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Private
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William Sentelle He was born a flat lander more than two hundred years ago and he was raised a flat lander, but he became a mountain man and established a dynasty of mountain men and women that has flourished through the decades to the present time. He believed in freedom and liberty, the rights of man, and the dignity of the individual. He fought through seven long years of a war that those things might be. He was a God fearing man and he so instilled the Christian religion in his offspring in those long ago years that many of his descendants to this day preach the word of God. He believed in education in a time when book learning was hard to come by and was only for the high born and well-to-do. Yet his inspiration has sired a long line of school teachers through the generations. He was a restless man in his young days and he was moved about because he was searching for something and that something was what man has searched for since the beginning of time. It was peace and happiness and a place to live his life as he saw fit. Yet, with all his wanderings, he was a family man who raised a large family and kept it together when he moved from place to place until he found what he was searching for. Finally he found it and there he built his log house, raised his family, and found his peace and happiness. That place was on top of a mountain that you and I know today as Jeter Mountain in what is now Henderson County. When he came to the top of that mountain and hewed the logs from virgin timber and notched them true this area was a vast wilderness. He helped establish a civilization in this wilderness and he walked tall and straight among his fellow men. Before he died he could sit in the shadow of his cabin on top of Jeter Mountain at the end of day's labor and glory in the beauties of the creation that stretched into the distance below him in all directions as far as his eyes could see. William Sentelle was born October 14, 1756, in the flat lands of Brunswick, Virginia, that bordered on the Royal English Colony of North Carolina, because in 1756 England was the mother country. Allegiance to the English Crown was taken for granted and the idea of independence and a country made up of a group of United States was just then only beginning in the minds of a few men. William Sentelle and his brothers and sisters were the children of Jonathan Sentelle and they spent their childhood in Brunswick County, Virginia. By 1756 the Tidewater areas of Virginia and the lands inland had been settled for a long time. People from British Isles were still coming in so that a body could scarcely turn around without stepping on a neighbor's foot. The land had been planted in tobacco for so many years that the fertility was gone. Many of the people were moving westward to find elbow room. In his late teens, William Sentelle and his brother Samuel move on too; but instead of going to the west they went sound and the next we know of them, William and Samuel were living in Halifax County, North Carolina. In the first week of April, 1776, the representatives from all parts of North Carolina met in the little town of Halifax in Halifax County. The talk of freedom and the rights of man was heavy in the air, and during those first days of April arguments were hot and violent in the daily sessions of the Provincial Congress. On April 12, 1776, the delegates voted overwhelmingly to instruct the delegates from North Carolina to the Continental Congress to vote for a Declaration of Independence. Since that day, April 12 has been known as Halifax Day, and April 12, 1776 is one of two dates on the flag of North Carolina, the other date being May 20, 1775, the date of the Mecklenberg Declaration. During those twelve days of April the spirit of patriotism ran strong among the throngs that gathered in Halifax to witness the meetings being held. When the resolution for independence was passed everyone knew it meant war and the young men rushed to enlist to take up arms to fight. William Sentelle enlisted at once on the side for freedom, and the records show that his brother Samuel enlisted a year later. William enlisted in the 1st North Carolina Company of Militia commanded by Captain William Brinkley. Military training in colonial days was not the highly technical training necessary in these modern times. The prime requirement of a soldier then was to be able to shoot straight. Boys were taught to handle a gun from the time they were large enough to hold one, so that when young Sentelle enlisted he already had the fundamentals needed to make a soldier. Two months after he enlisted he was in action on Sullivan's Island protecting the entrance to Charleston Harbor against the British Fleet. On Sullivan's Island he quickly found, as all men in all wars have found, that a soldier's life in wartime is one of constant boredom, drill and hard physical labor. Colonel Moultrie put the new recruits to work cutting palmetto logs to build a fort and digging gun emplacements and throwing up breastworks because reports brought word that the English Fleet was on its way to capture Charleston, the gateway to the Southern Colonies. William Sentelle fought bravely there at Fort Moultrie on Sullivan's Island under the bombardment of the guns of the British Fleet. On June 28, 1776, when the new flag of the United States was shot from the parapet of Fort Moultrie, he was nearby when Sergeant Jasper in the face of terrific gunfire raised the flag once again. When the British Fleet withdrew in defeat Sentelle was a veteran soldier, seasoned under fire and he had conducted himself well. Soon after this he was part of the Continental Army commanded by General Benjamin Lincoln when that army, with the aid of the French Navy, laid siege to Savannah which was held by the British, and there he was under constant fire for a period of weeks. He was a member of a platoon commanded by Sergeant Jasper which rescued a group of American prisoners from the British near Savannah, and he saw the heroic Jasper killed in 1779 when Jasper attempted at Savannah to repeat his deed of Fort Moultrie. During the heavy fighting around Savannah William Sentelle was captured by the British and held prisoner on board an English ship for several months before he was exchanged and rejoined the army. Following his exchange he was given a furlough and while on leave he married Elizabeth Stephens of Halifax, North Carolina in 1780. He rejoined his command and the records show that he took part in fighting at Rugley's Mill and the battle of Guilford Court House in 1781. After the battle of Guilford Court House there is no further record that he took part in any other major battles although he remained in the army until peace was signed in 1783. Now a hardened, seasoned veteran of the Revolutionary War with seven years of active service behind him, William Sentelle returned to Halifax, North Carolina, to adjust himself to a new life as veterans of all wars have had to do. Always a restless person, his war experiences had added to his restlessness. Searching for a new life, he took his family across North and South Carolina to Edgefield District near the Savannah River. Still restless, he started moving again. He had heard the Indian traders passing through Edgefield District tell of a wonderful land in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Western North Carolina. With his wife and children who were now eight in number, he started for what he thought of as the Promised Land. He had been told that is was a wild land of mountains and timber, clear streams of sweet water abounding with fish. It was also a land of fertile valleys and the mountains and valleys were full of wild game for food; deer and bear, wild turkey, grouse and partridge and the wild pigeons in flocks so large that at times the sun was blotted out during their flight. And those same Indian traders told of the fur bearing animals, mink, beaver and the like whose pelts were better than hard money when trading for the necessities of life. William Sentelle and his wife and eight children with their few possessions and essential tools on their backs started on foot for this land they had been told about. After months of travel and hardships, footsore and weary they found themselves on top of what is now Jeter Mountain, once a part of Buncombe County but now in Henderson County. This was in the year 1800. The clear sparkling Crab Creek flowed by one side of the mountain and Big Willow Creek on the other side. Settlers were few and far between in this area in 1800. A body had elbow room in which to get about and breathe the pure, crisp mountain air. William Sentelle, a seven year veteran of the Continental Army, had found his Promised Land. He lived and prospered for thirty-seven years in peace and happiness until his death on May 7, 1837. He was the first Sentelle to settle in Henderson County and all the Sentelles in our county today trace their ancestry back to him. His descendants are numerous because through the marriage of his eight children many of the Hamiltons, Capps, Osteens, Barnetts, Huggins, and others have the blood of William Sentelle in their veins. On the headwaters of Big Willow Creek off the beaten path of travel, there is a unique cemetery which is the original Sentelle burying ground. It is rarely visited now because to reach it a body must wade the rushing waters of Big Willow and then follow a trail for a mile or more to the top of a hill where William Sentelle and some of his descendants sleep. William Sentelle was the first of the family to be buried here and he has the distinction of having three monuments or headstones marking his grave and his name is spelled in two ways on these markers. One was put there by his wife soon after William died. It is rough, hand chiseled and hand carved. The inscription cannot be read because it has stood there for nearly a century and a half and the rains and winds have weathered it severely. One marker was put there by the United States government, as it has marked all the graves of the soldiers of the Revolution. Here the inscription reads, "William Senter - Private, 1st N.C. Militia, Revolutionary War, died May 7, 1837. Note the spelling: S-e-n-t-e-r. This is easily explained. In 1776 when William enlisted at Halifax, N.C., there were not too many who could read and write and many of those who could write did not write too well. The recruiting agent was one of these, or it could be he did not catch the name correctly. Whatever the reason the official records of the War Department carries the name of William Sentelle sometimes as William Senter, William Sinter, and William Center, all for the same man. The third marker reads "William Sentell - born Oct. 14, 1756, a Revolutionary soldier for seven years and a member of the Baptist Church - Died May 7, 1837 buried by his wife Elizabeth who died in 1845 and lies buried by his side."
Please visit Sentell Family History - 4. William Sentell (1756-1835) for an additional biography. back to Contents
R.9832 On this 27th day of March Eighteen Hundred and forty five Personally appeared before the Court of Pleas & Quarter Sessions Elizabeth Sentle a Resident of the State of North Carolina and County of Henderson aged Eighty four years, Who being first duly sworn according to Law, doth on her Oath Make the following Declaration in order to obtain the Benefit of the provisions Made by the Act of Congress passed July the 7th 1838. Entitled an act granting half pay & Pensions to certain Widows. That she is the Widow of William Sentle who was a Private in the Army of the Revolution. He enlisted in the Service of the United States in Hallifax County North Carolina about the latter part of the year Seventeen Hundred and seventy six or in the beginning of the year following for a Term of one year. He was Marched from the County under Captain William Brinkley, to Hallifax Town which was then called head quarters, under whom he was placed there she does not know though he was marched from there to Georgetown and from thence to Charlestown, soon after his arrival at Charleston his term of Service Expired. He then Immediately enlisted in the service again for how long a ? and under whom she does not recollect though he marched from Charleston to Savannah and was later Prisoner at the fall of Savannah and was placed on a British Prison Ship where he remained three months and nineteen days a Prisoner, and was then released by being exchanged for. He was in the Battle of Sullivan's Island under General Moultry he was at the siege of Savannah he was in the battle at Guilford Court House and the battle at Rugley Mills and after Remaining in the service for a term or terms of about two years and a half after their first enlistment and being in the battles above mentioned he received a discharge at Charleston signed by Peter or Harry Cree what grade Peter or Harry Cree held in the army she does not recollect but that his name was signed to the Discharge She does recollect as she has often seen it in the possession of her Husband and that two, many years after his services were ended though it has been lost or mislayed many years since. She further declares that she was married to the said William Sentle after his return from the Army on the 26th day of December One Thousand Seven Hundred and Eighty, and that her husband the aforesaid William Sentle died the seventh day of May Eighteen Hundred and thirty five. The marriage took place in Hallifax County North Carolina and the death of her Husband in this County. She further states that she has a record of the names and ages of their children the original which is here unto appended and that she yet Remains the widow of William Sentle. Sworn to and Subscribed before me in open Court. The two interlineaments in the sixth line from the top of this page of the words (or Harry) (or Harry) was made before sworn to & acknowledged in Court. Nance Sentell daughter of William and Betty Sentell was born September 20 of 1784 back to Contents
War of 1776 grave marker image
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