Notes On Ezekiel Young

Ezekiel Young was born circa 1735, some say in Bristol, England; came as a stowaway, age 16, to America, so became an indentured servant. He probably arrived in Philadelphia, and possibly was related to the Youngs on the Elizabethtown, New Jersey, petition. He served in the French and Indian War from Prince William. County, VA, age c. 20; then came to Saltville Virginia as a hunter.

Finally he established his home place on Little Fox Creek of New River, Was a Lieutenant in the Montgomery. County, Va. Militia, Osborne's co.

Died April 1800 at home on Little Fox Creek. (Will, Grayson Co.) Buried at homeplace 3/8 mile north of the mouth of Little Fox Creek, but memorial plaque is at Young's Chapel, Oak Hill Ac. Was married to Ruth Whitehead of NC, circa 1768; five sons: Robert, Joseph, Ezekiel Jr., William. and Thomas.

Robert and Ezekiel Jr. moved to Green Co., KY. (Note: this part of Green County was later named Taylor County, after Prez Taylor). Joseph (1771-1857) remained in VA, settled on the homeplace and married Lucy Perkins, daughter of Timothy P. of Ashe Co; had eight children.

Sources: Galax Gazette, article by I. N. Young; genealogy compiled by Charles Young, Rt. 1, Box 274, Grapevine, Texas. A possible connection to the famous land lawsuit in Elizabeth Town, NJ is that one of those involved was a Thomas Young (possibly the father of Ezekiel, who did name a son Thomas); to further support this speculation, note that another signer was Timothy Whitehead, and that Ezekiel's wife was a Whitehead.
Thus analysis of the 1760-1820 era of the New River Valley frontier settlement shows that the first-generation settlers were extended families of predominantly English and Scottish "plain folk" background, who had the determination to establish a solid, middle-class agricultural lifestyle.

The families who entered this western Virginia-North Carolina area ranged from those whose progenitors had arrived on the coast of America over one hundred years earlier to those who had made the crossing themselves; all of these pioneers were intent on becoming independent landholders.

Although some of the men who first penetrated into the New River region probably preferred a solitary wilderness existence, that type soon moved on West through the nearby Cumberland Gap. The ones who remained in the New River settlement were generally people characteristic of the yeoman world: Ephraim Osborne, Sr., fur trader; Ezekiel Young, indentured servant turned frontier hunter and homesteader; John Hashe, farmer; the Cox brothers, militia leaders during the Revolution.

Such was the type which transformed the wilderness into Grayson and Ashe counties, and established their distinct Southern Appalachian culture. There where the Valley of Virginia ends in the New River valley and hill region, the descendants of these eighteenth-century settlers have remained, remote and isolated until recently by their closed-in geography, self-sustained yeomen, perpetuating the solid evidence of the pioneer achievement.



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