"MOUNT BLEAK" AND THE FAMILY LIVING THERE

At Mount Bleak (the house at Sky Meadows) you have Abner and Mary Ann Settle, the house owners. If we're doing early / pre war (ca. 1860-61) Abner would be 50 or 51 at the time, as he was born in 1810. He had a local reputation as an excellent fiddler, amateur poet and public speaker.

His wife, the former Mary Ann Kile, would have been about 45 or 46 at the time, as she was born in 1815.

It's possible that they might have had Abner's elderly father, Isaac Settle, living with them as well. I dont know when he died and don't have the 1860 census yet, but in the 1850 census he was shown as living with them, aged 70, so if still alive he would have been 80 or 81. Isaac Settle was the one who bought Mount Bleak for his son as a wedding present in 1835 and built the stone house there, expanding on the original frame structure built by the Ball family who had previously owned it.

It would be quite plausible for Abner Settle's sister to be visiting, as she lived just down the road near Paris. She's somebody that we're already familar with -- Elizabeth "Betsy" Settle Edmonds, of Belle Grove. She was born in 1806 and would have been ca. 54-55 by 1860-61. She'd been fairly recently widowed, with her husband Lewis Edmonds having died in 1857.

The Settle children who would have been at Mount Bleak are the following:

1. Dr. Thomas Settle, the eldest son, aged 24-25 by 1860-61. He's had an interesting time over the last year or two. As a surgeon attached to the local militia company, it was he who examined John Brown's body (hmm. good song title...) when he was taken down from the scaffold at Harper's Ferry. Called to feel for Brown's pulse, Dr. Settle heard him mutter: "The sins of this guilty land can only be purged with blood."

2. Susy Settle, age 20 to 21 in 1860-61 - I think she's still unmarried by 1863 but haven't verified this.

3. Isaac Morgan Settle, age 18 - 19 in 1860-61 served in the 6th Va. Cavalry and frequently rode raids with Mosby although he never formally joined the command

4. Isabella Settle, age 17-18 by 1860-61

5. Mathilda Settle, age 15-16 by 1860-61

6. Abner Carroll Settle, age 13-14 by 1860-61 (in November '64, he enlists in Mosby's 43rd Battalion)

7 George M. Settle, age 11-12 by 1860-61

Also living in the household in 1850 was Tom Glascock, who would be 25-26 by 1860-61 and might have already married by then to Emily. I don't yet know if he was a relation or how he tied into the rest of the Glascock family in the area, but he was clearly fond of Mount Bleak as he and his wife bought the house from Abner Settle after the War (and in turn, sold it to former Mosby Ranger George Slater)

If Betsy Edmonds had happened to bring any of her children with her while visiting her brother, here's a few who might be fun to portray

1. Edward Gilbert "Bud" Edmonds, age 39-40 by 1860-61 and his wife (also his cousin) Adeline Edmonds, who would be about 35-36.

2. Amanda Virginia "Tee" Edmonds, aged ca. 21-22, still unmarried (her diary is published and is excellent for those who don't know it -- and it is a good source for info on the whole extended family)

OTHER LOCAL FAMILIES

Other local families include the Glascocks (most of whom live around Paris, which they pretty much founded), the Blackwells, Carters and Edmonds who are all intermarried. Some relatively nearby neighbors include Miss Clotilla Carter (ca. 50-55 years old by this time) whose house, "Rosenvix" is about a mile and a half northeast of Piedmont (Delaplane) and her nephew, Joseph Hancock Blackwell (aged 28-29) and his wife Ann Roberta (an Edmonds) aged ca. 25-26, whose house "Heartland" is also nearby. His parents also live in the area: James Blackwell, aged ca. 55-56 and Elizabeth Carter Blackwell (sister of Clotilla Carter) aged ca. 53-54.

I don't yet have the slave schedules for the area, so I don't know about family servants yet. I presume there were some, as the slave and white populations of the two census district were roughly equal in 1850, with about 10,000 each.

The 1850 census shows a number of free black families in the area (405 free blacks in the Ashby census district, which is where we are), the Jackson family being one of the largest. (Nelson Jackson, aged 62-63, his wife Eliza, aged 50-51, sons George (30) and Clary 25) and nephew Henry Newman (17). You also have the Gumby family - son William would be ca. 13-14 by 1860-61, son of Rachel Gumby (age 33-34) free black housekeeper in the household of farmer Thompson Palmer and his wife Nancy.

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