Email From Gary Aden to Gary Aden
Email Dated 5/15/2001 

The property record and militia assignment review also turned up the
name of Joseph Allen who owned 350 acres of third quality(800 Pine) on
Big Creek next to James Bigham and was assigned to Captain Terry militia
district. Once again, any relationship to William Allen could not be
delineated. A record review in Sparta, Hancock County, by the County
Library turned up no recorded properties for William Allen. Records for
Wilkes County and Burke County for the period in question have been
destroyed or lost(the Burke County Courthouse burned down). An Index of
Headnights and Bounty Grants  for this period by the Augusta Chronicle
shows four Burke County properties, but these are probably the same or
allied properties to those described above. A court record shows that
William served as a petit juror July 3, 1799 in  Jefferson County. 

       Thus, the surviving record, especially the Rocky Creek holdings,
suggest that William Allen retreated to Rocky Creek during the early
part of the Revolutionary War only to be drawn into the war itself with
the Brier Creek engagement. How he met his future wife, Elizabeth, is a
mystery. Her brother, William, made forays into Geogia from South
Carolina. The father-in-law of her sister, Margaret, James Montgomery,
elected to join the Burke County Militia and fought wth that company
during at least part of the Revolution as a Second Lieutenant. Perhaps
either of these gentlemen could have introduced William to Betsy. Or
maybe the two of them had known each other or known of each other in
South Carolina or even Ireland via family connections. It is important
to the extent that it may offer some clue to William's old world
origins. 

         The next question that comes to mind is why William and
Elizabeth, successfully established raising four boys near the newly
built, boomtown State Capitol, uproot their family to move halfway
across the present-day state to Jackson County where no property
holdings except six slaves can be found as of 1803. Did war wounds or
some other economic or health cosideration dictate the decision(William
was to die in 1806)? Maybe they just had a pioneering temperament. Or
perhaps they wanted to live close to the Hugh Montgomerys, Elizabeth's
sister and her husband. Who were they? Important enough today to have
chapters written about them in "Notable Southern Families"(Volume
II-Zella Armstrong, 1996).

       They were Scotch-Irish. James Montgomery came to the old
Pendleton District, South Carolina via Pennsylvania and later Augusta
County, Virginia. After the Revolutionary War, he moved his family to
granted land in Franklin County, Georgia. He was seriously wounded in a
skirmish with the Indians, and years later died in Jackson County which
had been carved out of Franklin County. He had three children by his
first wife, Elizabeth McConnell, and seven by his second wife.The oldest
child and the one to become quite prominent was Colonel Hugh Montgomery,
not only William Allen's brother-in-law, but described in William's will
where he is named Executor as "my trusty friend." In 1786, he was
employed to survey the line "between Franklin County and the Indians"
also known as "the Hawkins Line." As of 1790, he was living in the
Lancaster  District of South Carolina. Colonel Montgomery represented
Jackson County in the legislature from 1807-1812 and in the State Senate
from 1812-1819 and 1823-25. In 1818, he had surveyed the boundary line
between Georgia and Tennessee. He was a Judge of the Inferior Court,
Jackson County, 1811-18, 1823-25. He was appointed Trustee of the
Jackson County Academy by Act of the Georgia Legislature 11/20/1818. He
was an ardent Presbyterian and was a co-founder of the Thytiria
Presbyterian Church. Working with ex-Governor McMinn of Tennesee, he
became interested in mission work among the Cherokees of North Georgia
and financed the sending of the first missionaries to them. Upon the
death of ex-Governor McMinnn, he was nominated on March 3rd, 1825 by
President Monroe to be Indian Agent of the Cherokee Purchase, moving his
headquarters to  Calhoun, Tennessee serving until the Indians were moved
West in 1838. His salary was $1500.00/year(quite large for the times)
and upon retirement was also given a tract of 3000 acres in Chatooga
County, Georgia. He died January 22nd, 1852 and was buried alongside
Elizabeth's younger  sister, Margaret  BARCLAY Montgomery(2/8/1768
Lancaster District, South Carolina-7/28/1848 Chatooga County, Georgia)
at Alpine in the same county. The couple parented eleven children. The
date of Margaret's death means that we can at least record that
Elizabeth was born before 1768 and most likely in the Carolinas, if not
Lancaster Distict itself.

       The grave of William Allen has never been found. Of course, part
of that is due to the desecration that time deals to untended
cemeteries, but the fact is, no one knows where either William or
Elizabeth are buried. In Elizabeth's case, it is likely close to her
second husband in Forsyth County. In the Jackson County area, there is a
Creek with the name Allen located about five and one half miles NW of
Jefferson where the Allens probably lived among the Niblocks,
Montgomerys, and Applebys adjacent to a big cemetery with old
fieldstones piled by some trees- also some good granite engraved stones
of later Applebys and Niblocks. An alternative hypothesis is that
William was buried on the old Montgomery place, possibly near James
Montgomery, bypassing the cemetery altogether, not unheard of in those
days. There were other Allens in the county contemporary with William
living about five miles from him on Kandler's Creek by the names of
William and Daniel.

Gary Carl Aden 5/14/01