Hanging of a Loyalist Named Reeves

The History of Watauga County, North Carolina contains a story of a Reeves who was associated with the Tory band led by Captain William Riddle in the New River area of North Carolina and Virginia. Since the Reeves family of Grayson County, Virginia/Ashe County, North Carolina are closely related to my own Reeves based upon DNA evidence, whenever I happen upon this story, I have to wonder whether this Reeves belongs to my family. 

Perkins House

The story goes as follows - Col. Benjamin Cleveland of the Wilkes County Militia was captured on the 22nd of April, 1781, while on a visit to his tenant, Jesse Duncan, at the lower end of the Old Fields by Captain William Riddle's Tories. They had stolen horses from Duncan's barn the night before and led them up the south fork of New River into a laurel thicket just above a house about a mile away. Cleveland was ambushed and captured, then taken up New River to the mouth of Elk Creek, and then to "what has since been known as Riddle's Knob", some fourteen miles from Old Fields and in Watauga County. 

There they camped for the night but had been followed by young Daniel Cutbirth and a youth named Walters along with Jesse Duncan, John Shirley, William Calloway, Samuel McQueen and Benjamin Greer. Joseph Calloway mounted a horse and rode to notify Benjamin Cleveland's brother, Captain Robert Cleveland, on Lewis' Fork of the Yadkin. Five of these in advance of Robert's party fired on Riddle's gang at the Wolf's Den early the next morning. With the arrival of Capt. Cleveland, one of the Tories was wounded and the rest escaped, including Riddle's wife Happy. There is still a tradition in the neighborhood of the Wolf's Den that Ben Greer killed or wounded Riddle at that place soon after Cleveland's rescue, one version saying that Riddle was only wounded and then taken to Wilkes and hanged.

The Wolf's Den

 

Soon after Cleveland's rescue, Riddle and his men made a night raid into the Yadkin Valley, where, on King's Creek, they captured two of Cleveland's soldiers, David and John Witherspoon taking them into the mountain region on the Watauga River in what is now Watauga County, There both were sentenced to be shot, when it was proposed that if they would take the oath of allegiance to the king, go to their home and return with "the O'Neal mare — a noble animal" and join Riddle's band, their lives would be spared. The Witherspoons agreed to this and returned with not only the mare, but with Col. Ben Herndon and a party also, when they captured Riddle, Reeves and Goss, "killing and dispersing the others." 

The American Revolution in North Carolina also recounts another version of the rescue of Col. Cleveland as recorded in the 1832 pension statement of Ishmael Titus. The captured Tories were taken to Wilkesboro, court-martialed and executed on the hill adjoining the village on an oak which was said to still be standing in 1881. Other reports indicate that the oak was behind the Wilkes County Courthouse. 

There are various stories recorded of those executed but most agree that it was Capt. Riddle, Reeves and Goss with some versions also including either one or two sons of Riddle. I have yet to find any documentation of the identity of the Reeves individual who was hung with Capt. Riddle at Wilkesboro. If any records of the court martial held at Wilkesboro are extant it might be possible to someday know exactly to which Reeves' family he belongs.

Source: The History of Watauga County, North Carolina by John Preston Author, pub. 1915. Photos from New River Notes

The Wives of Jordan Reeves

According to census records, Jordan Reeves Sr, born 1747 in North Carolina, had as many as ten sons and three daughters born over a period of 31 years (approximately between 1773 and 1804). Some have speculated that he also had a daughter Sarah, born 1767, who married Jesse Garland, which would bring the total to ten sons and four daughters over 37 years.

Some of the sons, none of the daughters, and none of the mothers of these children have ever been identified.

Though some of the young adults living with Jordan in the 1820 Humphreys County Tennessee census could turn out to be step-children, or less likely, grandchildren, this is still a lot of children to be borne by one woman over a long time period. Yet, no wife of Jordan’s has ever been found.

In the almost complete absence of clues, what does one do? Well, Jordan moved a good bit, leaving Johnston County, North Carolina about 1771 for the Watauga settlements in Washington County, Tennessee. Sometime in the mid to late 1780s he decamped with the rest of the family for South Carolina where we find him in both Pendleton District and Spartanburg records. Ever on the move, he turns up in middle Tennessee by 1797. Though he sold land starting in the 1790s in South Carolina and later in Tennessee, no wife ever relinquished her dower. No marriage records for Jordan have ever been found in any location. No wills that might yield clues appear to exist. If there ever were bible records, they have long since vanished. Not a single document with reference to a wife has materialized to help with the search.

Where to begin?

One path taken was investigating German families at the Watauga settlements. After all, in the 1779 Washington County, Tennessee tax list, Jordan is shown as a “dunkerd by profeshun,” a description not used for the other Reeves in this list – father George and brother William. The term “dunkerd” refers to members of a certain religious sect of German origin. Only two other families appeared on any tax lists with a similar designation, but investigation did not produce any marriageable daughters.

Next, I looked for neighbors and friends who were nearby in all or most of the places that Jordan lived, starting with Johnston County, North Carolina. The name that shows up more than any other is Jacob Chamberlain/Chamblee/Chambers, but no Chamblee sister or cousin has surfaced who might have married Jordan. Other families making the cut include Houghton, Robertson, Cunningham, Garland, Sevier, Russell, and Brown. I’ve just about ruled out a Robertson or Cunningham woman, but the jury is still out on the other families.

Out of all this effort, not a single candidate wife has emerged. Are there other options for furthering the quest? One possibility I’ve considered is the ftDNA Family Finder test. Unexpected cousins might be revealed by the results that would take me in more fruitful directions.

This situation points to the extreme difficulty of tracing female ancestors before 1850. Women (except for widows) were not named in census records, and only occasionally were named in other documents.

Yet, I keep working to identify my foremothers, who were every bit the trailblazers that their husbands were, so that they, too, can have their place in history.

Charlotte Reeves Robertson

Pioneer woman extraordinaire and future heroine of Fort Nashborough, Charlotte Reeves was born in Northampton, North Carolina in 1751 and moved with her family to Johnston (now Wake) County North Carolina by about 1763. There, she married James Robertson in 1768. In 1771, Charlotte and James along with several other families left Wake County for the Watauga Settlements in what is now eastern Tennessee. It is believed that Charlotte’s parents and siblings (including my ancestor Jordan Reeves), some of James Robertson’s siblings, and his uncle Charles Robertson either accompanied Charlotte and James or followed them very quickly.

The Watauga villages where James and Charlotte Robertson settled rested on lands leased from the Cherokee. A truce with the Cherokee was short-lived and land agreements were revoked. Life was difficult and dangerous. By 1779, James Robertson was ready to move west. While James Robertson led some of the men to the Cumberland settlements, where Nashville is now located, John Donelson led the so-called Donelson flotilla to the same location via the Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers. The women and children (including Charlotte and four of her children) and some of the men were aboard the flatboats that made the nearly 1000 mile journey in winter. During the perilous voyage Charlotte Reeves distinguished herself by fighting off Indian attackers and working the oars with the men.

Once in the Cumberland settlements, Charlotte, James, and their children lived in Fort Nashborough, which was one of several forts housing settlers for protection from Indian attacks.

Charlotte Robertson is celebrated as the heroine of the Battle of the Bluffs which was fought at Fort Nashborough in 1781. When Indians attacked the fort, she realized that they were positioned between the fort’s men, who were out in the woods, and the fort. She unleashed the hounds, creating great confusion among the Indian attackers. This diversion allowed time for the men to return safely to the fort. One of Charlotte’s sons was killed by Indians during this battle. In all, two of her sons were killed by Indians while another was scalped but recovered.

The city of Charlotte, Tennessee, and Charlotte Pike in Nashville are named for Charlotte Robertson, who lived in Middle Tennessee until her death in 1843 at the age of ninety-two. She is buried in Nashville's City Cemetery.

For more information see TN Encyclopedia and other sources.

Charlotte Reeves was the daughter of George Reeves, born 1716, and his wife Mary Jordan. She is of the Rives line documented in Reliques of the Rives James Rives Childs. Descendants of this line have tested as DNA Group 8 in the Reeves DNA Project.