After Lewis Condict’s father died, his mother married again, creating what we today would call a blended family, and then much of the new group, more or less minus Lewis Condict, decamped to Kentucky. This is a transcript of Condict’s ten page handwritten account of his close relatives’ journey south and west, and of what eventually became of them all. I found it more than a decade ago on a genealogy website that is now defunct. I’ve searched for it in some new form, an updated address, anything, and come up empty.
It’s a hybrid bit of writing, part genealogical report, part family history narrative. If you push past the initial pages detailing successive generations of Tichenors, though, which are – I admit – not all that compelling, it is a surprisingly human tale of their lives and the challenges they faced.
For the sake of readability, I’m offering two versions here: the first edited and condensed to allow for some semblance of flow; the second is presented as Condict actually wrote it in all its halting steps and asides….
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EDITED AND CONDENSED VERSION
Several years prior to the revolutionary war, Daniel Tichenor purchased a farm in Morris County, N. J. where he resided for 15 or 20 years. His first wife, whose maiden name was Wade, died in 1773. In May, 1776, he married Anna Condict (widow of Peter Condict) and daughter of Capt. Ebener Byram, of Mendham in Morris Co.
In 1790, Daniel traded his farm in Morris Co., NJ. to Capt. John Howell for lands on Green River in Ohio Co., KY. In September of that year, he moved with his family to Kentucky, but not to this land. He never took actual possession of it as it was at that time but a wilderness – the habitation of Indiana [meaning the territory was inhabited by Native Americans] – not a white family within 50 miles. He bequeathed this land to his sons, some of whom after his death went there to live…
When Daniel Tichenor moved to Kentucky, he settled in Nelson County. Two of his near neighbors viz: Asabel Hinman and Caleb Howell, moved with him to Kentucky and settled near him in Nelson Co.
A day having been set for their departure from N. J. to KY, the Rev. Doctor Hillyer of the Presbyterian Church at Madison (then called Battle Hill), of which church Mr. Tichenor and his wife were members, preached a sermon at the house on the occasion, to a very large assembly of friends and neighbors convened to bid farewell and to express their kind wishes and earnest prayers for a prosperous journey and safe arrival at their place of destination. A long procession followed them several miles on their journey.
They travelled in wagons to Pittsburgh, where they obtained a boat and descended the Ohio River to Limestone, (afterwards called Maysville) where they landed and proceeded in wagons to Nelson County and built cabins on Cox’s Creek, near Bardstown in that county.
In September, 1795, Mr. T bought about 100 acres of land on Plum River in Nelson County, and built a dwelling there, where he removed in 1796 and resided till his death, which occurred on the 10th of April, 1804.
For many years Mr. T had been subject to violent attacks of Asthma, which often seemed to threaten sudden death. He enjoyed comfortable health, at intervals, and always led a life of exemplary piety, temperance and industry .
He laid out a family burial ground on his farm in Nelson Co., KY, in which he, his widow, many of his children and grandchildren and neighbors were buried.
In November, 1804, several months after his death, his widow visited New Jersey and spent the winter and spring with her brothers and sisters and her three sons by her first husband. She made this trip on horseback, accompanied by her son Jonas, meeting her oldest son, Edward Condict, by previous appointment, at Wheeling VA, whence they proceeded to Morristown, NJ.
In May of the following year (1805) she returned to her home in KY, accompanied by her son Byram Condict and his family of 5 or 6 children. Three other families removed at the same time, viz: Uzal Condict, Daniel Pruden, Abraham Lindley, and Daniel Lindley. They all settled on Green River in Ohio Co., KY, at Point Pleasant.
Jared Tichenor and his brother Jonas also resided in Ohio County, with many of the connections and descendants.
Byram Condict (son of Mrs. Tichenor by her first husband, Peter Condict) established a ferry on Green River known as “Condict’s Ferry” at the “Condict Settlement.” About the year 1817 or 1818 he was drowned at his own ferry while attempting to cross the river on a stormy night. His widow, Mary Lindley survived him till the winter of 1854.
The widow of Daniel Tichenor resided on her husband’s farm during the remainder of her life, which terminated July 8th, 1826, at the age of 76. Some time previously she had a fall by which the neck of the thighbone was broken, rendering her a cripple the rest of her life. Two of her sisters had been crippled in the same manner and about the same period of life.
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Kinsmen and Kinswomen 