1/27/2021 ISAAC VAN BEBBER OF CLAIBORNE COUNTY TENNESSEE

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ISAAC VAN BEBBER OF CLAIBORNE

COUNTY TENNESSEE
Posted 15 Apr 2014 by john_herold1

ISAAC VAN BEBBER OF CLAIBORNE COUNTY TENNESSEE

By Steve Smith (bgood@centuryinter.net)
Isaac VAN BEBBER of Claiborne County, Tennessee was the most interesting man I have studied in
my 20 something years researching. He was the son of John VAN
BEBBER, Sr., Esquire and Margaret CHRISMAN. He was born April 30, 1790 in RUSSELL County,
Virginia near present day Dryden, LEE County, VA. He came to
what was then HAWKINS County, Tennessee in 1796 or earlier with his VAN BEBBER
and YOAKUM family and relatives. His father was very active in the early politics of GRAINGER County
when it was formed in 1796 and then later when CLAIBORNE County was formed in 1801. This
lifestyle young Isaac grew to love.
He entered the political scene shortly a er his 21'st birthday, which was required at that time. His
first position was that of Constable. His father, at this time was a magistrate or Justice of the Peace
and at times a Chairman of the County Court. John taught Isaac the ways of the law and he was
evidently learned at one of the local schools.
The Speedwell Academy which was helped by John VAN BEBBER was most likely his school of
learning. This institution was an all male academy in its first beginnings and at one time an
education from this school was ranked with a college education. Here the young boys learned such
things as law, Latin, math and other useful information for business.
Isaac was well into adulthood when he met and married Mary "Polly" MARTIN,
the daughter of Salathiel MARTIN and Mary COOK. They married about 1816 according to the age of
their first child. They had seven children. I am a descendant of John M. VAN BEBBER, the second
child, and John's second wife, Elizabeth BEELER, the daughter of Adam BEELER and Susan
BOWMAN. John M. VAN BEBBER was also a very colorful character of the Powell Valley along with his
father, Isaac VAN BEBBER, Sr. Esquire. He, too, favored politics and became active at a very young
age, as his father and grandfather. His first wife was Manerva Jane KINCAID, of the most influential
family of Claiborne County. Her parents were William Harrison KINCAID and Susan WILSON. They
were the most wealthy family of the Speedwell area, owning many fine farms, plantation homes and
slaves. John's first wife, Manerva, and his father-in-law, William Harrison KINCAID both died before
the beginnings of the Civil War and John married my grandmother, Elizabeth BEELER.
John's politics apparently were not right for his KINCAID in-laws. They invested heavily in the
Southern cause. John did not join the war. William Harrison KINCAID had a younger brother named
John KINCAID, II. of neighboring CAMPBELL County in Powell Valley. By the beginnings of the Civil
War, he was even more wealthy than his brother William. He invested very heavily into the cause of
the Confederacy. He sent several of his sons to fight for them. At about the end of the war someone
assassinated John KINCAID, II. The area of Powell Valley, in East Tennessee was heavily dominated
for people of the Northern cause. This happened about January 1865. About March 1865, John
KINCAID's son, "Little John" KINCAID, III, came back from the war and led a
raid down Powell Valley and killed several men. One of these men was John M.
VAN BEBBER, my gg grandfather. The reasons for this are not clear to me because of the legends
handed down through the generations. It appears that maybe John M. VAN BEBBER had converted
DETAILS 
"Little John" KINCAID's home, which is a beautiful Plantation home and still stands and occupied

https://www.ancestry.com/mediaui-viewer/tree/37362576/person/28123791276/media/a87cc1ff-e444-4a8e-9f5c-a56bf81b92b8?destTreeId=16960945… 1/1