Watauga County, North Carolina
and Neighboring Counties
Home of My Gragg Ancestors

See Also:

• Home Page for This Genealogy
• Genealogy record of John Gragg (1815-18??)

(Notes by Brian, January 2002)

Watauga County was formed in 1849 from Ashe, Wilkes, Caldwell, and Yancey counties. The county seat, Boone, is named in honor of Daniel Boone.
(Source: http://www.ls.net/~newriver/nc/watauga.htm)

Indexes to Census and Other Records

This page has indexes for Johnson County (Tennessee), Watauga County and Ashe County:
      http://jctcuzins.com/census/census.html

Biographical Sketches

Excerpts from
Watauga County, NC - Sketches of Prominent Families
pubished in 1915 by John Preston Arthur
http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Estates/8473/Arthur/sketches4.html and
http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Estates/8473/Arthur/sketches.html

Pages 280-281:

BAIRD FAMILY. -- Ezekiel Baird was the father of Bedent and William Baird, and came to North Carolina from New Jersey. William went West, where he died. Bedent married Mary, a daughter of Cutliff Harman, and lived one mile down the Watauga River from Valle Crucis on its left bank, where Walter Baird now lives, though Bedent's old house has been replaced by the present large frame dwelling. Bedent's sons were Alexander, who married Nancy Vanderpool, and lived on the waters of Brushy Fork; Franklin, who married Catharine Moody, daughter of Edward, who lived at what is now Foscoe. Franklin lived one mile down the Watauga, where James Church now lives, and just above Walter's; Palmer, who married, first, Elizabeth McBride, and lived on Beech Mountain, three miles from Bedent's; Blodgett, who moved to Tennessee and married a lady near Nashville. He was absent forty years before he was heared of at Valle Crucis. The next was Euclid, named for the geometrician, and he married Louisa Council, daughter of Jordan Council the first, and lived where ex-Sheriff W. B. Baird now lives. Franklin's children were: Jackson, who married Tempe Shull; William, who married Sarah McNab; Susan, who married James Lowrance; David F., who married Elizabeth Wagner; Thomas Carroll, who went to Texas, where he died unmarried about 1861. Alexander's children were: Bedney, who went West and married Susan Jane Merchant; Abram, who married Elizabeth Hartley; Warren, who married Rebecca Hartley; Ezekiel, who married Sarah Wilson; Jonathan, who died in the Civil War; Phoebe, who never married; Elizabeth, who married Hiram Wilson.

Palmer's children were: John, who married Miss Shupe; Andrew, who died in the Civil War, unmarried; Ann, who married Wm. Grimsley; Caroline, who married _____________; Eliza, who never married. Blodgett's children are not known to his Watauga relatives. Euclid's children were: Benjamin, who married Celia gragg; John, who married Emeline Shell; Hiram, who died in the Civil War; Thomas, who went West and died unmarried; Sarah, who married John Hackney; Charlotte, who married Eli Brown; Mary, who married Hiram Gragg. Rittenhouse's children were: William B., who married Eliza Gragg.

David F.'s children are: Victoria, who married T. H. Taylor; Allie, who married J. M. Shull; Nora, who married D. C. Mast; Susan who married Jack B. Horton; Emma, who married W. W. Mast; Lula, who married J. C. Moore; Thomas C., who married Emma Mast

Pages 310-311:

Gragg Family. --William Gragg was of Irish descent and settled, first, in West Virginia, from which he came with his wife, born Elizabeth Pulliam, to John's River, Caldwell County, soon after the Revolutionary War, in which he had been a soldier under Washington, having fought from the first to the last battle of the war. Their children were: John, born September 7, 1781, in Virginia; William, Obediah, Robert, James, Benjamin, Susan and Elizabeth. Of these, John married, first, Elizabeth Majors, and, second, Susannah Barrier. The children by the first marriage were: Tilmon, John, Tipton, Major, Elisha, Nelson and Hamilton. Those by the second marriage were Harvey, Empsey, Alexander and William Waightstill. There was one daughter by the first marriage, Nicie, and six by the second, Irene, Elvira, Margaret, Eliza and twins, Adeline and Carolina.

William married Celia Boone, a grandniece of Daniel; Obediah married Elizabeth Webb; Robert married Rhoda Humphrey; James married Nancy Humphrey; Benjamin married Nancy Dyer; Susan married Isaac Green; Elizabeth married Alfred Pritchett.

Tilmon married, first, Hila Layell, and, second, Jane McNeely; John married a Miss Morris in Georgia; Tipton married Rachel Greene; Major married Celia Wilson, first, and Polly Ollis, second; Elisha married Selina Piercey; Nelson married Violet Greene; Hamilton married, first, a Cobb, then a House, and, third, Martha Strickland, and Harvey married Melinda McLeard. Empsey married Serena Ford, first and then Susan Barrier; Alexander married Carolina Munday; William W. married Martha McGhinnis, first, and second, a lady in the State of Washington.

Nicie married James Calloway; Irene married Samuel Barrier; Elvira married Wiley Holtsclaw; Adeline married W. W. Pressly; Carolina married Madison Gragg; Margaret married Archibald Qualls; Eliza died young and unmarried.

Pages 318-319:

Hodges Family.--Thomas Hodges came from Virginia and settled at Hodges Gap, two miles west of Boone, during the Revolutionary War. He was a Tory. His family came with him. His son, Gilbert, married Robert Shearer's daughter. Robert died about 1845.

Gilbert Hodges lived where I. W. Gross now lives, about one-hald mile east of hodges Gap. His children were: ... 7. Larkin, who married Miss Eliza Gragg, a daughter of John Gragg, who lived where David F. Baird now lives at Valle Crucis.

More Biographical Sketches

Excerpts from
History of Western North Carolina - Chapter XII - Humorous and Romantic
pubished in 1914 by John Preston Arthur
HTML by Jeffrey C. Weaver, October 1998
http://www.ls.net/~newriver/nc/wnc13.htm

Reuben Mast first lived where David F. Baird now lives, but the place had been settled before Mast went there. Reuben Mast sold it to John Gragg about 1849, and moved to Texas, where he died. Gragg lived there till 1867 and sold to David Wagner, and moved to Tennessee. David Wagner divided the place among his three sons, and David F. Baird bought the shares of John and Daniel Wagner on the east side of the river, about 1874.

Marriage Records

Excerpts from
Marriage Records of Ashe County, North Carolina 1801-1872
http://www.ls.net/~newriver/nc/ashemarr.htm
Compiled by Minnie Patrick Osborne and Jeffrey C. Weaver
© 1989, Ashe County Historical Society, West Jefferson, North Carolina, 28694

Source 2 is a collection of loose marriage bonds, Ashe County CH, Jefferson, NC.
Source 3 is the State Archives, Raleigh, NC

Voting Records

Excerpts from
Johnson Co., TN List of Voters in 1891
http://jctcuzins.com/census/1891list.html

Gragg, Harrison - 10th Civil District (Bakers Gap and Stumps Knob)
Gragg, James - 10th Civil District (Bakers Gap and Stumps Knob)
Gragg, John - 4th Civil District (Neva and Vaughts Gap)
Gragg, T.C. - 4th Civil District (Neva and Vaughts Gap)

Court and Trial Records

Excerpts from
Court & Trial Records - Johnson County, Tennessee
http://jctcuzins.com/court/court.html

Adoption and Bastardy Bonds
25. State of Tenn & Susan Gragg vs. George W. Wagner - Dec. 1872
(This website does not give the details of this court record.)

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