Martin, Jacob

Posted By: Bruce McCrea
Date: 26 November 2001

JACOB MARTIN AND SUSANNAH OVERHOLSER

PIONEER RESIDENTS OF DARKE COUNTY, OHIO

(part of my compilation of THE ANCESTORS AND DESCENDANTS OF JACOB MARTIN AND SUSANNAH OVERHOLSER)

According to church records, JACOB MARTIN was born August 11, 1798, in Salt Lick Township, Fayette County, Pennsylvania, and baptized Sept. 30, 1798, at the Gute Hoffnung Kirche (Good Hope Lutheran and Reformed Church) of Salt Lick Township. (Fayette County is on Pennsylvania's border with West Virginia and Maryland.) Jacob was the sixth of ten known children of John Martin Jr. and Appolonia (Abigail) Bucher. His paternal grandparents were John (Johannes) and Anna Margareth Martin and his maternal grandparents were Peter and Anna Catharina Bucher. Jacob grew up at his parents' home on Back Creek in Salt Lick Township, near the homes of both sets of grandparents. (His paternal grandfather, however, died before he was born.)

There is a family tradition that, as a teenager, Jacob served in the War of 1812. This has not been documented. According to the State of Ohio National Society United States Daughters of 1812, he was the Jacob Martin who served in Ohio as a private in Captain William Stephenson's company (probably from Green County). Pension records from the National Archive prove, however, that the Jacob Martin in Captain William Stephenson's Company was a different Jacob Martin. Fayette County, Pennsylvania, War of 1812 records do not show a Jacob Martin. More research is needed on Jacob's possible War of 1812 service.

Jacob Martin's uncle, John Bucher, who was about 10 years older than Jacob, purchased 160 acres in the southeast quarter of Section 18, Township 5, Range 5 (later Randolph Twp.) in Montgomery County, Ohio, on September 29, 1813. Perhaps Jacob and his brother Joseph moved west to Montgomery County with their uncle.

Jacob Martin was one of three residents of Montgomery County, Ohio, who obtained patents at the Cincinnati land office on July 16, 1817, for quarters (160 acres) of Section 2 in Range 3, Township 10, in what is now the northwest corner of Adams Township, Darke County, Ohio. The other two were Christian Wagaman, and Jacob Waggaman. Jacob Martin's patent was for the southwest quarter of Section 2, Christian Wagaman's was for the northwest quarter, and Jacob Waggaman's was for the southeast quarter. Later, Jacob Martin and Jacob Waggaman each assigned his patent to the other person, so Jacob Martin ended up purchasing the southwest quarter of Section 2. Jacob Martin and the two Wagamans traveled from Montgomery County to the Cincinnati land office the same day and purchased adjoining quarter sections of land, but I know of no relationship between them. Since Jacob Martin is listed as a resident of Montgomery County, Ohio, in records of this purchase, he must have moved from Pennsylvania to Montgomery County, Ohio, by 1817.

Section 11 of Range 3, Township 10, is just south of Section 2. Peter Miller purchased the northeast quarter of Section 11 on June 5, 1818, so his land adjoined Jacob Martin's land. 21 years later, his son, John Miller, married Jacob and Susannah Martin's oldest daughter, Elizabeth. On March 17, 1818, Henry Born (Burns) Sr. purchased the east half of the southeast quarter of Section 11 just south of Peter Miller's land. He would later exchange that land with Jacob Martin.

SUSANNAH OVERHOLSER was born January 20, 1798, in Somerset County, Pennsylvania, in the part of Quemahoning Township that became Conemaugh Township in February, 1801. (Somerset County is the next county east of Fayette County.) She was the fifth of ten children of John Overholser and Susannah Snider. Her paternal grandparents were Abraham and Catharine Overholser, and her maternal grandparents were Jacob and Margaret Snider. John and Susannah Overholser and their family, including their daughter, Susannah, moved from Pennsylvania to Madison Township, Montgomery County, Ohio, about 1807 and became part of the Brethren community there.

Jacob Martin and Susannah Overholser were married August 16, 1818, in Montgomery County, Ohio. They had 11 children and 85 grandchildren. The first six of their children were probably born in Montgomery County, Ohio. The last five were probably born in Darke County, Ohio. The children were:

1. ELIZABETH MARTIN born June 23, 1819, married (1) Dec. 10, 1839, John P. Miller (1807 - March 4, 1841) (2 children), married (2) March 30, 1845, David Werts (Feb. 6, 1809 - May 18, 1887) (6 children), died Jan. 7, 1898.

2. JOHN BUCHER MARTIN born Dec. 7, 1820, married (1) Dec. 3, 1841, Barbara Bigler (June 6, 1822 - Sept. 24, 1845) (2 children), married (2) Jan. 7, 1847, Rachel Krieder (Feb. 1, 1822 - Feb.13, 1872) (9 children), married (3) Sept. 29, 1872, Catharine Sword (May 26, 1828 - June 3, 1915) (4 children), died Oct. 14, 1896.

3. DAVID MARTIN born Dec. 14, 1823 or 1821, married May 9, 1846, Eliza Ann Burns (Feb. 28, 1828 - May 15, 1915) (13 children), died Sept. 20, 1893.

4. SUSANNAH MARTIN born Oct. 16, 1824, married Jan. 9, 1848, Benjamin Bashore (Oct. 24, 1824 - May 23, 1902) (6 children), died May 9, 1896.

5. MARY MARTIN born Jan. 23, 1827, married Aug. 8, 1847, Eli Dickey (Feb., 1825 - Nov. 18, 1876) (7 children), died May 10, 1876.

6. JACOB MARTIN born April 17, 1829, married Elizabeth Hollinger (Sept. 22, 1825 - Aug. 4, 1873) (1 child), died March 6, 1849.

7. DANIEL MARTIN born Sept. 13, 1832, died Aug. 8, 1842.

8. ELI MARTIN born Oct. 15 or 25, 1833, married Dec. 23, 1860, Harriet Trump (Nov., 1843 - Nov. 15, 1920) (10 children), died April 22, 1900.

9. BARBARA MARTIN born Nov. 8, 1836, married March 29, 1855, Michael Dickey (Sept. 1, 1826 - Dec. 29, 1907) (5 children), died Feb. 24, 1921.

10. ABIGAIL MARTIN born Aug. 26, 1838, married Oct. 21, 1856, Michael K. Miller (April 6, 1834 - July 8, 1910) (14 children), died Oct. 27, 1893.

11. LYDIA MARTIN born July 16, 1841, married Nov. 15, 1861, John H. Boyer (Nov. 28, 1836 - Aug. 12, 1919) (6 children), died March 9, 1874.

Jacob Martin received the patent for the southeast quarter of Section 2 on April 12, 1819. Jacob and Susannah sold 80 acres of their Darke County land to John Wagamman on September 19, 1819, but retained the other 80 acres until 1832. Records of this transaction show Jacob (his mark) Martin and Susanna (her mark) his wife of Montgomery County, Ohio. This means they were either illiterate or could only read and write in German. (In still another Wagaman connection, Susannah's sister, Elizabeth Overholser, married Joel Wagaman in Montgomery County on February 2, 1826.)

Jacob and Susannah do not appear in the 1820 Montgomery County or Darke County census. There is a listing for a Jacob Martin in Union Township, Miami County, in the 1820 census. That listing shows a husband and wife without any children. Jacob and Susannah's first child, Elizabeth, was born in 1819, and she should have been included with them in the 1820 census. The only people named in the 1820 census were heads of households. It is likely that Jacob and Susannah were living with another family in Montgomery County in 1820, and Jacob was not named in the census.

On Sept. 23, 1822, Jacob purchased, for $100, 60 acres on the east side of the NW ¼ of Section 23 Twp 5 Range 4 in Perry Township, Montgomery County, Ohio. On Oct. 2, 1830, he sold 20 of those 60 acres to Emanuel Martin for $76.66. When the 1830 census was taken, Jacob and Susannah Martin and their family were living in Perry Township. The families of Andrew Martin, Emmanuel Martin, and Joseph Martin, three of Jacob's brothers, are also listed in the 1830 Perry Township census.

Jacob made what must have been a land swap of Adams Township, Darke County land with Henry Burns Sr. on June 16, 1832. He bought 80 acres (the east ½ of the southeast ¼ of Section 11) from Henry Burns for $250, and sold the 80 remaining acres from his purchase from the government in Section 2, just north of Section 11, to Henry Burns for $250. Jacob was still listed as a resident of Montgomery County in those transactions. Jacob signed these deeds, but Susannah again made her mark. Although there is no evidence of any relationship, the Burns and Martin families were closely connected. On May 16, 1833, after the death of Henry Burns, Sr., Jacob Martin was given the right to administer Henry's estate. On August 31, 1835, after the 1834 death of Henry Burns, Jr., Jacob was selected as guardian by Susannah Burns age 14, and appointed guardian of Henry Burns age 12, Polly Ann Burns age 10, Eliza Ann Burns age 7, and Jacob Burns age 4, all children of Henry Burns Jr. and Elizabeth (DeBra) Burns. Eleven years later, Eliza Ann Burns married Jacob's son, David.

The Martin family lived in Montgomery County until about the date of the land swap, when they moved to Darke County. They are listed in Adams Township, Darke County, in 1840 and succeeding censuses. The obituary of Jacob and Susannah's oldest son, John B. Martin, states, "In the year 1831, when but a boy of ten summers, the deceased moved with his parents to Darke County upon the farm now owned by Henry Boyer, near Oakland, Church, where he grew to manhood." The "farm now owned by Henry Boyer" is the land in Section 11 that Jacob Martin purchased from Henry Burns Sr. in 1832. On July 19, 1833, Jacob purchased 30 additional acres in section 11, and on August 3, 1833, he purchased another 10 acres. On Oct. 20, 1834, he purchased the west half of section 12, Township 10, Range 3, 197.35 acres, just east of his other holdings. He added 15 acres in section 11 on Dec. 31, 1835, and 70 more acres in section 11 on April 25, 1837. (The last 70 acres, which he purchased for $187.50, he sold on August 26, 1865, to his son, David Martin, for $310. David Martin is shown as owning the land in the 1857 Adams Township plot map even though the deed is dated 1865.)

On May 8, 1841, Elizabeth (Martin) Miller, Jacob's oldest daughter and widow of John Miller, gave Jacob the right to administer her husband's estate. On April 7, 1846, Jacob was appointed guardian of Isaac Miller age 6 and Susannah Miller age 4, the children of Elizabeth and John Miller and therefore Jacob's grandchildren, taking over from Andrew Bigler, former guardian. Isaac Miller grew up living with his grandparents, Jacob and Susannah Martin, but Susannah lived with her mother and stepfather after her mother remarried. Isaac Miller was not the youngest child in Jacob and Susannah Martin's household, as he was older than their youngest daughter, Lydia. Isaac's biography, on page 722 of the 1880 Beers THE HISTORY OF DARKE COUNTY, OHIO, states, Isaac "was born in Adams Township April 8, 1840; he was a son of John P. Miller, one of the early pioneers of Adams Township, where he lived until his decease, March 4, 1841; he married Elizabeth Martin; she was born July 23, 1819, and is now living in Adams Township, at the advanced age of 60 years; her parents were among the early pioneers of the same township. Isaac E. Miller received his early education in an old log schoolhouse; the writing-desks consisted of boards laid upon pins, inserted in holes bored in logs; their benches were also of a very rude nature; his father died when he was 1 year of age, after which he was raised by his grandfather, and lived with him until he was 21 years of age, when he started in life for himself; he attended select school at Jaysville and Gettysburg, and followed teaching in the winter."

Jacob Martin sold 136 acres of his Section 11 land on June 7, 1850, to Christopher Etter for $1805. Christopher (Christian) and Magdalena Etter had just moved to Darke County from York County, Pennsylvania. Their son and daughter-in-law, Jacob and Mariah (Boyer) Etter, and Mariah's brother, Henry Boyer, came with them. Mariah and Henry were eventually joined in Darke County by their mother and eight of their nine brothers and sisters. Many members of this Boyer family would marry Jacob's descendants. Jacob Martin's holdings in the 1857 Darke County plot map total 208 acres in addition to the 70 acres shown for his son David that he didn't formally sell until 1865.

In 1861, Jacob deeded some of his land to the county for a cemetery. This is the present Oakland Cemetery. The deed for the cemetery, dated June 15, 1861, states: "I, Jacob Martin of Adams Township, Darke County, do by these presents dedicate and set apart a place of burial of the dead of my own family and the families of others, my neighbors in the vicinity; a parcel of land situated in the west half of said section 12, Township 10, Range 3 East being a tract of 100 feet east and west and 40 feet north and south being the same parcel now enclosed with a fence and what has been used for more than 10 years as a place of burial . . . etc." The first person buried there was Jacob and Susannah's son, Daniel, who died in 1842 at the age of 9. On February 11, 1866, Jacob participated in two land transactions. In one of them, he donated additional land for the cemetery and he and his neighbor Henry Boyer donated land for new roads. In the other, Jacob and Susannah Martin sold, for $5, a little over 2 acres + appurtenances to "Isaac Miller and John C. Miller as deacon and elder of the German Baptist Church for the use of a meeting house." This is the site of the present Oakland Church of the Brethren. According to tradition, this was actually a donation, and the $5 was listed only for the purpose of the deed records.

Susannah Overholser Martin died Feb. 26, 1870, in Darke County, Ohio. Jacob Martin was living at the home of his son, John B. Martin, south of Webster, Darke County, Ohio, at the time of the 1870 census. He died there Dec. 18, 1871. (His headstone says d 12-18-1871 ae 74 y 4 m 7 d. This would make his date of birth August 11, 1797 instead of August 11, 1798 as the church records show. Did he lie about his age to fight in the War of 1812 or to buy government land and continue to say that he was one year older than he actually was? Was this simply the result of a desire to say he was older than his wife?) Jacob and Susannah are buried in Oakland cemetery. Their headstones are next to each other, surrounded by those of many of their descendants.

Sources for this information include personal research and information received from Corinne Hanna Diller, William J. Martin, Linda McDaniel, Barbara Ford, and Joyce Fagerness. The birth and baptism records were supplied to Joyce Fagerness by Paul M. Ruff from his research into baptism records in the German churches of western Pennsylvania. Other Fayette County information comes from the Bullskin and Salt Lick Township sections of HISTORY OF FAYETTE COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA, edited by Franklin Ellis and published by L. H. Everts & Co. in 1882. According to the INDEX TO SERVICEMEN OF WAR OF 1812, STATE OF OHIO, published by the State of Ohio National Society Daughters of 1812 in 1988, someone joined the society in 1943 by claiming that Jacob Martin of Adams Twp, Darke County, Ohio, was the Jacob Martin Sr. in Captain William Stephenson's Company. Vonda Heverly obtained the information from the National Archives to disprove this claim. The land purchases from the government are in POPULATION AND LAND RECORDS, WAYNE, ADAMS AND RICHLAND TOWNSHIPS, DARKE COUNTY, OHIO, compiled by Norman Burns in 1972. Other information was obtained from Darke and Montgomery County deed, estate, and cemetery records, and a visit to Oakland Cemetery.

August, 2001 revision

Bruce McCrea, 1614 Peppertree Lane, Lansing MI 48912-3721 bmccrea@lcc.edu

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