The following information was assembled from numerous sources and cannot be used directly as proof of Qualifying Service or Lineage.
It is considered a research aid and is intended to assist in locating sources that can be used as proof.
Elisha Pepper I, was born in about 1750, perhaps in Virginia. The name of his wife has been lost to history. He had one known child, Elisha II, who married Margaret Marrow, the daughter of Robert and Elizabeth (Shaw) Morrow.
Elisha participated in the Battle of Kings Mountain on 7 October 1780. He was a member of the “over the mountain” men, the original Tennessee volunteers. Elisha and Joshua Butcher Jr. were killed around 1781, most likely by Cherokee warriors. Pepper and Butcher were associated with Thomas Campbell and General Evan Shelby. The men were most likely caretakers of land owned by Campbell and Shelby.
After his death, Elisha’s son, Elisha II was raised by his mother. She was subsequently killed by Native American warriors, along with the wife of Joshua Butcher and Joshua Buther Sr. There is some indication that Mrs. Pepper was killed along with the wife of Daniel Boone at Boonesborough, Kentucky. It is documented that Squire Boone, Daniel Boones’ father participated in the Battle of Kings Mountain. Most likely, Elisha Pepper I, knew Daniel Boones’ family. The Butcher name was given as a middle name to my paternal grandfather, James Butcher Pepper. His grandfather, Joseph Butcher Pepper, was also named after the Butcher family.
An unknown person wrote Elisha II’s obituary in the local New Era in 1869, stating, "one of our oldest citizens, regretted by all who knew him as a respected and useful citizen, was born in Greenbrier County, Virginia A.D 1777 making him 92 years old. His father [Elisha I] was killed by the [sic Native American warriors] when he was just a boy, and his mother died about the same time. Being an orphan, he was then taken by some of his relatives to Boon or Rock Station, Kentucky, in which state he lived until shortly before 1806 - when in company with Johnny Campbell and others moved to Alexandria, DeKalb County, in this State. The party had to cut their way there through the woods. Mr. Peppers married in Alexandria in the year 1806 and, in the fall or winter, moved to this county and settled upon the place where he recently died. His health had not been good for forty years past, and for seventeen years, he had not been able to go out at all. He has been walking on crutches for twelve years, the effect of a fall which dislocated his hip." It should be noted here that DeKalb County was formed in 1837-8 from Cannon, Warren, and White Counties.
Sources:
Gant, Wanda Muncey, Elisha Pepper II from Families of Elisha Pepper of Virginia & Tennessee, WCGA Bulletin, Vol. V, No. 3, Fall, 1996, pages 22-24
Moss, Bobby Gilmer, The Patriots of Kings Mountain, Scotia-Hibernia Press, 1990.
Raya, Florence Pepper, The History of the Pepper Family in America and Allied Lines: self-published, 1973.
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