KYOWVA Genealogical and Historical Society
Serving the Tri-state region of Eastern Kentucky, Southern Ohio and Western West Virginia
Savage Land Grant
A very important date in the settlement of the Tri-State area happened in December 1772 when King George III granted some 27,600+ acres of land to soldiers of the French and Indian War. Taking information from several newspaper articles, we present the Savage Land Grant.
In an effort to recruit men for the Virginia Regiment of the British Army, Governor Dinwiddie of Virginia in 1754 proposed that some 200,000 acres of wilderness lands be distributed to any soldier that would serve. At the time Lieutenant George Washington along with Colonel Joshua Fry were serving. Colonel Fry died 31 May 1754 from injuries when he was thrown from his horse and George Washington succeeded him as Colonel of this Regiment. One of the soldiers under Washington was John Savage. He would later be known as Captain John Savage. Following the battle of Great Meadows and the war's end, Governor Dinwiddie, on behalf of the British Crown, made a grant of 27,600+ acres of land to John Savage and 59 (or 60) other soldiers. This transaction has since been referred to as the Savage Land Grant.
The boundary of this land was along the Ohio River on the Virginia (now West Virginia) from the mouth of Catletts Creek (Catlettsburg, Kentucky), past the mouth of the Big Sandy River to a point above 9 mile (Greenbottom) and up both sides of the Big Sandy River to the Forks (Fort Gay, West Virginia and Louis, Kentucky). This strip of land that did not go beyond the ridge tops and in most places was not more than 2 miles wide.
Taken from Byron Morris's "Out of the Past" article in the Wayne County News
John Savage never settled on his portion of this land nor did most of the other grantees. Some sold their rights and the others lost their rights to the land because they never made improvements of lived on the land as required. There was also a small tax involved that some could not pay. In 1775 the land was valued at 49 cents an acre. We are talking about all the land where today we find Ceredo, Kenova, Westmoreland, Huntington, Guyandotte plus much more.
The following list represents the Savage Grant grantees: John Savage, Robert Langdon, Robert Teemsdall, Edward Waggoner, Richard Trotter, Wise Johnston, Hugh McCoy, Richard Smith, John Smith, Charles Smith, Angus McDonald, Nathan Chapman, Joseph Gatewood, James Samuel, Michael Scully, Edward Goodwin, William Bailey, Henry Bailey, William Cofland, Mathew Doran, John Ramsey, Charles James, Mathew Cox, Marshall Pratt, John Wilson, William Johnston, John Williams, Nathaniel Barrett, David Gorman, Patrick Galoway, Timothy Conway, Christian Baumgardner, John Hanston, John Maid, James Ford, William Braughter, William Curney, Edward Evans, Thomas Moss, Mathew Jones, Phillip Gatewood, Hugh Paul, Daniel Staples, William Lowry, James Ludlow, Jas. Lalrot, James Given, Joshua Jordan, William Jenkins, James Carmacks, Richard Morris, John Ghatson, Robert Jones, William Hogan, John Franklin, John Bishop, George Malcomb, William Coleman, John Kincaid, Richard Bolton, and George Hur.
According to Byron Morris, columnist for the Wayne County News, it is believed by many that in 1777 several of the grantees did meet on the land and that the meeting place was probably Virginia Point, the piece of land in Wayne County where the Big Sandy River joins the Ohio River since most travel was by river.
As with any legal transactions, differences arose among the grantees and some of their heirs and a suit was brought in the Superior Court at Staunton, Virginia asking that the earlier division be voided. In 1776, the Court appointed 5 men to act as a commission to divide the Savage Grant into equal parts. This commission hired General Edward W. Tupper, a skilled Surveyor and Mathematician. This work took several months and the cost was billed to the land owners. The result was the land was divided into 60 individual 460 acre lots and is known as the Tupper Survey. One can find this survey used as a reference in many old deeds. The lots were numbered 1 to 60, with Lot #1 starting at Louisa, Kentucky and Lot #60 at Greenbottom.
A real research project would be needed to determine just who received each lot number and what happened to these individual grantees. But here are a few examples. Daniel Staples received a lot on what is today Dock&39;s Creek in Wayne County. Revolutionary War Soldier Anthony Hampton purchased the land and is buried on it. Today the very large Dock's Creek Cemetery, the Dock's Creek Baptist Church, a small Chadwick Cemetery as well as individual land owners occupy this 460 acres of land.
When the suit was brought, Lot No. 28 and 29 at the confluence of the Big Sandy and Ohio Rivers was assigned to one Charles Morgan. The original grantees were John Houston and Christian Baumgardner. The will of Jeremiah Morgan, who inherited or purchased the land from Charles Morgan, was recorded in 1869 in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. Emily Morgan and Fanny Morgan, wife and daughter of Jeremiah Morgan laid out the land in lots for a town to be called "Morganza". This town never materialized. They later sold a portion of their holdings to a John H. Dingess in 1888. Then the railroads came along and Mr. Dingess and the Norfolk & Western Railway Company laid the land out into a town to be called "Kenova".
The land between Twelve Pole and Four Pole Creeks (Lots 32, 33 & 34) was assigned to James McCormick. Mr. McCormick was not the original grantee but this land remained in the McCormick family for several generations. This land today includes what we now know as Westmoreland. The McCormicks sold most of Westmoreland to Samuel Sperry Vinson and from him we have such names as Vinson Memorial Christian Church and Vinson High School (now Vinson Middle School).
In Cabell County, the heirs of Colonel Joshua Fry were assigned a portion of the Savage Grant, being the part near Greenbottom on the Ohio River, probably some 4,000+ acres. Jesse Spurlock, who finally settled in what became Wayne County, is believed to have had a connection to Joshua Fry, grandson of Colonel Joshua Fry mentioned above, and once lived on this piece of land leaving Spurlock descendants in that area.
Captain John Savage
According to a 13 January 1949 article in the Carter County, Kentucky Journal Enquirer, Captain John Savage "migrated from Ireland where he was a trained soldier... George Washington and Captain Savage were fast friends accord to George Washington Savage (a grandson). The two named Four Pole and Twelve Pole Creeks... Captain Savage died in Hampshire County, now West Virginia, without ever having seen his lands. He was a great fighter, a mighty hunter, and he outsmarted the Indians on their own terms". According to this article John Savage had four children: John, Nicholas, Gene and Anne. The second son, John, had eight children: Edward, Nicholas, Annie, Pleasant, Rowland, James, Peter and George Washington. George Washington Savage married a Miss Partlow of Meigs County, Ohio and three children were born to them. After the death of his first wife, he married a Mrs. McCoy, whose maiden name was Peyton. Their children were George Washington Savage Jr. and Judy Savage, now Judy Jordan. George Washington Savage Jr. had six children: General, Theodore, Kermit, Goldie, Rosie and Lovey.
George Washington Savage's father moved from Mt. Savage, Kentucky to McComas District, Cabell County, where he established the family on a small farm and where George Washington Savage, Jr. lived. He was 22 years a constable in McComas District, but never an army man, neither was his father.
The Savage family in Carter, Greenup, Boyd and Lawrence County, Kentucky are too numerous to mention. The Savage Memorial Church, Fallsburg, KY, Methodist Church south of Hitchins, KY was named Savage Memorial in honor of Edward Savage who gave the land in 1838 for the church and cemetery. Edward Savage is buried here. Graham Savage once owned some 16,000 acres in Carter Co. Mt. Savage Furnace two miles south of Hitchins, KY was build about 1845; later the C&O Railroad and the name changed to Mt. Savage. These are just a few places where the Savage family left descendants and the name survives.
Sources for this article:
- Wayne County News, 12/22/1922, "Land in This County Was Granted by English King"
- Carter County, Kentucky, Journal Enquirer, 1/23/1949 - "Captain John Savage Never Settled on His Grant"
- Various Wayne County News articles by Byron Morris's "Out of the Past" column
Reprinted in the KYOWVA Newsletter, Volume XXVI, No. 1, Spring 2003 Edition, pp. 6-7