Virginia (now West Virginia) and settled on the Elk River near Ashley's Dam. He bought the land and the mill that John Ashley owned, along the north side of the Elk River, above the mouth of Upper Dulls Creek.

• John Ashley was born in North Carolina in 1774. On March 8, 1799, at Wadesboro, Anson County, NC, he married Mary Alford, who was born in Monroe County, Virginia in 1773. They brought their family to what is now Big Sandy Creek in Roane County, WV and built a log cabin in 1810. John acquired a tract of land on the Elk River in what is now Clay County, WV and built a low head dam to divert water for a grist mill about 1825. John operated this mill for about nine years before selling out to Samuel Samples and moving back to Big Sandy Creek. John's name is listed John Wiley Ashley in at least one record. Dawson's "Twistabout and Thereabout" says that a W. Ashley bought 400 acres of land across the Elk River from the land owned by John Ashley. This land was bought by Samuel Samples at about the same time he bought theJohn Ashley property.

• A Mr. Ashley owned 400 acres of land along the south side of Elk River, opposite to the land that John Ashley owned. Samuel also bought this tract of land. In the year 1850 Samuel and Jane Samples, his wife, made a deed, conveying a part of their land to John Samples. This deed was acknowledged by Alexander Good and Alexander S. Waugh, who were serving as justices of the peace at that time. The last will and testament of Samuel Samples is recorded in the Office of the Clerk of the Clay County Court of Clay County, West Virginia, in Will Book No. 1, at page two.

Beaver Dam Church

• Beaver Dam church was constituted on the 5th of March, 1798, of the following five persons: John Atherton, Sr., and his wife Sally, Aaron Atherton and his wife Christina, and James Keel.
• BEAVER DAM church is located in Ohio county, about four miles south of Hartford, the country-seat. It takes its name from a small tributary of Muddy creek, near which it is situated. It is, by several years, the oldest church between the Green River and Ohio River, west of Elizabethtown, and is the mother of a large family of similar organizations in that region of the State. There was a very early settlement at Hartford, probably not far from the year 1780. Among these early settlers was a German family, bearing the name that is now spelt Coleman.

1. ↑ ^1.0 1.1 REGAN, D. M. (Submitter). MOSEF & MARY RUTHERFORD SAMPLES FAMILY BIBLE. (Knoxville, Tennessee: Lawson McGhee Library, McClung Collection)
   Page 1, 27 Oct 1802.
2. ↑ Don Norman. Hacker's Creek Pioneer Descendants, Inc.

   Dedicated to the History & Genealogy of West Virginia
   http://hackerscreek.com/
   DON NORMAN FILES INTRODUCTION
   http://hackerscreek.com/cpage.php?pt=262
   Samuel Samples
   http://hackerscreek.com/norman/SAMPLES/SAMUEL.htm