Jacob Dragoo book

Jacob Dragoo and our Susanna Bright Side

By Vi Parsons
ViP Publications
PO Box 418083
Sacramento, CA 95841-8083

All rights reserved. This book may not be duplicated for profit or public distribution, without the expressed written consent of the author, except for brief excerpts or quotations for the purpose of review, or a few pages for your personal family history.

Knowledge is useless, unless it is shared

Acknowledgements

... to all the members of the Dragoo Family Association who shared their records
… to those who assisted me by contributing letters pictures and stories
… and to all of you who encouraged me to publish this book

Many thanks
Vi Parsons

Introduction

After finding that Jacob Dragoo, the oldest son of William “Indian Billy” Dragoo was my Great Grandfather, I began looking for information. Almost every family history article identifying Jacob said that he went to Illinois, married there and nothing else was known about him. In one year, I had filled a large binder with family group sheets, vital documents and census records of Jacob, Susanna and their children. Large families like ours became separated in miles and relationships. Some family lines had so much information. Some had so little. The information used to prepare this book was gleaned from statistics, my personal knowledge and contributions from other relatives. Some families were easier to trace, while others left few records. Sometimes their descendants could not be found. Delving into the past can stir the emotions. In the case of some of our more “notorious” family members, very little information was found and almost nothing was volunteered from the descendants. We can only imagine what kind of lives our families lived. I became seriously involved in family research when my first grandchild was born in 1980. I grew up without grandparents. I saw one grandfather once when I was about three or four years old. I wanted my grandchildren to know about their relatives.

As a pre-teen, I asked my Father about his family. He pointed me to the Family Bible. That told me his father’s name was James Auston Carr. His mother’s name was Almeda Elizabeth Ewing. His father’s birth date and his mother’s death dates were shown. His maternal grandmother’s name was Exile Liberty. He didn’t know her maiden name or where she was born. He had noted that she died on February 7, 1866.

That just wasn’t enough for my curious mind. Later, I asked him again. He replied, “I told you once and don’t ask me again."

In 1953, my twin sister, Violet Moore and I went with our parents to Arkansas on a preaching tour. While we were there, Mama placed a marker on her father’s grave in Belt Cemetery, near Ozark, Arkansas. Her parents were Joseph James Dragoo and Mary Ann Alice Wright. She knew their death dates, and she had a funeral card of her maternal grandmother, Salinda A. Wright. It showed her birth and death dates. Mama didn’t know her grandparents. That completed my knowledge of our family tree.

After several years of trial and error research, I enrolled in an adult education genealogy class. I realized that much of my work was incomplete or not properly documented. I had wasted precious time and energy. Since then I have completed the Introduction to Family History from Brigham Young University. By the end of 1997, I had completed the American Genealogical Course from the National Genealogical Society in Arlington, Virginia.

I have compiled over twelve generations of ancestry, including two lines back to the 1600s with references. Many of the entries have been documented. Some were from personal interviews and stories. Others were donated by family researchers. Some documents are clearer. Many of the documents, letters and pictures were not copied from the original, creating lesser quality. I was pleased that they were available.

I had seen so many family histories which were well written, but had no references or documentation. My goal was to document as many of the records as possible. I did not realize the magnitude of this project. The sources shown in this book may be a personal contact rather than the exact repository of the original record. I have tried to give credit to those who shared their information.

Will there be errors in this book? Hopefully not, but probably yes. One family member put it so aptly when she said, “Errors begin the day the book is printed!” Please let me know if you have verification of entries which need corrections or if you have additional information you are willing to share.

My father’s and mother’s families together have roots from France, Germany, Scotland, England, Ireland and most of the United States. They cover a vast expanse of history. They are diversified in education, race and religion. Their backgrounds extend from prominent preachers to prisoners from 14th century royalty to the farmers who survived meager times in the 1930’s Dust Bowl and the Great Depression. I am pleased to call all of them My Family.

Chapter One

JACOB DRAGOO
A Log Cabin Birth

On September 13, 1815, Jacob Dragoo began his life in a log cabin on a hill, surrounded by a forest, on Finches Run in Monongalia County, Virginia. The area was called ‘The Great Shade’, because there were so many trees. The area is now in Marion County, near Barrackville, West Virginia.

The Parkersburg, West Virginia news printed an article on March 18, 1993 about the old Dragoo Cabin. James Moore, a Fairmont, West Virginia Veterinarian, bought the property where the cabin was located. He offered the cabin to his parents, Glenn and Ruth Moore. They have preserved and moved it to their property in Tyler County. The Moore’s determined that the siding covered building was a log cabin. It had the typical period roof line and deep width of doors and windows. The original white oak logs were numbered as they were removed for the reassembly process. Their research confirmed that the two room cabin had started as a one room dwelling about 1760. The second room was built about 1825. One room was 18x22 and the other 16x18 feet. There were no nails in the structure, except those used to apply the siding. The logs were cathedral style, a V-cut commonly used in West Virginia. The original puncheon floor was salvaged and reused. The original interior sides were whitewashed. The latest windows installed in the building were the old wavy paned glass. They were reinstalled. The original window panes would probably have been of waxed parchment or animal skins. Most of the chimney stones were badly deteriorated and were replaced with stones salvaged from other old dwellings. The original narrow, winding pie-slice stairway was reconstructed. The only structural changes to the original two room cabin were the addition of a front porch, a lean-to bedroom and bath and electricity and plumbing. When completed, the two room cabin with an overhead loft was partially furnished with antiques. For several years it was used as an occasional meeting place for the Tyler County Heritage and Historical Society. It had also been used as an occasional gathering place for students of pioneer life. A heritage day event had been initiated by the Moores. In 1989, Mrs. Moore’s sister, Edith Knowlton began living in the cabin.

At least three generations of Dragoo families lived there in 1815. Jacob Dragoo was born there. He was the first child of William “Indian Billy” Dragoo and Rebecca Matheny. They were living in the cabin with Billy’s Father, John Dragoo. Cradled in his mother’s arms, Jacob was unaware of the unsettled times that immediately preceded his birth. Later on he would hear the stories of his father’s kidnapping by savage Indians and his Grandmother Elizabeth’s tragic death.

For now, politics were the talk of the times. More land was needed for the United States. America was moving west to Ohio, Illinois and Indiana. Jacob in his lifetime would experience living in his birthplace of Virginia as a toddler. He would spend his childhood and teen years with his parents in Ohio. As a young married man he would travel with his wife and children to Illinois. He would experience the turmoil of the Civil War as he watched his sons enter the Military and State Militia. He would move to Iowa in time to witness the progress of the railroads and settlements of the Western frontier. In his last years, he would sit at home in his comfortable chair. He had so many stories to tell.

Gathering his family around him, he would tell them the stories that he hoped they would pass down to their children and grandchildren. The one he knew so well and would tell so often was about . . .

His father, Indian Billy Dragoo

(Chapter Two coming soon)