William R. Yeager contacted me about ten years ago in his search for a place to hang his James Yager. It seemed surely that he was of Madison County, Virginia, but he could not find the exact place in the Yager genealogy to put the man. The oldest record that he had for his James was a marriage license in Richmond County, Virginia, showing a James Yager married Sarah Woollard, daughter of Samuel and Mary Ann Woollard. This marriage licence of 2 Feb 1796 did not require any consent by his parents and her mother said she was of a legal age. The thought is that James was born prior to 2 Feb 1775. He was described on the licence as James Yager of Madison Co., Virginia.
Prior to the marriage, Madison County had existed for about four years. In the court records for 23 May 1793, a James Yager undertook to be the bondsman for William Crow, in the suit of Henry Lewis against William Crow. The marriage of William Crow of Culpeper County and Ann Woollard is recorded in Richmond County with a bond on 17 Feb 1789. So William Crow and James Yager seemed to have a common interest in the area which became Madison County, and in the Woollard family.
In the Madison Court records up the year 1803, a James Yager appeared in the records at least fifteen different times as juror, witness, plaintiff, or defendant. No middle initial was ever used. An Orange Co. deed conveys, in 1803, 200 acres to James Yager from Aaron and Mary Bledsoe, his wife. By a deed of 22 May 1811, James and Sarah Yager convey the same property to Paul Verdier. During that time, James was an apparent resident of Orange Co., and he appears in the records there six times as juror, plaintiff, or defendant.
Then a James Yager appears in the Scott Co., KY, tax rolls in 1815 through 1819. In 1821 he is in the Harrison Co. tax roll and in the 1820 census for Harrison Co., Sarah Yager and Stephen Austin are recorded as the administrators of James' estate in 1821 in Harrison Co. He left no will.
There were nine children, whose birth years ranged from 1796 to 1820. The fourth of these children was LeRoy Cole, born 1803. A grandson of this LeRoy Yager, Leslie Yager, lived with LeRoy when he was a youth. Leslie wrote a family history in 1939 when he was 88. He stated that he was unable to find the parents of James Yager. He did record many proven dates related to descendants of James.
Leslie Yager did mention that his grandfather, LeRoy, referred to Uncles Elijah and Cornelius. LeRoy even named a daughter Cornelia. In Madison Co., VA, the family of Nicholas Yager and Susanna Wilhoite included the sons, Elijah and Cornelius. There is no James recorded for this family though. (From
Volume 6 of Beyond Germanna
, to be continued)
(08 Mar 03)
We gratefully acknowledge the work of John Blankenbaker who published over 2,500 Germanna History Notes via the Germanna-L@rootsweb.com email list from 1997 to 2008. We are equally thankful to George Durman (Sgt. George) for hosting the list and republishing the notes via rootsweb.com.