 Christina
Nave / Neff Information
There is no documented evidence to know
whether or not Christina Nave lived long enough to accompany Daniel
Haston in his eventual move to middle Tennessee. But nonetheless, some
descendents of Daniel erected a monument to her memory in the
Big Fork
Cemetery, beside the grave of Daniel.
We do not know for sure if a wife of
Daniel is buried in the Big Fork Cemetery. And if
a wife of Daniel is buried next to him, it is possible that the wife could
be a second (or third) wife.
Neff (alternate spelling for the surname "Nave")
researchers have been uncertain regarding Christina Nave's connection
to a specific Neff family. Geographically, she ONLY fits the Dr.
John Henry Neff (who died in 1784) family of the New Market, VA area.
But, her name does not appear on his will, which has led Neff
researchers to assume that she was not a daughter of Dr. John Henry
Neff. And the spelling of her surname (Nave) on the marriage
record was more common for the Dr. Hans Conrad Nave who lived in
Southeast Virginia - Western North Carolina (now East Tennessee) area as
early as 1774. So, Neff/Nave researchers, prior to 2010, concluded
that she was from the Dr. Hans Conrad Nave family.
But, when it became known to
Neff researchers that the "Daniel Histand" that Christina Nave/Neff
married in Shenandoah County, VA in 1773 was living just
across the Massanutten mountain
to the east of Dr. John Henry Neff - and maybe even closer, on top of
the Massanutten mountain in
the Powell's Fort Valley (10 miles or less from Dr. Neff's home) -
Bill Neff revisited (and revised) his thinking regarding Christina's
family.
Compare the
2001 and 2010 correspondence between William (Bill) Neff and Wayne
Haston.
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Christina Nave -
Original 2001 Thoughts from Bill Neff
William Neff wrote: "Christina
Nave G516 (family file #), b. abt. 1750 we believe in Augusta County, VA, was
the daughter of Dr. Hans Conrad Näf and Katherina Isler, who immigrated
from Kt. Zuerich in 1734. We have no records of Conrad Näf after 1750 and believe he was killed during the Lord Dunmore wars with the
Indians. His descendents all moved to the part of western North
Carolina that is now east
Tennessee. From Shenandoah County, VA marriages, we have her married to
a Daniel Histand on 28 Sept 1773."
Source: Personal email (10-15-2001) from William Neff, editor of
The
Neff News to Wayne Haston.
According to Neff research records,
Christina was possibly/probably the sister of:
- John Nave (born about 1736 in PA & died
after 1800 in Cocke Co, TN; he married "Eve ___" before 1760)
- Henry (Knave) Nave (born about 1736 in
PA and died 1787 in Shenandoah Co. or Rockingham Co, VA; he married
"Margaret____" about 1756)
- Unknown sister (born abut 1743 in PA or
MD)
- Teter (Detrich) Nave (born about 1745
in PA and died 1805 in Carter Co, TN; he married Ann Vanderpool in
1766/1768 in Rowen Co, NC)
- Conrad Nave (born about 1750 in PA)
Christina Nave - Revised
2010 Thoughts from Bill Neff
August 7, 2010 Wayne,
Spent the last day or two rethinking who
Christiana Neff\Nave might be.
My current
thinking is she has NO connections with the Naves
found in the southern VA or TN area. Looking
at her being from the Neffs of Manor Twp., Lancaster
Co., PA. Jacob Hiestand aka ... land in Manor twp
was next to that of Henry Neff the 1717 immigrant
who with a 99% probability came from Ibersheim as
did the Hiestands.
As a note the Neff lands were in Hempfield Twp.
until 1750 when the township boundary line was moved
and became Manor Twp.
Regarding the Christina Neff who married Daniel,
he was the son of Heinrich b. 1704. Christina would
have been born about the same time as Daniel. My
guess also is Daniel and his parents were Mennonite
and Mennonites would not be marrying into the
Reformed\German Baptist of TN. It is possible
Christina .......unknown was a woman married to a
Neff who died even before a child was born and she
married your Daniel. Is this possible??
I am fairly certain that Henry Neff the 1717
immigrant to Manor Twp and married to a Barbara,
that she was a Hiestant, a sister to the father of
Johannes aka John Hiestand 1715/1720 d. 1785
Lancaster Co., PA, Manor Twp.
Thoughts,
Bill
August 19, 2010
Wayne,
I think we have make a lot of progress over the past several
weeks and I have a much better understanding of the families
and the time line. When we first spoke years ago, Christina
NAVE would certainly fit the family of Dr. Conrad Naef\Nave
in large part because of the surname spelling.
Knowing now where the Hiestand family was living, we are a
long way north from where the NAVE family had settled. By
1774, the Naves were down in the area of the SE tip of VA
where it meets the Carolinas and TN. An area known as the
Watauga Valley. Family is associated with the 1774 Militia
List, Capt. Evan Shelby, Fincastle (Washington) Co, Virginia
which later became Sullivan County, TN, Washington and later
Carter Co., TN.
The Mill Creek [near what is now Luray, VA] Hiestants were
Mennonite living on the South Fork of the Shenandoah which
is just over the mountain from the Mennonite Neffs living in
the New Market\Mt. Jackson area on the North Fork of the
Shenandoah.
If I am correct, the Shenandoah Marriage records were
burned in a courthouse fire in the 1850's and while pieces
survived, most of today's records have been constructed from
other sources which can explain why the record for Daniel
and Christina does not show a "bondsman" or parents.
Unfortunately the abstracts, which all we have, do not list
the sources.
I think from Kent Hiestand's summary of the entry of the
Baptists to the area, the Neff - Hiestant marriage would
have been at the very early point in Koontz arrival. Do you
know when the first Hiestants left the Mennonite faith and
joined the Primitive Baptists?
A Christina Neff is not listed in the will of John Henry
Neff of New Market who died in 1784. He and most family
members are buried in the Neff-Kagey Cemetery on the
original homestead at Mt. Jackson. About 7 years ago, we
gave a grant to James Madison University to do a complete
survey of the cemetery and we now have the cemetery mapped
and all the stones photographed and inscriptions recorded.
This was done using under and graduate students as a class
project. I did a map of the lands there similar to the one
Kent did of the Mill Creek Hiestants farms. Published in
Neff News as part of the Daniel Bly article.
By the early 1800's, the Mennonite church at Mt. Jackson
had become the Church of the Brethren for the same reasons
that Kent points out the Mennonite church at Mill Creek
became Baptist. Too far from Lancaster.
In the time frame we
are looking at, there are NO other Neff families within a 75
mile radius of Mill Creek. Since Christina is not
mentioned in the will or estate settlement of her father
John Henry Neff [A21], there are 2 possibilities.
- One is that she met Daniel whom she married and
because he was a Baptist at the time, she was shunned
out of the family.
- A more likely scenario is she died at childbirth
which was common. If no living children by this
marriage, no reason for her to mentioned in her father's
will. If there were children and Daniel remarried and
became Baptist by 1784, another reason grand children
would not have been mentioned.
Bill Neff
Note: In an earlier (August 7, 2010) email, Bill Neff had
suggested another possibility;
- It is possible Christina ....... (unknown surname)
was a woman married to a Neff who died even before a
child was born and she married your Daniel. Is this
possible??
Email from Kent Hiestand to Bill Neff
August 19, 2010
Bill
Daniel Hiestand's marriage to Christina Nave in 1773 is
the first "recorded" marriage record we have for the
immigrant Henry Hiestand's children. His "disowning"
of Daniel and Barbara could be because they married outside
of the faith, i.e. Mennonite. The records connecting
Rev. Koontz with the Hiestand's are with Henry's eldest son
Jacob's children between 1784-1794.
Kent
Note: Baptist minister Rev. John Koontz supposedly did
begin preaching in the Hamburg, VA area (where the Henry
Hiestand family lived) in about 1770. Perhaps Daniel
was one of the early converts, in that area, from the
Mennonite faith to the Baptist faith. This might
explain why Daniel's father, in his 1777 will, expressed a
disappointment in Daniel AND why Christina's father did not
mention her in his will. Although John Koontz was a
minister of the gospel soon after his baptism in 1768, he
was not legally allowed to perform weddings in Virginia
until August 25, 1785.
Source: Page 6 of History of the Descendants of John Koontz
by Lowell L. Koontz. Alexandria, VA: Lowell L. Koontz 1979.
Proximity of
Where Daniel Hiestand Lived Compared to the Home of Dr.
John Henry Neff Family
Wayne Haston's thoughts
in 2010: As I was learning about (and studying - and
visiting the area of) Abraham and Henry
Hiestand's
land in Powell's Fort Valley on the Massanutten
Mountain, I began to realize that:
- The location of
their Powell's Fort Valley land was situated on top
of the mountain, between what is now New
Market--Mount Jackson, VA (on the west side) and
Hamburg--Luray, VA (on the east side).
- The Henry Hiestand
family lived on the east side of the mountain and
the Neff family lived across the mountain to the
west.
- Four hundred acres
of Fort Valley land was assigned to Henry Hiestand
in 1756 and 300 acres, adjacent to Henry's 400
acres, to Abraham Hiestand in 1763.
- The Henry Hiestand
family seems to have been split with Jacob, Peter,
and John being attached to their father, while
Daniel (the youngest son) seems to have been
attached to his older brother Abraham.
- According to
Henry's will, apparently Daniel did something to
displease his father. Perhaps he was
estranged from his father and attached himself to
Abraham, as something of a father figure.
- By 1775 (two years
after his marriage to Christina Nave), Daniel was
living in Powell's Fort Valley (probably on his
father's 400 acres).
- Perhaps Daniel had
been living there (or with Abraham, as a farm hand
and helper) even before he married.
- The path down the
west side of the mountain to the New Market--Mount
Jackson area (now Route 730, Moreland Gap Road)
would have been considerably less steep and less
rugged than the path down the east side (now Route
675) to where his parents lived--even though it was
a few miles longer than the path down the east side.
- Dr. John Henry Neff
lived very near where the Moreland Gap Road now
connects to the valley road.
- Perhaps, for social
and trading purposes, Daniel oriented himself more
to the area where the Neffs lived than to the east
side of the mountain.
- This would explain
how he may have met (and courted) Christina
Nave/Neff.
"The Massanutten
Mountains in between [the north and south forks of the
Shenandoah River] were hardly enough to keep the
Mennonites from Holman's Creek [where Dr. John Henry
Neff lived] and the Hawksbill Creek [near where the
Henrich Hiestand family lived] apart.
The several hours it
took to cross the mountain was nothing for a couple of
lovestruck brothers on the way to court Esther and
Elizabeth Musselman, whose family came from the
Hawksbill.
Early settlers traveled
mostly on their feet, walking to eight miles to their
church services and returning the same day. That's
about how far it was to cross the mountain from ...
Holman's Creek to the Mennonite meetinghouse on Mill
Creek.
Until the age of modern
transportation, plain people didn't think twice about
walking just about anywhere."
Source of the above
quotation: pages 63-64 of Harvest Time by J. Ross
Baughman.
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Jacob Neff of Knox County, TN
2003 - Initial
Interaction Between Wayne Haston and Bill Neff Regarding
Possible
Relationship Between Jacob Neff and Christian Nave
From
Wayne Haston to Bill Neff: David Haston,
apparently was the auctioneer or the one who proclaimed publicly
the upcoming auction (paid $1.00 for "crying vendue") in the
administration of an
estate for a
Jacob Neff / Knave in Knox County, TN in
1805-1806. Was this Jacob Neff / Knave a close relative to Christina
Nave? It is interesting that this is the last documented Knox
County, TN record that we have for David Haston prior to his move to White
County, TN. Is it possible that this Jacob Neff / Knave was a
close relative of David's mother and, for some reason, David remained in
Knox County until the decease and estate settlement of Jacob Neff / Knave.
One oral account indicates that
Daniel's wife remained behind in east Tennessee for some unspecified
amount of time prior to her journey to White County to meet Daniel and
other members of the Daniel Haston family on the
new homestead. Could her delay have had something to do with Jacob
Neff / Knave's health situation?
June 22,
2003 Response from Bill Neff to Wayne Haston: Jacob Neff was from a different Neff/Nave line than was
Christina Nave.
2010 - Later
Interaction Between Wayne Haston and Bill Neff Regarding
Possible
Relationship Between Jacob Neff and Christian Nave
August 9, 2010
Wayne: I suggest that we work with the clue that
Knox County, TN "Jacob Neff" may have been closely
related to Christina Nave, since there is a known
connection between Daniel Haston's family and Jacob Neff
in Knoxville.
I see that Jacob Neff is the son of Francis "Frantz"
Neff in the Dr. Hans Heinrich Neff Jr. record. Does that
mean that Jacob Neff was from the same general area [of
Virginia] as the Hiestand family?
Bill: Looks like your Hiestand's in the Luray
area lived on the Shenandoah River. If you go directly
west to I-81 just north of New Market will find where
our Neff there lived on the "North Fork" of the
Shenandoah at Mt. Jackson.
August 19, 2010
Wayne:
Francis Neff [father of Jacob Neff of Knox County, TN -
died 1804] would have been about 33 when Christina Nave
married Daniel Haston.
Bill:
Too young to be Christiana's father. And yes, pointers
seem to lead us now in the directions of the Neffs in
New Market area. Spelling Nave is a common error written
by English clerks recording records, especially when the
families first
language was German.
Wayne:
Christina might have been the younger sister of
Francis, right? We think Daniel Haston was born in about
1750. If so, she would have been the aunt of Jacob Neff
of Knoxville, correct? And David Haston (who was
auctioneer for Jacob Neff's Knoxville estate) would have
been first cousin to Jacob Neff, if Jacob and Christina
were siblings.
August 20, 2010
Bill:
Yes, I think the relationships are now falling in
place. Prior to our recent discussions, I must admit I
did not have any knowledge of the Luray (Mill Creek)
[Hiestand] families. That sheds an entirely new light on
the entire issue and now as you point out the Knoxville
estate of Jacob Neff and David Haston falls in place.
Wayne:
I think we've made some significant progress
regarding the highly possible identification of
Christina Nave's family. We may never know for sure, but
at least we have a working hypothesis that is supported
by circumstantial evidence...in VA as well as in TN.
Notice that Dr. Neff married Ann Steckley/Stickley
and the
Stickley family connects with Daniel Hiestand's
family all the way to Knox County, TN and over to White
County/Van Buren County, TN where some of the Stickley
family still resides.
Daniel Stickley (WPA document pages 133-134)
purchased some items from Jacob Neff's 1806 estate sale
in Knox County, TN and Pheby Stickley (WPA document,
page 164) was paid 8.50 out of the estate sale funds,
for some unknown reason.
Source: Records of Knox County, Tennessee - Estate Book,
Volume 1 (1792-1811). Works Progress
Administration, July 2, 1936. (Knox County, TN, Mf Roll
#155, Volume 1 July 1792-1811)
February 14, 2017 Email from Bill Neff in
response to Wayne Haston's question - Do you have a copy
of Dr. John Henry Neff's will: Dr. Hans Heinrich Neff
Jr's Will B-101, Shenandoah County Courthouse,
Woodstock, VA.; Will dated 1 Jun 1784; Proved 29 Jul
1784. One of the
witnesses to the will was Adam Neff [D51] who lived
there at the time studying
medicine under Dr. Neff.
1785 Named children of John Henry Neff, Jacob,
Christian, & Abraham signed a
Mennonite petition in Shenandoah Co. VA in 1785. see
Miscl Petitions,
10 Dec 1785, 67-48, Virginia State Library, Richmond,
VA. |
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Sarah Nave -
Sister-in-Law of Jacob Mitchell
Jacob Mitchell was an original
(1808) land grantee in White County, TN whose land was
adjacent to that
of Daniel & Joseph Haston. A family Bible record (supposedly
in the possession of Glen Cowan, great-great grandson of Morris and
Elizabeth [parents of Jacob Mitchell]) indicates that this Jacob
Mitchell (one source [from Sharon
Spurgeon] says "Montgomery Co. Maryland May 1 1784")
married a Lucinda Hastings. This Lucinda Hastings possibly
was a daughter of Daniel Haston. Jacob Mitchell's brother, Rev.
James Mitchell, married a Sarah / Sally Nave (born March 4, 1793) from
Rockingham County, VA in Knox County, TN on October 6, 1808.
Questions:
-
Was this
Sarah / Sally Nave related to the Jacob Neff / Nave / Knave for whose
estate settlement David Haston was the auctioneer?
As per Bill Neff: No, they were from different
Neff/Nave family lines.
-
Was Sarah /
Sally Nave in some
way related to the Christina Nave who married Daniel Histand on September
28, 1773 in Shenandoah/Dunmore County, VA?
No, because (as indicated above) the Jacob Neff of
Knox County, TN was very likely closely related to
Christina Nave/Neff. IF Christina Nave/Neff
was the daughter of Dr. John Henry Neff, Jacob Neff
would have been her nephew (son of her brother
Francis).
Email Correspondence Between Wayne Haston &
Bill Neff -- June 2003
Sarah or Sally Nave is our [G51238] born 4 Mar 1793 in Blount
Co., TN d. 20 Mar 1850 married Rev. James Mitchel whom I have born
19 Oct 1786 and died 2 Jun 1876. Family moved to Polk Co., MO.
Sally owned the "Mitchel Bible' and entered the family records.
These are only notes I have.
This family is not related to the Neffs from Shenandoah Co., VA who
were in Knox Co., TN. They were all Mennonite or Church of the
Brethren.As per Bill Neff (June 2003)
neffnews@ix.netcom.com
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