Events Following Jacob's Death

1793-1825

First to vanish from the scene was the eldest son, William Crawford Tharp, age twenty three in the year 1793, married to Jeruga Allen of New Jersey, he was to receive four dollars from the estate. William nor any of his heirs were identified again in the later estate records. He left no trace in Kentucky or Pennsylvania. I have wondered if William returned east. He and Jeruga may have wished to be near his in-laws, the Allens, or his aging grandparents, the Crawfords departing after the 1790 census and before his father became ill. It may answer, why the meager inheritance of four dollars. It may be the life of pioneering was not attractive to them. One difficulty in this line of search is the census schedules of New Jersey are missing until the census of 1830. William may have went south but we know only that he vanished after being enumerated in the Pennsylvania census of 1790.

The second son, Jacob Jr. was twenty years of age soon after his father's death. It is found that he was paid for harvesting the crops that Fall. The next year he sold his inheritance, one hundred acre tract of land, to Jacob Gurwell in the month of April and then may have tarried another year or two on the remaining estate of the Tharp family before leaving for Kentucky. He had married Phebe Winans in 1792, My own thought here is that this marriage took place in the adjoining county, probably Washington County, Pennsylvania. This could be further researched by looking for Winans in that area. The trail to Kentucky was probably taken in company with Jacob's in-laws, the Winans. It is most likely the widow left with or followed Jacob Tharp Jr. in 1795 0r 1796, certainly before 1798 for in 1798 Jacob Jr. was a witness in a case of slander being tried in the Fleming County Court at Flemingsburg, Kentucky.

I believe the minor sons were bound out. Levi, fifteen at the time of his father's death would arrive at his 21st birthday in 1799. In the six year interval he probably remained on the farm with his mother for a year or so. He bound out and served an apprenticeship and did become a shoemaker, moved to and spent time in Fleming County, Kentucky, married Elizabeth Winans and made a home there. He and his family returned to Bullskin Township, Fayette County, Pennsylvania in 1803 and sold his inheritance of 120 acres to William Hall. Levi probably followed his trade in Pennsylvania, Kentucky, and Ohio. Where ever he was he drops from view. It is possible he moved into Ohio with his in-laws. I believe Levi Tharp's wife was the widow of Josiah Winans, Sarah Williams Winans. The children, William and Mary Dorytha for whom he was appointed guardian were children of Josiah and Sarah Winans. Josiah was probably a brother in-law of Jacob Tharp Jr.. It is probable that Levi's wife was Sarah Elizabeth, the two names used singularly when referring to his wife in two unrelated documents.

Elihu Tharp was ten years of age when his father died. It is likely he was bound out, but first he remained with his mother for a time, then somehow slipped through the legal guardianship system, no guardian is found for him, yet he was represented by the administrators when he and Isreal, both minors, were deeded the 220 acre tract 1803. Elihu turned twenty one years of age in 1804 and next is found to be in Fleming County, Kentucky when he marries Anne Gibson on November 23, 1805. This is the last time and place Elihu Tharp has been identified.

Nothing relating to Jacob's daughter, Abigall, Huldah, Phebe and one unnamed infant, nor his widow, Phebe, has turned up in the search of Fayette County, Pennsylvania, Court House records. Had the Will been less explicit regarding disposition of the estate it is likely the girls would have had a guardian appointed, as it turned out their minimal claims to inheritance seems to have set them apart from any legal proceedings. Having failed to uncover in the Probate Court and Orphans Court records one might feel the County Clerks Office might have recorded a marriage had they married in the county. None appear as it is learned that marriage licenses were first issued in that state in 1883, had they married in another state, Kentucky or Ohio a marriage record might be found, none has been except one marriage bond for the widow, Phebe Tharp, in Kentucky.

Phebe had given birth to four children late in her child bearing years. In those times pioneer women became worn and aged rather early in mid life. She was 43 years of age when Jacob Tharp died and fifty two when she married Henry Oxley in Fleming County, Kentucky. Living with her during that interval may have been her youngest daughters then between ten and fifteen years of age. Henry Oxley was probably an elderly man when they married, she seems to have outlived him by several years. After their marriage there is no record of either of then for the next twenty five years, then she alone is identified by her grave marker in the Wayrich cemetery south of Pekin, Illinois. Her only son known to be in this area at the time of her death was Jacob Tharp Jr.. But was there also married daughters with whom she may have lived? It does appear that Isreal Tharp was a minor son caught in a system of law then applying to orphans and inheritance. As difficult as it is to understand it seems he was destined to be bound out at an early age. This being accomplished before the departure of his mother, probably by the age of six years. For a one year period Isreal had been under the care and maintenance of the estate's administrator, Zachariah Connell, prior to bonding as directed by the Will.

Only a few hints of the full details are found. One in the Orphans Court dated 1801. Another in the Recorder's Office, dated March 16, 1803, a year after Phebe's marriage had canceled all of her claims to the estate, a deed for the undivided 220 acre tract was made naming the two heirs, Elihu and Isreal, joint owners of the tract. Elihu was nearly twenty. Isreal but thirteen. A third instance appears when Isreal was still being supervised through the Orphans Court in the year 1806. At that time he was permitted to select a guardian of his choice, he chose Solomon Gibbons.

I am here inclined to present and share an image I have formed of Isreal's plight. "An infant yoked to a mountain side, beside him lays a broadax, he looks away from all about him to the trail in the valley." This being "His Inheritance". We are looking at another time, one at the end of its usefulness.

It is probable Isreal remained in Fayette County, Pennsylvania until he was past his twenty first birthday. An indication of this is in the manner the taxes on the land was handled. As early as 1804 a road tax was levied to build and maintain a road to the area of Jacob Tharp's farm. This road to run west from the farm to one running south to Connersville and north to Lobengier's Mill on Jacob's Creek. I conclude that Isreal paid the tax in 1812 before leaving Fayette Co., Pennsylvania for Kentucky. That was the last year in which the tax was paid. In the year 1823 the land was sold by the County Treasurer, Joshua Hart, for the sum equal to the accumulated delinquent taxes and penalties.

In 1813 Isreal married Avis Johnson in Bath County, Kentucky. Bath County is south of Fleming County, the counties are separated by the Licking River which defines the county line between them. It is not certain, but we have believed that Fleming County was where Isreal had made his residence, yet we also believe Avis Johnson was a resident of Bath County. Like Isreal, she was a native of Pennsylvania. Nothing more has been learned of her early life nor any information relating to her parents.

Earlier Jacob Tharp Jr. had again been on the move, He had by the time of Isreal's marriage established residence in Champaign County, Ohio. He then returned to Kentucky and sold his one hundred acre tract purchased in 1808. He received two hundred and fifty dollars from Burtis Ringo in payment for the land and all its improvements on August 13, 1813. It is presumed he then returned to Ohio where he remained until 1825. Late in that year he and his family moved to Illinois.

It seems Isreal did not follow any of his family to Ohio for several years. It has been established that Isreal's son, Greenbury was born in Kentucky in 1819. We discover that a few months later Isreal moved his family to Champaign County, Ohio and took up residence near Jacob Jr. in time for the Federal Census of 1820.

Five years later, 1825, about the same time Jacob Jr. settled in Tazewell County, Illinois, Isreal had located a site in Randolph County, Indiana to permanently settle. His reasons for having chosen the site is not clear at all as it had no special features that made it attractive as we view productive farm land today. This land like nearly all the land he had seen was rolling and heavily forested, further it was very rocky, I believe the forest and rolling land was what Isreal was accustom to working. I have chosen to call such early farming, patch farming, where the fields are generally quite small and selected as being the best available. Before we become critical of those early farmers and their selection of farmsteads we must understand that the forest was everywhere. Where the terrain was generally level it also would be quite wet in any minor depression, even swampy. When this type of land was farmed the prime concern was one of drainage. This was not a problem for Isreal unless the creek became blocked by fallen timber and forest debris. Even with the very best land, conditions at times during a wet season made travel as well as farming very nearly impossible.

When we review what has been said of Isreal's youth and adult life prior to his settlement in Indiana we find nothing of his political inclinations. The theory that he was reared in Pennsylvania and the short duration of his residence in Kentucky would not indicate a back ground that would develop a strong political persuasion, particularly one of southern sympathy in the matter of slavery or states rights. What I have came to believe regarding his understanding of politics is that his was determined by local events in his Indiana community not those conditions that divided the northern and southern states. Some have decreed a southern back ground because of Greenbury's Kentucky place of birth which in fact was incidental to the family character. Much of the family character in Isreal Tharp's family and his descendants were shaped in the limited area about Isreal's Indiana home.

As the search for the family continued to the succeeding generations few Court House documents are found to aid in the disclosure of major events normally contributing to family information. Land records have not been of much use in tracing Greenbury and his children. Greenbury nor his son, Elihu, are found to have bought real estate. Where they farmed they rented or share cropped. When working as a laborer, they rented a residence.

That which has been found in marriage records, divorces records, death records and censuses supplies the bulk of information gathered on the sons and daughters of Greenbury and Rebecca Hunt Tharp. The earliest marriage found for them was that of Elihu to Rachel A. Truax. He married at the age of twenty three. The marriage license was issued at Centerville, Wayne County, Indiana on November 22, 1867 by the Clerk of the Circuit Court, Wm. W. Dudley. (Centerville was the first county seat of Wayne County, the county seat was later moved to Richmond, Indiana) The marriage took place two days later on Sunday, November 24, 1867, in Dalton Township, Wayne County, Indiana. The ceremony was performed by William Terrell, a local minister.

Elihu's sister, Mary was the next married. Mary A. Tharp married Eli (E. J.) Spence. The license was obtained on June 7, 1872 at the county seat, Winchester, Randolph County, Indiana. The marriage took place on the 8th of June, 1872 in Randolph County, Indiana (Marriage Book 5, page 290). Mary was twenty at the time. It is probable that all the Tharp family was still in Randolph County at that time.

Eli Spence was born in 1850 and was living with his parents, Wm. & Hannah Spence, in Nettle Creek Twp., Randolph County, Indiana in 1860. At that time they were not to distant from Greenbury Tharp's residence. (25 households separate then in the enumeration of the 1860 census.) Mary and Eli are next found in the 1880 census in Jackson Township, Jay County, Indiana. This census does not list them as having children. He is farming, it so happened that the day the census taker arrived at the home of the Spence family, Mary's younger brother and sister were visiting them. This resulted in Lorinzo age 21 and Luzena age 19 being enumerated in the census twice. The other occasion being with their father in Greene Township, Jay County, Indiana. This township is the next one south of Jackson. It would be possible to learn the location of the residence of both families through extensive analyzes of the census and land owners in 1880.

Eli Spence died and then the widow, Mary A. Tharp, married a man much younger than herself. Mary married John H. Lyberger of Hartford City, Indiana, age 22 years. She stated her age as 33 years but was actually 37 years of age. The marriage occurred in Portland, Jay County, Indiana on September 5th, 1889 performed by the Rev. Gwinn. It is worth noting here that this Rev. Gwinn performed marriage ceremonies for other children of Greenbury Tharp. Mary A. Tharp's second marriage was the son of John and Mary Stroth Lyberger. This marriage did not last long. There is evidence that she married a man by the name of Hanley which was also of short duration. In 1895 Mary A. was living in Redkey, Jay County, Indiana. On August 11, 1895 she married for the fourth time. This time to a 61 year old man named Joseph B. Williams. He was a stone mason residing at Anderson, Indiana at that time. This marriage was also performed by the Rev. Gwinn. At this point she has been lost in the search. She was not found in a brief search at Anderson, Indiana.

The third child of Greenbury and Rebecca to marry for their first marriage was Martin Van Buren Tharp. He married Rebecca Figal on February 24th 1878 in Jay County, Indiana. He was 22 years of age and she 17. In 1880 he and Rebecca were living in Portland. They had three children; Jesse born 1879, William born 1881 and Lillian I. born 1885. This marrieage ended in divorce. Martin Tharp on July 1, 1893 married Caroline Mosier Cline. both gave their residence as Blaine, Jay County, Indiana. He gave his age as being 38 years and occupation as laborer. Caroline was the daughter of Henry and Mary Smith Mosier, her age being 49 years. This was a short marriage, his next marriage was to Martha J. Johnson and took place in Delaware County, Indiana on March 22, 1899. He was 43 years of age and Martha J. 26. Homer Carroll was born September 18, 1901, Herschel C. born 1904, Charles H. born 1909, and Gilbert K. born September 14th, 1914. Martin died in 1940 at Daytonia Beach, Florida. Martha died two years later, 1942.

The next marriage record in order of date which has been found is that of Luzena Tharp to Samuel Franks on January 1, 1881, she married a second time to John Bates and had a daughter by him born in 1888. Luzena died on July 24th 1888 and the little girl less than 3 months old died on September 16th, 1888. They are buried in the Green Park Cemetery, Portland, Indiana.

Lorinzo D. Tharp is found to have married Mary Lavina Houck on April 17, 1889 in Jay County, Indiana. This marriage was performed by Rev. Gwinn. Lorinzo was 31 years of age and his bride was 17 years. She was the daughter of Eli and Mary Slusher Houck. Lorinzo D. and Mary L. were divorced at the time of his death in 1915. They had two daughters; Bessie and Iona Tharp. Lorinzo died on January 24, 1915 of Kidney trouble and was buried in a single grave in the South Field Section, grave number 141, at the Green Park Cemetery, Portland, Indiana. His grave stone is missing.

Allison Tharp. a son of Greenbury and Rebecca, born in 1850 is found to have married Martha Osborn in Wayne County, Indiana on November 22, 1891. She was the daughter of John and Rachel Johnson Osborn. Allison and Martha were living at Albany, Delaware County, Indiana in 1907--12. There were no known children from this family. He may have had other marriages earlier.

Daniel Tharp, son of Greenbury and Rebecca Tharp may have been married more than once, at this time the only marriage located for him is to Mary A. Shaffer of Portland, Indiana on September 14, 1895. He was then 50 years of age and a farmer, his bride was 43 years of age. Nothing more is known of then at this time.

Laura B. Tharp was the last child born to Greenbury and Rebecca, she was born in 1866. Her first marriage in found in Jay County, Indiana to Abraham Gray, age 41 years, a farmer who gave his address as Union City, Randolph County, Indiana. She was reported to be 26 years of age living at Portland, Jay County, Indiana. The marriage took place on November 4th, 1889 and the ceremony was performed by Rev. Gwinn at Portland, Indiana. This marriage lasted but a short time. She is found to have married a second time in Delaware County, Indiana to Henry Morris on November 1, 1893. At the time of Greenbury's death in August of 1897 she was living a "D" Street in the Whitely district of Muncie, Indiana. In January of 1915 she reported her address as Portland, Indiana.

There is no marriage record found for the son, Ramson Theodore Tharp, born in 1857. It is possible he never married. He made his home in Portland and is thought to have been in the Richmond Hospital far a time. He died of pneumonia on August 8th, 1930 and was buried in Green Park Cemetery, East Meadows Section in a single grave number 182. His marker is missing also. The grave stones for both Theodore and Lorinzo were seen by me in 1969. In 1987 when it was thought to photograph them for the records they were gone.

Malissa Jane Tharp was born in 1853, never married and lived with her parents. In the 1880 census she stated her occupation as that of housework. On August 20, 1887 she died of pneumonia. At that time her father, Greenbury, bought the south one-half of the burial plot 1-127 located next to the drive in the northeast corner of Green Park Cemetery. She was then the first interned in this plot. Her sister, Luzena was buried next to her eleven months later having died on July 24, 1888 of heart disease 28 days after having given birth to a daughter, Goldie, born June 26th 1888, The child was laid beside her mother after passing away on September 16, 1888.

It must have been about a year later that Greenbury and Rebecca begin living without help in the house to aid Rebecca. The son, Theodore, was probably still living with them and hiring out as a laborer. No doubt it was during the following 7 or 8 years that Rebecca lost her sight due to the development of cataracts on her eyes. It further seems they lived for a time about one half mile north of Ridgeville on the west side of the township line road. Here it was told by Dolph Tharp to his two youngest sons that there once was a cabin* and that Greenbury had lived there. (east end of the S1/2 NE1/4 Section 1, Franklin Twp, Randolph Co., Indiana. It is felt that Greenbury and Rebecca could not have lived there long.

*The cabin was probably the one built by Joseph Butterworth in the 1840s).

Years later Butterworth built his home and farm buildings on the west end of the farm. This second homesite lay on the east side of the railroad right away that crossed the west end of the farm. These structures are all gone and have been for many years. Dolph Tharp rented the adjacent house and 40 acres south of Butterworth's old cabin site in the late twenties and live there till the late thirties. Both the 80 and 40 acres were once owned by Butterworth.

Rebecca died in 1895 and was interned in the Tharp burial plot at Green Park Cemetery, Portland, Indiana. There is no record of her internment for it seems records for that year were not keep or were lost. The same is true when Greenbury was buried there in August of 1897. Legally the County Health Officer was suppose to see that deaths were recorded in the County Health Office of the county inwhich the death occurred. In the case of Rebecca none has been found. One for Greenbury is recorded in the Delaware County Health Office at Muncie, Indiana. In 1900 the state established a system of recording deaths that is used yet today, whereby the death certificate are required to be recorded in the State Board of Health as well as the County Board of Health in the county in which the death occurs even if the body is interned elsewhere. Regrettably an 1880 law establishing record keeping of deaths for the counties was not uniformly practiced nor enforced, so it is that death certificates prior to 1900 may or may not exist in totality. the same is true when seeking birth records prior to that year.

There is one deed worth noting, it is to a parcel of land found in the Randolph County Recorder's Office at Winchester, Indiana. This deed is for 15 acres of land in section 25, Nettle Creek Township dated November 12, 1872 to Allison and Daniel Tharp, from William Roberts. This was in the east side of the SW 1/4 of Section 25. Nearly half of Section 25 was owned by Isaac Wood, a well to do Negro farmer. Other black families in the section were the Sawyers, Roberts, and Scotts. This parcel of land lay on the southwest corner of the so called Cabin Creek Settlement. Colored people had came into this settlement as early as 1825 from North Carolina and Virginia. The township at one time had about 45 eligible black male voters registered, all Republicans. Many more were in the adjoining townships of West River and Stoney Creek. I doubt if there are any living in this community today most in time left farming and moved to the urban areas to live and work. I have not discovered when Allison and Daniel Tharp sold out and moved on, but it is thought that they were there but a short time.

It is aid that Greenbury developed something of a trade making baskets and peddling them in a number of communities from Portland to Anderson. He is said to have made a very useful bushel basket. His baskets were made from wide but thin slat like strips of straight grain timber. These stripes were made pliable by soaking in boiling water for several hours then were formed over a pattern mold to give the correct shape and size. When finished they were light in weight yet durable. It was said that Dolph Tharp bought one for a dollar. At that time it was said that this was a very handsome sum of money for a basket. It is thought that Theodore was the last of the family to make and sell such baskets. He was seen selling them at the County Fair ground early in this century. He is also said to have been seen carrying several of these baskets at one time in route to the towns that lay along the railroad tracks. It is said he always walked the railroad right away in his going and coming often walking as far as Anderson to visit relation there. The railroad of course was the most direct route to a great many of the towns and cities. The remark indicating relation in Anderson has been an unsolved puzzle. I feel it may have been his sister, Mary, living there but nothing has came of that thought.

It has been further reported that there was a son, Randolph Tharp, if so nothing has been found about him. It may have been a second name for one of the sons already mentioned. There is much that can be researched for here are years of unknown activity for all members of Greenbury's family.

It is thought that Greenbury confined his early years to an area limited to a few miles around his father's farm. It is possible that he was out of the state about the time of his father's death, but he is not known to have left the state another time.

Greenbury's brother, Jacob, and sister, Aleznah, were last known to have lived in Grant County,
Indiana, Greenbury may have visited them there. I do not think Jacob and the Halls remained
there long, instead moved west and shortly lost contact with those remaining in Indiana.

The greatest part of Greenbury's life was spent in Randolph and Jay Counties, Indiana. The last two years he lived he may have been in Muncie, Delaware County, Indiana where his daughter Laura B. had made her residence on "D" Street near the north bank of the White River in the Whitely Addition. He did died in her home and it was Laura who made the arrangements for his burial and supplied the information reported in the vital statistics and the news paper. His death and obituary appeared in the Muncie news paper "The Morning Star" on Sunday, August 1, 1897. His death was reported as having occurred at an early hour yesterday which would have been early Saturday, July 31, 1897. A death notice was also in the "Commercial Review" Portland, Indiana. This noted that he had a trade of Basket making and had always wore his hair long with the gray locks flowing over his shoulders. Paper was dated July 31, 1897.

The Death Certificate for Greenbury states his death had occurred on August 2, 1897. This date was an error, one made by the County Board of Health Office. The 2nd of August may have been the day the death notice was reported in this office. It was on Sunday that his body was taken to Portland via the Lake Erie and Western Rail Road, Having been prepared for this journey by the Meeks Funeral Directors located in Muncie. The route was a direct one through Albany and Redkey to the station at Portland. The Funeral Directors of Baird-Freeman then took charge of the body, taking it to services at the Friends Church on arrival the same afternoon. He was then removed to the Green Park Cemetery and interned, Sunday 1, 1897.

This burial was the sixth and last in the Tharp Plot, his purchase of six grave sites ten years earlier were now all occupied. As to the one not used for a member of Greenbury's family, it has been learned that the young person, Forrest K. Reynolds was the son of William F. and Elizabeth Reynolds, members of the Friends Church at Portland. They had came from Wayne County in the early 1880s, there the Reynolds family had been established for several years in the vicinity of Newport (Fountain City). Further research may establish a relationship to Rebecca's people. The Reynold's youth died in 1892 and is recorded in the cemetery's record book.

We have already given an earlier accounting of Elihu Tharp, the eldest son of Greenbury and Rebecca (Hunt) Tharp, having covered that which is known of his life up to and including his marriage to Rachel Truax. I shall relate additional information as it has been revealed to me. I have no personal memory of Elihu, of his wife, Rachel, nor of his children other than the son, Dolph and one daughter, Carrie. I have never received family information from either of these two children of Elihu directly, rather from others as my aunts, uncles and my parents. Many details are from genealogical research. Serious reminiscing was one thing I had never heard at family gatherings, yet it must have occurred.

In retrospect a number of things can be stated from observation. The Tharp men were the heads of their household, their wives were servile while bearing a large number of children. All became involved in an endless cycle of chores. As to emotional expression it was unusual for man and wife to show affection for one another in public during our early history. Never the less there was true affection for one another, young people fell in love and married. In rural America these marriages formed a life long partnership, one of toil, succeeding again and again in overcoming hardship. there were exceptions with many of Greenbury's children, but Elihu and Rachel were among those that found a durable partnership. In the biographical sketches of the nineteenth century men, they commonly expressed success in their financial well being, having a highly profitable trade, farm or business with substantial improvements gained over the years. One notable honor was to have gallantly served in the military of their country. After all else his wife and children were given mention. Our own progenitors were not so pretentious, in fact it can be safely said they succeeded in making no pretext in achieving goals beyond the daily sustenance and gratification found through toil which did sustain a sizable family. The work Elihu knew and did related to that found on a farm, he would have thought of himself as a farmer though he never owned one.

At present the 1870 census has not been searched to add that vital bit of information. The feeling has been that the family did not move to Jay County until after 1872.

The 1880 census is one I have viewed very early in the search. By the time of this census Elihu and Rachel had been married approximately twelve and one half years and had six children in the household at the time the census taker arrived June 8, 1880. [Four days ago, January 6, 1989, I made another study of the 1880 census in order to determine the location of the family residence.] Elihu is found to have been in an area one and one half miles east and one half mile south of the town called Center in Greene Township, Jay Co., In.. The road today is 100 west and the residence would have been west of the cross road 109. This farm area just described lies in the northeast one quarter of section 23. The road at the time Elihu lived there ran west to the Salomonie River and then followed a northwest bend in the river a short way, then the road jogs due north and runs one quarter mile to intersect present day State Road 26. Another way of putting it is that they lived two and one half miles west of Portland city limits on 100 west.

The old section of the road that followed the river and turned north is now abandoned, now it crosses the river and turns south. This road is county road 99 which leads south to Blaine some two and one half miles distant. It is determined that on this road and about one mile north of Blaine is where Greenbury was residing at the time of the census.

It is conceivable that the time Elihu's family lived in the area near Center the family may have made use of the cemetery at Center where we today find the burial place of Elihu and Rachel. A child whose name we do not have may have been buried there. There was a daughter, Pearl, born in 1883 whom we have no record other than her name. Another daughter, Lena, was born near this location in 1885. It was shortly after her birth that Elihu loaded the family in a wagon pulled by a team of two large horses and made their way south to Somerset, Kentucky.

What had prompted this move to find employment is not known, but it appears their destination was determined by the prospects of cutting and logging timber for a company manufacturing roofing shingles, the Tharp Manufacturing Co. of Somerset, Kentucky. The first I heard of this was from Raymond "Ray" Tharp, a second version was told to me by his cousin Oliver Martin. Oliver Martin stated that, "about 1885 Elihu and family crossed the Ohio River at Cincinnati, Ohio and then followed the Southern Railroad to Summersville, Kentucky. He said, Carrie was born in Carbon Cliff which is just north of Summersville." A third report, one by Carrie's children is that their mother was born at Somerset, Kentucky. There is a Summersville in Green County, Kentucky, generally speaking the consensus is that Somerset is most likely correct, it lies on the Southern Railroad about 130 miles south of Cincinnati. The route today that parallels the railroad is U S 27. When Elihu passed over this path about one hundred years ago it must have been a very primitive road snaking up, down and around densely wooded hills and valleys. Elihu was in his early forties at the time of this sojourn in Kentucky. Rachel was four years younger being in her late thirties. Adolphus Pleasant Tharp was their first born and being in his teens was old enough to work with his father to earn the means to supply the family needs. Sillor J. and Ora May were old enough to be of much needed help to their mother in caring for the younger children and housework. John and Ward were boys capable of many chores, then there was Lilly, Pearl, and Lena when the trip began and then Carrie was born on the 21st of April 1887.

There were only two tales that came from this time in the lives of the family. One relates the shortage of money in going and the other of the site where the timber was logged. Elihu is said to have paid a farmer beside the road the last of his money for a bushel of apples. This may also suggest that the trip was made in the Fall of the year when the weather was pleasant and dry, yet very cool at night when camping along the trail. It was said that the logging area was near a river and that the logs were sent down a high and very steep hill or embankment to splash down into the river. This adventure was one that the family would have easily remembered, but it is little more than a foot note after two generations had passed.

There is pronounced evidence that there is much more to explain in the timing of events. It does appear that Rachel was not present or otherwise not available to receive her inheritance when the Wayne County Circuit Court distributed the small sum remaining in Rachel's father's estate in December of 1885. The share belonging to the other heirs were distributed during the December 1885 term of the Circuit Court. The share Rachel Tharp was to receive ($6.341/2) was left with the Court Clerk, Wm. H. Schlader. This man died and the $6.341/2 was passed on by A. F. Scott, the Administrator of the Estate, to Everett A. Richey, the new Clerk of the Circuit Court. The date being November 19, 1886. A draft for that amount of money was sent to Rachel Tharp at Como, Jay County, Indiana on January 25, 1887. A receipt was filed on January 29, 1887 that she had received the said sum of money. Here we confront the problem of Rachel being at two places at once. Did she receive the money or did some one else receive it for her? There is surely a simple explanation but I have not found it. It does seem that late in 1885 and through 1886 Rachel was unable to pick up her inheritance, but in January of 1887 someone received it for her in the way of a N.Y. Money Draft (I believe this was a telegraph service on the New York Chicago and St. Louis Railroad) directed to an address at Como through its station there.

It has been told that the family was back in Jay County about 1890. It is thought they were near their earlier haunts above Blaine for a time. It was in this area that Dolph met and married Viola Longerbone in 1892. A few months earlier in the same year Ora May married John E. Martin. Her first child, Oliver Martin, was born near the little town of Greene west of Blaine. Dolph and Viola had set up housekeeping in a small cabin a quarter mile north of Blaine, Here Clarence (Roy) was born to them on June 5, 1894.

A short time later Dolph moved the family to a cabin on the west side of Powers Station. This cabin burnt to the ground while they lived there. Roy could recall his father carrying him from the burning cabin when he was a small boy. It has been reported that Elihu was in Como for a time in the 1890s but later in the decade he was at Powers Station. The daughter Lilly married Wm. H. Scarborough there in 1897. For a time John Martin worked as a telegrapher at the railroad station. Elihu and those remaining at home in his family lived in this area for the next fifteen years or so.

In 1910 Elihu and Rachel were living in a house on a one acre plot near the southeast corner of Section 29. Their daughter, Lena, was with them and it seems three roomers also lodged in the same household.

Dolph Tharp and his family upon leaving Powers Station after the fire burnt them out in about 1898 moved four miles east to Section 31 in Pike Township. There Dolph moved on to an 80 acre farm owned by a man by the name of Collins. He remained there renting this farm until the spring of 1917. The family members always referred to this farm as the farm on Days Creek. For several years Dolph's brother-in-law, George Shauver, and sister-in-law, Mary Longerbone Shauver, were neighbors living on adjoining farms.

Elihu and Rachel moved to a house about one and one half miles east of Powers Station by 1917. Here Rachel died on July 23, 1917. Their address was R R 2, Redkey, Indiana. Rachel was interned at Center Cemetery the next day, July 24, 1917. The required information which a family member might know was given by Elihu to the Health Officer, W. Middleton. Elihu mistakenly stated Rachel's year of birth when questioned by Middleton. He gave July 4, 1850. When he should have said July 4, 1848. She was 69 years and 19 days old the day she died. Elihu and their grand daughter, Martha Tharp, were with Rachel at the time of her death. Elihu called out to Martha to stop the clock, she was dead at 8:00 A.M. In those days the body most often remained in the home and the undertaker did his services there and it was in the home that family and friends came to mourn the death of a loved one. The procession to the cemetery was 111/2 miles over country roads, led by a horse drawn hearse, followed by horse drawn buggies. There had to be some good reason to have used the cemetery, one I have not discovered. One thing is obvious at the cemetery, there are several grave sites on both sides of Elihu and Rachel that are not identified.

In the Spring of that year, 1917, several things happened. First Dolph moved to a farm west of Ridgeville, Franklin Township, Randolph County, Indiana. This farm lay on the south side of the road one and one eighth mile from downtown Ridgeville. It was in Section 11, the Mississinewa River marked the south line of the farm and the north line is today's State Road 28. A second event of great importance occurred on April 6, the United States entered the War in Europe. The announce reason being in protest of the German Submarine (U-boat) attacks on shipping to the Allies Britain, France, and Italy. Dolph's two oldest sons, Roy and Ray, join the Army and Dolph gets arrested for being drunk in town. Oliver Martin also enlisted. The same year Roy married Rosemary Carder on September 29th while in Camp at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. On November 27, 1917 Dolph and Viola's twin girls, Myrtle and Mable were born. Viola was then 42 years of age having given birth to 12 children, Two years later all were back home from the war and adjusting to civilian life.

After the war Roy and Rosemary first set up housekeeping north of Ridgeville in a large farm house one mile out from downtown and on the west side of the road. The road is the angling pike leading north to New Mt. Pleasant. Elihu, Roy's grandfather, roomed and boarded with them while they lived there, which was only about a year as Roy gave up the idea of farming and moved to town, they called the farm, Lay's, it was a very large and prosperous farm which included a great many acres of woods inwhich a large number of hogs were allowed to run wild. I believe it was here that Roy was kicked in the chin by a horse. He carried a deep scare on the right side of his chin the rest of his life as the result of that kick.

Late in the year of 1920, Elihu had also taken up residence in Ridgeville. He remained independent and self supporting by working at odd jobs in and around town. Elihu was accustom to walking to one chore very early in the morning, a job taking care of live stock for a farmer north of town. On the morning of October 7, 1925 he was struck by an automobile as he was walking east along a road on the north edge of town. Seriously injured he was taken to the Randolph County Hospital at Winchester suffering from shock. Elihu died at 3:10 A M on the 9th when his heart gave out. the Middleton funeral directors of Ridgeville moved his body to the home of Dolph who was again north of Ridgeville. On October 11, 1925 after services at the M. E. Church in town the funeral procession made its way to the cemetery at Center where Elihu was laid to rest next to Rachel.

Dolph gave information to the Health Officer, W. Middleton and once again mistakes were made. The death Certificate states Elihu was born May 2, 1847. Died at the age of 78 years. He was born May 2, 1844 and his age was 81 yrs. 7 mons. and 5 das. at the time of death. The parent of Elihu was given as Greenbury Tharp born Indiana and Sarah Hunt born Indiana. Greenbury was born in Kentucky and it should have stated Rebecca Hunt born Indiana. Sarah was Dolph's grandmother, Sarah Wrightsman Truax. At such times as the information is taken stress often increases the chance for this kind of misinformation to be taken while complying with the law requiring the filing of a Certificate of Death. It is unfortunate as the document is considered official documentation which may be used as evidence on many occasions since it is considered to be factual statements.

The farm Dolph had moved to and where Elihu was taken to lie in state through the day of the tenth followed by a customary night vigil was the next farm east of the earlier residence and farm on Days Creek, both laying on the same side of the road, in Section 31 of Pike Township, Jay County.
Elihu did not leave an estate, yet he had been highly conscious of the expenses a funeral and burial would incur. After having sought to be prepared for his own eventual demise, he had also set up a fund at the Ridgeville Bank to be used for a proper funeral and internment of his daughter, Lena, when that need came to pass. Lena had been committed for care at the State Mental Hospital at Richmond, Indiana a few years earlier.
At the grave site of Rachel and Elihu is a fine gray granite monument placed there several years after Elihu was accidentally struck down by a car driven by Jack Evans. Here again we witness failure of accurate recall in providing information for the monument. Eli 1848-1925, should have read Elihu 1844-1925, Rachel A. 1848-1916, should have read Rachel 1848-1917.

Dolph, Adolphus Pleasant was the first born of Elihu and Rachel. I have already given some accounts of Dolph and will give further information later.

The second child of Elihu and Rachel was first identified as Sillor J. born a year after Dolph. Her birth must have been late in the year 1870. I had immediately ran into difficulty with Sillor. She is named in the 1880 census, Sillor J. age 10 years. For years it seemed that nothing else could be found of her. I had even wondered if she had married while the family was in Kentucky. It may yet be that she did but in reviewing notes several times it appears Sillor J. is in fact the Lillie J. Tharp age 27 who married William Scarborough age 31 at Redkey, Jay Co., Indiana on May 1897. The marriage application identifies Lillie J. as daughter of Elihu and Rachel Tharp, her age being 27 years. There is added mystery when additional data relating to William Scarborough is examined. The parents of William Scarborough are Ezekiel and Elizabeth Scarborough. If his age was 31 years at the time of the marriage, his birth would have occurred in the year 1866. In the 1880 census his mother and three sons are listed living in Richland Township east of Redkey. William was given as age 13 years. This would indicate he was born 1867. It is possible he was taken in the census a second time at a nearby Shoemaker household and farm where he worked as a laborer. There his age is listed as 15 years. This would indicate he was born in 1865.

I have found William Scarborough, aged 46 years, in the 1910 census as head of household. He was a Fireman of a Tractor Engine. His mother, Elizabeth, age 65, and a boy, John, age 10 years. There was no wife. William and his mother's ages are again confusing but I must say that such variations have turned up again and again throughout the search of census records. The most likely age of William was the one he gave the County Clerk in his Marriage Application, born 1866. The uncertain conclusion now is that Lillie J. (Sillor J.) may have died after the birth of a son, John. This is speculation. It is known by the discovery of a death Certificate obtained at the Jay County Health Office that Lillie Josephine gave birth to a daughter, Elsie Marie Scarborough, on August 13, 1898, at Dunkirk. This child died on December 2, 1899 and was buried at the Powers Station Cemetery.

I was once told by my mother the Scarborough family moved to Michigan but I do not know how she would have known this.

The first time I had heard the name Lillie was from my Aunt Martha Tharp Purdue who said these were daughters of Elihu; Ora Mae, Lena, Carrie, Lillie Belle, Pearl, Hazel and unnamed twins. I now believe there was never a Lillie Belle, but that she meant Lillie Josephine. In the 1916 directory of Jay County Rachel is stated as having 6 living children. If this is a true statement those living at that time would have been three sons; Dolph, John, and Ward and three daughters; Ora Mae, Lena, and Carrie. I would not be surprised if Sillor was an additional name belonging to Lillie J. for in naming Lena her full given name was said to be Lena B. Sefronia Tharp.

The third child of Elihu and Rachel was Ora Mae, born January 30, 1872 and married John Elmer Martin March 13, 1892, Jay County, Indiana. Ora Mae gave birth to twins on November 28, 1892, Oliver E. and Opal. Opal died when but 18 months of age. Gertrude May, "Gerty", was born January 3, 1895. The family was living near Greene at the time the children were born. (Greene Post Office, Green Township, Jay County, Indiana). Later they were at Powers Station. John was best known for working at tile manufacturing and carpentry, but he was a telegrapher for a time at Powers Station. For several years he and Ora Mae lived at 413 W. Huntington St., Montpelier, Indiana. When John Martin died on October 30, 1933, he was in Muncie where he was being cared for while in ill health. He was buried at Claycomb Cemetery in Jay County, Indiana where his parents were interned in 1907. Ora Mae lived to be 93 years of age, died on April 28, 1965 at the Waldo Nursing Home at Hartford City, Indiana. She was buries at the Claycomb Cemetery next to her husband, John Martin. They have no monument to mark their graves.

Ora Mae's son, Oliver, was employed by the Pennsylvania Railroad for several years and was also a brick mason. He did not marry until June 8, 1960. His wife was the widow Florence M. Burris. They were married at Hartford City and resided at 543 W. Perkins St. until his death at the Blackford County Hospital on January 1, 1968. Oliver was buried at Claycomb Cemetery near his parents. His head stone is one furnished by the government for those who have served honorably in the military service of this country.

Gerty, living with her parents at Montpelier, first married on April 18, 1917 to Chester C. Walser of Wells County. They made their home at Muncie for several years but in 1937 they separated. Gerty married again on December 25, 1939 to Walter Raymond Vernon at Muncie, Indiana. At that time she was living at the Bryan Hotel on Main Street and was owner of a restaurant. When World War II was in progress she enlisted and served in the Women's Army Corps as a Private being among the oldest to volunteer and to be accepted in the service in that rank during the war. After the war she returned to Muncie and lived there until her death on October 16, 1960. Gerty had one son. Her grave is marked by a government supplied military marker. There are no descendants of Ora Mae that is known.

The next two children of Elihu and Rachel were the sons, John Martin Tharp and Ward Tharp.
They were listed in the family household in the 1880 census. John age 6 and Ward age 3, born
in 1874 and 1877. They were the only brothers of Dolph. As youths they both left home. Ward
was reported to be in Idaho in about 1930. Carrie went out there to witness a trail in which he
was the defendant charged in the death of a neighbor.

After the birth of Ward there were several years in which more children may have been born say
in the years 1879-83, If so any children born did not live but a short time. I have found no proof
of a daughter, Pearl, born to Elihu and Rachel. Pearl was reported to me by my Aunt Martha, If
there was a daughter, Pearl, she would have been born after Ward and before Lena.

The next child of Elihu and Rachel known to have been born and survived was Lena B. Safronia Tharp born about 1884-5. The story comes down that when she was a child, not yet a young women, she accidentally fell backward off the back of a horse drawn wagon as the horses made a sudden start. In the accident the back of her head struck the ground very hard resulting in a brain concussion. It is said that due to the accident Lena developed into a young women who on occasion had a violent temper.

In a 1910 directory of Jay County, Indiana she was reported at Powers Station living with or at least in the same dwelling as her parents, She would have been 25 years of age. She had a little girl, Hazel, born to her sometime later which was mentally impaired and in time the child was placed in an institution for children at Ft. Wayne, Indiana. Eventually Lena was also placed in a mental institution, the State Hospital at Richmond, Indiana where she remained until her death on January 21, 1969. Her funeral service was at the Middleton Funeral Home in Ridgeville with internment at the Lawndale Cemetery east of town. The grave is next to Adolphus and Viola Tharp. No monument has been provided to mark the grave site.

Martha Carrie Lee Tharp was born of Elihu and Rachel on April 21, 1887 at or near Somerset, Kentucky. Before her second birthday the family was again in Jay Co., Indiana, here she grew up and met John Starbuck. Carrie married John Henry Starbuck on February 1, 1908. The marriage license was applied for at Portland, Jay County, Indiana. The License is in Book C-J page 546. Although the index listing the record book for this marriage application was not found, the information for John and Carrie is found in the MT Book for 1908 on page 43. In the application from John Starbuck gave his age as 25 years, born Indiana, occupation farmer and residence Winchester, Indiana. Winchester was probably his rural mailing address not his residence. John's father was Clinton Starbuck, his mother ____ Murray. Carrie's information taken by the Clerk was age 21 years, residence, Redkey, Indiana which again was the rural mailing address. She stated that Elihu and Rachel Truax Tharp were her parents and that her birth was Ridgeville, Indiana. I don't know how this happened, the place of birth of course is believed to be an error but it is true the marriage took place at Ridgeville, Randolph Co., Indiana. It was performed by the Rev. L. E. Addington. The county in which a marriage license is issued is usually the county in which the bride resides and where the marriage is performed, this was not the case here nor is there a rule governing such.

Carrie and John Starbuck were married a total of twelve years when he died. Carrie was left with eight children to care for between the ages of a few months to 11 years. They were: Rachel Marciel, Elihu Clay, Selva Mae, Doris Marie, Robert Leroy, Mary Fayne, Commora Marguerite and Edgar Dale. All were born in Randolph Co., Indiana. Carrie never married again, a widow for 46 years she died March 23, 1966 in the Randolph County Hospital following a long illness, she had been a long time resident in the community of Ridgeville. John and Carrie Starbuck are buried in the Beuna Vista Cemetery, Randolph County, Indiana. At the time of her death they had 76 living descendants.

The next child of Elihu and Rachel was Hazel born April 15, 1889. Hazel died it is said in the year 1892. Unnamed twins were born and died in the winter of 1890-1. Elihu and Rachel had no more children.

Returning to the first child of Elihu and Rachel Truax Tharp. Adolphus Pleasant Tharp used and abbreviated form of this name, Dolph and often D. P., either being preferred over the name given to him. How or why this given name, Adolphus Pleasant, was chosen by Rachel and Elihu is not understood at all. It does not follow any family pattern of names. When ask what D. P. stood for Dolph is known to reply "Dam Poor".

It is evident that money was always in short supply through out his life. Even so, being the eldest son in the family he responded by being a responsible, sharing and caring family member.

It is true that he acquired only the rudiments of an education, less than was available. It is also true that a great many parents, including his, did not impress on their children the need for attending school. Young boys and girls began schooling in the three "Rs" at an age of 6 years or older, but education did not become compulsory for many years to come, attendance was easily deferred, often irregular, and terminated for a multitude of reasons. This was a condition which prevailed well into the next century. However minimal the schooling received it served many quite well as it provided a bases for those that chose to develop further through one's own industry. The census of 1900 reveals that Dolph and Viola were literate, but at the same time it was evident that hardly anyone was reported to be illiterate when it was a very common status.

Not unlike young men of other times Dolph during his youth learned and enjoyed hard work taking great pride in his physical strength. This combination with a natural talent for farming did not find schooling in the confines of a class room attractive. It was a time that women in the rural setting quite often received more class room education than the young men they would marry. As for business dealings, the unskilled in mathematics as well as literacy found it necessary to deal with others with whom trust was a major factor in any transaction.

In remaining in an already settled area the acquisition of desirable land within ones financial means was discouraging. Dolph like his father and grandfather in choosing not to seek out land on new frontiers gave themselves to laboring for others often as tenant farmers.

Dolph was born near Dalton, Wayne County, Indiana on October 24, 1868. He married Viola Longerbone on Sunday, October 23, 1892. The marriage license was obtained at the Jay County Clerk's Office on Saturday the 22nd. William McKinley, a justice of the Peace, performed the ceremony. As stated earlier Dolph and Viola set up housekeeping just north of Blaine, Green Township, Jay County, Indiana. Dolph soon after his marriage was settled and tied to tenant farming more firmly than his father or grandfather had ever been. A son born the following year lived but a few days. I have never heard that this child was given a name. This was the only child born to them that failed to live to maturity. While still residing north of Blaine a second child, Clarence Leroy Tharp, was born to them, June 5, 1894. Lawrence Raymond Tharp was born February 26, 1896, Alta M. Tharp was born March 23, 1899. By 1900 the sojourns at Blaine and Powers Station was past and for the next several years the family was in Section 31 of Pike township, the Collin's farm on Days Creek. Guy Arley Tharp was born January 1, 1901, Martha Rosella Tharp was born April 4, 1903, Emma Gladys Tharp was born December 27, 1904, Clara E. Tharp was born August 4, 1906, Roe Dell Tharp was born April 9, 1910, Jay Ward Tharp was born March 1, 1912, and Agnes G. Tharp was born August 21, 1915. Mabel Marie Tharp, and Myrtle Delee Tharp were born November 27, 1917 on the farm west of Ridgeville, Randolph County, Indiana.

In the search far ancestry the trail though the more than three hundred years of grandmother Tharps ancestry uncovered an experience in the colonial history of North America which in its time was a crises in the human experience of western civilization. It is a tale of struggle for religious freedom at a time of intolerance to all that did not conform to the Puritan dictates. A tale of her colonial ancestry suffering fines, whippings, imprisonment and exile, justice as administrated by New England Puritans. But I believe Viola never knew her family history beyond her grandparents. Even they died when she was yet a child.

Viola Longerbone was born November 13, 1875, the daughter of Abraham and Ann (Taylor) Longerbone. In the 1880 census of Monroe Twp., Pickaway County, Ohio the family is found as follows; Abe. age 28, Ann age 33, Viola age 5, and Mary age 2. In the same household was a niece, Mary Norris and Jonathan Taylor, father-in-law of Abe, age 84. Viola's grandfather, Jonathan Taylor died on March 5, 1882, her grandmother, Mary (Phillips) Taylor had died a few years earlier on January 29, 1869.

Dolph Tharp's marriage to Viola Longerbone was for him one of good fortune. She was the eldest child of Abraham and Ann (Taylor) Longerbone, who were farmers by choice, devoted to family and their religion while pursuing a simplistic life. She was born in Monroe Twp., Pickaway County, Ohio, probably at her grandfathers' home east of Yankeetown, (Yankeetown was in Fayette County, traveling east from that town one crosses Deer Creek, passes by the Yankeetown Church and Cemetery, over the county line and then beyond down the Dawson Yankeetown Road lay the Taylor place.)

Viola's mother, Ann, was the youngest daughter of Jonathan and Mary Taylor, it had been her lot to remain at home caring for her aging parents. Like most who were caught in this dilemma, Ann married late. For her it was December 28, 1873 at the age of 28 years. The groom, Abe Longerbone, had just turned 20 years of age a few days before the wedding. The age difference proved to be no problem in a long and happy life together. The couple remained with Ann's father until his death eight years later. After the estate was settled they left the old homestead and joined Abe's brother and sister in Jay Co., Indiana. Viola, Mary, and Carrie had been born before the move, Etta was the first of their children born in Indiana. With all things considered the time of the move must have occurred early in the year of 1883. Besides Lewis Longerbone and Mary (Longerbone) Lingo, wife of Elijah Lingo, few relatives were living in the Indiana county.

For several year the Abe Longerbone family residence was near the town of Blaine. Soon after settling in this community they joined the Union M. E. Church and regularly attended this church until leaving that place, This was where Dolph Tharp met and married Viola. For a time in the early 1900s Abe and Ann Longerbone lived on a farm on the northeast edge of Portland. I believe it is the first house east of the County Fair Ground on the north side of the road. The story goes that during Fair time it was a favorite place for the grand children to be as it was an opportunity for the boys to attend the fair by slipping through the fence. It seems that sometime before 1915 they moved to a rented farm on the edge of the crossroads town of Antioch in Pike Township. It was here that Abe and Ann remained until their deaths in the late 1930s.

Ann wrote to and received letters from brothers, a sister, sisters-in-law of Ohio, a brother, Caleb, who had moved to Illinois and a sister, Sarah in Kansas. A few of the letters were keep for many years and were discovered among memorabilia saved by her son, William (Willie). I copied the letters in long hand at a time very early in the search, they are interesting and informative and so will be added to this text.

I do not have a record of a single relation of Ann's moving to Indiana only those of Abe. Besides his brother and sister and their families, the family of his great uncle, Jonathan Clevenger, brother of Abe's grandmother, Mary (Clevenger) Crabb. settled in Randolph Co., Indiana near Windsor. Mary, widow of Reuben Crabb who died in Ross Co., Ohio in 1827, is thought to have came with Jonathan Clevenger. No record has been found, yet some believe she remained near Jonathan and probable died there, date unknown. Abe and Ann did know of the Clevengers. Their son, Omer Longerbone, knew some of the descendants of Jonathan Clevenger as late as 1932. Jonathan Clevenger is buried in the Old Windsor Cemetery southeast of that town.

The children of Abraham and Ann (Taylor) Longerbone were; Viola born November 13, 1875, Mary born September 11, 1877, Carrie born September 21, 1880, Etta born November 11, 1883, William born April 20, 1887 and Omer born 1890. Their children were all married in Jay County, Indiana. The Court House records lists: Viola married Adolphus Pleasant Tharp October 23, 1892, Mary A. married George Shauver April 3, 1897, Carrie married Samuel Curts February 1899, Etta married Charles Renner October 17, 1902, Omer married Grace L. Beebe January 3, 1915 and William, who had remained at home to care for his parents, married Pearl Irene (Bailey) Boise on March 1, 1941.

My personal recollections of Abe and Ann Longerbone were limited to Longerbone and Lingo Reunions at Portland, Indiana during the 30s and perhaps as little as two or three visits to their home near Antioch in the same time period. Abe was very heavy set and had lumbago being unable to walk without the use of a cane and the support of another person. Ann appeared very old and stooped, yet she remained active until near her 94th birthday. Of course the time that I recall being at their home was in the years of the great depression when it seemed everyone was poor. I thought they had very little of material things. It did seem they were near the end of a vary long and full life.

It is a fact that when I was a child growing up nearly everyone was poor. All my grandparents were during that period of their lives, yet for Dolph and Viola there seemed to always be plenty of food on the table. I often wondered how Grandma Tharp knew the amount of food needed to feed the family from one year to the next. There was little bought at the stores in town, coffee, sugar, flour, salt, pepper and Dolph's tobacco were about the main items required from town. I also wondered if Grandma ever went to town to do the trading. I though that perhaps she did not. She was a quite devoted mother whose life was one of caring for the family, cooking meals, washing cloths as well as tend a large garden and canning great quantities of fruits and vegetables from it. As winter set in there were hogs and beef to butcher, making sausages, curing hams and bacon, rendering lard, canning chunks of beef embedded in lard and much more, all involving a great amount of labor, but as I remember a meal at Grandma Tharp's was always a feast for there were always several there to be feed. Breakfast was a mound of fried eggs rounded up on a large platter, home baked bread with fresh butter, jellies, jams and an endless supply of milk. A favorite dinner or supper would often be beans, navy beans, soupy with pork and lots of pepper, fresh bread and butter. There were homemade pies, cakes, biscuits, corn bread, sorghum molasses and perhaps honey. Grandma was a good manager probably a better manager in growing, preserving and serving the food supply than most.

The country in general was poor in spirit as well as the material things of life. It did seem that clothing was low on the list of priorities, in the everyday dress and work, cloths were little more than that necessary for covering and warmth. Nothing was wasted, cloths were patched and passed down until even the patches were worn-out.

Through the routine of farm life the children learnt early to share in the work of every chore. The girls might have milking and the care of the chickens to do every morning and evening besides tending the garden, cleaning around the house and caring for the younger children.

Dolph and the boys took care of the horses and other livestock, plowed, planted, cultivated and harvested the crops in the fields. They cut and hauled wood from the woods year around to supply fuel for cooking and heating.

The last two sons left at home to help with the farm work were married in the Fall of 1933. It was not long after that Dolph gave up farming and moved to a small one and one- half story frame house on a town lot in the northeast corner of Ridgeville. Like nearly all homes at the time it was plain and needed lots of repair. The son, Roe, lived here also for several years but left when the old folks no longer needed his support. The twins, Myrtle and Mable, remained at home until their marriages. They graduated from the Ridgeville High School on April 30, 1937. They were the first and only children of Dolph and Viola to complete 12 years of school.

For several years grandma Tharp had a visible swelling on her throat, nothing was done to treat
the cause of the swelling until late in the 1930s. It was called a goiter, a swelling of the thyroid
gland. At that time the cause and treatment was unknown. It became a serious problem in 1939
and with complications of heart disease she died on August 2, 1940. She was 64 years, 8
months, and 19 days of age at the time of her death. She was among the last in this country to
suffer froma goiter. Soon there after it was discovered that traces of iodine in the diet prevented
the occurrence of a goiter. For years now we have been able to purchase iodized salt for general
use in the kitchen and on the table for this very purpose, prevention of this disease in the
nhabitants of regions where iodine is not naturally common in the diet.

Dolph continued to live at their residence with his son, Roe, and Roe's family until late in the year of 1948. In January of 1949 he was placed in the Lawton Nursing Home at Ft. Wayne, Indiana for the extensive care that they could provide. Nine months later on September 18, 1949 Dolph died. The doctors had the last eighteen months of his life diagnosed his illness as cerebral sclerosis (cerebral arteriosclerosis). He was 80 years, 10 months and 24 days of age. Surviving Viola and Dolph were 12 children, 26 grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren in the year 1949. They are buried in the Lawndale Cemetery east of Ridgeville, Indiana.

The search for information of Viola's grandparents was aided greatly by correspondence. I had a great amount of information already gathered from Ann Longerbone memorabilia. This material today is probably in the possession of Omer Longerbone's son, Arthur, who became interested in the records about the time of Willie Longerbone's death in 1970, included in this collection of papers was the old family Bible of Jonathan Taylor.

Being willing to share information is necessary to generate generous results when contacting others, the results are often surprising in its success and the amount of data received by what once seemed a doubtful effort to make. My first correspondence to obtain Taylor information was a letter to the Post Master of Washington Court House, Fayette Co., Ohio hoping to obtain the address of a local historian or living relative of the Taylors and Longerbone buried at the Yankeetown Cemetery. This was a fortunate move as the letter was passed to a mail carrier, George A. Robinson. Mr. Robinson was knowledgeable on the subject of the cemetery and the church near it. The Yankeetown Church he stated was moved several hundred yards east of its old site several years ago and was still standing. He also knew of a family connection such as I had hoped for.

His reply dated July 22, 1969 was the beginning of many years of correspondence with a growing number of others eager to share in the pursuit of the family genealogy. Mr. Robinson gave the address of Mrs. Gladys Thompson Keller, 319 E. Court So., Wash. C. H., Ohio, who was the granddaughter of Mrs. Phillips Taylor (sister-in-law of Ann Taylor Longerbone). He added that he with his grandfather had several years earlier attended the 100th birthday party of Mrs. Taylor (ca 1935). He thought that Gladys had family histories as well as Family Bibles.

I wrote to Gladys and received her reply in August, 1969. She explained that she and her mother were living together and that her mother was in ill health. That her mother was a daughter of Phillips and Sarah Ann (Bennet) Taylor (Phillips was a brother of Ann (Taylor) Longerbone). In quoting her mother some errors were made but these were detected immediately and were of no consequence, the quotes were "John was the father of our Jonathan Taylor. There is a connection to President Zachary Taylor saying her father told her this -- our line of Taylors were three brothers, ship builders who came from Birmingham, England and settled in Delaware, and here was also a Gaskill who came to Massachusetts on the Mary Ann in 1624, quarreled with early settles and was kicked back to England, but made it back again, if I remember right his name was Josiah." Gladys said she had no proof of this.

In January a Mrs. Eva Daniels was firing off letters to Ohio as I had done, one was addressed to a Flora Thompson must then have been Gladys' mothers for again Gladys had been contacted. Gladys then gave Eva Daniels my address. Eva wrote to me and explained that she was the granddaughter of Sarah (Taylor) Graham (sister of Ann (Taylor) Longerbone). Eva said that she had forgotten until Gladys reminded her that she and Gladys had met several years earlier at an Aunt Anna Coverdale. Eva was planning a trip with her sister to Ohio in the coming summer to visit the sites where their father and grandparents had lived one hundred years earlier. Her father, Thomas Graham Jr. was about twelve when the move to Kansas was made in 1880. Eva did visit with Gladys in Ohio in June of 1970. She discovered that Gladys was very ill and dying of cancer. Eva failed to learn any new information from the trip. I believe that Gladys and her mother both died that year.

Arthur Longerbone began his drive to find the Longerbone and Taylor ancestry about 1973, so he too exchanged data with the group through the 1970s and early 1980s. Freida Nadine (Graham) Heaman of Victorville, California, another descendant of Sarah (Taylor) Graham joined the group somewhat later in the 1970s. She and Eva (Graham) Daniels of Kansas City, Missouri were first cousins once removed. Freida was a great granddaughter of Sarah (Taylor) Graham, both were active in the field of research and relayed their finding regularly. I was pressed to keep pace with them yet succeeded in contributing a fair share of research by correspondence with the clerks in the Court House offices of Fayette Co., Pennsylvania. Of this work the land records were of the most interest. It was a difficult task to convey my specific needs to the clerks in the Recorders Office. Through repeated attempts Beriah Taylor's two land acquisitions and an "Inn" were located.

In 1977 letters were exchanged with Neal Duncan of LaGrange Park, Illinois. Neal's wife was descended from Caleb Taylor (brother of Ann (Taylor) Longerbone) who had made his home near Urbana, Illinois. Neal was able to add several bits of information on other descendants of Beriah Taylor, much of which is to this day and open door waiting to be used. Though Neal and I exchanged but few letters his charts and data was of great value in giving direction for further research which will be a part of the eventual effort to identify as many family members as possible. My efforts at the Genealogy Section of the Ft. Wayne Library regarding the ancestors of Keziah (Gaskill) Taylor was a duplication of the work the others were doing earlier. Mrs. Heaman was probably the most persevering and successfully extended the lineage further than others, yet it would also appear without the group each one's success may have been a more limited success than was accomplished jointly.

It would seem that Jonathan lived with his parents at two locations in western Fayette County
before his marriage. The first was land Beriah Taylor purchased on January 16, 1799, forty-one
acres from his brother-in-law Caleb Gaskill situated on the waters of the Little Redstone on the
east side of the Monongahela River. Jonathan was born at this locale on March 6, 1796. It is
felt that the Gaskills and Taylors had been there for at least ten years prior to the purchase.
This site is roughly 3 miles south of present day Fayette City and north northeast the same
distance from Brownsville, both are river towns in Fayette County, Pennsylvania, further the
site is about 2 miles east of the river.

On the southwest corner of Beriah's forty-one acres of land and lying by the roadway running
north and south Beriah established an Inn. On September 28, 1814 Beriah sold thirty nine
acres to Jacob Bowman and keep one lot and "Inn". Beriah then on April 16, 1817 purchased
two unimproved lots numbers eight and nine near the river bank south of the town of Freeport (Fayette City). It is not clear when Beriah moved his residence to FayetteCity but the local history states that he operated a Tavern there which was first opened by Henry Calver, succeeded by McNab and then by Beriah Taylor. After Beriah, Thomas McCrory was proprietor and the establishment was long known as McCrory's Tavern.This Thomas McCrory married Beriah's grand daughter, Eliza Brown in 1819. Eliza was the daughter of Beulah, the third child of Beriah and Keziah.She had married Samuel Brown in 1791 about the time he last of the family left New Jersey. Suggesting that at least Beriah and his older sons, Caleb and Beriah Jr. had came to Fayette County earlier than Keziah and the remaining children. It is likely that Beriah's daughter, Mary B. born April the 9th, 1792 was his first child born in Fayette County, Pennsylvania. It is interesting to note that Jonathan and his niece, Eliza Brown were the same age, born in 1796.

The time of the families arrival in Fayette County, Pennsylvania is based on a number of observations. The brother of Keziah, Caleb Gaskill, who made his land purchase on May 16, 1793 was in the local census indicating that he was there in 1790. Others named in the same local census were again mentioned in the land records of 1793 and 1799. An Uriah Taylor was among those in the census residing near those named in the land deeds and he is believed to have been not Uriah but Beriah Taylor.

Jonathan was the last child born to Beriah and Keziah Taylor at which time Beriah was 52 years of age and Keziah an unbelievable 47 years of age. It would seem that Jonathan was born and reared on the acreage Beriah purchased from Caleb Gaskill. When his father purchased the two lots in a development south of the town called Freeport, they may have moved to the new location. That year 1817 his parents would have been considered quite old. Keziah died two years later at the age of 70 years. Beriah was then 75 years of age. It is felt her death occurred at Fayette City and it was during that period of Beriah's life that he operated a tavern in that town. There is some doubt that Beriah ever made any improvements on those lots as he bought them for one hundred dollars and sold them for one hundred and fifty dollars ten years later with no reference to improvements. He sold them to Samuel Gaskill, no doubt a blood relative to Keziah. Beriah had married and was living in Washington County, Pennsylvania when this transaction took place on January 30, 1827. His wife's name appearing on the Deed was Elizabeth. Beriah would have been eighty three at the time. It is assumed that Beriah did not live long after that date.

There is no record of the Lot and Inn three miles south of Fayette City being sold. One might wonder if Jonathan remained at this location or was near his parents at Fayette City. At any rate Jonathan did not marry until he was nearly 28 years of age which would indicate he was not financially well off, one reason many men to put off marrying and starting a family. One might wonder if he was committed to caring for an elderly parent? I have no record of Jonathan owning land in Fayette County, Pennsylvania. I can only imagine that he farmed land belonging to someone else or hired out as a laborer. There was at that time a great demand for laborers as a result of the river traffic. The Monongahela River was an artery to Pittsburgh and the Ohio River Valley. A great amount of activity and business was connected with the rivers as they were the pathway to the western territory where unlimited opportunity and fertile lands awaited the pioneer and all with an adventurous spirit.

Jonathan Taylor and Mary Ann Phillips were married in western Pennsylvania most likely in the year 1823. No record exits of their marriage for most counties in Pennsylvania did not issue marriage licenses or register marriages until several years later, The marriage may have taken place in either Fayette County or Washington County as their were Phillips in both counties. I have not given up hope of establishing the Phillips lineage but the problem are very numerous, even though we have gathered a great amount of data on Phillips families in that area none have yet proven to be one in which Mary (Phillips) Taylor was a member.

The location of Jonathan and Mary's residence was first identified through statements in the obituaries of some of their children as follows. The first child, Francis Marion, was born September 29, 1825, at a place called Greenfield on the Monongahela River, about five miles from Brownsville in western Pennsylvania. He was sixteen when in 1841 the family moved to Ohio where he spent the rest of his life. The second child was Phillips born July 19, 1827 in Fayette County, Pennsylvania. It is said when he was two years old his parents removed to Washington County, Pennsylvania and continued to reside there until 1841. In that year they came to Pickaway County, Ohio. The third child, Delelah, was born January 19, 1830. The fourth child, Jonathan Jr., was born October 7, 1832 and said to have been born in Fayette County, Pennsylvania. His Obituary confirmed that they removed to Pickaway County, Ohio in about 1841. The fifth child was Sarah born March 3, 1836 at Brownsville, Washington County, Pennsylvania and moved to Pickaway County, Ohio in 1845. The inconsistencies are typical when they concern events occurring during childhood. It is a very personal time in ones life and we will view it differently and remember if often very differently.

It would seem that the family did live near Greenfield but east of the Monongahela River for several years then at a time when Phillips was to young to remember exactly when the family moved to Washington County. It may have been the move was only across the river, it being the dividing line between the two counties. Greenfield and Brownsville are both on the Monongahela River About five miles downstream from Brownsville, Fayette County, Pennsylvania a sharply curved bend in the shape of a "U" is present in the course of the river. This bend is called Greenfield Bend, the town of Greenfield lay on the west bank in Washington County near the bottom of the bend. This site is today called Coal Center. Up stream very near Coal Center is a town called California encompassing the river town, Phillipsburg, all forming a continuous community today. Across the river from Coal Center is Newell, Fayette County, Pennsylvania. It was near or in this bend that Jonathan Taylor and family lived for several years. In Washington County less that one mile away from the river were several families by the name of Phillips and Durval. Durval is a name linked to the Taylors and Phillips by marriage. Many more families with these names lived in the area both north and south at a somewhat greater distance, both names were very common there.

The reference to Brownsville was used as one would refer to a land mark, it is the largest identifiable community near the Taylor family. Thus it was often referred to in order to state the region in which the family once lived. This broad manner of speaking is practiced even today to state a place of origin or a residence. The birth place of Sarah as stated in her obituary is an example of such a generality and was further complicated by the move to Kansas in 1880, which by separation from the family group, greatly added to the chance for variance of the family record.
A sixth child, Caleb, was born to Jonathan and Mary on June 8, 1838 the last of their children born at this location.

Phillips Taylor could recall a time when he ice skated on the river, say 1835-1841. Phillips' reminiscing further was related by Gladys Keller stating that when the family moved in 1841 he and his brother, Jonathan, walked from Portsmouth, a river town on the Ohio River, through Chillicothe to the new home in Pickaway County, Ohio. Their ages would have been near 14 and 9 years and the distance walked about 65 miles. The course being north along the Sciota River to the mouth of Deer Creek, north of Chillicothe, and up Deer Creek to the home site below present day Mt. Sterling. In the mind of the youthful Phillips the walk was a personal achievement greater than the voyage up the Monongahela River and down the Ohio River. It is likely the walk was much more exhausting.

Jonathan was forty five years of age when he established residence in Pickaway County, Ohio. A son, Richard M. Taylor was born to Jonathan and Mary on September 4, 1842 and a daughter, Ann, born on November 25, 1845. The mother then 45 years of age lived another 24 years. Mary (Phillips) Taylor passed away on December 30, 1869 according to the death record in the Office of Probate Court, Pickaway County Court House, Circleville, Ohio. Jonathan lived a very long life passing away on March 5, 1882. Their burials were in the Yankeetown Cemetery where Mary's stone reads 1868, which is thought to be an error. She was 69 years, 1 month and 22 days of age. One additional that was supplied by Gladys Keller is that the church site where the Yankeetown Church was moved many years ago was land donated to the church by Jonathan Taylor Jr.. Throughout his life he remained in the area below Mt. Sterling near the original family settlement. The Obituary of Jonathan Jr. gives some insight into the lives of the Taylors in western Pickaway County, Ohio.

Jonathan Taylor, son of Jonathan and Mary (Phillips) Taylor, was born in Fayette County, Pennsylvania, October 7, 1832, and departed this life at his home near Mt. Sterling, Ohio, June 15, 1911, aged 78 years, 8 months, and 9 days.

He was one of a family of eight children, five boys and three girls, of whom two, Caleb Taylor of Urbana, Illinois, and Mrs. Ann Longerbone of Portland, Indiana still survive. When he was eight years of age he removed with his parents to Pickaway County, Ohio, where he has resided continuously until his death.

His persistent industry was a marked characteristic of his entire life. In his boyhood days be became inured to the arduous labor which the rural life of the time imposed. Notwithstanding the unfavorable environment of his youth, he succeeded in acquiring a fair common school education, and though out his life he has been an untiring student, and has kept in close touch with the march of progress and with advanced thought of religious, civic, and business life.

On September 25, 1856, he was united in marriage with Mary Ann Bennett, who has shared with him the joys and sorrows of over 50 years, and who still lives to mourn the lose of a kind and considerate companion. Together they have strewn the path of their married life with deeds of charity, love and sympathy. The evening before the sad accident which resulted in his death, they visited the home of a neighbor to carry sympathy and consolation to a bereaved husband and children.

To this union eleven children, five boys and six girls, were born, ten of whom are still living. one daughter, Mary Ales Stinson, having preceded him to her heavenly home nine years ago. His faithful companion and nine children were present at his bedside when the end came, one son Ellis, of Durango, Colorado, not being present.

About 50 years ago he was converted and united with the M. E. Church at Yankeetown. Thoughtout all these years he has lived a faithful Christian life. He believed in a health, hearty, happy Christianity, which ever showed itself in his daily life. In social life he was the friend of all. The youngest as well as the oldest had in him an interested companion.

His faithfulness in the spiritual life of the church as well as his care for its material prosperity was a marked characteristic of his later life. Yankeetown Church has lost a strong support. His neighbors have lost a faithful sympathizing friend. Pickaway county has lost one of its foremost citizens and supporters of all that is best in its civic life.

Realizing that his life was near its close, he called his companions to his bedside and said, "Mother, death is near, I am ready to go." In these few words, thus briefly, he gave the assurance of having "fought a good fight," of having "finished the course" and of having "a blissful reward awaiting him with his heavenly father".

Besides his companion and his ten children he leaves twenty four grandchildren and five great- grandchildren who join in mourning their lose. Awaiting him on the external shore were one daughter and six grandchildren. An universal bond of sorrow and sympathy unite his neighbors, friends and all who knew him in mourning one who was a model of our highest type of Christian citizenship.

Jonathan Jr.'s children from the 1880 census were Rebecca A. age 20 yrs., William C. age 18 years, Mary age 16 years, Oda age 14 years, Callie age 10 years, Laura age 12 years, Ellis age 8 years, Grant age 5 years and Thomas age 1 year.

Obituaries of the others of the family will be found in the Appendix of this report. There is in some a dominant religion present in their lives. There was a high degree of acceptance of a spiritual world in nearly all of the rural settlements during the last half of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Not only was Christianity a daily influence in their lives, there was also a great amount of superstition. It might appear that for many their spiritual life controlled their actions especially in the later years of their lives. It is clear that for many their religion served them well in facing life and death.

Beriah Taylor is known to have arrived in Fayette County, Pennsylvania from Burlington County, New Jersey where he was married to Keziah Gaskill on March 12, 1767. The marriage record is found at the Archives and History Bureau, New Jersey State Library in the Early Marriages of Burlington County, New Jersey. The first paragraph of the license found on page 204 reads "Know all men by there presents, That we Beriah Taylor and Daniel Glough both of Springfield in this county of Burlington Yeomen etc. etc. -- second paragraph -- Keziah Gaskill of the same place spinster of the other party etc.--.

Their children's names as taken from the Beriah Taylor Bible [Printer and Publisher by M. Carey & Son, No. 121 Chestnut St. Philadelphia, Pa., 1817] presently in the possession of Arthur Longerbone were: Caleb Taylor born January 19, 1768, Sarah Taylor born November 23, 1769, Beulah Taylor born May 24, 1773, Beriah Taylor Jr. born June 18, 1775, Jonathan Taylor born May 24, 1778, Charles Taylor born September 1, 1780, Keziah Taylor born February 1, 1783, Amy Taylor born April 1, 1785, Jacob Taylor November 5, 1787, Samuel Taylor born November 12, 1790, Mary B. Taylor born April 9, 1792 and Jonathan Taylor born March 6, 1796. The deaths recorded in the same Bible are as follows: Keziah Taylor, wife of Beriah Taylor, died January 1, 1819, Jonathan Taylor departed this life in the year of our Lord 1781, Charles Taylor died in July 1781.

There has been no ancestral record established for Beriah Taylor's parents. What is presented here is conjecture by two ladies who had their own sources. The first is stated by Gladys Keller in her reply to my correspondence with her. She writes, "Our line of Taylors were three brothers (Ship Builders) who came from England (Birmingham I've heard) and settled in Delaware." " Now I cann't give you names and dates, just what I've been told." She had also heard that there was a connection to President Zachary Taylor's ancestry. hen she gave a statement on the Gaskills that proved quite good, "There was a Gaskill who came to Massachusetts on the Mary Ann." The second source was written in a letter from Eva Daniels, the quote is, "I have some printed sheets sent to me by Elizabeth Koleda in Prineville, Oregon about the Gaskill born in Burlington County, New Jersey, married to Beriah Taylor, son of Richard and Mary Taylor. No other information. Of course this was a reference to Kezaih Gaskill from a genealogical report of the Gaskill ancestry." The original compiler of this information has not been learned as yet.

Here I night dwell a bit on the Phillips research of which none has established a satisfactory link with families of that name. My first clues to Mary Phillips Taylor's Phillips relation was in a letter written to Francis Marion Taylor in the year 1852. I believe Isaac Newton Durvall, the authur of the letter, was a cousin to Francis M. Taylor, that their mothers were sisters, He wrote, "Uncle Sol had gotten a letter from you etc.- and grandmother is alive. She has been quite daundy. (mother of Mary Phillips alive in 1852) Within a year all two my father and mother died. Father married Aunt Saly Phillips and both Sally and another Sally Zachman and John Crow. there was a Melinda to see him from Pittsburgh and a Sharlatte who had given birth to a son. Isaac lived right on the road from Pittsburgh to Chicago through Salem, Canton and Wooster, eighty miles out from Pittsburgh. I believe his home was in Stark County near present day Alliance, Ohio. There is a Mt. Union College in this place and Isaac directed Francis to direct (address) his letters to Mt. Union, Stark County, Ohio. (A copy of the text of this letter will appear in the Appendix.) Early in my correspondence with Mrs. Daniels I sent her a copy of this 1852 letter of I. N. Durvall. She in reply stated she had discovered notes on the Phillips family among family memorabilia. She listed three generations of that family which she could not prove and did not say who had first supplied the data. She writes, "I have only the names and do not know the connection. Sol, Isaac, Henry and Mary Phillips. Joseph Phillips b. 1716 Wales, Mary Phillips b. 1710 Wales and David Phillips b. 1755 (our g g grandfather) at age 39 years came to Washington Co., Pennsylvania from West Chester, Pennsylvania."

Eva Daniels and Frieda Heaman collected several Phillips Family Histories which seem to collaborate several names, but I reached the conclusion that no new evidence had added proof to Mrs. Daniels notes. If one knew the initial source of these notes they might be accepted on face value. In this case, acceptance of the notes has been belabored, perhaps unjustly. Anyone studying these Phillips family records would readily welcome these ancestral ties.

There is one Biographical sketch in the History of Chester County, Pennsylvania, page 683 and 684, of Joseph Philips which is either the source of Mrs. Daniel's notes taken at some earlier date or does confirm the validity of her notes. The biography states Joseph b. 1716 and wife Mary b. 1710 both of Wales moved to this country with three children: David, John, and Josiah in the year 1755. A fourth child, Joseph was born after their arrival. Settled West Chester -- moved to Uwchlan -- the father was a weaver by trade. Joseph died May 18, 1792 and Mary died December 26, 1792. -- David and Joseph moved to western Pennsylvania below Pittsburgh. Here David was prominent at the Peter's Creek Baptist Church for forty years he died March 5, 1829 at the age of eighty seven years. His birth was in the year 1742. Joseph, his younger brother, born in the colonies was not as prominent in the community but did for many years serve as a Justice of the Peace. He died on September 3, 1832 at the age of seventy eight years. Here we have the same bits of data and yet not arriving at a positive conclusion. The birth year 1755 of David above does not match this one stating in 1742. Joseph would have been born about 1754. A Biography of the same David Phillips found in the History of Washington County, Pennsylvania on pages 8 and 9 clearly indicate that this David was not Mary Phillips Taylor's father. It is possible that he was her grandfather. His sons were Benjamin, John, Thomas, Josiah, David, and Isaac. His daughters were: Mary who was twice married, Martha and Sarah. Complicating matters is the fact that a second Phillips clan, kinsmen of old Joseph, lived in the county and were adopting the same given names.

It would seem the most likely Taylor-Phillips connection would be found within a limited area or community, one common to both families. In 1810 a Henry Phillips lived very near Beriah Taylor with daughters within the age Mary would have been in the census. In the 1820 census, near by was a Benj. Phillips but no twenty year old daughter is listed, if Mary belonged in this family she was not residing within the family group. There is many more possible approaches to solving the lineage. I feel it can be done by keeping in mind the names given by Isaac N. Durall in his letter to Francis M. Taylor (Soll, Aunt Saly Phillips, and uncle Dixon's daughter, Sally. Further it may prove important to keep in mind that the Death Record of Mary (Phillips) Taylor reported she had been a Weaver by trade.

When we come down to basic facts involved in the search for the ancestors of Keziah Gaskill Taylor, it was a matter of discovering the collected works of others. The Gaskill (Gaskoyne) record was compiled by Roger Lee Heacock in 1945 and published in the Baldwin Park (Calf. ) Bulletin in 1950 "The Ancestors of Charles Clement Heacock 1851-1914". His sources are found in the History of Salem, Mass. by Sidney Perley Vol. I and New England Historical & Genealogical Register Vol. IV and etc. The results of this research is also in "Genealogical & Biographical Notes concerning Edward Gaskill 1956, (Ancestors of Charles Clement Heacock)".

Keziah's paternal ancestors were; father, Josiah Gaskill; grandfather, Josiah Gaskill Sr.; great grandfather, Samuel Gaskill; and great great grandfather, Edward Gaskoyne. The wives of these Gaskill men were Amy Shreve, Keziah's mother; Rebecca Lippencott her grandmother; Provided Southwick her great grandmother and Sarah __ her great great grandmother. Keziah's maternal ancestors were; mother, Amy Shreve; father, Caleb Shever Jr.; grandfather, Caleb Shreves Sr. and great grandfather, Thomas Shreve. Their wives were; Mary Atkinson, Amy Shreve's mother; Amy's grand- mother, Sarah Areson, and Amy's great grandmother Martha ____. I will restate that virtually everyone of the families have a published Genealogy and History. Nearly all lineages begin in England near the turn of the seventeenth century. It will be tedious for some to read all this published material, a condensed version of each will appear in the Appendix of this work. I am intrigued by them all and find myself drawn to them with much affection.

Cassandra Southwich, Keziah's great great grandmother, was made immortal by the "Quaker Poet", John Greenleaf Whittier, in his poem "Cassandra Southwich 1658". Whittier took a fair amount of historical liberty in that he used the name of Cassandra, rather than that of her children; Provided, her daughter or Daniel, her son, who were to be sold into slavery to any Englishman of Virginia or Barbadoes for the purpose of providing payment of fines to the courts of Salem and Ipswich, Massachusetts. The children were fined 10 pounds sterling for being absent from the established religious assemblies. The poem was about the children, particularly Provided. Their parents, Lawrence and Cassandra Southwich, had already been reduced to poverty by fines and imprisonment by a relentless persecution for being Quakers. (Poem and history: see Appendix)

Before I leave Keziah's ancestry I feel compelled to outline the history of the turbulent times in
England and her colonies when we pick up the lives of our ancestors living in the 17th century.
I doing so I will relate it with the Lippencott family as reported in the Genealogical and Memorial
History of the State of New Jersey by Francis Bazley Lee Vol. 2, 1910, pages 531-542.

Richard Lippencott was born in England during the time of James I and reached manhood during the reign of Charles I. Conditions were such that he associated himself at an early date with the settlers of the colony of Massachusetts Bay and taking up his residence at Dorchester and became a member of the church there about 1639. His birth date is not known nor is it known whether he married in England or after his arrival in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, yet it is recorded that he and his wife had their eldest son, Remembrance, baptized September, 1641. It may permit the conclusion that Richard Lippencott was born about 1615-16 and that he married ca 1639 to Abigail ___ born ca 1620-1.

The first records of Richard Lippencott are found in the Dorchester Church reporting that he became a member, April 1, 1640 and was chosen to one of the town offices, being made freeman by the Court of Boston, May 13, 1640. He moved to Boston a few years later where his second and third children were born. Their baptism taking place, November 10, 1644. Soon after he differed with the Puritanism of the colony. His religious belief failing to conform with that of New England Puritans resulted in his being formally excommunicated, July 6, 1651. Thus being a social outcast as well as under direst from the church Richard Lippencott removed his family to England in 1652 in hope that under the commonwealth he might find a greater degree of religious liberty.

Many things were troubling England during the second quarter of the seventeenth century. Charles I (1625-1649) was a difficult King for Parliament to deal with, further he angered the nation yet more deeply by his religious policies. By 1642 a Civil War between the King and Parliament began. It ended in 1649 when Charles I was beheaded. The Commonwealth which Richard Lippencott had found on his return to England was governed by a Puritan minded Parliament which by 1653 was replaced by Oliver Cromwell as Protector. By 1660 England was tired of Protectors, Army and Rump Parliament and welcomed Charles II, restoring the old line of Kings.

Having returned to Plymouth, Devonshire, England it was but a rather short time that Richard Lippencott's religious views harmonized with those of George Fox and he became a member of the Society of Friends, and numbered among those that suffered for their principles. In February 1655 he was arrested and imprisoned in the Plymouth jail near the Castle Exeter for having declared "Christ was the word of God and the Scripture a declaration of the mind of God." However indifferent this may seem to others, to the mayor of Plymouth this justified imprisoning those with such religious concepts. By May of this same year he and others testified against the acts of the mayor and the falsehood of the charges brought against them. Sewells History of the Quakers states that accordingly the prisoners were released. In the same year, 1655, a son was born. In 1657 a daughter was born and in 1660 another son. During these years the family home was at Stonehouse near Plymouth. In 1660, Richard was again imprisoned by the mayor of Plymouth for his religious convictions being taken from a meeting of Friends in that city. His release was brought about by Margaret Fell and others whose efforts in behalf of imprisoned Friends were so influential with the newly restored King Charles as to obtain the liberation of many.

Richard Lippencott determined to make another trial in the new world sailed from England in 1661 or 1662 and took up residence in Rhode Island where religious tolerance and a large measure of political freedom was present. In 1664 the Dutch colony of New Netherlands came into possession of the English. The next year, 1665, an association was formed at Newport, Rhode Island to purchase Indian lands and a patent was granted to them of the eighty three Newport subscribers who contributed toward buying Monmouth County, New Jersey from the Indians. Richard Lippencott was the largest subscriber, 16 pounds 10 shillings. The first deed from the Indians is dated March 25, 1665 and it for the lands at Nevesink, (Nevesink River on which the town of Shrewsberry was later established) from the sachem Popomora and his brother Mishocoing. Two other deeds followed and on April 8, 1665, Governor Nicolls signed the noted Monmouth patent which in the patent stated the reason for the purchase was for an establishment of a place of "Free Liberty of Conscience without any molestation or disturbance whatsoever". Richard Lippencott removed from Rhode Island to Shrewsberry, New Jersey. The Lippencotts were among the earliest settlers of the place. The Shrewsberry Meeting of the Friends met at Richard Lippencott's house for a long time. He was a prominent and active member of the community. His residence was on Passequenciqua Creek, a branch of South Shrewsberry River, three quarters of a mile northeast of the house of his son in-law, Samuel Dennis, which stood three fourth of a mile east of Shrewsberry. Richard Lippencott made a final voyage to England and there entered into a bit of land speculation West Jersey lands, the year being 1675. Again at his home near Shrewsberry on May 21, 1679 he divided his plantation into five equal parts giving 200 acres to each of his five sons. Richard Lippencott passed his final days in religious and political freedom and at his home near Shrewberry he died November 25, 1683. His estate was valued at 428 pounds and 2 shillings. He had owned several negro slaves. His wife Abigail made her will on June 28, 1697 which was proved August 7, 1697. (for the ancestral lineage and descendants see he Appendix)

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