the Keyes family and the Keyes ferry on the Shenandoah.
Keyes & Vestals were neighbors of our Berkeley/Jefferson Co families,
ran a famous ferry, and have some involvement with our families
(intermarriage, business, legal).
Mike
You sure have made my interest come alive - I have spent over an hour
looking into various sites to see what I could find on the ferry. Here are
some bits of interest. I have copies of a couple of these - they were on
sites of family connections. I also have Asa Keyes book.
One other if you can find a copy or get access to the site is George
Washington's papers.
One map site I found was wayhoo.com - again I found it through google
search - it was several hits in where I found it - there were about 100 hits.
George
KEYES, JOHN WADE. - "The last resting place of this Revolutionary soldier
is in an old family burial ground upon his plantation, three miles from
Athens on the Huntsville road. His lovely rural home was situated upon a
hill about half a mile from Swan creek. His wife, Louisa Talbot Keyes, lies
beside him. John Wade Keyes was born in Mystic, near Boston, Mass., Sept.
25, 1752, and died near Athens, Ala., Feb. 13, 1839. His ancestry and many
acts of his life are told in a book of the Keyes family called Solomon
Keyes and His Descendants, by Judge Asa Keyes, of Vermont, published in
Battleboro. We find from this that he was the son of Capt. Humphrey Keyes
and Marcella Wade. His father was a sea captain of Boston. After many
successful voyages he was wrecked and taken captive by the Algerines. He
was a prisoner for years, but finally made his escape. Upon his return to
Boston he took John, his oldest son, and went down into Virginia. An old
family record in Tennessee shows that Capt. Humphrey Keyes in 1775 was
proprietor of `Keyes' Ferry' on the Shenandoah river. A member of the
family has now in his possession a letter written by General Washington
relative to the survey of Keyes' Ferry tract on the Shenandoah near
Charleston, Jefferson county, Virginia. John Wade Keyes married January 27,
1773, in Virginia, Louisa Talbot, niece of President Monroe. She was born
near Alexandria, Va., April 20, 1756, and died near Athens, Nov. 6, 1836.
This happy couple lived together for sixty-three years. Early in the
Revolutionary war there was a call made for volunteers under Gen. John
Thomas in the Shenandoah Valley. John Wade Keyes was the second man to
enlist; he was engaged in the battles of Bunker Hill, Lexington, Trenton,
White Plains, Princeton, Brandywine and King's Mountain. Capt. John Keyes
settled near Alexandria, Virginia, moved thence to the vicinity of
Blountsville, Sullivan county, East Tennessee, and finally to Athens,
Limestone county, Alabama, where he was one of the pioneer settlers. It is
said that he would never consent to apply for a pension and when asked for
his reasons he would reply, `I fought for patriotism, not pensions.' He
greatly honored and loved George Washington and he showed his admiration by
naming his twin sons for him; one was called George and the other
Washington. George Keyes commanded a company under Gen. Jackson and was
afterwards made a brigadier-general of militia. Among the descendants of
John Wade Keyes were Chancellor Wade Keyes, one of the most prominent
jurists that Alabama has produced; George P. Keyes, a noted journalist;
Col. John B. Richardson, of New Orleans, commander of the famous
`Washington Artillery' during the war, and others of distinction at the
present day."-Mrs. P. H. Mell in Transactions of the Alabama Historical
Society, Vol, iv, p. 548.
Notes for Gershom Keyes:
From Genealogy of Robert Keyes and Solomon Keyes and Their Descendants
(Asa Keyes 1880):
"Gersham Keyes eldest son of Maj. John, and the only one of his sons who
survived the fire, married 1718, Sarah ------ and was living in Shrewsbury,
on house lot No. 15, in 1729. His wife joined the church there 1727. After
the birth of his children, says the record, 'Gersham removed to Boston and
became a wealthy merchant.' Gersham afterward removed to Virginia and
established a ferry, still called Keyes Ferry, on the Shenandoah River,
near Charlestown, Jeff. Co. The ferry was then half a mile below its
present site, opposite Sheler's Spring, now Keyes Switch. There are no data
to fix the time of Gersham's removal to Virginia, but in 1755, when
Braddock with his force crossed the Shenandoah, he was living there, and
from him supplies were bought for Braddock's army. The descendants still
preserve a letter, relative to the survey of the 'Keyes Ferry tract,' which
we here insert, as showing the extent of that tract, and as every item
relating to the father of his country must be interesting.
M Vernon 26th March 1762
Mr Keyes.
Your letter of the 18th Feb'y was delivered to me at our last court, by Mr.
Ramsay. In regard to the Warrant which you enquire after, I can only repeat
what I have often done before that it must have been returned with the
others to the Proprietor's office, if I ever had such a one, but since it
is not to be found there, I shall at your request declare all I remember
concerning it, which is this, that there was a Warrant directed to me for
surveying you (I think) four hundred acres of Land, either at or about your
Ferry, which then stood lower down the river; but who it was to join on, or
what was the reason of not executing it I cannot absolutely recollect; this
I perfectly well know, that I did make you a survey at some place near to
where your Ferry then stood, but I think it was in consequence of another
Warrant, and that I have had such a Warr't as you ask after in my
Possession and moreover that it was not executed owing to some dispute
between Col. Fairfax and yourself.
I am Sir
Yr. Hble Servt.
Go Washington
Superscription.
To
Mr. Gersham Keyes,
In
Frederick
Recommended to
the care of
Mr. Ramsay
Notes for Humphrey Keyes:
- From Genealogy of Robert Keyes and Solomon Keyes and Their Descendants"
(Asa Keyes, 1880):
"Humphrey Keyes was a Sea Captain, married in New England, probably in
Boston, Marcella Wade, had two sons, was wrecked off the coast of Turkey,
and taken captive by the Algerines. He escaped and returned home after some
years, to find that his wife supposing him dead had married another, with
whom she passed the remainder of her life. After her death, Capt. Humphrey
married in Virginia, Sarah Hall, born 1745, consequently ten years old at
the time we first hear of Gersham at his ferry on the Shenandoah. Her three
brothers were the founders of Halltown, in Jefferson Co., and in 'notes on
Jefferson Co., Virginia' printed in Va., 1857, we find that 'Sarah lived
with her parents in a little dale near a fine orchard, at the foot of the
hill where Rion Hall now stands.' The same record states that Capt.
Humphrey Keyes was proprietor of Keyes Ferry in 1775. Capt. Humphrey died
April 19, 1793, so says an old family record, now in possession of Jno. T.
Keyes, Bristol, Tenn., which record gives also the birth of John, son of
Humphrey."
- Mystik was a section of the town of Winchester. Mystic Plantation is now
called Medford. The Keyes listed there were: Francis Keyes b. 4 June 1749,
son of Humphry; and John Keyes b. 6 October 1751, son of Humphry. - 1764
Rent Roll, Frederick Co., VA - Humphrey Keyes
Gersham lived first in Shrewsbury, MA. m. (1) Sarah Eager. They moved to
Boston where Gersham is said to have become a wealthy merchant.
After Sarah's death, Gersham m. (2) Ruth _________, and moved to Frederick
Co., VA, where Gersham established a ferry that crossed the Shenandoah
River, a service used by both the Blues and the Grays during the war. The
vast Keyes holdings included a store which is recorded as a source of
supplies to Braddock's army in 1755. That part of Virginia was later to
become West Virginia.
Gersham bought all available land surrounding his property, and, at one
time, George Washington wrote to Gersham that he had surveyed the land held
in question by George's cousin, Lawrence Washington. In old wills recorded
in England we find Lawrence Washington's in which he requested his heirs to
continue to sue Gersham Keyes over that dispute.
"Item - I also desire my just suit of complaint at law depending aganist
Gersham Keyes
of Fredrick County for breach of trust be effectually prosecuted by my
Executors. -----"
Fredrick County, VA., was divided into three separate counties in 1772,
after settlers complained of the different kinds of problems posed in the
various parts of the large county. Thus, came Jefferson Co., and it was
this area which had been chosen by Gersham Keyes in 1746 as his home and
basis for his vast holdings.
Overseers were appointed by the county court to establish roads, the first
consideration for such being the three established ferries. Watkins Ferry
was near Williamsport; Stroud's Ferry near Berkeley County, and the Keyes
Ferry near Charlestown were the locations first reviewed for roads. On 17
November, 1772, the report was made, and an order issued for the first road
to be established to Keyes Ferry, a mile above the town of Millville, on
the Shenandoah River.
Gershem's old stone house overlooked the ferry on the west side of the
river and was "once besieged by a party of Indians with loss of life on
both sides...." (this quote taken from "Background and Formation of
Berkeley".)
"In 1796 Louis Philippe, afterwards King of France, with his brother, the
Duke of Chartres, both exiled from their native land by the revolution,
made a tour of this part of the country, beginning at Mt. Vernon where they
were guests and roughing it in what was then called "The West". Coming from
Mt. Vernon, they crossed at Keyes Ferry...."
The 1879 flood from the Shepherdstown Register--- "Great Loss of Life,
Numbers Homeless and Destitute, October 8, 1879, Millions of Property
Destroyed.
"...Although extending over the largest portion of the State of Virginia,
the principle destruction of these waters seems to have been on the line of
the Shenandoah River and most heavily felt in our own county....
"The destruction of Keyes Ferry was complete. The old mansion house was in
the occupancy of Mr. Daniel Allstadt, who had scarcely succeeded in
removing his family before the house, stabling, farming implements, etc.,
became common food for the raging waters. In this connection we regret to
learn that Mr. Allstadt, lost $4,000.000 in bonds, which he had spread out
on a table in the house to dry, having been wet the previous day. This
house was long and familiarly known as the home of Gersham Keyes, and had
withstood the storm and tempest for over a century. It was the birthplace
of our venerable fellow citizen, Humphrey Keyes, Esq. and had furnished
shelter and food to many a wayfarer in past generations, particularly among
the itinerancy of the Methodist Church, to whom it was always a home of
welcome..."
The following account of the Keyes Ferry destruction was provided to the
Jefferson Co., Historical Society by Don C. Wood who added:
"The 1852 Brown Map shows a house slightly downstream from the Keyes Ferry
and quite near the river. This is absent from the 1883 map. This would have
been on land owned by Gersham Keyes at the time he established his ferry in
1748." He was married to Sarah EAGER in 1718 in Shrewsbury, Mass..