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Surnames: Carnahan, Thompson, Mahan, Jennings, McClanahan, Carothers, Jack, Markle
Classification: Query
Message Board URL:
http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/WeH.2ACEB/663.1.1
Message Board Post:
There are those who do not like JVT Records - but I think they are fascinating and I
thought I would put the drowning story here. Josiah Van Thompson (JVT) was addicted to
the genealogy of his families (sound familiar?) Everywhere he went, he talked to people
about their genealogy and his. Then he wrote down what they said. This was in the late
1800's and early 1900's. He kept many, many journals of genealogical stories.
JVT descended from John Carnahan who married Rebecca Carothers - brother of Capt. James
Carnahan who drowned in the Allegheny River. He went to a distant cousin in Pennsylvania
and he told him this story. Note that the date (1795) is a little off - (we know Capt.
James Carnahan drowned in 1788) but it is family lore and although it is not a primary
source - it is a "handed down" family story. We all have these kinds of stories
in our family - and to me - it is one of the things that makes genealogy fun.
JVT Volume 1 page 33 and 34
"At John Carnahan's Sewickly, Sept 7, 1897 5:30 PM
Arrived here about a half hour ago & found Cousin John Carnahan after awhile he
having been back toward the Caruthers farm fixing fences. He says his father was John
Jack Carnahan & that he was a brother of James Carnahan, President of Princeton
College who he says published a pamphlet on the Whiskey Insurrection. He lent his copy to
Harnson P. Laird of Laird & Sons, Greensburgh & has never got it back yet. He
said he could not recall his grandfather’s name but says he was drowned in the Allegheny
River while crossing with some cattle near to or above Pittsburgh. His horse got out in
deep water & he thought she wasn't swimming right & he got off, having his
overcoat on & undertook to swim ashore himself. He was an excellent swimmer &
swam quite a good ways & then turned over on his back & swam on but the water
& heavy coat carried him down. He says Uncle Joe Markle was there at the time. My
recollection is that it was Capt James Carnahan that was drowned!
& the year was 1795. John Carnahan says that his grandfather’s brother was there
& wanted to jump in to help his brother out when he went down but three men took hold
of him to prevent him, thinking that he too would drown & took their all to hold him.
I asked him what this brothers name was but he did not know. I asked him where he lived
& he said over here at the "Willow Tree" which makes it conclusive that it
was John Carnahan who married Rebecca Carothers. He said they did not recover his body
for two or three days & they buried him (with) the bark of a tree, that is peeled a
tree & used the bark for a coffin. They would not have known who he was, none of them
knowing him, except for the new knife which they found in his pocket & which his widow
identified. I asked him what became of his grandmother Carnahan & he said he did not
know. I said did she not marry again & he said "did she marry a Jennings"
I told him that Rev. Samuel Carnahan Jennings told m!
e that she married his grandfather Rev. Jacob Jennings. I said - did
she marry Jennings or did she marry Matthew McClanahan, the father of Judge Mathew P.
McClanahan, Oh he said I knew Judge M. P. McC, he was born a mile west of here on a farm
adjoining Kinticks & now owned in part by Felgar. She married Jennings because I have
often heard mother say she married a preacher & that she had better have not done it
as she could have done better. My name is John Mahan Carnahan & the Mahan I think
comes from my grandmother Carnahan as my mother always told me so & that was probably
her maiden name."