Bazle Castle, Part 1: Floyd County, Kentucky

I recently got a comment on the blog post I wrote about Jacob Castle, son of Jacob "the Longhunter." (See "DNA Circle: Jacob Castle.") The commenter was justifiably skeptical about the undocumented stories concerning the original Jacob. I could tell by looking at her blog that she doesn't write it if she can't document it! She wondered what I knew about Bazle Castle, another son of Jacob Sr., according to many Castle family researchers. I had Bazle in my tree and had mentioned him in the blog post about Jacob Jr., but I haven't done a lot of research on him. It turns out that he is the reason we know that his father Jacob was at the Battle of Kings Mountain.

Jacob the Longhunter's life has been so mythologized, that I find it hard to determine what is the truth about his marriages and children. I discount any trees that list his children with named native wives, because I think this information comes from Shawnee Heritage by Don Greene and Noel Schutz. The authors give no documentation for any of the names they have come up with. I'm not sure there is documentation for any of Jacob's children. I think the best we can do is look for Castles in the right area of Virginia, born in the right time period to be Jacob's children. Many researchers include Basil/Bazle, Jacob Jr., maybe a Joseph, maybe a Benjamin.

Another complication arises because we don't know which documents refer to Jacob Sr. (the Longhunter) or Jacob Jr. (the one who lived to be 100.) Jacob Jr. died in Virginia, but it appears that many of his children made the move to Kentucky, including these probable sons: Benjamin, Inman, Nathan, William, Zachariah, and Zedekiah.

As far as I can tell, Bazle (AKA Basil, Baswell) was the first Castle to move permanently from southwestern Virginia to Kentucky. He appears on the 1810 census in Floyd County, Kentucky, as Basil Caswell. His family consists of one male 26-44, one female 16-25, and one male under 10. Also listed on this census is a J. Joseph Castile, a single man between 16 and 25, who may or may not be one of our Castles. The heads of households on this census are listed alphabetically, not geographically, so it's hard to know if these two families are related. Many Ancestry trees list Basil as "Basil Joseph" Castle. I don't know where this comes from. I have never seen any document that lists him as Basil Joseph. It makes me wonder if some past Castle researcher confused the two men, perhaps combining them, and other Ancestry users have followed suit.

The 1820 census records Bazil Castle on page 34 with a family that includes one male 45 and over, one female 26-44, and one female under 10. Also on page 34 is Nathan Castle, aged 16-25 with wife, aged 16-25, and son under 10. On page 21 of the same census are two other Castles, Zedekiah and John. Zedekiah has a large family that includes one male 26-44, one female 16-25, one male 16-25 (son or brother?), three males under 10, and three females under 10. John, who may be Bazle's son (more about him later), is aged 16-25. Other members of his household include two females, aged 16 to 25, one male under 10, and two females under 10.

1820 census, Floyd County KY

By the time of the 1830 census these Castles have been joined in Floyd County by Benjamin Castle, aged 30-39; Inman Castle, aged 20-29; and James Castle, aged 20-29. John is listed on the Floyd County census, while Bazle, Benjamin, Inman, James, and Nathan are enumerated within the limits of Paintsville, Floyd County. Records exist for 50 acres granted to Benjamin Castle, who is listed on the 1820 census in Scott County, Virginia. The land, on Sycamore Fork of Tom's Creek in Floyd County, was surveyed 22 September 1824, so it would appear that Benjamin moved to Kentucky between 1820 and 1830. Benjamin continued to buy land: 200 acres on Sycamore Fork in Floyd County in 1836; 100 acres on Sycamore Fork in Johnson County in 1848; and 100 acres on Sycamore Fork in Johnson County in 1855. In 1830 Zedekiah is enumerated in Lawrence County.

1830 census, Floyd County KY

I think an explanation of the history of Floyd County's boundaries might help here. It was very enlightening to me to realize that Floyd was the parent county for nearly all the counties in which my ancestors lived. According to Annals of Floyd County, Kentucky 1800-1828 by Charles C.Wells, Floyd County originally consisted of over 3,600 square miles. Here is his description of the original boundaries of the county:

The original boundary of Floyd County began in its northern point at the junction of the Levisa and Tug Forks of the Big Sandy River, or Sandy River which the original settlers referred to it. The line traveled westward for approximately 50 miles before turning south. Following mountain ridges and streams as a natural boundary for 60 miles, the line then turned eastward in a meandering course to the Virginia border.

From this large area, all or parts of 15 other counties were formed, among them Johnson, Lawrence, Magoffin, and Morgan counties. Lawrence County was formed in 1821, so it's possible that Zedekiah never moved, because his residence was in the part of Floyd that became Lawrence. The same thing happened when Johnson County was formed in 1843. Benjamin's land on Sycamore Fork was now located in Johnson instead of Floyd.

Boundaries of Floyd Co., 1800-1804

I guess I always assumed that once the Castles branched off to live in different counties in Kentucky that they didn't have much contact with each other. However, I just Mapquested the distance from Paintsville to West Liberty. Today it is 39 miles by highway and takes less than an hour to drive. In the 1800s it could be traveled in two days, whether by horsedrawn wagon or on horseback. Not to say they did it a lot, but it was do-able.

William Castle, my ancestor, doesn't show up in Kentucky until 1850, in Pulaski County, along with his grown sons, Goldman and James. That is considerably west of the original Floyd Co., almost 150 miles by highway today. William died in Pulaski Co., but by 1860 his son, Goldman Davidson Castle, was in Morgan County, closer to the other Castle families. (By the way, there is documentation that William is the son of Jacob Castle Jr. The death register for Pulaski Co. records his parents as Jacob and Martha Castle.)

Kentucky Death Records, Pulaski Co.

There is more to the Bazle Castle story. Stay tuned for "Bazle Castle, Part 2: Indian Spy."

DNA Circle: Jacob Castle

The Jacob Castle in whose DNA Circle I have been recently placed is not Jacob Castle, the Longhunter, but his son Jacob. Many "facts" about Jacob have shown up in family trees and even in publications, but we are going to examine the evidence to see what is fact and what has not been proven. (Note: I've been as guilty as everyone else of accepting some of these  facts without questioning them.)

"Fact" 1: Jacob Castle was born in Pennsylvania in 1749, the son of Jacob Castle and a Shawnee woman named Sowege, or Gliding Swan.

I can't find evidence for any of these facts. In the 1740's Jacob's father Jacob was living in Virginia. No birth record for the younger Jacob exists; he claimed his age as 80-90 on the 1830 Russell Co. VA census, so he could have been born as early as 1740. Unfortunately for the many descendants who love the story of Jacob's marriage to Gliding Swan, there is no credible evidence that such a person even existed. Some people have found a marriage record for a Jacob Castle to a woman named Mary Elizabeth which took place in Pennsylvania; then they have made the assumption that Mary Elizabeth is Gliding Swan, or that Sowege changed her name to Mary Elizabeth. I could not locate that marriage record at all, although others have referred to it. Jacob Castle the elder may certainly have had native wives, but I doubt that any traditional marriage ceremonies were performed, and I don't know how you would ever document the various children by these marriages. As with any legend, there could be truth behind the story, but no proof that I could find.

Many researchers cite a book called Shawnee Heritage by Don Greene and Noel Schutz as the origin of the name of Sowege and the details of the marriage. The trouble is, the authors did not give documentation for the information they published. Some Shawnee tribe members have criticized the book, and in fact, have said that Sowege is not even a Shawnee word.

"Fact" 2: Jacob Castle the younger married in 1769 to a half-Wyandot woman named Mary Shane.

There is no record of the marriage of Jacob and Mary that I can find. Most trees that list Mary Shane as the wife of Jacob Castle show evidence for her baptism in Philadelphia in 1747. The baptism of Mary lists her parents as Dennis and Catherine Shane, names that sound more Irish than native American. A marriage record for Zachariah Castle in 1867 lists his parents as Jacob and Mary Castle, so Mary was probably his mother's name; I just have no proof that she was Mary Shane or half-Wyandot.

"Fact" 3: Jacob Castle the younger lived to be 100 years old.

This one may actually be true. On the 1830 Russell Co. VA census Jacob gives his age as 80-90. On the 1840 Russell Co. census Jacob is enumerated as Male 100 & over. Ancestry members have corrected his age on the 1840 census to 92 to allow for his death at 100 in 1848 or 1849; however, I have found no evidence for his exact death date, except for Ancestry trees that have copied from each other.

Castles on 1830 Russell Co. census

"Fact" 4: This is a photograph of Jacob Castle.

NOT Jacob Castle (1749-1849)

In my opinion, genealogists need to be historians, too, or they fail to see the significance in the facts they uncover, or they believe facts or photos that can't possibly be true. Jacob Castle died in the 1840's at an advanced age, so this photograph would have to have been taken in the 1810's or 1820's. The daguerreotype was only invented in 1839 and paper photography much later. This man is not wearing clothing typical of the 1840's. Coats and neckties such as the one he is wearing were not the style until the late 1800's. 

This photograph has been copied to so many trees on Ancestry, and very few thought to question whether it was really Jacob Castle. It may be a Jacob Castle, but it's not the one that is the subject of this post. One good thing might have come from this photo, if it were real. We might have finally put to rest the other silly claim that Jacob Castle the elder was albino and passed on those traits to his son Jacob.

The Ancestors

So what else do we really know about Jacob?

My Castles come from Russell County, Virginia. The first census in which Jacob Castle appears is Russell Co. in 1820. On the 1820 census Jacob is enumerated in the column for age 45+. He was probably in his 70's. His family consisted of a male aged 26-44 and another male aged 10-15, along with two females, one aged 26-44 and another aged 45+. Just guessing, I would say that along with Jacob's wife, he had a son or daughter and spouse living with him, and that the male aged 10-15 is a grandson.

By the way, Ancestry will find "Castle" on these various censuses, even though the names are transcribed as "Capell." Why? Because in this time period the name was spelled "Cassell" and double s's were written in a style that looks like a large P. (See my post on Jesse Reed in "DNA Circles: Daniel Reed and Martha 'Patsy' Lewis.") The Russell County enumerator listed the heads of household in alphabetical, rather than residential, order. Along with Jacob on the 1820 census are several other "Capell" heads of household on the same page and on the next page.

They are: Henry, age 26-44; Zedekiah, age 26-45; Zachariah, age 16-26; and William, age 16-26, on the same page with Jacob. On the next page are Elijah, age 26-45; and Nathan, age 16-26.

1820 Russell Co. census

It's certainly possible that some or all of these men are the sons of Jacob Castle. It's hard to tell since the census doesn't show their residential relationship to each other. A further complication arises with DNA testing. The Castle DNA Project shows that descendants who claim Jacob Castle as an ancestor do not have the same y-DNA haplogroup as descendants who claim Elijah Castle as an ancestor. Either there is not a relationship between Jacob and Elijah, or one of the descendants is mistaken about his ancestor.

The 1830 census, again in alphabetical order, enumerates Jacob as aged 80-89 with a female aged 50-59. (A search for Jacob Castle sometimes does not find this census record as his name is transcribed as "Jaocb Cossell.") Also listed in Russell Co. on the 1830 census are: Henry, age 40-50; Zachariah, age 40-50; Joseph, age 40-50 (Was he the one living with Jacob on the 1820 census?); and William, age 30-40.

The 1840 census appears to be residential; at least the names are not in alphabetical order. Enumerated next to each other are John, age 20-30; Joseph, age 50-60; Jacob, age 100+; and Zachariah, age 50-60, on the next page. Elijah, age 40-50, is enumerated several names above this group, and another John, age 20-30, is listed several names later on the same page with Zachariah.

1840 Russell Co. census, showing Jacob Castle at 100 & over

In the mid-century decades the Castle family began to move. Some went to Johnson and Floyd counties in Kentucky. (Jacob's brother Bazle had been living in Floyd County since at least 1820.) Sometime after 1836 when he sold 75 acres in Virginia to his brother Zachariah, my ancestor William also moved to Kentucky. In 1850 he is enumerated on the Pulaski County census with his wife Margaret (Cox) and children William H., Margaret, George Harvey, and Patton. Also on the Pulaski County census is my 2nd great-grandfather Goldman Davidson Castle (mis-transcribed as Solomon), his wife Rachel (Sargent), and their son William, age 4, named for his grandfather. By 1860 G.D. Castle and his family were living in Morgan County, next door to their Castle relatives in Johnson County.

Descendants in the Jacob Castle DNA Circle

There are 45 members of the Jacob Castle DNA Circle. I have DNA matches with four of them. 

Two show their descent from James C. Castle, who they claim as a son of Jacob Castle. However, a document attached to their own trees says that James was a son of William Castle. With each of them I share about 20 cM's across 2 segments. A shared match with one of them is a descendant of Zedekiah Castle but does not show up in the DNA Circle. A shared match with the other has Cassell ancestors.

A third member of the circle is a descendant of Nathan Castle. We share 44 cM's across 4 segments. We may also share Patrick ancestors. The fourth member of the circle is my 3rd cousin, Lori Castle. Our great-grandfathers were brothers, sons of Goldman Davidson Castle. Lori and I share 62 cM's over 4 segments (84 with a longest block of 55 cM's on Family Tree DNA.) Our shared matches on Ancestry and FTDNA include Cox and Sargent descendants and my 1st cousin, once removed, Linda Castle. (See my post "In Memoriam.")

Other members of the circle are descendants of Zedekiah, Zachariah, Joseph, Elijah, and William; Benjamin Castle, who appears on the 1820 census in Scott Co. VA; Inman Castle, who appears on the 1830 census in Johnson Co.; and daughters Margaret (Stapleton) and Lydia (Salyers).

Conclusions

As always, working on this post has required me to look closely at evidence for some facts that I have taken for granted. I was able to make some corrections and deletions in my tree on Ancestry so that the chain of dates, events, and relationships is strengthened. For now I may have done all I can do with the information that is available online.

Lori, Linda, and I share 36 cM's on Chromosome 11, according to Family Tree DNA. It would be nice to know if any other members of Jacob Castle's DNA Circle share DNA with us on Chromosome  11. Come on, Ancestry, give us a Chromosome Browser!

And come on, everybody that attached that bogus picture to the Jacob Castle who died in the 1840's--delete it!

Jacob Castle the Longhunter

The parents of Goldman Davidson Castle were William Castle (1799-1859) and Margaret Cox (1799-1880).  Siblings of G.D. Castle were James, John, Sarah, William Henderson, Margaret, Henry, George Harvey, and Patton Robert.  Sometime after the birth of their children, William and Margaret moved to Pulaski County, Kentucky, and then to Morgan County, in a large migration of Castles, Days, Salyers, and others from the Copper Creek area of southwestern Virginia. Goldman Davidson is thought to have been named for men with those surnames that his parents knew in Virginia. William’s parents were Jacob Castle, Jr. (1749-1849—yes, 100 years!) and Mary Shane. 

My cousin Fred Castle, son of my grandmother’s youngest brother Tom, was the Castle historian.  He made several trips to Kentucky and southwest Virginia trying to tie our Castles to the families of Castlewood, Virginia.  I remember when he first had contact with Castle family members that still lived in Castlewood, and how excited he was when he felt he could finally prove our descent, through William Castle, from Jacob Castle, “the Longhunter.”

Jacob Castle Sr. was quite a character, and if Castle family researchers are correct in naming Peter Cassel as his father, he came from quite a family.  Peter Cassel was the son of Johannes Cassel, a Mennonite who came on the ship Jeffries to Philadelphia in 1682 after attending a meeting in Kriesham, Germany, in which William Penn himself spoke to the audience about religious freedom and the land that was available in America.  Johannes became one of the signers of the Germantown, Pennsylvania charter.

Jacob took a different path—he went native.  His first wife was Shawnee; her name Sowege means “gliding swan.”  They married about 1736, and she was the mother of Jacob Jr. and perhaps others.  Jacob may have had several other wives, reputedly all Cherokee, with whom he had other children.  He came to southwest Virginia when it was the frontier, and apparently traded with the natives for land that became known as “Castle’s woods.”  Because his name had been associated with the area long before Daniel Boone set foot there, it has been suggested that old Jacob may have been the one who pointed out the Cumberland Gap to Boone.

Jacob’s Indian name was “White Tassel,” and some have even gone so far as to describe him as an albino.  It is more probable that, with his German heritage, he was very fair-haired compared to his Indian neighbors.  As a longhunter, he would have ranged far from home, killing deer for meat and hides with his long-barreled rifle made by German gunsmiths in Pennsylvania.  He would have lived much as the Indians did.  In my mind, I see him as a blonde Daniel Day-Lewis in The Last of the Mohicans.

For this next part I am indebted to Mitchell Farish, a librarian at the University of Virginia, who has a great website with the title “Birth of American Frontier Culture.”  He put historical documents and traditions concerning Jacob Castle into a context that finally made sense to me.

In 1740 Jacob bought land on the New River from Jacob Stover.  When he was home from his travels, he seemed to have conflicts with his neighbors, particularly one named Adam Herman (or Harmon.)  In 1746 Jacob and other settlers were detailed to build a road from Adam Harmon’s to the river; Jacob objected.  In April 1749 Herman’s home was robbed of several deer and elk skins on three consecutive days.  Jacob became a suspect since he hunted with a party of Indians that had been known to steal horses and other livestock in the settlement.  Herman applied for a writ to arrest Jacob Castle and led a posse to Jacob’s hunting camp in Castle’s woods, but Jacob’s Indian friends chased the posse away.  Later in the month Adam and his brother were arrested because they had robbed Jacob.  By May 17 Adam was out of jail, charging Jacob with “threatening to aid and assist the French against his Majesty’s forces.”  Jacob was arrested, tried, and acquitted of the charge of treason.

Others have commented that Jacob probably did feel more loyalty to his Indian friends—and thus the French—than he did to the British.  I would like to think so, since my sympathies have always been with the Indians.  (Wait till you hear about my ancestor on the other side of the family, William Whitley.  He and Jacob Castle are my only claims to famous ancestors, and they couldn’t have been more different.)  In any case, Jacob was thought to have taken part in the Battle of Kings Mountain in the Revolutionary War—with the Americans.

My cousin Fred died several years ago, but I was pleased to recently find this post of his from a genealogy message board about the eventual resting place of Jacob Castle: “What an experience it was to visit the area where the old Jacob Castle was supposedly buried on a hill near a plot of land still called Castle's meadow, uphill from Copper Creek.”  It makes me think of the poem by Robert Louis Stevenson:

Home is the sailor, home from sea,

And the hunter home from the hill.

The Castles in Kentucky

Turning my lists of birth dates, death dates, marriages, and census info into a narrative has been a very helpful strategy. I would recommend it to everybody who does family research.  It helps you to see gaps in your research or facts that have not been apparent before.  I realized while writing this post that I didn’t really know when or why the Castles left Scott County, Virginia, and moved to Kentucky, first to Pulaski County and then to Morgan County.   A little research last night narrowed down the when, but I still don’t know the why—especially since the move doesn’t follow any obvious pattern east to west.

What I know is that my great-great-grandfather, Goldman Davidson Castle, was born in Scott County, Virginia, and married Rachel Sergeant there 1 September 1844.  It must have been not long after that they moved to Pulaski County, for they are found there on the 1850 census.  The census shows that son William, who was 4 years old, was born in Kentucky. 

                                                       

On 28 May 1858 Goolen Castle (a nickname of G.D., along with “Gool”) bought 141 acres in Morgan County. By 1860 the family, with sons William, James, John, and Lilburn, are living in Morgan County.  The 1870 census shows the addition of Sarah Francis (my grandmother’s “Aunt Sis”), George Turner (my great-grandfather), and Nancy Anne, but sadly, John and Lilburn had died in 1861 of scarlet fever within days of each other.

Death record for John and Lilburn Castle, 1861

                                                        

In 1873 G.D. Castle bought an additional 64 acres in Morgan County. On the 1880 census the families of G.D. Castle, William Castle, and James Castle are all living next to each other.  On 21 March 1896 Goldman D. Castle was appointed Postmaster of Castle, Kentucky, at the age of 73. 

                                                            

After the death of George Turner Castle’s first wife, Frances Nickell, their daughter Cora was raised by her Castle grandparents. G.T. Castle remarried to Sarah Florida Day on 2 January 1896.  On the 1900 census, George and Florida have two children, Fannie and Forrest.  Cora is enumerated twice--with the G.T. Castles and with her grandparents.  Geo. T. Castle was the county court clerk of Morgan County, and his daughter Fannie remembered accompanying him as he traveled by horse and buggy doing county business. He later took over for his father as Postmaster.

                                                         

On 27 February 1907 Goldman D. Castle died.  Later in the year George Turner Castle and family moved to Oklahoma.