Adam Archboe Fleming

Adam Archboe Fleming was born in 1849 in Doddridge County, then still part of Virginia (West Virginia statehood was fourteen years away). Per the Wildermuth family book, he was a son of James Fleming and Frances Dotson — the fourth of five children and the second son, his siblings in birth order being Emily, John, Rosetta, and Benjamin F. His mother’s maiden name, Dotson, is one of several Fleming–Dotson ties in this Doddridge County community (a Sarah Fleming, elsewhere in the same book, married Oliver Dotson). His unusual middle name “Archboe” may be a misspelling honoring a grandfather or great-uncle, Archibald Fleming, or his father’s business partner, Samuel Archbold. His pension file describes him as a young man of five feet seven, fair complexion, light hair, and blue eyes.

The boy soldier of the 4th West Virginia Cavalry

The heart of Adam’s record is his Civil War adolescence. When Virginia passed its ordinance of secession on 17 April 1861, the counties west of the Alleghenies — Doddridge foremost among them — rose against it, sending delegates to the Wheeling Convention and enrolling their sons as soldiers for the Union. The family-book narrative continues:

“And so it was, that young Adam, at the tender age of 13 or 14, joined the 4th Regiment West Virginia Cavalry along with cousins Matthew, Aaron, and A. H. Fleming, and neighbors Ephraim Bee and the Dotson brothers. Adam fudged his age as 18 and was mustered in August 19, 1863.”

He was mustered into Company H of the 4th West Virginia Cavalry on 19 August 1863 — a thirteen- or fourteen-year-old passing for eighteen. The company, captained by Michael Donohue, spent much of its service guarding the B&O Railroad around Clarksburg; of its 93 men, three died. Adam was discharged 8 March 1864, then re-enlisted on 29 August 1864 in the 6th West Virginia Infantry, Company C, serving until 10 June 1865. During the first enlistment, at the battle of New Creek in February 1864, he contracted whooping cough — an illness that left lasting damage to his throat, lungs, liver, stomach, and heart, brought on rheumatism, and later qualified him for a Civil War disability pension that shaped the rest of his life.

Marriages and children

Adam married three times, per the book’s Fleming section:

• Sarah Elizabeth M. Tharp — married 6 October 1872 in Doddridge County; born ca. 1853 in Harrison County, a daughter of Isaac and Rosetta (Prine) Tharp. Two daughters: Alice May Fleming (b. 11 November 1874) and Frances LueCena Fleming (b. 10 February 1876, m. Thomas Jefferson Hicks on 11 September 1892, d. 28 October 1940). Sarah died 31 May 1877, age 24, and was buried at the Fleming-Gain Cemetery at Arnold’s Creek — the burying ground on land the Fleming and Gain families donated (they also gave the lumber for the adjacent United Brethren church). By the 1880 Doddridge County census “A. A. Fleming,” 31, a widowed laborer, is recorded with his two young daughters.
• Mary Ellen Smith — married 9 March 1879 (Doddridge County marriages, per Wes Cochran, p. 80); she was born ca. 1862 in Upshur County, daughter of Johnson and Elizabeth Smith. Their children: James W., Dora Elizabeth, Johnson R., Ruehamy (b. 29 August 1886), and Lucretia Oley Fleming (b. 25 June 1892). Mary Ellen died of consumption in early April 1898 and was buried at Swan Creek, Lewis County, Tennessee.
• Minna Chennault — married 8 June 1899 (by D. Sims); born 10 January 1869, daughter of Frank and Ellen (Mitchell) Chennault. One child, Martha Ellen Fleming (b. 8 June 1900). Minna outlived Adam by nearly forty years, dying in Lewis County, Tennessee on 31 October 1941.

In August 1882 Adam bought 10 acres on Wilhelms Creek in Doddridge County from Joseph J. Woffard for $750; sometime after, the family moved to the Lawrenceburg area of Tennessee, where he sold apples door to door (it was as a customer that his daughter Frances met her future husband, T. J. Hicks). He died 14 May 1902 in Lewis County, Tennessee, at which point his $8-a-month invalid pension ceased; his widow Minna applied the following September for a pension for their two minor children.

How he connects — an open question

Adam appears in the Fleming section of the Wildermuth family book that Robert Earl Wildermuth compiled with Benjamin F. Bain — which places him within the family’s orbit. But his exact link to Sadye Irene Fleming’s direct line is not yet established. Sadye’s father, James Wesley Fleming (b. 1855), was a son of Thomas Bailey Fleming and Martha Turner per the GEDCOM — a different Fleming couple from Adam’s parents, James and Frances. The two men were near-contemporaries in the same county, most plausibly cousins, but no documented link between the two Fleming households has yet surfaced in this archive. His placement here on the maternal Fleming side is provisional pending that connection.

Source: Wildermuth Family of Marietta, Ohio, by Robert Earl Wildermuth I and Benjamin F. Bain II (2005–2009), Fleming section, pp. 126–129 (“Fleming, Adam Archboe”). Parentage, physical description, the fuller Civil War service and pension record, the three marriages, the Wilhelms Creek land purchase, and the Tennessee move as recorded there, citing Marriages, Doddridge County, West Virginia, 1845–1937 (Wes Cochran), the 1850/1860/1870/1880 Doddridge County censuses, and National Archives pension records. The connection to Sadye’s line is an open research question.