Henry Clay Ragland had this to say about the Dingess Family (Swain, p. 51-53):
"The first permanent settlement of which we have any record was commenced by William Dingess, a son of Peter Dingess of Montgomery County, in the year 1799. Peter Dingess was a German, but just when or under what circumstances he came to America is shrouded in doubt which will never be dispelled. One account given us by one of his prominent descendants, is, that he came to this country before the War of the Revolution, and settled in Montgomery County, and in evidence of this, furniture, etc., brought with him from the "Fader Land," is pointed out; especially a finely finished bureau which was for a long time an heirloom in the family, and a peculiar shaped gourd which was grown in Germany and used by his son, John Dingess, as powder gourd, within the memory of the present generation. Another account given us by William A. Dingess, is, that sometime between the year of 1750 and 1760, that his parents with their family embarked for America, that disease carried off his parents on the voyage; that he and a sister landed at Baltimore, neither of whom could speak a word of English, that from some cause they became separated and that he never saw her or heard of her again. That wandering about the street, homeless and alone, a merchant from Montgomery County, Virginia, took charge of him and brought him to Montgomery, where he grew up and married a wife, and afterwards served in the War of the Revolution. It is impossible to say which story is correct, but of one thing we are assured, that is, he lived in Montgomery County, Virginia, and raised a family of eleven children, four boys and seven girls, and died there in 1800. The names of his sons were William, Peter, John and Charles A., and his daughters, Harriet, Betsy, Susan, Nancy, Sallie, Peggy and Polly, who intermarried with Sam Pack, John McClaugherty, William Henderson, David French (who was for a long while Clerk of the Courts of Giles County), Ezekiel Smith, William Smith and James Bright, who emigrated to Tennessee, and was the father of John Morgan Bright, who for twelve years represented Tennessee in Congress. Charles A. died, unmarried, in Mercer County.William Dingess, the oldest of the family, was born in Montgomery County, in 1770, and married Nancy McNeely, and purchasing of John Breckenridge the survey of 300 acres which covers the present site of Logan Courthouse, and a portion of the farm across the river where Mrs. J. W. Deskins once lived, moved upon it in 1799 and built a residence where J. S. Miller once lived. John Dempsey came with him and built a cabin on the Little Island, but afterwards moved to Island Creek, near where Sam Jackson once lived. William Dingess was said to be almost a giant in strength, but so peaceable that no one could induce him to fight. While he was born at too late a date to engage in Indian warfare on the border, he on one occasion joined in the pursuit of a band of Indian marauders and followed them as far as the Falls of Guyan, where, killing an Indian, he took off a part of his hide out of which he made a razor strop and kept it during his lifetime. He had no children by his wife, but was the reputed father of a child born to Katie McComas, who was always known as Peter Dingess, and was for a long time regarded as the best physician in Logan County. Katie McComas was also the mother of the late John Garrett, of Big Creek, one of the most highly esteemed citizens of Logan County. In the year 1800, Peter Dingess and John Dingess, brothers of William Dingess, joined him and became permanent settlers, of whom more will be said hereafter.
Some time in the next year or two Captain Henry Farley, of Montgomery County, who had served with distinction in the War of the Revolution, and who has been heretofore mentioned as the leader of the whites in the pursuit of the Indians in 1792; with Garland Conley, who had married his eldest daughter Bettie, settled at the mouth of Peach Creek. He brought with him three stalwart sons [see Note 1] and five marriageable daughters, and as might have been expected, the big house at the mouth of Peach Creek - and it was said to have been the largest house in the county - was always full.
Of what tales that never grew old, were told, we have no record, and the man in the moon has never divulged the vows which he witnessed,yet we know that enough was said to divide the happiness of Captain Farley's home among five families. The blushing Sallie became the wife of Peter Dingess during the year 1805, and they set up housekeeping just across the river where Mrs. John W. Deskins once lived, and to the happy couple there was born, on the 30th day of October, 1806, William Anderson Dingess, who, during a long and useful life (dying December 13th, 1893, in his eighty-eighth year), bore the proud distinction of being the first white child born in Logan County. The other children born to this marriage were John, who married Sallie Moore; Guy, who married Rhoda Toney; Charles F., who married Bettie Toney; both of these were the daughters of William and Polly (Caperton) Toney; Polly, who married Lewis Lawson; Matilda, who married James Lawson (both sons of Anthony Lawson); Julyantis, who married Charles Smoot; Minerva, who married W. W. McDonald; and Harriet, who married John Justice. Peter Dingess was a prominent citizen and was for a long while one of the Justices of Cabell County.
Another one of the blooming daughters of Captain Farley (Chloe), intermarried with John Dingess, who then settled near his father-in-law at the mouth of Peach Creek. His children were William, who married a daughter of Josiah Stollings; Julius [see Note 2], who married a daughter of Ben Smith; Harvey, who married a daughter of Joseph Adams; John and Peter, both of whom married daughters of Washington Adams; Henderson, who married a daughter of Joseph Adams; Sallie, who married James Butcher; Peggy, who married John Gore; and Nancy, who married William Chapman. All of them except David had a large offspring."
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