was an American pioneer

Henry Crooks b. 1743

/ Kirstin Miller

Henry Crooks 5th great grandpa on RootsMagic tree

Henry Crooks was born in 1743, probably in Maryland to William and Mary Weir Crooks. In 1768 or so Henry married Jane Howlett. Henry and Jane had 7 kids. By 1786 Henry, his brothers, his wife’s family and other families from Harford County, MD were in Washington County Pennsylvania, a 200 mile journey. They all farmed on land they owned and paid taxes on properties and possessions. The 1798 taxes for Henry show his home, 1 dwelling valued at $20, and 200 acres of land valued at $1620.

Crooks 1798 taxes

Henry was a widow in 1816, he was 73 and lived 25 more years, he died in 1831 at age 88. Henry’s will is at Ancestry . com, a typed up record. He named his children in the will with his son Henry and friend James McAdams as executors.

“In the name of God Amen, I Henry Crooks Senior of Robinson Township in the county of Washington, being in an afflicted state of body, but having a sound mind and understanding (thanks be to the Almighty God for the same) being mindful of my mortality, do make and constitute this my last will and Testament. First and principally, I recommend my immortal Spirit to God who gave it, in hopes of a joyful resurrection, and my body to the earth (when it shall please God to separate my soul and body) to be buried decently at the discretion of my executors. And as to my worldly estate wherewith it hath pleased God to bless me with I give and depose thereof as follows, after my lawful debts and funeral expenses being paid. I do leave and bequeath to my son William Crooks two dollars, to my son Andrew Crooks two dollars, to my son Henry Crooks two dollars to my son John Crooks two dollars to my daughter Jane now wife of John Burns two dollars also to my daughter Mary McKillip two dollars, likewise and all the residue to my daughter Margeret Crooks to be paid to her at the discretion of my executors as to time and manner. I do nominate and appoint my friends James McAdams and Henry Crooks my son to be my executors of this my last will and testament. I publish and declare this and none other to be my last will and testament. In Witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and seal this thirteenth day of July in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and twenty five.
Henry Crooks Sr (Seal)
Signed and sealed in the presnece of John R McEwen, John Crooks,
Washington County ss: Be it remembered, that on the 21st day of March A D 1831 Before William Hoge Deputy Register”

Sources

Andrew Crooks b. 1773

/ Kirstin Miller

Andrew Crooks 4th great grandpa on RootsMagic tree.

Andrew was born in Maryland in 1773 and grew up in Harford County, about 50 miles northeast of Baltimore. A 1776 colonial census shows Andrew 3 years old, with his dad Henry, mom Jane Howlett, older brother William, younger sister Margaret and Elizabeth Kerby who could have been a relative, nanny or servant. In Harford County, Broadcreek Hundred in the population of 342 there was one Crooks family and a couple Howlett families.

Crooks family 1776 US census

Around 1795 Andrew married Elizabeth Jeffrey from Pennsylvania. Andrew and she had 7 kids. Elizabeth died in 1818 at age 39. Andrew then married Margaret Allen, they had 4 kids. Andrew was a farmer, his sons helped him farm.

Andrew wrote his will on January 8, 1849 and died on January 8, 1849. In the will Andrew provides for his widow and all children with lands or money. Each daughter received $100 including Elizabeth who was living in French Creek, PA and married to William Stewart. By 1860 Elizabeth and William were in Wisconsin, the in 1870 lived in Shell Rock, Iowa where their youngest daughter Elizabeth married Manford Speedy in 1873. Daughter Elizabeth Crooks Stewart was the only child of Andrew to make it to Iowa. Youngest son Andrew went to Missouri, all other kids stayed in Pennsylvania.

Sources

Andrew Malone and Mary b. 1775

/ Kirstin Miller

Andrew Malone 5th great grandpa on RoostMagic tree

Andrew Malone was born about 1775 in Pennsylvania, Mary was born about the same time and probably near the same place. They married around 1795. Mary’s last name and parents are unknown. The 1820 census shows Andrew and Mary lived in Washington Township, Franklin County, PA about 40 miles northwest of Baltimore  They lived in Franklin County until 1828 or 1829 when the family moved west. Andrew and Mary were in their 50s, their kids were in their 20s, 30s. Maybe a son or daughter in law joined the journey. If the family drove their horse and wagon 10 miles every day the 258 mile journey to Stark, Ohio would have taken about 35 days.

Families moving west in the 1800s dealt with some things. Once they arrived at their new home, “earlier settlers … were confronted with two sets of problems: the one concerned with shelter, food, health, and protection – things vital and immediate … the other with ownership of land, transportation, and currency – things necessary for his economic advancement … Without the successful solution to the first, there was little need to worry about the second”.

In Stark County, Ohio, the Malone family joined an already established  community of German American  farmers from Pennsylvania. Their Ohio neighbors may have been their same Pennsylvania neighbors: Bair, Fryberger, Harter and Miller families. The community stepped up, pitched in, helped out to make the move easier for the new arrivals.

Andrew and Mary’s children married and had families in Stark. Their daughter Margaret married George Bair, grandparents of Fianna Druckenbrod who with her husband William Miller moved further west to  Bremer County Iowa.

Malone, 1850 Ohio

1850 US census Stark, Ohio

The 1850 US census shows Andrew lived with daughter Margaret, her husband George Bair and their young family. Every person on the census page is born in Germany, Pennsylvania or Ohio. Most are farmers, with  a blacksmith, carpenter and a couple laborers.

Sources

  • Pennsylvania, Septennial Census, 1779-1863 at Ancestry
  • United States Census, 1850 at FamilySearch

John Kryder b. 1736

/ Kirstin Miller

John Kryder 6th great grandpa on RootsMagic tree

John or Johann was born in France, Germany or Pennsylvania on or around April 22, 1736, sources vary. By 1767 he was definitely in Pennsylvania where he married Ann Maria Fuchs or Fox. John and Ann had at least 5 children born between 1768 and 1775 in the area of Lancaster, PA.

John and family were part of the German American Pennsylvania community. During the American Revolution they were in the Big Runaway of 1778: “The Big Runaway was a mass evacuation in June and July 1778 of settlers from the frontier areas of what is now north central Pennsylvania during the American Revolutionary War.” The locals knew of the dangers because of the war, had requested aid: rifles, armed men from the Continental Congress, none of it arrived in time. So everyone fled with livestock and whatever possessions they could carry. Books and movies could be made about this one event, it’s huge and lasted through 1779 when the American gov’t committed more aid to “security of the frontier”.

Kryder John bacon and beef soldJohn sold bacon and beef to the Continental Army during the American Revolution. His neighbor George Marquart had the mutton and Jacob Yeiser provided the brandy. At some point John fought in the American Revolution. There’s no military records yet, but his headstones recognize his service in the American Revolution and the French Indian Wars. John has a headstone probably original from his death in 1803 and then a newer marker which his descendants set out out in 1994.

Sources

Margaret Malone b. 1818

/ Kirstin Miller

Margaret Malone 4th great grandma on RootsMagic tree

Margaret was born in Pennsylvania on June 30, 1818, the daughter of Andrew and Mary Malone. By 1830 the Malone family was in Stark County, Ohio. On the 1830 US census Margaret’s family shows a total of 6 people. Before 1850 only men’s names were recorded, women and children in the home were tick marks. The 1830 census has Andrew and Mary Malone with 4 kids, a son 20-29, Margret and another daughter 10-14 and a daughter 15-19. No names or information for any of Margaret’s siblings yet.

In Ohio on March 24, 1836 Margaret married George Bair. George’s family was also from Pennsylvania and moved to Ohio in 1805. Ohio’s population was 45,000 in 1800 then 1.4 million in 1840 with lots of German Americans coming to Ohio from PA. Margaret and George Bair had 5 kids: 4 daughters and a son. Their oldest child Elizabeth Harter Bair married Samuel Druckenbrod whose daughter Fiana Druckenbrod lived with her grandparents for at least one year. Fianna married William Miller in Ohio and they moved to Bremer County, Iowa where their daughter Lola married another William Miller and had a son Faber Miller.

Bairs, Malone, Millers, Kryders in Plain Ohio.

Margaret and George, their neighbors the Bairs, Kryders, Millers

Margaret and George farmed. An 1870 atlas of Stark County show Margaret and George’s land, surrounded by relatives all around. Close neighbors left to right: J and WL Miller, JM Kryder, Franklin Bair, JH Bair, JS Miller and George Bair and Margaret’s land at bottom right.

George and Margaret are both buried at Saint Jacobs Lutheran Cemetery, in Stark County. They share a headstone. Margaret died in 1894, 2 years after her husband.

Sources

Thomas Glenn b. 1766

/ Kirstin Miller

Thomas Glenn, my 4th great grandpa on RootsMagic tree

Thomas Glenn was born on March 4, 1766 in Pennsylvania. His parents were Thomas and Elizabeth, newly discovered ancestors, maybe from Coleraine, County Londonderry, Ireland, not a lot of facts and records yet. His dad most likely came to America with others from Ireland at the beginning of the Irish Potato Famine.

Thomas Glenn married Jane Bromfield on May 12, 1789 in Cumberland, Pennsylvania at the Presbyterian church. Thomas and Nancy probably had 10-12 children and farmed in Island Creek, Jefferson County, Ohio. Thomas fought in the War of 1812, a major in Andrews Regiment, Ohio Militia.

There was a cholera epidemic in Ohio that began in 1830. Both Thomas and his daughter Elizabeth died of cholera. Thomas was 82, Elizabeth was 55. Thomas is buried at Island Creek Cemetery in Toronto, Jefferson County, Ohio, in the “Pioneer Section”.

The 1850 US census mortality schedule database proving Thomas and Elizabeth’s deaths is little morbid but packed with family history information and at the bottom, a note of about the crops, land soil and cholera in the area. “The above township is well adapted to raising wheat crop, oats and indeed almost kind of product common to this country. The land is rolling but little broken rich and fertile soil mostly limestone. Wheat and apple crop … in 1849 of the farmers … our third crops better … the cholera carried off many of the citizens in 1849” Some of the note is unreadable.

Glenn, Thomas and Elizabeth 1850 mortality schedule
Thomas Glenn and daughter Elizabeth Speedy 1850 mortality schedule


Sources

  • Ohio Tax Records, 1800-1850 at FamilySearch
  • United States War of 1812 Index to Service Records at FamilySearch
  • United States Census (Mortality Schedule), 1850 at FamilySearch

Catherine Kryder b. 1775

/ Kirstin Miller

Catherine Kryder 4th great aunt on Roots Magic tree

Catherine was born May 8, 1775 in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania to John and Anna Maria Fuchs/Fox Kryder. Parents John and Anna both migrated from Germany and married, raised their family in Lancaster, PA, “By 1775, Germans constituted about one-third of the population of the state.” [At Wikipedia with sources.] Catherine was the youngest in the Kryder family. Her older sister Anna Maria married Johann Fryberger and they left for Ohio where their daughter Elizabeth married Henry Miller and their son Peter moved on to Bremer County, Iowa where his son William had a daughter Lola, mom of Faber Miller.

Catherine’s parents and siblings and her husband and children are recorded in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, Mennonite Vital Records, 1750-2014. These are individual index cards, 1000s of cards, typed up to track local family histories. The cards are part of the Lancaster Mennonite Historical Society, still in Lancaster, PA right next door to the Tanger Outlet Center. Mennonites are/were an Anabaptist group committed to peace and pacifism, following the ministry of Jesus. Mennonites were named for Menno Simons of Friesland, Netherlands who was a contemporary of Martin Luther and other Protestant leaders. A person could spend months learning about the history of and current Mennonite religion.

Back in PA, Catherine married Michael Hess in 1795. Catherine and Michael had 11 kids, 9 stayed in Pennsylvania, son Benjamin left for Kansas, daughter Anna left for Illinois. Michael was a soldier in the American Revolution. The only record, so far, of his service is a veteran’s burial index. One of his soldier benefits may have been the chance to buy land. In 1818 Michael bought 100 acres of unimproved land from the US gov’t at 10 pounds per acre. Michael and Catherine with their family and, probably, helpful neighbors would have turned this unimproved land into a homestead and farm, with their hands and tools, machinery of the 1800s. They would have built up a house, barns, fences, water wells, chairs, beds and hundreds of other things.

Catherine and Michael’s family are connected through marriage with other Miller relatives: Bair, Druckenbrod and Harter- families that started in Pennsylvania, moved on to Ohio, then on to Iowa. Catherine and Michael are buried at Stover Cemetery in Aaronsburg, Pennsylvania, an older country cemetery.

Sources

Deborah Angell b. 1639

/ Kirstin Miller

Deborah Angell 8th great aunt on RootsMagic tree.

Deborah was born in Providence, Rhode Island in 1639. Her dad Thomas Angell and mom Alice Ashton were ‘banished’ from Massachusetts and left for Rhode Island with Roger Williams then in 1636 founded Providence, RI. The census of 1636 shows 10 families, 25 households in Providence. Elizabeth Speedy and her ancestors are related to 4 of those 10 families: Angell, Arnold, Smith and Williams.

Angell, Deborah marriageDeborah Angell married Stephen Sabeere on November 7, 1668. Deborah and Stephen lived in Providence all their lives and had at least 3 children. Deborah Sabeere is in her mom and dad’s wills. Her dad leaves her shillings, her mom leaves her clothing, woolens and linens, a chamber pot and some wooden trays.

Angell, Thomas and Alice wills

Just like us in modern times, our ancestors argued, disagreed, fought then compromised, made-up and worked together for the good of the cause. In November of 1672 Stephen Sabeere and neighbor Henry Palmer traded insults: Stephen Sebeere called Henry Palmer’s wife a witch, Henry called Stephen a French dog and rouge. Both men were in court on November 19, 1672 and each had to acknowledge their error in judgment.

Sources

 

Pleasant Davis and Sarah Horton b. 1790

/ Kirstin Miller

Pleasant Davis and Sarah Horton, are most likely, 4th great grandparents on RootsMagic tree.

Pleasant Davis and Sarah Horton were both born in Virginia around 1790. They married on September 9, 1806 in Virginia. Pleasant fought in the War of 1812: 87th Regiment, Virginia Militia, he was a private. An Indiana death certificate for daughter Susan Davis Black has both Peasant Davis and Sarah Horton on the record. Proving Sarah Davis -great grandma of Faber Miller- is their daughter has no factual records but has some probable records. There is the book ‘A tabulation of the descendants of Joseph Horton : a soldier of the American Revolution’ a published family history with reference to Horton Davis who went to Iowa- probably Sarah Davis’s brother. Also there is a family history compilation, not quite a book, some of it shared on Ancestry, that may be the reason Florence Miller, sister of Faber, and Ellen Mitchel 1st cousin 1x removed of Faber and Florence, wrote up notes on their ancestors to share with the person working on the family history, way before online family history existed. And Sarah Davis and Jacob Miller named sons: James Davis, Horton and Pleasant Miller; common to carry on family names, maiden names of mothers. 

Burdine's letter

Sources

Jacob Miller and Mary Stephenson b. 1771

/ Kirstin Miller

Jacob Miller and Mary Stephenson on RootsMagic tree

Jacob Miller was born in 1771 in Monroe, Virginia. Mary Stephenson was born in 1772 in Virginia. They share a single record, their marriage on July 2,1802 in the commonwealth of Virginia. Jacob’s dad Jacob and Mary’s dad Samuel gave permission for the marriage and signed the marriage certificate. The Miller, Stephenson, Pleasant Davis and Horton families were all connected in Virginia, then Ohio. Jacob and Mary’s son Jacob married Sarah Davis. Sarah Davis Miller’s mom’s family is the Horton family and they have a published family history that may give more clues to Jacob Miller and Mary Stephenson of Virginia.Miller, Jacob Sr marriage 1802

Their wedding record, “Know all men by these presents that we Jacob Miller and Samuel Stephenson are hold and firmly bound into James Monroe, Esq gov’r of the commonwealth of Virginia and his supervisors in sum of 150 dollars with condition that there is no lawful cause to obstruct a marriage intended to be solemnized between the said Jacob Miller and Mary Stephenson of this county and that this obligation to be void otherwise to be, and remain in full force and virtue sealed with our seals and dated this third day of July eighteen hundred and two. Jacob Miller , his mark and Saml Stephenson.”

Sources

  • West Virginia Marriages1780-1970 database at FamilySearch
  • Public Ancestry photo “Nicole Meruvia originally shared this on 09 Jan 2012”