This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/GBC.2ACE/533 Message Board Post: I'm looking for help with the Earnest\Ernest family of Glade Spring, Washington Co. John Henry Earnest\Ernest (1825-1868) was born in Hanover Co., son of John Hundley & Mary (Moore) Earnest. John Henry mar. Nov. 1, 1849, Washington Co., Amanda Jane Byars (1823-1904), dau. of Col. Wm. Byars (War of 1812) & Elizabeth Beattie of **"Brook Hall." John Henry and Amanda Jane had issue: Mary, William Byars, James & Sarah. William Byars Ernest is my gr. grandfather. I have few dates and marriage records of their children. It seems that most of the Earnest records were destroyed when retreating Confederate soldiers burned the courthouse in Richmond in 1864. Which leads to my next query: John Henry graduated an attorney from William and Mary College in 1847. From 1855-1861 John Henry was a Commonwealth Attorney for Washington Co. From 1861-1863 he was a Colonel and Provost Marshal stationed at Abingdon. In 1863, I’ve been told, he surrendered the town of Abingdon to the Union. There is a biographical sketch w/picture and a reprinted newspaper article concerning John Henry in Lewis Preston Summers, 1903, History of Southwest Virginia. Knowing that much, I cannot officially verify any of it. The National Archives, The Library of Virginia, the Washington Co. Hist. Soc. (provided civilian records)…etc. No one has any political or military record of John Henry. I’m exploring he may have belonged to a headquarters unit or was staff officer, hence not listed with regular combat units. My uncle has John Henry’s saber and daguerreotype picture in uniform. Any help or suggestions, I would be most grateful. Bob Cooke Simi Valley, CA ** “Brook Hall” was the plantation of the Byars family and where John Henry was killed, Mar. 3, 1868, while falling a tree. I believe it still exists. “Masonia” near Glade Spring on Route 11, “down the road from Brook Hall” was the ancestral home of the Earnest family. “Masonia” was torn down in 1950, to make way for a highway. Both John Henry and Amanda Jane are buried in Old Glade Spring Pres. Cemetery.