Sophia V. Drake & Wiley
Alford
Submitted by Diane Weathers
Lebanon, Wilson County, Tennessee -
From The Lebanon Democrat, 29 Dec 1979:
West Wilson Marker Dedicated to Pioneer
The Robert Cooke Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution held a dedication ceremony on Central Pike in west Wilson County (Tennessee) on November 24.
The dedication was held for the purpose of dedicating a D.A.R. grave marker for Sophia Valentine Drake Alford, the daughter of Albrittian Drake, who served during the American Revolution.
The ceremony was conducted by Mrs. Jack Hailey, Regent of the Robert Cooke D.A.R. Chapter, and a descendant of Sophia Alford. Other descendants who participated in the ceremony were: N.C. Hibbett, Robert Carver, Robert Hibbett, John Hibbett, Thomas Hibbett, and Donald Smartt.
Approximately 40 people attended the dedication. Albrittian Drake was born in 1755 in North Carolina. In October 1877, he enlisted to fight for American liberty as a resident of Nash County, N.C.
He became a lieutenant in 1778 when he re-enlisted. He served at that rank until the autumn of 1782.
Drake brought his family to Central Pike in 1808 but moved to Muhlenburg County, Kentucky the next year.
One of Drake's children, Sophia Valentine Drake Alford, stayted in Wilson County and she and her husband Wiley Alford became one of the pioneer families in the Central Pike area.
Sophia V. Drake was born in 1789 and married Wiley Alford three years before they came to Wilson County. They had 11 children: Albrittian, Louisa, Mary P., Ruth M., Matilda M., James Perry, Ada, Napoleon, Sophia, Edmund, and Benjamin. During an 1858 family reunion in Nashville, it was reported that Sophia and Wiley Alford had 50 grandchildren.
Sophia left an account of some of the hardships of early life in West Wilson County in a letter she wrote to her mother. The letter was written July 15, 1835 concerning the summer of 1834 and 1835. Sophia stated that her husband, four children and several farm hands were sick during an epidemic of "collary and smallpox". She related that there had been "a great deal of sickness and death in this section".
The year had been hard for farming because Sophia told her mother that "our wheat ware only moderate, our corn and cottom is very promising but that is not gingerly, it has bin some wet that crops are very sorry".
Copyright 1979, The Lebanon Democrat
All Rights Reserved