2011 Change Log

28 Nov 2011Added pages for Samuel Scott Orr Hutton and Sarah Virginia (Hutton) Johnston and updated the research note for their father John Hutton; thanks to Diane Costello for her help with this research. I also corrected several typos. In particular, apologies to Dwight Scott for having referred to him as Dwight Clark - that is the second time I have referred to a fellow researcher by the name of a former SF 49er football player (remember "The Catch"?).
21 Nov 2011This update features the addition of 100 new narrative pages, most of them for members of the Hutton family. I also added a descendants chart for John Hutton and Jane Dickson (see the link under the charts menu item above) to help you identify the new pages (blue names on the chart link to narrative pages). Keep in mind that some of these families - especially the lines of John and Jane Hutton's sons Edward and Leonard - are not complete.

I found that locating the land on which John and Jane Hutton settled in Washington County - and then identifying how it was divided among their sons - was helpful in my own research. Therefore I created 2 new land related pages. They are both linked to an additional new page titled Land Plats which is accessible from the "Washington Co." menu item. The Hutton Land Locations page shows the relative location of the John Hutton land as well as the land settled by his brother James, and the land owned by John's son Leonard, both in Washington Co. and Wythe/Smyth Co.

The second land related page, Hutton Land on Hutton Creek takes a more indepth look at John Hutton's tract on Hutton Creek and how it was divided among his sons. It also pinpoints the location of the brick mansion known as Hutton Plantation. A page about the home is accessible under the Homes and Buildings link found via the Washington Co. menu tab or by clicking on the blue link in the previous sentence. There is much yet to be learned about several branches of this family - a future update will include research correcting a long standing assumption about the wives of John, son of Edward Hutton and John, son of Leonard. This update includes a page titled Any Hutton which collects some of the raw data on the Hutton family. Thank you to Bob Ford, Diane Costello and Grant Hutton who were very helpful with this Hutton project.
Bob Ford updated his research report on Isabelle (Orr) Hutton and Eizabeth (Orr) Reid to include further discussion of Catherine, wife of William Dickson, as a likely additional daughter of Arthur Orr, the Elder. See the link on the Any Orr page.

Bob also generously shared two additional research reports. One discusses the probable children of William Dickson. William was the brother of Jane and Sarah Dickson who married John and James Hutton. John Hutton sold William Dickson part of his land on Hutton Creek.

The second report also discusses the evidence that William Dickson's wife was Catherine Orr. The report provides information on Arthur Hutton, son of William, who migrated to Indiana.

Both of these reports are linked to the exhibit bar of William Dickson's narrative page.
Thank you also to Billye (Hutton) Horne for information (plus a photo) on William Hutton and to Barbara Clark for information (and photos) for Clinton Beattie Clark and his wife Caledonia (Hayden) Clark

Jim Faris shared photos of Charles Alfred Clark and Benjamin Walter Clark; also a wonderful Civil War era tintype of Adam Rosenbalm. He also shared additional material on the Clark family which I look forward to sharing in the next update.

I expanded the page for Nancy Montgomery; also added several Snodgrass pages; added page for Nancy Catherine Hanby.
Added Evaline Maiden as a child of Daniel W. and Rebbecca E. (Logan) Maiden. Additional information on the Civil War death of David Beattie Ryburn, full name for Sarah Catherine Ryburn, date of death and obituary for Martha Jane Edmondson. Bob and Donna Jean Ford updated their research report on Isabelle Orr and Elizabeth Orr.
Thank you to Vivian Chamberlain for contributing additional information on Elliott S. Buchanan. Added burial information for Rev. James Buchanan Hutton and his wife Irene Rosalind Gwin; also corrected spelling of Rosalind's name. Thank you to the couple's granddaughter, Rosalind (Hutton) Jones for this information. Mitch and Debera Ritchie shared a photo of Rosanna Melissa (Duff) Ritchie.
Charlie Barnette shared headstone photos for Hutton family members at Old Glade Spring Cemetery, including Eleanor (Snodgrass) Hutton, Cleveland Hendricks Hutton, James Nelson Hutton, John Hutton (son of John Hutton and Jane Dickson); also Rebecca (Evitt) Hutton and Sarah (Porterfield) Hutton.

He also documented the damage done to some of the beautiful family monuments, such as the Madison Beattie monument. See the entries on the Old Glade Spring Cemetery page for: Madison Beattie, Mary (Beattie) McKinney,

Charlie also took new photos for other Beattie family members buried in the Madison Beattie square. Also for Arthur Henderson Byars, Mary J. (Ryburn) Byars and the Col. William Byars monument.

Added Charlie's photo for James Beattie (does anyone know if he was a child of Absolom Beattie?); also for Martha H. Beattie (was she a child of Robert Beattie?... or David Beattie?); also for Jemima Byars who was Col. Wm Beattie's sister. She died in 1817 making this one of the oldest stones in the cemetery. Charlie photographed the original stone for Littleton Byars; added headstone photo for James Orr Ryburn - also a possible stone for Mary Elizabeth Ryburn.

When Charlie sent me these new photos in Sept. I was stunned to find among them a picture of my 3rd great grandmother Jane (Ryburn) Davis's stone - snapped off at it's base by the spring tornado and lying on the ground. Several people offered to help have it reset which I greatly appreciated. At the end of the day, Carolyn Ryburn worked with Crutchfield Monument Co. to do the repair. And in one of those little ironies that so often happens in genealogy - Carolyn's ancestor Beattie Ryburn is buried just a few feet away - he was Jane's brother.
Added wills for Samuel Scott and James Hutton (see the Probate Records section under the Washington Co. menu item); thank you to Dwight Scott for sharing his transcriptions. Grant Hutton contributed images from documents archived by the Library of Virginia as the "Hutton Family Papers". Among other items this included a clerk's copy of the will of Arthur Hutton. Also added wills for Nancy (Jinks) Hutton, Isabella (Hutton) Hutton and Edward Hutton.
Added a page for Bishop Cemetery with photos of 10 stones recently discovered by Charlie Barnette. They are for members of the Houston, Cole and Bishop families. This cemetery was not identified in High On A Windy Hill. Charlie also identified an old Byars Cemetery and additional stones for Cobb Cemetery. The additional information prompted the creation of pages for Samuel A. Byars and his 3 wives, at leat 2 of whom are buried at the Byars Cemetery.
Many thanks to Jordan Stoddard who provided information allowing me to remove his great grandfather, Samuel T. Rutherford, from the "What happened to" List - also for photos of George McConkey Rutherford and Mary Elizabeth C. (Ryburn) Carmack. Added a page for Thomas Maxwell McConnell - with thanks to Alli Harker; also a page for William Bailey Clark - thanks to Jim Ballard for this interesting piece of Clark history. Cindy Gilman shared a photo of William Beattie Edmondson as well as obituaries for William's brother Robert and sister Nancy.
15 Aug 2011Added significant content to the pages for Bazel Talbert and his wife Mary Logan; also for their daughter Eliza Talbert, her husband Isaac James Horne, as well as their descendants. The Talbert and Horne families owned a stagecoach inn on the Great Rd. (now Rt. 11) as it runs through Washington County. A new page shows the location of the home/inn on both an 1821 and 1890 map. Other homes in the Glade Spring area are also identified. See: Glade Spring area maps - 1821 and 1890. The map page is also linked from the Virginia>Homes Land and Buildings page as is a photo of the Stagecoach Inn as it looked in the 1950s.
Previous versions of RR linked Mary Talbert, daughter of Bazel Talbert and Mary Logan, as the second wife of Samuel Logan. Samuel had been previously married to Bethia Logan, also a daughter of Bazel and Mary. Bethia died in 1836; a year later Samuel married Mary Talbert. However, additional research has revealed that Samuel's second wife was a completely different Mary Talbert, whose parents I have yet to identify (help always appreciated). See Mary's page for additional information.
24 Jul 2011Added another narrative from Patricia Field's ongoing series of research papers on the Fields family. This one tells the story of James Witten Fields, who left Washington Co. after the Civil War and died in Texas at age 25. Charlie Barnette shared an 1896 invoice from Williams and Aker Co. for 3 coffins. It is linked to these pages: Joseph Davis Williams and John Wesley Aker. It was signed by Mayor J.S. Buchanan, who may have been James Stewart Buchanan.
20 Jul 2011This latest update was build with a newly released version of Second Site, the program I use to create this website. Though the visual changes in the final webpages are subtle, there are differences in how the pages were created. If you notice anything that "doesn't work" please let me know. I always appreciate input from my readers regardless of whether it is a research conflict, a broken link or a sentence that reads like gobbledygook.

You may notice:
Descendants charts now appear in a more traditional indented format, allowing you to to collapse or open selected sections at a time. This makes for easier reading of a large chart. Each chart, eg. Descendants of John Edmondson, opens in the collapsed mode, unless your computer does not support scripts. In that case the open/close buttons do not work and the chart appears fully open. If you access a chart via the chart list on a narrative page, eg. from the chart list at the bottom of Amanda C. Horne's page, the chart opens so that her name is visible.

Maps now support Google's street view feature. This allows you to view many locations in Washington County as though you were actually on the ground. Unfortunately, the viewer Google offers for websites is not as fully functional as the one offered on their own Google maps site. However, it is still a very cool feature. I suggest going to one of the maps, eg the Washington Co. map, clicking through to the additional page of directions, and then playing with the map.
Added narrative page for Sarah F.V. (Widener) Keys; also for her daughter Emma Mae (Keys) Edge. Thank you to Bernie Lee and his mother Wanda (granddaughter of Sarah Keys) for their help with this family. I also added a narrative page and photo for Pearl Irene (Ritchie) Thompson (thank you to Tanya Wonnell) and photos of James Walker Ritchie, his wife Laura A. (Berry) Ritchie Buchanan and 2 of their children (from Susan Henderson). Expanded narrative page for John Clinton Ritchie (from Debera Ritchie). Switching families.... added narrative page for John Franklin Dunn.
Added narrative pages for Abraham Gobble and his wife Mary Ann (Moffett) Gobble (including headstone photos for Mary Ann) - also added a page of photos (courtesy of Charlie Barnette) featuring the Gobble land. See the Homes, Land and Buildings page.

I also expanded the narratives for William "Buck" Smyth and many of his children. Sherm Weimer shared wonderful narratives for Buck Smith and his son Lycenius Logan Smyth. Sherm also shared a set of photos of "Logan's children. See the link at the bottom of Logan's page

Jason Kennedy contributed a great photo of the 4 sons of Robert Earl B.C. Davis and Amanda Carmack. See the Group Photos page or Robert's page.
Added death date for Robert James Ryan and Margaret Clark (Ryan) Horan - thank you to Sandra Law. Added death information for: Noel Lynn Rambo; clarified date of death for William James Snodgrass. Changed the spelling of Fannie Edmondson's maiden name back to Dolin from Dowling. Earlier this year I'd changed it from Dolan to Dowling after finding that spelling on two of her children's death certificates. However I recently located Fannie's marriage record as well as that of her sister Mildred. Both records used "Dolin". I also activated narrative pages for the 6 children of Fannie and William Beattie Edmondson and added several photos from Cindy Gilman to the page of their son Robert Buchanan Edmondson.
1 Jun 2011Added daughter Martha to the family of James L. Cole (info from Audrey Jeffries) and son Graham to the family of Margaret Effie (Gardner) Donathan (info from Shannon Chamberlain). Added photos of Madison Monroe Ritchie and Columbus Ritchie - thank you to Delores Ritchie and Craig Ritchie. Added page for Laura A. (Berry) Ritchie Buchanan; also additional info for her daughter Ethel (Ritchie) DeBoe. Many thanks to Ethel's granddaughter Susan Henderson. Martha Keys located a newspaper death notice for William C. Childers.
Bill Wilson contributed updated photos for the Cave Springs page, including a beautiful view of Hall Creek. There is also now a linked second page with additional photos. Bob and Donna Jean Ford shared a paper outlining why they believe Isabelle Orr (marr James Hutton) and Elizabeth Orr (marr John Reid) were probably daughters of Arthur Orr, the elder. See the Any Orr page.
Updated the Found file for Jack Hockett's 1850 Census Female Surname project. Please note there is a correction to Household 958: Elizabeth's maiden name was Faires, NOT Pierce. Thank you to Bob Berry for this correction and for additional information on Hh 1219 and 942. Jack also identified Sarah Colley in Hh 201 and Julia Bannister in Hh 1205.
Updated the narrative page for Stephen Alonzo Jackson to reflect new research about his involvement in an 1880 shooting in Abingdon. Added a 1919 photo of Mary Cloyd (Ernest) Jackson Davidson on the porch of her home on Main St. in Abingdon to the Homes and Land page. Be sure to click on the camera image to see the full vertical photo of the house. Also added a 1923 photo of Mary with her sons and grandchildren to the Scrapbook-Group Photo page. Thank you to Ramon Jackson for sharing these images and for providing additional information on the life of Mary's son Rev. Ernest Alonzo Jackson. His page now contains a linked map showing the route taken by he and his family into the interior of Brazil. Thank you also to Mr. Jackson for sharing the Mary Scott (Jackson) Dunn page from Stephen Alonzo Jackson's notebook.
Added cause of death for: (research contributed by Jack Hockett) Gordon Hampton Allison, Charles Rufus Barnes, Mary Jane Edmondson (Ryburn) Dorsey Byars, William Leonard Clark, Martha Ann (Hawthorne) Edmondson, Claibourne Shugart Hutton, Aaron Hayter Maiden, Rev. John Milton Maiden and Melitia Ann (Williams) Ryburn. Several of these deaths occured during the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918.
Corrected date of death for Fannie C. (Dolin) Edmondson. Roger Ryburn contributed a photo of Earl Daniel Ryburn; also his full date of death. Added a previously unidentified daughter for Walter Burk McNew. Added a page dedicated to the William Fields homestead. Thank you to Patricia Johnson, Nanci King and Carol Mancuso.
11 May 2011Many thanks to Martha Keys for sharing photos of Abingdon's wonderful family of wolves. Be sure to take a peek at these. Seriously.
In 1969 the Washington Co. News reprinted the roll of Co. F of the 37th VA Infantry as compiled by Capt George Graham. Martha Keys shared a copy of the 1969 article which also included a picture of Capt. Graham and of his home. The roll has been added to the Scrapbook-Text page. The house photo now accompanies a recent photo on the Homes, Land, and Buildings page.
Added a 1911 USGS map to the Washington Co. maps on the Washington Co. page. This is a very cool old map - the survey for it was actually done in 1908-1909. It indicates waterways, roads and buildings. It is fascinating to see how the area has changed in 100 years!
In 2007 Carolyn Ryburn discovered an old Bible in the basement of her house in Glade Spring. It had belonged to Elizabeth Hall. Tucked inside it was a handwritten sheet of paper listing the names and dates of birth for Mathew Ryburn and Jane Beattie's children, as well as Mathew and Jane's dates of death. I have linked an image to the Scrapbook-Text page, along with an analysis of the record. Many thanks to Carolyn for sharing this document.
Added narrative page for Robert Davis, his son John Davis; also for John's wife Sarah Mitchell and her father John Mitchell. Added a page for Sarah's mother, Nancy (Craig) Mitchell Bovell, who with her second husband, Rev. Stephen Bovell, migrated from Washington Co. to Missouri in 1836. Nancy created a log of their journey, which I have used to create an Abingdon to Missouri migration map.
Added additional information to the narratives of John Henry Ernest and Minter Jackson (corrected Minter's date of death) as well as to the narratives of many of their descendants. This includes information from Civil War records and other documents. Thank you to Bob Cooke for his encouragment in this effort and especially for sharing a photo of John Henry Ernest. It is the original photo from which the sketch of John was made for Summer's History of Southwest Virginia. I have added external links to provide additional insight into some events, such as the death of Rev. Ernest Alonzo Jackson, his wife, and son, aboard the ship Vestris in 1928.
27 Mar 2011This update features a very special look at a Washington County home that has remained in the same family for over 200 years. Charlie and Katherine Clark shared photos and information about the home built by James Clark and Isabella Breckenridge just south of Glade Spring. I am very appreciative of their generosity.
Last fall, on a gorgeous sunny day, Ric Sheets photographed many of the old stones at Rock Spring Cemetery. This winter, over a series of trips, Charlie Barnette visited the cemetery and cleaned the old stones. His photographs reveal information long hidden from view.

I have woven together over 200 photos from the two collections and added them to the Rock Spring Cemetery page. I have also incorporated them into a supplemental gallery of photos, where one may view the pictures individually or as a slide show. Thank you to both Ric and Charlie.

Headstone photo galleries have also been added to the Bethel, Smyth's Chapel, Buchanan and Davis Cemetery pages. In addition, many of the photos on these pages (as well as the Rock Spring Cemetery page) now show the headstone transcriptions from High On A Windy Hill beneath the photo. If readers find this useful I will add transcriptions for the Old Glade Spring, Old Baptist and Walnut Grove Cemetery photos as well.
Added a page for John Beaty; also for his daughter Ann. Added cause of death to Isabella (McClure) Larimer Hawk's page. Also added pages for: Moses Snodgrass, Samuel M. Snodgrass and Nancy (Keys) Reid. Thank you to Anne Watt for locating and sharing the marriage license for George Washington Gilson.
Added additional information to the narrative of William B. Byars; also added pages for Louisa Byars (Taylor) Cobbs and her sister Sarah T. (Taylor) Cobbs, both of whom married Thomas Nelson Cobbs. Thomas and Louisa had one son William Byars Cobbs Thanks to Anne Leyden for help with this interesting family.

Added a photo and additional information to the narrative of William Fields Jr. (via Dennis Fields and Patricia Johnson).
Corrected the calculated date of birth for Mary (Ryburn) Buchanan based on a photo of her headstone which reveals that the age at death reported for her in High On A Windy Hill was incorrect. The corrected year of birth (1785) is consistent with her age (65) in 1850.

Anyone researching the family of John Buchanan and Ann Ryburn may want to take a look at the updated Buchanan Cemetery page as photos reveal that 4 of the 15 stones were misrecorded. The old stones in this cemetery were clearly difficult to read.
The family of Reuben B. Preston and Isabella J. Preston included two children whose stones were inaccurately reported in High On A Windy Hill. Previous versions of RamblingRoots reflected this erroneous information. In particular the stone of an infant who was born and died in Feb. 1870 was reported to carry the name Bella J. Preston. The stone actually said Infant child of Reuben and Bella J. Preston. See the infant's page for a photo. A second stone was reported in High On A Windy Hill to carry the names of two children (Reuben B. and Belle J.) who were born in Feb. 1873. In reality this stone was also for an unnamed child of Reuben and Belle Preston.
Added a page for Elizabeth (Steele) Caldwell after confirming her maiden name via the will of her brother William Steele. Changed the date of birth for Andrew Edmondson based on a recent reading of his headstone. Also note that the stone of Samuel M. Snodgrass states that he was the son of Joseph Snodgrass, not James Snodgrass, as reported on p. 211 of High On A Windy Hill.
7 Mar 2011Updated the files for Jack Hockett's 1850 Census Surname Project page.
In July 2004 I abstracted the 1858 will of John Buchanan (husband of Mary Ryburn and son of John Buchanan and Ann Ryburn). The will remembered John's 2 granddaughters in Illinois, sons of John's son William. But the will did not name the granddaughters. I eventually identified them as Mary Jane Buchanan and Margaret Lavinia Buchanan. Now, 7 years later, thanks to Harvey Lowe, Mary Jane's great grandson, I have photos of both women, as well as of Mary Jane's family (group picture is posted on the Scrapbook-Group Photos page; see the individual narrative pages for other pictures. Thank you Harvey!
Charlie Barnette shared additional photos for Moore Cemetery. Ric Sheets photographed Liberty Hall School last summer. The photo is on the Homes and Buildings page. It is really sad to see what has happened to this beautiful building.
Updated the pages for William Early Davis and his 4 children. Thanks to Jason Kennedy and Lynn McKinney for their help. Added a photo of an incredible sampler, probably stitched by one of two young Clark daughters around 1828. See the Scrapbook page. Thank you to the Fields Penn museum for allowing me to use their photograph.
Added a page of photos (thank you Charlie Barnette) of an old house in the Smith Creek neigborhood. It is believed to have belonged to the Carmack family. The structure is falling apart but the photos provide a close-up view of early log-home construction techniques.
Corrected the maiden name of William Beattie Edmondson's wife from Fannie Dolan to Fannie C. Dolin based on information from the death certificates of two of her children. Added page and cemetery photo (thank you Ric Sheets) for William Graham; also page for his wife Isabella (Buchanan) Graham. Added photo of their son Capt George Graham's home to his page (courtesy Martha Keys). Added date of death for William Henry Maiden.
11 Feb 2011Thank you to Cindy Gilman for additional information on the children of William Beattie Edmondson and Fannie Dolan, and for sharing a 1907 photo of Robert B. Edmondson standing on the porch of the home built by his grandparents, Robert Buchanan Edmondson and Nancy Dysart at Glade Spring (same house featured on the Edmondson/Beattie Home page).
Added a page for Flora Bedford (Allen) Johnson, (dau of Eliza V. (Buchanan) Allen of WCV) in order to share information on Flora's children contributed by Pat Mange, Flora's great granddaughter. Patricia Johnson updated the page for William Fields after locating a piece of paper at the Virginia Historical Society, whereby William in 1845 submitted an offer to build a house for Col. John Preston. What I found particularily interesting about the bid was the description of the construction and the manner in which William wished to be paid. See the linked image (via the camera icon) at the bottom of William's page.
Added full dates of death from TN death certificates now online at FamilySearch for:
Samuel Washington Ryburn, Samuel McChesney Ryburn, John Daniel Sharp Ryburn, Valerie Jane (Ryburn) Williamson, Walter Washington Ryburn and Annie Park (Ryburn) Price.

Activated a page for William Fountain Beattie, son of Madison Beattie. William was killed while serving as sheriff of Crittendon Co., Arkansas in 1881.
Gloria Holly and Craig Ritchie shared a second beautiful photo of Martha Josephine Florence Ritchie. Delores Ritchie contributed information on Madison Monroe Ritchie, allowing me to add a page for him. BTW, Ritchie researchers are still searching for information on Elizabeth Ritchie (mother to Madison, James L. Ritchie and others) if anyone can help.
Also a thank you (and an extra nod for their patience) to Ray Johnson and his cousin Howard Johnson for the additional information and photos for the family of William G. Larimer and Judith Garrett.
Updated page for James Davis and activated pages for all of his children and selected grandchildren. A big thank you to Charlie Barnette who shared photos from the old Davis Cemetery, in which many members of this family are buried. The photos are linked to a newly created Davis Cemetery page. Charlie also contributed additional photos for the Buchanan Cemetery page and the Fall Slide Show (accessed via the Washington Co. heading at the top of any page). Buchanan Cemetery now has its own page, rather than being a subsection of the Misc. Cemetery page.
Added page for Mary (Copeland) Corry Davis, who married as her second husband, Capt. John Davis. Also updated page for Mary's son John Corry with her first husband James Corry. Thank you to Kay Staub for her imput.
Updated the linked display showing the disposition of Robert Earl B.C. Davis's land after his death. Added will abstracts for Col. William Byars, Robert Granville Grant, Mary Davis to their narrative pages. Activated page for Arthur Orr.

Added citations from a DAR held "McConnell Family Record" to various entries for William McConnell and Thomas McConnell. Also added abstract of Thomas's will. Activated a page for James Stephen McConnell and most of his children (which added additional entries to the MO Migration map). Also pages for James A. King and his children.
Last Edited10 Nov 2013