| Notes |
- It has been found that about 1802 Margery McFarland arrived in Hopewell (New Bedford) village in (then) Mercer co, PA as a widow with her children. They apparently stayed there with her brother John Anderson for about a year before going westwar d a few miles to Coitsville, Ohio in 1803-1804.
It appears that the family spent about eight years total in America before John's widow and children finally arrived in Ohio 1803-1804 (8 Williams p 168). Then they all settled, stayed and prospered in the Coitsville area. Each of the six childre n farmed, worked and raised families there.
[http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=johnmcfarland&id=I397]
MARGERY (ANDERSON) MCFARLAND (1756 - 1835)
SCOTS IMMIGRANT
(Research by Peter Folsom McFarlin, a 3rd gr gr grandson - May, 2012, updated Dec, 2019)
FROM IRELAND TO AMERICA
The children in the American pioneer family of John and Margery (Ander son) McFarland were all born in Ireland about 1770's through 1790's, a s shown by references in various history sources (*1, *2, *3 below). M argery and husband John's births w ere placed in Ireland due to furthe r reporting in various later US censuses by their grandchildren. Margery was born in 1756 (*3, *4), likely in or near the Northern Ireland c ounty of Tyrone where she apparently lived after marriage. During t h e 1700's and 1800's many Anderson and McFarland families lived in coun ty Tyrone, just to the south of Londonderry, in the Ardstraw/Straban e area.
Most of these Scottish families had originally emigrated from Scotlan d to Ireland, across the Irish Sea. The surname Anderson is the eight h most popular surname in Scotland and means "son of Andrew." Andrew ( man, or manly) was the first of Jesu s' disciples, and was a revered na me in medieval times due to its church connections. St. Andrew is th e patron saint of both Scotland and Russia.
Margery McFarland, at age forty, emigrated in 1796 from county Tyrone , Northern Ireland, probably arriving at the port of Philadelphia, Pen nsylvania. She accompanied her husband John and they brought at leas t six of their children with them int o America; four boys and two girl s. The children ranged in age from baby James, who was one to about ei ghteen for son Alexander. (See the John McFarland (b1750?) biography e lsewhere.)
After arriving, and sometime during their first four years in Americ a (1796-1800), her husband John was killed somewhere on the east sid e of the Allegheny mountains, perhaps in an accident, since there wa s no war at the time. "...John immigrate d to America in 1797(sic) wit h his wife Margery, and six children. He was killed east of the Mounta ins..." (*1 Brown, p 1024). (Later, their son's affidavits in the180 9 Depositions on Contested Election of Richard Hayes both cite that th ey arr ived in America in 1796.)
LAND IN WESTERN PENNSYLVANIA - ca 1790's
The newly pioneered and lightly populated land in Western Pennsylvani a around 1790 was just emerging from uninterrupted forest. There wer e clearings and small areas of plains and marshlands, but most of th e land was forested. When early settler s moved into Allegheny county ( the area which would become Mercer County around the mid-1790's), th e Indians there were primarily the Corn planter Indian tribe of the Se neca Nation. They had a few semi-permanent hunting and seasonal farmin g ca mps. In 1793, "Mad" Anthony Wayne led his men through what would b ecome Mercer County, and against the Indians in Ohio. At the 1794 Batt le of Fallen Timbers, near Toledo, General Wayne defeated the natives , and any organized Indian threat was n ow over in Ohio and the Wester n Pennsylvania region.
Dr Nathaniel Bedford of Ft Pitt (Pittsburgh), Pennsylvania, who was th e only Bedford name listed in Allegheny county in the 1790 census, bec ame a popular and wealthy man, and was a respected doctor. He also bec ame owner of much land in the newl y formed Mercer/Lawrence counties t o the north of Pittsburgh and acted as an independent speculator for h is lands. This Dr. Nathaniel Bedford held lands in Mahoning and Shenan go Townships, PA. The village of Hopewell, Pennsylvania which later b e came the town of New Bedford, in Lawrence County, was named after him.
Western part of Pennsylvania in 1792 as mapped by Reading Howell. Thi s shows the various counties, towns and villages of the time near th e confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers as they flowed to gether at Pittsburgh to form the Ohi o River. The yellow highlight show s the 80-mile track of the old Indian pathways northward from Pittsbur gh up to the headwaters of the Big Beaver River where Anderson/McFarla nd pioneer settlers went in the 1790’s.
1792 Howell Map
“Likely an animal path worn down by the constant movement of game, th e Kuskusky Path connected what is now New Castle and Pittsburgh in wes tern Pennsylvania, a distance of less than eighty miles. Part of an in tegral network of trails that opene d the colonial backcountry to huma n settlement, the path provided entry into the primeval forestlands o f the colonial frontier, and helped link the Allegheny River with th e Ohio Country to its west. Native peoples and later European-America n s traveled its meandering course across creeks and low hills to an ol d Indian village named Kuskusky that would be renamed New Castle.”
Sometime about 1794, William Anderson (b ca1768) arrived from Irelan d and came to the town of Pittsburgh, bought land up past Kuskusky i n Allegheny co near the Mahoning Branch of Beaver Creek. He likely fol lowed the Kuskusky path from Pittsburg h as shown in the 1792 Howell Ma p above.
TENTATIVE FAMILY CHART FOR MARGERY (ANDERSON) MCFARLAND
William Alexander Anderson arrived in the area about 1794 and purchase d ½ of 400 acres in Mercer County from William Hunt on March 18th.
About 1796, Margery (Anderson) McFarland's other brother, John Anderso n arrived in Pittsburgh and worked as land agent for Dr. Bedford. He s ettled nearby to William on land he had purchased to the north of Hope well village. Both families; Willi am and Betsey (Adams) Anderson and J ohn and Jane (McFarland) Anderson were Scots/Irish who had immigrate d from Ireland.
The history of Mercer County (1888) writes about William A Anderson; " About 1796, John Anderson, a brother, followed and located a short dis tance from his brother William. He was known as 'Agent John Anderson, ' acting in that capacity for Dr Na thaniel Bedford, of Pittsburgh, wh o owned large tracts of land in this (Mercer) and Lawrence Counties. H e married Jane McFarland..." (*1 p 847). Their marriage was recorded i n Muskingum county, Ohio.
John and William Anderson were listed in the early 1800's Taxables fo r Mercer county, PA, (among a few other Andersons). John "of North Bea ver" was listed in 1800 and in 1801 he was "of Neshannock". His brothe r William is listed the same way; N orth Beaver in 1800 and Neshannoc k in 1801. They were living in their respective homes near to each oth er in Northwest Pulaski county. The name of the taxing authority (coun ty) changed, while they themselves did not move - see note *5 below.
ARRIVAL IN HOPEWELL (NEW BEDFORD) VILLAGE, PENNSYLVANIA
Meanwhile, the widow Margery and her children, continued the difficul t trek over the Allegheny Mountains, through Pittsburgh and north int o newly created Mercer county Pennsylvania. This was mostly done by wa gon and horseback or by boat, perhap s bringing some few utensils and f urnishings. They likely followed 'The Pennsylvania Road' which was th e main migration route after the Revolution from the east into wester n Pennsylvania and the Ohio Valley. Today it approximates Route 30 i n P ennsylvania and follows old military roads; the Lancaster Road an d then the Forbes Road. And then up the Kuskusky Path to Hopewell vill age (New Bedford).
MARGERY (ANDERSON) MCFARLAND’S LIKELY ROUTE THRU PENNSYLVANIA
During this time of travel, say about 1799 -1800, her children's age s were; Alexander in his early twenties, William was twenty, Andrew i n his teens, Isabel about eleven, Mary nine, and James had reached five.
John McFarland's "... widow with her children visited her brother at New Bedford, Penn., for about one year and then moved to Trumbull Count y, Ohio..." (*1 p 1024). This clearly means that Margery had an Anders on relative who had preceded her in to western Pennsylvania. It is quit e likely that this brother was the John Anderson who was living in th e small village of Hopewell (later New Bedford, PA) by 1800, near hi s brother William. These two Anderson brothers were of the right age ( b orn 1760's) to be contemporaries of widow Margery and were found in M ercer County in 1800 and 1810.
1800 CENSUS FOR MERCER COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA
By 1800 Margery (Anderson) McFarland and children were apparently livi ng with her. The 1800 Federal census, taken August 4th, (census pg. 4 33 for Mercer co, PA) shows a John Anderson next to (his brother) Will iam Anderson. This census of Joh n Anderson's household has all the rig ht ages marked for Margery and her six children as well as John Anders on and his new wife, nine persons in all. All John Anderson’s childre n were born after 1800. This would indicate that Margery's husban d Joh n McFarland was not there and likely had died, as reported in Brown' s history above.
The 1800 census of Mercer county, Pennsylvania enumerates males and fe males living with the Head of Family; John Anderson. In the followin g census copy I have compared the ages of Margery and her six childre n with the various number of individu als for each category as shown i n the photo-copy below. John Anderson had apparently married Margery ( Anderson) McFarland’s sister-in-law Jane McFarland before 1800. All th ese adults and children fit quite well in this 1800 census.
The Anderson brother's homes appear to be a few miles north of Hopewel l (New Bedford) village from the late 1790's through 1820. John Anders on reportedly died about 1826, and his son William R Anderson, can b e located on the 1873 map of Shenang o, Mercer county, just north of th e Shenango/Pulaski township lines. This William R Anderson, son of Mar gery's brother John, died in June of 1888 on the old John Anderson hom estead, (where it appears that Margery McFarland had come to stay alm o st ninety years earlier).
At the nearby brother William's farm; "William Anderson...and his son. ..were progressive men of their day. They erected on their farm one o f the first gristmills built in this county, and were also extensivel y engaged in the distilling business ."(*1 p 847). Also, John Anderso n ran one of the small taverns in the town in 1806-07-08. It is quit e possible that Margery McFarland's sons learned the trades of buildin g mills, operating distilleries and running taverns from the couple o f y ears living with their Anderson uncles. Only a few years later, i n Coitsville, Margery's son Alexander ran a sawmill, and her sons Will iam and James each had distilleries, while son Andrew kept a hotel, th e "Temperance House".
HOPEWELL SETTLERS' FIRST CHURCH AND SCHOOL
The early settlers who came into what is now Mercer County, Pennsylvan ia, were largely Scots/Irish, and mainly members of the Presbyterian C hurch. The widow Margery McFarland and family likely attended the smal l Presbyterian Church at Hopewel l starting upon her arrival by 1800. T his was the first church of any kind in the area and was established i n 1800, built of round logs with a fire built in the center of the ear then floor. It had a mud chimney leading to where a hole was cut i n th e shingled roof in order to let the smoke escape. Reverend William Wic k was the ordained pastor. He also served the Presbyterian church in Y oungstown, traveling the difficult miles between them every week unti l his death in 1815.
The Hopewell Church was attended in the early times by many of the And erson's neighbors including; other Andersons, Blacks, Browns, McKeans , Neals, Pettits, Porters, Sherriffs, Thompsons, and Walkers. All of t hese families had many burials in t he Hopewell Cemetery. Also buried t here in the 1830's, were four McFarlins from nearby Coitsville; on on e headstone is Margery McFarlin, another has her son James and his you ng daughter Margery, also Dickinson (son of William and Elizabeth McF a rlin). The family may have begun spelling the name as MCFARLIN by th e 1830's, probably following the way it was pronounced.
So, this was the church of choice for Margery and her family while i n Hopewell, it was just a few miles away while she was there with he r brother John. She apparently continued attending later when she live d in nearby Coitsville. The old Hopewe ll graveyard was laid out in 180 0 and the first burial was in 1810.
At first, neighborhood homes acted as schools in Hopewell, until Jame s Walker became the first schoolmaster in the area. A school was taugh t by him, about 1802-3, in a log building erected by the Presbyteria n congregation. He lived over near th e Shenango River and all the scho ols he taught were in his neighborhood, reaching as far as Hopewell. H e was reportedly the best teacher the early schools ever had. He draft ed the constitution of the Hopewell Presbyterian Church at New Bedfor d , believed in temperance and was strongly anti-slavery. Widow Marger y McFarland's children; Andrew, Isabel, Mary and James possibly were t aught by him for a year or two, there in Hopewell. Her older sons wer e not at school, but were working t o help pay the family's way while t hey were living with the Anderson family.
LIKELY TIME-LINE FOR MARGERY (ANDERSON) MCFARLAND AND FAMILY
• 1756 - Margery Anderson born in (co Tyrone?), Ireland
• ca 1775 - married to John McFarland (co Tyrone?), Ireland
• 1776 - 1795 six or more children born to Margery in Ireland
• 1796 - two- or three-month ocean trip from Northern Ireland to Ameri ca (Philadelphia?) Possibly with her younger brother John Anderson wh o also arrived in 1796
• 1796 to 1798(?) - lived with husband John McFarland and their childr en "east of the mountains" in PA
• 1798 to 1800 - death of husband John ("east of the mountains")
• 1799/1800 - widow Margery arrived in Hopewell (became New Bedford i n 1818), Mercer county, PA and lived with her brother John Anderson fo r "about a year"
• ca 1802- widow Margery arrived in Coitsville, Ohio with her six chil dren and settled there
EARLY COITSVILLE
The first real road, able to take wagons more easily, was laid out i n 1802. It went from Mercer through New Bedford and westward to Youngs town. This road also went through the small village of Coitsville, jus t over the Ohio line on the way to Y oungstown. The Western Reserve o f Connecticut (now much of northern Ohio) was opened for settlement an d the land was put up for sale. It is quite possible that Margery an d her family were helped by her brother John Anderson (the land agen t fo r Mercer county, PA) in finding suitable land to settle on in adja cent Coitsville, Ohio.
As to her arriving in Coitsville, Ohio; "The widow McFarlin (née Marge ry Anderson) came to this township from Ireland about the year 1804, w ith a family of four sons and two daughters, all of whom married afte r coming here..." (*2 p 168).
About 1803/1804, the McFarland family purchased land in newly formed C oitsville, Ohio. The first McFarland family member taxed there, in 180 4, was Alexander McFarland, her oldest son. It is probable that Marger y, his mother, in her forties, fir st lived with Alexander, along wit h all her children. The earliest extant federal census for Coitsville , Ohio is in 1820, where Margery (age now sixty-four) appears to be li ving with her youngest son James McFarland (head of his family) and h i s wife, Melissa (Hard), and no young children.
In the 1830 Coitsville census, she still seems to be with her son Jame s and his wife Melissa, now along with their four children, under ten.
Margery died in April, 1835 (*3), probably there in Coitsville, at ag e 79, near to many of her own family whom she had brought with her 3 5 years before. She was buried in the Hopewell Cemetery in New Bedford , Lawrence county. This Pennsylvani a cemetery is just a few miles eas t of Coitsville, and is where, "...the remains of most of the old sett lers of Coitsville are buried..." (*2 p 172). This is because most o f these early Coitsville settlers attended the Hopewell Presbyterian c h urch and likely many of them had stopped in Hopewell for a time (lik e Margery) before settling in Coitsville.
In 1838, three years after Margery died, her son James, aged forty-thr ee, was also buried in the Hopewell Cemetery.
Margery's brother John Anderson (b 1766) died May of 1826, probably ne ar New Bedford, PA and was buried in the same cemetery
PFM's SOURCES for Margery (Anderson) McFarland/McFarlin;
1800 census; Margery likely located in Mercer County, PA living with h er brother John Anderson.
1810 census; Mahoning, Mercer co, Pennsylvania p 896 only John and Wil liam Anderson listed in the township.
1810 census; Ohio records not extant.
1820 census; Coitsville, Ohio p 240; the older female, living with so n James McFarland (Margery's age 45+).
1830 census; Coitsville, Ohio p 249; older female living with son Jame s McFarland (Margery's age 70-80).
1838 cemetery record; Hopewell Cemetery, New Bedford, Lawrence county , Pennsylvania. "Margery McFarlin d Apr. 29, 1835 79y".
FSID LCRQ-ZHV
(Research):Family Tree DNA (www.familytree.com)
Family Tree for Mr. Peter Folsom McFarlin
REFERENCES
*1 History of Mercer County, Pennsylvania, Brown, Runk & Co. 1888
*2 History of Mahoning and Trumbull Counties, Williams, 1882 v 2
*3 Henry R Baldwin Gen. Records; LDS microfiche 6051349-1, p 101
*4 Hopewell Presbyterian Cemetery, New Bedford, Lawrence county, PA
*5 History of Mercer County, Pennsylvania, Brown, Runk & Co. 1888 p 14 7; "...it must be remembered that Mercer County was separated, theoret ically, from Allegheny County March 12, 1800, but it was not organize d until 1803. During the three year s intervening it was joined, for ju dicial purposes, to Crawford County, with the seat of justice at Meadv ille. It should also be remembered, too, that the names of townships w ere those which existed under the Crawford County organization. The t o wnships then were large and sparsely populated, and they were subdivid ed again and again."
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Abt 1756 - 1835 (79 years)
