Commemorative biographical record of Washington County, Pennsylvania, containing biographical sketches of prominent and representative citizens, and of many of the early settled families, Part 9

Author: J.H. Beers & Co
Publication date: 1893
Publisher: Chicago, J. H. Beers
Number of Pages: 1540

USA > Pennsylvania > Washington County > Commemorative biographical record of Washington County, Pennsylvania, containing biographical sketches of prominent and representative citizens, and of many of the early settled families > Part 9

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

Thomas C. Hunter was born March 4, 1816, in Hanover township. He was but a child when his parents removed to Brooke county, W. Va., where he attended the subscription schools, then entered Frankfort Academy, afterward assisted his father in the milling business, and made several trips to New Orleans with cargoes of flour made in the mills. He took charge of the mill in Brooke county, W. Va., finally returning to the home farm in Hanover township, this county. On March 10, 1844, he was united in marriage with Sarah J. Watts, who was born February 15, 1817, at Steubenville, Ohio, daughter of John and Mary (Andrews) Watts. Her father was an old river trader, and made several trips to New Orleans with merchandise. Four children were born to the union of Thomas C. and Sarah J. (Watts) Hun- ter, viz. : Mary Ella (wife of Dr. George T. Mac- Cord, Pittsburgh, Penn. ), John R. (clerked for the leading houses of Pittsburgh, Penn., then became traveling salesman for Lally & Collins, of Boston, being one of their best men. He died in 1891), Lizzie H. (wife of R. E. Hornor, editor and pro- prietor of the Parkersburgh, W. Va., Sentinel) and Fanny M. (wife of Frederick S. Drake, a promi- nent oil producer of Pittsburgh, Penn.). Mr. Hun-

WASHINGTON COUNTY.

ter continued to follow the milling business after locating on the home farm in Hanover township, making frequent trips to New Orleans, which were always profitable. He lost a large amount of money by his implicit faith in the honesty of others, and on one occasion was obliged to pay $18,000 bail for a friend. Notwithstanding these losses his family never wanted a comfort which money could procure or love provide. Politically he was a Democrat. He was a warm friend of education, doing all in his power to promote every movement of progression. On August 8, 1890, he passed away, his death having been caused by the kick of a horse. His remains were first in- terred in the Burgettstown cemetery, but will be removed to Steubenville, Ohio. Mrs. Hunter has resided on the home farm since the death of her husband.

D AVID HAMILTON FEE was born in Char- tiers township, Washington Co., Penn., July 9, 1853, and was educated in the pub- lic schools and at Jefferson Academy, Can- onsburg, Penn. After reaching manhood, he spent some time in farming, and also taught school for season. In the autumn of 1882 he purchased from Fulton Phillips an interest in the Canonsburg Notes, in the following spring becoming sole editor and proprietor, and so continued until July 1, 1892, when he sold a half interest in the paper to his brother, William H. Fee, who had had charge of the mechanical department of the office for a num- ber of years.

On May 15, 1884, Mr. Fee was married to Miss Eva L. Pattison, of near West Alexander, a daugh- ter of the late Thomas Pattison of that place. In politics Mr. Fee is a Republican, in religion a United Presbyterian. The following sketch of Mr. Fee was prepared by a brother editor, Mr. Fulton Phillips, of the McDonald (Penn. ) Outlook :

The neighborhood in which he spent his early life was remarkable for the intelligence, refinement and mor- als of its people. It was a community of the most pro- gressive farmers of the age, nearly every farmhouse send- ing into the world a classical scholar. It was among such people that he learned the habits necessary to the close and accurate observation and the careful and conscien- tious expression of his thoughts which afterward marked him as the best newsgatherer in the county and one of the best editorial writers. And it was here that he acquired the moral stamina that afterward enabled him to speak out, regardless of consequences, on all important questions that came before him as an editor. He knew that Sunday papers were demoralizing; and so opposed them at all times. He was vividly impressed with the evils of intem- perance; and he never let slip an opportunity to strike a blow for decency and order. Nor has he ever exhibited the malignant disposition too many reformers are driven into by a diabolically malignant opposition. The writer of this paragraph has often, after an interview with Mr. Fee or after reading one of his editorials, said to himself: "There's charity; that man is not living for himself alone; he certainly keeps before him a high ideal, and if

he can approach it, he cares not for the opinion of men: it is a big soul in a small body, and if he can stand off the world, the flesh, and the devil, and maintain that charac- ter through life, his record will be an enviable and admir- able one." His editorial paragraphs were always strong; and we can not recall a single instance of even momentary puerility showing itself between the lines; and this can be said of a very few indeed.

This is not " Dave Fee's" obituary, but such a picture of him as is in the, minds of those who know him, and such as ought to appear where history is recorded. Therefore I write it. His success as a newspaper man has been phenomenal. When first he entered the Notes office we took him for a bright reporter, but did not expect him to lead all others in making the best country weekly in Pennsylvania.

WILLIAM H. FEE was born October 16, 1868, in Chartiers township, Washington Co., Penn. He attended the public schools, and on February 6, 1883, entered the office of the Canonsburg Notes, where he learned to master the several branches of the printing trade. He has had charge of the mechanical department of that paper since May 3, 1886, and on July 1, 1892, he purchased from his brother, D. H. Fee, a half interest in the Notes. On October 28, 1891, Mr. Fee was united in mar- riage with Miss Julia M. Humphrey, of West Alexander, Penn., and to them was born, Septem- ber 4, 1892, a son, named Dwight Humphrey Fee.

J HOMAS PATTISON, one of the representa- tive Scotch-Irish Protestants of this county, was born November 8. 1802. on the farm where he died, May 9, 1888, two miles from the village of West Alexander on the extreme western border of Washington county, the Virginia line passing through the farm. There, during all of his life, this descendant of the noted Scotch Covenanters practiced the principles that made his ancestors renowned for purity, sturdi- ness, courage and piety; at the same time, as was often said of him, he was remarkable among all who knew him for the genial disposition that spread sunshine wherever he came.

The father of this man was Rev. John Pattison, a Scotch dissenter, who, about the close of the Revolution, when quite a youth, emigrated with his father's family from St. John, New Bruns- wick. and on entering into manhood pre-empted the Pattison homestead referred to, which has ever since been in the possession of the family, the first house in which the family resided for more than a generation being on the Ohio (W. Va.) county side on the line. That house is still stand- ing, though for the last years of his life Mr. Patti- son lived in a more modern mansion on the Waslı- ington county side. The Pattison family had come to St. John from Ireland, and to Ireland from Scotland. Rev. John Pattison died Septem- ber 17, 1825.

His son, Thomas, continued the life of a farmer

WASHINGTON COUNTY.

on the same place for a period of about sixty-three years, until his death in 1888. On February 13, 1840, he was married to Jane Humphrey, daugh- ter of Robert Humphrey, Jr., and by her he had eight children-five daughters and three sons, viz. : Nancy M., Martha A., Mary R., Rachel Jane, Eva L., John K., Robert H. and Samuel Anderson, all of whom survive. . Respecting Robert Humphrey, Sr., a few words will not be out of place here. He was one of the pioneers of this part of the country, and founded the town of West Alexander which he named for his wife whose maiden name was Alexander. He served in the Continental army until the close of the war of. In- dependence, and at the battle of Brandywine he helped to carry Gen. La Fayette, who was wounded, off the field. After the war, when La Fayette vis- ited this country, in 1825, and passed through West Alexander, Mr. Humphrey met the famous French general, was recognized and warmly greeted, and the two old soldiers spent an hour recalling old times. Mrs. Thomas Pattison died March 26, 1877, so that two generations of this old family have passed away.

About such old-time homes are often seen relics more interesting than any found in the museums. For example, in the Pattison library are not a few books and pamphlets printed in the last century. A . Latin lexicon, that has there stood on the shelves for a century, is considerably over two hundred years old, having been the property of Rev. John Pat- tison (who was a fine classical scholar) and in the- family before him for several generations, away back in Scotland. The late Thomas Pattison, was; a member of the Associate Reformed Church, until- the United Presbyterian organization, but during the latter part of his life he was a Reformed Pres -. byterian (Covenanter). His funeral services were conducted by Rev. Mcclurkin, of the Reformed Presbyterian Church, assisted by Rev. William M. Coleman, of the United Presbyterian Church. Thomas Pattison sleeps with his honored fathers in the cemetery near where he lived. The world moves on, but it is doubtful whether it ever again will see a race sturdier in morals and holding fast more unflinchingly to that which is good than the one that was driven by the Claverhouse dragoons from the moors of Scotland to the North of Ireland; whose impressive conventicles adjourned at the point of the sword to reassemble in the forests of America, and of which the subject of this sketch was a fair sample.

HE VANCE FAMILY, of Somerset and South Strabane townships. The name Vance belongs to the Scotch-Irish immigra- tion to America during the first half of the eighteenth century.

ORIGIN OF THE NAME. A few years ago a very

industrious and enthusiastic chronicler came from the North of Ireland to gather up, if possible, the history of the Vance family in this country. He received but few responses to his letters, and gave up the task in despair. He had carefully studied sbire, county and parish records in Scotland and Ireland, and published what he deemed a correct account of the family in those lands. According to his research, the early ancestor came to Eng- land at the time of the Norman conquest in the eleventh century. The name has passed through the following changes: Latin, Vallibus; French, De Vaux; in England and Scotland, De Vaux, Vaux, Vauss, Vaus, Vans, and in the North of Ireland, 'Vance. He quotes the antiquarian George Chalmers, as saying: "A branch of the English family of Vaux or Vallibus settled in the south of Scotland and became progenitors of several respectable families of that name;" and the antiquarian, Sir James Dalrymple as saying: "The ancient surname of Vans in the later charters, called De Vallibus, is the same with the name Vaux in England, and is one of the first surnames that appeared there after the Conquest." In Scottish heraldry it is recorded that "few of the ancient names of Scotland can trace their origin to so distinguished a foreign source as that of Vans, or more properly Vaus or De Vaux." The Gazeteer of Scotland says: "In the twelfth century the Anglo-Norman family of De Vallibus or De Vaux obtained a grant of the manors of Golyn and Dirleton and parts of Fen- ton. " In 1298 De Vaux's castle at Dirle- ton was besieged and taken by Antony Beck the martial bishop of Durham." " William De Vaux bestowed the church of Golyn on the Monks of Dryburgh." "Alexander De Vallibus founded a chapel at Dirleton, in the reign of Alexander III. The home of the family at Dirleton, in . East Lothian was transferred to Barnborroch, or Kirkinner, in Wigtonshire." In the line of descent the chronicler finds lords and bishops before the Reformation, and friends of the Covenanters after that period.

The first known ancestor in Ireland was a clergy- man, the Rev. John Vans. G. W. Vance, of Dublin, who wrote an account, says he was a Puritan min- ister and settled in Coleraine. William Balbirnie, the writer before referred to, says he was an Episco- pal clergyman who was rector of the church of Kil- macreenan, in Donegal, diocese of Raphoe, from 1617 until his death in 1661. It will be remem- bered that the plantation of Ulster by James I. in which the forfeited estates were peopled by colon- ists from Scotland and England began in 1610. The large majority came from Scotland, hence the Scotch-Irish. The Rev. John Vans was one of the earliest colonists. His will, probated July 26, 1662, is signed Jo Vauss, and, in the Record of the Rolls in Dublin Castle, is printed "Rev. John

Samevonca

WASHINGTON COUNTY.

Vans, A. M." The seal on his will in red wax is that of the Barnbarroch arms. If any ambitions young Vance should suddenly grow rich and need a coat of arms, let him study heraldry, and follow this description: "Argent, on a bend, gules, three mollets.'

A son of Rev. John Vans, Dr. Lancelot Vance, was surgeon of a regiment and one of the defend- ers of Londonderry in the siege of 1689. The record quoted gives the names of a number of the Vances who were Presbyterian ministers, and of others who came to this country, but has no in- formation as to where they located here. The "Test Act" and "Schism Act," enforced in Ulster, so proscribed Presbyterians and restricted their rights that from 1729 to 1750 about 12,000 annually came to America, some of the Vances joining in the exodus.

Families are known to have settled in New Eng- land, New Jersey and Virginia. The Rev. James I. Vance, pastor of the First Presbyterian Church, of Norfolk, Va., speaking by authority, says: "The traditional three brothers came from the North of Ireland, and settled in the valley of Virginia. One went thence to North Carolina, and from him the North Carolina Vances are descended, among whom is Senator Zebulon B. Vance. Another brother went to Tennessee, and from him my family is de- scended." The Rev. Hugh Vance was pastor of the Tuscarora and Back Creek (Va.) Presbyterian Churches from 1771 till his death, December 31, 1791.

Two families of the Virginia Vances, from near Winchester, came to Washington county, Penn., in the "seventies" of the last century: William, born in 1718, to Cross Creek; John, born in 1730, to Somerset township. The exact relationship is not known. Gov. Joseph Vance, of Ohio, born in Washington county, Penn., March 21, 1786, Gov- ernor and Congressman from 1821 to 1847, was a grandson of William.

DESCENDANTS OF JOHN VANCE. John Vance was born in 1730. In the poverty of record the place of his birth, the names of his parents, brothers and sisters are not known. We know that his home in Virginia was near Winchester, and the traditions are that he was a man of sterling integrity. In the "seventies" of the last century he came with his two sons, then young men, to Western Penn- sylvania, where they selected and made "toma- hawk improvements" on lands which they after- ward owned. John Vance in 1786 received a Virginia certificate for 343 acres of land called "Edgecomb," near the present village of Vance- ville, in Somerset township. The tradition is that he always kept his home in Virginia, though he often visited his sons, and he died in Somerset township August 13, 1796, and was buried in Pigeon Creek Presbyterian churchyard where his

grave is distinctly marked. His wife, Isabella, died February 9, 1807. By his will he left his farm undivided to his sons John and Isaac, and made them executors of his will. The children of John Vance were as follows: (I). Nancy Vance, who was married to Samuel Sillik in 1775. They owned and lived on the farm immediately west of Vance Station. Samuel Sillik died in 1814, and soon af- ter the family removed to Richland county, Ohio. The names and dates of birth of their children were: John, 1776; Mary, 1778; Isabel, 1779; Thomas, 1781; Samuel, 1785; Hannah, 1787; Isaac, 1789; Nancy, 1792. The mother seems not to have been living at the death of John Vance in 1796. He distributed, by his will, about £60 sterling among the children. We regret that we do not have ac- curate information concerning these families, but give what we have. (1) Mary Sillik was married to James Milligan; their daughter Lavinia was married to Thomas Nichols, Henderson county, Ill .; of their children were Martha Hearst, Garnett, Kans. ; Mary J. Main, Stronghurst, Ill .; Harriet Chesney; Lieut. T. Vance Nichols, Bushnell, Ill .; Lavinia Thompson and Eliza Randall, Strong hurst, Ill. (2) Isabel Sillik was married to Will- iam Erskine, of Buffalo Creek, Washington county, in 1800, and their children were: John, of Ohio county, W. Va. ; Hannah McNeill, of near Cin - cinnati, Ohio; Samuel, of near West Alexander; Margaret Provines, in Washington county; Robert, of near West Alexander; Isabel Rodgers, of Tope- ka, Kans. ; Rev. William R., United Presbyterian minister, Monmouth, Ill .; Ebenezer S., of Mon- mouth, Ill., the only one now living. Samuel and Robert were elders in the United Presbyterian Church of West Alexander, Penn. William Ers- kine, of the law firm of Erskine & Allison, in Wheeling, W. Va., is a son of Robert. The Rev. James S. Erskine, a Presbyterian pastor in Orange county, N. Y., is a son of the Rev. William R. As the names indicate this family is descended from the Rev. Ebenezer Erskine, founder of the Associ- ate Presbyterian Church, of Scotland, in 1735. The Rev. William R. (deceased), of Monmouth, Ill., was a United Presbyterian minister. His son, Rev. James S. E., is a Presbyterian minister in Orange county, N. Y. William Erskine, an attor- ney in Wheeling, West Virginia, is a son of John. (3) Samuel Sillik of near Mansfield, Ohio, has a grandson, the Rev. Louis Day, who is a Baptist minister. (4) Nancy Sillik was married to Ross, and afterward to Steele, of Kentucky.

(II). His son John Vance took up a farm, on which he lived, on Chartiers creek, near Bridge- ville, Allegheny county. He was an elder in Bethel Presbyterian Church during the pastorate of Rev. William Woods. He died November 9, 1812, and with his wife lies buried in Bethel churchyard. They had no children.

WASHINGTON COUNTY.

(III). Isaac Vance, the other son of John, Sr., had a large family. He was born in Virginia, Feb- ruary 11, 1754, and died in South Strabane town- ship November 5, 1837, in his eighty-fourth year. On December 3, 1779, he received a Virginia cer- tificate entitling him to a tract of land called "Edge Hill," situated on the fork of Pigeon creek in Somerset township, on which he lived till his removal to South Strabane township in 1810. Coming to the unprotected frontier when a young man, he entered with zest into the life of the pio- neer. He was a man of great physical vigor and power of endurance, and a fine marksman. He belonged to that class of pioneers who always stood ready to repel an Indian invasion, and during the troublous times up to 1794 he responded to the frequent calls for men. History tells of the few large expeditions, but the story of the many lesser rallies for driving marauding bands of Indians from their despoiled homes has not been told. He belonged to Col. David Williamson's command, and was in Colonel Crawford's ill-fated expedition to Sandusky, Ohio, in 1782. That expedition of about four hundred men rendezvoused at Mingo Bottom, near Steubenville, Ohio, marched to San- dusky, where they met the Indians and their allies in overwheming numbers, and were defeated. They retreated, followed by the enemy. Butter- field gives as an incident of their flight, that, in passing a deserted Indian sugar camp Isaac Vance seeing a copper kettle, dismounted, flattened it with a boulder, tied it to his saddle, kept it through the battle at Olentangy and brought it home. During the retreat the brave Colonel Crawford fell behind to find his missing son, was lost to the com- mand, captured and put to death with the severest cruelty of Indian torture. About forty men were lost in the expedition. Possibly you may think that pioneer life was dull. Consider what happened between 1774 and 1794: (1) Dunmore's war; (2) constant picket duty against the Indians; (3) the war for Independence; (4) Crawford, Harmar's, St. Clair's and Wayne's expeditions; (5) Pennsyl- vania and Virginia State line troubles; (6) new State project; (7) erection of the county; (8) or- ganization of the Republic; (9) adopting a State and Federal Constitution; (10) whiskey insurrection. These all in what led up to them or resulted from them engaged the energies of the intelligent pio- neer, and gave themes for discussion about his cabin or camp-fire.

On November 15, 1783, Isaac Vance married Mary, daughter of Henry Cotton, of Bedford connty. Henry Cotton was of Puritan ancestry. It is not known in what year he came to Washing- ton county, but in 1783 he bought the claim of Joseph Alexander, of North Carolina. to 332 acres in South Strabane township for £415, "current funds of the commonwealth." In 1786 he secured

a patent for the land. This patent is signed by Charles Biddle, vice-president of the Supreme Ex- ecutive Council, John Armstrong, secretary; Mat- thew Irvin, master of rolls. On August 19, 1791, 286 acres of this land were conveyed to Hugh Cot- ton, son of Henry, for £300. Hugh was a bachelor, and one of the first elders in the Pigeon Creek Presbyterian Church, chosen in November, 1776. His brother John Cotton was a captain in the mili- tary forces of that day. In 1810 the Cotton family moved to that part of Mercer (now Lawrence) county, Penn., where their descendants are now living. Isaac Vance bought of Hugh Cotton, in 1810, the farm now owned by John Vance, at Vance Station on the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, for $3,200. In 1827 it was bought by William Vance, and owned by him until his death in 1874. Mary Cotton Vance died November 9, 1830; Isaac died November 5, 1837. They had been permitted to enjoy forty-seven years of married life. They were of the original members of the Pigeon Creek Presbyterian Church, and enjoyed the ministry of that sterling man, Rev. Dr. John McMillan, by whom their children were baptized; afterward, in Washington, the successive ministries of the Rev. Drs. Matthew Brown, Obadiah Jennings and David Elliott. The theological teaching they thus received was abundant and perfectly sound. Of their children, Agnes, Hugh, Hannah, Rachel, Joseph, Margaret and Lydia died in early life. Their four sons who lived to maturity were all prosperous farmers, men of positive convictions and strict integrity, early advocates of the temper- ance cause, and became Free-soil men in the incep- tion of that movement. Three of them were elders of the Presbyterian Church. They had no ambi- tion for public life or political preferment. In personal appearance they were tall, well propor- tioned and had dark hair and eyes. The danghters were married to prosperous farmers, and were Christian women of the best type.

(I). The oldest son, John Vance, was born Au- gust 23, 1784, died in 1839. He married Jane Kerr, of North Strabane township, and lived at the old homestead near Vanceville. He was chosen an elder of the Pigeon Creek Presbyterian Church in 1836, during the pastorate of the Rev. Dr. W. C. Anderson. Of his children who lived to maturity were (1) James, who succeeded his father in pos- session of the farm; married Elizabeth Hart; was chosen elder of the Pigeon Creek Church in 1849; died in 1854, leaving five children. (2) Jane Vance, graduated at the Washington Seminary in 1848; was married to Logan Van Eman of North Strabane; died in 1877, leaving two daughters.

(II). Henry Vance was born March 1, 1787, died October 19, 1840. He owned and lived on the farm adjoining that of his-brother John, now owned by his daughter, Sarah Scott. He was the

WASHINGTON COUNTY.

captain of a military company which he led to Black Rock, N. Y., in the war of 1812. His first wife was Jane Hall, of Somerset township. His son (1) Isaac, died in early life. (2) Thomas graduated at Washington College in 1838, studied medicine and began the practice at Claysville but died soon afterward. (3) Sarah was married to John D. Scott, of Somerset township, and lives at the old homestead, her children married and in the neighborhood. Henry's second wife was Isabel Park, of Cecil township. Of her children (4) Mar- tha became the wife of the Rev. J. R. Burgett, D. D., since 1860, pastor of the Government Street Presbyterian Church, of Mobile, Ala. Martha died December 17, 1856, leaving a daughter, Anna, now the wife of the Rev. F. L. Ewing, pastor of the Presbyterian Church of Covington, Tenn. (5) John Parke Vance was educated at Jefferson College. He lived for many years in Mansfield, Ohio, and married Ella Robinson of that place; was an elder of the Presbyterian Church. For twenty years he was engaged in business in Cincinnati, and lived at Wyoming. He died October 20, 1891, leaving a wife and three children. Henry Vance's third wife was Sarah Stockton, a sister of the Rev. John Stockton, D. D., of Cross Creek, Penn.

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

Commemorative biographical record of Washington County, Pennsylvania, containing biographical sketches of prominent and representative citizens, and of many of the early settled families, Part 9

Author: J.H. Beers & Co Publication date: 1893 Publisher: Chicago, J. H. Beers Number of Pages: 1540

Author: J.H. Beers & Co
Publication date: 1893
Publisher: Chicago, J. H. Beers
Number of Pages: 1540