Where was Samuel Phipps (1762-1854), who married Elizabeth Reeves, actually living? That may sound like an odd question. Yesterday, however, that question had four reference librarians in a single library trying to figure out the answer.
Samuel Phipps died in 1854 in what was then called Ashe County, North Carolina. Prior to that, he shows up in various Ashe County records.
Before that, he appears in Wilkes County records – perhaps not because of having moved, but simply because of the county boundary changes. Where, however, was he before then? If he was in the same place before Wilkes County was formed, what would that place have been called?
The answer to that question has implications for not only tracing Samuel, but his brothers and other family members as well.
When Samuel Phipps died in 1854, he was buried on a hilltop on his farm in what was then Ashe County. Today it’s in Alleghany County, only because that part of Ashe became Alleghany several years after Samuel died – in 1859.
Back when Samuel lived there, however, it was simply Ashe County. His grave lies in a blackberry patch overlooking the steep hills – some would say mountains – that had once been his farm. One of those hills is called Patty Phipps Mountain.
Records dated from 1800 on connect Samuel Phipps with Ashe County. He appears in the 1800, 1810, 1820, 1830, 1840, and 1850 federal censuses in Ashe County. He wrote two wills, one dated 20 Aug 1837 and the other dated 4 Mar 1850. Both are Ashe County documents.
In the 1810s, Samuel Phipps is mentioned in a couple Grayson County, Virginia documents. These do not indicate that he was living there, however, but simply that he and his wife Elizabeth were heirs of the estate of George Reeves in Grayson County.
Before 1800, records pertaining to Samuel Phipps show him as living in Wilkes County. This does not necessarily indicate that he moved. Ashe County was not formed until 1799, and when it was formed it was created from Wilkes County.
The earliest known record pertaining to Samuel Phipps appears to be the state census, dated 12 Jul 1787 in Wilkes County. That record shows Samuel “Phips” as living in Capt. Nall’s District.
Then, in 1790, Samuel witnessed a deed from John Phipps, described as planter, to Alexander Smith. This John may have been Samuel’s brother. This deed was for 100 acres on New River, on the north side of Prater’s Creek.
The same year, 1790, Samuel is listed in the federal census in Wilkes County as “Sam Fips.”
Then Samuel Phipps’ property line is mentioned in a 1795 grant to Enoch Osborn. This is for 300 acres on the east side of a meadow on Elk Creek. Samuel’s farm where he is buried is near Elk Creek.
During the same year, 1795, Samuel “Phips” was appointed to a road commission by the Wilkes County Court, and then in 1797 Enoch Osborn deeded 180 acres to Samuel “Phips.” A witness was William Reves (Reeves). Later in that year, 1797, Samuel was appointed to another Wilkes County road commission, to “view” the route for a new road.
Wilkes County, North Carolina was formed 15 Feb 1778 (some sources say 1777) from Surry County and Washington District.
Samuel was born in or around 1762. Where was Samuel before he was counted in the 1787 state census in Wilkes County?
Notice that none of the records cited above refer to a land grant or purchase by which he would have first acquired land in Wilkes County. He witnessed another’s deed in 1790; his property line was mentioned in 1795 – when and how did he first acquire his property?
Since Wilkes County was not formed until 1778 from Surry County and Washington District, could he have been living in the same place prior to 1778? Would he show up in Surry County records?
The problem with that is two-fold: (1) He doesn’t show up in the Surry County records examined so far, and (2) although part of Surry County became Wilkes County in 1778, Surry was itself not formed until 1771. That means if Samuel’s residence was, at one time, known as Surry County, it would only have been designated such for around 7 years.
Another interesting twist enters into the picture at this point. The reference book titled North Carolina Atlas of Historical County Boundaries (ed. by John H. Long, comp. by Gordon DenBoer) is a large book focusing exclusively on NC county boundary changes.
That book contains a huge number of maps depicting county boundaries at various times in history. The earliest maps for Surry County in that volume are a bit puzzling:
Surry is one of the northernmost counties of North Carolina, its northern boundary being the Virginia state line. But not quite.
In Surry’s earliest period, its western boundary was imprecise or, as the book terms it, an “indefinite limit.” As the earliest maps are drawn in the book, there is no specific western limit, just the words “indefinite limit.”
As far as the northern boundary of Surry County is concerned, however, the county line follows the state line, but only to a point. Once you reach that point, the northern boundary dips sharply in a southwestern direction. This, as indicated by a dotted line at this point, was apparently not a definite line, but more definite than the “indefinite” western limit(!)
Because the northern boundary at one point no longer follows the NC/VA state line but dips southwesterly, this means that a big chunk of what later became Ashe County (and today is Alleghany County) is left out of the picture entirely.
In fact, this is precisely the area where Samuel Phipps appears to have been living! He appears to have been located just beyond the northwestern frontier boundary of Surry County. He was living in an oddly undefined wedge-shaped area BETWEEN the North Carolina-Virginia state line and the northernmost boundary of Surry County.
So where was he and why was he there? Was he, at the time, completely out of reach of record-keeping? Was he in an area considered to be Virginia? Was he in an area not considered to be a part of anywhere?
Samuel Phipps is believed to have been born in Orange County, North Carolina in 1762, but evidently there is no documentation. Two enormous problems confront the researcher when trying to go backward in time from the Wilkes County records pertaining to Samuel:
(1) At the time of the 1787 state census, he was only about 25. Try going back too far beyond that point, and he will be too young to show up in records, except in perhaps a will, and (2) no one knows who his father was.
At this point we are, of course, back far beyond civil registration of births and deaths, far beyond census reports listing children. Our only hope, it would seem, for finding documentation as to Samuel’s parents at this point (unless a later record never found before turns up) would be to find an early will, or perhaps some sort of unexpected record, such as a deed mentioning a father-son relationship, a guardianship record, or the like.
Even so, where would we look? Orange County? Rowan County? (Surry was created from Rowan.) Is there some other geographical/political designation that could be applied to that little apparently undesignated corner where Samuel seems to have chosen to situate himself?
As the Atlas put it, during early settlement “some boundary limits (especially western) were left undefined: . . . Rowan (1753), . . . and Guilford (1771), for example, had no western limits specified.” Aaron Phipps, who is assumed to have been a brother of Samuel, is associated with Guilford County. Benjamin, also assumed to have been a brother, is associated with Grayson County, Virginia.
Even when Ashe was formed from Wilkes County in 1799, the boundary line was supposed to run along what was described as the “extreme height” of the Appalachians. The Atlas notes that this boundary was changed 6 times before it was set in 1901 to the “top of the Blue Ridge.”
SEE COMMENTS BELOW.
In 1922, Columbus Phipps wrote his “Reminiscences.” Columbus (1844-1933) was a son of Alexander and Ludema (Thomas) Phipps and was the husband of Nannie Cox.
Phipps Genealogy 
