John Alexander Sleeth *
Birth: EST 1720, Renfrew Co., Scotland
Death: BEF 20 Sep 1794, West Virginia, USA
- Married Mary Ann Wallace * at Mary Ann Wallace
- Child 1: Margaret Sleeth 24 Jun 1747 - 8 May 1832 m. John Hacker
- Child 2: Alexander Sleeth EST 1750 - m. Nancy Ann Smith
- Child 3: David Wallace Sleeth * 18 May 1752 - 28 Jun 1839 m. (1) Catherine Carpenter * m. (2) Susanna Simpson
- Child 4: Thomas Sleeth 1755 -
- Child 5: John Sleeth 1757 -
- Child 6: Jane Sleeth 1760 -
Notes: The name Sleeth appears in annals as Slethe, Sleith, Sleet and Sleeth. The Sleeth family i s of Scottish origin. The pioneer Sleeths were Knox Presbyterians. John Alexander Sleeth, Sr . and his wife, Mary Ann (Wallace left Renfrew county, Scotland and arrived in America in 17 48. John located in Orange and Fredrick counties, Virginia. He appeared November 22, 1766 , in Fredricksburg, Virginia as a court witness and recieved pay for such service, as well a s for walking seventy-eight miles from Orange county to attend court. Two of John's sons lef t Virginia and came to Buckhannon in 1768. John followed his sons and settled on Hackers Cre ek in present day Lewis County in 1770. On July 20, 1784 in the Harrison county court, John S leeth, Sr. was commissioned to celebrate the rites of matrimony and was recommended to the go vernor for appointment to the office of magistrate. John Sleeth, Sr., d. sometime prior to Se ptember 20, 1794, when his widow, Mary Ann, appeared in court and had George Jackson qualif y as administrator of her husband's estate. The Harrison county court on October 20, 1795, e ntered an order noting the death of "John Sleeth, a justice". The widow, Mary Ann (Wallace ) Sleeth, m. November 23, 1796, to Charles Parsons. She and her two husbands are believed t o be buried in The Sleeths owned considerable amounts of land in Harrison county, Virginia . Henry Flesher made an entry of 200 acres on the land books November 1, 1798, for David W. , John and Mary Sleeth, heirs of John Sleeth, Sr., deceased. This land was located on Ston e Coal creek near Weston.
"In the fall of the ensuing year (1768) Samuel Pringle, and several others who wished first t o examine for themselves, visited the country which had been so long occupied by the Pringle s alone. Being pleased with it, they, in the following spring, with a few others, repaired th ither, with the view of cultivating as much corn, as would serve their families the first yea r after their emigration. And having examined the country, for the purpose of selecting the m ost desirable situations; some of them
proceeded to improve the spots of their choice. John Jackson (who was accompanied by his sons , George and Edward) settled at the mouth of Turkey run, where his daughter, Mrs. Davis, no w lives - John Hacker higher up on the Buchannon river, where Bush's fort was afterwards esta blished, and Nicholas Heavener now lives -Alexander and Thomas Sleeth, near to Jackson's, o n what is now known as the Forenash plantation. The others of the party (William Hacker, Thom as and Jesse
Hughes, John and William Radcliff and John Brown) appear to have employed their time exclusiv ely in hunting; neither of them making any improvement of land for his own benefit. Yet wer e they of very considerable service to the new settlement. Those who had commenced clearing l and, were supplied by them with abundance of meat, while in their hunting excursions throug h the country, a better knowledge of it was obtained, than could have been acquired, had the y been engaged in making improvements. At the close of the working season of 1769 some of the se adventurers, went to their families on the South Branch; and when they returned to gathe r their crops in the fall, found them entirely destroyed. In their absence the buffaloes, n o longer awed by the presence of man, had trespassed on their enclosures, and eaten their cor n to the ground - this delayed the removal of their families `till winter of 1770." Chronicl es of Border Warfare, Chapter 5
Inventory, Harrison Co. (W)VA 10-25-1794
Buried near Jackson's Mill, Lewis Co. WV
Alexander Sleith in 1782 Hampshire Census
Sources: Don Norman
Minnie Kendall Lowther, History of Ritchie Co.
The Sleeths are of Scotch descent, and of Revolutionary stock. They came from Scotland and s ettled in Harrison county, shortly before our struggle for independence. Four brothers, Davi d W., senior, Thomas, John, and Alexander took up arms in defense of their adopted land.
David W. Sleeth, senior, married Miss Katherine Carpenter, and was the father of thirteen c hildren; viz., John, Nicholas, David W., junior - the founder of Smithville - Henry, Thomas , and George W. Sleeth, Mary, who became Mrs. Henry Waldeck, Mrs. Margaret (Cornelius) Cain , Mrs. Katherine (Samuel) Brannon, Mrs. Sarah (Henry) Wint, Mrs. Jane (Henry) Stalnaker, al l of Gilmer county; and Mrs. Nancy (Allen) Simpson, Weston.
(The family removed from Harrison county to near Troy in Gilmer).
Nicholas Sleeth married Miss Katherine Collins, and came to this county as early as 1838, an d lived and died in the Burnt House community. His two sons Malan, and Ranfeu, and his daugh ter Nancy, who maried Joseph Sylman, of Gimer county, were the members of his family. The fi rst wife of the late John Frederick was his granddaughter, and J. M. Frederick, her son, of B urnt House, is his only descendant in this county. Others reside in Gilmer and Roane countie s.
George W. Sleeth married Miss Rulina McWhorter, and lived and died at Smithville, leaving n o issue.
[Miss Kendall is incorrect here - this Alexander cannot be David W. Sr.'s brother Alexander , as he is much too young]
Alexander Sleeth married Miss Katherine Wolfe, daughter of David Wolfe, of Harrison county, a nd niece of Peter
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Wolfe, of Smithville; and came from Lewis county in 1840, and settled on the Malone - now th e Kennedy - farm, above the mouth of Lamb's run, where he died, and where he was buried the f ollowing year, June 1841.
He leaves a large line of descendants, who principally reside in Gilmer county; but the one f amily in this county, that are descended from him, is that of Mrs. Nellie Silcott Synder, o f Hazelgreen, her late husband E. E. Snyder, being a grandson.
His children were: Mrs. Maria McQuain, Mrs. Mary Coke, Mrs. Emily West, Mrs.Elizabeth Steven son, mother of the late Will Stephenson, of Grantsville; Mrs. Julia Stalnaker, Mrs. Anna Bush , Granville Sleeth, Perry J., and John M., who have all passed on; and Mrs. Penelope Snyder , widow of the late W. H. Snyder, of Glenville, who survives.
A Pretty Little Romance is woven about the marriage of Miss Mary Sleeth and Henry Waldeck, wh ich is worthy of a place here:
Mr. Waldeck, who was of German birth was a soldier in the Hessian army, and as it was the cus tom, at that age of the world for one government to sell soldiers to another in times of war , the regiment to which he belonged was sold to the British for service in the American Revol ution, and thus fate decreed that he should be brought to America to fight against the land t hat he learned to love dearest and best; for at the close of the war, he refused to return t o the Fatherland, though a fortune awaited him there; and he crossed the mountains to what i s now Lewis county and entered land on the river below Weston, where he founded a "Bachelor' s hall." David W. Sleeth, senior, seeing the loneliness of his situation, one day broached t he subject of matrimony to him, and advised him to get married. Mr. Waldeck assured him tha t he should like to act upon this advice if he knew where to find a wife. After a little cons ideration, Mr. Sleeth said: "My daughter, Mary, is only a little girl yet, but she'd make so me man a good wife." The worthy bachelor, however, who was then forty years of age, resolve d to see this little maiden and learn what she had to say concerning the matter; and though s he was but fourteen years of age, she lent
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an approving ear to the plan, and soon after became his bride. She was the mother of Mrs. An drew Law, of Auburn. And Mrs. Agnes Rymer, of Harrisville, and Mrs. G. M. Ireland of Pullman , are among her grand - daughters. Mrs. J. F. Ireland of Colorado, is another grand - daught er, and the Rev. H. M. Law of the West Virginia Methodist Episcopal Conference, is a grandson .
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