On 3/24/2011 4:50 PM, Dwayne Wrightsman wrote: > As a follow-up to my earlier message below, I checked the 1820 census for > Kentucky and found 17 households with the surname Rhoads. There were 10 > households in Muhlenberg County, 6 households (Jacob and his sons) in > GRAYSON COUNTY, and 1 household in Caldwell County.. The Jacob Vanmeter > household was still in Hardin County, and the Christopher Jackson household > in Ohio County. I also noted from Merle's list that Jacob Rhoads of Grayson > County died in Macoupin County, Illinois, in circa 1835. Checking my > Macoupin County history books, I found that Jacob Rhoads was the first > settler to buy land, 6 July 1830, in Chesterfield Township, Macoupin County. > Jesse Rhoads was second, 8 Sept. 1830. "In 1831, John, Henry, Samuel, > Jesse, Jacob, and Josiah Rhodes, six brothers, all having families, settled > in the southwest portion known as Rhoads' Point, and the present site of > Medora." All of these brothers except Josiah were listed in the 1820 census > for Grayson County, KY. In Macoupin County, "Jacob and John Rhoads, > Baptists, preached......at Rhoads' Point." "Dr. Henry Rhoads was the first > physician in the township. He settled at Rhoads' Point in 1831, as above > stated." > > I have no idea if these Rhoads families were Brethren in Grayson County, KY, > before moving to Illinois, circa 1830, but, if they were, their exodus from > Kentucky would have been at the very same time that so many known Brethren > from Drakes Creek in Simpson County and from Long Creek in Muhlenberg County > moved out of KY and settled in Sangamon, Morgan, and Macoupin Counties in > Illinois. 1830 pretty much marked the Far-Western Brethren exodus from > Kentucky led by Elders Joseph Roland, John Dick, and Isham Gibson. > > I suspect that the Rhoads families of Grayson County might have been a part > of the Grayson County, KY, Brethren church of 1814 organized by Joseph > Roland. But if they were, they were not Brethren after they arrived in > Illinois. Jacob Rhoads was moderator and Henry Rhoads was clerk of the > five-member Baptist Church located in Medora, organized by them 21 April > 1832. I checked some of my stored information (my external hard drive is down - where most was stored) - Jacob Van Meter (called "Valley Jake") (wife Elizabeth Rhoads - 14 children) joined the General Baptist Church at age 11 and was "very religious". He is credited with establishing that church in the Severns Valley in Kentucky (Elizabethtown - Hardin Co). He inherited his father's homestead there, before moving on to "the forks of Otter Creek", which seems to be more toward the Grayson Co area. While he was born in Virginia, his father moved to Washington Co PA, then came with the 1779 flotilla (27 flatboats) down the Ohio River to Bear Grass Landing on the Muddy Creek (if this is the same Muddy Creek - it was just upstream from the Falls at Louisville - just east of I-65). The families then moved down to the Elizabethtown area (what, 40 miles on I-65 - not quite that fast walking - I usually go to Elizabethtown to eat dinner - driving down to Nashville - its a nice big valley.). There is a suggestion that the Henry Rhoads party stopped first at Severns Valley (1784) - leaving the families there over winter, before going on to Muhlenberg Co to get their property ready - and that land was the the Calhoun property - which they lost to the Dorseys of Maryland, after which they moved on south on Pond River. I would suspect these Grayson Co families tended originally toward the General Baptist Church. Maybe that's why Joseph Rolland went up in 1814 to establish a Brethren Church - some there wanted other than General Baptist But - with no more information - an argument could be made that "Valley Jake" originally join the Baptist Brethren, in Washington Co PA (before 1779 was awful early for the General Baptist Church to have been in Washington Co PA - and the Baptist Brethren had long been there), and that it was in the 1820s that the Baptist Brethren Church there in Grayson Co KY went General Baptist. Merle C Rummel