The 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks genealogy blog prompt for this week is Land. I've been struggling with the content for this week's post based on that prompt. Amy Johnson Crow's email this week that highlights this week's prompt gave some hints or advice on how you can apply this week's prompt. In her email she writes:
Week 17's theme is "Land." Farming ancestors, homesteaders, and military bounty land claimants are all on deck this week. Who does "land" make you think of?That gave me some clarity on what to post for this week! This week's post will begin a new series for me. Well, actually I started the series November 2, 2019, when I wrote about Rachel Ann BIDDLE MILLER. What is this new series called? The Ohians! It sounds like a name for a soap opera!
This past fall, while perusing books at Barnes and Noble, I came across a book called The Pioneers: The Heroic Story of the Settlers Who Brought the American Ideal West, by David McCullough. I've read some other McCullough books, he does a wonderful job turning history into an enjoyable story. I bought the book without looking any further than the cover. I thought that the pioneers that would be covered in this book would be those going out on the Oregon Trail to the west coast. I was a little disappointed, but surprised that the book was about pioneers in Ohio! I don't think of Ohio as being in the west.
After the Revolutionary War, the newly formed United States won control of the area that would become the Northwest Territory. This included the land that would become Ohio. Ohio was granted statehood in 1803. During this time, Ohio would have been the western frontier of the fledgling United States and as people moved into this territory and then state they would have been settling a wild frontier. Many pioneers would have been from New England, Pennsylvania, and Virginia (at this time what is now West Virginia was part of Virginia. These pioneers would have typically left from Pittsburgh on the Ohio River and settled on the banks of the Ohio River and its tributaries.
As I started reading the book and realized it was about Ohio pioneers, I immediately thought of one of my wife's family lines. My wife's paternal grandmother, Mary Marjorie VOORHEES BAGBY JARRETT was born in Ohio on March 16, 1908. Sometime after her birth and before the birth of her sister Alvah Eloise VOORHEES, in 1910, the family had moved from Ohio to Virginia. So I wanted to learn more about my wife's Voorhees family, their ties in Ohio, and if any of the family would be considered Ohio Pioneers.
Marjorie's father, both her grandfathers and three of her four great-grandfathers all had census records that listed them as farmers. The earliest census records that I can find a family member on is the 1830 census. Richard Voorhees, his wife, and young family appear in the 1830 census in Wells Township, Jefferson County Ohio. This branch of my wife's family had farmed in Ohio since close to its settling in the very early 1800s.
I don't have enough research done yet to know where in the specific counties their farms were located. Hopefully, when the COVID-19 virus shutdown ends I'll be able to do more thorough research to locate family farms.
The one potential family farm that I'm aware of is that of Henry and Rachel Ann BIDDLE MILLER. As mentioned in my previous post, Henry Miller is buried in a family plot along with his first wife, Rachel his second wife, Mary, and seven of his children. As of now, the cemetery plot is in the middle of a farm field. I can imagine that since this cemetery was used for almost 40 years between 1846 and 1883 that he most likely owned this land and the farm that surrounds it.
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| Miller Family Cemetery, Millersport, Fairfield County, Ohio. Photo downloaded from findagrave.com. Image by: Janet Allen - Barnes |
This newspaper article from the Lancaster Eagle-Gazette, Lancaster, Ohio from October 31, 1951. It shows how long this family has been in Ohio. The article is about a family reunion of the children of Kinsa Belt and Almeda Miller Belt. Almeda is the daughter of Henry and Rachel mentioned above. I wonder if any pictures survive of this reunion in other branches of the family?
The article describes this family as having been early pioneers in Ohio and that they settled in Ohio in the early 1800s. I like how the article uses the word Pioneers.
More research is needed to prove the assumption that Henry and Rachel Miller are buried on what was a family farm as well as locating other potential farms in Fairfield, Jefferson, and Perry counties.
For other blog posts in The Ohioans! series, click HERE.
How I'm "related" to Mary Marjorie VOORHEES,
Saunders A. Bagby = Mary Marjorie Voorhees
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Wife's father = Wife's mother
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Me = Wife
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