Family of John Painter & Rachel Redd #2, Frederick Co., Virginia & Richland Co.,
The late Harold Painter included in The Painter Family (1975) the following biographical sketch of his grandfather, Nelson William Painter (from Mark A. McGruder, History of Pettis County, Missouri (Topeka Historical Publishing Co., 1919), p. 688):
"NELSON PAINTER…a son of Hamilton and Matilda (Grub) Painter.Hamilton was born in Virginia and was a son of John Painter."
"John Painter was twice married and both his first and second wives strangely bore the maiden name of Rachel Red, although they were not related.To both of his marriages were born 17 children."
This and the following series of postings are an effort to better document John Painter, his second wife, and their 12 children.Of these children, only 2 died young; the remaining 10 produced a total of at least 78 grandchildren, of whom 72 are identified.
John Painter and his second wife, Rachel Redd, were married on 2 June 1808 in Frederick County, Virginia.John, a son of John Painter and Susannah Stratton, was born 18 July 1775 in Frederick County.Rachel, a daughter of George Redd and Rachel Fawcett, was born about 1786 also in Frederick County.John Painter’s parents and grandparents, and many of his siblings, were Quakers, but there is no record that John himself was a Quaker.Rachel Redd, like her parents, was a Quaker.Because a Methodist minister performed this marriage ceremony, the bride, the bride’s father George Redd, and the groom’s brother Robert Painter were disciplined afterwards by their Quaker meeting.
John Painter’s parents and siblings—and all of their exact dates of birth—appear in Quaker records.These relationships are reiterated in John’s father’s will (proved 1801), of which John was an executor.As for Rachel Redd #2, no known record states expressly the identity of her parents.(Quaker records show that George Redd and Rachel Fawcett were married 15 November 1781 at the Mount Pleasant Monthly Meeting, Frederick County, Virginia.)
In the Painter Family (p. 25), Harold Painter gave this account of his great-great-grandmother: “Rachel Redd 1786-1867.Born in Frederick Co., Va...Her 12th child was born when she was 48 years of age.”This twelfth child, Charity Ann, was born in May 1835, so by this account Rachel was born in 1786 or 1787.According to the 1850 census, Rachel was age 65—born about 1785—and according to the 1860 census, she was age 73—born about 1787.A headstone inscription index reports the following: Rachel Painter, d. 9 Nov 1867, 87y 8m 9d, w/o John Painter.This yields 1780 as the year of birth.According to Dorothy Wood Ewers in This is Ewers (Yours) (1962): “RACHEL FAWCETT REDD (b. 2-28-1781) dau of GEORGE REDD m. 11-15-1781 Rachel Fawcett.George Redd son of ADAM REDD and Merium _____ of Christiana Hundred, New Castle County, Delaware.”The Ewers’ account sets Rachel’s date of birth more than 8 months before her parents’ marriage.I am inclined to accept Harold Painter’s report of 1786 for Rachel’s date of birth.Harold Painter obtained some of his information from his great-uncle Sherman M. Painter.Sherman lived with or very near his grandmother Rachel, and was age 10 when she died.Further, the 1786 date would make Rachel age 21 or 22 when she married—a more typical age for a woman’s first marriage in that time and place than age 26 to 28.
John Painter and Rachel Redd #2’s first two children were born in Virginia, presumably on the family’s Frederick County farm, south of Winchester.Around 1812, the family moved to Ohio, staying a short time in Belmont County before settling in Richland County.John Painter on 1 December 1814 bought 160 acres of land in Richland County’s Perry Township—the southeast quarter of Section 36—most probably where the couples’ next ten children were born.(The farm bordered on the east Richland County’s Jefferson Township, and on the south Knox County’s Middlebury Township.)There, “Mr. Painter made farming his chief business, but worked some at the cooper trade, and did rough cabinet work for his neighbors,” according to his daughter Lydia’s biography.
John Painter died 30 July 1860 at the age of 85.He left no will, but there is an estate inventory.His 160-acre farm had been divided already between sons Hamilton and George, as shown on an 1856 plat map.(The two known surviving sons from John’s first marriage received nothing.)Rachel #2 died on 9 November 1867.Both John and Rachel #2 were buried a short distance south of their farm in Friends Cemetery, Middlebury Township, Knox County, Ohio.A headstone inscription index for the cemetery records their dates of death.
Children of John Painter and his second wife Rachel Redd
A biography of John Winand, Jr., (in History of Morrow County and Ohio (Chicago: O. L. Baskin & Co., 1880), pp. 833-34) gives the following account: “he married Miss Cynthia Painter…a daughter of John and Rachel (Red) Painter, being the sixth child in a family of twelve children, nine of whom are living as follows—”
-- Hamilton, a farmer in East Perry Twp., Richland Co., Ohio;
-- Mary, widow of Jerry Huntsman, now of Noble Co., Indiana.;
-- Lydia, widow of Jerry Rule, of Morrow Co., Ohio;
-- Susan, Mrs. Adam Rule of North Bloomfield Twp., Morrow Co., Ohio;
-- George, farmer in Richland Co.;
-- Cynthia, wife of subject;
-- Rachel, Mrs. George Hines of Noble Co., Indiana;
-- Arminda, Mrs. Joseph Lukens of Iowa; and
-- Charity, Mrs. William Lukens of Knox Co., Ohio.
Although the biography states that Cynthia was “the sixth child,” she was more accurately sixth among the nine still living in 1880, but ninth in birth order.The three no longer living were Miriam, Elizabeth, and a boy, as reported in Harold Painter’s 1975 Painter Family.
The following list of the 12 children of John Painter and his second wife is based on Harold Painter with additional research and analysis.
--Born in Frederick Co., Virginia
1. Miriam: b. 1809; m. Levi Ruhl; d. 12 Aug 1856, Holt Co., Missouri
2. Hamilton: b. 24 Nov 1810; m. Matilda Grubb; d. 28 Mar 1885, Richland Co., Ohio
--Born in Richland Co., Ohio
3. Mary: b. 24 Sep 1814; m. Jeremiah “Jerry” Huntsman; d. 21 Oct 1899, Noble Co., Indiana
4. Elizabeth: b. 1815-16; d. 1830-40, Richland Co., Ohio
5. Lydia: b. 3 Feb 1817; m. Jeremiah Ruhl; d. 23 Feb 1898, Morrow Co., Ohio
6. Susannah: b. 11 Aug 1818; m. Adam Ruhl; d. 30 Mar 1907, Morrow Co., Ohio
7. boy (name unknown): d. btw. 1830-40, Richland Co., Ohio
8. George: 4 Feb 1822; m1. Mary A. Thumb (possibly Mary Ann Thuma), m2. Amelia French; d. 15 Jul 1908, Richland Co., Ohio
9. Cynthia: b. 2 Jul 1824; m. John Winand, Jr.; d. 18 Sep 1895, Morrow Co., Ohio
10. Rachel: b. 28 Nov 1826; m. George W. Hines; d. 31 Jul 1913, Noble Co., Indiana
11. Arminda: b. 26 Jul 1829; m. Joseph Lukens; d. 20 Jan 1896, Jasper Co., Iowa
12. Charity Ann: b. 15 May 1835; m1. William T. Lukens, m2. William B. Robinson; d. 21 Feb 1919, Knox Co., Ohio
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Notes:
Nelson William Painter was born 23 August 1838 in Richland County, Ohio, presumably on the Painter family farm in Perry Township.He lived with or near his paternal grandparents John and Rachel #2, and was enumerated with them in the same household in the 1850 census.He moved to Missouri in 1860, the year John passed away, was a Union soldier, and returned to Richland County in 1865-66, while Rachel #2 was still living.Nelson himself was living when his biographical sketch was published, and he almost certainly provided the information.
Some Redd family researchers believe that the two Rachel Redds were, in fact, related.The first Rachel Redd—for whom no original record is known to exist—is beloved to be a daughter of Andrew Redd and Elizabeth Hollingsworth; Andrew’s 1819 will indicates that a daughter no longer living had married a Painter.Andrew Redd was an uncle of George Redd.Their respective daughters would be first cousins, once removed.
While indicating nothing of the existence of Rachel #1, Hazel M. Kendall, This Book Records the Descendants of William Gregg the Friend Immigrant to Delaware 1682…(Anderson, Indiana: 1944), p. 146, stated that John Painter’s marriage to Rachel #2 was his second marriage:“…John Painter 1775-1860 Richland Co. Ohio (m. (2) Rachel Redd 1781-1862 prob. dau. of George Redd m. 1781 Rachel Fawcett…”In this same paragraph, however, there is information missing, questionable, or wrong.
Family of John and Susannah Painter.(Joint Committee of Hopewell Friends, Hopewell Friends History, 1734-1934, Frederick County, Virginia (Strasburg, Virginia: Shenandoah Publishing House, Inc., 1936), p. 494.)Also see this John Painter’s will, text in Harold Painter, The Painter Family (1975), pp. 7-8.
Marriage license: John Painter & Rachel Redd, 2 June 1808, Frederick Co., Virginia; Lewis Chastain, minister.Frederick County, Virginia, Marriages, Eliza Timberlake Davis, ed. (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., 1973), p. 57.Chastain, a Methodist minister, also performed the marriage ceremony for John's first cousin Abraham Painter in 1807.
3 July 1809: Rachel (Redd) Painter, “Married out [of discipline]--testimony signed against and referred back to [Hopewell] Women’s Mtg.”(Hopewell Friends History, p. 525.)
4 September 1809: Robert Painter and George Redd disowned by Hopewell for “Attending a wedding accomplished contrary to discipline.”(Hopewell Friends History, p. 515.)
Ellsworth H. Morse, Jr., Richland County, Ohio, Original Land Purchasers including School Lands (Richland County Genealogical Society, 1999; revised by MAGIC Computer Committee).
A number of on-line genealogies have shown older sons of John Painter to be sons also of his second wife.Among these older sons is the fairly well documented Jacob, born 1801--7 years before John Painter’s marriage to his second wife.