Migration How To Migrations in history explore the nature and complexity of the movement of peoples, cultures, ideas, and objects. Drawing from the vast collections available in the library, historical societies and the Internet, this newsletter will feature some of the reasons why our ancestors came here with emphasis on their religious and economic movement westward. We will also examine the genealogical information of migration patterns – what happens when people move, what they take with them, what they leave behind, and how they make their new place home. {Written by Flora L. VerStraten} Raise your hand if you had ancestors that migrated from western Pennsylvania to the Ohio Valley Region. Many of us that have ancestors that either settled in Jefferson County or came through the county can find a connection to PA. For this reason, this newsletter will focus primarily on our emigrant ancestors from PA. We will examine maps of the Panhandle of VA (now WV) and the western bordering counties of PA. We will attempt to explain the close relationship that OH had to VAa (now WV) and PA and what impact those states could have on our researching tactics today. While we as researchers are interested in NAMES, it is important for us to study and learn history! There will be several pages devoted to the religious migrations of our ancestors. Knowing their religion in many cases can aid us in our research efforts. We must also consider reasons why our ancestors migrated to OH such as: free land, religious freedoms, following family migration patterns, employment opportunities such as; farming, mining, various trades, commerce, and industry. So remember this: If you haven’t found your ancestor or a record of your ancestor in Jefferson County, try searching right across the river in WV and PA. Early Quaker Movement to Ohio - Jefferson CountyQuakers – Movement to America {Source, Mount Pleasant and The Early Quakers of Ohio, by James L. Burke & Donald E. Bensch). To escape persecution at home, many Quakers sought refuge in America. In fact, George Fox conceived the idea of a separate colony in America. Although that project did not materialize, there were Friends among the earliest arrivals who settled in Massachusetts, Maryland, and Virginia. The Friends began arriving between 1671-1673. While one of the major motives for settlement in the New World was to find religious freedom, Quakers discovered that religious toleration was often no more available to them in the established communities of North America than it had been in England. They formed their own colonies in their own communities. The first movement of Friends from the Atlantic Coast westward naturally headed toward the western reaches of PA because the colony had such a favorable relationship with most of the Indians in the region. In 1773 two Quaker missionaries, Zebulon Heston and John Parrish, made a sucessful journey into the Indian country of the Ohio Valley. Also, a number of Friends left VA and NC during the Revoluntionary War in order to escape the violence of the war in those colonies. The Hopewell, VA Monthly Meeting sent out investigation committees into western PA, in 1780 and discovered how many Friends were living in the area. It revealed that over 150 Friends had migrated to near present Centerville (on U.S. Route 40). By 1800 the Quakers were firmly situated in the Alleghenies. Thus, following this time period, more rapid settlement in the Ohio country was soon to follow, due to the awakening of the Quaker consciousness concerning slavery in the southern part of the North American colonies. Settlement in OhioAs southern Friends realized that the South with its growing hostile atmosphere was not the most advantageous place in which to live, they began to look for new lands on which to settle where they would not be persecuted for their beliefs and practices. To the north, beyond the mountains and beyond the Ohio River, was a new territory with an abundance of natural resources for survety and sale after Congress enacted the 1785 Land Ordinanace.When the Northwest Ordinance of 1878 guarantee that slavery wasn’t permitted in the territory north of the Ohio River, the Quakers began to think seriously of making a mass migration northward. After the Treaty of Greenville in 1795 opened the Ohio Country to settlement secure from Indian attacks, Friends in the South began to join the great migration to “the new West” which offered ecomonic opportunity and personal and political freedom. Friends from NJ, eastern PA, and northern VA also began to migrate to the Northwest Territory to seek a change and to start what many thought would be a better life. The truly great Quaker migration westward began in 1800 with the removal of one entire meeting and part of another from NC to the Short Creek region a few miles west of the Ohio River above Wheeling, VA. Two delegates, Joseph Dew and Horton Howard, were sent to survey the Ohio Country. Dew and Howard were joined by Aaron Brown. After these agents crossed the Ohio River into the Northwest Territory, they decided that the Short Creek region in what are now Jefferson and Belmont counties, OH, would be their new home. The men were so impressed with the new area that they inspired the entire Trent Meeting and several families to move north. In Jan. of 1800, they left their homes in NC and journeyed by wagon and horseback carrying with them their household furnishings and driving their livestock before them. Some of the routes taken were: The Kamawha road, which passed through the mountainous areas of present day VA and WV and down the Kanawha River and down that stream to the Ohio River. Some took the KY road by way of the western tip of VA through the Cumberland Gap and up through KY to Cincinnati. The Magadee route was taken over the VA turnpike, which ran from Richmond to the Ohio River at the mouth of the Kanawha River, was a favored way from 1810 until the age of railroads. Another route more likely taken was over the trail of the future Cumberland or National Road (construction of that road began in 1811). It passed through Redstone (Brownsville, Fayette county, PA) located on the Monogahela River south of Pittsburgh. It took from January of 1800 to September of 1800 to arrive in the Ohio Country. Quakers Arriving in Jefferson County, OhioMount Pleasant, Jefferson County, OH was the one area selected for the newcomers. Mount Pleasant had been settled in 1796 by an advance party of twenty men of which none were Quakers. They had scouted the area for a settlement. Robert Carothers purchased land in July 1800 and later he sold land to Jesse Thomas, a Friend, who brought his family to Ohio from North Carolina in 1802. Those two men laid out the village of Mount Pleasant which was known for several years as, “Jesse-Bob Town.” By the close of 1800, it is estimated that a hundred familes of Friends were in the Ohio Country. Rufus M. Jones wrote, “Something happened up and down the entire Atlantic coast from Georgia to Long Island, and in a less degree also in New York and New England. Whole meetings in many instances moved westward in a body, and pushed out ot find new homes and a new career in the wilderness of the north-west.” By 1826 the Old Northwest held more than eight thousand Quakers who lived among the limestone hills of Jefferson, Belmont, Harrison and Columbiana counties in the eastern part of the state of Ohio. For nearly seventy-five years, one-third of the Friends in America lived within the boundaries of the Old Northwest Territory. Another slight migration wave took place in 1835 to 1840 when Quakers with large families sought to secure land for their children. When the National Road was built in eastern Ohio in the late 1820’s, it passed through Quaker country at St. Clairsvlle. Farmland then increased in value. Some “Firsts” in Quaker Meetings· Concord – First monthly meeting in the Northwest Territory and what was to become the state of Ohio; consisted of two preparative meetings, Concord and Short Creek. First sessions were held December 1801. · Short Creek – First quarterly meeting in Ohio was held June 1807. · Ohio Yearly Meeting – First yearly meeting west of the Alleghenies: forerunner of Friends meetings in the Northwest Territory was August 1813. Two thousand people were estimated. Others say it was closer to three thousand people in attendance. · Horton Howard was named clerk, William Wilson was chosen to assist him, and Enoch Harris was selected treasurer. Migration of Scotch-Irish to Jefferson CountyConditions in the Northwest Territory in 1798 - {Source; The book titled, Scotch-Irish, by Charles A. Hanna} During the first half of the 18th century (1700 – 1750) Down, Antrim, Tyrone, Armagh, and Derry, Ireland were emptied of Protestant inhabitants. The famine of 1740 –1741 gave an immense impetus to the movement and it is said that for several years the Protestant emigrants from Ulster annually amounted to about 12,000. More than thirty years later, Athur Young found the stream still flowing and he mentions that in the year 1773, 4000 emigrants had sailed from Belfast alone. When in 1772 the Lord Donegal leases fell due, and he demanded 100,000 lbs. in fines for renewals form tenants – all Protestants – the English House of Commons backed the landlords. Religious bigotry, commerical jealousy, and modern landlordism had combined to do their worst against the Ulster Settlement. The emigration (to America) was not the whole of the mischief. Those who went carried their art and their tools with them, and at the rate at which the stream was flowing the (British) Colonies would soon have no need of British and Irish imports. In the two years that followed the Antrim evictions, 30,000 Protestants left Ulster for a land where there was no legal robbery and where those who sowed the seed could reap the harvest. They went, with bitterness in their hearts, cursing and destesting the aristocratic system of which the ennobling qualitities were lost and only the worst retained. Two principal streams of migration in this country developed, one southward through the Valley of VA into GA and the Carolinas, the other westward through PA, over the rugged mountains of the Alleghenies to the Ohio River Valley and the Northwest beyond. With this westward bound movement, the tide brought teachers and preahers – active, energetic and aggressive – and always at the very front of that thin line of log cabins marking the advance guard of a conquering white “civilization.” Among the pioneer leaders were, Methodists, Baptists and Episcopalians. The writer believes the Presbyterians, Associate, Reformed, Seceder, Covenanter, and similar denominational groups constituted not only the most numeros but the dominant element in the geographical areas in Jefferson County. Washington County, PA, was originally settled by Scotch-Irish from Bedford (afterwards, in part, Huntingdon) and York Counties, from the Kittatinny Valley, from VA, and direct from Ireland. (Source; Rev. Thomas Sherrard, author of The Sherrard Family of Steubenville, pg. 67) The stream of emigration into Ohio increased very rapidly after the opening of the Land Office (Steubenville) in 1801, and from 1802, particularly in Jefferson County, and it now became necessary to form congregations and religious societies…. Baptists from New Jersey, and the Methodists indicated as having came from Maryland and Delaware. The Presbyterians (pg. 66) who first settled in Jefferson County, Ohio, and the surrounding counties, were principally from the four western counties of Pennsylvania – Westmoreland, Fayette, Washington, and Allegheny. Rev. Robert Alexander, a Presbyterian minister stated in Aug. 31, 1898, “We know what the early settlers found when they came to the Ohio River and crossed it. They entered an unbroken wilderness, some coming from Virginia and others from Washington County, Penna., and some from beyond (eastern PA.) traveling over poor roads – mere paths in the forests. Who were they? The great body of early comers were a Scotch and Irish people, either coming directly from the Old Country, or from Penna., Delaware, Maryland and New Jersey, where they dwelt for a time.” The Old Indian Trail, where the National Road (No. 40) is now located – also called Zane’s Trail – was a great outlet from the Ohio River westward. From 1785 to 1808, emigration continued to flow into Warren Twp. Jefferson County, until public lands were all taken up and the township was settled with an enterprising and industrious population. The first squatters settled as early as 1776, for there is a record that Jesse Delong was born on the headwaters that year and lived to the age of 106. There were considerable settlements in the valley previous to 1798, at which time Dr. John McMillan, that powerful apostle of Presbyterianism in Penna. – who organized a church on Little Short Creek (also known as Indian Short Creek), taking its name from the stream. Scotch-Irish Presbyterians from neighboring Pennsylvania were among the first settlers in Mount Pleasant Township, as early as 1798. The Reverand Joseph Anderson conducted the first Presbyterian services in a log building on Little Short Creek; eventually two brick churches were built. Motives for coming to America and Jefferson County, OhioThe flow of Scotch – Irish and other emigrations from east to west in this country was dominated by two basic motives. · First - the economic motive; the urgent desire to better their material condition, acquire possessioin of property, and fincancial independence. This motive was stimulated by the promise and fact of cheap lands, and was a powerful factor inducing the perisistent penetration of the wilderness regardless of danger from Indian raids and the ordinary hardships of frontier life. Land was the object which invited the greater number of these people (settlers along the Monongahela, and between that River and the Laurel Ridge in 1772) to cross the Mountains – largely from Maryland and Virginia – for, as the saying was, “It was to be had here for the taking up,” that is, the building of a cabin and raising a crop of grain, however small, entitled the occupant to 400 acres of land and a preemption right to 1,000 acres more, adjoining, to be secured by a Land Office warrant. · Second – The early settlers sought civil and religious liberty and freedom for the individual, political independence and relief from the dominance of Government. Practically all the historians give the Scotch – Irish major credit for supporting the Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776, against the rule of Great Britain. They had training for generations in their struggles in the Old Country, then in the conflicts of the Revolution of 1776, and still later in the Indian Wars in which they were engaged so frequently, until they became a hardy and self- reliant people. Presbyteries of Jurisdiction - The Redstone was organized west of the Allegheny Mountains in May of 1781 embracing the present Pennsylvania counties of; Westmoreland, Fayette, Armstrong, Indiana, Allegheny, Beaver, Washington, and Greene, as well as some adjacent territory including the Panhandle of West Virginia (Hancock, Brooke and Ohio counties). The four ministers at the time of organization were, Rev. James Power, Rev. John McMillan, Rev. Thaddeus Dodd, and Rev. Joseph Smith. In September of 1793, The Rev. Messrs., John Clark, John McMillan, Joseph Patterson, James Hughes, and John Brice requested a separate Presbytery to be known by the name of the Presbytery of Ohio and it was granted in Oct. 1793. At a meeting of the Presbytery of Ohio held April 22, 1819, at Raccoon (Washington County, Pennsylvania) it was resolved that a division should take place. At a meeting June 22, 1819 at Cross Creek, Jefferson County, among other business, whereupon the Presbytery resolved to Synod (separate) to designate the Ohio River as the line of the contemplated division. …Presbytery northwest of the Ohio River included the Rev. Lyman Potter, Joseph Anderson, Abram Scott, Thomas Clark, and Obadiah Jennings into a separate Presbytery called the Steubenville Presbytery.
Presbyterian Group - to Jefferson County The first meetings of Presbyterian group were to set up a “tent.” For those of you that think of a canvas covering explanation, you would be correct. So, first came the tent, then a rough log building, perhaps with an earth floor and no heat; then a hewn log structure with possible primitive heating facilities; and then finally a frame or frequently a brick building with a sandstone foundation. The groves were God’s first temples here in the valley and the grand old forest trees lined the sunlit aisles of the very first meeting places. We do not know whether the Short Creek Congregation occupied the site in the woods on the John Mitchell farm, Scotch ridge, long enough to set up a “tent,” but there is a record of a “tent” on Irish Ridge on the Maxwell place later owned in 1879 by Smith Haythorn (Haythornwait), and very probably there was also a “tent” at or near the Oak Grove Cemetery where the Union House was located. Some have stated that there are some graves – perhaps only two or three – accumulated on the John Mitchell farm site, which might indicate a meeting place there for some months or even a year or more. It is estimated that a “rude log” Meeting House was erected some time between 1798 and 1800 when Rev. Joseph Anderson was called as pastor, but certainly no later than 1801. The record shows that Henry West, Hugh McConahey, and William Pickens built the pulpit which was later taken to the house on the hill, the Union House, near Oak Grove on Irish Ridge. Recorded by Rev. Thomas Sherrard. He states, “In 1800, Rev. Joseph Anderson took charge of two congregations, one at St. Clairsville and the other newly formed congregation on the Little Fork of Short Creek, two or three miles east of Mt. Pleasant. They convened in a tent during dry summer weather and has a rough log house for winter and rainy weather. In the course of a few years, as the tent and old Meeting House began to decay it was thought best not to rebuild on Little Fork…” The Short Creek worshipped in the “rude log “structure at the foot of Hoge’s Hill for about twenty years, which figuring from 1798, the date of organization would be to 1818. We do not know why the congregation abandoned the Little Short Creek site where over a hundred dead were buried in the cemetery beside the Meeting House. In any event, for the next eleven years (1818-1829) the Short Creek Congregation occupied the Associate Reformed Meeting House, known as the Union House, located on the eastern side of the road immediately opposite the old grave yard now know as Oak Grove Cemetery and near the farm later owned by Wm. Murray, father of Miss Effie Murray. Beside the Meeting House was a log cabin home of Rev. Alexander Calderhead, who also preached at Piney Fork, Scotch Ridge, and possibly preached at the associate group in Mt. Pleasant known as the Seceder Congregation. This Union House, near Oak Grove, derived from a deed from John Tagart to Andrew McMahen, dated August 31, 1809, recorded in Jefferson County Land Records Book pg. 164, on August 10, 1810, conveying to the Associate Reformed Church, one half acre of land, more or less, now known as the Oak Grove Cemetery, just south of the former site of the Oak Grove School, about two miles east of Mt. Pleasant. The deed clearly permits the understanding that a “hewed log” building had been erected prior to August 31, 1809, the date of the deed. This deed further registers the fact that the Oak Grove group was identified as the Short Creek Branch of the Associate Reformed Congregation, under the pastoral care of Rev. Alexander Calderhead. In this ancient graveyard at Oak Grove from many tombstone denotes the sleeping some of the fathers and mothers of Israel including Colonel Thomas McCune (Patriot) one of the first four Ruling Elders, his wife Mary Brady McCune, and a son, also Hugh McConahey, his wife Margaret (Peggy) McCune, and a son, Adam Dunlap, and some of his family, and others no doubt. Sometime after 1829, when the Short Creek Congregation removed from the Oak Grove site to Mt. Pleasant Village – the Union House was finally put into threshing machines by Squire Thomas Mitchell, Robert (Nelson) Theaker, and James H. Drennan. In 1829 Rev. Joseph Anderson relinquished his relationship to the Short Creek Congregation, and on December 2 of that year Rev. Benjamin Mitchell was ordained and installed pastor over the Congregation which had removed to Mt. Pleasant, then a thriving business.
Beginnings of Methodism in Jefferson County, Ohio(Source; West Wheeling, Early Methodist Circuit in eastern Ohio, by Raymond Martin Bell & Bernice Bushfield, Toronto, Ohio) There were four different groups of Methodist from 1784 to 1812. 1. Those who were Methodist in the east, especially in Maryland and moved westward. 2. Those who were Episcopalians and found it easy to become Methodist especially since there were few Episcopal circuit riders. 3. Those who had no religious affiliation but were attracted to Methodist religion. 4. Those who were Methodist in Ireland and came to America. The work grew so fast that the circuit had to be divided in 1793 in Ohio. As early as 1797 the Ohio Circuit (then known as the West Wheeling Circuit) preachers crossed the river and laid foundations in their faith. Some of the circuit riders for West Wheeling were: · 1802 Joseph Hall · 1803 John Cullison · 1804 Lasley Matthews · 1805 John West & Eli Towne · 1806 David Stevens & Abraham Daniels. · 1807 William Knox, Jas. Reiley, & John G. Watt · 1808 Robert R. Roberts & Benedict Burgess · 1808 Jacob Young & Wm. Lambden. · 1810 Wm. Lambden & Michael Ellis · 1812 John Clingan (at Barnesville & Cross Creek) West Wheeling Circuit was formed from the Ohio Circuit at the conference held in Baltimore in Apr. 1802. At first, it was a two week circuit with about 12 preaching points. In 1812 it was divided into Cross Creek (later Richmond), Barnesville and West Wheeling (later St. Clairsville). At first it probably included points not far from the Ohio River, but was extended westward until, in October 1808, Jacob Young said it included all of Jefferson, Belmont, and Harrison counties in Ohio. Methodism moved into the northern panhandle of West Virginia (Virginia) in 1785. In 1796 the settlers began to move across the Ohio River into Jefferson County. In 1797 Ohio Circuit preachers organized classes at Jacob Holmes’ and at Sprague’s. From Isaac Robbins journal entries the following was written, “During my stay at this place (Wellsburg) and after I was licensed as an exhorter in 1797 and as a local preacher in 1798, I made frequent excursions across the Ohio River to hold meetings. My first attempt was at old Father Sprague’s.” James Quinn writes, “ He (Callauhand in Sept. 1787) crossed the Ohio River from Reason Pumphrey’s, in the Beech Bottom, to preach at Carpenter’s Station, at the mouth of Indian Short Creek.” At this same point, Isaac Robbins and another young man (James Quinn) the exhorters, in 1798, used to cross over to hold meetings with two classes, which had been formed the previous year, by the preachers from the Ohio Circuit; one opposite the Beech Bottom among the Sprague’s, and the other near the place where Mt. Pleasant now stands among the Holmes. Tradition names a third early class: John Hales, before 1800, Knox Twp., Jefferson County, Ohio. These three classes all had meetinghouses built by 1805. Bishop Roberts in 1802 writes the following, “I was directed to go to (what is now) West Wheeling Circuit to get licensed to preach (at) a quarterly meeting held on West Short Creek at Holmes meetinghouse, then in the Ohio Circuit.” (The quarterly meeting was held about February). The statement above proves that Holmes Church was standing in early 1802 – certainly built not later than the fall of 1801. Wrenshall, ordained in Sept 1803, said Hopewell church was “new.” John Cullison is stated to have preached every four weeks in Jefferson County, Ohio in 1800. Meek and Holmes were instrumental in the building of the Holmes Church. We can lay out the order as: 1796 Jacob Holmes moved; 1797 first class held; 1798 Isaac Meek bought land; 1801-02 meetinghouse erected at Holmes; 1802 Roberts licensed; West Wheeling Circuit formed with 265 members (Hopewell was built the very next year.) Classes were being held before the actual churches were built. Many times services were held in open air, a reverend or member’s home, some several years prior to any rude log structures being built for the use of church services.
Above – The route of the National Road by, Beverly Whitaker, 1995. Beginning at Cumberland, MD - it extended beyond OH to IN and IL but not completed as planned to Jefferson County, MS. {From West Wheeling Circuit, 1808, Young’s Autobiography the following is noted}: · Hopewell MH (meetinghouse), Warren Twp. (Fidler attended QM (quarterly meeting) in 1804, built by 1803. · Steubenville Church (no class), MH (meetinghouse) 1811, Jacob Nessley. · Hales MH (meetinghouse), Knox Twp. built c. 1805, replaced in 1815. · Joseph Hall held classes. · Holmes MH (meetinghouse), Smithfield Twp., built 1801, replaced in 1810. · Dickerson, held classes in 1804. · William Rouse, not located. Methodism in Ohio before 1800Francis Asbury visited Ohio on June 26, 1786. (John Smith’s Journal). “George Callauhan preached at Carpenter’s Station in Jefferson County, in Sept 1787. This station was 1.5 miles down the Ohio River from Beech Bottom. Sometime previous to this in 1787, a number of families called squatters, had settled over the Ohio River, in what was then called the Indian County; and for protection, had built a block-house on the bank of the river, which was then known by the name of Carpenter’s Station. The frontiers had been, for sometime, without alarm. Some time in September 1787, the Indians made them a visit, on a Sabbath morning, and killed a part of the family of a Mr. McCoy. Some of the family made their escape, and fled in the blockhouse, where all families were soon collected, for safety, perhaps to near 100 souls. In about four days, after one of the circuit preachers preached at the house of Reason Pumphrey, in the Beech Bottom, about 1.5 miles from the above name station. About 8 to 10 persons from the station attended the meeting. After the service was ended, these persons, in a very pressing manner, solicited the young man to come that afternoon and preach to them, at the station. A council was held on the subject, and it was deemed by the majority unsafe to go.” “The preacher, after a few minutes reflection, determined for himself and turning to the applicants, said, “Return, and make what arrangements you can; and if providence permit, I will visit you at four o’clock.” A number were already collected, and some of the forenoon congregations were in attendance. The chapel was a ball alley and walls were composed of 15 to 20 hardy backwoodsmen, armed with rifles, tomahawks, and scalping knives, who surrounded the assembly as protectors. After the service was ended, a pressing invitation was given to him to visit them again, with which he cheerfully complied. During his stay, about four months, a number of persons applied for admission into the society across the river. This, as far as I know, may be regarded as the first introduction of Methodism into the Indian County (Jefferson), the now flourishing state (Ohio). Methodism moved across the Ohio River from Western Pennsylvania, Kentucky and Virginia (now West Virginia) at four places during 1797: 1. Miami – Cincinnati 2. Scioto – Portsmouth 3. Muskingum – Marietta 4. Below Steubenville – Carpenter’s Station. In 1797 preachers from the Ohio Circuit (mostly from Virginia (West Virginia), and Pennsylvania.) formed classes in Jefferson County, Ohio at Jacob Holmes and Father Sprague’s. From this time on Methodism grew by leaps and bounds in the Ohio.
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