John Wilcoxon’s story is particularly intriguing because it intersects with two of the best-known families in our area’s early history. He married Daniel Boone’s older sister, traveled to North Carolina with the Boone family, became a prominent citizen of Rowan County, and helped establish some of the early roads that connected settlements across what would eventually become Davie County.
His story also stretches west to Kentucky and Fort Boonesborough before returning to Rowan County. But perhaps the most remarkable part of his story can still be found here today: the original log cabin where John and Sarah lived more than 250 years ago has survived, incorporated into a larger home.
From Pennsylvania to North Carolina
John Wilcoxon, whose name is sometimes associated with Daniel Boone and Morgan Bryan, was born on September 6, 1720, in Berks County, Pennsylvania, and died in 1798 in Rowan County before Davie County was formed in 1836.
He married Sarah “Sally” Boone in Berks County on May 29, 1742. She was the eldest daughter of Squire and Sarah Boone, the parents of the famous Daniel. Because John was not a Quaker as the Boones were, he and Sarah married “out of unity with Friends.” Therefore, the Boones severed their relationship with the Quakers. That was likely one of the reasons for their migration to North Carolina.
The Wilcoxons traveled from Pennsylvania to North Carolina in 1750 with several other families: the Boones, the Daniel Lewis family, as well as John’s brothers George and Isaac.
Another group that traveled with them included Jonathan Hunt, Edward Hughes, Thomas Parker, William Giles, Thomas Foster, and a few others. Historians place the Morgan Bryan family here a little earlier than these others.
It is thought that these people settled in the area that is now Highway 64 outside of town. There are several records for John in the Rowan County land records, and he received a 640-acre Granville land grant also, which he eventually sold to his son.
A Prominent Citizen of Early Rowan County
John was apparently a prominent citizen. He first appeared on the Rowan County tax list in 1759, was a constable in 1761, and was chosen in 1765 to be the overseer of the road from the South Yadkin River to Israel Boone’s house — location not specified but assumed to be off Highway 64 outside of what is now Mocksville. One clue is that Israel is buried at Joppa.
These early roads were essential to frontier life, connecting scattered settlements with neighbors, trading centers, churches, mills, and river crossings.
Building Roads Through the Backcountry
In 1772, the court ordered that several men, including Morgan Bryan and John Wilcoxon, lay off a road from Salisbury to the shoals of the Yadkin River near present-day Cooleemee.
They were also to lay off a road between Second and Third Creeks to Renshaw’s Ford until it intersected with Hunting Creek.
Did John Wilcoxon Follow Daniel Boone to Kentucky?
After 1776, John’s name no longer appears on records in Rowan County.
According to historian Thomas Tudor, John and Sarah moved to Kentucky sometime between 1778 and 1782, presumably because they had children there. They are both listed in Tudor’s book about the early settlers of Boonesborough.
I had thought that John went with Daniel Boone on some of his early explorations of Kentucky. However, he is not mentioned in Jethro Rumple’s book, where Rumple lists the names of the group funded by Richard Henderson of Rowan to go to Kentucky.
A Return to Rowan County
John must have returned to Rowan around 1794, because from then until 1798 there are several land records indicating that he sold his properties to various people, including his son William. Most of the land was close to Bear Creek, which would now be in Davie County since it was formed from Rowan in 1836.
John died in Rowan County in 1798 and is supposedly buried at Joppa, although there was no early marker for him, as was the case with many people in those times. There is now a marker at Joppa placed by the DAR.
After his death, Sarah moved to Kentucky to live with her grandson, Jesse Boone Wilcoxon, and died there in 1814. Most sources agree that she was likely buried in Boonesborough.
A Remarkable Piece of the Wilcoxon Story Survives
However, the most interesting thing about this study is that the original log cabin where John and Sarah lived, built between 1752 and 1756 at the south end of Bear Creek, has survived to the present.
Over the years, it has been incorporated into newer sections of a much larger and newer home.
The original part of the house was a 17-by-33-foot room with floor planks three inches thick and more than a foot wide, with a narrow staircase to the attic. That room was used for cooking and eating, and all 11 of the children slept in the attic room.
That room was probably built to protect the settlers from Indian attacks. There were no windows in the room, and the steps were reached by way of a step stool with a door that could be pulled up.
More Than Two Centuries of Owners
According to deeds listed, John and Sarah eventually sold the house in 1787, after their children were grown, to Andrew Welty, who sold it the next year to John Rowland.
Then Rowland sold it to Edward Parker in 1793. Parker remodeled the house and added two rooms. He kept the house until 1868, when John Clement of Mocksville owned the land, and he sold it to Dr. Taylor in 1869.
The Taylor heirs owned the property for many years before selling it to Tennison Lowery. Lowery eventually sold it to the Grier Cotton Gin Company in Statesville in 1948.
Armand Daniel of Mocksville bought the property in 1955, added to it, but kept the original part. The additions he made matched the time in which the house was built.
Although he has passed on, the house remains an early example of our history and is still owned by his family, as far as I know.
It’s a really great thing to preserve history.
Imagine a structure built in the 1750s — 270 years ago, when this area was still part of the North Carolina backcountry — still standing as part of a Davie County home today!