Weston Wagons West - Ep. J15 - More Kinnick marriages in Belmont County Ohio in the 1830s

Professor James Triplett, as he was known, was both a farmer and a school teacher. The younger Mary Kinnick was still working in the household of the Triplett family, who lived near Morristown, in 1830. Professor Triplett, born in Loudon, Virginia, was 48 years old in May of that year. His wife, Ruth, was a year older. They had seven children, Nathaniel, 19, Mortimer, 17, Catherine, 15. Alvah, 13, Elizabeth, 11, Paton, 7 and Dolphin, 5, in 1830. Karl Weston did some blacksmithing work for the Triplett family, so he kept up with their affairs. He knew that this was the last year that Professor Triplett would be teaching in Morristown and that he had bought land near Batesville, about 25-30 miles southwest of Morristown, at that time in Guernsey County in November 1830. He planned to move the family there right after the first of the year. Mrs. Triplett became quite ill late in the year as they were attempting to prepare to move.

Professor Triplett spoke with James Dallas, who allowed the older Mary Kinnick to assist with the Triplett's move, along with her daughter, the younger Mary. They did keep in touch with both Karl Weston and James and Fanny Dallas. It was learned that Mrs. Triplett had passed away in March of 1831. Both Mary Kinnicks continued to live with the family in Batesville as housekeepers and caregivers. In July, 1831, word was received that Professor Triplett had married the younger Mary Kinnick, eighteen years his junior. Their first daughter, Miranda (they called her Minnie) was born in June of 1832.

Meanwhile, the family of Frederick Lowery had moved to a farm near Morristown from Frederick County, Virginia. Frederick and his wife, Elizabeth, had ten children when they arrived in 1828, ranging in age from 19-year-old John down to 2-year-old Jonah, seven boys, three girls. In the fall of 1829, Ann Kinnick, who was still resident at the Dallas farm, was hired to assist Elizabeth, who was now pregnant with her eleventh child. Young Henry was born in June of 1830, but Elizabeth experienced complications. She died in January of 1831. In May of 1832, Frederick Lowery and Ann Kinnick were married. Their first son, Isaac, was born in November of 1833.

On March 1 of 1832, Catherine Kinnick married Samuel Bufkin. She was still seventeen going on eighteen and he was twenty-one going on twenty-two. He was a member of the Flushing Monthly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends, better known as the Quakers. Flushing was a village near the north edge of Belmont County, directly north of Morristown. Catherine was still working at the Dallas family farm, and Bufkin had been hired on as a carpenter for construction of a new barn. It was love at first sight. Their first child, a daughter, Sarah Ann, was born in February of 1833. In October of 1834, she was joined by their second child, a boy, John C.

By the summer of 1834, Walter W. Kinnick was a 24-year-old and was farming a small farm in Wheeling Township, just to the east of Flushing and about fifteen miles northeast of Morristown. His hard work for the Dallas family and his recent acquaintance with the Bufkin family made it possible for him to get started on his own. Earlier in the year, he had met a daughter of a nearby farm family. Her name was Susanna (although everyone called her Susan) Schwyhart. They had married in March of 1834 and their first daughter, Mary E., was born in April of 1835. Their second daughter was born in April of 1836. They named her Sarah Ann, after his grandmother, as his sisters had done. Their first son, named John S., was born in April of 1837.

Susan's parents were Joseph Swineheart and Elizabeth Zimmerman. Joseph's brother, Jacob, had also married Elizabeth's sister, Sarah. Two brothers married two sisters. Sometime when their oldest children were in their adolescence, both families changed the surname of all of their children to Schwyhart, although neither set of parents changed their names. (Another set of cousins changed their surname to Swihart, as well, at about the same time.)

Karl Weston enjoyed watching the families of his friends and customers grow almost as much as his own. Karl and Lacy had a third child, a girl they named Kitty, in May of 1831. Among the Kinnick clan, Dorcas and her husband, Joseph Dallas, Karl learned, had second girl, Mary Jane, born in 1828 as well as a second son, James, born in Mary of 1831. James and Mary (Kinnick) Triplett, down in Batesville, had a son, Lott, born in May of 1834, and another son, Walter, born in March of 1836. Meanwhile, Frederick and Ann (Kinnick) Lowery had a second son that they named William Kinnick Lowery, born in August of 1835. In April of 1837 they had their first daughter, named Elizabeth ann.

Karl and Lacy's son, Jasper, became a 12-year-old in March of 1838, and he began his apprenticeship as a farrier with his father. He had expressed an interest in following his father in the blacksmith trade, as well and began that training in March of 1840. At that time, of course, as was the family tradition, he received his first to mares to raise and care for, himself, having reached the age of fourteen. In April of 1840, his brother, Arly, began his farrier apprenticeship, as well.

These years also began to exhibit the restlessness, to move westward, that was so typical of life in these times, in the United States of America. In the Spring of 1836, the family of Samuel and Catherine (Kinnick) Bufkin, packed up, and with other Quaker Friends, joined a wagon trail west and moved to what was called the Duck Creek Monthly Meeting, in Henry County, Indiana. Two years later, in the Spring of 1838, the Frederick and Ann (Kinnick) Lowery family, including their three children, aged 5, 3 and 1, also joined a party going west and moved to Henry County, Indiana, not far from where the Bufkin family had settled. They had received positive reports, and decided to seek their better life there, as well.

All members of the Weston family are fictional, of course. Each Kinnick, Dallas, Tracey, Triplett, Lowery, Bufkin, and Schwyhart (as well as Swineheart and Zimmerman) were historical figures, but were used here fictitiously. The relationship between the Kinnick and Weston families therefore were created fictionally for this story. Mary Kinnick and her children (and the families related by marriage) were historical, but the details of their birth dates and early lives are filled in fictionally. They each played key roles in the life of Walter W. Kinnick, a 3rd great-grandfather of the author. Each of the relationships within which these historical figures appear in these episodes is totally consistent with known historical facts for each such person in the official records.

The author wished to thank the record keepers of the Religious Society of Friends, the Quakers, for their outstanding work at keeping, preserving, and making available for research the detailed family records available through their Monthly Meeting organizations. It was invaluable to my research, and that of many other genealogists and family historians.

Also relied on was continuing family history research as this is a direct line ancestry of the author, of course. If interested in more details, see the link, below, for a visit by the author and his wife, to this area of Ohio.