This website is to share information that I've gathered while researching the Williams family in Greenbrier County. If you have any information on any of the people in these files, please email me (greg@gregsmith.info) and share what you know. I would like for this to be a communal resource to help everyone researching these families.

Surnames I'm researching : Williams, McCoy, Ocheltree, Blake

p. 30-31

In the spring of 1769, in the wake of the treaties of Fort Stanwix and Hard Labor, hundreds of settlers streamed accross the Allegheny Mountains. In the vanguard of those who chose the Greenbrier region were twenty-year-old John Stuart, Robert McClanahan, Thomas Renick, and William Hamilton. Stuart, whose mother was a cousin of John Lewis, a promoter of the Greenbrier Company, and McClanahan had made a hunting and exploring expedition to the Greenbrier Valley in 1767. At that time Stuart selected a site near Frankford, which he bought from Colonel William Frogg, the original patentee, and McClanahan chose a tract in the Richland areas.

Other surveys made in 1769 for James Hughart, James Jordan, James Knox, Charles Lewis, William Mann, James McCoy, John McCoy, William McCoy, Lawrence Murphy, and Thomas Williams on Sinking Creek, east of Big Clear Creek Mountain; Andrew Crockett, Alexander Crockett, and Hugh Gillespie in the Nob Ridge area; Job Fletched on Spring Lick Creek; William Kenny and Charles Kennison on Falling Spring Creek; and Moses Moore, William Renick, and Joseph Williams on Second Creek. Most of these surveys were entirely or partially in present Greenbrier County. In addition, surveys were made for William Blair and William Lewis on Clover Lick Creek; Hugh Johnson, about twelve miles from Marlinton on the northwest side of the Greenbrier River; and John Lewis on Knapp Creek, all in Pocahontas County.

p. 102

The Mathews day books and ledger attest the great scarcity of money in the Greenbrier region, a common problem in frontier regions. Business was generally conducted on a barter basis. Most customers paid in farm produce, such as corn, potatoes, oats, cattle, hogs, bacon, cheese, hemp, and tallow. The forests also provided products that served the purpose of cash, particularly skins, furs, and ginseng. Between August 9, 1771, and March 30, 1773, the merchants sent at least 1,090 deerskins obtained from Greenbrier customers to their Staunton store. Among those making substantial payment in deerskins were William McCoy, Richard Williams, Robert McClanahan,Walter Kelly, Isaac Van Bibber, Michael Keeney, Samuel McClung, Joseph Davis, James Davis, William Smith, Joseph Swope, Matthew Bracken, Jerry Carpenter, John Williams, and James Jarrett, with Van Bibber selling at least 230 and Davis and Bracken more than 100 each.

Scarcely less important as a medium of exchange was ginseng. Peter Smith provided the merchants with 86 pounds; Thomas Williams took in 68 pounds; and James Estill, John Keeney, Robert Sconce, John Williams, Thomas Williams, John Ewing, and James Donnally each paid accounts with 40 pounds or more. Another method by which customers discharged their debts was by assigning amounts due them for military service, as shown on the claim books, to the Mathews brothers. A few persons, including Joseph Swope, Robert McClanahan, and Robert Lindsey, stood out in that they paid for part of their purchases in cash.