Time flies and here it is the week of Thanksgiving. I told you last week we would look at a letter written by Del Wickerham, but I had forgotten that we would be celebrating Thanksgiving this week. So let me slip in a story this week about a jealous Indian and one of our pioneer ancestors who settled near Tranquility.
The story is about a gentleman that has been buried in the Tranquility cemetery in Adams County now for over 160 years. His name is Thomas Harvey McCullough (1769-1861). Thomas Harvey McCullough’s step father was John McCullough (1748-1822) and his mother was Sarah McCullough (1745-1790). John and Sarah were first cousins, their father’s being brothers. It all begins with Thomas’s mother Sarah McCullough. Sarah was a beautiful young girl and was admired by all the young men in the area. She had many beaus but eventually gave her heart to only one young man that being Thomas Harvey. It seems however that Sarah was being stalked by a young Indian brave.
After Thomas and Sarah were married the young Indian brave became enraged. One evening Thomas left their cabin to gather some much-needed firewood but never returned. Sarah wondering what had happened to him, went to check on his whereabouts. Just beyond the cabin door a few yards laid Thomas. His skull had been crushed by a tomahawk blow from the rear. Sarah was devastated and fearful for her own life. After Thomas’s death, Sarah found herself with child. Samuel McCullough, Sarah’s father was upset over Sarah’s situation and asked John McCullough, his nephew, the son of his brother if he would marry Sarah and be the father of her child. John without thought agreed and they were immediately married and left their home and family in Maryland. They traveled by wagon and relocated in Rockbridge County, Virginia, hoping to put time and space between them and Sarah’s stalker. It was early spring in 1769, and John wanted to get Sarah settled and a crop in the ground. That fall Sarah gave birth to a healthy little boy, she named Thomas Harvey McCullough after his biological father. Safety measures were taken, but thankfully, the young Indian brave was never heard from again.
John and Sarah remained in Rockbridge County, Virginia and went on to have six children of their own. Thomas Harvey McCullough thrived and grew to manhood in the Shenandoah Valley. He lost his mother Sarah in 1790. She was circa 45 years of age at the time of her death. After Sarah death, John McCullough married Mary McClung in 1794. Just to keep it all in the family, Thomas married in 1800 at the age of 31 to Selina “Jane” McClung. Jane was a sister to Mary McClung the wife of Thomas’s step-father, John McCullough. Jane was born in 1774. Thomas Harvey and Jane had six children. Thomas Harvey and his brothers learning of the new land being made available in the Ohio valley, decided to take advantage of this wonderful opportunity. So, in 1812, Thomas Harvey McCullough, his family, his brothers and their families packed up their belongings and traveled by covered wagon to the Ohio valley. They settled on land close to
Tranquility in Scott Twp., Adams County, Ohio. The McCullough’s were Covenanters and were one of the families that helped start the church at Tranquility. Several of the people that have been mentioned in previous stories were descendants of the McCullough family. Just to jog your memory I will mention a few. Dassie McCullough and her famous “Dassie Beans”. Dassie was the daughter of Billy McCullough a half-brother to Thomas Harvey McCullough. Dassie’s brother, James McCullough’s wife was Matilda, was thought to have mystical powers by a few of the surrounding residents of “The Ridge.” Dassie’s brother, Sam McCullough was best known for the coming of the railroad and the building of “Sam’s Station.” The McCullough family was large. Many went west but others stayed in Adams County and over the years married into many other families in Adams County. Thomas Harvey’s son McClung, died in 1854, leaving his wife with four children to raise.
Out of the four children only Sarah Elizabeth survived to adulthood. In 1860, Thomas Harvey was 90 and made his home with his daughter-in-law Jane (Morrison) McCullough. Sarah Elizabeth the only surviving daughter of McClung McCullough, married John Clifford Murphy and had twelve children. Most of her children went west. However, John Clifford Murphy had two brothers who stayed in the Tranquility area. James Clayton Murphy and Robert Clinton Murphy. James Clayton is the great-grandfather of Susie (Murphy) Emery of Seaman. Susie is the daughter of late Robert and Mary Grace (Storer) Murphy and has lived in the Seaman-Tranquility area all her life. Her paternal grandparents were Ray and Mary Alta (Wylie) Murphy. This would make Sarah Elizabeth (McCullough) Murphy (John Harvey McCullough’s granddaughter) Susie’s great X2 aunt by marriage.
Thomas’s wife, Selina “Jane” (McClung) McCullough died in 1849 at the age of 75. Thomas Harvey McCullough out lived her by twelve years and died in 1861 at the age of 92. Thomas Harvey and Jane are both buried in the Tranquility cemetery.