I would love to read your Diaries & Journals. Maybe one at a time on the net wouldn't others? Beverly (HIMES) BARGER a Family History Center Librarian JohnCowan@aol.com wrote: > Subject: Diaries or Journals of Ohio River Flatboat Migrants > Subtitle: "Where is Abigail?" > > List Members: > For more than 28 years I have been on a genealogical quest "to find" > Abigail BURR m. John COWAN who possibly died while on the way to Ohio. > Members of the COWAN family, and their neighbors (SEWELL, TULLIS, BURR, > RUSSELL and HENDRICKS) migrated to what are now Warren and Clinton > Counties in OH in 1800 and 1799, respectively. > At least two sources tell those of us researching these families that > they left their farms in what is now Jefferson Co VA, traveling by wagon on > the Braddock Road to Pittsburgh, thence by flatboat down the Ohio River to > Columbia at the mouth of the Little Miami River. Then they went to Beedle's > Station. Not surprisingly, they left no records of their migration in the > form of daily journals or diaries that we have ever discovered. We have > documented many facts about the families at both ends of their journey. (Land > records, burial, and church records, etc.) We have a pretty good > understanding of why and how they migrated. But we have little (really > nothing) about their actual migration. > Through the years I have become more and more interested in trying "to > breathe some life" into my undertstanding of their journey. I have collected > many pictures and sketches of flatboats, have visited several riverboat > museums along the Ohio, have searched early Pittsburgh newspapers, and have > read and re-read a few books and several published articles about Ohio River > flatboat travelers. I have copies of only two published diaries that provide > some detailed insight into the daily lives of people making this trek. I > keep wanting more. > Since there were thousands of Ohio and Kentucky bound families that made > the journey down the Ohio River in the period from the 1780s to the 1840s, I > assume that there are probably many persons on this list who would have an > interest in what the trek was like for their ancestors. Perhaps, you know > this already because some of your ancestors wrote down their experiences. > I keep hoping that I might find more diaries or journals or bits and > pieces of notes written by those early pioneers. Perhaps some of your > ancestors drew pcitures of what they saw along the river. > If you share this interest or have notes or any other information in your > files that would help me learn more, please let me know. > There is only a very, very slim chance that we will ever know what > happened to Abigail, but we can learn more about possible circumstances that > may have surrounded her disappearance. > > John Cowan of Baltimore, MD > johncowan@aol.com