John Sifers (c1750-)/Notes

The community of Holston (also known as Holston Post office), is on the North Fork of the Holston in Washington County. It is situated on US 19 where the Little Mocassin enters the the NFH. The LIttle Mocassin passes through a gap in Clinch Mountain. Mocassin Gap was a significant landscape feature for the early settlers since it provides ready access between the valleys on the north and south sides of Clinch Mountain. Brumley's Gap is located about 3 mils to the North of Houston, on the north side of the NFH.

The significance of the above is that a Sifers line first settled in this immediate area about 1840, settling in Brumley's Gap. I believe that the first of these was one Amos Sheffy Sifers. (Note: I use the generalized spelling 'Sifers'...up until after the Civil War most of these folks were illiterate and the spelling of their name depended more on what the county clerk thought than how they thought the name should be spelled---so everytime the clerk changed there's the possibility of a change in spelling of the name. 'Scyphers' is used, but there are many spelling variants---I've counted more than 50 possibilities---and then there are spelling variants that make no obvious phonetic sense at all---e.g. I've found records for some of these folks under the name 'Safors')

My problem here is that at this point I do not know exactly which Sifers settled in the area in addition to Amos. There was at least one other branch of the family in the area for a brief period, but I don't know that he left any descendants before moving on to WV about 1856. Amos known to have lived most of his adult life in Brumley's Gap and left numerous children.

Amos' father is thought to be John Sifers II="Miss Clay". John II settled in Locust Cove Creek in what was then the border area between Washington Co, and Wythe Co, but is now in Smyth Co. Thats a fair ways to the NE, northeast of Saltville. We have unsubstantiated information that John II was born in Germany in 1775, and moved to America with his Father John I (fl 1780-ca. 1850). John I settled first in Wythe Co, probably near Wytheville. Sometime before 1800 he moved south into Washington Co, settling near Saltville---either first on Turkey Creek, or later in Locust Cove Creek, where (at least in later years, he seemed to have raised his family. Certainly his known children (John II, Andrew, and Eve) lived in this area.

There is some question as to whether the John II who married Miss Clay is actually an indpendant person. Documentation on this point is weak, and its possible that John I and John II are actually the same individuals. The period for which we have records for John Sifers extends from about 1780 to about 1870 or a bit later. The 1780 records are for land aquisitions in Wythe Co, suggesting John was at least 20 or so, implying a DOB of 1760 or earlier---That suggests the records for John SIfers in Washington Co probably represent two individuals