WIXON/CASTERLINE/TOWNSEND IN NY & IND
I AM RELATED TO THIS FAMILY THROUGH THE SAXON AND TOWNSEND LINES MY ANCESTOR, JOHN SAXON AND HIS WIFE, ELIZABETH EVANS, WHO WERE THE PARENTS OF MALINDA SAXON CASTERLINE.ANOTHER DAUGHTER OF JOHN SAXON AND ELIZABETH EVANS WAS MARY (POLLY) SAXON WHO MARRIED GILBERT TOWNSEND.JOHN SAXON WAS A REVOLUTIONARY WAR SOLDIER. REFER TO THE BLACKFORD COUNTY INDIANA, OBIT AND BIO BOARDS FOR MORE INFORMATION ON THESE FAMILIES.PLEASE NOTE THE OTHER ARTICLE REGARDING THE WIXON/CASTERLINE/TOWNSEND FAMILY THAT I POSTED.
I AM TRYING TO FILL OUT THE IN-LAW FAMILY TREES.I HAVE QUITE A BIT OF INFORMATION ON THE SAXON AND TOWNSEND FAMILIES AND WOULD BE HAPPY TO SHARE INFORMATION WITH ANYONE INTERESTED.
**********************
(Transcribed from Blackford County, Indiana newspaper, date and paper unknown. Copy provided by Judi Burkhardt, December 1999.However, the first paragraph refers to an article regarding the Townsend family published the week before this article.Refer to my posting for the Gilbert Townsend, Sr. article of March 8, 1941.I believe this may be the article referred to in the following article.If so, this was published in 1941. )
Casterlines Are Another Pioneer Family of This County; History Traced
Last week in our review of the Townsend family and their descendents the name of Alma, daughter of Joseph and Jane (Townsend) Walker was inadvertently omitted and the name of Oma, daughter of Elijah and Rachel Townsend was erroneously spelled Orna.We pause to make this correction.
Out of the religious and political convulsions of Europe of Europe has come some of the best blood of America.The Puritans of New England, the Quakers of Pennsylvania, the French of Maryland and the Huguenots, who were scattered throughout the eastern part of the United States.The coming of these people and others of their like, during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, was not to satisfy the cravings of the animal nature.It was to protest the then existing regime in their respective countries and to this class of people are we indebted for the important contributions to the totality of our national life.
The Castlerine family of this country are descendants of the French Huguenots who fled France soon after the Edict of Nantes by Louis XIV on October 23, 1685.They settled in Morris county, New Jersey, near Dover, Morristown, where a descendant of Francis Casterline, progenitor of the family, now lives within a short distance from where the family first settled.
The first Castlerines to emigrate to Blackford county, Indiana, were the brothers, John and Ira.They were the sons of Loammi and Charlotte (Fairchild) Casterline.
Loammi Casterline was born April 14, 1763, at Morristown, New Jersey.He enlisted in the army during the Revolution, as a substitute for his uncle and later served a second enlistment.
During the severe winter of 1779 and 1780, Morristown was Washington’s headquarters and Mr. Casterline hauled wood with a six horse team for army use.George and Martha Washington that winter made their home with Phineas Fairchild.Charlotte Fairchild, a daughter, looked after the cooking much of the time and doubtless received many compliments from General Washington.It was at this time that Mr. Casterline met and later married Charlotte Fairchild.
Loammi Casterline and Charlotte Farichild were married September 24, 1786, at Morristown, New Jersey and this fact is on the records of the Presbyterian church at that place.They were the parents of eleven children whose names were as follows: Phineus, who married Eleanor Havens; Abraham who married Hannah Burr; Timothy, who married Jane Havens; John married Eliza Wixon; Ira married Malinda Saxon; Nancy and Polly who never married; Caturrah married William Miles; Betsey married Richard Veronor; Hettie married Lewis Carver and Sally, who married Peter Benedict.At the close of the war the Casterline family moved to Steuben county, New York.
Timothy Casterline also came to Indiana.He located at Losantsville, in Randolph county.His children were Nancy and William.Betsey, who married Richard Veronor, settled in Blackford county but their descendants live in and around Alexandria, Ind.Sally and her husband both died at an early age, and are buried in the Miles cemetery, northwest of Hartford City.
In 1842, Charlotte (Fairchild) Casterline (being then a widow) came to Blackford county to make her home with her children and spend her remaining days.There is no one, at the present time, who knows her burial place, although it is presumed to have been in the Baptist cemetery, located at the northeast corner of Water and Mill streets, in Hartford City.
John and Ira Casterline entered all the land in section four, in Licking township.This section lies one mile north and two miles west of Hartford City.The school house known as the Bailey school, stands on the southwest corner of this section.John took the three hundred and twenty acres on the south and Ira the same on the north.
John built a log house on the spot where Otto Maddox’s home stand today.In fact the home of Mr. Maddox is built around this same log house which is considerably over 100 years old, the logs of which are eighteen inches thick.
Ira’s home was located where Lloyd I. Rice, lives at present, Mrs. Rice being a granddaughter of Mr. Casterline.Mrs. Rice has in her possession the original land grant for this land, signed by Martin Van Buren, in 1838.She also possesses the document, executed by Governor Joseph Wright of Indiana, commissioning her grandfather, Ira Casterline, a justice of the peace for a period of four years, dating from November third, 1852.(Transcriber's note: Ira Casterline was the justice of the peace when John Saxon, his father-in-law, applied for bounty land in Blackford County.See the Blackford County, Indiana bio board for a transcription of this document.)
John and Ira Casterline were considered good carpenters and woodworkers for the times and several pieces of household furniture, which they made are in the possession of the family yet today.John was employed in erecting the first court house in Blackford county around 1844 and his grandson, Emerson Casterline helped raze the same building in 1892.He secured a spindle made of walnut from the stairway of the old court house which he prized very highly.
He was also present at a Fourth of July celebration in 1873, when a heavy storm of wind passed over this section of the country.On that occasion, while Dr. H. C. Davison was delivering an oration, the top of a brick flue projecting above the roof on the east side of the building was blown down and a young man named Greenbury Cole was struck on the head by a falling brick and his skull was fractured.He recovered from the wound and lived for quite awhile afterwards.Mr. Casterline was in the court house when he noticed the wind rising and stepped outside to see what was the matter.The air was full of flying objects and one could scarcely see any distance.He ran across the street south and took refuge in a stairway near the Gable hardware store to wait for his father.When they arrived home they learned that his grandmother, Eliza Casterline had been picking berries when the storm broke and she had the presence of mind to lie down and hold to the bushes to keep from being blown away.