First off, Daniel did not murder anyone nor was he the arsonist. I doubt he did much lusting after other women. Having ten kids probably kept him busy.
First we should identify which Daniel we are discussing. This Daniel was the son of Frederick Wisely and Elizabeth (Kaler). As we previously mentioned he must have been a significant person as his brother and two of his children would name their kids Daniel. There was even a Daniel Jr. but he was not born until 1796 and most of what we will discuss happened around that time period so we are not talking about Daniel Jr.
So far I have not been able to verify when Daniel and Elizabeth were married. Some information copied from a family Bible has a date of 1791, but I question that because their first two children, Elizabeth and Barbara were born in May 1788 and July 1789. If they had been having children before marriage Daniel would probably not have turned in Alexander and Tabitha as recorded in the end of this court recording of April 14, 1796. Note the problems they had even then. Card playing for money, contractors not fixing county roads, someone trying to vote twice, another contractor not keeping city streets in repair and then Daniel turning in those lusting cohabitators. (Shocking)
Daniel owned property. Hundreds of acres and was also in business with his neighbor Kegley. Court records about roads refer to Wisely's Shop. There is a wonderful old hand drawn map on the wall of the Kegley Library on the campus of Wytheville Community College. It locates Daniels house (by name) just west of Wytheville on the Stage Road.
The house was still standing in 1937 when the WPA did a historical report on buildings in Wytheville. There is an extended report of each room and where the stairs were and what kind of railing and chair rails the house had. If that is of any interest to anyone I will be happy to share it with you.
As i have read and reread the available documents I am learning a couple things. First that much of the information people gather is suspect. There are several instances where people have just "assumed" something which the records show to be untrue. Secondly I am pleasantly surprised that the Wytheville community was small enough that nearly everyone knew each other. the Wisely's were friends, neighbors, relatives by marriage or business partners with a lot of people who were not named Wisely. For instance One of Daniels neighbors, Edward Murphy, was busy buying land. The first mention of Edward is in 1782 on a tax record. We know his wife was named Bridget from a property deal in 1792. Later he bought 350 acres next to Daniel Wisely and became his neighbor.
But poor Edward had his problems. In June 1798 he was found in contempt of court and spent some time in the public stocks. In December of 1798 the court ordered him to pay 10 pounds annual child support to Polly Phipps. After that his luck ran out and he was murdered March 16, 1800. The court blamed a woman, Sarah Smith, for "sundry mortal bruises with malice aforethought". Sarah Smith was licensed to run a tavern in Wytheville. After a court trial where she and several witnesses were questioned, she was acquitted.
I wonder what realy happened. Did Edward make a move on Sarah and she beat the hell out of him? Maybe Sarah got him drunk and Abigale beat on him. Was Sarah found innocent because Edward "desrved it"? There must have been a really interesting story buried in there somewhere.
The custom of the time was that neighbors would take inventory of a persons goods to settle the will. Daniel Wisely and some other neighbors (William Finley, James Finley and William Phipps) inventoried his estate. They listed everything down to a frying pan and ten spoons.
After his death his estate was sued in 1803 for fifty acres he "sold" a fellow who did not have a deed. In 1809 his son Edward Jr. left the area. Daniel had some interesting neighbors alright!
But Daniel was a lot closer to the arson in town. A "Negro boy slave" named Henry, belonging to a business man named Hay was sold. Henry was not happy about it and wanted revenge so he set fire to Hay's lumber store. They put him in jail and tried to get him to confess. They even had a local carpenter come and measure him for a coffin to scare him into confessing. The case was eventually dropped and they arrested a slave named Cyrus, who was owned by Daniel Wisely. Cyrus was implicated in the arson of Hays home, and another house in addition to the Lumber house. For some reason they did not prosecute Cyrus but bond him out on good behavior. Daniel Wisely told them to leave Cyrus in jail until he was sold out of the commonwealth.
An intersting note is that the city of Evansham was nearly burned to the ground about this same time from arson fires set by slaves. When they rebuilt the town they renamed it Wytheville.
In our next blog we will trace Daniel and some of his relatives into the present. You might want to check Wytheville #4 to see if you are descended from these pioneering folks in Virginia.
As i have read and reread the available documents I am learning a couple things. First that much of the information people gather is suspect. There are several instances where people have just "assumed" something which the records show to be untrue. Secondly I am pleasantly surprised that the Wytheville community was small enough that nearly everyone knew each other. the Wisely's were friends, neighbors, relatives by marriage or business partners with a lot of people who were not named Wisely. For instance One of Daniels neighbors, Edward Murphy, was busy buying land. The first mention of Edward is in 1782 on a tax record. We know his wife was named Bridget from a property deal in 1792. Later he bought 350 acres next to Daniel Wisely and became his neighbor.
But poor Edward had his problems. In June 1798 he was found in contempt of court and spent some time in the public stocks. In December of 1798 the court ordered him to pay 10 pounds annual child support to Polly Phipps. After that his luck ran out and he was murdered March 16, 1800. The court blamed a woman, Sarah Smith, for "sundry mortal bruises with malice aforethought". Sarah Smith was licensed to run a tavern in Wytheville. After a court trial where she and several witnesses were questioned, she was acquitted.
I wonder what realy happened. Did Edward make a move on Sarah and she beat the hell out of him? Maybe Sarah got him drunk and Abigale beat on him. Was Sarah found innocent because Edward "desrved it"? There must have been a really interesting story buried in there somewhere.
The custom of the time was that neighbors would take inventory of a persons goods to settle the will. Daniel Wisely and some other neighbors (William Finley, James Finley and William Phipps) inventoried his estate. They listed everything down to a frying pan and ten spoons.
After his death his estate was sued in 1803 for fifty acres he "sold" a fellow who did not have a deed. In 1809 his son Edward Jr. left the area. Daniel had some interesting neighbors alright!
But Daniel was a lot closer to the arson in town. A "Negro boy slave" named Henry, belonging to a business man named Hay was sold. Henry was not happy about it and wanted revenge so he set fire to Hay's lumber store. They put him in jail and tried to get him to confess. They even had a local carpenter come and measure him for a coffin to scare him into confessing. The case was eventually dropped and they arrested a slave named Cyrus, who was owned by Daniel Wisely. Cyrus was implicated in the arson of Hays home, and another house in addition to the Lumber house. For some reason they did not prosecute Cyrus but bond him out on good behavior. Daniel Wisely told them to leave Cyrus in jail until he was sold out of the commonwealth.
An intersting note is that the city of Evansham was nearly burned to the ground about this same time from arson fires set by slaves. When they rebuilt the town they renamed it Wytheville.
In our next blog we will trace Daniel and some of his relatives into the present. You might want to check Wytheville #4 to see if you are descended from these pioneering folks in Virginia.
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