USA > Ohio > Miami County > West Milton > Centennial anniversary of West Branch Monthly Meeting of Friends, 1807-1907 > Part 3
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Stephen and Paul Macy, mentioned above, was Macy, being granddaughters of the John Macy who first joined the Friends. Their sons were therefor not only great-grandsons of the Thomas Macy mentioned be- fore, but also of his brother John Macy.
Of the three Macy settlers in Ohio, Stephen was cousin to Thomas and Paul, their fathers, Enoch and Paul, being brothers, both emigrants from Nantucket to North Carolina in 1773. Paul came to Ohio when near eighty years of age. He sat at the head of Mill Creek Meeting many years, dying in 1832 in his ninety- second year. His son Paul died at Trov, Ohio, in 1868 in his eighty-ninth year, and his grandson Paul, son of Thomas, in 1891, near Dayton, Ohio, in his ninety-fourth year. Stephen Macy's family resided in Montgomery County, at Randolph Meeting, from where he removed in 1826 to Richmond, Indiana. He died there in 1857. His son John M. Macy was a noted teacher in Friends' schools from seventy to fifty years ago. He died in Henry County, Indiana, in 1887. in his eighty-first year.
A Robert Macy and family also came to Ohio in 1808 from North Carolina but returned there the next year. He came again in 1812 and returned in 1816. His wife was Elizabeth Gardner, sister of the wives of Caleb and Joseph Mendenhall.
MENDENHALL. Caleb and Joseph Mendenhall were among the early settlers at West Branch. They were sons of Phineas and Tamar (Kirk) Mendenhall, born in North Carolina, Caleb in 1769 and Joseph in 1772. Phineas was the son of James and Hannah ( Thomas) Mendenhall. He is described as James Mendenhall, the miller of Jamestown, North Carolina. He was the son of Aaron and Rose (Pierson) Mendenhall, mar- ried under sanction of Concord Monthly Meeting, Chester County, Pennsylvania, in 1715. James was no doubt born in Pennsylvania. Aaron Mendenhall was the son of John, the immigrant from England, and Elizabeth (Maris) Mendenhall. He came to America in the time of William Penn. They were married in Pennsylvania in 1685. All the American ancestors of Caleb and Joseph Mendenhall were members of the Society of Friends.
Phineas Mendenhall, his wife and their five chil- dren went from North Carolina to Wrightsboro, Geor- gia, in 1772. Their removal certificate was received at
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Bush River Monthly Meeting, 12 Mo. 26th, 1772, and they were members of that meeting till the establish- ment of Wrightsboro Monthly Meeting the next year. While residing in Georgia, the Creek Indians, in a state of war, made an attack on the Mendenhall home, killed the mother and one of the children, and took the son, Joseph, captive. They held him for some months till ransomed by his father. The family finally left Georgia and returned to North Carolina. There, in 1791, Caleb Mendenhall and Susannah Gardner were married, and in 1795, Joseph Mendenhall and Rachel Gardner were married. Both these marriages were at Deep River Meeting, Guilford County. A few years, afterward they removed to Ohio and settled at West Branch on farms east and south-east of the meeting- house. Their wives were sisters, daughters of William and Susannah Gardner and sisters of Robert Macy's wife, Elizabeth Gardner. Both Caleb and Joseph had large families.
MOTE. David and Dorcas ( Nichols) Mote were an- cestors of the most of the Mote family that were early settlers at West Branch. David Mote was born in Chester County, Pennsylvania, in 1733, and Dorcas a year or two earlier. David Mote was the son of Jona- than Mote, the immigrant to Pennsylvania from Mid- dlesex County, England. The time of David Mote's family going to South Carolina is not known. His name occurs in the proceedings of the first meeting of Bush River Monthly Meeting of which we have the
minutes. From the records of that meeting it is evident that the Mote family was residing at Bush River when Wrightsboro Monthly Meeting was set up in 1773. More than a year after it was opened, 3 Mo. 25th, 1775, David Mote and family requested a certificate of membership to Wrightsboro Monthly Meeting. Georgia. They had at that time five sons and four daughters, one other son was born afterwards. Their rights of membership remained at Wrightsboro between twenty-eight and thirty years. The re- moval certificate for the son Jeremiah Mote and family to Miami, Ohio, is dated Third Month, 1803; for David and Dorcas, the parents, Third Month, 1804; for their son Jonathan and family, Fifth Month, 1804; and for the son John and family, Fourth Month, 1805. These certificates transferred the membership of twen- ty-six persons to Miami Monthly Meeting. A great-
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grandson of David and Dorcas Mote writes that they, in company with their sons, Jeremiah and William, came to West Branch in September, 1802, and that the rest soon followed. This would show that they did not request the transfer of their membership with Friends until they had been in Ohio some time. They all settled in the vicinity of West Branch Meeting- house.
NEAL. Two families of this name came from New Hope Monthly Meeting, Tennessee, to Ohio; William and Rachel Neal and their son Mahlon; and Henry and Rebecca Neal and their children, Benjamin, Phebe and William. We have no account of the ancestry or origin of these families. William, the father of the first family is mentioned in the Bush River Records as early as 1773, when he was one of the committee to visit the Georgia Friends at Wrightsboro about the request for the establishment of a monthly meeting amongst them. It appears that he left Bush River soon after and was, perhaps, an early settler among the Friends in eastern Tennessee. He was a recorded minister in the Society of Friends when he came to Ohio, but where he was recorded is not known. He was perhaps the first resident minister amongst the West Branch Friends. It appears that the removal certificates of four recorded ministers, afterwards mem- bers at West Branch, were received at Miami Month- ly Meeting before the establishment of West Branch Monthly Meeting. They were Mary Pearson and Susannah Hollingsworth from Bush River, certificates received Seventh Month, 1805; William Neal from New Hope Monthly Meeting, certificate received Twelfth Month, 1805 ; and Enoch Pearson from Bush River, certificate received Ninth Month, 1806. Neither Mary Pearson nor Susan Hollingsworth appear to have settled in Miami County for some time after the reception of their certificates, but William Neal and Enoch Pearson located there before or soon after the reception of their certificates. Of these ministers, Mary Pearson died first, about 1812: William Neal about 1822 ; Susannah Hollingsworth about 1830, near eighty years of age : and Enoch Pearson in Twelfth Month, 1839, in his seventy-ninth year.
PATTY. Margaret Mote, the oldest daughter of David and Dorcas Mote, born in 1753, married James Patty. They had at least four children, three sons,
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James, David, and Charles, and one daughter, Rachel, who was the wife of Wallace Jones. There were per- haps other children. These four all came to Ohio from Bush River and settled in the limits of West Branch Quarterly Meeting. James, who married Anna Brown in South Carolina, was an active member of West Branch Monthly Meeting in its first twenty years, and in Indiana Yearly Meeting from its beginning in 1821 to 1828. He appeared to have died soon after the last date. All three of the sons had good sized families.
PEARSON. The Pearsons who were early settlers in Miami County, Ohio, from Newberry County, South Carolina, were descendants of three brothers, Samuel, Benjamin and Thomas, who went to South Carolina a few years before the Revolutionary War. They were natives of Pennsylvania, born it seems in the years, 1720 to 1730. They were sons of Enoch and Mary (Smith) Pearson, married in 1719. Three other chil- dren are known to have belonged to this family ; first, Enoch who died young; second, William, who re- mained in Pennsylvania, but going in 1780 to South Carolina afoot to visit his brothers and to conclude some business transactions with one of them, took sick there and died at his brother, Thomas's, and was buried in the burying ground at Bush River ; and third, Margery Pearson, who, IIth Mo. 15th, 1759, mar- ried Nathaniel Squibb at Chester Meeting, Pennsyl- vania. Enoch Pearson, born 1690, was the fourth son of Thomas and Margery (Smith) Pearson who were married according to Friends' order at Cheshire, England, 2 Mo. 18th, 1683. They came to America the same year, arriving at Philadelphia 7 Mo. 20th, 1683. It appears that they settled on land in Marple Township, Chester County, Pennsylvania, which Thomas' brother, John Pearson, had bought of William Penn before his leaving England. The record of the deed for this land is in the City Hall, of Philadelphia. Records at the Court House at West Chester, Penn- sylvania, show that this land or a part of it, was trans- ferred by John Pearson to his brother Thomas, who, in turn transferred it to his oldest son, Robert Pear- son, before his death in 1734.
Of the three brothers who went to South Carolina, Benjamin and Thomas went direct from Pennsylvania to what was afterward Newberry County, South Caro- lina, about 1768, Samuel, who was living in Virginia
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before 1767, at a place called Worthington's Marsh, ten miles from Winchester and five miles from the Shenandoah River, in 1771 removed to South Carolina. He received from Hopewell Monthly Meeting, Virgin- ia, a certificate of the membership of himself and family to Bush River Monthly Meeting, South Caro- lina. Neither Benjamin nor Thomas nor their families appear to have been members of Friends when they went to South Carolina. From the records of Bush River Meeting we learn that Thomas Pearson and his eight children became members of that meeting, by re- quest, in Twelfth Month, 1773. This was after the death of his wife Ann (Powell) Pearson, whom he had married 6 Mo. 5th, 1751, at Philadelphia. In 1775, Thomas Pearson married his second wife, Mary Campbell, with approval of Bush River Monthly Meet- ing, at Padgett's Creek Meeting. She was a widow, the mother, of three children by a husband named John Inscoe, and two named Campbell by her second hus- band, Samuel Campbell; and by Thomas Pearson had two daughters, making the number of his children ten, six sons and four daughters, born in the years 1753 to 1778. Five of these sons and two daughters ap- peared to have lived and died in Monroe Township, Ohio, after coming north.
Samuel Pearson married four times; first about 1749, place unknown, Martha Worthington, by whom he had three children ; second, in 1757 at Fairfax Meet- ing, Virginia, Christian Potts, by whom he had one child name Martha, afterwards the wife of Henry Steddom; third, in 1762, in Frederick County, Virgin- ia, Mary Rogers, who was the mother of four of his children ; and fourth, Mary Steddom, a widow with a son and daughter who afterwards married a daughter and son of Samuel. This fourth wife was afterwards Mary Pearson, the minister. By his fourth wife, Sam- uel had a daughter named Sarah, born in 1773, who in 1790 married Joseph Furnas. In all Samuel Pear- son had nine children, four sons and five daughters. Two sons and two daughters settled in Miami County, living and dying there. One of these, Samuel, born in 1767, marrying in 1790 Mary Coate, daughter of John Coate the blacksmith, located in Monroe Town- ship. They had nine sons and two daughters. The other three. Benjamin, born in 1763. Eunice Mills, born in 1770, and Sarah Furnas, born in South Caro-
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lina in 1773, located in the southern part of Newton Township. Benjamin Pearson in 1790 married Esther Furnas at Bush River, South Carolina. They had seven sons and three daughters.
Benjamin Pearson, the third of the three brothers, had two wives ; the first Agatha Brooks, the mother of three sons and two daughters ; second, Margaret Evans the mother of six sons and one daughter who died young. Both of these marriages appear to have been in Pennsylvania, the first about 1752, and the second about 1762. In all, his children were nine sons and three daughters. Two sons and a daughter died in South Carolina, leaving seven sons and two daughters who came to Ohio. Of these, four sons and the two daughters appear to have located in Monroe Town- ship ; two sons, Robert and John, who married daugh- ters of Isaac and Susannah Hollingsworth, located in Union Township, on Ludlow Creek, and one son Joseph Pearson in the northern part of Montgomery County. It might be noted that each of the Carolina brothers had a son named Enoch, two of whom lived in Monroe Township, Ohio, Enoch the blacksmith, son of Benjamin, born in 1760; and Enoch, the preacher, son of Thomas, born in 1761. In my boyhood days there were in my acquaintance in Miami County, Ohio, six Enoch Pearsons. In addition to the two named above, the blacksmith had a son called Teant Enoch ; and the preacher, a grandson called Nuck Enoch ; there was also a grandson of the elder Samuel called Pony Enoch ; and a great-grandson called Lame Enoch. Of the three Pearson brothers that went to South Caro- lina, Benjamin died there in 1788 and Samuel in 1790. Only Thomas came to Ohio, in 1806, where he died IO Mo. 13th, 1820, aged ninety-two years, six months and twenty days, which gives his birth 3 Mo. 23d, 1728. He was probably the youngest of the three. In his emigration to Ohio, in his seventy-ninth year there came along with him, children, grandchildren, and at least one great-grandchild, Sarah Pearson, born in 1805, afterward the wife of Moses Pearson who died here in West Milton in 1874, thirty-three years ago last summer. No family name contributed more families or persons to the membership of West Branch Monthly Meeting one hundred years ago than the Pearson name, the number of persons being about forty.
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PEMBERTON. It is understood that the Pembertons of West Branch came from Bush River, South Caro- lina, although I have found no removal certificates for any of them to meetings in Ohio. The records of Union Monthly Meeting, Ohio, state that Robert, John and Isaiah Pemberton, born in the years 1788, 1789, and 1790, whose large families are given on the family registry of that meeting are sons of Isaiah and Esther Pemberton, of South Carolina. This Isaiah is no doubt the son of Isaiah and Elizabeth Pemberton, whose family of twelve children, six sons and six daughters, born in the years 1753 to 1775 are given in the Bush River Family Registry. Isaiah and Eliza- beth Pemberton and eleven of their children were recorded members with the Friends at Bush River 3 Mo. 26th, 1774. Their daughter Ruth, born the next year, in 1797, married Abel Thomas. The marriage of two others of the daughters of this family-Ann, born in 1764, to John Thomas in 1786, and Sarah, born in 1772, to William Thomas in 1802-occurred in Bush River Meeting. These Thomas men were broth- ers, sons of Isaac and Mary. It is supposed that the Pembertons are of the Philadelphia line of that name and in their southern emigration may have resided for a time in Virginia. Some evidence if this is found in the fact that on two occasions, in 1776 and 1784, some of the family received from Bush River Monthly Meet- ing certificates of membership to travel to Virginia about their temporal affairs. It would seem that only a small part of this large family came north, as all the Pembertons in Miami County sprang from one of the six sons of Isaiah and Elizabeth, viz., Isaiah born in 1766.
TEAGUE. Samuel and Rebecca (Furnas) Teague, two substantial Friends with their large family of chil- dren all born in South Carolina, in the years 1783 to 1803, and their oldest daughter, who had married there, were among the early members of West Branch Monthly Meeting. Samuel, son of Elijah and Alice Teague, was born in 1754. He was not a Friend but is said to have been a soldier in the Revolutionary War. Becoming convinced that war was wrong he left the service and was tried by a court martial for desertion and would probably have met the deserter's fate if his principal judge had not been an officer whose life Samuel had saved at the risk of his own on a former
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occasion. He married Rebecca Furnas in 1783 and subsequently joined the Friends at Bush River, but when I have not learned. In reading the minutes of Bush River Meeting, the first mention of his name that I noted was in 1794. In 1799 he was put in the station of Elder, a position long held by both himself and wife in Union Monthly Meeting, Ohio. In the "Genealogy of the Furnas Family" lately published, giving the list of them down to 1897, the descendants of Samuel and Rebecca Teague number eleven hun- dred and thirty, in three hundred and two families; certainly a very good showing for one hundred and fourteen years.
THOMAS. On the Family Registry of West Branch Monthly Meeting there are eighteen families of the Thomas name. The two oldest of these are John and Abel Thomas, born according to the Bush River Records in 1766 and 1768. Their wives were both Pembertons and they were married in Bush River Meeting in 1786 and 1797. From their marriage record we learn that they were sons of Isaac and Mary Thomas, whose family of twelve children, seven sons and five daughters, born in the years 1761 to 1783, is given on the Bush River Family Registry. This family according to the investigations made by Francis W. Thomas, of Spiceland, Indiana, is a branch of the family that settled at New Garden, Wayne County, Indiana, nearly one hundred years ago. This Thomas family came from Pennsylvania and in their southern emigration settled for awhile in a Friends settlement near the border between North and South Carolina, their meeting being called Piney Grove. Some of them came to the settlement on Bush River. Where or when this Bush River line branched off from the other I have no means of knowing. Descendants of the Piney Grove Thomases appear to have moved fur- ther north in North Carolina and from there into Wayne County as stated above.
Isaac Thomas and his family of Bush River were recorded members 4 Mo. 30th, 1774. . Three removal certificates issued for members of the Thomas family by Bush River Monthly Meeting were received at Miami Monthly Meeting, Ohio, in the Spring and Summer of 1807, bringing the membership of twenty- five persons to that meeting. Several families of this name located near Philipsburg, Montgomery County,
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Ohio, south-west of West Branch Meeting and had a meeting there called South Fork, which has been laid down for many years, the members having moved away.
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THOMPSON. The removal certificate of Joseph Thompson issued by Hopewell Monthly Meeting, Vir- ginia, 9 Mo. 6th, 1773, was received at Bush River in the Twelfth Month following. Along with the certif- icate was the recommendation of his five children to the care of Friends, "they only having rights by the father." Judge O'Neal describing Friends Meeting at Bush River in his "Annals of Newberry" says, along- side David Jenkins "might be seen the tall form and gray hairs of Tanner Thompson as he used to be called. Scarcely could the sacred stillness of a Friends Meet- ing keep him from snapping his thumb and finger to- gether as if feeling a side of leather." But notwith- standing his gray hairs he lived to come north, set- tling in Monroe Township. His sons Richard and Joseph in 1778 joined Friends and Richard in 1782 was married at Bush River Meeting to Hannah Stid- man, from Pennsylvania and their family of seven children, born in the years 1783 to 1797, is on the Bush River Registry. Some of these children came to Ohio, and three of their sons married sisters of Elijah Jay, in the eighteen-twenties.
I have thus sketched brief accounts of some of the families before they came to Ohio, that made up the membership of the West Branch Meetings. No one can be more conscious than myself how imperfectly this has been done. Enough, I hope, has been brought out to show that there were in these families persons of such character and qualifications as fitted them to be leaders, able to plan and execute what ought to be done as new occasions required. Many of these early settlers had been trained in pioneer experience and success before coming here, that well qualified them to make comfortable homes and convenient surroundings in the dense forests of the Miami Valley. Nor did they rely solely on the arm of flesh to give them suc- cess. They were men and women of religious experi- ence and practice, accustomed to look for guidance and help to a higher power than themselves, to a Being that rules in the affairs of men. They first sought to be conformed to the divine standard, believing that then their labors would be blessed and crowned with success.
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It was my lot in early life to be acquainted with many of these early pioneers, and it gives me great pleasure to bear testimony to their goodness of heart, to their considerate and loving judgment and their correct walk in life, seeking to do justly, love mercy and walk humbly with their God. With all their limi- tations and shortcomings they were noble men and women, faithful in the work assigned them. May we, their descendants, be as faithful according to our light, wider knowledge and better opportunities as they were in their day and generation.
HISTORICAL REMINISCENCES OF WEST BRANCH.
BY JOSEPH PEMBERTON, WEST MILTON, OHIO.
Impromptu-no paper.
It seems to me that we have just listened to a more than ordinary interesting talk. Who would have be- lieved that one mind could contain so much informa- tion on this subject? Our friend, Eli Jay, has given us an historical account of almost every family repre- sented here to-day. I hope we will all remember what we have heard.
What I say will be on the northern settlement here. The Friends that settled up north of West Milton when this country was all woods, owned nearly all the land that was entered between Milton and Pleasant Hill. They had no roads only an Indian path along the Still- water River to the place where Dayton now stands. They settled mostly on quarter sections. They did not have such houses as we have now, but built their little huts of small round poles, and covered them with clap-boards which were cut out of logs. Some had dirt floors, and others puncheon floors. They had no 'churches, but believed in the worship of God, and came with a determination to carry it on. They held meetings when they first came, by meeting around
from house to house. Later they built a meeting house where they could all go, which was located just north of where Ludlow now stands. It was built out of round logs, and they hung quilts for a partition be- tween the men's and the women's meeting.
Friends kept coming from the south, and some set- tled on the east side of the river. The meeting kept growing until this house would not hold the people,
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and they built another down close to the river on a hill. This one was made out of bigger logs, that were hewed. I was a small boy when this house was built, and can remember it very well. It was quite a house in those days-the best there was in the country. It was a little on the style of a Jewish Synagogue ; they had a gallery.
The Friends all went to meeting in those days. They filled that old meeting house even at Fourth-day Meet- ing. I can remember about sixty-five years ago of my father taking me with him, when I was a little fellow, and I would stand up beside him in the meeting. This is where I got my education. They appointed a com- mittee to seat the members, and they put my father upon one of the gallery seats facing the meeting. I had to stand beside him even after that. It was a great treat to me to stand beside my father in the gallery, as I could look upon the congregation that assembled. I would get tired sometimes, however, and my little bones would ache. It would seem like an hour was a whole day.
When any one offered prayer, the congregation stood up and turned their faces the other way. That was their custom then; and sometimes the "Amen" was said before the whole congregation got turned around.
The people had to go through the woods to get to the meeting, and they blazed the trees to mark the way so that no one would get lost. The whole family went, no matter how many there were in number. They went on horse-back, and those that could not get a horse to ride on, walked. I remember of going with my father's family, when I was the fourth one on the horse. But it was a great treat for me to go, even when I was the fourth one; and if I could go back sixty-five years and look upon the faces and witness the kindly hand-shaking of those old Friends, it would do me a great deal of good even now. They were a very honest people in all their dealings. If any of them owed anything, they always paid it. If we had fifty of those old-time Quakers introduced into the business of West Milton, there would be no need of a Farmers' Supply Company.
These old-time Friends were very hospitable, and did not hesitate to entertain strangers. They manifested a uniform kindness that was remarkable. They took care of their own members that were poor, needy and
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