Sunday, December 21, 2008

Locating William Roark's Property On Indian Creek

The Library of Virginia has land grants online here. A grant to my ancestor, William Roark can be found here; we know it's "our" William Roark because his Revolutionary War pension papers state that he settled on the "waters of the Mononagahela." But exactly where on those waters?

The area comprising the land in and around the Mononaghela, Youghiogheny and Ohio Rivers forms the area where some of the land grants were located. The boundaries were fluid; there was a contested border area between Pennsylvania and Virginia. For example, the Commonwealth of Kentucky was originally part of Virginia and known as Kentucky County, Virginia (the county was formed in 1776; KY became a state in 1792). An animated map describing the formation of Virginia's counties can be found here.

One deed (Liber "2", Page 18, "OS" w/liber, made 4 Sept 1796; recorded 8 July 1799) in Monongalia, Co., VA, between Adam Guice [probably Ice] and William Roark...being part of a larger tract of 400 acres situate on the waters of Indian Creek containing 100 acres adjoining lands of Thomas Pindall formerly held by James Colman, John Stuart and Gilbert Butler...beginning at a white ash corner to James Arnett and Andrew Arnett's lands each ..a part along line of Gilbert Butler's ...of said tract of land..John Stuart, granted to Frederick Guice/Goir [Ice] and David Scott the 14 November 1792.... . Witnessed by Dudley Evans, John Stealey and B(enjamin) Reeder.

A blog entry regarding William Roark's Monongalia County neighbors (Pindall, Ice) can be found here on my "Detour Through History" blog.

In the "James Arnett" link above it was noted that Arnett settled on land taken up by Frederick Gire and David Scott, believed to be Revolutionary soldiers [Frederick and David being the two men also mentioned in the William Roark deed above] and that the Arnetts lived in Arnettsville. [Arnettsville, West Virginia found on Google maps here]. If we've pinpointed the Arnetts, then William Roark has the adjacent property. A reference is made to the crossing of Indian Creek below Roark's old mill and this article mentions that Andrew Arnett operated grist mills on Indian Creek.

Is this Little Indian Creek Wildlife Management area part of William Roark's Indian Creek land? The area is shown on Google maps here. It's close to Arnettsville, so the possibility exists.

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