Hi folks, John Krall has been busy again! This "extract of genealogical information" is beautifully put together. It is posted on the Van Arsdale GenConnect board: <http://cgi.rootsweb.com/~genbbs/genbbs.cgi/FamilyAssoc/VanArsdaleBios?read=87> > Peter VAN ARSDALE’s father died in Mercer County, Kentucky in 1802. Peter was bound out to a blacksmith at the age of fifteen and remained in that position until his twenty-first year. This experience gave him a strong hatred of slavery which led to him moving himself and his family to Illinois many years later. Only son James Hervey VAN ARSDALE wrote a letter to his daughter, Mrs. Harlan Page CARSON, Huron, S.D. in August 1890 which described his father as “a great reader and deep thinker, and ever ready to act out his conviction . . . and as the peer of any member of the Session of that Church [New Providence Presbyterian], in business or ecclesiastical proceedings.” > > Peter started to write his journal in 1844 with the intention of passing on to his children and relatives some of his experiences. He said, “As I expect my children and Relatives to begin the world poor, as I have done. I have thought proper to make a record of a few facts and circumstances connected with my beginning in early life. In order that they may not be discouraged because they happen to have but little of this worlds goods.” He was supposed to have had schooling “including the single rule of three, and a suite of clothes, and also a hors saddle and bridle with one hundred dollars” but he did not get the schooling or clothing, he only got the horse, bridle and some money, in recompense for the lack of education, after difficulty and delay. His time as an apprentice blacksmith was up December 20, 1808. > > For a month or two following he stayed with his brother-in-law Cornelious DEMAREE and went to school for a short time “at the Stone Schoolhous on Harrods run, to Dr. Samuel R. DEMAREE.” Peter then agreed with his brother Cornelious to “build a Shop and other cabbins on his land. on the then main road from Frankfort to Harrodsburgh, three miles from the latter, this I was to keep for Six years.” With ax in hand he started this labor on February 20, 1809. He was ready to begin work as a blacksmith by the 20th of March. He had hoped not to go into debt except for “materials to work on that I could turn into money”, as a consequence he had almost no clothes by summer and his “old mother and two youngest Sisters made me a Suit of cotten,” for which he had to make the buttons himself. > > The 16th of September 1809 he was married, but does not mention his new wife’s name, they moved into a cabin he readied about six weeks afterward. At that time he owned but one horse, two cows given to his wife by her father, a table, a bed, and some other small furniture. He mentions his “good Brotherinlaw John CURRY” when discussing books and newspapers and his “hope that the reading . . . was of servis to me.” > > By early 1813 his economic situation had changed to such a degree that he was able to hire two apprentices, Clarkson E. RANDOLPH and John Adams. On the first of August his luck changed again and he fell ill with a fever and was unable to work again until the spring of 1814, about five or six months. After returning to work he became dissatisfied with where he was living . Peter looked about and purchased a farm on the Salt River near the New Providence church. He and his family moved there on September 14, 1814. They would live there for twenty-two years, leaving on September 14, 1836. > > The VAN ARSDALEs joined the Presbyterian church at New Providence in August, 1818, and had the four living children baptized. The children’s names were: Ida, Phebe, James Hervey and Jane. > > During the next two decades Peter travelled into Indiana, Illinois and Missouri with friends and relatives, sometimes visiting, sometimes looking for a better place to live. He ended up moving to Taswell county, Illinois. The subject of slavery was one of the issues that made him eager to move. He said “. . .for some time past I had been perplexed about the subject of Slavery Expecially now when I saw nearly all the different Religious denominations owning Slaves . . .” In 1819 he went to Indiana with his wife “to see a Brother of my wifes Daniel DEMAREE. who had settled in Switzerland County not far from the mouth of the Kentucky River”. In 1821 he again visited Indiana, this time with the idea of finding land to live on. “. . .I had for a long time wished to live in town on account of being in the midst of society and social intercours. but I could not think of living in a town in a Slave state. therefore I was constantly looking for some suitable place in the free States ! th! > at where then settleing to get a location.” He and his companions visited relatives and acquaintances before returning via Louisville on that six week long trip. > > In fact he would delay the move for another nine years. He did not stagnate though. In 1822 he would saw lumber for new building and make a wagon. Up to that point he had hired someone with a wagon or had hired a wagon and done the hauling himself. > “My Brotherinlaw Isaac SMOCK who lived near to me furnished some horses, and I furnished some and waggon, and he was the driver. with this arangment I felt quite Independent, and we made a good many trips to Louisville with our own produce and for others.” “This year also my Brotherinlaw John CURRY spent a good deal of time at my hous making shingles for me. he had lost his wife (my wifes oldest sister.) and had rented out his farm. He was an excellent man perty well read, Especialy on doctrinal points in Religion the same fall he married the second time, to my Niece Timmy SMOCK.” > > The next year his brother-in-law Isaac B. SMOCK proposed that they and their families move to the vicinity of Indianapolis. “As we had been raisd together, and had been long very intimate, and he had Married my wifes younger sister and as our wives were very much attatched to each other, we all found that it would be very hard to separate.” > They agreed on the idea, Smock even loaning VAN ARSDALE $200.00 of the proceeds of the sale of his farm. They started to Indiana sometime in May of 1823. With them went Peter’s nephew John B. SMOCK. John had sold his farm in Mercer county, near Harrodsburg. They visited the land office in Brookville, getting plats of the land south of Indianapolis. Isaac and John B. SMOCK found land on the road being opened between Indianapolis and Madison on the Ohio River. Peter chose a piece of land west of Isaac SMOCK, “on account of a very fine spring on it.” “I then intended to move to that part of Indiana, as my Brotherinlaw John CURRY had also exchanged his land on Salt River for land in the same Region in Indiana. And we thought again to live Neighbours in a free state. But how uncertain are all human calculations.” “That fall John CURRY Died and his only son a very promising Boy.” Peter stayed in Kentucky to administer the estate at the request of the widow “which gave me considera! bl! > e employment and trouble as it was the time of the Cominwealth Bank of Kentucky.” > > 1824 was a year that brought more changes to the extended family. “My Brotherinlaw John SMOCK, Husband of my oldest sister died in August”. Peter was again requested, along with Cornelious DEMAREE to administer the estate. When that task was done he traveled with his wife to visit their friends in Indiana, taking with them their approximately six-month-old daughter Susan. That visit convinced them that the difficulties of establishing a new farm should be put off. In his words: “it very much abated our anxiety t move to a new country. Especialy as I had no help of boys as we had but one son than only seven years old.” He went home and built or repaired buildings to contain his growing family. They had “six children the oldst more than twelve years old”. > > Another trip to Indiana occurred in the fall of 1826. Peter went with “My old Fatherinlaw Cornelious DEMAREE,” and Clarkson E. RANDOLPH up to Indianapolis. He hoped to persuade RANDOLPH to take up land on the road and open up a blacksmith shop. They again visited relatives. Mrs. VAN ARSDALE also engaged in travel. She went in the fall of 1829 with Cornelious COVERT and his wife to see her sister and other relatives. They stayed away three weeks and would have taken longer but one of the COVERT family fell ill and they had to return early. > > Daughter Phebe married Thomas DERR in 1831. That fall Peter once again went to Indiana, entered more land and had a “dredfull muddy time when we went, and a very severe cold time when we returned.” The travelling party brought with them his wife’s half sister Sally DEMAREE. Next spring, in 1832, oldest daughter Ida was married to George W. CARDWELL. The newlywed couple moved to Missouri that fall in company with neighbors William Smithey and his family. > > Skipping to 1836 finds Peter selling his farm to James P. VANARSDALL, in March he left for Illinois and stayed with his brother Simon M. VANARSDALL. By the end of the trip he had determined to move to land he had bought a few miles east of Carrollton. He entered into a business partnership with David Peirson in a store in Carrolton the fall of 1836, and by the winter of 1837-1838 moved again to a farm next to the town. > > The leg that afflicted Peter in his youth continues to be a nuisance. In July of 1844 he is housebound for some time and began the writing of his autobiography. By the 12th of August he is feeling well enough to travel and sets off with his wife, daughter Sarah, son Hervey’s wife and her two children for a visit to Indiana. They visited with Isaac SMOCK and family and other relatives in Greenwood, then went to Kentucky to visit his father-in-law, his oldest brother and others. They arrived home the 9th of November. Son Hervey and daughter Susan kept the house while they were gone. > > In May of 1845, while on a journey in a one horse buggy with his wife and daughter Jane, Peter was seriously injured. “. . .I had my hip put out of place. I was then about ten miles from home, and it was a half a day before I could be got home, and the doctor that was calld in to attend to the case was so ignorant that he thought the joint was not out of place. and it continued so for some time when other doctors were calld in and examined the case, and they said the hip joint was out of place and the socket had filled up so that the joint would not stay in place if it were put in. —So it has remained and I am cripple.” > > “. . .during the Sumer 1850 our daughter Sarah was engaged teaching a school at Jerseyville, and our daughter Susan was teaching a school under the Bluffs, and Almeda was at home with us, . . .” In the summer of 1851 grand-daughter Ellen DERR stayed with them. “In May 1852 we paid a visit to our relatives the BANTAs in Woodford county”. > > “. . . Susan was so good & neat a houskeeper and of such good judgment pertaining to everything that made for the comfort of her parents that the time from December 1852 till Febuary 1856 was the most pleasant part of my life till the death of that beloved daughter wich took place Febr. 27th 1856.” > > The last event that Peter tells is the story of a great gathering of the family. > > “. . .in the fall of 1852, we gave an invitation to all our children and grand- children to pay us a visit on thanksgiving day in that fall wich took place in Nov. According to that arangment they all came to Brighton, children grandchildren & 2 great grandchildren, amounting in all to forty three persons. we all took a thanksgiving diner together for the last time, as it was then perdicted and as it has turned out, for now 1857 there have gone from that family circle the following persons — Susan H. VANARSDALL wife of James H. VANARSDALL, and their infant child, Charls Albert BROWN Son of Dr. BROWN, Susan B. VANARSDALL, Ann Jane JOHNSON daughter of George & Ida CARDWELL and February 5th 1857 Charity VANARSDALL.” > > from: Religion on the American Frontier • 1783–1840, Vol. II, The Presbyterians, A Collection of Source Materials, by William Warren Sweet. Cooper Square Publishers, Inc., New York, 1964 (1936). Pages 797–815. “The Autobiography of Peter Van Arsdale” (All quotations from the preceding, unquoted — jak). posted to Van Arsdale Mailing List <[email protected]> & Mercer Co., Kentucky Mailing List <[email protected]>