The tracing of the Chenoweth family westward is a snapshot of the formation and settlement of a nation. John Chenoweth first appears in Pennsylvania and neighboring New Jersey just after the start of the 18th century. He probably was lured to this area of Quaker settlements by advertisements for settlers for Burlington, NJ posted in Cornwall. By 1730 he was located in the Baltimore Co. area of Maryland and by 1740 the frontier area of Winchester, VA. Virginia became a springboard for the western movement. As pioneer settlers, the Chenoweths were among the vanguard of early settlers in to the western states as they opened up. Starting with Baltimore, each step along the way has found family members both "staying on" and "moving on", so that while the family was the essence of the pioneer movement west, it also embedded descendants at literally every stop along the way. Through the 19th Century, the majority of the family were farmers found in the countryside. Typical of the 20th Century, there began a significant inflow of family members into cities and metropolitan areas in the early 1900s. Today, it would be hard to find a place in the United States where you could not also find a descendant of this family nearby.
The 1850 Census reveals some interesting patterns. The family of Thomas moved west first to Allegany Co., MD. In the late 1780s John's family began its move to Kentucky near present day Louisville. The Carters of Hannah went to western Pennsylvania as did the Suttons of William. The Thomas families reached eastern Kentucky and then into Ohio followed by families of John and William. One of Ruth's sons headed south to North Carolina, then Georgia. The family of Richard's son John went to Tennessee. Arthur's families were late movers, moving in groups of one or two families. By 1850, Arthur's families were more scattered than any of those of his siblings, some moving to Pennsylvania, New York and even Massachusetts, others to Ohio, Indiana, Missouri and Tennessee. The families of John and Thomas became vanguards of westward movements moving though the Great Lake states and spilling into Iowa and down the Mississippi River. They seem to have had itchy feet, always moving on. William's family was slower and settled moving in a much narrower band west through Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and into Iowa. Even later, the Carters of Hannah followed the same pattern. By 1850 some of Ruth's families had moved back to Maryland, then to Pennsylvania and Ohio. The Baltimore area of Maryland and Frederick Co. areas of Virginia remained wellsprings of continual jumps west. Just before 1850, Richard's Tennessee lines began to move to Arkansas and Kentucky. These two maps are different looks at this 1850 distribution pattern.
Long thought of as the original home of the family of John Chenoweth, Baltimore Co., MD has a somewhat different story to it than portrayed by Cora Hiatt. It is probable that none the children of John and Mary were born there, though many grandchildren were. The earliest record of any Chenoweth in Baltimore Co., MD is the marriage of the son John to Mary Smith in 1730 in St. John's Parish. How long before this time, the Chenoweths arrived is not yet known. By fragmentary evidence it is almost certain that they were in areas of Pennsylvania and New Jersey neighboring to Maryland prior to coming to Baltimore County.
Nor did the Chenoweth family hold a vast estate in the Baltimore area, live in Gunpowder Manor, or near Joppa. Cora's accounts to the contrary are whole-cloth stories, without basis. John Chenoweth left Maryland after 1738 never having owned an acre of land in Maryland, and long enough before 1746 to establish residency in Frederick Co., VA. Three of John's sons, John, William and Thomas, went with their father to Virginia. The mother, Mary, had died; and John remarried to the widow Jane Wood prior to this move. At least two of the daughters, Hannah and Ruth, went to Virginia as well, for they surely married there. According to Elmer Haile, the last record (until the third generation showed up in the 1760s) of any John Chenoweth (whether father or son) was May 18, 1742. On this date, as recorded in the administration accounts of the Maryland Colony, a John Chenoweth received payment from the estate Col. Thomas Cockey of Anne Arundel Co.
Some other lines came back. It is apparent that Ruth's Peteets settled in Baltimore Co. in the 1750s. John Peteet received land there from his brother in 1753. Two daughters were married there and maybe one son. Some of these families would move to Harford Co. Thomas3, the son of John2, returned to marry in Baltimore Co., and lived there until after the death of his first wife, Rachel Ruxton Moore. Thomas then took his family to Botetourt Co., VA. Thomas(2) and family moved into western Maryland in the 1760s near present day Allegany Co., before moving on to Kentucky in the later 1780s. George Davenport Chenoweth in the fifth generation would also return from Virginia, but like Thomas before, he later moved on. During World War II, a number of West Virginia Chenoweths found their way back to Baltimore, seeking employment in the wartime effort. Some remain there today. But by enlarge the makeup of the family today in Baltimore is a product of the two sons who remained, Arthur and Richard. The known lines are those of Arthur. The scattered unconnected lines are thought, for the most part, to belong to Richard.
Both Richard and Arthur would have 6 sons who would live to be named in their wills. Each named sons bearing the original five names of the 2nd generation: John, Richard, Arthur, William and Thomas. Arthur had an additional son named Samuel, named for his father-in-law, and Richard had a son named Joseph. With 5 sets of sons by the same name, the Cora Hiatt version has some of the children misplaced between the two families. The Harris account repeats these errors and also misplaces Arthur's son Richard as a grandson of Richard2.
In Colonial Maryland land was divided into what were called "Hundreds". The linked map dated in the late 1800s shows approximate boundaries of hundreds as of 1737. Arthur's property was located in the westerly portion of Baltimore Co. in the Soldiers Delight Hundred near Reisterstown [approximately marked 1 on the map]. Richard's property was in the central portion of Baltimore Co. in the Upper Back River Hundred near Timonium, above Towson [approximately marked 2 on the map]. This was close to where his father, John, was found in the 1737 tax rolls. These two locations, and their property, become key in sorting out the 3rd generation in Baltimore.
Of the two brothers, Arthur's lines, now restored by corrections, are larger, more known and more prosperous. At least five of Arthur's sons were alive when he died in 1802. Arthur's sons, John and Samuel, married Cromwell sisters and went to Virginia in the late part of the 18th century. Arthur, Jr., Richard and Thomas founded lines that still reside in Baltimore today as well as founding emigrations to Tennessee, Ohio and Indiana. William's lines are not known, he was most likely dead before his father and may never have had a son. The three cited Baltimore lines are all misplaced in Chenoweth histories. Arthur, Jr. did not go to Kentucky as Cora Hiatt stated and is the Arthur who married Ann Beasman. Richard had two families, the first in Baltimore by his wife Eleanor Askew, the second in Knox Co., TN by his second wife Ellen Hammer. The Baltimore family from Richard's son William, who lived near Reisterstown, forms the largest body of Chenoweths in the Baltimore area today. Hiatt misplaced Thomas under Richard2 and skips a whole generation of his descendants. Moreover, Cora misplaced her own William, who was a son of Arthur, Jr. and not the William of Richard like she thought.
What we know of Richard's lines is largely fragmented pieces. The traces of Richard's family seem shrouded, with few records that shed light on the fourth generation. The children appear younger than proposed by Cora Hiatt and the son, John, who died in 1781 a few months before his father, was probably the oldest, and first to marry. The other 5 sons are mentioned as beneficiaries in the 1781 will. But we know nothing of the family of Richard, Jr. We have learned of Arthur's marriage to Cassandra Bosley, but not the children, William appears to be married to Elizabeth Richardson (this marriage is placed to William of Arthur in Hiatt), but again, nothing of the children. We only know one son of Thomas who settled in Hartford Co.
The only existing record of Joseph is in his father's will of 1781 where Joseph is to share in Richard's property and act as executor. It may be that Joseph was Richard's youngest son. There appears to be a tradition in the family of appointing the youngest son as executor of the will. John, the progenitor, did this in 1746 with his son Thomas. Arthur did this in 1802 with his son Richard. If Joseph was the youngest it would explain his absence in the 1773 Tax Rolls.
Because many early records are missing it is impossible to get a full picture of the family. In the 1763 Tax Rolls, Arthur and Arthur, Jr. appear in Soldiers Delight and Richard appears in the Back River Upper Hundred. This may indicate that Arthur, Jr. was the only son old enough to be listed, confirming the thought that Arthur married first. Ten years later, Soldiers Delight rolls are missing, and five of Richard's sons and Richard himself are found, but Joseph is not, which may mean that Joseph was not yet of age. John is living apart, and likely married to Frances Haile in the Upper Middle Hundred. Richard, Jr and his brothers Arthur, Thomas and William are living together in the Upper Back River Hundred where Richard's property is found. Richard himself is listed as working at the Kingsbury Furnace and so not listed at his residence.
In the 1790 Census, the Nations' s first Census, Arthur, Richard, William and Samuel are listed in Solder's delight and Thomas is in Frederick County. These are the 3rd generation sons of Arthur. The other son, John, has left for Virginia. Samuel was soon to follow John. The rest are Richard's sons: scattered in the Back River Hundred are William, Richard and Arthur. John's widow, Frances, is listed. Thomas is in Hartford Co. as is his sister, Hannah, who married Joseph Ashton. As previously stated, Joseph is unaccounted for. The fourth generation names of the children of Richard's line are largely unknown. There is not one will to be found of the six brothers. Their lives are hidden, leaving only fragments of their existence and few clues as to their families. Ensuing Censuses will turn up new families, for the most part in the areas where Richard's lines are known to have dwelled, but knowledge as to which of the lines of Richard's sons they belong to is lacking.
In 1850 there there were 255 individuals in Maryland comprising 46 familes and and an additional 9 Chenoweth familes which have not been identified as to their proper place. 40% of of these bore the Chenoweth name. By 1860, because of outward migration, the family population had only grown to 262.
By the 1880 Census there were 198 individuals named Chenoweth in Maryland comprising 40 familes, the bulk of which were in Baltimore Co. Even though it is certain, that the many Chenoweths found in the Baltimore area today are part of the original family, several of the links between the known 3rd generation and the lines that emerged from the 1850 Census are unknown. And though they commonly use the different surname spellings of Chenoweth, Chenowith, and Chenworth there are all undoubtedly related, most likely lost lines of Richard2.
The Story of Virginia
[1742-present day]
[1850 Census: VA & WV] 1850 Census: VA & WV]
Virginia, after Baltimore County, MD, was the next permanent settling place of the Chenoweth family, starting with the migration of John, the progenitor, and his three sons, John, William and Thomas, and two daughters, Hannah and Ruth after 1738, more probably 1742. In 1743 William secured land here north of Winchester, on Mill Creek, a tributary of the Opequon. This land was located in what would become Berkeley Co., WV. It is likely that John the father and the two other "Virginia" sons, John and Thomas, also staked out their land at this time. On April 11, 1746, John, the progenitor, wrote his will in Frederick County, declaring he was a citizen of that county, dying there soon after. It should be noted that although a deed to lands being the name of John Chenoweth has never been found, in his will, he specifically mentions his lands which he passed to his youngest son, Thomas, and son-in-law, John Peteet.
Known as Frederick County, this location was about 80 miles west of Baltimore, along a direct route from the City of Baltimore to Winchester, Virginia. It is located in what was known as the Northern Neck. It is hard today to imagine this area as a frontier, but in 1730 it was near the western edge. According to Cecil O'Dell, "85% of the people who came to "old Frederick County", VA came largely from William Penn country up north in Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware. An additional 5% came out of New York, 5% from the lower part of Maryland and 5% from east of the Blue Ridge Mountains." Thus there was a large proportion of Quakers in the population. Because of an eighteen-year lawsuit between Jost Hite and Lord Thomas Fairfax (1730-1748) no land in the area was able to be legality disposed of during that period. That doesn't mean land didn't change hands, but rather that the deed could not be officially recorded. There is ample evidence that the Chenoweths acquired and settled on their lands long before they received the official grant from Lord Fairfax. The logjam created by this 18-year hiatus took years to record and issue to catch up with the reality of the numerous transactions and exchanges that had taken place during this time of intense settlement.
Morgan Morgan, who would later witness the will of John2's son Absolom, was the first settler in the Winchester area. He came to this valley in 1728, and, in 1731, he began to clear the land and build a cabin, which was completed in 1734. It still stands today in Berkeley County between Martinsburg, WV and Winchester VA. Winchester was the junction of two routes west, both from Philadelphia. First there was the Great Wagon Road that started in Philadelphia, then Lancaster, then York to Winchester and continued down the Shenandoah Valley, between the Alleghenies and Blue Ridge Mountains. The second route went southwest through Baltimore, Annapolis, Alexandria and then northwest to join the Great Wagon Road at Winchester. It is likely that the Chenoweth family took this latter route. The allure was land. Two Quaker leaders, Alexander Ross and Morgan Bryan, as approved by the Virginia Governor in 1730, had opened up 100,000 acres on the Opequon River in then Orange Co. As the word went out, Quakers in Chester and Bucks Co., PA began to move to this backcountry of Northern Virginia, along these routes to Winchester and the Opequon River. Among these Pennsylvania settlers was John Calvert, the presumed brother of Mary, who located in this area a few years before the Chenoweths in the 1730s.
Marie Eberle, in her Carter books, points out some interesting aspects to this. The Carters were Pennsylvania Quakers and were part of this movement. By 1734 the Quaker Hopewell MM (originally named Opequon) was established there. Unfortunately its records from 1736-1759 were destroyed at the home of William Joliffe, the same William Joliffe, who signed on the inventory of John's estate upon his death in 1746. The first record in Frederick Co. of James Carter, who married Hannah Chenoweth, is on June 3, 1744, as a witness to a deed, as cited in the "Hopewell Friends History". Two years later, James Carter, as son-in-law, would be co-executor, with the son Thomas Chenoweth, in John's will. James Carter's patent for land was granted in 1754, but it is evident that he and his family had been living there for at least 10 years. Eberle describes, as mentioned above, that many grants in this area took 5, 10 or 15 years after the original settlement to be recorded. The order of recorded property purchased by the three Virginia Chenoweth sons is 1743 for William, 1751 for Thomas and 1762 for John. John, the progenitor, in his will of 1746, indicated that he had previously gifted his land to Thomas.
Frederick County was organized in 1743 from Orange Co. It existence was actually authorized in 1738, but the population of the area was too sparse to form a government for several years. Today Frederick Co., VA is a small piece of what was then "Old Frederick Co.", encompassing Frederick, Clarke, Warren, Shenandoah and Page counties in Virginia; and Jefferson, Berkeley, Morgan, Hampshire, Mineral, Hardy and Grant counties in West Virginia [Pioneers of Old Frederick Co., VA, O'Dell]. In 1754 Hampshire County was formed from Augusta Co. and a western part of Frederick Co. In 1772 Berkeley County was formed from the eastern part Frederick Co. These three counties, Hampshire, Frederick and Berkeley are a contiguous band of land, with Frederick County forming a triangular peak between Hampshire on the west and Berkeley on the east. One hundred and twenty years later, Hampshire and Berkeley would become part of West Virginia while Frederick County remained in Virginia. So though early accounts of the Chenoweth family are spread between these three counties in two different present-day states, these locations are all in close proximity of each other.
Berkely Co., WV is bounded by the Potomac River on the North and Frederick Co., VA on the Southwest. Until 1772, it was all just a part of what was called Frederick Co. Back Creek Runs down the West side and is separated from the larger valley to the east of the Opequon by the ridge of North Mountain. Thomas settled in Back Creek, in an area that would become Berkeley Co., but was still part of Frederick Co. as long as Thomas lived there. These lands, or the rights to them, 274 acres, may have passed to him from his father John. In the 1751 recording and purchase, it is stated that Thomas is already living on this land. The official Lord Fairfax patent did not happen until 1761. To the East, on the other side of North Mountain William and his brother John located. William's purchase from John Mills was recorded as early as 1743 as John Mills had apparently already secured his patent from the Virginia Colony. This land was located on the upper end of Mill Creek, a couple of miles north of would be the Berkeley Co. border. John's land, finally issued in 1762 for 314 acres, was slightly east and south of William, closer to the eventual border, but still in what would become Berkeley Co. A passage for this area between the Back Creek area and the Mill Creek area through North Mountain was an access called Mills Gap.
The approximate areas of the lands of the three second generation sons: John, William, and Thomas may be viewed on this map, taken from "Pioneers of Old Frederick Co., VA", by Cecil O'Dell. A listing of early Virginia records is found on the background page of the website.
For the next 80 years, the 5 second generation children, would establish their families within this three county area. William, Thomas, Hannah and Ruth are all believed to have married in Frederick Co. John, William and Hannah would die in this area and leave wills. The time and location of the death of Ruth, the youngest is unknown. It seems likely that the family "returned" to Baltimore Co., MD in the 1750s. Two of her daughters would marry there. Her husband, John Peteet, moved on to North Carolina. Thomas, the youngest son, is believed to have moved west to present day Allegany Co., MD near Old Towne. His children would continue on to Kentucky and Ohio over the next thirty years.
History plays apart in the Chenoweth's stay in Virginia. Land had brought them, and land would lure them away, westward. But to the West were the formidable Alleghenies and Indian lands. In the 1750s a series of forts were built on the west side of the Alleghenies, along the south branch of the Potomac River, as part of the French and Indian Wars, to shield the Shenandoah from increasing Indian raids. Braddock's defeat near Ft. Duquesne (Ft. Pitt) at the start of the French and Indian War, left the Virginia frontier settlements exposed. George Washington erected Ft. Loudon near Winchester. Still the area suffered from frequent Indian raids. In Winchester proper, Washington maintained a survey office and was twice elected to the Burgess to represent this district.
In 1763, Treaty of Paris designated all territory west of the Appalachian Mountains as Indian Territory. While they reserved these lands for the Indians, the British, to pay for their war costs, started increasing taxes, and at the same time pulling back from maintaining troops to protect the frontier. But the fast growing population of the "frontier" was soon pushing at these restraints, and the colonialists everywhere were chafing from the heavy-handed taxation. The scene was set for the Revolution. The Revolution, in turn, broke the barriers west.
So, midway in this time span, Virginia would become a staging area for the next push westward to Kentucky, Western Pennsylvania and Ohio, beginning in the third generation and continuing to the fourth. The exodus from Virginia would start with John(2)'s son Richard venturing to Kentucky in 1778 during the Revolutionary War. This movement would continue into the 1820s. Between, this same area of Virginia would be restocked with the coming of two of Arthur's sons, John and Samuel, from Baltimore Co., MD. They would basically settle in what would be Berkeley Co., about 5 miles north of the lands on Mill Creek that William purchased. The vast majority of the Chenoweth family known today generated from these Virginia families. In 1920 the knowledge gleaned from the Virginia wills would become the basis for understanding most of the family structure.
JOHN(2): Though we do not know when John(2), who married in Baltimore Co., came to Virginia, it is probable that it was together with the rest of the family. John, the first of the second generation, received his patent from Lord Fairfax for the 314 acres upon which he was living in 1762 and left his will in Frederick Co in 1771. Two years later this land became part of Berkeley Co and was sold that same year, 1773, by his widow Mary and his sons, Richard, Absolom and Thomas. The sons William, John, and Absolom also died in Virginia, William in Frederick Co in 1772, but likely on lands that a year later became Berkeley Co., Absolom in Berkeley Co. in 1773 just after the new county was formed and John in Hampshire Co. in 1812 on lands left to him by his father John(2). This 248 acres to the west in Hampshire Co near the Cacapon River had been split in John(2)'s will to his oldest two sons. William(3) within a year, just before his death, sold his share to his brother John(3). Arthur, the youngest son of John(2) would also move to Hampshire Co. as he is found there in the 1782 tax rolls. Absolom, after selling his share of his father's lands bought his own tract in the same area of Berkeley Co., but died there shortly afterwards. His wife Ruth remarried to George Cunningham and in the 1790s, George and Ruth sold lands in this area of Berkeley Co. to Ruth and Absolom's sons James and Absolom, Jr. as tenants in common. Richard apparently headed west to Monongalia Co. and then later, by 1778, Kentucky. Earlier Thomas had left returning to the Baltimore area to marry in 1766, and twelve years later, resettling in Botetourt Co., VA, a very distinct and different a part of the Virginia story. Arthur left Hampshire Co. after 1784 and located in the Louisville area of Kentucky where his brother Richard had settled.
In the fourth generation, William(3)'s sons, William and Jonathan, went to Kentucky and the son, John, moved west to settle in the Tygart Valley of Randolph Co. in present-day West Virginia. This branch of West Virginia Chenoweths will be discussed separately under West Virginia. John(4) was living in Hampshire Co. prior to moving to Randolph Co. Jonathan was there as well in 1784. In 1786 Hardy Co. was formed to the south from Hamsphire Co. placing Jonathan within it's confines before leaving for Kentucky prior to 1800. Absolom's son, Absolom Jr., also went to Kentucky about 1807 after selling his share of land to his brother James. James, was the last 4th generation Chenoweth in the line of John(2) to stay and die in Berkeley Co. The children of James all left after his death in 1815, but not until after 1830. The first of John(3)'s sons to leave was John in 1807 for Indiana. After John(3)'s death in 1812, Absolom, James and Elias went to Perry Co., OH. William S. went to Warren Co., OH.
WILLIAM(2): William died in 1785 in Berkeley Co., as did his sons Isaac and Joseph. Absolom who lived near Gerrardstown, Berkeley Co., went to Clark Co., OH, via Pennsylvania, leaving before 1810. William, Jr., joined the William, the son of John(3) John(2) in Warren Co., OH. It is the families of three of the sons and daughters of these two Williams that form the noted three cousin marriages that started in Virginia and continued in Ohio. Joseph's son, Joseph, Jr., preceded the two Williams to Warren Co., OH with his mother, Sinah, who remarried to Evan Banes. Isaac lived on Back Creek in Berkeley Co. His children went to Fayette Co., PA. Later they each, separately moved on to Ohio. All of William's known line, then, ended up in various parts of Ohio.
THOMAS(2): Though the family of Thomas is well documented, actually little is known of his life. He is the only son of the second generation not to leave a will. Thomas witnessed his father's will in 1746 in Frederick Co., VA. He purchased land 1751 that he was already living on located on Back Creek in Frederick Co., VA. He received the formal grant for this land in 1761 and sold it a year later in 1762. He is last seen in Virginia on a 1764 rent roll. Thomas appears to have moved to the area of Old Town in present day Allegany Co., MD. In the late 1780s they moved to Mason Co., KY, traveling through Charleston, VA (now WV). They settled near Maysville on the banks of the Ohio and are found here in 1790 tax rolls.
It is believed that Thomas died there in Allegany Co. but it is not certain. The 1790 Kentucky Census has a tax roll listing for a Thomas, but this is believed to be the son, Thomas, Jr. The children of Thomas appear to have married and served in the American Revolution from the area of present day Allegany Co., MD. A Thomas in Kanawha Co., WV owned property in 1786. A Mary Chenoweth and William Chenoweth witnessed a marriage of the daughter Hannah in Bourbon Co., KY in 1789. The latter was Hannah's brother, the former is thought by some to be Mary, the wife of Thomas, but may be William's wife Mary, as William's wife is believed to have also been a Mary.
What is known of the families of Thomas is that they moved much as a group to present day Allegeny Co., MD, then Mason Co., KY and then into the Scioto valley of Ohio around present day Pike Co., all but William who appears to have remained in Kentucky.
ARTHUR's JOHN(3) and SAMUEL(3): In the 1780s, John and his wife Hannah Crowmwell, moved down to Berkeley Co., VA to start a plantation near Darkesville, 17 miles above Winchester, along the Great Wagon Road. Shortly after 1790, they were followed by John's brother Samuel and his wife, Hannah's sister, Patience Cromwell. This "restocking" of Virginia took place just as the families of John the Thomas group were leaving for Kentucky. Settling in this area of Virginia, they would watch the older Virginia settlers all pull out. Two of John's sons, Joshua and Arthur, would marry and leave for Mercer Co., PA (later to be Lawrence Co.). John's son John, Jr. would stay until just before the Civil War, when he and his son John Wesley would disposed of their holdings to avoid the coming conflict and resettled in Putnam Co., IN. Samuel and all his sons would remain in this area and their descendants kept the Chenoweth name alive in this Virginia area into the 1900s. Even today, daughter lines from both this Arthur sons remain settled in this original Virginia location.
HANNAH(2): Both James and Hannah Carter died in Frederick Co. They are said to have lived near Apple Pie Ridge, near Winchester. The 300 acre plot of land, lay along the Berryville Road [called the Pioneer Road], just east of Winchester, abutting lands owned by the children of John Calvert. James left a will here in 1758, all his children still minors. James Carter, the eldest son, was just 14 when his mother, Hannah, died 6 years later in 1764. Amid the Revolutionary War, the children of James and Hannah, all but the youngest, John, relocated to Washington Co., PA in 1780. John's families remained in the Frederick Co. area and descendants can be still located in this area today.
RUTH(2): Little is known of Ruth's life. She probabley met and married here husband, John Peteet in Frederick Co., VA. They are said to have had at least five children. One, Richard John Peteet, along with his father are known to have relocated to Caswell Co., NC.
BOTETOURT COUNTY: [organized in 1769 from Augusta and Rockbridge Counties] This unique location in Virginia is the singular story of Thomas(3), son of John. Thomas, for some unexplained reason, returned to his family's Baltimore roots, and married there, in 1766, to Rachal Ruxton Moore. Rachael, on her marriage, was gifted lands there by her uncle and the couple had five children. The proofs of this are found in a land sale of property willed to three sons of John after his dead in 1771. Rachel died in 1775 after nine years of marriage. Thomas married Ann Carroll two years later, and took his family, again for some unknown reason to Botetourt Co. He and his family allied with the family of Henry Switzer, who had come earlier and directly from Frederick Co. to Botetourt. This area of Virginia is about 170 miles southwest of Winchester along a well travel route. The Switzers lived near Fincastle. Some family accounts say that the wife of Henry, Cloe, was a Chenoweth. This has not been proven, but two of Henry's children, a daughter and a son, would marry two of the children of Thomas. Thomas, himself, died in Botetourt in 1780, leaving a will there. Elizabeth, his daughter married Nathan Switzer in 1791 and many of their families still live in the Fincastle area. Nicholas Ruxton Chenoweth, named for his great uncle, married Nathan's sister, Mary. Nicholas and apparently his Chenoweth brothers, left Botetourt after 1800, individually, for Kentucky, removing the Chenoweth name from this area.
BROOKE COUNTY (now WV): [organized in 1796 from Ohio County] In present day West Virginia there is an odd sliver of land that juts between Pennsylvania and Ohio that comprises three small counties. Brooke County is at the very peak of this angle, directly west of Pittsburgh, then Ft. Pitt. Seperating this land from Ohio is the Ohio River. Here is Stuebenville, the first land office for Ohio, established in 1800. That year alone almost 400,000 acres in Ohio were sold at $2.00 an acre. To Brooke County came Sarah Chenoweth and her husband, Samuel Baxter, and their family as well as her brother Arthur, III, along with other allied families from Baltimore. In 1803, Sarah and Samuel settled on Cross Creek. In 1810, both Sarah and her brother are found in the Brooke Co. Census. Arthur is operating a grist mill, a skill he pick up from his grandfather. In 1812, the Baxters moved on, via the National Highway to Zanesville, Miskingum Co., OH. It is belived that Arthur III, is the same Arthur as found in the 1820 census of Tuscarawas Co., OH.
In 1850, there were 81 families numbering 434 individuals in Virginia. Three quatrers of these were in the line of John(2) and nearly half (45%) lived in Randolph Co. Roughly 25% of them carried the Chenoweth name. By 1860, the last census before Virginia would be split, with the state of West Virginia refusing to follow secession, there were 605 individual in 115 families, 20% of them carring the Chenoweth name. 80% of the family lived in areas that would be come West Virginia.
In the 1880 Census there was no Chenoweth name in Virginia, but 179 named Chenoweths in West Virginia. Two families from ARTHUR still lived in the original Berkeley County area (WV).
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The Story of Kentucky
The first western settlement of the Chenoweths, Kentucky is largely the story of seven families from two generations of John(2). They came over a thirty some year period from Virginia to rafting down the Ohio River to what is now Jefferson County and the site of present day Louisville.
BACKGROUND: Kentucky was to be the first landfall of settlement from the Seaboard Colonies. It was considered a hunting ground by the Indians and unoccupied. To the North were the Miami, Shawnee and displaced Five Nation Tribes of Ohio and the Great Lakes. To the South were the Cherokee Tribes of Tennessee. The portals were the Ohio River on the North, starting at the Fork at Ft. Pitt (once Ft. Duquesne under the French and now present day Pittsburgh) and the Cumberland Gap in the South, at the southwestern tip of Virginia, off the Great Wagon Road of the Shenandoah Valley (alternately called the Wilderness Trail or the Great Valley Road, the location of present day Interstate 11). Between these access points was the barrier of the Alleghenies.
Though adventurers and traders had tracked into Kentucky for years, the settlement of French and Indian War had reserved all these lands on the western side of the Appalachian Mountains as Indian Territory. This policy was at odds with the potential settlers seeking land. In 1769, a treaty was signed with the Iroquois and Cherokee seeding land south of the Ohio River. In reality this was not their land to give, and other Indian tribes in the area refused to recogize it's validity. Still this started movement into the Virginia-claimed Greenbrier region and the Monongahela and upper Ohio valleys, and by 1773, the Kanawha Valley. But Indian raids by other tribes, primarily by the Shawnee and so-called Mingos, increased as contact was made. By Spring of 1774 all out war broke out over the killing of several indians by white belligerants. The insuing unrest caused many of the new settlers to flee for their lives east, back over the Alleghenies. This came to a head on October 10, 1774, when the forces of the Virginia Colony defeated the Shawnee in a day-long battle at Point Pleasant at the mouth of the Kanawha. This forced Chief Cornstalk to sign the Treaty of Camp Charlotte, agreeing to white occupation of Kentucky and a cessation of hunting parties into the area, restricting them to the region north of the Ohio River. The advent of the Revolution freed any British imposed restraints and the floodgates were open for the real settlement of Kentucky by settlers.
Kentucky became the first western state in 1792. In 1776, early in the Revolution, it was organized as a county of Virginia, called Kentucky County. Seven years later, shortly after the end of the war, it was re- organized as a separate area. The highway, for most, into Kentucky was the Ohio River. It's story is told in part by Alen Eckert's novel "That Dark and Bloody River". And it was this route taken, when in 1778 while Kentucky was considered still a part of Virginia, that Richard Chenoweth and his family joined the George Rogers Clark's expedition, . At the same time, Clark was heading the western thrust of the War leading a military expedition toward Fort Vicennes into present day Illinois. On May 27, 1778 the party landed their boats on an island near the Kentucky shore above the Falls of the Ohio River. This would become known as Corn Island. The full account of Richard's journey to Kentucky is detailed in the Alfred Pirtle's account of the story of James Chenoweth
Richard was one of the first seven Trustees of Louisville, KY, chosen at a meeting on the City's founding on April 17, 1779. That same year, his nephew, William, joined Richard in Jefferson County. Enterprising and young, William would do well in Kentucky, wooing and marrying the widow Mary 'Polly' Henton, the daughter of Jacob Van Meter. Both Richard and William would become noteworthy citizens of this growing frontier area. Colonel Slaughter as part of George Roger Clark's military presence in the area contracted with Richard to build Fort Nelson which became downtown Louisville. The construction on the $12,000 contract began in 1781 and continued into 1782. Richard at the time was also elected Sheriff of Jefferson Co. But Richard was never fully paid for his efforts and was plagued by financial difficulties for the remainder of his life. In the 1780s the Seaton family of Richard's sister Rachel and her husband, Kenner Seaton, joined them. Arthur, Richard's brother, and Elizabeth Stewart, their sister, also immigrated during this time frame.
About 1798, William, now living in Nelson Co., was joined by his brother, Jonathan, and his family, from Hardy Co., VA. About 1807, Absolom Jr. brought his family to the Jefferson County area completing the movement from Virginia. But there were still other descendants of John(2) that came to other areas of Kentucky. John Ashbrook, son of Mary Chenoweth Ashbrook, the third daughter of John(2), came to Harrison Co., KY. Levi Ashbrook, Jr., Mary's stepson, who had married Eleanor Chenoweth, Mary's niece, came to Clark Co., KY. Nicholas Ruxton Chenoweth, the son of Thomas, moved from Botetourt County to Galletin County, KY and it is believed that his brother James Francis settled in Greenup County.
As Kentucky was rapidly expanding with growth from the seaboard states, County lines were changing and new counties emerging. The large area of Jefferson County, home of Louisville and the landfall of the Chenoweths, spawned: Breckenridge, Bullitt, Hardin, Henry, LaRue, Meade, Nelson, Ohio, Oldham, Shelby, Spencer, and Washington counties as well as parts of other counties in the area.
John's lines were not the only ones to make it to Kentucky. All the sons and at least two of the daughters of Thomas also settled in Kentucky in the eastern area near Maysville in Mason Co. They were here for perhaps a decade and listed in the 1790 Tax Rolls of the soon to be state. When the 1795 Treaty of Greenville ended the Indian occupation of Ohio. The vast, flat, fertile land of the Northwest territories lay open at last. The families of Thomas were quick to act, crossing the Ohio and settling in the Sciotio Valley just to the north. All but William, who, accounts say stayed behind and they swung northwest into the Dayton area of Ohio, only to return to the Mason County area of Kentucky before 1810. Indeed a William is found here in successive Censuses and there are marriages of a Chenoweth family in the area, but little is known of this family that lingered in Kentucky.
In the line of Richard of Baltimore, it is believed that at least a daughter of the son Arthur accompanied the Bosleys to Mercer Co., KY where she married a Virginia settler named Elias Passmore. Archibald S. Chenoweth, a grandson of the Tennessee lines of John, another Baltimore son of Richard, eventually settled in Barron Co., KY and descendants remain there to this day. Another grandchild, Sarah Chenoweth Sheets settled in Hardin Co., KY.
Of the many lines of John that settled in Kentucky so early, most of them moved on. The male lines in the area peaked between 1810 and 1820 at about 20 families. Many went to Indiana and Illinois, some to Missouri and some to Texas. The Chenoweth name continued in Kentucky under Absolom, Jr.'s son Stephen Ross Chenoweth. William's son Isaac Calvert, who died in Hardin Co., KY had eight daughters that married, and some of these lines, particularly the Percefulls still live in this vicinity. The Nash lines of Amelia 'Mildred', Richard's daughter, continue in the Louisville area, under the name of Hawkins and perhaps others. The footprint of these families is an indelible part of the history of Louisville and Jefferson County.
By 1850 there were some Chenoweth 62 families in Kentucky, mostly daughter lines, less than 20% of them bearing the Chenoweth name. 90% of these were in the line of JOHN. By 1860, dispite a steady flow of migration into the neighboring states of Indiana, Illinois and Missouri, the number of families had grown to a 100, thogh by then, the Chenoweth name represented only 10% of this family population. In the 1880 Census there were 40 people bearing the Chenoweth name in Kentucky comprising 9 families of JOHN and 3 of RICHARD.
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The Story of Pennsylvania
Pennsylvannia, like Maryland, was one of the original Colonies. Founded by William Penn, it was a haven for religious sects, particularly the Quakers, and well populated by German immigrations. It is believed that this is where John Chenoweth found his wife. Mary Calvert, the daughter of John Calvert, who had come from Northern Ireland as part of the Quaker immigration, was born in Pennsylvania. Her father had located on 300 acres in Delaware Co. just west of Philadelphia. Early trace records of John Chenoweth mention Philadelphia, neighboring New Jersey and the Nottingham MM house. J. Richard Buckey believes that John and Mary probably married at the home of Valentine Hollinsworth, her uncle, who live in Chester County, the same area where John is found attending a marriage in 1728 at the Nottingham MM. So it maybe that the movements of the Chenoweths from Virginia to Pennsylvania, were a return, albeit the areas of these settlements were varied and different. All were on the western side of the Alleghenies, in the Appalachian Plateau that extended on into Ohio.
Unfortunately Pennsylvania has been a sort of a "black hole" for Chenoweth genealogy. At least through 1830, neither Pennsylvania nor the individual counties had a centralized system of collecting vital records. Religious and ethnic groups were both many and diverse, and the population large. Early Chenoweth histories have only mentioned these families in passing and there is still much to be learned of the various Chenoweth families that went there. That is not true, however of the Carter family of Hannah. A later settlement in the late 1790s were the Vaughns from Mary Peteet, Ruth's daughter, who settled in central Pennsylvania.
WASHINGTON CO: [organized in 1781 from Westmoreland County] It was the Carter children of Hannah Chenoweth and James Carter of Winchester, VA that first brought the family back to Pennsylvania. This was the Washington County area, directly below Fort Pitt and definitely on the frontier. This was about 1780, amidst the Revolution, some fifteen years after Hannah had died, Richard and William Chenoweth had just left the same area for Kentucky. General Braddock's ill-fated expedition and defeat near Fort Pitt had blazed the road to this area in 1755. The Carters settled near Amwell and Amity townships and became members of the Ten-Mile Presbyterian Church. James Carter built a mill here before 1800. Though many of the Carter descendants have remained in this area to present day, many too moved on to Ohio and then Illinois in the 1820s and 1830s. The Suttons of Mary Chenoweth, the daughter if William(2)also settled in Washington Co. prior to the first Census in 1790. They had come via Fort Cumberland. These families would move on to Warren Co., OH and then indiana. Absolom Chenoweth, the son of William2, is found in Washington Co. in the 1810 Census, in route to Clark Co., OH, where this branch finally settled.
CENTRE and CLEARFIELD COS :[Centre was organized in 1800 from Huntingdon, Lycoming, Mifflin and Northumberland Cos; Clearfield was organized in 1084 from Huntingdon and Lycoming Cos.] By the first Census in 1790 the Vaughns of Mary Peteet had come from Harford Co., MD and settled in parts of Hundington Co. that later would become Centre and Clearfield Cos. Not enough is known as to the full extent of these families, but they continued on in this area well into the 20th century.
FAYETTE CO: [organized in 1783 from Westmoreland County] Fayette County abuts the south and east lines of Washington County. Families of Isaac the son of William2, located in Fayette Co., PA, after Isaac's death in 1792 and before 1800. Edward and Susannah had married Wilson siblings and were the first to locate here, to the west of present day Uniontown. The Wilsons moved on to Gurnset Co., Oh. Elizabeth is thought to have married Robert Gordon, Jr. here in 1800. They would move on to Muskingum Co., OH by 1815. It is thought that Isaac's widow stayed on in Virginia, as Isaac Jackson, the youngest son married there in Berkeley Co. in 1815. Edward stayed through the 1830 Census and appears in Licking Co., Oh in 1840. His daughter Isabel married a neighbor, John Antil, and settled to the west in Greene Co., PA His son, Ison, was in Muskingum Co., OH and several of Edward's other daughters married there.
MERCER CO: [organized in 1800 from Allegheny County and later, in part, forming Lawrence County in 1849]. It was Joshua and Arthur, two sons of the later Virginia families of John, son of Arthur, who settled near New Castle. Originally Mercer Co., this became Lawrence County and is only a few miles from the Ohio border, well north of Pittsburgh. Joshua located here before 1801. He has followed other settlers of Berkeley Co., VA to a place called Parkstown, on the road to Youngstown, just west of New Castle. His brother, Arthur, is thought to have joined him in aft 1810, locating in New Castle itself. Arthur built a store and a hotel, called a tavern in that day. The number of buildings in New Castle at that date did not exceed thirty. The population in 1813 was probably less than two hundred. He died on the road, while crossing the mountains, returning from a trip to Philadelphia, in 1827. Though both these families are somewhat known, the information on them is incomplete and as is the knowledge of the next generation. Joshua, and his wife, and Rebecca, the widow of Arthur, died in Lawrence Co. Only the marriages of 3 of Joshua's nine children are known. The one son, Alexander Holmes Chenoweth, whose life is followed, married there and took his family to Madison Co., MO by 1852. Of Arthur's sons, only Hamilton, who went to Connecticut, and William, who went to Iowa, are known.
It is likely that several other settlements in Pennsylvania were made from Baltimore families. We know little of these and they happened at later dates. One such relocation was Rixton Chenoweth, a 5th generation son of William. He is found in Carlisle, Cumberland Co., PA in the 1850 Census. This is just west of Harrisburg, which in turn is on the York Road that runs due north from Baltimore.
In 1850 there were 265 family members in Pennsylvania comprising 56 families. Only 5 of these bore the Chenoweth name and the lines of Hannah accounted for 3/5 of these numbers. By the family population had grown to 337 in 64 families, only 3 of which were named Chenoweth. Hannah's line still comprised abut 60% of this number. In the 1880 Census there were still 3 families named Chenoweths, 16 indiviuals, in Pennsylvania, all from Arthur and one unknown.
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The Story of Tennessee
The early Tennessee story for the Chenoweth family are that of two families from Baltimore, the widow, Frances Haile Chenoweth, whose husband, John, was a son of Richard2 and that of Richard the son of Arthur2. The former went to Washington Co., TN the latter to Knox Co.
Early Tennessee fell to the jurisdiction of North Carolina, much as Kentucky fell to Virginia. Like Kentucky, Tennessee became the focus of early movements westward from the Colonies. Unlike Kentucky, however, Tennessee was occupied by Cherokee Indiana tribes. Seizing the cover of the conflict between the "whites" in the Revolutionary War, the Cherokees had raided frontier settlements from Virginia south. The resulting counterattack by united local militias resulted in a treaty ceding lands to the "Americans". In Tennessee this area began on the far northeastern edge where the Shenandoah Valley begins to empty into the Southern lowlands on to Georgia, at the end of the Great Wagon Road. In 1772, settlements on the Holston, Watauga and Nolichucky Rivers organized the Watauga Association and petitioned North Carolina for Annexation. Named, Washington Co. in 1777, its boundaries included most of present-day Tennessee. After the Revolution, North Carolina ceded its western lands, east of the Blue Ridge Mountains to the newly formed Federal Government. In 1796, Tennessee was admitted to the Union as the sixteenth state.
WASHINGTON CO: Members of the Haile Family of Baltimore relocated to the present day Washington County area of Tennessee in the 1790s. It was known as the Wautuga Settlement. Frances Haile Chenoweth, widowed in 1781, is believed to have joined them about 1795. With her she took her youngest sons and daughters, yet unmarried. There had been some contention between Frances and the sibings of her husband John in Maryland. She is still fond there living with her children in the 1790 Census. At least the oldest 2 sons and daughter are thought to have remained in Maryland. One, Archibald, would later marry in Virginia, then move Sullivan Co., TN abutting Washington Co. on the North, (Though Archibald is found in Sullivan County in 1830, it is likely that this location was very close to the Washington County familes of Nicholas and the Hales.) but by the 1840 Census, he too was with his siblings in Washington County. This family took on unique spellings of the name, in some cases dropping the "e" to Chenowth or Chinoweth, in others using the spelling Chinouth.
Much is known of the family of Nicholas, the youngest son. His sons in turn began to resettle again to Kentucky and Arkansas in the 1830s and 1840s. Later they would go to Texas, Arizona, California, Illinois, Nebraska and Iowa. One son, Richard, would remain and the Chinouth name is still found in this are of Tennessee near Johnson City. Less is know of Archibald, and it may be that he had more children than we presently know about. A brother, Parmenus, never married and lived with his unmarried sister Sarah Frances among these families. It is believed that a sister, Elizabeth, married her Haile cousin, Thomas Hale. This spawned an even bigger line of descendants, with an even larger presence still in this Tennessee area. What happened to Richard, who remained in Maryland, is unknown at present.
KNOX CO: The French Broad River joins the Holston River to form the Tennessee River. Just west of this confluence, is Knoxville. An affair with a housemaid, brought Richard, the youngest son of Arthur, to this area from Maryland at the age of 58. Ellen was probably with child when Richard deserted his Baltimore wife and children and settled in Knox Co. Passing themselves off as married, it was ten years, probably at the death of his first wife, before Richard was finally able to marry her there in 1823. By then he had five children with Ellen, all born in Knox County. Two more would follow before his death there in 1828. Richard probably made much use of the Great Valley Road up the Shenandoah Valley to conduct affairs with his holdings in Baltimore. Families of two of these Tennessee sons, Richard, Jr. and Absolom, remained in the Knox Co., area for some time. This then becomes the second Chenoweth line of Tennesee, though an equally large line of Richard remains today in Baltimore County by his first wife.
HENRY CO: A third line of Chenoweths came to Tennessee just after the Civil War. This was Richard Chenoweth, in the Arthur line of John who had settled in Berkeley Co., VA. Richard was a grandson of that family, his parents were Richard B. Chenoweth and Mary Gorrell. Richard went to Cincinnati, where he married and then to La Salle Co., IL. He died at Paris Landing in Henry Co., TN in the western part of the state. Many of his descendants still live in this are of Tennessee.
By 1850 there were 116 family members in Tennessee comprising 21 familes. Three quaters of these were in the line of Richard(2) and the rest from Arthur(2). Half or 10 of these families bore the Chenoweth name. By 1860 these numbers had dipped to 100 people in 19 families, with the majority of the migration going to Arkansas. The Chenoweth name was down to 40 people in 8 families, In the 1880 Census there were 31 named Chenoweths in Tennessee comprising 7 families of RICHARD and ARTHUR.
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