An early Kentucky pioneer

Charles-François Daubigny, Harvest. 1851.

Working backward from Benjamin Holsclaw, his father was Jacob Holsclaw (also spelled Holtsclaw or Holtzclaw), my 6th-great-grandfather. Jacob was born in Virginia on 17 February 1738, and was the son of Hans Jacob Holtzclaw, the founder of the Holtzclaw family in America. The story of the family is well detailed in the book The Genealogy of the Holtzclaw Family, 1540-1935, by B.C. Holtzclaw, and this book can be viewed online via the Hathi Trust.

Jacob married Susanna Thomas in Culpeper County, Virginia about 1758. They had a very large family, and the family is documented in the Holtzclaw book. Jacob and Susanna lived together in Culpeper County up to about 1774 or 1775, when they sold their land and moved west to Kentucky. According to the book, Jacob served in the Revolutionary War in the Lincoln County Militia commanded by Captain Samuel Kirkham in 1782 as part of an expedition by General George Rogers Clark.

Jacob claimed preemption on a tract of land raising a crop of corn in 1776 on the north side of Dicks River adjoining land of James and Edmund Archer.

In February 1780, Jacob entered land for 400 acres on Dicks River in Lincoln County. In September 1780 he entered another 1000 acres with Jacob Fishback. In the following years, more settlers arrived in the area.

Source: Ancestry and Kentucky Secretary of State.

Jacob appears on the Mercer County, Kentucky tax list in 1789.

According to the Holtzclaw book, Jacob died on 21 October 1812 in Mercer County, Kentucky. Susanna died on 10 October 1821 in Mercer County.

They had at least the following children:
- Leeanah Holsclaw (1759-
- Elijah Holsclaw (1764-
- Jacob Holsclaw (1767-
- Elizabeth Holsclaw (1769-
- Nellee Holsclaw (1772-
- Susanna Holsclaw (1775-1827)
- Benjamin Holsclaw (1777-1859)
- Ruth Holsclaw (1779-
- Jesse Holsclaw (1782-
- Mary Ann Holsclaw (1785-
- Sarah Holsclaw (1791-
- James Holsclaw (1797-

Jacob's signature appears on a letter he signed on 19 November 1792 giving his daughter Leeanah consent to marry John Collier.

Source: Ancestry. Kentucky Marriages.