53. Ambrose James Sr. (Wm. And Katherine Varner) Mullins
Ambrose was drafted into the Virginia Militia May 9 or 10, 1781 andserved in James Peteet's Company under General Greene at the battle ofGuilford's courthouse. He was released from service in September 1781 andreturned home.
His house, a story and a half of hewn log construction, stood on a slightrise above Ambrose Branch. It was built before the Indian raid on hisplantation about 1810. Ambrose had fought with the Indians in PikeCounty, Kentucky before moving to this location so he built port holesfor firing on attackers. The 1810 raid was beaten off, but Ambrose waslater killed by Indians when he attempted to rescue a small daughter whohad gone to a nearby spring for water. Sometime before 1930 the chimneytumbled and the porch caved in. After that time the house was used as abarn.
THE AMBROSE MULLINS HOME
The home was located two miles east of Route #23, five miles north ofWise, Virginia, at the mouth of Ambrose Branch of Birchfield CreekAmbrose built the house in about 1812 and has been in the family eversince. It is a two story, hewn log house of yellow poplar logs, and handmade finishing throughout with a chimney at the at the south end.Ordinary four light windows on both sides of doors. Doors in center ofboth east and west sides and a stairway leading to the second floor withone landing.
It was around 1810 that Ambrose Mullins settled on Birchfield Creek. Atleast fifteen years before Jeremiah Birchfield and his wife, Rebbecca,moved in from Burke County, North Carolina, and gave the stream its name.All the north part of Wise County was a wilderness then. Wild turkeysroosted in the giant oaks on the ridges; bears waddled up and down thePowell Mountain slopes; panthers screamed from the tops of giant poplars;and small bands of Indians skulked through the forest, seeking game --andblond scalps fell into the classification of game from the Red Man'sway of thinking.
His descendants say that Ambrose Mullins, in company with his brother,Sherwood, had previous to his settling on Birchfield, gone from his homein Franklin County, Virginia, on a hunting expedition into Big SandyValley, in Kentucky, and while there they were attacked by a company ofabout twenty Indians. The brothers succeeded in barricading themselvesin a cave, and the Indians not knowing the number of white men facingthem, fled down the river toward Ohio, after six of their number hadfallen under the expert marksmanship of the Mullins brothers.
Later the Mullins made a settlement near Robinson Creek in what is nowPike County, but finding it too tame there for adventurous spirits, theymoved back across Pine Mountain and made homes in the Birchfield and BoldCamp Wilderness.
Soon after Ambrose had brought his wife and small children to Birchfield,and while they were still living in a two-face camp, four Indians leftthe trail on Indian Creek and turned up a short tributary, passed throughthe low gap and went down Ambrose Branch of Birchfield, and made anattempt to run off Mullins' horses, but gave up the enterprise when theywere surprised by Ambrose and some neighboring settlers who happened tobe visiting him on that particular day. The Indians retreated back upAmbrose Branch, and leaving the trail, approached the Mullins homethrough the untracked forest. Secreting themselves on a ridgeoverlooking the little valley, they waited until all the other settlerswere gone and darkness had fallen, then swooped down on the smallbrushed-in enclosure Mullins had prepared for his horses. They hadsucceeded in catching his best horse and one of the Indians was astridehim, when one of the other horses broke through the fence and gallopedoff down Birchfield, neighing as he went.
The commotion awoke Mullins and just as the Indian was guiding the horsehe had mounted through the gate he opened fire. At the first crack ofhis rifle, the Indian plunged from the horse, dead, and the animalfollowed the other down the stream, while the other Indians took to theirheels and were never seen around the Mullins homestead again.The next morning Mullins called in his nearest neighbors and they gavethe dead Indian as descent a burial as possible under the circumstances.They cleared a little plot on a rolling hill for the grave, and this hasgrown into a very large country cemetery. When Mullins had brought hishorses back from the woods he rigged up an alarm, by stringing agrapevine all around the corral fence and attached a bell to it, so theleast disturbance would set off the alarm.
The next spring when the neighboring settlers came in and helped AmbroseMullins "raise" his house, some of them jibed him for leaving holes inthe upstairs wall on all four sides, so he could shoot at "Injuns" whenthey tried to steal his horses again. But he left the holes just thesame. And in a short time he was to use them again.........just once.
While all his neighbors thought the Indians would never make another raidin the Pound Country, and Ambrose Mullins himself did not expect to bemolested by them again, but he always kept four rifles loaded and placed,one at each side of the large upstairs bed rooms. And on "Bad days", itis said, he would sit in a chair and shoot deer from the holes in thewalls as they came down to the lick across the branch from his house.
Then came a day when the Indians did return. It was late in October.Dusk was settling over little Birchfield valley. Ambrose, tired from aday in the field, had left the supper table and gone up the ladder to thesecond floor and thrown himself across a bed to rest. One of his smalldaughters had gone down the trail to gather some chestnuts. Except forthe hooting of an owl, all was still. But suddenly the quiet of thevalley was broken by a savage yell, and springing to an opening, Mullinsbeheld ten Indians tearing down the Ambrose Branch trail toward thehouse. There was no time to lose. He knew the Indians had decided on acharge, and if they succeeded in reaching the house his family wasdoomed. So, grabbing up a rifle, he fired at the foremost Indian and hewent down, but the others came on. Grabbing up a second rifle hebrought down another Indian, and was pleased to see the remaining eightseek cover in the surrounding laurel. But his pleasure was butmomentary. Looking down the trail he saw his little daughter runningtoward the house screaming, and at the same moment he spied an Indianrush from the laurel thicket and across the stream to cut the child offfrom the house. He grabbed his third rifle and fired, and for once inhis life he missed his target. The fourth, and last remaining loadedrifle failed to fire. He had no time to reload one of the guns if hischild was to be saved. He wasted no time in debating what to do.Springing down the ladder, he grabbed up his hunting knife and ran acrossthe open space to overhaul the Indians making for his little girl. Bothhe and the Indian reached the child at the same time. Seeing Mullinswas upon him, the Indian turned with raised tomahawk with which he wasabout to brain the child, and lunged at the father. At the same time,Mullins sprang forward with his hunting knife. There was a ripping ofbuckskin and flesh and crunching of bone, and both men lay dead on thegrass. The child fled to the safety of the house.
No doubt the remaining Indians would have stormed the house, left withoutan adult male protector, and massacred the entire family, had not at thatvery moment another settler with his two grown sons, who had been huntingin the woods above the Mullins home, come down from the mountains andattacked the Indians from the rear. The Indians fled back across theIndian Creek, but aroused settlers hurried after them, overtook themacross Pine Mountain and left not a one of the company alive.
Four new graves were made on the rolling hill. One each for the threedead Indians, and one for Ambrose Mullins.....the man who did not believein taking chances with danger, but who finally did take a chance and wonthe life of his child, but lost his own. Today Birchfield Creek isalmost wholly peopled by his descendants, and they are scattered into allparts of the country.
The house Ambrose Mullins built still stands, (as of 1932) a landmark,probably one of the oldest houses in Wise County.
Edward (David Sr. And Agnes Atkins) Polly
Edward Polley served, for 18 months as a private in the Virginia Lineduring the Revolutionary War. He, along with Joshua Mullins and WilliamBuckner, enlisted in a company headed by Captain Burton, in a regimentled by Colonel Gibson.
They enlisted in September 1780, and were discharged February 28, 1781.Edward was transferred to a company led by Isaac Webb. He applied for apension November 17, 1825. At the time he was living in Perry County,Kentucky. His pension, begun in February 1828, was $8.00 a month. Whenapplying for the pension, he listed as property: 1 horse ($30.), 8cattle/2 pigs ($40.), 8 sheep ($8.), 4 barrows/16 pigs ($14.), 50 acresof poor land, and owed to him the sum of $5.50. The total estimated valueof his estate was $142.50.
After eight years in Virginia, Edward and Mary moved west to CarterCounty in Eastern Tennessee, where they lived for thirteen years. Theythen moved to Floyd County, Kentucky where they lived until Edward diedin 1845. They were living in Perry County, which was formed from part ofFloyd County, at the time of his application for a pension.
The part of Perry County where he lived became part of Letcher Countywhen it was formed in 1842. Mary Mullins Polley applied for a widow'spension June 7, 1847 in Letcher County, Kentucky (Edward had died May 19,1845). She was living then with Randolph Polley, her grandson, and mygreat-grandfather. In her application she stated that she was married bya Baptist minister named Bailey, but that no record was made of themarriage. In 1994 I went to Pittsylvania County looking for informationon the family, but I found no record of their marriage (At that time Ihad not yet seen her pension application). Mary also said that they livedin Pittsylvania County, Virginia for eight years before moving west.
Isham (Thomas And Martha ?) Hall
In March of 1789 Isham Hall was charged (along with Anthony Owens) withstealing a quantity of meat and a sack bag from the house of AmosEllison. Both pleaded not guilty, and the case was continued.
In a separate case, that went before the Judge on the same day (March 12,1789), Isham Hall was charged with stealing a feather bed and othersundry articles from Clayborn Blankenship. Again, Isham Hall pled notguilty, at which time the Court ordered him held unless he found bond -upon hearing this, Isham threw himself upon the mercy of the Court,agreeing to accept punishment as the Court saw fit. He was ordered to payrestitution, and Court costs, including the cost of his incarceration.
65. David D. (John H. And Susannah Morton) Mullins
David went into Revolutionary War. He went into North Carolina where hefought against the British. He was with the Mountaineers who were underthe leadership of General Tarleton, on Kines Mountains. David was a rawIrishman, hard fighting-hard drinking, although he was also a religiousman. After his return home, he and his family moved to Buncombe County,South Carolina. David and Athalia are both buried in Laine Cemetary,Wilson Country, Tennesse. Their youngest daughter Mary and her husbandare also buried here.