I'm calling today's post "Nancy Hart - Genealogy for Dummies". No, no. I'm not calling anyone stupid. Let me start at the beginning. I'm not related to Nancy Hart in any way but I stumbled onto her while sorting Ferrell families who moved from Russell Va. to Roane WV. I googled Nancy Hart and just found the same exact cut and paste story, over and over and over. Now, many serious genealogists are confronted with this all the time. One person posts something and everybody copies it just because it looks okay. They don't bother checking to see if someone has sources, they just assume that that individual knows what they are talking about.
So here's the gist of what that inaccurate and too many times copied story says. Nancy Hart, was born in Russell County, VA to Stephen and Mary Hart. She became a spy for the Moccasin Rangers after her brother-in-law William Clay Price was killed by Union soldiers in 1861. She became romantically involved with a Moccasin Ranger named Perry Connolly who was also killed by Union soldiers in 1862. Close to the end or after the war she marries Joshua Douglas, who fought alongside Perry Connolly and they go into hiding for several years. They move to the Trout Valley in Greenbrier County and it is there she dies in 1902 and is buried in an unmarked grave on Mannings Knob. This is attested to by a memorial that Jim Comstock and a granddaughter placed on her grave probably 50 years later. Yada, Yada, Yada.
How much of this story is true, who knows. What I'm posting here today is her genealogy. First, she was NOT the daughter of Stephen and Mary (Ferrell) Hart. Sorry folks, a census is not enough to prove a relationship. That's what that first genealogist did. They found a Nancy Hart in the census that was close to the same age and lived near the same neighborhood and VOILA! It must be her. Did they bother to look at her siblings and find the sister that married William Clay Price, no. Which is quite a shock to me considering how he was the supposed catalyst that spurred Nancy to become a spy. So, I'm going to start with William Clay Price and his marriage to Mary E.Hart in Russell Va. Below is a screen capture from Family Search.
As you can see from the image above. Mary Hart's parents are listed as John and Rebecca Hart. So let's tell their story in records shall we? John Hart and Rebecca Bolling were both born in North Carolina, probably Ashe County. They moved across the border to Russell County Va sometime before 1830. They were likely married there around 1828 because John Hart, his wife, and daughter under the age of 5 appear there in the 1830 census. This is probably Jane, who in the 1850 census is listed as born c1830. The early marriage records for Russell Co. have been destroyed or lost so we don't have an exact date for them.
Now, Mary Hart's marriage gives her place of birth as Smyth County, Va. Well, some of us need visuals (including me) to get the lay of the land. Smyth is next to Russell, by the way. Here is a map from the Library of Virginia showing county locations in 1850. Since Nancy was supposed to be born in Russell, it helps place them in the area.
In 1840, John and Rebecca are listed in the Smyth Co census. They have 5 children in their household. If you compare it to the ages listed in the 1850 census you have:
John Hart born c1804 (30-39)
wife (Rebecca) born c1805 (30-39)
1. female (Jane) born c1830 (10-14)
2. female (Leah Adaline) born c1837 (5-9)
3 male (unknown) (5-9) probably died in nfancy
4. female (Mary E.) born c1837 (0-5)
5. male (Henry) born c1839 (0-5)
In 1850 John Hart and Rebecca Bolling are living in Washington Co Va. That's on the border of both Smyth and Russell Ya'll. This pattern leads me to believe that they must have lived close to where all three counties meet up. All the children listed above were listed in the household with the addition of John born c1841, Nancy born c1843 and Joseph born c1849. See screen capture from Family Search.
Now, we get to the fun parts. There was a pretty big migration of Russell County families that moved up to Jackson County WV around this time. Many of them moved to the area that would later become Roane. You have to keep in mind that Roane County wasn't officially a county until 1856. Let me also tell you that the people that already lived in the area didn't like these Russell County families one bit. They were considered squatters and there was a great deal of friction.
The Price family, including William's mother, and siblings came to present day Roane County WV in 1855, so it's safe to assume that the Hart's came with them.
In 1860 John Hart, Rebecca and family are living in Roane County. The children living in their household are: Leah Adaline Duff, John Hart, Nancy Hart, Joseph Hart, and what possibly may be the 4 year old daughter of Leah Adaline, Mary E. Duff. Also in the 1860 census is the Price Family. William Price and Mary are in their own household with their young children. William's mother Lavnia and siblings are also in the census. Henry and Jane Hart are noticeably missing from the census. Jane may have been married, Henry was possibly deceased. Another screen capture from Family Search.
In 1861 the war began. I don't have to tell most of you that what is now West Virginia was very divided in sentiment. The men in Calhoun and a few surrounding counties including Roane started their own "Home Guard". They became known as the Moccasin Rangers. Looking back, they appear to be nothing more than a large group of civilians that terrorized and spied on their neighbors. They were in no real battles and became known as outlaws and guerrillas. The Hart and Price families were probably all involved in some way with the Moccasin Rangers. Nancy Hart was reported to be romantically involved with Perry Connolly, who was a member of the guerrillas. Perry Connolly was a married man with two young children so it is a real possibility that she was only involved with him professionally.
Now we come to a big event in the life of both families. The killing of William Clay Price. On the evening of October 16, 1861 the Union Home Guard came to the house of William Price and told the family, Nancy included, that they were taking him in for questioning. William was found the next morning tied to a tree and shot. Around this same time period, Perry Connolly and his guerrillas kidnapped two members of the Union Home Guard, whose names were James Rogers and Solomon Carpenter. They took them down to Booger Hole in Clay County and tied them to a Buckeye Tree and shot and killed them both. I found two conflicting dates for this murder. One puts the killing one day before William's, the other puts it in November, so I have no way of stating which one was in retaliation for the other.
Perry Connolly wasn't long for this world though. At a skirmish at Welch Glade on January 2, 1862 he was shot by Union forces and beaten to death with the butt of a gun.
I won't rehash Nancy's capture and escape in July 1862. Anyone reading this will have no trouble finding stories about her escapades around this time and the subsequent attack on Summersville. I'm going to skip ahead a little. As I said before, Nancy probably already knew Joshua Douglas. He did enlist on July 16, 1861 in the Moccasin Rangers under Capt.George Downs. This appears to be backdated and was really formed after the death of Perry Connolly to legitimize them.
At some point after the incidents of July 1862, the Hart family moved to Eastern Kentucky. Most of them just seem to disappear. Maybe some of them married and stayed in Kentucky. There are stories saying that Nancy had relatives in Devil Anse Hatfields Unit during the war. Nancy's sister Mary Price moved back to West Virginia and married Elijah Rice in Jackson County in 1865 where she lived until she died in 1886.
In the Trout Valley of Greenbrier County on December 25, 1893 Kenos Martin Douglas (son of Joshua and Nancy) went to a party held by the family of a neighbor named Thomas Reed. He was angry because he wasn't invited and went over with the intention of starting trouble. He shot Thomas Reed in the chest and Thomas later died from this wound. He and his brother took off and hid in the mountains but were found by a search party and brought to justice. Kenos was given a life sentence but he appealed it in 1896 and was given parole shortly thereafter. In 1897, Joshua Douglas, shot and killed Henry Fletcher at a lumber camp in Webster County for testifying against his son at the murder trial.
According to the 1900 census of Webster County, WV, Nancy gave birth to five children although all but two were dead by then. Her oldest surviving son Kenos Martin Douglas was born c1866 in Lawrence County, Kentucky and her youngest surviving son George F. Douglas was born in 1870 in Wise County, Virginia. Living with her and her husband Joshua was her son George, her son Kenos, his new wife Mahala Baldwin and her son from a previous relationship Clayton Brown.
There is a story that Joshua Douglas died of a stroke while on his way to Richwood in Nicholas County to sell a team of oxen. Whether it's true or not I don't know but his death was reported by his son Kenos Douglas on October 25, 1907 in Nicholas County. He is listed as "married", which means that Nancy was still living at the time of his death. You can look at the other names on the page and see that some others were clearly listed as "widowed". He is buried in Richwood. There is another story that Nancy and a granddaughter went to claim his body but both her granddaughters would have been under seven years of age at the time of his death.
Kenos and George worked at the lumber camp in Webster County as woodsmen. After their father died they moved to Washington state and went to work in the lumber yards there. They took their mother with them. In the 1910 Lewis County, Washington census you can find Nancy B. Douglas age 66 still very much alive and kicking.
One granddaughter wrote that Nancy B. Hart died on April 23, 1913 in Greenbrier County and she was buried in an unmarked grave on Mannings Knob that had once been burial ground for slaves. Another granddaughter (Moppie) stated that she was 11 years old when her grandmother died and her brother Roy was about 6. Moppie was born in 1902. This firmly puts her death in 1912 or 1913 not 1902. I'm afraid Jim Comstock had the wrong date put on that grave marker 50 years later. Maybe they somehow got her death confused with Moppie's birth.
P.S. If anyone cares to know a little about the family of Stephen Hart and Mary Ferrell.
1831 Stephen Hart and Mary Ferrell marred in Russell Co Va on Apr. 10th
1840 Stephen Heart is living in Logan WV
1850 Stephen Hart is living in Boone WV
1860 Stephen Hart is living in Roane WV
1870 Stephen Hart is living in Roane WV
1880 Stephen Hart is living in Roane WV
1896 Stephen Hart dies in Roane WV on Oct. 4th
He did have a daughter named Nancy Hart. She was born Apr. 5, 1845. She married a Union soldier named Joseph Lloyd on Nov. 19, 1867 in Jackson (next to Roane folk!). The marriage record clearly lists her place of birth as Logan WV (see census info above) and it lists her parents as Stephen and Polly (nickname for Mary). Nancy Hart Lloyd died in Roane WV on Feb. 9, 1899.
