XII. Chastain – Stark – Vineyard

The parents of Sarah {Chastain} Vanderpool were PETER CHASTAIN¹ and REBECCA {STARK} CHASTAIN. Peter Chastain was born on November 28, 1795, in Franklin County, Virginia. He wrote his will on January 13, 1852, and died in Lewis Township of Clay County, Indiana, just a few weeks later on February 24, 1852; he is buried in Friendly Grove Cemetery in that township and county. In his will, which was probated on May 26, 1852, Peter Chastain left money to his widow Rebecca and divided his land among his heirs (including Sarah). He also specified that Rebecca was to receive rental income, which suggests that he owned considerable property besides.²

Rebecca was born April 10, 1799, in Shelby County, Kentucky, but her date and place of death are not known with certainty. She died after 1880, for she is listed on the census that year, but searches of obituaries, wills, cemetery records, and death indices in a number of Indiana counties (particularly in Clay County, Indiana), have turned up no record of when or where she died. It is likely that her death came sometime in the early 1880s, since Indiana's index to deaths began in 1882 – though it was incomplete for many years thereafter. We know that Rebecca released her dowry rights to some of the Clay County land she had received in Peter's will on January 3, 1880, and to more (presumably the remainder) on October 11, 1880. The latter document was filed on May 25, 1881, which may suggest that she had recently died.³

One family tradition states that Rebecca {Stark} Chastain died in the state of Washington (where her son, George, supposedly had moved) about 1897. We do know that there is no stone for her in the Friendly Grove Cemetery, so she may indeed have died somewhere other than Indiana, but it also appears that George died in Indiana well before 1880. The issue of when and where Rebecca {Stark} Chastain died and where she is buried is thus unresolved, but I suspect she died in Clay County, Indiana, in early 1881.

Family tradition also states that Peter and Rebecca were married in Washington County, Indiana, about 1816. The marriage records for that county do not show their marriage, although there are others performed there by her father, a Baptist minister. On the other hand, it is evident that not all the marriages in the county were recorded (or have survived), and theirs may be among those that are missing. In addition, Peter and Rebecca seem to have lived in Kentucky until 1822, although it is conceivable that they were married in Indiana, because that is where her father had moved by then, and went back to Kentucky and lived there for a few years before moving to Indiana themselves. We can only hope that a record of the marriage turns up some day.

Census records are of little value in tracing Peter and Rebecca, in large part because they moved around a good deal. Family histories say that Peter and Rebecca lived with their respective parents in Henry County, Kentucky, from early 1812 until the middle of 1816, presumably about when they were married, but we know that Rebecca's parents were living in Indiana by 1816 (after having lived at times in both Kentucky and Indiana for a half a dozen years before that). Peter and Rebecca do seem to have left Henry County for about three years after their marriage in 1816, returning there about 1819 (when he appears on a tax record there). A Peter Chastain received a land grant in Hardin County, Kentucky, about 1816, but I am inclined to agree with the Chastain family researchers who believe that this grant was made to another man of that name who is known to have resided in Hardin County at about this time. We can only guess, therefore, exactly where the Peter and Rebecca we are seeking were living during this three-year period, although there is some evidence to suggest that they were in Kentucky.⁴

Nor do we know for sure where Peter and Rebecca are in 1820. Peter appears on the tax rolls in Henry County, Kentucky, again in that year, but I could not find the couple on the census there in 1820. The only Peter Chastain or variant is an older Peter Chastine in Hart County, and my line-by-line search of the Henry County census sheets was unsuccessful.⁵ Three Kentucky Chastain males have an extra male in the column corresponding to Peter's age that year (24 years old). Only one of them, John L. Chastain of Hardin County, also has an extra female the right age to be Rebecca (20 years old that year), but there is no younger female in this household who would be Peter and Rebecca's daughter Sarah, born in 1819. The younger persons living in John L. Chastain's household are, I think, probably the Peter Chastain whose land grant we have just discussed and that man's wife. Peter and Rebecca do not seem to be listed on the Indiana census for 1820, either, so we cannot be certain where they are living at that time.⁶ My guess is that they are still residing in Henry County, Kentucky.

According to Chastain family histories, in 1830 Peter and Rebecca could be on the census in either Indiana or Illinois, since they moved from one state to the other during that year. Once again, however, Peter is not in the census index for either state. My name-by-name search of Jefferson County, Indiana (where we think Peter and Rebecca were living during the first part of 1830) was fruitless, as was a similar search of Edgar County, Illinois (where they moved later that year). There is a Peter Shasteen in Washington County, Indiana, but he is too young (only 20 to 30 years of age when the Peter we are looking for is 34 years old) and has no daughter the age that Sarah would be that year (probably 10 years old). The Peter Chastine in White County, Illinois, has a female the correct age to be Sarah but is himself 50 to 60 years old, and so too old to be the man we are seeking.

Nor do Peter and Rebecca seem to be living with a relative in either state in 1830. Six of the seven men named Chastain or something similar who live in Illinois that year live on the border with Indiana, some of them directly adjacent to Sullivan and Vigo Counties of that state. If Peter is living with one of them, though, his age (34 that year) has been recorded incorrectly because there is no extra male 30 to 40 years old living with any of them. The same is true for Indiana: there are at least nineteen men named Chastain or something similar, but not a one has an extra male in Peter's age column. Where Peter and Rebecca Chastain are at the time of the 1830 census, too, is something we just do not know.⁷ Was this couple averse to being included on the census, or are we just unlucky?

Fortunately, I have found land and church records that help us to track this couple when the census records fail us, although it should be said the large number of Peter Chastain's land transactions makes it difficult to determine where they were actually living at any particular time. Peter Chastain was received into East Fork Baptist Church (in Henry County, Kentucky) in February 1812, and that church granted him a letter of dismissal in July 1816; this matches closely what the family histories say about where Peter was during this period. Sometime after April 6, 1822 (the date Peter and Rebecca received letters of dismissal from East Fork Baptist Church), the couple moved to Jefferson County, Indiana. Here on October 24, 1821, they purchased 160 acres of public land on the boundary line between Jefferson County and Scott County, where they lived until 1830. Peter and Rebecca were members of Scaffold Lick Baptist Church from 1823 to 1830; in fact, Peter was the clerk of the church in 1823 and 1830, and perhaps for the years between as well.⁸

Peter and Rebecca's next move was to 160 acres in Edgar County, Illinois, where they lived between October 1830 and August 1831.⁹ It is possible their move was influenced by a severe cholera epidemic in Washington County, Indiana. Peter and Rebecca were not affected personally, so far as we know, but because the epidemic caused their relatives to relocate to Illinois Peter and Rebecca may have decided to follow them there. In Illinois they were probably members of Mt. Pleasant Baptist Church in Edgar County.

Sometime in 1831, however, the peripatetic couple evidently moved to land they had bought on March 6, 1830 – even before they went to Illinois – in Vernon Township of Washington County, Indiana.¹⁰ To this property Peter seems to have added considerably more in that county during subsequent years. (Another Peter Chastain lived in Washington County during these same years, and it is possible that some of these purchases should be attributed to him instead.) Peter Chastain's first addition came in August 1831, in a purchase from William Chastain that mirrored the latter's purchase of Peter's land in Edgar County; in effect, the two men were swapping land. In November 1832 Peter bought again, and the next November he added still more land. Each new year, in fact, seems to have brought about additional land purchases, which came in March 1835, October 1836, and January 1837. Another purchase followed in May 1837, after which there was a hiatus until September 1842.¹¹

Peter Chastain also patented government land in Washington during those years.¹² It is curious that Peter is shown as a taxpayer and voter in Washington County only between 1843 and 1846, and so there may be more about the couple's movements we do not know from deed information alone. We do know that in Washington County, Peter and Rebecca became members of Union Baptist Church in Vernon Township (a church organized by Rebecca's father) but were also active in the Sinking Spring Baptist Church.¹³ By October of 1847, though, Peter Chastain had purchased 200 acres in Lewis Township of Clay County, Indiana, and on July 8, 1848, Peter and Rebecca sold their property in Washington County, Indiana, and moved – for the final time – to their new place in Clay County.¹⁴

It is in 1840 that we finally spot Peter and Rebecca on the census. They are residing in Vernon Township of Washington County, Indiana, as the other information we have says they should be. Both are listed as 40 to 50 years old, and Peter is a farmer. Ten years later, the 1850 census captures them in Lewis Township of Clay County, Indiana, again right where they should be. Peter is now 54 years of age and Rebecca is 51 years old.¹⁵ The census mystery resumes in 1860, however: Peter has died by then (in 1852), but Rebecca is not listed on the census that year. She is not living with her daughter and son-in-law, as she is in 1870 and 1880, and neither is she residing with any of her living children or siblings whom I can locate. I did a thorough search of the census for every state in 1860, as well as a line-by-line search of the township (Lewis Township) in which she lived in both 1850 and 1870, but she is not listed anywhere in 1860. It is intriguing that a Rebecca Puckett of this township, who was born in Kentucky the same year as Rebecca {Stark} Chastain, lives near Coffee with a somewhat younger Elihu Puckett, and we wonder if this woman is actually Peter's widow (perhaps Puckett's housekeeper?) to whom the census enumerator gave the wrong last name. Unless we accept this solution to the puzzle, as I think we should, we must conclude that in 1860 once again the census missed her altogether.¹⁶

In 1870, Rebecca {Stark} Chastain reappears: she is living – again near Coffee – with Nathan Stout, her son-in-law, in Lewis Township of Clay County.¹⁷ She is said to be 71 years old. This situation is repeated in 1880, but now Rebecca is described as being 78 years of age and infirm because of palsy (which is probably why she is unable to write this year, unlike in 1870. This is the last time she appears on a census.

As we have seen, Rebecca {Stark} Chastain may have moved to Washington Territory sometime after 1880. (Washington did not become a state until 1889.) I think it is more likely that if she moved anywhere during that decade it was to Kansas, where we know Nathan Stout – but not his wife, who died in 1879 – relocated sometime after 1880. Most likely of all, though, is that Nathan left Indiana after Rebecca died in that state. Until a death or burial record for her is discovered,we must continue to withhold judgment.

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We will take up Rebecca's Stark family first, then that of Peter Chastain. Rebecca was the daughter of ABRAHAM STARK¹⁸ and SARAH {STARK} STARK, who were first cousins – children of brothers. The Stark family has traditionally had a large number of marriages between cousins, and at least four of Abraham's many siblings seem to have married Starks as he did himself. Abraham, who had a slight lisp, is supposed to have joked, "We Starks have married cousins so often that none of us can speak plainly." Sarah, who usually went by Sally (the name on her grave marker, in fact), was born on March 23, 1779.¹⁹ According to information contributed to the LDS IGI, a family Bible, and his grave marker, Abraham was born on February 14, 1781, but other information offers February 20 of that year instead.²⁰

Some interesting issues arise when it comes to describing where Abraham and Sarah were born. On the only census on which they were asked to list a birthplace (1850), both of them state that they were born in Pennsylvania. Abraham's birthplace is often given as Amwell Township of Washington County, Pennsylvania. The exact location is said to have been Catfish Camp, the earliest name of what became the city of Washington, Pennsylvania; Catfish Camp would soon fall within Amwell Township, when it was organized. As we shall see presently, however, there is reason to believe that Abraham Stark was actually born elsewhere in the area that was at the time of his birth being formed into the new county of Washington.²¹

This area of extreme southwest Pennsylvania had been rapidly settled beginning in 1769, following the land purchases in the Treaty of Stanwix in 1768 that opened the region to legal settlement, and by the mid-1770s it was already becoming well-populated. Many of the newcomers were persons from Virginia and New Jersey who had trekked across the significant barrier of the Allegheny Mountains via Braddock's Road (now U.S. 30), which had been laid down during the 1750s. Based on their overlapping original land grants, Virginia and Pennsylvania disputed this area until the early 1780s; at the peak of the dispute, rival militia and county officials, armed groups and posses, and the like jockeyed for supremacy. Virginians were preeminent in the Monongahela Valley, including what was to become Washington County.²² One wonders if the Starks – very likely pro-Virginia in this dispute – were directly involved in any of these confrontations.

Pennsylvania and Virginia reached agreement in 1779, but between then and when it ratified the agreement, in 1780, Virginia distributed a large number of its own land certificates. Local opposition delayed the drawing of a temporary boundary line until 1782 and a permanent boundary (favoring Pennsylvania's claims) until 1785. The Virginians who had settled in this area naturally hoped that their state would confirm their land titles eventually, as it had done previously within its original territory. Many of them, too, objected to Pennsylvania's decision in 1780 to begin the abolition of slavery in a gradual process to last a number of years. Where the Starks lived, therefore, might be thought of as being in Virginia by some of its residents but in Pennsylvania by others.

Our information for Sarah is less specific but no less confusing. Where she was born depends on which Stark researcher one chooses to listen to: in Middlesex, New Jersey; in Loudoun County, Virginia; in Bedford, Pennsylvania; in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania; or in Amwell Township, Washington County, Pennsylvania. These several alternatives reflect both the general migration pattern of the Stark family and the dynamic nature of southwestern Pennsylvania, where jurisdictions rapidly evolved in response to population growth. Since the term "Bedford County" encompassed much of western Pennsylvania during the 1770s, and since first Westmoreland County and then Washington County were separated out from Bedford County soon before Sarah was born, it seems likely that researchers have simply chosen various names for the same physical location.²³ All of Sarah's older siblings seem to have been born in Virginia, and all of her younger ones in Pennsylvania, so we get no guidance from looking at their birthplaces.

What adds spice to this discussion is the fact that on the last census on which Rebecca appears (1880), Virginia and not Pennsylvania is listed as the place of birth for both of her parents, Sarah and Abraham Stark. But this may be a matter of interpretation, in view of the dispute between the two states over the territory that would become southwestern Pennsylvania. Perhaps Rebecca remembered that when her parents were born in that area her family – Virginians – still thought of it as part of Virginia, whereas for the 1850 census her father and mother described their birthplaces as Pennsylvania because that is what the area had actually become after the dispute was resolved in Pennsylvania's favor – we can only speculate.²⁴ In the absence of other evidence, it is probably best to accept Abraham and Sarah's statements on the 1850 census that they were born in Pennsylvania. I believe that Sarah was born in what was in 1779 called Westmoreland County, although the physical location of her birth, like that of her husband's, was (as we shall presently see) undoubtedly in what is today Fallowfield Township of Washington County, Pennsylvania, a county that would be created two years after she was born.

The settlement of the dispute in Pennsylvania's favor, which meant that Virginia land certificates were useless and that slavery's days were numbered in this corner of the state, motivated many of those who had come originally from Virginia to leave for Kentucky (then still part of Virginia) during the late 1780s and 1790s; Kentucky, it seemed, would remain slave territory. In addition, after the Whiskey Rebellion of 1794, which was centered in southwestern Pennsylvania,²⁵ a large number of Virginia distillers moved on from there to Kentucky in hopes of avoiding taxation. (Perhaps some of the Starks were among them.) Some researchers contend that the Starks were such die-hard Virginia adherents that they might have been among those who actively harassed the settlers loyal to Pennsylvania during the early 1780s; then, when the latter state's control of what was to become Washington County was confirmed in 1784-85, the Starks departed for Virginia's new counties in Kentucky – which became a separate state in 1792.

Either for the reasons mentioned here or simply because they wished to move on, the families of Abraham and Sarah Stark did leave Pennsylvania for Kentucky, evidently in 1784 or 1785. Abraham and Sarah, who had probably known each other all their lives, were married in Shelby County, Kentucky, on June 6, 1798.²⁶

Abraham Stark is listed as paying taxes in Henry County, Kentucky, on August 6, 1800, then again in 1804 and 1808 – but not between. During the next decade and more, he and his growing family moved a bewildering number of times, perhaps at first because of recurring hostilities between settlers and the Indians but then because Abraham had begun to preach the Gospel and went where his calling took him. For in February of 1800, having recently been converted to faith in God, he was baptized by Elder William Keeler in Harrods Creek, Kentucky, after which he joined the fellowship of the Eighteen Mile Church near there. Soon he was preaching as a Primitive Baptist minister, although he was not actually ordained as one – at the Dover Baptist Church in Shelby County, Kentucky – until March of 1812.²⁷ Primitive Baptists were ultra-Calvinistic and so opposed to the use of any human means (proselytizing or engaging in missionary work, for instance) to promote the Kingdom of God.

Abraham and Sarah's first move – when after 1800 we do not know – evidently was to Butler County, Ohio, where some other Starks lived. Sometime prior to 1809, Abraham and Sarah went on to Indiana, where they lived in Clark County. That county then covered much of the southeast portion of Indiana and was a natural destination for newcomers entering Indiana Territory from Ohio via the White River. During 1809, Abraham and other Starks signed a petition to Congress protesting the fact that they did not have the right to vote even though they had to pay taxes and serve in the militia. (As we have seen in our discussion of Jacob Zinck's signing of one of these petitions, they may have been an effort to document the number of adult males who supported the creation of a locally elected legislature.) The Starks, including Abraham, may have been in the faction of Hoosiers who opposed Governor William Henry Harrison, an aristocratic Southern slaveholder: they also signed a petition in 1809 protesting Harrison's support for efforts to introduce "Negroes" into Indiana, which they may have regarded as an effort to establish a foothold for slavery (at that time prohibited there by the Northwest Ordinance).

Perhaps because Indians had threatened or even burned their new home in Indiana, Abraham and his family crossed the Ohio River back into Kentucky again, probably between mid-1811 and mid-1812: Abraham is not listed on the Kentucky census in 1810 (there is no census in Indiana that year), but he and Sarah had a son born in Kentucky in mid-1811 and by mid-1812 he filed for permission to perform marriages in that state. By January of 1813 they had returned to Indiana, where a daughter was born then; by December of 1814, when another son was born, they had gone back yet again to Kentucky. Abraham and Sarah relocated to Indiana for good by April of 1816, when yet another son was born there.²⁸ At least one of their stays in Kentucky, probably more, had been in the Louisville area.²⁹

The frequent moves of this family were hardly over, though: even after Abraham and Sarah had settled in Indiana permanently they continued to move around within the state. We know that at various times they lived in Washington, Knox, Vigo, and Clay Counties, and they may have resided elsewhere that we are not aware of. Abraham was busy organizing churches, preaching, and otherwise heeding his calling, but it also appears that he bought public land in the hope that it would rise in value with more settlement – speculated, in other words. Histories of the Baptists in Indiana give us glimpses of his movements. His first institutional ministry in Indiana was in Washington County, at a church within the Silver Creek Association (formed in 1812). Abraham and others then organized Washington County's Union Baptist Church on the "second Saturday" of October in 1816 [October 12], and he served as this church's minister for fourteen years.³⁰ Although the records of Union Baptist Church have been lost, there is no doubt that numerous Chastains, including the family of Rebecca's husband Peter, were members of this church along with the Starks.

During the long period in which Abraham Stark was serving Union Baptist Church, he is said to have entered public land in Section 14 of Vernon Township of Washington County, Indiana. The database of land patents does not show a patent for Abraham, but further research shows that he acquired 80 acres in this section by means of an interesting transaction. This transaction reflects both the effects of the collapse of the land sale credit boom after 1817 (a partial cause of the Panic of 1819) and how credits served as currency in an economy without the kind of monetary system that we now have.

On November 6, 1816, a man named Evans Rawley purchased the northwest quarter of Section 14 by putting down $80 of the $320 purchase price. When the national economic collapse came, Rawley – whether he was an honest farmer or a speculator – evidently was not able to make further installment payments. Eventually, on March 30, 1825, his rights to the west half of this quarter section passed to Abraham Stark – not directly, as we shall see, but through two intermediaries. Half of Rawley's down payment was therefore credited to Stark, who also availed himself of the provisions of a relief act that Congress enacted on May 18, 1824, one of many acts passed to help overextended land purchasers. This act enabled Stark to claim credit for an additional $40 of the original purchase price for the 80 acres he was about to acquire.

In addition, on the same day Abraham acquired Rawley's rights (March 30, 1825), he also purchased the rights of a John McGrew to his quarter section in Section 29, southeast of Section 14, for which McGrew had put $80 down in September 1817. Thus Stark had in hand on that March 30 Rawley's $40 credit from 1816, the $40 credit allowed by the relief act, and McGrew's credit for $80. To these several credits he added, on the same day, $5.91 of his own money and $3.54 for the discount for early payment of the purchase price, which equaled the $169.45 owed the government for a patent to the 80 acres. The patent was then issued to Abraham Stark.

No doubt Abraham Stark got a considerable bargain on his 80 acres in Section 14. Rawley had sold the credit that Abraham Stark was able to present on March 30, 1825, to a William Reed (March 1818), who later assigned it to a William Lunsford (of Shelby County, Kentucky – where Abraham had lived) in July 1821. Lunsford subsequently sold the credit to Stark in January 1825. The original documents do not reveal how much Stark paid either Lunsford or McGrew for their rights, but surely the credits of both men would have been heavily discounted after so many years, especially as the government had reduced the purchase price of land (from $2 per acre to $1.25 per acre).³¹ Unless Abraham Stark was speculating in land with this 1825 purchase, he must have been acquiring Rawley's 80 acres for his own use: he entered no other public land in Washington County, Indiana.

Thus Abraham Stark, present in Washington County by 1816 if not before, did not actually enter public land until March 30, 1825. It may be, though, that during the next decade he rented someone else's land – perhaps that of Evans Rawley. In any case the property Stark eventually purchased was near that of a number of Chastains, including George Chastain, whose son Peter married Abraham and Sarah Stark's daughter, Rebecca.³² The 1820 census shows Abraham living in Washington County; both he and Sarah are properly shown as being 26 to 45 years of age. The census sheet records Abraham as engaged in agriculture, which was probably the case as ministers then were unpaid or poorly paid and had to support themselves. We surmise from the fact that Abraham Stark witnessed documents in Washington County in December 1823 and April 1824 that he and his family were still residing there well into the 1820s.

Abraham and Sarah Stark sold their 80 acres on August 16, 1828. Evidently a community of Baptists near Terre Haute in the western part of the state asked Abraham to come and preach to them. The 1830 census shows Abraham Stark and his family living somewhere in Pierson Township³³ of Vigo County, Indiana (where Terre Haute is located). He is said to be 40 to 50 years of age and Sarah is listed as 50 to 60 years old; Abraham is actually 49 years of age and she is 51 years old, so this is a good match. Abraham is probably still a farmer, although we know that he continued to be an active minister.

After moving to western Indiana, Abraham served as minister of the Second Prairie Church in Vigo County (probably the community that invited him) from January 1829 until November 1836. During this period, in February 1831, Abraham Stark purchased 80 acres in Vigo County.³⁴ About 1833 or 1834, Abraham Stark also affiliated with the Friendship Baptist Church in Sullivan County, Indiana, and in addition he helped to form the Curry's Prairie Association in October of 1834. Abraham, described as an elder in the records of the association, served as its moderator in 1834 and 1835. The Friendship Baptist Church was located a mile and a half west of Farmersburg, just south of the boundary of Sullivan and Vigo Counties.³⁵

Thus Abraham Stark must have been minister of two churches at once, but in actuality the two churches were not far apart. Abraham next served as minister of Little Flock Church in northern Sullivan County for six years (approximately 1836 to 1843); the record notes that he had been preaching at the latter church "as often as practicable" since 1831. He and Sarah are listed as having become members of the Little Flock Church on June 11, 1831. In January 1835 Abraham sold the property in Vigo County that he had purchased in 1831; this sale did not reflect any shift in Stark's focus further south, however, as during the next month he purchased a somewhat smaller piece of property in an adjoining section.³⁶

In later years Abraham Stark served limited terms at Friendly Grove Baptist Church, a Missionary Baptist church founded in Lewis Township of Clay County in 1839, and at Mt. Pleasant Baptist Church.³⁷ Judging from his age at the time, he likely was not the permanent minister of these churches but helping them while they were without regular ministers.

During these years, Abraham Stark is said to have fought against the Indians in the short-lived but decisive Black Hawk War of the early 1830s, a war that came about because steady expansion of settlement put increasing pressure on the Sauk and Fox Indians. In 1831 Illinois sent some 1,500 militia to force the tribes across the Mississippi River. A Sauk chief named Black Hawk led a group of Indians back into Illinois in the spring of 1832 so they could farm what had been their lands, and this led to panic among settlers and clashes with the Indians. By August an army of 4,500 men had been raised, and this force caught and virtually wiped out the Indians at a site along the Mississippi River in what is now Wisconsin. The last Indian resistance east of the Mississippi River had come to an end. Abraham Stark is also said to have taken part in other wars against the Indians, but I could find no record of his participation in any of these events, including the Black Hawk War.

Having sold their property in Vigo County in 1837, Abraham and Sarah Stark must have moved to Clay County, Indiana, for that is where they are living (in Lewis Township) at the time of the 1840 census. There are no deeds of purchase or sale for the couple in Clay County after 1837, however, so we do not know where they lived at this time. On the 1840 census, both Abraham and Sarah are listed accurately: he is 50 to 60 years old and she is 60 to 70 years old. Neither Abraham nor his son Jonathan, also a minister, has a check mark for his field of work, which suggests that someone did not regard them as being in the "learned professions," the option among the seven choices that comes closest to describing their calling. Although the census form is difficult to read, there does appear to be a mark indicating that Abraham, but not Sarah, could read and write in 1840. In that year Abraham was still in the midst of his service to the Little Flock Church, some ten to twenty miles away in Sullivan County, which makes their residence in Clay County (even the southernmost township) somewhat puzzling – unless he was serving other churches we are not aware of that were scattered over this entire area.³⁸

Since Abraham Stark later served as an early minister of Clay County's Friendly Grove Baptist Church, which was founded about 1847, we are probably correct in thinking that he and Sarah were living in that county during the late 1840s as well.³⁹ By 1850, however, they have crossed back over into Pierson Township of Vigo County, Indiana, because the census that year – the last one on which either Abraham or Sarah appears – captures them living there; he is 70 years old and she is 71 years old. The couple is living with son Isaac and his wife, who own the farm on which this family lives (the value of Abraham's real estate that year is $0), although Abraham is listed as the head of the household. It seems most likely that Isaac and his wife (and perhaps another son and daughter-in-law in the next household) were in fact providing support to Abraham and Sarah in their later years. The census identifies Abraham as a preacher, however, and doubtless he contributed his earnings to the household of which he was the ostensible head.⁴⁰

Abraham Stark died, though, in Lewis Township of Clay County, Indiana, on February 3, 1857.⁴¹ He is buried in Friendly Grove Cemetery in that township. Sarah {Stark} Stark had died in Clay County on April 1, 1851, and she too is buried in that cemetery.⁴² Abraham reportedly had disposed of all his property before his death and so had no will.

Abraham Stark thus had a long career among the Baptists of Indiana, and it was a distinguished one as well. He served as moderator of Baptist meetings many times during the 1820s and 1830s, and as we have seen he assisted in the formation of numerous Baptist churches and of several Baptist associations in the state: Silver Creek, Lost River, Union, and Curry's Prairie. Tireless and energetic, he was renowned for one preaching trip in particular that took him from Washington County to Indianapolis and back on foot – more than 100 miles of walking. He also zealously promoted the (then novel) idea of Sunday Schools for religious instruction, weekly rather than monthly meetings for worship, fixed salaries for ministers, a Baptist college for Indiana (Franklin College), and a state newspaper for Indiana Baptists. He was well-known and much respected in southern Indiana. At least four of his sons became Baptist ministers.

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We take up next the two Stark brothers whose children, Abraham and Sarah, married in 1798. Most Stark researchers are agreed that Abraham's parents were DANIEL STARK and ELIZABETH ⁴³ {WELLS} STARK, although the evidence linking Elizabeth to Daniel is tenuous enough that some Stark researchers do not accept it. Based upon the date of birth of their first child (1768), they probably were married no later than mid-1767. Some of the Stark researchers suggest that they were married in Washington County, Pennsylvania, but this is unlikely because that area was not yet settled and the Stark clan evidently did not move to southwestern Pennsylvania until at least a year or two after 1767. The Starks and many of the several families to which they were related (most prominently for us, the Laycocks and the Vineyards) were living in Loudoun County, Virginia, during the late 1760s, so that is probably where Daniel and Elizabeth were married.⁴⁴

Two estimates are given in the information contributed to the LDS IGI for the year of birth of Elizabeth: 1746 (in Washington County, Pennsylvania) and 1759. The first is clearly incorrect as to place, and the second seems impossible if Elizabeth was married by the late 1760s. The fact is, therefore, that we have no reliable information about Elizabeth's birth. Nor do we know anything for certain about her parents. There is a man named Wells who is listed as paying taxes in Henry County, Kentucky, in 1800 – as a matter of fact, on the same day, August 6, as Abraham Stark and his father paid their taxes. His name is William Wells, and he should be considered a candidate to be Elizabeth's father in light of the fact that the Wells family moved to Virginia and Kentucky along with the Starks, but it is most unlikely that her father — who had to have been born around 1720 – would still be alive and paying taxes in 1800. In addition, there is another, unrelated Wells family in Kentucky at this time, to which this William Wells might have belonged, but none of them seem good candidates for her father, either.⁴⁵

Our best guess has to be that Elizabeth's family was a Wells family that lived in Loudoun County, Virginia, at about the same time the Starks did (that is, during the late 1760s), because Daniel and Elizabeth were most likely married while the Starks lived there. One good clue about Elizabeth's parents may be that Daniel and Elizabeth could have named their first two boys Jonathan (after his father) and Jacob (after hers). If that assumption is correct, a Jacob Wells in Loudoun County would be the leading candidate to be her father. There is in fact such a man on that county's tax rolls in 1766 and 1768, and for several years thereafter, and he lives near Kenton's Station – not far from where the Starks resided. Can we identify this Jacob Wells and make a case for his being Elizabeth's father?

Circumstantial evidence and some ongoing DNA analyses both suggest that this Jacob Wells was a member of a particular Wells family from Pennsylvania, Baptists as were the Starks (though this Wells family was originally Quaker), that was associated with the Starks. Members of this Wells family not only migrated along the same route as the Starks did, from eastern Pennsylvania to Virginia to southwestern Pennsylvania to Kentucky to Indiana and Illinois, but also intermarried with them several times. Indeed in all these areas but particularly in Loudoun County, Virginia, there are numerous families who appear to have journeyed together over the years, remained neighbors, and intermarried in these places. The Wells and Stark families are just two of a whole community of such families.

A Jacob Wells married a woman named Lavinia Stevens in the First Presbyterian Church, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on May 27, 1745. (It is likely that the couple lived elsewhere in Pennsylvania at the time but made the trip to Philadelphia in order to register their marriage formally.) Lavinia was the daughter of Evan Stevens and his wife, a woman whose name we do not know. Evan Stevens lived in New Britain Township of Bucks County, Pennsylvania, where he was a member of the New Britain Baptist Church. As we shall see, the Wells family also resided in this county. We do not know how long Jacob and Lavinia themselves lived in Bucks County after their marriage, if they did at all, but there is good reason for believing that they moved to the Valley Forge area of Philadelphia (now Montgomery) County at least by the early 1750s, for they were members of the Great Valley Baptist Church there in 1754.

There is further uncertainty about the movements of Jacob Wells and his growing family between the mid-1750s and the mid-1760s. In 1754, Jacob and Lavinia Wells were given letters of dismissal by Great Valley Baptist Church to "Ketockten" (Catoctin) Baptist Church in Loudoun County, Virginia, which certainly suggests that Jacob and Lavinia were relocating there. Since Jacob does not appear on the tithe lists in that county until a dozen years later, he and his family may have been renting or, perhaps, staying with his sister, who was married to a Baptist minister in Loudoun County – presumably, the Catoctin church. But Jacob and Lavinia must have returned to Pennsylvania about 1762 or 1763, for in the latter year Jacob is listed as a new member of New Britain Baptist Church in Bucks County there. Then, in 1765, Lavinia received a dismissal from Montgomery Baptist Church, and the next year Jacob appears on the tithe lists in Loudoun County for the first time. (Oddly, he did not receive his own dismissal to a church in Virginia from New Britain Baptist Church until 1767.)

From this we can deduce that a few years into their sojourn in Virginia the family went back to Pennsylvani for a time, perhaps about when Jacob's father died, which was between November 1757 and November 1759. (In addition, Lavinia's father is thought to have died about 1760, and this may have had a bearing on their movements.) During this later stay there, they apparently resided in Bucks County. Jacob Wells and his family subsequently returned to Loudoun County, probably about 1765, which, interestingly, was the year Lavinia's brother died in Philadelphia.

Whatever the exact circumstances, by 1765 or 1766 Jacob and his family were in Virginia for good. Jacob Wells remains on the Loudoun County tithe lists fairly consistently until 1779. That year is the last time he is listed there, and it seems he died late in 1779 or early in 1780: on February 14, 1780, Jacob's son was appointed the administrator of his father's estate. We have no information about when Lavinia {Stevens} Wells died. The evidence suggests that while they lived in Virginia Jacob Wells and his family did in fact attend the Catoctin Baptist Church near Round Hill, Virginia, which was not very far from where they lived in Loudoun County.⁴⁶

We will return to the Wells and Stevens families after considering whether or not this couple could have had a daughter who was the Elizabeth who married Daniel Stark. Unfortunately, there is incomplete information about the children of Jacob and Lavinia Wells. Typically, the tithe lists in Loudoun County listed only males, and only some of their sons – no daughters at all – are identified in the settlement of Jacob's estate. But it is suggestive that there are no known children before the first son, born in 1752, which allows several years after this couple's marriage in 1745 for one or more female children to have been born. If this reasoning is correct, one of them would include our Elizabeth, who to have been old enough to marry about 1767 probably would have to have been born during the late 1740s. Thus we can come to no conclusion about whether this couple were the parents of Elizabeth Wells, but neither does the evidence eliminate them.

With that encouragement, modest as it may be, let us turn to the Wells and Stevens lines and their related families. Jacob was the son of Joseph Wells and his wife Ann {Pugh} Wells, who were married in Christ Church in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on November 19, 1716 – another couple, it seems, who wanted their marriage officially recorded there. Their son Jacob Wells was born about 1722, just about the right time for the father of Elizabeth Wells (who was born during the late 1740s). Joseph Wells is shown owning 100 acres Providence Township of Philadelphia County (now Montgomery County), Pennsylvania, in 1734. This area is near the Perkiomen River near Tyersford and Valley Forge. It is also quite near to the Great Valley Baptist Church to which Joseph and Lavinia Wells belonged. Since Joseph Wells seems to have lived all of his life in Bucks County, perhaps this 100 acres in Providence Township was his gift to Jacob and Lavinia. Joseph, who had been born in Bucks County in 1693, died there between the writing of his will on November 7, 1757, and November 16, 1759, when his estate was settled. (Evan Stevens witnessed his will). Ann had died sometime after bearing all of Joseph's children, for at his death Joseph's wife was a widow named Mary {Stephens} Sterling, who died during the interval before the settlement.

Ann's parents were Richard Pugh and a woman named Margaret, who survived him when he died in 1715, not long before Ann married Jacob Wells. Richard was the son of a Welshman, Griffith John, who came to America sometime during the late 17th century, and a woman named Grace Foulke. We know very little about this couple, only that Griffith John died in Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania, between April 26, 1707, and January 31, 1708, and that Grace Foulke was the daughter of Evan Foulke and a woman named Ellis Hugh. The father of Griffith John was John ap Evan, who died in 1697. In America, his children adopted various surnames – Hugh, Griffith and Pugh among them.

We return now to the Wells line, about which more is known. Joseph's parents were Henry Wells and a woman named Elizabeth (who was possibly a member of the Doyle family, after whom Doylestown was named). In 1709 Henry had purchased 300 acres in Warwick Township (later Doylestown Township) in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. But Henry, who was born in 1672 (presumably in England, as we shall see in a moment), died suddenly and quite young, in April 1714 (his will was written on April 1 and his estate was inventoried on April 13), leaving his widow Elizabeth with nine minor children and yet another on the way.

The DNA evidence seems to indicate that Henry's father was Edmund Wells, one of several Wells brothers who are thought to have migrated to Pennsylvania from Berkshire, England, during the 1680s. Edmund lived on the New Jersey side of the Delaware River (some of the time, near Burlington), but many of his children, including Henry, lived on the Pennsylvania side instead. Several members of the Wells family seem to have operated ferries across the Delaware River. This Wells family was originally Quaker in its beliefs but became part of the Keithian sect of Quakerism during the 1690s and then joined the growing Baptist movement. (The Keithians attempted to identify the particular core of beliefs that Quakers should be expected to accept.)

The Wells and Stark families may have come to know one another first not in Virginia during the 1760s but a decade or two earlier: both were part of the social, economic, and especially religious communities that drew from the settlements on either side of the Delaware River. (As we shall see later, during the 1750s Jonathan Stark owned a mill just inland on the New Jersey bank of the river.) Wells researchers think that many members of that family left Pennsylvania for Loudoun County at the time of the American Revolution, in large part to escape military duty or assessments. Loudoun County was quite lenient in exempting conscientious objectors, including Quakers, from these requirements. (We have no evidence to suggest that the Starks went to that county for the same reasons, but it is possible.) As we have seen, Jacob and Lavinia Wells did transfer their church memberships from Pennsylvania to Virginia.

Summing up, we cannot prove that the Jacob Wells of Loudoun County is the same man who was born to Joseph and Ann Wells in eastern Pennsylvania and then moved to Virginia, although a very strong case can be made that he is. But even if he was, we cannot be certain Jacob and his wife had a daughter named Elizabeth, let alone whether this child became the woman who married Daniel Stark. (Indeed, we still cannot even be sure that the family name of Daniel's wife was Wells.) The most we can say is that if Elizabeth {Wells} Stark was the product of a Wells family that lived near the Starks in Loudoun County, Virginia, we have identified a likely Wells couple who could well be her parents. ⁴⁷

Before we leave this matter, however, we should take note of another Wells male in Loudoun County, Virginia, whose story offers us a second intriguing possibility – admittedly one that is more of a long shot. This is Thomas William Wells, who also lived near Daniel Stark and Jacob Wells. He, too, was a generation older than the Elizabeth who became Daniel Stark's wife. There is no evidence that Thomas William Wells had a daughter named Elizabeth, but it is possible that he had a stepdaughter with that name. As it happens, the wife of Thomas William Wells in 1767 was someone who had been married previously – to three other men, in fact. A colorful character, the woman born Hester Smallwood had been the wife of Jacob Smith, Edmond Linton, and Waymon Sinkler (or Sinclair) in rather quick succession, before she married Thomas William Wells in 1764.

Hester had no children with either Edmond Linton or Waymon Sinkler, but she had had two sons with Jacob Smith, who died in December 1749.⁴⁸It Jacob's will, interestingly, mentions not only the two named sons but an unborn child. We know from the Loudoun County tithe lists that Jacob Smith, Jr., (one of those two named sons) was living with Thomas William Wells in 1767. It is not unthinkable that the Elizabeth "Wells" we are seeking was in reality a daughter born to the late Jacob Smith, Sr., and Hester in 1750, soon after his demise the previous December, and that this young woman grew up in the household of Thomas William Wells, where, quite naturally, she was known as Elizabeth Wells – and the name by which she would be known when she and Daniel Stark were married that same year, 1767. (As we have seen, Daniel and Elizabeth Stark had their first child in May 1768, so the latter probably was born in 1750 or shortly before, which fits nicely into the scenario shown here.)

It is worth noting that this scenario would explain, just as well as the hypothesis that Jacob Wells was Elizabeth's father, why Daniel and Elizabeth Stark would name their second son Jacob, the name of her deceased father, Jacob Smith. In addition, since Hester's mother was a woman named Elizabeth it would have been natural for Hester to choose this given name for her first daughter – a girl whom she may have guessed (correctly, as it turned out) would be her last child – in 1750. Another possibility is that Elizabeth had been born to Jacob and Hester Smith as early as 1746 but was not mentioned in his will because she was a female child. She still might have been brought up by Thomas William Wells and bore his surname until she married Daniel Stark. The Smith and Smallwood families from which Jacob and Hester came are interesting ones, but in the absence of a definite link between them and Elizabeth "Wells" we will not explore them in detail here.⁴⁹

To be sure, this second theory about the parentage of Elizabeth {Wells} Stark requires of us more imagination than the one that links her to Jacob and Lavinia {Stevens} Wells, and perhaps it is inherently less plausible than that first hypothesis, but without definitive evidence about Elizabeth's mother and father we cannot afford to overlook any reasonable possibility. In the end, it seems likeliest that Elizabeth {Wells} Stark was the daughter of Jacob and Lavinia Wells, to whom she was born during the late 1740s, but we may never know for certain if this is the case. Unfortunately we do not have any solid information, either, about the date and place of death of Elizabeth {Wells} Stark. We believe that she was living in Clark County, Indiana, in 1810. It would appear that she died there sometime in 1811 or later, but we can say nothing more than that. Leaving Elizabeth behind, we turn now to her husband, Daniel, and his line.

Over the years, Stark researchers have speculated that Elizabeth's husband, Daniel Stark, was born in Pennsylvania, in Dutchess County, New York, or even in Groton, Connecticut (where this particular Stark family originated, as we shall see later). Such disagreements over supposed birthplaces and dates often indicate that there are differences of opinion about a person's parentage, and that is the case here. Stark researchers have believed for many years that Daniel and his brother Christopher (whose children Abraham and Sarah, respectively, would marry in 1798) were the sons of an earlier Christopher Stark who lived in Dutchess County, New York, and possibly in the Wyoming Valley of northwestern Pennsylvania, from about 1744 until about 1772.

Recent research now conclusively supports the conclusion that Daniel and Christopher were actually the sons of JONATHAN STARK and SARAH {LAYCOCK}⁵⁰, that they were born in New Jersey (Daniel in 1743 and Christopher in 1747), and that they lived in that state until they moved first to Virginia and then further westward to Pennsylvania and Kentucky. Analysis of the Laycock and Vineyard families supports this conclusion – indeed, provides key evidence that made it possible. Jonathan Stark and Sarah {Laycock} Stark married by 1737 or 1738, since their first child was born no later than 1739. We will return to them shortly, after we sketch what we know about Daniel Stark.

We first encounter Daniel Stark as an adult in Loudoun County, Virginia, when he is a tithable there in 1767. Based on what we know about the Stark family, he would have migrated from New Jersey to Virginia along with his brothers and members of several other families with which the Starks were intermarried. The first of these were two Laycock brothers who appear in Loudoun County, Virginia, in 1765. Some Stark researchers believe that one or more of these families lived for a time in Western Maryland, and some of them (principally the Vineyards) may also have lived in the vicinity of Harpers Ferry, Virginia. The Starks would reside in Loudoun County for only a few years before moving further west.

The fact that Daniel Stark appears on the tithable list (in Cameron Parish of Loudoun County) in 1767 establishes that he was born no later than 1746. He is on John McIlhaney's list, which covered the area above Goose Creek and near Vestal's Gap and Catoctin Creek. These places are in the northern reaches of Loudoun County, not far from Harpers Ferry. Again in 1768, Daniel – like the other Starks and Francis Vineyard – is found on some of the county's other annual personal property tax lists, not all of which have survived. As they are not shown to be landowners, the Starks (and Vineyards) may be renting or leasing where they are living, hoping to acquire land at some future time. Because Daniel Stark disappears from these Loudoun County records after 1768, there is good reason to suspect that he might have moved on again, further west to what is now southwestern Pennsylvania, at about this time. The fact is that we have no definite trace of Daniel Stark for several years.

Once in Pennsylvania, the lives of the Stark brothers, Daniel and Christopher, seem to have followed almost identical paths, but we will focus on Daniel here and on Christopher a little later. Both Starks served – Daniel Stark as a private and as a sergeant, Christopher as a private – at various times between 1778 and 1785 in Captain Abner Howell's Third Company of the Third Battalion of the Washington County militia; Christopher may also have served in Captain George Sharp's company. These units were frontier rangers, local men who took turns serving on patrol during the season of Indian attacks – generally March through November. Their duties were to range widely, watching Indian paths and crossing places, flushing Indians from their hiding places near settlements, and alerting residents to possible attacks. They were not considered regular soldiers, and there was often friction between rangers and soldiers because each regarded the other as having the easier duty.

Both Daniel and Christopher Stark are said to have served during 1776 to 1778 in the Continental Line, the regular troops that the Continental Congress established early in the War of Independence to be the principal fighting force of the united colonies, but I have found no evidence in any existing records that either Stark brother served in the Continental line.

Earlier in that decade, however, Daniel and Christopher did serve (along with members of the Vineyard family) in the Virginia militia companies of Captain Joseph Mitchell and Lieutenant David Enoch in and around Fort Pitt (later Pittsburgh). This militia service included participation in what is usually known as Lord Dunmore's War in 1774. Christopher and Daniel Stark are listed on Mitchell's roll in Colonel William Crawford's Frederick County regiment, which had been mustered in Winchester, Virginia, and was stationed at least for a time in Romney, Virginia (now in West Virginia). Mitchell was a prominent resident of Martinsburg, Virginia (also now in West Virginia), which had been part of Frederick County until 1772 when Berkeley County was organized.

That the Starks were enrolled in Mitchell's company of the Frederick County militia suggests that they could have been still living in the remote northwest part of Loudoun County as late as 1772, for Loudoun County and Frederick County adjoined there until Berkeley County came into existence during that year. Crawford was living in what is now Washington County, Pennsylvania, even before the hostilities that would develop into Dunmore's War began in April and May of 1774; however, as soon as they did he began gathering an armed force from families living in this area. Ultimately Crawford's unit included both men from families who lived near him and militia members who (under Mitchell) marched to Washington County from Frederick County, so we cannot be sure where they were living when Dunmore's War took place. In my opinion, they were already residing in Washington County.

If so, and if the Starks were among the first militiamen who responded to Crawford's call, it seems likely that they were among the several hundred men Crawford took to Fort Pitt in early May to await developments. This fort (renamed Fort Dunmore) and its surroundings were now under the control of the partisans of Virginia, led by a man named Dr. John Connolly, who sent Crawford's unit to build a fort (first called Fort Fincastle, later Fort Henry) on the Ohio River (at a place that is now Wheeling, West Virginia). Crawford may have led his men cross country or down the Ohio River, but the former being both more direct and safer was probably his preferred route; he and several hundred men arrived there in mid-June 1774.

Meanwhile, Virginia mobilized the Frederick County militia under Colonel Angus McDonald and sent about 400 or 500 men from it off to meet Crawford on the Ohio. They were to assist Crawford in building the Fort Fincastle and then to attack the Indians on the west side of the Ohio River. The Frederick Countians – possibly including Mitchell's company, we cannot be certain – arrived at Fort Fincastle during July 1774. Later that month, McDonald left Crawford and about 200 men at the fort and took the remainder into Indian territory, where he and his own forces skirmished with the Shawnees at their homes on the Muskingum River. One way or another, the Starks had now become participants in what is known as Lord Dunmore's War.

This "war" was in actuality a series of short campaigns led personally by Virginia's new governor, a Scotsman named John Murray, the Earl of Dunmore. Dunmore saw the war as a way to protect his colony's western frontier and wrest control of western Pennsylvania (claimed by Virginia) and the Ohio River from the increasingly unfriendly Shawnee and Delaware Indians who lived west of the river — and from Pennsylvania, which viewed the area as its own. In the larger sense, the war would be both a culmination of the struggle that was called the French and Indian War in North America and a precursor to the War of Independence that in 1774 was just a year away. But its origins were in the land hunger of Virginians, who were aggressively surveying and awarding land grants in this attractive area, and in the bloody violence that white settlers and the Indians inflicted on one another as their conflcting interests clashed.

Once the hostilities mentioned above had begun, Dunmore collected a substantial army and marched to the area now in southwestern Pennsylvania that Virginia was claiming for itself on the basis of its royal grant. Dunmore planned a pincer movement. He and his Northern Division (perhaps including the Starks if they were just now marching west with Mitchell) set off from Winchester in August 1774. Dunmore led his forces to the South Branch of the Potomac River, on to Cumberland, and then across Braddock's Road to the small fort at the forks of the Ohio, which was now known as Fort Dunmore. All of the forces led by Dunmore had arrived there by September, after which they collected Crawford's men and prepared to enter Indian territory across the Ohio River.

While Dunmore was on his way to the Forks of the Ohio and beyond, Colonel Andrew Lewis was leading about a thousand more militia from Virginia and what would become Tennessee in a Southern Division down the Great Kanawha River toward the Ohio River. Attacked by Indians commanded by a notorious chief called "the Cornstalk," Lewis's troops (mainly Scotch-Irish militia from southern Virginia) fought the bloody and decisive battle at the mouth of the Great Kanawha River, at a place called Point Pleasant (now in West Virginia), on October 10, 1774. This battle led the Indians to seek peace. Thereafter the Southern Division briefly joined with Dunmore's forces in what is now central Ohio and then was sent home.

Dunmore was not yet finished, however. Immediately after Lewis's victory he took the Northern Division off into the Ohio wilderness, crossing the Ohio River south of what is now Parkersburg – where he built a stockade he called Fort Gower at the junction of the Hocking River and the Ohio River. Next Dunmore took 700 of his men up the river by canoe and sent the remaining 500 militiamen, with the army's beef cattle, across country. The two halves of the army rendezvoused on the Pickaway Plains between the Hocking River and the Scioto River. Once again the Starks were quite possibly part of Dunmore's own complement of his larger force that participated in these actions

Here near the Scioto River Dunmore built Camp Charlotte, where he parleyed with the Indians seeking peace. The treaty agreed to there opened an enormous portion of the trans-Appalachian West to settlement. When some of the Mingoes under a chief named Logan resisted accepting this treaty, Dunmore sent a force of 240 men led by Colonel Crawford (again, possibly including Christopher and Daniel Stark) forty miles further up the Scioto River to about where Columbus now stands. Here there was a significant skirmish in mid-October, after which all of Dunmore's militia were disbanded and sent back across the Ohio River.⁵¹ By early November nearly all of them had returned to their homes, except for small detachments that manned forts in southwestern Pennsylvania. Since the Starks were not paid off for their service until the end of October 1775 and since service records for David Enoch suggest that he remained on duty as late as March 1775, it is possible that they were among the few militia who were employed in this manner after the bulk of Dunmore's army had departed.

Lord Dunmore's War was one of the key (if largely unheralded) incidents in America's westward expansion, in part because its outcome opened Kentucky to settlers and in part because the defeated Indians became even more determined to resist settlement north of the Ohio River. It also demonstrated to the colonials that they could organize and win on the field of battle, which would undoubtedly give them confidence in the months ahead. Sometimes the Battle of Point Pleasant is even termed the "first conflict of the American Revolution" because of how it reshaped the situation in the west and American attitudes alike, although it might accurately be termed the final battle of the colonial period. It was the last time that Americans would fight under the British flag – and, significantly, the first battle with the western Indians on their own territory west of the Ohio River.

Foreshadowing the new attitudes in America, it would seem, was a notable incident that took place at Fort Gower in November 1774. Dunmore's militia returned there from the army's political and diplomatic success over the Indians to find a messenger with news that the First Continental Congress, which in September had begun to meet in Philadelphia, had adopted various resolutions regarding American rights in the growing controversy with the British government. At once Dunmore's officers drew up their own resolutions of support for the Continental Congress. In them the officers expressed their loyalty to King George III, so long as he reigned over "a brave and free people," but went on to say that "as the love of liberty and attachment to the real interests of America outweigh every other consideration, we resolve that we will exert every power within us for the defense of American liberty; and for the support of her just rights and privileges, not in any riotous manner, but when regularly called forth by the unanimous voice of our countrymen." Daniel and Christopher Stark, not being officers, would not have been parties to the resolutions, but it seems likely they were aware of them.

We have so little information about Daniel and Christopher Stark for the years after 1770 until the early 1780s that we are reduced to speculation, but because nearly all of the Starks and their many relatives disappear from Loudoun County records by 1770 it would appear that they were now living on land in what soon would become Washington County, Pennsylvania (but which, as noted, Virginia considered part of its territory). We do know that the Virginia forces to which they had belonged during Dunmore's War were paid off at nearby Fort Pitt in October 1775. David Enoch, under whom Daniel and Christopher Stark served during Lord Dunmore's War, is said to have recruited his unit from the area around Lone Pine on Little Ten Mile Creek in what would become Amwell Township of Washington County, but this may be an extrapolation from the fact that Enoch lived near Lone Pine afterwards. Another account states that Daniel and Christopher Stark were on the Virginia militia rolls in 1775, when they appeared on a list in Winchester and were paid off in Romney (now West Virginia) on October 28 of that year. This reference is probably also connected to their service in Lord Dunmore's War.⁵²

If the Starks and members of their extended family (Vineyards, Laycocks, and others) had not already moved to what would become Washington County, Pennsylvania, seeing it in 1774 while they were in militia service or in Dunmore's War – when their units seem to have traveled through the area – probably would have been enough to have motivated their relocation there. Once this territory became available in 1769, thousands of persons applied for more than a million acres during the first four months alone, and in short order thousands of families were living in southwestern Pennsylvania.

In any case, Daniel and Christopher Stark do not actually appear in the records of Washington County, Pennsylvania, until 1783. Tax rolls reveal that both of them are living on Sugar Camp Run near Pigeon Creek in Fallowfield Township of Washington County, Pennsylvania, in 1783. Daniel owns two horses, two cattle, and three sheep; Christopher has three horses and three cattle. There is no extant evidence that either brother ever owned land in this county. By act of its Assembly Pennsylvania forgave taxes for Washington County in 1782 and for Fallowfield Township residents in 1783, and this may help to explain why we cannot locate records of land ownership there for Daniel and Christopher Stark, but these are only two of the years when we think they lived in this county. Alternatively, they may be renting or squatting here. The consensus among Stark researchers now, however, is that Daniel and Christopher (and perhaps some of their brothers and also their mother) were living with one of their brothers, James, or with William Wood, who had married their sister in 1769, both of whom are shown as owning property.

Daniel had often lived close to Wood in Loudoun County, Virginia. Fortunately, we know something about the movements of William Wood, who was a Baptist minister, and if we accept the premise that Daniel and Christopher were living on his property we can fix them in place. Wood seems to have moved to what is now southwestern Pennsylvania about 1769, perhaps retreating to Loudoun County, Virginia, for a brief time in late 1769 and early 1770 either to avoid Indian attacks or to enable his wife to deliver their first child in a more settled area. He lived near Ten Mile Creek in the Redstone area, where he owned 349 acres on Sugar Run Camp near Pigeon Creek. The specific area was near Innes Run and the Mill Road, near DeVore's Ferry. Here Wood may have operated a mill of some sort. Wood appears on the 1781 Washington County tax list and in many other documents.⁵³

The property of James Stark (and perhaps that of a second Stark brother) may have adjoined that of Wood, so there would be ample room for many more families to have lived there all together. Unless other evidence turns up, I believe we should conclude that Daniel Stark's son, Abraham, was born within this cluster of families in Fallowfield Township. (Today this specific area is in Somerset Township, created in 1782). Although this hypothesis may help us to understand where the Starks might have lived during these years, it does not explain why neither Daniel nor Christopher ever shows up in the civil records through which we can usually observe persons – for example, as witnesses to wills and in court cases. Except for the militia rolls we have considered, the two Stark brothers are as close to invisible as possible for fifteen whole years between 1770 until 1785.

By 1785, however, these two Stark brothers and several of their siblings surface in Nelson County, Kentucky. If they had ever owned land in Pennsylvania they must have abandoned it, but it seems more likely to many Stark researchers that their Virginia land claims were disallowed when Pennsylvania took control of Washington County. Pennsylvania opened a land office in July 1784 and began dispensing its own warrants, and the lands that the Starks (and Vineyards) were living on may suddenly have belonged to someone else. Surely the Virginians whose claims were now considered invalid would be drawn to Virginia's extension in the west, Kentucky (not yet a separate state). The comments made earlier about when and why so many Virginians left Pennsylvania for Kentucky should be recalled here, too, in connection with the move of the Starks westward.

A search of the deeds in Nelson County, Kentucky, does not reveal when and where Daniel Stark obtained property somewhere north of Rolling Fork and Beech Fork up to the mouth of Buffalo Creek, the area covered by the tax list on which he first appears. Some Stark researchers contend (and I concur) that Daniel, along with some of his brothers, was among those who briefly clustered for safety around Rogers Station, established by a man who like the Starks had been involved in Dunmore's War. This station was located just west of Bardstown, Kentucky. After this, the new arrivals may have fanned out to other locations.⁵⁴

As we shall see, before long Daniel's brother Christopher evidently moved to the Cox's Creek area, north of Bardstown, and by 1786 or 1787 Daniel had followed him there. He then continues to appear in tax and tithable lists, marriage documents, and the like in Nelson County from 1787 through 1791. The next year, he shows up in the new county of Shelby – considerably further north of the Cox Creek area.⁵⁵ Because the portion of Shelby County where Daniel Stark was taxed beginning in 1792 (Elk Creek, a northern tributary of the Salt River) had not been part of Nelson County before this, we can deduce that he moved his family from there to Shelby County sometime between February and November of that year. He typically has another tithable in his household and owns animals ranging in number from 6 to 60. In 1794, Daniel gave consent to a daughter's marriage in that county, but otherwise we lose track of him until the end of the decade. We do not know exactly where in the Elk Creek area he and his family (including Abraham, nearing adulthood) resided, nor exactly when he decided to move further north yet again.

In fact, it is only from a single deed sole reference, when he purchased 80 acres on Elk Creek in September 1800, that we learn Daniel Stark is now a resident of a new county created in 1798, Henry County. On that same day in 1800, Daniel sold two smaller properties in the Elk Creek area totaling 80 acres, so these several simultaneous transactions may have been part of a land exchange of some sort rather than a new purchase. Subsequent tax and tithe lists in Henry County tell us that Daniel Stark owned 105 acres there from 1801 through 1809. Thus although we do not know exactly where Daniel and his family lived either in the Elk Creek area or in Henry County, they must have moved to the first about 1792 and then to Henry sometime before September 1800.⁵⁶

Other information indicates that Daniel Stark moved to Clark County, Indiana (his fifth state of residence), around 1809: he is not on the 1807 territorial census that was taken in Indiana but evidently signed a petition to Congress in 1809 asking that the Indiana Territory be elevated to statehood. Daniel is listed on tax records in Henry County, Kentucky, in 1809 but apparently not thereafter, which is consistent with a move to Indiana during that year. This move was undoubtedly so that he and Elizabeth could remain close to their children, some of whom had already made the move across the Ohio River into Indiana.

On December 4, 1810, Daniel and Elizabeth Stark deeded their Clark County, Indiana, property to two of their sons in return for care during their remaining years of life, but this document does not identify this property and neither could I find another deed that does. (Our Daniel may be the Daniel Stark who is mentioned on another deed – the sale of 61 acres on Camp Creek in Clark County, Indiana – dated March 27, 1812, but this might be his son Daniel instead.) Unfortunately, there is no census for Indiana in 1810, so we cannot even verify the senior Daniel's residence in that state in that year.⁵⁷ From all of this we can suppose that Daniel and his wife both died sometime in 1811 or soon afterwards, very probably in Clark County, Indiana, but here we reach the limit of our knowledge about him and all the others we have discussed in this section.

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It was CHRISTOPHER STARK, Daniel Stark's younger⁵⁸ brother, and MARTHA {VINEYARD} STARK who were the parents of Sarah {Stark} Stark, Abraham Stark's wife.⁵⁹ We will now examine what we know about Christopher and Martha before we try to connect the two brothers to their father, the common ancestor of Abraham and Sarah. Saving the Starks for awhile, we will take up the somewhat shorter Vineyard line first.

Martha was born about 1752 to 1754 in the portion of Fairfax County, Virginia, that became Loudoun County in 1757. The specific location is not known, but several members of the Vineyard family said they were born near Harpers Ferry, Virginia, and she probably was born near there as well. Martha and Christopher were married in Loudoun County, Virginia, about 1772. Martha died – probably in Shelby County, Kentucky – perhaps as early as 1784 but almost certainly by June 6, 1798, when she is not mentioned in a court record where she should be named. Some Stark researchers think that she might have moved, along with a daughter and son-in-law, to Mason County, Kentucky, by 1784, and possibly on to Ohio after that. The fact is that we do not know where and when Martha {Vineyard} Stark died; my guess is that her death occurred in Kentucky during the 1780s.

The Stark family histories usually identify FRANCIS VINEYARD⁶⁰ as Martha's father. We know nothing whatsoever about her mother – name, date of birth, or date of death. The grave marker of Francis Vineyard reportedly states that he lived to be 103 years old, which would make him born about 1728.⁶¹ He may have been born in what would become Loudoun County, Virginia, but perhaps in the area of Harpers Ferry, Virginia (now West Virginia): when asked where they had been born, or where they had come from, Francis and other members of the Vineyard family appear to have cited Harpers Ferry.

Francis is found on Loudoun County's tax lists as early as 1758, just after the county had been organized; like Daniel and Christopher Stark, he resided in Cameron Parish of that county. Francis continues to be shown on tax lists of William McIlhaney for the area above Goose Creek in 1761, 1762, 1767, 1768, and 1769. As we have seen, many Starks, Vineyards, and Laycocks (as well as other families related to or associated with them) lived in this area, probably without owning property. Francis Vineyard subsequently appears on Loudoun County tax lists in 1770, 1771 (that year in Shelburn Parish), 1773, and 1774 but is not listed thereafter. Thus we can assume that he moved to Pennsylvania four or five years after the Starks we have been discussing moved there.

Francis Vineyard and his sons served in the militia in Loudoun County, and it may be here that the Vineyard and Stark families first became acquainted – if they had not known one another earlier in New Jersey, where both had lived at about the same time. As we have seen, members of both families seem to have served together in the Virginia militia at the time of what is known as Lord Dunmore's War in 1774. In Pennsylvania, too, several Vineyards (including a man named Francis who is probably the son of the man we are seeking) served with the Starks in the militia and then as frontier rangers during the American Revolution.

During the early 1780s, Francis Vineyard got himself into trouble by joining with others who were advocating that southwestern Pennsylvania form the nucleus of a new, fourteenth state of the Union. He was among the approximately 1,750 men who signed a petition (January 1783) on behalf of those living west of Laurel Hill. The petition stated that the dispute between Virginia and Pennsylvania had left the area defenseless against Indian attacks and urged the Continental Congress to provide redress by creating a new state. The new state, which some called Westsylvania, would include parts of what are now Maryland, West Virginia, and Kentucky.

The agitation for Westsylvania reflected the region's chronic dissatisfaction with the governments of both Pennsylvania and the United States. At one time or another during the late 18th century, there was strong support in this region for revolutionary France, intrigue with representatives of both France and Spain (still the owners of the trans-Mississippi West), and, as a kind of climax, outright rebellion in 1794 against the new Federal excise tax on whiskey. In such a climate, Pennsylvania did not take well to the fact that zealous advocates of independence for the settlements in this far western part of the state refused to recognize Pennsylvania's authority and even drove out its tax collectors. Accordingly, Pennsylvania outlawed agitation for a new state and threatened the agitators, including Francis Vineyard, with prosecution for treason.⁶²

In time the separatism issue faded away and with it the charges of treason, but those who had hoped for Virginia's sovereignty for the region (it had more liberal land laws and permitted slavery) continued to be dissatisfied with the state of things. One authority notes that the "more intransigent" advocates of Westsylvania departed for Kentucky, perhaps after squatting first on uninhabited Federal lands north and west of the Ohio River.⁶³ Francis Vineyard was probably among those who were intransigent, but we cannot say if he was among the squatters in Ohio. The evidence, in fact, suggests otherwise, though we have to admit that we know little more about the sojourn of Francis Vineyard in southwestern Pennsylvania than we do that of the Stark brothers Daniel and Christopher.

Our only clues about his whereabouts during the 1780s and 1790s come from the tax rolls for Amwell Township in Washington County, Pennsylvania. These show one untaxed "single man" named Francis Vineyard in 1781, 1783, 1785, 1786, 1788, 1792, and 1793, along with two such men in 1791; he is not listed after 1793. We know that Francis had a son who bore the same given name, so we cannot be sure whether the single man on some of these tax rolls was father or son (who had reached his majority by the mid-1770s). The listing of two such men in 1791 does indicate, though, that the older Francis Vineyard is still residing in Washington County at this time, and I believe he was there throughout this entire period.

Because the 1790 census shows four males in the household of John Vineyard, Francis's son, it is a reasonable assumption that Francis – who is not listed by name in the census – is living with John in that year and probably in the others as well. One source states that the Vineyard family's residence, named Forlorn Hope, was located near Ten Mile Creek in Amwell Township of Washington County, Pennsylvania, but that property was not in the possession of Francis's son, John, until 1785. Unless the Vineyards were renting these 268 acres before they acquired them and unless we assume he was living there with his son and others, we cannot determine exactly where Francis Vineyard was living for almost a decade.

We also know that a few years later many of the Vineyards left Washington County for Kentucky, as the Starks had done previously. Sometime in 1794, Francis Vineyard and his family set off for Kentucky by flatboat. They departed from Redstone Old Fort (now Brownsville, Pennsylvania) en route to Limestone, Kentucky, later called Maysville. Redstone Old Fort, located in Fayette County, Pennsylvania, was the most common launching-place on the Monongahela River for those who were heading down the Ohio River (from Pittsburgh onward) to Kentucky. It was also at the center of the area of southwestern Pennsylvania that had been predominantly settled by former Virginians.⁶⁴

The Vineyards first lived in Scott County, Kentucky. At a later time, probably during the second half of the 1790s, many of them headed north and east to Warren County, Ohio, which was then being populated by people from Washington County, Pennsylvania. They may have been joined by members of the Stark and other families with whom the Vineyards had previously migrated, as families tended to move together. It is also possible that some of these families had sent individuals into Kentucky during their Pennsylvania years, purchasing land for speculation as well as for settlement, and that the Vineyards and others intended to repeat this pattern in Ohio (which was settled later than Kentucky).

We are without an Ohio census for 1800 or 1810, so we cannot use census information to track Francis Vineyard during those decades. Even in 1820 and 1830 we have to resort to some guesswork about where he might be on that state's census. There are only two males 45 years old or older in Vineyard households in Warren County in 1820, when Francis Vineyard would be approximately 90 years old. One is in that of Thomas Vinard in Clear Creek Township, but this male is very likely Thomas himself based on the profile of the family and the fact that a Revolutionary War veteran named Thomas Vineyard lived in this township in 1833. The other older man also lives in Clear Creek Township, with one of two men identified only as J. Vinnard who live side by side. Here the profile suggests that a single older male is living in an otherwise-younger household, and so this older man is a good candidate to be the Francis Vineyard we are seeking. When we learn that Francis had sons named John and James, the second of whom lived in Warren County, we can make an even better case that the older male living with one of the two men named J. Vinnard in Clear Creek Township is indeed the Francis Vineyard we are seeking.

In 1830 there are again only two very old males in Vineyard households in Warren County. Both of them live in that of William Venard of Union Township, and both are 80 to 90 years of age.⁶⁵ On this basis either would be too young for Francis Vineyard, who if still alive has now passed the century mark if we believe that he was in fact born in 1728. It is possible that there is an error in the age listed for at least one of these two men. The most we can say with the available information is that if Francis remains alive and living in Warren County in 1830, he is probably residing in the household of William Venard. Francis did have a son named William, who was younger than the two brothers mentioned above. (Alternatively, Francis might be living with a daughter or even a grandchild whose name we do not know.) We do not know the year Francis Vineyard died, but he is buried in Deerfield Cemetery in Union Township of Warren County, Ohio.⁶⁶

We have only a few clues about the Vineyard line before Francis. Some researchers believe that his father was a John Vineyard who came to Orange County, Virginia, (a large county just south of Loudoun from which other Virginia counties were formed) about 1732, when he was sued by an innkeeper in Philadelphia. Presumably this is the same man who in April 1735 asked the Orange County court to grant him land he was to have received, he said, for being imported into Virginia, land that he in turn was going to assign to a man in Culpepper County, Virginia — perhaps as payment for his passage to America.

This John Vineyard (whose name is sometimes found as Wingard or in other variations) was in the court minutes in Orange County several more times during the mid-1730s. In the fall of 1735, he was involved in a suit, and two months later he was charged with trespass (meaning he was occupying land owned by someone else). The court ruled against John Vineyard, at least in part because he did not appear to defend himself. In March 1736 a jury concurred with this decision and awarded the plaintiff damages from Vineyard. Later that year he was again sued for trespass and again did not appear; this time, he was jailed until he would answer for his actions, but the outcome of this brush with the law is not known.

Without further information, we have to jump forward to the 1750s, when a John Vineyard died in Augusta County, Virginia, which had been formed out of western Orange County in 1745. In August 1758, a Barbara Vineyard was summoned to serve as executor of her husband John's estate, after which a vendue sale was held. It may be noteworthy that many of those taking part in the sale had German names or names that might have been German. John Vineyard apparently owned 300 acres in Augusta County. Records there during the 1760s then show a Christopher Vineyard as a tithable, and it seems quite likely that he was John's son, though he could conceivably be his brother instead.⁶⁷

All we can do at this point is speculate that the Vineyards or Wingards appear to have been Germans who came to Virginia during the 1720s or 1730s, or perhaps even a decade or so before that: Virginia's Governor Alexander Spotswood (who served from 1710 to 1722) explored and encouraged settlement of the colony's frontier and also vigorously sponsored immigration from Germany, often by way of England. Many of these newcomers were settled in a Germanna Colony in Spotsylvania County, out of which Orange County was formed in 1734. Unfortunately, John Vineyard's request for land, assuming it was based on fact, does not seem entirely consistent with the Germanna Colony's pattern, but we know too little in order to make a solid judgment.

However the family got to America, we also have to guess about how Francis (born during the late 1720s, it appears) would have come to be in northern Virginia when the others we have considered here were living further south. Perhaps there is only a distant relationship between Francis and the John Vineyard of Orange County and then Augusta County — or none at all. It may be noteworthy that a Steven Vineyard is on a tax list in Loudoun County, Virginia, in 1749; he, too, could be the father of Francis Vineyard — but he also could be Francis's brother. Some researchers think that Francis Vineyard's family came to Virginia as part of the Palatine German migration into New York during the early 1700s, and this possibility cannot be dismissed — especially as it would account for his separation from the Vineyards who are found living further south.⁶⁸

With the Vineyard line behind us, we return to Martha's husband, Christopher Stark, whom we have already encountered in southwestern Pennsylvania. We do not know when he was born, but since Christopher was old enough (21 years of age) to serve on a jury in Loudoun County, Virginia, as early as October 11, 1768, he must have been born by 1747. For many years it was thought that Christopher was born in Beekman, Dutchess County, New York, but as we have seen, the preponderance of evidence now indicates that he was born in New Jersey instead. Christopher would have migrated from New Jersey to Loudoun County, but there is reason for thinking that he did not make this move until about 1768 since he does not appear on any list in that county until after the 1768 court case. Like his brother Daniel, Christopher appears on a 1770 personal property tax list (by James Hamilton) for the Vestal's Gap area in Virginia, but there is no evidence that he had purchased land there. Presumably he too is renting or leasing land. It also seems clear that Christopher lingered in Loudoun County longer than his brothers did, in this instance until 1772 (the last year he is a tithable there). Knowing that Christopher's in-laws remained in Virginia after most of the Starks had departed may help to explain this; indeed, Christopher may have remained only until he could win Martha's hand and marry her.

With the Vineyard line behind us, we return to Martha's husband, Christopher Stark, whom we have already encountered in southwestern Pennsylvania. We do not know when he was born, but since Christopher was old enough (21 years of age) to serve on a jury in Loudoun County, Virginia, as early as October 11, 1768, he must have been born by 1747. For many years it was thought that Christopher was born in Beekman, Dutchess County, New York, but as we have seen the preponderance of evidence now indicates that he was born in New Jersey instead. Christopher would have migrated from New Jersey to Loudoun County, but there is reason for thinking that he did not make this move until about 1768 since he does not appear on any list in that county until after the 1768 court case. Like his brother Daniel, Christopher appears on a 1770 personal property tax list (by James Hamilton) for the Vestal's Gap area in Virginia, but there is no evidence that he had purchased land there. Presumably he too is renting or leasing land. It also seems clear that Christopher lingered in Loudoun County longer than his brothers did, in this instance until 1772 (the last year he is a tithable there). Knowing that Christopher's in-laws remained in Virginia after most of the Starks had departed may help to explain this; indeed, Christopher may have remained only until he could win Martha's hand and marry her.

Christopher's movements continued to parallel those of his elder brother, Daniel. We have already seen how Christopher Stark moved to southwestern Pennsylvania and, after a decade there, on to Kentucky, so there is no need to repeat that information here. Fortunately, we know more about his movements in Kentucky than we do those of Daniel. It seems likely that the two brothers remained neighbors much of the time they were in Kentucky, so we probably can extrapolate back to Daniel's movements a good deal of what we learn from Christopher's. Because Christopher Stark sold land in Nelson County in December 1785, we can ascertain that he had probably arrived there by the second half of that year, perhaps even earlier. We cannot be sure where this land was located, but the purchaser (whom Christopher had to sue for payment) is later described as owning land on the east fork of Simpson Creek and both men are listed on the 1785 tax list for this area, which is between Taylorsville and Bloomfield in present-day Spencer County. By 1786, though, Christopher Stark owned 150 acres on Froman's Creek, described as being on Rogers Run off Cox's Creek in Nelson County.⁶⁹ He and his family (Sarah among them) continued to live in this county at least until 1794, appearing on the lists of David Cox and Joshua Hobbs in 1786 through 1793. Christopher typically had two tithables and two horses, and his cattle ranged from 12 to 15 in number. He gave consent to the marriage of a daughter on December 18, 1792.

About 1794, when he bought 300 acres on Elk Creek and then appeared on a Shelby County tax list, Christopher must have in fact moved to this new location; such a move would be consistent with our estimation about when Daniel moved to Shelby County. Christopher might have owned land on both sides of this creek, for he is shown with substantial additional purchases (of 250 acres and 220 acres) on Elk Creek through 1802. Then, on the same day, June 6, 1798, Christopher sold 137 acres on Rogers Run (perhaps the property he had obtained during the late 1780s) but bought another 292 1/2 acres on Froman's Creek there. In both deeds he is described as a resident of Shelby County. This document is especially useful information for us because, by not bearing the signature of Martha {Vineyard} Stark, it probably indicates that she had died by June 6, 1798. In addition, it is worth noting that Abraham and Sarah Stark were married in Shelby County that same day – more than likely "court day" in Shelby County that month.

Christopher Stark probably moved to Henry County mid-1800, as his brother did, though he evidently hung onto some of the land he owned in Shelby County. But he also bought additional property now in Henry County, because the tax lists there show him first with 200 acres (in 1802) then with 100 acres (1803 through 1806), and finally with 197 acres (1807 and 1808). We do not know where those properties were located. Christopher Stark died - presumably at his home in Henry County - sometime after November 19, 1807, when he deeded his land and other possessions.⁷⁰

Regrettably there are no Kentucky censuses in 1790 and 1800 to supplement what we learn from these Kentucky land and tax records, and in fact we know little more about the lives of Daniel and Christopher Stark and their families during their Kentucky years. We can presume that both were members of two Baptist churches in the areas where they lived, one at Cox's Creek and another at Elk Creek.⁷¹ The pastor at the latter was a man named Joshua Carman, whose names some of the Starks used for their own children. It is interesting to note that Rev. Carman was a determined opponent of slavery, which would support the idea that the Starks moved to Kentucky – and, soon, onto the free state of Indiana - in large part, it would seem, because they were not in favor of slavery.

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rev. 6/18/10

Notes

¹The family name Chastain is French in origin and was originally spelled with a silent g at the end that was ultimately dropped in an English-speaking environment. This is another name that has been spelled variously: Chasteen, Chastine, Shasteen, even Shatteen. It is correctly pronounced "SHAStain." The name apparently derives from chestnut, (chataigne in French) and may have its source in the red hair that is prominent in the family. Another explanation is that the name comes from chatelain, which in French means "living in a castle"; some of the early generations appear to have been in the nobility.

²See the USGS map for Jasonville/Indiana for the location of this cemetery and slide 11957 for a view of his headstone in 2006. It is interesting to note that Peter Chastain signed his own name to the five applications for the purchase of public land that are mentioned below, so evidently he had had some education. Return to text

³The dowry rights that Rebecca released (to Henry C. Smock, whose wife was a distant Stark relative of Rebecca) were for the following properties: the southeast quarter of the southwest quarter of Section 17, Township 9 North, Range 7 West (40 acres) and then, later, the southeast quarter of the southeast quarter of Section 18, Township 9 North, Range 7 West (40 acres). See slides 11954 and 11955 for 2006 views of this portion of the Chastain property. Return to text

⁴A later census report for Peter and Rebecca's daughter, born in 1817, says that she was born in Kentucky. If the Hardin County grant (150 acres on the Green River) was to the Peter Chastain we are seeking, we wonder why he did not remain on it. Was the claim later disallowed, after which he and his family went on to unsettled land in Indiana? Did they run short of funds and decide to start over in the new state? Did they oppose slavery and elect to live in what would become free territory? Although the grant neatly solves the problem of where Peter and Rebecca were from 1816 and 1819, in my opinion the weight of the evidence argues against this solution. Return to text

⁵It should be said, though, that some of the census sheets are very faint, and so Peter and Rebecca might be living there. There is no Peter Chastain in the census indices for either Indiana or Illinois in 1820. I also checked every male named Peter in Henry County and Hardin County, Kentucky, in 1820.

⁶Only one Chastain there, Vallantine Chasteen in Scott County, has an extra couple in his household, but there is no female under 10 years of age also living there, either. Return to text

⁷In 1830 there is a George Shatteen in Henry County, Kentucky, who may well be Peter's father. He is the right age, but the oldest male living in George's household is too young (20 to 30 years old) to be Peter, 34 years old that year. There is also an extra female the right age to be Rebecca (20 to 30 years old), but there is no female in the age category to be their daughter Sarah, who is about 10 years of age in 1830. It seems doubtful to me, therefore, that Peter and his family are living with his father in Kentucky in that year. I also checked every male named Peter in Edgar County, Illinois; Jefferson County, Indiana; and Scott County, Indiana, without finding Peter Chastain. Return to text

⁸Peter and Rebecca's purchase was the northeast 160 acres of Section 8, Township 3 North, Range 8 East; he received a patent for this land (for which he and Rebecca had paid $200) on July 28, 1823. They sold this land on September 25, 1830; Peter signed the indenture and Rebecca made her mark. This property is on the Scott County side of the boundary between Scott County and Jefferson County. Although the land was on the tract book for the latter county, Peter seems to have been on the tax rolls in Jefferson County, which suggests that Peter Chastain and his family lived in that county. See slide 12079 (taken in 2006). See also the USGS map for Blocher/Indiana for its location and for that of Scaffold Lick Baptist Church; see slide 12078 for a 2006 view of this church. The location of East Fork Baptist Church in Henry County, Kentucky, is uncertain but must have been somewhere near the area shown in sides 12887-90, taken in 2008. See Appendix II for a description of how public lands were surveyed and sold by the United States government. Return to text

⁹Peter purchased two 80-acre half-quarters on October 16, 1830. He paid $200 for the land and received his patents on June 6, 1831, but then sold the 160 acres in two parcels on July 19 and August 8, 1831. This land was Lot 1 in the northeast quarter of Section 6, Township 14 North, Range 11 West and the east half of the northeast quarter of Section 12 in Township 14 North, Range 12 West. See slides 11951 and 11952, respectively, for 2006 views of the two properties and the USGS map for Paris North/Illinois. Return to text

¹⁰Land records show that Peter Chastain patented 80 acres here, in Section 19 of Township 2 North, Range 3 East (the east half of the northeast quarter) on March 9, 1831. See slide 12075 (2006) and the USGS map for Beck's Mill/Indiana. The cost of this land was $100.

¹¹These properties were as follows, in chronological order: the west half of the northwest quarter of Section 9, Township 1 North, Range 2 E (80 acres); the west half of the northwest quarter of Section 14, Township 2 North, Range 2 E (80 acres) and the northeast quarter of the northeast quarter of Section 15, Township 2 North, Range 2 E (40 acres); the east half of the northwest quarter of Section 14 (described as Section 16 in the index), Township 2, Range 2 (80 acres); the southeast quarter of the northeast quarter of Section 15, Township 2 North, Range 2 East (40 acres); the northwest quarter of the northeast quarter of Section 15, Township 2 North, Range 2 East (40 acres); the east half of the northwest quarter of Section 14, Township 2 North, Range 2 East (80 acres); the northwest quarter of the southwest quarter of Section 14, Township 2 North, Range 2 West (40 acres); and, finally, portions of the southwest quarter of Section 11, Township 2 North, Range 2 West (100 acres in all). The properties in Section 9 above are shown in slides 12067 and 12068, taken in 2006. Return to text

¹²As we have seen, Peter Chastain bought land from his brother William on August 9, 1831, selling William his own land in Edgar County, Illinois, on the same day. Peter Chastain entered the other half of the section he had purchased from William on March 22, 1839 (the northwest quarter of Section 9, Township 1 North, Range 2 East). He received his patent for it on April 10, 1843, having paid $100 for the land. See the USGS map for Livonia/Indiana for the location of this land.

¹³Both of these churches are shown on the USGS map for Livonia/Indiana. The site of the former (now Lost River Primitive Baptist Church) is depicted in slide 12070 and the site of the latter is depicted in slide 12069; both of these slides were taken in 2006.

¹⁴Curiously, the only sale I could find for Peter Chastain in Washington County, Indiana, is for the northwest quarter of Section 9, Township 1 North, Range 2 E (on July 8, 1848), and he may have held onto the remainder of his property there for rental purposes. Peter Chastain's purchases in Clay County, Indiana (all in Township 9 North, Range 7 West), were as follows: the southeast quarter of the southwest quarter of Section 17 (October 29, 1847); the southeast quarter of the southeast quarter of Section 18 (October 30, 1847); the northeast quarter of the southwest quarter of Section 17 (March 13, 1848); the southwest quarter of the southwest quarter of Section 17 (same date); and the northeast quarter of the northeast quarter of Section 19 (same date). The total was 200 acres. See the USGS map for Jasonville/Indiana and slides 11954-56 for representative views of these properties in 2006. On January 7, 1850, Peter Chastain added another portion of Section 19 to his original property; this was the northeast quarter of the northwest quarter, which was 40.22 acres. Return to text

¹⁵The 1850 census shows that Peter has $1,200 in real property.

¹⁶Two submissions to the LDS IGI show that the Elihu Puckett who is probably the man on the 1860 census married a woman named Rebecca, but they differ on the family name of this Rebecca – a sign, I think, that these submissions could be based on guesswork and not actual evidence. It is also possible that this man's wife, deceased in 1860, just happened to be the same as Rebecca {Stark} Chastain. Like virtually every other woman in this part of Clay County, Rebecca Puckett is described as a weaver on the 1860 census. Return to text

¹⁷Stout presumably lived in the northwest quarter of the northwest quarter of Section 6, property that his father had patented. Return to text

¹⁸Some members of the family have spelled the name Starke or even Start.

¹⁹Sometimes this date is said to be March 14. Her grave marker, a modern replacement, states that she was 72 years and 8 days old at her death on April 1, 1851, which agrees with the date of March 23.

²⁰One account states that Abraham's grave marker says that he was 75 years, 11 months, and 13 days old at his death on February 3, 1857, whereas another account says he was 75 years, 11 months, and 19 days old. The original marker is now unreadable, but a modern replacement gives the latter count of years, months, and days and states that he lived from February 14, 1781, to February 3, 1857. Return to text

²¹Catfish Camp was located on Catfish Creek, which is located in the central part of Washington County, Pennsylvania. See the USGS maps for Washington East/Pennsylvania and Washington West/Pennsylvania. This creek does not run within Amwell Township today. The name Catfish comes from that of an Indian chief whose camp was on the creek when settlers arrived. The name Amwell may reflect the origins of the original settlers, perhaps including members of the Stark family: there is an Amwell Valley in western New Jersey (in Hunterdon County), and Amwell was the name of a New Jersey township formed in 1708. Presumably it was much larger until other townships were carved out of it. New Jersey settlers of western Pennsylvania, perhaps including the Starks, may have named the township there after the one they had left in New Jersey. (The Starks made an intermediate stop in Virginia.) Histories of Washington County, Pennsylvania, mention a Jersey Settlement composed of families from Morris County, New Jersey, who arrived in 1778. As we shall see, the Starks lived near Morris County for a time, and in Pennsylvania their land was very close to that of members of the Jersey Settlement. Return to text

²²The officer under whom Abraham Stark's father served in the militia lived in the area of Lone Pine, a place popular among the Virginians; it is likely that the Starks lived nearby. Return to text

²³Bedford County was created from Cumberland County in 1771, then Westmoreland County from Bedford County in 1773. Washington County was created out of Westmoreland County in 1781. When the Starks arrived in this area, it was Virginia's county called Yohogania; once the dispute was settled, it became the following Pennsylvania counties: Washington, Greene, Allegheny (part), and Beaver (part). In addition, it appears that the original scope of Washington County, Pennsylvania, included some of the area that became the panhandle area that was Virginia until 1863 and is now part of West Virginia. Return to text

²⁴Ironically, some other Starks – rather distantly related – were living in a second area that Pennsylvania was disputing with another state, in this instance Connecticut: the Wyoming Valley (now part of Pennsylvania). Return to text

²⁵The most notable event in the Whiskey Rebellion took place not far from our old Bower Hill neighborhood in Mt. Lebanon, Pennsylvania. Return to text

²⁶One source gives the date as May 29, 1798, but this is the date of the marriage bond. June 6 was the date of the minister's return. Return to text

²⁷See the USGS map for Ballardsville/Kentucky for the location of this church and slide 12886 (2008) for a view of the newer church that sits upon the same site. Return to text

²⁸One source states that Abraham began his ministry in Indiana in 1815, but the evidence indicates that he was already in Indiana at least a half-dozen years before then.

²⁹One researcher states that Abraham Stark built the first house on Beargrass Creek in Louisville, but this is improbable because that area was settled about the time Abraham was born. Return to text

³⁰Union Baptist Church was located in Vernon Township of Washington County. The building was sited on the southwest part of the present cemetery, which is in the northwest quarter of Section 23, Township 2 North, Range 2 East. The church went into decline during the middle of the 19th century and seems to have gone out of existence about 1864. Union Church is not to be confused with the later Old Union Church, formally known as the Lost River Primitive Baptist church, that began during the 1870s. The Old Union Church and cemetery are off State Route 337. See the directions in the Stark file and the USGS map for Livonia/Indiana. Return to text

³¹The documents describing the sale, and various attestations by clerks and others, are glued and bundled together in the land sale files at the National Archives. McGrew had surrendered the rights to his down payment of $80 in return for extended credit to the remaining 240 acres of the quarter section he wanted to purchase. Return to text

³²See the USGS map for Livonia/Indiana for the location of Abraham Stark's property, which was the west half of the northwest quarter of Section 14, Township 2 North, Range 2 East. Some of Abraham Stark's land in Section 14 was later acquired by Peter Chastain. Return to text

³³Townships are not listed on the 1830 census. I determined the Starks' residence by comparing neighbors with what township they lived in in 1840, when townships are shown. Return to text

³⁴The Second Prairie Creek Baptist church no longer exists, though there is presently another church (The Lighthouse of the Lamb of God) on the site, Cutsinger Drive and Sullivan Place just west of Pimento, Indiana. The original building stood in the center of what is still called the Second Prairie Creek Church Cemetery. See slide 11669, taken in 2006, for a view of this church and its cemetery. Abraham Stark's land in Vigo County was the south half of the east half of the northeast quarter of Section 19, Township 10 North, Range 8 West (40 acres) and the south half of the west half of the northwest quarter of Section 20, Township 10 North, Range 8 West (also 40 acres). See the USGS map for Pimento/Indiana.

³⁵See the USGS map for Pimento/Indiana for the location of this church and slide 11966, taken in 2006, for its approximate location. Evidently the original church sat at the north end of the present cemetery. Return to text

³⁶Formed in 1821, Little Flock Church was the first church in Sullivan County – and one of the earliest Protestant churches in all of Indiana. It drew principally from the area around Caledonia and what would become the town of Sullivan two decades later. The church building itself, located a mile southwest of Shelburn, was built about 1826 and razed in 1862 when the congregation joined with one in Shelburn. Little Flock Church was located near the border of Hamilton Township and Curry Township in the northeast corner of Section 4, Township 8 North, Range 9 West in Hamilton Township; a cemetery still exists at the site, but the church seems to have disappeared. See slide 11977 (2006) for the site Abraham Stark's purchase in February 1835 was the west third of the northeast quarter of Section 18, Township 10 North, Range 8 West (53.33 acres); he sold it in March 1837. See the USGS map for Shelburn/Indiana. Abraham Stark also helped to organize the Good Hope Primitive Baptist Church near Westfield, Illinois, in 1832. This church was in Clark County, which adjoins Vigo County, Indiana. Return to text

³⁷Friendly Grove Church was first built about 1839 on property owned by Joseph Chambers (perhaps in Section 6 of Township 9 North, Range 7 West), but this site was abandoned and a new church was built about a mile and one-half southeast of there. The latter was a unique building, constructed during the early 1840s: it was a log structure with twelve corners (for the Apostles) and an unusual interior partitioning system; several of my family members were buried in its cemetery, which is located in the center of Section 8, Township 9 North, Range 7 West of Lewis Township in Clay County. (See the USGS map for Jasonville/Indiana and slide 11961 for a 2006 view of the church and part of its cemetery.) Mt. Pleasant Church was probably the church located in the northeast corner of Jackson Township, Sullivan County, that had been organized in 1844. It was situated in the center of Section 11. The building was later moved to Vigo County, where it became a dwelling. See the USGS map for Hymera/Indiana and slides 11983-84, taken in 2006, for the original site of this church. Return to text

³⁸Abraham Stark's Clay County purchase in February 1844 was the northeast quarter of the southeast quarter of Section 19, Township 9 North, Range 7 West (40 acres). An Abraham Stark bought land in Scott County, Indiana, in 1838, but this county – to the east of Washington County – is far from where Abraham and Sarah were living in that year. This must be another man of that name, possibly the Starks' own son Abraham. Return to text

³⁹See the USGS map for Jasonville/Indiana for the location of this church, which was in Lewis Township. The very large first building of this church was quite unusual in having twelve sides. It was replaced in 1858.

⁴⁰Sarah Stark is described as being unable to read and write in 1850. A land ownership atlas for Vigo County in 1858 (see the copy in my files) shows several pieces of land in Pierson Township owned by S. Stark. These must belong to a son, because Sarah has died by 1858. Return to text

⁴¹According to one Stark researcher, the grave marker is in error and the church records that give his date of death as 1856 are correct; I am not convinced of this.

⁴²See the USGS map for Jasonville/Indiana for the location of Friendly Grove Cemetery The original headstones for both Abraham and Sarah remain, but newer ones have been added. See slides 11959 and 11960 for views of these headstones in 2006. A cholera pandemic swept through Sullivan County in 1851, and it is possible that this disease caused the death of Sarah Stark. Return to text

⁴³Elizabeth Wells may have had a middle name beginning with "E", as this initial for Elizabeth is found in two deeds in Kentucky, but it is more likely simply her written mark in lieu of a signature.

⁴⁴One must be alert for possible confusion with a family of Starks that originated in Virginia. This family stems from a James Stark who went from Scotland to Virginia and died in Stafford County, Virginia, in 1754. The two families are intermingled, in geography and in the records. Return to text

⁴⁵This Wells family produced the famous William Wells who was captured and raised by Indians, later became a scout for General Anthony Wayne, and was killed by Indians in the massacre at Fort Dearborn (Chicago) in 1812 while bravely trying to lead the garrison to safety. One respected Stark research has argued that Elizabeth Wells was the sister of David and Alexander Wells, who traveled to Kentucky from Pennsylvania with the Starks. Return to text

⁴⁶See slides 10077 and 10078 for 2002 views of the later Catoctin Baptist Church building, erected on the same site. Return to text

⁴⁷The fact that two men named Wells live near Abraham and Sarah Stark in Vigo County, Indiana, in 1820 supports the idea that his mother's name was Wells (though of course that is a fairly common family name), but these men also appear to be members of the same Wells line as Jacob Wells. In addition, it is striking that Rev. Abraham Stark married many of the descendants of Jacob Wells in Kentucky and Indiana, and that so many of the Wells descendants were Primitive Baptists, as was Abraham. All in all, there is an impressive body of circumstantial evidence that the offspring of Daniel Stark and of Jacob Wells remained closely connected in later years. Return to text

⁴⁸Edmond Linton had children from his own first marriage, to a woman with the surname of Shirley, but their daughter Elizabeth is thought to have married a man named Pierce – and was born too late anyhow to be the wife of Daniel Stark. Return to text

⁴⁹ Jacob Smith was the son of Obadiah and Mary {Cocke} Smith. Obadiah's line goes back through John and Hannah {Daft} Smith, Roger and Jane {Pierce} Smith, Roger Smith, and John Smith to Nibley in Gloucestershire, England. See my files for some basic research on these two families. Mary's line goes back through William Cocke and a woman named Flowers to Richard and Mary {Aston} Cocke to John and Elizabeth {Wallfurlong} Cocke to Thomas and Agnes Cocke of Stottesdon, Shropshire, England. Obadiah Smith lived on Bull Run in Stafford County, Virginia, as early as 1724. His son Jacob was born about 1709, probably in Henrico County, Virginia, where Obadiah owned property. Hester Smallwood was the daughter of Prior Smallwood (who died between February 23, 1732/3 and March 29, 1734)and Elizabeth Stone, the widow of Peter McMillion. Prior's parents were James and Hester {Evans} Smallwood, who lived in Charles County, Maryland, from the 1660s (when they arrived in America from England) until the early 1700s. James held high military and civil posts in Maryland. Prior moved across the Potomac River to Virginia by the early 1720s but died during the early 1730s. Elizabeth Stone was the daughter of John and Elinor {Bayne} Stone. John's parents, William and Verlinda {Graves} Stone, arrived in Maryland from England by way of Massachusetts. Both the Stone and Graves lines are long ones. As far as we can determine, Hester married Jacob Smith during the early 1730s. When he died about 1749, she almost immediately married Edmund Linton. When Linton died in 1759, Hester married Wayman Sinkler the next year. When Sinkler died about 1763, the three-time widow married Thomas William Wells in 1764. Hester is thought to have migrated to South Carolina after Wells died about 1768. (It is interesting to see that Edmund and Hester, who evidently ran an inn in Loudoun County, Virginia, were accused of being "persons of vile character and harborers and entertainers of rogues and horse stealers.") Return to text

⁵⁰This name was sometimes spelled Lacock. Many Stark researchers believe that Sarah's family name was Larkin, but I think the (mostly circumstantial) evidence is stronger that it was Laycock. Return to text

⁵¹Camp Charlotte was located in the southwest quarter of Section 12, Range 21, of Pickaway Township, Pickaway County. This site is approximately where Ohio Route 56 crosses Scippo Creek southeast of Circleville. See slide 13000 (2008), which shows the location of Camp Charlotte. Logan's statement at this time, as he was facing defeat by Dunmore's militia, is a well-known piece of Indian oratory, often called "Logan's Lament." It goes as follows, as quoted by Thomas Jefferson in his Notes on the State of Virginia: "I appeal to any white man to say, if ever he entered Logan's cabin hungry, and he gave him not meat: if ever he came cold and naked, and he cloathed him not. During the course of the last long and bloody war Logan remained idle in his cabin, an advocate for peace. Such was my love for the whites, that may countrymen pointed as they passed, and said, ´Logan is the friend of white man.´ I have even thought to live with you, but for the injuries of one man. Colonel Cresap, the last spring, in cold blood, and unprovoked, murdered all the relations of Logan, not sparing even my women and children. There runs not a drop of my blood in the veins of any living creature. This has called on me for revenge. I have sought it: I have killed many; I have fully glutted my vengeance: for my country, I rejoice at the beams of peace. But do not harbour a thought that mine is the joy of fear. Logan never felt fear. He will not turn on his heel to save his life. Who is there to mourn for Logan? – No one." Might the Stark brothers have heard Logan speak? Colonel William Crawford, under whom the Starks served, was in 1782 the victim of one of the most publicized instances of Indian cruelty to a captive. His Delaware captors tied him to a pole, systematically tortured him with fire, and physically mutilated him before he finally died. Return to text

⁵²The commander under whom the Stark brothers served in 1775 was again Captain Joseph Mitchell. Return to text

⁵³Fallowfield Township is on the eastern edge of Washington County, adjoining the Monongahela River near Redstone Old Fort on the east and Amwell Township on the west. I have not found a deed to confirm that James Stark owned the 140 acres referred to in the text. The 1783 tax rolls show Daniel Stark with two horses, two cattle, and three sheep; Christopher has the same number of horses and cattle but no sheep. Rev. Wood's property (which was in Somerset Township) was west of Pigeon Creek on Sugar Camp Run, and judging from details in a deed, that of James Stark (something over 393 acres) adjoined it on the west. See slides 12680 and 12681-83, respectively, for views in 2007 of Pigeon Creek and the property evidently owned by James Stark.Return to text

⁵⁴This reference is rather vague, but the mouth of Buffalo Creek (where it empties into Beech Fork) can be found on the USGS map for Cravens/Kentucky. This area is just west of Bardstown, Kentucky. Return to text

⁵⁵In 1786, Daniel was accused of concealing two taxable sons from the authorities. (Does this suggest that he might have successfully evaded taxation in Pennsylvania?) Return to text

⁵⁶See the USGS maps for Taylorsville/Kentucky and Waterford/Kentucky for the Elk Creek area and slides 12914-16 for the views of the this area in 2008. It is now in Spencer County. Return to text

⁵⁷The 61 acres sold in 1812 was part of the northeast quarter of Section 15, Township 1 North, Range 9 East. (See slide 12080 for a 2006 view of this property.) The only Daniel Stark living in Kentucky in 1810 is in Bullitt County, just southwest of Henry County, but he is the wrong age to be the Daniel Stark we are seeking: he is 26 to 45 years old, and we believe Abraham's father was born during the 1740s. Abraham Stark witnessed the 1810 deed mentioned in the text. Return to text

⁵⁸Daniel was the second son, Christopher the third or fourth son.

⁵⁹Some Stark researchers believe that Martha's middle name was Margaret. Return to text

⁶⁰The spelling may have been Venard, Vinyard, or Vingar, but Vineyard was also commonly used and I have chosen to retain it consistently. The original name may actually have been Weinart, and so (Palatine) German. It also seems possible that the name was French Huguenot origin.

⁶¹Other researchers show the date of 1737. Return to text

⁶²Pennsylvania adopted a statute declaring such actions treason on December 3, 1782. Return to text

⁶³The area to which squatters went, the famous Seven Ranges of Ohio, was the very first land to be surveyed under the terms of the Northwest Ordinance (the six-mile township system that was destined to be used throughout the Midwest and even further west). Settlers were found there as early as 1786. When the surveyors came, the army had to accompany them in order to force these squatters out. Without authority, they had persuaded the Indians to "cede" the land to them, but this did them no good when the surveyors and troops came. Return to text

⁶⁴Redstone Old Fort got its name because it was built on the site of what remained of an ancient Indian fortification. Return to text

⁶⁵Vineyard researchers state that the family lived in the townships of Clear Creek, Deerfield, and Utica in Warren County, and census information supports this.

⁶⁶Graves and markers at Deerfield cemetery, located in South Lebanon, were moved there from the original location in the Danberry Burial Grounds. See slide 12999 for an overview of the cemetery with its perfectly neat rows of relocated graves and their markers – perhaps including that of Francis Vineyard. I do not know the location of Danberry Burial Grounds. Return to text

⁶⁷A George Vineyard is said to have died in this area of Virginia in 1758, but I have seen no documentation to support this statement.

⁶⁸Other early references to Vineyards are scant. An Abraham Vineyard was transported to America in 1753, and an Elizabeth Vineyard is found in Conestoga Township, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, in 1720-21. Return to text

⁶⁹See the USGS maps for Bardstown/Kentucky, Fairfield/Kentucky, and Samuels/Kentucky for this area. Also see slides 12903-09 for Rogers Run, Cox's Creek, and (probably) Froman's Creek. These slides were taken in 2008. Return to text

⁷⁰The date may have been November 9, but as he is said to have deeded his property on November 19 the earlier date is probably only a typographical error in one record or account. Another researcher interprets the date on the deed in question as November 10. Return to text

⁷¹The two Baptist churches, Cox's Creek and Elk Creek, have newer buildings, but these were built on the sites of the original churches. See slides 12902 and 12912-13, respectively. These slides were taken in 2008. Return to text

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