Our Shaker Heritage...the blog: Parks to Preble ~ All in the Family

3/21/2018

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.