Boone - Mize connection
Alot of people have asked me about if the Mize family is connected in any way to the Daniel Boone family. It is (indirectly)! It is from the intermarriage of three different families. The Boone family, the Grubbs family and the Mize family make this connection happen.
It was in the Yadkin Valley in western North Carolina that our forefather, Joshua Mize, lived during the year 1784. Yadkin Valley is located in present Wilkes County, North Carolina, near the eastern face of the Blue Ridge Mountains. It was in this remote area that the family of Joshua and his wife Patty lived. This was approximately 30 miles from the Boone Family settlement. There were ten children in the Mize household, six daughters and four sons. The children were: Isaac who married Elizabeth; Benjamen who later lived in Rowan County, North Carolina; Jeremiah (our direct descendant); John who later lived in Wilkes County, North Carolina; Elizabeth who married NFN Taylor; Eddy who married NFN Chambers; Keziah who married NFN Chambers; Nancy who married NFN Brown; Polly who married NFN Roberts; and Lydia who possibly married Charles Johnson, Jr. This was quite a big family for today's unofficial normal but very normal for a colonial agriculturally based family. Of these children, Isaac and his younger brother Jeremiah ventured into the then western county of Kentucky in the Commonwealth of Virginia, present day eastern Kentucky. Sometime around the year 1786, they both settled in Madison County, Kentucky. Isaac had married Elizabeth NLN about the year 1775. His twelve children were born between 1776 and 1799. About half of the children were born in North Carolina and the other half were born in Kentucky. The children were: Rebecca born 1776; William born 1780; Joshua born 1782; Ann born 1783; David born 1785; Elizabeth born 1787; Mary born 1789; Martha born 1791; Isaac born 1793; John born 1799; Nancy born 1778 and John born 1796 who died shortly after birth. After moving to Kentucky, Isaac became a Lieutenant in the Madison County Militia in Kentucky during 1788. Isaac's family settled in Madison County, which later became present Estill County, around the year 1786. This is the story concerning how Isaac, the brother of our patriarch Jeremiah arrived in Kentucky. Remember the name of Isaac and Elizabeth's daughter named Elizabeth!
Here is the story of the Boone family. Squire Boone, the father of Daniel Boone bought land close to Holman's Ford located on the North Fork of the Yadkin Valley in present day Davidson County, North Carolina. Squire had traveled from Berks County, Pennsylvania between the years 1751 and 1752 to North Carolina. The Boone family had married several times into the John Lincoln family of Berk's County, Pennsylvania. John Lincoln's grandson, Abraham Lincoln (grandfather of the President Abraham Lincoln), moved through Virginia into Kentucky, through Cumberland Gap via the Wilderness Trail. Because of this, our Mize family can claim being related to President Abraham Lincoln albeit only distantly. (There will be a "Possum Traks" trip to Long Run Park, located in Jefferson County, Kentucky. Long Run Park is the site of a Indian massacre during which the grandfather of President Lincoln was killed.) Back to the story...Squire Boone fathered several children but there are three sons which are pertinent to the Boone/Mize connection. They were Samuel, George, and Daniel. Daniel married Rebecca Bryan, whose family was a neighbor to the Boones, during the year 1756. During the year 1759 he bought 640 acres from his father George Boone to live on. Just five years later, he sold this land and moved farther up the Yadkin Valley located in Wilkes County, North Carolina in 1769. During the same time frame, there was major discontent between the British government and the colonial settlers. A vigilante group named the Regulators regularly fought the the British government troops and the government because of their oppressive policies. Violence was a common occurrence filtering through the valley during the Revolution War. Back to 1769, Daniel Boone was recruited as a scout for an expedition through the Cumberland Gap and up into the region where the Kentucky River and the Licking River are located. This expedition established a base at the adjunct of present day Estill, Powell and Clark counties on the Red River. It was during this expedition, that Boone visited a buffalo wallow near the Red River which was named Estill Springs which is close to the present day town of Irvine. Irvine is where the Isaac Mize family settled. Daniel helped to establish the Wilderness Road during the year 1774 and he ultimately established Fort Boonesboro in late 1775. He brought his family from the Yadkin Valley in North Carolina to Fort Boonesboro settlement on the banks of the Kentucky River. Daniel had several children but of specific importance were Elizabeth, William L. and Squire. Remember the names, Elizabeth Boone and Squire Boone!
Now, here is the story of the third party which connects the Mize family to the Boone family. The story starts with William Grubbs who along with his wife Susanna Hearne moved from Albemarle County, Virginia to Kentucky during 1775. William died shortly after arriving at Bryan's Station in Kentucky. Susanna buried William at Bryan's Station. Susanna and her ten children moved to Madison County, Kentucky where she later died. She is buried on the Tate's Creek Pike, three miles west of present day Richmond, Kentucky. William Grubbs and Susanna had ten children and of the ten children there was only one male. His name was Higgason Grubbs. Higgason is credited with the establishment of two forts within Madison County after arriving there with his mother Susanna. He was educated and had the title "Captain" in the Minute Men of Virginia which was not part of the Continental Army regular forces. During 1787 he was appointed as a Trustee of Fort Boonesboro by the Governor of Virginia. Also, he was part of the first Kentucky Legislature and a member of the Constitutional Convention at Danville, Kentucky which led to the formation of the Commonwealth of Kentucky. Higgason married Lucky Harris who was descendent of Thomas Osborne. Thomas had arrived at the settlement of Jamestown, Virginia on the ship "Properous" during 1611. Higgason's sister, Anna Grubbs, married Squire Boone, the son of Samuel Boone (brother of Daniel Boone). That is the first connection between the Grubbs and the Boone families. Pay attention... Higgason fathered three daughters who were named Morning Grubbs, Nancy Grubbs, and Lucy Grubbs. Two of these daughters married into the Boone family. Think back to the last paragraph where William L. Boone and Squire Boone, the sons of Daniel Boone are mentioned. Higgason's daughter, Morning Grubbs, married Squire Boone and Higgason's other daughter, Nancy Grubbs, married William L. Boone on 16 August 1789 in Madison County, Kentucky. Remember Lucy Grubbs? Well she married John Barnes and they had a son named Sidney M. Barnes. Sidney Barnes was a very respected lawyer of Estill County, Kentucky and became very involved in politics. He bought four hundred acres of land at Estill Springs located in Estill County' Kentucky along with enough slaves to farm the land and attend his family. He was a southerner at heart but ultimately held the Union cause during the Civil War. He became the Colonel of the 8th Kentucky Volunteer Infantry which he raised and trained on his land at Estill Springs. After the Civil War, he served as a Representative in the Kentucky House of Representatives during 1848 and later ran for Governor during 1867 which he subsequently lost the election. He then moved to Arkansas where he became a delegate in the 1874 Constitutional Convention. He was nominated and appointed as the U.S. District Attorney for the Territory of New Mexico. Sidney and his wife spent their last days in Carthage, Missouri.
Now for the Mize connection. Joshua Mize who had lived in North Carolina, fathered a son, Isaac, which married Elizabeth NLN. That union between Isaac (Sr) and Elizabeth produced a son named Isaac (Jr) who married Nancy Walker. The marriage between Isaac and Nancy produced a daughter named Elizabeth. So far, so good. Remember Sidney Barnes? Sidney married Elizabeth, the daughter of Isaac (Jr) Mize and Nancy Walker. This is the connection from the Mize family to the Grubbs family which in turn connects to Boone family.
Long story short....The Boones married into the Grubbs family. Sidney M. Barnes, the son of Lucy Grubbs and John Barnes, married Elizabeth Mize, the daughter of Isaac Mize and Nancy Walker! We are related but only distantly to Boone Family and still even more distantly to the Lincoln Family.
This information was extracted from the book: Isaac Mize of Eastern Kentucky, published 1985 by Franklin Miller Jr.