KEY.
John Key was one of the pioneers who fixed their abodes
within the present limits of the county. He made his first
entry of land in 1732, and up to 1741 had obtained patents
for nearly twelve hundred acres on the west side of the South
West Mountain. His home was where William W. Minor
now resides. His children were Martin, John, and Mary,
the wife of a Dalton. Martin succeeded to the home and
estate of his father, and by repeated purchases became the
owner of all the land reaching from Edgemont, the place of
the late Henry Magruder, down to the bend of the river on
the farm of the late R. F. Omohundro. He died in 1791.
He and his wife Ann had twelve children, Thomas, John,
Martin, Tandy, Joshua, William Bibb, Henry, Jesse, James,
Walter, Elizabeth, the wife of James Daniel, and Martha, the
wife of John White. Each of the sons was comfortably provided
for by their father's will, though intimations are there
given that the habits of some unfitted them for the proper
management of their affairs.
Within the first score of years in the present century, the
members of this household were for the most part scattered
over the South and West. Thomas removed to South Carolina,
where he invented some contrivance for the more effective
action of water wheels. The families of John, James
and Martha emigrated to Kentucky and Tennessee, and that
of Elizabeth, to North Carolina. Tandy lived for many years
in the southern part of the county near Covesville, but is
said to have removed eventually to Fluvanna County. Jesse
P., a son of Tandy, married Sarah, daughter of the younger
William Woods, of Beaver Creek, and lived for some time
near Mechum's Depot. William Bibb married Mourning,
daughter of Christopher Clark, and went to Elbert County,
Georgia. Henry settled in Bedford County, and Jesse died
in Richmond in 1826. Walter appears to have been the only
one who spent his whole life in the county, and his death
occurred in 1834. John, Tandy and Joshua were all magistrates
of the county, and Walter was appointed to the office,
but declined to accept. John served as Sheriff in 1795, and
Tandy in 1809. John was an Ensign in the Eighth Virginia,
and Henry a soldier in the army of the Revolution.
