| Notes |
- No one has found any record or evidence of William having owned land in Fr ederick County, Virginia and there are those who can rightly say, how do y ou know that William was in Virginia when you have not found any reco rd of his being there: We know he had to be in Frederick County, becau se of the evidence of his sons having owned land or other evidence that sh ows they were there. Therefore, we have to take the stand that this is whe re William and his family migrated to when they left Staten Island in 17 24 as all the evidence shows his family being there. We would also ha ve to suspect that both William and Mary are buried somewhere within the o verall area of Shepherdstown-Charles Town regions.
The first record of a member of William's family having owned land in Fred erick County, is that for his son John who got a "grant" in 1750, which h as been identified by a registered surveyor as being located approximate ly two (2) miles southeast of present day Charles Town, West Virginia. T he original survey, copy of which is in the illustrations, shows that John 's brother Michael was one of the two chain carriers when the survey was m ade and it establishes Michael being in this area.
William's son John was married to Charity Teague, daughter of William Teag ue who came to the Shepherdstown site from Maryland and he owned considera ble land in this overall area of Shepherdstown, West Virginia, the Frederi ck County, Virginia....
John, William's son, got his land grant in 1750 and he is the first of t he family for whom a deed to land in this area is in existence. There a re no records that show William had been granted a deed to land, nor is th ere any for Michael. His son Matthias received a land grant in 1766 for 1 59 acres in Frederick County on Sleepy Creek. These are the earliest of re cord for members of William's family. We would have to believe that the fa mily was located somewhere within the area of William Teague's lands in t he overall area of Shepherdstown. Teague having owned considerable la nd in this overall area and it may be he was influential enough to enab le his son-in-law John Swaim to be able to obtain his land.
John sold his property in August 1751 and William Teague had also been dis posing of his overall property and managed to sell the last piece to o ne of his sons in October 1751. Because of this piece of information, we h ad suspected that the families of William Teague, John, his son-in-law Mic hael and others did not migrate down the Shenandoah Valley until the spri ng of 1752. It has become quite evident that Matthias, who we now know w as the oldest son, is the one, who by law and custom of the times, inherit ed his father's estate, no matter what it may have consisted of at that ti me, but or small. No doubt Matthias lived on what property William had occ upied at that time prior to 1766. We have no knowledge of when William h ad died or for that matter when Mary died. This, Matthias and his descenda nts remained with this overall area and it appears logical to us as to w hy the son Michael elected to migrate with his brother John and the othe rs to the settlements of the overall area of Greensboro and Winston/Sale m, NC. Since Matthias was the one to inherit William's estate and consider ing all that has been related concerning land grants, that perhaps there w as some chicanery experienced by William and others in trying to get tit le to whatever land they occupied, that Michael felt he and his family wou ld have better opportunity migrating to North Carolina with the others.
It is quite evident that Matthias, being the oldest son, had inherited wha tever estate his father William had at the time of his death, to include h is lands, even though we have nothing to tell us what land William actual ly had at the time of his death. It is also very possible that the aged Wi lliam lived with Matthias and his family, with Mary having preceded h im in death. Thus, the younger brothers struck out on their own to establi sh their own land to raise their families. The survey of John's land gra nt took place in 1750 and he sold it and migrated to North Carolina a nd in the following year of 1751. We also have to state that the indicatio ns are that Michael preceded John to North Carolina and this took pla ce at some point in 1750/51, prior to John having sold his land.
SOURCE: http://familytreemaker.genealogy.com/users/b/o/d/Barbara-Y-Bodden/ BOOK-0001/0047-0001.html
Following this family with ties to the author O'Henry:
http://familytreemaker.genealogy.com/users/b/o/d/Barbara-Y-Bodden/BOOK -000 1/0044-0001.html
Page 45 of 108
ILLUSTRATIONS -- THE STORY OF O. HENRY
The photo of William S. Porter, "O. Henry," appeared in the Columbus Dispa tch of 5 Feb 1986, along with a story by David Marniss of the Washington P ost and we are extracting a major portion of the story for the benef it of all Swaim descendants, for "O. Henry's" mother was a Swaim.
"Most readers associate O. Henry with New York City where he lived the la st and most productive years of his life, writing 381 short stories from 1 902 to 1910. but Austin is where William Sidney Porter evolved into O. Hen ry and where his gentle, ironic and forgiving literary voice, one that ma de him an oracle of Christmas was formed.
"Will Porter was born in 1862 on a farm near Greensboro, NC, and was educa ted by his aunt, 'Miss Lina.'
"He developed a cough, and in 1882, at age 19, left North Carolina for t he fresh air of Texas. for two years he lived on a ranch sometimes worki ng as a handy-man or cook, more often reading a daydreaming in the ranch h ouse library.
"When he was 21, Porter moved to Austin. His first job was at Harrell's Ci gar Store, and from there he moved to a drugstore and real estate offic e. In 1887 he married Athol Estes and got another job, this time as a draf tsman in the state land office. The assignment was a political plum and Po rter lost it four years later when Texas changed governors.
"The first National Bank of Austin offered Porter a job as a teller. He w as terrible with money, but it seemed to matter little at this bank, whe re the officers and tellers were loose with accounts, loans and drafts.
"In 1894, Porter started his own weekly newspaper in Austin. It was call ed The Rolling Stone; its motto "Out for the Moss." It was an odd, amusi ng paper, full of doggerel, strange bits of news and gossip, satire and t he beginnings of the short stories that would make O. Henry famous years l ater. The newspaper lost money and Will Porter took some money from the ba nk to keep afloat.
"That Porter paid the money back mattered little. He had embezzled it. Ba nk officials tried to minimize the offense and protect their well-like emp loyee, but federal bank examiners from Washington sought his indictment.
"Porter fled to New Orleans, drifted around the French Quarter for sever al months and then took a banana boat to Honduras.
"While exiled in Honduras, Porter was touched by an experience reminisce nt of his fictional Magi. Athol, back in Austin with their daughter, was v ery sick in the early winter of 1896. But she wanted to earn some mon ey to buy Christmas presents for her husband, so she made a point-lace han dkerchief and sold it for about $25.
"When Porter learned of this and realized his wife was dying, he return ed to Austin to face trial. Athol died before the trial began.
"Porter was presented with two charges of taking $554.48 on Oct 10, 1894 a nd $229.60 on Nov. 12, 1894. The jury found him guilty, and he was sentenc ed to five years in prison.
"On April 25, 1898, he entered the federal penitentiary in Columbus, Ohi o, broken and humiliated. He wanted to write and had the time to do i t. O. Henry was born."
Mr. Marniss' story gives all of us an insight concerning Will Porter, w ho became a distinguished member of our family. Will Porter was the s on of Mary Jane Virginia, daughter of William, son of Marmaduke, son of Wi lliam & Charity (7-21).**************
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1719 - 1803 (83 years)
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