Joseph Hatfield

Joseph Hatfield (Circa 1758-1832) was a Revolutionary War veteran who moved to present-day Scott County after the war ended.

See Also: Revolutionary War Veterans
See Also: Scott County Lineage Project

Biography

Born in Orange County, Va. circa 1758, Hatfield may have been the son of George Hatfield (about 1720-1795). His ancestry is very poorly documented, however.

What is better known is that Joseph married Rachel Smith on Oct. 28, 1779 in Washington County, Va. She appears to have been the daughter of Ericus Smidt (Smith, about 1734-1797) and Brigitta Anderson (1733-1797). Erica’s father was Swedish, and emigrated to Delaware. The family moved to Virginia before Rachel was born.

Joseph and Rachel had a large number of children, including: Ale (1778-1841), Jeremiah (1780-1840), James (1782-1838), John (1785-1858), Nancy (1786-1870), Joseph (1787-1860), William (approx. 1795-1870), Leander (approx. 1795-1860), Phariba (approx. 1795-1865), Rachel (approx. 1795-1860) and Sarah (1800-1884). There may have been others, including Stanley, Jonathan, and Reuben, although some genealogists believe Stanley and Jonathan were the sons of Joseph’s brother, Jeremiah Hatfield, who married Fanny Holland.

According to a Revolutionary War pension application, Rachel was his second wife. The name of his first wife isn’t known.

Revolutionary War

Little is known about Hatfield’s service in the Revolutionary War. However, he served multiple tours in the Virginia militia between 1778 and 1782, and was regarded as an excellent Indian spy and a master woodsman. There is some speculation that he served under the command of Capt. John Sevier at the Battle of Kings Mountain.

Many years later, in 1854, William Hansard, who was Hatfield’s neighbor both in Virginia and in Tennessee, testified that Hatfield “was such an excellent Indian Spy, he was always chosen by the Officers in all their expeditions against the Indians.”

After the War

Hatfield’s presence in Virginia is well-documented in the 1780s. He also received bounties in Russell County, Va., for killing wolves in 1791 and 1702. He appears to have moved to Wayne County, Ky., as early as 1802. Based on tax lists, he lived in Wayne County until late in his life, still appearing there in 1823. He was found on the Campbell County, Tenn., census in 1830. (However, it’s always important to remember that the boundary between Tennessee and Kentucky was disputed in the early 1800s, due to the erroneous “Walker Line,” and some people living in northern parts of what would become Scott County, Tenn., were considered to be living in Wayne County, Ky.)

Joseph died on Aug. 29, 1832, according to his wife’s application for a widow’s pension, and may be buried at Brimstone. Sources suggest he was buried at Walker Cemetery. There are two Walker Cemeteries on Indian Fork Creek. The one that would most likely contain his grave is the southernmost of the two. However, his head stone cannot be located at either. If he was buried there, it is in an unmarked grave.

His wife, Rachel, died in 1858 and is buried at Reed Cemetery in the New River community.

Hatfield’s daughter, Phariba, married Isaac Reed, the son of another Scott County Revolutionary War veteran, John Reed.

Joseph Hatfield appears to be an ancestor of the Big South Fork Hatfields, who lived where Charit Creek Lodge is now located in the Big South Fork National River & Recreation Area. William Riley Hatfield (1824-1892), the first of the Hatfields to settle in the Big South Fork after marrying into the Burke family, and the man for whom Hatfield Ridge is named, may have been the son of James Hatfield (born 1804) and Margaret Jones (1802-1870). He married Elizabeth Burke, daughter of Jonathan Burke — the first Burke to settle in the Big South Fork and the forefather of all Burkes living in Scott County today. He is buried at the Hatfield-Burke Cemetery at Charit Creek. James Hatfield was the son of Ale Hatfield, and a grandson of Joseph Hatfield. Ale Hatfield married Milly Gibson, but allegedly had an affair with Elizabeth Young. When he and Milly divorced in the 1830s, he moved to Indiana with Elizabeth and they were married there.

Based on this lineage, Joseph Hatfield was the great-grandfather of William Riley Hatfield, who was killed on the Big South Fork River in 1892. William Richard Claborn “Dick” Hatfield (1861-1924), who was murdered by Newt Blevins in 1924, was Joseph Hatfield’s second-great-grandson.

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