Cheers to the Lower Case h!

This is in response to the StoryWorth question: Did anyone in the family play a part in History with a capital H?

I believe that many family members have done this. You will likely never read their names in history books but they were “Capital H’ers” nonetheless. Several family members were the first families to settle in various areas. The family of 6XG grandpa James Moore were the first permanent settlers of Owsley County Kentucky where my father grew up. Other family members were the first to live in other areas. Many family members fought in wars defending democracy.
Several family members served in the Revolutionary War. The two that I am most certain of are 5XG grandpa Captain David Chadwell and 4XG grandpa Captain Adoniram Allen. I consider fighting in the American Revolution as taking part in History with a capital H. If it were not for the bravery of folks like them, the United States of America might still be a colony of Great Britain. Both of these gentlemen were remarkable men.
Adoniram was born in New Hampshire in 1734. Sometime before 1761, Adoniram’s father would move the family to the New Jersey seaport of Elizabeth Town. Adoniram likely apprenticed with a ship-builder to pick up the skill of iron-working while he lived here as he would work in iron in many of the places that he later lived.
In 1771, Adoniram began to show up in records for North Carolina. While there, he fought in some of the most important battles of the Revolutionary War, the battles at Moore’s Creek and at King’s Mountain. Adoniram may not be in the history books, but his first cousin was Ethan Allen of the Green Mountain Boys. I don’t know if Ethan is still mentioned in history books but when I was in school, our history books certainly made note of him.
At some point, I think that Adoniram married Elizabeth Morris. The identity of Adoniram’s wife or wives is kind of iffy. As so often happens, the identities of women can be lost to history. I have seen Elizabeth Morris as his possible wife. Since my 3X great grandpa was Morris Allen and children were often given the mother’s maiden name as part of their name, it makes sense to me that Morris’ mother could have been Elizabeth Morris.
Adoniram had three children while in North Carolina and then moved his family to Georgia where three more children were born. One of those children born in Georgia was Morris. At the age of 72, Adoniram moved with his family to Clay County, Kentucky.
It is difficult in this day and time to appreciate that move by a 72 year old man with his family all of those years ago. Today travel and moving our possessions is terribly simple compared to those days. Today we have wonderful roadways with places to stop to rest, to eat, to sleep. We have automobiles and moving trucks that transport us and our belongings in climate-controlled comfort on smooth riding steel-belted radials, on multi-lane interstate highways.
Back in Adoniram’s time, there were far fewer roads and the roads that existed were little more than rutted trails. Travel was by wagon, mule, horse, on foot, or by boat. Families had to travel during all kinds of weather and they were not sheltered from that weather save by a hat, a bonnet, a cover over a wagon, or the roof over an occasional building they could shelter at along the way. Travel was difficult and slow going, yet Adonram picked up his family and moved from one state to another. Not only did he pick up and move his family while in his 70s, he built them a new home in Clay County, Kentucky. Not only did he build them a home, Adoniram built a mill below the narrows on the South Fork of the Kentucky River.
  

                                       Photo of Adoniram's mill while it still stood. From:                                                                  http://www.kykinfolk.com/breathitt/buildings/buildings.html


Stories indicate that Adoniram was known as being a meticulous man. I imagine that that quality made the home and the mill he built pretty solid. Folks who knew him called him Tedious because of his meticulousness. Now in Appalachia, which includes eastern Kentucky, folks pronounce some words a bit differently than folks from other areas and the way those Appalachian folks pronounced Tedious was Teges.
Adoniram “Teges” Allen died in 1838 at the age of 103, perhaps 104 years old. Two creeks in Clay County were named the Upper Teges Creek and Lower Teges Creek in Adoniram’s honor. My mother and her mother were born and raised in the Teges community of Clay County which was named after 4X great grandpa Adoniram. Of course, many of Adoniram’s descendants were given the name Adoniram. My own great-grandpa’s name was Adoniram.
So old Adoniram “Teges” Allen left several legacies behind. He left behind many namesakes. He left behind a new country, the United States of America. And of course, he left behind myriad descendants. Who knows what kind of history with a capital H they will take part in!
Now, David Chadwell was my 5X great-grandpa. He was born in England and came with his family to America as a boy. He would serve as a Captain in the Revolutionary War and was known for his courage and daring.

 

David Chadwell lived on land in what has since become Henry County. He supposedly traveled with Danial Boone along the Wilderness Road and through the Cumberland Gap. He purchased land in Lee County Virginia and there he built the stockade Chadwell’s Station. Folks traveling West, hunters and trappers, and those seeking shelter during Indian troubles would seek temporary refuge at the station.
David married Elizabeth Turner and they had several children. My family goes back to David and Elizabeth through his daughter, Mary “Polly” Chadwell who married Walter Middleton Sr. Elizabeth Ann would die in 1800 leaving David a widower with several adult children.
A family story tells us that one night a young lady with a baby on one hip and leading a cow by a halter with her other hand sought shelter at the station. This young lady would end up marrying David and David would adopt her young son Jack.
David’s children were not happy with this as his new wife was younger than some of them. David left his oldest son in charge of the Lee County land and moved away to Tazewell in Claiborne County, Tennessee.
There he lived to be over 100 years old. His great-granddaughter told that he received renewed eyesight and new teeth in his old age!
Now, I have to tell you that I love coinky-dinks and a story supposedly passed down from adopted son Jack Chadwell about David is such a beautiful bit of coincidence!
Jack’s story tells of how he had gotten in trouble at school one day. He dilly-dallied on his walk home, plotting revenge on his instructor, making him late getting home. As he approached the house, he heard someone working away in the woodshop. He became excited as winter was approaching and he had been asking his dad to have a sled built for him. When he heard the work in the shop, he assumed that a sled was being built for him so he ran to the shop door where he saw a man building a coffin. Jack asked the man who the coffin was for and the man replied that it was for Jack’s father.
An alarmed Jack dropped everything on the ground and ran to the house. There he found his father waiting with a switch because Jack had been so late coming home!
Back at this time, funeral homes, as we know them, were not known. David Chadwell was approaching his 90s and was a tall man. He wanted to have a proper coffin available for him when he died and so was having his built in ready for the inevitable.
Now, David Chadwell lived another ten years after his coffin was readied. Jack passed on the story that on Sundays, his father would often lie in his coffin reading his Bible.
This is what is such a gloriously perfect coinky-dink. You see, for years, my husband would often comment on my contentment of having no real social life. He said that he could buy me a coffin and I would be content to stay at home in my coffin rather that going out!
I was sitting in bed with my laptop when I first read this story. At the time, my husband was asleep beside me but I could not contain my laughter! When I read this story I laughed so hard that he awakened and asked what was going on. I told him the story of 5X great-grandpa reading while lying in his coffin. Then I told him that I came by my desire “to stay home in my coffin” honestly! LOL!
So among other things, David Chadwell’s legacy includes the birth of a new country, great stories, and myriad descendants, including a “coffin-loving” 5X great granddaughter!
So Adoniram and David are two of my history with a capital H family members. I would say that although, many of my family members may not be recorded as history makers with a capital H, it is often the folks who go unnoticed, often the folks who work in the background supporting those capital H folks that may very well deserve much of the credit. How many capital H folks never had the opportunity to shine, let alone have the good fortune for their lights to be noticed?

Thomas Gray put it so well in his Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard:

“Full many a gem of purest ray serene,
The dark unfathom’d caves of ocean bear:
Full many a flow’r is born to blush unseen,
And waste its sweetness on the desert air.”