Coral’s family history · Chapter 10

The McMichaels

Another of the earliest pioneers of Fallowfield were John and Thomas McMichael.

Their roots have been traced back to a Michael of the Scottish Stewart Clan who was knighted for valor at the battle of Bannockburn in 1314. This battle was the turning point in Robert Bruce’s fight for Scottish independence.

The descendents of this Michael adopted the surname of McMichael which means son of Michael.

We will start with Robert McMichael who was born about 1698. He lived and died in county Antrum in Northern Ireland. Among his sons were Duncan and John Thomas. The story goes that John Thomas, the youngest had been attending a sale and after buying a frying pan, he was returning home on horseback. He got into an altercation with a government agent over exorbitant tax rates. John Thomas became so angry, he struck the agent with the frying pan and knocked him down. Because he had lifted his hand against a government agent, he was obliged to leave the country to avoid prosecution. He came to America sometime in the seventeen hundreds.

He settled in Pennsylvania on the Susquehanna River, not far from Harrisburg. He and his wife had at least six children. They were Sara, Margaret, John, one unnamed son, James and Thomas.

John, son of John Thomas was among the settlers defending themselves against the Indians in 1778 at Fort Horn near present day Lock Haven.

The settlers decided to evacuate and sent a party down river to Fort Antes. They were to bring back a flatboat to help transport their families and effects down the river. On the return journey four men preceding the flatboat in canoes were ambushed by a party of Indians hiding along the shore. Three of the men were killed, James McMichael, Robert Fleming and Robert Donaldson. The fourth, a sixteen year old John Hamilton escaped by hiding behind his canoe.

John McMichael must have participated in the evacuation known as the “Great Runaway” in June 1778. He was probably among the men who remained at Fort Augusta to defend the fort and thus protect the lower Susquehanna Valley. Following the war he returned to the West Branch Valley.

The 1790 census lists John McMichael as head of household which included one other male over 16, probably his younger brother Thomas.

Within several years both married. John married Mary Crawford in 1792 and Thomas married Martha McDowell about 1791. In 1798 both brothers and their families were headed for their claims in Ohio when they heard about good land for sale in Crawford County. They decided to check it out and bought adjoining four hundred acre tracts in Fallowfield. John later sold his four hundred acres to Thomas for $1000. and relocated to Greenwood township. The first saw mill and grist mill in Greenwood was built in 1799 by John on what they named McMichael’s Run.

John and Mary had eleven children. They were James born in 1793, Rosanna in 1795, Thomas 1796, Sara 1798, Robert 1800, Margaret 1802, John II 1804, Anna 1806, William 1808, Elihu 1810, Mary 1812 and Eliza in 1814. William and Elihu both became ministers. James married Rebecca Lindsay and their son, Josiah became a doctor.

Rev Elihu McMichael Sarah Fitzgerald McMichael

Unknown McMichael’s James

Children of Dr. Josiah and Ellen Brown

Cora Ella MeMichael

Josiah Kellog McMichael

Maggie McMichael James and Oliver McMichael

BS Jessie McMichael Oliver McMichael

Son of Rev. William McMichael and Sarah McJunkin. William B. wrote four books. The Government of the Methodist Episcopal Church, Anti Republican and Despotic in 1855. Slavery and it’s Remedy in 1856. The Minister’s Daughter in 1881. Konneaut Lake, a Story of Early Times in Northwest Pa in 1882.

John II married Susan Shonz and their children were Jacob Shonz McMichael, Eliza, John, Corydon, Henry and Mary.

Sometime between 1860 and 1870 Jacob Shonz bought the land on which the Thomas Frame Homestead stands. In 1870 he was living there with his sister Eliza who was keeping house for him. In 1874 he married Mary Ann Williams. They had four children. Lynn was born abt 1875, Vinton born 1879, Mabel in 1881 and Paul in 1882. In 1910 Paul and Mabel were still living at home when Jacob died. Mary sold the property about 1916 to the Kozars.

Jacob Shonz’s brothers and sister at the McMichael Homestead in 1911 John Crawford, Vinton Corydon, Eliza (Lyde) and Henry

The children of Jacob Shonz McMichael and Mary Ann Williams Mabel, Vinton, Lynn and Paul in Oct. 1953 They grew up on the Frame Homestead

John McMichaels brother, Thomas II McMichael and Martha McDowell had twelve children. They were Mary(Polly) born in 1792, Patricia(Pattie) born in 1793, Daughter McMichael 1796, Sarah 1800, Matthew 1802, Lucy 1804, Unknown 1805, Robert 1807, Thomas III 1809, John Cornelius 1811, James 1812 and Margaret 1814.

When Thomas II died in 1825 his body was carried on men’s shoulders to Evansburg (Conneaut Lake) for burial.

His son Matthew bought a plot in what is now called McMichael Cemetery, Crooked Creek so that his mother could have a burial place closer to home. Matthew, however, died in 1835 before his mother who passed away in 1843 at 69 years of age. Her obituary stated that she was the second white woman to cross the waters of Crooked Creek to make a permanent settlement in 1798.

Martha was living with her son Matthew in 1830 and with Matthew’s widow in 1840.