Copyright 2003 by Martha B. Wiley.  All rights reserved.  This information may be used for private genealogical use only.  Commercial use of this information without prior permission is strictly prohibited.  If copied or used, credit must be given to Martha B. Wiley.

April 5, 2003.  This page will be updated periodically.  If you have information you would like to share, to correct any mistakes or clarify any of the fuzzy areas, your help will be greatly appreciated!  Please email me at [email protected]

Charles Hickerson

Charles Hickerson is assumed to be the son of Nathaniel Hickerson, because Nathaniel was charged with paying his tax in Fauquier County from 1787 through 1790.[1]  Charles was under 21 and over 16 during this period, indicating a birth year of about 1769.

 

In 1785 or 1786, Charles Hickerson served as a witness, along with William Hickerson, for a deed of gift from John Barber to William Barber, his son, of land purchased from Samuel Earle of about 200 acres.[2]  Charles would have been 15 or 16 years old at the time, using the birth year deduced from the tax lists.

 

From 1791 to 1792, Charles’ tax was paid by William Woodsides, and in 1793, by William Bowen and wife.[3]  This means that Charles was not head of his own household in those years.  Since he was over 21 by then, he probably was an employee or an apprentice.  In 1793-4, Charles paid his own tax,[4] so he must have set up his own household that year.

 

Emory says that Charles Hickerson married about 1792 in Fauquier County, although no record was found.[5] Charles is said to have had five children:  Ransom (born about 1794), Garnett (born 1795), Elizabeth (1798), Narcissa, and James F. Hickerson (1805).[6] 

 

According to Emory, Charles Hickerson moved to Fleming County, Kentucky, sometime after 1805 with all of his family except Ransom, who stayed in the Fauquier County area.[7]  There is no record of this Charles Hickerson in Fauquier County after 1794 in any of the birth, marriage or death abstracts, or indexes of Court records, probate, Minute Books, federal census or other information available for Fauquier County.

 

Charles was one of tens of thousands of Virginians who moved to Kentucky and other western areas after the establishment of the Wilderness Road in 1775 by Daniel Boone.  By 1850, nearly 400,000 Virginians had emigrated to other states.[8]  Since most of the emigrants left their homes to build new lives on or close to the frontier, they tended to be younger and more vigorous than those remaining behind.

 

Kentuckians were nearly all immigrants from Virginia, like Charles Hickerson and his family, who were looking for the broader opportunities in the newly developed areas.  The old home plantations that concentrated on tobacco had exhausted the soil, and crop rotation and fertilization had not yet been accepted as a means to increase productivity.  Many travelers in Virginia in the early years of the nineteenth century described depressing conditions and a general economic downturn:  “stagnation or positive decay, sparse population, desolate field, villages and town few and far between, rarely growing, often decaying, sometimes mere remnants of what they were.”[9]  This may have been what motivated Charles and his family to move westward, where land was new and fertile and the mindset was open to innovation.

 

In 1830, Charles Hickerson is listed in the Fleming County, Kentucky, census, with a household consisting of on male age 20-30, one male age 60-70 and one female age 60-70.  Charles would have been about 61 in 1830, and his youngest son, James F. Hickerson, would have been 25. 

 

There is a Charles Hickerson listed on the 1800 tax list and 1810 US Census for Culpeper County, whose household contained one male 45-67, one female 0-10 and one female 17-26.[10]  This is a different Charles Hickerson, since Charles, son of Nathaniel, would have been about 40 years old in 1810, and his household would have included five children.

Ransom Hickerson (1794 – January 8, 1844)

See Sketch.

Garnett Hickerson (September 14, 1795-February 3, 1863)

Garnett Hickerson was said to be the son of Charles Hickerson, born in Fauquier County, never married and had no children.[11]  He is said to have moved to Fleming County, Kentucky with his father and siblings.[12]  Garnett died during the Civil War,[13] but whether he died as a result of the war or from some other cause is not known.

Elizabeth Hickerson (July 17, 1798 – January 30, 1872)

Elizabeth was said to be the daughter of Charles Hickerson,[14] born in Fauquier County.  She moved with her family to Kentucky, where she married Fielding Hurst on February 17, 1819.[15]  Fielding died June 1, 1833.[16]

Narcissa Hickerson (? – before 1851)

Narcissa was said to be the daughter of Charles Hickerson, and married Francis Deering in Fleming County, Kentucky, in 1827.  They had two children, James, who died young and without issue, and Lydia Ann Deering.[17]

James F. Hickerson (1805 – December 1851)

James was said to be the son of Charles Hickerson, born in Virginia.  He married Sarah (no maiden name known), and died in Fleming County, Kentucky.  They had no children.[18]

Copyright 2003 by Martha B. Wiley.  All rights reserved.  This information may be used for private genealogical use only.  Commercial use of this information without prior permission is strictly prohibited.  If copied or used, credit must be given to Martha B. Wiley.

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