Scott County the Beginning
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PVT. ABEL PEAK, Virginia Militia
Abel Peak was born in Buckingham County, Virginia, in 1756. We believe his father was John and had brothers Aaron, Jacob, Jesse, Johnathan and William in Pittsylvania and Buckingham Counties, Virginia.
From his 1832 pension application we learned that Abel served three seperate tours of duty during the Revolutionary War. The first was against the Terries in North Carolina with the Virginia Militia in 1779. Then in the summer of 1780 he replaced his brother Johnathan who was ill and had a family, this second tour of three months which turned out to be five months was also against the Terries in North Carolina. His third tour, also a three month tour ended at Yorktown and the surrender of Cornwallis.
Abel Peak married Lydia Jones in Franklin County, Virginia in 1794, the daughter of Thomas Jones, also a soldier in the Revolution. Several members of Thomas Jones’ family migrated to land that would eventually become Anderson County, Tennessee in about 1801. Three of Thomas’s daughters married Revolutionary War soldiers in Virginia before this exodus. Jemimah Jones married William Standifer, Susannah Jones married William Griffith, Jr. and Frances (Franny) married William Rippitoe. Abel’s brother Jacob Peak, although too young to have served in the Revolution also married a Jones daughter, Mary (Polly) Jane and came with the clan to the land on the East Fork of Poplar Creek, just north of the Clinch River from Knoxville.
Abel and Lydia (Jones) Peak, according to his pension application didn’t settle in Anderson County until about six years before their part of the county became part of Morgan County in 1817. From the widow’s application of Lydia (Jones) Peak, filed in March of 1853, we learn that Abel died February 4, 1852 by then their homestead would have been located in Scott County, formed in 1849. She also states that they had 17 living children and two were born dead. She states that her oldest child is Elizabeth Edens (56) at that time and her youngest son is Louis was (35) and lived in Scott County, Tennessee. It is believed that Lydia lived with her daughter Elizabeth after the death of Abel. Louis Peak (1821-1863) married Matilda Griffith, the daughter of Fielding Griffith and the grand daughter of Joseph Griffith a Revolutionary War Veteran and settler of Brimstone in Scott County, Tennessee. Another daughter, Catherine (1818-1891) is believed to have married a Davis and lived in Lancing, Morgan County, Tennessee.
A descendant of Louis and Matilda (Griffith) Peak, through their daughter Martha, who married John B. Young is Janet Stringfield of Oneida, Tennessee, she remembers trips as a child with her grandmother to the Abel Peak Cemetery, between Campground Rd. and Davis Creek to the west. She said it contained at least two dozen graves but all were marked only by field stones.
“P.S.” “The Overmountain Men” by Pat Alberman lists an Abel Peak as having served at the Battle of Kings Mountain in 1780.
Submitted by;
Fred Eiler, Anderson County, TN. Sons of the Revolution.
Pvt. William Sexton
Was born in 1786 in the York District, South Carolina. He was in James Tunnel’s Company and was married to Rhoda Griffith, the daughter of Revolutionary War soldier, Joseph Griffith.
Andrew L. Lewellen Co. 5 East Tennessee Volunteers
Andrew L. Lewellen was born Oct. 7 1795, in North Carolina to Anderson and Lucy Rice) Lewellen. He Came to Tennessee with his parents and brothers Joel and William, when he was about 15 years of age. Andrew was sometimes called “Shad, Shade, or Shadrack” When he was about 18 years old he entered the military service. Serving in Company 5 of the East Tennessee Volunteers, and at the age of 19 fought in the battle of New Orleans, under General Andrew Jackson’s command. Before marching off to fight, in October of 1814, he managed to get away long enough to meet his sweetheart, Malinda Davis, in Kingston, Tennessee, where they married. She was three years older than him. After the war, Andrew returned to Tennessee, and he and Malinda became parents of five children: Elizabeth b. 1818, Nancy b. 1821, Rhoda Ann b 1825, Andrew Russell b.1829, and Walter Davis b. 1831. He received 160 acres of bounty land about 1855. He filed for pension in 1871. Shade Lewellen cast the lone vote for Abraham Lincoln in the 1860 Presidential election.
Pvt. Michael Lowe
His Rank: PrivateHis Unit: Fourth Regiment of Tennessee Militia. He was given a land grant in Scott county Tn. for his service.
Moses Sexton CPT James Tunnell’s
Company
Birth: 18 MAY 1789 in York District, South Carolina Death: 1 JUN 1850 Served in the War of 1812 in CPT James Tunnell’s Company. was a Private in the Company commanded by Captain James Tunnell in the regiment infantry commanded by Col. Johnson Bently Taylor in the war with Great Britain by the United States on the 18th day of June AD. Where he volunteered at Knoxville on or about the 20th day of Sep AD 1814. For the term of six months and contenuous and for that time of six months and was honorably discharged at Washington on or about the 20th day of March AD 1815.
Fielding Griffith,
Tennessee Militia
Was born about 1793 the son of Revolutionary War soldier, Joseph and Pheobe (Hudson) Griffith. Was given a land grant for his service in the War of 1812. He died 1846 and is burried in the Goad Cemetery in Brimstone, Scott County, Tennessee.