John J. Fleming
John J. Fleming was born on 9 June 1812, by the date on his gravestone, in Lee County, Virginia, the son of Robert Fleming and his wife Elizabeth. The county register that recorded his death in 1881 gives that birthplace and those parents. Family accounts give his full name as John Jackson Fleming and place his birth in Powell's Valley. He was known as Jack.
About 1833 he married Mary Jane Mullins. Four years earlier, at fourteen, she had come with her father, John Mullins, and three younger brothers to Holly Creek, the place where the town of Clintwood now stands.
The couple began married life across the Kentucky line. Family accounts say they settled first on Beaver Creek in Floyd County, Kentucky, at a crossing that took his name as Jack's Ford. Their eldest children were born in Kentucky: John in August 1834, Lavenia about 1837 and Isaac about 1838. Emmanuel, born about 1841, was born in Virginia, so by then the family was back on Holly Creek. They farmed there for the rest of John's life, at the place that came to be called Flemingtown.
In 1850 the census taker counted the household in Russell County, which then took in Holly Creek. He wrote John Fleming, 39, born in Virginia; Mary, 34, born in North Carolina; and eight children: John 16, Lavenia 13, Isaac 12, Emmanuel 9, Martha 7, Sally 5, William 3 and David 1. Four more followed: Robert, George W., Mary Jane and Andrew J. Twelve children grew up on the farm.
Family accounts say he served the Confederacy in the Civil War under Col. Prentice and Menefee but saw no fighting, and that he belonged to the Old Baptist Church most of his life. His son William J. became a preacher. In 1874, when William married Martha J. Branham in Wise County, the clerk wrote the groom's parents as John and Mary Fleming.
John J. Fleming died on 1 February 1881, aged 68, and was buried in the Fleming Cemetery at Flemingtown. His stone reads "John J. Fleming, Born June 9, 1812, Died Feb. 1, 1881," and below the dates, "Asleep in Jesus, blessed thought." Mary lived on at Flemingtown for twelve more years and was buried beside him.
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Cite: Heirology, "John J. Fleming (1812-1881)", https://heirology.com/ancestors/john-j-fleming-1812-1881-09a22c.