Wednesday, February 13, 2013

The Family History Writing Challenge - A Long Trip Back

We are getting close to the halfway point in The Family Writing Challenge.  This has definitely been a challenge for me to get started on every story.  If I hadn't made the commitment, I don't know how far I would have gotten on this.  Sometimes we just need a little bit of a push.  The Challenge has been my push.


My ggg grandmother, Rachel Huddleson was born in Guilford County, North Carolina to a  Quaker family on September 26, 1788.  She was the daughter of Seth and Lydia Gifford Huddleston.  Her father fought in the Revolutionary War.  They moved from Massachusetts to Guilford County, North Carolina in early 1788.  



She grew up as a Quaker with five sisters and one brother.  Rachel and a couple of her sisters were dismissed from the Quaker church because they married out of union.  The Quakers dismissed many people for various reasons.  Rachel was dismissed for marrying John Eccles on January 27, 1813.  She may not have made the best choice in leaving the church to marry him.  John had been in the Navy during The French & Indian War and had developed a drinking problem.

Rachel and John had six children while they were living in North Carolina, including my gg grandmother, Martha.  Rachel's father died and her siblings and her mother all began moving to Ohio.  Rachel was left in North Carolina with her husband and children.

John left Rachel and went away.  I don't know if she knew where he went or if he was coming back.  She got word to her family in Ohio.  Her brother, Jonathon, not wanting to leave his sister alone in North Carolina, with her children, took off from Ohio and walked back to North Carolina to bring his sister and her children back to Ohio with him.

I believe at some point John came to Ohio, because Rachel had one more child in Ohio.  When she came to the north she applied to be accepted back into the Quaker church.  She spent the rest of her life as a Quaker.  She moved from Ohio to live in Boone County, Indiana, where her daughter and family had moved.

Rachel is buried in Boone County, where she died on August 14, 1863.

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