Biography of Jacob Crabtree 

            Jacob Crabtree was born in Bedford Co., Virginia in 1759.  He became heavily involved in land speculation in Elk Garden, Russell Co., Virginia, serving as an intermediary between the Loyal Land Company / James Patton and early settlers and secondary land speculators.  He married Mary Price of Elk Garden, but the names of her parents are confused in varying Price genealogies.   

            His land tracts were characterized by having been poorly surveyed, and by shingling (overlaying) subsequent land grants.   

            In 1775 he was part of the party of 30 axmen who blazed the Wilderness Trail for Daniel Boone, who was working for the Transylvania Land Company. 

            In his 1840 Revolutionary War Pension Affidavit he states that he served a total of 16 months as a private in the regiment of Arthur Campbell of Washington, Co. Virginia.  More specifically he was in the Ranger Company of Capt. James Crabtree and was occupied with spying on the Indians.  He was in the 1780 expedition against the Tories at the Austinville Lead Mines on the New River.  He was part of the Kings Mountain expedition, but did not get into the fight. 

            About 1800 he moved to Indian Creek in Lee County.  Actually, today the lower end of this creek is in Tennessee, due to a state line relocation.  Incidentally, most of the land on this creek was owned by General Joseph Martin and his family. 

            His residence was a small log cabin, and he seemingly made his living farming his own, land. 

PS  The second Jacob Crabtree who was active in Saltville affairs at about the same time as the above individuals can not be found at this time.

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