This is from a tape sent to me by Roger Wright.  From the text, the tape must have been dictated by Dad around 1984.  RED, 8/15/96

 

Dear Great Niece Melinda,

 

This tape is from your Great Uncle, Linus A. Davidson.

 

My subject is Genealogy or Family History

 

You will note that I sent you 6 family charts or Pedigree charts, according to what you want to call them.  They are numbered in the upper right hand corner.  I shall refer to them by number.  These charts pertain mainly to 3 lines of the family on my fathers side.  Practically all of my research has been done on the Davidson branch.  However in so doing, I managed to get more information on 2 other branches than I did on the Davidson branch.

 

We will take the Davidson line first.  We will start with the immigrant or the one we consider the immigrant at this time.  Now we do not know that the first man on this chart is the immigrant for sure.  It might be that his father was the immigrant or his grandfather might be the immigrant.  But this is as far back as we can go now & it is back in time far enough that it could be the immigrant easy enough so we will call this man we are starting with the immigrant.  Immigrant of course is the man who came across the ocean from the old country.

 

In the case of the Davidsons, the procedure is almost certain to be like this.  Way back there, I am not sure what year, but anyway, there were religious reasons why some of the Scotch people which is the origin of the Davidson family, find it desirable to immigrate from Scotland to North Ireland.  Our ancestors probably were in North Ireland for about 2 or 3 generations before they decided to come to America.

 

Now if you will look at chart number 2 first, we will start with the ancestor we will call the immigrant.  Patrick Davidson, notice him on line 8 on chart number 2.  Incidentally, we do not know very much about the Davidsons.  They were notoriously poor about writing stories of the family or diaries or anything that would continue the family history.  Another thing that makes tracing the family history is that they use so many of the family names.  You notice the peculiarity on these charts that everyone seems to be named after his grandfather for a while.  Another thing I might mention is that all the Davidson families involved in our ancestry that we know of were farmers up until my father, Linus Meade Davidson.  He left the farm and went to Enid, OK.

 

This Patrick Davidson that we will call the immigrant, was born about 1696, you will notice there.  We do not know for sure that he was born in Cumberland County.  So we say of Cumberland Co PA. We do know that he died there as shown on the chart and at the location shown on the chart.  He married a woman named Ann or Anna.  We do not know what her last name was.  She was also from Cumberland Co.

 

Patrick Davidson then on line number 8 had 3 sons William Davidson, Samuel Davidson and George Davidson.  He was born about 1724 in Cumberland Pa. and died in Cumberland Co.  He and his father Patrick are buried near Carlisle in Cumberland Co. PA.

 

Back in this time period, Pennsylvania was awarded to William Penn by the King of England and William Penn was called the proprietor.  In 1734, this Patrick Davidson was given a warrant for land by William Penn and his brother.  They were called proprietaries.  This warrant was for 200 Acres of land.  His son William had land also.  Both of them had land in area where Carlisle now is.  They both gave land back in order the town of Carlisle to be built, partly on their land.

 

William Davidson on line number 4, married a girl named Sara.  That is all we know about her. William had 3 sons whose names were Patrick, James and John.  This Patrick shown on line number 2 of chart number 2 was born about 1747 in Lancaster Co PA.  He married about 1766 to Martha Darro Elliot.  We are almost sure now that her name was Elliot.  You see her on line number 3 and her father and mother on lines 6 and 7.

 

Patrick and Martha's children were named almost without exception after their father's and mother's families.  We know that Patrick and Martha lived in Franklin, PA to almost the end of the century because records show that they sold land in Franklin and then they moved to Venango Co. Erwin Township.  While they were there they also sold some more land in Franklin Co.  This Patrick on line number 2 was a Revolution war soldier.  He is listed as the Patriot in the DAR registrars for several women of the Davidson decent who were members of the DAR.  This Patrick is also listed in the legal records as Patrick Davidson, Sr.  He was born about 1747 and died December 10, 1816 in Erwin Township, Venango Co, PA.  His grave and his son William's are in Erwin Township, Franklin County at the Wareham private Cemetery.  Patrick and Martha had 8 children:  Patrick, Jr, William, Martha, Elizabeth, Margaret, James, Francis and Archibald.

 

William, the son of Patrick shown on line number 1, chart number 2 is our ancestor.  He was born in 1769, Cumberland Co. PA and married Jane McConnaughay.  We haven't been able to find anything more about Jane McConnaughay than is shown on this chart.  William and Jane made the trip over the mountains by horseback during the 1790's to Erwin Township, Franklin Co. before the father Patrick did.  William was accompanied by Patrick Jr., and his other brother Archibald.  They were the first Davidsons who entered Venango Co. PA.  William and Jane's children were Patrick, Jane, Martha, David, Elizabeth, John, Polly, William and Margaret.

 

Now lets go to chart number 1, page 1.  William and Jane on their trip over the mountains to Venango Co. must have stopped for a while in Indiana Co. because his son Patrick, our ancestor, shown on line 8 of page 1 was born July 13, 1794 in Indiana Co PA.  

 

 

Patrick married Mary Allen who was born in 1799.  She was the daughter of Joseph Allen and Mary Biggs.  Mary Biggs father was Alexander Biggs who was born in England.  That is about all we know about the Allen ancestors.  We do know quite a lot about the Allens who descended from Joseph.

 

Patrick and Mary are buried in the cemetery at Amity church, Erwin Township, Venango Co, Pa.  I probably should mention that the Davidsons were all Presbyterians until my father changed churches.  Patrick and Mary's children were (this is not the order of their birth) Cirus Riggs, who incidentally is the only one of my grandfather's brothers who I ever saw, William A., Joseph D., Mary Ann, James A. and John Lowery who is my Grandfather.  He is on line 4, page 1.

 

John Lowery Davidson, born January 1, 1836, in Venango Co. PA.  He was married April 17, 1862 to Maretta Axtell.  (I have her name spelled wrong in the chart.  It should be Maretta instead of Marietta)  John Lowry died April 1, 1917 in Yates Center KS.  Maretta Axtell, born September 10, 1837 in Mercer Co. PA and died November 2, 1905 in Yates Center, Woodson Co, KS.  I remember when she died.  We lived across the street and down a little ways.  Remember this point, Maretta Axtell on line 5 because we will come back there after while.

 

John Lowery was the father of Linus Meade Davidson on line number 2.  He was born April 19, 1862 which incidentally is Patriot's Day in Venango Co, PA.  He was June 1, 1897 and died August 19, 1945 in Enid, OK.  John Lowry's other children were Fred Allen, Zenus Edmond, Vena who died very young, Otis Newel and Lorrie Odesa, commonly called Dessi.  Linus Meade Davidson married Dolly Ann Catherine Langford, born Geneva Co AL, July 4th 1875 and died April 10, 1965 in Enid OK.  Her mother and father's names were Nancy and William.  That is all we know about them.  They both died when she was very young.  She was raised by the Vaughn family in that county.

 

Now we come to me, Linus Allen Davidson, born June 1, 1901, Yates Center, Woodson Co, KS.  Married June 8, 1920 to Virgie Robinson.

 

Now then, of course, Melinda, your grandmother is my sister.  so if you just think of her as being on line 1, well that is your ancestry down to your grandmother as far as the Davidson line is concerned.

 

Now Melinda, lets go to chart number 5 and start on the Axtel family.  Look at line number 4 on chart number 5.  William Axtel was born in England.  His wife's name was Thomasine.  That is about all we know about them.  They had 2 son's Thomas and Daniel.  We know a lot more about Daniel than we do about Thomas because Daniel was a Colonel in Cromwell's army and Cromwell, I can't remember what happened to him, but he got very much out of favor with the King.  I think that Cromwell and his Army didn't believe in the divine rights of Kings.  So what happened was that Daniel being a Colonel in Cromwell's Army was executed by the king that came in power after things had gone like they did.

 

Thomas Axtel, brother of Daniel, is our ancestor.  I don't know if the happenings in England were the cause of it or not but he immigrated to America.  He was born before January 26, 1619 in Berkhamsted England.  He was married in 1638 and died March 14, 1646 in Mass.  His wife's name was Mary.  That is all we know about her.

 

Now go to line 1.  Henry Axtell was born before October 15, 1641.  He was the only son of Thomas Axtell & came to America with his father.  He was married June 14, 1655 to Hanna Merriam in Mass.  Hanna's father was George Merriam and mother was Susan.  They came from Kent England in the ship Castle in 1638.

 

When Thomas came over, he settled in Sudbury Mass.  He was 5 years old when his father died.  We have been to Sudbury and seen the country where he lived.  In the Spring of 1676, Indians led by King Philip, made a general war on the white settlement there and Henry was killed by the Indians.

 

The children of Henry and Hanna were Samuel, Hanna, Mary, Thomas, Daniel and Sarah.  This Daniel was our ancestor.  Turn to chart 3, Daniel is shown on line 8.  He was born Nov 4, 1673 at Marlboro, Mass.  He married Thankful Pratt on May 12, 1702.  He died Jan, 1735.  These Axtells were also all Presbyterians.  The father of Thankful Pratt was Elder William Pratt.

 

Daniel and Thankful had 10 children including Thomas Axtel shown on line 4, chart number.  Thomas was born Sept 15, 1727 in Berkley Mass.  He was married in New Jersey to Hanna Gobel in 1746.  That is all we know about her.  Thomas died about 1750.  The Gobel family came from South Carolina but were originally from New England.  They had 2 children, Daniel and Thomas, just like the original Daniel and Thomas in England.

 

Daniel Axtel on line 2, born April 12, 1748 in New Jersey, married Ruth Tuttle (sometimes called Tuthill) on Oct 5, 1770.  He died June 17, 1826 in Mercer Co PA.  I have seen Daniel and Ruth's grave.  Ruth was born March 2, 1750, died April 8, 1831 in Mercer Co. PA.  They are buried at the Fairfield Presbyterian Church near Sandy Lake in Mercer Co PA.  He and his brother Thomas both came from New Jersey and lived a while in Washington Co. PA before going to Mercer Co.  Daniel is one of the main ones in establishing the Fairfield church.

 

I should have mentioned that the Davidson's were some of the main stays in the Amity Pres church too and had a big hand in starting it.  The Davidson's were elders in that church for over 100 Years.

 

I just about left out something important here.  Daniel was also a revolutionary war soldier also.  He was a minute man in the revolution.  He took part in the battle of Trenton.  It was in 1789 or 1790 that he and his brother Thomas and a cousin Luther??? went to Washington Co Pa. and settled in Mercer Co PA in 1798.  They were known as the 10 milers.  He was one of the organizers of the Fairfield church.  It was organized in 1799.  He was one of the first elders.

 

Daniel and Ruth had 10 children.  The second was Eliab, born in New Jersey, April 25, 1774.  Eliab is our ancestor shown on line 1 of chart number 3.  He was married Sept 11, 1794 to Eunice Baldwin whose father was Caleb Baldwin.  He died in Mercer Co May 25, 1842.  Eunice died in 1808.

 

Now going back to sheet number 1.  On line 10 you see that Thaddeus Axtell who is the son of Eliab Axtell and Eunice Baldwin, born Oct 29, 1806 in Mercer Co Pa and married July 17, 1828 to Bathsheba Condit.  Note that point for Bathsheba Condit because we will come back to her again.

 

Marietta Axtel, my grandmother and your grandmother's grandmother, was the daughter of Thaddeus Axtell and Bathsheba Condit.   That gets us back again to the Davidsons.

 

Melinda, I would also like to say here that the Axtells, our ancestors were also all farmers.  Another interesting thing about the Axtells is that I found out that they have an Axtel organization and had a meeting back in the 1930s.  In that meeting they decided to put a Bronze plaque in the church yard of the Parish church in Sudbury Mass right across from the town meeting hall.  In 1975, we went to Sudbury and after some hunting, found this plaque mounted on a native large granite stone.  It was hidden by bushes grown up around it and nobody around there knew anything about it.  On this plaque was listed all of the Axtells who participated in the Revolutionary War.  That was quite interesting.  If I remember right there were about 12 or 15 of them.  As I mentioned a while back, Daniel Axtell, the father of Eliab was one of them.

 

An interesting thing I could have mentioned back there when I said that Alexander Biggs, father of the Mary that married Joseph Allen, came from England.  He was and officer in the British Army and spent quite a bit of time in England and in his life time, I guess managed to make quite a bit of money.  So when his daughter Mary married Joseph Allen, he gave them a wedding present of a coffee pot filled with gold pieces.  Wouldn't that be some wedding present.

 

Melinda, please refer to Chart number 4 and we will take the Condit family.  The name Condit has been spelled in several ways.  But many of our names have been spelled in different ways.  I might say that our Condit ancestors were also farmers.  When I say that about the farmers, it does not mean that all the Condits were farmers or all the Axtells were farmers or all the Davidsons were farmers but it means that all of our ancestors by the name Davidson, Axtel and Condit were farmers.

 

John Condit is of German decent.  He was first married in Great Briton where his wife died.  It is not known for sure whether he was born in England or Wales.  He came to America in 1678 with his son Peter.  He married again but Peter shown on line 8 was the only one of his children that lived.   We do not know when Peter was born.  But we do know it was before 1678 because he came over from England with his father.  Peter was married in 1695 to Mary Harrison and died in 1714 in New Jersey.  Notice the chart location for Mary Harrison because we will come back to her later.

 

Peter had 7 children, 6 sons and one daughter.  Philip is our ancestor.  Philip is our ancestor and he is on line 4.  So we won't talk any more about the rest of the children.  Philip who was born April 1709 in Newark NJ married Mary Day.  He died Dec 23, 1801 in New Jersey.  Mary Day was born in 1713 and died in 1785.  Peter, Philip and Mary lived in Morris Co. NJ.  They were present in 1742 at the organizational meeting of the first Presbyterian Church at Morristown.  He and his wife were members and he soon became an Elder.

 

Philip and Mary have many decedents over the United States.  Their children were Abigail, Jabez, Zenas, Mary, Rebecka, Abner, Ezekiel, Philip and Hanna.  We are descendants from Jabez Condit as noted on line number 2 on Chart number 4.  Jabez was born February 8, 1739 in Morris Co NJ and died November 22, 1804.  He married Phoebe Smith who was born 1736.  We know that her father was David Smith who lived in Orange.  Jabez was a farmer and lived with his father Philip where he raised his family.  They were all very high moral and religious characters.  Jabez and Phoebe had children named David, Mary, Jonas, Moses, Ira, Ezekiel, Martha, Phoebe, Abigail and Zenas.  Since we are following only our ancestor here, we will take up Ezekiel on line number 1 next and not follow any more of the children.

 

Ezekiel Condit, line number 1 was born December 20, 1773 at Orange NJ.  He was married January 9, 1801 to Ruth Carmichael.  He died Mary 23, 1845 in Mercer Co, PA.  Ruth Carmichael was born December 27, 1728 and died August 14, 1821.  Her father was Daniel Carmichael of Morristown NJ.  Ezekiel was married twice.  We are only interested in his first wife, Ruth Carmichael.  He became a member of the old Fairfield Presbyterian church in Mercer Co PA August 31, 1805 and was ordained Elder in 1829.  He was one of the earliest residents of the region of the Fairfield church who laid the foundations of the society of that vicinity, now noted for its integrity and Christian character of its inhabitants.  We went to the Fairfield church 2 years ago in Mercer Co and went through the cemetery and saw Ezekiel and Ruth's graves there.

 

Now turn to chart number 1 and on line 11 you see that Bathsheba Condit was the daughter of Ezekiel Condit and Ruth Carmichael.  And see, she was the wife of Thaddeus Axtel.  Bathsheba was born 1804 and died 1866.  Her farm is there.  That is about all we know about them.  We know less about them than we do the rest of the Condits we just talked about.  Now you see Bathsheba Condit was the mother of Marietta Axtell who married my Grandfather, John Lowery Davidson.  And since your grandmother is my sister, the relationship is the same for her as it is for me.  So if Bathsheba Condit is my great grandmother, and your grand mother's great Grandmother.  That gets us back to the Davidsons again.  I should mention that we do know that Bathsheba had brothers and sisters.  One was Silas, one was Ezekiel and one was Hanna.  I would like to know more about Thaddeus Axtell and Bathsheba Condit.  Perhaps sometime we will find out more about them.  We don't even know where they died or where they are buried.  It will take a little more research to find that out.

 

Now Melinda, lets go to chart number 6.  Your see there on line 4 that Richard Harrison was born or at least came from Cheshire England.  He died October 25, 1653 at Branford Conn.  So he was another one of our emigrant ancestors.  He had a son, Sargent Richard Harrison, that died before 1691 in Newark New Jersey.  He is reported to have come to Newark NJ with the first colony of settlers there, that is with the first settlement that came there in 1667 or 1668.  That is all we know about him.  He had a son, Samuel Harrison who died 1724 and married Mary Ward who died in 1738.  Her father was John Ward of Newark NJ.

 

Now turn to chart number 4 and you will see that Mary Harrison on line 9 was the daughter of Samuel Harrison and Mary Ward.  And she and her husband were the parents of Philip Condit on line 4 who is our ancestor.  So that ties in there to the Condit line.  So that completes that other little branch of the family.

 

Well Melinda, this is all that I am going to send to you at this time.  I do not know just how much of a project you have in school.  Whether you will want to use all this information or not.  And I don't know just what form you will be giving it.  So lets call this sufficient for now.

 

My research on the family history has been very interesting.  It has been done over a period of many years.  I hope you find it as interesting as I have.  I have accumulated a lot of information.  It would take several tapes to give it all to you which would not be practical at all and would take too much time.  It might be that if you could get your mother or father or someone to type this off one of these days, it would be helpful to you, unless you can type yourself.  I wish you the most success with your project and hope you get a lot of pleasure out of it.  So bye, bye for now.  And if I can help you any more, let me know.

 

This is your great Uncle, Linus Davidson