2. Hannah Whitlock, daughter of Charles Whitlock and Mary Davies, was born in 1795, according to the 1850 and 1860 federal censuses, both taken in Mercer County, Virginia (now West Virginia).[1] In 1850, Hannah’s age is given as 55. In 1860, she’s 65. Both censuses state that she was born in Virginia. Her parents were living in Wythe County, Virginia, at the time of her birth, so it seems fairly certain that’s where she was born. Hannah was likely named for her grandmother Hannah Phillips Whitlock.
Wythe County, Virginia, Beginnings
Around 1813-4 and very likely in Wythe County, Hannah married James Calfee, son of William Calfee (1743-1801) and Mary Wilson. James was born in 1795, according to the 1850 federal census cited above. I have not found a record of their marriage. James is named as William Calfee’s son in William’s 16 September 1801 will in Wythe County, which bequeathed to James, naming him as a son, half of the Wythe County land on which William’s uncle William had resided.[2] The elder William Calfee’s will, dated 10 August 1792 in Wythe County, states that William left his wife Mary his land, livestock, house and household goods, and enslaved people during her lifetime, and at her decease, the land was to go his nephews William and James Calfee, sons of his brother John.[3] Mary, William, and James were made executors of the will, which was signed by William Calfee and witnessed by Henry Davis, Richard Ellis, and Evan King. Henry Davis proved the will 9 June 1801 in Wythe court. Note that Henry Davies/Davis was the father of Charles Whitlock’s wife Mary.
Judy Llamas provides the following valuable biographical synopsis for William Calfee (1743-1801), father of James (married Hannah Whitlock), at William’s Find a Grave memorial page, Calfee family cemetery, Wythe County, Virginia:[4]
William was the son of John “the Pioneer” Calfee and Sallie Riggan. He married Mary Wilson in Shenandoah Co., VA.
After serving his new country during the Revolutionary War, William migrated with his large family and widowed mother from Shenandoah down the valley to Montgomery Co., VA. By 1780, he had over 600 acres on the south side of New River, about one and a quarter miles below the mouth of Big Reed Island Creek in Wythe Co. [previously part of Montgomery Co.], VA. It was also near the mouth of Pine Run on the route of the Cherokee Trail. On the bank of New River the family established Calfee’s Ford or Ferry. William served as an ensign in the county militia, was recommended as Commissioner of the Peace and qualified as a magistrate in 1790. He was appointed one of the trustees to establish the town of Wytheville, VA, as the seat of Wythe Co.
We have met a James Calfee in previous postings who was a neighbor of Hannah Whitlock’s grandfather Thomas Whitlock and of her father Charles Whitlock on Little Reed Island Creek in Wythe County. This James Calfee gave testimony in the Whitlock vs. Whitlock case filed by Agnes and Hannah Whitlock’s great-uncle William Davies against Thomas Whitlock on their behalf in September 1799.[5] As the posting I’ve just linked indicates, James Calfee testified on 14 June 1803 in Evansham (now Wytheville), noting that he lived two miles from Thomas Whitlock and understood that Thomas had promised his son Charles the half of Thomas’s land on which Charles and his family lived following Charles’s marriage to Mary, the daughter of Henry Davies and Jane Crockett.
The James Calfee (1762-1820) giving this testimony was married to Jane/Jean Davis, a daughter of Henry Davies/Davies. According to some researchers, Henry was first married to Jean/Jane Bryan, before he married Jane Crockett, mother of his daughter Mary Davies who married Charles Whitlock. If that’s the case, then Mary and Jean/Jane were half-sisters. Henry’s 10 August 1804 will in Wythe County names both Jean/Jane and Mary, among his other children.[6] The will appointed James Calfee and John T. Sayers executors, naming them as “friends,” and both men were among the witnesses to the will.
This James Calfee (1762-1820) whose wife was Jean/Jane Davies/Davis was the brother of William Calfee, father of the James Calfee (1795-1858) who married Hannah Whitlock. In marrying James, son of William Calfee, Hannah Whitlock was marrying into a family intermarried with her mother’s Davies family.
As also noted previously, when Thomas Whitlock and wife Hannah Phillips Whitlock deeded their homeplace and 340 acres on Little Reed Island Creek to Thomas and William Herbert on 8 May 1805, the deed confirms that James Calfee (1762-1820), uncle of the James Calfee (1795-1858) who married Hannah Whitlock, had land adjoining Thomas and Hannah’s land and the land on which Mary Davies Whitlock, widow of Charles Whitlock, lived with her daughters Agnes and Hannah, which Thomas and Hannah Phillips Whitlock deeded to Agnes and Hannah three days after they sold their homeplace to the Herberts.[7]
As a previous posting notes, when Thomas Whitlock made his will on 22 January 1824 in Cumberland County, Kentucky, he bequeathed to his granddaughters Agnes and Hannah Whitlock $1.00 each, not naming the two granddaughters but speaking of them as the heirs of his deceased son Charles Whitlock.[8]
Move to Tazewell County, Virginia (Later Mercer County, West Virginia)
According to David E. Johnston in his history of middle New River settlements, James Calfee (with wife Hannah Whitlock) moved his family to Tazewell County, Virginia, about 1829, settling at Gladeville a mile west of the current town of Princeton in what became Mercer County in 1837.[9] Johnston thinks that the Calfee family was of German origin, and came down from Pennsylvania to Montgomery County, Virginia. Note that other sources suggest the Calfee family has Irish roots.[10]
However, James Calfee and his family are enumerated on the 1830 federal census in Wythe County.[11]The household has one male under 5, one male 5-9, one male 10-14, one male 15-19, one male 30-39, two females under 5, one female 5-9, one female 10-14, and one female 30-39, as well as seven enslaved people.
James Calfee begins appearing on the Tazewell County tax list in 1831 (30 February, enumerated as James Caffey).[12] He is not on this county’s tax list in 1829 and 1830. James and wife Hannah finalized their move from Wythe County on 19 September 1831 when the couple sold to William Hurst, husband of Hannah’s aunt Mildred Whitlock, for $2,500 two tracts of land in Wythe County, one containing 199½ acres and the other 100 acres (Wythe County, Virginia, Deed Bk. 12, pp. 137-8). The land lay on both sides of Little Reed Island Creek. On the day the deed was made, James acknowledged it and Hannah relinquished dower before James Crockett and Randolph Fugate. It was recorded on 5 November. This deed actually states that James and Hannah were still living in Wythe County at this point. It’s clear to me that they were selling out their Wythe County landholdings for their move to Tazewell County. The 199½ acres they sold on Little Reed Island Creek was the tract that Thomas Whitlock had deeded to Hannah and her sister Agnes on 11 May 1805 pursuant to a court order in the Whitlock vs. Whitlock case that required Thomas to deed to his granddaughters the land on which his son Charles had been living with their mother Mary Davies prior to Charles’s death (Wythe County, Virginia, Deed Bk. 4, pp. 291-2).
The records I’ve just cited suggest to me that James and Hannah Calfee moved to Tazewell at some point in 1830 or 1831.[13] Mercer County, West Virginia, where James and his family ended up living after that county was formed in 1837 from Tazewell and Giles County, Virginia, is in southernmost West Virginia on the Virginia border, with Tazewell, Giles, and Bland Counties in Virginia bordering it.
There’s unfortunately great confusion in published accounts of Mercer County history between the James Calfee (1795-1858) who married Hannah Whitlock and a James Calfee (sometimes called James Madison Calfee) who was a nephew of the James Calfee who married Hannah Whitlock. The father of this younger James or James Madison Calfee (1817-1886) was William Calfee (1784-1853), who married Nancy Davis/Davies, yet another daughter of Henry Davies/Davis and a sister of Mary Davies who married Charles Whitlock. The James Calfee who was a son of William Calfee and Nancy Davis/Davies was born in 1817 and died in 1886, and was a minister of the Disciples of Christ church. He represented Mercer County, West Virginia, in the Constitutional Convention of 1872 and frequently appears in published accounts of Mercer County history as the James Calfee at whose house Mercer County was organized in 1837.[14]
As David E. Johnston, Charles B. Hedrick, and Judy Llamas note, the first court session held to organize Mercer County (then in Virginia) took place in April 1837 at the house of James Calfee (1795-1858).[15]Charles B. Hedrick writes,
The county of Mercer was formed by an act of the General Assembly of Virginia, passed the 17th day of March, 1837. The bill was introduced into the Virginia Assembly by Daniel Hale, representative from Giles County. The bill was supported by a petition presented by a number of people whose family names are familiar throughout this section; vis: Captain William Smith, William H. French, Joseph Davidson, Elijah Bailey, Isaac Gore, Cornelius White, William White, Col. Daniel H. Pearis, Captain Geo. W. Pearis, James Calfee, and a number of others.
James Calfee’s house, at which the first court session in April 1837 to organize the county was held, is still standing west of Princeton at Glenwood Park in Bluefield in Mercer County, to which it was moved from its original location nearer to Princeton.[16] According to Ed Robinson, the old house, constructed of white oak, was built around 1783.[17] If that’s correct, then the cabin predates the birth of James Calfee and he would have acquired it after moving to Tazewell (later Mercer) County. Johnston says that after having settled initially at Gladeville near what’s now Princeton, James Calfee moved to Harman Branch and later to Clover Bottom on the Bluestone River.[18]
The family of James Calfee (spelled here as Coffee) is found on the 1840 federal census in Mercer County, Virginia, with one male under 5, one male 5-9, one male 15-19, one male 20-29, one male 40-49, one female under 5, two females 10-14, one female 15-19, one female 20-29, and one 40-49.[19] Note that though James Calfee held seven people in bondage in 1830 per the census of that year, on the 1840 and 1850 censuses (in the latter case, the slave schedule), he appears with no enslaved people.
In 1850, James and his family appear again in Mercer County on the federal census, the surname spelled Caffee.[20] James is listed as 55, a farmer born in Virginia with $5,000 real worth. His wife Hannah is also 55 and also born in Virginia. In the household are the following children, all born in Virginia: Polly, 35, William, 33, Jane, 25, Elizabeth, 24, Nancy, 24, Jackson, 21, Cynthia, 19, Wilson, 13, and French, 9. As noted previously, Jane also appears in the household of her aunt and uncle John and Agnes Whitlock Grayson in Wythe County in 1850. Her listing in Mercer County in her parents’ household is dated 17 September, and the Wythe County listing in her aunt and uncle’s household was made on 5 October.
James’s Death and Hannah’s Final Years
James Calfee had died in Mercer County by 8 July 1858, when his sons Davis and William Calfee gave bond with their brother Charles Whitlock Calfee and Samuel T. Calfee, son of Davis, William, and Charles’s uncle William Calfee (1794-1853) in the amount of $2,000 to administer their father’s estate.[21] Two days later on 10 July 1858, James Calfee’s estate was appraised by Daniel Kegley, George P. Brown, and Joseph C. Holstein.[22] The appraisal was filed 5 August 1858.
As noted previously, James’s widow Hannah Whitlock Calfee appears on the 1860 federal census.[23] She’s enumerated in Mercer County with her children who were not married in 1860 and with her son William heading the household. William is listed as a farmer aged 40 with $10,000 real worth and $2,965 personal worth. Hannah is 65 and is listed next in the household. Enumerated with them are Hannah’s children Mary, 42, Jane, 30, Elizabeth, 28, Andrew J., 26, Cynthia, 24, and Henderson F., 18.
Since Hannah does not appear on the federal census in 1870, it seems she died between 1860-1870, almost certainly in Mercer County. Her name — “Hannah Whitlock Calfee” — is inscribed on a burial monument in Clay Memorial Park at Bluestone in Mercer County, West Virginia, with the notation that she was born in 1795 and died “post 1860.”[24] The monument lists her next to her husband James, noting that he was born in 1795 and died in 1858.
The settlement of James Calfee’s estate is dated 11 May 1870, and was filed by his sons William and Davis Calfee.[25] It states that the administrators had paid out of the estate more than had come into their hands to the amount of $41.10. A total of $1,277.63 had been disbursed from the estate.
Note that there is certainly more research that might be done regarding James Calfee and his family — e.g., in land and tax records in Wythe and Tazewell Counties, Virginia, and in Mercer County, West Virginia. The preceding sketch of the family is perhaps best regarded as an outline with more information to be filled in by further research.
Children of James Calfee and Hannah Whitlock
The children of James Calfee and Hannah Whitlock are as follows — and note that, according to Ed Elam, none of the couple’s daughters married and were known as the Maids Calfee:[26]
a. Charles Whitlock Calfee was born 11 November 1814 in Wythe County, Virginia, and died 24 March 1864 in Mercer County, West Virginia. On 24 March 1836 in Tazewell County, Virginia, he married Nancy D. Bailey, daughter of Henry Bailey and Elizabeth Peters. She was born 1 December 1814 and died 25 January 1889. Charles and Nancy are buried in the Calfee-Belcher cemetery at Kegley in Mercer County. Charles and his brother-in-law James Madison Bailey were the first hotel keepers of Princeton in Mercer County, and Charles served as the county clerk for a number of years.[27]
According to Jeff Harvey, Charles and his brother Andrew Jackson Calfee “had extensive land claims [in Mercer County] along Clover Bottom from the Raleigh-Grayson Turnpike westward to the north side of Bluestone from present Shawnee lake to the top of Mills Hill to DeLashmeet Creek, named after the French explorer of the area. It was a total 108,000 acres.”[28]
b. Mary Calfee was born in 1815-6 in Wythe County, and died after 1880 in Mercer County.
c. William Calfee was born in 1817-8 in Wythe County. On 23 April 1864 at Princeton in Mercer County, he enlisted in Capt. Alexander Pines’s Company, Company D, of Wallace’s 11th Battalion, Virginia Reserves (CSA).[29] On 23 June 1865 at Charleston, West Virginia, he signed an oath of loyalty to the U.S. government. William died, apparently unmarried, in Mercer County before 12 August 1876 when his brothers Davis and Andrew Jackson Calfee gave bond to administer his estate.[30]
d. Davis Calfee was born in 1820 in Wythe County, and died in April 1880 at New Hope Church in Mercer County. David E. Johnston describes Davis as “a large man, weighing about 450 pounds.”[31] According to the 1880 mortality schedule, Davis died of stomach cancer. A Confederate Citizens’ file shows Davis paid during the Civil War, while he lived at Princeton, for supplying the Confederate Army with food and wagons.[32] I think it’s likely that Davis was given his name after the family of his grandmother Mary Davies/Davis Whitlock.
e. Jane Calfee was born in 1824 in Wythe County, and died 15 November 1891 in Mercer County. Her death record in Mercer County’s Register of Deaths states that her parents were J. and H. Calfee, with information provided by her brother Jackson.[33]
f. Elizabeth Calfee was born in September 1828 in Wythe County, and died before 3 March 1903 in Mercer County. Elizabeth made a will in Mercer County on 27 July 1901 bequeathing her property to her brother Jackson Calfee. It was probated 31 March 1903.[34]
g. Nancy Calfee is listed after her sister Elizabeth on the 1850 federal census (see above), though she and Elizabeth are both given the age of 24. The 1900 federal census states that Elizabeth was born in September 1828. If Elizabeth and Nancy were twins, then this would be Nancy’s birthdate, too. In 1860 (see above), Nancy is not in her mother Hannah’s household. I think she likely died between 1850 and 1860.
h. Andrew Jackson Calfee was born in February 1830 in Wythe County, Virginia, and died in Mercer County between 7 February 1908 when he made his will, and 28 October 1908, when the will was probated.[35] In 1868 in Mercer County, Jackson married Margaret J. Thompson, daughter of David and Angeline Thompson, who was the widow of John A. Brown when Jackson and Margaret married. On 1 May 1862 in Mercer County, Jackson enlisted in Company A of the 17th Virginia Regiment (CSA).[36] On 23 June 1865 at Charleston, West Virginia, he signed an oath of loyalty to the U.S. government.
i. Cynthia Calfee is listed as 19 on the 1850 census and 24 on the 1860 census (see above for both). The places her birth in 1831 (1850 census) or 1836 (1860 census). I don’t find Cynthia on the census in 1870, and think it’s likely she died between 1860 and 1870 in Mercer County.
j. Wilson Calfee appears in the household of James and Hannah Whitlock Calfee on the 1850 federal census (above), aged 13. This would place Wilson’s birth in 1837 in newly formed Mercer County. I find no record of Wilson after 1850, and assume he died in Mercer County between 1850-1860. A Confederate Citizens’ file for a Wilson D. Calfee showing Wilson being paid in Mercer County for services to the Confederacy up to 20 January 1864 appears to belong to another Wilson Calfee, who is mentioned above by David E. Johnston in his book on middle New River settlements (p. 388).[37]
k. Henderson French Calfee was born in 1841 in Mercer County, Virginia, and died 7 July 1863 at Gettysburg, Virginia. He enlisted at Lynchburg, Virginia, in the 24th Virginia Infantry on 2 June 1861.[38] His Confederate service papers state that he was wounded at Gettysburg on 3 July 1853 and died 7 July.[39]
[1] 1850 federal census, Mercer County, Virginia, p. 193, district 42 (dwelling/family 620; 17 September); 1860 federal census, Mercer County, Virginia, Princeton post office, p. 453 (dwelling 781/family 735, 28 August).
[2] Wythe County, Virginia, Will Bk. Pp. 190-1.
[3] Ibid., pp. 185-6.
[4] See Find a Grave memorial page of William Calfee, Calfee cemetery, Wythe County, Virginia, created by Judy Llamas.
[5] Augusta County, Virginia, Chancery Court case, Whitlock vs. Whitlock, box 10, file 38 (1803-4), available digitally via Library of Virginia’s Virginia Memory chancery records collection
[6] Wythe County, Virginia, Will Bk. 1, p. 297-9.
[7] Wythe County, Virginia, Deed Bk. 4, pp. 288-9.
[8] Cumberland County, Kentucky, Will Bk. B, pp. 423-4.
[9] David E. Johnston, A History of Middle New River Settlements and Contiguous Territory (Huntington, West Virginia: Standard, 1906), pp. 387-8.
[10] See Find a Grave memorial page of John “the Pioneer” Calfee, Calfee homestead burials, Shenandoah County, Virginia, created by Judy Llamas, transcribing a 15 April 1913 letter of Dr. John William Holmes to Joseph Starke Calfee.
[11] 1830 federal census, Wythe County, Virginia, p. 322.
[12] Tazewell County, Virginia, Personal Property Tax List 1831, unpaginated, available digitally at FamilySearch.
[13] Note that other members of the Wythe County Calfee family also moved to Tazewell County, including members of the family of James Calfee (1762-1820) and Jane Davis. Swem Library at the College of William and Mary has in its manuscript and rare books collection an archive of letters from this branch of the Calfee family entitled “The Calfee Papers.”
[14] See e.g. Emily Coppola, “Old cabin at Glenwood Park holds rich history,” Princeton [West Virginia] Times (14 June 2019).
[15] Johnston, A History of Middle New River Settlements and Contiguous Territory, p. 171; Charles B. Hedrick, “Official Blue Book of Mercer County, West Virginia,” at the USGenWeb site for Mercer County; and Judy Llamas, Find a Grave memorial page of James Calfee, Clay Memorial Park, Bluestone, Mercer County, West Virginia.
[16] See Jeff Harvey, “Mercer Memories,” Princeton [West Virginia] Times (7 February 2020), citing William Sanders, A New River Heritage, vol. 4 (Parsons, West Virginia: McClain, 1994).
[17] Ed Robinson, Historic Inns of Southern West Virginia (Charleston, South Carolina: Arcadia, 2007), p. 11.
[18] See supra, n. 9.
[19] 1840 federal census, Mercer County, Virginia, p. 251.
[20] 1850 federal census, Mercer County, Virginia, p. 193, district 42 (dwelling/family 620, 17 September).
[21] Mercer County, Virginia, Bond Bk. 1, p. 247.
[22] Mercer County, Virginia, Will Bk. 1, p. 342.
[23] See supra, n. 1.
[24] See Find a Grave memorial page of Hannah Whitlock Calfee, Clay Memorial Park, Bluestone, Mercer County, West Virginia, created by Ed Elam, with a photo of the burial monument by Ed Elam.
[25] Mercer County, West Virginia, Will Bk. 1, p. 413.
[26] See Find a Grave memorial page of James Calfee, Clay Memorial Park, Bluestone, Mercer County, West Virginia, created by Ed Elam.
[27] Johnston, A History of Middle New River Settlements and Contiguous Territory, pp. 175, 387.
[28] Harvey, “Mercer Memories.”
[29] NARA, Compiled Service Records of Confederate Soldiers Who Served in Organizations from the State of Virginia, RG 109, available digitally at Fold3.
[30] Mercer County, West Virginia, Bond Bk. 2, p. 5.
[31] Johnston, A History of Middle New River Settlements and Contiguous Territory, p. 387.
[32] NARA, Confederate Papers Relating to Citizens or Business Firms, 1861-65 RG 109, available digitally at Fold3.
[33] Mercer County, West Virginia, Registry of Deaths 1891, p. 37.
[34] Mercer County, West Virginia, Will Bk. 3, pp. 189-190.
[35] Ibid., pp. 288-9.
[36] NARA, Compiled Service Records of Confederate Soldiers Who Served in Organizations from the State of Virginia, RG 109, available digitally at Fold3.
[37] NARA, Confederate Papers Relating to Citizens or Business Firms, 1861-65, RG 109, available digitally at Fold3.
[38] NARA, Compiled Service Records of Confederate Soldiers Who Served in Organizations from the State of Virginia, RG 109, available digitally at Fold3.
[39] See also Johnston, A History of Middle New River Settlements and Contiguous Territory, p. 265.
BEGATS AND BEQUEATHALS 