Doors to the Past

were listed among the slave holders in the neighborhood: 
 
John Morris, John and Nathan Everett; Charles, William, and Daniel Love; 
John, Henry, and Thomas Dundas and their sisters, Miss Eliza Dundas and 
Mrs. Sophia Peyton; Sampson Handley; William P. Yates; Jonathan Switzer; 
Dr. Alexander McCorkle; David Harshbarger; Thomas, Chapman and Beverly 
Maupin; Adam and William Black; James Newman; Andrew Guinn; John Miller; 
William Simmons; Thomas, George and Jeremiah Killgore; and Mrs. Martha 
Saunders and son Sampson Saunders. 
 
Sampson Saunders was the largest slave owner in the history of the county. 
Besides he owned a vast landed estate and other personal property, and he 
was reckoned the wealthiest citizen up to the days of the Civil War. His 
wife and only child died some years before his own death, and after 
setting free his numerous slaves in accord with the provisions of his 
will, his large landed and other personal estate was heired by his only 
sister, Mrs. Thomas Killgore. Thomas Killgore himself owned a plantation 
of more than one thousand acres beyond Milton and he owned many slaves. 
Prior to the Civil War the number of slaves was decreasing in this 
section, and with the close of the Civil War that chapter in the 
neighborhood's history closed. A few devoted servants remained with their 
masters as long as they lived. With few exceptions the masters were 
faithful and kindly protectors of their wards; and for the most part the 
slaves looked upon their ovmers as their truest friends and only refuge 
both during and after slavery days. 
 
To our parents and grandparents the period from 1840 to 1860 seemed the 
golden era in the social life of the valley. Social comforts were few, but 
the evidence of neighborly friendship was always present. This made life 
out toward the frontier altogether agreeable. It was during this period 
that the first private carriage was brought to the neighborhood by Thomas 
Dundas, and the first cooking stove by Ambrose Doolittle. 
 
Doctors
In the early day the only professional men in the community were the 
physicians. They located in places of easiest access to the surrounding 
country. In this immediate neighborhood Doctors John Seashole, Allen Love, 
Strother J. Yates, Alexander M. McCorkle, Charles and Randolph Moss, Frank 
L. Murphy, Bennett C. Vinson, and Calvary A. Morrison were the physicians 
covering the period from 1820 to 1880. These men were devoted to their 
profession and more devoted to the needs of their fellow citizens. They 
rode many miles on horseback over the worst of roads in all kinds of 

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Templates in Time