William Fields1
b. 21 April 1811, d. 22 November 1862
| Father | William Fields2 b. 1781, d. 21 Jan 1829 |
| Mother | Elizabeth Lynch2 b. abt 1795, d. 14 May 1851 |
The following narrative was written and shared by Patricia (Craig) Johnson who has extensively researched the Fields family (contact information at end of report) :
William Fields (1811-1862) Eleanor Matilda Davidson (1826 - 1889) William Fields, born 21 April 1811, as recorded in the Fields Family Bible, was the first child of William (1) and Elizabeth (Lynch) Fields. He learned the brick business at an early age. This included production of the bricks as well as their many uses in paving and construction. When William (1) died in 1829, William was seventeen. He and his mother as well as his younger brothers and sisters managed not only to keep the Fields family establishment going, but branched out into construction of homes and commercial buildings using the Fields bricks. His siblings were Edward, Sarah Ann, Elizabeth, James, Daniel, Jacob, and David. William and brother, Edward, jointly owned a one-half acre property in Abingdon which, in 1843, they leased to their mother, Elizabeth, for the "rest of her natural life". Abingdon lore says they built a house for her on this land. She is found in the 1850 census with Sarah Ann, plus Jacob and David, both brick masons, still at home. Her unmarried sister, Jane Lynch, as well as two young brick mason employees, three teen age apprentices, and four slaves were in her household. Elizabeth died in 1851. Our quest for any remaining fragments to lend substance to this family led us to the Virginia Historical Society in Richmond. There we were most fortunate to find a surviving house bid from Wm. Fields, submitted to Colonel John Preston of Walnut Grove, one of the wealthiest and most prominent men in Washington County. As we read with awe the fragile bit of paper (linked image at bottom of page) dated February 10, 1845, William emerged from the shadows. Knowledgeable, self assured, and confident, it was obvious this thirty-four year old entrepreneur was well on his way to prominence. Three years later he was retained by the commissioners of Washington County to build a new courthouse. With one associate he completed this project satisfactorily in 1849. This building survived only until 1864 when it was burned during the Civil War. In 1841 William had married 15 year old Eleanor Matilda Davidson who came from the part of Tazewell Co VA which is now Mercer Co W. VA. She was one of seven children of John Davidson and Tabitha Witten. It is not known how William met Eleanor, but with his wide ranging business interests it is not too difficult to imagine. Eleanor was directly descended from the Davidsons, Wittens, Cecils, and Pattons, some of the earliest settlers of Southwest Virginia. William and Eleanor's family grew with first born Charles Bickem in 1842, then William Jr. in 1843 followed by John Davidson (J. D.) in 1845. Attwater Rice, born Jan 6, 1847, survived only to Feb 8, 1847, and is buried in Sinking Spring Cemetery in Abingdon. James Witten came along in 1848 and Alice Cummings in 1850. Jacob Alexander was born in 1852, and last to arrive was Thomas Edward Boyd in 1855. William owned a brickyard in Three Springs, a village near Bristol, the town that straddles the VA - TN state line. The 1860 Washington Co Industrial Census reports that William used 600,000 hand-made bricks from this brickyard to build five houses valued at $5000. He built many structures in both Abingdon and Bristol. Some are still in use today. When Virginia seceded from the Union on April 17, 1861, William was 50 years old. His three oldest sons, Charles, William, and J. D. and his three younger brothers, James, Jacob, and David immediately joined the Confederate forces in VA. Brother Edward was dead. Daniel, who lived in Tennessee, later signed up with the 3rd Regiment Confederate Engineers. Then on November 22, 1862, William suddenly died. No details of this sad event have filtered down to us. We find, however, the following statement in History of Southwest Virginia and Washington County by Lewis Preston Summers. Mr. Summers quoted in full a diary kept during 1861 - 1862 by a "very aged citizen of Abingdon". The un-solicited entry for November 22, 1862 not only reveals the high regard in which William was held, but also provides some insight into the life of his father, William (1). Nov. 22 1862 - William Fields died the 22nd of November, 1862, in the fifty second year of his age; no better man has lived or died in Washington County. His father died New Years morning 1829 - just such a man. The Fields Homeplace, as it was known, is located four miles west of Abingdon on Spring Creek at Providence Road. William built it in 1853, and it was the family home when he died. We were fortunate to find this description in an ad in the Abingdon Virginian of January 13, 1871: Sale by Samuel W. Jeter: Property (livestock & crops) on farm belonging to estate of William Fields, 4 miles west of Abingdon between the Bristol and Reedy Creek roads. Farm itself is for rent, 165 acres. On it is a large brick dwelling house with 8 rooms, a good stable, kitchen, spring house, carriage house, hen house, barn, shed, blacksmith shop, wood shed & c. (etc.) Also a log house with 4 rooms and kitchen attached, now rented The stately two story red brick structure still stands in its rolling meadow with the creek sparkling between it and the road. The log house mentioned is no longer there but the spring house remains. In the hands of family members until about 1900, it is now the well preserved rental property of its present owners. |
| Thirty-six year old Eleanor was left to fend for herself with James-14, Alice-12, Jacob-10, and TEB-7. With the war in its second year, the brick and home building business could not have been very lucrative. Most of their food, however, was probably produced on the farm. The household included seventeen slaves, eleven of whom were twelve or under. Eleanor's mother, Tabitha Davidson, lived in nearby Abingdon. Sometime after 1842, Eleanor's parents, John and Tabitha Davidson with Eleanor's younger brother and sisters, had moved from their home in Mercer Co (formerly part of Tazewell Co) to Abingdon - presumably because of John's failing health. John died in 1848. It must have been comforting for Eleanor to have her mother near. Stories handed down tell us that the children visited "Grandma" often. They also relate with amusement Tabitha's lifelong struggle to be called Ta-bi'-tha, with a long i - rather than the traditional Tab'-uh-tha. At the war's end in April 1865, the older boys came back to Abingdon. Charles farmed for at least a year, then joined his mother's sister, Elizabeth Jane Davidson Boyd, in Sutter County, California. She had gone there about 1855 with husband, Thomas Dickenson Boyd. William, Jr. found interests in neighboring Russell County and married Margaret Elizabeth Nash there. J. D. stayed around for a while, then set off on horseback for Texas, 1100 miles away. Not only did he have relatives from Abingdon living in Texas, but also comrades from the war. J. D. acquired land in Travis Co just east of Austin near Manor. He married Mary Frances Raney, the sixteen year-old daughter of a nearby landowner from TN and began farming. Later, after deciding he wanted to be a doctor, he attended the Medical Department of the University of Louisiana, forerunner of Tulane. Graduating in 1869, he opened his practice in Manor. In the meantime Eleanor was trying to make a new life for herself. The family must have kept close ties to their kinfolk in Tazewell County. It is not known how this union came about but on November 22, 1866, Eleanor married her second cousin, Thomas White Witten, and moved with her younger children to Jeffersonville (now Tazewell), Tazewell County. Thomas was a wealthy widower whose wife had died in 1865. Five of his children were still at home. |
| As for Eleanor's younger children: James went to Colorado Co., Texas before 1870 where he laid brick in Columbus, the county seat, until he became the City Marshall. At age 25 he died in the yellow fever epidemic of 1873 and is buried in an unmarked grave in the Columbus City Cemetery. In 1867 Alice married Confederate veteran, Captain William Thomas Baldwin, and lived close to Eleanor in Jeffersonville. Jacob lived with Alice a short time before joining his brother J. D. in Texas. Jacob then attended school at the University of Louisiana Medical College and by 1880 was practicing medicine with J. D. in Manor. Thomas E. B. married Cornelia Virginia Dickenson in neighboring Russell Co in 1874. In 1880 they were living with her parents Charles and Nancy Dickenson in Castlewood, Russell County. Around 1881, Eleanor left Thomas Witten and returned to Abingdon. She made her home with daughter, Alice, and Captain Baldwin. According to Nora Baldwin Kreger, who knew her grandmother well, the subject of Eleanor's leaving Thomas Witten was never allowed to be mentioned. Eleanor died on February 2, 1889. The death notice in the Abingdon Virginian stated that Mrs. Thomas W. Witten died at the home of Capt W. T. Baldwin on Valley Street. She is buried in Sinking Spring Cemetery next to William Fields as Eleanor M. Fields, with matching marker, in the Fields-Baldwin plot. Thomas Witten lived on in Tazewell County until 1905. Patricia Craig Johnson 8600 Skyline Dr. Box 1132, Dallas TX 75243 (email link in endnotes) |
Related Links and Images:
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 Image of a bid made by William Fields in 1845 to build a house for Col. John Preston4  |
Family | Eleanor Matilda Davidson b. 26 Jan 1826, d. 2 Feb 1889 | |
| Children |
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| Last Edited | 28 Dec 2013 |
Citations
- [S2439] Patricia Craig Johnson, "William Fields-Eleanor Matilda Davidson" family group sheet, (e-mail address).
- [S2439] Patricia Craig Johnson, "William Fields-Elizabeth Lynch" family group sheet, (e-mail address).
- [S1376] Photo courtesy of Carol Mancuso.
- [S525] "William Fields house bid", Mss1 P9267e, Preston family papers, 1769-1864, original held by the Virginia Historical Society.