1. Peter Current, Sr.   2. James Current, Sr.   3. Martin Current    4.  Henry French Current
      (1700 - )                           (1730-1822)                  (1780-1835)                 (1818-1860+)

5. Levi McGlothan Current   6. David Wilson Current   7.  John Curtis Current
     (1840-1918)                                     (1866 - 1941)                          (1891 - 1974)              

James Current, Sr.                             

James Current, Sr. was born December 22, 1730 near Ballymena in Northern Ireland and died August 15, 1822 in Grafton, Monongalia County, Virginia (present day West Virginia.)  He was the first son of Peter Current and Elizabeth Hobbs.  James' first wife is unknown.  He married Margaret Richardson February 5, 1767 in Taylor County, Virginia.  Margaret Richardson was the daughter of Richard Richardson, Sr. and Margaret Cole.  She was born  February 5, 1737 in Taylor County, Virginia and died August 16, 1830 in Grafton County, Virginia.

Children of James Current, Sr. and his first wife:

Children of James Current, Sr. and Margaret Richardson are:

James Current, Sr. came to this country as a Scotch-Irish immigrant who settled in north western Virginia on thirteen hundred acres of land where the city of Grafton, West Virginia is presently located.

James built a sawmill on his property and produced lumber to sell and built an elaborate home in anticipation of his upcoming marriage to Margaret Richardson.  He also continued his work farming the land.

It seems that for several generations most, if not all, of James Current's descendents  were farmers in conjunction with their individual trades they had developed over their lifetimes.

Mr. Current must have been a wealthy man at the time as he purchased a great deal of furniture from Europe for his new home.  It was said that the furniture was shipped to America and was then transported by ox teams to the home.  James and Margaret's home was called "Bluemont".

James Current married Margaret Richardson in approximately 1767 in Monongalia County, Virginia. She was the daughter of Richard Richardson, Sr., and Margaret Coale/Cole who was born 1709-1711 and died August 16, 1830.

Both James and Margaret lived on the farm their entire lives and are buried there -- in Bluemont Cemetery.

Family Tradition

Family tradition dictates the James Current was born about 1730 in Northern Ireland though the date he arrived in the United States is unknown.  As the story goes, he had two brothers who were sailors and the three of them landed on the eastern shore of Maryland.  One of these brothers died but how long he lived in America before dying in unknown.

The other brother was suppose to have returned to his "native land" but again, we don't know how long he was in this country before leaving, or if he married and had any children in America.

On the other hand, its been said that James was married and had one son named William but this unnamed wife died and there are no known records of her.

Current Family History written by Jeff Wilfaht and published electronically July 1999 Genealogy of the Current and Hobson Families, 1906 by Annie E. Current.

Note:  There was another possible son named Hugh Current but nothing is known about him either.

Concerning William, son of James Current and his first wife:  Little to nothing is known about him other than he was born about 1750 and is buried "on the Current farm."

There is another possible son of James and his name is Thomas.  He was born about 1759 in Maryland.  Because of his year of birth and location of birth, I personally believe that he could possibly be William's brother.

JAMES CURRENT

James Current, the founder of the Current Family in America, was born in 1730 on the family farm near the town of Ballymena in Northern Ireland.  I didn't attempt to research the family beyond James, so do not have his parents or his brothers and sisters names.  He did have three older sisters who married in Ireland but have no record as to whether they came to America or stayed in Ireland.

He also had two older brothers who, like him, were raised on the farm and in addition to being taught farm work, learned to be millers in the woolen mill his parents owned.

When James' parents passed away in 1750, his oldest brother inherited the family farm and mill.  He and his brothers, who were very close, were dissatisfied with life in Ireland, for reasons given in the previous chapter.  They decided to sell the family possessions and migrate to America.  After the sale was completed, they divided the proceeds and prepared for the voyage.  They left Ireland in January 1751 and landed on the Eastern Shore of Maryland late in March.  Shortly after landing, they migrated south into Virginia.  One brother died, soon after their arrival, and the other became discouraged and returned to Ireland.  When James arrived in Maryland, he had a gray horse, which he traded for a deed that gave him 1300 acres of virgin land in Virginia.  It was situated where the city of Grafton, West Virginia lies today.

At that time West Virginia was a part of Virginia and did not become a separate state until the Civil War when they parted with Virginia and remained loyal to the Union.  West Virginia was admitted to the Union as a state in 1863. 

The land that James Current had traded for was located in the North Central part of what is today West Virginia, on the Northern shore of Lake Tygert (Tygart).  It was on the Allegheny Plateau and mostly level land, forested, with many meadows and rich soil.  It was adaptable for general farming, fruit, tobacco and livestock raising.  It was in a temperate climate with a long growing season and was bisected by many small streams and water was no problem.

When James first saw the land he now owned, he was a highly elated young man.  Now he was not only a land owner, but also his lands were vast and rich.  As a youth in Ireland his dream had been to own land but there was not any possibility of doing so.

His first act was to hire a surveyor from the Eastern part of Virginia to stake his property.  This was a young man, 19 years old, who had started surveying for fees at the age of 15.  He had previously made a survey of Western Virginia.  His name:  "George Washington".  Little is recorded of the next 8 years of James' life, except that he worked hard and developed a prosperous farm, acquiring more land before it became heavily settled.  In 1759, he met, and fell in love with, Margaret Richardson .

She, also of Scotch-Irish descent, was born in Virginia in 1737 and at the time they met was 22 years old.  Her father (Richard Richardson, Sr.) had moved from Eastern Virginia to a farm near James.  In preparation for marriage, he built an elaborate new home, which he and Margaret furnished with new furniture.  He built a sawmill on his land to make lumber for his own use and for sale, so the house was built with his own milled lumber.  The bricks were fired on the site and this leads me to believe he had acquired slaves as the records state that it was down by his plantation hands.  While this was being done the normal work of farming a large tract of land had to continue.

As an indication of his prosperity, the majority of their new furniture was purchase in Europe, shipped to America and then transported from the coast by ox team.  On the day of the wedding their new home was ready to move into.  About that time they named his plantation "Bluemont".

Their children and their dates of birth are as follows:  William, b- unknown, Hugh, 1763, John A., 1765, Martin, 1768, Molly, 1770, James, 1773, Enoch 1775.

James died August 15, 1882 at the age of 92 and Margaret in 1830 at the age of 93.  Their bodies were interred in the cemetery on their plantation, which today is a part of the city of Grafton, and known as "Bluemont Cemetery".

When the oldest boy, William, became 18, James started a policy he continued with all his children.  He gave them a choice of receiving, on their 18th birthday, one-seventh of his property or the equivalent in money.  His oldest boy stayed home and took care of his parents until they passed away.  On their death, as the eldest, William inherited the balance of their property.

When John A. became 18, he and his brother, Hugh, took their share in cash and migrated down the Piedmont Plateau to Eastern North Carolina.  The only other child of whom there is a record is James Junior who took his share in cash and moved to Indiana.  There he founded a large branch of the Current family whose descendants live in Indiana and Nebraska today.

Additional Notes:

"James Current assignee to John Anderson is entitled to four hundred acres of land in Monongalia County (Monongahela is a river and Monongalia is the county) on Booths Creek to include his settlement made thereon in the year 1776."  This tract, the "Everson Tract" below present Monongalia, Marion County, adjoined early settler John Wray and was across the West Fork River nearly opposite White rock" -- Augusta County Court Records, Grafton, West Virginia.

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