Our Amick Family on Anglin's Creek

In this last part of "The Amick Trilogy" the family will spend more than 100 years along Anglin's Creek before spreading out across the nation.  The Amicks from Pennsylvania and South Carolina had already  pioneered across Kentucky, Missouri, and Illinois, but somehow our branch was planted firmly in Nicholas County, Virginia, soon to become West Virginia.

Jacob Amick, Sr., and his brother, John Amick, left Pendleton County to amass hundreds of acres of land in Nicholas County.  By the time Jacob arrived in Nicholas County he had obtained land in Pendleton County, married Rachel Shroyer, and served in the War of 1812.  In the extensive pension application that Rachel Amick submitted after Jacob died, there was confusion as to where Jacob served.  By looking for further pension applications, I determined that another Jacob Amick living in Frederick County had served in Captain Mastin's company, and that the Nicholas County Jacob Amick, living in Pendleton County at the time, had served from February 1815 to April 1815 in Lt. John Bowers' company, as Rachel had stated on her application.

 In A Guide to Virginia Militia Units in the War of 1812 (2011), Stuart Butler tells us that all able-bodied white males between the ages of 18 and 45 were required to enroll in militia districts.  Usually twice a year the units mustered at a courthouse, tavern, or church where they trained for about two hours.  If called to active service, a lottery system determined which soldiers were called up.  This is the probable explanation for Jacob's late entry into the war:  his number did not come up until 1815.

The War of 1812 was ended by the Treaty of Ghent on 24 December 1814.  News of this treaty didn't reach the United States until January 1815; the treaty was signed by President James Madison and approved by the U. S. Senate on 17 February 1815.  The Governor of Virginia, who controlled the militia units, ordered the units marching to Norfolk at that time to immediately muster out and return home.  Considering the dates of Jacob's enlistment, he may have been among those troops at the end of the war.

Henrietta Boley Amick,
ca. 1924.

By 1850 Jacob and Rachel are settled in Nicholas County where we find them on the census with three of their children still living with them:  Jacob, Jr., age 23 (who was a farmer and had real estate valued at $200), Rachael, age 20, and Polly, age 17 (a twin with Arthur).  In 1854, Jacob, Jr.'s first cousin (son of John Amick) married Mildred Boley of Monroe County.  Two years later Jacob, Jr. married Mildred's sister, Henrietta Boley, in Allegheny County, which neighbors Monroe County.  Henrietta, born in April 1838, was the daughter of Blueford Boley and Martha Howard Boley of Monroe County.

Jacob and Henrietta were married 12 September 1856, and just before the Civil War, they are found in Nicholas County in the Wilderness District with their two oldest sons, Samuel and Floyd, two other children, Sylus Herell and Enoch Herell, and Jacob's sister, Rachael, who is listed as a domestic.  Jacob has real estate worth $3000 and personal property worth $1000. Next door neighbors included Asa and Mildred Amick and Jacob and Rachael Amick.  Another son, Aaron, was born in 1861.

When war broke out Jacob answered the call of the Confederate states by enlisting in Company K of the 14th Cavalry Regiment at Lewisburg.  This unit was also known as the "Greenbrier Swifts" or Greenbrier Cavalry #2 under the command of Captain Benjamin F. Eakle from Greenbrier County.  Although there are more than one Jacob Amick in Virginia at the time, Jacob, Jr. is the only one of military age in 1862.  Muster records show that Jacob enlisted on 22 January 1862 and was discharged 16 July under the Conscription Act.  The 14th Cavalry fought in western Virginia and the Shenandoah Valley before it was disbanded in 1865.  The field officers were Colonels James Cochran and Charles E. Thorburn, Lt. Colonels Robert A. Bailey and John A. Gibson, and Majors B. Frank Eakle and George Jackson.

One of the muster rolls
showing Jacob Amick
 to be paid for service
in 1862.

The children of Jacob and Henrietta Amick were:
 1)  Samuel Amick, born 5 June 1857
 2)  Floyd Amick, born 12 October 1859
 3)  Aaron Amick, born 1861
 4)  Dennis Amick, born 1863
 5)  Henry Amick, born 7 September 1865
 6)  Mary Amick, born 3 February 1868
 7)  Sarah Amick, born 1870
 8)  Eliza Jane Amick, born 8 October 1872
 9)  Stewart B. Amick, born 25 February 1875
10) Elizabeth Ann Amick, 30 July 1877
11) Rosa Boley Amick, born 4 November 1880.

My mother, Irma Amick Ballengee, was old enough to remember Henrietta Amick.  She said that Henrietta was called "Little Grandma" and that up into her old age (she was nearly 91 years old when died) she could out walk most of the family over the hills of Nicholas County.

Pleasant Hill United Methodist
Church, 2007.  

Among the many land transactions for all the Amicks in Nicholas County is a deed dated 22 January 1894 from Jacob and Henrietta Amick to Silas Boley, William Pitsenbarger, Floyd Amick, John Richardson, and William O'Dell, who were trustees for the Methodist Episcopal Church South.  This tract of land in Runa was "for and in consideration of the love they have for said church" and "with covenants of special warranties".  The land consisted of one acre where Pleasant Hill United Methodist Church now stands.  My mother said that the first church sat closer to the road on the side opposite the cemetery, and that Jacob Amick sold a team of horses to get money to build the church.  Pleasant Hill was often referred to as "the Amick church".

Photo taken at Pleasant Hill Methodist Church ca. 1924.  This photo includes my mother, my grandparents,
my great-grandparents, and my great-great grandmother.

The last child of Jacob and Henrietta was Rosa Boley Amick, born 4 November 1880 when Henrietta was 42 years old.  She also had a five-year-old and a three-year-old at the time (Stewart and Elizabeth Ann).  Jacob and Henrietta are found on the 1900 Nicholas County census; he is 73 years old, and she is 62.  In 1909 Jacob died on August 11 of "old age".

Henrietta lived with her son, Samuel, and his wife, Martha, in the 1920 census.  She died 6 February 1929 of "old age" at 97 years old at Nallen in Fayette County.  Jacob and Henrietta are both buried in the cemetery at Pleasant Hill Methodist Church.

Their oldest child, Samuel Amick, was born before the Civil War began, and lived his entire life on Anglin's Creek.  He married Martha Jane Dorsey, daughter of Alex and Adeline Ewing Amick, on 14 February 1879.

Children of Samuel and Martha Amick
Name	Date Born	Spouse	Date Died
Newman A. Amick	December 1879	None	20 February 1887
Jacob Frank Amick	8 October 1881	Stella Massie	7 July 1949
Irvin Starling Amick	6 December 1883	Lelia Clingman Humphries	30 September 1962
Luverna Amick	27 November 1884	James Nathan Deitz	7 June 1968
Lovie Amick	6 December 1885	Unknown	Unknown
Elizabeth Ethel Amick	7 October 1887	Burpee Jackson Champe	11 April 1970
Emerson Walker Amick	22 July 1892	Elsie M. Humphries	23 June 1966
Arthur Henry Amick	October 1893	First.  Lola Moore Second.  Julia Neff	28 October 1972
Albert Luther Amick	1 March 1898	Freda Virginia Tomlin	13 December 1961
Lila Emma Amick	1 June 1901	First. George Lewis Pitsenbarger Second. Burton Clifton Richmond	20 October 1959
Mary Amick	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown

Martha Jane Dorsey Amick,
daughter of Alex and Adeline
Dorsey.

In 1880 the census shows Samuel and Martha living next to her parents, Alex and Adeline Dorsey.  In 1887, when their oldest son, Newman, was seven years old, he died of diphtheria.  By 1900 their family had grown to six children living at home, with Irvin, the oldest one at home.  Frank apparently had moved away from home, and in December of that year he married Stella Massie.  In 1910 Frank is shown in the Wilderness District operating a store.  Amicks populate the entire neighborhood, and Samuel and Martha are there, also, with three children remaining at home, Arthur, Albert, and Delila.  They remain in the same home in 1920.  All the children are gone, and Henrietta Amick lives with them.  Next door is their son, Irvin, and his wife, Lelia, with four children.  Samuel is the head of the household in the 1930 census; his son, Arthur, and his family are also living in the home along with Martha's 89-year-old father, Alex Dorsey.  In 1940 Arthur is listed as the head of the household with his family and the 83-year-old Samuel and Martha in the home.  I believe that Arthur lived in the Amick home place until his death in 1972.

Samuel died 6 December 1942 in Greenwood in Fayette County.  Martha died 11 February 1946 in Minden, Fayette County.  Both are buried in the cemetery at Pleasant Hill.