Name: William Eakin
   Born: c1750
  Place: Virginia
   Died: March 1780
  Place: Kentucky
Y-Haplo: R-FT75620
Married: c1775
  Place: poss Virginia

There is enough circumstantial evidence to seriously consider that William Eakin was the father of William Akins. (See the article for him regarding that.) And it's appearing more likely that this William was the son of William Eaken of Bucks county PA. Further work needs to be done.

Beargrass Station and Louisville were small, brand new Kentucky settlements in 1780.⁸ It's not surprising that famed Kentucky leader John Floyd would have known William, Robert and Samuel Eakin. John recorded the death of William Eakin [as Easkins] in 1780 and was mortally wounded alongside Samuel Eakin, who was instantly killed, three years later. Robert Eakin was a witness to John's will. We do not presently know whether the three men were brothers, but it is a notion worth pursuing.

Much of what is known about the Akins/Eakins comes to us from the 19th century notes of William Eakin's descendant, economist and writer Henry Clay Richie (1844-1914). According to family legend, William was born in Virginia and was killed in 1782 during an Indian ambush at Beargrass Creek. Email correspondent and researcher Laura S Civey states that Richie had written that William was killed at present-day 8th and Main Streets in Louisville, KY:

But "Billy Easkins," killed in 1780—as reported by John Floyd—is probably the same man. This is from "Early Louisville and the Beargrass Stations":

The white settlers were not the only ones who were active in the spring of 1780. [John] Floyd reported on March 23 that a man named Billy Easkins was killed on his way to Louisville. During the attack "Billy" Breckenridge was thrown from his horse and spent six days in the woods before he returned to the station.¹

A few Indians were seen along Beargrass Creek in March, and one party of travelers was ambushed on its way to the Falls. A man named Billy Easkins was killed. Another, Billy Breckenridge, was thrown from his horse but managed to escape. Roaming around the woods for six days, he finally found shelter at Floyd's Station. About the first of April three men were killed and scalped near Levi Todd's station.²

William's estate record is found on page 56 of Early Kentucky Settlers: The Rcords of Jefferson County, Kentucky, from the Filson Club History Quarterly (1988) by James R. Bentley.

A List of goods, & chattels, being the whole of William Eakin deceased, approved by Philip Lute, John Thickstow & Robert Gilmore, for William Goodwin adminstrator this third day of July 1782.

[Items listed]

At a Court held for Jefferson County, on the 3d July 1782--The above Inventory returned & admitted to record

Test Mer'th Price Clkk Jeff Cur

This notice is found dated three months earlier.

[Page 23] Administration of the estate of Robert Eakin granted William Goodwin and bond entered into of One hundred pounds, Specie, with William Spangler, & Robert Eakin Securities.

In 1783, the will of John Floyd was witnessed by his brothers, Charles and Robert Floyd, and Robert Eakin. It was proved and recorded on 3 June 1783.³ But it gets even more interesting than that. The following description of the incident that killed Floyd is transcribed and edited by Pat M Stevens:⁵

...a small party of Indians opened fire...The Colonel was the first one hit, Sam Aikens was killed instantly, and Charles Floyd's horse was shot out from under him. Seeing his brother falling, Charles jumped up behind him, turned the animal around, and holding John upright, galloped back the way they had come to Colonel Moore's cabin at the Fishpools.⁶

Here's another account of the story:

[John Floyd] was killed on the 12th of April, 1783, a short distance from his station on Beargrass. The settlements were not without their own superstitions at that time, for, according to Shane's pioneer notes, Floyd's wife did not want him to leave home, because the day before he started "a bird flew round his head seven times and flew off in the very direction he had to go, and that night a chunk of fire popped out and went by Samuel Aikin's gate.⁷

Finally, "The Goodwins of Clark Co., Indiana" says that a purported niece of William Goodwin, Polly Goodwin, married Ware Eaken in Louisville, KY on 4 Feb 1810.⁴

William Eakin is known to have been the father of Josiah Akin, born in Virginia, 15 March 1777. (Josiah's son, Ransom Wallace Akin, was an Indiana state legislator.) Other than that, the relationships between these men are not described. But since there were two Robert Eakins—one who was dead by spring 1782 and one who witnessed the will of John Floyd a year later—we could assume that they were father and son. Might we have something like this? Perhaps not, but it is a reference from which to conduct research.

                          Robert Eakin
                               |
             -------------------------------------
             |                 |                 |
       William Eakin      Robert Eakin      Sam Aikens
             |                   
       -------------                    ?
       |           |                    |
    Josiah      William             Ware Eaken
     Akin        Akins

A cursory earch of the Web finds a family with the siblings William, Robert and Samuel, children of William and Isabel (Morrison) Eakin: http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~troutt/~troutt/FamilyTrees/eakin.htm. Little is known about the three men but something is known about brothers Joseph and Redmon. Redmon willed his land in Kentucky to his daughters. The wills for Redmon and his father are found at the same website.

William Eakin married Mary Wallace, one would guess in Virginia during the 1770s. After William's death, Mary married William Goodwin, the administrator of her late husband's estate, and had at least five more children. The Goodwins, possibly along with the Akins, moved across the Ohio into Clark county IN in 1801, where the younger William Akin married Rebecca McClintick in 1807.

Although the proof that Josiah had a brother William isn't in, it's worth tracking:

A great deal of information is known about Josiah. Laura Civey provides this at http://lauracivey.tripod.com/Akin.html:

Josiah was major in the Home Guards in New Albany, IN. His parents came to Kentucky from James River, VA. His father William Akin was ambushed in 1782 by Indians and killed on his way to the mill, which was located near the falls of the Ohio Rr. in Beargrass,VA. (now Jefferson Co., KY.) His mother Mary Wallace was born 1745 and died Nov. 1824. After the death of her husband, she remarried William Goodwin, who was born 1758 and died Aug. 1825. He was a neighbor & good friend of James Stewart, Jr. (father of Rebecca Stewart), whom he served with under Gen. George Rogers Clark. He & his brother, Amos Goodwin were witnesses to James Stewart, Jr.'s will. Josiah was in War of 1812; 7th Regiment (Barbee's) Kentucky Militia.

See Patrilineal Descendants of William and Josiah Akins.

Y-DNA test results for the Aiken/Akin surname are found at Akins Family DNA Project.

1. Neal O. Hammon, "Early Louisville and the Beargrass Stations," Filson Club History Quarterly 52 (April 1978): 159.

2. Neal O. Hammon and Richard Taylor, "Virginia's Western War: 1775-1786," (Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 2002): 120.

3. James R. Bentley, Early Kentucky Settlers: The Records of Jefferson County, Kentucky, From the Filson Club History Quarterly (Genealogical Publishing Company, 1988): 67.

4. "The Goodwins of Clark Co., Indiana," The William and Mary Quarterly 8, no. 2, Supplement (Oct., 1899): 134.

5. Pat M Stevens, "Stevens, Marshall, Mitchell, Washington and other Families," http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=stevensp&id=I00042

6. Anna M. Cartlidge, "Colonel John Floyd: Reluctant Adventurer," Register of the Kentucky Historical Society (Oct. 1968); James Alton James, editor, "George Rogers Clark papers, 1771-1784," (Springfield, Ill: Trustees of the Illinois State Historical Library, 1912): 332. There was a Samuel Eakin under the command of General Clark: "It appears to the Commr^te that there is due to Samuel Eakin Eight pounds twelve Shillings & Six pence for twenty three days Service as Express as p Voucher Entered in Page -."; And then we have this from "Abstract to the Geroge Rogers Clark Papers, Microfilm Roll #12," compiled by Richard Eugene Willson, Indexing Donald E. Gradeless, Ph.D., Editor Society of Colonial Wars in the State of Illinois and the Sons of the Revolution in the State of Illinois (Chicago, IL: 1998), found online at http://my.execpc.com/~sril/clarkv12.htm: "18929-12-94-95-May 23, 1781: Top document. John Floyd of Jefferson County certified Samuel Eaken was employed to carry express."

7. George Washington Ranck, "Boonesborough; its founding, pioneer struggles, Indian experiences, Transylvania days, and revolutionary annals," Filson Club Publications 16 (Louisville, KY: John P. Morton & Company, 1901): 130.

8. From "North American Forts," http://www.northamericanforts.com/East/ky.html#jefferson: "Col. John Floyd's Station (1779 or 1780), three miles east of Louisville on Middle Fork Beargrass Creek. Also known as Woodside and Bear Grass (Fort) Station. Also sometimes referred to as Middle Station. Marker located at Breckenridge Lane and Hillsboro Road. The stone springhouse and the family cemetery still exists. (some info provided by Jim Geisler)"