Family Files February 2022 - Person Sheet
Family Files February 2022 - Person Sheet
NameElizabeth GERARD 
, F
, FBirth12 Sep 1789, Berkeley, James, Virginia
Death2 Sep 1851, Jackson, Carroll, Indiana
Misc. Notes
Elizabeth aged 40 and pregnant with her 9th child, took her children to Butler County, probably to stay with her sister, Mehetable Stevens. Her mother, Martha Gerard, was probably there too as it is known that after her family was grown, Martha Gerard went to live with her daughter Mehitable and ultimately moved to Fountain Co, IN with the Stevens family. Fortunately, Elizabeth’s two eldest daughters, Polly and Patsy (17 and almost 16) would be a big help with baby Henry and the younger children, Lucinda-3; Moses-7, Elizabeth-10, and Joseph-14. Abner was then 19 and had either stayed behind as the man of house to care for the family or may have gone with John to look for land and build a cabin.
(Gerard) Shanks Biographical Notes
By Sara Stevens Patton
Elizabeth Gerard was one of twelve children born to Abner and Martha (Lloyd) Gerard. Based on her Carroll Co, IN headstone, she was 62 when she died in Sept, 1851 (b. 1789).[1] When she was born, the Gerards were then living near Gerrardstown, WV (then Berkeley Co, VA) where Elizabeth’s grandfather, Elder John Garard served much of northwestern Virginia as a Baptist preacher for over 30 years. When Elizabeth was about 3 or 4, the family decided to join the growing tide of emigrants heading to the new frontier north of the Ohio River, called the Northwest Territory. No doubt the move was quite an adventure, floating down the Ohio River on a flat boat filled with their all their belongings and 5 young children.
The first stop would be Hamilton County in the area around today’s Cincinnati, where her father appeared on the 1796 tax lists and Baptist church records for the Miami Valley Baptist Association. This would be the base from which her father could explore the area, scouting out the best spot to settle his family permanently. Ohio was then very much an unbroken wilderness—covered with dense forests, wild animals, and roving bands of Indians, not happy about having to give up their ancestral lands.
Not long after their arrival, two more children were born, Nancy Ann “Ohio” and Jonathan. And by 1800-01, the family was finally settled on their new farm of some 320 acres in Washington Twp, Montgomery County, Ohio (about 15 miles south of today’s Dayton, OH.) There, her father built a small but substantial stone house from the limestone quarry on their land. And there Elizabeth grew up, helping her mother and sisters with domestic chores—spinning, weaving, gardening, milking the cows, putting up food for the winter, preparing meals, making and mending clothes and caring for the younger children as the family continued to grow[2]. Still they had time for fun with neighboring families as they gathered for corn huskings, log rollings, cabin-raisings, quilting and spinning bees. And, of course, attending the little log Sugar Creek Baptist Church.
It may have been at that church where Elizabeth met John Shanks, the eldest son of Joseph and Mary (Clawson) Shanks who followed the Clawson family from Pennsylvania about the same time as the Gerards went to Ohio. They appear to have been part of a group of Baptist families who migrated together from Pennsylvania to Ohio, seeking new lands to farm.
It appears that Joseph, the father, had problems getting to church as “Brother” Shanks was cited a number of times, apparently for non-attendance though he gave reasons for it which were accepted. Joseph and Mary bought 40 acres from Mary’s brother, Thomas Clawson, a few miles north of the Gerards.
Elizabeth married John Shanks on March 17, 1810, the same year that her father was elected to be one of three judges for Montgomery County. According to the 1812 Montgomery Co. map, Abner Gerard must have given or sold a portion of his 320 acres to the young couple, making them next door neighbors to Elizabeth’s parents.[3] Two years after their marriage, John Shanks joined the county militia as a private, along with Elizabeth’s brother John, and brother-in-law, William Luce to serve in the War of 1812. John was in Capt. John Clawson’s company of Ohio Volunteers, appearing on the company pay roll from 23 August to 17 Sept 1812.While the War of 1812 didn’t have much impact on the families living in Montgomery County, there was some fear of Indian attacks especially along the western frontier of Indiana and Illinois and of British troops coming south from Lake Erie. The British had promised to return these lands to the Indians if they would they fight with the British against the Americans living the area north of the Ohio River. To resist Indian attack, the Montgomery and Miami county militias were ordered to build blockhouses to store provisions and provide protection for families in the area north of Dayton and to patrol roads to scout for Indian sign. Fortunately, British forces were ultimately defeated at Lake Erie and the Indians subdued after the death of Tecumseh, leaving the territories of Indiana, Illinois and Ohio open for unimpeded immigration.
During the period between 1810 and 1819, Elizabeth gave birth to 7 children including a set of twins who apparently didn’t live long. The children were born between 18 mos and 2 years apart, the final tally being 13 children, three of whom died as babies, another age 4. Elizabeth was 44 years old when her last child was born. Six sons and three daughters reached adulthood.[4]
At the same time, Washington Twp. Was hoping for big changes with the advent of a new textile mill under the name of the "Farmers' and Mechanics' Manufacturing Company” managed by Thomas Clawson, John’s uncle. John’s father-in-law was a one of the stockholders in the company. Abner and John had also borrowed $350 (a big sum in those days) from Arthur Vanderveer—for what purpose is not known. Not long after, in 1819, both Abner and John were named in a suit brought by Vanderveer for refusing to pay off the debt. In the meantime, Abner Gerard died in April 1819, leaving John to pay the debt plus damages and court costs.
1819 was a bad time to be in debt. The Panic of 1819—the first widespread financial crisis in the country, caused a general collapse of the American economy that lasted through 1821. Abner Gerard’s estate was so entangled in debt that the family was forced to sell off their land and family farm. It was also about this time that John’s mother, Mary Clawson Shanks, died as she does not appear in the 1820 census with the rest of her family.
Around this time, John and Elizabeth decided it was time to leave Montgomery County with their 5 children and try a new location about 35 miles north, near Troy, Ohio in Miami County where John’s sisters and several of Elizabeth’s cousins were then living. John and Elizabeth first appear in the 1820 census living in Lost Creek Twp with two boys and three girls—all under 10. That same year, they also joined the Honey Creek Baptist Church where John would eventually serve as Deacon.[5]
The 1820 census also shows Elizabeth’s widowed mother, Martha Gerard still living on her in Montgomery County listed with 4 boys and 2 girls-all teenagers. She had been forced to sell her husband’s 360 acres farm to pay off his debts, leaving her with only 50 acres.
In 1823, John’s father, Joseph, remarried to a widow, Elizabeth Armstrong Ennis, with 8 children of her own, three of whom were still at home.
The mid-1820s saw another great wave of migration—this time to the Indiana frontier where they were drawn by the promise of cheap land and opportunities for the future. For those who had come to the Ohio frontier as children, such an undertaking may have seemed a bit less daunting since they had some idea of what to expect. Many second-generation folks from the western counties of Ohio would lead the way into the Indiana wilderness to start once again.
Abner Gerard, Jr., Elizabeth’s younger brother, appears to have been the first to go west into Indiana, choosing the area around Ft. Wayne in Allen County, even though much of the area still belonged to various Indian tribes. Relations with the Indians were relatively quiet since Tecumseh was defeated in the War of 1812. In addition, plans were in place to build the Wabash and Erie Canal near Ft. Wayne that would link the Great Lakes to the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, opening travel and markets all the way to New Orleans. Just prior to his arrival around 1824, a land office had opened to sell recently ceded Indian lands and in 1828, another treaty was made to obtain still more Indian land in northern Indiana. Abner bought land for himself and his brother, Jonathan who was still back in Ohio. Apparently, there were still many Indians in the area because Abner was paid $180 for building a log house on the Eel River for the Indians in 1828.
Abner Gerard was also made sheriff of Allen County. One of his cases involved the killing of Wishmah, a half Indian-half black slave woman, by her Miami Indian master who claimed that by Indian law, a slave could be killed for being disobedient. The Indian man, Noweelinggua, was pardoned since he was unaware that it was against while man’s law to kill a slave.[6] The 1830 Wayne Twp, Allen County census shows at least two families living tog
Finally, around 1829-30, almost all of the Gerard and Shanks families and many neighbors in Miami and Montgomery counties in Ohio (including the Lenon brothers), were determined to move once more, this time to “Wabash country” or the “New Purchase” as it was called. Some claim the mass exodus from this area in Ohio was due to the religious split among Baptists.
The “New Purchase” covered the counties in the northern third of Indiana cut through by the Upper Wabash River: Carroll, White, Warren, Fountain, Tippecanoe and Allen counties. The 1835 map of Indiana show that most of those counties bordered Indian lands not yet fully ceded to the US and had the mighty Wabash River running through them. Only two of Elizabeth’s Gerard siblings would remain in Ohio, while her mother and five siblings resettled in the western Indiana counties of Fountain, Warren, and White.
Like Abner Gerard, Jr., many men from Montgomery and Miami counties had already discovered Carroll County as early as 1824 when Indian land was first put up for sale and probably wrote back to friends in Ohio, telling them all about the area and the advantages of settling there. When moving to a new frontier, a common practice of the day was to send the men and older sons off first to scout out the area and select the piece of land they wanted. Sufficient timber, springs or rivers, good drainage, nearby mills or markets for their produce were all on the list of things to look for. Once they selected purchased the land, they received a certificate from the Government Land office and then waited for the patent—often arriving a year later. Many stayed to clear a small piece of land and sow a crop of corn and raise a log cabin before returning home for their family.
Some sources claim that John went first to the area around Delphi, the county seat, but the land he chose was on Section 12 in Jackson Twp, east of Camden. The entry was dated Oct 2, 1829.[7] Settling in the same neighborhood about the same time were Levi Cline of Kentucky and Daniel Blue and John Lenon—neighbors in Ohio. Michael, Thomas and Daniel Lenon, brothers of John, were also Lost Creek neighbors in Ohio, who had come to Indiana in 1828 and purchased land in Tippecanoe and Carroll counties. Thomas Lenon settled not far from the Shanks on Section 17 in May 1828.
In the meantime, Elizabeth aged 40 and pregnant with her 9th child, took her children to Butler County, probably to stay with her sister, Mehetable Stevens. Her mother, Martha Gerard, was probably there too as it is known that after her family was grown, Martha Gerard went to live with her daughter Mehitable and ultimately moved to Fountain Co, IN with the Stevens family. Fortunately, Elizabeth’s two eldest daughters, Polly and Patsy (17 and almost 16) would be a big help with baby Henry and the younger children, Lucinda-3; Moses-7, Elizabeth-10, and Joseph-14. Abner was then 19 and had either stayed behind as the man of house to care for the family or may have gone with John to look for land and build a cabin.
Elizabeth’s son, Henry, was born in July of 1829 and soon after, the entire family loaded up their belongings and food supplies—either into an ox or horse drawn wagon, or into packs on horseback—and headed for their new home in the wilderness of north-central Indiana. What route they took getting to Indiana is not known. Starting from Miami or Montgomery counties, they may have taken the National Road from Dayton or Springfield due west into Indiana then turned north for a rugged trip through dense forests over newly cut “roads,” old Indian or animal trails. Bridges were few if any so streams would have to be forded, the deeper rivers required swimming. They camped out nightly, under a canopy of trees bending in the wind. At least, fall was the best time to travel weather-wise.
A biographical note for son Henry states that he was 5 months old when the family settled on 80 acres of wild land in S12 in Jackson Twp just east of Camden—that would make the family’s arrival sometime in December. Hopefully John had managed to have a log cabin built for them prior to their arrival. If not, it might take several days to raise one, put on the roof, cut a door and chink the spaces between the logs. Even when complete, the description of log cabin living leaves much to be desired for a family with six children, especially during the winter. One author describes the winter of 1828 in Carroll County in “those eighteen by twenty (foot) cabins that sparsely dotted over the area of Carroll County”….“Their cabins generally were not very well conditioned to shield the inmates from the piercing winds, driving snows and beating rains usual in this latitude at that season of the year….”[8]
Not only were homes and their components—floors, doors, window casings and roof shingles--built from the raw lumber of the forest, so too was the furniture for the kitchen or bedroom even coffins made from spit wood, straightened and squared with the broad ax.
At first, they had to depend on food from the forest or river. Although more and more families were beginning to arrive in the area, it was still difficult to get clothing, provisions, shoes, flour or sugar…things the family were used to finding in Ohio. Goods were shipped from Cincinnati by steamboat up the Wabash River when the river was high enough to allow it. Unfortunately, Carroll and Cass counties were toward the end of navigable waters so whatever reached them was well picked over.
But lack of manufactured goods was far from the worst problem facing the Shanks family in those early years of resettlement. The summer following their arrival was extremely dry leaving the rivers and creeks to become more swampy than usual, creating conditions that led to a high rate of malaria, especially fatal to young children. Typhoid and cholera were other contagious diseases caused by poor drainage and contaminated water. Wolves and rattlesnakes (400 killed in one day) presented other dangers in the early days.
But life progressed—trees were cut, the land was cleared—around 9 acres a year—and crops were planted. John Shanks was made the keeper of the first poor farm in Carroll County. With more and more people coming to the area, there were more opportunities for community involvement. Men and older boys continuously helped newcomers with log rollings and cabin raisings. Neighbor John Penn mentions that Daniel and John Lenon, John and Abner Shanks, and Levi Cline, all helped raise his cabin in 1833.[9]
Six years after their arrival in Indiana, John sold his 80 acres in Jackson Twp and purchased 200+ acres of land on S14 near Deer Creek (aka Henpeck) in Washington Twp. Odell’s History of Carroll County states he lived half a mile east of the village of Deer Creek in Washington Twp., situated on the Michigan road which was then "quite a lively place." John was quite active in local affairs during this period. In 1832, he was added to the list of petit jurors and in 1834, he was elected County Commissioner for two terms. He was also appointed a Justice of the Peace and served as a Superintendent of the County infirmary. One county history states he was the keeper of the first poor farm in Carrol County where he would determine who was entitled to benefits and to see that their wants were provided for. For a time, he served as the postmaster in the village of Deer Creek.[10] He voted Democratic, starting with Andrew Jackson.
John and Elizabeth, along with others from Ohio, formed the Paint Creek Predestinarian or Primitive Baptist Church near Camden as early as 1832.[11] To do so, they had to petition the Deer Creek Church to be allowed to form a new church due to the distance. Within a short time, a hewed log house was erected for church services on Sunday and school during the week.
John and Elizabeth Shanks, John and Elizabeth Lenon, and Levi and Elizabeth Cline were all dismissed at the same time. At what point the family chose to follow the Predestinarian Baptists, rather than the Regular Baptist which the Gerard family had been traditionally is not known but it probably goes back to the divisions in the church in Montgomery Co, OH. (Sue Zobbe writes that the Predestinarian or Primitive Baptists came into existence in the 1820-39s when an anti-Mission controversy arose.)
While first refusing to attend church, John Shanks started to attend and even began to “speak.” After much study and several votes by the congregation, John was finally voted to be ordained “a minister of the Gospel” in 1840. He used the title of “Elder” rather than Reverend, as was customary. He baptized many adults in the little pond by the church and married many couples, including some of his own children. In the Shanks Sea-Sea genealogy, Burns continuously remarks that the Shanks children were reared in a “strict Baptist home.” Their eldest son, Abner, also became Predestinarian Baptist minister in Iowa. Records of the Paint Creek Church show how active the Shanks were in the life of the church.
Elizabeth was busy with her family and the church. Two more children were born after their arrival in Indiana, the last born in 1833. Her two eldest daughters, Polly and Patsy, married soon after their arrival to neighboring settlers who had also emigrated from Miami County, Ohio. Polly (Mary) married widower Daniel Lenon (20 years older than Polly) and Patsy (Martha or Mercy) to Daniel Blue. Both men claimed land near the Shanks so the sisters and their mother had a close support group until the Shanks moved on to Deer Creek in 1835. Both sisters were widowed and remarried, but remained to raise their families in Carroll County.
Son Joseph married young to Elizabeth Crockett and eventually moved next door to Cass County. Moses married Emily Blue and remained in Carroll Co. Lucinda married Ingram Campbell and raised their family in Jackson Twp, Carroll County. Son Henry married not long after his mother died and he, too, remained in Carroll County. All of these children had large families so the Shanks name lived on in Carroll and Cass counties.
The two youngest brothers, Thomas Jefferson aka “Jeff”, and Robert joined their father and eldest brother Abner when they moved to Guthrie County, Iowa in 1854-55. Jeff died young at age 28, and Robert eventually moved to Missouri. Abner, on the other hand, moved his 15 children on to Oregon in 1865 at the end of the Civil War. They settled in the Willamette Valley where Abner died at the age of 93. A diary of the journey has survived.[12]
Elizabeth Gerard Shanks died on 12 September 1851 in her early 60s. She had moved 5 times in her life, each time to a new and unbroken wilderness: first when she was 3 or 4, leaving Virginia for a riverboat trip down the Ohio to somewhere near Cincinnati; again when she was 10 or 11 to go to Montgomery Co., south of Centerville; then again at the age of 30 when she and her husband moved their 4 children to Miami Co, Ohio; and, at the age of 40 going from Ohio to the Indiana, carrying a babe in her arms all the way. The last time, in 1835, she moved just a few miles away to government land where the family began again. She bore thirteen children, losing four in childhood. Of her nine living children, all three had married by the time of her death, the rest soon after. She was buried in the Paint Creek Church cemetery not far from her home.
Six weeks after Elizabeth’s death, John, then in his early 60s, remarried to Nancy Ball Peterson, the widow of Ayers Peterson. She was also the mother-in-law of John’s son, Jeff. She died 2 ½ years later in April 1854 in Deer Creek. They had no children. Four months after Nancy’s death, John married a third time to another widow, Mary Ann Lee in August 1854.
A year earlier, Abner Shanks, John and Elizabeth’s eldest son, his eight children and his second wife decided to head west—this time to Panora in Guthrie County, west central Iowa. Soon after John married his third wife, they decided to follow suit. They sold off their property in Indiana and soon after, John began to purchase unimproved land in Iowa which he cleared and resold for a nice profit. While his business dealings appeared to be going well in Iowa, his marriage was not and the couple was divorced and Mary Ann remarried in 1857.[13] By 1856, two more of John and Elizabeth’s sons—Jeff and Robert—had also moved to Guthrie County, Iowa. With Mary Ann gone, John’s youngest son Robert and his family came to live with him in Guthrie County where they are listed together in the 1860 census. During this period in Iowa, Elder John became involved in the Sharon Primitive Baptist Church, the same church in which his son Abner would be ordained in 1863.
In 1859, John and his son Abner returned to Carroll County for an extended visit with friends and family still living there—all but three sons had remained in Indiana. Their visit is recorded in the minutes of the Paint Creek Church between January 1860 and August 1862 calling him “Elder John, from the Sharon Primitive Baptist Church” in Iowa.[14] Their journey was probably via stage coach as there were no railroads in Guthrie at that early date.
Robert’s family remained with John during the eight months that Robert was away fighting in the Civil War. Several years after the war ended, Robert and his family moved to Lathrop, Clinton Co, Missouri, taking John with them. He was then 70 years old. After developing an ulcer on his leg, he became bedridden for the next decade until his death on 4 Sept 1871 at the age of 82.
(Gerard) Shanks Biographical Notes
By Sara Stevens Patton
Elizabeth Gerard was one of twelve children born to Abner and Martha (Lloyd) Gerard. Based on her Carroll Co, IN headstone, she was 62 when she died in Sept, 1851 (b. 1789).[1] When she was born, the Gerards were then living near Gerrardstown, WV (then Berkeley Co, VA) where Elizabeth’s grandfather, Elder John Garard served much of northwestern Virginia as a Baptist preacher for over 30 years. When Elizabeth was about 3 or 4, the family decided to join the growing tide of emigrants heading to the new frontier north of the Ohio River, called the Northwest Territory. No doubt the move was quite an adventure, floating down the Ohio River on a flat boat filled with their all their belongings and 5 young children.
The first stop would be Hamilton County in the area around today’s Cincinnati, where her father appeared on the 1796 tax lists and Baptist church records for the Miami Valley Baptist Association. This would be the base from which her father could explore the area, scouting out the best spot to settle his family permanently. Ohio was then very much an unbroken wilderness—covered with dense forests, wild animals, and roving bands of Indians, not happy about having to give up their ancestral lands.
Not long after their arrival, two more children were born, Nancy Ann “Ohio” and Jonathan. And by 1800-01, the family was finally settled on their new farm of some 320 acres in Washington Twp, Montgomery County, Ohio (about 15 miles south of today’s Dayton, OH.) There, her father built a small but substantial stone house from the limestone quarry on their land. And there Elizabeth grew up, helping her mother and sisters with domestic chores—spinning, weaving, gardening, milking the cows, putting up food for the winter, preparing meals, making and mending clothes and caring for the younger children as the family continued to grow[2]. Still they had time for fun with neighboring families as they gathered for corn huskings, log rollings, cabin-raisings, quilting and spinning bees. And, of course, attending the little log Sugar Creek Baptist Church.
It may have been at that church where Elizabeth met John Shanks, the eldest son of Joseph and Mary (Clawson) Shanks who followed the Clawson family from Pennsylvania about the same time as the Gerards went to Ohio. They appear to have been part of a group of Baptist families who migrated together from Pennsylvania to Ohio, seeking new lands to farm.
It appears that Joseph, the father, had problems getting to church as “Brother” Shanks was cited a number of times, apparently for non-attendance though he gave reasons for it which were accepted. Joseph and Mary bought 40 acres from Mary’s brother, Thomas Clawson, a few miles north of the Gerards.
Elizabeth married John Shanks on March 17, 1810, the same year that her father was elected to be one of three judges for Montgomery County. According to the 1812 Montgomery Co. map, Abner Gerard must have given or sold a portion of his 320 acres to the young couple, making them next door neighbors to Elizabeth’s parents.[3] Two years after their marriage, John Shanks joined the county militia as a private, along with Elizabeth’s brother John, and brother-in-law, William Luce to serve in the War of 1812. John was in Capt. John Clawson’s company of Ohio Volunteers, appearing on the company pay roll from 23 August to 17 Sept 1812.While the War of 1812 didn’t have much impact on the families living in Montgomery County, there was some fear of Indian attacks especially along the western frontier of Indiana and Illinois and of British troops coming south from Lake Erie. The British had promised to return these lands to the Indians if they would they fight with the British against the Americans living the area north of the Ohio River. To resist Indian attack, the Montgomery and Miami county militias were ordered to build blockhouses to store provisions and provide protection for families in the area north of Dayton and to patrol roads to scout for Indian sign. Fortunately, British forces were ultimately defeated at Lake Erie and the Indians subdued after the death of Tecumseh, leaving the territories of Indiana, Illinois and Ohio open for unimpeded immigration.
During the period between 1810 and 1819, Elizabeth gave birth to 7 children including a set of twins who apparently didn’t live long. The children were born between 18 mos and 2 years apart, the final tally being 13 children, three of whom died as babies, another age 4. Elizabeth was 44 years old when her last child was born. Six sons and three daughters reached adulthood.[4]
At the same time, Washington Twp. Was hoping for big changes with the advent of a new textile mill under the name of the "Farmers' and Mechanics' Manufacturing Company” managed by Thomas Clawson, John’s uncle. John’s father-in-law was a one of the stockholders in the company. Abner and John had also borrowed $350 (a big sum in those days) from Arthur Vanderveer—for what purpose is not known. Not long after, in 1819, both Abner and John were named in a suit brought by Vanderveer for refusing to pay off the debt. In the meantime, Abner Gerard died in April 1819, leaving John to pay the debt plus damages and court costs.
1819 was a bad time to be in debt. The Panic of 1819—the first widespread financial crisis in the country, caused a general collapse of the American economy that lasted through 1821. Abner Gerard’s estate was so entangled in debt that the family was forced to sell off their land and family farm. It was also about this time that John’s mother, Mary Clawson Shanks, died as she does not appear in the 1820 census with the rest of her family.
Around this time, John and Elizabeth decided it was time to leave Montgomery County with their 5 children and try a new location about 35 miles north, near Troy, Ohio in Miami County where John’s sisters and several of Elizabeth’s cousins were then living. John and Elizabeth first appear in the 1820 census living in Lost Creek Twp with two boys and three girls—all under 10. That same year, they also joined the Honey Creek Baptist Church where John would eventually serve as Deacon.[5]
The 1820 census also shows Elizabeth’s widowed mother, Martha Gerard still living on her in Montgomery County listed with 4 boys and 2 girls-all teenagers. She had been forced to sell her husband’s 360 acres farm to pay off his debts, leaving her with only 50 acres.
In 1823, John’s father, Joseph, remarried to a widow, Elizabeth Armstrong Ennis, with 8 children of her own, three of whom were still at home.
The mid-1820s saw another great wave of migration—this time to the Indiana frontier where they were drawn by the promise of cheap land and opportunities for the future. For those who had come to the Ohio frontier as children, such an undertaking may have seemed a bit less daunting since they had some idea of what to expect. Many second-generation folks from the western counties of Ohio would lead the way into the Indiana wilderness to start once again.
Abner Gerard, Jr., Elizabeth’s younger brother, appears to have been the first to go west into Indiana, choosing the area around Ft. Wayne in Allen County, even though much of the area still belonged to various Indian tribes. Relations with the Indians were relatively quiet since Tecumseh was defeated in the War of 1812. In addition, plans were in place to build the Wabash and Erie Canal near Ft. Wayne that would link the Great Lakes to the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, opening travel and markets all the way to New Orleans. Just prior to his arrival around 1824, a land office had opened to sell recently ceded Indian lands and in 1828, another treaty was made to obtain still more Indian land in northern Indiana. Abner bought land for himself and his brother, Jonathan who was still back in Ohio. Apparently, there were still many Indians in the area because Abner was paid $180 for building a log house on the Eel River for the Indians in 1828.
Abner Gerard was also made sheriff of Allen County. One of his cases involved the killing of Wishmah, a half Indian-half black slave woman, by her Miami Indian master who claimed that by Indian law, a slave could be killed for being disobedient. The Indian man, Noweelinggua, was pardoned since he was unaware that it was against while man’s law to kill a slave.[6] The 1830 Wayne Twp, Allen County census shows at least two families living tog
Finally, around 1829-30, almost all of the Gerard and Shanks families and many neighbors in Miami and Montgomery counties in Ohio (including the Lenon brothers), were determined to move once more, this time to “Wabash country” or the “New Purchase” as it was called. Some claim the mass exodus from this area in Ohio was due to the religious split among Baptists.
The “New Purchase” covered the counties in the northern third of Indiana cut through by the Upper Wabash River: Carroll, White, Warren, Fountain, Tippecanoe and Allen counties. The 1835 map of Indiana show that most of those counties bordered Indian lands not yet fully ceded to the US and had the mighty Wabash River running through them. Only two of Elizabeth’s Gerard siblings would remain in Ohio, while her mother and five siblings resettled in the western Indiana counties of Fountain, Warren, and White.
Like Abner Gerard, Jr., many men from Montgomery and Miami counties had already discovered Carroll County as early as 1824 when Indian land was first put up for sale and probably wrote back to friends in Ohio, telling them all about the area and the advantages of settling there. When moving to a new frontier, a common practice of the day was to send the men and older sons off first to scout out the area and select the piece of land they wanted. Sufficient timber, springs or rivers, good drainage, nearby mills or markets for their produce were all on the list of things to look for. Once they selected purchased the land, they received a certificate from the Government Land office and then waited for the patent—often arriving a year later. Many stayed to clear a small piece of land and sow a crop of corn and raise a log cabin before returning home for their family.
Some sources claim that John went first to the area around Delphi, the county seat, but the land he chose was on Section 12 in Jackson Twp, east of Camden. The entry was dated Oct 2, 1829.[7] Settling in the same neighborhood about the same time were Levi Cline of Kentucky and Daniel Blue and John Lenon—neighbors in Ohio. Michael, Thomas and Daniel Lenon, brothers of John, were also Lost Creek neighbors in Ohio, who had come to Indiana in 1828 and purchased land in Tippecanoe and Carroll counties. Thomas Lenon settled not far from the Shanks on Section 17 in May 1828.
In the meantime, Elizabeth aged 40 and pregnant with her 9th child, took her children to Butler County, probably to stay with her sister, Mehetable Stevens. Her mother, Martha Gerard, was probably there too as it is known that after her family was grown, Martha Gerard went to live with her daughter Mehitable and ultimately moved to Fountain Co, IN with the Stevens family. Fortunately, Elizabeth’s two eldest daughters, Polly and Patsy (17 and almost 16) would be a big help with baby Henry and the younger children, Lucinda-3; Moses-7, Elizabeth-10, and Joseph-14. Abner was then 19 and had either stayed behind as the man of house to care for the family or may have gone with John to look for land and build a cabin.
Elizabeth’s son, Henry, was born in July of 1829 and soon after, the entire family loaded up their belongings and food supplies—either into an ox or horse drawn wagon, or into packs on horseback—and headed for their new home in the wilderness of north-central Indiana. What route they took getting to Indiana is not known. Starting from Miami or Montgomery counties, they may have taken the National Road from Dayton or Springfield due west into Indiana then turned north for a rugged trip through dense forests over newly cut “roads,” old Indian or animal trails. Bridges were few if any so streams would have to be forded, the deeper rivers required swimming. They camped out nightly, under a canopy of trees bending in the wind. At least, fall was the best time to travel weather-wise.
A biographical note for son Henry states that he was 5 months old when the family settled on 80 acres of wild land in S12 in Jackson Twp just east of Camden—that would make the family’s arrival sometime in December. Hopefully John had managed to have a log cabin built for them prior to their arrival. If not, it might take several days to raise one, put on the roof, cut a door and chink the spaces between the logs. Even when complete, the description of log cabin living leaves much to be desired for a family with six children, especially during the winter. One author describes the winter of 1828 in Carroll County in “those eighteen by twenty (foot) cabins that sparsely dotted over the area of Carroll County”….“Their cabins generally were not very well conditioned to shield the inmates from the piercing winds, driving snows and beating rains usual in this latitude at that season of the year….”[8]
Not only were homes and their components—floors, doors, window casings and roof shingles--built from the raw lumber of the forest, so too was the furniture for the kitchen or bedroom even coffins made from spit wood, straightened and squared with the broad ax.
At first, they had to depend on food from the forest or river. Although more and more families were beginning to arrive in the area, it was still difficult to get clothing, provisions, shoes, flour or sugar…things the family were used to finding in Ohio. Goods were shipped from Cincinnati by steamboat up the Wabash River when the river was high enough to allow it. Unfortunately, Carroll and Cass counties were toward the end of navigable waters so whatever reached them was well picked over.
But lack of manufactured goods was far from the worst problem facing the Shanks family in those early years of resettlement. The summer following their arrival was extremely dry leaving the rivers and creeks to become more swampy than usual, creating conditions that led to a high rate of malaria, especially fatal to young children. Typhoid and cholera were other contagious diseases caused by poor drainage and contaminated water. Wolves and rattlesnakes (400 killed in one day) presented other dangers in the early days.
But life progressed—trees were cut, the land was cleared—around 9 acres a year—and crops were planted. John Shanks was made the keeper of the first poor farm in Carroll County. With more and more people coming to the area, there were more opportunities for community involvement. Men and older boys continuously helped newcomers with log rollings and cabin raisings. Neighbor John Penn mentions that Daniel and John Lenon, John and Abner Shanks, and Levi Cline, all helped raise his cabin in 1833.[9]
Six years after their arrival in Indiana, John sold his 80 acres in Jackson Twp and purchased 200+ acres of land on S14 near Deer Creek (aka Henpeck) in Washington Twp. Odell’s History of Carroll County states he lived half a mile east of the village of Deer Creek in Washington Twp., situated on the Michigan road which was then "quite a lively place." John was quite active in local affairs during this period. In 1832, he was added to the list of petit jurors and in 1834, he was elected County Commissioner for two terms. He was also appointed a Justice of the Peace and served as a Superintendent of the County infirmary. One county history states he was the keeper of the first poor farm in Carrol County where he would determine who was entitled to benefits and to see that their wants were provided for. For a time, he served as the postmaster in the village of Deer Creek.[10] He voted Democratic, starting with Andrew Jackson.
John and Elizabeth, along with others from Ohio, formed the Paint Creek Predestinarian or Primitive Baptist Church near Camden as early as 1832.[11] To do so, they had to petition the Deer Creek Church to be allowed to form a new church due to the distance. Within a short time, a hewed log house was erected for church services on Sunday and school during the week.
John and Elizabeth Shanks, John and Elizabeth Lenon, and Levi and Elizabeth Cline were all dismissed at the same time. At what point the family chose to follow the Predestinarian Baptists, rather than the Regular Baptist which the Gerard family had been traditionally is not known but it probably goes back to the divisions in the church in Montgomery Co, OH. (Sue Zobbe writes that the Predestinarian or Primitive Baptists came into existence in the 1820-39s when an anti-Mission controversy arose.)
While first refusing to attend church, John Shanks started to attend and even began to “speak.” After much study and several votes by the congregation, John was finally voted to be ordained “a minister of the Gospel” in 1840. He used the title of “Elder” rather than Reverend, as was customary. He baptized many adults in the little pond by the church and married many couples, including some of his own children. In the Shanks Sea-Sea genealogy, Burns continuously remarks that the Shanks children were reared in a “strict Baptist home.” Their eldest son, Abner, also became Predestinarian Baptist minister in Iowa. Records of the Paint Creek Church show how active the Shanks were in the life of the church.
Elizabeth was busy with her family and the church. Two more children were born after their arrival in Indiana, the last born in 1833. Her two eldest daughters, Polly and Patsy, married soon after their arrival to neighboring settlers who had also emigrated from Miami County, Ohio. Polly (Mary) married widower Daniel Lenon (20 years older than Polly) and Patsy (Martha or Mercy) to Daniel Blue. Both men claimed land near the Shanks so the sisters and their mother had a close support group until the Shanks moved on to Deer Creek in 1835. Both sisters were widowed and remarried, but remained to raise their families in Carroll County.
Son Joseph married young to Elizabeth Crockett and eventually moved next door to Cass County. Moses married Emily Blue and remained in Carroll Co. Lucinda married Ingram Campbell and raised their family in Jackson Twp, Carroll County. Son Henry married not long after his mother died and he, too, remained in Carroll County. All of these children had large families so the Shanks name lived on in Carroll and Cass counties.
The two youngest brothers, Thomas Jefferson aka “Jeff”, and Robert joined their father and eldest brother Abner when they moved to Guthrie County, Iowa in 1854-55. Jeff died young at age 28, and Robert eventually moved to Missouri. Abner, on the other hand, moved his 15 children on to Oregon in 1865 at the end of the Civil War. They settled in the Willamette Valley where Abner died at the age of 93. A diary of the journey has survived.[12]
Elizabeth Gerard Shanks died on 12 September 1851 in her early 60s. She had moved 5 times in her life, each time to a new and unbroken wilderness: first when she was 3 or 4, leaving Virginia for a riverboat trip down the Ohio to somewhere near Cincinnati; again when she was 10 or 11 to go to Montgomery Co., south of Centerville; then again at the age of 30 when she and her husband moved their 4 children to Miami Co, Ohio; and, at the age of 40 going from Ohio to the Indiana, carrying a babe in her arms all the way. The last time, in 1835, she moved just a few miles away to government land where the family began again. She bore thirteen children, losing four in childhood. Of her nine living children, all three had married by the time of her death, the rest soon after. She was buried in the Paint Creek Church cemetery not far from her home.
Six weeks after Elizabeth’s death, John, then in his early 60s, remarried to Nancy Ball Peterson, the widow of Ayers Peterson. She was also the mother-in-law of John’s son, Jeff. She died 2 ½ years later in April 1854 in Deer Creek. They had no children. Four months after Nancy’s death, John married a third time to another widow, Mary Ann Lee in August 1854.
A year earlier, Abner Shanks, John and Elizabeth’s eldest son, his eight children and his second wife decided to head west—this time to Panora in Guthrie County, west central Iowa. Soon after John married his third wife, they decided to follow suit. They sold off their property in Indiana and soon after, John began to purchase unimproved land in Iowa which he cleared and resold for a nice profit. While his business dealings appeared to be going well in Iowa, his marriage was not and the couple was divorced and Mary Ann remarried in 1857.[13] By 1856, two more of John and Elizabeth’s sons—Jeff and Robert—had also moved to Guthrie County, Iowa. With Mary Ann gone, John’s youngest son Robert and his family came to live with him in Guthrie County where they are listed together in the 1860 census. During this period in Iowa, Elder John became involved in the Sharon Primitive Baptist Church, the same church in which his son Abner would be ordained in 1863.
In 1859, John and his son Abner returned to Carroll County for an extended visit with friends and family still living there—all but three sons had remained in Indiana. Their visit is recorded in the minutes of the Paint Creek Church between January 1860 and August 1862 calling him “Elder John, from the Sharon Primitive Baptist Church” in Iowa.[14] Their journey was probably via stage coach as there were no railroads in Guthrie at that early date.
Robert’s family remained with John during the eight months that Robert was away fighting in the Civil War. Several years after the war ended, Robert and his family moved to Lathrop, Clinton Co, Missouri, taking John with them. He was then 70 years old. After developing an ulcer on his leg, he became bedridden for the next decade until his death on 4 Sept 1871 at the age of 82.
Spouses
1John SHANKS , M
, MBirth1789, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania
Death4 Sep 1871, Lathrop, Clinton, Missouri
Marriage17 Mar 1810, Troy, Miami Co, OH