Benjamin Adams (abt. 1841 - 1901)

Born about Aug 1841 in Logan, Virginia, United States

Ancestors

Husband of Sarah (Gore) Adams — married about 1863 in Logan, West Virginia, United States

Descendants

Died 1 Jan 1901 at about age 59 in Brushy Fork of Crawley Creek, Logan County, West Virginia, USA

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Biography

Pvt Ben Adams served in the United States Civil War.
Enlisted: August 27, 1861
Mustered out: Unknown
Side: CSA
Regiment(s): 129th Regiment, Virginia Militia

BENJAMIN ADAMS was born in August of 1841 on Harts Creek of Logan County, Virginia. He was the fifth child and only son of John Washington Adams by his wife, the former miss Mary Ann Hall. The closest centers of commerce included the community of Chapmanville, located at the mouth of Crawley Creek, and Lawnsville, a trading post situated at the confluence of the Guyandotte River and Main Island Creek.

On August 15, 1850, young Bennie and his sisters Ruth, Betty, Sarah, and Nancy can be seen living with their parents along Harts Creek.^[1]

In 1852, Thomas Dunn English, a famous poet known especially as the author of Ben Bolt, moved to Logan County. English had an interest in the county's coal. He also got involved in local governance. Seeing great potential for the trading post of Lawnsville, English and others petitioned the Virginia General Assembly to charter the site of Lawnsville as a town. The petition was granted in 1853 and a town was incorporated. English named the town Aracoma, in honor of the legendary daughter of Shawnee Chief Cornstalk. English became Aracoma's first mayor, serving from 1852-1857. He also served as Aracoma's postmaster.

On June 19, 1860, Bennie, now a young man of 18, is seen living with his parents and 3 younger sisters Betty, Sarah, and Nancy on land along Crawley Creek bordering his Dingess in-laws. A woman named Aly Right and her 7-year-old daughter Cena, along with an older man named Richard Johnson, were apparently living with them.^[2]

Late that year or early the following, his sister Harriet, a young and single mother, married John Russell Chapman, a store clerk and the postmaster of Chapmanville, who had recently assumed the mantle from his elder brother Burwell.

By the family’s move to Crawley, Benjamin found himself making the acquaintance of Garland Conley’s stepdaughter Sarah, who would first turn his head and later capture his heart. Sarah was a Gore by birth and taken in when her mother, Mollie, married Garland. Her biological father, John Gore, was already a married man, yet ambitious and like his family and that of his wife, the former Margaret Dingess, active in local politics. John Gore, understandably, probably denied his little infidelity from the get-go.

Logan County’s neighbor Boone County at the time was a relatively young one, formed in 1847. Its 1860 population reported 4,840 plus 158 slaves, and most of its citizens were pro-Southern. Roving bands of Confederate irregulars periodically attacked their Unionist neighbors, some of whom responded by burning secessionists’ homes. To restore order, Brigadier General Jacob D. Cox, commanding Union forces in the Kanawha Valley, dispatched six companies of the 1st Kentucky Infantry to settle things down.

By the late summer of 1861, word had reached the Guyandotte Valley of the Unionist march. Logan County responded by forming the 129th Regiment Virginia Militia, commanded by Col. John DeJarnett, a carpenter and resident of Aracoma, and captained by Barnett “Barney” Carter. The Regiment consisted primarily of men from the vicinity of Carter’s home of Harts Creek, all of whom, including Benjamin Adams and his brothers-in-law John Chapman and John and Coffee Pete Dingess, enlisted August 27 at the Logan Courthouse in Aracoma.^[3][4] Three days Benjamin served before he was found absent on the muster roll. Though Ben was a good shot with a rifle, as the only son of aging parents and the brother to 7 young and defenseless sisters, it stands to reason that his place was not on the frontlines, rather he saw better fit to stay behind to guard the family home. The following day, on September 1, 1861, the men of DeJarnett’s 129th, including Carter’s Company, reinforced Col. Ezekiel S. Miller’s pro-Confederate 187th, alone a force of some 220 self-armed men, as the alliance skirmished with the Kentucky Unionists near Boone Court House or “Boonetown.” Each side boasted to exaggerate the other’s losses, but the militia withdrew. The victorious Kentuckians set fire to the courthouse and the homes of known secessionists. The path of ashes that would wind through the South and into Pennsylvania had begun.

On September 25, 1861, Col. Piatt’s Zouaves of the 34th Ohio, a force of about 700 men, marched on Confederate positions around Chapmanville. The Logan militia, numbering about 220 men with only an estimated 80 of them involved, under Col. James W. Davis had harassed Piatt in the hours previously. Piatt's Zouaves encountered Davis' militiamen in a low gap between Guyandotte river and Big Creek, where the latter were engaged in raising a temporary breastwork. Unionist casualties, by their own confession, amounted to some 40 killed and a number wounded. Only two of Davis' men were killed, with perhaps three or four wounded. Col. Davis himself fell severely wounded in the arm and breast, after which his men retreated in panicked disarray. Had the militiamen of Logan stood their ground, it was reported by the commanding officer of the Lincoln County troops that several of the Zouaves were retreating too, and that "one more round would have completely dispersed them" as well. Col. Davis, badly, but not mortally, wounded, was then captured and taken prisoner. This engagement subsequently became known as the Battle of Kanawha Gap.

A few months later, January 15, 1862, Logan County’s courthouse felt the torch. This time, Cox had sent the German-born soldiers of the 37th Ohio Volunteer Infantry to squelch Southern irregulars called the Black Stripers. All male inhabitants of the town of Aracoma evacuated and took up positions along the hill beyond to fight the bluecoats. “Sharp skirmishing” occurred, but heavy rains had swollen the Guyandotte, and the Federal commander, Colonel Edward Siber, late of the Prussian army, decided to fall back lest the rising river cut off his force. Before withdrawing in the morning darkness of January 15, he had his men burn the courthouse and several buildings that reportedly had been used as barracks for Rebel cavalry.

By summer, Benjamin's brother-in-law, John Chapman, joined the 36th Virginia Infantry in Company C, known as the Chapmanville Riflemen. John Dingess, Rutha's husband, supposedly joined the 36th with him, although no record of his enlistment or service can be found. John Chapman eventually rose to the rank of 2nd Lieutenant.

On August 26, 1862, both Benjamin Adams and Barney Carter went on to enlist in the 1st Battalion, Virginia Mounted Rifles, which had recently been created with three companies under the command of Major Vincent A. “Clawhammer” Witcher. Barney was elected to Captain on the Sept 1, 1862, roll at Logan Courthouse. Ben deserted the Mounted Rifles early in November, having only served for a 3-month period. The reason for this is lost to time and the subject of speculation only. Whether his courage or health failed him in the line of duty or the call to hole up and defend the family homestead grew too strong, we may never know. What we do know is that Benjamin's eldest beloved sister, Patsy Ann Dingess, passed away around this time from unknown causes. She had been a decade his senior, and no doubt helped her parents in his upbringing. The blow of her loss upon the family, leaving Harvey Dingess, her widower, with 5 children, likely played a vital role in Benjamin's decision to remain home from the war.

The 1st Battalion, consisting primary of those men loyal to Carter from the former 129th, was reorganized in December 1862, absorbed into the 34th Cavalry Battalion, and branded as Company D. The unit served in A.G. Jenkins', W.E. Jones', V.A. Witcher's, and B.T. Johnson's Brigade and first engaged the Federals in western Virginia. It had a force of 172 men at Gettysburg (July 1-3, 1863) and returned to western Virginia when Capt. Barney Carter resigned his commission on Aug 11, 1863, near Sperryville. Frustrated, Lt. Col. Witcher scrawled harsh words in Carter’s report: "Capt. Carter - destitute of courage, deficient as an officer, abandoned company on field."

Around this time during the war in 1863 back in Logan County, Benjamin and Sarah were married. The actual record of their marriage, if there was one during the times, has been destroyed. Their first child, a daughter which they named Patsy Ann to honor Benjamin's late sister, was born to them in May of the following year.

A single note on the website of local historian Brandon Kirk reports that John Dingess went on to fight at Cloyd’s Farm, which was fought May 9, 1864, where Dingess was reportedly killed.^[5] This is the record that would place Dingess with John Chapman in the 36th Virginia Infantry, which saw action there.

The 34th Cavalry Battalion disbanded at Lynchburg in April 1865, with Lieutenant Colonel Vinson A. Witcher, and Majors John A. McFarlane and William Straton last in command.

True to the booming timber industry flourishing along Harts Creek, Ben marveled at the prospect of getting rich. The wheels in his head began to turn. If the other men of the community could turn a profit felling select trees, why not him? It is surmised that he went into business laboring with his in-laws, from which he was able to raise $50 to procure his first parcel of land and begin an empire of his own. So it was in March of 1868 that Ben exchanged $50 with Sarah’s uncle Wesley Stollings in exchange for 100 acres on the Brushy Fork of Crawley. The parcel began about 80 poles from the mouth of the fork and extended up the fork and back, traveling along a line of a survey for John Besnoist and cornering a survey made for William Dingess.^[6]

In 1869, Benjamin was taxed in Chapmanville Township on two 50-acre parcels of land “re-entered and back tax charged.”

Ben’s land investment had proven successful. A couple of years later, he had been able to put back $100 to purchase an additional 300 acres on Brushy Fork from Major William Straton, being a part of Straton’s 700-acre survey. This land extended all the way up the ridge dividing Brushy Fork from the Smokehouse Fork of Harts and bordered lands of his father-in-law Garland Boag Conley, Jr.^[7]

On August 1, 1870, he is seen living on Brushy Fork with $200 worth of land bordering his father-in-law and $50 worth of personal property.^[8] The following February, Benjamin purchased additional land from his parents Wash and Polly along Crawley Creek beginning at the mouth of Brushy Fork and running up Crawley Creek on both sides. This land had at one time belonged to his father-in-law Garland Conley. [Deed Book E, pp. 364-365] A short time later, his father Wash passed away. Throughout the 70’s, his brother-in-law John R. Chapman would be a Justice of the Peace and operate a chain of hotels in Chapmanville.

In the early 70’s, his sister Rutha, a lonely widow with 5 children bereft of a father figure and soon to leave the nest, felt security in the arms of older gentleman Col. Henry Conley. Henry was Ben’s brother-in-law and Sarah’s eldest half-brother. Although Henry was over 30 years Rutha’s senior, she married him. In the fall of 1873, the unlikely couple bore a single daughter they agreed to name Elizabeth in remembrance of his own mother, the late Betty Farley-Conley.

In 1875, Ben is taxed with 400 total acres on Brushy Fork, and 40 acres on Crawley Creek.

In February of 1877, Ben secured a parcel of 50 acres from his brother in law Henry Conley for $100 cash. This land began at a gap in the ridge at the head of Buck Fork and extended down the fork. Because one of Conley’s creditors held a lien on it, it was deeded to Ben “with covenants of special warranty.”

In the 1880 Census, we find Benjamin and Sarah's household abundant with blessings, with Patsy Ann, now in her mid-teens, being the eldest of a whopping ten children in the Adams home.^[9]

Col. Henry Conley, the husband of Ben's sister Rutha, passed away in the spring of 1882.

The 1880's bore witness to the peak of Benjamin and Sarah's fortunes. Three final children were born to them while their eldest daughter Patsy married Albert Cabell, Ben's nephew by his sister Sadie. In the winter of 1887, the young Cabell pair presented Benjamin and Sarah with their first grandchild, a son they named Mosco.

By the end of the 80's, Benjamin's personal empire began to wane. In the summer of 1888, Tolbert S. Godbey, a timber merchant and partner of T. S. Godbey & Co., filed suit against Benjamin and L.D. Hill for reasons that are currently unclear.

The following spring, after Ben failed to appear or provide an answer to the suit, the court charged Commissioner Thomas C. Whited with the task of seeking out all of Ben’s lien creditors by means of publishing notices in the Logan Banner, a daily newspaper established the same year by H. C. Ragland, and affixing a copy of the same upon the front door of the Logan Courthouse. In the meantime, Whited was ordered to ascertain and report to the court on Ben’s real estate holdings, their locations, his titles to them, and their respective liens and profits.

Ben’s lienholders consisted of Lorenzo D. Hill, Peter M. Dingess, Hugh Dingess, Sr., and C. P. Tracy & Co. with a total debt of $1,595.20. C. P. Tracy & Co. was a manufacturer and wholesale dealer of boots, shoes, hats, and leather accessories located in Portsmouth, Ohio.

The matter was finally settled April 18, 1892 whereas Sp. Comm. J. B. Wilkinson tendered his report that Ben’s real estate has been lawfully sold, Ben’s bills and lienholders paid off from the purchase money, and a deed for the real estate made out to J. E. Peck, Sr. all in accordance to the court’s decree. Acknowledging the disbursement for the real estate, J. E. Peck, Sr. was further granted a writ of habere facias possessionem.

1896: “The History of Logan County” by Henry Clay Ragland was first written and published in the Logan County Banner.

We get our last glimpse of the life of Benjamin in the census enumerated June 13, 1900. He is yet found residing on Brushy Fork, renting the land which had once belonged to him. His long-time friend T. J. Marcum also resides with them.^[10]

Benjamin died New Years Day, 1901. Sarah had him buried on a shelf at the bottom of a mountain below the gap on the north side of Brushy opposite the mouth of Lick Hollow.

Sources

1. ↑ "United States Census, 1850," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M8DC-LWV : 4 April 2020), Benjamin Adams in household of John W Adams, Logan county, part of, Logan, Virginia, United States; citing family 192, NARA microfilm publication M432 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.).
2. ↑ "United States Census, 1860", database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M41D-ZJD : 11 November 2020), Benjamin Adams in entry for Jno W Adams, 1860.
3. ↑ "Virginia, Civil War Service Records of Confederate Soldiers, 1861-1865," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:J34S-CLP : 5 December 2014), Benjamin Adams, 1861; from "Compiled Service Records of Confederate Soldiers Who Served in Organizations from the State of Virginia," database, Fold3.com (http://www.fold3.com : n.d.); citing military unit One Hundred and Twenty-ninth Militia, NARA microfilm publication M324 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1961), roll 1056.
4. ↑ "United States Civil War Soldiers Index, 1861-1865," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FS5S-Z4C : 4 December 2014), Benjamin Adams, Private, Company , 129th Regiment, Virginia Militia, Confederate; citing NARA microfilm publication M382 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.), roll 1; FHL microfilm 881,395.
5. ↑ https://brandonraykirk.com//?s=john+dingess+cloyd&search=Go
6. ↑ [Deed Book E, pp. 273]
7. ↑ [Deed Book E, pp. 290]
8. ↑ "United States Census, 1870", database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MZ4G-S1R : 19 March 2020), Benjamin Adams, 1870.
9. ↑ "United States Census, 1880," database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M6RY-7WZ : 14 November 2020), Benjamin Adams, Logan, West Virginia, United States; citing enumeration district ED 72, sheet 250B, NARA microfilm publication T9 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.), FHL microfilm 1,255,406.
10. ↑ "United States Census, 1900," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M9CT-XPL : accessed 6 December 2020), Benjamin Adams, Chapmanville district (west side), Logan, West Virginia, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) 63, sheet 10B, family 149, NARA microfilm publication T623 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1972.); FHL microfilm 1,241,763.

• Personal research; decennial censuses.