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View Tree for Stephen Philip CapehartStephen Philip Capehart

Stephen Philip Capehart (son of John Capehart and Mary Teays).

 Includes NotesNotes for Stephen Philip Capehart:
Named for both of his Grandfathers
The following is taken from "Genealogy of West Virginia Families" a collection of
articles from "The West Virginia Historical Magazine Quarterly", 1901-1905

This article is written by Stephen Philip Capehart and titled:

"THE TEAYS FAMILY OF KANAWHA"

In The year of 1750 a party was organized in Germany consisting principally of
pleasure seekers, to make a visit to the colonies of America, and among this party was a
young refined and wealthy lady, Miss Adelaide Lee, a daughter of Mr. Lee, whose wife
was a Miss Inocence, a highly educated and refined family, and of the German Reformed
Church. There were six daughters in this Lee family—Miss Adelaide who came on this
visit with her friends, who was taken ill in Philadelphia and died there. The father Lee,
not hearing from her for some time, determined to come and learn of his daughter,
fearing that something had happened that prevented her from writing as usual. With
father Lee and his next two daughters, Maria and Rosamend, a young kinsman of the
Duchy of Grueirsucken, by the name of Frederick Conrad took ship and also sailed for
Philadelphia to find Adelaide, and also prospecting and looking for a proper place for a
home in the new world. Soon after arrival they learned of the death of Miss Adelaide,
and the father decided to travel through the colonies and then select his place of
residence.
He soon settled in Frederick, Maryland, and there his daughter Rosamend married a
Mr. Waters, and her father gave to her his possessions, consisting of a farm, a tan yard, a
vineyard, etc., and Father Lee, with his daughter Maria, then moved on to Winchester
Virginia, where he again invested in a tract of land, made a tan yard, planted a hop
garden, etc. Tan yards were valuable in those days.
On the 29th of September, 1759, Maria married Frederick Conrad; he of the age of
thirty-four and she of twenty-one, and Conrad and Father Lee went into business as
partners.
Mr. Lee then sent for his wife and family in Germany. They soon arrived, bringing the
old family bible chained to the leg of a table. Miss Charlotte remained in Frederick, Md.,
with her sister, Mrs. Waters, while the mother and Katherine made their way on to
Winchester. Charlotte afterwards married a Mr. Balster, and her father purchased for her
a property to represent the "German Dot." Afterwards father Lee took his wife and
Katherine with him on a visit over the Blue Ridge to New London, and being pleased
with this country, he there invested in real estate for his daughter Katherine, who had met
a Captain Thomas Teays of the Colonial Army, who had asked her to become his wife
and who assented to the proposal.
Capt. Thomas then spelled his name Tass, but afterward changed the spelling to Teays,
the pronunciation being the same, and the latter spelling better adapted to English
pronunciation, although many of the family in Virginia retain the original spelling of
Tass, to this day. Captain Thomas Tass and Katherine Lee were married about 1760, in
Bedford county, Va.
Thomas Teays is said to have been with Capt. Wm. Crawford when he was surveying
out west for George Washington, and was captured by a band of marauding Indians, out
on what is known as Teays Valley, near Scary Creek, now in Putnam county, and he was
taken by the Indians to their settlements in Ohio and where he was condemned to be
burned. One historian states that he was saved by an Indian who recognized him as one
who had divided his salt with the Indian, and secured his release—Others say he was
saved by an Indian woman, and others that he was scalped, but survived.
Be that as it may have been, he was held for many years, but finally made his escape
and made his way back to the Kanawha Valley and to Winchester, where he called to see
his brother-in-law, Frederick Conrad.
Thomas Tass had not used a razor or shears for many years and his clothing was not of
the dudish order of store clothes, he was not recognized by Conrad and who refused to
believe his story, but insisted that Thomas Tass had been killed many years before, and
he turned down the brother-in-law as an imposter. So he moved on over the Ridge. He
had no difficulty in making himself known at home, although his children had grown out
of his knowledge.
Captain Teays remained at home with his family, consisting of three boys and four
girls, viz: Katherine, Martha, Mary, Lucy, John, William and Stephen.
In 1800 about, when he was about sixty years old, he desired to secure land for his
family and for his service in the army he was entitled to the same. He set out west to
locate land, and arrived again in the Kanawha Valley, which was down in the vicinity of
Coalsmouth, on the Kanawha and on Coal River, and he then returned to his home in
New London, Va., where he remained the rest of his days.
He was born on the James River, and he had two sisters—one married a Mr. Leiws and
the other a Mr. Reives.
Mr. Lee gave to his daughter Katherine, his possessions at New London and he
proceeded to Stanton and there for a fourth time made an investment for a home and
when his youngest daughter, Louisa Christina, married Dr. John Sharp Watkins.
Stephen Teays, the youngest son of Capt. Thomas, about 1795 or perhaps earlier, went
to the west and located on his fathers land.
Stephen Teays in the year 1796 was married to Miss Mary Carroll, in Kanawha, by the
Rev. Jas. Johnson.
Miss Carroll was a niece of Catherine Carroll, who had married Major William Morris,
and settled at the mouth of Coal River, on the lower side thereof and erected a two-story,
double-log house on the lands of his father. Stephen cleared up a farm and established a
ferry and kept the weary travelers that desired to stay with him.
Stephen was born in 1774, and died March 20, 1823. Mary Carroll was from
Maryland, and was of the same family of Charles Carroll, of Carrollton, who signed the
Declaration of Independence in such a way that there would be no mistake as to which of
the Carrolls it was, when King George offered the reward for the heads of the signers.
Mary Carroll was born in the year 1777, and died January 2, 1834.
Tacketts Fort stood on the Teays' land about one-half mile from Coalsmouth and one-
fourth of a mile out from the Kanawha river, and on that portion of the land that was
afterwards allotted to my Aunt Parthenia Wilson, who was the grand-mother of the
Wilsons of Kanawha today. The location of the fort is visible today, after a century of
cultivation, of which I shall write more hereafter.
Stephen Teays set out a row of peach trees from the mouth of Tacket's creek to the
mouth of Scary creek, about four miles long, one in each corner of the fence.
The 1000 acre survey of land near Hurricane Bridge went in the partition of the estate
of Thomas Teays to two of his maiden daughters, Martha and Polly Teays, who remained
at the old home in Virginia. Martha Teays after visited her brother Stephen Teays'
family, coming all the way on horseback, a distance of some five hundred miles and
made as many as four such trips in her life-time.
The children of Stephen and Mary Carroll Teays were:
(1) Katherin, born 1798; married Henry Thomas in 1821, and she died August 11,
1830.
(2) John, born 1800; died 1845 in Missouri; never married.
(3) Mary, born September 14, 1802; married John Capehart, October 26, 1826. She
died May 18, 1838. He died August 5, 1846.
(4) Parthenia, born September 15, 1803; married Sam B. Wilson December 23, 1830.
She died July 10, 1878.
(5) James T., born in 1805 or 6; married Elizabeth Everett, 1831. Died in 1867in
Missouri.
(6) Elizabeth, born December 25, 1809; married John Hansford, 1828. Died 1829.
(7) Martha, born 1811; married Joe Capehart, 1822. Died, 1832 in Missouri.
(8) William, born 1813; died 1818.
Mary Teays, daughter of Stephen, known as Polly Teays, married John Capehart,
October 22, 1826. They had the following children: William Henry, Charles Carroll,
Stephen Philip and Parthenia Jane.
When Charles Carroll was named, he received the congratulations of Major William
Morris and Katie Carroll Morris, wishing the dear babe all the goodness and greatness of
his Maryland namesake, Stephen Philip—the writer, was named for both his
grandfathers, and Parthenia was named for her Aunt, Mrs. Parthenia Wilson.
Parthenia Teays married Samuel B. Wilson, December 23, 1830.
Jas. T., the only one of the family that had two names, married Eliza Everett, daughter
of Col. John Everett, of Guyandotte, and a man of note in his day. They had nine
children—Stephen, Oliver, William Carroll, Frances Asbury, Sarah Elizabeth, James
Henry, Edward and Jennie.
Elizabeth Teays, 4th daughter of Stephen, married John Hansford, a grandson of Wm.
Morris, and son of Maj. John Hansford, of Paint creek. They left one child, Mary Jane
who married first Dr. J. W. Walls, of Winchester, and next V. R. Rust, of Poca—
Martha, the 5th daughter of Stephen, married Joe Capehart. Their children were Silas,
Aaron and Mary; twins, Elizabeth, Katherine, James, John, Oliva, Parthenia and Martha.
They went to Henry county, Missouri.
The children of Parthenia and Sam'l B. Wilson were Mary Elizabeth, who married W.
E. Chilton, Sr.; Hannah Katherine, who married Capt. George S. Chilton; Parthenia Jane
Wilson, Oliver Teays Wilson, and Sarah A. Burnet, of Huntington, W. Va.
The lower end of the 1000 acre tract of Thomas Teays was sold to John Lewis, known
as Coal River John Lewis, a grandson of Genl. Andrew Lewis, who married a daughter of
Col. Andrew Donnally. He settled his brother Samuel Lewis, in a log house, near the
mouth of Scary and an older brother, William Lewis, on what was called Dogwood hill,
in a pioneer double log house, who had two sons, William and Andrew, who located in
St. Louis. Their father, William Lewis, died and was buried on the farm of his brother,
John Lewis, known as "Valcoulon," where he built a large two-story brick mansion, just
back of Tackets Fort. John Lewis came to the neighborhood very wealthy, the owner of
many slaves, had a park on hill for his deer and elk and kept a colored man whose duty it
was to keep away the dogs from molesting his herds of deer, one of which I remember
was snow-white.
I also remember his family with whom I was intimate as schoolmates, viz: And. D.,
John W., James V., and Margerie, the daughter who married Edward Kenna. She urged
my stepmother to be sure and come to her wedding as she never expected to marry but
one Irishman. Her son was the Hon. John E. Kenna, and she afterwards married Richard
Ashbey and her son, Walter L. Ashbey, of Charleston, is her other son..
John Lewis established the first race track in the Kanawha Valley, on the bottom just
below where Tacketts Fort stood. A brother-in-law, Engles, managed and looked after
the racers, the Medoc Stock, beautiful sorrels.
Mrs. Emily Engles afterwards married for her second husband, James Capehart, of
Point Pleasant, my uncle, and father of ex-Congressman James Capehart, of Mason
County, W. Va.
I will relate here an incident I always heard of Mr. John Lewis, whose fields was large,
his force great and his stock in abundance, and there was an old man, Jerry Wells, who
lived on the Hurricane waters, who was known as very light fingered. Mr. Lewis could
never catch up with him, but Jerry received the blame for everything that was lost, and
Lewis proposed to Jerry that if he would not steal anything from him for a year, he would
give to him fifty dollars. The old man stood and studied for some time before answering,
but finally said "No, Mr. Lewis, I could not afford that, I would be loosin by it"—and the
trade fell through.
Extravagance and bad management brought Lewis almost to want before his death, or
at least, he was not worth half so much.
S. P. Capehart


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