Wager Me My Freedom

Black History Tea & Talk #2
21st February 2019

 Who Was General Braddock?
A Brief Summary Biography prepared by Gary Dean Gardner 

First off, let’s correct a mistake.  General Braddock never settled and lived in Meade County.  Plain & simple fact.  Much confusion, and erroneous assumption, stems from old place names and their use in early Census records.  These 19th century US Federal Census records, which reference communities in addition to county and state of residency, may allude at times to small villages within a single large county like Hardin, or large regions. There is no rhyme or reason today for the specific divisions, as no districting maps or directives exist.   Such has proved a problem with Hardin County, Kentucky records in reference to a small hamlet, now part of Meade County, referenced long ago as “Little York.”  Today we’d recognize this a Doe Run.

Our General Braddock, in 1820, is listed according to modern Census search engines as a resident of the “Little York” community of Hardin County, but this is a computerized error, for the same Census includes individuals residing in Elizabethtown, Sonora, and in southern present-day LaRue County as delineated in “Little York” as well per the same searches.   One must examine the manuscript entries, on the original pages, to see that “Little York” is actually but a small, separate Census demarcation consisting of 9 households on the original submissions.  These particular households are divided from the rest of the listings on the same manuscript page, something the search engines fail to “see.”  As a result, searches mistakenly assume all persons lived in “Little York.”  


Most residents of Hardin County in 1820 would be more correcting assigned to the geographic place category of “no township listed.”  And, unlike the prior 1810 Census, the report for 1820 apparently contains scattered entries for which residents may or may not be found listed near to actual physical neighbors.  Thus, it’s dangerous to assume where someone actually resided based solely upon the sheet upon which they were recorded and the other heads of family listed with them.

Just as an example, look at a few of the individuals presumed to be General Braddock’s neighbors from the same p. 42 of the Census:

Elihu Bouge (Bogue)

Henry Sullivan

Adam Wise

Silas Inyard

Windell Cook

John Boon

Charles Boon

Sarah Joseph- Sarah Redman was the widow of Jonathan Joseph (married 25 June 1799).  Hardin County Will Book B, pg. 162, contains the estate settlement for her husband.  Buyers include Thomas Lincoln of Knob Creek as well as John Merrifield of Hodgenville.

Elijah Dailey

Sarah Stockwell

James Blincoe

William Edlin

Adam Miller

Jacob Rodgers

John Howard

William Morgan

Jane Helm-  Jane Pope Helm, 4th cousin of George Washington, was the widow of Thomas Helm and the grandmother of Governor John LaRue Helm.  She died in 1821, the year after the Federal Census, and is buried in the Helm Family Cemetery at “Helm Place” in Elizabethtown.

Milley Stone

Benjamin Helm-  Major Helm built his home in 1816 where he would have resided in 1820.  Helm is best remembered for having made the first survey of Elizabethtown.  His nephew, John LaRue Helm, would become Governor of Kentucky twice.

James Carroll

William Duby

General Braddock Household of 2 free males and 2 free females.

Isaac Vertreese

James Wilson

Christian Fougle

James Redmond

Andrew Aberfield

Looking further at the 1820 Census, modern search engines denote many individuals as residents of "Little York" that clearly lived in other varied sections & settlements of Hardin County, including Richard Mather who lived along the Nolin River near Hodgen's Mill and John H. Geoghegan, the owner of one of General Braddock's heirs, who resided at the historic site of "Fort Hynes" in Elizabethtown. Samuel Haycraft Sr. is also enumerated, per these erroneous Census search engines,as residing in “Little York” when he in fact also lived in Elizabethtown itself.  His neighbors in town are listed in “Little York” too.  Clearly, there is a problematic error in the search engine programming.
 
Earlier, in 1810, General Braddock’s neighbors included Jacob LaRue Jr. and William LaRue in present-day LaRue County.  There is no “Little York” district or community referenced for Hardin County in 1810. This placement would indicate a strong probability that General first settled along the "Dutch Fork" section of present-day LaRue County after leaving the Roanoke community to the north/northeast.

Now, back to the primary question.  Who was General Braddock?

His name was given, or taken, in honor of the British Major General (born 1695 & died 1755) by the same name.  History alludes to the British General Braddock having owned our “General” as an enslaved servant.  We’re as well told that he served as man servant to George Washington while the future first President of the United States was a young colonial officer under Braddock's command in the American Colonies.  No records survive to support or negate these legends.  We do know, however, that Braddock the African-American soldier of the French & Indian Wars became the chattel property of Abraham Van Meter and his wife Elizabeth.

Legend picks up the story here again.  Skilled in battle as a marksman with both rifle & tomahawk, "picking off" Indian warriors specifically in pairs, Braddock’s reputation was undoubtedly unknown to Van Meter.  Varied versions of the story exist, but when the Van Meter party traversed to Kentucky in 1779, Braddock being a trusted member of the group, they faced hostile Native Americans.  Braddock is thought to have wagered with his master for his freedom, betting to kill a set number of Indians warriors, the numbering fluctuating with the telling but likely either 9 or 10.  Van Meter underestimated his servant’s skill with a rifle, and Braddock accomplished the feat in short order.  Freedom, sadly, wasn’t immediately granted per the terms of the bet and agreement between the men.  Then again, according to other versions of the story, Van Meter simply promised freedom in his will as so many masters of the time ultimately chose, but that’s not a very interesting story!  Regardless, Abraham Van Meter was killed by Indians before he had opportunity, or conviction, to honor the terms of the wager and initiate manumission for his slave, and Braddock became the chattel of his mistress and eventually her new husband, for Elizabeth had remarried to Samuel Goodin in 1782.

 Johnny Scott portraying General Braddock

Braddock (highly valued at 100 pounds English sterling) moved with his new master, Samuel Goodin, from Severns Valley to the Rolling Fork River and a station there Goodin founded two years prior in 1780.  This would have been in the vicinity of Lyons Station.  Here General Braddock lived amongst the earliest pioneer families of the Athertonville area, including Aaron Atherton, Peter Kennedy, and Basil Hayden. Braddock’s prowess as soldier and fighter made him more valuable than his tax assessment would indicate.  In the “Salt River Massacre” of 1788, “Braddock risked his own life to rescue a wounded man name Henry Crist.  Crist later became a Congressman in the early 1800s and frequently retold stories of General Braddock’s heroics.  Braddock also reportedly fought Indians with Thomas Lincoln, father of the future president Abraham Lincoln.” (The Kentucky African-American Encyclopedia & Harvey Smith)

Lincoln biographer Harvey Smith goes so far as to attribute to Braddock some seeds of moral reckoning that directly influenced the Lincolns and, ultimately, the Emancipation Proclamation. He conjectures that, "Thomas Lincoln had some reason in Braddock to feel that all negroes the equal of Braddock should have long ago received the benefits of his son's proclamation."

Goodin ultimately removed his family from the fort he established and settled, with Braddock in tow, in the Roanoke section of LaRue County.  Some 15 years after Abraham Van Meter’s death, General Braddock was at last granted his promised manumission on 9th of March 1797.  Samuel Goodin would die in 1807.  My cousin and fellow scholar Daniel Elmo McClure observed that "All evidences of the fort have long since disappeared, the site is now a meadow along the river."

General Braddock was married twice, first to Becky Swan (freed slave of Lt. John Swan Jr. and Elizabeth Van Meter?) on 9 April 1797 (one month exactly after he was freed), and later to Casandra Dorsey on 15 August 1825.  We really find no specific record of Braddock’s birth, but per McClure and other sources General was believed to be nearly 100 years of age at the time of his death late in 1835.  His marriage to Cassandra, though, confirms his longevity, including the notation, “Free People of Color in ther [sic] very old age.”

In 1815 he bought land from Andrew Fairleigh (Deed Book E:420) on the 27th of August consisting of, “eleven and a half acres by survey situate in the County & State aforesaid, on a branch of Valley Creek a branch of Nolynn [sic] waters of Green River being a part of the tract on which the said Fairleigh now lives.”  This may have been part of the same land Fairleigh purchased 9th June 1795 from Stephen & Abigail Rawlings “on the east fork of Severns Valley.”  (Deed Book “A” p. 116)  The Fairleighs, early in settling in Hardin County, primarily lived in proximity of what later became the Tonieville settlement that straddles the 1843 demarcation between Hardin & LaRue Counties.

General Braddock would as well purchase additional property.  In 1818 he acquired through the Hardin County Sheriff some 74 acres “on the waters of the Valley Creek” forfeited by Edward Rawlings that had once belonged to John LaRue.  Braddock purchased the tract at public auction, a portion of a larger 500 acres the LaRue heirs had sold, “to adjoin the place on which the said General Braddock now lives.”  (Deed Book “G” p. 27)

 A final transaction for lands by General Braddock was record in 1821 in which he purchased 40 acres from James & Phoebe LaRue (LaRue County distiller and son of distiller Jacob LaRue), again on Valley Creek, “running thence with said (Andrew) Fairleigh line” and “including said Braddock’s improvements.”  This would infer that Braddock extended his previous holdings from an additional purchase of lands once owned by John LaRue, James’ father-in-law.  While I have not had opportunity to verify the exact location of Fairleigh’s plantation and Braddock’s farm, again as already implied it would appear to have been southeast of Elizabethtown and north of Hodgenville & Tonieville.

So, when did Braddock die?  That has long remained a mystery.  Probate records show his receiving payment from the estate of James Parks in November of 1825 (Settlement Book “E” p. 240), but Braddock would surprisingly live on yet another decade.  It is only with the discovery of Braddock’s culturally rich last testament which includes bequests to other free people “of color” that we find record of Braddock’s death sometime in December of 1835 (Will Book “D” page 265).

General's bequests go out to "Nancy Mud a woman of coular... Julia Crawford a woman of coular and Mary a woman of coular now belonging to Jno. H. Geoghegan."  No estate settlement seems to have been recorded, and Braddock’s will makes it clear that his wife Cassandra had preceded him in death.  No children are referenced, giving way to speculation that other free blacks of the area resided with Braddock over the years.  It is especially interesting to note that General's bequest to a slave of John Geoghegan provided her the funds to purchase her own freedom, likely Braddock's intent, though further record of "Mary" have yet to come to light.  To date, no record of General Braddock's  burial place has been found, though he may lie either with the earliest of Catholics in the county, or alongside the Goodins in an unmarked grave.

NOTES & REFERENCES:

See Butler, Dr. John C., "Jacob Van Meter Family and History"
Haycraft, Samuel, A History of Elizabethtown Kentucky and Its Surroundings, 1869/1921, p. 125.
The WPA Guide to Kentucky , 1939, p. 298.
McClure, Daniel, Two Centuries in Elizabethtown and Hardin County, Kentucky, 1979, pp. 36 & 43.
Smith, Harvey H., Lincoln and the Lincolns, 1931, pp. 100-105.
Hardin County Marriage Book “A” pages 1 & 164
Hardin County Will Book "D" pages 265-267
McClure, Daniel E. Jr., Two Centuries in Elizabethtown and Hardin County, Kentucky.
Ancestral Trails Historical Society Quarterly Spring 2015, "General Braddock- The First Free African American in Kentucky & Henry Crist Owed Life to Braddock," p. 20.
Smith, Gerald, et al, The Kentucky African American Encyclopedia, pp. 61and 194. (This entry, while an important documentation of Braddock's historical contribution to early Kentucky, includes erroneous assumptions connecting General Braddock to the establishment of a Meade County, Kentucky community of freed slaves near present day Vine Grove called "Free Negro Farm" that seems to have originated around 1847, many years after General's death, and even wrongly claiming him to have died in Meade County. (See also Notable Kentucky African Americans Database.)   "Free Negro Farm" was actually purchased 24 Feb 1847 by freed slave Pleasant Moreman for $225.  No existing records connect General Braddock to this community or to Meade County.  It is clear from an examination of surviving public record and oral history that General Braddock's residency in Kentucky was limited to Nelson, LaRue, and Hardin Counties.)