Genealogy - Grits from Grandpa

 

Wade's Mill in Raphine, VA

The boyhood home I grew up in sat on a quarter acre lot in a subdivision.  When I moved out -- I bought a quarter acre lot with a small house on it.  After selling that place - I bought another quarter acre lot in a subdivision with an average-sized home. My owned footprint has never been more than a quarter acre.

Many of my ancestors, however, have owned considerable amounts of land. Some of the poorest held a hundred and sixty times as much land as I ever have. Some of the richest have owned forty thousand times as much. Of course, there's a reason for the expression "Land rich, cash poor." And it's for that reason that my branch of the family no longer has land as an asset. 

Nonetheless, I remain fascinated by the lands they owned, worked, or traversed. This next series of blogs will be about family land.

In May of 2025, I visited the region where my McCown ancestors settled in the American colonies.  Like so many Scotsmen coming from Northern Ireland in the mid-1700s, that portion of my family settled in the Valley of Virginia in what was called the Borden Tract. While there, my wife and I visited Wade's Mill that has been in Raphine, Virginia since 1750. As soon as I saw it, I knew there was a possibility my ancestors had seen that mill in its earliest days.

My fifth great-grandfather, Francis McCown, had imported himself at Orange County, Virginia in 1740 -- though he already had property in the Beverley Tract as early as 1739. By 1743 he owned over 700 acres in the Borden Tract.  Over half of that was a plantation that bordered the property of Joseph Kennedy. 

Francis' Property bordering Joseph Kennedy's Property

Joseph and Francis both served in the militia formed by the community and certainly would have known each other. I can say with reasonable confidence that Francis visited and did business with the Kennedys at this mill for a time.

There remains speculation about the maiden name of Francis' wife, my fifth great grandmother, Margaret. Many genealogists have assumed her maiden name was Patterson and that she was the daughter of John Patterson and Agnes Moffett Patterson. Clearly, there was a close relationship to the Pattersons as Francis was named executor of John's will and one of Francis and Margaret's children was named Agnes.

The name Patterson -- and the possible connection -- is of special interest here because in 1906 a mill structure was moved from further down Hays Creek to be used as a barn. The mill was called the "Old Patterson Mill".

I can't imagine embarking across the ocean to claim land in a wilderness. I can't imagine transforming over 700 acres of that wilderness into farmland. I can't imagine having to defend it from other peoples who had different ideas about land ownership. It is so far removed from 20th and 21st-century suburban life. 

But today, I can go visit the region on the planet where Francis invested his time. I can enjoy grits ground on the same stone that ground his wheat and barley. I can stand in the place where he had conversations about Native American actions, the English in the east, settlement expansion and needs, and the wolf problem. These things I can imagine.