Elias Powell Jr. (1754 - 1832)

Born 26 Sep 1754 in Culpeper, Orange County, VA

Ancestors

Husband of Anna Barbara (Albright) Powell — married 25 Nov 1777 in Orange County, North Carolina

Descendants

Died 5 May 1832 at age 77 in Powellton, Lenoir, Caldwell, NC

Problems/Questions Profile manager: E. McCraw [send private message]

Biography

Elias Powell is identified in many records and books, along with his immediate family members, and his descendants, most of whom remained in or near Lenoir of Caldwell County NC, which was divided from Burke County, and for a period of time was named Powellton and/or Powelltown, which was named after Elias Powell and his close friend General William Lenoir. Elias and many of his family members are buried in the Lower Creek Baptist Church Cemetary in Lenoir, which was built on land donated by Elias and his wife Anna Barbara (Albright) Powell. Certain records incorrectly identify Elias as a British soldier who fought in the Battle of Kings Mountain, but he only fought for the British Loyalist against the Rebels, he was not a British soldier. Elias wrote a note about the battle stating George Washington and the Rebels would have been hanged for treason if they had not defeated the British, and due to the strength of the British in North Carolina at the time, Elias had to make a tough decision. The Lower Creek Baptist Church provides the location of the Powell land that was owned by many children of John and Mary (O' Neal) Powell, the parents of this Elias Powell, who immigrated from Culpeper, Orange County, VA to Orange County, NC in 1755, then moved to Powellton, Burke County, NC, which was later named Lenoir, Caldwell County, NC.

Elias was born on September 26, 1754. According to Ellisue Barber Morris, he was named after his father's brother and the "Jr" was added to distinguish them. It is presumed that his parents were John & Mary Powell, who sold land to Elias in 1779.^[1] In this document, he is specifically named as "Elias Powell, Jr.". Researcher Emmet Lucas interprets this as Elias having been the nephew^[2] of John & Mary O'Neal Powell, but Ms. Morris's account makes clear that Elias was a son of John Powell and Mary O'Neal and not a nephew.

According to his grandson, Nelson Albright Powell, as well as other sources^[3][4] , Elias was with Colonel Ferguson when he fell at the Battle of Kings Mountain in the American Revolution and took Ferguson's silver whistle from the battlefield. Nelson Albright Powell stated in a letter that he had blown the whistle. A grandson remembered hearing Nelson tell General Lenoir that "his conscious would not allow him to fight against the King and the mother country..." ^[5] This same grandson heard his grandfather relate events of the Battle of Kings Mountain including his having Major Ferguson's small whistle and helping bury Ferguson's body.

Elias had been named a Patriot by Daughters of the American Revolution, but this status is under review and likely to be revoked. The source given is William Saunders, "Colonial Records of North Carolina", Volume 10, p 753.^[6] which lists an "Elias Powel" as an Ensign on a roll of officers and private soldiers detached from the First or Southern Battalion of the Militia of the County of Orange to march against the hostile Indians under the Command of Colonel Ambrose Ramsey. Does this constitute "Patriotic Service"? The DAR has decided not.

The DAR memberships of his descendants remain safe, however, because his wife's father, Ludwig Albright, is also identified as a Patriot (Ancestor #A000981). Ludwig "paid for goods or services rendered" documented in the North Carolina Revolutionary Army Accounts.

Elias was bequeathed $100 by Ludwig in his will which was probated February 1811 in Orange County, NC.

According to their family Bible, the children of Elias and Barbara were:

1. Benjamin, born 28 Sep 1778
2. Catharine, born 20 Feb 1785
3. Mary, born 23 Feb 1787
4. George, born 26 Feb 1789
5. Elizabeth, born 24 Mar 1791
6. Philip, born 18 Apr 1793

DNA Results

Y-DNA test results of Kit #29785 at FamilyTreeDNA shows a direct descendant of Elias in haplogroup R-M269, matching other testers who report being descended from the following Powells:

John Powell, b 1644-1698, England

Joseph Powell, b @ 1740 in Chester County, PA; d @ 1821 in Chester, PA

Elisha Powell, Jr. b @ 1754 in Wales; d @ 1832

Joseph Powell, b 2/13/1784 in Clark County, VA

Lovely Abraham Powell, b @ 1790 in Wales

Rev. Elisha Smith Powell, b 1793-6 (NC), d 1866 (TX)

John Powell, b 1826, Wales; d 1871

John Powell, b @1837

Theodore Powell, b 2/14/1853 in Henry, KY

Joseph P Powell, d @ 1854 in Minor Hill, Giles, TN

Joseph P. Powell, b @ 1875 in Powell Valley, Claiborne,TN

This 37 marker kit matched 67 marker kit 123778 which FamilyTreeDNA assigned to haplogroup R-BY3290. Other matches to this haplogroup have been found with the surname Davis. Advanced DNA studies available on the internet indicate that the R-BY3290 Haplogroup originated about 1750 years before present and that the most recent common ancestor for anyone in this haplogroup lived about 1250 years before present. R-BY3290 is a subclade of Haplogroup DF27 which originated in northern Spain about 4200 years before present at the transition from the Neolithic to Bronze Age associated with migration of Beaker culture.

The Powell Family
By Allan L. Poe

The most that can be said, with any certainty, about the origins of the Powells of Caldwell county, NC. is that they are of Welsh descent. (The name is a contraction of the Welsh “ap Howell—son of Howell) and that their first American ancestor migrated from Wales to the colony of Virginia in the 17th century. Various theories have been advanced as to true identity of the immigrant ancestor, but no line has been proved, so far, back to any individual immigrant. The 1704 Quit Rent Rolls of Virginia, a list of landowners, show a number of Powells in various counties; the following are the most likely prospect for the ancestor of this family: Robert Powell--500 acres, King & Queen County Thomas Powell --460 acres, Ware Parish, Cloucester County Four brothers—Honor(ius). Place, Thomas and William Powell—each with 72 acres, Essex County. The last four men named, residents of Essex County, were the four sons of Thomas Powell (died 1701) of EssexCo., and his wife Mary Place. Because of the unusual name Honor or Honorius appeared in a later generation in a branch of the North Carolina family that migrated to Kentucky, there has been speculation that our line is descended from Honorius Powell of Essex county, Va., or from one of his brothers. Sometime after 1734, a Powell family, perhaps of the Essex line, settled in Orange (later Culpeper, now Madison) County, VA. They became residents of Culpeper when that county was formed from Orange in 1784, and the names of Ambrose, Benjamin, Elias and John Powell appear in the early Culpeper records. Ambrose Powell (born 1713), who lived and died in Culpeper, was the great-grandfather of the noted Confederate general, Ambrose Powell Hill. About 1755, two brothers, Elias Powell and John Powell, migrated with their families from Culpeper to Orange (now Alamance) county, NC; they appear in the 1755 Orange county tax lists: John with 3 slaves and Elias with one.

This Elias Powell—usually called Elias Sr. in the records ---later moved to the Lower Creek section of Burke (now Caldwell) county, and died there after 1800, at an advanced age. The 1800 census shows him as the owner of one slave---perhaps the same [slave] that he had brought with him from Virginia 45 years previously. Elias Powell Sr. is thought to have been the father of Ambrose, Thomas, Elijah and Levin Powell, all of whom were early settlers on Lower Creek; however, they or their families all migrated westward, and none of them are known to have left any descendants in Caldwell county. A number of them went to Kentucky, and later to other states to the westward.

John Powell, the other immigrant from Culpeper County, VA, to Orange County, NC, is the ancestor of the present Powell family of Caldwell County. He had married, in Culpeper County, Mary O’Neal (whose family name was often spelled simply Neal or Neale) and their son Elias was born in Culpeper on Sept. 26, 1754, just before the family moved to North Carolina. ^[7]

Sources

1. ↑ Orange County, North Carolina; Deed Book #6, pp. 73-74. Record of Deeds: C.073.40003. Microfilm.
2. ↑ Lucas, S E. The Powell Families of Virginia and the South: Being an Encyclopedia of the Eight (8) Major Powell Families of Virginia and the South in General. Easley, S.C. (P.O. Box 738, Easley 29640: S.E. Lucas, 1982. Print. p. 372.
3. ↑ Draper, p. 291
4. ↑ Russell, p. 195
5. ↑ Lenoir Topic, 22 Jan 1890 p. 1.
6. ↑ Transcription available online at http://docsouth.unc.edu/csr/index.html/document/csr10-0342> and also at Archive.org
7. ↑ I. W. Thomas, "The Powell Family History," Caldwell County, N. C., Families: Newspaper Articles, Volume I, Linda M. Staley and Allan Poe (Patterson, N.C. (P.O. Box 7, Patterson 28661-0007): Staley Pub. and Genealogical Research, 1986).

See Also:

• Draper, Lyman C, King's Mountain and Its Heroes: History of the Battle of Kings Mountain, October 7th, 1780, and the Events Which Let To It, p. 291 (Online: Google Books), [Peter G. Thompson, Cincinnati, 1881], <https://books.google.com/books?id=uXkFAAAAQAAJ&printsec>, accessed March 17, 2015.

• Russell, David Lee, The American Revolution in the Southern Colonies, p. 195 (Online: Google Books), [McFarland & Company, Jefferson, North Carolina, 1990] <https://books.google.com/books?id=5DFy0eWaPxIC&pg=PA195>, accessed March 17, 2015.

• "United States Census, 1790," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XHKB-21W : accessed 30 November 2017), Elias Powell, Burke, North Carolina, United States; citing p. 99, NARA microfilm publication M637, (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.), roll 7; FHL microfilm 568,147.

• "United States Census, 1790," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XHKB-LL1 : accessed 30 November 2017), Elias Powell Sr, Burke, North Carolina, United States; citing p. 101, NARA microfilm publication M637, (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.), roll 7; FHL microfilm 568,147.

• "United States Census, 1820," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XHLX-QRL : accessed 30 November 2017), Elias Powell, Burke, North Carolina, United States; citing p. 31, NARA microfilm publication M33, (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.), roll 83; FHL microfilm 162,799.

• "North Carolina Estate Files, 1663-1979," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:V1LM-SV9 : 20 November 2015), Elias Powell, 1832; citing Burke, North Carolina, United States, State Archives, Raleigh; FHL microfilm 1,977,106.

Links:

• http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi/page/gr/www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=57059403
• https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lenoir,_North_Carolina
• https://books.google.com/books?id=KFvqCQAAQBAJ&pg=PA422&lpg=PA422&dq=powellton+nc+named+for+british+soldier&source=bl&ots=oEygxpOS8u&sig=spQtvTGl644vyCI9NKgGHvX5PqI&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjSzu22uoHPAhUD7SYKHaf3Dr8Q6AEIHzAB#v=onepage&q=powellton%20nc%20named%20for%20british%20soldier&f=true
• http://www.lookingbackwards.net/genealogy/getperson.php?personID=I3994&tree=lb1

Acknowledgements

This WikiProfile for Powell-110 was created on July 9, 2010 by Williams-600.