At the Birth of a Nation

Dollarhide is an Irish surname, with a few possible sources.

The first half, "dollar," could be a location-name based on Dollar, a town and parish in Clackmannanshire, Scotland. Or it could be an occupation-name based on the Anglo-Saxon word "tollere" (a toller, someone who takes tolls and taxes).

"Hyde" is much easier to source, being from the Old English hīd (a ‘hide' of land) a variable measure of land with no formal definition beyond the amount of land needed to support a full household. Originally meant to be 120 acres of land, it would lose any strict size definitions by 1066 AD. Its usage as a surname was often for those living and farming on a hide of land.

Regardless of its source, the surname Dollarhide can be traced back to the 1600s in Leinster, Ireland. It may also be related to the similar-sourced surname Dollahite.

For the Dollarhides in America, all be traced back to Francis Dollarhide (spelled variously as Dollahide, Dalahide, etc) Senior, born between 1650 and 1660 in Leinster, Ireland. His father was possibly an English landlord named Andrew Dollarhide who was living in Dublin in 1844 (based on him being older and the only known Dollarhide found in English and Irish records from the time).

Francis Senior arrived in Annapolis, Maryland in June 1680, his passage paid though indentured servitude, first to the man who initially paid for the passage: Captain Nicholas Gassaway, who then sold the service contract to a Maryland surveyer, George Yate.

He would marry Providence Tolley between 1695-1705 in Anne Arundel County (acquiring land named "Tolley's Point, originally owned by Providence's father Thomas), though she died before 1705 and he remarried a Sarah in 1705. It's unclear which of his children were borne from which wife, though assuming from general dates implies son Joseph A. (born about 1689) was with Providence; Richard (born about 1702), Francis Junior (born about 1703), Sarah (~1704), Providence (~1706), Frances (~1711), and Thomas (~1717). Around 1699, Francis Senior owned 200 acres of land in Baltimore County, granted to him by Lord Baltimore, which he named "Francis' Choice." Francis’ Choice was located on the south side of the Gunpowder River in Baltimore County, Maryland, near the village of Chase, Maryland, about 12 miles northeast of downtown Baltimore. Given the time, it is likely the crop of choice was tobacco.

By this point, Francis Senior had begun dabbling in politics, becoming a justice in Baltimore County in 1701. In 1704, he served as the representative from Baltimore County to the Maryland House of Delegates, the Lower House of the colonial legislature, resigning in 1707 to become High Sheriff of Baltimore County, the chief executive officer for county government at that time.

In 1708, he sold off Tolley's Point, settling fully in Baltimore County. Around 1711, he became captain of the Baltimore County militia. In a 1713 land record, there is evidence that Francis Senior was a slave-owner; in the property description are "two Negro women, named Maria and Mary, and their increase." The last bit implies that any children Maria and Mary had would thereafter be included as property.

Francis Senior would serve as "Justice of the Court of Oyer and Terminer and Gaol Delivery", and also as coroner, land commissioner, and again as a legislator until his death between Lower House sessions 20 October 1720 and July 1721.

Francis Junior married Mary Bradshaw (nee Callmack) in Baltimore County in 1722 or 1723, taking in her son from a previous marriage, John Bradshaw Junior (~1721). They would have another child together, Francis III (~1724), in Baltimore County. Francis Junior died in 1737, entitling his wife to 1/3 of his owned estate under dower rights, which she was granted in 1742.

In the 1740's, Francis III would marry and have a couple kids in Prince George’s County, Maryland: Cornelius and Aquilla; between 1746 and 1750, Francis III and John Bradshaw would move their families down to North Carolina together, settling in neighboring land grants in Orange County (in an area which would later be separated into the new Caswell County in the 1770s). Here Francis III would have other children: John (1751), Francis IV (~1752), and Asahel (~1757).

For this branch of the family, it can be concretely traced back to John Dollarhide, born in 1751 in Orange County, North Carolina. In 1780, he first entered the North Carolina militia as a volunteer, where he served under Captain John Douglas for 6 months and found in the Battle of Camden on 16 August 1780, though he was briefly under Colonel Benjamin Cleveland during the Battle of Kings Mountain on 7 October 1780. During this Revolutionary War battle, he helped in taking "a number of Tories, and hanged several of them."

Shortly after, he was discharged and returned home for a few months before returning to military service, this time serving under Captain Benjamin Douglas (his prior Caption's brother) for another 6 months, though after some military reorganization, he was soon put under General Daniel Morgan's command. During this time, he was in the Battle of Cowpens on 17 January 1781, the Battle of Guilford Court House on 15 March 1781.

After another discharge and few months at home, he re-volunteered for a third and final time under the command of Colonel Butler before leaving the militia for good in 1782.

Not soon after, John bought 40 acres of land along the Clinch River in Russell County, Virginia and married Nancy Chittington on 3 November 1784 in Caswell County, North Carolina, the couple living on his Virginia land. The couple would have at least 4 children: Cornelius, Andrew, James (b. 1787, Caswell County, North Carolina) and Asahel "Asa" (b. 1793,Caswell County, North Carolina).

Settling Westward

On 17 July 1797, the John sold the land to Stephen Sargent and joined the many moving westward, first landing in Franklin County, Tennessee. In 1812, with at least one of his sons (Asa) joining the 1st Regiment, West Tennessee Militia (Pipkin's), John joined the "Home Guard," a collective of men over 45 years old "for the purpose of defending the frontiers, and property of our younger brethren when fighting our battles abroad, and to suppress and put down any combination which may manifest itself inimicable to our beloved country."

After the War of 1812, Asa married Hannah Bunham around 1814, and the couple had their first son in 1815 (James). In 1816, the family moved further west, into the newly America-owned Louisiana Territory (specifically the portion that became the Arkansas Territory in 1819). The family ended up settling south of the Red River around new community of Jonesboro/Jonesborough, Arkansas Territory. Here, Asa and Hannah would have several more children (Rebecca b. 1816, Manerva b. 1820, and twins Andrew "Andy" and Cornelius "Neil" b. 18 June 1825).

Only opened as early as 1814, Jonesboro would grow into a prominent ferry crossing and steamboat port, serving as a "Gateway to Texas" as one of the firstports of entry into Texas for Anglo-Americans. It grew rapidly by 1817. It would eventually became the seat of Miller County, Arkansas Territory in 1928 until the county's dissolution in 1936, at which point it was officially part of Red River County, Texas and quickly became a ghost town before being wholly washed away in a flood in the 1840s. Perhaps due to its importance as a crossing of the Red River, Jonesboro was simultaneously claimed by both the United States and Mexico, which drove many settlers to other colonies along the Red River.

In conjunction with this was a series of Treatys with the Choctaws (Treaty of Doak's Stand (1820), Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek (1820), and Treaty of Washington City (1825)) in which land in Arkansas territory was ceded in exchange for Choctaw land in Mississippi (which in turn would help pave the way for the ethnic cleansing (Trail of Tears)). The settlers of Miller County opposed the Treatys, as it would render land they claimed to the non-local Indigenous Peoples. John would be one of the many who petitioned the government against the Treatys. This and the follow-up 1928 petition did not give settlers the result they hopes for.

The threat of their claims being taken from them by government wasn't the only bad news for the family; in 1923, James would drown trying to cross the Red River into Indian Territory. Before the full dissolution of the County, most of the Dollarhides followed Arkansas as its state border moved eastward, settling in Sevier County, Arkansas; John and Andrew in Clay and Asa in Washington. Cornelius would move south to Natchitoches Parish, Louisiana.

Asa and Hannah had their last (known) child in Washington, Arkansas: Nancy A. b. 1828.