Frances Bell was an adept cattle trader and as such traveled the Valleys of Virginia bringing cattle back to his home farm in Swoope, Augusta County, Virginia which he ran with his brother Samuel Hays Bell. In his travels to the New River Valley he met and learned from master trader James Randal Kent who was married to Mary Cloyd and lived at Buchanans' Bottom ( now known as Kentland and owned by Virginia Tech) J.R. Kent was the wealthiest man in Montgomery County. He had five daughters and Frances (b1820) married Sarah James Kent (b1824) in 1855.

He took her to Swoope but she was extremely close to her family and become homesick. Her first two children passed away before being named and on a trip to Pulaski twin boys were born in a farm overseers cottage on Mountain Home property that had been a wedding gift from her father. They moved there soon afterwards and the original home was a small four rooms with separate kitchen and servants quarters. Two other children soon followed Mary (b1861) and Francis (b1864).

In the actual marriage license of Shadrack and Nancy, she is listed as being Nancy Willingham. However, I believe this is an error of the scribe who wrote out the license. The bride immediately before their marriage was a Willingham and the JP who performed the service was a Willingham. Since I have been able to trace Nancy through each subsequent census and have tied her into the children that she and Shadrack had and on to her cemetery plot naming her as Nancy Gaither, I don't think there is any doubt that the entry of "Willingham" was erroneous.

In addition to the above error of the name, there may have been an error in the date of the marriage stated to be in Sept 1826. The marriage record above that one was in 1827 which may indicate that Nancy's marriage was after that one. Also, Jesse Hardy did not die until 1827 which would not have left a conflict for the remarriage. Jesse's will was dated January 1827. The scribe who wrote the marriage license noted that he entered the data on the 3rd of Sept 1828. It could be that his memory or his notes of what he was to write had failed him resulting in the error in the name and date. – Marvin E. Owen

There is a little romance connected with his marriage with Elizabeth Moore Woodson, the widow of Tucker Woodson, which may be of interest to narrate. Mr. Thomas Jefferson, then governor,being a relative of Tucker Woodson, was interested in the young widow, and appointed Captain Crockett to keep guard over hear and her family, against marauders of the British army. The acquaintance thus formed resulted in their marriage, which too place near Charlottesville in the spring of 1782. The bride of thirty-five was the daughter of John and Mary Moore, of Albemarle County, the latter being the daughter of Matthew Jouett, making her, therefore, the great-aunt of Matthew Jouett, the eminent Kentucky artist.

About the middle of May, 1784, they started for their wilderness home, the means of conveyance being horses and a farm wagon, the latter containing a camping outfit, cooking utensils, and staple articles of provision. Colonel Crockett and his wife rode on horseback, as did also the few colored servants accompanying them. The one little boy,Samuel Woodson, rode in the wagon. After a long and tedious journey through Cumberland Gap and over the Wilderness Road, they arrived in Lexington, the county seat of Fayette, that being their destination.

Colonel Crockett located one thousand acres of land in Fayette County, afterwards Jessamine County, on Hickman Creek, five miles northeast of Nicholasville, soon after his arrival in Lexington in 1784. In the fall of 1785 he moved his family to his farm, where they occupied the story and a half stone building which he had begun to erect the year before. This building is still standing (1928) though showing the appearance of age, and is now owned and occupied by the widow of Doctor Jaspar. Colonel Crockett, as soon as it was possible, by means of slave labor, continued the clearing of his land, which had already been begun. After a few years' residence here, he removed three and a half miles northwest of Nicholasville, to a farm secured on the title of a Virginia land warrant received a few years before.

William J. afterwards married a quakeress, and removed to what isnow Loudoun County, and left many descendants. James settled near Middletown. Alexander became a lawyer; lived near Winchester; was a member of the first Congress of the U.S., and also of the Virginia Convention that adopted the first Constitution of the U.S. James the fourth son, was the father of the first Rev. Moses Hoge, who was a direct ancestor of several preachers of that name - found afterwards in many parts of the country - Notably Rev. Moses D. Hoge, D.D., of Richmond, Va. Rev. John Hoge, who has been mentioned as the first regular pastor of Opecquon Church, was the son of John. George the fifth son, was a member of the first courts of Frederick County; subsequently he changed his residence to N. Carolina. one of the daughters, Margaret, married Dr. Robert White a surgeon in the British navy. A grandson of Solomon Hoge married Mary Glass, granddaughter of Samuel Glass, the emigrant. Through this line, the Hoge family of Berkeley County, Va., descends.

Shenandoah Valley pioneers, T. K. Cartmell - 1909

CREST HILL — A dump truck crossed into oncoming traffic on Illinois 53 Wednesday afternoon, plowed into four cars and killed two sisters. The two women, Miriam Gasmovic, 65, of 821 Farragut Place in Joliet, and Almeta Garner, 71, of Mandeville, La., were pronounced dead at the scene of the 12:45 p.m. wreck on Illinois 53 near Division Street. Four others, including the driver of the dump truck, Thomas Moran, were taken to area hospitals. Moran was taken to Silver Cross Hospital where he was listed in serious condition. Garner's husband, Robert Garner, 77, was taken to Provena Saint Joseph Medical Center, officials said. Silver Cross staff listed Robert Garner in stable condition. Almeta and Robert Garner were visiting Joliet from Louisiana, an official said. Another motorist was airlifted on the Life Star helicopter to Saint Joseph's, said Crest Hill Police Chief James Ariagno. Neither his name nor his condition were available. Crest Hill police were unable to provide the names of the other motorists involved in the wreck, or disclose whether any tickets were issued. Ariagno said witnesses reported watching Moran's dump truck run onto the westside shoulder of Illinois 53 as it headed south, then make it back onto the road before it crossed into oncoming traffic.

January 5, 1981

SHARON KING WED TO JAMES HOGE, PUBLISHER

Sharon Leigh King, a consumer reporter and host of the weekly television show ''Money Sense'' on WBZ, Boston, was married in Cambridge, Mass., yesterday to James F. Hoge, publisher of The Chicago Sun-Times. The Rev. Larry M. Hill performed the Protestant ceremony at the home of John Kenneth Galbraith, the economist, and Mrs. Galbraith.

The bride, who will retain her maiden name for professional purposes, is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Richard King of Grand Forks, N.D. Mr. Hoge is a son of Mrs. Anthony Barber of New York and Tuxedo Park, N.Y., and the late James Fulton Hoge, who was senior partner in the New York law firm of Rogers Hoge & Hills.

Among those attending the wedding were James Patrick Hoge, Robert Warren Hoge and Alicia McClamroch Hoge, the bridegroom's children from his marriage to the former Alicia Patterson Albright, now Mrs. Michael Arlen of New York, which ended in divorce.

The bride was graduated cum laude from Wheaton College in Norton, Mass., where she was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. She completed the publishing procedures course at Radcliffe College and attended the John Fitzgerald Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. Her father is a lawyer.

Mr. Hoge, a graduate of Yale, received a master's degree in modern history from the University of Chicago and completed the three-month advanced management program at the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration.

Originally, the Hoge Wood House Land was owned by James Sprunt, one of the city's forefathers. Later sold to Mary Stewart Holiday Hoge and her husband the Reverend Peyton Harrison Hoge, a minister at the oldest Presbyterian Church in the Wilmington. Dr. Hoge designed the house, which was built using Carolina White Pine and Cypress timbers. Another interesting fact, in 1901 Dr. Hoge performed the marriage ceremony of Mary Lily Kenan and Henry M. Flagler. Flagler was the cofounder of Standard Oil Company, and built a private rail line into Kenansville from Warsaw to especially accommodate the arriving wedding guests. Another former owner was Dr. Edward Jenner Wood. He was recognized as an authority on Pellagra-Sprue (a tropical disease) and was also son of Thomas Fanning Wood, MD, known as the "father of public health" in North Carolina.

While this beautiful Queen Anne-style house has been lovingly restored and renovated, its exterior is remarkably unchanged since it was erected in 1891.

The City of Lincoln's history begins with the local Indians who settled here well before the Spaniards, under the direction of Hernando De Soto, came looking for gold in our area. The area in and around Lincoln was settled by what white men called Creek Indians. Their true name was Muskogee, and the local tribes in our area were called Conchardee. The Conchardee are gone now, but they have left their imprint on our area. Many of the local place names serve to remind us of these first settlers. There is Blue Eye Creek which begins near the Talladega/Calhoun County line and winds its way through Lincoln. Blue Eye is remarkable in the fact that the story of its name comes from one of the best known local legends. It was supposedly named after a Conchardee chief who had one brown eye and one blue eye and because this was so rare the creek was named in his honor. Chocolocco Creek is also a tribute to their presence and named for another local chief. This creek runs through the south end of the city and at last survey was just one foot too short to be called a river. Another local attraction associated with the Muskogee and Conchardee is the Sleeping Giant. Although best seen from atop Mt. Cheaha, the Sleeping Giant can be seen in the distance on Alabama Highway 77 heading south out of Lincoln. The Sleeping Giant is really just a collection of foothills that, when seen from a distance, resemble a huge man sleeping on the horizon. There is, of course, a legend associated with the Sleeping Giant .

The first white men in this area were those of Hernando De Soto's who came looking for gold. They did not find any gold but they did map the area. According to E. Grace Jemison, a local historian, one of De Soto's men stayed behind and was given a desperately ill black Christian slave. These two became the first white and black men to take up residence in Alabama. We do not know the slave's name, and the only name for DeSoto's man that can be found is simply "Furada". Soon, English traders from the Carolinas were coming through bartering with the Muskogee Indians. At that time the only means of tranpsortation were wagons or just horseback. The traders used old hunting trails and sometimes the Coosa River to bring their wares to trade for skins and furs. It wasn't until much later that the old plank roads were built, and then because of an unwillingness to pay for them to be built, the plank road was built in Winterboro, just south of Talladega and Lincoln, and named in honor of one of the local settlers.

During the War of 1812, Andrew Jackson and his men camped at Fort Strother on the banks of the Coosa River near Ten Islands, just north of Lincoln. They arrived at the fort with no supplies and foraged for food over a wide area. The Lincoln area was noted by these men to have a good supply of fresh water and fertile land and many came back after the war was over to settle the area. Andrew Jackson also cut a trail through Lincoln on his way to Talladega for the Battle of Talladega. This battle took place on what is now known as Battle Street in the heart of Talladega. This battle was between the Red Sticks, a sect of the "Creeks" opposed to white control, and Andrew Jackson's men. Since then, the trail has been paved and is now known as Jackson Trace Road, part of it running parallel to the Talladega Super Speedway.

The first post office in Lincoln was established on January 29th, 1850. The name of the post office and the area around it was called Kingsville at the time. Jesse Calhoun was the first postmaster. On January 17, 1856 the postoffice officially became known as the Lincoln Post Office with Jesse Hardin as the first postmaster.

The town was named for a soldier in the War of Independence. This man's name was Benjamin Lincoln and he became known as the Defender of Charleston for his valor in the line of fire. His fame spread all the way across the Southern states. General Benjamin Lincoln was second in command of the Revolutionary Army and accepted the sword of surrender from General Cornwallis at the Battle of Jamestown, which ended the War of Independence. Early settlers brought the name from North Carolina or Georgia. These early settlers were Theodore Burns, John Groce, and Henry Turner. While some of their descendants still live in the area, other early settlers names were: Embry, McClellan, Bell, Burns, Montgomery, Acker, Wilson, Watson, Weed, Brewer, Mynatt, Collins, Groce, Dickinson, Franklin, Schmidt and Jones. Many of these early settlers came by wagon to develop the wilderness and make homes for their families. Some were farmers, others ministers and teachers, a few doctors, millwrights, carpenters and a few merchants.

The Georgia Pacific railroad came through Lincoln in 1883. The laying of the railroad actually moved the town 1/4 mile south of the old site. The new businesses were centered around the railroad.

Lincoln was incorporated in 1911. The first mayor was W.D. Henderson with the first council members being: L.U. Dickinson, J. L. Richey, J.M. Cunningham, W.N. Jons and W.D. Davis. W.C. Madden was the town cleark and Lon Embry was the constable. The area of the new town was approximately one square mile.

One of the first acts of business was to open Third Avenue between Magnolia and Chestnut Streets and extend Magnolia Street to the high school area. This was very important because Lincoln had been selected as the for the Talladega County High School. E.D. Acker and R.D. Burns, members of the Alabama Legislature deserve much of the credit for the school being located in Lincoln, although they never officially received much credit for it.

Before the Depression, as with most small towns in the South, cotton was the primary industry and all business was centered around the railroad. There were two banks, fifteen businesses, a hotel, a cottonseed oil mill and two cotton gins. The town had electricity and a telephone system.

The 1929 crash closed both banks and gradually strangled the businesses in town. In the same year, U.S. Highway 78 came through Lincoln. New businesses were built along the new highway. During the 1930's a water system was installed under the WPA program by then Mayor James I. Kirksey. In the 1960's Interstate 20, part of the Eisenhower Interstate System, came through Lincoln prompting more entrepreneurs to open businesses around the 165 exit and 168 exit. U.S. Highway 78 and Interstate 20 now are primary business areas of the city.

Lincoln has been rated the eighth fastest growing city in the State of Alabama and if you're ever nearby, don't hesitate to stop in. We may be growing and industrializing, but we still have southern hospitality.