John Patton of Rush Creek

John Patton, one of the earlier settlers of Rush Creek, has always intrigued me. I frequently saw his name on census and other historical records while exploring Mericle, Blosser, and Miller families in the area. Yet I doubted a connection to my own Patton lines in western Ohio.

The Pattons, my mother’s line, sparked an interest in family history in the early 1990s. It was not difficult to trace my mother’s ancestry definitively to John and Rachel (Clawson) Patton, who settled in the western parts of Allen County, Ohio in the late 1820s and raised a large family near Delphos. As such, they were quite typical of the significant migration into this part of the state by way of the Upper Miami River Valley from areas nearer to Dayton. Although John and Rachel married in Clark County, Ohio in 1823,¹ no further record of John’s family was clear. He did not appear to be connected to the well-documented Thomas and Jane (Maxwell) Patton family of Clark County. ² This mystery would remain for many years and many questions linger still.

John Patton of Rush Creek appears to have been born between 1750 and 1760,³ and  was already over 50 years old by the time when he is first documented living in Rush Creek. The first documentation of John in Rush Creek was a property purchase executed along with a J. Carr in 1804.⁴ That same year, John appears on a list of voters taking part in the first election in the newly formed Rush Creek Township.⁵ From 1806-1808, John Patton appears on the tax rolls of Fairfield County.⁶  In 1809, John patented additional land along with George Bright.⁷ John appears on the 1820 census of Rush Creek as a male over 45 years old, together with a male 16-25 and a female over 45 years of age. On the non-alphabetized list, he appears between Christian Stemen and William McGinnis. In 1830, John again appears on the census of Rush Creek as a man aged 70-79, along with three females, one aged 10-14, one aged 20-29, and one aged 50-59. On the un-alphabetized list, he appears between William Carpenter and Margaret Alexander.

Early Fairfield County, Ohio wills shed a bit more light on John Patton. These confirm that John's wife's name was Ann. John bought and sold property with William McGinnis (1815), Henry Stemen (1815), John Welty/Weldy (1815), and Elisha Lacey (1832). All of this was in section 17, township 16, range 17 in Rush Creek Township.

John and Ann Patton's final property transcaction together was the sale of a small piece of property to Elisha Lacey (son-in-law of John Kerr) in 1832. By 1836, John was deceased. Ann Patton, together with William and Nancy (Patton) Smith, sold the remaining property to James Meteer.

These deeds confirm that John and Ann had a daughter, Nancy, who married William Smith. Nancy lived from 1802-1850 and married William Smith (1794-1847) in 1832. Both William and Nancy are buried with members of William's family in the Driver Cemetery in Rush Creek Township.

There are strong suggestions, however, of linkages between John Patton and other early Pattons in Fairfield County. The clearest linkage is to the Pattons who appear with him on very early tax lists:  William and Robert Patton.

Another possible child is Mary Patton, who married John Shellenberger in February 1807.⁸

A further very early mention of the Patton name in Fairfield County occurs in two guardianships recorded in 1808.⁹ This shows a further connection between the family of William and Nancy Patton and John and Mary Shellenberger. I make the assumption that the William Patton who appears on the 1807 tax list is the same William whose children were left under guardianship in 1808.

The children involved in these guardianships – Samuel, John, Margaret, and Mary Patton – align well with what is known about John Patton who married Rachel Clawson, and his known brother, Samuel, who lived in Fairfield, Auglaize, and Miami Counties, Ohio. Women by the name of Margaret and Mary Patton also married in Clark County, Ohio in the 1820s. Margaret Patton married George Kiblinger with the permission of Samuel Shellabarger.¹⁰

Because of the significant age difference between William and Mary Patton on one hand and Nancy (Patton) Smith on the other, I am making a loose assumption that Ann Patton was a second wife of John Patton and not the mother of these earlier children.

There do not appear to be other significant Patton records in Rush Creek.¹¹ No tombstones stood in local cemeteries during the period when tombstones were recorded in the region in the second half of the twentieth century.

No record of John Patton of Rush Creek has been found prior to 1804, although there are several interesting clues. John's entry of land together with "J. Carr" may indicate a relationship to John Kerr (who was frequently listed in early records as "Carr") of Rush Creek Township (1773-1858). John Kerr was known to be a brother-in-law of William Thompson, another early Rush Creek settler (1744-1811). William's first wife was a Mary Patton. These families all share roots in Mifflin and ultimately Cumberland Counties of Pennsylvania, as do many other early Rush Creek Scotch-Irish families. It is likely that John Patton of Rush Creek also came from central Pennsylvania. Hopefully, further research will shed further light on this elusive figure. 

1.  John and Rachel were married in Clark County, Ohio on 8 January 1823 by David Wilson. Her father, Thomas Clawson, gave permission for their marriage in writing.

2.  Thomas Patton married Jane Maxwell in 1791 in Bourbon County, Kentucky and settled in Greene County by 1815 (when his eldest son, William, married Elizabeth Gowdy there) and in Clark County by 1820. Thomas left a will in Clark County at his death in 1825. His children included William (married Elizabeth Gowdy and later Catharine Dudley); Maxwell (married Mary Ramsay); Joseph (married Isabella Marshall); Roseanna (married James Johnston); Jane Eliza (married John Humphreys); and Anne (married John Garlough).  At least one of his children, Roseanna, is buried at Mud Run Cemetery in Mad River township, Clark County. This is a small cemetery with most burials dating to the middle third of the nineteenth century. Other burials here include numerous members of the Shellabarger family and a Robert and Sarah Patton and to of their children, who appear to have died fairly young in the 1830s, although dates are unclear. The Thomas and Jane (Maxwell) Patton family has its roots in late 18th century Cumberland County, Pennsylvania.

3.  Based on his age in the 1830 and 1840 census records.

4.  Original land entries of Fairfield County, Ohio.

5.  History of Fairfield and Perry Counties, Their Past and Present. (Chicago:  W.H. Beers & Company, 1883), p. 250.

6.  Ancestry.com. Ohio, Compiled Census and Census Substitutes Index, 1790-1890[database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 1999. In 1807, John is joined on the list by William Patton and in 1807-1808 by Robert Patton.

7.  Federal Land Series:  A guide to Archival Materials, p. 54.  George Bright (1784-1864) was another early settler, along with several of his brothers, in the region. He came to Fairfield County from Rockingham County, Virginia (a very common route) and was married in Rockingham County to Frances Bowman (1787-1876), the daughter of Jacob Bowman (died 1803, Rockingham) and Catharina Wine Stihl Bowman Fry (died 1814, Fairfield). George and Freny Bowman eventually settled in Falls Township, Hocking County, where they raised a large family. Frances Bowman Bright was a half-sister of Saloma (Stihl) Mericle.

8.  I am unable to locate a license for this marriage in Fairfield County marriage records. It is recorded in Ye Ancient Swains, an index of notices of marriages that appeared in the Lancaster Gazette.

9.  Fairfield County Will and Estate Abstracts, Cases 1001-2000, page 7:  Case #1072, in 1808, the guardian of Samuel and John Patten, children of William and Nancy Patten, was John Shillenberger/Shallenberger;  Case #1074, in 1808, the guardian of Margaret and Mary Patten, daughters of William Patten was Henry Shillenberger, Sr. 

10.  Permission was given by Samuel Shellenberger. This detail at once ties these Pattons to the Shellenbergers, yet the large family of Shellabargers living in Mad River Township of Clark County, Ohio (brothers Samuel, Ephriam and Jacob Shellabarger) does not appear to connect directly with the John Shellenberger named in the guardianship. The Patton family did share close connections with the Henry and Sarah (Roby) Shellenberger family of Allen County, Ohio. It is possible that Nancy, wife of William Patton (possibly also known as Ann – as was common at this time in the area) was born a Shellenberger, perhaps a sister of Henry of Allen County and John who married Mary Patton. This is purely speculative.

11.  A James Patton appears on the 1840 census of Rush Creek. This is most likely James Patton (1795-1854) who married Nancy Anne Settle. James was the son of Elizabeth Patton (1755-1835).