Richard Slaven
Richard Harve Slaven (1775-1840) is believed to have been the first white settler of the Big South Fork region, and is commonly reported to have been a Revolutionary War veteran.
See Also: Revolutionary War Veterans
See Also: Noteworthy Settlers of the Big South Fork Region
See Also: The Scott County Lineage Project
See Also: The Slaven family
Biography
Slaven was reportedly born in Virginia in 1775 — perhaps June 23, 1775. Unfortunately, very little is known about his origin.
Revolutionary War
It is commonly reported by genealogy sources and official documents of the National Park Service that Slaven was a Revolutionary War veteran.
If Slaven’s commonly reported birth year of 1775 is correct, however, it is extremely unlikely that he fought in the war. He would have been only eight years old when the war ended in 1783.
Part of the confusion may stem from the fact that Slaven received a large land grant on the Big South Fork River. Land grants were commonly received by Revolutionary War veterans. However, land grants in the Big South Fork region were usually granted by the Commonwealth of Kentucky for the purpose of mining saltpeter. Prior to the early 19th century it was believed that the area of the Big South Fork that includes the Station Camp and No Business settlements was actually in Kentucky and a part of Wayne County, Ky.
After the War
At some point in the late 1700s or early 1800s, Slaven moved to No Business Creek in present-day Scott County. He is believed to have been the first white settler in what is now the Big South Fork National River & Recreation Area.
The date of Slaven’s arrival is not clear, and is frequently reported to have been sometime between the 1790s and the 1810s. It would have been after 1798; it was on Sept. 17, 1798 that Slaven married Susanna Mabel Mounts in Garrard, Ky.
Slaven’s land grant on the Big South Fork River — extending from Bear Creek to Parch Corn Creek — was entered in 1817.
Susanna Mabel Mounts may have been a sister to Margaret Mounce, daughter of John Mounce Sr. and Mary Elizabeth Close. In Robert F. Collins’ 1975 book, “A History of the Daniel Boone National Forest,” he wrote that Margaret Mounce eloped with Tuckahoe Doublehead, son of Chickamauga Cherokee war chief Chuqualatague Doublehead, and the subsequent fallout led to Chief Doublehead’s death in Wayne County, Ky. in 1807. Collins wrote that Tuckahoe and his wife settled at Cherry Fork near present-day Helenwood in Scott County. (Collins’ work has been viewed skeptically, and Chief Doublehead is believed to have actually been assassinated by rivals on the Hiwassee River in southern Tennessee in 1807. There is no contemporary evidence to support the existence of Tuckahoe Doublehead or his sister, Princess Corn Blossom, who is said by some to be the mother of Catherine “Katy” Troxell, first wife of Jonathan Blevins. Margaret Mounce is believed to have instead married Joseph Wade in Kentucky in 1793.)
Slaven had several children — perhaps as many as 15 — and is the common ancestor of most Slavens in Scott County today. He died in 1840 and is believed to have been buried in the Nancy Smith Cemetery on No Business Creek.
It is believed that Richard Harve Slaven’s children were: Rebecca Slaven (1792-1860), Mary Slaven (1801-1840), Sarah Slaven (1803-1888), James R. Slaven (1805-1880), William Slaven (1805-1852), Jonathan Slaven (1808-1880), Ruth Slaven (born 1809), Absalom Slaven (1810-1877), Elisha Slaven (1817-1891), Elisha Slaven (1817-1891), Pleasant Slaven (1823-1862) Andrew Bailey Slaven (1825-1896), and Nimrod Slaven (1830-1901). Pleasant Slaven died while serving in the Union army during the Civil War. His brothers, Andrew and Absalom, also served in the Union army. There may have been more, based on early census records.
Read More: Big South Fork’s first permanent settler (Echoes in Time)
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