The Draper Papers – Upper New River Valley References
Lyman Draper was perhaps the greatest achivist or the greatest thief of the 19th century. Mr. Draper carried on a lenghty correspondence over 50 years with many individuals about the formative years of the American Repulic. During the process of this correspondence, he also acquired many original source documents. Some of these documents pertain to the Upper New River Valley of North Carolina and Virginia. Some brief abstracts of these documents are listed below.
The Draper Papers are housed in the Wisconsin Historical Society in Madison, Wisconsin and are exceedingly difficult to see. Fortunately these papers have been microfilmed, and are available in this format. Indicies of these documents are also available, reprinted by McDowell Publications, Rt. 4 Box 314, Utica, KY 42378.
The abstracts listed below probably are not comprehensive for the area described. If you know of any additional references which should be included here, please let me know. Rich Ballard.
A note about the Calendar codes. Documents with QQ are part of the Preston Collection, documents with ZZ are part of the Virginia Collection, documents with XX are part of the Tennessee Collection, documents with DD are part of the Kings Mountain collection, and documents with CC are part of the Kentucky papers.
| Date | Reference # | Description |
|---|---|---|
| ca.1769 | 2QQ115 | New River Augusta Co. Inhabitants. Petition to the house of burgessespraying that they be exempted from the payment of levies and taxes fora few years longer; and that they be added to the new county shouldAugusta be divided. |
| 11/16/1772 | 2QQ138 2QQ139 |
Byrd,Col. William. Westover. Letter to William Preston inquring about landand expressing desire to buy land adjoing the lead mines |
| 9/4/1774 | 3QQ91 | Robertson,James. Letter to Col. William Preston. Just returned from Greasy Creekafter men engaged by Thomas Ingles; will, by the aid of his friend,David Hughes, execute orders sent him; arrangements for provisioningthe expedition. |
| 9/12/1774 | 3QQ95 | Love,Philip. Big Levels. Letter to William Preston. The Botetourt troops tomarch in a few hours for the mouth of Elk Creek. |
| 10/1/1774 | 3QQ109 | Campbell,Arthur. Letter to Col. William Preston. Indians attack Moore’s Fort onClinch; Captain Looney unable to go in pursuit; has heard nothing fromDoack, Thompson, Montgomery, or Cox. |
| 10/5/1774 | 3QQ114 | Campbell,Maj. Arthur. Letter to William Preston. John Cox to range about ReedyCreek and Moccasin Gap and to escort provisions to Blackmore’s; Rev.Charles Cummings, the bearer, to give information concerning thesitutation of inhabitants. |
| 10/6/1774 | 3QQ116 | Campbell,Maj. Arthur. Letter to Col. William Preston. Arrival of Samuel Shannonwith cattle; he and the flour wagons to proceed together to MoccasinGap; enough cattle engaged for Captain Smith’s fort; an Indian seen byone, Snodgrass, below Captain Thompson’s; probably one of Donelson andMason’s party in disguise; Lieutenant Cox and men sent down the river. |
| 10/17/1774 | 3QQ125 | Campbell,Maj. Arthur. Letter to Col. William Preston, Smithfield. Letter of 13thdelivered by Anthony Head; distribution of powder; forty pounds engagedby Montgomery and Henderson on Holston; selfish application for men;every few famlies want a fort and a guard; people greatly distressedabout saving their corn; return of Captain Thompson; Lieutenant Cox atBlackmore’s; Eaton and King’s stations should be strong; Blackmore’sthe most convenient place to oppose the enemy; Captain Cocke desires toserve; asks if he can not substitute for Captain Thompson. |
| 6/15/1776 | 4QQ50 | Preston,William. Fincastle. Letter to Edmund Pendleton. Measures for protectionof the frontier against the Cherokee; asks instructions as to themanner for dealing with the Tories; Isaac Thomas engaged as messengerto the Indians in an effort to maintain the peace; Powell’s Valleydeserted; Roberts with Tories on Elk Creek. |
| 7/7/1776 | 4QQ53 | Russell,William. Letter to William Preston, County Lieutenant of Fincastle. Twomen killed at Blackmore’s Gap; the militia from New River anxious toget back to their crops; visit to his family; enlistment of men in thedifferent forts; Madison’s appointment by the convention; spies sent topeople on Kentucky to give notice of the war; Thomas Price’s depositionsent to the governor. |
| 4/17/1777 | 5ZZ17 | Madison,Thomas. Letter to Thomas Everard, James Cocke, etc. Proposals to thecommissioners respecting compensation for his services as contractorand paymaster to troops under command of Col. William Russell, theguard at the lead mines, troops station on New River by Col. WilliamPreston, and to troops on Cherokee expedition command by Col. WilliamChristian; proposal to be laid before the governor and council. |
| 7/18/1779 | 3ZZ19 | Preston,William. Letter. Informing of the Tory plot against the lead miens andthe capture of Captains Cox, Osborn, and Henderson; Col. WilliamCampbell awaiting reinforcements at the mines; Col. William Ingles totake command of the Montgomery County militia and march against theinsurgents. |
| 7/12/1780 | 5QQ40 | Preston,William letter to Capt. Isaac Taylor. Tory insurrection; instructionfor the disarming of Tories on New River, and about the court-house;further instructions from Col. Walter Crockett or himself to beobserved. |
| 8/6/1780 | 5QQ48 | Crockett,Col. Walter. Fort Chiswell. Letter to William Preston. Is about tomarch with 250 men agains the Tories on New River; one Letcher murderedby Meeks and Nicholas; horses stolen from Colonel Green within sixmiles of Herbert’s Ferry [Austinville]; advises the sending of a partyto Greasy Creek and toward Flower Gap. |
| 8/28/1780 | 5QQ65 | Cox,John. Deposition giving reasons for suspecting Richard Green of havingstolen his horse from the stable. |
| 1780 | 5QQ70 | Swift,Flower. List. Apparently a list of men accused of Toryism, includingQuakers who refused to take the oath. |
| 1780 | 5QQ68 | Tories.Confessions of John Clifton, Toloman Harrison, Roger Oats, BryantFanning, Robert Phristo, David Copeman, Jeremiah Lambert, MarcumLovell, Andrew Thompson, and Amos Johnson; others involved are JohnBullock, John Wyley, Joshua Jones, David Herbert, John Griffith, JohnJenkins, Charles Devereaux, Evan Williams, John Newton, Philip Dutton,the Vaults, Bronstetters, Moses Wells, Peter Razor, Jink Williams, BenThomas, Griffith Lewis, John Morgan, N. Brittain, John Cox, JohnDraper, Valentine Harmon, John Henderson, Colonel Ingles, EliasFanning, Richard Oney, Thomas Potter, Jonathan Ingram, and BernardGullion. |
| 12/15/1834 | 3ZZ43 | Keys,James. Washington Co., VA. Deposition relative to Revolutionary serviceof Col. William Edmondson. Served as captain on expeditions against theCherokee in 1776 and 1777; captain under Col. William Campbell on atour against the Tories in Grayson and Ashe counties in 1778. Major atBattle of King’s Mountain. Sworn before William Buchanan. |