Monday, September 15, 2014

Other Yancey Homes in the Area *draft*

The Yancey's have been in the Shenandoah Valley since the 1700s.  It is beyond the scope of this site to go into detail where Yancey's have lived throughout the valley.  One could easily devote an entire book to the subject.

Instead, the next few entries will focus on the area just south of Elkton, VA, where Captain William Layton Yancey settled. Let me start by saying that documenting the existence of houses and their locations more than 200 years ago is not an exact science.  New roads are built, old roads stop being used, houses are abandonded, etc.  Add  the fact that records are lost and/or destroyed, and you end up with a very imperfect set of data from which to say with certainty "this house existed at this location and was occupied by this individual on this date."

Layton received a large tract of land from his father-in-law, Thomas Lewis, brother of Andrew Lewis for whom Lewisburg, WV and part of I-81 is named.  Lewis named Layton in his will, and noted that Layton was already living on the land at the time the will was written.  Lewis died on January 31, 1790, so we know at least that Layton was living on the land prior to that date.

Layton and Fanny were married in December of 1788, and according to cousin Reba's book, the couple built a house on the land given to Layton by Lewis, and the house faced a large spring.  This may have been one of several sites located on land now owned by Merck, just downstream of the river from Hilltop.  Several old maps show dwellings in that location, and as recently as the 1960s many of those dwellings, although abandoned, still stood.  This is where evidence is lacking as to the actual location.  The map below, supposedly from 1864 (although the date has not been verified and is likely much earlier given how few dwellings are shown), shows two sites of import.  The first is that which is labeled "Rogers".  It is in the approximate location of Hilltop.  In the mid-late 1800s Hilltop changed ownership, so perhaps it was then owned by the Rogers family.  The second is that which is labeled "Yancey."  There is no longer a dwelling in that location, but it could well be the original home of Layton and Fanny.


I asked my father if he knew where the large spring referenced above was located, and he immediately responded that it was located where Merck built a pump house behind the existing plant.  The map below is a current aerial view of the upper right quadrant of the above map.  The red circle indicates the location of the pump house, which is almost exactly where the Yancey dwelling is located on the map above.  This lends credence to Reba's account of the original dwelling existing downstream of hilltop (note: the Shenandoah river flows Northeast).  On the map below, hilltop is located on the right where the blue dot is.



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