Dear Hermon, Thank you for your detailed response to my query for information regarding the Ferguson Settlement near New Richmond. The HERRON family Bible places the family "near New Richmond". You gave me a real sense of place and touched on names and places mentioned in a HERRON family history by Lucy HERRON PARKER (1831-1898), wife of Mason D. PARKER, daughter of Joseph HERRON (born 1808, Lancaster, PA, died 1863, Cincinnati) and Cordelia WEEKS, granddaughter of John HERRON and Rebecca CLARKE. She writes: "Glowing accounts of the new Northwest Territory had for years been traveling eastward, and in 1816 John HERRON determined to remove thither. With his family he crossed the mountains in the great Conestoga wagons of that time, and took raft at Pittsburgh for Cincinnati. In accordance with previous arrangement with former neighbors he found his way to Clermont County, and purchased a farm near the Ohio River, where he passed the remainder of his life. When New Richmond became the county-seat, the sons established a weekly county paper, called it the “Luminary” and placed at its head the motto - “Enlightened minds and virtuous manners lead to the gates of glory”. They also published a monthly magazine - “The Columbian Historian” - one of the earliest of its kind. Joseph, having gone as far in his studies as his teachers could lead him, was prevailed upon to take charge of a county school in the “Franklin neighborhood”. Here the youthful teacher succeeded in inspiring his boys and girls with a love for learning, taught them to declaim and organized a debating society in which not only the farmer’s sons but the farmers themselves came to listen and to discuss the questions of the day, and “Franklin School House” became the center of an intelligent community which has remained such to an unusual degree. " It would be helpful to know more about the "former neighbors" from Lancaster County, PA who encouraged John HERRON to settle in Clermont County. John HERRON's younger daughter, Rebecca, married Moses Raredin, son of Timothy Raredin. Are there any Methodist records for this area and time frame? Regards, Ed HERRON