Tuesday, December 30, 2008

John Martin's Brother in Law

John Martin is the subject of Marjorie's first book (at least one-third) and she's working on the second. The link below is to the Google Books search for his brother-in-law, Maxwell Simpson, who was in Paris in the 1850's,. The search found Simpson's obituary. (Google makes it easy to select a portion of a page and post it to your blog, but not so easy when there are multiple pages. To read the whole obituary, you'll have to scroll back the pages (and tolerate a lot of discussion of chemistry).


Proceedings of the Royal Society of London By Royal Society (Great Britain):
"Fifty years have passed since the introduction of this method other methods have since been recommended but none more accurate or reliable than Simpson"

Monday, December 29, 2008

Michael Harshaw's Labors

I stumbled across this while wasting time doing Google searches. And what it mean, I wonder:

A document dated January 10, 1848, in the pos-
session of Miss Clara Mathews of Marissa, is of inter-
est. It reads as follows:

"We. the undersigners promise to pay the sums
next to our names for the ministerial labors of the Rev.
Mr. Harshaw at the Salem Meeting House on Mud
Creek: John R. Lyons $5.00; Henry L. McGuire $8.00;
Thomas Gillespie $5.00: a man named East. $3.00;
Arch McFie $3.00; James Mclntire $5.00; Anny Mc-
Guire $1.50: John Craig $2.00; William McKee $2.00,
H. L. McGuire for 1849, $5.50."
Washington county is north of Perry County, so my guess is Michael was acting as a temporary pastor for a congregation. (Marissa is a town in ST. Clair county, just north of Randolph and west of Washington, about 24 miles by road from Cutler. Mud Creek is close to the Perry/Washington boundary but I don't see the church location in Google maps.) William in "A Romance..." mentions his father's labors in establishing churches in southern Illinois, so this may be a bit of evidence of it.

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

What Could Michael Buy

Ran across this interesting page describing the wares of a country store in Illinois in 1846. Probably a good representation of what Michael Harshaw could have bought from a store in Sparta. Among the wares:

coffee and tea
whiskey
candy
ginseng (an aphrodisiac)
cloth
dye

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

William Harshaw's Second Church

From the Jefferson County Ohio Genealogical Site:
First United Presbyterian Church – Steubenville, Ohio – The church was organized in 1810 as a Associated Reformed Presbyterian Church. On March 7, 1811, a call was extended to Mr. George Buchanan to serve a three-point charge of Yellow Creek, Steubenville, and Harman’s Creek. He was installed June 4, 1811. About 1817 the first building was erected on the site of the present building. In 1837 the second was erected. In 1838 Rev. Buchanan served only in Steubenville. In January of 1857, Rev. J.K. Andrews became pastor. Mr. Andrews became chaplain of the 136th Ohio Regiment in the Civil War. By September of 1864, Mr. J.W. Clokey was installed. His family was very important in the history of the United Presbyterian Church in North America. His wife raised millions of dollars for missionary causes. His daughter, Mary Clokey Porter was the secretary of the Women’s Missionary Society. Rev. T.J. Kennedy was pastor form 1869-1873. In late 1873, Rev.S.J.Stewart became pastor. He resigned in 1877 and later practiced law. Rev. William S. Owens became pastor in 1877 and the old building was razed and a new building was erected. It was dedicated on January 1, 1884. Rev. William Harshaw served from 1887 to 1889. He was followed by Rev. E.M. Milligan who served until 1895...

And from this on Muskingum College:
The alumni of this college comprise men who are prominent to-day in the ministry, in the field of letters, and among the professions and business men in various sections of the Union. The following are the members of the present board of trustees: Term expires 1891--Rev. W. H. McFarland. Cambridge, Ohio; Rev. J. T. Campbell, Kimbolton, Ohio; Rev. J. J. Madge, Dalton, Ohio; Rev. J. W. Martin, Mt. Perry, Ohio; Rev. W. H. Vincent, Mansfield, Ohio; Rev. J. G. Kennedy, Wellsville, Ohio; Henry McCreary, M. D., New Concord, Ohio. Term expires in 1892--Rev. J. P. Lytle, D. D., Sago, Ohio; D. E. Ralston, Esq., New Concord, Ohio; Rev. C. E. White, Galligher, Ohio; Rev. W. R. Harshaw, Steubenville, Ohio; Samuel Harper, Esq., New Concord, Ohio; Samuel Smiley, Esq., Sago, Ohio; John E. Sankey, Esq., Cambridge, Ohio.

Monday, December 1, 2008

Trip, Day 12 and 13 [Updated]

Days 12 and 13, DC

We missed the Harshaw cousin Thursday night, but had a fine day for touring DC on Friday, including several war memorials. Met a cousin of Marjorie's late husband for lunch at the American Indian museum's cafeteria and heard fascinating talk on his genealogical researches (an incredible number of people in his database) and the issue of reunions, both of families and of military vets. After a short time touring the museum on to an Irish pub to meet with a McCauley cousin. He's more conscious of privacy concerns on the Internet than I am so I'll try to restrain my impulses to put everything on the net :-), when it comes to him and his branch of the family. We shared results--he's a very good photographer and has better pictures of the Number 9 new cemetery gravestones than I did. Talked of having summertimes in Canandaigua and the large number of cousins he had.

Then home to Reston for supper, taking Marjorie back to her hotel from whence she will leave Saturday for home.

[Updated--see post in Faceless.]