Rush Creek Connections

It was about twenty years ago that I discovered the roots of a number of my ancestors living in western Allen County, Ohio in the late nineteenth century in Fairfield County, Ohio and surrounding areas in the early nineteenth century. Most of these were ancestors of my twice-great grandmother, Cinderella (Miller) Patton (1862-1944). Her ancestors included Millers, Mericles, Stemens, Blossers, Beerys, and Steels.  They settled amongst and intermarried strongly with the Ashbaugh, Moyer, Grove, Friesner, Hunsaker, Welty, and other families. Most were part of a group of Anabaptists (Mennonites and Brethren) who had been connected by marriage and common movement through Pennsylvania and Virginia since the early eighteenth century, and to some degree, in Switzerland prior to arrival in Pennsylvania. They continued to intermarry and move together across Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, and points further west into the twentieth century.

The area centered around the hamlet of Bremen, Ohio, in southeast Fairfield County, was home to many of these families and continues to be home to a number of their descendants today. Bremen is located at the center of Rush Creek Township, Fairfield County, along Rush Creek. Many of the families mentioned above appear to have first settled in the valleys of Rush Creek ad Raccoon Creek near Bremen. Most of the earliest settlers appear to have come to the area by water, coming up the Hocking River (also known as the Hock-Hocking) from the Ohio and then by way of Rush Creek to the Bremen area. Others came to Marietta or Wheeling and then made their way on horseback by land.¹

Although the valleys around Bremen remained the center for many of these families, they maintained close links with many early settler families of Berne and Pleasant townships, located just west of Rush Creek, including the Millers, Stuckeys, Carpenters, Hites, and others. The continued growth of population in the area² caused many to spread out into hillier and more distant areas to the south and east of Bremen that are now located in Jackson and Monday Creek townships of Perry County and Marion Township of Hocking County.³

A map of Fairfield County, showing Rush Creek Township at the right. 

Although I conducted considerable research into many of the ancestors of Cinderella Miller Patton in the 1990s, it was only later that I came to realize that many of the roots of her husband, Fred Patton (1856-1934) were also in the Rush Creek area, although his ancestors generally came a bit later and departed a bit earlier to the Upper Miami Valley and other parts of western Ohio. The Moyers, Frys, Rineharts, Bailors, Pattons, and Shellenbergers all passed through this area at some point, creating family linkages that long predate Fred and Rella’s marriage in Delphos in 1883.

My attempt in the following biographies is to give some broader shape to some of the figures who settled in this area with the broader goal of deepening understanding of the social realities of a space like Rush Creek in the early nineteenth century. These are not meant to be definitive studies⁴ and attempt to place as many narrative elements as possible, as well as stressing interconnections within these communities, as well as pre-dating settlement in Ohio. Any and all feedback is welcomed.

Biographies:

John Patton of Rush Creek

"    "Dunkards" of Rush Creek

1.     1.  There are numerous stories of the journey “up the Hock-Hocking” recorded in various family histories and local histories, many written in the late nineteenth century, when the children of these pioneers were still alive. These include general accounts in the History of Fairfield and Perry Counties, Their Past and Present. (Chicago:  W.H. Beers & Company, 1883) as well as Hervey Scott’s A Complete History of Fairfield County, Ohio (Columbus:  Siebert & Lilly, 1877) and C.M.L. Wiseman’s. Pioneer Period and Pioneer People of Fairfield County, Ohio (Columbus:  F.J. Heer, 1901). Family histories include the narrative of the Blosser family, included in Wiseman (1901), as well as histories published in the final years of the nineteenth or earliest years of the twentieth century of the Beery, Stemen, Hufford, Stuckey, Blosser, and other families. All of these were part of a broader movement of history-writing of the time, and tended to be put together based on reminisces of still-living pioneers of the time, short accounts of earlier writers (such as Sanderson’s mid-nineteenth-century reminisces of Fairfield County), and other at times documentation such as electoral roles, tax lists, etc. The quality of these works varies significantly.

2.     2.  In 1820, the population of Rush Creek township was 1,304, whereas the population of Fairfield County in total was 16,633. By 1840, the population of the county had grown to 31,924. County data drawn from http://www.co.fairfield.oh.us/rpc/census.htm (accessed 22 Dec 2013). This growth would continue until 1850, when significant outmigration to other points further west and north – including to western Allen County, Ohio – would relieve population pressure in the area.

3.     3.  Fairfield County was formed from Washington County (Marietta) and Ross County (Chillicothe) in 1800. Rush Creek Township was organized in 1804. The southern boundary of Rush Creek Township shifted a bit up until the mid-1850s. The short-lived Auburn Township of Fairfield County was ultimately split between Fairfield and Hocking Counties in the 1850s, creating much of the pattern we see today in the area. 

4.     4.  Data is drawn primarily from published historical sources, census and other public government records, and cemetery records. Online family trees are rarely used as a data source, although particularly reliable sources may at times be cited. I generally lack access to probate and land records of Fairfield and surrounding counties, where some of the best data may reside.