The Teays Family Web Page

 The below Picture and Maps are courtesy of Bud Teass at:
Teass Family Genealogy Research Site

The Teass Family Genealogy Research Site
Genealogical information about the Teass family, also spelled Tais (pre-1700),
Tays, Taze, Teays, Teaze, Teas, Tees, Taes

Teasses Mansion (Scotland)

The mansion came upon hard time but now well restored.  The Morrison live there now - and my reading of it is they do not wanted to be visited.  .    .

 

...out of curiosity, do you know the Teasses tartan and crest? 
 (from an e-mail Bud Teass Shared, 12/07)

There is a short or long answer.  As I see it today the short answer is the Leslie Tartans.

  But there is more to the story. Our name is taken from a Scottish location “Teasses”. The people living at Teases up to 800 AD thought of them selves as Picts.  The Picts were invaded and their Kingdom was lost in 850 AD by people from Scandinavia - Demark Norway area. This was the start of the Viking movement. This Clan identify was fading further with the feudal French Europe entering into Scotland.  This transitional period lasted until the Norman French took over 1100.AD (evidence by land ownership shifted to “private”).  The western part of Scotland had stronger ties to the clan family tartan tradition – keeping it alive.  Whereas where the eastern group (we identified with DNA?), is with Scandinavia history and did not identify with Scottish tartans  .  

 However the tartan was (is) attractive and adapted by the eastern Scottish Norman French 1600 and up to 1750.  But then the tartan was outlawed - suppressed by the British after their successful invasion (1742) Scotland from the south.  The tartan was reinstated in Scotland in the mid 19th century.  Meanwhile the family (Leslie) moved their seat of power from Scotland to Ireland (see my castle Leslie attachments). 

 So is the tartans connected to Teass via DNA connection - one answer, if the tartan belong to families names or land - yet another answer.   If Culture determines the tartan connection - yet another path.  (And of course good taste in colors may give another answer).

 I would suggest a Teass, Teas. Family meeting and have a Diet of Padgett’s hill (perhaps in the summer of 08) to clarify the Teass Tartan issue (and pick the best looking as our choice!). 

 There is somewhere a Teass family crest I will run across it at some time and have it available.  I am not sure however of its accuracy belonging to the French side of the history if at all valid.

 Perhaps somewhere in the Leslie family records on the reemergence of the 19 century Tartan there is a historian who identified the Pictish Teass Hill people and their tartan and recommend reuse of their tartan to the family – Leslie - Further work required. but untill an agreement otherwise Leslie will do..

 Merry Christmass and welcome into our family Henry Teass Hubbard my daughters Son.

 

 

 

A Teays Family History Link:

http://www.rootsweb.com/~wvkanawh/Civilwar/teays.html

STEPHEN TEAYS

    Stephen Teays, a laborer, joined the Kanawha Riflemen, May 8,1861 at Charleston, West Virginia. He was born at Upper Falls on Coal River, October 24, 1839, and died February 5, 1905. He was the son of James T/S Teays, born 1817 in Virginia, and Mary Ann Thomas, born 1820 Virginia and died September 19, 1900. Stephen had seven siblings: John H., born 1840; Mary C., born 1847; James W., born 1850; Mice E., born 1852; Martha H., born 1854; Parthenia, born 1857; and Robert, born 1859. James and Mary Teays were married November 26, 1838, by Reverend E. Hewes Field. His grandfather was the first settler of Coalsmouth on the lower side of Coal River. The Teays family ran the stage coach depot, tavern and inn on the lower side of St. Albans.

    Stephen Teays was a captain at Winchester, Virginia, September 19, 1864. He was POW at Pt. Lookout, Maryland, September24, 1864. He was released February 25, 1865. After taking oath, he spent four years in Missouri. In later years, he was city treasurer of St. Albans in 1896, liquor dealer and tavern owner.

    Stephen bought the John P. Turner home located at B Street in St. Albans in 1880. Living in Stephen's household in the 1880 census were Mary, his wife; son, John H.; daughters: Alice E, Martha A., and Ella; servants: Mason Hanie and Waitee; sister-in-law, Elizabeth Thomas; and brother, James W. Teays.

A Teays Family History Link:

http://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/usgenweb/wv/kanawha/wv/school2.txt

Steven Thomas Teays

    Steven Thomas Teays, of St. Albans, gave the following sketch showing how they did things when he was a school boy. The people were most all Methodists in that community, and built a beech log house 40x60 feet, and used it for a church and school house.     

    Mr. Teays remembers seeing more than a hundred horses hitched near the old beech church on various occasions. The people came from Elk river, Coal river and from up and down the Kanawha river, and took part in old-fashion Methodist meetings. 

    Mrs. Joplin taught the first school in the old beech church in 1845, and also taught in 1846 and 1847. A teacher, whose name was Kirkum, taught in 1848. During that year, Teays, then a boy of ten years of age, full of fun, to vary the monotony of a dreary school day, blew the ashes off the top of the wood stove into the eyes of a boy schoolmate, who yelled considerably, and under the excitement, the teacher seized a piece of stove wood and struck Teays a blow on the head, which disabled him for some time. The teacher started for parts unknown, and has not yet returned. Steve's father was away at the time, but his uncle got his gun and started after the teacher, but the uncle soon found that he could not carry a gun and catch a scared teacher who had no gun to carry. 

    Mr. Teays is one of the many good citizens of St. Albans, and is engaged in the mercantile business. He still carries the scar made by the teacher Kirkum.

A Teays Family History Link:

http://www.rootsweb.com/~mohenry/biography/hcbioT.htm

                                                                    James E. Teays 

    The Teays family is one of the oldest pioneer families of Henry County and western Missouri. Since 1840 when the elder Teays, father of James E. and Edward Teays, of whom this sketch is written, first entered a large tract of land in the southeast corner of Bear Creek township, this land has remained in possession of the family.

    James T. Teays, the elder, in his dying words to his sons, said: "Take care of the place." Ever since that time the sons have been improving this splendid tract of seven hundred seventy acres, one of the largest individual farms in Henry County. There are two sets of splendid improvements on this farm. The homestead is one of the largest and best built structures in the county. James E. Teays was born March 20, 1844, in a log cabin which was the first structure erected by his father upon his land in 1841. He is the son of James T. Teays (born 1807, died April 1, 1875).

    James T. Teays was a native of Kanawha County, West Virginia, and he migrated to Missouri in 1840. The following year he brought his family to the new home in Henry County and resided here until his death. He was accompanied by his father-in-law, John Everett. Until the log cabin could be erected in 1841 the family lived under a large tree which stood upon a high point of the Teays land.

    Mr. Teays entered Government land and also purchased land at $1.25 an acre until he accumulated a large tract of nearly 800 acres. In West Virginia James T. Teays married Eliza Ann Everett, born in Cabell County, Virginia, in 1810 and departed this life in 1880. The children born to James T. and Eliza Ann Teays were: Stephen, Francis Asbury, William Carroll, and Mary Elizabeth, deceased; James E., of this review; Edward, also of this review; Virginia and Henry deceased. Mr. Teays was a Democrat and a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South.

    The brothers, James E. and Edward Teays, erected the Teays Chapel on a beautifully wooded and grassy plot of ground between the two residences on the place, because of the expressed wish of their parents. James T. Teays and his wife had planned, eventually, to build the church and had selected the place for its erection. Not long before her death the mother accompanied her son, James E., to the site she preferred and said to him: "Father and I often talked of building a church on this spot, and if you build it, build it right here." He did so and the church is a handsome, substantially built structure, situated on a grassy sward shaded by giant forest trees, making it one of the most beautiful country churches in this section of Missouri. The Teays brothers built this chapel in 1881, and consecrated the edifice to the memory of their parents. What better memorial could devoted children erect than a religious edifice? The deed showed nobility of character and a reverence for the memory of godly parents seldom surpassed or equaled.

    The mother of Joseph H. Wilson, the sage of Deepwater township, and James T. Teays' mother were sisters, of Revolutionary ancestry, the particulars of which can be found in the biography of Mr. Wilson, elsewhere in this volume. The great-grandfather of James T. Teays was once captured by savage Indians and kept captive for seven years in Virginia. James T. Teays was the son of Stephen Teays, who married a Miss Carroll of the Carrolls of Carrollton, Virginia, and of Carrollton, Ohio.

    Thomas Teays, father of Stephen Teays, married Catherine Lee and was an officer in the Colonial Army which served in the French and Indian Wars. He was captured by the Indians and condemned to death at the stake, but his life was saved by the intercession of a squaw. He was held a prisoner for seven years. The family is of French Huguenot origin and the direct ancestors in France fled to Germany to escape religious persecution.

    James E. Teays has lived all of his life upon the land where his birth occurred. He has never married but has devoted his life to the care of his brother's family. He is one of the best citizens of Henry County, who is universally respected and stands among the leaders of his county. Edward Teays was born on the Teays homestead June 5, 1850, and was married April 15, 1875, to Miss Elizabeth Dickison, who has borne him seven children, six of whom are living:

    Mrs. Elizabeth (Dickison) Teays was born in Bear Creek township, Henry County, January 23, 1854, and is the daughter of Samuel (born May 25, 1807, died 1862) and Mrs. Sarah Ann (Combes) Dickison (born July 23, 1816, died March 5, 1876), natives of Virginia. Samuel Dickison moved to Ohio from his native State with his parents in 1819 and was there reared to young manhood. He came to Henry County and entered a tract of Government land in Bear Creek township in 1836.

    Mrs. Elizabeth Teays was the only child of this second marriage of her father. There were three children born of a former marriage, one of whom is living:

source: 1919 History of Henry Co MO, Uel W. Lamkin, Historical Publishing Co, pg: 384

 

A Teays Family History Link:

http://www.rootsweb.com/~mohenry/biography/hcbioT.htm

                                                                James E. & Edward Teays

    Teays Brothers, James E. and Edward Teays, are natives of Missouri, and were born in Henry County. Their father, James T. Teays, was born in West Virginia, where he grew to manhood and married. He moved to Missouri in 1840 and settled in Henry County where he bought land and improved the farm where these brothers now reside. He was one of the early pioneers of the county and was a man esteemed by a large circle of friends and acquaintances.

    James and Edward here grew to manhood, spending their youth on the old home farm, and attending the common schools, where they were educated. They now own 920 acres of land in a body and mostly improved and in cultivation. There are two good farm residences upon it and also other buildings. They are extensively engaged in feeding and handling cattle and hogs.

    Edward Teays was married in February, 1875, to Miss Sarah E. Dickinson, a daughter of Samuel E. Dickinson. They have four children: Willie C., Mary E., James D. and Sarah V. They are members of the M. E. Church, South. There is a new church building located on this land (Teays Chapel), built by subscription, and to which these brothers contributed largely and liberally of their means. J. E. Teays is connected with the Masonic fraternity.

source: 1883 History of Henry and St. Clair Counties Missouri , National Historical Co., pg: 772

 

A Teays Family History Link:

http://www.usfamily.net/web/pankake/wvcabell.htm

PANCAKE

          Isaac Pancake and his three brothers migrated from Germany in 1790. One of these three brothers died shortly after his arrival in America, one settled near Staunton, Virginia, one went to the far West, and Isaac located in the Scioto Valley in Ohio. One of his descendants, Daniel Jefferson Pancake, was born in 1862 in Deering, Ohio, and died in Huntington, in 1928. He was for many years general agent for the Singer Sewing Machine Company in the tri-state region, and made his home at different times at Catlettsburg, Kentucky, Charleston, Clarksburg, Moundsville, and Ronceverte. He married first, in 1885, and had a daughter, Madge, now Mrs. F. H. Hall, and a son Kenna. In 1894 he married a second wife, Ella Hatcher Teays, who was a daughter of James Stephens Teays and a granddaughter of Thomas Teays, who came from Bedford County about 1774 and settled in Teays Valley, and for whom the valley was named.

          In the early part of the nineteenth century James Stephens Teays owned the farm on which the International Nickel Company plant is now located, and lived in a log house which was not torn down until the company began the erection of its plant. He sold this farm in 1821 for $172, and moved to Cole's Mouth, now St. Albans.

          To the union of Daniel Jefferson Pancake and Ella Hatcher Teays Pancake were born: Stella, married J. Bert Schroeder; John Teays; and Paul Clinton, who served in the navy 1918-1919, and in 1934 married Mary Martha Taylor of Portsmouth, Ohio.

          In 1913 Daniel Jefferson Pancake moved from Ronceverte to Huntington, and engaged in the real estate business. He continued in this business until 1919, when his son, Paul, returned from his war service, and D. J. Pancake, and his three sons, organized the D. J. Pancake and Sons Real Estate Company, which did a successful business until John Teays Pancake took a position with the Internal Revenue Department. Then Paul C. Pancake organized the Pancake Realty Company, which is one of the outstanding real estate agencies in the city.

The first two sentences of the above account are not true.  According to his death certificate, Daniel Jefferson Pancake was the son of Jackson and Mary (Sowards) Pancake of Lawrence County, Ohio.  Jackson, ca. 1836 - 1883, was the youngest son of Abraham and Lucinda (Brandon) Pancake.  Abraham Pancake was born about 1780 in Virginia, and is probably the son of Andrew Pancake who died in Hampshire County, (West) Virginia in 1793.

A Teays Family History Link:

http://www.wvculture.org/history/journal_wvh/wvh23-1.html

Victoria Hansford Teays

    The true story may never be known but in the next move between two and three p.m. the Confederates started firing "red hot" projectiles. Some passed within twelve feet of the 34th Ohio who began a retreat across the west side meadows to the "pike." One shot tore up a fence and another hit the barn mentioned before and set it on fire. The artillery on both sides kept up an unusually fierce bombardment, considering the number of guns engaged, mingled of course with continual infantry firing. Artillery kept on firing until five o'clock and the infantry engagement kept up until darkness came. In the engagement the Confederates had eighteen killed and eighty-one wounded; from Lightburn's command twenty-five were killed and ninety-five wounded and 190 were missing. During the afternoon the town suffered terrific loss from fire. The Methodist Church, South, used as a quartermaster's store, the Branch Bank of Virginia, the widely known Kanawha House, Brooks and Whittekers stores, and the famous Mercer Academy all went up in flames. Also several warehouses and cavalry barns were destroyed.

    The evening of the 13th found Lightburn and a huge supply train on their way to the Ohio River. He had moved his troops, kept up a continual skirmish for fifty miles, fought one battle and saved over a million dollars worth of supplies. He had faced a superior force and marched his men over a hundred miles. The broken army reached Ravenswood then moved to Point Pleasant by boat. Lightburn's Retreat is one of the high points of the war in the Kanawha Valley and is still studied by arm chair military strategists.

    Arriving at Point Pleasant by the 17th, Lightburn wrote out his version of the whole operation, a long detailed excellent report, the original of which is in the records on file in our State Archives.

    One would have expected General Loring and his Confederate troops to move on down the Great Kanawha in an endeavor to take over the position at Point Pleasant. Loring, however, did not press his advantage and was satisfied to consolidate his gains by occupying the town of Charleston. His local operations were of great interest to the civilian sympathizers on both sides.

    Down at Coals Mouth, a young woman, Victoria Hansford Teays, took in the local happenings and later recorded it in a diary. On the morning of the 13th of September wrote, "My father said I am sure I hear cannon." This was true as the sound carried easily twelve miles. A woman ran to the Teays home to tell them to come to the mouth of Coal River that everything from Charleston was "on retreat." "Such a sight I never saw before or expect to see again," Miss Teays continued, "the river as far as you could see up and down was full of boats of all kinds and when I say the river was full of boats I mean just what I say. A person could almost have crossed the river by jumping from one boat to another." This was Lightburn's retreat. On the north side of the river the road was black with wagons and citizens going down the river in front of the army. But being a "southern lady" she noted: "That all this time the cannonading was going on it was music to us."

Click the above link for the Full Story from: "The Civil War Comes to Charleston"

 

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