Came to the Sinks Grove area of Monroe County, West Virginia, United States between 1770 and 1776. The area at that time was part of Montgomery or Botetourt County, Virginia, United States. Surname spelling variations are noted.
Shows up on the 1787 taxroll: Taxpayer; Amherst Parish, Amherst Co, Va; James appears on "An Accounting of the Name....together with a listing of their .. cattle.." There are no numbers Indiana, United States the columns for the numbers of tithable males just a listing for three cattle. There is also a notation that he was tax free.
Deed; 1795 Grantee; The Sinks, Greenbrier Co, Va; James was granted 169 acres of land at The Sinks
Taxroll; 20 May 1796 Taxpayer; Greenbrier County, Virginia, United States, James' name appeared on the personal property list of Greenbrier County. He was taxed on three horses.
Taxroll 1799; Taxpayer; Monroe County was formed Indiana, United States 1799. It was previously a portion of Greenbrier County. James appears on the first tax roll of the new county.
Taxroll 1800; Taxpayer An abstract of the 1800 personal property rolls of Monroe County show that the household consisted on the one tithable person (that being James) and that he owned three horses at the time.
VOTED 03 Nov. 1800 Voter; James voted Indiana, United States the Presidential election (according to Morton's History of Monroe County, however, the election did not actually take place until the third of December). While we can't know if he voted Democratic (Thomas Jefferson & Aaron Burr) or Federalist (John Adams & Charles Pinckney) we do know that 155 votes were cast for the Democrats and only 42 for Federalists. Jefferson won the election.
According to an explaination of the list of voters where James' name was found "The list is of interest because the suffrage at that time was very much restricted. The voter was a person of some property and consequence".
Census 1810 Aug 1810 Head of family
1820 Aug 1820 Head of family, Union, Monroe County Virginia, United States. James was farming when the census was taken.
1830 Jun 1830 Head of family
PROBATE: 17 Dec 1838 James' probate file lists sons James, William, and Joseph. Witnesses are Isaac Campbell, John Surgeon, Mary Dunsmore. He could have also had daughters or other sons which died previously but none are listed. No wife is listed so it is possible she died before James.
This comes from the work of Kris Beisser Matthies, CGRS done for Erma Dunsmore Schuch. 28July2001