Quoted from "William D. and Matilda Davis Young: Their Ancestors and Descendants, Including Brief Reports on the Bear, Cline, Davis, Groff, Hanger, Hottel, Hoagland, Marsh, and McGinnis Families" 1994, from a diskette owned by Bruce C. Young Jr.
"John
Hoagland, a resident of Hampshire County, Va. [now WV] located on the South Fork of the
Potomac, with a large family of children. The oldest son, Henry, went to Kentucky about 1790.
[and later to Indiana] A daughter married a man by the name of ? who went to Kentucky at or
about the same time.
One daughter married William Renfoot: this family, with the exception of their oldest son,
William, who lived at Martin's Ferry, Va. and was County Surveyor of that county for many
years. We received many letters from him during the last of the 60's and first of the 70's, settled
in the southern part of the Sciota Valley near the Ohio River west of Portsmouth. One daughter
married William Alexander and settled at an early day at or near Thomasville, Licking County,
Ohio.
"John Hoagland with his entire family in the fall of 1796 started for Kentucky. The oldest
son at home [Cornelius] was married in March to Anna Stellcup. In the fall Cornelius and Annie
with 35 head of cattle, a three-year-old thoroughbred filly that Anna rode and carried the camp
equipment for cooking on the way, a two gallon demijohn would be filled with milk and the
jostling on the horse's back would churn it and this supplied them with butter. Cornelius with his
trusty rifle to drive the cattle and to keep the herd with Annie and the horse. There was a trail
blazed through by way of Clarksburg to Williamstown and Parkersburg, Va. [both now WV,
Williamstown being north of Parkersburg on the Ohio River] John Hoagland with the family
consisting of his son-in-law, Tom McGuire and two children, his youngest son, John, and some
daughters started to the Mononghela River where they shipped for Williamstown [via this river
and the Ohio, and Pittsburg] where they were to meet Cornelius and Anna with the cattle. Some
of the family were sick which detained them for several days at Pittsburgh. Winter set in in
November, the river closed and remained so till the lst of April. "Cornelius and Anna arrived
safely in due season at Williamstown and leaving the fate of the family he went back from the
river 7 miles to a place that has been known as Hoaglands Run ever since, built a camp where
he and Anna, the filly, and 35 head of cattle spent the winter. The cattle fed on pea vines and
brush he cut for them and corn he packed on the filly from Blennerhasset Island. He got the herd
all safely through the winter. When the family came down [the Ohio River] in the spring, they
took everything into consideration they decided to put up in Wood County, Va. now [WV]where
one of the daughters married. John Hoagland died and was buried at Williamstown,
Grandmother, after John's death, married an old friend that lived near their old home on South
Branch and she went back with son John and one daughter, we think.
"In the spring of 1801, Cornelius and two children, Polly and Margaret, my mother [mother
must be an error in copying would have to be grandmother], and Thomas McGuire and family
bought land and built cabins and settled in Barlow Washington County, Ohio]. Cornelius opened
up the first tavern on the road from Marietta and Athens and on to Chillicothe, was elected first
justice of the peace which he filled during life. He was killed in felling a tree, in cutting timber
for building the old brick house on the Hoagland farm in Barlow, in the spring of 1818.
[elsewhere in letter, Cornelius's personal property was appraised at $ 8,488 when his estate was
settled - a considerable sum for that day.]
"Grandmother [actually Samantha's great grandmother, and the Grandmother, wife of John
H., mentioned on the previous page, was her great, great grandmother] went on and built the
house but not so large as was contemplated by Grandfather [great grandfather]. ... When Uncle
Elza Hoagland went to Indiana, they found a family of Hoaglands that came from Kentucky
who said their father's name was Henry, and they had no doubt but what they were descendants
of Cornelius' brother, Henry, that had emigrated to Kentucky in or about 1700. We have been
asked so often about the Hoaglands, their ancestors, and where their descendants were located.
If we had written all my mother knew it would have been a very interesting book to me to read
today, and no doubt it would be to you. Before we forget we will state that in first settlement
here in Barlow and in Wood Co., Va. [now WV] that there was a heavy growth of pea vines all
through the forest everywhere. That made excellent pasturage for stock of all kinds. There was!
but very little underbrush till after the settlers got in and forest fires had burned over and killed
out the pea vines and other grasses. Then the underbrush came up so thick as it is in our day.
Now cousin admit (I do) that our Great grandmother was a wonderful woman whose courage
would of been a surprise to the ladies of today. Think of it, living in a camp 7 miles from a
house, staying many days alone. The forest stocked up with bears, wolves, panthers, wild cats,
deer and turkeys. While here she learned to use the rifle, the wild game coming close to the
camp cost them their lives. She was a fine shot. She shot a large hawk in a tall oak tree, in the
top of the tree, that had come for a chicken.
"There is so much that I have forgotten of the Hoaglands. One more little item we will give
you that will give you a still better knowledge of their courage and honor and pure unselfish love
for their friends. A brother of John, father of our Grandfather, Cornelius [Great Grandfather] had
a brother [This is not clear, but Samantha apparently was referring to her great, great, great uncle]
that when they suffered so much from the raids made by the Indians on the settlements that he
consecrated or gave his life for the safety and comfort of the husbands, mothers, and children of
the settlement and stood a constant sentinel and guard to watch and if possible prevent them from
making an attack on the settlement. He was in many conflicts with them, two in which he was
tomahawked, scalped and left for dead, but in each case came to again and recovered his health
and returned to the border to stand guard again. In a battle with the Indians they captured him for
the 3rd time, and it was a law of the Indians that, when a foe had been captured and left for dead
twice and they recovered and was captured the third time they run no more chances. They took
their prisoner to Tippecanoe, Indiana, one of their towns where their braves assembled to have a
grand festival at certain periods, and at one of these national gatherings our dear relative was
burned at the stake. Our Uncle Elza and David when they went west, a part of them, and, we
think, all of them visited the place where he was burned."
In a letter to an unknown "cousin," Samantha Beuhring McGinnis
Coplin Young (1856-1933) reported on her Hoagland ancestors. Her granddaughter, Frances
Young Simers, has this letter which is faded and difficult to read in some places. Comments of
the editor to clarify some parts of the letter are enclosed in brackets.
;
Narratives are taken from Pathway: A Family History, ® 2001, Michael McGinnis and may be freely distributed for non-commercial purposes.
