Bluegrass Messengers

Big Sammy Hicks- 1753 -1835 Father of Sabra

[Big Sammy is credited with being one of the main repositories of folklore and ballads in the region (Council Harmon lived with him briefly and stayed with his associated family when he was young). This would be passed down from his father David and other local NC families, perhaps the Wards. The source state would be Virginia where he and his father lived until the outbreak of war with England (1776). The Jack tales are rumored to be from the Harmon (Hermann) side of the family- his wife's side.

Apparently he may have moved to South Carolina from Virginia and come to North Carolina from there when his father David move to Watuaga River area in NC.

R. Matteson 2014]

[Warning undocumented sources- much of Sammy's side of the family history is confused with his father.]
 
Samuel Hicks 1753 – 1835 married Sarah Nancy Harmon 1736 – 1838 Lineage from father David

 4. David ("the Tory") Hicks, born ca. 1719 in Goochland Co., Virginia "on Tuckahoe Creek which is now within the City of Richmond." He died in 1792 or 1793 in Wilkes Co., NC. He married Sarah Dennis (1720-1790) in 1740, and was the father of at five children:
   1. Samuel, "Big Sammy" b. 1753-1835
   2. David (1756-1840) Jr.
   3. Catherine, (1758-1825) m. John Holzclaw.
   4. Sarah D. (b. 1760), 1st m. Charles Asher, Jr., and 2nd James D. Holzclaw.
   5. Dinah (b. 1764-1793), m. 1st Thomas Asher and 2nd Henry Heatley.

5. Samuel Hicks (Big Sammy) was born in 1753 in Goochland Co., Virginia. He came to the Watauga area in 1779 or 1780 (note that Avery Co. was not formed until the 20th century), and married Sarah Harmon. Big Sammy died about 1835 in Ashe Co., NC. He and Sarah had nine known children:

   1. David (b. 1782-83; living in 1870), m. 1st [Miss] Presnell (2 children- Hiram and John Wesley) and 2nd Susannah Asher (8 children Adam, David, Sally, Millery, Templa, Daniel and Luvenia). According to Smith, David fought in the War of 1812 (Battle of New Orleans). His oldest son was Hiram, whose son Ransome married Emoline (Emily) Harmon-- Ransome and Emily's daughter was Jane Hicks (Gentry), Cecil Sharp's finest informant.
   2. Goulder (b. 1790-95)
   3. Samuel (Little Sammy) (b. 1798-1800)
   4. Harmon (b. 1802)
   5. William (b. 1805)
   6. Sabra (b. ca. 1785), m. 1st Andrew Harmon (4 Children- Council, Goulder, Mathias, Rachel) and 2nd Duke Ward.
   7. Sallie m. Barney Oakes
   8. Fanny (b. 1788), died unmarried.
   9. Elizabeth (b. 1806) died unmarried.

6. Sabra (b. ca. 1785) Hicks married Andrew Harmon. Their children were:
    1. Council Harmon
    2. Goulder Harmon
    3. Mathias
    4. Rachel

   She remarried Duke Ward when her husband died and moved to Tennessee and Illinois.

 Samual (Big Sammy) Hicks  (b. 1753, d. 1835)
(son of David Hicks-Hix) was born 1753 in Goochland, Virginia, and died 1835 in Valle Crucis, North Carolina. He married Sarah Harmon on 1781.

Notes for Samual (Big Sammy) Hicks:
A Reverend Farthing remembers that Sammy [David?] was supposed to be the first Hicks to settle in Watauga Co he received a land grant for what is now known as Valle Crucis and was said to have sold all the land to Benjamin Ward for a rifle, a dog and a sheepskin.

More About Samual (Big Sammy) Hicks and Sarah Harmon:
Marriage: 1781

Children of Samual (Big Sammy) Hicks and Sarah Harmon are:

    +Samuel Hicks, b. 1798, Watauga, County, NC, USA30, d. 1880, Watauga, NC, USA30.
    Goulder Hicks, d. date unknown.
    +Sabra Hicks, b. 1785, Watauga River, Ashe, NC, d. 1814, Clinton, Ill.
    Sarah Hicks, d. date unknown.
    Harmon Hicks, d. date unknown.
    William Hicks, d. date unknown.
    David Hicks, d. date unknown.
    Cutliff Harmon Hicks, d. date unknown.
    Fanny Hicks, d. date unknown.
    Elizabeth Hicks, d. date unknown.
    Sallie Sally Hicks, d. date unknown.

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[Some of the unsourced article below is wrong, he is mixed up with his father David who came to Watauga area c. 1776 when the War broke out-- I assume his eldest son Sammy came around that time also. David was a neighbor of Benjamin Ward, both signing land grants c. 1791. His brother David b. 1756 fought and was a Sergeant.]

(Samuel Hicks) He is traditionally said to have come to the Watauga area in 1779 or 1780, although his name does not appear until 1783, when he was paid for militia service against the Chickamauga Indians. There is some evidence that he lived in Cheraw, South Carolina, before moving to the Watauga area, although this is not established. He did have relatives old Tryon County, North Carolina (now Lincoln and Rutherford Counties), and some of his first cousins had settled around Greenville, South Carolina, by the 1780s. He served on several occasions under John Sevier, who signed Big Sammy's "Revolutionary War Vouchers" (issued in lieu of pay by the State of North Carolina, which could not afford to pay its soldiers). John Sevier became Governor of the State of Franklin in 1784, and was later a militia general, the first Governor of Tennessee, and a congressman from Tennessee.
Rev L.W. Farthing remembered him (inaccurately) as having been the first Hix to settle in the Watauga area, and as having obtained a grant for all the land that is now Valle Crucis. Rev. Farthing also remembered him as having sold all this land to Benjamin Ward for "a rifle, dog, and sheepskin." In fact, Sammy inherited fifty acres from his father. In 1798, he obtained a grant from the State of North Carolina for 126 acres on both sides of the Watauga River, and in 1801 he obtained another grant for 100 acres on the north side of the river, near Cove Creek. He sold the 100-acre tract on 6 May 1802 to his brother-in-law, James D. Holsclaw, for one hundred pounds. (Ashe County Deeds, Book A, Page 267). Neither Sammy nor any of the witnesses to the sale (the Baird brothers -- William, Ezekiel, and Hiram) was able to sign his name.

He also owned 200 acres of land on both sides of Elk Creek in what is now Avery County, just upstream from the Great Falls. He purchased this land from Benjamin Dugger, who had obtained it in a state grant. It was later conveyed to Thomas H.Wilson of Burke County by the sheriff of Ashe County, possibly to satisfy a debt. In 1835, Wilson sold the land to Sammy's son Goulder.
John Henry and Mattie Hicks and Barnabas Hicks write, "Although Samuel Hicks owned several hundreds of acres along the River at various times and appears to have made some attempt at farming (he owned four slaves in 1800 whom he must have acquired for agricultural purposes), he made no serious effort to accumulate property and did not hold onto what he had. It may be that he "traded" a piece of land to Benjamin Ward for a rifle, dog, and sheepskin, but there is no deed for such a sale. Even if it took place, the value of a rifle and a dog, not to mention a sheepskin, was much greater in the late 1790s, when there was little currency in circulation and manufactured items, such as guns and tanned goods, were in short supply."

Benjamin Ward would have Selah, his wife, safely placed in a cave with their young children while he went hunting. This was done when he first moved into the Valle Crucis region. He placed her there as protection against the Indians. Apparently there was some sort of deep drop off at the entrance of the cave and one had to enter it by placing a log between the cave and a cliff. As a family story that has been preserved and handed down through the generations, one may "take it with a grain of salt."
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Valle Crucis.-- According to a tradition well supported by the statements of many reputable citizens of the present day, Samuel Hix and his son-in-law, James D. Holtsclaw came in 1779 from Cheraw, S.C., through the Deep Gap, to
what is now known as Valle Crucis, and erected a palisade of split logs, with
their sharpened ends driven into the ground, so as to enclose about an acre
and a half surrounding the Maple Spring between the present residence of
Finley Mast and that of his brother, Squire W. B. Mast.  This was because they
feared Indians, not knowing of the agreement between the Watauga settlers and
the Cherokees as to the land between the Virginia line and the ridge south of
the Watauga River. After a time Hix became uneasy and retired to the
wilderness near what is now Banner Elk, where he made a camp and supported
himself by hunting and making maple syrup and sugar, thus avoiding service as
an American or a Tory.  At some time in his career he is said to have had a
cabin in a cove in rear of the present residence of Squire W. B. Mast, then to
have lived in the bottom above James M. Shull's present farm, afterwards
moving down the Watauga River near Ward's Store, where he died long after the
Revolutionary War.  It is said that he never took the oath of allegiance to
the American cause and that whenever he came home for supplies his mischievous
sons would frighten him by firing off a pistol made by hollowing out a buck-
horn and loading the cavity with powder, the same being "touched off with a
live coal."  Just here it may be remarked--a fact not generally known--that a
dead coal, which yet has elements of immortality in it to such an extent that,
unless it is ground to powder, it remains charcoal indefinitely.  Such coals,
in beds of ashes, are still plowed up near the Lybrook farm, now the
Grandfather Orphanage, one mile from Banner's Elk, still called by old people
from the Hix Improvement, that being the place where Samuel Hix "laid out
during the Revolutionary War."  Whether he had a grant or other title to the
Valle Crucis land seems immaterial now, as he had possession of it when Bedent
Baird arrived toward the close of the eighteenth century, for Baird, with a
pocketful of money,  had to go a mile down river to get a home in this
wilderness

Page 213

of rich land.  Then Hix is said to have sold his holdings to Benjamin Ward for
a rifle, dog and a sheepskin, Ward selling it later on to Reuben Mast, whileHix moved down to the mouth of Cove Creek.

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From Western North Carolina: a history

54 HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA [Most of this is about David Hix, Big Sammy's father.]
 

[David] Samuel Hix, Loyalist. According to Rev. L. W. Far-
thing, who was born April 18, 1838, and has lived in Beaver
Dam township and at Watauga Falls postoffice all his long
life, Samuel was the name of the first Hix who came to what
is now Watauga county. He got possession of all of what
is now known as Valle Crucis, including the Sheriff Baird
farm, either by grant from the Crown or from the State, and
was there during the Revolutionary War. Being a Loyalist
he kept himself concealed by retiring to a shanty near Valle
Crucis, still pointed out as his " Improvement." He sold the
Valle Crucis land for a rifle, dog and sheepskin to Benjamin
Ward, the latter later selling it to Reuben Mast. Hix then
got possession of the land at the mouth of Cove creek, but
Ward got this also and sold it to a family named Summers.
This family, consisting of man and wife and five children,
were all drowned in their cabin at night during a freshet in
the Watauga river, and their dog swam about the cabin and
would allow no one to enter till it had been killed. This is
still spoken of as the "Summers Fresh" — the highest anyone
now remembers. The bodies of the family were recovered
and are buried on the opposite side of the river from the
mouth of Cove creek. Samuel Hix in 1816 obtained a grant
to 126 acres, on part of which Rev. L. W. Farthing now lives,
and his grave-stone still stands three miles below St. Judes
postoffice, and a quarter of a mile below Antioch Baptist
church. Benjamin Howard took the oath of allegiance to
the American government in 1778 (Col. Rec, Vol. 22, page
172), but Samuel Hix seems never to have become recon-
ciled. Even after the war he hid out, coming home at dark
for his supplies. His five boys were mischievous, and they
manufactured a pistol out of a buck's horn, which they fired
by applying a live coal to the touch-hole, when their father
returned from the house carrying his rations, thus fright-
ening him so much that he would drop them and return to
his concealed camp in the mountains. The children of Sam-
uel Hix were Golder, David, Samuel, Harmon and William;
Sally, who married Barney Oaks; Sabra, who married Andrew
Harmon, who was killed by a falling tree on L. W. Farthing's
present farm, and Fanny who never married. Samuel Hix
cared more about hunting than anything else, and it was
said he knew where there was a lead mine in the mountains
out of which he ran his own bullets. James Hix and James (?)
Tester, were drowned in what is still known as the Hix
"Hole" in Watauga river below Sheriff Baird's farm, and
Sam Tester rode his bull into the water in order to recover
the two bodies, about 1835. Samuel Hix had a negro slave
named Jeff, and two apple trees planted soon after his
removal to the L. W. Farthing place, one at Samuel's cabin and the other at Jeff's, lived till within recent years.