Adair County Pioneers Progress

Pioneer Sketches for those with ancestors in Adair County.

PHELPS FAMILY OF ADAIR/RUSSELL COUNTY, KENTUCKY
Contributed by Leo J. PHELPS

Can you imagine how hard life must have been in the late 1700’s?  Those couldn’t have been the “good old days”, but then it must have been exciting for a young couple starting a new life away from family and friends.

Shadrach and Celia (Stapp) Phelps, journeyed to Russell Co., Ky. in 1798 and built their homestead, probably out of hand-hewn logs on land that bordered Greasy Creek, in what was then known as Adair County, but became part of Russell County, Kentucky in 1826.     Shadrach was born in Albemarle Co., Va. to John and Mary Phelps.  No one is sure where John was born.  It is only known that he lived along the James River in Virginia, the second plantation from Thomas Jefferson.  The plantation included an island in the James River, aptly named Phelps Island.  John inherited the plantation & the Island from his father Thomas as stated in his will of 1751/4.  How long John & Mary lived there is not known.  We know that he moved his family to Madison Co., Ky soon after Shadrach was  born and that he was at Fort Boonesborough , Ky during the seige of the Indians in 1778 with Daniel Boone, the Calloways and others.

Shadrach surely lived an exciting young life before going to Russell Co., Ky at 23 years of age with his young bride.  The stories that must have been told to their children and grandchildren would not be rivaled by any today.  Shadrach and Celia had six children that we know of.  They were:

 (1)  Elizabeth Phelps, b: about 1798 d: unknown, marr: David Jones on February 9, 1818. They were both alive in the 1860 Russell Co., Ky. census.  He was 65 and she was 60.  They are buried in the Phelps Cemetary.

 (2)  Polly Phelps, b: about 1800 and  d: about 1821, marr: Abner Jones on February 6, 1821,  and is buried in the Phelps Cemetary on Esto Road in Jamestown, Ky.

 (3)  John M. Phelps, b: 1802 d: February 6, 1880 marr:  Adeline Minerva Kerns, dau. of Moses and Sarah Kerns,
born 1822 and died 1917. John was about 40 when he married and continued to live on and farm the family homestead, now known as Phelps Acres.  They had 4 children.  The land first settled by Shadrach and Celiah Stapp Phelps is still being lived on by descendants of  John M. Phelps.

 (4)  Martha Phelps, b: 1804 d: 1853, marr: John L. Wheat on October 12, 1832. No known issue.

 (5)  Joseph Shadrach Phelps b: June 18, 1808 d: about 1888 in Pickett Co., Tennessee, marr: Josepha Irwin/Irvine on August 11, 1831.  They had a large family:

 (6)  WILLIAM P. PHELPS b: June 27, 1813 d: April 10, 1891 marr: Martha N. Kerns (dau. of Moses Kerns) b:March 30, 1817 d: April 18, 1853 on December 18, 1836.  They had four sons and three daughters.  William married a second time to Sarah Richards Woolford a widow and had 8 more children.......

And so goes on the PHELPS name into the future............all from a beginning on what is now the Old Esto Road, Greasy Creek, Jamestown, Kentucky.