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Note: The story from Granddad: "He came over the mountain from Maryland in a conestoga wagon" and settled in Washington county, Pennsylvania.
Levi is the oldest child of Thomas and Margaret Dawson, eventually of Monongalia County, Virginia, which eventually becomes West Virginia. He is born in Maryland, but they move to Virginia. His start appears to be rocky, however, because I find a Levi Dawson in Monongalia County, Virginia in 1840, married and with a child. However, this is not the wife we know, Sarah Patterson, because he does not marry her until 1844 in Pennsylvania. I wonder what the story is here. It sounds like he married young, then the wife and child died. Probably at that point he looks around, and decides there is a better future somewhere else. Does he go to Maryland first? Is this where the story that he came from Maryland in a conestoga wagon comes from? He ends up in East Bethlehem, Washington County, PA. Right next door to him (according to the 1850 census) is Cuthbert Combs and his son William and daughter Mary. They all die in the next decade (Cuthbert is 85) and are mentioned in the family bible. Why? Are they relatives? Or just friends. By 1860 Levi has a good size farm, does he get Cuthbert's land because he's a relative?
I think Levi has the good fortune to marry Sarah Patterson, because she seems to be of a good family with a brother who becomes a minister.
According to Aunt Helen Riley, they eventually gave up the farm, and were to divide it among their three sons, but John and William did not want it, so son George bought their shares and owned it until about 1900 (they are in Washington, PA, in the 1900 census) they moved so the children could get a better education. Levi and Sarah moved to Beallsville and lived with Jennie and Mary Lib. Levi died in 1894 and Sarah in 1900. Sounds like they must be in the Beallsville cemetery.
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