Josiah Culbertson and [Unk] Thomas

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Husband Josiah Culbertson ¹

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           Born: 1742 - Lancaster Co, PA 1
     Christened: 
           Died: 27 Sep 1839 - Daviess Co, IN 1
         Buried: 

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         Father: Samuel Culbertson (      -1799) 2
         Mother: Mary [Unk] (      -      ) 3

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       Marriage: 

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Wife [Unk] Thomas

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           Born: 
     Christened: 
           Died: 
         Buried: 

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         Father: Col. John Thomas (      -      ) 4
         Mother: 

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Children

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General Notes: Husband - Josiah Culbertson

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He was a soldier of the Revolutionary War.

The history of Josiah reads like a romance. Told of his wonderful feats of strength, his fights with Indians and the British, also of the great bravery of his wife in encounters with the Indians, and how she carried powder to her husband when he was besieged by Indians, and how the Indians once cut off one of her children's hands. He married a daughter of Col. John Thomas in whose regiment he served. Pension Records at Washington, D. C., give his service. "Served in John Thomas' Reg't., S. Car. for two years. Was in engagements Ramsours Mills, Cowpens and King Mt." Also "Private in N. Car. troops, pensioned $80 a year. Pension commenced Mar. 4, 1831." Commissioner U. S. Land Office says no land military warrant to him. Residence Daviess Co., Ind." Census 1790 S. Car. gives him in 96th Dist., Spartansburg Co., self and wife, four sons under 16 years, four daughters.

In Josiah Culbertson's biography (as given in Kings Mt. and Its Heroes, by Lyman Draper) he says: "His father settled at New River on the frontier of Va., thirty miles from any white settlement when Josiah was about 10 years old. Was living there in 1755-6. His father shortly after moved back to the Greenbrier River Settlements." He also says, "That he did not know Col. Isaac Shelby until he left N. Car. in the latter part of 1779." I will digress here to quote from War. Dept. Reports, Vol. II, p. 11; Barrie's Army and Navy of the U. S.; Dunmore's War by Thwaites, etc.; "Isaac Shelby was a surveyor in the Western Virginia where he located in 1771 near Bristol, Tenn. In 1774 was a Lt. and in his father's company Va. troops in Dunmore's War. His bravery at Point Pleasant saved the day. Commissary-Gen. (Capt.) of Va. troops 1776; Col. in 1779. Was elected to Va. House of Delegates but after this date (1779) the line between Va. and N. Car. was extended and the survey threw Shelby into N. Car. He was then (1779) commissioned Col. of a Batt'n of Militia of Sullivan Co., N. Car. This was the time he first met Josiah Culbertson and they became fast friends. In 1776 east Tenn. belonged to N. Car. and was called Washington County. In 1784 this was called the Territory of Franklin and a governor was elected until Tenn. became a state. This data sustains Johnston's New River Settlements in statement that "Part of eastern Tenn. belonged to Va. before it belonged to N. Car."
After Samuel Culbertson left Greenbrier Settlement, Va., he moved to western N. Car. Josiah served with N. Car. troops. Have not been able to get the regiment in which Josiah served in N. Car.
Gen. John Sevier, of Tenn., lived only five to ten miles from Josiah Culbertson and his father Samuel. He lived at Wataugua Settlement and it is highly probable that they were personal friends of the Immortal John Sevier.
Barrie's Army and Navy of the U. S., Vol. VII, p. 26, says: "Forces from Sullivan Co., N. Car., at Battle of Kings Mountain under Col. Isaac Shelby of Tenn."
Josiah says in his biography: "Removed to N. Car. before 1770, with my father, Samuel. That I (Josiah) was in Gov. Geo. Tryon's Army in 1770, when he defeated the 'insurgents'; afterwards (after 1779) removed to S. Car. Was married in 1774."
Josiah's eldest son was Andrew. He witnessed a deed for his father in Spartansburg Co., S. C., Jan. 7, 1797.
Josiah's wife does not participate with him in deed in S. Car. in Jan. 7, 1797 (other Culbertsons in same state at that date in making deeds the wife participates). She, no doubt was dead at that time; likewise family tradition says she was buried on Fair Forest Creek in S. Car.; also Josiah left the state in 1797.
In his pension application he says: "I was born in 'Culbertson Row', Pa., near Shippensburg, Pa., in 1742. My father moved to New River, Va., in 1753."
"Enlisted in N. Car. Flying Camp, 1776. At Siege of Savannah, Kings Mt., Ninety-Six, Musgrove's, Cedar Springs, Cowpens, etc." (See Dr. Lyman Draper's Kings Mt. and Its Heroes. Also Summer's S. West Va.)
Dr. Lyman Draper's "Kings Mt. and Its Heroes," gives some interesting reminiscenes of Josiah Culbertson, a member of Col. Shelby's Regt. (from N. Car.). In 1892 a gentleman by the name of Scott said that his father served in the same company with Josiah Culbertson and that he often related to him the bravery and heroic deeds of Culbertson during the Revolution. Col. Shelby led the charge at Kings Mt. Court records of Daviess Co., Ind., show a son of Josiah died in that county in 1862. Court records Daviess Co., Ind., show no will or settlement Josiah, Sr. No other issue given. There was one other son who ran away and whereabouts unknown, until the author received a letter from a descendant in Tennessee. He was William Davies Thomas Culbertson, named after his uncle, who moved with his father from N. Car. to S. Carolina, then in 1797 to Warren County, Tennessee, and after 1824 moved to Daviess County, Indiana. 1815 took out warrants for 1130 acres in Greenville Co., S. Car. This son went from Indianapolis, Ind., to N. Car. where he married Narcissa Wood about 1829, and later to Jonesboro, Ala., later to Winston Co., Miss., where he died 1863. His descendants have an old powder gourd used by Josiah in the Revolution and which had belonged to Irish Andrew and said to be 250 years old having been brought from Ireland. They also have a Bible printed in the Welsh language which belonged to Josiah's wife's father, Col. John Thomas, printed 1561. Wm. D.
Thomas Culbertson was an educated man, a doctor and also a preacher in Miss. His daughter married a Mr. Suttles and their son is J. H. Suttles, a professor in a Memphis Business College.
Homes' "History of the Presbyterian Church" and Johnson's "Traditions of the Revolution" speak highly of Col. John Thomas and his son John, afterwards Col., and son-in-law Josiah Culbertson, Sr.
Sullivan and Washington Counties, N. Car. adjoin and went into Tenn. when that state was formed (Sullivan formed from Washington). Josiah Culbertson, Sr., was probably in Col. Isaac Shelby's Regt. before he went to S. Car. Went to S. Car. 1779. Left S. Car. 1797.

1 Lewis R. Culbertson, M.D., Genealogy of the Culbertson and Culberson Families (Zanesville, OH: The Courier Co., 1923), Pg 48.

2 Lewis R. Culbertson, M.D., Genealogy of the Culbertson and Culberson Families (Zanesville, OH: The Courier Co., 1923), Pg 45.

3 Lewis R. Culbertson, M.D., Genealogy of the Culbertson and Culberson Families (Zanesville, OH: The Courier Co., 1923), Pg 46.

4 Lewis R. Culbertson, M.D., Genealogy of the Culbertson and Culberson Families (Zanesville, OH: The Courier Co., 1923), Pg 49.