Notes |
- Revolutionary War veteran;
Jacob Shook The life and legacy of an Appalachian pioneer By MichaelBeadle
"According to family records, Jacob Shook was born on April 19, 1749, thefirst son out of nine children. His ancestors were German Lutherans whofled religious persecution from French Catholics in the 18th Century.Many of these German refugees fled to Holland, then to England and thento Pennsylvania
Jacob Shook ? also known as ?Schuck? or ?Shuck,? but Anglicized as?Shook? by British census takers ? grew up in the Piedmont region ofNorth Carolina around what is now Salisbury, according to the Shookfamily history?s Web site.
When the Revolutionary War broke out, Jacob and his brother Andrew joinedup with a Patriot regiment. The Colonial Army received reports that theBritish were trying to incite Cherokees to attack Colonials from thewest. If Indian tribes pushed in from the west and the British came infrom the east, Patriot forces would get squeezed in the middle.
After the war, according to family records, Shook served on a few juriesagainst Tory supporters who had sided with the British during theRevolutionary War. In 1786, there?s a record of a marriage between JacobShook and Isabella Weitzel. Jacob would have been around 37 years old atthe time ? the same age as his wife ? a late marriage for both even bytoday?s standards. Just after that, family records state that Jacob andhis new wife settled in what is now present-day Clyde along the PigeonRiver. During the Rutherford Trace expedition, Shook most likely passedthrough Haywood County along the Pigeon River, so there?s reason tobelieve he remembered the area and went to stake his claim there.
Sometime around 1795, Shook built a three-story cabin dedicated to hisson Peter, who was only 5 years old at the time. We know this house todayas the Shook-Smathers House in Clyde.
It is widely known that the Shook House hosted regular worship servicesand singing and music lessons in the third-floor attic before a churchwas built nearby. Shook donated land adjacent to his home to be the siteof revival camp meetings and also set aside land for the Louisa ChapelUnited Methodist Church and Pleasant Hill Cemetery in Clyde.
With all that Jacob Shook did for the area, one wonders why the Town ofClyde isn?t called ?Shookville.?
Jacob Shook died Sept. 1, 1839 and was buried along with his wife,Isabella, in Pleasant Hill Cemetery, a short drive from theShook-Smathers House."
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FROM http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=tree_hugger&id=I1945
During the Revolutionary War, Jacob served as a private for threeperiods: from March 1770 with Captain William Bateman and ColonelChristopher Bateman; August 1776 with Captain Rudolf Conrad and ColonelChristopher Bateman; and May 1781 with Captain Daniel Smith and ColonelChristopher Bateman. He enlisted in Lincoln County, North Carolina. Afterthe war, he married and about 1786 moved to Haywood County, settling onPigeon River. He built the first frame house in Haywood County, a sturdystructure with nails which he made by hand. Bishop Asbury, the first ofthe rank to be consecrated in America, in some of this trips throughwestern North Carolina held meetings in the chapel room that Jacob hadfitted up in the third story for divine services. The first Methodistchurch in Haywood County was organized in that room.
At the age of 84 on October 3, 1833, Jacob was granted a pension. Hisresidence was near the town of Clyde, Haywood County, North Carolina. Hisname is inscribed with that of all Revolutionary soldiered buried inHaywood County on a monument erected by The Dorcas Bell Love Chapter ofthe Daughters of the American Revolution in the courthouse square atWaynesville, the county seat of Haywood ounty.
His will is on record in Waynesville. He made disposition of his estate,naming his wife, Isabella and his children.
Sources:
1. Abbrev: The Heritage of Catawba County North Carolina Volu
Title: The Heritage of Catawba County North Carolina Volume VI
2. Abbrev: The Annals of Haywood County North Carolina
Title: The Annals of Haywood County North Carolina
3. Abbrev: Texas Society Daughters of the American Revolution
Title: Texas Society Daughters of the American Revolution RosterRevolutionary Ancestors Vol IVncestors Vol IVncestors Vol IV.
4. Abbrev: Clark's State Records of North Caolina Vol. 22
Title: Clark's State Records of North Caolina Vol. 22
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