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John and his father were regarded as "presumptive settles", another term for squatters, who settled on land without a patent, built a small home and improved the land by farming. By an act of 1735, presumptive settles were given the opportunity to get a warrant for their land, provided it was not on a manor already patented by someone else. Some settlers took advantage of this rule, some did not. Before 1799 John investigated the possibility of moving to Ohio and did son in 1799.
John and wife were among the first dozen settlers of Huntingdon Co., Pa., during the summer of 1774. Owned lot 51 in Huntingdon adjacent to his father, brother and other in-laws. Also owned a farm of 220 acres, purchased about 1784, and a distillery in Oneida Township, on Warrior Ridge, a small mountain just outside Huntingdon. John was a contemporary of and perhaps an associate of the Pennsylvanians who took part in the "Whiskey Rebellion" in revolt against manufacturing and excise taxes.
Of much importance in the development of eastern Fairfield County, Ohio and Western Perry County was the activity of the Ashbaughs, Millers, Youngs, Larirers and others in that new region. The story is recorded in the old country and State histories.
After some fifty or sixty years during which John Ashbaugh grew up moved to Huntingdon, married and raised a family of several sons and daughters, he felt the urge of the better opportunities in the West. In the spring of 1799, he left his old home in search of a new country, taking with him his son Joseph, and his neighbor Joseph Miller whose daughter had married John Jr. of the Ashbaugh family. They probably made the trip through Pittsburgh and down the Ohio River until nearly opposite the little town of Columbus. This is the period of exploring ; hunters frequented the river valleys. A few towns like Columbus and Zanesville were just being settled.
Exploring the primitive region east of Columbus, John and his associates selected a home site in the fertile valley of Rush Creek a few miles north of present Bremen in Fairfield County. (This site is now known as the Weaver Farm.) Here they cleared the forest, planted corn and potatoes and built a cabin, then went back for their families. History records this as the first settlement in this region.
In the Fall of 1799, they returned to their old homes in Pennsylvania and arranged for a prompt movement of several families to a new home in Ohio. Joseph Miller's daughter Rachel has left a record in one of the county histories describing the party which consisted of fifteen people from four or five families.
The largest and most prominent was the Ashbaugh family which consisted of the parents, John and Catherine, of sons Andrew, Jacob, Joseph, John Jr. and wife Catherine, Frederick and of daughters Elizabeth, Mary (Polly), and Patsy. The names of a daughter Catherine and of a son Isaac are later reported with the "John Sr." family; they may have come later from Pennsylvania. Daughter Hannah had married James Saxton and remained in Huntingdon.
The Miller family included the parents of Joseph and Catherine, with daughters Elizabeth and Rachel --- also Catherine, above, the wife of John Ashbaugh Jr. The other families were not listed.
The Ashbaugh - Miller party plodded westward in the fall of 1799 from Huntingdon to Pittsburgh and then floated down the Ohio River on flatboats or family boats until they reached the mouth of the Hockhocking River at the present town of Pomeroy. Then by boat, horseback and canoe, they made their way up the Hockhocking Valley to the hospitable cabin of Col. Samuel Carpenter, and later through the woods to the new home site and cabin which had been prepared for them on Rush Creek.
But an event took place during that first night in the Carpenter Cabin. To Catherine Miller Ashbaugh, wife of John Jr., was born the first child in this community, a son David, on New Years Day, January 1, 1800.
In the fall of 1799 the family left Huntingdon Co., Pa. for Ohio. On 31 December 1799, they arrived at the cabin of Col. Samual Carpenter where they remained overnight. During the night a child, David Ashbaugh, was born to John Jr. and Catharine Miller Ashbaugh, the first white child born in Rushcreek Township, Fairfield Co., Ohio. John, wife Cathrina, and their children (except Hannah) moved as part of the first settlers in Rushcreek Township, Fairfield Co., Ohio.
Died young.
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More Family information Here!