Three Cannon brothers, John, Lindsey, and Matthew, and their mother, Nancy, settled in Elkrun Township and St. Clair Township of Columbiana County, Ohio circa 1804. All three brothers are documented to have performed justice of the peace duties. John and Lindsey both owned mills. John Cannon had a grist mill that was powered by the Middle Beaver and operated from 1812 until the canal was built about 1836 on the northern part of section 35 in Elkrun Township. Lindsey Cannon’s mill was built in 1837 and located on Long’s Run on the Little Beaver Creek in St. Clair Township. All three brothers served in the War of 1812, John as a captain, Lindsey as a lieutenant, and Matthew as a private.
John A. Cannon was the oldest of the three brothers having been born in 1777. On January 11, 1807 he married Eleanor Cross, daughter of David Cross, Sr. and Margaret Moore, in Columbiana County, Ohio. John and Eleanor lived in Elkrun Township and raised nine children. John was a township trustee from 1824-1827. History recounts that John Cannon was killed by a falling log when the school house in his district was being raised. It does not say which John Cannon, father or son, was killed. John A. Cannon died March 6, 1833 and his son, John, Jr. died on November 30, 1831. Both are buried in the Clarkson Presbyterian Church Cemetery, Middleton Township, Columbiana County, Ohio. Eleanor and her children stayed in Elkrun Township until after 1850. They moved to Litchfield, Illinois where Eleanor died in 1863.
Children of John A. Cannon and Eleanor Cross;
MY ANCESTOR is LINDSEY who was born in 1799, married ELIZABETH FIFE, daughter of John and Elizabeth Fife, in Columbiana County, Ohio on May 2, 1809. Documentation varies as to where Lindsey was born. The family may have had Scottish origins, but Lindsey lists his birthplace as France and Pennsylvania. Elizabeth was born in 1789 in Upper St. Clair Township, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. Together they raised eight children and moved from St. Clair Township, to Madison Township, and finally to Elkrun Township in Columbiana County, Ohio. By 1860, Lindsey was living on his deceased brother Matthew’s farm in Elkrun Township. Lindsey lived on the farm until his death on December 26, 1871. Elizabeth died on October 11, 1873. Both are buried near their farm in Elkrun Township in the Carlisle Cemetery.
Children of Lindsey and Elizabeth Fife Cannon:
NANCY CANNON, born April, 1817 married WILLIAM MORLAN ORR and Elijah McCormick.
Matthew Cannon, born 1782, farmed a piece of property in southwestern Elkrun Township. He died a bachelor on February 18, 1831 at the age of 49. His tombstone was uncovered during a local high school “clean up” of the Jordanville Cemetery near Lisbon, Ohio.
There is a possibility that Thomas Cannon, a miller, of Middleton Township, is a fourth brother. He was born in 1794 in Pennsylvania and married Catherine March on May 6, 1824 in Columbiana County.
Children of Thomas Cannon and Catherine March
Open the Cannon Treasure Chest!
Research is not done alone. I wish to thank Cherie Atkinson Clark, a fellow Fife historian, who pointed me in the right direction with my Cannon link.
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