As a child, I was told of a family legend that five Long brothers came to this country and fought in the American Revolution then later settled in Ohio. It wasn't much and given as I had no proof, it wasn't something I ever dwelled on much. Legends are common in all families as Elizabeth Warren can certainly attest.
I've recently gotten obsessed working on my family's genealogy and have learned a couple of valuable lessons along the way. The first and most important is you can't believe everything you read. That is especially true when you find links to famous ancestors. The first urge is to believe them because it's nice to think that part of them are part of us but I've gotten burned a couple of times.
Robert Lee
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| Birth certificate of Robert Lee Long |
It is meticulous work and the best proofs are finding government records like census rolls, title transfers, and other court documents like birth, death, and marriage records. Working back from my grandfather was easy as I found his birth certificate.
This document shows some of the pitfalls that can become stumbling blocks because many of these court recorders were horrible spellers. My grandfather's name is Robert not Robart. My great-grandmother's name is Zora May Nettlehurst not Dora May Wottlehurst. My great-grandfather's name is Randolph Huber Long not Hubar. At least they got the date of birth correct.
Randolph Huber
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Birth Certificate of
Randoph Huber Long |
I didn't rely on just this document to link Robert to Huber. The family is listed together on the 1920 census, the 1930 census, and my grandfather's marriage certificate.
With that certainty, I started the search for my great-great-grandfather and you'd think a good way to do that is through my great-grandfather and his birth certificate. I found the document with his parents listed, but I later discovered it has the wrong birthdate. I know it seems impossible to get the wrong birthdate on a birth certificate but back then the lists were compiled and submitted periodically and somehow the recorder someone got the wrong date.
Thankfully, I found something even better - his World War I draft registration. Note that it lists his full name, his date of birth of February 5, 1883, and Zora May's correct name as well.
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| Draft registration for Huber Long |
The eagled eyed might notice the date of his notice is in Sept 1918 and wonder why he filled out his draft card so late given the war ended in November 1918. The reason is the original 1917 draft called men between the ages of 18 and 31. When the government realized they needed more men they held a second draft registration in Sept 1918 for anyone between 18 and 45.
Chase Peter
Here's the 1900 Union County Ohio Census that shows a Huber R Long born was in February 1883 in Hillar, Knox County, Ohio. His dad is named Chase who was born in 1855 and his wife's name is Lottie born in 1851. It also says that Lottie's parents were born in England (true) and Chase's parents were born in Virginia (not true).
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| 1900 Union County Census |
With all these errors you might get the impression that this isn't enough proof but a look at the
Chase's household in the 1910 census and
Huber's marriage certificate to Zora May are further proof that Chase Long is Huber Long's father. I'm just showing the funny things that happen when looking through these records.
So now we need to find out more about Chase Long. We know from the 1900 census that he was born in Ohio and he was married to a woman named Charlotte Barker who appears to have gone by the nickname Lottie. Sometimes the parents are listed on marriage certificates but they weren't on Chase Long's marriage certificate to Lottie Barker in Feb 1880 so we have to look someplace else.
Lottie died in 1911 and Chase remarried in 1912. That marriage certificate lists both Chase's father, Rollins Long, his mother, Elizabeth Conaway.
Chase Long's marriage records confused me for a bit of time until I realized he didn't like being single and married a total of five times. He married Lottie in 1880 who died in 1911. He married Euseba Baily in 1912 who died in 1919. He married Emma Graham in 1919 but they got a divorce in 1920. He married Emily McClelland in 1920 but she died in 1923. He married Emily Dupler in 1923 but she died in 1933. The 78-year-old Chase went to an old-folks home after that. I suspect he pestered the young nurses in that place before his death in 1940.
Rollins
So we now have the name of an ancestor - Rollins Long and his wife Elizabeth Conaway. With that information, we can use the census data. If they live in Knox County and have a son named Chase we reasonably sure it's the same person which can lead us to other information. The Knox County census record of 1850 gives us just that.
On the 4th line we find Rollins Long, aged 38, with Elizabeth,aged 40 and bunch of kids including a son Chase who is 5 years old. Bingo! Everything matches perfectly this time. We can find further confirmation as to his age and his wife in other places like the 1850 census but we need more information to find Rollins father.
There are many ways to do this but research gets harder before 1840 because back then the census only listed the head of household along with designations for the number of people in the house. There are ways to do it but I found something that is even better.
Right after the 1876 centennial, the United States was full of patriotic feeling for what the country had been able to accomplish in such a short time (though I suspect the feel less fervent so in the south). A few book publishers decided to tap into that feeling and approached counties across the country offering to write their history with a focus on current residents. These residents had to pre-paid a fee to fund the book's printing so these books are a kind of who's-who list of the late 1800s. The result is sometimes self-serving but still an amazing snapshot of the people in each county at the time.
I found the information I wanted in a book called -
History of Knox County, Ohio: Its Past and Present. The whole book is a fun look into the past of a place near where I grew up but one particular entry caught my attention.
LONG ROLLINS - Hilliar township, farmer, was born in Greene county Pennsylvania August 1820. A few years after his parents came to Ohio and settled in Licking county Mr Long spent his youth on the farm with his parents until October 24 1841 when he married Miss Elizabeth Ann Conaway of Coshocton county. They had a family of ten children, eight of whom are living, Joseph is a minister of the Methodist church. They are all doing well thus showing that they have been carefully instructed. Shortly after he was married he moved to Milford township where he was engaged in farming for about eighteen years. He then moved to Hilliar township where he has since resided. He added considerable to his first purchase. He started in life comparatively poor but has worked hard and as a natural result he has succeeded. He is social and pleasant in his manners conscientious in his dealings and one of the estimable citizens of Hilliar township. His parents Solomon and Mary Long nee Posthlewaite settled on the other fork of the Licking in Bennington township Licking county and were among the early settlers of that county. In those days they had to go to Zanesville to mill.
I'm sure every entry had a word limit and I really love that Rollins decided to use his last sentence to state how far they had to travel to go to the mill. I suspect young Rollins made that trip many times.
Solomon
Now we have the name of my great-great-great-great grandfather, Solomon, and a location of Greene County, Pennsylvania as the place of his birth. His is listed on a couple of different census records but some of that information is contradictory.
Going back to family lore, I was always told as a child that I have relatives buried in cornfields all over Knox and Licking County, Ohio. In Solomon's case, it is literally true. You
can find his grave surrounded on four sides by corn fields, a mere stone's throw away from a creek that leads to the North Fork of the Licking River.
I found his birthdate at the same place I got his date of death -
Solomon Long's tombstone. According to the tombstone he was born on Nov 6, 1797 and died on Apr 20, 1870.
Gideon Long
We've proved the link from Rollins to Solomon but as always seems to be the case, the final link is the toughest. Census records won't help us much since that document only lists the head of household.
So what now? I have found nothing specific that links our Solomon Long to his father but we do have a couple of clues.
From the History of Knox County, we know Solomon came from Greene County, Pa but there are Long ancestors all over that county. Thankfully some of my distant cousins, Leroy Eastes and James Overhuls spent many years researching the subject. James wrote a paper in 1974 he called,
Long Family of Colonial Maryland that details the Long family tree from their origin in Maryland to his particular ancestor in Butler county, Ohio. Leroy used that information and expanded on it, writing a book in 1997 he called,
The Descendants of John Long Sr. of Maryland (1685 - 1746). Together these books gave a wealth of information about the Long Family tree but it's beyond the scope of this post so I won't go into details. I've linked both if you are interested.
Before we get to the ancestral stuff about Gideon, I think it is necessary to set the scene.
Settlement west of the Allegheny Mountains was illegal in the American colonies until 1765 when the British got the Iroquois to sign over their claim to this land as a result of their loss in the French and Indian War. Perversely, the Iroquois didn't actually live in the area ceded to the British. They actually lived in the north and western parts of New York state so they happily signed away land where other tribes lived. No one asked the native tribes living in Pennsylvania and Kentucky which, as you might imagine, quickly caused issues. As a point of note, it was still illegal to live north of the Ohio River and would be until after the revolution and a couple more treaties.
British colonists streamed over the mountains with the signing of the new treaty in 1765 and included in their number John Long and Ann Long (Harrington). They made a couple of stops along the way but around 1771 they arrived in today's Greene County, Pennsylvania, near the Monongahela River on Whitely and Dunkard creeks. John Long's will lists his eight children and according to Leroy Eastes book, only one of them had a son named Solomon. That is the link to our ancestor, Gideon Long.
This is not definitive proof but it feels pretty close. We know Solomon Long was born in Greene County, Pennsylvania in 1797 and we know Gideon Long had a son named Solomon around that time. Keep in mind that in 1800, Greene County, PA had fewer than 9,000 people. It is very unlikely there were other Long families living there and the genealogists I mentioned do not speak to any other cousins from Maryland moving to the area (the name Solomon was used many times by the ancestral Long's who lived in Maryland).
The Revolutionary War Service of Gideon Long
Pennsylvania archival records show Gideon joined the 8th Pennsylvania in August 1776 but membership of that organization isn't proof of his service as the 8th was notorious for their desertion rate. We do need to keep in mind that desertion wasn't considered as much of an offense during the Revolution like it would be today. Most American officers, including George Washington, were glad when the soldiers came back. These men knew there were many good reasons men deserted, usually dealing with a family emergency or to help bring in the harvest.
The men of the 8th Pennsylvania were notoriously unreliable for another reason. As mentioned earlier, the Iroquois ceded land to the British where the families of the Pennsylvania men's families now lived but the tribes living there considered it theirs. The tribes moved further west to avoid the settlers but that didn't mean they were happy about the situation. In fact, a quasi-state of war existed between the settlers and the natives even before the Revolution and it only got worse when the British began encouraging natives to raid the settlements in Kentucky and Pennsylvania.
The men of the 8th Pennsylvania joined with the promise they would only be used to protect their homes. Unfortunately, after his disastrous summer of 1776, George Washington decided he needed them in the east and called for a winter march across the state in December 1776. To say the men weren't happy is an understatement. The 8th didn't arrive in time for Washington's Crossing of the Delaware as the unit didn't arrive in New Jersey until the first week of February 1777.
You cannot understate the hardships born by this unit who made a January journey across the entire state of Pennsylvania along paths that could hardly be called roads. This article from the Pennsylvania Archives has a report from an officer that describes what he saw a couple of weeks after they arrived:
Quibbletown, February 28, 1777 - I desired the Dr. by all means to visit them. They were raised about the Ohio and had traveled over 500 hundred miles, as one of the soldiers who came for the Dr. informed me. For 150 miles over the mountains, never entering a house, but building fires and sleeping in the snow. Considerable numbers, unused to such hardships, have since died. The Colonel and Lt. Colenel among the dead. The Dr. informed me he found them in cold-shattered houses.
General Washington made this comment on the poor state of the 8th Pennsylvania after he saw them:
"I ... desire that you will order the three new field Officers to join immediately, for I can assure you, that no Regiment in the Service wants them more. From the dissentions that have long prevailed in that Corps; discipline has been much relaxed, and it will require strict care and attention to both Officers and Men to bring them back to a proper sense of Subordination and duty."
Given the harsh nature of the journey, I don't think it's a far stretch to assume that all of the men in the 8th considered turning back at some point during the winter march and I doubt many of the soldiers had much favorable to say about their experiences in the war thus far.
Records in the 8th Pennsylvania are spotty but thankfully we have Gideon Long's own words. In 1832, the government allowed for an $80/year annual pension to all living American Revolution veterans and Gideon testified to his service under oath. I've linked the actual documents but will write out the pertinent parts as the writing is very difficult to read. The ___ are places I had difficulty determining. Note the highlighted section:
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1833 Gideon Long
Pension Testimony - Page 1 |
"That he enlisted in the army of the United States in the month of August 1776 for three years under Captain John Wilson in Greene (then Washington) County Penn where he now resides. That he marched to Kettanning where he joined his regiment (the 8th Pennsylvania Regiment) commanded by Colonel Enos McCoy ____ and Colonel George Wilson, Major Butler ___ ______ his Captain was John Wilson aforesaid marched from there, over the mountains and experienced much hardship and exposure. Went to Phila. Went from there to Morristown New Jersey and joined the main army under General Washington ____ marched to Boundbrook Jersey. There returned by rapid march across the Delaware and went to the Valley Forge where they remained in winter quarters ____ the spring of 1778 that the regiment was then and had been for some time before (after the death of Col McCoy and Col Wilson) under the command of Colonel Daniel Broadhead, Colonel Stephan Baynard, and Major F Vernon who then commanded the 8th Pennsylvania Regiment. Returned afterward to the west after stopping at Carlisle and was ordered up the Susquehenna to protect the people about Wyoming and Northumberland against the Indians. This was in harvest time 1778. From there they returned to"
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1833 Gideon Long
Pension Testimony - Page 2 |
"Pittsburgh after some _____they were ordered on ________ against the Indians and opened a road to the _______ of the Beaver on the Ohio where they built Fort McIntosh under Col. Broadhead. Where General McIntosh commanded after building the fort. They marched on the Ohio to Tuscarawas where they built Fort Lawrence then returned in the winter, December, to Fort McIntosh where they occupied the blockhouse for a while and then returned to Pittsburgh where they remained until August or September when their three years expired and they accordingly were discharged. Then he volunteered for two months under Col. Broadhead to go against the Muncy towns ____ some _____ _____ and was ordered to take charge of the _____ _____ and was in charge on the return of the detachment."
I omitted the beginning legalese and the end of Gideon's statement in an attempt not to make it more confusing. I have included the third page of his testimony in case you really want to read it.
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1833 Gideon Long
Pension Testimony - Page 3 |
Other things of note: Gideon stated he was born in Queen Anne's County Maryland in 1754 which tracks to what we know of that Long family. He did not sign his name to the testimony but left a mark giving the indication he could not read or write.
One thing Gideon left out of his testimony is he joined a local Pennsylvania militia unit called Guthrey's rangers after his enlistment ended and eventually voted Lieutenant of that unit. I suspect the reason he didn't mention his later service is because getting a pension only required two years service. His time in the 8th qualified him.
Most of the rest of the testimony is about the witnesses he brought to speak on his behalf and also answering questions why he is testifying in Fayette County vs Greene. The reason he made his testimony in a different county was Greene County stated it would be a couple of months before they were going to have a hearing and he didn't want to wait. Gideon died less than a year after giving his testimony.
In conclusion
So there it is. My Valley Forge ancestor. From Robert Lee to Randolph Huber to Chase Peter to Rollins to Solomon and finally to Gideon Long. I think this would be enough proof to convince most people. There is more to Gideon's story and his six brothers that served but I'll leave that for another post.
