So, I was able to place James Sr. (1758-1825) in Guernsey County by @1806. Photo's taken by me in a trip to the area in 2005 of the road that borders this land and the sign still reading LaRue Road (although no LaRue family has lived on the road since 1891) can be seen in the first posting to this blog in April 2011.
It appears that James' presumed brother John Sr. (@1769- after 1840) was in the county at the same time eventually buying land right next door to James. James lived in Richland Twp., and at his death it appears that John moved in with the widow Elizabeth and some of her children. In fact in the 1830 census in one household we see an enumeration that seems to refer to John Sr, (60-70 years old) and widow Elizabeth (50-60 years old) as the two oldest adults. There is also reference to a 30-40 year old male adult, a 20-30 year old female adult and 2 male children 5-10 years old. This only fits the profile for Elizabeth's second son, John Jr. and his young family (this is my line). She has none of her unmarried children with her in this household, so they must have been either missed by the census taker or more likely are living with other siblings. If you have never been to a reconstructed historical village and walked into some of the buildings, you can see why they had to place children among the family members. The houses were simply to small to hold many people.
All of which raises the questions 1) what occupations did they follow while in Guernsey County? most everyone called themselves farmers, but did they have other skills that they used to generate income? 2) What was the route that they used to migrate into Ohio? Did they come up from Kentucky, cross the Ohio River, go through Washington County, Ohio one of the first settled areas in Ohio? Or did they go up through the SW corner of Pennsylvania then float down the Ohio River and get off to follow the well traveled National Road West? Both were well established routes into Ohio. 3) Where did this family originate? Did they live in numerous locations before settling in Ohio? Considering how primitive the area was, with Ohio just recently becoming a state, why did they travel there? Did they know of land available, or did they have land awarded to them? 4) Did they belong to any church? or have any other affiliations such as political, military etc.?
Recently I found one other way that they could have obtained the land in this US Military District without being veterans of the Revolutionary War. "The U.S. Military District was established in 1796, lying to the west of the first Congressional survey and to the north of the second Congressional survey. It was used as payment for service in the Revolutionary War, though many veterans sold their bounties to others, and beginning in 1803 unclaimed land was sold on the open market. Unlike the Congressional surveys, the Military District's ranges and townships are five miles wide and five miles square, respectively. In addition, although they are numbered in the same fashion as for the Congressional lands (south to north, east to west), the numbering is not continuous with them, beginning anew in the District's southeast corner. So, for example, Cambridge is located in Range 3, Township 2." This could explain one possibiltiy for the purchase of this land by James. They heard about large unclaimed tracts of land available for purchase.
As to their occupations, the 1820 census report for James Larrow, does not list him as engaged in agriculture. Rather, it lists him as engaged in commerce. Interesting? What did he sell, I wonder? He has died by the 1830 census so we can not get a reading from that year and they never asked for occupation then anyhow. Likewise, in my earlier Apr 2011 post I have provided a photo of the papers from the Special Court session called for at his death in Fall 1825 to appoint the administrators, when his widow Elizabeth declines, and her two eldest sons, William and John Jr. are appointed. But, I have yet to find the proceedings of the probate of this estate. More microfilms to search and court records to examine. Maybe the settlement of his estate will give us a better understanding of this mans life. Likewise, I have found no reference to the death of John Sr., where or when. (Tradition offers a date around 1840.) These court records are needed so that I can examine his probate also, for more information on this family group. Tradition states that John Sr. never married, but other information about this family has been in error before, so I don't rule anything out.
Church affiliation seems to be established after the death of James Sr., by some of Elizabeth's children with the Salem Baptist Church, in Wills Township, Guernsey County as early as 1828. Most of the family is buried in this abandoned church cemetery in a front row closest to the church.
In my earlier post I have provided the photo from the cemetery where James Sr. and most likely his brother John are buried. It is called Leatherwood Cemetery and no records have confirmed nor denied their burial in that location. Family members interviewed by early researchers, state that he is buried there but that there is no tombstone viewable and that they did not remember the location. The stones in the cemetery are in very poor shape, so it is unlikely that we can find anything new from this cemetery. We can only hope that if we find the complete file of James probate that this information my be included somewhere in those records.
The land that James patented, stayed in the LaRue family until 1891, when his last Guernsey County family member, a son Laban, died and the land was sold to Hans Weaver. Before that time it appears that at James death, that the land was inherited by all his children, and then bit by bit they sold out or gave their portions to Laban to provide a home for their widowed mother, Elizabeth. A complete title search of this property may provide more information about the family. Another thing on my research "to do" list.
