Two Brothers or Two Wives?

Not long ago, I wrote about one of the family immigrants to Preble County, Ohio, John William Runyon. He was the husband of Patricia Mary Bennett and they are both said to be buried in Friendship Cemetery, Sugar Valley, Preble County, Ohio. They appear to have been married in Kentucky before the move to Ohio.

There is also William Runyon who married Katherine Low, December 13, 1793, in Rowan County (now within Davidson County near Healing Springs) North Carolina. Are William and John William the same man? What became of Katherine Low Runyon? Was she the mother of Ellen Runyon Rice or Mary Runyon Hornbaker?

Parks to Preble ~ All in the Family

Samuel Parks and his wife Charity Runyon undoubtedly were aware of, and may even have attended, the revival meetings at Cane Ridge in their home county in 1801.  What planted a seed for the Shaker movement likely also contributed to their family's migration north into Ohio, to Preble County.

Samuel and Nancy had both been born in Hunterdon County, New Jersey and were brought by their parents to North Carolina. The two married there in 1792 and soon after headed into Kentucky, settling in Bourbon County. Samuel's sister Nancy Ann Parks married Charity's brother Bafford "Barefoot" Runyon in North Carolina and eventually they too made their way into Kentucky, choosing Barren County, about 100 miles southwest of Lexington.

After the revival meetings at Cane Ridge in Bourbon County, Samuel and Charity with family and neighbors migrated yet again, spreading their own religious beliefs and traditions farther into the frontier. This time it was north, into Ohio, which was admitted to the Union on February 19, 1803.

Six years after the Cane Ridge revival was held near the town of Paris, Kentucky, a preacher by the name of David Purviance, raised a Presbyterian and having embraced the New Light, or Christian faith while in Kentucky, was establishing a church at New Paris, Preble County, Ohio. A great proportion of Ohio's new arrivals were coming in from Kentucky.

Robert Runyon (son of Bafford and Nancy) was among the earliest settlers of Gaspar Township, near Sugar Valley, arriving 1808.  Over the next seven years Samuel and Charity Parks, Bafford and Nancy Runyon, Josiah Conger and his wife Catherine Runyon (Robert's sister), William Gray, and the Rhea family were among the incoming settlers to the area. Most seem to have laid down roots southeast of the county seat of Eaton, in either Gasper or Dixon Townships. Also included was Revolutionary War veteran John William Runyon, another son of Phineas and Charity Runyon, brother of Bafford and Charity Parks. He arrived from Madison County, Kentucky.

The original family members who settled in Preble County are buried in Friendship Cemetery and Gard Cemetery.

Eighty years later when this land ownership map of Preble County was drawn, the impact of their settlement can still be seen in the landowner names, which include Parks, Runyon, Conger, Railsback, Lewellen, Thomas, Huffman, Wilkinson, and Gray.

1887 Preble County, Ohio land owner map

Two sources referenced include:

History of Preble County Ohio: Her People, Industries and Institutions by R. E. Lowry, 1915

History of Preble County, Ohio, with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches by H. Z. Williams & Brothers, 1881

John William Runyon

Not all of Phineas and Charity's children chose the Shaker communal way of life. In fact, only four of fourteen chose that road.

I am slowly attempting to track down the others. Their oldest child, son John William Runyon, went as an adult - as several did - from Kentucky to Preble County, Ohio.  After the family had moved from New Jersey to North Carolina and then to Madison County Kentucky, John married Patricia Mary Bennett (in Madison County).

According to a letter written to Mrs. B.S. Lewellen in 1934 regarding the Revolutionary War record of John Runyon, pensioner in Preble Co, Ohio:

John Runyon was born November 4, 1763, in Hunterdon County, New Jersey.

While residing in Rowan County, NC, John Runyon enlisted in the summer of 1780, served at various times until after the surrender of Cornwallis, amounting in all to about 1 and one half months, as a private under Captains James Byers, Peter Hedrick, Cole and Carson, and Colonels Francis Locke, and Collier in the North Carolina troops, was in the battle of Rugeley's Mills, and a severe engagment with the Tories near Deep River, during which action he was injured in his right arm by a ball passing through the flesh about the elbow; he served a subsequent tour of one month from sometimes in November 1781 under Catain William, guarding munition wagons from New Bern to Duplin, North Carolina.

After the war, the soldier resided in Madison County, Kentucky and moved from there to Preble County, Ohio. He was allowed pension on his application executed September 21, 1832, at which time he resided in Dickson [Dixon] Township, Preble County, Ohio; he remained resided in that county for about thirteen years.

According to Find a Grave, John and Patty are buried at Friendship Cemetery, Sugar Valley, Preble County, Ohio