It can be found here: http://www.ls.net/~newriver/swva/hssv-9.htm Peggy C Fuller Keen ----- Original Message ----- From: <Co51Ne@aol.com> To: <VATAZEWE-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Saturday, March 12, 2005 6:41 AM Subject: [VA-TAZEWELL] Boling info > Like a dummy, I did NOT bookmark where I got this info. I am going to TRY > to > find it again and post it. > > I am just passing along this............. > (Not my line) > > THE BOLLINGS OF WISE COUNTY > > By W. S. Rose > Of the sixty-nine pupils enrolled at Flat Gap public school, at the head > of > Pound Valley in Wise County, Virginia, all but one were Bollings of their > mothers were Bollings. Neighboring schools have the name in lesser > proportion. > They do not got to school for nothing either. Their settlement comprises > about one-tenth of the Robertson Civil District, which contains fifteen > schools, > and eight of them were recently taught by Bollings. > The circumstances of the ancestry and early settlement favored a > clean-blooded posterity, and it has been agreeably co-operated with by > choice for nearly > one hundred and twenty-five years. No insanity, epilepsy, idiocy, or > hereditary tuberculosis. The result is a keen-witted, self-reliant people > able to > take care of themselves under any conditions they encounter. They are > great > people to mind their own business and would rather others do the same. > Environment and heredity, the two prime factors in character-molding, are > in > this case given the widest possible play, and yet, the age-old debate on > which of the two has the greater influence is not settled. Heredity was > strong, > as will be seen later, and the community started from one family whose > members > went forth to various Lands of Nod to mate and bring back their mates in > most cases, to settle near the parent roof. > The nest was at the head of the valley that somewhat resembles a > scoop-shovel, except there is a dividing ridge in the middle throughout > the entire > distance of ten miles. All around the outer rim, excepting the > northeastern end, > are mountains. Until very recent times it was greatly isolated from the > rest > of the world. > Amid such natural surroundings heredity began to play its part. It had a > free > hand. The first family of children were large enough to remember when the > mail came as close as sixty miles, and when it finally came within twenty > miles > they began to send and receive letters. > They escaped the conventionalities, shallow forms and hypocrisies > prevailing > in what passed for high society, and the blighting effects of a wasteful > labor system then in vogue elsewhere. > They were taught by their parents to read and had no trashy literature to > waste time on. Providing for their material wants kept them all busy. > Their history goes back to famous ancestry on both sides, and the > temptation > is strong to trace the mother's side, but that seems contrary to the > accepted > custom. Robert Bolling married Jane Rolfe, daughter of Thomas Rolfe, who > was > the son of John Rolfe and the beloved Pocahontas. > Who the Bollings were is not generally known, but all that is necessary > here > to record about them is that they descended from the Welsh Boleyns, who, > in > England became Bollings, the most noted of whom was Anne, whose beauty > captivated the monster, King Henry VIII, who married her despite all > opposition and > thus gave to England Elizabeth, the Virgin Queen, from which the name > Virginia was derived. > To this Robert Bolling and Jane Rolfe Bolling, granddaughter of > Pocahontas, > only one child was born, John. The mother died and Robert had other > children > by a later marriage, but the blood of Pocahontas did not course in their > veins. It is interesting to note how long the Pocahontas blood was held > by a > single life because the same thing happened again when the first John had > but one > son, also called John, who, however, ended all anxiety by fathering > nineteen > sons, the eldest of whom was Thomas, who himself had a numerous family. > He, > it was, being prompted by the need for such instruction in his family, > procured a teacher from England, which eventually led to the > establishment of the > first deaf and dumb institution in America. > Under the law of primogeniture then in force, Thomas inherited the entire > forty-thousand acre estate, leaving the other eighteen sons of John to > scatter > or at least, to shift for themselves. > At least one of the brothers went to North Carolina. His name was > Benjamin, > and among his family of seven sons and three daughters was another > Benjamin, > who was born in 1734 and was, therefore, two years younger than > Washington, > with whom he bore arms in the same great conflict, as did his sons by his > first > wife. > Having lost his first wife, Pattie Felts, he married Charity Larrimore, > who > bore him one son, Jeremiah, the father of the family on Pound River. And, > it > was a real family, too, as will be seen later. Other Jeremiahs drop in > from > time to time, but this Jeremiah was Jeremiah I. He already was married to > Sallie Ward of Georgia when he started with his wife and father to the > wilderness. > Perhaps it would be better to say that Benjamin brought them into the > wilderness to found a home. > The son, at least, and the father perhaps also, had scouted the area and > knew > beforehand in a general way about where they would settle. There were > already settlers in the valleys of the Clinch and Powell Rivers. Hannah, > a sister > of Benjamin, had married Solomon Osborne and had come with him into the > wilderness and located at a ford on the Clinch River a short distance > upstream from > where the town of Dungannon now stands. The name Osborne Ford clings to > the > place to the present. > Because of local interest, a digression is here made to record a statement > made by well-informed members of the Bolling family of the upper Pound > Valley > that Benjamin had a younger brother Jessee, who was a primitive Baptist > preacher and came over the mountains bringing with him two boys named > Gilly. After > living for a period of time at the forks of the Powell River, where Big > Stone > Gap now stands, he passed on into Kentucky, leaving his claim and > improvements in the possession of these boys. Whether this be true or > not, one thing is > certain, and that is that the Gillys are very numerous in the locality > mentioned, and that they started somewhere and somehow several > generations ago. > There were several Johns, John the first, John the second, and John this > and > John that, but it is not recorded that there was a John the Baptist. But > Benjamin evidently was of the same faith as Jessee and must have taught it > to > his son Jeremiah, for the one church of the locality is close by and the > title > page of the record book is inscribed "Primitive Baptist Church." The > burying > ground is near and Benjamin was the first tenant. On a rude stone at the > head > is inscribed "B. Bolling 1734-1832." He had several grandsons through the > son > Jeremiah who reached extreme old age, but none quite reached his > ninety-eight years. By his side sleeps Charity who braved the wilderness > with him. Marks > to both graves are the work of Jeremiah.* > It has not to this day been definitely settled just which of the Carolinas > President Jackson was born in, and the descendants of Benjamin and > Jeremiah are > not sure about which their ancestors came from. They talked much of both > states and were, perhaps, so near the line that they spent time in both, > as was > the case with Jackson. They brought with them across the mountains on > their > horses small appleseed sprouts set in gourds, and, after planting, they > grew > and lived long, which might indicate North Carolina was their native > state > because North Carolina is more adapted to that fruit. > History teaches that land-title troubles were responsible for much of the > early migration from western North Carolina, while South Carolina was so > organized as to make life difficult for self-reliant and industrious white > people; > and, from both states there was, in early days, an outwardflowing stream > of > their bravest and best. Be the cause what it may, one or the other or both > states lost when Benjamin brought Jeremiah and Sallie out.** In their new > abode > the population increases with wonderful regularity. Eleven of the thirteen > children of Jeremiah and Sallie reach maturity, and of the two who failed > to do > so one was killed by a falling tree; and there was not a doctor within a > hundred miles. > Of the eleven, eight were given Bible names. They follow the dates of > birth > and death as nearly correct as possible: Jonathan 1806-1866***; Jeremiah > II, > 1809-1894; Ezekiel, 1815-1907; Hosea, 1817-1910; Amos 1819- 1894; James, > 1821 > with no date of death; Sarah, 1823-1862; Dulaney, 1824 with no date of > death; > Jessee, 1826- 1901***; Polly*** who married, became the mother of four > children, and passed away, but the date of birth and death was not > learned. There > has been from the beginning a small migration, mostly to Kentucky, and > the > missing dates are due to those cases. Most all of the departed sleep in > the > churchyard of which Benjamin was the first tenant. It is on a low ridge > just > above the ancestral homestead, an dis well fenced and cared for. It > contains > several times as much standing marble as the average rural burying > ground, all > of which was hauled over very rough mountain roads for distances ranging > from > eighty down to twenty miles, depending on the facilities of > transportation at > the time of purchase. Perhaps names chiseled on it would range in much > the > same ratio as the school pupils mentioned in the beginning of this story, > for > most of these people prefer to live out their lives int he place that > Benjamin selected for their nest and where Jeremiah's fledglings peopled > it. > To bring the genealogy down past Jeremiah's family would need so many > "begats" as to resemble the second chapter of Genesis, and must not be > attempted > here. Their direct descent from Pocahontas and one other incident which > will be > related later are the only romantic elements discovered in their story. > Only > a few of the ninth in descent from the Indian maiden are now living. > Taken > from narrative form and given directly it is as follows: Pocahontas to > Thomas > Rolfe, 1st; Thomas Rolfe to Jane Rolfe Bolling, 2nd; Jane Rolfe Bolling > to > John Bolling I, 3rd; John Bolling I to John Bolling II, 4th; John Bolling > II to > Benjamin Bolling I, he of the large family, 5th; Benjamin Bolling I to > Benjamin Bolling II, 6th; This is the Revolutionary soldier who brought > into the > wilderness his son Jeremiah, who is the 7th, and his children whose names > and > dates are given are 8th in line. The Thomas Bolling mentioned was a > brother of > the first Benjamin and was the sole heir. He was mentioned only because > of > his connection with the first institution for the deaf and dumb in > America. He > has no important connection with the Carolina Bollings, who have not, as > far > as learned, used Pocahontas and John Rolfe in giving names to their > children. Mrs. Edith Galt Bolling Wilson and her brother Rolfe Bolling > are 9th in > descent also, but from another branch of the family, as were the > Randolphs, > Tuckers and others with whom here are not concerned. > This story, long though it has grown, cannot well be closed without > relating > an incident that for disappointment and sadness closely approaches the > theme > in Longfellow's immoral poem of Evangeline's never- faltering search for > Gabriel, which has thrilled the hearts of countless millions in many > languages > and in different lands. > Late in life Sallie Ward, wife of Jeremiah, was seized with a passion to > return to the home of her childhood to visit her kindred. Taking with her > Hosea, > her son, then a lad in his teens, she set out on horseback. This must have > been in the eighteen thirties, for we have seen that Hosea was born in > 1817. > She riding and the lad afoot, over the rough trails they went, fording > rivers > and streams, lodging when possible with the widely scattered settlers, > and > often taking the weather as it came. But, at last, the hardships and > privations > were left behind and with a joyful heart she approached the place she > longed > to see once more, where she could pour out to her kindred the great story > of > her life since their separation. > She found not one living kinsman and none who could give any information > as > to when and where they had gone. The land was still there, but for all > practical purposes for her it was as though the earth had opened and > swallowed them > up. What her feelings were can only be imagined by those who have met > with > overwhelming and crushing disappointment. > It must have been that the one great sustaining comfort to her as she > turned > her face to the wilderness was that she at least had a place to return > where > a welcoming hand would greet her and a friendly roof would shelter her. > A brother of her husband's father had found them as he was outwardly bound > from the old homeland to Missouri, but for her, her husband, sons and > daughters > were all that were left to her. With them she continued to live on until > 1845 when her body was laid near the first tenant, to be later joined by > her > mate, and the twain sleep well in the soil where they labored in the land > they > loved. > NOTES > * The following passage has been omitted from this story for reasons > stated > below: > "We have seen that Jeremiah's wife was Sallie Ward, born in 1773, two > years > before Andrew Jackson, with whom she played as a child, and whom she > always > disliked, not to use a harsher word. After he rose to fame and was > idolized by > the public she always spoke disparagingly of him." > The previous passage was omitted from the rest of the story because there > are > some very obvious errors in it. First, Jackson was born in 1767, not 1765. > Second, if Sallie Ward Bolling was born in 1763 she was about 43 years old > when her first child was born, i.e., Jonathan in 1806 or 1807, and she > was about > 68 years old in 1831 when her last child was born, I, e., Polly in 1831. > This obviously, is impossible. > A more probable date was twenty years later, about 1783, which would have > placed her about the same age as her husband (see*). This, however, would > have > placed her much younger than Andrew Jackson, and it is doubtful that they > were > playmates in childhood. > Third, one historical source, the World Almanac, gives the location of > Jackson's birth as New Lancaster County, South Carolina, but the text of > this > story states that Sallie was born in Georgia. Therefore, it is possible > that > Sallie Ward never heard of Jackson until he was well-known. One can only > speculate, but the editor of this story, after much thought, had decided > that the > incidents related here about Andrew Jackson and Sallie Ward must be mere > folk > tales built up as years passed in the Bolling family, because upon talking > with > present living Bollings in the area, some have said that they can remember > their grandfather or uncle, etc., having related the account to them as it > was > given here. But, as we have seen, it cannot be true. > ** The late Hugh L. Sulfridge in his Columbia University Master's thesis > gives the date of about 1790 to the migration, and the area from which > they came > to be Wilkes County, North Carolina. The date 1790 can be questioned > because, > since this text states that Jeremiah was married at the time of the > migration, it is doubtful that a period of sixteen years would have > elapsed before > his first child was born. Also, Mrs. Margie Bolling Riddle, great- > granddaughter of Jeremiah and granddaughter of Jessee, gives the dates of > Jeremiah's > birth as February 7, 1782. Obviously, an eight-year-old boy would not be > married. > A more probable date would be 1800 to 1804, and then the other statements > would be more logical. > *** Mrs. Margie Bolling Riddle, mentioned above, of RFD Pound, Virginia, > gives these dates for the births of: Jonathan, 1806; Jeremiah II, 1810; > and > Polly, 1831. She also adds the eleventh child, Edmond, born in 1828. > Pages 29 to 34 > > > > ==== VATAZEWE Mailing List ==== > TAZEWELL LIST ADMINISTRATOR > VATazewe-Admin@Rootsweb.com >