Lake E. Salyer born July 9, 1900 at Hindman, Knott Co., Kentucky married Otis W. Danner of Bedford Co., on March, 23, 1922 and they have 5 children. She is the youngest daughter of Drury Wallace Salyer (born 3/31/1857, died 3/8/32 and Hester Ann Bruce Salyer (born 12/28/1861, died 11/26/1944). Other children were Belle married L.W. Fields and had five children, their only child having heirs was Wallace, Tampa Fla. Byrd and Irvin died in their infancy, Ballard married Bertha McCreary, their two children having no heirs, Blanche married Karl E. Davis, had 6 children, Edna and Shafter died in thier infancy. There are no Salyer male member with issue left in this family. Drury W. Salyer was the son of Logan H.N. Salyer and Clerinda Godsey. He was born in Scott Co., Virginia on 3/31/1857, and lived as a boy in Gladeville, now Wise, Virginia where is father was a lawyer and merchant. He became interested in sawmilling and carpenter work, and became and excellent carpenter and builder. He went to Hazard, Kentucky about 1884 to build the Court House and several years later moved to Hindman and entered the mercantile business. Some years later moved to Whiteburg, Kentucky where he followed carpentry. He had other varied interests. Sawmills in Kentucky and later in Arkansas. He was a guard at a Munitions Factory in Dayton, Ohio during W.W.I, mining and shipping magnesia ore in Virginia, but none apparently absorb his sustained interest. He was intelligent, good promoter of business enterprise but without regard for money when he had it to spend. He acquired the nick name of Pat when he was very young. He had red hair during his youth and full shock of white hair until his death. Logan Henry Neal Salyer, Drury (Pat’s) father was the son of Samuel Salyer and Lydia Culbertson both of Scott Co., Virginia who sometime before the Civil moved to Prince’s Flats, now Norton, Virginia. Historians have erroneously given the impression that the mountain area of North Carolina and Virginia were settle by migration from the Tidewater section or Virginia and the Corolinas. Not true. These original settlers were Germans, Irish, Scotch and French who wanted no part of the colonialism, as operated by the henchman of English King and his royal governors. For various reasons, they left their homelands, immigrating to western Penn. were they could buy land and have some measure of religious and political freedom. The English Aristocracy, wanted defenses along their Western borders against the French and the Indians, without providing it themselves, prevailed upon the King and governors to offer some inducement to settlers to move into the mountain areas. Royal grants covered the area but provisions were made so that the settlers could occupy and buy so called wild lands and they were also exempted from supporting the church of England. These settlers moved down the valley of Virginia pushing into the mountain area, clearing land and building homes. Those entering North Carolina territory were vigorously oppressed by the royal government an pushed into the mountain areas now Scott Co., Va., and the extreme eastern part of Tenn. In the area of now Wise County, Virginia these expatriots from N.C. met with those who came the more direct route through S.W. Virginia and into the same area. They had common interests, a search for freedom and the willingness to pay for it. Some become entrapped along the way but many pushed on into the Appalachians determined to create a world of their own. They built well, creating their own homes, churches of their won design, Baptist and Methodist and schools concerned with the learning of reading, writing and arithmetic. For a period of time they were the people of free mountain empire, asking no favors of any government, asking God for a chance to live and work. They labored for their learning and their living and had no feeling of inferiority because of the lack of find homes, servants, and fine foods. There were free men. Hester Ann Bruce was the eldest child of Daniel Wesley Bruce and Cynthia Mary Dunbar. They were married on Feb. 21, 1866 in Wise County, Virginia. Both parents originated from Bland Co., Virginia, later moving to Wise County. Cynthia was Daniel’s second wife and she died at Tacoma in 1876 with diphtheria, a dread disease in those days. She with her family spent the winter here in Tacoma with her grandfather, David Byrns on the way from Bland County to their new home at Holly Creek in now Dickenson, Virginia and would have at that time gotten to know Daniel W. Bruce who lived there. While life here was hard, it was not as primitive as at Holly Creek nor as far back in the woods, having wagon roads and mill nearby with a few slaves but no plantation life. She had traveled into now Dickenson County in the first wagons ever taken into the area, over trails where only people, horses and sleds had gone before. Her family also took with them the first carpets seen in the area, people come from miles around to look at them through a door or window, not daring to walk on them. It was either her family or an Uncle Dr. John Byrns’ who abandoned at the eastern boundary of the wilderness in Bland County, the chest of drawers now in the possession of Dr. William B. Danner. Cynthia Mary Dunbar had a sister, Nancy L. who married John P. Chase, early wealthy merchant in Wise County and later at now Clintwood, Virginia. A powerhouse in politics in the area. Cynthia Mary Dunbar was the daughter of Lorenza Dow Dunbar and Sarah Jane Byrns married 5/4/1839, perhaps at Byrns Chapel at Mechanicsburg. Both of her parents was reared in now Bland County, Virginia. He at Gap View near the mouth of Dismal Creek and she at Mechanicsburg a few miles distant. One sister, Hester Ann, married Major John W. Harmon, lawyer and lived on a large farm at Holleybrook, now own by Henry and Helen Sarver. The spool bed which we have and is given to Janet was originally the of property of this family being bought by us from Tony Ramsey, whose mother who claimed to be an illegitimate daughter of John W. Harmon. Mrs. Ramsey lived in the Harmon home until she married, when she was given a small tract off of the east side of the farm, long with the house and some furniture which included the bed. Her recollection was that her father had brought the bed and other furniture from Texas where he had gone to serve as a legal advisor to Sam Houston, President of the Texas Republic (This position is authenticated by a letter of Dr. J.A. Wagner who knew him well, produce in a book "Brother Shaffy". Brother Shaffy was a early preacher in this area). Mrs. Ramsey recalled also that her father told that the furniture had been taken from a ship captured in the Gulf of Mexico, presumably during the hostility with Mexico. This would date the bed as sometime in the 1830’s. While the story and facts are considered true and indisputable, there is the question of why hauling furniture so far. First it was considered valuable, probably coming from a new England cabinet maker; secondly it was free as a booty of war; thirdly it was a momento associated with Sam Houston, a very popular and romantic figure then; and lastly the transporting vehicle, a wagon drawn by 2 or 3 more horses could provide many conveniences on a long overland journey through a region where accommodations for the traveler were generally scarce and of poor quality. No doubt John W. Harmon had discussed the journey with Sam Houston, carefully considering the routes, dangers and precaution to be taken. Sarah Jane Byrns Dunbar’s father was David Byrns who was living in Mechanicsburg as early as 1834, deeding the land for Byrns Chapel (Methodist Church and the oldest church in Bland Co.) on April 19, 1843 (then was Giles Co.). So little is known of him before he came to Mechanicsburg that a further search for information will be made before a sketch of him, a very talented man will be attempted. Cynthia Mary Dunbar’s father, Lorenza Dow Dunbar was borned and reared at Gap View, now known as the Compton Place, near the forks of Dismal Creek and Kimberling about 3 miles east of Holleybrook. He inherited the upper part of the farm which became known as the John Burton place, a beautiful land with wide bottoms. He and Jane lived at first in a small two story log cabin while the new home was being built. Some 35 years ago John Burton tore the roof off of one side, the other side was still good and I had the opportunity of examining the construction of it. The roof shingles had been dressed with a drawing knife so that they fit down like dressed lumber. Although worn very thin by the weather most were sound after some 80 years. The main floor sills around the perimeter and through the center were large oak timbers, hand hewn from trees and very sound. The uprights or studding supporting the exterior wall were dappled into the oak sills and fastened with wood pins. Do not remember in inside, reportedly plastered with material hauled in wagons from Richmond, Virginia. Apparently Lorenza did not care for farming because he left a good farming area and moved to Holly Creek in now Dickenson Co., Virginia to land not suited for farming. The land in the area selected was for the most part hilly and rough. It was remote, so much so that it was consider unsafe to live there during the Civil War. Perhaps he was adventurous more like his Irish father, but not having his father trading ability, than he was like his German mother who was if a stock inclined to stay put. His daughters married well leaving children and grandchildren of much more than average intelligence and highly respected in their area. Some 4 or 5 hundred yards form Gap View, a downstream and on the east side of Dismal Creek was large flat bottom bordered on the south by Kimberling Creek where it entered the Gap. This was for a while an old time Methodist camp ground and no more suitable place for one could have been found. Here came many of the best known traveling Methodist Preacher of their day, then called Circuit Riders. (missing text or page?) camp ground where horse traders often went to get acquainted and to do some horse swapping. Anyway it was a good match for this swashbuckling Irishman, who had to be on the go most of the time and this German lass who loved her mountain home and was capable of keeping both the fire burning in the hearth and a farm going full blast with many critters to feed and look after. Some called her "Black Betsy" perhaps because of her black hair or because she was not careful about her complexion, working, walking and riding in all kinds of weather, where ever her tasks took her. She was superb horsewoman. When Ephriam fell ill in Fincastle, he sent a slave back to tell her. She left immediately riding 80 miles with only the necessary stops to feed or change horses. Betsy Harmon’s father, George married Barbara Lopp of Salisburg, N.C. on 12/27/179-. He was born 1/25/1767. As a boy and young man, he followed the trade of his father going with him on hunting expeditions into now West Virginia and Kentucky and some of these trips had encounters with Indians, principally the Shawnees from the Ohio Country where they have moved from their homeland on the Savannah River because of the persecution by the English settlers. These encounters were not always friendly and sometimes resulted in bloodshed. Moving along with his family from N.C., he lived on Clinch River now in Tazwell County from 1771 to about 1790 when his father traded for the Holly Brook farm. He became the owner of Gap View Farm, doing some farming but continuing, no doubt, his hunting. For reasons unknown, his daughter, Elizabeth (Black Betsy) inherited this farm rather than her brother, Big Daniel, or perhaps Ephriam Dunbar bought others interest in the farm. George’s father, Henry Harmon Sr. was married to Ann (Nancy) Wilburn of Rowen (now Forsythe Co.), N.C. in 1758. He was born about 1726, probably on the Isle of Man, when his parent were enroute to the United States from Germany. His youth was spent on the New River taking part in farming and hunting with his father and brothers. While most pioneer men were hunters of local game, deer, bear, wild turkey and coons, killed to supply the family with meat, Henry Sr. was one of the first long hunters, so called because they went on long hunting expeditions which necessitated their being away from home for long periods of time. They killed game only partially for food, more importantly for hides or fur but perhaps primarily their thirst for adventure. Each day brought new explored territory into view and over every hill and around every bend of trail there lurked some new thrill or danger. These hunters learned to read the signs of the trail, from them knowing many and who had passed, what their business was and how long they had been gone. They read every sign left by man and beast basing their course of action on what they saw, sometimes leaving the trail altogether if suspecting the present of too many foes. They boiled meat over red coals when it was safe to build a small fire, they slept on the ground, fully clothed except for cap or hat, they had no haircuts and did not shave, so that they appeared in the clothes they wore more like animals they hunted than like so called well dressed men. There was no soap and no laundries along the trails so no long hunter ever washed anything, not even his knife which serve as a weapon, skinning tool, butcher knife and fork. This was wiped on the long of the pants, the sleeve of the shirt or coat being reserved for wiping the mouth or nose. The long hair and the dress of the hippies today would have appeared sissified to the long hunter who both in appearance and action resembled a bear. They consider it a great compliment to be referred to as "a bear of a man" which denotes strength, agility, determination and toughness. (missing some text or a page?) Winston Salem, Forsythe Co., N.C. and Henry Sr. spent some time there perhaps taking advantage of their school. He married there and some of his children were born there before moving to now Tazwell Co., Virginia. His religious experience in this church colony in some manner prepared him to become one of the early leaders in the Methodist movement, his home at Hollybrook being used for a meeting house and some of the early leaders, including Bishop Francis Asbury and McKindree preached there, many using it as stopping place as travelers spending the night there. It is to be noted in this connection that Elias, youngest son of Henry SR. who lived at this father farm at Hollybrook, freed his slaves in 1928, Will Book A, page 417 of Giles Co., Virginia. Henry Sr. was appointed Captain of the "Kings Militia" by King George about 1755 and was active for many years fighting on the frontier and protecting settlers from the Indians and doing some hunting meanwhile. It appears that he settled down somewhat after moving to Hollybrook in 1790. There was much work to be done, building a home and barns near the bold spring and spring branch lines with the Holly trees. Henry Sr. brought to hunting as keen an intellect as possessed by some noted man of his day working in business and government. He not only saw an overturn leaf or a bent twig but his mind searched for an answer to the cause of it. His keenness of mind more so than his bodily strength and agility earned him the admiration of the Indians and the title "Old Skygusta, probably suggesting wisdom and the Sky suggesting light or intelligence. It require a keen mind to live through the Indian raids on the frontier during the latter part of 18th century. Henry Sr. not only lived through it but appears to enjoy taking an active part of it, dying at the age of 95 at Holly Brook. Henry’s father, Heinrich Adam Herrman was born in Germany about 1700 and married Louisa Katrina on October 8, 1723. Louisa Fork of Big Sandy River was named for her. Soon after their marriage, Adam and his wife stated for America being in Pennsylvania, about 1726, very likely with the (missing some text since the line was cropped off on the bottom of the page).