Bush River MM Cemetery

When I think about all of the information that our group has brought together, I am reminded of my first encounter with the Bush River Quaker Cemetery.  The year before my husband and I took a very special trip to Scotland, I was desperately doing as much reading and research on my grandmother's McGregor and McKinsey family as I could do in what seemed such a short time.  It was somewhat disappointing to me at the time that I was unable to take her mother's McKinsey family back to Scotland with my research.  However, since then, I have probably spent more time on this McKinsey family than any other family line that makes up my heritage.  And one of the first major events that happened was that I found this cemetery on a trip to look at the University of South Carolina with my youngest daughter during her senior year of high school.  The photo below is from that trip BEFORE the restoration of the cemetery.

Due to the efforts of Judith Russell and many others this cemetery has now been restored and is being maintained.

The group photo below was taken in 2008 at our Bush River Homecoming event that was held in Newberry, South Carolina.  It is from this event that our September 2013 event was born.

If you would like to be a part of supporting the Bush River Cemetery Preservation, you can purchase the cemetery book or you can send donations to Judith Russell.  The details of how to purchase or donate are on the flyer below.

For more information on this contact Judith:  jrussell2@charter.net

You may also want to be a part of the mail list hosted by Rootsweb on which subscribers share 

information about their ancestors who lived in Newberry County and the environs of Bush River from the mid 1700's to the first decade of the 1800's when the mass exodus of the Quaker families out of the south and into the non-slave states of Ohio and Indiana occurred.  To join:

To subscribe to the list, please send an email to SC-BUSHRIVERQUAKERS-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'subscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message

You may also find that there is a wealth of information in the archives of this mail list which you can access by the follwoing link:

To search the Archives, go to:
http://lists.rootsweb.ancestry.com/index/other/Religion/SC-BUSHRIVERQUAKERS.html

Ohio Militia in War of 1812

I had a dream Tuesday night that makes me chuckle.  I know what caused me to have the funny dream.  I started making a list of books that I might pack for the homecoming on this blog just before I headed for bed and was struck by the fact that I have SOOOOOOO many things that I want to take with me to share!






I probably don't have to tell any of you about the piles and files that accumulate in the office and home of people who are addicted to historical and genealogical research.  Most of us suffer from the same "disease"......I remember something about that....hmmmm....where is that book?  where is that file?  where did I put that information?  Who e-mailed me that thought about our mutual ancestors?

In my dream I was trying to manage even more books and files and piles.  I lived in a place that even had shelves that looked like those in a library.  But at the end of the dream I walked right to a book that I had wanted to look at and I can remember the pleasure that it gave me that the book was in exactly the right place and that it was filed with other books that were similar.

But the really funny part is that when I picked up the book in the dream, the name of the book was the Ohio Militia in the War of 1812.

I absolutely don't know if I own that book.  I absolutely don't know if the book exists.  I'll do some looking today and add that to the end of this post.  And at first thought it doesn't seem a likely book (if it exists) to share with others who had Quaker ancestors in southwest Ohio in the early 1800's.  We know for sure that the Quaker families would have been trying to sit that war out just as they tried to sit out the Revolutionary War!  Quakers first allegiance was to God.  They did not feel that kind of allegiance to a government that was just made up of men.  They were also pacifists.

Photo from Kentucky National Guard History eMuseum at Kentucky.gov


However, the war would have affected them!  It would have been what everyone in the neighborhood was talking about!  It would have been a part of their lives.  It is important to put that kind of historical prospective into our research.  Just as during the Vietnam War in our lifetime had people who participated....people who supported it....people who were busy with their own lives and not that interested.....people who opposed the war.....people who actively protested the war.  Everyone was affected in some way no matter where they stood.  Everyone had friends or neighbors who fought or died or protested or whatever.  You couldn't live in the neighborhood and stay isolated from what was going on.

Anyway, I am convinced that my 4-gr-grandfather, Nehemiah McKinsey, sent me that message.  He reminded me that we need to include the war of 1812 in our study of ancestors living in Southwest Ohio in the years just after they had all moved there.  Nehemiah did indeed participate in the war of 1812.  He received bounty land for his service.  And he moved after the war with his father-in-law, Abraham Elliott, and wife, Catherine Elliott, and all but one of Catherine's siblings to  Vigo County, Indiana to reside on the bounty land.  So remember that if you have ancestors who move to Indiana just after the war of 1812, you might look for service in the war of 1812.

Roll Of Lieut. Francis Cunningham's Company The following data is extracted from Roster Of Ohio Soldiers In The War Of 1812. (County Unknown) Served from July 5. until July 23 1814. Lieut. Francis Cunningham Ensign, Titus Everhart Sergt. Martin Robinson Sergt. Thomas Biggs Sergt. Abner Hibber Corp. James Buckles Corp. Samuel Pearson Corp. Thomas Baning Drummer, Howell, Campbell Fifer, Daniel Crane Privates Brewer, Charles Buckles, William Caman, Joshua Case, John Cochran, Robert Day, Peter Ensby, Christopher Freed, John Goode, Burwell Gullifer, Stephen Jones, Joshua Lucas, Francis McKewn, John McKinsey, Nehemiah Moore, Hugh Pierson, Barton Reagan, Wright Waldorf, Isaac Whickear, Asa Whickear, Luke Williams, William Wilson, David Wilson, Gabriel Wilson, George Wilson, Isaiah Wright, Stephen Source: Roster Of Ohio Soldiers In The War Of 1812

Here are some links for research on the War of 1812 in Ohio:

http://warof1812.ohio.gov

http://www.ohiohistory.org/exhibits/ohio-history-center-exhibits/war-of-1812

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ohio_in_the_War_of_1812

Susan Webber asked me yesterday if I had found the book.  It is not in my library.  I do not own it.  But from my notes on the above information I have looked at a book called:  Roster of Ohio Soldiers in the War of 1812.  Two things are interesting.  One is that the author of the book did not know what county this company came from.  I would bet my two bucks that it was Warren County from looking at the names of the soldiers.  Second is where was I when I looked at this book?  Very likely I was in the Marshall University Special Collections library as it is available there.  Anyone attending the Warren County, Ohio homecoming could look at this book in the Southern State Community College library in Wilmington, Ohio.  I need to remember that Fold3 also has some war of 1812 records on-line.  Just found the book that I had looked at on-line at:

http://ww2.ohiohistory.org/resource/database/rosters.html

The internet is amazing, huh?

Ghost Story at the Golden Lamb in Lebanon, Ohio

If you are only interested in genealogy and historical research in Southwest Ohio, skip this post.  It is silly and personal and really probably only of interest to me.  More than six years ago my husband was taking a fall trip to the Homestead with his buddies.  I ALWAYS treated myself to a research trip when Jack took a golf trip.  I would go somewhere that was fun, but where I expected to spend many hours in a library and/or archives.  Jack was a wonderful companion if we were doing cemeteries or homesteads, but he was VERY bored when I did libraries and archives.  I had a lot of research to do on my McKinsey family in southwest Ohio and chose that as my trip because it was relatively close and easy.  I knew about the Golden Lamb in Lebanon and chose that a my lodging and food provider to make the trip even more fun for me.

When I checked in, the lady at the desk told me to wander around and choose a room.....which I did.  Looking back, that set the stage in my mind that the place was not full....perhaps no one else was staying there?  Perhaps I was alone for the night?  None of that was really in my head that night.  But looking back, perhaps that could have influenced what happened.....perhaps it was only in my mind?
I chose a lovely room.  Then I went down for dinner.  The dining room was charming and the food good.  Since I was by myself, I picked up all of the reading information and read while waiting for my dinner.  And some of what I read was about the ghost happenings in the building.  None of which I can really remember today.

By the time I went to bed, I was a bit spooked.  I am not the spooky type.  I am certainly not fearless, but I don't worry much.  But I was spooked.  So I left the light on across the room, and climbed into bed.  I slept well.

In the middle of the night, I woke up.  I was sleeping on my stomach.  I was paralyzed.  And someone/something was pulling the covers down VERY SLOWLY!  I would try to look to see who/what it was to the left....then to the right....but I could NOT move anything.....not my head, not my arm, not my body....and the covers continued to be pulled down very slowly.

In the morning I awoke and nothing had changed in the room.  It had been a very benign experience.  But it felt so REAL!  Had it just been a dream?  Had I really been visited by a ghost?  Others have told me that the feeling of being paralyzed is a sure sign of ghost activity....but I have no idea if that is true.  If it had been a dream about a ghost, it would have seemed that I would have dreamed something that was more in my experience....a ghostly figure going by the light?  Don't know....won't ever know.....but I won't ever forget the experience either.

As I was chatting with Dee Dee yesterday while we were firming up the menu, price and contract information for our dinner on Saturday night, I casually mentioned that I had stayed at the Golden Lamb and been visited by a ghost.  She became VERY interested in my story.  By coincidence, a celebrity was staying there last night who was interested in the paranormal.  As we talked more, Dee Dee said that it was almost certainly Dee Dee who had checked me in as that was often her routine to suggest that the guest might choose a room.  After looking at the website, Dee Dee and I became almost positive that the room that I stayed in was the Harriet Beecher Stowe room. And that was before she told me that that is the room that has had the most ghostly encounters connected with it.  Fun stuff, huh?  

I hope everyone will do the ghost tours Thursday and Friday night in Waynesville.  I think that it will be a lot of fun!  I am staying in the Hammel House and it is said to have ghosts.  I expect to be so tired each night that I am unlikely to have a visit this time?  But we will see.

Milton's Copy of Friends Miami Monthly Meeting

Milton let me borrow his copy of the Friends Miami Monthly Meeting Centennial book Waynesville, Ohio  1803 to 1903.

I made scanned copies of the pages and would be happy to share any of the pages that anyone wants during the homecoming.....

an example is the following page:

The last words on the previous page were:

Anna Kelly, Samuel's sister was married to Abijah O'Neall, about whom we have just heard and he and Samuel purchased from Dr. Jacob Roberts Brown the option on his three-thousand acre military claim said to be situated...

After I sent a message to the Quaker mail list about this booklet,  Mark Dixon sent me the following:

Scans of individual pages in this booklet can also be downloaded from:

http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=nnc2.ark:/13960/t8mc92j56#view=1up;seq=1

The site requires a fee to download the entire booklet in one PDF, but seems 
to allow the downloading of individual pages for free.  

And my note:  yes, there are several blank pages at the beginning of the book....

Mark is a descendant of the Waynesville Evans and Cook families.

Some miscellaneous information about Bush River families and particular my McKinsey family and that of Isaac and Mary Davies Thomas

I have another blog that is not specific to our Bush River/Southwestern Ohio families.  However I have a blog post that I wrote that is of interest to anyone who had Bush River connections.  If nothing else, there is a map that shows the location of the Bush River Meeting.  It can be found at:

http://marshamoses.blogspot.com/2012/11/thomas-family-in-nc-and-sc.html

Take a look and see if there is anything of interest to you in that post.

Things that I plan to take with me to share at the Homecoming

This is my packing list.  But it is also a list of things that you should ask me to share with you when we meet.  I would be happy to add things that some of you plan to bring as well.

Extra printer, paper, ink, computer*

CD of Hinshaw Encyclopedia*

Cemetery book for Bush River, SC ( See blog post Aug 23, 2013 for more information)
Basket and wire file that has Quaker hanging files including Enos Prep meeting
Quaker Records in Georgia:  Wrightsboro 1772-1793 and Friendsborough 1776-1777
The Quakers in the American Colonies by Rufus Jones and Isaac Sharpless
Quakers in South Carolina  The Rev Emmett Lucas, Jr, Editor
The Story of Wrightsboro 1768-1964 by Mrs. Pearl Baker
A Peaceable Pilgrimage by John Fitzgerald
Carolina Quakers Tercentery 1672-1972 Edited by Seth Hinshaw and Mary Edith Hinshaw
History of the Upper Country of SC by Logan
Quakers on the American Frontier by Errol T. Elliott
Early Settlement of the Friends in the Miamia Valley by Luke Smith Mote Edited by Willard Heiss
The Carolina Quaker Experience by Sety B. Hinshaw
Friends in the Carolinas by J. Floyd Moore
Quaker Women of Carolina by Seth B. Hinshaw and Mary Edith Hinshaw
Valiant Friend The Life of Lucretia Mott by Margaret Hope Bacon
Scottish Quakers and Early America 1650-1700 by David Dobson
The Southern Friend Journal of NC Friends Historical Society Double issue 1990-1991 that has the reconstructed Cane Creek (NC) minutes
Deep River Friends by Cecil E. Haworth
Friends at Back Creek Into the Third Century by Barbara N. Grigg and Myrle L. Walker
Hopewell Friends History 1734-1934 Frederick County, Virginia Assisted by John W. Wayland
New Garden Friends Meeting by Hiram H. Hilty
By Land and by Sea Quakers confront Slavery and its Aftermath in NC by Hiram H. Hilty
Georgia Genealogical Society Quarterly Vol 44, #1, Spring 2008  Quaker John Moore article
Newberry County, SC Minutes of the County Court 1785-1798
The Annals of Newberry O'Neall and Chapman and index
The History of Newberry County SC Vol One 1749-1860 by Thomas H. Pope
Loyalists in the Southern Campaign of the Revolutionary War by Murtie June Clark
Laurens and Newberry Counties, SC Saluda and Little River Settlements 1749-1775
Ohio Genealogical Society Quarterly Vol 53, 2013 Issue 1 featuring Miles family by Zubrinsky
The Dutch Fork an Atlas of the Dutch Fork of Newberry District, SC by Carl W. Nichols
DeLorme Atlases for states of Virginia, NC, SC, Ohio and Georgia

I will add to the list as I begin to pack and think of things...things marked with * are not already on the shelf in my bedroom

Quaker Meetings in the Waynesville area

Miami Monthly Meeting Address: P.O. Box 731, Waynesville, OH 45068-0731 Meeting/church phone: (513)897-5946 Web site: Miami.quaker.org Location: 169 S. 4th St., at High St. Yearly Meeting affiliation: Ohio Valley YM Worship time: 10:45am School time: 9:30am Worship style: Unprogrammed Branch/affiliation: Friends General Conference Map below: There is a list on-line of those who are buried in the Miami Monthly Meeting Friends Cemetery for the Hicksite cemetery.  There does not seem to be a list for the Orthodox cemetery.  http://www.wilmington.edu/academics/documents/MiamiMonthlyMeetingRecords-Hicksite-1832-1946.pdf Miami Monthly Meeting (OVYM) Cemetery Records (Hicksite) 1832-1946 - "A Record of Interments in Miami Graveyard." Center Friends Church I would like to add a map of the location of the cemetery in this spot.

I found in the archives of the Quaker mail list an explanation from Tom Hamm:  In many cases until the 20th century, a monthly meeting was made up  of more than one congregation. In this case, Center MM consisted of  Center and Chester preparative meetings. Chester Meeting still  exists in northern Clinton County west of Gurneyville. Milton had explained to me that Center had been laid down. However the cemetery that adjoined the Center MM still exists. below photo and information from: http://qugenswohio.blogspot.com/2005/09/center-meeting-clinton-county-ohio.html This same source says: Some years after the last service was held there, which is believed to have been a centennial celebration in 1926, the building was sold and used as a a place for storage until it was destroyed by fire in 1936. Subordinate Meetings of Center Monthly Meeting were: Caesar's Creek Preparataive Meeting 1806/12/01-1810/05/12Springfield Preparative Meeting 1812/08/08-1818/11/14Dover Preparative Meeting 1815/11/11-1824/08/14 New Hope Preparative Meeting 1817/08/14-1921/02/05 Lytle's Creek Preparative Meeting 1817-1818 Seneca Preparative Meeting 1822-1824 (later Jamestown Monthly Meeting) Chester Preparative Meeting 1824-30 & 1886/05/01-1921/02/05 Wilmington Preparative Meeting 1827/06/11-1828/06/09

Chester Monthly Meeting Address: 3451 Gurneyville Rd., Wilmington, OH 45177 Yearly Meeting affiliation: Wilmington YM Worship time: 9:45am School time: 9:00am Worship style: Programmed Branch/affiliation: Friends United Meeting Directions: 8 miles N. out of Wilmington on SR 68, L. on Gurneyville Rd; about 3.5 miles

Map below: Dover Friends Meeting Address: PO Box 166, Port William, OH 45164 Location: 257 Dover Rd, E of OH 134, 5 mi N of Wilmington Yearly Meeting affiliation: Wilmington YM Worship time: 9:30am School time: 10:30am Worship style: Programmed Branch/affiliation: Friends United Meeting Directions: I-71 to 68 S., L. on Antram Rd. til the end; R. on 134, immediate L. on Dover Rd; on L. map below: Springfield Friends Meeting Address: 498 Foxtrail Circle E, Westerville, OH 43081-2800 Location: 121 Todd's Fork Rd., off OH 380, N. of US 22, outside of Wilmington Yearly Meeting affiliation: Wilmington YM Worship time: 10:30am School time: 9:30am Worship style: Programmed Branch/affiliation: Friends United Meeting map below:

Thomas family

I spent many years researching the Thomas family that is found in Newberry County, SC and southwestern, Ohio.  Nehemiah Thomas is buried in the Bush River Cemetery.  Nehemiah died c. 1796.  He left a will in which he names various extended family members as he and his wife, Abigail Moore Thomas had no children of their own.  His will can be found on-line at:

http://www.archivesindex.sc.gov/onlinearchives/Thumbnails.aspx?recordId=301869

Nehemiah and Abigail Thomas were very close to my McKinsey family.  Abigail was Sarah Moore McKinsey's aunt.  The families lived near each other in Newberry County, SC.  I would guess that the older couple acted as grandparents to the children of Nehemiah and Abigail.  When Abigail died in Warren County, Ohio in 1821, she left everything that she owned to the children of this couple.  Also Sarah and George McKinsey named two of their children after Nehemiah and Abigail.   I descend from son, Nehemiah McKinsey, who was named after Nehemiah Thomas. George and Sarah's  daughter, Abigail,  married Rhoden Ham.

One of our participants at the Warren County Homecoming in September descend from Isaac and Mary Davies Thomas of Newberry County and Southwestern Ohio.  If I ever proved a relationship between Isaac and Nehemiah I do not remember the proof.  But I certainly suspect a relationship between the Thomas men in Newberry County.

For my thoughts on the connections on the Thomas families, take a look at:

http://marshamoses.blogspot.com/2012/11/thomas-family-in-nc-and-sc.html

Kathie Johnston from Memphis sent me the following information:

I descend from Isaac and Mary Thomas through their daughter Elizabeth Thomas who married William Cox, in the Bush River, SC area. They moved to Ohio about 1806  with several children and several more children were born in Ohio before they moved on into Randolph and Wayne Co, Indiana. Some/many of their children remained Quaker.

Their daughter Phoebe Cox (my gg grandmother) married Joseph Jackson who was not Quaker at the time she married him, but maybe/probably had been Quaker. His family came to Ohio from Stokes Co/Surry Co. North Carolina area, time frame not clear to me yet, but probably about same time as Coxes and Thomases. Phoebe and Joseph moved on across Indiana and then to Iowa, and although they were no longer officially Quaker, many of the families moving to the same locations at those times were families with Quaker names. They ended up close to Oskaloosa, IA, which had many Quaker families and resources. One of the many cousins married into an Iowa branch of the Hoover family (not Quaker at the time of the marriage in the early 1900's).

Phoebe is the one who told my grandmother a few stories about the Thomases, Coxes and Jacksons. My grandmother, 1878 - 1972,  was about 21 when Phoebe died. Surprisingly, there were no stories passed on about Phoebe's siblings. Don't know if that's because I didn't ask the right questions or because my grandmother hadn't asked those questions????

Milton sent me the following when we were chatting about this family:

Isaac C Thomas b. 1730 d. 1802  recorded at Bush River in 1774 would have been living in S.C. all the time, however he would have membership in
New Garden Meeting in N.C. prior to the opening of Bush River meeting. 

Annette and I were chatting in Oct 2013 and she told me of an article that she had read:

The reference was made to Thomas Settlement in a writing about South Fork Friends Meeting by Alice W. Farquhar.  It was also called Center and today it's Phillipsburg.  (Annette's interpretation of this is:
"I know the Thomas family attended South Fork and their land was in Phillipsburg and surrounding area.  So I would assume Thomas Settlement was Phillipsburg"  Location is marked with an A in a balloon on below map.  

The following came from a participant of our homecoming.  She found the quote in the book:  “Centennial Anniversary of West BranchMonthly Meeting of Friends [West Branch Monthly Meeting (Miami Ohio)].”

"Of the Thomases who emigrated, several are not mentioned. They were Abel, Isaac, John, William and Nehemiah. They came with considerable families and formed a settlement for" while called Thomastown.  They were plain, modest, clever and moderately successful farmers, which about comprises their history."

http://familytreemaker.genealogy.com/users/m/c/b/Dina-C-Mcbride/FILE/0001text.txt

Below is a map showing Cardiff, Wales:

And below is the castle that is found there that would have been a landmark seen by the Early Thomas family: