patrick cragon and forebears

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PATRICK CRAGON

The first ancestor on our direct line of Cragun’s to come to America is Patrick. During

our many years of searching, we have not yet found definite proof of his birthplace. However a

book called “History of Cass County, “Indiana, found in 1967 in the Indianapolis, Indiana

Library, page 214, states that the family of Cragun was from Dublin, Ireland prior to the

Revolutionary War, and took part in the struggles of the American colonists that resulted in the

winning of Independence. More research is needed to verify if the Cragun’s came from Ireland.

Patrick Cragun was born about 1745 in Scotland or Ireland, and married in the early

1780’s Rose Alley (Abby) or Hannah Elsy. The first ancestor on our direct line of Cragun’s to

come to America is Patrick. During our many years of searching, we have not yet found definite

proof of his birthplace. However, a book called “History of Cass County, Indiana, found in 1967

in the Indianapolis, Indiana library, page 214, states that the family of Cragun was founded in

America by Patrick Cragun who came from Dublin, Ireland prior to the Revolutionary War and

took part in the struggles of the American colonists that resulted in the winning of

Independence.1

Tradition through branches of the family has given us two different stories—the first

telling of Patrick’s adventures as a child of 12 years and the second telling of his adventures as a

young man

Immigration to America

The first story was told by James Cragun, son of Elisha, who was a son of Patrick, and

was recorded by Martha James Cragun Cox, a daughter of James Cragun.

“The story of Patrick Cragun as my father used to tell it, runs like this: His parents in

Ireland bound him to a saddler that he might learn a trade. Hearing much about the free land of

America he became obsessed with a desire to emigrate. He ran away from his master bound for

America and lay in the harbor. He made the acquaintance of the shipmaster if had not done so

before, and sold himself to that person for a term of years. This it seems was a common practice

among sea captains in those days, to pick up runaway boys for service. Pat was about twelve

years old when he made this venture. In time the ship he sailed on arrived at a port in Virginia

and took on lumber. The captain fearing he might lose Pat did not allow him to leave the ship.

However, the night before he was to sail, the boy jumped overboard and swam ashore and hid

himself in the piles of lumber. The story goes that he stayed in the piles of lumber for three days

without food and water, while his master searched the coast for him. At length, concluding that

1 Heiner, Eva Cragun, Patrick Cragun – Descendants in America, page 12, year 1964

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his boy had drowned in the ocean, the captain sailed away. Pat came out from his hiding in a

starved condition. He had almost perished for want of water.

The second story was told by Jonathon O.Q. Cragun of Mankato, Minnesota in 1931 to

Eva Cragun Heiner, and written down as she remembered it at that time. J.O.Q. was a son of

Enoch, son of Elisha Cragun, son of Patrick Cragun.

Patrick was born about 1745/6 and had a most interesting life. He had a great desire in

his early youth to go to America, so when the opportunity came he joined a company of forty

Irishmen who obtained a sailing vessel and provisions sufficient to last the journey. They set sail

and all went well until in mid-ocean a current, together with the trade winds, sent their ship

sailing to the calms around Cuba. The peculiarity of these calms is that not a breeze stirs for

weeks at a time. Here their ship floated and they waited. They were careful of the provisions,

but not a breeze came to carry them on and they were not prepared for any such happenings.

Finally the food and water supply was exhausted and they resorted to eating candles,

boiled ropes and just anything. Some of the men became prostrated; others with their tongu’s

hanging out became savage.

One day, when hope was despaired, someone saw a ship in the distance and made feeble

attempts to attract attention which proved successful. It was an English ship on its way to

America. The crew came aboard the ill-fated ship. The crew bound them with strong cord and

carried them aboard ship, nursing them, gradually increasing their diet until they became well.

Great wisdom was shown in this treatment.2

Patrick Cragun in America

Patrick Cragon (Cragun), the name of his wife is not known. The earliest record found

for him was for 1779, when he appeared on a Washington County, North Carolina (later

Tennessee), List of Taxables.3 (His name was shown as Patrick Craguner.) This was just prior to

the area being included in the new Sullivan County, North Carolina (later Tennessee): and it was

about the time that groups led by James Robertson and Col. John Donelson left the area and

moved overland and by river westward to “the Bluffs” on the Cumberland River to form the first

settlement in the Cumberland country – the present city of Nashville, Tennessee. The tax record

showed that he owned 170 acres of land, four horses, and three cattle. Patrick Cragon received

2 Eva Cragun, Patrick Cragun – Descendants in America, copy of book in possession of Gaylynne Heiner Hone,

Payson, Utah. 3 Mary Hardin McCown, Washinton Count y lists of Taxables 1778-1801 Volume 1, , Printed, Johnson City,

Tennessee, 1964, Info obtained from the book Tennessee Cragons and Their Kinfolk, printed 1974, page 18, copy of

book in possession of Gaylynne Heiner Hone, Payson, Utah.

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official title to this land on Indian Creek, Sullivan County, by a North Carolina Land Grant4

dated 10 November 1784.

Know ye that we have granted unto Patrick Cragon

one hundred and seventy acres of land in Sullivan County on

Indian Creek beginning at a pine tree on Solomon Smiths

line thence on said Smiths line south sixty seven degrees East

ninty six poles to said Smiths corner white oak thence on

said Smiths line South sixty four poles to a white oak thence

along a Knob South forty five degrees East one hundred and

ten poles to a pine thence on a dividing line between said

Cragon and Filty Little North forty three degrees East Sixty

poles to two pines thence North one hundred and seventy six

poles to a pine thence West two hundred and ten poles

crossing said Creek to a stake thence South forty poles to the

Beginning. To hold to Patrick Cragon his Heirs and assigns

forever dated the Tenth of November 1784. (translation of

document above 22-A)

4 Secretary of State, North Carolina, Grant No. 308, Book No. 69, Page 179, File No. 429, Info obtained from the

book Tennessee Cragons and Their Kinfolk, printed 1974, page 18, copy of book in possession of Gaylynne Heiner

Hone, Payson, Utah.

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North Carolina Land Grant5 dated 10 November 1784.

5 Secretary of State, North Carolina, Grant No. 308, Book No. 69, Page 179, File No. 429, Info obtained from the

book Tennessee Cragons and Their Kinfolk, printed 1974, page 18, copy of book in possession of Gaylynne Heiner

Hone, Payson, Utah.

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It is presumed that this land grant was made to give him legal title to the land he had

occupied as a settler in late 1778 or early 1779. The Warrant of Survey was issued to the

surveyor on 30 December 1778, and the Surveyor;s plat was dated 6 October 1783. Records of

North Carolina Department of State show that this grant to Patrick Cragon was a purchase grant

and not for war service.6 This land (and appurtenances) on Indian Creek (about 10 miles below

Bristol, Virginia-Tennessee, and near Bluff City, Tennessee) was sold by Patrick Cragon (deed

shows Creggan) to a Charles Barnette on 19 February 1812. The land grand and the deed,

mentioned above, are the only land transactions found for him.

Most of the original records of Sullivan County were destroyed on the afternoon of 22

September 1863, when a shell from a Federal battery hit the Sullivan County Courthouse at

Blountville, setting it afire and destroying of all of its contents. Included were the county court

minutes and the records of wills and marriages from 1780. The deed books were kept at the

home of the registrar, Frederick Sturm, and escaped destruction. Fortunately, some information

concerning the organization of the county was copied from the early minute book before it was

destroyed. In 1844 Lyman C. Draper, on a southern trip collecting material on the settlement of

the West, stopped at Blountville and took some notes. In the 1850’s Dr. J.G.M. Ramsey, while

writing his Annals of Tennessee, obtained from correspondent similar information.7

According to these sources, the county court of Sullivan County first met on Monday,

February 7, 1780, at the home of Moses Looney. Commissions as justices of the peace were

presented. In 1795 a Patrick Cregan was in a group of men who were ordered by the County

Court of Sullivan County to “view and lay off a great road the nearest and best way from

Weavers Line by Rystop’s Ford on Holston River Indian Creek to join the Washington Line.”8

The tax list of 1796 for Sullivan County, Tennessee includes a Patrick Creagan.9

6 Letter of 3 February 1971, from R. F. Johnston, Director of Publications, Department of North Carolina, to Col.

(Ret.) H. D. Cragon, Birmingham, Alabama. Tennessee Cragons and Their Kinfolk, printed 1974, copy of book in

possession of Gaylynne Heiner Hone. 7 Creekmore, Pollyanna, Early East Tennessee Taxpayers, East Tennessee Historical Society, The compiler is

indebted to Prentiss Price of Rogersville, Tennessee, for this information. See also Draper MSS. 3S138-139 (State Historical Society, Madison Wisconsin; microfilm in the University of Tennessee Library), and J.G. M. Ramsey, The Annals of Tennessee to the End of the Eighteenth Century (reprinted, Kingsport, 1926), 189. The reason for the statement that Ramsey received the information from a correspondent is because the names are garbled to some extent, e.g. William Christie, instead of Gilbert Christian; John Dunham, instead of John Duncan. Dr. Ramsey was too familiar with these names to have so miscopied them himself. 8 Sullivan County, Tennessee, Deed Book 6, page 188, Tennessee Cragons and Their Kinfolk, printed 1974, page 19,

copy of book in possession of Gaylynne Heiner Hone. 9 Oliver Taylor, Historic Sullivan, Page226, info found in the book Tennessee Cragons and Their Kinfolk, printed

1974, page 19, copy of book in possession of Gaylynne Heiner Hone.

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Sullivan County, Tennessee

Tax Lists 1796

“Copy of the Tax Roll of Sullivan County for the year 1796”

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In the tax record we find Patrick Creagan, and he owned 240 acres of land, in the key the

Column Numbers [1] Acres of land, [2] white Polls, [3] Black Polls. The list was transcribed

from a microfilm copy of the original certified copy returned by Matthew Rhea, Sullivan County

court clerk, to the Tennessee general assembly, now on file in the Tennessee Archives. It is not

of record in Sullivan County. Also in the Archives are lists for 1797 and 1811-12. All of these

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Creekmore, Pollyanna, Early East Tennessee Taxpayers, East Tennessee Historical Society, There are two

additional columns in the original, “Stud Horses” and “Town lots.” Six individuals were designated as owning one

stud horse each: Thomas Beard, Samuel Crockett, John Musgrove, Jr., James Pickins, Thomas Titsworth, and James

Wheeler. Six individuals were listed as owners of town lots, with one owning two: john Burk (2), Samuel Crockett,

Edward Cox, Richard Gammon, Robert Rutledge, and John Shelby, Jr.

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lists were microfilmed by the compiler in1949, through the courtesy of Mrs. John Trotwood

Moore, then Tennessee state librarian and archivist. The films are available in the McClung

Collection, Lawson McGhee Library, and Knoxville.11

The tax record showed that he owned 170 acres of land, four horses, and three cattle.

Patrick Cragon received official title to this land on Indian Creek, Sullivan County, by a North

Carolina land Grant dated November 10, 1784.12

In 1776, North Carolina accepted the area (including Indian Creek where the Cragon later

lived) as Washington County, North Carolina, which eventually embraced all of the present

Tennessee. In 1779, North Carolina placed the area in a new county called Sullivan. Later, to

secure federal protection from Indian raids and other frontier hazards, North Carolina handed it

to the national government as a present. Apparently no one in Washington, D. C., became

enthusiastic about the gift, refusing even to acknowledge it. After being ignored for four or five

years and continuing to suffer from Indian raids, the settlers organized the territory into a new

state, Franklin. But even that action received cold treatment from Washington, and Franklin

lasted only four years and was never recognized. In 1790 Congress did offer relief to the settlers

by including the area in the Territory of the United State, South of the River Ohio, known as the

Southwest Territory. On 1 June 1796, Tennessee joined the Union as the 16th

state.

Patrick Cragon’s home on Indian Creek was about ten miles from Rocky Mount, a two-

story log house built in 1770. It was located on present Highway 11E between Johnson City and

Bristol and is now shown to the public as one of the Historic Sights of Tennessee. In 1790 (year

of John Cragon’s birth), Rocky Mount was selected by William Blount, first Governor of the

Southwest Territory, as his headquarters. For the next eighteen months this house, near the

Cragons, was the Capital of the first recognized government west of the Allegheny Mountains.

The first recognized government west of the Allegheny Mountains. The Cragon home on Indian

Creek in 1779 as the first town in the area. It was also near Fort Patrick Henry which was one of

the forts offering protection to the early settlers.

11

Sistler, Byron and Barbara, Early Tennessee Tax Lists, Evanston, Illinois, 1977, LDS Family History Library #F

435.557 12

Tennessee Cragons and Their Kinfolk, Col. Henry D. Cragon, Aus. Ret., Year 1973, Grant No. 308, Book No. 69,

page 179, File No. 429, Secretary of State, North Carolina

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Early Tennessee Land Records

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In the Tennessee record, we find the Claimant Patrick Cragan and the file No. was 429,

the county was Sullivan County and he had 170 acres. The grant was for 308 on 10 Nov. 1784

with the entry was 863 and the entry date was 30 Dec. 1778.

The State of Tennessee was established, essentially, from land ceded to the federal

government by North Carolina. Clouding the various land cession laws that transferred the title

of land from North Carolina to the United States south of the River Ohio (a territory) and then to

Tennessee was the requirement, however vaguely defined, that North Carolina Revolutionary

Soldiers’ promise of land for military service is honored. Among other things, this requirement

resulted in the inclusion of hundreds of footnotes to the Tennessee land laws that spelled out the

land transfer process.14

13

Griffey, Irene M., Earliest Tennessee Land Record and Earliest Tennessee Land History, Baltimore, Maryland,

Genealogical Publishing Co., 2003. 14

Griffey, Irene M., Earliest Tennessee Land Record and Earliest Tennessee Land History, Baltimore, Maryland,

Genealogical Publishing Co., 2003.

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Research in Tennessee for the period prior to 1830 poses some difficult problems because

no complete census schedules for the state exist before that date. The 1800 census schedules

were entirely lost or destroyed, and for 1810 only Rutherford County has been saved. The 1820

lists for almost all the eastern counties are missing.15

For genealogists seeking county of origin of early settlers the only feasible approach is

through the county tax lists, petitions and newspaper accounts. This is a single index to 68

county tax lists, petitions, voter lists, and newspaper lists of inhabitants in 34 Tennessee counties.

There are about 46,000 entries in all.16

The earliest list included is from 1787 and the 1827. About 2/3 of the state’s counties in

existence by 1820 are included. We find a Patrick Creagan in Sullivan County for the year 1796

and a different spelling for a Patrick Cregan in Sullivan County for the year 1797.17

Patrick married in the early 1780’s. There are many different ideas about his wife’s

name. She has been called Rose Alley, Hannah, Elizabeth, but in her son, Elisha’s Patriarchal

blessing, his mother is called Elsy.” End of story No. 2.18

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435.557 16


435.557 17


435.557 18

Heiner, Eva Cragun, Patrick Cragun – Descendants in America, Page 14

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Old Road Builders

From “Old Road Builders” taken from “Historic Sullivan” Page 225, another story of

Patrick Cragun; (spelling left as it was written)

When in 1760 the expedition known as the Byrd expedition cut its way to Long Island,

opening a new highway that has always been known as the Island road, and when in 1775 Daniel

Boone and his company cut out the Wilderness road – also called the Kentucke or Caintuck road

and now known as the Reedy creek road –then was the beginning of bad roads in Sullivan

county.

But over the one the great flow of southwest immigration has gone and over the other

numberless cavalcades have passed, bound for the west. These two roads and one other served

our ancestors many years. There were other paths, but these were the main travel ways—the

“great roads” as they were then called. It was not from a lack of the spirit of progress that our

ancestors did not establish other good roads—the Indian wars and the war with Great Britain

kept them busy for twenty-five years. But in the year 1795 a road building energy and

enthusiasm seized the people; eight great roads were proposed and established in this year, and at

the same time the county court appointed a jury of twenty-six prominent citizens “to view the

great road from Sullivan court-house, leading to Abingdon, in Virginia, as far as the Virginia line

and report to the next court.”19

The records of the court are meager and no report of this jury could be found, but

“viewing” meant to pass upon the condition and this generation believes itself capable of

surmising what sort of report was made.

The orders of the court for the other roads ran as follows:

Ordered by the court that the following persons be appointed to view and lay off a great

road the nearest and best way from Weaver line by Ryson’s Ford on Holston River Indian Creek

to Join the Washington line. Solomen____, Patrick Cregan, Arnold Schell, John Funkhouser,

Jacob Weaver, Abeloid Edwards, Benjamin Ryston, John Richardson, Samuel Miller, William

Carr, Frederick Weaver, William Morgan, John Miller, Harman Arrants, George _____, Jacob

Boy, Thomas Price, Joseph Cole, Jr., Elisha Cole, William Cross and Aquilla Cross and make

their reports to the next court.20

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435.557 20

Taylor, Oliver, Historic Sullivan, A History of Sullivan County, Tennessee with brief Biographies of the Makers

of History, Bristol, Tenn., 1909, LDS Family History Library – 976.896, T216h, These “orders of the court” are

selected from a scrap of the county records for 1795, in some way preserved, and now in the possession of George

T. Hammer, Briston.

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This was in 1795 when a road building energy seized the people of Tennessee. Eight

new roads were proposed and established in this year. These roads were not established with a

consideration for grade altogether. When the Court order read, “The nearest and best way”, it

meant the safest way. They went over the hills because on the backbone of these hills was the

best road bed, the best drainage and one other consideration which we lightly accept, the greatest

safety from attack by highway men or Indians.21

Our ancestors had enough to do in removing the massive growth from the thickly

timbered land—trees were centuries old; for they dug through the dense forests to get these roads

and to dig a way around hills to avoid steep grades meant more toil than was their portion.

Besides they had no machinery with which to make stone beds and the soft virgin soil was ill-

suited for heavy rolling wagons.22

There is a Cragun family line in Indiana which extends westward as far as the Pacific

Ocean. Mrs. Eva L. Cragun Heiner, Salt Lake City, Utah, had done considerable research on that

line for many years with the help from Mrs. Jean Cragun Tombaugh, Rochester, Indiana, and

others. Mrs. Heiner had written a book in 196923

on the Craguns which traces the family back to

Patrcik Cragun of Sullivan County. This book shows that following children of Patrick Cragun.

Isaac b. abt. 175 ** Joshua b. abt. 1796

Elisha B. b. 22 Feb. 1786 ** Caleb b. abt. 1796

John b. abt. 1787 Elizabeth b. 1 May 1799

Tyresha b. abt. 1789 Syren b. 13 August 1801

Lydia b. abt. 1791 Lucius b. abt. 1803

Hannah b. abt. 1795 # William b. abt. 1819

Only information on john is a reference to attendance at a church in Franklin County,

Indiana. This John could have been a son of Caleb who lived in Franklin County.

** Joshua and Caleb were twins and both had a son named John which was the name of their

older brother.

# Late birthdate indicates that he could have been son of Isaac.

Research on John Cragon, done by his descendant Col. (Ret.) Henry D. Cragon of

Birmingham, Alabama, disclosed that he had a son named Patrick. The research also disclosed

an Elisha Cragen in nearby Russell County, Virginia, in 1810; an Isaac Cragan in Russell

County, Virginia, in 1814, 1817, and 1820; and a Joshua Cragun, residence unknown in May

1817, who visited his brother Isaac a few hours after Isaac’s marriage in Russell County,

21

Heiner, Eva Cragun, Patrick Cragun – Descendants in America, Page 117 22

Heiner, Eva Cragun, Patrick Cragun – Descendants in America, Page 17 23

Eva Cragun Heiner, Patrick Cragun – Descendants in America, copy of the book in the possession of Gaylynne

Heiner Hone, Payson, Utah.

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Virginia. The 1850 Tennessee Census shows that John Cragon born in Virginia, and the 1860

Census shows Tennessee. On the 1880 Kentucky Census his son James shows that his father

was born in Virginia, and his daughter Melissa reported on the 1880 Illinois Census that her

father was born in Tennessee. The area involved is the upper northeastern tip of Tennessee, and

the adjoining southwestern tip of Virginia, and it was thought by some that this particular area

was a part of Virginia. The dividing line between Virginia and North Carolina (later Tennessee)

at his joint, as finally settled, resulted in an area being removed from the jurisdiction of Virginia.

In view of this and the fact that the Indian Creek area had been in several jurisdictions, It is

understandable that John Cragon and his children would not be certain as to the exact legal

location of John’s birthplace when reporting it to the Census taker in 1850, 1860, and 1880.

The whereabouts of Patrick Cragon prior to his location in Sullivan County, North

Carolina (later Tennessee), in 1779 is not known. It was handed down by the Tennessee Cragons

that the family was Scotch-Irish. Mrs. Heiner comes to the same conclusion in her book on the

Craguns of Indiana and the western states.

patrick cragon and forebears

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