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Kuykendall Genealogy IndexSUSAN JANE KUYKENDALL, etc.
Wayne is the son of Lawrence Hugh Kuykendall, who is the son of Charles Vause, who is the son of Luke Kuykendall. Luke was born in "The Trough", which is the name of the valley of the South Branch of the Potomac River, in Hampshire County, West Virginia. The trough starts at Mooresfield, and ends at Romney. Luke's great grandfather, Jacob, brought his family (he had two wives, for a total of nine children), in a pack train with a number of other Dutch settlers from the Delaware River area of New Jersey/Pennsylvania. The original land deeds are all dated June 15, 1749, but these Dutch-speaking pioneers had actually settled the land beforehand. Jacob's son Nathaniel was an older teenager when the family moved to this beautiful area. Nathaniel married and raised a family of six children there. He taught one of his sons, Isaac, to be a stone mason, and together they built many structures. I hope to go see the particular one mentioned below with our family on vacation. Isaac raised his family of eight children there also.
One of Isaac's sons was Luke, born in 1808, who married twice. Luke's first wife was Elizabeth Welch, and they had three children. The first was a boy, William Dempsey, born in 1831. The other two were twins, born in 1837. The names of the twins were Jacob and Susan Jane. His second marriage was to Ann Eliza Williams in 1840, by whom he had five children, including Charles Vause Kuykendall, who was born in 1851 in the stone house that his grandfather and great-grandfather had built. It is located six miles above Romney.
In 1852, when Charles was one, his parents moved to the area of La Fayette, Indiana, where his father rented a farm belonging to his wife Ann's uncle, William Fox. Susan and Jacob were 15 when they moved there. In 1859, seven years later, Luke and Ann moved with their five youngest children to an area near Danville, Illinois, one hundred miles away. They moved in the spring, through rain and seas of mud, pushing to get there in time to plant a crop of corn. They raised an immense crop, but the bottom fell out of prices. Corn dropped to eight cents per bushel, and some farmers actually used it for fuel. That fall, Charles' father, Luke, took what was called "milk sickness" and died, leaving a wife and five children. Ann sold their belongings and moved the family back to Virginia. What took place to welcome them back to Virginia? The Civil War. During the war they lived on an uncle's place on Patterson's Creek. Romney was at the crossroads of war, changing hands literally dozens of times during those years. Sometimes it changed hands several times in one day. I have read in a soldier's diary the heartbreaking sight of a devastated countryside, with homes and yards that are ruined, occupied by troops that are ragged and louse-ridden. Charles Vause said: "I try to forget those days. The events now transpiring in Europe (WWI) bring to mind some of the horrors of that rebellion. I thought we were right at the time, but long since have changed my mind."
At the close of the war, Ann moved her family to Moorefield, "one of the prettiest spots on earth" (per Charles V.) In the fall of 1868, a man named William Simmons, who had lived for some years in Oregon, came back to Virginia for a visit. While there, he married Ann and they prepared to move back to Oregon. Charles was 17 years old and did not want to go to Oregon, "but this grieved my mother so that I consented to accompany the others."
I had read this story before, but here is the new part I learned: Susan, one of the twins who was fifteen when they rented her step-uncle's farm, married that uncle: William Fox. Two of Luke's brothers had married Fox girls, so this was not a pioneering work. William and Susan had a daughter named Theodocia Jameson Fox. After William Fox died, Susan Jane married Joseph Smith (not that one) and lived at Danville, Illinois (the area where her father had died after his brief farming experience).
One other thing I ran across also today. Judge William Littlebury Kuykendall, author of Frontier Days, and judge at the trial of the killer of Wild Bill Hickok, had said that he participated in the Battle of Carthage. What I had not realized was that the Battle of Carthage (Missouri) was the first major land battle of the Civil War. It preceded the Battle of Bull Run by 16 days. He was also involved in the battle at Camden Point, Missouri. I have seen the battle flag that was captured at Camden Point that day. It is on display at the Colorado State Historical Society Museum in Denver. It was made by Kuykendall's wife and the other wives of the officers, and it was returned to Judge Kuykendall in a ceremony in Denver many years after the war. The judge was taken prisoner twice during the war, and narrowly escaped a third time. There is generally only one winning side in a battle, but it is a shame that one of our namesakes had to be on the losing side. However, as I have researched, I found that there were many Kuykendalls on both sides of the War. I have found Kuykendalls from Wisconsin, serving in the famous Minnesota unit, fighting as far south as the Battle of Corinth, Mississippi.
We should not forget that it was a Kuykendall who received the first divorce in Virginia. The Indians had captured him as he was returning from a long trip. He was well treated by them, and journeyed with them across what is now several states before finally making his escape. By the time he got home, several years had passed and his bride had remarried. Oops... He graciously agreed to call a halt to his marriage, and evidently went back to live with the Indians. I wonder how that yellow hair looked in a group of Indians?