Family Tree Maker's Genealogy Site: Genealogy Report: Descendants of Thomas Milliken

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Descendants of Thomas Milliken

Generation No. 3

3. ABRAHAM STYLES³ MILLIKEN (JOHN², THOMAS¹) was born May 17, 1785 in Mifflin County, Pennsylvania, and died August 04, 1860 in Tuscarawa County, Ohio. He married (1) JANE HUFTY. He married (2) HETTY FUFTY REX.

Notes for ABRAHAM STYLES MILLIKEN:
REVOLUTIONARY WAR RECORD:

Abraham Styles Milliken was a Private in the Eighth Company, Seventh Battalion, Cumberland County Militia, called upon to perform a tour of duty by an order of Council bearing date the 14th of March, 1781. See page 493, Volume Six, Pennsylvania Archives, Fifth Series. Signed by H. H. Shank, Custodian of the Public Records, Pennsylvania State Library, Harrisburg.

Children of ABRAHAM MILLIKEN and JANE HUFTY are:

	i.		ABRAHAM S. MILLIKEN⁴ JR..
	ii.		BENONI MILLIKEN.
	iii.		MARY (POLLY) MILLIKEN, m. JOHN HERIOTT.
	iv.		JOHN MILLIKEN.
	v.		JACOB MILLIKEN.
	vi.		PERMELIA MILLIKEN, m. JOHN HARTMAN.
	vii.		SARAH MILLIKEN.
	viii.		MARGARET MILLIKEN, m. TILLMAN CLARK.

4. RHODA³ MILLIKEN (JOHN², THOMAS¹) was born December 08, 1788 in Green County, Pennsylvania, and died March 22, 1870 in Richmond, Jefferson County, Ohio. She married JONAS REX December 16, 1808.

Children of RHODA MILLIKEN and JONAS REX are:

	i.		GEORGE W.⁴ REX.
	ii.		PAMELIA REX, m. ROSSVILLE COSTNER.
	iii.		WILLIAM REX.
	iv.		MARY REX, m. HAWN GLADDEN.
	v.		MARGARET REX, m. DAVID JOHNSON.
	vi.		JOHN STYLES REX.
	vii.		ELIZA REX, m. JAMES SNOWDEN.
	viii.		MARTHA W. REX.
	ix.		JOSEPH BURSON REX.
	x.		JAMES REX.

5. PATIENCE³ MILLIKEN (JOHN², THOMAS¹) was born May 17, 1794 in Mifflin County, Pennsylvania, and died October 14, 1879 in Homestead burial plot, Hopewell Twp, Muskingum County, Ohio. She married JOHN PRIOR July 29, 1812 in Green County, Pennsylvania.

Notes for JOHN PRIOR:

PIONEER PRIORS

By John C. Prior, Columbus Ohio, October, 1961

      Several members of the Prior (or Pryor) family were among the earliest settlers of east-central Ohio. They were true pioneers for they came when the coming was really tough.

      My great-grandfather, John Prior, born March 7, 1785 in Fayette Co., Pa., married Patience Milliken July 29, 1812 in Greene County, Pa. Patience was eighteen years of age. By the time my grandfather - John Milligan Prior- was born in 1822 the name Milliken had become Milligan.

      Between the years 1813 and 1837 seven sons and seven daughters were born to them. Ten of these children married and begot sixty-nine children. My father -Cyrus Milligan Prior- was somewhere among this multitude of grandchildren.

      If my great-grandparents ever had the whole family home for a visit - which they probably didn't- the throng must have slept in the fields and dined in relays.

      Great-grandfather's father, Nathan Prior, who will be mentioned presently, died in Greene Co., Pa., when John ws six years old. The boy, reared in the home of his Uncle John Rose, was educated and taught the coopers' trade by his uncle.

      At age nineteen, John began teaching in the 'subscription schools' of Pennsylvania which were then the usual method of education. The subjects taught were described as 'academic studies'. In the hours out of school he worked at cooperage.

      Near the turn between the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries several Prior families migrated to Ohio, John's Uncle Timothy with his family were the first Priors to homestead in Ohio. (It is possible that Timothy and Nathan were twins as both were born in 1761.) The family arrived in the late autumn of 1799 and settled on a tract of land abutting the Muskingum River in what is now Muskingum Twp, Muskingum County, Ohio.

      Their arrival antedated the formation of Muskingum County by five years and coincided with the year in which Westtown, now Zanesville, was laid out. And it was only eleven years after Rufus Putnam founded the first settlement in Ohio at the mouth of the Muskingum - Marietta. The initial settlers came by raft, floating down the Ohio River, whereas our later settlers came overland following for the most part primitive Indian trails.

      Timothy's family experienced all the privations incident to the earliest settlers for they moved all their meager belongings by wagon with some members walking and herding the few pigs and cattle; all the while living off the forests through which they passed.

      There were seven children in Timothy's family most of whom were born in Pennsylvania. Timothy died in 1803. George was the second child. A.B. Prior in 1918, when superintendent of schools at Fort Recovery, Ohio told of the narratives related to him by his Grandfather George Prior.

      Quote: 'Of the hardships encountered while driving their horses, hitched to a schooner wagon, over the mountains. Of how they encountered Indians and wild animals, and how they had to fight for their very lives most of the journey. George was the one selected on the trip to drive the hogs, and this he did in his bare feet wading through the snow that covered the ground, but notwithstanding these exposures he lived to a ripe old age.'

      John's mother -my great-great-grandmother- Abigail Rose Prior sometime between 1791 and 1794 married Jacob Ekleberry. They with their two sons Ezekiel and Jacob between 1800 and 1810 moved to Ohio and settled on a patented tract of land in Hopewell Twp, Muskingum County, Ohio.

      Abigail was born in Pennsylvania November, 1758 and died August 1, 1825 in Muskingum Co, Ohio. She and her second husband are buried side by side in Old Salem Cemetary. Their gravestones, his of marble and hers of yellow sandstone are well preserved. Jacob died in 1862.

      Abigail's near relative, Ezekiel Rose, most probably her brother, laid out the town of New Milford on the present boundary liine between Muskingum and Perry Counties. About 1830 the name of the town was changed to Roseville in honor of its founder.

      During the same period other Priors came from Pennsylvania to Ohio including Wilson and Isaac Prior. The latter with his wife Rebecca and family in 1901 came to what is now Washington Twp., Muskingum Co. Here they built a cabin on ground bought from Noah Zane. Later they kept a tavern on Ebenezer Zane's Trace which afterwards became the Wheeling Road. Their table was well supplied with game as Isaac had the reputation of being a hunter par excellent.

      Doubtless influenced by these relatives, in the summer of 1811, great-grandfather John Prior came to Ohio and patented a tract of land near that of his mother and stepfather. Returning to Pennsylvania the same summer, he resumed his school teaching and barrel and cask making, but the spirit of the pioneer had innoculated his blood.

      In the summer of 1815 with his young wife and two babies -one less than two years and the other only a few months old- set out for Ohio with their household effects loaded into a Conestoga Wagon. (My Aunt Cenith had a portion of a spoke from one of the wheels of this wagon.) Arriving in September, they settled upon the homestead he had previously entered and with the help of some of the earlier arriving relatives, immediately built a log cabin.

      The area round about for many years was known as the 'Prior settlement' or Prior neighborhood.' At a later date great-grandfather was known as Squire Prior. Each generation of each family had a John. The confusion thus generated required some special designations. For a time great-grandfather was called 'The Lord's John.'

      The relative locations of the homes were roughly as shown below. All were in Hopewell Twp., Muskingum Co., Ohio.

______________________________

X       Abigail & Jacob Ekleberry (John's mother and stepfather)

X Samuel & Margaret Williams (John's elder sister)

X Nathan & Nancy X Wilson Prior (John's Uncle)
Prior (John's Brother)
X Ezekial Ekleberry (John's half-brother)

X John & Patience Prior (The writer's great-grandparents)
______________________________

      As the next generation matured at least seven more Prior homes were established in 'the neighborhood'.

      John died May 31, 1846 and Patience, October 14, 1879. They are resting side by side in the family burial ground on the old homestead. At least three of their children are buried here. There are nine graves on the plot.

      I am proud to record the exploits of these courageous and valiant ancestors who carved homes for themselves from the primeval forests of Ohio. Heroic blood flows in our veins.

      My great-great-grandfather Nathan Prior, born in 1761, married Abigail Rose in Pennsylvania on an unknown date. Four children were born to them of whom John was the second.

      Nathan contracted what now would be called streptococci poisoning in an injured foot and died of it at age thirty in 1791.

      My Great-grandmother, Patience Milliken Prior was born May 17, 1794 in the Tuscarora Mountain region of Pensylvania, the daughter of John (Born 1765) and Pamelia Styles Milliken. Her mother died when Patience was a baby. Patience and her brother Abraham and sister Rhoda were reared in the home of her maternal grandparents -Abraham and Patience Styles- near Pumpkin Run in Greene Co., Pa. Later she married John Prior in this same home.

      John Milliken married a second wife, Mary Campbell, a 'much beloved' person who became the mother of thirteen children. John and Mary moved to Ohio and settled near the 'Prior neighborhood'. Most of their descendants are named Milligan.

      Why or how the change in the spelling of their name came about is not known. However, the early settlers were quite casual about the spelling of family names, hence such changes weren't at all uncommon. The town of Milligan in Perry County was named by or for some member of the family.

      My great-grandmother's paternal grandparents were Thomas and Jane McConnel Milliken. Thomas, born about 1730, with his brother, migrated to American at an unknown date. They were Scotch-Irish. Thomas patented 400 acres in what is now Juniata Co, Pa.

      At Lancaster, Pa. Thomas Milliken enlisted in a company of expert riflemen for service in the American Revolutionary War. Arriving in Cambridge, Mass, August 4, 1775, he became part of the 2nd regiment and for a time served in that vicinity under Gen. 'White Horse Harry' Lee. Later he was with Arnold at Quebec and still later served under Israel Putnam while the latter was attached to General George Washington's staff.

      Sent home in 1778 because of service contracted disabilities, he very soon therafter died and is buried in McKee cemetery, Juniata Co., Pa.

      For much of the data concerning the 'pioneering Priors', I am indebted o Augusta (Gussy) Prior Smith, daughter of Anthony who died in Andersonville Civil War prison, Sept 12, 1864 and Ann Huston Prior, and grandaughter of John and Patience Prior. She made a most careful study of the Prior ancestral lineage.

These pages are from a Two Era Engineer.
An Augobiography not published.
John C. Prior
2819 Leeds Road
Columbus 21, Ohio
October 1961

Children of PATIENCE MILLIKEN and JOHN PRIOR are:

	i.	PATIENCE STYLES⁴ PRIOR, b. July 20, 1813; d. November 14, 1893, Asbury Cemetary, Hopewell Twp, Muskingum Co., Ohio; m. JOSIAH RUTLEDGE.
	ii.	NATHAN PRIOR, b. January 01, 1815; d. January 30, 1896, Asbury Cemetary, Hopewell Twp, Muskingum Co., Ohio; m. (1) SARAH HAMILTON; m. (2) HESTER ANN PALMER.
	iii.	ELIZABETH PRIOR, b. December 14, 1816; d. July 14, 1837, Homestead burial plot, Hopewell Twp, Muskingum County, Ohio.
17.	iv.	ABRAHAM STYLES PRIOR, b. January 17, 1819; d. October 14, 1882.
18.	v.	ABIGAIL PRIOR, b. January 06, 1821; d. August 18, 1896, Asbury Cemetary, Hopewell Twp, Muskingum Co., Ohio.
	vi.	JOHN MILLIKEN PRIOR, b. May 22, 1822; d. January 25, 1896, Asbury Cemetary, Hopewell Twp, Muskingum Co., Ohio; m. (1) MARY CENITH HARVEY; m. (2) SARAH OSBORNE.
	vii.	EMELIA PRIOR, b. February 23, 1824; d. April 21, 1909; m. GEORGE W. WRIGHT.
	viii.	MARGARET JANE PRIOR, b. January 04, 1826; d. January 20, 1899; m. YELEY.
	ix.	RHODA REX PRIOR, b. April 18, 1827; d. March 18, 1882; m. JOHN YELTY.
	x.	SAMUEL W. PRIOR, b. March 11, 1829; d. August 15, 1920; m. CAROLINE COLVIN.
	xi.	JACOB PRIOR, b. December 12, 1830; d. July 11, 1832, Homestead burial plot, Hopewell Twp, Muskingum County, Ohio.
	xii.	EZEKIEL EKELBERRY PRIOR, b. February 27, 1833; d. Bef. July 1865, Homestead burial plot, Hopewell Twp, Muskingum County, Ohio.
19.	xiii.	ANTHONY MILLER PRIOR, b. October 02, 1834; d. September 12, 1864, Andersonville Civil War Prison.
	xiv.	SARAH MILLER PRIOR, b. March 29, 1837; d. April 18, 1903; m. JOHN H. ROBERTS.

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