When sorting out the Pryors in Kanawha County, I’ve wondered who were Abner and Allen Pryor. I’ve wondered if Allen (sometimes spelled “Allyn”) was kin to my ancestor Allen L. Pryor who settled in Sumner County, TN.
Nope, no connection.
I’ve wondered if Abner Pryor was the same man who was in North Carolina. An Abner Pryor died in Caswell County, NC in 1778 (during the Revolution), so he would not be the Abner Pryor on the 1792 Tax List of Kanawha County. A younger Abner Pryor was in Stokes County, NC at the time of the 1820 and 1830 Census. In 1820 he was 26 to 45 years old, which means he would have been 17 in 1792. I think that precludes the NC Abners from being the Abner who was in Kanawha.
I found the answer to Allen and Abner’s identity in The History of Ancient Winsor, Connecticut published in 1859 (http://books.google.com/books?id=Qg0WAAAAYAAJ). Abner and Allyn Pryor were from Connecticut and served in the Revolutionary War as young men in a Connecticut company http://www.genealogy.com/24_land.html . Connecticut and other developed northern states offered bounty land grants in the frontier, so it is likely that they came to Kanawha to pursue a land grant. Further support of the land grant is a letter written in 1820 by Allyn Pryor of Mason County which queries lands in Kanawha County received for his services in the Revolutionary War.
The 1850 Census would have answered the exact age and origin of these men. When it’s not available, so good to find another source!
