Hello, up there in VA ! This is Al Metts in San Antonio. I am trying to find a lady named Bessie Thompson Jackson. Fifteen years ago, she wrote the excellent and interesting article about Job and Jesse Thomas of Cumberland Co., VA. that I posted recently. I would like to write to her. Does anyone know her???? I will post the article again at the end of this message. If you have read it earlier, please read it again, now, and you will admit - it is good reading! I am posting queries wherever I can to find Bessie. She writes :"In 1740 we find Job, Elizabeth and two teenage sons, Jesse and Phineas". 1740?????? If Jesse was a teenager in 1740, he would have to have been born before 1727 !!! Not c. 1750. Well, he might have been. By 1805, when he died, he would have been 78 years old (I will be that old in 7 months!). Bessie says that Mary Howell was about 20 years younger than the old reprobate! That would make her born about 1747. Arithmetic - b. 1747 plus 20 (grown) is 1767. Before any of the 12 kids were born. >From the Jane Thomas book, we know that Sally Wood was her grandmother, with Jesse Wood Thomas as her father, middle name for Sally. Jane Thomas was old, but lucid, when the book was published. She was smart. On the other hand - Bessie says all 12 kids were Mary's. IF MARY WAS BORN IN 1747, age 20 in 1767, she could have been the mother of all 12 with the time of birth of Nathaniel in 1796. Whom do we believe? At this point, I believe Jane. Now, Bessie says some things I do not believe. I do not believe Job came from England. I do not believe that Jesse made "frequent trips" to England. The airlines were not flying then ! Jane said Sally came from England and married Jesse. Well, in the immigration books, I did not find Job, or Sally or Mary Howell. What does that mean? Nothing! Bessie may have the wrong Glover - Elijah instead of Joshua - was she wrong or right? Eleanor CROW Thomas may have been given the middle name from Job's Indian maiden!!! Ho! HO! The fact that two stayed in VA means nothing - their husbands stayed. I will say that it is an interesting story. Many legends are. I have found them to be basically true. Exaggerations are there. Errors are frequent. I wish to know Bessie! The background of Elizabeth Hoggett/Hoggatt sounds sound! I get messages from you nice folk on the lists. Maybe someone will fill in the blanks. I put this story on the Cumberland List and the Buckingham list. Both lists are very active. I put a query on the Cumberland Home Page to ask if anyone knows Bessie. Yahoo and the other browsers do not know her (she must have a husband) or she may be in a cemetery. I hope not!!! I hope that she is an active genealogist. After all - she is a cousin of Old Al Metts ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The article: THOMAS Among the immigrants to the New World in the 1700's was Job Thomas, born in England. Soon after arrival he married Elizabeth (Betsey) Hoggett (Collins), widow of Stephen Collins who had one child, Eleanor, who later married John Foster. Elizabeth was a daughter of Anthony Hoggett, a wealthy planter on James River who sold Tuckehoe Plantation to John Utley in 1723-975 acres. In 1740 we find Job, Elizabeth and two teen-age sons, Jesse and Phineas, well established in Cumberland Co., Va. About this time Job, in conjunction with several others, was granted a large tract of land on New River whichd drains the lower part of the Great Valley between the Allegheny and Blue Ridge and flows northwestward to Gauley Bridge, W. Va., where it joins the Kanawha. So Job decided to go on a long hunt to find out more about this fabulous place. Long hunters were the first explorers and most of them will forever remain nameless as they kept no records. Job was probably one of them as he collected his musket, a hunting knife, a few cooking utensils and a package of combs, needles and pins by which he could attract an Indian he might chance to meet and set off, not to be seen again for many, many years. In the meantime their sons, Jesse and Phineas, grew up with their mother Betsy on Royal Oaks Plantation which is now in the State Forest. Jesse made frequent trips to England where he married Sarah Wood of London, who died in a few years. His second wife was Mary Howell of Buckingham Co. who was about twenty years his junior. By her there were 12 children. As the years rolled on the Indian Trails widened into roads and a new frontier was opened up. A trickle became a stream of settlers going through Cumberland Gap - horseback riders, ox carts, heavy road wagons with iron wheels and canvas tops all loaded with settlers going west. Some of the Thomas relatives were already there, so they took their mother, Betsy, out for a visit. There they found their father, Job, who had heard that Betsy was dead and had taken a second wife, a Miss Crow, by whom he had another family of children. The rest of the Story is quickly told. Job's will was probated October 24, 1791, in Cumberland County, Virginia, leaving all to his two sons. (Will Bk. No. 2, P. 520). Jesse died June 1805. In his will probated July 22, 1805, he stated that his wife, Mary was to support his aged mother out of his estate. Of their twelve children only two remained in Virginia: Elizabeth Hoggett Thomas who married Francis Wilkinson of Buckingham Co., and Eleanor (Nelly) who married Elijah Glover and remained in Cumberland Co. The others migrated to Tennessee and beyond. Now their descendants have circled the globe. Bessie Thompson Jackson ___________________________________________________________________ You don't need to buy Internet access to use free Internet e-mail. Get completely free e-mail from Juno at http://www.juno.com/getjuno.html or call Juno at (800) 654-JUNO [654-5866]