Hello, My names is Robert Cowan and I am a member of the Cowan and Wigton-Walker groups and recently sent the following e-mail to my list members. Because of the importance to other surnames I have decided to make this offer for a copy of James Hagy's thesis available to your group. This work is not copywrited and I would never offer any research material that was under copy protection without first obtaining permission of the author. That said, this is a wonderful opportunity to acquire a rather obscure document that is well researched and footnoted. If you have southwest Virginia, east Tennessee or even Shenandoah Valley roots then I would recommend you take a serious look this thesis which gives us a wonderful look at life on the Virginia frontier just before Boone heads off for Kentucky. I had seen references to Hagy's thesis for years, but only recently was able to purchase an original copy of this work. "I have recently obtained an original copy of the following thesis which was presented to the faculty of the Department of History, East Tennessee State University, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of master of arts. It was published in June 1966 as follows: CASTLE'S WOODS: FRONTIER VIRGINIA SETTLEMENT, 1769-1799 by James Hagy This is one of the most fascinating bits of research I have ever read and it is an excellent research tool for anyone with Clinch River connections which is just about all of us. It is exceptional because of its extensive foot notes which reminds me of Carolina Cradle. There is one long passage which begins, "The first settlers apparently were William Snoddy, William Cowan, John Cowan, and Patrick Porter. Others soon followed. To some extent the settlement was a family affair......... The Cowans and Porters had moved from County down in Ireland to Pennsylvania about 1726..... it goes on and on and is the same story we have all heard many times over and always either attribute it to White or family legend. Sometimes we get so used to calling something undocumented or unsubstantiated because we forgot where the original source came from. At the end of this long paragraph, Hagy gives us a real clue and suggests we look at the following: M.B. Wood to Draper, August 23, 1883, Draper MS 4C27; William Russell to Governor Harrison, September 25, 1783, in William Palmer, Calendar of Virginia State Papers and other Manuscripts, from Jan 1, 1782, to Dec. 31, 1784, p. 532, and Thomas W Carter to Draper, Draper MS 4C26 and other sources including Maxwell History and genealogy by Florence Houston and Laura Cowan Blaine. The Draper Manuscripts, Wisconsin Historical Society, Madison are cataloged by letters and numbers the C being the papers of Daniel Boone. I am not talented enough to wiggle through all of Lyman Drapers papers but I bet Laura Cooper could find what is in these two Draper conversations." I would be willing to make copies of this 140 page thesis for $25.00 which includes priority mail shipping. If anyone is interested please respond to me privately at [email protected] Thank you for your interest. Regards, Robert Cowan 525 Harrogate Rd. Matthews, North Carolina 28105