New Eagle Mills
The New Eagle Mills area of Grant County, Kentucky is located in the west-central part of the county along the waters of Eagle Creek which runs diagonally south to north through the area. It is generally the area south of Folsom, northeast of Jonesville, northwest of Delia and Downingsville. Route 1132 runs through the western part of this vicinity and the Ford's Mill Road runs diagonally south to north through it. One of the first settlers in this region may have been John Weathers who was given permission on March 24, 1810 to build a mill on "Big Eagle Creek". In November 1810 the report of the required jury "condemned an acre of land for the benefit of John Weathers and inbutman for building a water grist mill on Big Eagle Creek. This appears to be the first reference to what came to be known as the "Withers Mill Road" in later Pendleton and Grant County records. There are no Weathers/Withers on the 1810 Pendleton County census; John Weathers and two men named Isaac Weathers appear on the 1813 Pendleton County tax list but not before or afterward. A Grant County deed shows a John Weathers of Scott County, Kentucky, selling 150 acres on Eagle Creek in Grant County to Andrew Myers on October 8, 1829.
Among the first settlers who remained for a time period were settlers coming from Harrison County, Kentucky, including John Thornhill and his wife's two brothers, John Brown and Robert Brown. A William Brown who settled in this area in 1828 may have been a half-brother, in that by 1833 he owned 100 acres of land on Eagle Creek by that of John Thornhill. This William Brown married Mahala Gaugh in 1829 in Grant County; he died before June 13, 1835, when Francis Gaugh served as his administrator. His widow, Mahala, married as her second husband, Wm. P. Thomas in 1838 in Grant County.
John Brown, Robert Brown, John Thornhill's wife Jane/Jean and William Brown were children of Samuel Brown (the first three by his wife Martha; William by his second wife Jane or Jenny Critchlow), first of Washington County, Pennsylvania but of Raven Creek, Harrison County, Kentucky by 1796. Samuel died before October 1814 and his death may have triggered the removal of some of his children out of Harrison County at that time. Twenty or thirty years later, other Samuel Brown descendants, granddaughter Elizabeth Barnes, grandsons Charles Wesley Barnes and Samuel Barnes, also came to Grant County. Other early residents of western Grant County, notably Stephen Beverly, also appear in The Raven Creek vicinity of Harrison County, Kentucky.
Reuben Thornhill and his brother John were sons of John Thornhill whose will dated March 17, 1801 in Bourbon County, Kentucky, names both, plus a daughter "Leusay". Executors were son Reuben Thornhill and William Butler. Witnesses were John Barns, John Blair and William Butler. The will was probated in April 1801. Other probable children of John Thornhill Sr. of Bourbon County were Sarah who married Andrew Beard in 1801 in Bourbon County, Kentucky and Nancy Thornhill who married William Beard in 1814 in Harrison County, Kentucky, with Reuben Thornhill as bondsman. Reuben himself married Sarah Mussellman in November 1819 in Harrison County, Kentucky, bondsman Robert Brown. Reuben Thornhill and his family also came to Grant County, first appearing on the Pendleton County 1816 Tax List. He died in 1843 in Grant County, Kentucky.
John Thornhill married Jane or Jean Brown in 1806 in Harrison County, Kentucky with Samuel Brown as the bondsman. An 1882 History of Schuyler and Brown Counties, Illinois, Page 363, called John Thornhill a "relative of the Browns". A Harrison County deed notes that Nugent or Newgent Matthews had purchased the interests of the heirs of Samuel Brown in the latter's lands and included in this listing of the heirs of Samuel Brown were John Brown, Robert Brown and William (among others). John Thornhill is not mentioned in this deed but due to his marriage bond and the 1882 Schuyler County history reference, it is believed that his wife was an additional child of Samuel Brown. The inventory of the estate of N(ugent) H. Matthews was taken in 1849 in Grant County.
John Thornhill appears on the Harrison County, Kentucky tax lists from 1806 through 1809 and on the Pendleton County, Kentucky tax lists beginning 1810, thus John, his wife Jane, and their eldest son William, came to Pendleton County in 1810; this appears to be where their second child, Ellen (or Elenor) Thornhill was born in September 1810. The Thornhills were apparently "squatters" on the land until January 4, 1815 when John bought land from the May heirs, consisting of 104 acres on Clark's Creek and Eagle Creek, William Jump and Valentine Jump were witnesses. This land is located in what is now west-central Grant County. John Thornhill sold this land in 1837 to George Renaker, with John Thornhill being a resident of Schuyler County, Illinois at that time. George Renaker's family, according to an article in Chandler's Grant County Cemeteries, Volume III, Page 329-331, was also from Harrison County, Kentucky, like the Thornhills. After losing his wife in 1839, he was married in 1840 to Elizabeth Wilson. They also moved away to Adams County, Indiana.
A John Brown first appears on Pendleton County tax lists in 1815, but it is hard to determine if he is the same John Brown who was a son of Samuel Brown of Raven Creek, Harrison County, who died in 1814. By 1816, however, John Brown and Robert Brown, brothers, appear on the Pendleton County tax list. From 1815-1819, there are two John Brown on Pendleton County tax lists, neither owning land. Pendleton County Orders first made mention of the Brown-Thronhill settlement in what is now west-central Grant County in March and then June of 1816 when John Jump, Valentine Jump, Thomas Wilson, and Andrew Myers were ordered to mark a road from the mouth of James Howe's lane to William New's Mill on Ten Mile Creek. Said road to New's Mill was to pass through the lands of John Thornhill, Wm. Jump, Thomas Jump and Valentine Jump. Afterward, there are continual references to this settlement, with the description varying somewhat each time according to the Pendleton County orders involving road work.
By 1830, John Brown and Robert Brown had removed to Schuyler County, Illinois, where they both appear in the 1830 census. Robert died there in 1858 and John in 1871. Their brother-in-law, John Thornhill, remained in Grant County longer, perhaps because he owned land there. He last appears on the 1835 Grant County tax list. By 1837, he was in Schuyler County, Illinois as evidenced by land deeds recorded in Grant County. Thornhill died in Schuyler County, Illinois in 1859 at age 73 years.
Excerpted from "The History of Grant County,
Kentucky"
John B. Conrad, Editor, Article by Janet Pease and
Betty M. Barnes
Used with permission of Betty M. Barnes, Chairman,
Book Publications Project, Williamstown, Kentucky