THE THIRD PETER STALCOP

Fouled in Red Tape
 

Virtually the entire Stalcop family, plus a significant number of all other New Sweden area original families, both Swedish and Dutch, abandoned the Delaware valley area at about this same time. The exact reasons for the great exodus of so many of the early New Sweden families are not fully known but a number of factors may have contributed to their decision.

Peter probably traveled at about age six in his father's family during the migration into central North Carolina. That trip must have been quite an adventure. The entire journey was made in what was then the far western frontier wilderness of America. It was almost entirely on land occupied and defended by Indians and populated by a large variety of wild animals. Indeed, that trip must have been an adventurous time for all.

Orange County North Carolina encompassed a very large part of the north central part of North Carolina when the family arrived so the exact spot where they first stopped is not known for sure. Peter's father, William, purchased about 320 acres on Stony Creek near the mouth of Jordon Creek. The sale of 300 acres of this land in 1796 gives us a description but not the date it was purchased.

Peter apparently never acquired any land in his own name in Orange County, NC and probably lived on a portion of his father’s land. A few months after he turned seventeen years old Peter married Polly Garrison in Orange County on December 12, 1780. The Garrisons, of Dutch ancestry, had also made the move south from Delaware. Polly’s father, Henry Garrison, seemed to mimic Polly’s movements for the rest of his life. That has helped in determining the migration route of Peter’s family.

Peter's marriage has been widely but erroneously reported, even on indexes prepared by the staff of the North Carolina State Archives, as having taken place in 1785. Lawrence Dillon Stallcup's 1937 Outline of the family has another error regarding Peter's marriage. The Outline says Polly’s name is "Harrison". Careful examination, under magnification, of the original marriage bond, on file in the North Carolina State Archives, shows that the date is actually 1780 and that Polly's name was indeed "Garrison". There is an ink drip of a slightly different color ink that intersects the zero making it appear, with the aid of a lot of imagination, that it could be a five. Other interesting items revealed by this bond is that Peter was required to pray as well put up a five hundred Pound contingency bond, payable to the Governor, before the marriage could take place.

Peter's marriage was one of the first in our family line to have taken place under a marriage bond. All others had taken place under church authority without a civil license.

Peter lived probably three more years in Orange County after he married until about 1783 and probably on his fathers’ farm. It has been determined that Peter was a member of the Davidson-Sumner County Militia in the year 1787. This is in the Cumberland River valley area and is in that part of North Carolina ceded to become the State of Tennessee in 1790. In order for Peter to be a member of this militia he must have been living in the Cumberland River area, north central Tennessee, prior to 1787. Peter participated in the Third Chickamauga Expedition of 1787. This was part of what is collectively called the Cherokee Indian Wars, 1776-1790.

In 1783 an Act of the North Carolina Assembly simply appropriated a large track of the Cumberland River lands of the Cherokee's and Chickasaw's Indians and threw it open for settlement. This event probably was this event that enticed Peter and his father’s family to move from Orange County into the Davidson County area. Peter’s father, William, purchased a Bounty Warrant for some 357 acres of land in Davidson County, NC on Goose Creek in what is now Trousdale County, TN.

In response to this new influx of settlers the Chickamauga Indians, a branch of the Cherokee that had split off from the main tribe, mounted attacks against the new settlements. These attacks continued for the next four years in increasing fury. In the early summer of 1787 the leaders of the Davidson County settlers tried to negotiate with the leaders of the Chickamauga’s. A few days into the negotiations an Indian shot and killed a man named Mark Robertson. This was the brother of Colonel James Robertson. The Colonel immediately called out the Davidson-Sumner County Militia and in June marched against the Chickamauga towns. The Indians were completely defeated. This was called the Third Chickamauga Expedition and it is the one in which we have record of our Peter Stalcop being a participant.
 

Peter was issued certificates for at least £3.15.0 for his services on this third expedition. He was about twenty-four years old at the time. He may have had other certificates from earlier expeditions. When the State on North Carolina was preparing to turn over the lands that became the State of Tennessee the accounts and record books of the third Chickamauga Expedition were included in with its claim for compensation. Thus it was that the record of Peter's service in the Third Chickamauga Expedition was preserved for us. It is considered as service in the Revolutionary War.

The certificates may have been redeemable for land in Burke County, North Carolina, because Tennessee was split from North Carolina. There is no surviving record of Peter using these particular certificates and the exact reasons for his moving back across the Smoky Mountains into Burke County are not known. There could be several factors that contributed to the decision to move. Indian attacks on the Tennessee settlers continued until well after 1800. Because of them, and the availability of bounty land, sizable numbers of the early Cumberland River settlers retreated back across the mountains into North Carolina. The mountains served as a sort of buffer zone. Burke County was certainly a much safer place to raise a family. Another family moving back across the mountains into Burke County at the same time was the Garrisons, the family of Peter's wife.

From all this it would seem as if Peter and his family was in one of the early settlers groups that moved into the Cumberland River area of Davidson County, now Tennessee. He probably moved sometime between 1783 when the land was declared available for settlement and before 1787 when we know Peter was actually living there.

The next record of Peter is found in the Burke County court minutes. Peter's purchased 133 acres of land from Zachariah Downs on October 30, 1794. The previous owner was noted as being Robert Kell. This may be a second track owned by Peter if he redeemed his certificates for land. There is no surviving record of Peter paying taxes in Burke County to verify his land holdings. This is due to the destruction of the Burke County records by Union troops in 1867.

Peter’s family appears on the 1800 census of Burke County, North Carolina. In addition to Peter and Polly there are five children with three boys all under 10 years old, one girl under 10 years old and one girl between 10 and 16 years old. Peter's son William was born April 23, 1786 and so would be 14 years old at the time of the 1800 census. He apparently is not shown as living in his father’s home at the time of this census. The 16-year-old daughter is Margaret, named for her grandmother Margaret Andersson Stalcop.

Peter was 37 years old in 1800. Polly was likely about his same age. Sometime between 1807 and 1810 Peter and most of his entire family, with the exception of William and possibly several daughters, disappears from North Carolina records. Polly Garrison Stalcop died in Burke County, NC probably sometime after 1807. Peter remarried and left Burke County, North Carolina, never to return, before the 1810 census was conducted. He next appears in Orange County, Indiana. He and his family were probably in route to Indiana when the 1810 census was being conducted and simply were missed being recorded. There is a brief and enigmatic appearance about 1810 of a Peter Stalcop in Eastern Kentucky where his uncle Swithin was living. It would be logical that Peter would stop off to rest at his uncle’s farm for a while on his way to Indiana.

Eldest son William apparently took over all of Peter's land holdings in Burke County. William was living there by 1813 and he resided in Burke County for another 25 years.

Peter next appears on the 1820 census for Orange County, Indiana with his second wife, Deborah _?_. Deborah was born in 1786 and thus was 23 years younger than Peter. Peter and Deborah were likely married in Burke County, NC, before the move to Indiana began. At least four of Peter's sons by Polly Garrison Stalcop made the trip to Indiana; Henry, Peter Jr., Samuel and John. Their daughters making the trip have not been identified. Peter fathered three children by Deborah; Simon, Eli and Lucinda. All three were born in Indiana.

Peter died in Orange County, Indiana about age 72 in 1835. All in all he lived an adventuresome life mostly on the western frontier of the country. Deborah Stalcop remained a widow living on the Indiana family farm for about another eighteen years. She died after 1853 at about the age of 67.

THE SECOND WILLIAM STALLCUP

The second William Stallcup, sometimes called Billy, was the second child, possibly the third, born to Peter and Polly Garrison Stalcop, April 23, 1786, likely in Davidson County, North Carolina, in that part of the state now called Trousdale County that later became part of the State of Tennessee. He is the seventh generation ancestor in our family line.

This area of Davidson County was subjected to near continual Indian raids until about 1800. It is not known exactly when his father moved the family back eastward to Burke County, NC. His father, Peter Stalcop, was issued certificates on January 11, 1790, possibly in the form of Bounty Warrants for services during the Revolutionary War.  His father made a purchased of 133 acres of land in Burke County during 1794. If the move took place in 1794 it must have been high adventure for a young boy like William for he was then about eight years old.

Little is known about William's early life. In 1813 he gave a deposition in Burke County in a case where Anna Dobson Hyatt was trying to divorce his brother-in-law, Seth Hyatt. This deposition gives quite a lot of information concerning the period 1806 to 1813. William states that in 1806 he was living in his father's household when he heard about the marriage of Seth Hyatt to Anna Dobson. Two years later at about age 22 William married Mary Hyatt, sister to Seth and the daughter of Hezekiah and Mary Birchfield Hyatt. Their marriage took place on October 27, 1808. Shortly thereafter William and Mary moved to the Cumberland River, Sequatchee Valley, in now Jackson County, Tennessee. Their first two and probably three children were born in the Sequatchee Valley.

Back in Burke County Mary’s brother Seth Hyatt abandoned his wife and children and ran off with a woman named Nancy Smith. In July of 1810 William and Mary Hyatt Stallcup traveled to Duck River in western Tennessee and lived several months in a log cabin with Seth and Nancy Smith. William tried to get Seth to return to his wife and family in Burke County by offering him a mare. Seth refused the gift horse. In October 1810, the two couples left Duck River and traveled to Nashville where Seth and Nancy Smith boarded a riverboat bound for Louisiana. Seth vowed never to return and said he was”. . . going to go as far up the Arkansas River as white people were then living. . .".  Seth called out to his sister and William as the boat pulled away “. . . . Tell my people in Burke that my bones and their bones will be buried a long ways apart . . . “ William and Mary then returned to their home in the Sequatchee Valley where their second child, Jesse Richardson (called 'Hyatt'), was born about a month later.

By 1813 William was back in Burke County. His mother, Polly Garrison Stalcop, had died and his father had remarried and left for Indiana before the 1810 census. William apparently resided in Burke County, probably on his father’s original farm, for the next twenty-five years. Almost all of the records in the Burke County courthouse were destroyed in a fire deliberately set by occupying Union Troops some two years after the Civil War ended so even scarce clues are almost non-existent in Burke County making dates and events difficult to determine. The next record of the family is in the 1820 Burke County census. It shows the growing family under the name of 'Stolcop'. Besides William and Mary there are five children, three boys and two girls, listed. William's occupation is given as a farmer.

By the 1830 census William and Mary Hyatt Stallcup’s family of twelve children was complete. The oldest son and daughter had apparently married and moved out of their parent’s household. The youngest son, Thomas Bellew, had just been born. William is still listed as a farmer and he apparently had become quite successful for he is also listed as being the owner of four slaves who, by their ages and sex, must have been household servants. This indicates William had accumulated a certain measure of wealth for household servants were a most expensive proposition.

Other records of William show that he began serving as a marriage bondsman in Burke County. On these bonds William signs his name in a clear firm hand as STALLCUP showing that he was the first in our family line to use that spelling of our surname. William consistently used this spelling the rest of his life.

Sometime in the 1830's William started performing services for the State of North Carolina. Exactly what these services were has not yet been determined. It is known, however, that William served as a tax revenue agent for the State a few years later. This service may have started while he lived in Burke County. In 1837 William received a "reward" from the State of North Carolina from his services. This was a grant of 65 acres of land in Haywood County (now Swain County). William seems never to have actually lived on this particular piece of property. It is believed to be the land where William's son, Thomas Bellew, had his farm. Part of this land was later incorporated into the town of Whittier.

In 1837 the 'final removal' of the Cherokee Indians was ordered and their land was thrown open to white settlement. William purchased several parcels of land in Macon County near the settlement of Webster (now in Jackson County). William and his entire family, with the possible exception of the unidentified daughter, left Burke County and moved into the area. Jesse Richardson moved his family farther west into Cherokee County, near Murphy. The land around Webster was formed into Jackson County about five years after William moved out of the area.

In December of 1838 William and his oldest son, William H. Jr, traveled wastward from Macon County to Lincoln County, NC for the marriage of his son to Avaline Killian. Both signed their surname in a clear bold hand as STALLCUP.
 

Probably in the year 1841 Mary Hyatt Stallcup passed away, Her place of burial is not known but likely is an unmarked grave somewhere near Webster. Census reports indicate she was born in 1790 so she would have been about 51 years old at the time of her death.

While living in Macon County William was a Justice of the Peace and a tax revenue agent.  This last position was an extremely unpopular in the area and often involved some violence and William was not immune to this. According to family legend it led to tragedy. The story goes that William's son Seth led a horse down to a creek so the animal could drink. It was cold at the time so Seth had put on William's coat and hat. While at the creek a bushwhacker shot and killed young Seth, apparently mistaking him for his father because of the coat and hat.

At the age of 56 William married for the second time. He married Linney Sanders on March 29, 1843, in Macon County. Almost nothing at all is known about Linney Sanders Stallcup other than that she must have been about twenty years or so younger than William. She had four children by William during the next seven years. The first two were boys. As was the custom in very large families these boys did not receive name for several years. When they did both were named for older sons of William that had been shot and killed as young men. The first boy was named 'John M.' while the second was named 'Seth'. Seth was called by his middle name, Lafayette, which was shortened to “Fate”.

The stories of the two sons named John are often confused. The first family John was born about 1814/15 in Burke County. He appears on the 1820 and 1830 census. This older John was married to Rebecca Kinsland of Cowee, Mill Shoal Township, Macon County, NC, in the early spring of 1846 probably by an itinerant Lutheran minister. The Kinsland home was an underground Lutheran meetinghouse. John was reported to be a soldier who joined the Army as a volunteer for the Mexican war of 1846-48. John was killed some months after the wedding leaving a young widow and a posthumous son. His widow and infant son went to live in the home her parents, William and Sally Gibby Kinsland.

The second family son, John M. Stalcup, apparently was never married. He enlisted in the Confederate Army at the age of 19 at Cleveland, Tennessee on February 25, 1863.  He served in Company F, 19th Regiment, Tennessee Infantry.  On August 4, 1864, John M. Stalcup suffered a combat gunshot wound to his right hip and was admitted to the hospital. He died on August 7, 1864, in Atlanta, Georgia.

In late 1846 and early 1847 William and two of his sons, B. Harvey and Jason Stalcup, found themselves hauled into court on a series of charges. Some of the last records of William in Macon County are when he signs bonds and other court documents in these cases. Before 1850 William disposed of his holdings in Macon and Haywood counties and moved his second family to near Cleveland, Tennessee. All of his first family children except the youngest boy, Thomas Bellew, were on their own by this time. Thomas went to live with his older brother, Peter 'Shade', at Burningtown, Macon County for a short while.

William reportedly died near Sweetwater, Tennessee. There are numerous stories that William came back into North Carolina and lived in Cherokee County for several years before he died in 1878. William's youngest child, Saphronia (Frona), married James Eldridge (Aldrage/Aldridge) in Cherokee County on February 26, 1880. Her being in North Carolina lends some validity to the story that William moved his family back into North Carolina. Nothing has been discovered about what happened to Linney Sanders Stallcup.

Jesse Richardson (nicknamed "Hyatt") Stalcup and Nancy Evaline Young Stalcup
Murphy, NC

Jesse Richardson Stallcup/Stalcup was named for his uncle, Jesse Richardson Hyatt,
brother to his mother.

JOHN STALLCUP
1815-1846

John Stallcup was the fourth child and third son of William and Mary Hyatt Stallcup. He is a patriarch in our direct family line. His father was known to be living in Burke County, NC in 1813 when he gave a deposition to the State of North Carolina Senate Committee on Divorce. John was born about 1814/15. Since all of John's younger brothers and sisters were born in Burke County it is reasonable to assume that John was born and grew up in Burke County, North Carolina as well.

In 1838 William Stallcup and his entire family left Burke County, NC and moved into the mountain lands vacated by the Cherokee Indians during their forced removal. William settled near Webster, then in Macon County, now in Jackson County. One of the older sons, Jesse Richardson 'Hyatt' Stallcup, and several brothers moved farther west to Cherokee County. Comparisons of the 1840 Cherokee and Macon census account for all of the male children in the family. From this 1840 Cherokee County census it is surmised that John lived with his older brother for a few years. Several branches of William Stallcup’s descendants have family records listing John yet these same records generally only list seven of the twelve brothers and sisters. Because census reports through 1840 gives only the name of the head of household and everyone else in the home as a number in an age bracket then John appears by name only in these family records.

Very little is known about John Stallcup. He was one of twelve children born to William and Mary Hyatt Stallcup. He left Burke County with the rest of his family about 1837/38 and moved into Macon County. He appears to have lived for a few years at Burningtown, along the banks of the Little Tennessee River, a few miles north of the current city of Franklin. He lived in the household of one of his brothers, Peter 'Shade' Stalcup. Like his father and several of his brothers beginning about 1837 he adopted the “STALLCUP” spelling of the surname. Other adopted the STALCUP spelling.

Sometime in 1846 John apparently joined the Volunteer Army of General Zachary Taylor for the Mexican War. The National Archives does not have a record of John Stallcup as a soldier however the Archives qualify this finding by stating that their not having a record of him only means that they do not have a record. It does not mean that John was not a volunteer soldier. The National Archives records holdings for the Mexican War are incomplete, particularly for the volunteer armies. One of the recruitment camps was somewhere near Charleston, the current town of Bryson City. There are no surviving records of the enlistments for most of the volunteers.

About May 1846 John married Rebecca Kinsland, the daughter of William and Sarah (Sally) Gibby Kinsland. Their marriage likely took place in the Kinsland household in Macon County, NC. The Kinsland home was one of the stops on the underground network of Lutheran circuit riding ministers. Lutheran marriages were recorded only in the minister’s personal diary and most of the diaries have been lost to time. At that time there was no requirement for a civil license or record of a religious marriage.

We know from two independent records, the Bible record of Texas Stallcup Noland, a granddaughter, and the records of Julia Birdie Birchfield Thomas, a family compiler of Swain County, that sometime probably in November of 1846 John lost his life. Both records indicate that he suffered fatal injuries in an altercation during a card game. This was before his only son, Lucius Harvey Stallcup, was born on May 1, 1847. He was buried nearby. Later the cemetery became the Charles Dock Jenkins Family Cemetery, and now is known as the Arlington Church Cemetery. The Thomas record book states that he was the first person buried in the cemetery. A memorial stone in his memory was installed in 1988.

His posthumous son, Lucius Harvey Stallcup, born May 1, 1847, is recorded with his mother on the 1850 US Census as living in the household of his grandparents, William and Sally Gibby Kinsland in Macon County, NC. He is recorded under the name of “Harvey S.” Later he became known by the surname of “Kinsland”.

Shortly after John’s untimely death Rebecca Kinsland Stallcup initiated a Macon County, NC lawsuit against one of John’s brothers; Benjamin Harvey Stalcup. This and two addition lawsuits spanned twenty-years between 1847 and 1867 Rebecca won in all three of them.

Prior to the 1930’s WPA Writers Project there were no separate listing, indexes or cross-references of any courthouse records. If a document disappeared from a courthouse it was treated as if it never existed. John’s father, William Stallcup, was a Justice of the Peace for Macon County and a NC State Revenue Agent. He was in and out of the Macon County Courthouse almost on a daily basis. It is my belief that when Rebecca came to him for help to support her unborn baby just after John was killed he decided to claim there was no proof that she was married to his son. After all he was faced with possible child support that he would have to pay out of his own pocket right because another of his son’s was charged with the same offense. He could have easily removed and destroyed any record of the marriage, if any was on file, and then claim that Rebecca was not married to his son John at all. A minister’s diary record probably was equally impossible to use to prove the marriage. The itinerate minister was probably hundreds of miles away and impossible to communicate with.

Enter Jacob Trammel. Trammel was Clerk of the Court in Macon County. His daughter, Zelphia, was going through a bitter court fight with one of William’s younger sons, Benjamin Harvey Stallcup. She had charged B. Harvey with Bastardy and wanted monetary support to her four-year old child. She lost her case. DNA testing was not available in that era.

Jacob Trammel had Rebecca accuse John’s brother Benjamin Harvey Stallcup as the one who got her pregnant. By making an issue that there was no marriage record William had inadvertently doomed his younger son. With Rebecca “very pregnant” and pointing her finger at Benjamin Harvey, and with no marriage record to the contrary, it was a charge that could not be refuted. William was caught in his own trap. He could not reverse himself and claim that his deceased son John had married Rebecca and was the father of Lucius Harvey in order to get B. Harvey off the hook. To do so was disaster for it would ruin him politically in Macon County. He probably would have been ordered by the court to support John and Rebecca’s child as well.

Thanks to Zelphia and Jacob Trammel Rebecca could not lose. She was either going to win against Benjamin Harvey Stalcup or win against William Stallcup. As the lesser of evils William let Benjamin Harvey take the fall.

When the case finally came to trial in 1849 the court found B. Harvey Stalcup guilty of Rebecca's charge. But then it handed down a strange judgment. In cases of this sort the father was held responsible for the cost to the county only if the child became "chargeable" to the county, that is, if the child became a ward of the county. In this instance the child, Lucius Harvey Stallcup, did not become a ward of Macon County yet there must have been some cost to the county involved. The Court placed a judgment of sixty dollars against B. Harvey Stalcup. This was to be paid in three installments; twenty dollars down, twenty dollars in twelve months and the final twenty dollars at the end of two years.

B. Harvey never paid. He fled to Union County, Georgia. The Court then issued a series of warrants for the "body of" B. Harvey Stalcup or for his land and property. All of these warrants were returned to the Court marked "not found". There was no extradition between the states so if there were no major anchors such as extensive land holdings or business connections fleeing to another state was an easy way to avoid punishment. At this time B. Harvey was about 20 years old, not married and owned no property.

William Stallcup soon left the state of North Carolina as well. He and his second wife, Linney Sanders, with some of the children from both families, moved to Polk County, Tennessee. This was about the same time that the apparent attempt on William's life resulted in the ambush death of John's younger brother, Seth Stallcup.

B. Harvey returned to Macon County, North Carolina about 1857. An encounter again occurred between Rebecca and B. Harvey. Exactly what happened is not now known for sure because definitive records are lacking. The event apparently involved Jesse Richardson Stalcup in some way as well. This event re-opened the 1847-1849 case against B. Harvey, generated new charges against him and also generated a civil suit against B. Harvey and Jesse Richardson. Rebecca became pregnant as a result of this 1857 encounter. Probably under court direction she moved to the farm of B. Harvey's younger brother, the Rev. Thomas Bellew Stallcup, in Haywood County (later to be part of the town of Whittier) to give birth to the child fathered by B. Harvey. This child was a boy born in 1858. The identity of this child is not positively known.

Rebecca again filed 'bastardy' charges against B. Harvey Stalcup in the Macon County Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions. She also filed a civil suit in the Macon County Superior Court against both B. Harvey and Jesse Richardson Stalcup. In July of 1858 there was a transcript of the 1847-49 case made by the Clerk of the Macon County Pleas and Quarter Sessions Court, Mr. R. C. Slagle, at the request of the Macon County Superior Court. The two cases were continued from term to term. Finally on February 18, 1860, two different Macon County courts issued three separate warrants for B. Harvey and Jesse Richardson Stalcup.

Clerk R. C. Slagle made out the first warrant for the Pleas and Quarter Sessions Court for B. Harvey because he had never paid the sixty-dollar judgment placed against him by that same Court in 1849. No other record of this case is found in the North Carolina State Archives holdings so probably the money was paid and the case closed. The second warrant made out by Clerk R. C. Slagle for the Pleas and Quarter Sessions Court was for B. Harvey to answer for the new 'bastardy' of Rebecca charge. That this charge was completely separate from the 1847-49 case is proven by the fact that both warrants were made out by the same clerk on the same day for the same court. It is believed that this charge was consolidated with the Superior Court case because no further record of it is found in the North Carolina State Archives.

The third warrant issued on February 18, 1860 was from the Macon County Superior Court and was for both B. Harvey and Jesse Richardson Stalcup. This was a civil suit filed by Rebecca. It was for a debt of 500 dollars and for damages of 300 dollars. The 'bastardy' charge was, in effect, a criminal charge with any judgment imposed by the Court payable to the County. This civil suit was brought, therefore, to compensate Rebecca.

The case came to trial and a number of witnesses were called to testify. The case was continued for several terms then suddenly, in December 1860, it was all over. The Court found in favor of Rebecca for the full amount of the debt but increased the amount they awarded her for damages from $300 to $500 dollars. On December 8, 1860, B. Harvey Stalcup, Jesse Richardson Stalcup, and one Charles Mason, probably a bondsman, made out a bond payable to the Cherokee County sheriff, N. N. Davidson, for twice the amount of the debt, that is "ten hundred" dollars, two hundred dollars more than the original suit asked for, to appear in the Macon County Superior Court to hear judgment passed on themselves. Sheriff Davidson later assigned this bond to Rebecca.

On the back of one of the documents in the case is an accounting of all the partial payments made to the Cherokee County sheriff for transfer to Rebecca. These payments went on until September 1867 and the case finally closed by the Court. It appears all of the payments were actually made by Jesse Richardson Stalcup. Jesse Richardson was a large property owner in Cherokee County. B. Harvey again fled the state. He moved to Tennessee soon after the sentence was handed down and apparently never again returned to North Carolina. All the court battles spanned twenty years. There were three separate court cases in all, two 'bastardy' and one civil suit. Rebecca won all three. B. Harvey Stalcup is believed to have died of pneumonia near Cleveland, Tennessee, in 1870. His second wife and all of his children, including the son by Rebecca, later moved to Texas.

Now let us return to the story of John Stallcup. In that era it was a fairly common practice, particularly for the later children in very large families, to wait until a later child in the family was several years old before settling on a formal name. It was also common practice to give a later child the same name as that of an earlier child that was deceased. Both of William Stallcup's sons by his second wife were named for deceased sons born to his first wife. In the case of the two sons named John a great deal of confusion has resulted. Both were soldiers but as a result of different wars. Both were shot and killed while soldiers. The second family son, John M. Stalcup, enlisted in the Confederate Army at the age of 19. He joined Company F, 19th Regiment, Tennessee Infantry and was a member of the forces defending Atlanta during the siege by Sherman. On August 4, 1864, John M. Stalcup suffered a gunshot wound to his right hip and was admitted to the hospital. He died from his injuries on August 7, 1864.

During the 1870's both of Rebecca's parents died and she went to live with her son, Lucius Harvey, and his family. She moved with the family to Bone Valley, now in the Smoky Mountain National Park. Copper was discovered in Bone Valley and Lucius Harvey operated a copper mine until a cave-in closed it.

Sometime after his mother came to live with him Lucius Harvey learned the true story about his father being John Stallcup. Up until then he may have been under the impression that he actually was an illegitimate child. He grew up using his mother's maiden name as his surname. He joined the Confederate States Army, got married and fathered at least the first six of his children while using the Kinsland surname. What made Rebecca decide to tell him the true story is a matter of conjecture. Perhaps it was learning of the death of both B. Harvey Stalcup and William Stallcup. Whatever the reason she did tell Lucius Harvey that his father was indeed John Stallcup and not B. Harvey Stalcup. She made it clear that he was not illegitimate and the child born in 1858 was his half-brother and not his full brother. She also told him everything she could about John and what happened to him.

Lucius Harvey's reasons for moving his family from Bone Valley to Bryson City were always a mystery. There did not seem to be any reason for him to do so. Both he and Almarine were born and raised on Cowee Mountain; he on the west side near Franklin and she on the east side near Webster. Almarine’s parents remained living in Bone Valley. Their resting place in the Hall Cemetery in Bone Valley inside the Smoky Mountain National Park. But perhaps he had a very good reason after all. If Lucius Harvey had learned from his mother that his father had died near Bryson City and was buried somewhere nearby that certainly would explain his reason for moving to Bryson City. He was searching for his father.

Rebecca Kinsland Stallcup lived with her son until her death sometime between 1896 and 1900. The exact date of her death apparently was not recorded and she had no tombstone until about 90 years after her death. She rests under a big oak tree next to her son in the Bryson City (town) Cemetery, Bryson City, Swain County, North Carolina.

Son of William and Mary Hyatt Stallcup. 
First person buried in the Charles “Dock” Jenkins Cemetery (now called the Arlington Church Cemetery). Hughes Branch Road, Bryson City, Swain Co., NC.

MARY JANE STALLCUP
 

INFLUENCE OF MARY JANE STALLCUP GARRETT
Dr. J. T. Garrett
 

GRANNY MARY
One of Juanitta Stallcup Baldwin’s memories of Granny Mary Birchfield Stallcup.
Recorded August 27, 2010. This probably happened about 1933.