Who Were the Wayne County West Virginia Scaggs?

There were groups of Scaggs families who showed up in Wayne County, Virginia in the 1850s.  Wayne is now the West Virginia county across the Tug Fork from Lawrence County, Kentucky, the ancestral home of the Big Sandy Skaggs descended from Old Peter.  Who were these Scaggs families and were they related to Old Peter?

We know one of the families was headed by Squire Skaggs, son of Lewis Skaggs and Nancy McDowell, grandson of Old Peter.  Squire shows up in the 1860 census in Wayne County and his son Jesse Harman Skaggs has a birth record there in 1859.  Squire and his son Clark served in the Confederate Army and Squire was reported to have witnessed the death of Gen. Stonewall Jackson at the Battle of Chancellorsville.

Another family was headed by John Pauley and his wife Susan Skaggs, the daughter of Solomon Skaggs and Silvenia Cains and granddaughter of Old Peter.  Susan Skaggs and John Pauley were married in 1856 in Wayne County and lived there in the 1860 census.

Now here is where the mystery begins.  The following unidentified Scaggs families appear in the 1860 census for Wayne County, Virginia:

  • William M Scaggs born 1830 in Virginia, with wife Adeline, daughter Karen Ferguson, and sons John, Lindsey and Harrison Scaggs
  • Harden Scaggs born 1831 in Kentucky, with wife Jane and children Isaac, Eldridge, Henry, California and Mary
I thought we had all of Old Peter's and his brother Solomon's kids and grandkids accounted for, but maybe not?  Does anyone know about the origins of the William M Scaggs or Harden Scaggs families?  Are they descendants of Old Peter or his brother Solomon?  By the way, William M Scaggs is listed in the 1880 and 1900 censuses as being from Kentucky, not Virginia.  Also, in the 1860 census Harden Scaggs is on page 43 and William is on page 44.  Could they have been brothers?

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