UPDATED 3 July 2000

READ FAMILY CONNECTIONS

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Children of Phebe Read and Andrew Kirkpatrick
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Surname Index

Andrew Kirkpatrick's family was originally from Scotland. In 1736, Andrew's grandfather, another Andrew Kirkpatrick, arrived in New Castle, Delaware. He had the Atlantic crossing from Belfast, Ireland. Andrew and his brother, Alexander, had settled in Belfast after leaving their home in Wattie's Neach, Dumfries County, Scotland. Not finding Belfast to their liking, they moved again to the American colonies. Arriving in New Castle were Andrew Kirkpatrick, his wife (unnamed) and daughter, Martha; as well as Andrew's brother Alexander Kirkpatrick, his wife Elizabeth and their children: Andrew, David, Janet, Mary and Alexander, Jr. The Kirkpatrick's settled in Mine Brook near Basking Ridge, Somerset County, New Jersey. Andrew had several more children after they arrived in the colonies. The first child born in New Jersey was probably his son John Kirkpatrick (born circa 1736). He settled in Sussex County, New Jersey and married Lydia Lewis. They were the parents of ten children, the eldest of whom was Andrew Kirkpatrick, husband of Phebe Read (Armstrong 1979:106-109).

In 1806, Andrew and Phebe Kirkpatrick moved from Washington Township, Sussex County, New Jersey to Guernsey County, Ohio (Armstrong 1979:108). Andrew's brother, David Kirkpatrick, may have accompanied them on the trip. He and his family eventually settled in Adams County, Ohio. Andrew and Phebe's eldest daughter Martha, was probably engaged to Amos Williams, a native of Sussex County, when they migrated west. Amos also made the trip. (Armstrong 1979:111; Chase n.d.:50).

Ohio was part of the old Northwest Territory, which included what would become the states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Michigan. Before the American Revolution, settlement in the Northwest Territory was prohibited by the Proclaimation of 1763. In this proclaimation, George III of England limited white settlement to areas east of the eastern continental divide. This divide runs through the Appalachian Mountains and separates the watersheds of the Mississippi River from those of the Atlantic Ocean. George III was trying to maintain relations with Native Americans who occupied the western portion of the territory. After the American Revolution, the Northwest Territory was ceded to the Continental Congress by the Treaty of Paris and the Treaty of Fort McIntosh. In addition, four of the newly established states, ceded their claims in the territory to the newly formed Confederation of States. In 1784, the Continental Congress appointed a Congressional committee to deal with the distribution of the new western lands. Thomas Jefferson was appointed committee chairman (Brogan 1985; Buley 1978).

Jefferson's committee established guidelines that became the foundation for the division (or survey) and sale of public lands in the United States throughout the nineteenth century. These guidelines were passed as the Land Ordinance Act of 20 May 1785. The ordinance established rectangular survey as the basis for subdivision of all public lands. The new western territory was to be subdivided into six-mile quarter townships, each containing 36 sections of one-square mile (640 acres) (Buley 1978).

Four months later, on 30 September 1785, Thomas Hutchins, Geographer of the the Confederation of States, began the first public survey of the new nation. The first survey was of the "Seven Ranges" in eastern Ohio. The survey began at the point where the western boundary of Pennsylvania met the Ohio River. This was the only public land surveyed under the Continental Congress. Public sale of these lands were held in New York City between 21 September and 9 October 1787. The first United States patent (or land deed) to this land was issued 4 March 1788 to John Martin for 640 acres in Richland Township, Belmont County, Ohio. The first large scale purchase was by the Ohio Company. The Ohio Company consisted of former Revolutionary War soldiers and officers who used their military land bounty warrants to purchase land in Ohio. On 7 April 1788, the first settlers of the Ohio Company arrived in what is now Marietta, Ohio. Marietta was the first permanent settlement in Ohio (Buley 1978; Cram 1903).

The first Congressional delegate from the Northwest Territory to the United States Congress was William Henry Harrison. Harrison arrived in Congress in 1799. Within a year he introduced legislation that established federal land offices in Chillicothe, Cincinnati, Marietta and Stuebenville, Ohio. The act provided for the purchase of public land on credit. The buyer presented five percent of the sale price on the day of purchase. Within forty days, an additional 25 percent of the purchase price was due. The remaining 70 percent of the balance was due in three annual installments. A one year grace period was allowed after the final payment was due, before forfeiture of the land occurred. The interest rate stood at 6 percent. Between 1804 and 1820 the minimum allowed purchase was 160 acres at $2.00 per acre (Buley 1978). When the Kirkpatricks arrived in Ohio in 1807, they were looking at a minimum purchase price of $320 (before interest) for their new farm.

How did the Kirkpatricks travel to Ohio? There were no trains at the time of their journey. The first rail road was not built in the United States until 1828. They probably traveled by wagon and on horseback. Part of their party may have walked. Their route to Ohio is not known. One option was to head south down the Delaware River Valley to Philadelphia. Forbes Road extended from Philadelphia across the southern portion of Pennsylvania to Pittsburgh. From Pittsburgh, one could either travel overland or by boat down the Ohio River (which originates in Pittsburgh) to Wheeling, Virginia (the state of West Virginia was not formed until the Civil War). From Wheeling, travelers followed Zane's Trace, which was blazed by Ebenezer Zane between 1796 and 1797. It extended from Wheeling to a point on the Ohio River across from Limestone, Kentucky. Zane was authorized to establish ferry crossings at the Muskingum, Hocking and Scioto Rivers. The Trace passed through what would become Guernsey County, the Kirkpatrick's final destination. In 1818, James Kirke Paulding penned the Backwoodsman. In part of the poem he describes the journey down the Ohio River:

When the Kirkpatricks arrived in Ohio in 1806, the state of Ohio was three years old. Guernsey County, where they settled, had not yet been formed. In 1810, part of Belmont County (specifically Londonderry, Oxford and Millwood Townships) and part of Washington Township in Muskingum County, were joined to form Guernsey County. The Kirkpatricks probably settled in one of the above named townships. Shortly after their arrival in Ohio, Andrew and Phebe Kirkpatrick's last child, Joseph, was born (Armstrong 1979; Ellis 1998; Stewart 1998). Joseph was probably named after his grandfather, Joseph Read. In 1810, the year after Joseph's birth, Sarah Kirkpatrick, Andrew and Phebe's 16 year old daughter, died (Ellis 1998; Stewart 1998).

What was Phebe's life like between her arrival in Ohio in 1806 and her death in 1814? Until Sarah's death in 1810, Phebe had three daughters to help her in the home. Her eldest daughter, Martha, married Amos Williams shortly after the family arrrived in Ohio. Martha was a busy mother with her own household by 1809. When Sarah died in 1810, Elizabeth Kirkpatrick was about 14 years old, her sister Azubah was about 10 years old. They helped Phebe with the endless chores of cooking, laundry, mending, cleaning and making textiles, soaps and other items the family needed to survive. Phebe's three youngest children were boys. In 1810, they were David, age 7, Amos, age 5 and Joseph, age 1. David and Amos probably did a variety of farm and domestic chores from feeding the animals to gathering wood and fetching water. The eldest son, John, was 12; he probably spent most of the day working in the fields with Andrew.

Elizabeth and Azubah aided Phebe in the house, but it was a large household with eight members. The Kirkpatricks lived in an older section of Ohio, but Phebe probably suffered the same isolation that many Ohio women experienced in the early days of settlement. The men were able to leave the farm on a regular basis in order to trade, hunt or attend court and conduct other business. But the women seldom had such opportunities to leave the farm. In 1828, fourteen years after Phebe died, Francis Trollope of England made a tour of the United States. In southern Ohio she met a farmer's wife who told her, "I expect the sun may rise and set a hundred times before I see another human that does not belong to the family" (as quoted in Larkin 1988:261-262). Daniel Drake, whose family left Sussex County for Kentucky, wrote that his mother "felt the solitude in which we were entombed, more severly than any other member of the family" (as quoted in Larkin 1988:261). In the long settled areas of the northeast there was constant visiting between country women, as evidenced in period diaries (ibid; cf Ulrich 1990). Phebe Read Kirkpatrick left her childhood home at the age of 35 or 36. She left behind not only family but friends. In Ohio, she probably had some opportunity to join in social activities, such as church services, weddings and funerals. She may also have been called to sit with a sick neighbor or to join other women in the delivery of a baby. However, it is doubtful that she engaged in as active a social life in Ohio, as she had in New Jersey.

Phebe and Andrew Kirkpatrick lived about seven years in their new home. Andrew died in February 1814 and Phebe died two months later on 20 April 1814 (Armstrong 1979:108; Ellis 1998; Read 1998). They left six minor children, Elizabeth (age 18), John (age 16), Azubah (age 14), David (age 12), Amos (age 9) and Joseph (age 5). It is not currently known who cared for the children after the death of their parents. They had kin living nearby, their sister Martha Williams, and possibly their uncle David Kirkpatrick. These children all stayed in the American west. Martha, Elizabeth, John and Azubah settled in other areas of Ohio. David migrated to Iowa and Joseph eventually settled in Kansas (ibid.). In 1865, when the Warren County Orphans Court settled the estate of John Hetty Read, the first cousin of the Kirkpatrick children, none of them were named in the settlement. The living children of all of Phebe's brothers and sisters were included in the settlement. But none of Phebe's children were. In 1862, when John Hetty Read died, six of the Kirkpatrick children were living: Martha Williams, Elizabeth Patterson Carlise, John Kirkpatrick, Azubah Wheeler, David Kirkpatrick and Joseph Kirkpatrick. They were the only branch of the family not represented in the settlement. The children of Sarah Read Manning (Phebe's sister) were named in the settlement, this branch of the family was living in New York state. Several of the children of Hannah Read Ogden Vaughn (another sister of Phebe) were also living in New York State, yet they too are listed in the settlement. Did the Kirkpatrick children lose touch with their New Jersey family when their parents died? Or, did the administrators of the estate, Samuel and Martin F. Read, fail to get in touch with their Kirkpatrick cousins? The court documents do not make this clear (Warren County Surrogate Court Records, Orphans Court Minutes, Liber 5, folio 588, 598 and Liber 6, folio 85, 156, 231, 240, 258).

The following is summary of the data I have for the two children of Andrew and Phebe (Read) Kirkpatrick who died as minors. Their second daughter and child, Sarah Kirkpatrick was born on 13 December 1793 in Sussex County, New Jersey. She was probably named for her grandmother, Sarah Sutton Read, who had died the previous year. Sarah was 12 or 13 years old when her family migrated to Ohio. She died in Ohio in 1810 at the age of 16 or 17 years (Ellis 1998; Read 1998).

Amos Kirkpatrick was the last of the children to be born in Sussex County, New Jersey. He was the seventh child and third son. Amos was born in 1805, he was an infant when the family migrated to Ohio. He was eight or nine years old when his parents died. Amos lived to be 17 or 18 years old and died in Guernsey County, Ohio in 1823 (ibid.).

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Warren County Surrogate Court Records, Belvedere, New Jersey (WCSCR)

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