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Author: dnickels144
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Classification: queries
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Eddie; Thank you for the reply. I appreciate the information. I am going to have to try
and revisit some of my data, see how this may fit.
Since my family records contained some holes, some time back I set about, interpretation
of what was known, using different sources and analysis to attempt to fill in the holes.
You know, it is a shame that when these things were talked about by we were not interested
and by the time we are interested, all the old family are dead and gone.
What follows are my conclusion on the William question. Based on various written sources,
some of which you site in your post. Based these stories and on Dunlapsville cemetary
burial records, I attempted reconstruction using birth/death life-span analysis of the
names I found. Who was alive when and how old were they when the next names (generation
was born), I concluded that there were three William Nickels. I believe all to be buried
at Dunlapsville, which does not support William having left the area, unless of course,
they might have left for a time and returned, have left the area while still owning land
in the area or have died elsewhere and were brought back for burial in family plots. As I
found, what appeared to be, 3 generations of William Nickels, the name seemed to be quite
common, which it also quite possible that there were other Williams. From what you say, I
would suspect that somewhere along the way, one generation of William left the area
leaving sibl!
ings and/or parents in this area.
In any rate, based on age analysis, I suspected that the eldest William Nickels
(1794-1869) with W: Elizibeth (my guess) had a total of 6 children. Three(3) sons and a
daughter that lived to adulthood. The oldest son was William L (1821-1883), Thomas
(1822-1893), and James (1825-1892). The ages of all 3 fall right into logical child
bearing ages of the elder William. A female in that same period, Jane (1822-1893). I
concluded to be a sister ( and likely twin of Thomas) rather that one of the wives as I
found names of wives associated with each of the three sons. I also found a Nancy born in
1827 but died at age 4 and John born in 1832 but died at 9 years old. all the right time
to have been the elder William's offspring.
The Third William, was William Thomas who apparently died as an infant in 1851.
I believe all buried at Dunlapsville Presbeterian Cemetary.
I further concluded that all three sons remained in the area and farmed land near their
father. I feel this conclusion is supported by burial records and the 1876 plat book
which shows, 203 acres owned by William ( the elder) to the northwest of present day
Dunlapsville. Surrounding that farm were the names of the three suspected sons with farms
of their own. One farm to southeast was listed to William L. A farm to the northwest
owned by JC (James). And last further to the west a farm owned by owned by Thomas. The
Greenville Treatyline funs right thru the property meaning that it would have not become
available for settlement until later, perhaps explaining why Williams sold the land to the
east to John Dunlap which was in the old frountier and bought land in the newly opened
Greenville treaty land.
My branch of the family is Thomas. The Thomas farm (mentioned above) has remained
continously in the family, while some of the other lands have been sold and regained over
the generations. Thomas, married Barbara Brown, who lived two farms away to the west.
His farm is very near the western edge of Union County while the Brown farm was in the
eastern edge of Fayette County. The Brown Farm in Jenning Twp of Fayette county, gives
you the Fayette county connection. That farm got into the Nickels name by marriage where
it remains to this date. Thomas and Barbara had 3 children, Allison Reed (my ancestor),
(1856-1919), Angeline (1856-1911), and Isaac (1862-1864)
From that evidence, it seems therefore quite logical to presume that
(at least by 1876) the male children each had farms right around the father's place
who no longer showed owning the land of Dunlapsville which would square with his having
sold it to John Dunlap.
Incidently, I also believe that William was not the first Nickels In Union County as I
also found a James (1747-1826) he would have been (a little old at) 47 when William was
born, but still a plausible father/son. I found mention of James coming to Union County
somewhere around the season of 1802/03, traveling with a man named Swann to an area a
little further north and east on the other side of the Whitewater River near Silver Creek.
I am sure you have found that there are several verions of the Dunlapville Cemetary on the
Union County Library site. I finally resorted to plotting the names and dates on a
spreadsheet bar graph to finally make sense. When you see where the life span bars
overlap, the possible husband/wife, parent/child patterns emerge.
The other source was the 1876 Plat book. I am not sure it is still in print but I believe
that the Franklin County Historical society is a source. That is a rather large plat book
showing Franklin, Union and Fayette counties along with the towns that existed at the
time. I understand hat plat book to be a composite recreation of various plat book
fragments.
Perhaps, we can figure out where the holes or overlap in our versions.
Duane
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