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Our "Scotch-Irish" Doaks
The following 'woven' excerpts are taken from material written by David Doak descendants Marguerite T. Johnson and the late G.H. Hickox in a Doak Centennial Reunion newsletter of May 1979, and a Doak Monument Dedication newsletter of September 1981, with the kind permission of Marguerite T. Johnson, and with additions and corrections (based on subsequent research) provided by K.L. (Johnson) Straight, which was published in the family newsletter, 'The Doak/Doke Junction' on June 30, 1995.
The Term "Scotch-Irish" was coined in America in about 1750, to distinguish the Ulster emigrants of Scottish blood from the other Irish settlers in the colonies. However, the colonial records prior to 1750 show that the Ulster-Scots or Scotch-Irish who settled in America in the latter part of the 17th century and the first decades of the 18th century were universally called "Irish" by their English colonial neighbors.
Our Doak family, having originated in Scotland, first emigrated to North Ireland, then located in the Province of Pennsylvania before migrating into Virginia. At least Samuel, James, John, David, and Thankful are believed to have belonged to the group settling in Chester County, Pennsylvania in the early 1720's. Our ancestor David, whose orginal tombstone indicates he was born in 1710, moved from Pennsylvania into Augusta County, Virginia circa 1740 and eventually settled circa 1768 on a 1100 acre estate obtained from the British Crown on what was known as Black Buffalo Lick, Montgomery County, (now Wythe County), in Southwestern Virginia. There he erected one of the first mills in the area, a remnant of which is still standing on the creek. His sons fought in Lord Dunsmore's War in 1774 and the Doak Mill became a rallying point for the Patriots of the Revolution. There were Doaks in that war too.
Today the only tangible evidence of the Doak presence on 'Black Lick', so far as we know, is a lonely graveyard in a farmer's field. Only one gravestone remains today of the many that were in the Doak burying ground more than sixty years ago and this happens to be that of our ancestor David Doak, who was buried there in 1787. His last wife, Mary was buried besides him in 1826. David and Mary's stone and one lonely wild cherry tree are all that mark this burying ground of some thirty to forty graves. The burying ground today is on private land that no longer belongs to Doak descendants. After about 1850, most of the remaining Doaks were buried across the road in the Marvin Churchyard Cemetery. The Doaks are now scattered to the four winds.
(This article appeared in the family newsletter, The Doak/Doke Junction, 30 June 1995, Volume I)