James Cannaday

A Patriot of the American Revolution for VIRGINIA with the rank of PRIVATE. DAR Ancestor # A064724

"James Cannaday was a Revolutionary soldier. He and his wife Elizabeth Raikes, married when she was only twelve years of age, settled on 'Runnett Bag Creek', in a house which still stands (as of 1982) opposite Trinity Methodist Church. On the hilltop, to the left and rear of the house, is the old Cannaday Cemetery, where James and Elizabeth and their son, Pleasant, are buried. Their graves, however, are lost, as the stones are not legible due to moss and weathering.

Their house is two stories high with one large room with a fireplace downstairs. On the second floor, there were probably two rooms. The large room on the ground floor opens out onto a large porch. The huge fireplace with a mantle has a very interesting story, as follows: There was a two-pronged fork wedged tightly above the mantle in the old chimney. Mrs. Cannaday placed it there in the late 1700's. She put it there because, after forks were invented to use with knives, a man used a fork to mutilate and kill his wife; therefore, the legislature passed a law forbidding the use of forks. The fork stayed in the chimney until the late 1970s. The legend says that a curse would be placed on any person who removed it from the mantle and tried to leave with it. A boy went into the house, removed the fork and tried to leave, taking the fork. He got as far as the gate, but could go no further. He had to return to the house. So far as anyone knows, he put the fork back. It may be in the wall back of the mantle; it has never been found.

Elizabeth Raikes Cannaday lived to be 105. James Cannaday owned a large number of slaves, as did all of the people in that area. He had a vast estate along these creeks. It is said that many times when people were traveling along the road back of the house, they stopped and bedded down their slaves for the night in front of the house near the spring.

The name, Runnet Bag Creek, came from that of a spring in Smart View Park, spelled 'Rennet Bag,' At one time its water grew corn that was ground at the old Cannaday Mill built over one hundred years ago by a Mr. Treadwell. This old mill was destroyed eventually by fire. The creek joins Otter Creek in the midst of the John Treadwell Cannaday farm, still owned (in 1948) by his granddaughter, Mrs. Sallie Cannaday Ross.

The lake above the U.S. Flood Control Pilpot Dam, built in 1953, covers more than two hundred acres of this farm, which made it necessary to abandon the family home. These creeks wind their way to the Smith's River which forms the lake at the Fairystone State Park. Corn grew and still grows on those rich bottom lands at the top of the mountains in Floyd County; slaves would take their sacks and descend the mountain, carrying bags of corn. The chief occupation of the people was farming.

James Cannaday was listed as a private in American Revolutionary War and is listed in the 1966 D.A.R. Patriot Index on page 382. His will was probated 9 Feb. 1817, executors were am William Cannaday and James Cannaday. Recorded in Will Book 2 , page 169, Rocky Mount, Franklin County, Virginia. 12 children only four mentioned in the will But he said " that he put them all on 'a' equal 'footing' except his youngest 'sun Pleasant' and he wanted him to have the land he lived on himself and two hundred dollars also 'William' Cannaday a certain tract of land and also John Cannaday the right to a cert in tract of land, and he said he wanted them to o 'sumthing' clever for a granddaughter of his also stating that he wanted William Cannaday and James Cannaday to be the executors to the estate. The will was witnessed by James Radford and Joshua Young.

Will proved in court 3 mar 1817. An inventory on 17 mar 1817 listed 6 slaves valued at $1,596.00, household good app. $148.83, farm equipment app. $45.00, 2 horse $125.00, 5 cows $50.00, 5 yearlings $7.50, 28 head hogs $28.75, 14 head sheep $28.00, 14 geese $3.50, one still $60.00, eight barrels corn $40.00. Total inventory app. $2,150.00."

Taken from "The Legend of the James Cannaday Family" by FRIEDA CLARK CANNADAY