Manlove Origins, Part 6 - On to Indiany

George W. Manlove’s journal is the only artifact surviving these two hundred years to indicate when and how the Manlove family got to Indiana. Since his is the family’s earliest writing to come down to us it is tempting to conclude that George W. was the family point man, the first to make the trip. That may be so, but his father and three brothers also went to Indiana about the same time, and we don’t really know who got there first.

George W mentioned in his Journal that he took the Crab Orchard road (The Logan Trace??) on 17 Oct to visit his father. It is therefore likely that George senior had already moved from North Carolina, but it’s a mystery as to what he was doing in that part of Kentucky or how long he stayed.

George W.’s older brothers, William and John entered the Indiana territory before 1820. William died in the early part of 1819 of cholera. He was living in Fayette County, as was George W. John lived in neighboring Henry County. These two counties, along with Rush and Wayne are four clustered at the border of Ohio, and are the main ones into which the Manlove family eventually migrated.

I think Mark, the youngest brother was the last to come into Indiana. He originally settled in Highland county Ohio, but moved to Tippecanoe county after 1827. The brothers’ oldest sibling, and only sister, Hannah, was possibly the last family member to leave North Carolina. She, her husband, Edward Trotter, and family left after 1822 and probably passed through Indiana. They may have stayed a while, but eventually moved on to Missouri.

A year after he got to Indiana George W. Manlove wed Mary Caldwell. The Caldwell family was also from Guilford County, North Carolina, but had been in Ohio a few years. The marriage was performed in October of 1811 in Preble County, Ohio - which is just across the border and a short hop from his land on Lick Creek, Fayette County.

The newlyweds and Mary’s parents, moved onto their Lick Creek farms shortly afterward, but were forced to withdraw to Ohio as Tecumseh, the famous Shawnee leader, was actively organizing a confederation of Midwestern tribes. Things got really hot in the territory during the War of 1812. George W. Manlove’s father participated in the war, and probably came to Indiana country after it ended. The uprising failed after Tecumseh was killed in battle in 1813. The families returned to Lick Creek in 1814, and developed the land.

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