The Minor Family of Somerset

From "American History" Life and Times of William Young
Tennessee Frontiersman,Utah Pioneer, written by Gary Dean Young
, ggg-grandson
William Alma Young was born 28 Aug 1805, the son of Jacob Youn
g and Mary Boren, in Smith County Tennessee near the present tow
n of Springfield. He was named after his Grandfather William Yo
ung who had come to Tennessee with his wife Elizabeth Huff and f
amily. Evidence suggests that the Youngs and Borens had been ne
ighborsin the Yadkin Valley of North Carolina. The Borens wer
e relatively long-timeresidents of this area of North Carolina
, where Mary Boren Young was born.Her father Bazel Boren, wa
s a close personal friend of another resident of the Yadkin Vall
ey, Andrew Jackson -- later President of the United States.
Both the Borens and Youngs were part of the post revolutionary w
ar migration tothe SouthWest Indian Territory through the Cumbe
rland Gap. This was before the state of Tennessee existed, an
d the entire area was considered to be a part of North Carolina
. At the conclusion of the Revolutionary War, it became Washing
ton County Virginia. The book 'Kings Mountain Men' by Katherin
e Keogh White, page 150, shows "Baile Boran was a Lt. in the mil
itia of WashingtonCo. Virginia in Sept 1780." In 1775, a grou
p of land speculators called theTransylvania Company bought a l
arge area in present-Day Tennessee and Kentucky from the Cheroke
e. In fact the word 'Tennessee'came from the name of a Cheroke
e Indian village. Early maps show little more than the names o
f streams and widely spaced family cabins, around which grew sma
ll settlements. MaryBoren's great uncle, Daniel Boone (als
o a resident of the Yadkin Valley, NC)was hired to blaze a trai
l from Virginia across the mountains at CumberlandGap to open t
his Transylvania land to settlement. His trail, the famous Wild
erness Road, became the chief route to the new settlements. Mar
y Boren Young named her oldest son Squire Boren Young after Dani
el Boone's father SquireBoone (Daniel also had a brother name
d Squire.)
Although there were a few settlers in the Rowan Co North Carolia
n area by 1745, the largest numbers began to arrive in 1749. Li
sted among the Scots-Irish contingent of that year was Morgan Br
yan, whose daughter Rebecca married Daniel Boone. Morgan wa
s aScots-Irishman born 1671 in Denmark where his family had gon
e to seek exile.He married Martha Strode 1719 in Cheser Co Pen
nsylvania and then migrated tothe Yadkin River country NC wher
e he died on 3 Apr 1763. His son Morgan Bryan Jr. was the grand
father of Mary Boren Young--wife of Jacob Young of Springfield
, Robertson Co, Tenn. Mary's father Bazel Boren was a descenden
t of settlers who had come to the Yadkin Valley from Currituck C
ounty on the Northeast coast of North Carolina. Bazel and Susan
nah Bray Boren's grandson, JacobYoung and his brothers were al
l accomplished gunSmiths, and the town of Salisbury in Rowan Cou
nty was the gateway to the West and significantly in thoseturbu
lent years leading up to the Revolutionary War it became the mai
n gunSmithing center for the Carolina Piedmont, with Rowan-manuf
actured rifles an important tool of survival.
Bazel and Susannah Bryant Boren were married 7 Oct1780 in Rowa
n Co Nor Carolina. Shortly thereafter, Bazel joined the famou
s'Kings Mountain Men.' Losses at Charleston and Camden in the R
evolutionary war had discouraged many patriots, but new encourag
ement came as Thomas Sumpter, Francis Marion and Andrew Picken
s launched guerrilla attacks against the British. In Septembe
r 1780, Cornwallis invaded North Carolina and on October7th Col
. William Campbell's 900 American frontiersmen destroyed a forc
e of1,100 Loyalists under Maj. Patrick Ferguson, covering Cornw
allis' left flank.The loss, sustained at Kings Mountain, jus
t over the boarder from North Carolina into S.C., forced the Bri
tish to retreat