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Note: Children assigned to this Matthew come from Charles Recker in a letter posted on genforum Oct 1999. (msg 372) The Roanoke Times 1966 The Southwest Corner - Tales about Fayette McMullen Abound by Goodridge Wilson The tempo of life and living conditions in general during the 19th century tended to emphasize personal peculiarities in people and to develop more colorful characters than do the vastly faster tempo and complicated mass patterns that prevail so largely in our present day lives. One of the more colorful personalities in public life of Virginia's history was born in Bedford County and resided during the greater part of his adult career in Scott and Smyth Counties. Near the beginning of the 19th century John McMullen, a descendant of Scotch Irish pioneers, and his wife Mary Wysong descended from French Huguenot refugees, lived in or near Liberty, at that time the county seat Bedford County. Their home was only one day's travel by wagon from Lynchburg, an important and busy river port. John McMullen established and maintained a profitable transportation business which aptly illustrates his times and our own. The late E. Frank Hilton of Scott County prepared a paper on John McMullen's son which has been published in the no. 2 booklet of the Historical Society of Southwest Virginia in which he described that business. It consisted of a stage coach line and wagon train which hauled passengers and freight from Bedford to Gate City. Mr. Hilton wrote: "The trip from Bedford to Estillville, traveled at the rate of 30 miles per day, took a week. Horses were changed at about each 15 miles. The towns after leaving Bedford served by coaches and wagons were Big Lick,(now Roanoke), Fort Chiswell, Wytheville, Royal Oak (now Marion), Blountville, and Estillville (now Gate City) as well as smaller places along the route. On the return trip products purchased along the way were delivered in to Lynchburg to be marketed". The stage coaches were heavy vehicles drawn by four horses providing for nine passengers inside and one or two extras who might ride with the driver on top. Thirty miles a day was normal travel time. On May 18, 1805 a baby was born to John and Mary McMullen whom they named Lafayette. He grew into a lively boy, physically strong and mentally alert. In his younger boyhood he would ride and sometimes drive his father's freight wagons. At the age of 16 of 17 he was driving stage coaches. Mr. Hilton wrote, "He delighted in driving the coach which (had) nine passengers and had provisions for over-flow passengers on deck with the drivers. He would decorate the harness and the coach with bells and tassels and use a trumpet to announce the coach arrival in a town along the way. He made quite a figure with his turned-up hat brim, his arms stretched their length and his body swaying from side to side with the motion of the coach. He took delight in cracking his long whip above the heads of the horses without any intention of touching them. Upon his arrival at a town it was his practice to toss his lines to a waiting groom and alight among his admirers." Before he was 21 this young man had acquired real estate in Scott County, married a daughter of a county sheriff, and settled there. The only time his first name appears officially as "Lafayette" is in the record of his marriage to Mary Wood, the sheriffs daughter. Elsewhere it is written "Fayette". He acquired additional real estate, including a tract south of the North Fork of Holston where he lived and where he owned and operated a ferry. Soon after his marriage he was elected captain of the county militia, in which he eventually became a colonel. He had a remarkable political career, serving three terms as Scott County's representative in the House of Delegates, 11 terms as a State Senator from Scott and Russell (Counties), three terms in the U.S. Congress, two years as a Governor of Washington territory, and two terms in the Confederate Congress. After the Civil War he ran for Congress repeatedly as an independent but was never elected. He was killed Nov 8, 1880 by switching a train near Wytheville depot. More tales and traditions have been told about Fayette McMullen than about any Southwest Virginian politician. After his return from what is now the State of Washington he lived on a farm he owned two miles west of Marion, until his death. for a narrative that includes info about him http://www.newrivernotes.com/swva/hssv-2.htm ****************** Children assigned to this Matthew come from Charles Recker in a letter posted on genforum Oct 1999. (msg 372) The Roanoke Times 1966 The Southwest Corner - Tales about Fayette McMullen Abound by Goodridge Wilson The tempo of life and living conditions in general during the 19th century tended to emphasize personal peculiarities in people and to develop more colorful characters than do the vastly faster tempo and complicated mass patterns that prevail so largely in our present day lives. One of the more colorful personalities in public life of Virginia's history was born in Bedford County and resided during the greater part of his adult career in Scott and Smyth Counties. Near the beginning of the 19th century John McMullen, a descendant of Scotch Irish pioneers, and his wife Mary Wysong descended from French Huguenot refugees, lived in or near Liberty, at that time the county seat Bedford County. Their home was only one day's travel by wagon from Lynchburg, an important and busy river port. John McMullen established and maintained a profitable transportation business which aptly illustrates his times and our own. The late E. Frank Hilton of Scott County prepared a paper on John McMullen's son which has been published in the no. 2 booklet of the Historical Society of Southwest Virginia in which he described that business. It consisted of a stage coach line and wagon train which hauled passengers and freight from Bedford to Gate City. Mr. Hilton wrote: "The trip from Bedford to Estillville, traveled at the rate of 30 miles per day, took a week. Horses were changed at about each 15 miles. The towns after leaving Bedford served by coaches and wagons were Big Lick,(now Roanoke), Fort Chiswell, Wytheville, Royal Oak (now Marion), Blountville, and Estillville (now Gate City) as well as smaller places along the route. On the return trip products purchased along the way were delivered in to Lynchburg to be marketed". The stage coaches were heavy vehicles drawn by four horses providing for nine passengers inside and one or two extras who might ride with the driver on top. Thirty miles a day was normal travel time. On May 18, 1805 a baby was born to John and Mary McMullen whom they named Lafayette. He grew into a lively boy, physically strong and mentally alert. In his younger boyhood he would ride and sometimes drive his father's freight wagons. At the age of 16 of 17 he was driving stage coaches. Mr. Hilton wrote, "He delighted in driving the coach which (had) nine passengers and had provisions for over-flow passengers on deck with the drivers. He would decorate the harness and the coach with bells and tassels and use a trumpet to announce the coach arrival in a town along the way. He made quite a figure with his turned-up hat brim, his arms stretched their length and his body swaying from side to side with the motion of the coach. He took delight in cracking his long whip above the heads of the horses without any intention of touching them. Upon his arrival at a town it was his practice to toss his lines to a waiting groom and alight among his admirers." Before he was 21 this young man had acquired real estate in Scott County, married a daughter of a county sheriff, and settled there. The only time his first name appears officially as "Lafayette" is in the record of his marriage to Mary Wood, the sheriffs daughter. Elsewhere it is written "Fayette". He acquired additional real estate, including a tract south of the North Fork of Holston where he lived and where he owned and operated a ferry. Soon after his marriage he was elected captain of the county militia, in which he eventually became a colonel. He had a remarkable political career, serving three terms as Scott County's representative in the House of Delegates, 11 terms as a State Senator from Scott and Russell (Counties), three terms in the U.S. Congress, two years as a Governor of Washington territory, and two terms in the Confederate Congress. After the Civil War he ran for Congress repeatedly as an independent but was never elected. He was killed Nov 8, 1880 by switching a train near Wytheville depot. More tales and traditions have been told about Fayette McMullen than about any Southwest Virginian politician. After his return from what is now the State of Washington he lived on a farm he owned two miles west of Marion, until his death.
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