Sturgills in America

A Trip Through Time

For more than half a century, I have searched though time and space for the faint footprints left by our Sturgill ancestors. I have made many trips to diverse places. I have spent many hours pouring over dusty records in ancient court houses and climbing difficult paths to almost abandoned ceneteries to scratch moss off tiltes tombstones so I could read the inscriptions on them. A few of these trips have been disappointing because I did not find what I had hoped to find, but far more of them have been very rewarding, as bit by bit, they have added to the history of our family.

It is now December 1982, and I must face the fact the the December of my life is approaching all too rapidly. That is one of the reasons I am now still trying to gather a few more missing bits and pieces of our history so that we all may have a little better understanding of whence we came. To that end, I have just returned from a four day trip of 600 miles to Orange County, Virginia.

The wills of Henry Madison of Essex Co. dated 1734 and that of his brother Ambrose Madison of Spottsylvania Co., dated 1732, leave little doubt that Ann Stodgill, wife of James Stodgill of Essex Co., was their sister and that she was the mother of James Stodgill, who married Ann Blackstone and moved to Orange Co.

The boundaries of the 400 acres which Ambrose left to James Stodgill are vague, only naming adjacent property owners, but they do identify the land as lying at the foot of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Land left to Daniel Stodghill, brother of of James, byt he will of Henry Madison, was granted to him by a niece of Henry Madison, Francis Beale, in 1754. This land was identified as being on Swift Run Creek, and later deeds show that it adjoined James Stodgill. Daniel immediately sold his inheritance and remained in Essex Co., but James moved to Orange Co. and later bought other land there, until he accumulated 800 acres. these deeds provide still more clues to the location of this land.

My last trip to Orange Co. was made to attempt to locatre exactly trhe land upon which James Stodgill lived and on which he died in 1753. I also hoped to locatre his grave if possible. the day spent in Orange County Court House searching the records was very fruitful. the inventory of the estate of James Stodgill is included in this book, exactly as it is written in the records. I find this to be a fascinating document, which shows that his family was well equiped to live and prosper under pioneer conditions and that they were entirely self-sufficient. Of particular interest to me was the set of bagpipes listed in the inventory. This supports our family traditions of Scotch-Irish ancestry and also shows that the large amount of musical talent still current in the Sturgill family has also come down to us from a long way back. I myself play all string instruments, and all my children have musical talent.

These deeds show that shorlty after the death of James Stodgill in 1753, his sons, John, James, and Ambrose apparently divided most of the estate among themselves. Since the youngest son, Joel, was still a child and living with his mother and sisters, he does not appear to have been included in this division. In 1753, Ambrose divided a tract of 132 acres, assumed to be a part of his inheritance, between his brothers, John and James. This was a gift, and the deeds name them as brothers. In these deeds Ambrose excepted a grist mill on Swift Run Creek, which was the first clue of the exact location of the land.

After spending a long day searching the records in the Orange County Court Hoiuse and a long evening analyzing what I had found, I finally went to bed tired but contented. The next morning, i drove to Swift Run Creek to try to locate a site where a mill had been. At the first house at which I stopped, I found a man named Lam, who was trying to scrape the frost from the windshield of his car. As soon as I made my wishes known, he invited me into his home for a most welcone cup of coffee. I learned that his family roots in the area went back to pre-revolutionaryt times and he knew two old mill sites, one further up the creek and one further down it. From the records I showed him, he decided that it must be the lower site I was looking for and he referred me to a man who lived nearer the site.

My second visit was with John Gear, whoi was 99 years old. He lived alone in a small cabin beside Swift Run Creek, with two large dogs, one of which decided I would make a good breakfast, until he was called off. Mr Gear said that he had been born and raised on Swift Run Creek, but his father had conme from West Virginia. He knew a lot about the area, and he informed me that there had been three mills along the creek. That complicated my search still further. After a two hour visit, he sent me down the creek to see a man named McMullin, but not before he told me that there was a mill building still standing on that property.

After a side trip to Stanardsville to get lunch and to do some further checking in the Greene Co. records, which I had checked a few months earlier, I went to see Mr. McMullin. When I told him what I was searching for, as had all the others I visited, he gave me a warm welcome. He also informed me that there had been four mills on Swift Run Creek. The McMullin farm is in a beautiful level valley, just at the place where Swift Run Creek leaves the mountains, and he knew that this land had been in his family for over two hundred years. After seeing the names and boundaries on the various deeds, he said he was sure he could identify the land; but first he wanted to confer with his 87 year old uncle, who lived near by and knew the history of the area even better than he. He was sure of one thing: the two lower mills had been built after the Civil War and were not old enough to be the one I was seeking. The mill still standing was on Mr. McMullin's property.

The first land James and Ann Stodgell owned in present Greene Co. was bought from Zacharia Taylor in 1732, and this deed swas recorded in Spottsylvania Co. This land was described as lying at the foot of Parker Mt., on the waters of the James River, and it adjoined David Williams. The deed was witnessed by Daniel Stodghill, Thomas Calloway, and John Zachary. John Zachary is now known to have married Hannah Blackstone, sister to Ann, the wife of James Stodgill. On several occasions, I had searched in vain for Parker Mountain. I could not find it on geological survey maps, and no one I had questioned, including park rangers, had ever heard of it. I had about decided that htis land lay several miles furhter south and had, perhaps, been sold at a later date in Fluvannah, Goochland, or possibly another county.

On my second night in Greene County I studied maps. I discovered that Swift Run Creek flows into another stream and becomes the north fork of the Fluvannah River, which does run into the James River at the corner of Goochland and Fluvannah Counties. The next morning, when I went back to see Mr. McMullin again, the first thing I asked him was whether he had ever heard of Parker Mountain. He replied, "Sure, look out that window and you are looking at it." Then we went outside, and he began pointing at the mountains. "That is Parker Mountain; the one next to it is Williams Mountain." These are all smaller mountains which lie at the foot of the larger Blue Ridge range. they are too large to call foothills and rightly deserve to be called mountains.

Mt McMullin had talked to his uncle, who had said that the original patent to most of the land on Swift Run Creek to the top of the mountain had been given to the Madison family, who had sold tracts of it to others. Also, he told me, that the land in the McMullin family had all been on the N.E. side of the creek. He named owners of land on the other side of the creek, but did not know who the first owners were. He did know where a very old house had stood at the foot of Parker Mountain not far from the creek. He also knew the location of two small old cemeteries; one on each side of the creek, but I did not have time to search for them. One is called the Williams cemetery, but he knew no name for the other.

When I crossed the creek and walked across the fields toward the foot of Parker Mountain, I knew I was walking on land which had been cleared and farmed by my five-times great grandfather. When I came to the scattered pile of stones which had once been part of a house, I knew I was looking at the spot where he had once lived and where he had died over two centuries ago. Mt thoughts were mixed as I sttod there, but one thought that came to mind was a remark made by the great American philospher and writer, Ervin S. Cobb: "The true measure of a man's success is how long he is remembered after he is gone."

My next and last search on this trip was to locate the site where the mill had stood. Mr McMullin was sure that it was the second site, about a mile up the creek, where a smaller stream ran into Swift Run and directly across from a Mennonite Church. He told me to talk to a man named Shiflett, who now lives on the site. I had no difficulty finding the site or Mr. Shiflett. He also was extremely hospitable and helpful, when he learned the reason for my visit. Together, we waded through the dense undergrowth down to the creek where he showed me a few crumbling walls where the mill had once stood. He said it had washed away in a flood in 1940 or 42. Then we followed the traces of the old mill race up the creek to the site of the dam, and he pointed out holes drilled in the large rocks on each side where the dam had been anchored. When we returned to his small but comfortable house, he called my attention to the sides of his front steps; they were made of two halves of mill stones, which he had salveages from the creek.

Orange county records show that in 1771 James Stodgill bought a small tract of 28 acres from James Maday. The boundaries of this land name Swift Run Creek and a smaller unnamed creek. From Mr. Shiflett, I learned that the name of the small creek which enters Swift Run just below the mill site was Madey Creek. The same 28 acre tract is now owned by Mr. Shiflett. This left no doubt as to the location of that land or that James Stodgill had bought the land to get the mill site. That James is my four-times great grandfather, who moved to Montgomery County, VA and who died in Ashe Co., NC in 1803. I do not believe he built the first mill on that site, but he did recognise the value of the site for that purpose. Other records indicate that he was already living in Montgomery Co., later Grayson Co., VA, when he bought the mill site or at least that he had been to that area. This purchase from Madey was made in May of 1771, and in Nov. of that year, James and his wife Ann Calloway, (d.o Joseph Calloway) sold the last of their land in Orange Co, and he does not appear in the records there afterwards except on the one occassion when he proved his signature to a deed in 1774.

The land sold in 1771 was in two tracts both of which were sold on the same date to John Jones. One tract of 120 acres was on the east sid eof the creek and was described as the land on which John Jones then lived. The other tract was on the west side of the creek and was described as the tract on which James Sturgill then lived. Both tracts can be further identified as part of the land which James had inherited from the estate of his father James. This latter tract was directly across from the mill site.

These records seem to indicate that James may not have moved his family to Montgomery county, later Grayson co., before 1771 or possibly in 1774, even though he had most certainly been there before then. As Ambrose Stodgill does not appear in the Orange Co. records after 1763, it is assumed that he first moved to Montgomery Co. at that time. It was probably he who influenced James to move to the same area.

While these deeds, with the help of others, do identify the land upon which both James Sr. and James Jr. lived, and while they do prove that James Jr. once owned the land upon which a mill once stood, they still do not locate the site of the mill which Ambrose had excepted when he deeded a part of his inheritance to his brothers, James and John in 1753, shortly after their father's death. It would appear that two of the four mill sites can be excluded; one appears to be too far up the creek, and the other too far down the creek to have been part of the Stodgill estate. No record was found which showed how or when Ambrose disposed of the mill. It may have been that the mill was destroyed by fire or other natural disaster, and only the mill site remained when James bought the property. Had the mill still been there, it would most certainly have been mentioned in hte deed, as a grist mill was a valuable piece of property. If the mill was destroyed, then Ambrose might have given the property to yet another sister, who married James Maday. This is, of course, pure speculation, as at this time no records have been found to support my theory.

Althought the building is not nearly old enough to be the original Stodgill mill, the one still standing on the McMullin property appears to be the most likely candidate. It is now certain that James Sr. owned and lived on the property on the south side of the creek and lived within a few hundred yards of the site wher ethe old mill house now stands. The only problem is that the mill appears to be on the wrong side of the creek. If, as Mr McMullin stated, this mill was built after the Civil War, it could be that a new mill race was built and the mill was moved across the creek. Another possibility is that he is mistaken about the location of the original property lines of his family;s estate, which appears to be the case. The deed was made in 1753, by which time Ambrose gave land to his brother James and excepted the mill, specified the land as lying on the EAST side of the creek. Swift Run Creek follows a NW to SE course, and some deeds refer to the north and south sides of the creek and others refer to the east and west sides. Further research in the records to discover how and when the property came into the hands of the McMullin family may show this. I will probably never find the time to make this search, but others may wish to do so some day to satisfy their own curiousity.

D.A.S.