John Esarey emigrated in 1783 to Kentucky, living several years near Louisville, afterward on Doe Run and later at Hill Grove, in Meade County. From there he crossed over to the Hoosier State in January, 1810, at "Indiana Ferry," landing at the mouth of Little Blue River.

Through singular coincidence the mouth of Big Blue River, some twelve miles farther up the Ohio, was rendered yet more dramatically historic in the family by a grandson, Captain Jesse C. Esarey, commanding the Second Battalion of the Home Guard, which captured on June 19, 1863, Captain Hines' invading Confederate cavalry, the first instance of the War Between the States where Southern troops actually crossed the border into any Northern commonwealth, antedating by a fortnight both Morgan's Raid and Lee's invasion of Pennsylvania.

A man named France rowed the pioneer Esarey family in a small canoe, while the laden packhorses bearing the household effects were encouraged to swim across. From the landing point on Little Blue River, John Esarey, aided by his several sturdy sons, hacked a way twelve miles through the virgin wilderness, locating at length upon what is now known as the A. W. Walker farm in Perry County, then a part of Knox. From that day to the present there have been Esareys in Perry County, and their Centennial Reunion in September, 1910, was the first of its kind ever held in the county.

One of John and Sarah (Clark) Esarey's sons was Jonathan David, who married Sarah Shaver a daughter of Jacob and Nancy (Allen) Shaver, who brother, Peter Shaver, married an Esarey daughter, thus early beginning the complication of intermarriages following ever since.

Jonathan D. and Sarah (Shaver) Esarey were the parents of twelve children, of whom only three will be mentioned, to illustrate the prolific offspring: Hiram Esarey, born April 10, 1813, married October 10, 1834, Sophia, daughter of Robert and Delilah (Phillips) Walker, born January 28, 1810. They had nine children, among whom Eliza and Matilda married, respectively, John S. and James S. Frakes, sons of Grayson and Mary (Shoemaker) Frakes.

Jesse C. Esarey married Susanna Hughes, and among their eleven children the eldest two, Mary E. and John Clark, married a brother and sister, John W. and Barbara Ewing, children of Samuel and Maria (Falkenborough) Ewing. Another daughter became Mrs. John W. Frakes.

Jacob Esarey, born August 17, 1829, married, November 6, 1851, Barbara, daughter of Andrew and Melinda (Falkenborough) Elder, born July 28, 1832, and by her was father of eleven children. Two of these, Melinda A. and Eva E., married brothers, Emile and John A. L. Dupaquier, sons of John and Mary (Shoppie) Dupaquier, who came from France into Oil Township toward the middle of the Nineteenth Century.

Perry County
A History
by Thomas de la Hunt
The W.K. Stewart Company, Indianapolis
Published 1916

In 1813 Robert Walker entered land on Section 18, Township 4, South, Range 1, West, (then Warrick County) and in 1815 William Deen came across from Kentucky and in the same section took up land which has never passed out of the family during a hundred years, but is owned and occupied in 1915 by his great-grandson, Thomas J. Deen. He also entered land in Union Township, on which were then some interesting earthworks, remains of the Indians or of the Mound Builders, which Time has long since obliterated.

Although William Deen I and his wife, Mary Hardin, were parents of only three children, - William, Stephen and Richard - the third generation was given a good start through the marriage of William Deen II to Ary Shirley, ten children being the fruit of their union. John, their eldest, married Mary ("Polly") Abel, who bore him six children, while eleven children were offspring of the second child, Richard, by his marriage with Christina Springer.

Joshua, their first born, married Helena, daughter of William and Rachel (Shoemaker) Reily, and through one of their four children - Robert L., who married Eveline Frakes - the Deen line has now been carried two generations further, to the seventh.

The custom of intermarriage was duly honored among the other children of Richard and Christina (Springer) Deen, John H. and Mary C. marrying, respectively, Martha and Asbury Walker, (ten children resulting from the former of these unions). Marenda m. Edward McNaughton; William H. m. Tilla Dahl; Richard W. m. Sarah Darlington; while Oil Township connection is immediately indicated by the respective marriages of Emmeline to James Esarey, Minerva to Cyrus Holmes, and Thomas J. (the youngest) to Sarepta Frakes.

Perry County
A History
by Thomas de la Hunt
The W.K. Stewart Company, Indianapolis
Published 1916

James Reily was only two years later than the Deens in coming from Kentucky, entering in 1817 the land which his family owned until 1887. By his wife, Catherine Ewing Jamison, he was the father of ten children, and the inevitable double marriages occurred when the eldest two, Elizabeth and Annie, married respectively, Phillips and Samuel Walker. From the second of these two sprang seven children, two of whom married Deens, and to Asbury and Mary C. (Deen) Walker were born ten children. Robert W. Reily, who married Rebecca Horton, had only one son among seven children, and the two children of William E. and Rachel (Shoemaker) Reily were daughters, Sarepta (Mrs. R.A. Alexander) and Helena (Mrs. Joshua Deen) so the name of Reily is now less frequently met with than sundry others.

Another "bear story" handed down among the Reily descendants, and told to Helena (Reily) Deen by her grandmother, Catherine Ewing (Jamison) Reily, narrates how the family were much annoyed by the disappearance of several pigs soon after they were settled in their new home. One night, when her husband was away, a loud squealing among the pigs awakened Mrs. Reily. Going out to investigate, with her eldest two daughters, Elizabeth and Annie, they found a bear trying to carry off a pig. Giving chase, they pursued the bear some distance up the hollow before he made his escape. The pig was saved, but in her haste Mrs. Reily lost a slipper which she was never able to find again.

Perry County
A History
by Thomas de la Hunt
The W.K. Stewart Company, Indianapolis
Published 1916

Aquila Huff was a pioneer settler in the vicinity of Troy and as such deserved mention here, although the land upon which he located in 1815 remained a part of Perry County for only three years. He was the sixth child of John Huff, (Hough) a private in the Maryland Line during the American Revolution, and Elizabeth Dodderidge, his wife, who about 1784 emigrated Westward form Maryland expecting to travel down the Ohio River.

Near Pittsburgh, while hunting game, John Huff was attacked and killed by Indians, but his widow and children continued their journey by boat with other emigrants as far as Breckinridge County, Kentucky, where they erected log block-houses for their residence and protection. In some such rude fortification Aquila Huff was reared from five to twenty-one years of age.

In 1807 he married Mary, daughter of Stephen Rawlins, coming eight years later into Indiana, where he resided until his death in 1857, meanwhile holding many positions of responsibility. Huff Township, Spencer County, was named for him when organized in 1837. Many direct descendants of John and Elizabeth (Dodderidge) Huff, still under the family name as well as through female lines, reside today in Perry County, besides at other points far more remote.

Perry County
A History
by Thomas de la Hunt
The W.K. Stewart Company, Indianapolis
Published 1916

A very early tavern-keeper was Jacob Protzman, a native of Pennsylvania, who came to Troy from Nelson County, Kentucky, where he had married Catherine, daughter of Thomas and Judith (Ferguson) Lewis, a descendant of the extensive Virginia Lewis family through the Fairfax (later Loudon) County branch. On March 4, 1828, their daughter Louisa was married to a rising young physician of Troy, Doctor Cotton, who lived to become Perry County's leading medical authority, also a man of prominence in political circles.

Perry County
A History
by Thomas de la Hunt
The W.K. Stewart Company, Indianapolis
Published 1916

Robert Greenberry Cotton was born August 8, 1804, near Bloomfield, Nelson County, Kentucky, the son of Edmund and Sallie (Dorsey) Cotton. His mother belonged to one of Maryland's finest families, and the Dorsey (d'Orsay) lineage is widespread from Colonial days to the present, embracing names which adorn many pages of history and romance.

To mention but one among her notable ancestry, it is due to say that Nicholas Greenberry, whose name her son worthily carried, arrived July 9, 1674, at Patuxent, Maryland, with his wife Anne, their children, Charles and Katherine, and three servants, in the stanch little ship "Constant Friendship." He soon became a leader in the royal province, holding numerous posts of honour and responsibility, including that of Governor. On page 338 of "Side-lights on Maryland History," Volume II, (published Baltimore, 1913,) it is stated that the descendants of Nicholas Greenberry "include more men and women of national importance than can be traced to any other one personage in Colonial history."

Doctor Cotton was a member of the Legislature for a number of years, serving as Representative from Perry County 1837-39, 1841-42, 1848-49; and as joint Senator form Perry, Spence and Warrick, 1842-45. By a majority of only one vote was he defeated August 5, 1850, by Samuel Frisbie, as delegate to the Constitutional Convention, but he did not live to have filled the office even if chosen, his death occurring in the following month, September 11, 1850, his widow, one son and four daughters surviving him.

Perry County
A History
by Thomas de la Hunt
The W.K. Stewart Company, Indianapolis
Published 1916

...on Monday, May 13, 1816, in the several counties of the territory an election was held for forty-three members of a Constitutional Convention, chosen in accordance with an apportionment which had been made by the Territorial Legislature and confirmed by an act of Congress.

Perry County was represented by the Rev. Charles Polk, whose name appears in the recorded proceedings as "Polke of Perry," a cousin of his William Polk, being "Polke of Knok," a resident of Vincennes. Both men were of that prolific family whose American progenitors were Robert Bruce Polk and Magdalene Tasker, his wife, who came from Scotland and settled in Somerset County, Maryland, prior to 1689.

Perry County
A History
by Thomas de la Hunt
The W.K. Stewart Company, Indianapolis
Published 1916

Premier mention must be awarded to Terence Connor, a Virginian scion of that distinguished O'Connor family whose name occurs on well-nigh every page of Irish history. Not, however, on such account is he listed first here, but because of his own personal value as a pioneer resident of Perry County and the extensive progeny surviving him. His direct descendants maintain the Connor name in many other states besides Indiana, and through the female line as well, perpetuat the spirit of unselfish patriotism and public service which was his.

Terence Connor was born in 1757, in Virginia, and there married Sarah Speaks, the mother of his eight children, whose names, with their marriages, follow:
1) Dade, married Sadie Huff. 2) Samuel, married (a) Elizabeth Claycomb; (b) Nancy Hyde. 3. William , married Elizabeth Green. 4. John, married (a) Elizabeth Crist, (b) ______ Sinclair. 5. Terence, Jr., married Marilla Crow. 6. Elizabeth, married Anthony Green. 7. Margaret, married Samuel Frisbie. 8. Jane, married Elijah Carr.

Terence Connor enlisted in September, 1776, in Prince William County, Virginia, in the Virginia Line Continental Troops, under Colonel Daniel Morgan, in the brigade commanded by General Woodford, serving three years and two months, or until honorably discharged by General Woodford, at the Bush encampment on North River.

Some time prior to the beginning of the nineteenth century he came with his family across the mountains into Kentucky, having received from Virginia bounty-lands in what was "Fincastle County" when a part of the mother state.

As in the case of many other families, Kentucky was but a stopping place for the Connors, and in 1807 they settled permanently in Indiana, Samuel Connor then entering lands in Perry County and Terence Connor, Sr., taking up more, five years afterward. By Act of May 25, 1819, he became eligible to an annual pension of $96 and was placed upon the rolls September 10, 1819, some twelve years after his earliest recorded residence in Perry County.

He continued a pensioner until his death, December 16, 1841, which occurred at Troy, although his remains were interred near Rome, in the "Connor Burying-ground," on a portion of the land he had taken up in 1817, which estate has never passed out of the Connor blood, his descendants in the sixth generation now residing thereon, and the stone at his head bears the inscription:

Perry County
A History
by Thomas de la Hunt
The W.K. Stewart Company, Indianapolis
Published 1916

George Ewing was born March 16, 1754, at Greenwich, Cumberland County, New Jersey, the great-grandson of Finley Ewing, of Dumbarton, Scotland, and County Derry, Ireland, who had been an officer under William of Orange at the battle of Boyne Water, 1690.

His military services in the American Revolution had their beginning November 11, 1775, when he enlisted in the Fifth Company, Second Battalion, First Establishment, New Jersey Line, Continental Troops, and as he kept from thence forward a diary which is still in possession of his descendants, the full details of his career are easily traced, including Montgomery's ill-fated expedition against Quebec; the battles of Germantown and the Brandywine, and the winter at Valley Forge.

He was commissioned an Ensign, February 5 ,1777, and August 10, 1778, married Rachel, daughter of Nathaniel and Abigail (Padgett) Harris, at Greenwich. They removed in 1786 to Ohio County, Virginia (now West Virginia) and six years later into the state of Ohio, whence they came in May, 1818, to Indiana, taking up land as recorded.

He was placed on the Pension Roll, January 31, 1820, under Act of April 20, 1818, at $240 per annum, drawing this amount until his death, January 15, 1824; Rachel, his wife (born September 2, 1750), following him September 29, 1825. They were buried near the bank of the Ohio River, in Tobin Township, in Section 8, Township 7 South, Range 3 West; but their headstones err slightly in the dates of death and in the ages given, the particulars here stated having absolute authority. Their burial place having passed out of the family and through many changes (being now a part of "Sunnycrest Farm," Captain I. H. Odell's estate). In 1907 the remains were removed by a descendant, John G. Ewing, of Roselle, New Jersey, to Cliff Cemetery, Cannelton, where the ashes now repose in the Latimer family plot, descendants through the female line.

Many other names are in the direct line of descent from George Ewing, Sr., but the only Ewings of his blood in Perry County are those living in the vicinity of Magnet, the grandchildren of Lafayette Ewing, son of George Ewing, Jr., eldest son of George and Rachel (Harris) Ewing. Their second son was Thomas Ewing, one of Ohio's notable lawyers, twice a United States Senator from that state, and twice in the Cabinet, as Secretary of the Treasury under William Henry Harrison, and under Taylor the first to hold the newly-created portfolio of Secretary of the Interior. His daughter, Ellen Ewing, married William Tecumseh Sherman, the famous general.

Perry County
A History
by Thomas de la Hunt
The W.K. Stewart Company, Indianapolis
Published 1916

Lemuel Mallory, who came in 1817 into Tobin Township, had been a private in the Connecticut State Troops. He was born May 22, 1763, at Ripton Parish, Stratford, Fairfield County, Connecticut, and at the age of only fifteen volunteered, during the summer of 1778, serving for eight months with Captain John Yates, under Colonel Heman Swift. In March, 1780, he re-enlisted under Lieutenant Pinto in General Stark's Brigade.

He made application for pension May 16, 1833, under Act of March 4, 1831 and was placed on the rolls October 18, 1833, at an annual rate of $80. He lived until February 16, 1851, dying at Rome where he was buried in the "Shoemaker Cemetery." Although blind in his last years he was said to have retained hi memories of battle experiences with close accuracy.

He was twice wedded, and descendants of his first marriage are yet living in Perry County, as well as the descendants of his brothers, Lanson and Moses Mallory. There were no children by his second wife (whom he married August 15, 1819, in Corydon), Mrs. Rebecca (Reagan) Lang, born November 15, 1767, in Frederick County, Virginia, and herself the daughter of a Revolutionary soldier, Michael Reagan, by his wife, Nancy O'Connell.

Michael Reagan was born 1743, in Ireland, and came in young manhood with other North-Ireland Presbyterians into the northern end of the Valley of Virginia, where he married, his wife belonging to the same family as the Irish "Liberator", Daniel O'Connell. Frederick County lying close to the state line for Pennsylvania, Michael Reagan (Regan) enlisted for the war, September 9, 1778, in Lieutenant-Colonel Henry Miller's company in the Second Pennsylvania Regiment, commanded by Colonel Walter Stewart. His name also further appears on the roster of the same company and regiment in April, 1780, Lieutenant-Colonel John Murray then commanding under Colonel Stewart.

Through this record of service, on file in the Record and Pension Office of the War Department at Washington (Pennsylvania Archives, 2d Serieds, Volume 10, Page 424), his descendant, Mrs. Isabelle (Huckeby) de la Hunt, became the first member in Perry County (No. 39017) of the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution.

Michael Reagan died 1823, in Sevier County, Tennessee, where he his buried, his descendants abounding in the Southern Atlantic and Gulf States. A distinguished representative and close relative to Rebecca (Reagan) Lang-Mallory, was John H. Reagan, of Texas, Postmaster-General of the Confederacy, afterward United States Sentator from Texas and the last survivor of the Jefferson Davis cabinet.

Lemuel Mallory's pension was continued to his widow from November 16, 1853, until her death, February 21, 1856, at Rome. Her first husband, John Lang, had been like herself, a Virginian, and they came with their family and household effects across the Blue Ridge mountains to the Monongahela River, thence by flatboat down that river and the Ohio to Jefferson County, Kentucky, where they lived for a time before crossing into Indiana and establishing themselves in Harrison County. John Lang rode away from Corydon in 1811 to join the forces of General Harrison at Vincennes, but never came back - shot by the Indians early one morning when on duty as sentinel.

His widow continued to reside in Corydon during several of the years when it was the territorial and state capital, making her home with a married daughter, Mrs. Samuel Littell (Rachel Lang) until removing to Rome after her own second marriage. The elder Lang children, by their father's first marriage remained in Harrison County, others going on into Spencer County, where the name is still widely represented in the thrifty farming country of Ohio and Luce Township, besides in professional circles of Rockport.

Perry County
A History
by Thomas de la Hunt
The W.K. Stewart Company, Indianapolis
Published 1916

Abraham Hiley closes the list of authenticated Revolutionary pensioners who were residents of Perry County, receiving an $80 annual bounty under Act of March 4, 1831, from March 14, 1834, in recompense for his services as private in the Pennsylvania militia. His grave is beside that of his wife, near Bear Creek in Tobin Township on the "Hardin Grove" estate, now the home of Mr. and Mrs. Sydney Kepler Groves (Mildred Dessa Ramsey). His descendants remain only under other names through the female line.

Perry County
A History
by Thomas de la Hunt
The W.K. Stewart Company, Indianapolis
Published 1916

Jacob Weatherholt, while not a pensioner, was a Tobin Township pioneer whose military service is authenticated by W.T.R. Saffell's "Records of the Revolutionary War" (pp. 280-281). Born 1758 in Virginia, he enlisted in the Western Department, and March 1, 1780, was honourably discharged from the Detachment of Colonel John Gibson, who served from January 1, 1780, until December 6, 1781, when he surrendered his command to Brigadier-General William Irvine.

Jacob Weatherholt died April 23, 1837, and was buried in the "Upper Cemetery" at Tobinsport, beside his wife, Sarah (______) Weatherholt. Their descendants are many in both Perry and Breckinridge Counties, and their youngest child, Mrs. Milicent (Weatherholt) Pate, died in Cloverport in only 1915, one of the very few then living to clain the distinction of being a "real" Daughter of the American Revolution.

Perry County
A History
by Thomas de la Hunt
The W.K. Stewart Company, Indianapolis
Published 1916

This same Tobinsport burying ground ("Upper Cemetery") is one of the few cemeteries in Southern Indiana where two authenticated veterans of the War of Independence are buried, and the first interment taking place within its bounds was that of John Lamb in 1818. Rude stones which have never felt the chisel are the grave's only markers at head and foot, but its location has always been distinctively identified from the circumstance that it lies at a peculiar angle wholly different from any others in the cemetary. Steps are being taken (1915) to procure for it an official Government headstone suitably inscribed.

John Lamb was born May 22, 1757, in Albany County, New York, and had not quite attained his twenty-first birthday when he enlisted as a private in Captain Barent J. Ten Eyck's Company, Second New York Regiment, Continental Troops. He served from May 5, 1778, until February 5, 1779, and we may reasonably assume that the causes then interrupting for awhile his military career were of a sentimental nature, since on March 21, 1779, he was married to Beulah Curtis, by whom he became the father of twelve children. Within the same year he re-enlisted, serving 1779-80-81 in the Yates' Regiment of the New York Militia. In 1808 he removed from New York to Indiana, entering land the following year in Perry (then Knox) County, near Tobinsport, where he died in 1818.

The twelve children of John and Beulah (Curtis) Lamb were: 1. Solomon. 2. Beulah. 3. John, Jr. 4. Katherine. 5. Ezra. 6. Israel Thompson. 8. Bathsheba. 9. John Willis. 10. William B. 11. Dorastus. 12. Rudolphus. From these sprang such an extensive progeny that scarcely a pioneer family of Tobin Township has not now some descent from or connection with the Lamb line.

Note that there is no child 7 listed in the book.

Perry County
A History
by Thomas de la Hunt
The W.K. Stewart Company, Indianapolis
Published 1916

Thomas Bolin, who had enlisted as a private in the North Carolina Militia (no date found), was granted a pension October 15, 1833, under Act of March 4, 1831, but its rate $60 per annum, might seem to indicated his service as having been performed in the War of 1812, especially as his age was then given as 67, which would place his birth in the very year of the Declaration of Independence.

Perry County
A History
by Thomas de la Hunt
The W.K. Stewart Company, Indianapolis
Published 1916

Additional information on Thomas:
Thomas did indeed fight for our Independence in The American Revolution. If Mr. da la Hunt (whom I assume is deceased as the book/pamphlet was published in 1916) had researched the Revolutionary War he would have discovered that American Founders drew up and signed the Declaration of Independence in 1776 but then had to fight for it. The ARW raged on until 1783 when the Treaty of Paris was signed (at this point the war had become international) and the United States was recognized as a Sovereign State. My Great- Great- Great- Great-Grandpa Thomas would have been 17 by all accounts but that’s not too early to give 18 months to “the cause” and it is quite possible that when the Application for Pension was drawn up Thomas was not sure what year he was born (as he states in the application: he “believes his birth-year to be 1766 as he had seen it written in an Uncles Bible”).

Thomas is listed in the NSDAR as an American Patriot.

From Ancestry World Tree Project
ID: I080
Name: Thomas BOLIN
Sex: M
Birth: 12 JAN 1766 in Orange County, North Carolina ¹
Death: 9 JUL 1851 in Perry County, Indiana
Burial: Bolin Cemetary, Perry County, Indiana
LDS Baptism: 20 SEP 1991 Ogden
Endowment: 12 NOV 1991 Ogden
Note:
Thomas Bolin Enlisted in the Revolutionary War in 1782. He was living in Wilkes County, NC at the time. He served 18 months in Col. Lythe's Regiment from Hillsboro, North Carolina. (from State of N.C. Secretary of States Office Dated Oct 5, 1833). After Pension Law for Revolutionary War Soldiers was passed.
Orange County, NC is now Caswell County, NC

General Services Administration, National Archives and Record Service File Designation -- Thomas Bolin S32126 Record of Pension $60.00 a year under the Law of June 1832. His service was certified by Solomon Lamb.

After the war he migrated to Hardin County, KY in 1810 he moved to Indiana and paid taxes in Perry County, Indiana in 1815. See Godspeeds History of Perry, Spencer and Warwick Counties.

He is buried in the Bolin Cemetary under a tombstone erected by the D. A. R.

The Bolin Cemetary is located off of Highway 66. Turn left on a gravel road about 4 3/4 miles east of Cannelton. Turn right about 1 1/4 miles.

DAR Index Page 21 Vol II
Pension #532126 - Applied for Pension Nov 14, 1832
1810 Cenus of Hardin County - Thomas Bolin
1850 Census of Perry County, IN Anderson Township Household #165 pg 26
Thomas 88 NC (blind)
Nancy 83 NC
Had Uncle John Jones a Rev. War Veteran

Marriage 1 Nancy b: 1767 in North Carolina
Married: ABT. 1784 in Wilkes County, North Carolina
Children
James BOLIN b: 1788 in Hardin County, Kentucky
Christopher BOLIN b: ABT. 1791 in North Carolina
William BOLIN b: ABT. 1795 in North Carolina
Elliot BOLIN b: ABT. 1799 in Hardin County, Kentucky
Thomas BOLIN b: ABT. 1803 in Hardin County, Kentucky
Alexander BOLIN b: 1806 in Hardin County, Kentucky
Mahana BOLIN b: ABT. 1808 in Hardin County, Kentucky
Sally BOLIN b: 1810 in Hardin County, Kentucky

Sources:
1LDS

Click for Pension Claim form
Click for photo of DAR dedication of grave
Click forphoto of Thomas' tombstone
Click for copy of grave abstract

Submitted by: Tammie Bolin Mattes

Edmond Polk, who was a son of the Rev. Charles and Willey (Devers) Polke, married Mary, daughter of John and Rachel (Avery) Winchel, and their two children, Avery Polk and Miss Margaret Polk, are yet living (1915), a direct link with the Second War with England.

Perry County
A History
by Thomas de la Hunt
The W.K. Stewart Company, Indianapolis
Published 1916

Thomas Royston served in the east under Captain Rutledge, of Maryland, enlisting at Baltimore. He died June 25, 1855, at Rome, aged 82, and was buried on the Jehu Hardy lot in the Connor Cemetery.

Perry County
A History
by Thomas de la Hunt
The W.K. Stewart Company, Indianapolis
Published 1916

George Ewing, Jr., also kept an early tavern in a commodious log structure of which a portion is still standing on the east side of the public square (at Rome). He sold out comparatively soon, however, to Joshua Brannon Huckeby, a native of Bedford County, Virginia, whose parents - Thomas and Frances (Brannon) Huckeby - had come from their home near the "Peaks of Otter," bringing their children into Indiana in its territorial day, breaking their long wilderness journey as did the majority of Virginia emigrants by a period of residence in Kentucky.

Born February 13, 1802, three miles east of the Blue Ridge mountains, Joshua B. Huckeby was married April 4, 1824, in Rome, to Rebecca Lang, whose father, John Lang, had been killed by the Indians during the War of 1812. Within a few years they took up their abode in the log inn, where most of their children were born and where the leading men who came to Rome within the next quarter century were entertained.

Elijah Brannon Huckeby, a younger brother, opened a general store and was engaged in merchandise for some twenty years, at times alone and again in partnership. He was born May 15, 1811, and was twice married: in 1835 to Nancy, youngest daughter of David Groves, and in 1841 to Jane, daughter of Samuel Connor.

Perry County
A History
by Thomas de la Hunt
The W.K. Stewart Company, Indianapolis
Published 1916

John Mason's first venture into Indiana had been into Pike County, but foreseeing a career of advancement for the Ohio River counties he sought a home in Perry County, establishing himself in Troy Township, Section 16, Township 6, South, Range 3, West. There some two or three years later, he married Mrs. Sarah (Elkins) Webb, a native of Maine, the widow of Asa Webb. Of their seven children the eldest, William Floyd Mason, was the first-born child within the limits which afterwards became the city of Cannelton, his birth occurring January 21, 1830.

A few other scattered families were neighbors as country people reckon such distances, the name of Cavender, Hoskinson, Holman and Wentworth being represented, but among them John Mason;s vigourous personality made him distinctively foremost. He was energetic in his farming operations and - added to a disposition of singular kindheartedness and benevolence - possessed keen penetration and sound forethought which made him judicious while venturesome.

Perry County
A History
by Thomas de la Hunt
The W.K. Stewart Company, Indianapolis
Published 1916