Person:Jacob Castle (1)

Jacob Castle was a Long Hunter in early Southwest Virginia. He married a Shawnee Woman, Sowege, and had other Indian wives. He was known as "White Tassel", "Hunter", "Long Hunter", and "Taumee Elene-Corn Man". ^S1 Castlewood, Virginia (also known as Cassell's Woods) may have been named for him.[1] There is a legend that he showed Daniel Boone the Cumberland Gap.

Signed petition for road to Woods River

Source:Chalkley, 1912vol 1:434 We petitioners, being the frontier inhabitants of this colony, labor under great inconveniences for want of a road being opened from our settlement towards the landing, and there being (as we presume) a sufficient number of inhabitants to open one, we therefore humbly pray that your worship will be graciously pleased to take our case under your serious consideration and grant an order for a road to be opened from Zachariah Callhouns, on Reedy Creek, and thence to the Buffalo Lick and from thence the nearest and best way to Woods River, at the upper end of a small island below the mouth of the Little River, and thence towards the forks of Meadow Creek, and thence to the top of the dividing ridge between Woods River and the South Fork of Roanoke, and that John Vance and Alexander Savers be appointed to mark and lay off said road from said Callhouns to Woods River, and that John Stroud and James Conley mark and lay off from thence to the aforesaid dividing ridge, etc. That John McFarland and Joseph Crockett be appointed overseers to open and clear said road from said Calhoun's to Woods River, with the subscribers and the adjacent inhabitants and that William Crispe and William Pellem be appointed overseers from Woods River to the aforesaid dividing ridge, etc., and we, your petitioners, shall pray. Hendery Battan, Jacob Goldman, Jacob Goldman, Frederick Cadock, John Scott, John Combe, Samuel Stonacie, Robert McFarland, John Stead, Mordecai Early. John Downing, Charles Sincler, Wiliam Sayers, William Hamilton, Robert V(N)orris, Samuel Mountgomery, Andrew Lynam, James Macee, James Heris, Robert Miller, John Miller, Robert Allcorn, William Miller, John McFarland, Joseph Crockett, Val. Wilcher, Humberstone Lyon, James Miller, Stephen Lyon, Thomas Barnes, James Willy, John Vance, Alexander Sayers, Jacob Cassall, John Gorman.

The Jacob Castlean Incident

About the last week in April 1749, Indians began stealing furs from Heinrich Adam Herman's cabin. The Herman suspected that Jacob Castlean had encouraged his Indian friends to rob the Hermans. So they took matters into their own hands and confronted Castlean. On April 22, 1749 George Robins issued a warrant against Adam and his brother Valentine for "violent robbery of the goods of Jacob Castlean." They were released from jail. Castlean was later arrested but aquitted. Read a more detailed account by Mitchell G. Farish

From Chalkley’s Augusta County Records:

• Vol. 1 - 1749. - Commitment of Valentine and Heinrich "Adam" Harman for violent robbery of the goods of Jacob Castlean, the warrant of George Robins, 22d April, 1749.

On 17 May 1749, Heinrich "Adam" Harman accused Castle of aiding the French (an act of treason). Castle was tried and acquitted.

Castlewood or Cassell's Woods

Unverified legend: Castle purchased the land from the Shawnee Indians, for very little in trade. It is reported that the purchase was made with the Shawnee Indians for a "hound dog, a knife, and a shot of whiskey." - Castlewood, Virginia at Wikipedia

1. ↑ ^1.0 1.1 Schutz, Noel, and Don Greene. Shawnee Heritage . (Lulu.com, 2008-2015).
2.   Hagy, James William, and John H Bounds. Castle's Woods and early Russell County, 1769-1799: Masters Thesis for Department of History East Tennessee State University. (Lebanon, Virginia: Russell County Historical Society, 1979, c1979).
3.   OLD MILLS OF FAR SOUTHWEST VIRGINIA, in Addington, Luther F., and Emory L. Hamilton. Historical Sketches of Southwest Virginia. (Virginia, USA: Historical Society of Southwest Virginia)
   1973.

   Excerpt: "In Castlewood, on lower Mill Creek there are the foundations of two old water mills and three abandoned mill burrs. In these remnants of a by-gone day one could almost say lies buried the history of Castlewood - the history of the first settlements ever made along the Clinch River, for it was around this spot that John Morgan led his settlers in 1769. Little is known of Morgan and his settlers who came into the beautiful Clinch River Valley, other than that each was to take up 400 acres of land for settlement. We do not know the names of any of the original settlers for sure, other than John Morgan and John Smith, not even the number in the settlement party, or from whence they came. Somewhere in this vicinity also lived the legendary Jacob Cassell, for whom Cassell's Woods was named, shrouded in the mists of the past, about whom all sorts of legendary tales are told. Despite the fact that he was an ordinary person, but who probably preceded even Morgan's settlement the place bears his name after more than two centuries have blown over his dim footprint. from Bickleys Mill article in OLD MILLS OF FAR SOUTHWEST VIRGINIA By Emory L. Hamilton

4. ↑ ^4.0 4.1 MikeMeyers.info
5.   Jacob Castle: Clinch Father? by Gordon Aronhime as appeared in the Bristol Herald Courier on January 29, 1965