Elias and Rufus Lively

Elias and Rufus Lively. . In 1844, Joseph Lively (father of Elias and Rufus) came to Paint Creek and made a deal with Town Creek settler, Archibald Van Waters, for the 791 acre tract on which the Van Waters cabin was located, whereby Lively paid the sale price and received a deed from Commissioner Dickinson in 1846. The tract extended three quarters of a mile below Town Creek, where it joined the Plum Orchard tract, and an equal distance above, bordering the Horse Creek property for some distance on the east. The first of Joseph's sons to come to Paint Creek, and the first permanent settlers of the community that came to be called Lively, were Elias and Rufus. Elias came to Town Creek in 1846 at the age of 19. By the middle of the next year the names of both Rufus and Elias appeared in the road orders of the Paint Creek precinct., Joseph Lively was a prosperous Monroe County, Virginia farmer and his total investment in Paint Creek land totaled around $3,000. He purchased three different tracts of land on Paint Creek and its tributaries between 1845 and 1853 and his total acreage would eventually increase to 6,500 acres. , Elias settled upon the 791 acre Van Waters tract and lived at first in the old Van Waters cabin. Later he and his wife Letha moved into a new cabin which he built a short distance below and just at the bend of the Coal Road where it turned down to the creek., Rufus Lively's inheritance was a 1070 acre tract on Horse Creek, purchased by his father in 1852. His cabin was built before this tract was acquired and was located on the Coal Road below William Humphreys (at present Long Branch) about a mile above the Town Creek cabin of his brother Elias. It was on a 40 acre plot which Rufus purchased from Humphrey in 1847. He later built a 2 story frame house on the same site., Elias raised a large family of boys and girls whose names were as follows: C.C., John, Andrew, George, Amelia, Eliza, William, Kennel, Cena, L.C. (Bud), Mertie, and Enoch all of which were given huge farms by their father. Rufus and his wife Melinda Williams (daughter of Isaac Williams) were the parents of seven children. They were Elizabeth, Jacob, Wilson, Letha, Henry, Jennie, and Lucinda.