My Cameron Line Found Defiance County, Ohio - Part THREE

 We  will now back up to Mordecai (b. 1775), Simon's second son.  In about 1807, Mordecai married Nancy Isaacs from Maryland.  They would have eight children.  Their first two children were christened in the Donegal Presbyterian Church - John Eagan Cameron (b. 1807) and Harriet Cameron (b. 1810).  John's christening record shows his middle name as Eagan.

When Charles moved North, Mordecai decided to move farther west.  He had listed his work as a tanner in Maytown, PA in 1807 and 1810, but showed up on tax records n Monogala County, Virginia (now West Virginia) in 1813.  It seems odd that to move West from Pennsylvania, one would travel via Virginia to get to Ohio, but roads were few and travel by water was, perhaps, easier. He may have taken the great road south.  He had a son born in Virginia in 1815, Samuel P. Cameron.  In 1819 and 1820, Mordecai shows up in East Union Twp. of Wayne County, Ohio.  By 1830, he is in Salt Creek Township of Wayne County and by 1840, he is in Williams County, Ohio, mostly due to his son, John Eagan Cameron.

Mordecai's wife died in 1860, and Mordecai died in 1862 and they were buried on the farm of their daughter, Harriet Bostater (nee Cameron, b. 1810).  The grave yard was 500 feet north of Bostater Road, near Evansport, Ohio, but in 1944, it was declared abandoned and the stones moved.  No records exist where they were moved to.

Mordecai and Nancy's children were: John Eagan (1807), Harriet (1810), Samuel (1815), Mary Louisa (1820), Stanbery Looman (1820), Mathew Milton (1823), Ellen Jane (1825), and Lucretia Ann (1826).

Mordecai's son, John (1807) married Lydia Stenger in 1829, and they had nine children.  In 1834, John walked from Wooster in Wayne County, Ohio, up to Lake Erie and along the shore to the settlement of Toledo, where he painted a schooner to earn money for supplies.  He then traveled up the Maumee River to the Auglaize River to the Tiffin River to Lick Creek (near Evansport, Ohio).  He made several trips and then convinced his family to move there and homestead land.  

His wife, Lydia was 24 when they arrived.  In the 1860s, John heard of McKenzie relatives in Pennsylvania and that perhaps his family was entitled to some of the estate.  He traveled to Pennsylvania to talk to people there about it and kept a journal of his travels.  As mentioned earlier, John, the grandson of the Simon who had married three times, would talk to people with firsthand knowledge of the early Camerons who came to Lancaster County through Philadelphia.

The following are excerpts from his journal: 

(John E. Cameron first heard of Alexander McKenzie's estate by Elisa J. Karns, Nov. 15, 1867.

"Lewisburg, Pa, Dec. 8th, 1867 -

This is to certify that in the summer of 1865, I was employed to arrange the papers of William Cameron, Esq. of Lewisburg County of Union, Pa.  In examining the papers, I found a letter from a man in the western part of Pa, stating he was a relation of William Cameron and he and his brother was getting older and had no family and that said Wm. Cameron and his brother, Simon, were the only relations they had in the United States that they had any knowledge of.  And that they had considerable property.  I read the letter and asked Wm. Cameron what I should do with it, telling him what the contents was.  He said he cared nothing about the property as he had enough and told me to burn it which I did with many other papers.  

Paul Geddes"

*This referred to Sec. of War, Simon, and his brother, William.

Inscriptions on tombstones in Lacock Cemetery, East Rochester, Beaver County, Pa -

ALEXANDER MCKENZIE died June 21, 1864, aged 76y 8m  (Oct. 21 1787)

GEORGE MCKENZIE died August 24, 1862, aged 74 years, 10 m and 23 d (1787

(*Note - I think that these two men were twins and when George died, of course, his brother could give the exact age; but when Alexander died, only the year and month of his birth were known.)

This was entered into John E. Cameron's journal:

"...and that Mordecai Cameron was a son of his Grandfather Simon Cameron by the second wife, but her maiden name he has no recollection of.  Our Grandfather, Simon Cameron was married three times, his first wife's maiden name was Katharin Cameron of Glasco, Scotland.  The third wife was Katherin McCoy (widow)  The second wife's maiden name unknown but supposed to be McKenzie."

Quotation from Wm.Cameron, brother to Sec. of War, Simon Cameron.

William would only have known his grandfather's first wife by Katherine Cameron, but her maiden name was perhaps Catherine McKenzie  The third wife's name was clearly Catherine McCoy and if the second wife was a McKenzie, it is assumed by the author that it was Ann McKenzie.

John never found any inheritance in Pennsylvania as he had hoped and some reported Mary Wilson burned most of his papers and many church records and other papers.  In a book entitled Colin McFarquhar (1729-1822), Pastor of Donegal Springs Presbyterian Church, written by Alexander Preston Reed, the following is stated:

"That we have so little valuable information about Colin McFarquhar is due to Aunt Mary Wilson.  After her mother's death, she was left in Grandfather McFarguhar's care and went with him to the Cookes at Hagerstown.  On his death, Aunt Mary seized all his papers and burned them, all the letters, all information to Grandfather's business affairs.  On hearing of grandfather's death, cousin Colin Reed of Washington, Pennsylvania, hastened to Hagerstown, but the mischief was done.  After destroying her grandfather's papers, she proceeded to destroy the church papers and so lost to the Camerons an estate in Scotland, as no proof of a marriage could be found.  When I was at Lochin, Mr Cameron (Simon Cameron) asked me, 'How is that woman, I always call her that, since she burned all the proofs of a marriage by which I have lost an estate in Scotland.'"

John and his wife, Lydia, are buried in Evansport Cemetery just south of Evansport.  John and Lydia's family consisted of Nancy Jane (1831), Harriett Bostater (1833),  John Stenger (1835), Lucretia Ann (1838), Simon Mordecai (1841), William Wallace (1843), Robert Bruce (the author's great grandfather) 1845, Edward Ruthvin (1848) and John Porter (1851).

From this point on, the records are rather modern and easily verified.  The difficult part of the document was researching the 1700s and very early 1800s.

If you have an comments, corrections or additions, please leave a comment on this post or message the genealogy society and they will get the message to me.

Virgil Cameron.

A Story of My Cameron Line from Beauly, Scotland to Defiance County, Ohio - PART TWO

 PART TWO -

Charles Cameron (b. 1770), eldest son of Simon (b. 1740) and half brother to Mordecai (the author's third G-Grandfather) came on the CLEMENTINA as a five year old.

He started as a farmer, then apprenticed as a tailor but, as he got older, he would fail in several business ventures.

Charles was married in 1794 and owned a hotel (left) in Maytown for a short time where his first son, William, was born in 1795. His half-brother, Mordecai (b. 1775) worked with him and stayed close for a time. According to family lore, Mordecai would settle arguments at the inn owned by Charles by saying, "The answer is...and I KNOW because I'm a year older than this country!"

Charles moved his family to a nearby house (right) and this is where John, Simon, James and Catherine were born.

Charles' son, John (b. 1797) would come to be an important member of the family, as he married Mary Shulze, the sister of the Pennsylvania governor, John Andrew Shulze.  He would help funnel many lucrative contracts to his brothers, William and Simon.

In 1808, Charles lost everything to a "Sheriff Sale" and moved the family to Northumberland.  Charles was hard put to support the family and he had to put his children into foster homes.  Charles died in 1814.  He had listed his occupation as "tailor" in the 1810 census.  

Charles' son, James (b. 1800) would be killed at the Battle of Bull Run.  

(Note: Having served in the Mexican-American War, he had retired to his estate in Pennsylvania when the Civil War started.  Feeling he had to serve, he went to Washington, D.C. where he was asked to serve as Colonel for the 79th Cameronian Highland Regiment, at first made up of mostly men of Scottish blood.  Valiantly, he lost his life on July 21, 1861, at the age of 61 years and 4 months.)

Charles would have a son, also named Simon (b. 1799), who would become Secretary of War for Abe Lincoln and an extremely powerful politician.  He also had a grandson who would serve as a Senator.

But back to Simon (b. 1746)...In 1778, he was a widower with four small children, but he didn't stay that way long.  He married a widow named Catherine McCoy, who had a son of her own named John.  With this third wife, Simon had three more children: Daniel (b. 1779), Colin (b. 1780) and Rachael (b. 1782).  Daniel, Colin and half-brother, John McCoy are listed as serving in the "Danville Blues"

Daniel stayed close to home around Mt. Joy.  Daniel Cameron, a worthy Scot, was the great pedestrian who walked from Harrisburg to Danville in a day without deeming it any great exploit.  He was also a skillful carpenter and builder. 

It is unclear what happened to John McCoy, but Colin Cameron would have quite a future in the West, as his descendants were cattle barons.  Without too much detail, Colin had a son named Simon who, in turn, had a son named Colin, the cattle baron and owner of the San Rafael Cattle Ranch in Arizona, with his brother, Brewster, who was killed in 1908 when he fell into the Niagara River and went over the falls!  

Rachael Cameron would marry William Carter whose will specified that he was to be buried in Dr. Petrikin's burial ground.  Petrikin Cemetery was abandoned and any graves moved., although there is a stone in Chilisquage Cemetery, Montour County, PA, that may be his.  His wife, Rachael, moved to California with her daughter and is buried there.

There have been no records found that state definitely when Donald (b. 1710) or his son, Simon (b. 1746) died, but the obituary for Secretary of War, Simon Cameron, states that "the elder Simon died in 1789 at harvest time from overwork and exposure." Simon and his father, Donald, are probably both buried near the Donegal Church, but the graves are unmarked. Simon's third wife, Catherine, was listed as "The Widow Cameron" on tax rolls and lived to be 92, and is buried next to Daniel's wife, Mary.

Moving on to Defiance County, Ohio - Part III