my ancestors, the Tacketts
You've probably heard me mention the Tacketts (originally spelled Taquett) at least once over the years. I'm very proud of my heritage. I had always heard stories about my ancestors (my moms huge into genealogy) but never really knew much until last christmas (2021) I received a book written about Lewis Tackett, jr. Lewis Tackett -pioneer: early days in Virginia from my mom and dad. The funny thing is, when I was young, we lived in St. Albans, WV and walked past the historical marker for Tackett's fort daily and had no idea that was our ancestors, that was before my mom got into genealogy. Turns out Lewis Tackett, sr. was my moms 6th great grandfather.
The Tackett family lived in the Shenandoah valley of Virginia in the late 1700's (Lewis, jr was born 1773). At that point Virginia was still a Colony of England. They moved across the Allegheny mountains to the Greenbrier valley for awhile in about 1780 or so. The federal government (now, of America) wanted to expand westward and offered land to anyone who would live on it, plus Lewis, sr. was awarded several acres for his service in the revolutionary war. Now they had land to move to on the Kanawha river but it was wilderness and Lewis, sr. had second thoughts about dragging his family into the wilderness. In 1788, this all changed, when the government offered to provide tools to anybody who would build a road from the Greenbrier valley to the Kanawha river. This gave them a way to access their new land, plus there would be other settlers, not to mention the government representatives also said they could work off the taxes they owed by building this road.
After they got to the present site of Charleston, they helped build Fort Clendenin AKA Fort Lee.
(Side note, Fort Clendenin is also where Fleming Cobbs was stationed. Fleming Cobbs is the namesake of cobbs creek in Lincoln county)
, they went down river a bit (to present day St. Albans) and built their own fort... Fort Tackett, Keziah (Lewis, jr.'s sister) and her husband John Young had the first white baby born in the Kanawha Valley, both Lewis, sr. and Lewis, jr. (Along with his mother) were kidnapped by Indians and escaped, Lewis, jr. Was close friends with famous settler Daniel Boone.
With the close of Indian hostilities in 1795, there was no reason for the Military to keep fort clendenin in use and now Daniel Boone, Lewis Tackett, sr., John young and others started to build the town that would later become known as Charleston. The very first deed in the new town was made to Lewis Tackett, SR. Which according to John Young: Lt. at elk a book written by Orton Jones, is still to be found in the Kanawha county clerks office in deed book A, page 17.
This is just a brief summary of their amazing lives. It's crazy to think how young this country really is.
Lewis, sr. And his wife sold their piece of land in Charleston and went with John and Keziah, who sold their two pieces of land in Charleston, about 15 miles back up the Elk river to what is now known as Young's Bottom and thats where the four of them lived out their days. All four are burried in Youngs Bottom.
Lewis, jr. and his family migrated to Indiana.
Theres a rock near Kanawha Blvd, which I've personally seen, that marks where Fort Clendenin used to be. Theres a historical landmark in Fraziers Bottom (putnam county) called "Tackett's pine"to symbolize where the Indians tied Lewis, sr. To a pine tree when they kidnapped him.
The way I tie into the Tacketts is through my great, great grandmother. She lived in a farmhouse that stands 50 yards from my front door. Her maiden name was Tackett and she was born on a road off of falls creek road near the Kanawha county/ Lincoln county line, that is now called Tackett lane. I wonder if she had ever met Lewis jr. Or sr. I'll bet she had met them because they were just a few generations before her
A sketch of fort Tackett I found on e-wv.org
A sketch of fort Clendenin/ fort lee from theclio.com
This is awesome you have done a great job at this. Thank you for passing down the history of Charleston Wes Virginia we need more of this so we can hear others stories and they are not forgotten
ReplyDelete