The name Linville is prolific in Western North Carolina and parts of Western Virginia/West Virginia. One of the first to enter this area was William Linville, a Quaker and nephew of Daniel Boone, in the late 1740s. He was born about 1710, the son of John and Ann Linville of Augusta County, Virginia. The article about him on the Blue Ridge Outdoors website [1] offers a look at the man and his exploits, though some details appear to differ from those on the Linville family genealogy website, which provides extensive information about Thomas [2].
Interestingly, William’s older brother Thomas, with whom I share a distant family connection, lived in the Belews Creek area of what is now eastern Forsyth County, NC, starting about 1749 as one of the area's first settlers, and only a few miles from where I currently live. He was the father-in-law of my fourth great aunt.
During this time, western North Carolina was largely unsettled. While the eastern part of the state was becoming more populated and more counties were established, this was not the case to the west. Granville and Johnston counties went west to some undetermined line; there was no formal western boundary. In 1753, the area where Thomas' farm was became Rowan County. In 1770, it became Surry County, and in 1789, it became Stokes County. The southern half of Stokes County became Forsyth County in 1849.
My connection to the Linville name dates to 1830, when my fourth great-aunt, Hannah Pauley, daughter of my fourth great-grandfather, Samuel Pauley, and Martha Hill, married Preston P. Linville, the son of Thomas Linville and Sarah Roark [3], in Logan County, Virginia (now West Virginia). According to the Linville family website, “Preston P. Linville was born in 1805 in Stokes County, NC. This is correct, based on the above county formation timeline. Several records name a community there called Linville, but I have not been able to find a record of that community today. Preston moved to Kanawha County, Virginia, with his parents and siblings about 1811. He married Hannah Harriett Pauley in 1830 in Logan County, VA. Preston and Hannah appeared on the census of 1850 in Boone County, VA. They appeared on the 1860 census at Ballardsville (now Madison), Boone County, VA, and on the 1870 census at Crook, Boone County, WV. Preston P. Linville died on 16 November 1879 in Boone County, WV.”
At the 1860 Census, Preston was a 55-year-old farmer living near Ballardsville, Virginia (now called Madison, in Boone County, West Virginia). Preston indicated that he was born in Stokes County, North Carolina. The family was also there at the 1850 census, which shows only that he was born in N.C. According to Kith and Kin of Boone County, Vol. I, Preston, and Hannah lived at the mouth of Lick Creek near where his father is buried.Preston’s father, Thomas Linville, on the above sign, was born in 1776 in Stokes County, North Carolina. He married Sarah Roark, daughter of Elijah Roark and Judith (?), in 1804. According to the Linville family genealogy website, Thomas moved from Stokes County, NC, to Kanawha County (later Logan County, WV), VA, about 1811, and finally to what was to become Boone County, WV, near Uneeda. Thomas built a log cabin by the river, but it was soon washed away during a flood. Thomas then moved to the mouth of Bull Creek, where he died about 1822 in Kanawha County. Two other sources show that he died in 1850. Thomas’ father (Preston’s grandfather) was Moses Linville. Moses was born in 1752 in North Carolina. He appears on the 1778 tax list for Washington County, NC, having cleared three acres of 100. He only appears in this one year, suggesting this was an experiment he gave up on, according to the Linville family genealogy website. He died in 1826 in Surry County, NC.
Moses Linville's father was Thomas Linville (Preston’s great-grandfather), as identified in the sign below. This sign is located on Kernersville Road at Mill Spring Lane, in what is now Forsyth County, NC. Photo by the author, taken March 27, 2025.
The Linville Family Genealogy Database [4] lists nineteen persons with the last name Pauley, two with Polley, and two with Polly. Here are the older ones.My sixth great-aunt, Loraney Polly/Polley, a daughter of David Polley and Agnes Adkins, married second to John Penn Hagins, a son of William Hagins and Mary Linville, on 20 June 1818 in Floyd County, Kentucky. Mary Linville was the daughter of Moses Linville. Her mother’s name is unknown. My third great aunt, Leanzy Pauley, daughter of Squire Pauley and Catherine Brown, married Thomas Linville, son of Preston Linville and Hannah Pauley, on 23 May 1867 in Boone County, West Virginia. They had ten children.
My second cousin, 6 times removed, William Pauley, Jr., a son of William Pauley and Margaret Munsey, married Rebecca Linville, a daughter of Richard Linville and Mary Yount, about 1814 in Campbell County, Kentucky. * * *According to A History of Watauga County, North Carolina [5]: with sketches of prominent families, on page 20, the origin of the name "Linville Falls" is provided by Archibald Murphey in his papers. “Two men named Linville from the forks of the Yadkin went to hunt on the Watauga River between 1760 and 1770. They employed John Williams, a lad of sixteen, to go with them, keep camp, and cook for them. They were sleeping in the camp when the Indians came on them and killed the Linvilles. They shot Williams through the thigh but he escaped and rode a horse from the mouth of the Watauga ‘to the Hollows in Surry’ in five days. He recovered from his wound and became a man of influence. It is now almost certain that these falls have taken their name from these two men, who may have visited them before their last hunt and told the people of their location and beauty, for Dr. Draper (a note is referenced) records that the stream itself was named for the fact that in the ‘latter part of the summer of 1766 William Linville his son and a young man had gone from the lower Yadkin to this river to hunt, where they were surprised by a party of Indians. The two Linvilles were killed, the other person, though badly wounded. Effecting his escape. The Linvilles were related to the famous Daniel Boone.”
The author notes after the above that “a family by the name of Linvil were members of Three Forks Baptist Church and lived on what is now known as Dog Skin Creek or branch, but which was previously called Linville Creek. The membership of that church shows that Abraham, Catherine, and Margaret Linvil were members between 1790 and 1800.”
NOTES:[1] https://www.blueridgeoutdoors.com/go-outside/trailblazer-tributes-william-linville/ [2] https://www.linvillefamily.us/LFA-o/g0/p1.htm#i10 [3] Confirmed via the Linville Family in America Genealogy website.[4] https://www.linvillefamily.us/LFA-o/i73.htm#s2896 [5] By John Preston Arthur. Published by Everett Waddy Co. of Richmond (presumably Virginia) in 1915. Searchable on Ancestry.com
Updated March 11, 2026