Isaac Evans [Parents] ¹ was born ¹ on 3 Dec 1789. He died ¹ on 14 Feb 1875. Isaac married ¹ Mary Wallace in Apr 1827.

Other marriages:

Morton, Jane P.
Peoples, Jane

THE EVANS FAMILY (by Zorbaugh, Charles Louis, 1941)

The Isaac Evans Home

The home of Isaac Evans, where my grandmother, Cynthia Evans McClure, was born, was on a farm just at the edge of South Salem, Ohio. The original house was destroyed by fire years ago, and replaced with another. I have visited the place two or three times, preached in the old South Salem Church where Isaac Evans was an elder for forty years, and seen his tombstone and those of his wives in the cemetery by the church.

South Salem was an Evans center for many years, and its famous academy, now converted into the village library, was an educational center, not only for the Evanses, but for many well known people. None of the Evans name is now left in the village, but the morning I preached there I was told that probably eighty per cent of the congregation were related to me through intermarriages with the Evanses.

Isaac Evans Describes Himself - He says: "I joined the Presbyterian Church at 21. I was not a swearer, but did something for 'the old boy.' Have been an elder in the South Salem Church for forty years. I opposed slavery and joined the Abolition Society at an early day. The organization went into politics. I thought this was helping the Democrats, and left them."

Reminiscences of William M. Evans: He recalls his grandfather as a prominent, conservative, old-fashioned man in the South Salem community. 'He was deeply religious, and so considered by all who knew him. . . He was active in building both Salem Academy and the Presbyterian Church. . . His educational advantages were limited: yet he was a student of church history and of the Scriptures. . . had a remarkable knowledge of the Bible and insight into its meaning conducted family worship morning and evening in his home

Scripture reading, hymn singing (lined out), and prayer. The words of his family prayers were deeply impressive. The petitions, dignified, reverential, commonly ended with "world without end, Amen."

"He was a Republican, an abolitionist, a teetotaler, opposed to Free Masonry, a loyal citizen and a staunch Presbyterian, friend of Negroes fleeing from the South, and a generous contributor to foreign missions. . . Grandfather was hard of hearing-frequently sat on pulpit steps to hear the sermon. But his vision was extraordinarily good. He never used spectacles, and could read daily paper by candle light. . . Grandfather was kind-hearted, very charitable to the sincere belief of others, but warned us vs. the frivolities of Christmas celebrations (too much R. C.) and beware of the Methodist wild fire."

Written down in the back of an early book of minutes of the session of the South Salem Church is a protest, lodged by Isaac Evans against an action of the session, and signed by his own hand in tall trembling letters, he being at the time about eighty. I have myself seen it, and it is so interesting that I give it here:

"The Elders and Deacons of South Salem Presbyterian Church having at a meeting recently held granted the request of the Choir to use an instrument of music for a few Sabbaths by way of experiment: I, Isaac Evans, a ruling elder in said church, being conscientiously opposed to the use of instrumental music in the worship of God; as having no authority in the New Testament but forbidden in Revelation 20:18; as having its origin and chief support in the Roman Catholic Apostasy;  and as tending to foster a spirit of worldliness in the Church; and as working against congregational singing-; and at the same time having no disposition to enforce my conscientious convictions as laws upon others-do hereby enter my solemn protest against such action in order that my conscience may be relieved of complicity in the matter and I still continue to retain my place as member of and Elder in South Salem Congregation.

And it is my desire that this protest shall go upon the permanent records of the Church both for my own satisfaction and for the information of others.

And that this is my own act I hereunto subscribe my name this fifth day of April, 1871. - ISAAC EVANS."

Having lived his long life, been married three times, and had thirteen children born to him, Isaac Evans died Feb. 14, 1878, at 86 years of age. In the South Salem Cemetery he and his three wives lie sleeping, and I have spent musing hours wandering there, reading their stones, and those of others, like the Bradens and Heizers, whose representatives were among the emigrants from the neighborhood who went to Iowa along with the McClures and settled in the Mediapolis neighborhood. [THE EVANS FAMILY (by Zorbaugh, Charles Louis, 1941)_]

Mary Wallace died ¹ on 29 Sep 1836. Mary married ¹ Isaac Evans in Apr 1827.

Isaac Evans [Parents] ¹ was born ¹ on 3 Dec 1789. He died ¹ on 14 Feb 1875. Isaac married ¹ Jane Peoples on 6 Jul 1837.

Other marriages:

Morton, Jane P.
Wallace, Mary

THE EVANS FAMILY (by Zorbaugh, Charles Louis, 1941)

The Isaac Evans Home

The home of Isaac Evans, where my grandmother, Cynthia Evans McClure, was born, was on a farm just at the edge of South Salem, Ohio. The original house was destroyed by fire years ago, and replaced with another. I have visited the place two or three times, preached in the old South Salem Church where Isaac Evans was an elder for forty years, and seen his tombstone and those of his wives in the cemetery by the church.

South Salem was an Evans center for many years, and its famous academy, now converted into the village library, was an educational center, not only for the Evanses, but for many well known people. None of the Evans name is now left in the village, but the morning I preached there I was told that probably eighty per cent of the congregation were related to me through intermarriages with the Evanses.

Isaac Evans Describes Himself - He says: "I joined the Presbyterian Church at 21. I was not a swearer, but did something for 'the old boy.' Have been an elder in the South Salem Church for forty years. I opposed slavery and joined the Abolition Society at an early day. The organization went into politics. I thought this was helping the Democrats, and left them."

Reminiscences of William M. Evans: He recalls his grandfather as a prominent, conservative, old-fashioned man in the South Salem community. 'He was deeply religious, and so considered by all who knew him. . . He was active in building both Salem Academy and the Presbyterian Church. . . His educational advantages were limited: yet he was a student of church history and of the Scriptures. . . had a remarkable knowledge of the Bible and insight into its meaning conducted family worship morning and evening in his home

Scripture reading, hymn singing (lined out), and prayer. The words of his family prayers were deeply impressive. The petitions, dignified, reverential, commonly ended with "world without end, Amen."

"He was a Republican, an abolitionist, a teetotaler, opposed to Free Masonry, a loyal citizen and a staunch Presbyterian, friend of Negroes fleeing from the South, and a generous contributor to foreign missions. . . Grandfather was hard of hearing-frequently sat on pulpit steps to hear the sermon. But his vision was extraordinarily good. He never used spectacles, and could read daily paper by candle light. . . Grandfather was kind-hearted, very charitable to the sincere belief of others, but warned us vs. the frivolities of Christmas celebrations (too much R. C.) and beware of the Methodist wild fire."

Written down in the back of an early book of minutes of the session of the South Salem Church is a protest, lodged by Isaac Evans against an action of the session, and signed by his own hand in tall trembling letters, he being at the time about eighty. I have myself seen it, and it is so interesting that I give it here:

"The Elders and Deacons of South Salem Presbyterian Church having at a meeting recently held granted the request of the Choir to use an instrument of music for a few Sabbaths by way of experiment: I, Isaac Evans, a ruling elder in said church, being conscientiously opposed to the use of instrumental music in the worship of God; as having no authority in the New Testament but forbidden in Revelation 20:18; as having its origin and chief support in the Roman Catholic Apostasy;  and as tending to foster a spirit of worldliness in the Church; and as working against congregational singing-; and at the same time having no disposition to enforce my conscientious convictions as laws upon others-do hereby enter my solemn protest against such action in order that my conscience may be relieved of complicity in the matter and I still continue to retain my place as member of and Elder in South Salem Congregation.

And it is my desire that this protest shall go upon the permanent records of the Church both for my own satisfaction and for the information of others.

And that this is my own act I hereunto subscribe my name this fifth day of April, 1871. - ISAAC EVANS."

Having lived his long life, been married three times, and had thirteen children born to him, Isaac Evans died Feb. 14, 1878, at 86 years of age. In the South Salem Cemetery he and his three wives lie sleeping, and I have spent musing hours wandering there, reading their stones, and those of others, like the Bradens and Heizers, whose representatives were among the emigrants from the neighborhood who went to Iowa along with the McClures and settled in the Mediapolis neighborhood. [THE EVANS FAMILY (by Zorbaugh, Charles Louis, 1941)_]

Jane Peoples died ¹ on 20 Oct 1872. Jane married ¹ Isaac Evans on 6 Jul 1837.

Richard Evans [Parents] was born on 6 Jun 1764. He died ¹ on 26 Mar 1855. Richard married Mary Pearce.

Richard Evans, son of Hugh Evans, was born June 6, 1764, and died March 26, 1855. His wife, Mary Pearce, was born Aug. 17, 1774, and died Dec. 26, 1858.

Richard Evans is described as short, heavy-set, nervous, so that he would twirl his thumbs rapidly, brisk, a good talker, and a strict church member who observed the Sabbath. His wife, Mary Pearce, is described as nice-looking, well filled out, medium complexion, eyes gray or blue, hair dark brown, a consistent church member but "not so punctual" as her husband.

He would not allow any ornaments on the table, nor let her wear veils or ear-rings. They had been children together in George’s Creek Settlement, near Uniontown, Pa., and the story is that one clay little Mary Pearce was in her cradle and began to cry, and her mother, with her hands in the dough, told Dick to rock the baby and he could have her for a wife. He used often to tell this with a laugh. They were married when she was 14, and lived together 66 years.

Isaac Evans says of Richard Evans: "Father was 25 when he married Mary Pearce. Her father was a hard-working, industrious, wicked man. Her mother was a Baptist. My father was a man of extraordinary good judgment; more than ordinarily active. He was a judge of the old Court of Common Pleas. A heavy-set man, five feet eight inches tall. Well off for the times. Owned 1100 acres of land. His home place of 800 acres was the best in the county. Died age 93."

Richard Evans was an elder in the Hillsboro Church, and, like all the Evanses, a Whig in politics.

In his History, Scott says: "Richard Evans started with his family from Kentucky in March, 1800, there being considerable snow on the ground. The first detachment consisted of a strong team, two horses and two oxen, hitched to a large sled, with a pretty capacious bed prepared for the purpose and filled with such things as were most needed, leaving the remainder to come in the wagon when the ground got firm. The snow lasted till they reached their new home in the midst of the unbroken forest. But little time remained to clear out the bottom and prepare it for corn, and it was a heavy job. But first of all sugar had to be made, for there was none to be obtained in any other way. They went to work in good heart, and made enough sugar for the year, cleared out the ground, and by the last of May had eight or ten acres fenced in and ready to plant. By that time the wagon had arrived from Kentucky with a supply of seed corn, seed potatoes and a little flour, which was a great rarity in those days and mostly came down the river from Pennsylvania. The wagon also brought a good supply of corn meal, which was the main dependence for bread. The first corn planted on the farm . . . was planted on the last day of May and the first day of June, 1800. The soil being loose and rich, the corn grew rapidly and yielded an abundant crop, sufficient for the family and some to spare, while pumpkins, potatoes and turnips grew in large quantities. When the corn began to ripen and that was not any too soon, for the meal tub was almost empty -the question was how to get it ground, for there was no mill. At first a tin grater answered the purpose, but soon the corn got too hard. Richard Evans was, however, equal to the emergency, so he went to work and constructed what was called a sweat mill, which fully supplied the wants for a time. Many doubtless are curious to know what a sweat mill is. In the first place a sycamore gum about three feet long and two feet in the hollow, then a broad stone is dressed, and a small hole bored in the middle of it. This stone is nicely fitted in the head of the gum, the face about nine inches below the top; then another is made to fit exactly on the face of the first, having a considerable hole in which to throw the corn with the hand. Then a hand pole with an iron spike in the end to work in a small shallow hole near the outer edge of the surface of the top stone. The upper end of this stick is fastened some feet above the head, and as the upper stone is hung on a spindle that passes through the lower one, it can be turned by hand very easily, and grind pretty fast."

The Evans Settlement on Clear Creek was the pioneer neighborhood north of New Market. When they settled, in 1800, the Indians were the only neighbors they had. The Indians were quite numerous, and very sociable. The new settlers raised a great crop of watermelons on the rich bottom the first summer, and when they ripened gave them freely to the Indian neighbors, who were delighted with them. They called them pumpkins," says Scott, 'never before having seen a watermelon."

They did not fence in their corn patch the first years, there being nothing to fence against, except the deer and turkeys. The surrounding woods were covered with wild rye, and afforded abundant and excellent pasture for horses and cattle; so all these farmers had to do with their horses when they were not using them was to put bells on them and turn them loose in the woods to keep them fine and fat.

Scott, in his History, tells some very interesting stories about the Indians in the Clear Creek neighborhood, and the experiences the Evanses had with them. There is the story of how Mrs: Samuel Evans, being alone in the house, was surprised by a visit from upwards of thirty Indians" who asked for something to eat, and how she cooked up a feast for them; of the Indian who pilfered corn from the crib; and of how, when the Indians traveled, they would load the pappooses in large leather sacks on the sacks of the ponies, balanced sometimes, on the other side, by a dog sticking his head out of his bag.

Ordinarily the Indians were peaceable enough, but now and then there was trouble, and the settlers had to be alert always. It was in 1795 that General Anthony Wayne, after winning the Battle of Fallen Timbers, got the Indians to sign the Greenville Treaty, and for the most part they kept it. Scott’s History does not speak of any serious trouble with them ever breaking Out in the Clear Creek Settlement.

In 1802 there was great excitement in the settlement when word came from below New Market that a child was lost in the woods. All the settlers for miles around turned out, each with rifle in hand, to help hunt for the child; but after scouring the woods for three weeks, finding here and there some trace, in the end they had to abandon the search, and the lost child was never found or heard of again.

Richard Evans was the first of the name in Ohio to sit on the bench. In Scott’s History there is mention of him as one of the Associate Judges 'at a Court of Common Pleas begun and held in the town of New Market on the 11th day of June, 1806,' and the record shows that he continued to serve on the bench till 1811, being present that year at a session held on March 26.

The Evans family has had at least two other representatives on the bench: Judge William Edgar Evans of Chillicothe, and Judge Marcus G. Evans of Columbus.

Mary Pearce [Parents] was born ¹ on 17 Aug 1774. She died ¹ on 26 Dec 1858. Mary married Richard Evans.

William McClure [Parents] ¹ was born ¹ on 31 Mar 1759. He died ¹ on 1 Oct 1823. William married ¹ Margaret McKeehan on 2 May 1799.

Other marriages:

McKeehan, Agnes

William McClure was born Mar. 3 1, 1759, and died Oct. 1, 1823. He lived at Landisburg, near Chambersburg, Perry County, Pa. He was twice married. In 1786, on Feb. 29, he married Nancy McKeehan as she was called, though her right name was Agnes. Of this marriage was descended Colonel A. K. McClure, editor of the Philadelphia Times. Agnes was born July 25. 1765, and died Mar. 14, 1798.

After the death of Agnes, William McClure again married, and this time married, on May 2, 1799, Margaret McKeehan, probably Agnes' sister, unless, as is stated in Clemens' "McClure Family Records," she was her cousin. Margaret McKeehan was born July 28, 1773, and died Nov. 18, 1841.

Margaret McKeehan was born ¹ on 28 Jul 1773. She died ¹ on 18 Nov 1841. Margaret married ¹ William McClure ¹ on 2 May 1799.

Robert McClure ¹ was born ¹ in 1734. He died in 1792. Robert married Margaret Douglas.

We are able to trace an unbroken line of descent back only to Robert McClure, who lived near McClure’s Gap in West Pennsboro Township, Cumberland County, Pa., which is on the Perry County line. His brother, William McClure, was living in 1792 in Lack Township, Mifflin County. Robert McClure married Margaret Douglas. They were members of Big Spring Presbyterian Church at Newville.

Robert McClure bought his original tract of 94 acres, 152 perches, "at the foot of North Mountain," from John Penn the younger and John Penn the elder. When, at his death in 1792, his property was sold, it brought about $10,000.00. He was apparently an illiterate man, for his will shows that he put his mark to it by way of signature.

Last Will and Testament of Robert McClure, deceased:

"In the name of God I, Robert McClure, Senior, of West Pennsboro Township, Cumberland County and State of Pennsylvania, yeoman, being advanced in years and in a sick and low condition but of a disposing mind and memory, and calling to mind the mortality of my body and that it is ordained that all men once shall die, Do make and ordain this my last will and testament. And first of all I recommend my soul to Almighty God who gave it, and my body to the dust to be buried in a Christian manner at the discretion of my executors. And as for what worldly estate I am possessed of, I give and dispose of it in the following manner, viz :- I do give and bequeath unto my eldest son William and to his heirs and assigns forever for an inheritance all my estate, right, title and interest to that tract of land where he now lives, reserving to my daughter-in-law Sarah, widow of my son Alexander, deceased, and for her own use during her widowhood, provided she chuses to live therein, the house she lives in with the stables, springhouse and garden, and also the meadow consisting of about three acres before the door, free of all rent and deduction. Also it is my will that he shall yearly and every year farm a part of the place that was divided to the said deceased and render her the full one third of what shall grow thereon either in the barn or in the bushel free of all cost or deduction during the term above mentioned. And further it is my will that should the child where- with she is now pregnant live to the age of twenty-one years that my said son William shall also pay to said child when so grown the just and full sum of two hundred pounds which shall be in full of all claims to the said premises. Also I do give and be- queath to my son Robert the full sum of six hundred and eighty pounds in full for his share to be paid within the term of six years after my decease, and I do allow that fifty pounds thereof be advanced to him yearly to enable him to go through with his learning or more if requisite. Also it is my will that my brother William McClure of Lack Township, Mifflin County, shall have out of my estate the full sum of fifty pounds to be paid the one half in one year, the other half in two years after my decease. Also the remainder of my estate I do give and dispose of it in the following manner. I do allow to my daughter Jane one hundred pounds, to my daughter Margaret two hundred pounds, to Agnes two hundred pounds and to Mary two hundred and twenty-five pounds, and to my youngest daughter Elizabeth two hundred and fifty pounds. Also it is my will that for the time that my present family shall live in the house and enjoy the benefits of the place but to enable my executors to discharge the various legacies by me hereby bequested It is my will and I do hereby empower my executors hereinafter named to sell and convey all my right and title to the place whereon I now live to any person or persons and to their heirs and assigns at such a time and in such a manner as they shall judge most conducive to the good of the family, and whereas I have mentioned different legacies to my respective daughters and when my estate comes to be settled should there not be sufficient to discharge the same, abatement is to be made in proportion to the respective sums, and shoul4 it be more, the surplus to be equally divided among them. And I also will that during the time that the family live on the place they as usual shall find my son Robert in shirts and stockings. And I do nominate, constitute and appoint my son William McClure and my son-in-law James Laird to be the executors of this my last will and testament and I do hereby disallow and revoke all former wills by me heretofore made, and I do publish, pronounce and declare this to be my last will and testament. In testimony whereof I have herto set my hand and seal this twentieth day of September, one thousand, seven hundred and ninety-two. Signed, sealed, published and pronounced as my last will and testament in the presence of John McKeghan (mark), James Woodburn Robert McClure (Seal)

Margaret Douglas ¹. Margaret married Robert McClure.

John Morton ¹ was born about 1763. He died on 11 Dec 1841. He was buried ² in South Salem Cemetery, South Salem, Ross County, Ohio, USA. John married Margaret Alexander ¹.

Margaret Alexander [Parents] ¹ was born ² in 1765 in Broughshane, County Antrim, Northern Ireland. She died ² on 22 Jun 1837 in Ross County, Ohio, USA. She was buried ² in South Salem Cemetery, South Salem, Ross County, Ohio, USA. Margaret married John Morton ¹.

Perhaps the daughter of James Alexander and Mary Peden.

Hugh Evans [Parents] ¹ was born ¹ on 7 Oct 1730 in Hagerstown. He died ¹ on 27 Mar 1808 in Highland County, Ohio, USA. Hugh married ¹ Lavinia Simpson in 1763.

Other marriages:

Harden, Sarah

Hugh Evans, son of Samuel Evans, was born near Hagerstown, Md., on Oct. 7, 1730, and died March 27, 1808, in the Evans Settlement on Clear Creek, in Highland County, Ohio. He was married twice. His first wife, Sarah Harden, whom he married in 1760 near Hagerstown, died in 1762, nine days after giving birth to her daughter Salle. in 1763 he married Lavinia Simpson, "an English lady of deep piety, a member of the Established Church of England." Mrs. Eliza Jane Morton makes this interesting comment: "Hugh Evans married and his wife, Sarah Harden, died leaving Aunt Sally Hill, a baby only 9 days old. His sister Priscilla Evans Phelps took her until her father remarried. This sister Priscilia was the maternal great-grandmother of Robert E. Lee."

In 1774 Hugh Evans moved from Hagerstown to Pennsylvania, settling first in Cumberland County. and then in Fayette County, at George’s Creek Settlement, near Uniontown, Pa. -

In 1788 (according to Daniel Scott’s History of Highland County) he moved again, this time to Bourbon County, Ky., near Paris.

In 1800 he made his final move, and settled on Clear Creek in Highland County, Ohio.

During the Revolutionary War he was living in Cumberland County, Pa., and became a militia man in the war. The Pennsylvania archives show that in the Associators and Militia in the County of Cumberland, in the month of July, 1777, and again in July, 1778, he served as a private under Captain James Fisher, in the Seventh Battalion, First Class.

Hugh Evans was a typical pioneer. At 44 he was ready to move from Maryland, and went to Western Pennsylvania. Back from the war, he took his family from Cumberland County to the George’s Creek Settlement in Fayette County. After spending fourteen years in Pennsylvania the wanderlust again seized him, and, like thousands of others who had fought in the Revolutionary War, he joined in 1788 the great trek to the new lands the other side of the mountains along the historic highway of the Ohio River, as far as Limestone (now Maysville, Ky.) where he took the one road through the Kentucky wilderness to Bourbon County and settled for some ten years near Paris. Then, the Indians in the Ohio country having quieted down, and a rush of pioneers setting in to occupy choice sites in the Scioto Valley and neighboring region, he returned to Limestone with his numerous family, and after a winter there crossed the Ohio River in the spring of 1800,  followed the trace from Manchester to New Market, and then felled timber to cut his own road through the forest from New Market to Clear Creek in Highland County where he finally settled. He knew all the hardships of pioneer life, its struggle with the wilderness, its desperate battles with the Indians, its primitive conditions, its slow, heroic conquest of adverse circumstances to build up a new civilization. He and his sons were among the very first of those adventurous and hardy pioneers who opened up Highland County. Isaac Evans says of him that he was a stone mason by trade, and followed it till he moved to Kentucky. Isaac says also that Hugh and his wife LaVinia were members of the Episcopal Church, and that neither of them could read or write. This, Wallace Evans tells me, is a mistake, for Hugh Evans’ will, written and signed with his own hand, is at the Court House in Hilisboro. When he settled in Ohio he was seventy, "too old," says Isaac, "to help organize Highland County."

There is some confusion as to the date of the emigration from Pennsylvania down the Ohio to Kentucky. Daniel Scott in his history says it was 1788. Katie Evans in her D.A.R. application says 1789. Isaac Evans would make it 1790, for he says: "Hugh Evans lived in Kentucky 12 years, in Bourbon and Clark Counties (on Cabin Creek). I was born 1789. Next April he came down the Ohio." As Isaac was born Dec. 3, 1789, this would make it April of 1790.

In any case, it was an extremely interesting moment in the opening up of the Ohio country. The rush of pioneers down the Ohio Valley was just beginning. The first settlement on Ohio soil had just been made, for it was April 7, 1788, when the first pioneers arrived at Marietta; it was July 20, that year, when Rev. Daniel Breck preached the first sermon, Governor Arthur St. Clair, who had just that week been inaugurated as Governor of the Northwest Territory, being present; and it was August 19, 1788, when the first families arrived in Marietta. So, in any case, when Hugh Evans and his family went down the river, the first Ohio settlement had been started, the stockade of Campus Martius at Marietta could be seen, and the great flood tide of pioneer settlers had just begun to pour down the valley. Isaac Evans makes a reference to that trip down the river that excites my imagination:

"Next April we came down the Ohio. Boated down the Monongahela and Ohio,-father (i.e. Richard Evans) and Joe Swearenger were together. Had trouble with the Indians. Stopped at Wheeling until 20 boats collected, then set sail and did not touch till we got to Maysville, except once, we were driven ashore by a storm at Marietta."

So, Hugh Evans and his family were driven ashore at Marietta! Of course, being ashore, they took time to look about them a little and see this new settlement. They would see how at the Point the Muskingum poured its waters into the Ohio, and have pointed out to them the spot where General Putnam and his colony from Massachusetts landed. They would climb the strange, mysterious Mound, erected in a forgotten age by the more mysterious Mound- builders, and walk in the Campus Martius. If it was a Sunday, they would go to the Northwest blockhouse and hear a sermon by the Rev. Mr. Story, a graduate of Dartmouth, who had arrived in the spring of 1789. Hugh Evans would have a word with General Putnam, or General Tupper, with a tall tale or two about their war experiences. That must have been a tremendously interesting day the Evanses had when they were driven ashore at Marietta by the storm!

Of the perils and adventures of that voyage down the Ohio, Daniel Scott gives us a circumstantial account which he must have heard from the lips of an Evans who was in the party. He tells us Hugh Evans loaded his household goods on a flatboat, "and with his family started down the Monongahela River, in company with two other boats having a like destination. They passed on down to Wheeling, then an extreme outpost of civilization. At that place they received intelligence that the Indians were taking every boat that went down the river. They therefore deemed it prudent to delay awhile; but in the course of a couple of days several other boats came down, one of which had seventy soldiers on board. They all held a conference, and the majority being of the opinion that they were now strong enough to meet the enemy, they determined to set out on the perilous voyage. They kept all the boats as close together as possible, the leader taking the middle of the river. Soldiers were posted on the boats with rifles in hand, ready at any moment for an attack. As they passed down they saw several places where turkey buzzards were collected on the trees and hovering round, which the voyagers doubted not were the vicinity of the dead bodies of emigrants, killed and scalped by the Indians. The little fleet, however, passed on unmolested, and in due time arrived in safety at Limestone (Maysville) ."

Landing at Limestone, Mr. Scott continues, From this place Mr. Evans took his family and goods to Bourbon County, and settled near Paris, where he built some log cabins, cleared out the cane break for a corn patch, and depended, like his neighbors, on the buffalo, bear and deer for meat. Here they were in constant danger from the ever-watchful and bloodthirsty Indians, who, during the spring, summer and fall, were almost daily making attacks upon the border Kentucky settlements, burning houses, killing the inhabitants, and stealing horses. These stations were of course all fortified; and whenever the alarm was given the women and children were hurried to the fort, and the men started in pursuit of the enemy. After Wayne’s treaty with the Indians rendered the prospects for a continued peace probable, Mr. Evans and his family started for the country north of the Ohio River, for they did not like to live in a slave state. But when they reached the river they learned that it was still dangerous to cross; they therefore concluded to stop awhile longer. They built three cabins on Cabin Creek, about three miles from the river, and cleared out corn patches. During their residence at this place Mr. Evans and his sons made several trips across the river to look at the country, and selected the land which General Massie located on Clear Creek." The Kentucky sojourn lasted ten or twelve years.

Mr. Scott goes on: "In the spring of 1799 Mr. Evans, with his sons and sons-in-law, came over and built their cabins, and the spring following moved their families. When they first came they followed a trace from Manchester to New Market, from which place to their land on Clear Creek they had to steer their way through the unbroken forest by the aid of a compass.

"Hugh Evans, the father, built his cabin on the farm where Daniel Duckwall afterward lived, William Hill next below on the creek, Amos next, then Daniel, Samuel, Joseph Swearingen, George Wilson and Richard Evans. Swearingen, Wilson and Amos Evans did not, however, move out till some time after. At that time this settlement formed the extreme frontier, there being no white man’s house to the north with the exception, perhaps, of a small settlement at Franklin (now Columbus) ."

Scott says it was a 3,000-acre tract of land on which the Evanses settled at Clear Creek, and that it had been entered and surveyed for Hugh Evans by General Massie "some years before."

Hugh Evans now fades out of the picture. The old Evans homestead, where he spent his last days, is on the Chillicothe Pike, at the crossing of Clear Creek, about four miles east of Hilisboro. Originally it was a farm of 825 acres, square in shape, and the house was on top of a hill north of the creek about a hundred yards from the road, south side, where it still stands today, not the original log house, but the brick house which succeeded it and was the first brick house in Highland County. It is still in good condition, 21/2 stories high, with large open fireplaces. On this farm, in the original log house, Hugh Evans spent his last days, died in 1808, and with his wife, Lavinia Simpson, is buried in the little family graveyard on the tongue of land sloping from the present brick house down to Clear Creek. It is now a neglected spot, with no fence, and no mark to show the graves, but the lot is small, and so the location of the graves is fairly exact.

Lavinia Simpson. Lavinia married ¹ Hugh Evans in 1763.

"An English lady of deep piety, a member of the Established Church of England."

Philip Pierce. Philip married Mary Lyons.

Mary Lyons. Mary married Philip Pierce.

Hugh Evans [Parents] ¹ was born ¹ on 7 Oct 1730 in Hagerstown. He died ¹ on 27 Mar 1808 in Highland County, Ohio, USA. Hugh married ¹ Sarah Harden in 1760.

Other marriages:

Simpson, Lavinia

Hugh Evans, son of Samuel Evans, was born near Hagerstown, Md., on Oct. 7, 1730, and died March 27, 1808, in the Evans Settlement on Clear Creek, in Highland County, Ohio. He was married twice. His first wife, Sarah Harden, whom he married in 1760 near Hagerstown, died in 1762, nine days after giving birth to her daughter Salle. in 1763 he married Lavinia Simpson, "an English lady of deep piety, a member of the Established Church of England." Mrs. Eliza Jane Morton makes this interesting comment: "Hugh Evans married and his wife, Sarah Harden, died leaving Aunt Sally Hill, a baby only 9 days old. His sister Priscilla Evans Phelps took her until her father remarried. This sister Priscilia was the maternal great-grandmother of Robert E. Lee."

In 1774 Hugh Evans moved from Hagerstown to Pennsylvania, settling first in Cumberland County. and then in Fayette County, at George’s Creek Settlement, near Uniontown, Pa. -

In 1788 (according to Daniel Scott’s History of Highland County) he moved again, this time to Bourbon County, Ky., near Paris.

In 1800 he made his final move, and settled on Clear Creek in Highland County, Ohio.

During the Revolutionary War he was living in Cumberland County, Pa., and became a militia man in the war. The Pennsylvania archives show that in the Associators and Militia in the County of Cumberland, in the month of July, 1777, and again in July, 1778, he served as a private under Captain James Fisher, in the Seventh Battalion, First Class.

Hugh Evans was a typical pioneer. At 44 he was ready to move from Maryland, and went to Western Pennsylvania. Back from the war, he took his family from Cumberland County to the George’s Creek Settlement in Fayette County. After spending fourteen years in Pennsylvania the wanderlust again seized him, and, like thousands of others who had fought in the Revolutionary War, he joined in 1788 the great trek to the new lands the other side of the mountains along the historic highway of the Ohio River, as far as Limestone (now Maysville, Ky.) where he took the one road through the Kentucky wilderness to Bourbon County and settled for some ten years near Paris. Then, the Indians in the Ohio country having quieted down, and a rush of pioneers setting in to occupy choice sites in the Scioto Valley and neighboring region, he returned to Limestone with his numerous family, and after a winter there crossed the Ohio River in the spring of 1800,  followed the trace from Manchester to New Market, and then felled timber to cut his own road through the forest from New Market to Clear Creek in Highland County where he finally settled. He knew all the hardships of pioneer life, its struggle with the wilderness, its desperate battles with the Indians, its primitive conditions, its slow, heroic conquest of adverse circumstances to build up a new civilization. He and his sons were among the very first of those adventurous and hardy pioneers who opened up Highland County. Isaac Evans says of him that he was a stone mason by trade, and followed it till he moved to Kentucky. Isaac says also that Hugh and his wife LaVinia were members of the Episcopal Church, and that neither of them could read or write. This, Wallace Evans tells me, is a mistake, for Hugh Evans’ will, written and signed with his own hand, is at the Court House in Hilisboro. When he settled in Ohio he was seventy, "too old," says Isaac, "to help organize Highland County."

There is some confusion as to the date of the emigration from Pennsylvania down the Ohio to Kentucky. Daniel Scott in his history says it was 1788. Katie Evans in her D.A.R. application says 1789. Isaac Evans would make it 1790, for he says: "Hugh Evans lived in Kentucky 12 years, in Bourbon and Clark Counties (on Cabin Creek). I was born 1789. Next April he came down the Ohio." As Isaac was born Dec. 3, 1789, this would make it April of 1790.

In any case, it was an extremely interesting moment in the opening up of the Ohio country. The rush of pioneers down the Ohio Valley was just beginning. The first settlement on Ohio soil had just been made, for it was April 7, 1788, when the first pioneers arrived at Marietta; it was July 20, that year, when Rev. Daniel Breck preached the first sermon, Governor Arthur St. Clair, who had just that week been inaugurated as Governor of the Northwest Territory, being present; and it was August 19, 1788, when the first families arrived in Marietta. So, in any case, when Hugh Evans and his family went down the river, the first Ohio settlement had been started, the stockade of Campus Martius at Marietta could be seen, and the great flood tide of pioneer settlers had just begun to pour down the valley. Isaac Evans makes a reference to that trip down the river that excites my imagination:

"Next April we came down the Ohio. Boated down the Monongahela and Ohio,-father (i.e. Richard Evans) and Joe Swearenger were together. Had trouble with the Indians. Stopped at Wheeling until 20 boats collected, then set sail and did not touch till we got to Maysville, except once, we were driven ashore by a storm at Marietta."

So, Hugh Evans and his family were driven ashore at Marietta! Of course, being ashore, they took time to look about them a little and see this new settlement. They would see how at the Point the Muskingum poured its waters into the Ohio, and have pointed out to them the spot where General Putnam and his colony from Massachusetts landed. They would climb the strange, mysterious Mound, erected in a forgotten age by the more mysterious Mound- builders, and walk in the Campus Martius. If it was a Sunday, they would go to the Northwest blockhouse and hear a sermon by the Rev. Mr. Story, a graduate of Dartmouth, who had arrived in the spring of 1789. Hugh Evans would have a word with General Putnam, or General Tupper, with a tall tale or two about their war experiences. That must have been a tremendously interesting day the Evanses had when they were driven ashore at Marietta by the storm!

Of the perils and adventures of that voyage down the Ohio, Daniel Scott gives us a circumstantial account which he must have heard from the lips of an Evans who was in the party. He tells us Hugh Evans loaded his household goods on a flatboat, "and with his family started down the Monongahela River, in company with two other boats having a like destination. They passed on down to Wheeling, then an extreme outpost of civilization. At that place they received intelligence that the Indians were taking every boat that went down the river. They therefore deemed it prudent to delay awhile; but in the course of a couple of days several other boats came down, one of which had seventy soldiers on board. They all held a conference, and the majority being of the opinion that they were now strong enough to meet the enemy, they determined to set out on the perilous voyage. They kept all the boats as close together as possible, the leader taking the middle of the river. Soldiers were posted on the boats with rifles in hand, ready at any moment for an attack. As they passed down they saw several places where turkey buzzards were collected on the trees and hovering round, which the voyagers doubted not were the vicinity of the dead bodies of emigrants, killed and scalped by the Indians. The little fleet, however, passed on unmolested, and in due time arrived in safety at Limestone (Maysville) ."

Landing at Limestone, Mr. Scott continues, From this place Mr. Evans took his family and goods to Bourbon County, and settled near Paris, where he built some log cabins, cleared out the cane break for a corn patch, and depended, like his neighbors, on the buffalo, bear and deer for meat. Here they were in constant danger from the ever-watchful and bloodthirsty Indians, who, during the spring, summer and fall, were almost daily making attacks upon the border Kentucky settlements, burning houses, killing the inhabitants, and stealing horses. These stations were of course all fortified; and whenever the alarm was given the women and children were hurried to the fort, and the men started in pursuit of the enemy. After Wayne’s treaty with the Indians rendered the prospects for a continued peace probable, Mr. Evans and his family started for the country north of the Ohio River, for they did not like to live in a slave state. But when they reached the river they learned that it was still dangerous to cross; they therefore concluded to stop awhile longer. They built three cabins on Cabin Creek, about three miles from the river, and cleared out corn patches. During their residence at this place Mr. Evans and his sons made several trips across the river to look at the country, and selected the land which General Massie located on Clear Creek." The Kentucky sojourn lasted ten or twelve years.

Mr. Scott goes on: "In the spring of 1799 Mr. Evans, with his sons and sons-in-law, came over and built their cabins, and the spring following moved their families. When they first came they followed a trace from Manchester to New Market, from which place to their land on Clear Creek they had to steer their way through the unbroken forest by the aid of a compass.

"Hugh Evans, the father, built his cabin on the farm where Daniel Duckwall afterward lived, William Hill next below on the creek, Amos next, then Daniel, Samuel, Joseph Swearingen, George Wilson and Richard Evans. Swearingen, Wilson and Amos Evans did not, however, move out till some time after. At that time this settlement formed the extreme frontier, there being no white man’s house to the north with the exception, perhaps, of a small settlement at Franklin (now Columbus) ."

Scott says it was a 3,000-acre tract of land on which the Evanses settled at Clear Creek, and that it had been entered and surveyed for Hugh Evans by General Massie "some years before."

Hugh Evans now fades out of the picture. The old Evans homestead, where he spent his last days, is on the Chillicothe Pike, at the crossing of Clear Creek, about four miles east of Hilisboro. Originally it was a farm of 825 acres, square in shape, and the house was on top of a hill north of the creek about a hundred yards from the road, south side, where it still stands today, not the original log house, but the brick house which succeeded it and was the first brick house in Highland County. It is still in good condition, 21/2 stories high, with large open fireplaces. On this farm, in the original log house, Hugh Evans spent his last days, died in 1808, and with his wife, Lavinia Simpson, is buried in the little family graveyard on the tongue of land sloping from the present brick house down to Clear Creek. It is now a neglected spot, with no fence, and no mark to show the graves, but the lot is small, and so the location of the graves is fairly exact.

Sarah Harden died ¹ in 1762. Sarah married ¹ Hugh Evans in 1760.

Samuel Evans ¹.

We trace our Evans connection back to Samuel Evans, who emigrated from Wales in 1730, and settled near Hagerstown, Md. According to Mrs. Eliza Jane Morton, Samuel Evans was the father of 24 children by two wives. By his first wife he had 13. After her death he married a young girl, and by her had 11 children. Hugh Evans, our ancestor, was one of the children of the second wife.

Isaac Evans had this to say about Samuel Evans:

"Samuel Evans, my great-grandfather, was from Wales. He was a respectable, industrious man; but never made an effort to gain property. He raised a large family and probably did not become wealthy. Think he was an Episcopalian. Think his family was raised in this country. Think our family has been in this country 180 or 200 years. He was a man of good natural abilities, and might have done well if he would. His descendants, all I have seen, were of common stature and abilities."