By Donald Hursell
The Rose Hill Church, now gone, was in Wirt County just a few feet
from the Roane County line.
The Church originally sat along the creek on Beaver Dam Run, near settlement of several homes. After a flood, the church was moved to Rose Hill. You could see numbers on the boards so it could be reassembled.
It was hauled up the two steep hills by wagon across the property I now own. My mother said the horses or oxen would move forward a few feet at a time, then rest .
I am told by my mother that her grandfather donated the land on
Beaver Dam Run to the church. His name was James King Boggs.
On part of the property there is the cabin that he built and on the other side of the property is the foundation that Simon
Boggs built, were the Late Chester Boggs was born. Chester is the one that owned the Boggs Penzoil in Elizabeth.
One of the Boggs descendants, Lilburn Boggs, became the Governor of Missouri. He was in conflict with the Mormons and issued an order to
exterminate or drive them from Missouri. A Mormon "ganite" (like a secret service) shot Lilburn several times in the head, but he survived.
Also, the late Randal Lynch had told me that he had located slave graves on original Boggs property. From what I have read and heard, the Boggs' were quite a group. Like many families, everything from great success to complete failure.
I have been involved with the James King Boggs farm since 1970 when my father bought it.
dhursell@neo.rr.com
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