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From 1743
to 1772, John Tate was born, reared, married to Mary Bracken, and
lived in places as yet unknown to the writer, a seventh generation
descendant. In late
November, 1772, at age 29, John and his family settled in the Moccasin
Valley of present Russell County, Virginia, about 15 miles southwest
of present Lebanon. He told the time of settlement in a deposition
of 1810 for the court case of George Fugate vs. Nancy Mahon and others.
As a resident of the Moccasin Valley,
John lived in four frontier counties: John's
first tract of land of 145 acres from the Loyal Land Company of Virginia
was surveyed December 12, 1774, by John Floyd, Deputy to Col. William
Preston, Surveyor of Fincastle County, who lived at present Blacksburg.
The date and description of that survey is in the former Fincastle
County records, Montgomery County Clerk's Office, Christiansburg,
VA. In October
1780, John as militia-man of Washington County, participated in the
successful Revolutionary War battle of King's Mountain, South Carolina,
and his name as a participant is recorded by Lewis Preston Summers
in his History of Washington County and Southwest Virginia. (In command
at King's Mountain was Col. William Campbell, whose wife Elizabeth
was a sister of Patrick Henry, and after Campbell's death, the wife
of General William Russell, for whom Russell County was named.) In November
1781, John was appointed with others to appraise the estate of Francis
Fugate (deceased), who was killed by a fall from his horse. The other
appraisers were William Huston, John Wood, and Robert Tate, another
ancestor of the writer, who lived about three miles below John in
Moccasin Valley. In February
1782, John was appointed with others to view and cut out the road
down Moccasin Valley from Little Moccasin Gap in Clinch Mountain on
present U. S. 19 between Abingdon and Lebanon to Big Moccasin Gap
on present U. S. 23 near Gate City. Also in 1782 his second tract
of land of 100 acres was surveyed and recorded in the records of Washington
County at Abingdon. In May
1786, with the formation of Russell County, John was appointed an
overseer of the poor, a constable, and a Lieutenant in the militia.
In 1787,
John became a "Gentleman Justice" on the Russell County
Court or governing board, by appointment of the Governor of Virginia,
where he served with great devotion to duty for most of his remaining
life of 41 years. Again and again he rode his horse to successive
places of county government meetings at Castlewood, Dickensonville
and Lebanon; served many times, one to three days per month, sometimes
presided over and wrote the minutes of the meetings, and signed them
more than 150 times with a bold and attractive signature. By virtue
of his position as Justice, he was often referred to as John Tate,
Gent., or John Tate, Esq. In 1787 he was also appointed Captain in
the upper militia of the Moccasin Valley; and that year he took the
Oath of Allegiance to the newly drafted Constitution of the United
States. In 1789,
John became Captain in the 2nd Bat., 72 Reg. Of the Virginia Militia,
and also served as Superintendent of an election in his locality.
In 1795,
John became Major in the 2nd Bat., 72 Reg. Of the Virginia Militia.
In 1800,
John had his cattle mark recorded, and the Russell County Court ordered
that no person in the county have the liberty of marking with a swallow
fork in the left ear, except John Tate. By 1801,
John became Sheriff and Collector of Revenue for Russell County, and
served two years. His securities were Henry Dickenson, County Clerk;
Nathan Ellington, Dickenson's deputy and son-in-law; John M. Estill
and Harry Smith. His deputies were John and Zachariah Fugate, Cummings
Gilmer, George Powers, John Sewell, and Andrew Williams. In 1801,
John was appointed with Samuel Ewing as one of the commissioners for
Russell County to meet with the commissioners for Lee County to superintend
and run the dividing line between the two counties. (Lee County had
been formed from part of Russell County in 1792.) In 1802,
John became Lt. Col. Commandant of the 72 Reg., 3rd Division of the
Virginia Militia, and since has been known to many as Col. John Tate.
His appointment was by James Monroe, Governor of Virginia, and later
President of the United States. In 1809,
John again became an overseer of the poor, and served by re-appointments
15 or more consecutive years. In 1813,
John and several other persons, including a teacher, Thomas Birch,
sent a petition to the Legislature of Virginia, requesting that a
school already in operation with thirty students be established officially
as Amity Hall Academy. John and nine other ancestors of the writer
were signers: John and three other ancestors of the writer were trustees.
The petitioners said they were "duly impressed by the consideration
that in all free states intelligence was the life of liberty, and
that they were desirous to cooperate with other counties in the state
to promote the grand cause of education." In 1819,
John and his grandson Robert Fugate, became Executors of the estate
of Colbert Fugate (deceased) who married John's daughter Hannah, and
who had been a farmer, part-time county official, and three times
a member of the Virginia Legislature. In 1825,
John, as the senior Justice among 31 present for a special meeting
in Lebanon, helped to appoint unanimously James P. Carrell the second
Clerk of Russell County; thereby promoting a very able and interesting
person who, with limited formal schooling but with training experience
and the skillful use of books, became one of the best clerks in Virginia,
a part-time Methodist Minister, song-book compiler and publisher,
land buyer and seller, money lender, patron of education and benefactor
of students. (In 1836, James P. Carrell gave five times the usual
gift of $100 to help start Emory and Henry College, ten miles east
of Abingdon at Emory, VA; and Carrell's help to John A. Kelly, an
Emory and Henry student of the 1830's, led to a gift of nearly two
million dollars for Emory and Henry College in the 1960's from the
Carrell-aided student's grandson, Frederick Kelly. To the writer,
this is a very significant series of creative historical events stemming
from James P. Carrell's appointment by John Tate and other justices
in 1825.) In 1826,
when over 80 years old, John again became Sheriff and Collector of
Revenue for Russell County, and served two years, which apparently
reflects his stamina and stability as a person, his dynamic interest
in public affairs, and the esteem which he had as a senior citizen.
His Securities were Charles Carrell, James Dixon, Zachariah Fugate,
Harvey Gray, John Jessee, Benjamin Sewell, and John Smyth - the last
three of whom are other ancestors of the writer. One of his deputies
was his grandson, John Fugate, who later moved to Missouri. Col. John
Tate died December 15, 1828, at 85 years of age, and is buried in
a Tate and Burdine cemetery in the Moccasin Valley, 15 miles southwest
of Lebanon on some of his former land now owned by the writer and
his brother, Thomas E. Tate of Haleyville, Alabama. Col. John
Tate's wife, Mary Bracken, died in 1817, and is buried near him. The
children of John Tate and Mary Bracken were: Robert
Tate, 1768-1844, who married Winnie Atkinson and moved to Pulaski
Co., KY. Hannah
Tate, 1772-1844, who married Colbert Fugate and lived in Russell County,
Virginia, just southwest of her parents in the Moccasin Valley. Samuel
Bracken Tate, 1775-1845, who married Jane Owens and moved to Pulaski
County, Kentucky. Jane Tate,
1770s-1823, who married Henley Haddix and moved to Kentucky. Martha
Tate, 1780-1847, who married John Buster and moved to Kentucky Isaac Tate,
1780s-?, who married Peggy Walton of Pulaski County, Kentucky in 1809,
and lived in Russell County until 1833, then in Kentucky and Missouri.
Lydia Tate,
1785-1854, who married William Fugate and lived in Russell and Scott
Counties, Virginia Numerous
descendants of Col. John Tate and Mary Bracken and their children
have lived and still live in various parts of the United States. PUBLICATION 10 - 1976 |
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