General Notes

 SOURCE:
"Pioneer Baptist Church Records of South-Central Kentucky and the Upper Cumberland of Tennessee, 1799-1899"      Book  FHL 976./K2c  pg. 62-65


                              The Skaggs Family
The James Skaggs family were Baptists and "Long Hunters" who were one of the first families to come from the "Baptist Valley" area of Southwest Virginia. (1)  The Skaggs family, consisting of Rev. James Skaggs and his brothers Henry, Richard, Jacob, Charles, Moses and William (his four sisters, Susannah, Lydia, Betsy or Elizabeth and Nancy, remained in Virginia).  They were the early "Long Hunters" of 1761-1775 of which the Kentucky historians have recorded much about.  Henry and Richard were particularly prominent.  Henry Skaggs was at the present site of Bowling Green, Kentucky in 1775.  A brother Moses, was killed by Indians on his second trip into Kentucky.
Richard Skaggs had three sons named Shadrach, Mashack, and Abednego.  It was Mashack who was killed by Indians on the creek named after him in present Monroe County, Kentucky. (2)
The men who lived on the frontier took protracted hunting trips into Kentucky, hence the name "Long Hunters".  Later when Daniel Boone led a group of Yadkin farmers into Kentucky, they used a wilderness track referred to as the "Skaggs Trace".  This track became a part of the Boone Trace and Wilderness Road that led the pioneers into Kentucky from Virginia.
The first settlement of the Green River Baptists was in Green County in 1780, and was known as Skaggs Station.  It was established by Rev. James Skaggs and was the third station in what is now Green County, Kentucky. (3)  The exact date Skaggs' Station was founded is unknown, however, treasury warrant #11533, for 450 acres of land on Brush Creek, was issued to James Skeggs on 01 April 1780.  This probably corresponds closely to the date of actual settlement.  The tract of land in question was originally located in Jefferson County, Kentucky but became Nelson County, Kentucky by the date it was formally granted by Governor Patrick Henry on 08 May 1786. (4, 4a)
Rev. James Skaggs, his wife, daughter and sons came to Green County about the month of April 1779.  They built a cabin fort near the site where the Jones Cemetery is now located on Brush Creek.   That Fall, in October, it was decided that provisions for winter were insignificant and it would be necessary to return to Brian's Station to spend the winter.  James and his wife, had their daughter take the cooking pot and the dutch oven to Indian Hollow to a small cave (now destroyed by construction of Hwy 61) to hide them for their return the next Spring.  While the daughter was there, a small party of Indians (4 or 5) came upon her.  They killed and scalped her at Indian Hollow.  When she failed to return, her father and brothers sought and found her and brought her body to the Fort or Cabin and buried her inside it.  This was the first burying at the Jones Cemetery and probably the first in Green County, Kentucky.  The exact site of this grave is unknown.(4)
In the Fall of 1779 Henry Skaggs started up from Tennessee for his usual Winter hunt.  Indians attacked, stole the game his party had collected this "Hard Winter" and frightened most of the hunters back to camp, leaving Henry Skaggs alone with his young son and another hunter named Sinclair.  Shortly after the three of them started further into the wilderness, Sinclair drowned in the icy Green River.  Then young Skaggs took sick and died.  The old hunter left his son's body in a hollow log, because the ground was frozen too hard for a proper burying. (5)
In the Winter of 1780, there were only about thirty families living in the entire Green County Area. (7)
At the close of the year 1780, there was one licensed and five ordained Baptist preachers in what is now the large and populous state of Kentucky - William Marshall, Joseph Barnett, John Whitaker, Benjamin Lynn (for whom Nolin River was named) and James Skaggs, and licentiate John Gerrard (killed by Indians two years later). (8)
In March of 1781, the stations in Green County, Kentucky were broken up and burned by the Indians.  Rev. James Skaggs' family then moved near the present site of Bardstown, Kentucky. (7, 9)
Rev. James Skaggs sought the protection of Phillip's Fort during those troubled times, and while there, he and Benjamin Lynn preached the Gospel to the inhabitants of this fort. (10)  This resulted in the formation of the South Fork of Nolin Baptist Church in 1782.  During their stay at Phillip's Fort, the Indians were massacring people and they were always lurking in the surrounding forests. (11)
From  March 1781 until the year 1784, no white man lived within the bounds of the area which is now Green County, Kentucky, although hunters, trappers, and land locators frequently passed through the area. (12)
In 1784, settlements were again formed in Green County.  James Skaggs and Samuel Sanders returned and new families joined them. (13)  When they arrived, they found that the original structure had been burned to the ground.  The new Fort was 22 by 24 feet, two stories high, built of large hewed yellow poplar logs with port holes in the upper story, an inside stairway and a large stone chimney at the south end.  There was a fireplace on the first floor with a smaller fireplace on the second floor.  This site was selected because of a large spring near by. (4)
By the year 1787 a thin fringe of cabins extended along Bacon Creek, and the overflow from the Rolling Fork settlements had reached the upper Green River and as far down same as Lynn Camp.  These first cabins were built generally two, and sometimes three, close together (each man building on his own land) for protection, and then probably a mile or two of woods between this and the next settlement of the same sort. (14)
The majority of the best people were not church members - at that time, it was not fashionable to belong to a church organization.  So it required a man of much physical and moral courage to preach in such a community. (15)  Many of the settlers who had worshipped at the South-Fork of Nolin Church, returned to Green County after the trouble with Indians was past, and formed churches in that area.
In the year 1789, the Brush Creek settlement near Green River is referred to for the first time in the Nelson County (later Green County) tax records, and numbered among the inhabitants of the settlement was Henry Skaggs and Samuel Sanders. (16)
Rev. James Skaggs obtained land grant #337 from Patrick Henry, Governor of Virginia, for 450 acres of land on Brush Creek on May 8, 1786. (18) Brush Creek Baptist Church, one of the earliest churches established in the Green River country, was organized in August 1791. (19)
Thirty-one members were dimissed from old Brush Creek Church by letters to form the Liberty Baptist Church in 1802.  A son of Rev. James Skaggs, also named James Skaggs, was a minister for several years at this church. (20)
Rev. James Skaggs, who originally came from Virginia to Kentucky, was said to have fallen under reproach on account of immoral conduct, and moved further west.  In the Nelson County Deed Book 4, pg. 882-883, there is a statement by Leah Carter giving up all claims and title to Masheck Carter being her husband and claiming any of his estate because she had eloped with James Skaggs.  Dated 23 Nov 1793.   Then in Deed Book 1, pg. 5,  James Skaggs, Jr (Rev.), sells the 450 acres of land on Brush Creek (which he had inherited from his father, James, to his three sons, Henry, Stephen and James Skaggs for 100 pounds.  Dated 15 Nov 1793. (21)  Then in Green County Order Book 6, pg. 196, William Skaggs asks the court to appoint William Barnett, Nathaniel Owens and James Scott to divide the 450 acres among the heirs of the sons, James, Jr., Stephen and Henry, who were all deceased.  Dated 23 Sep 1816. (22)
Sources:
1 - Bickley, "History of Tazwell County, Virginia", pg. 512
2 - Smith and Butler, "Green County Land Entries", pg. 20  Entry by J. McColgan
3 - "Green County Review" - Pitmans Station, pg. 57-58. Deposition at Morgantown, Butler        County, on the 21st day of JAN 1822 by Nicholas Phelps.  Also deposition of Nancy            Carson, AUG 20 1821 in Green County.  See also "Glovers Station", Vol 1, No. 1, and          "James Skaggs Station"  Vol. 4, No. 1, of "Green County Review"
4 - "Green County Review", Vol. 4, No. 1,  pg.1
4a - Master Index, Virginia Surveys and Grants, 1774-1791, Kentucky Historical Society,
        Vol. 16, Original Survey #3841
5 - "Draper MSS", Reel 5-C, Filson Club
6 - "Green County Review", pg.60 under history of Pitmans's Station and Samuel Sanders         Deposition, Feb 1823, Hart Co., KY
7 - "Green County Review", Vol. 1, No., 1, pg. 2
8 - Spencer, "A History of Kentucky Baptists", Vol. 1, pg. 18
9 - Ibid.,  pg 2, "Statement of Henry Skaggs given in a deposition in the case of Rhea vs.         Abney, in 1835
10 - "Draper Papers, George Rogers Clark MSS", Vol. 36J38
11 - Spencer, "A History of Kentucky Baptists", Vol. 1 pg. 33-34
12 - "Green County Review", Pitman's Creek, pg. 61
13 - William Skaggs Deposition in the case of Smith Tandy vs James Smith 30 JUL 1810
14 - Gardiner, "Cyrus Edwards' Stories of Early Days", pg. 6
15 - Ibid.,  pg. 122
16 - "The Nelson County Pioneer", Vol. 6, No. 3, Winter 1982, pg. 60
17 - Spencer, "A History of Kentucky Baptists", Vol. 1, pg 251
18 - " Master Index", Virginia Surveys and Grants, 1774-1791.  Vol. 16, Original survey
          #3841
19 - "Minutes of the Russell's Creek Baptist Association", 1877 minutes, pg. 10
20 - "Minutes of the Liberty Baptist Church", Green County, Kentucky
21 - "Green County Review", Vol. 4, No. 1, pg. 3,  Oct 1980
22 - "Green County Review", Vol. 4, No. 1, pg. 4,  Oct 1980
Source of all of the above:
"Pioneer Baptist Church Records of South-Central Kentucky and the Upper Cumberland of Tennessee, 1799-1899"      Book  FHL 976./K2c  pg. 62-65
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SOURCE:  Kentucky Skaggs Records, by Juanita Skaggs Luttrell
                 Page 336 - 337 - Green County, Kentucky
                 Order Book #6,  Page 447 - 25 Oct 1819

Wm. SKAGGS is appointed guardian to the infant heirs of Stephen SKAGGS dec'd and also the infant heirs of James SKAGGS dec'd. it is ordered that Math. OWENS, James SCOTT & Wm. BARNETT be appointed Commissioners to divide the land of James SKAGGS, Senr. dec'd. between the sons and daughters of his three sons Stephen SKAGGS, Henry SKAGGS, & James SKAGGS  which three sons have departed having rec'd a joint deed from their father for said land this life.  It is ordered that the said Commissioners Convey to the sons and daughters of the said Stephen SKAGGS dec'd their proportion of said lands and in like manner convey to the sons and daughters of Henry SKAGGS dec'd. their proportions and in like manner to the sons daughters of James SKAGGS dec'd. their porportion of said land.
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