John Chavis (1763-1838) is often credited as being the first black man to become an ordained minister of the Presbyterian Church and credited for being the first black man to attend a university or college in the United States. After completing his missionary work among enslaved people, John Chavis opened a school in antebellum Raleigh, North Carolina where he taught both white and free black pupils. These are just some of the fascinating details about the life of John Chavis, a man whose name and legacy continues to inspire people today.
The purpose of this blog post is not to retell the biography of John Chavis, but rather is about correctly locating John Chavis in the historical archives. Having a name like “John Chavis” in antebellum Virginia and North Carolina is akin to having a name like “John Smith”. That is, there were many John Chavises who were contemporary to John Chavis (1763-1838). As a result, the records for these other men who happened to share the same name, have been confused and incorrectly attributed to John Chavis (1763-1838). In 2001, scholar Dr. Helen Chavis Othow published a biography titled: “John Chavis: African American Patriot, Preacher, Teacher, and Mentor.” In her book, Dr. Othow wonderfully recounts the life of John Chavis, however some very key biographical details are not correct. Dr. Othow wrote her book before Paul Heinegg published his seminal genealogical research: “Free African-Americans of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Maryland, and Delaware”. In his book (which he continues to update and correct online with the new research), Heinegg has an entire section dedicated to the Chavis family, including John Chavis (1763-1838). (John Chavis 1763-1838, is number 42 in the Chavis family sketch that can be accessed here). I can only imagine that if Dr. Othow had access to Heinegg’s genealogical research before she published her book, her conclusions would be different. Heinegg does correct most of the outdated information in Dr. Othow’s book. For example, Paul Heinegg correctly identifies Rev. John Chavis’ parents as Jacob Chavis and Elizabeth Evans of Mecklenburg Co, VA. I cannot say if Heinegg was the first person who corrected John Chavis’ parentage but his book was the first one I read which did just that. (So please do not credit me for correcting John Chavis’ parentage. Heinegg did that). But I still found some minor inaccuracies in Heinegg’s summary of John Chavis (1763-1838). This is why as more records and research becomes widely available, it is crucial to revisit and update older work.
John Chavis (1763-1838) Timeline
In this section, I will present a timeline of John Chavis’ (1763-1838) life from the primary source records found in the historical archives. Creating timelines is something I emphatically encourage researchers to do because it helps to avoid common genealogical mistakes such as conflating the identities and records of people who share the same name.
For example if John Smith (1750-1804) is documented with a wife named Betsy and residing in Warren County, NC through land deeds and census records, then he cannot be the same man also named John Smith (1760-1797) who is documented with a wife name Rebecca and residing in Cumberland County, NC where his will and estate records are located.
So even if John Chavis (1763-1838) is not relevant to your research interests, I still encourage you to read this blog post so you can see the benefit of creating timelines.
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1763 – Lunenburg Co, VA (now Mecklenburg Co, VA): John Chavis was born to “free colored” parents Jacob Chavis (1736-1808) and Elizabeth Evans (1745-1818). His birth year is an approximation based upon his age reported in later documents, so it is possible he may have been born a year before or after 1763. His father Jacob Chavis is documented through land deeds and court cases in Lunenburg (now Mecklenburg) during these years, so this is undoubtedly where John Chavis was born. John Chavis is identified as the son of Jacob Chavis and Elizabeth Evans in the 22 May 1787 Mecklenburg Co will of his grandfather Thomas Evans and in the chancery suit of Thomas Evans Jr in 1819.
20 Dec 1778 – Mecklenburg Co, VA: John Chavis swore an oath of allegiance to enlist in the Revolutionary War. This information comes from an article in the Raleigh Register on 27 Oct 1835 in which John Chavis showed his oath of allegiance to prove that he was a Revolutionary War veteran.
1786 – Mecklenburg Co, VA: John Chavis is taxable on one tithe (himself) and one horse.
1787 – Mecklenburg Co, VA: John Chavis is taxable on one tithe (himself) and one horse
22 May 1787 – Mecklenburg Co, VA: John Chavis is named in the will of his maternal grandfather Thomas Evans (1723-1788).
1788 – Mecklenburg Co, VA: John Chavis is taxable on one tithe (himself) and one horse.
1789 – Mecklenburg Co, VA: John Chavis is taxable on one tithe (himself) and one horse.
1789 – Mecklenburg Co, VA: John Chavis was employed to tutor the Greenwood orphans of the late Robert Greenwood according to this source. This is a key detail because it shows that John Chavis was not only literate but educated enough to be entrusted to teach white children. It may have been this experience and others like it that propelled him to become a minister and teacher.
1790s – I have not located John Chavis in any records in the 1790’s until 1799 (see next entry). He is not listed as a tithable in the Mecklenburg Co tax lists as he had been in the 1780’s, which means that he moved outside of the county. One possible explanation is that he was a student at Princeton during these years. There are reports that he took private classes at Princeton University under Dr. John Witherspoon and there is a 1792 Board of Trustees report that the university accept a free black man named John Chavis of Virginia. John Chavis is not listed as an official alum of Princeton. Perhaps because of his race, John Chavis was an “unofficial” student at Princeton.
1799 – Lexington, VA: The first time John Chavis appears in the records of the Presbytery of Lexington when he attends their meetings.
1800 – Lexington, VA: The General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church grants John Chavis a license to be a missionary.
1801 to 1807 – Lexington, VA: John Chavis begins his missionary work among enslaved people of Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina.
6 April 1802 – Rockbridge County (Lexington is the capital), VA: John Chavis’ free papers are recorded which refer to him as a former student of Presbyterian Washington Academy (now Washington and Lee University) and that he completed the regular course of studies.
8 November 1802 – Rockbridge County (Lexington is the capital), VA: John Chavis’ free papers refer to him as a free black man of 40 years of age (placing his birth year approximately in 1762).
August 1805 – Chatham County, NC: While doing missionary work in North Carolina, John Chavis’ conversation with an educated black woman was reported in the August 1805 issue of the The Association Missionary Magazine of Evangelical Intelligence.
15 May 1806 – Wake County, NC: John Chavis purchased 233 acres adjoining Mine Creek and Haw Branch in Wake County for $700 from Joshua Eastland of Chatham County. This is the first record that shows John Chavis as a resident of North Carolina.
11 July 1806 – Mecklenburg Co, VA: John Chavis’ father Jacob Chavis gives him power of attorney to recover a debt from William Stewart (born circa 1715) of Wake Co, NC. William Stewart formerly lived in Mecklenburg Co, VA and owed money to Jacob Chavis from when Jacob Chavis successfully sued his own father-in-law Thomas Evans. William Stewart had agreed to pay Thomas Evans’ court costs but left the state for Wake Co. Because John Chavis had just relocated to Wake Co, it would make sense that his father Jacob Chavis would ask him to recover this debt.
26 August 1808 – Wake County, NC: In an article in the Raleigh Register, John Chavis provides details about classes in a school he recently opened.
1809 – Wake/Orange/Granville County, NC: John Chavis joined the Orange Presbytery while residing in Raleigh (capital of Wake Co), which serviced Wake, Orange, and Granville counties.
28 June 1815 – Wake County, NC: John Chavis purchased 111 acres on the south side of the Neuse River on Laurel Creek.
3 December 1827 – Wake County, NC: John Chavis wrote to his friend Senator Willie P. Mangum about a deed of trust for land adjoining Tignal Jones and Job Rogers in Wake County which was given to him and his wife Frances during their lifetimes. This record confirms that John Chavis was the same John Chavis who owned land in Wake County and establishes that John Chavis’ wife was named Frances. I have found no record of their marriage nor records that help to identify her maiden name or birth year.
18 December 1827 – Wake County, NC: John Chavis wrote again to his friend Senator Willie P. Mangum inviting him to attend the next examination at his school in Wake County at Revises Crossroads.
22 April 1830 – Wake County, NC: It is reported in the Raleigh Register that Joseph Gales (editor of the paper), had recently attended an examination “of the free children of color” at the school and “seldom received more gratification from any exhibition of a similar character”.
8 July 1831 – Granville County, NC: John Chavis made a quit claim deed relinquishing any right to the estate of his brother Isaac Chavis (1766-1831). Isaac Chavis had moved from Mecklenburg Co, VA to Granville Co, NC in the early 1790s and is well documented in the Granville census records and tax lists until his death. He had no living children which meant that his estate would be divided among his siblings.
1831 – Wake County, NC: The Orange Presbytery assigned Samuel Smith Downey and William McPheeters of Raleigh to take care of John Chavis and his wife Frances.
27 October 1835 – Wake County, NC: In 1835, North Carolina passed a new state constitution which stripped away the voting rights of free people of color, including John Chavis. During a debate at the state convention it was argued that no free men of color took the Oath of Allegiance. In an article from the Raleigh Register that was republished in the Fayetteville Observer on 27 Oct 1835, it was noted that an “old colored man” named John Chavis a resident of Wake County who was a licensed Presbyterian Preacher, showed the crowd his Oath of Allegiance from 20 Dec 1777 signed by James Anderson of Mecklenburg Co, VA.
15 June 1838 – Wake, Orange or Granville County, NC: John Chavis’ died on this date according to an obituary published in the Watchman of the South, Obituary Notice by Virginia Genealogical Society Quarterly. There is conflicting information on the location of his death. John Chavis was documented as a resident and land owner in Wake County up through 1835, so it would stand to reason that he died at his residence. However a Richmond Presbyterian paper reported that his death was in Orange County. A 28 Sep 1880 (over forty years after his death) article in the Oxford Torchlight, reports that John Chavis died at his residence somewhere between Oxford and Williamsboro (Oxford is in Granville and Williamsboro was in a part of Granville that became Vance County in 1881). It is believed that John Chavis is buried on the plantation of his friend and former student, Senator Willie P Mangum in Rougemont in Durham County, NC.
Discussion On John Chavis’ Timeline
By sequencing John Chavis’ life events into a timeline, we can begin to draw out a broader narrative of his life. John Chavis was born and raised in Mecklenburg County, VA and lived there until he went away to study to become a minister in the 1790’s. His formal education took place in Lexington, VA at the Presbyterian Washington Academy and probably in New Jersey at Princeton University. By 1800, he was a practicing Presbyterian preacher and traveled throughout the region doing missionary work.
John Chavis then settled in Wake County, NC by 1806 where he was licensed to preach by the Orange Presbytery and also opened a school where he taught both free black and white students. He was not only well known in Wake County but also known in neighboring counties such as Granville and Orange. Land deeds show that he owned property in Wake County yet I have found no records of him selling his land. It’s possible he lost the land due to taxes and other debts. In 1831, North Carolina forbid men of color from practicing ministry and in 1835, North Carolina disenfranchised all free people of color. As a result, this may have put John Chavis in a bad financial situation. This is evident when the Orange Presbytery assigned caretakers for John Chavis and his wife Frances. I have yet to find estate records for John Chavis, therefore I have no records of surviving children or heirs. John Chavis’ widow was apparently receiving financial assistance from the Orange Presbytery until April 1842 when it was reported she went to live with friends. I cannot confirm her in any later census records and I have not found a record of her death. It’s quite possible the couple had no surviving children given that widow Frances went to stay with friends and not with any of her children (if she had any).
Records and Family Relationships That Are Not Attributed to John Chavis (1763-1838)
In this last section, I will discuss the many records and family relationships that have been incorrectly attributed to John Chavis (1763-1838). Frequently on Ancestry and on other genealogy websites, I have noticed researchers attaching just about any “John Chavis” record to John Chavis (1763-1838) which has added to the confusion about his identity. So all of the records discussed in this section are NOT for John Chavis (1763-1838) and instead I explain who these records should be attributed to.
Marriage Records:
On 27 July 1801 in Mecklenburg Co, VA, John Chavis married Sally Blair with Thomas Cypress as security. This marriage record is for John Chavis (born 1780) who was the son of a Revolutionary War soldier also named John Chavis (1755-1787). As we can see in the timeline established above, John Chavis (1763-1838) did not reside in Mecklenburg Co, VA in 1801. Instead he was living in Lexington, VA where he had recently completed his studies and received his license from the Lexington Presbytery to preach.
On 8 June 1815 in Granville Co, NC, John Chavis married Sarah Anderson with Abraham Anderson as the bondsman. This marriage record is for John Chavis (1790-before 1840) who was the son of Jesse Chavis (1766-1840) of Granville County. You can read more about Jesse Chavis’ family and ancestors here. Sarah Anderson (1798-1820) was the daughter of Lewis Anderson Jr and Winnie Bass of Granville County. Bondsman Abraham Anderson was a brother of Sarah Anderson. John Chavis and Sarah Anderson had two children together: Anderson Chavis (born 1816) who married Harriet Turner on 21 November 1842 in Granville and Joyce Chavis (born 1816) who married William Mayo on 12 June 1834. Both Anderson Chavis and Joyce Chavis were named legatees in the 1844 will of their aunt Patience (Reeves) Anderson (1776-1844). Patience was the widow of Augustine Anderson (1776-1827) who was a brother of Sarah Anderson and died with no living heirs. As a result, Augustine Anderson and wife Patience, left their estate to their orphaned nephew and niece Anderson Chavis and Joyce Chavis. Sarah Anderson was deceased by 1820, when her husband John Chavis remarried a woman named Nancy Harding on 19 July 1820 in Granville County. John Chavis was deceased sometime between 1830 ad 1840. The reason why Patience (Reeves) Anderson left her estate to her nephew and niece was because they were orphaned and she wanted to ensure that they were financially taken care of. We know that the John Chavis mentioned in these records are not John Chavis (1763-1838) because his wife’s name was Frances and she lived to at least the year 1842. Furthermore the 1820 and 1830 censuses show John Chavis to be born between 1776 and 1794 which is clearly quite younger than John Chavis (1763-1838) and is consistent with John Chaivs (1790- before 1840).
Also note that John Chavis (1790-1840) and Sarah Anderson’s (1798-1820) son Anderson Chavis (b. 1816) shares the same name, “Anderson Chavis” with two other men in Granville and neighboring Wake County. As a result, I have noticed a number of researchers mix up and conflate the identities of all three different Anderson Chavises. Anderson Chavis (b. 1816) who was the son of John Chavis and Sarah Anderson was enumerated in the 1850 and 1860 censuses in Granville County (Oxford district) with his wife Harriet (Turner) Chavis but no children. There was also Anderson Chavis (b. 1810) who married Tabitha Hinton on 4 July 1838 in Wake County and was enumerated in the 1840, 1850, and 1870 censuses in Wake County with his wife and children. The 1850 census shows a woman named Nelly Chavis b. 1770 living in Anderson Chavis’ household and it seems likely she is his mother, aunt or another immediate female member. And finally there was Anderson Chavis b. 1820 who married Carole Jones on 11 Jan 1859 in Granville and enumerated in the 1860 census in Granville.
Family Relationships
As stated in the timeline, there are no estate records for John Chavis (1763-1838) or his wife Frances, which makes identifying any possible surviving children extremely difficult.
Charlotte “Lottie” Chavis (born 1803) was the wife of Littleton Taborn of Granville County. Paul Heinegg incorrectly guesses that Lottie Chavis was a daughter of John Chavis (1763-1838). This comes from the fact that her marriage record to Littleton Taborn on 14 April 1818 in Granville County, shows the bondsman as a John Chavis. However this bondsman was John Chavis (1790-before 1840) who was discussed above. More importantly, there is an apprenticeship record for Lottie Chavis which directly identifies her as a daughter of Mary Chavis. On 8 November 1815 in Granville County, Charlotte Chavis, aged thirteen, was called the daughter of Mary Chavis when she was apprenticed out to Richard Lemay. John Chavis (1763-1838) was alive and well in 1815, married to Frances and living in Wake County where he ran a school, so there is nothing that connects him as the father of Lottie Chavis.
Revolutionary War Records
John Chavis (1763-1838) was not the only John Chavis from Mecklenburg County, VA to enlist in the Revolutionary War. We know that John Chavis (1763-1838) enlisted on 20 December 1778 with James Anderson signing his Oath of Allegiance. This is the certificate that John Chavis presented to the North Carolina state convention in 1835 when they voted to disenfranchise all free people of color. Another John Chavis (1755-1787) who lived in Mecklenburg County is also a documented Revolutionary War soldier.
In March 1783, Captain Mayo Carrington certified that John Chavis (1755-1787) had “faithfully fulfilled [his duties] and is thereby entitled to all immunities granted to three year soldiers”. This is consistent with a July 1778 payroll which shows a John Chavis in Captain Mayo Carrington’s Company. We know that these records are for John Chavis (1755-1787) because his heirs on 20 April 1818 filed suit to be compensated for their late father’s war service. According to a letter from William O. Goode on 12 January 1836, John Chavis (1755-1787) and his brother Anthony Chavis (1757-1831) were both wagoners in the Revolutionary War. His letter further states that John Chavis (1755-1787) was issued a certificate for public debt for 89 pounds signed by Captain Mayo Carrington. So this confirms that the John Chavis who enlisted in Captain Mayo Carrington’s Company was not John Chavis (1763-1838) but rather John Chavis (1755-1787).
Chatham County Land Deeds and Census Records
The following records from Chatham County have been attributed to John Chavis (1763-1838) by Paul Heinegg. However, the timeline shows that there is ample evidence that John Chavis’ place of residence during this time period and his school were in the city of Raleigh located in Wake County. I think the reason why Heinegg attributed the Chatham County, NC records to John Chavis (1763-1838) was from when a conversation between John Chavis and an educated black woman was reported in 1805. However John Chavis did missionary work in Chatham County which is probably why he was recorded there. These records of a John Chavis residing in Chatham County are actually for John Chavis (born 1775) who was the son of the above mentioned Anthony Chavis (1757-1831) and his first wife Betsey Evans.
9 November 1804 in Chatham County, John Chavis purchased 100 acres of land on Weaver’s Creek.
In the 1810 census for Chatham County, John Chavis is enumerated as the head of household of five “free people of color”. In this census he is enumerated next to his brother Peter Chavis (born 1772 – after 1850) and his uncle-in-law Charles Evans (born 1783). Peter Chavis (1772-born 1850) is a confirmed son of Anthony Chavis (1757-1831) and his first wife Betsey Evans from the Revolutionary War pension file on Peter Chavis. Charles Evans (born 1783) was the apparent brother of Richard Evans (1772-1855) who gave a deposition for Anthony Chavis’ pension application in which he stated that his wife Lucy Evans was the sister of Anthony Chavis’s first wife Betsey Evans. These families moved together from Mecklenburg Co, VA and neighboring Nutbush township (split between Granville and Warren counties, NC) to Chatham County, NC in the early 1800’s.
23 July 1811 in Chatham County, John Chavis purchased another 100 acres of land on Weaver’s Creek.
28 April 1817 in Chatham County, John Chavis sold 100 acres of his land on Weaver’ Creek for 100 pounds.
7 March 1818 in Chatham County, John Chavis sold his remaining 100 acres of land on Weaver’s Creek for $650.
In the 1820 census for Chatham County, John Chavis is enumerated as the head of household nine “free people of color” (household looks consist of husband, wife, and seven children).
Native American Roots 
Thanks for this information. Chavis has not hit my records yet! But rumor control tells me I should keep my eyes open!
Mary Jo Murray Gibson Researching Gibson/Collins/Moore/Sexton/Carter/Addington/Fields/Kilgore/Castle/McMurray
Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited, imagination encircles the world. Albert Einstein
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Kianga, This is exquisite work, not only because of all the digging that went into it, but because you have managed to ferret out the truth in a way that Helen Othow will not, I hope, be offended. I am near the end of my teaching career, and figure to do a final round of interviews this summer so that, at long last, I might be able to finish my book on the Proctors/Chavouses. If I make it to Boston, it would be great to meet you. Rebecca Seib, who has done lots of work on the Piscataway Peoples, lives nearby, I think, and I may try to see her. Any chance you know her? With great, great admiration, Paul K.
Prof. Paul L. Krause Department of History UBC Vancouver, BC Canada V6T 1Z1
604 822-5168 NEW email: krause@mail.ubc.ca ________________________________
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Dear Paul,
Thank you so much and I would love to meet if you are able to make it to Boston.
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Kianga, absolutely wonderful research! But, I think I am more confused than ever – LOL. I am leaning toward the 1763 John Chavis, married to Elizabeth Evans as my ancestors because of the Evans-Walden relationship. I show DNA matches to Waldens. However, the other lineage shows Andersons with whom I also match! Just FYI, you show this John’s father as Jacob in one place and James in another. It would be wonderful to learn if Susan America Evans came from these folks and where she connected with the Locklears! Thanks for your hard work. You are awesome.
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Helen,
Thanks I fixed the Jacob/James mix-up. The Chavis family that is ancestral to the Lumbee tribe descends from William Chavis (1706-1778) and more specifically his son Phillip Chavis who moved from Granville to Robeson Co,
The Walden family is a very large family that has married many times over, into different branches of Evanses, Chavises, etc so it’s possible to be related to Walden descendants through a variety of shared ancestors.
What you should do is build out a documented mirror tree of your closest Walden descendant cousin matches, to see if their family lineages at all intersect with your own. Pay close attention to individual Waldens who appear frequently in your cousin matches’ trees.
And another strategy is to triangulate your Walden cousin matches. That is, make note if most of your Walden cousin matches are matching you along the same overlapping chromosome segment.
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Great timeline, Kianga! It is set up exactly like the ones I do for my folks. As a matter of fact, I just pulled the one up for my Calvin after my talk in Hampton, last Saturday, and I was explaining why (for me) this straight, vertical format is best, because every time I make a new discovery, I can just plug it right in, without having to do any reformatting. I also have the “Discussion” section at the end! There, I note any continuing questions, confusions, etc., and once they are answered, all I have to do is eliminate them, once I add the new info to the timeline.
I hope some of the attendees of my talk see this post!
Hugs,
Renate
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Renate,
Thank you so much and that’s wonderful to hear you create similar timelines. I’m a big advocate of this and I hope your attendees will start implementing timelines in their research.
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Great work as always Kianga. Very helpful.
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Dear Kianga and other Colleagues,
John Chavis’s father, Jacob, was the grandfather of Margaret Chavous, who was born in 1814 in Mecklenburg County, Virginia, and who stood at the center of a pretty remarkable family. She and her husband, Alexander Proctor, also born in 1814 — but just across the NC state line in Granville County — left the region in 1840, along with their children, moving to Ohio as part of what the great historian Carter Woodson long ago called “a great exodus” of thousands of African-Americans from VA and NC to the Old Northwest. In Ohio, the Chavous-Proctor family helped build an all black community, Carthagena, in Mercer County, and then they relocated to Oxford, in Butler County. There, Alexander Proctor became active in the nascent emigrationist movement; the family left the USA for Canada in 1860, and a bit later, and again with thousands of other persons who self-identified as African-American, emigrated to Haiti. Two of the couple’s children remained in North America; one son, Joseph, enlisted in the Union Army in Detroit, joined the Massachusetts 54th, and fought in that heroic regiment’s assault on Ft. Wagner, SC. He was killed by the Confederate forces who repulsed the Union attack. Alexander Proctor, a Baptist minister and missionary, died in Haiti in 1865. Margaret Chavous and the two children who also had emigrated then returned to the USA. They settled in Western Michigan, where their descendants live to this day. Other relatives in this very large extended family live in Ohio, New York, North Carolina, and Maryland, among other places; some self-identify as African-American, some as “white,” and some as members of indigenous groups — mainly the Piscataway Peoples of Maryland. It is with them that Alexander Proctor’s roots are located.
If anyone would like to read a fuller version of this story, please do not hesitate to ask. I will be happy to share a brief, published essay that suggests some of the larger dimensions of these brief comments. Or, if you like, just download the essay here: http://faculty.arts.ubc.ca/pkrause/Color%20Scales%20PDF,%20Krause.pdf. If you have any questions, fire away — and, please, if you have any knowledge about the Chavous-Proctor family, do let me know. I have been working on a book about them for way too long, and I am determined to finish it in the year ahead, as I feel the pressure of time more poignantly now that I am facing the end of my teaching career. But mostly I want to finish this project because I owe it to the family to share their history with the wider public.
With appreciation for any help you can toss my way, and with best wishes in all things,
Paul Krause
Dept. of History, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada
krause@mail.ubc.ca
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I appreciate the Chatham County research, because a couple of years ago was trying to figure out if the John Chavis purchasing and selling land on Weavers Creek was the pastor/educator. (So apparently not). The two 100-acre tracts were sold to my Wilson ancestors, near where they lived along the present Beaver Creek Road. This is northwest of the Bonsal community on Old US 1.
My interest was partly because there is documentation of a school located in this same area in the 1800’s and early 1900’s. Earliest reference was in the 1859 Will of Samuel Wilson: “the school house lot” which was within his property. My thought was maybe the local Chavises were involved in the establishment or operation of that school. But from what I’ve found, no one is aware of a Chavis teaching in that area, only that John the pastor/educator taught Charles Manly in Pittsboro, the County seat.
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I am a descendent of Jacob Chavis and Elizabeth Evans. They are my 7th great grandparents. I do have going backwards from them and also forward but I don’t think my research is as detailed as yours. My info on Jacob Chavis comes from Heinegg and goes back to your relative William Chavis’ sister Francis -descendent of bartholemew. I’d love to maybe try to put our heads together. There is quite a tangled web of people.
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I am also a descendant of Jacob Chavis. Id like to compare notes. I am also using Heinegg’s work as a major source in my timeline
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Please help I believe I am a descendant of John Chavis
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Do catwba of ohio have ties to catwba South Carolina are they the same ppl
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Wow, nice research. I have copies of the records freeing a John Chavous that I got from my grandmother, but the interesting fact is how the name was changed. In the beginning of the document is John Chavis and then it changes to John Chavous at the end. Additionally, my 3x great grandfather (Jarrett Chavous -revolutionary war-) I can’t find his parents, but the papers came down from him. In any case, great research. I loved reading this article. Very well put together.
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Thank you ! These people are like directly aligned with me just about . It made my day to find your site you have no idea how powerful this is. Your a goddess!
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I am a descendant of Anderson Ly Chavis and Bitha or Bertha Evans Chavis. I am confused as to who his parents are. I thought is was John Chavis but I don’t know now.
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