Family Tree Maker's Genealogy Site: User Home Pages: They Had Restless Souls and Itchy Feet


I am researching the Bixler, Barnhart, Ward and Morgan families. In the 1920's our mother traced her ancestry back to the original founder of Morgantown, W. Virginia, Col. Morgan Morgan, thus establishing her eligibility for membership in the Daughters of the American Revolution. Our branch of this family along with the Ward family came west in a covered wagon train to the Oregon Territory in 1853. They settled in the Wilamette Valley and in Eastern Oregon. Our mother's father, Henry Barnhart, left Meiggs County Tennessee about 1860 to emmigrate to Iowa where he married Elizabeth Johnson, settled down and raised a family. About 1890, he brought his entire family, including, grandchildren, west to Eastern Oregon. He divorced his first wife and married our grandmother in 1896. (This divorce was seldom spoken of and we don't know the reason for it.) Our father's grandfather, Marion Franklin Bixler, came west to Grass Valley, California in 1849 to mine for gold. His wife, Elizabeth Blodgett, was a mail order bride. She left New Hampshire in 1869 traveling by boat to the Isthmus of Panama which she crossed by wagon, and then traveled by boat up the coast to Sacramento where she married "Mr. Bixler." They found growing oranges to be more profitable than gold mining. I am preparing a family tree and book for a Bixler Family Reunion taking place here in the Methow Valley, Washington, on the Fourth of July. I'd love to learn more about these families and their origins.	They Had Restless Souls and Itchy Feet Updated September 5, 2000
	Suzanne R Follis 72 Cottonwood Drive/ Wolf Creek Winthrop, WA 98862 A-United States follis@methow.com
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