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(November 1796) "John W. Bowens vs Step Tunnel" court case, with "Wm McAmish" (*1) (*2)

and "Jas McAmish" on the list of jurors, "Jury were impanelled (sic) and sworn, passed on said

tryal (sic) do find for the defendant" [Note 24.a.]

(*1, editor’s notes) the names on the original record are actually spelled "McAmish"

(*2) not to be confused with our William McAninch and his oldest son James McAninch

(James McAninch, probable age 10-11 in 1796, could not have served on a jury anyway).

(1797-1799) (referenced in a list of land transactions, with "1552" written in the left margin)

"One other from Jonathan Williams to Daniel McAninch (*1) Dated October 14th 1797 (*2)

for one hundred acres of land was duly proven by the oath of Shobal Ellis and admitted to record"

"7" "Spd"(?) (*3) [Note 24.b.]

(*1, editor’s notes) McAninch is spelled correctly, although it has been mis-indexed as McAmish

(*2) sic, 1797 written in this court record, although the deed is actually dated October 14th 1796

(*3) what does the cryptic annotation "7" "Spd" mean? acknowledge payment of a recording fee?

Summary and Conclusion 1796-1797

After a long journey from Pennsylvania, the Daniel McAninch and William McAninch families

made a short stop in Greene County, Tennessee, where William McAninch acquired a new wife

in 1796. Daniel McAninch and his family may have planned to settle there, since, at the same time,

he bought 100 acres of land on Little Sinking Creek in the same month, October 1796.

However, shortly after his marriage, William McAninch, his son James, and his new wife went

to Kentucky, probably leaving in the fall season and traveling through the winter. A year later,

in October, in the fall of 1797, Daniel McAninch sold the 100 acres on Little Sinking Creek and

took his family through the Cumberland Gap and down the Wilderness Road to Kentucky also.

At that time, Lincoln County, Kentucky, was a very large area, over a quarter of the area of the

present-day State of Kentucky. The main migration trail ran north-west from the Cumberland Gap

all the way to the Ohio River, through Hazel Patch and Crab Orchard, across the Dicks River to

St. Asaph / Logan’s Fort (present-day Stanford, county seat of Lincoln County), through Danville

and Harrodsburg, and northward to Fort Nelson (present-day Louisville) on the mighty Ohio River.

We may never know why William McAninch chose to settle on land in the "Fishing Creek" area

of Lincoln County in 1797, south-west of Stanford, but we know that Daniel McAninch and his

family followed William McAninch down the Wilderness Trail and also settled in the same area.

"The Old Wagon Road" . . . "And down this road, this glorified overgrown footpath through

the middle of nowhere leading to even greater depths of nowhere, came those people looking

for a better life for themselves and their children, down it came those settlers, those hardworking

stubborn Scots Irish and Germans: the preachers, the blacksmiths, and farmers."

"When the crops were in, on a day like today, they started." [Note 7]

____________________________________________________________________________

Daniel McAninch and William McAninch, 1796-1797, Greene County, Tennessee

McA. Family Hist. NL v.XXXII (32) n.2 / Nov. 2024 / Copyright Frank McAninch / p.2024-20