Main
Hans Frederick Stump
Born 1723? Heidelberg, Lancaster Co. PA
Died May 1822 Davidson Co. TN
SPOUSE CHILDREN
Anne Snavely

m. 1757?
PA
b. 1725?
PA
d. Nov 26, 1804
Davidson Co. TN
Jacob

b. 1758?
Fredericksburg PA
killed Nov? 1780
Washington Co. NC
Barbara

b. Jan 4, 1762
Fredericksburg PA
d. Sep 7, 1856
Bowling Green KY
Anna

b. Apr 29, 1763
Fredericksburg PA
d. May 1, 1816
Franklin Co. MS
Capt. John

b. Oct 22, 1766
Augusta GA
d. Dec 23, 1848
Adams Co. MS
Hans Frederick Jr. (twin)

b. Oct 22, 1766
Augusta GA
Murdered Apr 1799
Bowling Green, Warren Co. KY
Christopher

b. 1778
Augusta GA
d. Jul 12, 1821
Nashville TN
Catherine Gingery

m. 1816?
Davidson Co. TN
b. 1789?
?Nashville TN
d. 1885
Nashville TN
On Feb 2, 1779 a "John Holoway" and a "James Sott" applied for a grant (#1476) of 640 acres upon "Long Glady Creek, including improvements". Also, "John Smith lives on for complement" but the grant was tagged "discontinued" [NC Land Grants, v.2, p. 6]. 640 acres was the amount allotted in Washington County in Western NC for soldiers of higher rank in the Continental Line. A James Scott did serve 3 years from 1776 to 1779, was mustered but then returned to the line in 1780. Later, a James Scott and a John Smith each received one of the Cumberland Settlement's 1,410 Pioneer Land Grants. This part of Washington Co. is now Middle Tennessee.
In 1779, Frederick was a British prisoner at Fort Saint Mark, which before the British took control of the city of St. Augustine in 1763, was the Castille de San Marcos, built by the Spanish to protect the city from invasion. With only one entrance protected by a drawbridge over a moat, and fourteen-foot thick walls made of a material unique to the area, coquino stone, Frederick escaped by bribing British guards. The windowless prison cell was called the "dungeon" and the guards' quarters was between the cell and the entrance to the fort. After Frederick escaped, SC statesman Christopher Gadsden was held there for 42 weeks in 1780-81 [Photos from visit by George N. Holloway in June 2023].
Frederick likely marched over land with his family toward the mountains after the British destroyed is home in Augusta GA and joined the Amos Eaton party that left the NC mountains in Dec 1779 for the Cumberland Settlement. The Eaton party arrived at the beginning of 1780, just a week after the leading James Robertson party of men, horses and dogs.
Frederick was in his fifties when he brought his family to the Cumberland Settlement in Washington Co. NC in 1780. He was thought to have killed 10 Indians in his native Pennsylvania in Jan 1768, was jailed there but escaped and settled in Augusta GA. As a patriot soldier, he was jailed in St. Augustine FL for killing British soldiers in Georgia. After he escaped, the Stump family joined the Amos Eaton expedition to the Cumberland Settlement and claimed land on Whites Creek and helped build Eaton's Station (also called Heaton's Station). He later started a distillery and an inn and tavern, helped improve local roads, and was granted more land in the Whites Creek area.
1777 Map of the Colonies, by J. Leopold Imbert showing the Carolinas and neighboring territory of "Louisiane" and the rivers and settlements there at the time of the Revolution. Map was reproduced and printed by the Museum of the American Revolution from a map image at the Norman B. Leventhal Map Center, Boston Public Library.
Washington Co., previously Washington District, was formed by North Carolina in 1777 and extended west to the Mississippi River, mostly containing land inhabited by five different tribes of Native Americans, but mostly Cherokee. In 1779, the Cumberland Settlement was created by the granting of land by the NC government. In 1783 this settlement was mostly contained in the newly formed Davidson Co. and surrounded by Indian Lands, and Virginia and Kentucky to the North. Map of the Cumberland Settlements showing Forts, known as Stations, in present-day counties.
Map of the Cumberland Settlement after 1780 showing Eaton's Station, Whites Creek and the location of the Stump distillery [Illustration by J.P. Brown, in Summerville, Southern Epic].
The land that Frederick Stump claimed bordered that of William White, the eldest son of John White and a private on the Continental Line, thereby receiving an original land claim in the Cumberland Settlement in Washington Co. NC, but may never have actually settled on the land. This may be why John Holloway was there in 1780. The claim John Holloway attempted with a James Scott the year before on Long "Glady" Creek (shown on Map) appears to be the same as Whites Creek which ran through the lands claimed by Frederick Stump, William White, Joshua Howard and Absalom Hooper, before reaching the Cumberland River. See Topographical Map showing Whites Creek area Land Claims [Drake, p. 23 and map E7]. James Scott did receive a land grant but John Holloway never did.
Photo of Whites Creek near the Cumberland River taken in Feb 2024. Frederick first claimed land at the other (northern) end of the 640 acres of land that John Holloway wanted in 1779, along the "Long Glady Creek" which extended through Stump's land but was too small for a canoe and full of vegetation or glades). Photo of the Frederick Stump House, still standing, was originally along this portion of the creek and later moved across Buena Vista Pike.
After arriving at the very beginning of 1780, during a harsh winter, Frederick, along with the Amos Eaton, Isaac Lindsay, Louis Crane, John Drake, Isaac or David Rounseval, and a man named Winter (probably Moses Winters), immediately went to work fortifying what was Eaton's Fort in the 1770's. It became known as Heaton's Station and was located on a northeast bank of the Cumberland River. Photo of river taken in Feb 2024 from near where Heaton's Station was located. The Donelson Expedition, delayed several months, arrived at Eaton's fort on Apr 21, 1780, and arrived at French Lick on Apr 24. There, the Bluffs fort, later called Nashborough, was soon built on the west side downriver from Eaton's [Carr, rootsweb website].
There have been two Historical Markers near the original location of Heaton's Station: the Heatons Station Marker and the "Old Heaton Station" Marker [Historical Marker Project].
On the list of flotilla captains recorded by Col. John Donelson as being with his flotilla expedition that endured a brutal winter, Indian attacks, hunger and smallpox is a "Rounsifer" which would represent the Roundseval family who were related by marriage to the Drake family. These two families would live at Heaton's Station where their relatives were already building a fort. Their boat would also ave been available to the Heaton residents, including the Stump and Holloway families.
Frederick and his son Jacob, along with about 250 other men over the age of 16, signed the Cumberland Compact created May 1, 1780. It was finalized on May 13 and established a provisional government for the isolated area; provided for the election of twelve representatives from the eight stations or forts; provided for a Sheriff, a Clerk, a Militia that required service by all men over age 16, and for the adjudication of causes, the administration of estates, and the awarding of executions. Image of page 2 of what survived of the original Compact. The signature, in Dutch or German, of "Frederick Stumpf" is tenth down from the top, just below that of "John Holloday". His son Jacob Stump, and William Hood signed after him. Hood was killed by Indians in 1780 or 1781, and by winter of 1780, son Jacob Stump was killed while out with his father near their home along Whites Creek.
Statue of the co-founders of the Cumberland Settlement, James Robertson and John Donelson, with the Compact signers listed below, is located above the Cumberland River in downtown Nashville TN. Frederick and son Jacob Stump are listed in the lower half of the second column.
In late 1780 daughter Anna married Jonathan Gais [spelled Guice in later census records] (1746-1826). They may have married soon after Anna's brother Jacob was killed by Indians. Jonathan and Christopher Gais Sr. and Christopher Gais Jr. were granted full 640 acre grants by the State of North Carolina for defending the Cumberland Settlement although they arrived there after the required residence date of Jun 1, 1780.
Frederick's neighbor, Joshua Howard, arrived in the Cumberland Settlement from the Natchez District by the beginning of 1781. He eventually was assigned Captain of the Freeland's Station on Mar 15, 1783 [Clayton, p. 37].
In 1783, daughter Barbara married Phineas Grundy Cox (1764-1842) in Davidson County NC and they moved to Kentucky. They had 12 children.
Daughter Anna and Jonathan Gais moved to the Natchez District sometime between the birth of their sons Jacob (Jun 1, 1789) and Jessie (Dec 1791).
Joshua Howard owned 200 acres on Second Creek in the Natchez District. His petition to the British West Florida Government for the land was dated Nov 6, 1776. The receipt for surveying fees was dated Jan 22, 1777. After the Spaniards took possession of the territory, Howard left the Natchez District for the Cumberland Settlement in an area of far western North Carolina that later became Nashville TN. He returned to Natchez at the end of 1788.
The neighbor of Frederick along Whites Creek, Absalom Hooper, had claimed land on Second Creek in the Natchez District several years before Joshua Howard, both in the 1770's. The two also claimed adjoining land along Whites Creek in the Cumberland Settlement in western North Carolina in the 1780's. Absalom did not return to Natchez with Joshua in 1788. The 4th item of his Will of Absalom Hooper, written in 1811, lists an "old Sam" among slaves bequeathed to his son Absalom (Jr.), along with "Smith tools", presumably originally belonging to the John Smith who earlier lived on his land on Whites Creek. If "old Sam" was the Natchez slave listed in the inventory of the deceased John Holloway in Oct 1781, and being about 50 years old, he would have been about 80 when the will was written.
On Dec 31, 1788, "Joucha Hayward" arrived in Natchez from "Cumberland/Tennessee", not listed among the flatboats and without family. In a letter dated Mar 2, 1790, from Carlos de Grand-Pré, Natchez, Mar 2, 1790 to Governor Don Estavan Miro, the amount of tobacco was reported by growers of Natchez. A "Joshua Houvard" reported producing 5000 pounds of tobacco [MS Dept of Archives & History, website].
According to the 1792 Spanish Census for Natchez District, Joshua Howard was a head of household in the District of Second & Sandy Creek, as was "Juan Holladay" [John's son], both single white males without blacks or slaves. A different translation has a Tonio Howard with 6 whites and 5 blacks on 400 arpents (336 acres) of land in the same area, which was east and south of Natchez. A Joshua Howard (1745-1813) was a slave owner in Wilkes Co. NC. [Note: in 1792, the cotton gin had not yet been invented, nor were there steamboats on the Mississippi River].
In Oct 1792, the Stump distillery was burned down by one of the area tribes. Frederick was the first to distill whiskey in the region. By 1795 the rebuilt distillery along Whites Creek was producing up to 600 gallons of whiskey per year.
Map of the Natchez District as it may have looked between 1779 and 1799.
In Apr 1799, 32 year old son Frederick became a victim of the outlaw cousins known as the Harpe Brothers, Micajah and Wiley Harper. Micajah was soon captured by bounty hunters and his head hung on the Wilderness Trail in Warren Co. KY, where Frederick and his wife, Anna Maria ("Mary") lived.
On May 16, 1801 son John Stump married Rebecca Wilkins Hyde (1780-1853) in Davidson Co. TN.
On Mar 24, 1804 son John Stump claimed a lot in Natchez. Lot no. 4, Square no. 26 in the town of Natchez was originally granted on Oct 3, 1795 to Louisa Higdon after she became the wife of John Wylie. Louisa and John Wylie deeded the lot to John Stump "of Davidson Co. Tennessee" [McBee, p. 450]. John Stump recorded the deed (Vol. 4, Page 321) on Jun 12, 1807 "without the payment of any purchase money" [American State Papers, vol. 1, register B, p. 896]. Frederick's daughter Anna Stump Guice named her daughter, born in Sep 1807, Louisa.
Daughter Anna and Jonathan Guice raised a large family that was counted in the 1810 and 1816 Franklin Co. MS Census.
Franklin Co. MS was founded in 1809 (see present day map for location).
Son Christopher married Rachel Shute (1787?-1859?). They may have had four children.
Son Christopher was stabbed on Jul 4, 1821 by a "George Conelius" and died eight days later [1821 Nashville Gazette Death Notice]. He served in the militia in Davidson Co. in 1812.
Daughter Barbara Cox died a widow in 1856 in Warren Co. KY, the last surviving child of Frederick and Anna Stump.
Sources:
Brown, J.P., illus. in James Summerville, Southern Epic, Hallmark Publ. Co., Gloucester Point VA, 1996.
Carr, John, "Early Times in Middle Tennessee, Chapter 1", rootsweb Sumner Co. website, 1857.
Cumberland Compact, original document signed May 13, 1780, Washington County NC, website.
Clayton, Prof. W.W., History of Davidson County Tennessee, reprod. 1971 by Charles Elder, Nashville TN.
Drake, Doug, Jack Masters and Bill Puryear, Founding of the Cumberland Settlements, The First Atlas, 1779-1804, Warioto Press, 2009, p. 23, map E7.
Alexander Gregg, History of the Old Cheraws, repr. of 1925 ed., Balto. Geneal. Publ., 1967, p.90.
Imbert, J. Leopold, map maker, Carte des Possessions Angloises... 1777, reprinted by the Museum of the American Revolution from map image at the Norman B. Leventhal Map Center, Boston Public Library.
McBee, May Wilson, comp., "Land Claims", in Natchez Court Records, 1767-1805, Book F, p.21.
McBee, May Wilson, comp., Natchez Court Records, 1767-1805, Greenwood MS, 1953, v. 2, p. 450, 541.
MS Dept. of Archives & History (MDAH), Jackson MS, rootsweb, Americans Arriving in Spanish-Held Natchez 1780-1790.
MSGenWeb, Natchez District 1792 Census Index, comp. by Ellen Pack, website, transcribed and translated from Spanish.
National Park Service, Castille de San Marcos National Monument, St. Augustine FL.
North Carolina Land Grants, vol. 2, at Morganton NC Library, p. 6, #1476, transcribed by Lisabeth M. Holloway Oct 9, 1987.
Potter, Dorothy Williams, Passports of Southeastern Pioneers 1770-1823, Gateway Press, Baltimore MD, 1982, p. 342.
Wells, Carol, Natchez Postscripts 1781-1798, Heritage Books, pp. 101, 144-5, 151,
Whitley, Edythe Rucker, comp., Pioneers of Davidson Co., Tennessee, Clearfield Publ., 2009, p. 9-10.