Eighth Generation

84. Lewis William Darnell^1,3 was born in Mar 1857 in Wilkes County, North Carolina.⁴ He died in Apr 1939 in Pond Mountain, Ashe County, North Carolina. He was buried in Pond Mountain, Ashe County, North Carolina. Lewis William Darnell (1857-April 1939), son of William and Sarah York Darnell, married Margaret Lucinda Peak on Nov. 6, 1877. Margaret (1843-Nov. 1935), daughter of Hughie & Marjory Hart Peak, was 1/4 Cherokee. Her mother Marjory was 1/2 Cherokee, being a descendant of Ned Sizemore, the Cherokee Indian who settled in this area.
In 1888 Lewis and Margaret sold their farm in Mouth-of-Wilson, Grayson Co., Va. and moved to Ashe Co. They settled on Bear Wallow (close to Nella) in a large one room log house on Wiley Carter's farm. Their son Wade was 6 years old then, and he remembered living there. The house had one tiny window and a large fireplace where they cooked over the fire and baked in a cast iron baker set on hot coals with additional hot coals being heaped on the lid. Wade always enjoyed the hot biscuits and cornbread made in the baker.
As the children grew, they learned to work on the farm. They cleared fields, raised crops, rolled logs, burned brush, and tended gardens. Their crops consisted of corn, wheat, oats, rye, flax, buckwheat, and cane. Their large gardens had to produce enough food to help winter the family. Their poultry consisted of turkeys, chickens, geese, ducks, and guineas whose feathers were used in their pillows & featherbeds. Since they had cows to milk and a yoke of oxen to feed, much time was spent in the summer harvesting hay. Sheep and hogs were also raised and slaughtered. After growing flax and shearing wool from the sheep, the women spun and wove cloth to make the family's clothing, bedclothes, curtains, dishcloths, tablecloths, bedspreads, and napkins. They also peiced quilts to use on the featherbeds and straw-filled bedticks. They made homemade soap from lye, rendered fat, and water, boiled outside in a huge black iron pot. The women made colors to dye the woven materials by boiling the bark from the cherry trees and Elder plants and the colored leaves of various trees such as oak, chestnut, maple, etc. The juices from blackberries, elderberries, raspberries, & wild cherries also provided dyes. Any extra items grown or raised on the farm were sold to the local stores which provided a small financial family income. They also dug & gathered roots, herbs, and plants to sell which were processed into medicine. Lewis was the community shoe cobbler, making and mending shoes whenever he wasn't in the fields.
Lewis and Margaret were honest, humble people, outstanding, respectable, & God-fearing; they reared their children in the same way. They were tenant farmers, moving several times but mostly rearing their family on Big Helton Creek. The children attended Zion Hill School with Mrs. Essie Pennington, one of their teachers.
Belonging to Big Helton Primitive Bapt. Church, Lewis and margaret moved in later years to the Pond Mtn. area of Ashe Co., buying a farm & living there the remainder of their lives. They joined Pond Mtn. Primitive Bapt. Church, being buried in the Pond Mtn. Church Cemetery. Lewis and Margaret had 14 children, 5 of which died in childhood and are buried in Mouth-of-Wilson, Va. They were Hughie (9/6/1878 - 12/9/1884); Troy (8/4/1879 - 8/8/1879); Haywood (4/30/1880 - 12/11/1884); and the twins Columbia & Columbus (2/14/1884) who died at birth. Hughie & Haywood died from scarlet feaver and were buried together. 1884 was the year that Lewis and Margaret experienced the loss of 4 children. The 9 children who lived through adulthood were:

1. JAMES CHARLIE: (April 10, 1881 - 1949?). Married Daisy Weaver. A carpenter who lived and died in Sophia, West Va. Children: Vanas, Grace, Goffra, Woodrow, Delmer, Doris, "Stoggy", & Margaret.

2. WADE HAMPTON: (June 28, 1882 - Dec. 11, 1967). Married Malissie Caudill. 2 children: Lillian & Blannie. (See Wade & Malissie Darnell).

3. MARGIS SARAH LUEMMA: (July 11, 1888 - April 1968). Married: (1) Cicero Dixon. Children: Onnie, Gladys, Arvel, Minnie, Zola, Daniel, Blanche, Hasque, & Doyle. (2) ? Patrick. Luemma was buried in the Pond Mtn. Church Cemetery.

4. GROVER CLEVELAND: (Oct. 15, 1886 - Oct. 1967). married Ellen Miller, 3 children: Maude, Paul, & Avery. A carpenter & farmer who lived on the Hurricane Mtn. Grover & Ellen bur. at the Pond Mtn. Church Cemetery.

5. BRAXTON McKEE: (April 12, 1889 - March 1968). Married Mamie Hodges. Children: Ethel; Stella; James; Mary; Lorraine; Irene; Eugene; Ruth; Johnny; Bobby; B.M.,Jr.; ?. "Brack" - a coal miner. Lived & bur. at Sophia, W.Va.

6. CORA VIRGINIA: (June 16, 1890 - Dec. 26, 1959). Married Wade Miller. Children: Reba, Ossie, Joe, Hazel, Walsie, Harlow, & Jettie. Bur. - Miller Cem. in the Pond Mtn. area.

7. VILENA ELISABETH: (April 13, 1892 - Nov. 1979). Married Solly Blevins. Children: Earl, Burl, & Pearl. "Venie" lived - Shady Springs, W.Va.; bur. - Beckley, W.Va.

8. ROY LEE: (April 20, 1897 - March 1976). Married: (1) Ella Taylor. Children: Woodrow & Eugene. (2) Rena Coldiron. "Roey" - a coal miner. He & Ella bur. - McClure Cem. on St. Clare's Creek - Chilhowie, Va.

9. CHARITY CLYDE: (April 7, 1901 - Nov. 1975). Married Rev. Willie Weaver. Children: Cecil, Oddus [Otis? MED], Russel, Uluess [Ulysses Grant? MED], & Howard. She & Willie buried at Tucker Cemetery on Little Horse Creek.

Sources: Grandfather Lewis Darnell, Father Wade Darnell, Maude Darnell Stansberry, Lewis' Family Bible, Pond Mtn. Church Cem.

Blannie Darnell Hart Rt. 1 Box 330 Lansing, NC 28643

Lewis William Darnell and Margaret Ruth Childers were married on 19 Feb 1876 in Ashe County, North Carolina.

Lewis William Darnell and Margaret Lucinda Peak were married on 6 Nov 1877 in Grayson County, Virginia. Margaret Lucinda Peak^1,3,8 (daughter of Hugh Rea Peak and Marjory Hart) was born in Oct 1853 in Grayson County, Virginia. She died in Nov 1935 in Pond Mountain, Ashe County, North Carolina. She was buried in Pond Mountain Primitive Baptist Church. Lewis William Darnell and Margaret Lucinda Peak had the following children:

108	i.	William H. "Hughie" Darnell was born on 6 Sep 1878 in Mouth-of-Wilson, Grayson County, Virginia. He died on 9 Dec 1884 in Mouth-of-Wilson, Grayson County, Virginia. Died from scarlet feaver. He was buried in Mouth-of-Wilson, Grayson County, Virginia.
109	ii.	Troy Darnell was born on 4 Aug 1879 in Mouth-of-Wilson, Grayson County, Virginia. He died on 8 Aug 1879 in Mouth-of-Wilson, Grayson County, Virginia. He was buried in Mouth-of-Wilson, Grayson County, Virginia.
110	iii.	Robert Haywood Darnell was born on 30 Apr 1880 in Mouth-of-Wilson, Grayson County, Virginia. He died on 11 Dec 1884 in Mouth-of-Wilson, Grayson County, Virginia. Died from scarlet feaver. He was buried in Mouth-of-Wilson, Grayson County, Virginia.
+111	iv.	James Charles Darnell.
+112	v.	Wade Hampton Darnell.
113	vi.	Columbia Darnell was born on 14 Feb 1884 in Mouth-of-Wilson, Grayson County, Virginia. She died on 14 Feb 1884 in Mouth-of-Wilson, Grayson County, Virginia. Died at birth. She was buried in Mouth-of-Wilson, Grayson County, Virginia.
114	vii.	Columbus Darnell was born on 14 Feb 1884 in Mouth-of-Wilson, Grayson County, Virginia. He died on 14 Feb 1884 in Mouth-of-Wilson, Grayson County, Virginia. Died at birth. He was buried in Mouth-of-Wilson, Grayson County, Virginia.
+115	viii.	Grover Cleveland Darnell.
+116	ix.	Margis Sarah Luemma "Emma" Darnell.
+117	x.	Braxton McKee "Brack" Darnell.
+118	xi.	Cora Virginia Darnell.
+119	xii.	Vilena Elisabeth "Vena" Darnell.
+120	xiii.	Roy Lee "Roey" Darnell.
+121	xiv.	Charity Clyde Darnell.