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Descendants of John Runyon, Sr.

Generation No. 2

2. ELIZABETH (BETSY)² RUNYON (JOHN¹)⁹ was born Bet. January - June 1761 in Brock's Gap, Rockingham County, VA^9,¹⁰, and died December 31, 1844 in Bedford County, Virginia ^11,¹². She married JACOB CITTY¹³ March 1781 in Brock's Gap, Rockingham County, Virginia ^14,¹⁵. He was born June 28, 1760 in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania ¹⁶, and died May 06, 1836 in Bedford County, Virginia ¹⁷.

More About ELIZABETH (BETSY) RUNYON:
Burial: January 1845, Bedford County, Virginia¹⁷
Residence: 1799, Moved to Bedford County, Virginia¹⁷

More About JACOB CITTY and ELIZABETH RUNYON:
Marriage: March 1781, Brock's Gap, Rockingham County, Virginia ^18,¹⁹

Children of ELIZABETH RUNYON and JACOB CITTY are:

	i.		CATHERINE³ CITTY¹⁹, b. January 22, 1782, Rockingham County, Virginia¹⁹.
	ii.		NANCY CITTY¹⁹, b. September 11, 1783, Rockingham County, Virginia¹⁹.
	iii.		ABRAHAM CITTY¹⁹, b. October 17, 1785, Rockingham County, Virginia¹⁹.
	iv.		ELIZABETH CITTY¹⁹, b. March 07, 1788, Rockingham County, Virginia¹⁹.
	v.		JOHN CITTY¹⁹, b. January 14, 1790, Rockingham County, Virginia¹⁹.
	vi.		JACOB CITTY¹⁹, b. March 17, 1792, Rockingham County, Virginia¹⁹.
	vii.		MARTHA CITTY¹⁹, b. November 20, 1793, Rockingham County, Virginia¹⁹.
	viii.		POLLY CITTY¹⁹, b. November 20, 1794, Rockingham County, Virginia¹⁹.
	ix.		SARAH CITTY¹⁹, b. January 14, 1797, Rockingham County, Virginia¹⁹.
	x.		CHRISTOPHER CITTY¹⁹, b. July 04, 1799, Bedford County, Virginia¹⁹.
	xi.		SAMUEL G. CITTY¹⁹, b. March 17, 1802, Bedford County, Virginia¹⁹.
	xii.		PATSY CITTY¹⁹, b. April 18, 1805, Bedford County, Virginia¹⁹.

3. JOHN² RUNYON, JR. (JOHN¹)²⁰ was born 1765 in Brock's Gap, Rockingham County, VA ²¹, and died March 1848 in Allen County, Ohio²¹. He married ESTHER RIFE²² February 22, 1791 in Rockingham County, VA ²³. She was born December 02, 1764 in Shenandoah County, Virginia ²⁴, and died August 1847 in Allen County, Ohio²⁴.

Notes for JOHN RUNYON, JR.:
Baised upon records of the Linville Creek Baptist Church, John Runyon, Jr. is known to be the son of a John Runyon, but to date, no one has been able to document which John Runyan (also refered to as John Runyon, Sr.) was in fact his father. It is possiable his father could have been John Runyon b. 1705, son of Peter Runyon, but that's not very likely.

Norman L. Runyon (nrunyon@voyager.net) has been researching this Runyon line for years, and would have to be considered the current authority on this Runyon family, but he has not to date succeded in documenting who John Sr. was. Norman had this to say about the subject:

"Anne (Annie, Anna) Goodpasture would all be the same person. She is the probable mother of the John Runyon (called John, Jr. in the Linville Creek Baptist Church records) who was born
ca. 1765 and who lived in Brocks Gap, Rockingham County, VA. She is probably
the Anne Runyon mentioned in the church records as having been baptized on
October 9, 1808. If that is all correct then, of course, she would have been
the wife of the "John Runyon, Sr." of the church records (1808-1818). I have
a copy of a letter, written by her great-grandaughter in 1940, which indicates
that the above information would, probably, be correct." In January, 1999 Norman stated " I don't think that the Anne Runyon who was baptised in 1808 was the mother of "John, Jr.". That would, probably, have been the wife of Anderson."

"The John who is said to have been born to Peter & Providence
(Blackford) Runyon in 1705 is not likely to be connected to Rockingham County,
VA at all. If he ever was in Rockingham County, it might not have been for
long. The 1st John Runyon in Brocks Gap appeared there in December 1753. The
1705 John appears to have died before Oct 1755 as he is not mentioned in his
father's will of that date. That does leave a little room for him to have
been in Brocks Gap but not much. It is possible that he could have arrived
there in 1753 and been killed in the French & Indian War which started in the
spring of 1754. That, however, makes it impossible for him to have started
fathering children in 1761, which is approximately when Elizabeth (the eldest
daughter) was born.

If you look over the Harman Clark reports, two other John Runyons are
presented as possible candidates for the Brocks Gap John. One is descended
from Vincent Rongnion's son John and one from Vincent's son Thomas. Either of
these would seem to more likely than Peter's son. Personally, I am leaning
toward the descendant of Thomas but nothing has been proven on any of them."

"If the 1705 John Runyon is our ancestor, there has to be an additional generation in there.
My best guess would be that, if he is the man, then he could have bought the land in 1753
and been omitted from his parents' wills for other reasons than death. There
is a John Runyon who served as a deacon of the Linville Creek Church
(1789-1791). He could be that man but not the "John Runyon, Sr." who shows up
in the 1808 church records. He could be the father of "John, Sr.". It would
appear that "John, Sr." would have been born ca. 1735-1740. The 1st record for a Runyon in the
Brocks Gap area is a land grant survey (which I have) made for one Jacob Goodpasture
in Dec 1753 - just a few months before the beginning of the French & Indian War.
The survey records that Jacob immediately transferred the land to one John Runying.
(I do not have a copy of the deed resulting from this survey.) No more is recorded
about this John Runyon until the early 1760s so he may have left the area until the
fighting subsided - ca. 1761. From 1788 to 1791 a John Runyon shows up in the
records of the Linville Creek Baptist Church as a deacon. (See "Virginia Valley
Records" by John W. Wayland, pages 59-64.) After 1791, no Runyons are mentioned in
the Church records for 17 years. They reappear in 1808 in force (page 75):
Including a John, Sr. a John, Jr. and a John, Jr. of Jr. Some served as "moderator"
of church meetings but none as deacons. In analyzing this and other documents that
I have, I suspect that the 1753 John was, probably, the same a the Deacon John but,
probably, not the same as the John, Sr. First there is there is the difference in
their church functions. Then, proven children of John, Sr. appear to have been born
starting ca. 1761. That combined with documented evidence that he died in 1830
would indicate that he was born ca. 1735-40. That would have made him too young to
purchase land in 1753. More likely the John, Sr. from the 1808- church records was,
actually, John, Jr. son of the original 1753 John. The only place that I have seen
the name Anne connected to John, as his wife, comes from the 1800 marriage record of
their daughter Mary to Arnold Ford. On the lower right side of the marriage
application is written "John Runyon" and under that "Anne Runyon". Unfortunately,
according to John Robert "Bob" Runyon, whom I asked to examine that document when in
Harrisonburg last year, those two names are written in pencil whereas the rest of
the document is written in ink. It would appear that someone, trying to be helpful,
added the names to the document at some later date. The origninal document says
only "John Runyon & wife." My suspicion is that Anne is correct and that her maiden
name was, probably, Goodpasture but I can't prove it. I have a copy of a letter,
written by a great-granddaughter of John in the 1940s, which states that her
grandparents were John Runyon and Annie Goodpasture. Unfortunately, this lady had
never met her grandparents, because they died before her birth, and their actual
names were John Runyon & Esther Rife. She was very adamant about the names,
however, so I think that she was just repeating what she had heard her father say
about his grandparents. If that is the case, then it would seem likely that John,to
whom she referred, was the son of the 1753 John and that his wife was the daughter
of the 1753 Jacob Goodpasture. Can't prove any of that however. Jacob Goodpasture
died in the 1760s and his estate filed a lawsuit against a John Runyon but we have
not been able to find the text of that suit so we don't know what that was all
about. It would, probably, explain a lot."

Norman L. Runyon (November 20, 1999) says "Today, we were finally able to
pinpoint the death location for my John Runyon, Jr. and his wife Esther (Rife) Runyon
to a specific 80 acre farm in Shawnee Township, Allen County, Ohio. I have updated
my website accordingly. They are, probably, buried on the same property but we are
checking to see if we can confirm that. It turns out that we have a
cousin, who is a genealogy nut, who lives only 2-1/2 miles from the site
so he will be doing some checking.
We were able to do this because we found two land purchases by a
John Runyon, in Shawnee Township, in 1835 by checking out the Bureau of
Land Management website and downloading the actual land patents. (Our
cousin, who is a farmer, happens to own a property which is sandwiched
between the two 1835 purchases.) We compared the 1835 land descriptions
to an 1846 agreement between John Runyon, Jr. and his son Sampson. The
legal description of an 80 acre plot of land that John gave Sampson in
1846 matches, exactly, with the description of the north half of one of
the 1835 purchases.
Further comparison to an 1853 lawsuit against Sampson shows that
John and Esther moved to this site, with Sampson's family, in late May
or early June of 1847. Esther died there in August of 1847 and John in
March of 1848.
The 1835 deeds, also, show that John Runyon, Jr. was living in Clark
County, OH at the time that he made those two purchases."

More About JOHN RUNYON and ESTHER RIFE:
Marriage: February 22, 1791, Rockingham County, VA ²⁵

Children of JOHN RUNYON and ESTHER RIFE are:

8.	i.		JOHN³ RUNYON III, b. June 24, 1792, Rockingham County, VA; d. January 04, 1875, Adams County, IN.
	ii.		ELIZABETH RUNYON²⁵, b. 1793, Brock's Gap, Rockingham County, VA^25,²⁶; d. 1866, Ohio.

Notes for ELIZABETH RUNYON:
Elizabeth never married.

iii.

ANN RUNYON²⁷, b. 1794, Rockingham County, Virginia^27,²⁸; d. Bet. February 1855 - June 1874.

Notes for ANN RUNYON:
Ann never married.

9.	iv.	ESTHER RUNYON, b. June 28, 1796, Rockingham County, Virginia; d. January 17, 1886, Wapakoneta, Ohio.
10.	v.	JACOB RUNYON, b. August 16, 1798, Brock's Gap, Rockingham County, VA; d. September 30, 1874, CedarTownship, Van Buren County, Iowa.
	vi.	ABSOLOM RUNYON²⁹, b. March 02, 1805, Brock's Gap, Rockingham County, VA^29,³⁰; d. October 29, 1868, Burlington, Kansas³⁰.

Notes for ABSOLOM RUNYON:
Absolom was never married.

More About ABSOLOM RUNYON:
Burial: 1868, Mount Hope Cemetery, Coffey County, Kansas³⁰

11.	vii.	JOSEPH RUNYON, b. January 19, 1807, Brock's Gap, Rockingham County, VA; d. July 19, 1859, Logan Township, Auglaize County, Ohio.
12.	viii.	SAMPSON RUNYON, b. September 18, 1809, Brock's Gap, Rockingham County, VA; d. December 21, 1898, Lima, Ohio.
13.	ix.	SEPORA RUNYON, b. 1812, Brock's Gap, Rockingham County, VA; d. December 31, 1862, Monticello, Illinois.

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