Don Norman, Descendants of Ralph Wanless (Don Norman Files)

A compiled family file in the Don Norman collection on archive.org (Wade-Whytsell set), read in its full text for the Hatten research. Its bibliography is Cotrill, “Descendants of Zepheniah Nichols,” and Price’s Historical Sketches of Pocahontas County.

“Ralph Wanless was born March 28, 1756 in Newcastle-on-Tyne, England and died July 26, 1842 in Pocahontas County VA. He married Lucretia ‘Crissy’ Nichols, September 30, 1788 in Augusta County VA. Lucretia, a daughter of Levan and Lucretia Nichols, was born about 1770 in Augusta County VA. Ralph was a blacksmith and farmer. He is listed in Augusta County [militia?] rolls between 1780 and 1783. During the Revolutionary War, he was drafted from his home on the Calfpasture River and served under Captain McCoy and was discharged at Richmond. He was at Norfolk for 9 months under an unknown captain. He also served under Captain Buchanan, and under George Poage as an ‘Indian spy’ at Clover Lick in Bath County. He appears in the personal property tax listings for that part of Bath County, VA that is now Pocahontas County, WV beginning in 1794 and was apparently a resident of the Knapp’s Creek area near Huntersville until his death on July 26, 1842.”

Children listed: William (1789), Margaret (1789, m. James Sharp), Lydia (m. John Vick), Elizabeth, “b. 1797 d. 1831,” m. “Thomas Hatten Feb 10 1813 in Bath County VA” (her known child Stephen M., b. 1828), Ralph (1799), Mary “Polly” (1800), James (1801), Ann (1803), Stephen (1805), John (1807), Thomas (1810) and Levan (1813).