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A hillside view of Pendleton County
The following was
generously transcribed and submitted to me by Nancy Bray, thanks Nan!
Nancy also scanned and submitted the Surveys & Deeds!
Morgan and Boyd, Kentucky
Transylvania University, 1939
University of Cincinnati College
of Law, 1942
Transylvania's Board of
Curators, 1948-53 and 1954-59
FORWARD
I have been trying for a
number of years to find old surveys, which encompass huge tracts of
thousands and thousands of acres, relating to the Morgan
vicinity. This summer, while on vacation, with good fortune, I
was able to locate some of these in Fayette County, Lexington,
Kentucky.
This brief sketch on these
surveys should be read in connection with "General Clark and Buffalo
Trails, Indian and Pioneer Warpaths Near Morgan, Kentucky, Covington,
and Cincinnati (Revised 1978)" and also "General John Hunt Morgan
and Reminiscences of Morgan, Kentucky (Revised September, 1976)".
There are possibly other old
surveys available in the Fayette County Records, but in order to find
them, you have to work backward from the very old deeds. This can
be very time-consuming. I am a very busy lawyer and have almost
no time available in Falmouth, and may never get back to it, so I will
set down what I have found so far, even though it is not a finished
product. Hopefully some student of history may complete the task
some day.
Ewing O. Cossaboom
______
Old Surveys Near Morgan and
Boyd, Kentucky
At historic Harrodsburg, in
front of the replica of Ft. Harrod, there is a monument for George
Rogers Clark, the "Conqueror of the Northwest Territory." There a
map shows Vincennes, Kaskahia, and Cahokia, but also Piqua in Ohio.
General Clark and his
Kentuckians in November, 1782 destroyed the Shawnee Indian Village on
the Miami Rivers in Ohio, including Piqua. Until that time North
Central and Northern Kentucky could not be occupied by settlers.
By a year or so later, this Kentucky area began to be surveyed for
settlement. Three of these surveys are attached hereto.
In the office of the Fayette
County, Kentucky Clerk's Recorder's Records, in Lexington, Kentucky,
there are four (4) old survey books, which are, even at the present
day, intact and contain a wealth of historical information relating to
the Morgan and Boyd area.
In these land survey books, Book
B, pate 75, there is a survey of 31,000 acres of land for James Moody,
issued on part of five Treasury Warrants. This 31,000 acres of
land is "on the West side of the South Fork of Licking, one mile above
the mouth of the second creek that empties into said Fork below Bird's
Road, thence down the meanders of said South Fork of Licking on the
West side", in approximately forty (40) calls and distances, which
reduced in a straight line, go 1920 pole, which equals six (6) miles,
on the West side of the river, and then proceeding to the West 8.18
miles in a rectangular description. This survey was dated July 2,
1784.
(Click here to view the
James Moody survey)
Bird's Road, of course, is
Bird's Crossing on the South Licking River, which is approximately one
and a half miles South of Boyd, Kentucky, and is a spot which is still
well-known today. The second creek below Bird's crossing is
Crooked Creek. The first creek below Bird's Crossing is Snake
Lick. In the area just south of Crooked Creek, which creek is
actually on the South line of Harrison County and Pendleton County, the
South Licking River makes what may be called three (3) extreme
horseshoe bends, with beautiful bottom land lying in between each
bend. The meanders of the river set forth in this old survey show
these three (3) bottoms. Starting on the South, the area
described is a land formerly owned by Jim Cannon who sold to Everett
Jones, now deceased, the Mac Perrin Farm, Booher, then across the
river, the land of Risk Young, now deceased.
On the same page, there is also
a survey of 11,000 acres of land, entered the 24th day of January, 1784
for James Moody, on the waters of the South Fork of Licking.
On April 20, 1785, there was a
survey for same James Moody of 10,111 1/2 acres of land, on three (3)
Treasury Warrants, which was entered December 27, 1784. This
survey is marked "in the Forks of Licking". This refers to the
South Licking River where Fork Lick flows into the river. The
rectangular survey begins on the South side of a ridge two (2) miles
North 70 degrees East of General Clark's first encampment after
crossing the South Fork of Licking on his march to the Shawnee towns in
the year 1782. The survey proceeds East 1,000 poles, which
is 3,125 miles; thence South 1617.8 poles which is 5.05 miles.
Then the other calls close in a rectangular shape.
In a deed recorded in Fayette
County, Book C, District Court, page 326, this same 10,111 1/2 acres is
conveyed by James Moody and Samuel McMillion to John Ewing and Samuel
Cook, with the same description found in the survey of the 20th day of
April, 1785, and the survey is expressly referred to in the deed.
This deed is dated September 17, 1800. On the 21st. day of March,
1801, this land was conveyed by John Ewing to Joseph Cummins, and John
Ewing reserved 1,000 acres in a square, Pendleton County Deed Book A,
page 214. The consideration for this deed was 250 pounds.
Both deeds recited that part of this land was in Pendleton County and
part was in Harrison County. (This clarifies the reference to
"Fork of Licking" as being the South Licking and Fork Lick, near
Morgan, and not the main Licking at Falmouth.
Click here
to view the deed on page 326. Click here to view the deed on page
327.
On March 12, 1801, James Moody
conveyed to John Ewing 400 acres of land on the South Fork of Licking
in the County of Pendleton, which begins a the mouth of Fork Lick (as
it enters the South Licking River near Morgan), with the following
description:
"On the South Fork of Licking
containing Four hundred acres and bounded as follows, to wit, Beginning
at two beeches and a dogwood at the mouth of Fork Lick Creek, thence
North seventy one degrees West, two hundred and eighty poles to the
line of Moody and Hunt, thence South nineteen degrees West two hundred
and ten poles crossing Fork Lick Creek at one hundred and six poles to
a beech tree corner to McClain, thence South seventy one degrees East
four hundred and twenty five poles to a beech on the bank of the South
fork of Licking, also corner to said McClain; thence down the said
South fork meanders to the Beginning, being part of a survey made for
said James Moody of Thirty one thousand acres."
This survey for James Moody is
the same survey which was described in the beginning hereof.
This 400 acre farm conveyed to
John Ewing apparently included most of the beautiful bottom land
which was owned by Bob Thompson prior to his death. His present
farm includes the land originally owned by his mother who was Mary
Ewing Thompson and also the farm known as the Cleveland farm. The
400 acre tract of John Ewing included also hill land which went beyond
Fork Lick. This deed was recorded in Fayette County, District
Court Records, Deed Book C, page 444.
Click here
to view the John Ewing Deed page 444. Click here to view the John Ewing
Deed page 445.
Today, after you cross the South Licking
River Bridge at Morgan, going West, there is a large residence,
surrounded by beautiful bottom land. Prior to his death, this
land was owned by Bob Thompson. This was also part of the
original land deeded to John Ewing in the description previously set
forth. In a deed dated October 5, 1846, Milton Ewing conveyed 150
acres of this tract to John Meyers. This is set forth in Deed
Book 1, page 49, of the Pendleton County Clerk's Records of
Deeds. In this same deed, it is recited that Milton Ewing, Samuel
C. Ewing, and their sister Elizabeth Crofford, were the legal heirs of
John Ewing, Deceased, and further identifies the 150 acre tract as the
same tract on which John Ewing, Deceased, lived and died.
Kentucky Colonel, Risk Makemson, whose grandmother was Rebecca Brann
Makemson, identified this Myers tract (as acquired from Milton Ewing)
as the land immediately across and West of the Bridge.
Milton Ewing was the father of John Milton
Ewing, who was his youngest child, and also Samuel T. Ewing.
Milton Ewing was born in 1810, and died in 1879. His wife was
Nancy Brann. She had several sisters who both married Myers, and
later moved to Missouri. Milton Ewing also had three other
children: Joel Ewing, who was called Polk and later moved to
Scotland County, Missouri; William Newton Ewing, who had married Nancy
Makemson and moved to Parsons, Kansas; and Anna Ewing, who had moved to
Memphis, Missouri and married a lawyer, John Smoot. Her daughter
was Bessie Goff, who customarily visited in Morgan until the time of
the death of her uncle, John Milton Ewing in 1926.
There was another branch of the Ewing
Family. In Duncan's Tavern at Paris, Kentucky, there are pictures
of Ben F. Ewing and John Todd Ewing, and it is recited that they were
sons of Eleanor (Fugate) Ewing and Taylor Ewing, and served under
General John Hunt Morgan. In the division of the lands of James
S. Hand, found in Land Book 1, page 220, in 1884, both the second and
third tract of the Hand Division referred to land of Taylor Ewing on
the West Bank of the South Licking River. It is believed that
this land lies just south of the bottom land formerly owned by Rule
Makemson, and includes at least part of the land now owned by Geneva
McCandless.
The old records of Pendleton County show that
Taylor Ewing owned 235 acres of land near Morgan. In Deed Book
38, page 407, in 1887, there is a deed to George W. Ewing for 31 acres
of land from John and Mary Ewing of Neosho County, Kansas and Lucy A.
Ewing, M. L. Ingles and Ben T. Ewing of Kentucky.
In the law of real property, there is a
famous case reported in 88 Kansas 708 involving the will of John Ewing,
who died in 1895, who had willed land to his daughter, Mary A. Ewing
Nesbitt. This case involved the real property law of Estates
Tail, or restriction of ownership to family blood lines.
The old tax records of Campbell County,
Kentucky, which, after 1794, included Pendleton County, show that John
Ewing was occupying a farm of 424 acres on the South Fork of Licking as
early as October, 1795. (See Campbell County History by William
R. Stevens, printed in the Falmouth Outlook on Friday, June 30, 1978,
page 4). These same old tax records of what was then Campbell
County, Kentucky, which is now Pendleton County, also listed several
other names, still known in and around Morgan in modern times, George
Humes, Alexander Monroe, and James McCandless.
This same Campbell County history printed in
the Falmouth Outlook on Friday, September 1, 1978, stated that a permit
was approved at Jacob Groshomgs Mill on the East side of South Fork of
Licking opposite the mouth of Forklick, on September 7, 1795, but
apparently taken over by John Ewing September 5, 1796.
It should be remembered that Kentucky
originally was Fincastle County, Virginia. In 1777, the Western
portion of Fayette County west of the Tug Fork of the Big Sandy River
was named as Kentucky County. In 1780, the Mother Colony divided
Kentucky into three parts: Jefferson, Lincoln, and Fayette
Counties (see Old Kentucky Entries and Deeds by Willard R. Jilson, page
5).
Fayette County originally covered what was
later to include 37 Kentucky Counties. Thus Pendleton County was
originally part of Fayette County. Therefore, the oldest records
of Pendleton County are found today in Fayette County. There is a
prior bit of history which may or may not relate to John Ewing, who
settled at the area now called Morgan in Pendleton County,
Kentucky. There was a John Ewing who was appointed one of the
Commissioners to adjust the boundary between Pennsylvania and Virginia
on August 31, 1779. This was reported in Potter's American
Monthly, June, 1876, Volume VI, in the following language.
"It was the subject of discussion in
Congress, and resolutions were passed recommending the two states not
to foster the dispute between them, but to keep in abeyance until the
matter could be adjusted amicably. In accordance with the above,
Pennsylvania first made a proposition to Virginia to appoint
commissioners to adjust their boundary, which were acceded to on the
part of Virginia, and on the 31st. day of August, 1779, George Bryan,
John Ewing, and David Rittenhouse, on the part of Pennsylvania, and
James Madison and Robert Andrews on the part of Virginia,
commissioners, met and agreed to extend Mason and Dixon's line due west
five degrees of longitude, to be computed from the River Delaware, for
the southern boundary of Pennsylvania. This agreement was not
kept sacred by Virginians. They drove off settlers as far north
as Fort Hand, in Westmoreland County."
This reference to Potter's American Monthly
is found in the Draper Papers, Series K, Volumes I through V - 95,
concerning the expedition of George Rogers Clark and the debate as to
whether the volunteers for his expedition in 1781 were comprised of
Scotch-Irish families originally from Lancaster and Cumberland Counties
in Pennsylvania, or from Virginia.
Collins History of Kentucky shows that Jane
A. Hand who was the wife of John Hand was the widow of an American
Revolutionary Soldier and in 1840 was 75 years old. Her tombstone
is in the old Hand Cemetery which is the old part of the present Morgan
Cemetery. The old stone is resting against a tree and was shown
to me by Risk Makemson. (See Collins History of Kentucky, Volume
1, page ). (Note: There was no page number listed here.)
These were the parents of James S.
Hand. James S. Hand was referred t as the owner of the largest
holding of land, at page 8 of General John Hunt Morgan and
Reminiscences of Morgan, Kentucky by Ewing O. Cossaboom (1976).
Collins Volume 2 at page 675 states that the
Kentucky Central Railroad which later became the Louisville National
Railroad was built from Covington to Lexington in 1852. This
vicinity was called Stowers Station and later named Morgan.
At page 675 of Collins, there is a summary of
the members of the legislature from Pendleton County from the House of
Representatives of Kentucky. William A. Brann who was an uncle of
both Aunt Annie Makemson and Uncle Jack Ewing served in 1853-1855 and
also in 1866-67. William A Brann, while in the legislature,
obtained the passage of special legislation which outlawed the last
saloon in Callensville.
The old red brick Brann homestead still
stands on the farm of Jack Biehn overlooking the river valley about a
mile and a half south of Morgan on the Falmouth Road, Route 330.
There is a very old family cemetery just east of this old homestead.
In the mid-1800's, the Branns were a very
large family with large holdings of land. The old Grandmother's
maiden name was Ann Moore, and she received a wildow's military pension
(presumably as a result of the American Revolution according to her
granddaughter, Anna E. Makemson, whose mother was Rebecca Brann).
Milton Ewing, the father of John Milton Ewing and Samuel T. Ewing, had
married Nancy Brann. The Falmouth families of Will Rule, Jim
Rule, and Nelvia Phillips were also related through the Branns.
Shay Ingles is also a Brann descendant who
still lives in Morgan, as one of its fine citizens. His family
received a tract of fine bottom land from William Brann known as the
Ingles Tract, across from the Cemetery House, and north of the existing
tobacco barn. This land was later owned by Bob Thompson.
In pioneer days, just southwest of the Brann
homestead, there was a homestead and farm owned by John Makemson (of
Scotch descent). This farm is now owned by Wilson Cummins.)
The wife of John Makemson was Elizabeth Brown Makemson. She gave
an affidavit in 1829 stating that she was born in 1754, in Fason
Township, York County, Pennsylvania about a mile and a half from the
Maryland line, that she married John Makemson in Maryland near the
Pennsylvania line in 1777. She further states that John Makemson
at the time of his marriage was an American Revolutionary Soldier on
duty in the militia in Maryland and that his brothers, James, Andrew,
William and Thomas were also in service, that James and Andrew were
killed within an hour of each other "down about Philadelphia" ( in 1777
in defense of Fort Mifflin); that after the Revolution she came to
Kentucky (by the Ohio River Route) with her husband, his father,
mother, brother Thomas, Joseph, and William, that she then lived 18
miles from the Makemson residence on Mill Creek in Harrison
County. (near Cynthiana). John Makemson died in 1814 near
Morgan. Elizabeth Brown Makemson died 1833-34. Andrew
Makemson was the son of John Makemson, married Elizabeth Hand of Morgan
and was the grandfather of all the Makemsons living in Morgan, in
modern times. (See Makemson Genealogy by Walter K. Makemson and
Elizabeth Makemson Affadavit, No. 668. United States
Service Administration, National Archives and Records Service).
In the old Fayette County Land Survey Book,
Book B, page 369, a copy of which is attached, at the top of the page
there is a survey for James Moody. At the bottom of the page
there is a survey of land for John Waller, which related to land on the
North Elkhorn Creek. This was Pendleton County's foremost
pioneer, who was the founder of the County, and the founder of
Falmouth, Kentucky, and who is buried at Bunker Hill in Pendleton
County.
Click
here to view the Surveys.
CONCLUSION
To the pioneer settlers of Pendleton County,
General Clark's successful march against the Shawnees in 1782 was all
important because it opened up the Ohio River Route which was used by
such pioneers as John Waller, the Makemsons and John Ewing (Ewing
family tradition related by Roscoe Ewing to Ewing O. Cossaboom)
Ewing O. Cossaboom
August 31, 1978
THE END
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