The first settlement of what is now Salem, Harrison County, West
Virginia, was made before there was peace with the Indians. A
group of about forty families came from Salem, New Jersey to
what was then, Western Virginia, to rebuild their church and
town. These families consisted of Lippincotts,
Maxsons, Babcocks, Plumers, Randolphs and Davises. Already
living in the area was the
Hughes family and remnants from a company of Indians spies
who served in the Revolutionary War.
One man, my ancestor, Jonathan Hughes of Western Virginia, was
an ensign in the Revolutionary War. In 1786, while in Wilkes
County, North Carolina he married Abigail Jackson who was born
in New Jersey, she died in Harrison County in 1842. Sarah was
the daughter of William Jackson. Jonathan went to Wilkes County
North Carolina in 1783, to South Carolina in 1790, to Georgia in
1791, to Greenbrier County Virginia in January 1792 and to
Harrison County in 1808.This is the only connection I can make
between Harrison County and New Jersey. Nor do I have a clue as
to why he went to so many states in such a short space of time.
My ancestors who were amongst this group, are,
Maxson and
Davis that I am aware of to this date. The New Salem
Seventh Day Baptist Church are Sabbath keepers, they taught
that the seventh day of the week began on Saturday not Sunday.
The members of the congregation tried to marry others of the
same beliefs which led to intermarriage of families. The traces
of this important settlement that was made over two-hundred
years ago is fading into the realm of lost history. There is a
movement towards raising funds to preserve the artifacts,
please visit this web page :
Fort New Salem Foundation, Inc. maybe you can volunteer your
time and talents to this project.
The
original lands that my family bought in Harrison County during
this era are still in the possession of my families, although it
can be confusing, Harrison County's boundary lines have changed,
one family's home
over time
was in three different counties! Another, had a boundary line in
the middle of their home. They have kept the land well and the
lands are still in a natural state of God made magnificence.
Also during my resent research I learned that Elizabeth
Hirschman, the author of,
Melungeons: The Last Lost Tribe In America
and Two
Continents, One Culture : The Scotch-irish in Southern
Appalachiaare related through
her Bond line. Elizabeth said that her
Bondancestor
moved to Wise, Virginia. She said that "The Bond surname is
Sephardic and was originally Bondi." Elizabeth also told me that
my Mosher surname is Jewish -- it means Moses (Moshe in Hebrew).
The Bond family of Harrison County, came from Cecil County,
Maryland and settled Lost Creek and Hackers Creek in Harrison
County. I checked and Abel Bond was born in 1763 Cecil Co.
Maryland, he married Elizabeth Booth, March 01, 1790 in: Cecil
Co., Maryland. He can be found on the US Censuses 1800-1870.
So, we have a diverse group of people from Virginia, New Jersey,
Maryland and Germans from Pennsylvania encroaching on the lands
that were home to the Indians for tens of thousands of years.
The invasion
of the land was devastating to the wildlife and Mother
Nature as a whole. Today, there is little evidence that the so
called "red-man" ever existed in the area. But, in the
scientific world, I think that DNA testing would prove that the
Indians and settlers merged as one. Millions of Americans have
Indian blood pumping through their veins and are not aware of
the fact. Many have oral traditions that they had a grandmother
who was said to be Indian, but finding the magic paper trail is
not to be found. The reasons are many, back in the nineteenth
and twentieth centuries "the only good Indian was a dead
Indian." An order was given that Indians were to be removed to
the West, to reservations. Many passed away on the trail to the
reservations. When the time came for the US Census what Indian
is going to stand up to be counted? I sure would be hiding out
from the person taking the count, I would take to the nearest
ridge to keep from being transferred to the reservation,
thousands miles away from my ancestral lands. Would you do the
same to survive?
The following is a reprint from a book by Corliss Fitz
Randolph, written in 1905. His recollections of the long journey
to New Salem are by far the best I could find thus far. I hope
all will come away with a better understanding of our pioneering
ancestors.
A History of the Seventh Day Baptist
by Corliss Fitz Randolph
Copyright, 1905
VI
The New Salem Church
From
the time the Shrewsbury Church left its old home in New
Jersey, in September, 1789, until after its arrival at New
Salem, Virginia, the church records are wholly silent, save
for the death of William Davis, at White Day Creek, July 15,
1791.
"May the 13, 1792.
"The
Church met in conference at New Salem, where the Church, or
part of them, is now embodied; this being the first
opportunity of coming under regular discipline in church
order since we left New Jersey."
Henceforth the church abandoned
the name of "Shrewsbury," and was known, first as the "New
Salem," and afterward as the Salem, Church, its present
name.
Not
all the company that originally set out from New Jersey came
to New Salem. Death had claimed some on the way and others
had selected homes on the wayside. Some had settled on the
West Fork of the Monongahela River, a little south of the
mouth of Ten Mile Creek, where a small stream known as
Lamberts Run enters the West Fork River, at a distance of
less than twenty miles from New Salem.
As early as June 28, 1793, a
request was presented to the New Salem Church by these
settlers at the mouth of Lamberts Run, to be organized into
a separate church. This request was granted, and the West
Fork River Church resulted, only to go crashing into
oblivion a few years afterward, over the precipice of "open
communion."
Soon
after coming to its new came, the New Salem Church was
called upon to mourn the loss by death of its pastor, Rev.
Jacob Davis, who in the summer of 1793, went away on a
missionary journey to Fayette County, Pennsylvania, where he
was taken sick and died, July 17, of that year. He was
buried in the graveyard adjoining the Seventh Day Baptist
meeting house at Woodbridgetown.
Rev. Isaac Morris soon joined
the West Fork River Church. On March 8 1795, by a vote of
the church, Rev. John Patterson became Pastor of the New
Salem Church. At short intervals, Joseph Davis, Mosher
Maxson, and Zebulon Maxson were all licensed to preach; and
in 1801, John Davis was ordained pastor by Rev. Samuel
Woodbridge of the Woodbridgetown church, and Rev. John
Patterson. Two years afterward, Rev. John Patterson was
debarred from communion because of a lack of loyalty to the
church.
Meantime the church was kept busily occupied in dealing with
members who were summoned before the bar of the church
discipline, besides performing the function of the court of
a justice of the peace. Business difference were regularly
taken to the church, and members whose opinions of their
respective pugilistic powers led them astray, were treated
with the "awful sentence of excommunication," which appears
in the records as late as November, 1822. At one time, the
church ordered William Davis to make one hundred and sixty
fence rails for one of his brethen, and Thomas Babcock (sic)
was instructed not to pay a bill presented by James Maxson.
On
July 8, 1798, Thomas Maxson and Jesse Maxson called upon the
church to pass judgment upon the merits of a horse trade in
which they were the principals. On another occasion, a
member was denied the privileges of the church because he
"hath challenged Salem Settlement in general for fighting,
and the world at large." Again George Maxson brought
complaint against several of his own brothers, concerning
some business transactions, and the latter were ordered,
each, to pay the former, three bushels and ten quarts of
corn.
The second church meeting held
at New Salem was called "to settle some business between
Brother William Maxson and Mosher Maxson to pay twenty-eight
shillings, and Mosher to return the ax and bettle rings to
William Maxson."
The
church quickly recognized the need of a house of worship in
its new home, and soon took steps prepare to building one.
On June 13, 1795, the size and style of house were agreed
upon, and a committee appointed to superintend its erection.
Whether such a house was built or not does not appear from
the records. At all events, on January 10, 1796, the church
instructed the deacon to arrange for Thomas Babcock’s house
for a place of worship, and in case of failure to procure
that, to obtain John Davis’s. On August 9, 1801, the church
voted to try to buy the house in which they met for worship,
and offered fifty dollars ($50.00) for it. Either this offer
was rejected, or the church after a little reflection,
preferred to build a new house, for a week later, on August
16, the church voted to build a meeting house on the lower
side of the burying ground.
Upon
their arrival at New Salem, the New Salem, the new settlers
had erected their cabins about a block-house, which they
built for their mutual protection, a common kind of defense
on the frontier in those times, but soon after Wayne’s
victory over the Indians, at the Maumee, in 1794, all danger
from the savages passed away, and the settlers began to
scatter to Buckeye Creek, Buckeye Run, Flint Run, Middle
Island Creek, Meat House Fork, Greenbrier Run, Cherry Camp,
Halls Run, etc.; so that before many years had past, the New
Salem Church, in order to accommodate the various groups of
its members, some of whom were situated several miles
distant from New Salem, maintained church services at Middle
Island (now West Union), on Greenbrier Run, and on Halls
Run. At Middle Island and on Greenbrier Run, log meetings
were held in all three places, in turn with the village of
New Salem. It is probable that communion service was
likewise held at these places.
In the
meantime, the Bonds from Cecil County, Maryland, had arrived
and settled on Lost Creek and Hackers Creek. They were
joined by other members of the New Salem church, and in
1805, the Lost Creek Church was organized.
Rev. Peter Davis was received
into the New Salem church sometime between August 16, 1807
and December 28, 1815, licensed to preach in 1819, and
ordained as a duly accredited minister in December, 1823, at
Middle Island by Rev. John Davis and Rev. Greene. Rev. John
Greene, in company with Deacon Zacchues Maxson, of Truxton,
New York, at this time was on a missionary visit to the
churches in western Virginia. Rev. Lewis A. Davis was
ordained on January 15th, following, by Rev. John
Davis and Rev. John Greene.
Previous to the visit of Rev. John Greene and Deacon
Zaccheus Maxson, several missionary visits had been made to
the New Salem and Lost Creek churches. In the winter of
1818-1819, Rev. Amos Wells, of Hopkins, Rhode Island, and
Rev. Samuel Davis, of Shiloh, New Jersey, had visited them.
In the following summer, that of 1819, Rev. Amos R. Wells
visited them again, and then once more in the summer of
1820. In 1821, Rev. John Davis and Deacon John Bright, both
of Shiloh, New Jersey, visited these churches; and in the
winter of 1821-1822, Rev. John Greene made them his first
visit. These visits strengthened and encouraged both
churches greatly.
Rev. Peter Davis engaged in pastoral work along with Rev.
John Davis. Rev. Lewis A. Davis engaged in missionary work,
giving his time largely to the interests of the Virginia
churches for the first two or three years, and then
transferring the field to his activity to the churches in
Ohio, where he and his wife, Rebecca, transferred their
membership from the New Salem Church to the Pike Church in
1833.
For a few years about this
time, the New Salem Church enjoyed a season of great
prosperity. From the Quarterly Meeting in February, 1829,
until the Quarterly Meeting in February, 1830, a period of
three months, seventy-two souls were added to the church.
In 1831, the Middle Island
Church was organized with twenty-nine members drawn from the
membership of the New Salem Church, and others soon
followed. This church was located at Lewisport (now West
Union), and included not only those who had settled on the
Meat House Fork of Middle Island Creek. These settlers lived
at a distance of from near Lewisport, and included the
numerous Bee families who with the Kelleys had come from
near Salem, New Jersey.
The
first book of records of the New Salem Church closes with
the minutes of the church meeting held April 11, 1834, and
contains the history of the church for a period of
eighty-nine years.
A new
record book was purchased, and the first entry made under date
of the final entry in the old book.
The over-lapping of records was
due to some of the troubles which overtook the church about
this time and pursued it for a period of twenty years; and
at two different times shook its foundations. These troubles
which appear to have been more or less closely related, seem
to fall into three classes, as follows:-
Doctrinal, organic, and
personal.
First.
Doctrinal. Rev. Peter Davis had arouses distrust as to
his orthodoxy as early as 1825, by the public avowal of
certain beliefs concerning the immortality of the soul. For
this, he was cited to appear before the bar of the church;
and pending his trial, was barred from communion. After a
space of nearly two years, the trouble was amicably adjusted
by a joint committee of the New Salem and Lost Creek
churches, which after listening to an explosion of his
views, could find nothing unscriptural in them, whereupon
the charges were dismissed, and he was restored to full
communion with the church.
Again
in 1834, a group of the membership living on Greenbrier Run,
including Rev. Peter Davis and Ezekiel Bee, refused to abide
by the covenant of the church, and declared themselves in
favour of open communion. This defection caused anxiety for
a time, but it finally subsided, and was forgotten in the
excitement of more threatening events.
Second. Organic. Early in the year 1834,
complaint was made to the church, the church meeting, that
two of its members had taken unlawful possession of the
church book, and that a third member had circulated "a
superscription to divide the church." At a subsequent
meeting, the two members charged with seizing the church
book were excommunicated. It was further decided that the
third offender "should be dealt with for taking an active
part in the division of the church."
The
church was now in a state of chaos, and unable to decide for
itself what its organic status was. It calls in a committee,
composed of members of the Lost Creek and Middle Island
churches, which decided that although the seceding party was
in possession of the records, it not only did not represent
the original organization, but it did not even have any
accepted or legal standing, whatever, and could be treated
only as a body of seeders. The decision of the joint
committee was not satisfactory, and the church appealed to
the General Conference, convened for its annual session at
DeRuyter, New York, in September, 1834. The General
Conference referred the questions involved to a special
committee, consisting of William B. Maxson, Martin Wilcox,
Daniel Coon, Joel Greene, and John Whitford. This committee
reported as follows:-
"From
sundry communications, it appears that a serious and unhappy
difficulty exists in the Salem, Va., church, which in the
opinion of the committee, is calculated to injure, if not to
prostrate the interest and influence of the churches of our
connection in that section of the country; and to us it
appears that the difficulty is of a character which would
render it very difficult to render them efficient aid by any
written communications. We therefore, suggest to the General
Conference, the propriety of sending two capable brethen to
assist them in reconciling their difficulties, and restoring
to them peace and good order; and that a letter be directed
to be written to them, entreating them to desist from
uncharitable of the committee to visit them."
The General Conference adopted
the report of the special committee, and appointed as the
committee to visit the New Salem Church, Joel Greene and
Nathan Greene.
But
one member of the committee, Rev. Joel Greene, was able to
visit Virginia, in accordance with the appointment of the
General Conference. He was assisted in his duties, however,
by Rev. Stillman Coon, who was at that time laboring among
Virginia churches.
At the annual session of the
General Conference held in September, of the following year
at Hopkinton, Rhode Island, Rev. Joel Greene, reported as
follows:-
"The undersigned, one of the committee appointed last
session to visit several Seventh Day Baptist churches in
Virginia, beg leave to report that we have visited those
churches, accompanied and assisted by Brother Stillman
Coon, our missionary in that quarter, and after a very
laborious and protracted investigation of the case of
the New Salem Church, had the happiness to see those
difficulties which so afflicted them and the friends of
Zion in that country entirely removed and settled, the
church again united and promising to live peacefully and
usefully in the world. "Joel Greene"
Third. Personal.
Disagreements and difficulties between individual members
were constantly brought before the church for adjustment;
but for the most part, they in no way disturbed the
equilibrium of the church. Nevertheless at about the time of
the difficulties just described, several things conspired to
make one of these personal difficulties an event of
portentous importance.
With
the establishment of the village of New Salem by the General
Assembly of Virginia, and the attendant appointment of
several members of the New Salem Church as trustees of the
village, came a gradual recognition of the civil courts as
the proper medium for the adjustment of business
differences; and gradually disagreements growing out of
business transactions ceased to be brought to the church for
settlement. The growth of sentiment in favour of this new
order of things was greatly facilitated by the fact that
several members of the church were elected to the office of
justice of the peace, in whose courts many of these cases
were tried. Jonathan Fitz Randolph and Nathan Davis were two
of the more prominent members of the church holding this
office. It naturally followed, then, that even the more
simple legal technicalities and formalities, such as are
accepted as a mere matter of course by the average citizen
of to-day, were more or less confusing to the minds of the
many to whom such things were wholly new and strange, and it
required several decades for them to become thoroughly
acquainted with the new regime.
Along
with the advent of the courts, with their more formal
methods of transacting business, came a demand on the part
of the more progressive business men of the church, that the
business of the church should be made more complete, and
more accurate. Complete the records never had been; and
hazy, ambiguous, and indefinite they often were. The minutes
of church meetings were originally written upon loose bits
of paper, which were taken home by the clerk of the church
and laid away to be transcribed at his convenience. Often
they were mislaid, and the records written up from memory
several weeks or months afterwards, or not transcribed at
all. More often than otherwise, the minutes were not
approved formally, by the church. This loose condition of
the records was aggravated by the fact that the business
meetings were held in different neighborhoods by turn,
several miles apart, necessitating several clerks pro
tempore, who often acted for but a single day.
These
facts will, at least partly, explain the fundamental causes
of the troubles, the general details of which follow;
troubles which again threatened the stability of the New
Salem Church, and which not only brought that church into
unpleasant relations with the Lost Creek Church, and the
Southwestern Association, but finally compelled the New
Salem church to repudiate it second book of records,
covering to repudiate its second book of records, covering a
period of upwards of thirteen years, as, in certain vital
respects, entirely untrustworthy, and to confess itself
wholly unable ever to correct the errors satisfactorily.
A
careful study of the records has been made by the present
writer, and untrustworthy, and to confess itself wholly
unable ever to correct the errors satisfactorily.
A
careful study of the records has been made by the present
writer, and untrustworthy as these records are, he believes
that the essential facts in the controversy are set forth in
this chapter.
At a
business meeting of the church held on May 20, 1831, Joshua
G. Davis preferred certain charges to the church against
William F. Randolph. These charges grew out of a suit at
law, before Nathan Davis, Esquire, a justice of the peace,
in which both Joshua G. Davis and William F. Randolph were
concerned. At the next business meeting of the church, all
but one of the charges were dismissed. This charge was
afterward referred to a committee of nice members, of which
Rev. Peter Davis was chairman. This committee reported that
in their opinion, an apology was due from William F.
Randolph. This he declined to make and, according to the
record on August 19, 1831, was debarred from communion.
After one or two further unsuccessful attempts to adjust the
difficulty, William F. Randolph was excommunicated from the
church, May 13, 1832. The affair remained in status quo
until August 9, 1835, when William F. Randolph appeared
before the church and made a satisfactory acknowledgement.
He was accordingly restored to membership, and the incident
was considered closed.
Page 41. That part of Western
Virginia, now the state of West Virginia, which is occupied
by the Seventh Day Baptist, previous to its occupation by
white men, had been the home of the Mound Builders and of
the Indians. It lies but a few miles southeast of
Moundsville, now one of the prominent towns of West
Virginia, which takes its name from a large conical mound at
that place. This mound is one of the noted pre-historic
monuments of America. When it was opened in 1838, there was
found a sculptured stone covered with unknown characters,
which J. W. Powell, director of the United States Bureau of
Ethnology describes as follows:- "Four of the characters
correspond to the ancient Greek, four to the Etruscan, five
to the Norse, six to the Gaelic, seven to the old Erse, and
ten to the "Phoenician." While these characters are
generally accepted as the same as those of the Pelasgi and
other early Mediterranean people, it is not unlikely that
ultimately they will be accepted as a highly refined type of
the pictorial or ideographic charter common to the early
inhabitants of North America.
This
mound is two hundred and forty-five feet in diameter at the
base, seventy-nine feet in height, in shape like the frustum
of a cone, with a flat apex fifty feet across. Other similar
mounds of smaller dimensions have been found in the more
immediate vicinity of the Seventh Day Baptists in West
Virginia.
Page 126.
April 17, 1819 The following were received into the church
by Rev. John Davis:- George J. Davis, son of William, of
Greenbrier, Asenath Hughes, Leah Hughes, Hannah Hughes
Rachel Sutton.
April 18, 1819. The
following were received into the church:- Dudley Hughes, son
of Jonathan, Jonathan Howell, Catherine Davis, wife of
George .
J. Davis, Anna Davis
May 14, 1819. Abigail
Hughes, wife of Jonathan Hughes, was received into the
church.
May 15, 1819. The
following were received into the church by Rev. John Davis:-
Phineas Davis, Rhulanah Davis, Jesse Davis, Gamble Shannon
July 18, 1819. The
following were receives into the church by Rev. John Davis:-
Elisabeth Davis, wife of William Davis of Greenbrier, John
Sutton William Davis, son of "Bottom William," Rachel Davis,
Vienna Davis, Charity Levenston (Livingsston?).
August 21, 1819. The
following were received into the church by Rev. John Davis:-
Betsey Davis, wife of James Davis, Sylvester Davis, Lydia
Davis, Jepthah Davis, Elizabeth
Howel, Keziah Davis, Lydia Brown, Experience Davis, Jane
Davis, Jacob Maxson, son of Simeon, Rebekah Maxson, Joshua
Davis, so of William, Catherine Davis, wife of Joshua,
Samuel F. Randolph, (son of Jessee?), John Loofbore, Lewis
Davis.
Sept 19, 1819. The
following were received into the church:- Ezekiel Brown,
Tacy Brown, Elisabeth Davis, wife of "Bottom William,",
Elisabeth Davis, wife of William, son of Nathan.
November 20, 1819.
Content Davis was received into the church by Rev. John
Davis.
March 19, 1820; John
Davis, son of Rev. John Davis, was baptized and received
into the church by Rev. John Davis.
August 18, 1820. Leah
Stutler is recorded as a member of the church.
October 21, 1820. Tacy
Davis was received into the church.
May 17, 1821. James
Jarvis was received into the church by Rev. John Davis.
May 17, 1822. Ephraim
Bee was Received into the church by Rev. John Davis.
Page 47
In
1789, when the Shrewsbury Church started for New Salem, the
number of counties comprising the present state of West
Virginia had increased to nine, which, at the time West
Virginia was organized as a state and admitted into the
Union in 1863, had reached fifty in number. The counties in
which the Seventh Day Baptist churches are now located, or
have been located, number six as follows:-Braxton,
Doddridge, Gilmer, Harrison, Lewis, and Ritchie; but the
church membership has extended into the counties of Barbour,
Lewis, Monongalia, Roane, Upshur, Webster, and Wood,
besides.
As previously stated, the
territory occupied by the Seventh Day Baptist churches of
West Virginia all lies between the Ohio River on the west,
and Monongahela River with its branches on the east. A deed
for this territory was made by the Six Nations of Indians to
William Trent and others, November 3, 1768, twenty-one years
previous to the setting out of the Church from Shrewsbury,
Monmouth County, New Jersey, for the state of Virginia, in
September, 1789.
This
church gives us no record of its history from that time
until the 13th of May, 1792, nearly three years
afterward. In the meantime, they had in all probability gone
in a very leisurely manner, through Pennsylvania, stopping
at various places with friends, and acquaintances, and
possibly some of their settling in the southwestern part of
the present county of Fayette Pennsylvania, in the vicinity
of the Woodbridgetown Seventh Day Baptist Church of that
county. Thence they crossed over the Cheat River into the
western Virginia, some settling for a time being on White
Day Creek in Monongalia County, and later the most of them
making their way across the Monongahela, following up the
West Fork of that river, thence up Ten Mile Creek branch of
the West Fork River to the head waters of the Middle Fork of
Tem Mile Creek. Here lay a tract of land which had been
surveyed on the 20th of January, 1786, for Joseph
Swearingen, the son of Catherine Swearinggen, whose husband,
John Swearingen, had been adjudged owner, of this land by
the commissioners appointed for adjusting the claims to
unpatented lands in the District of West Augusta, comprising
the counties of Monongalia, Yohogania, and Ohio and who had
issued to John Swearingen a certificate of right of
residence. On this tract of four hundred acres, two hundren
and fifty-six acres, extending for a mile and a half along
the valley and embracing the most of the present village of
Salem, was sold in turn by Catherine Swearingen on the 26th
of November, 1790, to Samuel Fitz Randolph of Fayette
County, Pennsylvania, who bonded himself in the sum of one
hundred and thirty-two pounds, ten shillings, and five
pence, Virginia money, for its payment.
Samuel
Fitz Randolph, himself a Seventh Day Baptist of Puritan
descent, had formerly resided in the town of Piscataway,
Middlesex County, New Jersey, where he was born in October,
1738. After service in the Revolutionary War as ensign in
the Second Regiment of Militia of Sussex County, New Jersey,
he had become interested in lands of Major Benjamin Stites
of Redstone, Fayette County, Pennsylvania, who in the winter
of 1786, visited New York, where Congress was at that time
in session, for the purpose of purchasing a tract of land
lying between the two Miamis in Ohio. He interested John
Cleves Symmes, a representative in Congress from New Jersey,
whose aid he solicited in his efforts to effect his proposed
purchase. Symmes because so favorably impressed with the
reports of this country, that he visited it himself and
purchased a million acres of land lying between the Great
and Little Miamis. Symmes soon afterward sold ten thousand
(10,000) acres to Major Stites, who led the first party,
some eighteen or twenty in number, to this section. It was
this movement which drew the little Church of Shrewsbury
into its current and carried it along as far as the
Redstone Country, whence it was deflected south into
Virginia.
Sometime before the departure
of the church from Shrewsbury, Samuel Fitz Randolph had
purchased of Mary Hodgson three hundred acres of land
situated on Yellow Creek of Armstrong Township of
Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania. This purchase was
effected on the 16th of April, 1785, and the land
lay a little to the north of Redstone. On November
21, 1785, he purchased eight hundred acres of land to be
selected by himself from a tract of five thousand acres
owned by Robert Martin, situated in the town of
Northumberland tract, from the description contained in the
deed, evidently was entirely virgin forest; while upon the
three hundred acres in the south-western part of the state,
had been built a dwelling house and several farm buildings,
and the land was at least partly under cultivation. Here he
went to make his home sometime between November 21, 1785,
and November 26, 1790. At the time of the purchase of the
land at New Salem, he was beyond question a resident of
Fayette County, Pennsylvania.
Below are the maps illustrating the land bought by the
members of the Seventh Day Baptist Church of Shrewsbury, New
Jersey.
Revised September 07, 2007