BEGATS AND BEQUEATHALS

The first of the two petitions is one presented to the Virginia legislature on 15 May 1855 by inhabitants of citizens of Walker’s Creek Valley in Wythe County.^[1] As yesterday’s posting notes, the 15 June 1801 will of John Grayson’s father William Grayson in Montgomery County bequeathed to John and his brother Ambrose adjoining plantations on Walker’s Creek in a part of Wythe County that became Bland County in 1861.^[2]

This May 1855 petition notes that a move had been made in the Virginia legislature to change the location of the Walker’s Creek and Holston Road in Wythe County so that the road would run past the house of John Grayson. A group of citizens opposed to that change signed a petition to the legislature to adhere to the route sketched by the directors of the road-building company, which was more convenient for local citizens and did not propose a new route simply to convenience a few citizens (obviously John Grayson chief among them).

The primary interest of this petition is that it captures the names of a fairly sizable group of people living in Walker’s Creek Valley in May 1855. The images I’m presenting here provide a copy of the petition itself, and then clippings from the original documents that capture the names of all signatories. I’ve clipped out portions of subsequent pages that simply repeat the original petition and then have signatures following. Among the names to be spotted among the signatories is the surname Newberry. As yesterday’s posting notes, when John Grayson’s son Franklin gave bond in Bland County for execution of his father’s will on 2 March 1874, one of his bondsmen was Harman Newberry.^[3]

The second of the two petitions I’m sharing here was presented to the Virginia legislature on 22 January 1856.^[4] It was signed by a group of citizens supporting the change in the direction of the Walkers’ Creek and Holston (spelled Holstein here) turnpike to go by John Grayson’s house. This petition (see the image at the head of the posting) contains signatures of John Grayson himself, his sons Andrew Jackson and John Pierce Grayson, and friends and family members who wanted to support locating the road along John’s land. The signatures include those of John Grayson’s nephew James W. Grayson, son of his brother Ambrose; William Bane, who, if he’s not the William Bane who married John’s daughter Jane, is a member of this Bane family; Armistead A. Ashworth, a witness to John’s will; Wilkinson Wysor/Wiesor, a relative of Ambrose Grayson’s wife Elizabeth Wysor; and Joseph Cooley, John’s kinsman through John’s mother Rachel Cooley.

The turnpike did, in fact, end up running past John Grayson’s house. On 3 April 1838, the legislature had passed an act incorporating the Walker’s Creek Turnpike Company.^[5] The act states that for Wythe County, the books for the company would be under the direction of John Grayson, Ambrose Grayson, and Hiram Robinet, another name signing the January 1856 petition — with the books available for inspection at John Grayson’s house. So John was already playing a leading role in the road’s development from 1838 forward, and, of course, having a road or turnpike run past a particular house gave that houseowner certain economic advantages including ready access to markets and also, if a householder obtained license to do so, permission to operate an inn or ordinary. 

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^[1] Citizens of Walker’s Creek Valley: Petition, 15 May 1855, Legislative Petitions of the Virginia General Assembly, series 4, miscellaneous, 1776-1865.

^[2] Montgomery County, Virginia, Will Bk. 1, pp. 116-7.

^[3] Bland County, Virginia, Bond Bk. 1861-1890, p. 334.

^[4] Citizens of Walker’s Creek: Petition, 22 January 1856, Legislative Petitions of the Virginia General Assembly, series 4, miscellaneous, 1776-1865.

^[5] Acts of the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Virginia (Richmond: Thomas Ritchie, 1838), act. 171, pp. 122-3.