Inverness at Night

Photo by L. Jones. Inverness, Scotland. Apr 2017

Here's another shot from my Frequent Traveling sister, taken at Inverness, Scotland. I am looking forward to seeing more photos from her trip.

Creation of Wabash County

Source: OpenLibrary.

I am looking back again at the creation of Wabash County, Illinois, a sliver of land along the Illinois border facing the Wabash River and Indiana directly east. As I wrote yesterday, John Og McIntosh was integral in the formation of Edwards County, Illinois in 1814. By the time Wabash County was created in 1825, McIntosh was well into retirement from public service, living in the northern corner of the county between Friendsville and Allendale. John appears on a list of original property owners along with another familiar name, Asa Smith.

Source: Combined History of Edwards, Lawrence and Wabash Counties, p 117.

The book indicates Asa Smith settled in the area that became Wabash County in 1818. He recorded this land on 6 April 1825, totaling 81 acres in the west half of the southeast quarter of Section 5, in Township 1, North of Range 12 West. The land was assigned from Cornelius Vanderhuff.

Source: Bureau of Land Management records, Illinois Land Grants.

The image from page 285 of the Combined History of Edwards, Lawrence and Wabash Counties gives a sense of what the land was like after this area was settled by the pioneering families.

Combined History of Edwards, Lawrence & Wabash Counties, p. 285.

Sorting fact from legend

Yesterday I introduced John Og McIntosh, our 5th-great-grandfather from Scotland. Trying to separate the facts from the legend behind his arrival in the US is proving to be difficult. First, let's look back at the account from the Combined History of Edwards, Lawrence and Wabash Counties, 1883.

John Og McIntosh is first mentioned in the entry on Wabash County, on page 292. This section says he was from Virginia, of Scottish descent, and his wife Sarah Bennett was the daughter of a ship carpenter. They went to Kentucky in 1784 or 1785, until they arrived in Illinois in 1814 with a family of six children, Samuel, Daniel, William, Lavina, Lucinda and Sarah. The family settled in an area then part of Gallatin County and moved into Compton's Fort. "After a four months' stay he settled on the west half of the southeast corner of section 23 and lived there for about one year." This matches up with the land grant issued to John McIntosh in 1816. The county history book says this land was entered on 12 November 1814.

Land Grant issued 6 Apr 1816.

John McIntosh "was naturally a leader, and took an active interest in the movement that resulted in the creation of Edwards County, having been selected for the arduous and dangerous task of bearing the citizens' petition to Gov. Ninian Edwards at Kaskaskia." The section on Andrew J. McIntosh states that John made this journey on horseback and met the Governor, whom he had personally known in Kentucky. The petition to create the county was granted, and it was named after Edwards.

When the county formed in 1814, McIntosh was appointed a judge of its court. He "busied himself in the manner of organization and the establishment of police regulations." This land would eventually separate to become Wabash County.

John McIntosh and Sarah Bennett had at least the following children:
- James McIntosh, 5 May 1783 in Winchester, Virginia to 1 March 1866 in Wabash County, Illinois
- Margaret Jane McIntosh, 6 March 1785 in Mason County, Kentucky to 3 January 1848
- Levina McIntosh, 1788 in Mason County, Kentucky
- Elizabeth McIntosh, 11 July 1790 in Kentucky to 5 May 1867 in Wabash County, Illinois
- Samuel McIntosh, 25 December 1791 in Bourbon County, Kentucky to 16 June 1879 in Wabash County, Illinois
- John McIntosh, 15 October 1794 in Bourbon County, Kentucky to 1 June 1859 in Nashville, Tennessee
- Sarah McIntosh, 1798 in Bourbon County, Kentucky to 1844 in Wabash County, Illinois
- William McIntosh, 15 May 1800 in Logan County, Kentucky to 16 August 1882 in Tipton County, Tennessee
- Daniel McIntosh, 1 October 1801 in Warren County, Kentucky to 14 December 1884 in Crawford County, Indiana
- Lucinda McIntosh, born about 1802 in Warren County, Kentucky to sometime after June 1880 in Crawford County, Indiana

Tracking the birth locations of the children helps show the path John and Sarah took before arriving in Wabash County, Illinois.

Our Scottish ancestor

Painting by Peter Graham. Wandering Shadows, 1878.

Back in December 2012, I started to explore the story of our Scottish ancestor, John Og McIntosh. I picked up his story this month while exploring the line of his daughter, my 4th-great-grandmother, Lucinda McIntosh Smith. A booklet written by his grandson, Andrew J. McIntosh, was published in 1898. A version of this story appeared in the Combined History of Edwards, Lawrence and Wabash Counties, 1883.

According to these stories, John Og McIntosh was born on 6 March 1753 in Inverness, Scotland. He was a son of John McIntosh and Margaret Og. John McIntosh Sr was a shepherd and small farmer. Margaret's brother John Og is said of have been a British military surgeon, who took young John McIntosh under his wing and helped him get to the Medical College of Edinburgh. There he studied medicine and surgery up to the Spring of 1776.

With the start of the American Revolution, John Og was ordered with Gen. Cornwallis' Army to America. John McIntosh joined his uncle as an assistant surgeon. Andrew's account says they set sail for America on 11 February 1776. Andrew wrote that they were with Cornwallis' Army up to 4 October 1777, when John Og died at the Battle of Germantown. While the British Army was camped at Germantown, John McIntosh met a Scottish family named Bennett. This family had a daughter Sarah Bennett, who would later become John McIntosh's wife.

After the death of his uncle, John McIntosh could no longer work as an assistant surgeon, and he accepted as a recruit in the British Cavalry of Colonel Tarleton. John served in this unit up to 17 January 1781.

By Andrew McIntosh's account, while at the Battle of Cowpens, John McIntosh was trapped under his horse after it was shot. McIntosh was captured by American General Daniel Morgan, who led him into camp as his personal prisoner. Andrew's story isn't clear why Morgan spared McIntosh's life, but he says McIntosh followed Morgan to Winchester, Virginia. Before settling in Winchester, McIntosh returned to Germantown, New Jersey for Sarah. They were married at Philadelphia. Afterward they moved to Winchester, Virginia, where their first child James McIntosh was born on 5 May 1783.

In early Spring 1784, they young family packed up their belongings and began the journey with a few other families to Kentucky. They traveled to Pittsburgh and caught a boat down the Ohio River to Kentucky. The McIntosh family lived in various parts of Kentucky from 1785 to 1814.

With the opening of land in Illinois, they moved to what became Edwards County, Illinois in 1814. John McIntosh was named as a Justice of the Peace for the county for Illinois Governor Ninan Edwards in November 1814. McIntosh was appointed as a Justice in the county on 24 December 1814. He was reappointed in 1816 to another term as Justice in the County Court. Andrew McIntosh indicates that his grandfather served as a Justice until Illinois became a state in 1818.

Territorial Papers of Illinois, pp 650-651.

John McIntosh retired in Wabash County, Illinois, and died on 28 January 1829.

Visit to Leesylvania State Park

Photo by Patrick Jones. Leesylvania State Park, 9 Apr 2017.

This afternoon I went with my Mom and her sisters to Leesylvania State Park, on the Virginia shore of the Potomac. We saw the memorial brick for my Dad as a Friend of the Park, and we saw one of his boat models on display at the park visitor center. Before he got sick from cancer he taught a wooden boat building class at Leesylvania. The visitors center is planning to hang the boat from the beams in the ceiling for visitors to see.

Photo by Patrick Jones. Boat model by K.D. Jones.