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Richard was born about 1770. He is the son of Richard Elkins and Elizabeth Buchanan.
Richard married Nancy McGuire on 4 December 1787 in Montgomery, Virginia, United States.[1][2]
In the 1820 census Rickard was in Barboursville, Cabell, Virginia, United States.[3]
In the 1830 census Richard was in Logan, Virginia, United States.[4]
In the 1850 census Richd (age 80) was in Logan, Logan, Virginia, United States.[5]
Richard died on 26 March 1854 in Logan County, Virginia.[6]
[7]The Elkin, Elken, Elkins family of Logan and Boone County, West Virginia, have been in this country, (USA) since 1657. The progenitor is said to be Ralph Elkins, of Staffordshire, England.
In 1799, the first permanent settler of Logan, Virginia, now West Virginia, was Peter Dingess, a German orphan that previously had settled in Montgomery, Virginia. Richard Elkins, also of Montgomery, VA, followed shortly after with Peter Dingess’ oldest son, William.
Why they made this journey isn’t known. Opportunity...? Indian hostilities were still a common occurrence in the area. In fact, in 1791 over half of our US Army had been wiped out at the Battle of the Wabash, also known as the Columbia Massacre, or Battle of 1,000 Slain, in which the Miami Indians under Chief Little Turtle & Shawnee Chief Blue Jacket, killed 632 US soldiers out of approximately 1000 men. Only 24 soldiers escaped without injury. Scores of women and children (likely their families) were also massacred near head waters of Wabash River near Ft. Recovery in Ohio. The purpose of the battle to stop the Indians from disrupting traffic on the Ohio River (the Guyandotte River is / was a tributary) and hampering settlement of the Northwest Territory. This was the greatest defeat by Indians in the US history
The Elkins and the Dingess’ could have made this journey by wagon or river. The trek by wagon, would probably have been over 70 miles. Floating down the Guyandotte River, much longer.
Richard Elkins and his wife, Nancy Leslie (Lesley, Lasley), widow of John McGuire (had 2 children), brought their family of 12 Elkins children, and settled on land rented from the Dingess family, on Island Creek. Richard and his sons had to work hard to clear the land of cane, to cultivate the corn he would plant. The first year, Richard and his sons were able to cultivate 3,000 bushels, or 100 bushels to the acre, hence, the land must have been at least 300 acres.
Later, Richard’s brothers, Zachariah and William Elkins, arrived. Land was purchased and most the family continued to live in the Logan area, as well as the adjoining Boone County, even to the present day.
Richard and Nancy’s family members were:
Wife 1 was Mary Trollinger
Nancy Leslie McGuire Elkins was the daughter of William Robert Lasley /Leslie and Elizabeth Buchanan. Her father, first generation American, was originally from Scotland. Then Ireland. It seems that William and his brother, John, were the “black sheep” of the family. They set sail for America. When they landed in New York, they promptly got into a fight. They must have done all right. The brothers went into a barber shop to clean up. William, unaware of relationships, got his throat slit by the barber. The barber was reputed to be a friend of the men they had fought with. William’s brother John took off…. Never to be seen again. William survived his wound to later die at the age of 94 in Pike, Kentucky.
Nancy’s first husband was John McGuire. They had 2 children, William and Nancy, together. John, originally from Ireland, was the first McGuire to settle in Montgomery, VA. He received a land grant of 200 acres on the Bluestone River. When he died, his son, William stayed on to work the acreage he inherited. Her daughter Nancy, was said to have stayed on with her father’s relatives.
West Virginia didn't become a state until June 20, 1863. Richard Elkins moved his family from the area of Montgomery, Virginia to the area of Virginia that became Logan County and or Cabell County, West Virginia sometime after 1799. The area was a part of Kanawah County, Virginia until the western portion of Kanawah County, Virginia became Cabell County, Virginia in 1809. In 1824 the bottom half of Cabell County, Virginia along with the nothern portion of Giles County became Logan County, Virginia but in 1831 the portion that once was Giles became Fayette County, Virginia. At the time of Darby Elkins' and Lydia Adkins's marriage in 1830 they were probably married in what was then Cabell or Logan County, Virginia but because the family was living close to the boundaries between Cabell and Logan counties it could have been either one. Just because boundaries were legally changed it doesn't mean that the people living there changed where they thought they were living. In 1842 the southwestern part of Cabell County, Virginia became Wayne County, Virginia. Thus Wayne county was bordered by Cabell to the northeast and by Logan county to the south. It appears that the extended Richard Elkins family remained in the same area over these 40 or so years. And then in 1863 Wayne, Cabell, and Logan counties became part of West Virginia but kept their county names and boundaries until more changes occured in subsequent years.
Entered by Marie Mills, Jan 8, 2012
Thank you to George Grazier for creating WikiTree profile Elkins-389 through the import of Grazier Family Tree.ged on Jan 24, 2013.
Marie Mills, firsthand knowledge.
This person was created through the import of Lynch-Tree.ged on 06 August 2010.
Henning, Elma & Merle Rummel, The Toney Family History, 1979, Gateway Press, pg 302
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