Ancestors in Pittsylvania County area during the Revolutionary War

The Crooked Road

I spent the day on Tuesday, September 25 in Danville, Virginia.  I was drawn there by the Virginia-North Carolina Piedmont Genealogical Society and the Danville Public Library.  My trip was via the Crooked Road.  That was a special treat in itself.  Next time I would like to have done a bit of research on the Crooked Road and do some stopping and site seeing .....and perhaps see the Crooked Road from it's beginning instead of just starting at Hillsville and driving east.

http://thecrookedroad.org

I expect to find the Salmons family in the part of Pittsylvania County that became Henry County.  And indeed I found my Rowland Salmons in a few instances.  Rowland's older brother, John Salmons, is highly visible in the records of Henry County and he is found on the Comittee of Safety:

On Thursday, January 26, 1775 the freeholders of the County of Pittsylvania convened at the courthouse and proceeded to choose a Committee for enforcing and putting into execution the Association (non-importation association), which was in violation of England’s stand on imports.  This was also recognized as rebellion against the Governor’s recent dismissal of the House of Burgesses in repsonse to rebellion in the settlements.  Among the gentlemen chosen as members of the committee were Joseph Roberts, John Payne, John Salmon and others.

The Committee of Safety for Pittsylvania proceeded to organize for military defense, as did all other colonies.  At a meeting on Wednesday, Sept 27, 1775, John Salmon was appointed Captain.

John was the first Sheriff of Henry County, which may seem insignificant to us, but in Colonial VA the office of Sheriff was the highest honor to be bestowed upon a man.That he joined with Patrick Henry, even then a colonial hero, in serving on committees and in military functions indicates that his position was one of esteem.  His appointment as Captain of the militia of Pittsylvania was also an important position.  He resigned that post in 1780, perhaps because he was no longer a resident of Pittsylvania, but of the newly formed Henry County.

I will add information about Salmons/Hensley/Morrison/Wooten lines in this spot when I get time to edit.

Harris/Apperson/Johnson/Shelton

I am sitting in my mother-in-law's kitchen this morning.  We had identified everyone in the below photo several years ago.  However, I wanted to take a few minutes to ask her if she remembered anything more about any of these people.  The photo was taken in the coal fields of WV during the heyday of that area of our state.

 This photo was taken at a Harris reunion that was held at Coney Island in Welch, WV 7 September, 1930.  Below is a scan and list that identifies all of the people in the photo.  The patriarch and wife in this photo are Samuel Sterling Harris and wife Frances Louise (Lou) Woodson.  Everyone else (except  for one gal who was a date and never married into the family) are children or grandchildren or in-laws of the four children of Samuel Sterling and his first wife or of Samuel Sterling and Lou.

Oh, I almost forgot Everett!  Everett is hiding in the tree behind the group....you can just barely see him just behind #41 and #42.  His head is barely on either side of the tree branch.  I would never have known his being in the photo if my Mother-in-law had not shown me.

Here are Sue's stories:

Samuel Sterling Harris was her grandpa.  Sue remembered that when she got old enough to know him, he was retired and sat on the porch all day long....finally he was bedfast and grandma Lou waited on him six years in bed.  He complained the whole time.  He died 11 Feb 1934 in Davey, WV (McDowell County).

Frances Louise Woodson Harris was wife of Samuel Sterling (often called S.S.)....Sue said that she was a saint. She raised the four children of S.S. and his first wife.  She was only about 16 when the first wife died.  She had come into the house to help out when his first wife got sick.   And then she and her husband had

Uncle Pitt was the oldest son of the first marriage and he was married to Isabelle....Sue called her Aunt Toad.

Louise Harris McCoy was partly raised by Lou after her mother died.  Louise was back and forth between the home of Grandma Lou and Louise's father's home.

Audrey Anna Harris was the daughter of Uncle Howard.  Her father is right behind her in the photo.

Uncle Pete never married and lived at Davey and took care of grandma and grandpa until he died.  He died in Davey.  He worked at Twin Branch in the coal mine.  He was son of Lou and SS.

? Wolfe was married to Uncle Pitt's daughter. Lenora.  They lived in Portsmouth, Ohio.  He was a traveling salesman.  Sue calle him Wolfey.

Pete Harris.....Lou called him Paul.  He lived in Davey.  When grandma and grandpa died, Aunt Edna moved into the old home place and took care of Pete.  He never married.

Earl Shufflebarger was the son of Aunt Molly.  Sue does not remember her having a husband.  Aunt Molly lived in Princeton for a while.  She moved to Norfolk.  She and  Aunt Sis (Nora) were close as they were full sisters.  The two of them are standing together in the photo.


John Harris was the youngest of the four children born to Samuel Sterling Harris and his first wife, E.M. Harris.  Lou did not raise him as he moved in with his mother's people.  Later he "came home"...but he was not raised by Lou.

Uncle John's wife was Aunt Ada.  Sue was named after her.  Sue visited Aunt Ada in McComas WV after she was married.  Sue took her mother to visit and they would have lunch and visit and drive back home.  Aunt Ada told Sue to pick out somethings that she wanted and Sue chose the following which are still in her household.

Elaine Hogan was Aunt Edna's daughter.  Aunt Edna came back and moved in with her parents.  She had divorced her husband early and was married a second time but never even lived with him.  So she moved in with her parents.  Aunt Edna worked in Welch in Bell's Department store.  She would take the bus to work from Davey.  The store was a dime store that was locally owned.

James (Jim Harris) sitting beside Elaine was the son of Uncle Pitt and Aunt Toad.   he had the exact same name as Sue's brother, James Warren Harris.  There other son was Randolph Harris.  He was at VPI when WWII broke out.  He and another man were sent out on a mission and were never heard from again.

Mary and Martha Walker were the twins that Sue always talked about  Their mother was Bertha Harris Walker and father Pearl Walker .  Sue is standing between the two twins.

Bob Hogan was Aunt Edna's son.

Gene Harris was the youngest son of Stella and Uncle Howard.  Stella is holding Gene in the photo. I have written it as Jean....

Ollie Mae Harris Tolbart Barnett kept in touch with Sue for many years.

Frances Walker was the last child of Aunt Bertha and Pearl Walker.

The lady who is labelled date never married into the family.



Much to my disappointment, she has very few photos of any of her family.  Sue explained that when her grandmother, Frances Louise Woodson Harris (Lou) died, Aunt Edna came down and took it over (Edna Hogan).  She was the second girl in the family.  Aunt Bertha was the oldest daughter.  Aunt Edna actually lived in the house for a long time and took care of Pete.  Then Pete owned the house....he was the youngest child of Lou ....Finally Pete sold the house to Aunt Edna's son, Jake....and eventually Jake sold it to Bob (also a son of Aunt Edna). This basically left the house totally empty.  Sue remembered that there would have been photos, but it is a mystery if they were thrown out or if any of the descendents of these people might have some.

The Elliott family in TN: Lost Creek MM and Grassy Valley 1798 to 1816

This post began with my spending time the past weekend sending out e-mails from my old computer to researchers who were in my Elliott file on my old computer to check to see which address's were still working and which researchers were still doing research.  I heard back from Rick Duran with a very interesting new piece of information.  Rick gave me permission to share it via this blog.  Rick and I share 6-gr-grandparents, Jacob and Elizabeth Elliott.  I descend from the couple's son, Abraham.  Rick descends from their daughter, Elizabeth, who married Hugh Maxwell.  The information that Rick sent is from a travel diary in which both my Abraham Elliott and also Rick's Hugh Maxwell are mentioned.  The men are living in TN at the time that the entry is made into the man's diary.  So, Rick's new document copy had me thinking about the Elliott family during the years they were in TN.  First I will give some background information.  Then I will talk about which family members moved to TN and when.  Then I will share the copies excerpted from books that Rick sent to me.  And finally I will talk about the move made by this next generation of the Elliott family from TN to Ohio and Indiana.  If you would like to see a list of family members in tree form go to:

http://trees.ancestry.com/tree/41167677/family?cfpid=19587296207

Jacob and Elizabeth Elliott had moved from Pennsylvania to Rowan County, NC in the part of Rowan that later became Randolph County in 1763 with their older children who had been born in Pennsylvania.

1763, 11, 26.  Jacob (Ellott) & W& ch, Jacob, Elizabeth, Hannah, Israel & William rocf Warrington MM, Pa, dated 1763, 9, 20 (I have a copy of the original MM records for this) This is found in the records of New Garden MM in what is now Guilford County, NC.  It would have been Rowan County in 1763

Warrington Monthly Meeting 

Interestingly enough I believe that the Elizabeth who moved with her parents from Pa to NC died young and a second daughter who was then born in NC in 1766 was named Elizabeth.  This was not an unusual occurrence in the time period when many families lost children but perhaps wanted a name carried on in the family.  I believe that Rick's 5-gr-grandmother was the second Elizabeth born to this family.

Many Quaker families as well as German and Scots-Irish were moving at this time from Pennsylvania down the Great Wagon Road to Virginia, the Carolinas and some even as far south as Georgia:

Jacob and Elizabeth and their family stopped in the area that is labelled Bethania, Bethabara, Salem.  Just to the East of the stop on the road was the area that is now Guilford and Randolph Counties in NC.  At this date, the entire area was a part of Rowan County.  We find Jacob buying land in Rowan County.  Benjamin and Martha Cox must not have been living on the land at the time of this purchase as it says they are "of" Orange County.

7 Dec, 1763  Benjamin Cox and wf Martha of Orange county, NC to Jacob Ellitt for 48 pistoles, 216 a on Polecat Creek adj Benjamin Beeson, granted by Grannville to Crsfr Nation 11 MAY 1757 and sold by him and wf Elizabeth to sd Cox 16 July 1757.  Christopher Nation, 11 May 1757, sold by him and wife Elizabeth to Benjamin Cox 16 July 1757.  Wit Christopher Nation andThomas Cox, Prvd Apri. Court 1764.


Below is a map of Randolph County showing where Polecat Creek was located in NC.  Polecat Creek continues up into Guilford County.  However, the Elliott men are found on the 1790 census in Randolph County, so we can narrow down where they lived by knowing county and waterway.

The above map was found at http://www.danielhaston.com/people/nc-connections.htm

 For more information on this family while they were in NC and during the Revolutionary war years, go to my entry for Saturday, Aug 25, 2012.  The Aug 25 post will tell about their move to Montgomery County, Va.  The post has title: NC Quaker family: Jacob and Elizabeth Elliott and family during years from 1763 to 1787.  This post can be found at:

http://www.marshamoses.blogspot.com/2012/08/nc-quaker-family-jacob-and-elizabeth.html


The below information supports the fact that they had moved back to Polecat Creek by 1784. 

1784, 1,31, Jacob (Ellot) & w. Elizabeth, & ch. William, Abraham, Eliz & Rachel, gct Center MM from New Garden MM, NC

The move back to Randolph County is further supported by the next deed:

19 Nov 1787  Jacob Elliot of Randolph County, NC planter....in consideration of the natural love and affection which he hath and beareth to Isrel Elliott....land on Polecat Creek....granted to the said Jacob Elliot by Benjamin Cox and his wife 8 Dec 1763 and entered in Rowan County office  ...(216 acres)  Signed by Jacob Elliott    .  Wit by Simeon Green and Peter Elliott.

In the transcription of this that I put on the Aug 25th post,  Jacob indicates that he has plans to move when he sells his land to his son Israel.  It would seem that Israel has no plans to leave NC at this time.  And Israel and family are definitely found in TN with the rest of the Elliott clan by 1797.

Elizabeth’s death date is found in Hinshaw’s Encyclopedia of Quaker Genealogy Vol 1 under Center MM.  Center MM is in Guilford County, NC but reasonably close to the where the Elliott family lived on Polecat Creek.  I was unable to look at the original records for this fact as there are no existing original records for Center MM before 1825.

The information in Hinshaw is for Center MM page 85 Volume I
Elizabeth Elliott, w. Jacob, d. 10-28-1791 aged 58 years.

 I have not found a death date for Jacob.  Had Jacob died when many of his children moved to TN?  Did he move with them?  Did he stay behind with a son or daughter who did not move?

I am not clear yet on why many of Jacob and Elizabeth's children chose to move to Tennessee. 

Tom Hamm suggested an article that I have not yet read:

A very helpful article on this subject is Dorothy Lloyd Gilbert, "Quaker Migration to the Western Waters." It was originally published in "The East Tennessee Historical Society's Publications" in 1946, pp. 47-58. It was reprinted in "The Southern Friend," the spring 1982 issue, pp. 3-15. She finds that most Lost Creek people came from Guilford and Randolph counties. Among them were my Beals/Bales ancestors. 


 Many of the Quaker families were moving out of the south in what I call the mass exodus of the Quaker families out of the south and into the non-slavery states of Ohio and Indiana.  And indeed that is where most of Jacob and Elizabeth's children and grandchildren finally ended up.   Jacob and Elizabeth had seven children who lived past childhood:  (not in order of birth)  Abraham, Jacob, Elizabeth, Israel, Hannah, William, Rachel.  The Quaker records prove that Elizabeth, married to Hugh Maxwell and Israel married to Welmet Lamb and familes were in TN.  I have proof that Abraham and wife Ruth were also there that I will add soon.  I can not find Hannah and husband Stephen Ward in the Quaker records for Lost Creek.  They do not seem to have taken a certificate from Cane Creek MM to TN, Ohio, nor Indiana.  I do not see record of deaths for this couple.  Perhaps Cane Creek did not have records after a certain date.  I need to do research on this.   Jacob was married to Betty Beeson....need to look for that.....that leaves William and Rachel.....but at least we have firmed up the dates of coming and going for the TN stay.

Above are the Lost Creek MM records for the surname Elliott.  It would seem that Israel and family moved to TN from Randolph County in 1797.  Israel was married to Welmet Lamb. Eve was a daughter of Israel and Welmet.  The records of Cane Creek MM tell us that Israel's sister, Elizabeth, who was married to Hugh Maxwell moved about the same time.  Probably the families traveled together.

Cane Creek MM page 408 Hinshaw Vol I

Maxwell

1790,8,7 Elizabeth rocf Center MM, NC, dated 1790,7,17

1792,10,6  Hugh recrq (received by request)

1792,10,6 Elizabeth, dt Hugh and Elizabeth, recrq

1797, 10, 7  Hugh and sons gct Lost Creek MM [Tenn]

1797, 10, 7 Elizabeth (with h) and children gct Lost Creek MM [Tenn]

The records of Lost Creek spell out the names of Hugh and Elizabeth and all of their children with birth dates:  From the

They later go to Lost Creek Monthly Meeting in Tenn and listing of  their children is on page 1108 of those records.

Hugh b. 2-9-1762

Elizabeth Maxwell b. 6-7-1766

Children:

John b. 5-10-1789

Elizabeth b. 1-9-1791

Jacob b. 9-4-1792

William b. 3-8-1794

Hannah b. 11-4-1795

Thomas b. 3-10-1797

Mary b. 3-20-1799

Hugh b. 1-11-1801

David b. 11-23-1802

Ruth b. 3-9-1806

Matilda 5-8-1808

Lydia b. 1-2-1810

p 1125 Lost Creek MM Tenn

1798 4, 21 Hugh and sons John Jacob, William and Thomas, rocf Cane  Creek MM, NC dated 1797, 10,7.

1798 5, 19 Elizabeth and dau. Elizabeth and Hannah rocf Cane Creek MM  dated 1797, 10,17.

1816, 2,24 Hugh and fam. get White Water MM, Ind.

1816, 2,24.  Elizabeth and dau. get White Water MM, Ind.

White Water MM EQG p 139

4-27-1816 Hugh and s. William, Thomas, Hugh and David, rocf Lost Creek  MM. Tenn.

4-27-1816 ? says Hannah but I think they goofed and it is Elizabeth and  d. Hannah, Mary, Rachel, Ruth, Matilda and Lydia, rocf Lost Creek MM,  Tenn.

From the records of Lost Creek, we know that the family remained in Tennessee until 1816 when they moved to Indiana.

Information found at:  http://drwilliams.org/iDoc/index.htm?url=http://drwilliams.org/iDoc/lost_creek.htm  Says that Grassy Valley which is the preparatory meeting under Lost Creek that the Maxwell family attended was discontinued in 1815 as did all of the other smaller meetings under Lost Creek.  That left Lost Creek is the only surviving meeting in that part of Tennessee.  

Lost Creek Friends Church in TN.

In June 2017 I was in Knoxville attending the wedding of Barbara Moses Atkins and Ted Cook.  I made a quick jaunt up highway 11 to find Lost Creek Friends Church for myself.  Wow, the area is very sparsely inhabited.  Both New Market and Strawberry Fields are not even a wide place in the road.  Strawberry Fields had a small library that was not open on a Saturday and New Market had just a few houses as far as I could see and a couple of businesses out on Highway 11.  But the church was not hard to find and is in fairly good shape with indications that it is still used.  To find the Lost Creek Quaker church if you are driving west from New Market you turn right just after you pass the junk yard that is on both sides of Highway 11.  It is a very small road and easy to miss....but absolutely just after the junk yard.  




The below photo shows the marker that has been placed to mark what was probably the burial ground.  It is just an empty field now with one stone.

Where did the Elliott Clan live in TN?  In the below map one can see New Market, TN.  Information says that present day Lost Creek MM meets close to New Market.   There is a nearby Golf Club with name of Lost Creek Golf Club.  These two identifiers lead me to believe that this would have been the general area for the original Lost Creek MM. 

 Here is what can be found in The History of Campbell County, TN:   http://www.tngenweb.org/campbell/history/Quakers.html

....Others settled near what is now called New Market, Tennessee along Lost Creek and in what they called Quaker Valley (now known as Rocky Valley). John Mills, a Quaker from Guilford County North Carolina, brought his family to Lost Creek where they built a log cabin. 

The below map shows Lost Creek and further supports the fact that Quaker families were living in the area by the name Friends Station just along the Lost Creek.

It is clear that the Maxwell family was connected to the preparatory meeting of Grassy Valley.  Grassy Valley was never a MM.  Hinshaw says the following about Grassy Valley:  At the first session of Lost Creek Monthly Meeting, "Friends inhabiting about Thomas Marshall's in the head of the Grassy Valley" (across the Holston River in Knox County) requested the privilege of holding a First Day Meeting. 

I can not find a modern day version of Grassy Valley that would make sense for this description.   Here is what I DID find and is my best guess for where the Maxwell family was living.  My best guess is that the other siblings who were children of Jacob and Elizabeth Elliott were living in the same neighborhood.  There are no extant census returns for TN in the years that we would be checking.  Thus I can not double check to see where these families were living.  It is possible that there were tax lists that can be found in the future to corroborate these guesses.  

In the above map you can see the Holston River snaking along just north of the Andrew Jackson Highway.  The dotted line just below Strawberry Plains on highway 11E is the dividing line between Jefferson County and Knox.  Below shows that from different perspective.

So I propose that the Maxwell family and perhaps others of Jacob and Elizabeth's children were living somewhere around north side of the Holstein river on the last bend before the river is totally in Knox County.  That is on the Knox County side of the Holstein River in the one bend in which the river is the boundary between Knox and Jefferson.  Now finally

Now finally, the pages from the journal that mention both Hugh Maxwell and my ancestor, Abraham Elliott.  It would seem that Abraham is no longer Quaker or at least somewhat associated with Baptists.  

Summer 2014 a researcher sent post saying  that Find A Grave had information at:

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=cr&CRid=153031#beginMap

Some of the other families that were at Lost Creek in the same time period as my Elliott family are represented by the following messages:

My Quaker Millikan/Millican family also followed the Randolph > Guilford Co., NC > Lost Creek in Jefferson Co., TN and then about 1860 moved to Crittenden Co., KY with some of the family going on to Indiana.

 (Information from Pat Smith   flpossum@gmail.com )

Tom Hamm has Beals/Bales who made a similar move to Jefferson County, TN in this time period.

Tom also mentioned:

 A number of Lost Creek families moved to Wayne County after the War of 1812--Mills, Bales, Marshall, Swain, Osborn, Underhill, Thornburgh, Lee, and Macy among others.

This is the opposite of what my Elliott family did.  Abraham Elliott moved his family directly to Wayne County from Jefferson County, TN.  He then moved them back to Warren County, Ohio during the war of 1812 for safety from the Indians.  After the war of 1812, Abraham and his family moved to Vigo county, Indiana to take up Bounty land that had been awarded to his son-in-law, Nehemiah McKinsey.  

Marsha,
I would add to the remarks by Tom Hamm, that the Haworth and Mills 
families also migrated from Guilford county to Lost Creek.
I have a picture of the Lost Creek Meeting:
http://www.haworthassociation.org/Migration/Meeting_Houses/MeetingHouses.htm


Ron Haworth
www.haworthassociation.org
    

In January 2015, I received hints from Ancestry.  One of the hints had more information on Elizabeth Elliott Maxwell.  It is information about her birth, death, and gravesite:  

http://trees.ancestry.com/tree/22584707/person/18026881906/media/1?pgnum=1&pg=0&pgpl=pid%7cpgNum

Another of the hints says that her death date of 4 Mar 1841 is taken from the minutes of Salem MM in Indiana.

Find a Grave also has a bit of information about Lost Creek MM and the Quaker families who were a part of this group at:

https://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=cr&CRid=153031

Quaker ancestors

My brother was asking me yesterday about our mutual Quaker ancestors.  I will make a brief overview of the Quaker families that I have found so far on the side of my Hawkins Grandmother:  Mary Ann McGregor Hawkins.  Then I will add some information about Quakers found in the ancestry of my mother.  However, before any of that I will add a few quotes and links to information about the Quaker religion in the history of our country in case the reader wants a bit of background information.  It makes no sense for me to spend time recounting the history of the Quaker religion when there is already an abundance of information on the internet that can be found with a search engine.

This illustration is found at a very helpful site:  http://barbsnow.net/Quaker.html

For a quick history, wikipedia is always easy:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quakers

The Religious Society of Friends has an official website: http://www.quaker.org

The study of one's Quaker ancestors will include at some point the wonderful and amazing Encyclopedia by Hinshaw.  Mr. Hinshaw began his work in NC where his Hinshaw ancestors had lived.  The Quaker Monthly Meetings kept very careful records of everything that happened in the area among the members of the Quaker group including births, marriages, deaths, and sometimes what the group believed to be wrong doings by members of the Monthly Meeting.  Mr.  Hinshaw's six volumes are a transcription of these records.  The actual records are held in various Quaker repositories such as Guilford College Library for those that apply to NC.

If you have access to Ancestry, you can find Hinshaw's Encyclopedia of American Quaker Genealogy at
http://search.ancestry.com/search/CardCatalog.aspx#ccat=hc%3D25%26dbSort%3D1%26title%3DEncyclopedia%20of%20Quaker%26keyword%3D%26filter%3D0*37%26

Vol I is NC, Vol II New Jersey and Pa, Vol III is NY, Vol. IV is Ohio, Vol V is also Ohio, Vol VI is Virginia and there is a Vol I supplement available at the site as well.

My brothers and I share two separate Quaker groups in our heritage.  Interestingly enough, while one is on our mother's side and the other on our father's side, some of them lived only a few miles away from each other in the late 1700's but then these people's descendents moved away from each other and did not join again until 1946.  The Worth family which is on our mother's side attended the above Meetinghouse in the mid to late 1700's.  However I will save this family until the end of the article.

All of the Quakers on my father's side arrived first in Pennsylvania.  These families include Moore, Elliott, Jenkins, Cureton.  Some of these names I have not yet proved to have been Quaker....and I am sure as time goes on I will find more surnames to add to the list.  These families for the most part remained in Pennsylvania until the 1760's when expensive land in PA and cheap land in the Carolinas caused a migration down the Great Wagon Road.

The Moore family first stopped in Orange County, NC.  To see more about this family in Orange County, view my post dated Tuesday April 24, 2012.  Some of the Moore family members moved on to Newberry County, SC just before the Revolutionary War while others moved to Wrightsboro, GA near Augusta, GA in the same time period.  For more information about both of these groups, view posts dated Tuesday April 24, 2012 and Tuesday, May 1, 2012 as well as Thursday, May 3, 2012  or use the search engine in the top left hand corner to search for the name that you are interested in or the place that is of interest to you.

The Elliott family moved directly to Rowan County, NC from Pennsylvania.  They lived in the part of Rowan that is now Randolph County, NC. For more about this family look at my post dated Saturday Aug 25, 2012.

All of these families lived in the respective areas that I have named during the Revolution.  Some fought on the side of the patriots, some on the side of the Loyalists, while many of them tried to stay entirely out of the war because of their pacifist beliefs.  However, all of my brother and my ancestors moved out of the south in the first decade of the 1800's and into the non-slave states of Ohio and Indiana.  Their settlement there will be the subject of another post.

On our mother's side, we descend from Nantucket Quaker families.  Nantucket is a very small island off the coast of Massachusetts.

As the Colonist's desire for independence heated up in the early 1700's, the people who lived on Nantucket became very aware of the dangers to their very small island if indeed a war was fought.  Many of the inhabitants were uneasy about how vulnerable to attack Nantucket's position made them.  The Quakers being pacifists were even more concerned with that issue.    Quakers were dismissed for marrying outside of the Quaker religion and there was some fear that more intermarrying on the island would lead to inbreeding.  All of these factors led to a  large scale migration of the Quaker families on Nantucket to Guilford County, NC where they were aware that there was already a substantial Quaker population in place.

Our ancestor, Francis Worth, brought his family from Nantucket to Guilford County, NC in 1772 as evidenced by records found in the Folger Collection on Nantucket Island:

“Removed 28th, 11 Month, 1771 to New Garden, NC.  

And from records associated with New Garden MM in Guilford County, NC:

1771, 7, 27  Daniel Worth rocf Nantucket MM, Mass., dated 1771,4,25

1772, 7,25  Francis Worth rocf Nantucket MM, Mass., dated 1772,5,25

1774, 1, 29  Jonah Worth rocf Nantucket MM, New England, dated 1773,10,7

1776,8,31 Jonah gct Nantuckett MM, New England

[rocf means Received on certificate from]   It is my best guess that because Nantucket is a sea-going community, the family would have sailed from Nantucket to the Quaker area around Perquimans NC.  There was a large Quaker community there and I would guess that they would have helped these families make the overland trip to Guilford County from there.  

I descend from Francis Worth's daughter, Phebe.  There is a huge Quaker heritage before Phebe.  However, Phebe met and married in Guilford County a young man named Silas P. Wooten who was not Quaker as evidenced by the fact that he states that he fought at Guilford Court House during the Revolution when he applies for a Revolutionary War Pension many years later while living in Kentucky.

1775  Phebe Worth is dis from New Garden MM in Guilford County, NC.  No reason is given for the dis.  This is according to Hinshaw Vol I

I do not know yet why Phebe was dis.  It is not likely that it was from marrying out of unity because   Phebe and Silas's oldest children were not born until the mid 1800's and Phebe would have been only about 15 years old in 1775.  Phebe  and children born in NC moved to Kentucky with Silas by 1804 and that was the end of the Quaker connection for this family.  I will talk about the Quakers in Nantucket in another post.

1804 Silas received a land grant of 400 acres at Georges Creek on Levisa Fork of

Big Sandy River Certificate #115-- date of the Survey was Nov 6, 1804. 

(Kentucky) {another source says: April, 1, 1781 in Tazewell Co. Va.  Pension #S.40730}

George McKinsey's wife was Sarah Moore not Sarah Thomas as Ruby Mundell Wallace assumed

It appears that George McKinsey married Sarah Moore about 1780 using the first known child as a method of computing the date of marriage.  George and Sarah's oldest son was David and he was born circa 1781 according to the census of 1850.  He reports his age as 69 in 1850.

Sarah died in Newberry County after 24 September 1807.  On this date Sarah appeared in Newberry County, SC to sign a deed of sale, and to relinquish her dower rights to this land.  We do know that she had died prior to the departure of the family to Ohio and was buried in SC.  I am still unclear on where Sarah and George met and married even though Harriet Imrey has helped me with this.  Perhaps as I write more on this post I will have a better idea.  I might look to see just when George bought land in SC to see if it was before or after 1780.  I will be editing this post forever, so check back to see if I have updated information.  

Sarah was the niece of Nehemiah and Abigail  Thomas, this fact was brought out by the will of Nehemiah Thomas.  You may look at a transcription of this will in my post on this blog made Thursday, May 3, 2012.

 Nehemiah made his will 15 May, 1796 and died the same year, leaving bequests to several nephews, including a bequest to nephew, Nehemiah McKinsey, son of George and Sarah McKinsey. I believe that it is this will that caused Ruby Mundell Barry to assume that Sarah had been a Thomas before her marriage to George McKinsey.  She assumed that it was Nehemiah who was Sarah's uncle by blood rather than his wife, Abigail Moore Thomas, who was her aunt by blood.  

Nehemiah and Abigail were married in Orange County, NC sometime before 1764 as she was dismissed from Cane Creek MM at that time for marrying out of unity.  If you don't do a lot of Quaker research that means that she married someone not of the Quaker faith or in some way contrary to  Quaker discipline.  

In Vol I, Cane Creek MM North Carolina

Thomas

1764, 8, 4.  Abigail (form Moor) dis mou.

1766, 8, 2.  Abigail (form Moore) dis mou.

1770,6,2 Abigail con her mou

1770, 7,7 Abigail gct Fredericksburg MM, SC

( I am guessing that the con her mou happened because she and Nehemiah were planning to move)

Hinshaw says that no records of Fredericksburg MM are known to be in existence. Fredericksburg MM was established in 1755 or earlier.  Bush River MM was established in 1770.  Thus Fredericksburg MM may have been the MM that was known to Abigail and her friends at Cane Creek.

In Vol V of Hinshaw, Miami (OHIO) Monthly Meeting page 131:

Thomas

1809,1,14 Abigail rocf Bush River MM, S.C. dtd 1807,8,29, endorsed by West Branch MM, 10,12,17

1821,6,3 Abigail d. ae 81

I am convinced that Abigail was the daughter of Richard and Sarah Jenkins Moore who were living in Orange County, NC before the Revolution.  Look for more information on this couple in my post dated Tuesday, 24 April 2012.  Richard Moore names daughter Abigail Thomas in his will  

In a copy made from a book about Wrightsboro by Dorothy M. Jones there is an abstract of the will of Richard Moore:
s/9/20/1784--no date of pro.
Heirs, sons James and John, Mordecai, Richard, Thomas, and Jonas
Daus:  Mary Mooney, Prudence Ryan, Abigail Thomas, and Sarah Perkins
Warren County. Ga.

My good buddy Harriet Imrey has a knack for making concise clear statements that sum up what we know and I will quote her here in order to save myself some time in explaining more about the Moore family in NC:

The Moore family stayed in Berks Co PA at Exeter MM until 1755.  The certificates from Exeter were received by Cane Creek MM in Orange Co NC on 6-4, 1757, for Richard Moore, his wife Sarah (Jenkins), their son John and their daughter Prudence.  A receipt of certificate for Mordecai and Abigail Moore is not in the extant records for Cane Creek, but they had to have had one, since Cane Creek disowned both.  Abigail's dis mou was recorded on 8-4, 1764 and also on 8-2, 1766.  One of those is probably a transcription error. .. Mordecai Moore was disowned on 5-6, 1758, and Prudence Moore on 7-7, 1759.  On 11-7, 1767, Richard and wife (Sarah) and son James were granted a certificate to Fredericksburg MM, SC.  Bush River wasn't yet an MM, and Wrightsborough GA did not yet exist as a settlement, much less an MM.  The Wrightsborough plans were already in process, so the older Moores probably went straight there--they didn't stay long enough in SC to get land there (although son Mordecai did).  Fredericksburg MM was the nearest one for either the Bush River or the Wrightsborough communities as of 1767.  Son John Moore stayed in NC until 4-5, 1777, when he was granted a certificate to Wrightsborough MM (received there on 1-3, 1778).

Mordecai Moore married Mary Lackey/Leakey and Prudence Moore married a man with last name Ryan as she is named as Prudence Ryan in the will of Richard Moore.

The "icing on the cake" that caused me to adopt this Moore family was when I made a trip to Warren County, Ga.  At that time I wrote in my data base:

On a trip to Augusta, GA, I visited Warrenton, Ga and found an entry in the Warren County Court of Ordinary returns on estates 1798-1811.  on page 31 there is a list of people who were given cash in the settlement of the estate of Mordecai Moore. After cash to the administrator and cash to the widow, Mary Moore, the next entry is Geo. McKinney....it seems that the rest of the list is likely children or husbands of daughters ---although I can not be certain at this point.  I believe that George has traveled to Georgia on behalf of his wife, Sarah, to obtain her part of the inheritance.  The fact that he is given the money on her behalf indicates to me that the rest of the children recognize him as the husband of their sister, Sarah.  Certainly this seems to be a likely sign that Sarah McKinsey was Sarah Moore---daughter of Mordecai.  

If you click on the image it is shown by itself in larger format and easier to read.

Here are other facts that "shore up" my argument that Sarah was a Moore rather than a Thomas....Of course, the fact that I spent almost ten years trying to fit her into the Thomas family with no luck adds to my argument.  But George and Sarah name their second child Mordecai McKinsey.  I do not think that it is a coincidence that their second son carries the name of Sarah's father Mordecai.  The first daughter and third child is named Abigail (almost certainly after Sarah's aunt who is probably a great help in the household of the young McKinsey family).  The next child is a girl and is named Mary (almost certainly after Sarah's mother, Mary Lackey/Leaky Moore).  The next child is a boy and is named after Abigail's husband Nehemiah Thomas.  

In addition, in the 1880 census, the only child of Sarah and George McKinsey who is still living is Naomi.  Naomi reports that her father was born in Virginia and her mother in Georgia.  I think that the information about Georgia is probably in error.  That Sarah was more likely born in NC when the family was living in Orange County.  However, Naomi was likely to have known that her mother's family lived in Wrightsboro, Ga during Naomi's lifetime and would have assumed that her mother was born and raised there.  

After Sarah's death, George McKinsey moved all of his family to Ohio---taking Abigail with him as Nehemiah was also dead by then.  According to Ruby Mundell Barry, George sold Abigail a part of his farm and she lived there the rest of her life and left all that she had to George's children at her death.  After George had his family and Abigail settled in Ohio, he returned to Newberry County, SC to sell land to Jesse Palmer 21 Aug 1809.  He then traveled to Georgia to court Mary Moore Lacy.  Mary was a cousin to Sarah and was the widow of William Lacy.  George married Mary 21 Feb 1810 and moved her and all of her family to Ohio.  George was certainly not a lazy man.  

 George McKinzie

Spouse:

Mary Lacy

Marriage Date:

21 Feb 1810

County:

Columbia

State:

Georgia

Found on Ancestry July 2008

This county makes sense as in 1810 McDuffy was not yet formed from Warren and Columbia.

An interesting fact was brought up at the Newberry County gathering:  Augusta, Ga was important to early Newberry because it was easier to go to Augusta on the Great Wagon Road than to go to Charleston.  

It is quite plain to see that George had kept in close touch with the Moore family in Wrightsboro.  

Harriet Imrey just reminded me of one more great piece of evidence!  When Mary Moore Lacy McKinsey's father died in 1811, John Moore actually named George McKenzie as a son-in-law and stated that he lived in Ohio. No doubt that it is OUR George McKinsey who is in so thick with the Moore family.   John Moore died in Columbia County, Georgia.  Here is the abstract of John Moore's will:

MOORE, John s/July 1 1811.  p/July 9 1811.  Heirs: Beloved wife, Sarah.  Sons, James Moore, Hiram Moore.  Brother Richard Moore.  Sons in law Isaac Dennis, George McKenzie, in Ohio.  Enoch Jackson and John Perryman.  Grandson, John Moore, Jr., Exrs. Joseph Miller and Owen Baldwin.  Witness:  T. Tillery, William Wiley, Silas Mote.

from:  http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~gacolum2/earlywillsMandN.htm