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Family
Marriage: Children:
  1. Asa Townsend John: Birth: 10 DEC 1788 in Uwchlan Township, Chester County, PA. Death: 8 FEB 1868

  2. Hiram Townsend John: Birth: 14 AUG 1790 in Chester Co., PA. Death: 26 AUG 1868 in Illinois

  3. Emily John: Birth: 23 JAN 1792 in Chester Co., PA. Death: 21 AUG 1871 in Columbia Co., PA

  4. Griffith John: Birth: 6 MAR 1795 in Northumberland Co., PA. Death: 20 FEB 1856 in Elida, OH

  5. Reuben John: Birth: 21 MAR 1798 in Northumberland Co., PA. Death: 26 FEB 1880

  6. Lydia John: Birth: 21 OCT 1799. Death: 12 NOV 1862

  7. Sarah John: Birth: 20 AUG 1801. Death: 9 APR 1880

  8. Jesse Jones John: Birth: 9 MAR 1803. Death: 2 SEP 1829 in Catawissa, PA

  9. Elida John: Birth: 29 AUG 1805 in Northumberland County, Pennsylvania. Death: 1 MAY 1883 in Whiteside County, Illinois

  10. Samuel John: Birth: 27 FEB 1807 in Bear Gap, PA. Death: 23 JUL 1870 in Shamokin, PA

  11. Jehu John: Birth: 11 FEB 1810. Death: 23 SEP 1863 in Winnebago, IL

  12. Eliza John: Birth: 29 MAY 1812 in Bear Gap, PA. Death: 20 DEC 1863

  13. Perry John: Birth: 28 MAR 1816. Death: 18 FEB 1839


Notes
a. Note:   Abia grew to manhood on the family plantation. Spent spare timein study in order to obtain a good education. Took upsurveying and conveyancing of property. In his early 20's hewas a teacher in West Bradford Township and was paid 8shillings (about $1.92) for each child for a period of threemonths during winter. He taught reading, writing, andcyphering.Abia married his first cousin. Such marriages were notpermitted by the Society of Friends so they had to have theceremony performed outside of the church by which they weredisowned.Supposedly, Martha was much smarter than her husband, althoughhe was quite intelligent.In 1795, Abia's father, Griffith, helped Abia and Martha movefrom their old home in chester County, up to NorthumberlandCounty. They took two of three children they had at that timeand they left their second child Hiram, with his grandparentson his mother's side, Ruben and Lydia John. They picked him uplater. Asa, their oldest child was seven and the third childwas Emily, age three.They started north on what was a long hard trip at that time.They had a two horse wagon and they followed the Great Road asit was called at that time. This road was surveyed by FrancisYarnell, who was one of the early settlers north of there. Hiswife was Mary Lincoln. One of the Yarnells at a later datemarried the daughter of Lydia John, the sixth child of AbiaJohn.This road took them over the Mahony and Locust mountains, onpast where the town of Shamokin now stands. They stopped atYarnell;s Tavern one night. The first night in NorthumberlandCounty they stayed at Hotel Fisher. Then traveling on the nextmorning and by the next afternoon they reached their stoppingplace at John Adam Golger's place where they rented a roomupstairs. They stayed in this room while he built a log houseon the timber land that he had bought before. It was on the 8thof May, 1795, when they landed there.There were lots of wild animals roving through the woods allaround them and they would howl and screech through the night.That part of the country for a long way north and west wasnothing much but timber and Indians.After he had part of his timber land cleared so he could raisesome crops, he would take what he could spare over bad mountainroads with a two horse wagon about 70 miles to Reading,Pennsylvania. There he would exchange it for food, cloth andthe things that they had to have on their farm. They did nothave much to live on and to do with in those early years.He was a man of great determination and with his education thathe had and being a surveyor and a conveyancer of transfers, hesucceeded and worked up a large business.Governer Snyder of Pennsylvania appointed him as the Justice ofthe Peace in 1809, which he held until 1830. He was held inhigh esteem by the Courts and the attorneys of Sunbury. Hebecame an extensive land holder in that part of the county.He took an active part in raising the money for and securing theCenter Turnpike Road in 1802. It is said that he had a chargeof the western division, being from Paxinos to Sunbury, whichis about 13 miles.They were strong Quakers and both were great workers in theirMeetings. It is said that Martha had more than common ability.Abia John's family moved from their first home farm that theybought in 1795, to a farm that he bought in 1823. All theirchildren from Elida on down, lived in this place. Their firstfarm was timber land. This piece was the land that he boughtwhen he moved from Chester County to Northumberland County.


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