The Roses: The Nuckolls Family, the Lyman Family, and One Hundred Fifty Immigrants Who Helped Shape America

Book at a Glance

The book explores the reasons for immigration to America and how the Nuckollses, the Lymans, and one hundred fifty other immigrant families interacted with European and American history. It shows how people in the sixteenth through the eighteenth centuries were persecuted for religious beliefs, decimated by civil wars, and denied freedom and property by rulers. The book is a good basis for understanding why our ancestors wrote the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution.

Early on, the book follows the Lyman family in New England. Later, the story follows the Nuckolls family of Virginia as they head west to Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska, Colorado, and California. The book shows how the families struggled through financial panics, Indian wars, the Civil War, and World Wars I and II. Finally, this volume one ends in Oklahoma. The book covers one hundred fifty immigrant ancestors of the Nuckolls family, twenty-five U.S. presidents, and fifteen signers of the Declaration of Independence. Some of the U.S. Presidents are George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, John Tyler, Franklin Roosevelt, George H. W. Bush, and Barack Obama. The book discusses each immigrant and includes ancestry charts for each and details the relationships of the immigrants to the U.S. Presidents and signers of the Declaration of Independence.

Chapter 1 starts with a discussion of the English kings, the War of the Roses and other English civil wars. It describes the effects of these wars on the families. John Rogers’s life and his translation of the Bible from Latin to English and John Knox’s establishment of Presbyterianism in Scotland are discussed.

In Chapter 2, the Virginia Colony is described along with the development of the tobacco crop, relations with the Indians, and early leaders of the colony.

Chapter 3 develops an understanding on how religious persecution drove individuals to leave Europe for the New World’s wilderness. Examples of religious persecution and the escape by the French Huguenots, English Puritans, and Separatists are given. A war between Scotland and England occurred because of a prayer book, and here are the particulars.

Chapter 4 deals with John Winthrop’s group that immigrated to Massachusetts and Connecticut in the 1640's. Individuals such as Richard Lyman, Joseph Parsons and John Cogswell, progenitors of John Adams, Frank Roosevelt, JP Morgan, Calvin Coolidge, John Wayne and Clint Eastwood are discussed.

Chapter 5 deals with the founding of Baltimore and Leonard Calvert.

Chapter 6 deals with the English Civil War of 1642. Some of the battles are discussed, and King Charles loses his head. The result is a massive movement of individuals from the losing sides to Virginia, and Annapolis, Maryland, is founded.

Chapter 7 introduces the first Virginia Nuckolls.

Chapter 8 concerns Bacon’s Rebellion in Virginia. It tells how individuals rebelled against taxes and the lack of government support in protecting their lives. It presents the signers of the Blissland Complaint in 1688 which included James Nuckolls and Roger Pouncey.

Chapter 9 discusses the King Phillip Indian war in New England. John Lyman scouted the forest for the Indian’s camp and helped lead an attack. The Battles of Blood Brook, the Falls, and the Swamp Fight are discussed.

Chapter 10 shows the belief in witches and wizards and how it destroyed good people.

Chapter 11 presents the French and Indian War.

In Chapter 12, the American Revolution is detailed from Samuel Adams’s tea party in Boston through the Southern battles at Eutaw Springs. Accounts on the battles at Bunker Hill, Saratoga, and King Mountain, as well as western frontier efforts, are given. In this chapter, the signers of the Declaration of Independence are presented along with the risk they were willing to take to declare freedom. John Nuckolls is executed by the British. Elias Lyman rides to General Washington to tell him of the victory at Saratoga.

Chapter 13 discusses the creation of the U.S. Constitution.

Chapter 14 presents the tragic removal of the Cherokees and the trail of tears. John Nuckolls acquires Cherokee land in Georgia, and the Iroquois Indians agree to give up land.

In Chapter 15, the Indian war in Ohio is discussed and how Mad Anthony Wade and Cousin Benjamin Harrison fought the Shawnee Indians led by Tecumseh. The removal of the Indians from Ohio allowed the Lyman family and the newly arrived Haine family to move west to Ohio.

In Chapter 16, the story of the Haine family arrival is detailed, along with their struggles that resulted from the 1837 financial depression. Also, the part that President Andrew Jackson and land speculation played in this financial trauma is explained.

For Chapter 17, after five generations of residing in Virginia, the Ezra Nuckolls family of the Nuckolls clan moves west. Ezra was the ninth son of John Nuckolls, and he moved his eleven children west to find new land. Nathaniel Nuckolls moves to California and his wife bears him sixteen children.

Chapter 18 tells how part of the Nuckolls family moved into Nebraska after the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854. As land developers, the family helped establish the towns of Nebraska City, Columbus, and Plattsmouth, Nebraska.

Chapter 19 contains stories of bad characters and the actions that occurred in Mills County, Iowa, where Columbus Nuckolls lived.

In Chapters 20 and 21, Columbus Nuckolls with partners founds Plattsmouth, Nebraska, and fights to try and make Plattsmouth the state capital.

Chapters 22 and 23 present Columbus Nuckolls as president of the Claim Jumps Club, and German immigrant Henry Augustus Borchers founds Hamburg, Iowa.

Chapter 24 covers the year 1857 which includes the Mormon War, the 1857 financial panic, the move by Russell Majors and Waddell to Nebraska City, the deaths of Ezra and Lucinda Nuckolls, Charles Heath Nuckolls’s birth, and and death of many Nuckolls children and slaves from sickness.

Chapter 25 introduces Columbus Nuckolls as a wagon master, and Chapter 26 discusses the firearms used by the settlers in the West.

Chapter 27 discusses the reasons for the Civil War.

Chapter 28 presents the conflicts between Stephen Nuckolls and John Brown over slavery issues.

Chapter 29 shows how Omaha’s Creighton was able to monopolize the western telegraph lines and how communications began the transformation of the country.

Chapters 30 and 31 discuss the robbery of the Platte National Bank and real estate sales in Nebraska City.

Chapter 32 discusses the Pike’s Peak gold rush of 1859 and the move of the Nuckollses to Colorado.

In Chapters 33 and 34, Denver is founded, and Central City becomes the gold capital of Colorado.

In Chapters 35, 36, and 37, Russell, Majors, and Waddell form the Pony Express, Nebraska Congressman Lafayette Nuckolls is murdered in Texas, and Colorado politics are presented.

Chapter 38 is the history of several families’ participation in the American Civil War along with a discussion of major battles.

In Chapter 39, Columbus Nuckolls travels over a thousand miles to the Idaho gold rush to determine the value of moving or investing in the mines. He helps save several wagon trains from Indian attack and rides with Wild Bill Hickman, the Mormon Angel of Death, to a meeting with the Indians.

Chapter 40 covers the Indian attacks during the summer of 1864. Emmitt Nuckolls’s ranch was burned by the Indians. Nuckolls County, Nebraska, was attacked, along with many wagon trains and homes.

Chapter 41 is a recap of the Sand Creek Massacre by the Colorado Militia.

Chapter 42 discusses major developments in processing gold and silver ore with the Hill process. This reopened a number of mines in Colorado.

Chapter 42 tells how Columbus Nuckolls divorced his wife.

In Chapter 43, the development of railroads in the West is discussed. The railroads dramatically altered the West as the time needed to travel from the East to the West Coast was reduced from as much as six months to a few days.

In Chapters 44, 45, and 46, another financial panic hits the U.S., Central City burns to the ground and Columbus Nuckolls dies on his ranch near the red rocks of Colorado.

For Chapter 47, the book jumps to Emmitt Nuckolls and the development of cattle in Colorado. Emmitt participates in the first cattle drive from Texas to Colorado on the Goodnight and Loving trail. Baby Doe Tabor is discussed, as is the building of the Nuckolls Meat Packing Plant.

Chapter 48 discusses the Colorado Ute War of 1879 that resulted in freeing the Colorado western slope for settlement and cattle business.

Chapter 49 discusses the settlement of Grand County, Colorado.

In Chapter 50, the miner massacre at Ludlow, Colorado, by Rockefeller’s Pinkerton agents is presented.

Chapter 51 presents the story of Charles Heath Nuckolls, Justice of the Peace, in Grand County, Colorado.

In Chapter 52, another financial panic hits the U.S. and especially Colorado in 1893.

In Chapter 53, the Moffat Railroad is built over the mountains into the middle park area of Colorado.

Colorado outlaws are the subject of Chapter 54 and how many of the outlaws hid on Colorado’s western slope.

Chapter 55 covers World War I and Charles Oscar Nuckolls’s participation.

Chapter 56 is about World War II and the roles played by a number of families.

Chapter 57 discusses the Nuckolls home building operations in Oklahoma.

Chapter 58 is a discussion on one hundred fifty immigrants and their descendents.

Chapter 59 provides royal ancestry from the Plantagenet kings of England and how the immigrants are related to these kings.

Chapter 60 shows the ancestry lines from King John to Emperor Charlemagne of France.

Chapter 61 provides ancestry charts to twenty-five U.S. Presidents and fifteen signers of the Declaration of Independence. The charts show the relation of these individuals to the Nuckollses and Lymans.

Old photos appear in a section at the end of the book.

Contents

Book at a Glance

Preface

Chapter 1: The Roses Beginning

Nuckolls and the Roses

War of the Roses

Berwick Massacre

Martin Luther

English Bible

Battle at Flodden Field

John Rogers

Nathaniel Rogers

Chapter 2: The 1607 Virginia Colony

The Algonquian Indians

1624 Virginia Census

Woodson Attack

Chapter 3: Religious Persecution

Puritans and Separatists

Susanna Rochet

Maureen Duvall Arrives

Thomas Bliss

Chapter 4: Massachusetts Bay Company

Richard Lyman

John Cogswell’s Shipwreck

Providence, Rhode Island, and Roger Williams

Thomas Dudley

Springfield and Northampton, Massachusetts, and Joseph Parsons

England’s Religious War Against Scotland

Chapter 5: Baltimore Founded

Charter of Maryland

Leonard Calvert

Chapter 6: 1642 English Civil War

Battle of Marston Moor

Ireland: Catholics vs. Protestants

Annapolis, Maryland, Founded

Chapter 7: First Virginia Nuckolls

Chapter 8: The History of the Blissland Complaint

Chapter 9: Indian Problems in New England

King Philip’s War

Lieutenant John Lyman

Battle of Bloody Brook

General Daniel Denison and Captain Samuel Appleton

Chapter 10: Witches and Wizards

Mary (Bliss) Parsons

John Proctor

John Proctor’s Letter to Boston Ministers

Chapter 11: French and Indian War

George Washington and the Battle at Monongahela

Fort William Henry Massacre

Chapter 12: American Revolution

Let’s Have a Tea Party

Concord and Lexington

Peter Woodbury

Battle of Bunker Hill

Signers of the Declaration of Independence:

Battle at Barber’s Farm

American Victory at Saratoga

Elias Lyman

Western Frontier Battles and Colonel George Rogers Clark

Tarleton’s Quarter

John Nuckolls’s Execution

Battle of King Mountain, North Carolina

Eutaw Springs Battle

Jacob Seaborn, William Brady, and George Gibson

James Armistead

Chapter 13: A More Perfect Union: The Creation of the U.S. Constitution

The Delegates

Bill of Rights

Chapter 14: Cherokee and Iroquois Indian Removal

Settlement of Grayson County, Virginia

Chapter 15: Ohio Valley Indian Problems

Mad Anthony Wayne

William Henry Harrison and the Battle of Tippecanoe

Chapter 16: William Haine Arrives

Panic of 1837

Elias Lyman and Hannah Cogswell Fisk

Chapter 17: The Nuckollses Move West

Stephen Nuckolls’s Store in Missouri, 1846

1849 California Gold Rush and Nathaniel Nuckolls

Rosamond Nuckolls Moves to Missouri in 1850

Ezra Nuckolls Moves to Missouri in 1853

Letter to Ephraim Gentry

Chapter 18: Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854

Nebraska City Founded by Stephen Nuckolls

Platte Valley National Bank

Nebraska City News

Columbus Nuckolls Moves to Glenwood, Iowa

Chapter 19: Bad and Not So Bad Characters

Chapter 20: Plattsmouth, Nebraska, Founded

Chapter 21: Fight for Nebraska Capital

Chapter 22: Claims Clubs

Chapter 23: Hamburg, Iowa, Founded

Chapter 24: Year 1857

Charles Heath Nuckolls Is Born

1857 Weather Extremes

Sickness Sweeps the Area, Killing Numerous Settlers

Panic of 1857

Platte Bank Crisis

Mormon Utah War—Wag the Tail on the Dog?

Russell, Majors and Waddell

Chapter 25: Columbus Nuckolls, Wagon Master

Chapter 26: Western Firearms

Chapter 27: North versus South—Sectional Differences

Chapter 28: John Brown versus Stephen Nuckolls—Slave Troubles

Chapter 29: Telegraph Comes West

Omaha’s Edward Creighton Builds the Western Telegraph

Chapter 30: Nebraska City Bank Robbed

Chapter 31: Nebraska Real Estate Sales

Chapter 32: Pike’s Peak Gold Rush, 1859

Denver Founded

Stephen and Columbus Nuckolls Move to Colorado

Chapter 33: Central City—Gold

Chapter 34: Pony Express and Failure of Russell, Majors and Waddell

Chapter 35: Lafayette Nuckolls Is Killed

Chapter 36: Colorado Politics

Chapter 37: American Civil War Begins

Ohio Cavalry

Carlos Lyman

William Haine

William Grief Perkins and the Battle of Wilson Creek

William Langford and the Battle of the Wilderness

Benjamin, Frank, James, John, and Henry Satterwhite

Columbus Nuckolls, First Treasurer of Colorado Territory

Chapter 38: 1862 Columbus Nuckolls’es Letters from the Salmon River Diggings

Chapter 39: 1864 Indian Troubles in the West

Hungate Attack in Colorado

August 7 Coordinated Indian Attack

Chapter 40: Sand Creek Massacre

Washington Hearings

Chapter 41: Colorado Ore Refining

Chapter 42: Family Changes

Chapter 43: Western Railroads

Union Pacific Railroad

General Palmer

Chapter 44: Panic of 1873

Chapter 45: Central City Fire

Chapter 46: Columbus Nuckolls Dies

Chapter 47: Nuckolls Cattle Business

Goodnight-Loving Cattle Trail

Emmett Nuckolls

Baby Doe Tabor

Nuckolls Meat Packing Plant

Chapter 48: Colorado Ute Indian War—1879

Chapter 49: Settlement of Grand County, Colorado

Chapter 50: Ludlow Massacre

Chapter 51: Charles Heath Nuckolls, Justice of the Peace

Krakatau Volcano

Chapter 52: Panic of 1893

Chapter 53: Moffat Railroad

Chapter 54: Outlaws and Sheep

Chapter 55: World War I

Chapter 56: World War II

Chapter 57: James Nuckolls, Builder

Chapter 58: Immigrant Ancestors

James Nuckolls

William Clopton

Robert Booth

Robert Jarratt

Anthony Morgan

Susanna Rochet & Abraham Michaux French Huguenots

Richard Lyman

John Cogswell

Joseph Batchelder

John Woodbury

Richard Dodge

William Haskell

Thomas Looke

John Tarbox

Thomas Fuller

John Tidd

Michael Bacon

Francis Dane

Edmund Ingalls

William Goodhue

John Proctor

Joseph Proctor

William Fiske

John Rogers, martyr

Nathaniel Rogers, immigrant

Jonathan Wade, Colonel

Peter Martin Hansen, Jr.

Bertha Maria Nelsen

William and Mary Haine

Isaac Sheldon

Andrew Warner

Joseph Parsons

Thomas Bliss

John Strong

Thomas Ford

John Whipple, Captain

Samuel Appleton

John Appleton

Prudence Glover

Frances Hail/Haile/Hale

William Bourne

Roger Jones, Captain

William Gaylord (immigrant) m. Ann Porter

John Porter, immigrant

Roseanne White, immigrant

Luke Hitchcock

Elizabeth Gibbons

Jonathan Burt, immigrant

Elizabeth Lobdell, immigrant

John Plumb

Dorothy Wood

Nicholas Clapp

Sarah Clapp

Rowland Stebbins

Sarah Whiting

Thomas Stebbins

Samuel Wright

Margaret

Francis Wainwright

Phyllis Sewall

William Denison

Daniel Denison, Major General

Thomas Dudley, Governor

Dorothy Yorke

John Perkins, immigrant

Judith Gater, immigrant

Son: John Perkins, Jr., immigrant

John Perkins, Jr. (immigrant)

Michael Satterwhite

28th Texas Cavalry

John Mitchell

John Willingham

George Hallmark—England

William Calvert

Thomas Graves, Captain

Benjamin Harrison

Lewis Burwell

Richard Mynatt

James Langford, Maryland

William Fitzpatrick, Ulster, Ireland

Joseph Fitzpatrick, Ulster, Ireland

John Woodson, Doctor

Sarah Winston, Devonshire, England

Patrick Napier—Scotland

John Pleasants

Samuel Tucker

Thomas Perrin—England

Richard Perrin—England

Joseph Royal—England

Wills of Henrico County Virginia

George Mankins—Scotland

Roger Yopp—Probably English

John A. Stalcup—Sweden

Mathias Mârtonson (Mathias Morton)—Sweden

Anna Justis—Sweden

Johan Gustafsson (John Justice) Sweden

Mans Andersson—Sweden

Olle Pålsson—Sweden

Hendrick Andersson—Finland

William Bracken—England

Joahn Jerg Joh ( or James Yoes)

Jessie Lewis Williams

Nichols Cummins

John Mottrom

Mareen Duvall, Huguenot

John MacCubbin—Scotland

John Gaither— England

Richard Beard—England

William Griffin—Wales

Thomas Boylston – Scotland

Robert Vaulx

Thomas Box

William Presley

Richard Thompson

Robert Depriest

Thomas Thornton

Nicholas Hudson

John Pouncey

William Stone

David Stephens

George Gibson

Thomas Beal

William Perkins

John Otey

Thomas Mitchell

Jacob Seaborn

Peter & Edward Garland

William McHeffey

John Crouch

William Henderson

Robert Beverley

William Byrd

Nicholas Meriweather or Meriwether

Henry Woodhouse

Peter Jennings

William Churchill

Hugh Bullock

Robert Bullock

David Minitree

Thomas Holland

Samuel Compton

John Cosby

John Carter

Sarah Ludlow

William Armistead

Anne Ellis

Chapter 59: Royal Ancestry

The Plantagenet Kings

William the Conqueror

King Henry I, Beauclerc

King Henry II

King John I

King Henry III

King Edward I

King Edward II

Chapter 60: Charlemagne, Emperor of the West

Chapter 61: Ancestry Charters

Bibliography

Old Photos

About the Author

Preface

First, I want to acknowledge the two early sources of genealogy work that helped put me on the trail for this book. Betty (Nuckolls) Barnes, my aunt, worked on the Nuckolls and Stephens family histories starting back in the 1960s. She accumulated most of the family lines long before computers and the Internet were in use. On my mother’s side, Mary Francis (Lyman) Hansen, my grandmother, also accumulated information on the Lyman and Haine families that was passed down to me. With this work in hand, my research was made much easier.

I started working on research as early as 1970. As my career kept me moving around, I lived in England; Germany; Omaha, Nebraska; Denver, Colorado; Houston and Midland, Texas; New Jersey; and Alabama. I was able to spend time at the Nebraska Historical Society’s building in Lincoln, where I copied old letters and read histories. I visited Glenwood, Iowa, where I enjoyed the small library and genealogical section and read about the history of the town and area. I also visited Plattsmouth and Nebraska City on several occasions and learned a lot from local sources. While living near London, England, for a year, I managed to visit Scotland as well as Oxford and many of the coastal cities. I tried to learn as much as possible about historical sites. Most of my history study occurred long before the age of the Internet and speedy computers.

In the early 1990s, I did start communicating with others over the Internet, and I did receive most of the ancient lines to the English and French kings by e-mail from others and from European Web sites. Recently, I have been able to confirm most of these lines by researching many fine resource books at Ancestry.com and FamilyTree.com online. You do have to pay extra to access family history books online, but it is well worth the extra dollars because the search engines for names can allow you to access the material without waiting on a library to obtain the resource.

I cannot think of a better way to educate our children than to read about family history. It adds a unique vividness to think that your great grandparents were participating in so many important events. Alas, I find that I must add short descriptions on most of the famous figures, because many people simply do not know who they were.

Stories on the family can be so important when teaching your children. They can convey the tragedies of life. For example, my great grandfather went drinking at a bar in Des Moines, Iowa and was found the next day, robbed, bruised about the head, and frozen stiff in the iced over river. The result was an emigrant family of children and a wife who were left without a father and breadwinner. The children suffered from hunger, and all had to go to work as children to support the family. Such real, live examples can mean much more to a young adult that simply to say, Don’t drink to excess, and don’t drink and drive. With this in mind, I have written more history to blend with the family stories. I believe it makes for a far more exciting story than simply to say so-and-so was born and died.

Finally, I hope everyone enjoys the book. One should not be too critical about exactness. Certainly, a huge effort was made to avoid incorrect dates and family connections. But realistically, we have too many numbers and individuals to be absolute. Also, I have included family lines that may be suspect. If you are doing serious genealogy work, you need to verify and check the sources. Hopefully, I have provided good clues and leave the mystery of solving the proofs to those interested in pursuing them.

Due to the wars and fires that have occurred over time, sources in the South, especially Virginia, are often absent. In lots of cases, we must rely on land and church records, when available, to try and determine a family line. In some cases, the names of children and the nearness of a family may be the only possible connection. Such is the case for an Elizabeth, nickname Betty (last name unknown), who named children Minitree and Churchill. Certainly, these are unique first names and a big clue. In such cases, I have included the information on possible family lines but have not claimed they are true connections. We probably will never know for certain about these family lines, but the information we do have needs to be passed along to help future researchers.

Finally, I have tried to be honest about the sources of material used. Still, how many ways can one write, Bob was born and died? Accordingly, a lot of language that is similar to histories already written is included. But realistically, if it had not been recorded before, we would not know of the event or story. That is what history is all about. The art is in the presentation, and I hope that I have written something that will capture your attention and provide enjoyable reading.

Chapter 1

The Roses: The Beginning

In order to understand the pressures that drove our ancestors to immigrate, relevant English and Scottish history is presented. It shows how the environment and interactions with governments and other people shaped the history of our country and our heritage. History is important because it educates us on where we have been, what was successful, and what failed. By studying the past, we can make the future better.

When the English immigrants sailed across the ocean during the early to mid-1600s, they had to be impressed with the lush and beautiful forests of North America. The lightly populated country offered land at little or no cost that, with hard work, could be shaped to produce wealth. The New England colonies were first settled by above-average intellectuals and independent thinkers who wanted religious freedom. In contrast, the Virginia colonies were settled by entrepreneurs, aristocrats, gold seekers, adventurers, and farmers, most of whom were down on their luck and came to America seeking riches and adventure.

Even though there were many positive reasons for immigrating, the New World was filled with peril. Malnutrition and diseases such as malaria killed many immigrants, and the native people attacked and killed others. Still, they came in the greatest migration that written history has ever recorded.

The immigrants’ strong independence, leadership, and character were crucially important in developing America. People inherit traits and the propensity to perform actions. Some of the traits can be destructive, such as smoking or drinking. For individuals, studying one's family can give indications of a person’s traits, strengths, and weaknesses, and how one needs to shape oneself to better take advantage of the strengths and avoid the weaknesses. For example, my grandfather had been through Reserve Officer Training Corp (ROTC) at his university and had received excellent military training from several seasoned veterans. He joined the army to fight in World War I and was sent to officer candidate school. During the training, instructors were demonstrating how soldiers should put on their gas masks. The way the instructors were teaching it, the soldiers would likely die. My grandfather knew better and argued with the instructor. Of course, my grandfather was right, but in the World War I military, you did not question authority. As a result, he did not graduate as an officer but was made a supply sergeant. Fighting in the trenches of France, first lieutenants were expected to lead the charge over the top. Being a supply sergeant instead of a first lieutenant probably saved my grandfather’s life. However, it still cost him the officer’s position.

My grandfather had the ability to envision the future and see what was wrong with someone’s actions. He also had the strength to stand up and argue about what he thought was right. This is a Nuckolls trait. As I recall Golding’s essay titled Thinking as a Hobby, my grandfather would be classified as a grade two thinker. My father, a lieutenant in the Navy during World War II, demonstrated the trait when he refused to adjust the ship ballast as ordered. To do so would have capsized the ship, which was demonstrated during a failed court-martial.

For my part, I told the vice president of a large company that if he signed a fifteen-year escalating price contract for natural gas supply, he was making a big mistake. I envisioned losing market share as our customers refused to pay the higher prices. The company would be stuck with high-priced supply that we could not sell. Three years later, the market crashed, and the company ended up spending $350 million of stockholder money to buy out the contracts. The $350 million was a small percentage of what the company owed. The suppliers didn’t want to bankrupt the company. Of course, the vice president made his bonuses and retired to his ranch a multi-millionaire. They made sure to destroy the memos I wrote advising the company about the likely failure. Later, I was encouraged to find work elsewhere.

Obviously, I haven’t inherited the ability to diplomatically or politically handle our trait to envision the future, and our stubbornness in the face of authority can make us vulnerable to actions by that authority even when we are right. That is part of a good Scots-Irish heritage that is well presented in James Webb’s Born Fighting, How the Scots-Irish Shaped America, 2004.

Nuckolls and the Roses

When people named Nuccols or Nuckolls immigrated to America in the early to mid-1650s, they brought a white rosebush. As the Nuccols children married and moved to establish their own home, they took roots from the original bush and planted it. From these rosebushes, their descendants continued the tradition, taking roots to their new homes. After two hundred years, several members of the family still had the family white rose when the great unpleasantness between the States and the migration west disrupted the tradition. Somewhere in southwestern Virginia the old white rose still exists. (Nuckolls 1914, 93)

The Nuckolls verbal tradition is that the Nuckolls family suffered terribly during the War of the Roses (1455–1487) and had lost their land and title as a result of the war. The War of the Roses was a war between families (cousins) for the power to rule England. The white rose of the House of York and the red rose of the House of Lancaster were emblems worn with great pride, just as the forces of the South wore gray and the Union forces wore blue during the American Civil War.

War of the Roses

The War of the Roses was a struggle between the families descended through King Edward III and the families descended from King Henry IV to claim the throne of England. Both King Edward and King Henry were from the family today called Plantagenet. The first Plantagenet King was Geoffrey V, Count of Anjou, Anjou being a province in France. Thus, the Plantagenet family was also called Angevin rulers. Geoffrey had assumed the throne of England by marrying Queen Matilda in A.D. 1128. Queen Matilda was the granddaughter of the Norman Knight called William the Conqueror who invaded England with a French army in 1066. William was a bastard king, being the son of Robert, the Duke of Normandy, and Arletta, a daughter of a tanner. For all that, he was a good military leader and king.

Under the kingly succession of the day, the current king’s eldest son was to be the next king—never mind whether such succession provided an able leader. After the death of Edward III in 1377, a series of wars occurred in the fifteenth century between the Duke of Lancaster and the Duke of York, both sons of Edward III. Later in history, the House of Lancaster was identified with a badge symbol of a red rose and the House of York was identified with a badge of a white rose. King Henry VI, a Lancastrian king who was first dethroned was not an able king; in fact, he was a disaster. Still, the Plantagenet kings had successfully ruled England for over three hundred years, and the nobles were reluctant to amend the system. But the thirty-year War of the Roses was to bring the Plantagenet reign to a bloody end as cousin killed cousin. Truly, a better way to eliminate bad rulers was needed.

Most modern historians state that the War of the Roses was not a true civil war, but I beg to differ. The different related clans of the Plantagenet line of kings managed to draw merchants from London and Scottish fighters into their intrigue. Thus, tragedy befell many individuals below the noble ranks. Also, the cousins’ hate for each other or simply the desire to win completely drove the fighters to give no quarter. When the first side won, they cut off the heads of the surrendering opponents. They must have dreaded the practice when the other side won and returned the favor. Heads rolled. Then the other side won again, and more heads rolled. The ranks of the nobility were depleted, along with their followers and supporters.

Can you imagine today if upon winning an election, either the Republicans or the Democrats proceeded to cut the heads off their opponents? But that was what happened. An election in the 1400s was a battle, and to vote meant to risk losing your property or even your life.

Whether the Nuckollses were really involved in these struggles is not proven by historical documents that I have seen. But for the tradition to last for over two hundred years in America would certainly make the descendents believe it was true. The early Nuckollses in America married daughters from families such as Henderson, Garland, Duke, Crosby, Anderson, Overton, and Pouncey, and these families certainly participated in the English Civil War. The Nuckolls clan in America today is related to both the House of York and the House of Lancaster. They also are directly related to the Scottish and Irish clans that rebelled, fought, and suffered greatly at the hands of the English and the Catholics. Such suffering and the appeal of new land were strong motivators for the Nuckollses to immigrate to the New World.

Leading up to the great migration to freedom and democracy, Great Britain and Europe were ruled by monarchs and subject to severe political meddling by the Church of England as well as the Catholic Pope. Most productive lands were owned and controlled by the kings, barons, and other nobles with little opportunity for the common man. The middle and lower class citizens were restricted by a strict caste system that made it almost impossible to accumulate wealth or land. The occupations of merchant or warrior were the only opportunities that offered any hope for the common man.

Berwick Massacre

Wars were continuous as the church and the nobles fought for power over the land and people. The Scots were defiant for centuries against the Romans and later against the English kings. Their stubbornness and fighting spirit kept them independent but they suffered continuous attacks over the centuries. The lower Scots did not accept the Norman feudal system of land ownership. They believed strongly in the clan and kinship.

The English king, Edward I, was brutal in his efforts to control the Scots. On March 30, 1296, Edward and his army entered the Scottish port town of Berwick. Edward’s army in one day killed 17,000 men, women, and children and leveled the town. His objective was to set an example to the Scots. Berwick had been a thriving city of commerce. The stick waved by King Edward may have warned the Scottish nobles to keep in line; but the average Scot was determined to avenge the loss. William Wallace and Robert the Bruce were two prominent Scots who demonstrated stubbornness fighting spirit and personified the Scottish desire for independence.

As the Scots migrated to Ireland and the New World, they brought their feverish desire for independence, fighting spirit, and determination not to bow to anyone but God.

Martin Luther

On the religious side, in 1517, the German theologian Martin Luther published ninety-five arguments or theses attacking corruption in the Roman Catholic Church. As his arguments spread and were championed by other reformers, the supporters of Luther’s movement became known as Protestants. Educated people and some enlightened church leaders started to rebel against the Catholic church, which eventually lead to open warfare against Protestants by Catholics.

English Bible

Under the reign of Bloody Queen Mary, John Rogers's pardon was offered to him if he would renounce Protestantism; but with stubbornness and a strong character, he refused it. The wood pile at his feet was lit. He washed his hands in the flames as they wrapped his body, and all the while his children watched. He died a martyr to religious freedom.

The first translation of the Bible into English was completed in 1535 by Miles Coverdale and published in Zurich. The Coverdale translation was modified and expanded by John Rogers, my relative, under the pen name Thomas Mathews. It was called Matthew’s Bible, and it was this version that King Henry VIII, after his break from the Catholic church, licensed for publication in England. For the first time, people could read the word of God without having to learn Latin.

Throughout the 1400s and 1500s, the conflict between Scotland and England continued to occur. The counties along the border between England and Scotland suffered constantly from major battles. Their crops were destroyed, their homes burned and men killed. The result was that the families living in the border shires of Scotland lived on raiding and killing. The men spent their time learning to fight.

Battle at Flodden Field

James I, King of Scotland, had signed a treaty with France that required each to come to the aid of the other, if they were attacked. When Henry VIII attacked France, the French demanded that Scotland honor the treaty. James I gathered a large army and invaded England. James’s forces were defeated by the English at Flodden Field in 1513. The Scots lost over nine thousand of their finest nobles, knights, and warriors. Almost every family in the border shires of Scotland lost its father. James Henderson, my relative, was killed in this battle.

Upon the death of Henry VIII in 1547, the boy King, Edward VI, was crowned. The government was managed by Duke Edward Seymour and Duke John Dudley (both Protestants). Under their management, reformation of the church in England continued, and Catholic mass was declared illegal. It is this Duke Dudley that my relative, Governor Thomas Dudley of Massachusetts, claimed as his great grandfather.

Henry VIII wanted his son, Edward, to wed Mary, the Queen of the Scots, in order to unite the countries. The Scots resisted, and the result was the Battle of Pinkie Cleugh. In the battle, the next generation of Scots lost their fathers. Almost all the families in the border shires again lost their fathers. Both James Henderson’s son and grandson, my relatives, were killed in the Battle.

To further the democratic experience, under the religious reformation that occurred during the sixteenth century, the Presbyterian kirk was born in Scotland. The Scotsman John Knox worked to remove the Catholic church in Scotland in the latter half of the sixteenth century. He replaced the church structure with the kirk. Under the kirk, the local minister was elected by the church members. The church members also elected church leaders such as deacons and elders. Yes, democracy was born in the kirk. The Scots took the kirk religious structure to the Ulster Plantation in Ireland and the New World. The Presbyterian kirk was profoundly different than the English religious structure that simply replaced the Catholic church with the Anglican church with its appointed leadership. But most important, it introduced democratic principles to the common people, and they gained by the experience. Both my parents were Presbyterians.

John Rogers

John Rogers, my relative, was born in Deritend near Warwick, England, in 1507. John was very religious, bright, and well-educated at Cambridge and the Roman Catholic Cardinal's College at Oxford. He entered the priesthood of the Roman Catholic church. On December 25, 1532, he became Rector of the Church of Holy Trinity the Less in London. He resigned in 1534 and was afterward called by a company of English merchants to be one of its chaplains at Antwerp, Brabant, in Holland. He accepted the position and served in that capacity for several years. While in Brabant, he formed a strong friendship with William Tyndale and Miles Coverdale. Under their influence, his opinions regarding church government began to change, and coming to a great knowledge of the gospel, he cast off from the Roman Catholic church and became a Protestant. He married Adriana Pratt, née de Weyden, and by her had eleven children, eight sons and three daughters.

With John's knowledge of Latin, he was determined to translate the Bible into English so that everyone could gain the knowledge of the gospel. Under the secret name of Matthew, he made the first entire translation of the Latin Bible to English and with help of his friends; the Bible was published and distributed in secret as Matthew's Bible. Needless to say, Matthew’s Bible was not taken kindly by the Roman Catholic church or the Pope. John was sought for execution by the Catholics.

On the accession of young King Edward VI to the English throne, and the perfected establishment of Protestantism in England, John Rogers with his wife and then eight children returned to England in 1548. In April 1550, he became Rector of St. Margaret Moyses. In July of 1550, he was made Vicar of St. Sepulchre. On August 24, 1551, Bishop Ridley bestowed upon him the valuable Prebend of St. Pancras in the Cathedral of St. Paul, London—where, shortly thereafter, he became the Divinity Reader. In April of 1552, his family was naturalized under a special act of Parliament.

In 1552 young King Edward VI caught tuberculosis and died. King Edward VI was succeeded on the throne by Bloody Queen Mary. Mary was the daughter of Catherine of Aragon and was a devout Catholic. Mary immediately set about to restore the Catholic church in England, and she burned numerous Protestants at the stake.

John Rogers diligently labored in the work of the church until the accession of Bloody Queen Mary to the throne. On the Sunday after Queen Mary’s triumphal entry into London on July 16, 1553, John preached a sermon at St. Paul's Cross, an open air pulpit in the grounds of Old St Paul's Cathedral in the city of London. He told the people to adhere to the doctrine taught in King Edward's days and to resist the forms and dogmas of Catholicism. He preached that the Catholics promoted Popery, idolatry, and superstition. The sermon was the beginning of his end. He was immediately summoned before the Queen’s Privy Council, questioned, and barred from preaching again.

On August 16, 1553, he was commanded by the council to remain within his household. About six months later, in February of 1554, John Rogers was ordered by Bishop Bonner to be taken to Newgate Prison where he was imprisoned for almost a year. On January 22, 1555, John Rogers and other Protestant preachers were brought before the Privy Council and questioned. Then on the 27th, at the insistence of Bonner, the new Catholic bishop of London had Rogers again brought before the Council and questioned. The next day Cardinal Pole ordered a commission to proceed against persons liable to prosecution under the statutes against heresy. A short time later, through sanction of the Council, Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester, condemned and sentenced John Rogers as an excommunicated heretic, to be burned to death at the stake.

John Rogers was burned at the stake on the morning of Monday, February 4, 1555. He asked to see his wife and children, but the request was refused to the everlasting shame of the Roman Catholic church. He was taken to Bishop Bonner and degraded from the priesthood according to the Roman ceremony, to which he submitted meekly. He was taken to the stake at Smithfield. Chained to the stake, he preached to the people to abide faithfully in the doctrine he had declared to them. His pardon was brought and offered to him if he would renounce Protestantism, but with holy scorn he utterly refused it. The pile was lit, and he washed his hands in the flames enwrapping him as his children watched. He died a martyr to religious freedom.

Nathaniel Rogers

John Rogers's great-grandson, the Reverend Nathaniel Rogers, decided to move his family to the New World. He was born in 1598, in Haverhill, England, and was educated at Emmanuel College in Cambridge. At the age of forty years, he came to America and became the successor of the Reverend Nathaniel Ward in 1630 as pastor of the First Church in Ipswich. He remained the pastor for twenty-five years until his death on July 3, 1655. John Rogers, my relative and son of Nathaniel, was president of Harvard College.

Luckily, Queen Mary’s rule lasted only a few years. She died of an illness. Queen Mary was succeeded by Protestant Queen Elizabeth. Queen Elizabeth proved to be a strong and reliable leader of England for forty-five years. Her relatively long reign helped secure the Church of England and strengthen the English ambitions to explore and develop the New World. Sadly, Queen Elizabeth did not live to see the development of the New World by England. She died on March 23, 1603, never having married, and did not leave an heir to the throne.

Upon the death of Queen Elizabeth, King James I ascended to the throne of England. King James had been king of Scotland for thirty-six years and believed in the divine right of kings to rule. King James’s autocratic rule gave him little use for Parliament. In fact, for one period, he did not convene Parliament for six years. King James did restore the Protestant Church and authorized a new translation of the Bible, the King James Version that most Protestants used well into the twentieth century. However, he did not fulfill the hopes of some educated believers who wanted religious freedom to worship God as they wanted. Everyone still had to belong and participate in the Church of England. If you did not, you could be arrested, tortured, and executed.

Chapter 2

The 1607 Virginia Colony

Under King James, the Virginia and Plymouth experiments were started. In 1607, King James I issued a charter to the London Company for the Virginia experiment. Under the charter, King James had started the roots of democracy for the new colony by establishing a council to rule it. The 1607 charter did not work well, and a new charter was issued in 1609 that established a governor as ruler of the colony. Finally, in 1618, King James issued another charter that established a bicameral legislature that was authorized to pass any rule or law that would help the colony to succeed. The 1618 charter further opened the door for the leaders in the new colony to taste a representative democracy and learn by its operation. It would take more than one hundred fifty years of experience with the new government structure before the new colony was ready to break away from the king, but the seeds of a representative democracy were planted with the 1618 charter.

In June 1606, King James I granted a charter to a group of London entrepreneurs, the Virginia Company, to establish a satellite English settlement in the Chesapeake region of North America. By December, 108 settlers sailed from London; they were instructed to settle Virginia and find gold and a water route to the Orient.

On May 14, 1607, the Virginia Company explorers landed on Jamestown Island and established the Virginia English colony on the banks of the James River. Jamestown was located about sixty miles from the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay. Almost immediately after landing, the colonists were under attack from the Algonquian Indians. To defend against attacks, the newcomers managed to build a wooden fort during their first six months. Disease, famine, and continuing attacks by Algonquian Indians took a tremendous toll on the early colonists. There were times when Powhatan’s trade (Powhatan or Wahunsunacook was chief of the Algonquian confederation of Indian tribes near the colony) revived the colony with food. The Indians traded for copper and iron implements. It appears that Captain John Smith’s leadership kept the colony from dissolving. The starving time winter followed Smith's departure in 1609 during which only sixty of the original 214 settlers at Jamestown survived.

In June 1609, the survivors decided to bury cannon and armor and abandon the town. It was only the arrival of the new governor, Lord De la Warr, (also known as Baron Thomas West) and his supply ships that brought the colonists back to the fort and the colony back on its feet. One of my daughter’s relatives was in the first supply of settlers to Jamestown with Lord De la Warr. His name was Captain Graves. Although the suffering did not totally end at Jamestown for decades, some years of peace and prosperity followed the wedding of Pocahontas, the favored daughter of the Algonquian chief Wahunsunacook, to tobacco entrepreneur John Rolfe.

Sometime between 1609 and 1613, the Virginia colony acquired a special tobacco seed from a Spanish-held territory. The tobacco seed grew a mild and desirable type of tobacco that the Spanish had been trying to keep to themselves. The colonists planted the seed and started growing a crop that would prove to be the new gold for the struggling colony. In 1614, the most important historical moment for the new colony was the first shipment of Virginia tobacco to London. Tobacco gave the Virginia Colony cash they desperately needed.

Two years later, in June of 1616, Rolfe and other leaders of the colony arrived in London. Rolfe brought Pocahontas to London, and she was a big attraction. Still, Rolfe's trip was really about the colony's major export crop which was tobacco. Despite King James’s disapproval of the colony's dependence on a crop he despised, the very survival of his namesake colony could be at stake. Of course, King James could not ignore the enormous import duties Rolfe's Virginia tobacco brought to the royal treasury. Londoners and others around the world liked the Virginia tobacco’s taste and began demanding it. Since all sales had to be made through London, the English treasury grew with every transaction. Rolfe's trip was a success.

Tobacco became the rage—tobacco and nothing else. There were reports of it being grown in the very streets of Jamestown. Laws were passed forcing farmers to devote a percentage of their efforts to growing tobacco. By 1619, Jamestown had exported ten tons of tobacco to Europe, and Jamestown became a boomtown. The export business was going so well the colonists were able to afford two imports. The imports were twenty Negroes from Africa