| Notes |
- Joel Sturgill was born in 1786 in a log cabin about three miles below the forks of New River in present Alleghany Co. NC, the sixth child in a family of twelve.
In 1807, the year he died, Francis Sturgill Sr. (father of Joel) bought a tract of land in present Ashe Co. NC near the Tenn. state line on Roundabout creek. Soon thereafter Joel Sturgill and his bride, Rachel Waters, built a log cabin on this land and made their first home there; this log house in which all their children were born is still standing. Joel passed this land on to his son William, who passed it to his son Lewis J, who passed it to his son Mason, who passed it to his son Martin who is the present owner, the sixth generation of the Sturgill family to own and occupy this land.
There has been some controversy about the identity of Joel's wife, Rachel Waters, which I hope the following will clarify. Shortly after the end of WWII my father and I (David Sturgill) went to Ashe Co NC to try to locate the land where Joel Sturgill had lived. We found the farm without any difficulty and there we met Mason Sturgill for the first time.
On this trip, the first of several, I got little
information because I could not get my father and Mason to stop talking long enough to ask many questions. He did, however, tell us about Rachel Waters. "Her father, John Waters, was a Frenchman who had married a Cherokee indian
(other accounts say she was a Catawba but as the Cataba indians lived near the SC border at that time the Cherokee was probably correct) John Waters apparently cared little for his family as he spent most of his time away from them as he wandered around through the mountains, he eventually
abandoned them entirely. Rachel's mother could not care for the family of four sons and one daughter alone so neighbors took in some of them. They lived on Reddies river in Wilkes County. About 1800 a family named Lewis brought Rachel from Wilkes Co. to Ashe where Joel met her. The Lewis family settled down the creek a ways from here. Rachel's mother died in Wilkes county about 1815, her father, John Waters died here in Ashe Co."
Wilburn Waters, the youngest brother of Rachel, attained some degree of fame as the man who explored the White Top mountain of Grayson Co, VA and the surrounding areas and wrote about the plants and animals of the area. A monument to him stands on the top of Mt. Rogers in the Grayson Highland State park. Shortly after Wilburn died a man who had known him personally wrote a short biographical sketch of his life which has been used in several other books which have been written about Wilburn Waters. In this first sketch, and copied in several other publications, it is stated that Wilburn died in the home of his sister Zilpha Waters, the deed and census records of Ashe Co, NC show that this can no tbe correct. These records show that Zilpha Waters was the wife of Wilburn's older brother,
William Waters, who also lived in Ashe Co. Descendants of William Waters living in Washington Co. VA have verified this. Wilburn probably did die in the home of ilpha Waters but she was his sister-in-law and not his sister. The only sister Wilburn was Rachel who married Joel Sturgill.
As further evidence of the identity of Rachel, she and Joel named their youngest son Solomon WATERS Sturgill and their oldest son William Sturgill named his first son WILBURN WATERS STURGILL after his uncle Wilburn. The names Wilburn and Waters also appear among the families of other descendants in Oregon and Washington who have been separated from other branches of the family for over a century know about their Cherokee indian ancestry.
Census 1830 which shows that they moved in that year.
Their oldest son William and their daughter Catherine either remained in Ashe Co. or later returned as both were married in that county in 1833-34. However Catherine soon joined the family in Scott Co.
William did not remain in Scott Co. if he went there at all, as public records show that he lived in Ashe Co. through 1842 and was in Carter Co. KY in 1844. In 1855 he returned to the Ashe Co. farm where he lived out his life. In 1842 Joel and Rachel with five sons and three daughters and their families all moved again, this time to Sullivan Co. Missouri. Son Lewis remained behind in Scott Co. as did one daughter Mary Ann, who had married Joseph Harris. In 1843 Mary Ann and Joseph decided to join the others in Missouri so they both rode one horse bareback all the way to Missouri with only a burlap bag for a saddle. Their first child was born a month after they arrived in Missouri.
In 1850, Joel's son James George, who had gone to Missouri with the family,returned to the Ashe Co. farm where he remained until his older brother William returned in 1855, James then moved his family to Sutters Mill California where he followed the trade of blacksmith and where he lived out his life.
Two of Joel's grandsons, George and William, went from Missouri to the gold town of Virginia City in Montana in the summer of 1863. The next spring they decided to return to Missouri. William stopped off in Denver on the return trip but George continued to Missouri. Rachel died in 1864 and was buried near Milan MO. In the spring of 1865 all of Joel's sons and daughters in Missouri became part of a wagon train to Oregon. George Sturgill was the wagonmaster. Joel, decided that he was too old to make the trip so he returned to Scott Co. VA where he lived out his life with his son Lewis. He was buried in the Speer family cemetery on Rt 604 in Scott Co. VA
During his last years in Scott Co. Joel made several trips back to Ashe Co. NC to visit children, grandchildren and sisters still living in the area. During the late 1940's I interviewed a nephew and niece of Joel living in Alleghany Co. NC who both remembered him and his visits from Scott Co. Both of these described him as a very impressive looking man who looked like a "Kentucky Col."
[1]
- The Sturgill Family in America: A preliminary history. David Andrew Sturgill, 1960.
page 20.
Descendants of Francis Sturgill Sr. and Rebecca Hash
All children of Francis and Rebecca except Nancy born in Grayson Co. Va.
5) Joel Sturgill, Born 3/20/1786. Died about 1878 in Scott Co. Va.
Married Rachel Waters about 1810 in Ashe Co. N.C. Born 1790. Died 1864 near Milan in Sullivan Co. Mo. Their first home was in Ashe Co. on Helton Creek where they lived from 1813 to 1838 when they moved to Scott Co. Va. In 1841 they left their son Lewis on the Scott Co. farm and migrated again to Sullivan co. Mo. After the death of their mother in 1854 all of Joel's children in Missouri migrated to Oregon in 1865 and he returned to Scott Co. to live with his son Lewis. Joel lived the remainder of his life in Scott Co. but after visited his relative in Ashe and Alleghany Co's. in N.C.
[2]
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1786 - 1878 (92 years)
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