James S. Brock was born in 1847 at Clay
Co., KY; age 3 in 1850 census, age 23 in 1870 census. He married
Rutha Jane Griffith, daughter of William Griffith and Polly Ann
Minyard, on 9 Jun 1867 at Perry Co., KY. He died on 28 Jan 1923
at Harlan Co., KY. He began military service circa 1863? at Clay
Co., KY, Pvt in the 2nd Veteran Cavalry and/or Pvt in Co. C, 49th
Infantry, a Union soldier in Civil War in Battle of Cumberland
Gap, one of the retreating soldiers who hid in a cave to avoid
capture. His father-in-law William Griffith was an officer in
the Union Army killed at the battle of Vicksburg.
He appeared on the census of 16 Sep 1870
at Dist. 32, Pct. 6, Manchester P.O., Clay Co., KY; in hh 88-88
as James Brock 23, Ruth Jane 21, Pollyan 3, Sarry E. 3/12, all
b. KY.
He was appointed Surveyer of Road Trace
Road in 1886 at Leslie Co., KY. He was appointed County Supervisor
in 1898, Deputy Sheriff in 1899, and appointed Constable in 1913
at Leslie Co., KY.
Children of James S.1 Brock and
Rutha Jane Griffith were as follows:
2 i. Pollyann2 Brock; b. circa
Sep 1867 at KY; age 3 in 1870 census.
3 ii. Sarah Elizabeth Brock; b.
5 Apr 1870 at KY; Sarry E. age 3 mos. in 1870 census; d. 24 Feb
1964 at age 93.
4 iii. William Aaron Brock; b.
1871. He was relieved from Road work in 1892 at Leslie Co., KY.
He was appointed Deupty Sheriff in 1893 at Leslie Co., KY. He
was appointed Election Officer, Marrowbone Dist in 1893 at Leslie
Co., KY.
5 iv. Joseph Brock; b. 1872.
6 v. John Brock; b. 1874.
7 vi. Matilda Brock; b. 1875.
8 vii. Tilda Jane Brock; b. 1876.
9 viii. Dora Brock; b. 1877.
10 ix. Hiram Montgomery Brock;
b. 12 Jun 1877 at Perry Co., KY; d. 20 Mar 1963 at Harlan Co.,
KY, at age 85.
11 x. Clora Brock; b. 1878.
12 xi. Nancy Brock; b. 1879.
13 xii. Amon Brock; b. Oct 1879
at Perry or Leslie Co., KY; m. Martha Etta Roberts Sep 1899; d.
11 Jun 1925 at Harlan Co., KY, at age 45.
14 xiii. Timothy Brock; b. 1880.
15 xiv. Myrtle Brock; b. 1881.
Dr. John J. Dickey
Diary, Fleming County, Ky. Recorded in the 1870's and beyond.
Reprinted in Kentucky Explorer, Vol 11, No. 8, Feb 1997.
pp. 90-91.
James Brock
January 3, 1898, Hyden, Kentucky.
I live in Leslie County. I am 55
years old. I was born in Clay County. My father's name is Aaron
Brock. My mother was Barbara Shepherd. Her father's name was James
Shepherd. He was born in Virginia. I do not know what county
it was; it was near Fort Yokum and Fort ____, which was taken
when he was about ten years old by the Indians who were led by
Benge, the white man who was taken by the Indians when a boy seven
years old. His capture was as follows: His mother had sent him
to gather elderberries for the ducks. A party of Indians came
upon him and attempted to kill him. He gathered stones and began
to fight them. Pleased with his valor they took him prisoner saying,
"He will make a good warrior."
I have heard my grandfather tell
this and many other things, among other things, among them the
taking of Fort ____ and the killing of Benge. At the taking of
this last mentioned fort, the Indians killed all but two women,
the wives of George and Peter Levice. (Livingston in Collins).
Among the slain were the aged mother and father Benge. After the
massacre one of the captured women asked Benge if he did not remember
an old man and an old woman who were killed. He said he did. She
said, "They were your father and mother." He dropped
his head and wept.
They crossed the Cumberland Mountains
at Benge's Gap. One of the women was tied to an Indian chief but
the other, led by Benge (Peter Levice's wife), marked the path
of their retreat by pieces of her clothing torn and scattered.
As the whites pursued, they came to the house of my great-grandfather,
Nimrod Shepherd. My great-grandmother was baking bread. It
was not more than half-cooked but was divided among them hastily.
They took down some dried bear meat and venison saying, "We
will use the bear's flesh for meat and the venison for bread."
The first sight they got of the
Indians was an Indian who had been stationed as a picket. He was
roasting a turkey and nodding. Peter Levice slipped within 31
feet of him. They feared to shoot, lest the prisoners should be
murdered. Springing from behind a tree, Levice, at three bounds,
fell upon his victim and dispatched him with his tomahawk. He
fell into the fire, and the pursuers first ate turkey and then
went on in their pursuit.
Peter had lost a wife before this
by the Indians and had recently remarried. He swore he would have
her if he had to pursue them into Ohio. George Levice's wife was
sleeping. Peter Levice's wife was sitting awake. Benge was asleep
with his hand in her lap. Only one Indian was awake. A bird hovered
over Benge's head, fluttered, and darted off in the direction
of the pursuers. The waking Indian shook Benge and told him there
was danger. He grunted but fell back to sleep. The bird repeated
its performance. The Indian then awakened Benge and told him,
"Get up. Bad luck. Bad luck." Benge rose and climbed
a black gum tree nearby and got some mistletoe, saying, "I
have always gotten mistletoe from this tree when coming to Powell's
Valley and have always had good luck." He put it in his shot
pouch and they started. The white men overtook them near Benge's
Gap.
Mrs. Peter Levice first saw her
rescuers, and her husband was the first one she saw. He was peeping
from behind a tree. He caught her eye and shook his fist at her
to keep her quiet. She went only a few steps, when she broke away
and started toward her husband, screaming. Benge made three leaps
after her, but seeing his danger, he turned in retreat. Levice
fired at him as he was pursuing his wife but feared lest he would
kill his wife. As Benge retreated he bounded from side to side
to prevent his pursuers from hitting him.
Vinton Hobbs saved his load till
Benge would get into the narrow gap and then at a distance of
55 yards he put a ball through his head. Benge had a "blackjack"
cup tied to his body which he clapped over his forehead, and it
filled with blood and brains. He also had a small keg of brandy
swung over his shoulder.
The white men were so infuriated
that they turned the contents of the cup upon the ground and drank
the brandy from it. They took three strips of flesh from his back,
18 inches long, saying, "These are for razor strops."
They put his skull in the cleft of a rock, and my mother
said she had seen it often.
George Levice's wife clenched the
Indian to whom she was tied and held his arms. He struck at her
with his tomahawk over his shoulders but she had his arms pinioned
and he could only use them below the elbows. She would dodge his
lick as far as her head was concerned but her collar bone received
the blows. She held him till her husband came to the rescue and
dispatched him. Soon after she died. A party of white men had
gone another route in pursuit of the Indians and they killed all
that escaped from this party save one and he died after reaching
home. This was the last Indian raid into that country. My grandfather
died about 20 years ago (1878), he was about 80 (88-94) years
old. This would place this event late in the last century.
(Collins' account is from Beiy Shaw's in American Pioneers.)
Collins says 1793, Bell County.
The Indians had captured a little
Negro boy. They had him in one end of a sack and a keg of liquor
or brandy in the other end of the sack. When they were attacked
they tumbled the sack over the cliff. It struck the top of a spruce
pine which softened the fall. After they had settled with the
Indians and had started back they heard the little boy crying.
Going down under the cliff they found him. When they asked him
how he got there he said, "Why, they just throwed me over
here and didn't care whether they killed me or not."
A man named Wallin, with a squad
of seven men came from Virginia to Harlan County to hunt. Near
the mouth of what is now called Wallins in Harlan County one of
the party saw an Indian sitting on a log patching his moccasin
and raising his trusty rifle shot him dead. Within two hours the
whites were surrounded by Indians and were all shot dead but one
man. He escaped to Virginia, and it was 7 days before he returned
with a party to bury the dead.
Each hunter had a dog. These dogs
had attacked the bodies of the dead, except Wallin's. His dog
lay by the side of his master's corpse and would neither touch
it himself nor suffer another to do so. They buried them where
they were shot, which was on Laurel Branch, a little above the
mouth of Wallins Branch, at the foot of Pine Mountain. Wallin's
Creek got its name that way.
- Aaron "Chief
Red Bird" Brock
- Jesse Brock
- Amon Brock
- Aaron
N. Brock
- Aaron N. Brock &
Barbara Shepherd's sons Carlo,
Elijah, Aaron
H.
- Revolutionary Ancestors
1, 2,
3, 4
- Carlo's children, Millard Lee Brock, Lucinda "Lou," Elizabeth "Lizzie,"
Marietta & Peyton Brock
- Maternal Lines: Burkhart, Combs,
Howard, Jackson,
Osborn, Shepherd
- Millard's
children
- Millard's son Charles
Golden Brock