Here's another article from the newsletter that you might find interesting:
Lineage Links
Is this our Aaron?
Better indexes have allowed us to find references that have previously been
"hidden". This is from a card file at the Pennsylvania Archives. Is this our
Aaron?
[graphic of an index card from the Pennsylvania Archives]
It is in reference to a certificate that was issued to an Aaron Wells on 15
November 1784 for service in the Washington Co.,
Pennsylvania Militia. This was more than a year after the Treaty of Paris
had been ratified by Congress, officially ending the Revolutionary War and
more than two years after the actual cessation of hostilities.
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"The 1783 Tax Lists for Washington County, Pennsylvania." Compiled by
Katherine K Zinsser and Raymond M. Bell. 1988
"INTRODUCTION [in part]
By Raymond Martin Bell
An important source for genealogical searchers in Pennsylvania is the early
county tax lists. Taxes were assessed in the fall for the next year, listing
all person within each township who owned land, horses or cows and all
single men aged 21 or older ("single freemen").
Washington County was formed in March 1781 [from Westmoreland], and was
fully organized by the fall of 1781. Its territory included all of
southwestern Pennsylvania west of the Monongahela River and south of the
Ohio River. The first tax lists, though assembled late in 1781, were for
taxes to be levied in 1782. These lists have been published in the
Pennsylvania Archives, Series III, Volume 22.
Before 1982 the only known tax lists for the 1780's were those stored in the
Washington courthouse, beginning with 1784. Fortunately, about 1983 a
complete set of the duplicate tax lists (1782 through 1789, except 1784) was
found by chance in Harrisburg. These lists have been reproduced on
microfilms RG4-340 and RG4-341 by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum
Commission.
The 1783 tax lists are published in this book because the year 1783 is
particularly significant. The 1782 Indian attacks in Washington County
(especially the western section) were severe between the March attack on
Miller's Fort through September when the attack on Rice's Fort occurred.
Both forts were in Donegal Township. Many persons fled from their cabins to
safer quarters farther east and the 1783 tax lists reflect the dispersion.
The same year Donegal Township listed the names of twenty-some persons from
Ohio County, (West) Virginia, which lay just to the west of Washington
County. A man taxed in an eastern township of Washington County in 1783 for
only horses and cows may well be a refugee from a western township."
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In Hopewell Township just north of Donegal Township, there were 15 Wells men
listed. Unfortunately, the list is roughly in alphabetical order but with
intervening names other than Wells which may indicate proximity. There is a
large group of Wells grouped together who are known to be of the "Cross
Creek" or "Little Wells" family, most of whom owned large tracts of land.
However, separated from this group, two men were enumerated together, Robert
Wells and Nathan Wells, with horses, cows and sheep, but no land or slaves.
Also farther up the list were John, James and Timothy Downing. Robert Wells
of Mason Co., Kentucky and Clermont Co., Ohio, now known for certain to be a
kinsman, had married Mary Downing in 1778. Timothy Downing later moved to
Mason Co. as well. There was no Aaron Wells enumerated in any township. We
can imagine a young man of about 19 or 20, old enough to serve in the
Militia but not yet 21, old enough to be taxed as a single male.
In Amwell Township, just east of Donegal Township, were Abraham, David, and
Caleb Evans, as well as a Thomas and Philip Wiggins. This is almost
certainly the Caleb Evans who later married Elizabeth Wiggins in Nelson Co.,
Kentucky and whose son, William Evans, married Aaron and Ruth's daughter,
Sally W. Wells.
In addition, further east in Fallowfield Township on the Monongahela River,
were Augustine Wells, known now to be a kinsman, and his father-in-law,
Moses Doolittle. There was also a Thomas Wells.
Research in Pennsylvania may tell us when this Robert and Nathan disappeared
from the Washington Co. tax lists. The fact that they owned no property
could be a reason why they may have moved west to Kentucky.