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Author: MBrown3049
Surnames:
Classification: queries
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http://boards.rootsweb.com/localities.northam.usa.states.nevada.counties....
Message Board Post:
Reuben Rowland, the elder, was a founding member of the first Baptist Church in Albemarle
Co., Va. ca. 1772. He was married to a daughter of John Blaylock, a prosperous carpenter.
Reuben and several members of his church left Va. in the 1780's, probably because of
the religious prejudice against Baptists, Methodists, and Presbyterians in Va., and
because every white male head-of-household had to pay a tithe to the Anglican Church of
Va. as well as to their own church.
The group apparently stopped briefly in N.C. and then traveled to Newberry Co., S. C.
where they founded the Dunkin (Duncan) Creek Baptist Church, now the First Baptist Church
of Whitmire, S.C.
I believe that Reuben and my ancestor, Micajah Bennett,were brothers-in-law. They each
inherited slaves from John Blaylock, as did their sons who were named for John Blaylock.
At that time, married women could not inherit property in their own names, so it went to
their husbands. Also, Reuben named one of his sons Micajah Bennett Rowland.
Micajah Bennett died in S.c. in 1796, and his widow(2nd wife), their young son, and her
adult son by a previous marriage moved to IN in early 1800's.
Reuben and his family moved to what is now Calloway Co. where he again was a founder of a
Baptist Church.
Are you aware of the ghastly murder committed by the Lewis brothers (nephews of Thomas
Jefferson) on the night of the New Madrid earthquake? Since that Lewis family had also
migrated from Albemarle Co., and one of the Lewises had been a member of Reuben's and
Micajah's church in Va., I have often wondered if those Lewis brothers were related to
the Lewis in their congregation.
I hope that some of this info fills in a few blanks for you.
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