Rethinking Jacob Veatch

Jacob Veach (or Veatch) was born about 1781[1] in Pennsylvania or Kentucky.[2] The Veatch Family Association has presented a theory that he was a son of Benjamin Veatch Jr and his first wife.[3] After the first wife died ca 1790, Benjamin moved to Woodford County, Kentucky, where he married Sarah Powers on 8 Aug 1794.

Benjamin was in Jessamine Co KY in 1800 and in Scott Co KY in 1810.[4]  Jacob married Mary Hilton on 18 Dec 1805 in Jessamine Co KY. Jacob died in Johnson Co IN after 1840.

Jacob and Polly had a child born ca 1808 in KY and another born 1809 in Indiana, according to these children’s 1850 censuses; in 1820, the family was in Clark County, Indiana, p 14: Jacob Veach, 010010/42010. In 1830, Clark Co IN, p 80: Jacob Veatch, 0000101…/1221101… And in 1840, Johnson Co IN, p 306: Jacob Veach, 100000001/00101001.

It is noteworthy to this writer that her ancestor, Nancy Jane (Prather) Light, was a second-generation descendant of four Maryland families: Prather, Redman, Veatch and Hilton. Three of these families traveled from Maryland to North Carolina through Kentucky to Indiana. There are Veatch families in Woodford Co KY in the same time frame who also resided for a time in North Carolina.

Mrs C W Veatch linked three generations of men named Benjamin Veatch as father-son-and grandson. This is possible but not supported by documents and no connection to Jacob has been found.

The First Benjamin Veatch (Maryland)

Benjamin Veatch was the seventh son of James and Rachel (Hepburn) Veatch of Prince George’s County, Maryland. He was born about 1729 and married a woman named Esther ca 1755. He resided in 1760 in All Saints Parish, Frederick County, Maryland[6],  and was a grand juror in March 1761 in that county.[7] This writer has found no source for the statement that he died in 1774 in Bedford County, Pennsylvania.

The Second Benjamin Veatch

The second Benjamin Veatch was married in 1794 in Woodford Co KY.

Mrs. Veach claimed this was the same man who was in 1786 PA census, Air, Bedford Co PA, single freeman, and also taxed same township, 10 shillings, single man. (If the 1729 Benjamin had been widowed or if this was Jacob’s father, he would not be listed as a single man, right?)

PA Archives, Series 5, Vol. 3, p 36: military duty in Bedford Co PA, 1789

Where is the PA Benjamin in 1800?

• Jessamine Co KY tax lists: 1800-1805.
• Fayette Co KY tax lists: 1800-1803.
• Woodford Co KY tax lists: 1794, 1804, 1805, 1806, 1809, 1810.
• Tax list, Shelby Co KY, 1792: “single man over 21.”
• 1793, Russell´s Regiment, Cavalry, KY Volunteers (the Kentucky Benjamin’s age is not known, probably 21+ in 1793)
• He married Sarah Powers 8 Aug 1794, Woodford Co KY, MR
• 1800 “Second Census of Kentucky,” p 304: Benjamin Veach, Jessamine Co, 8/29/1800
• 1810 Scott Co KY, p 168: Benjamin Veech: 10010/41010/0 (no children from possible first marriage were with him now)
• 1820 widow Sarah in Woodford Co KY, w/2 sons, 7 dts

The Third Benjamin Veatch

Married Isabel Guyn, 20 December 1810, Woodford Co KY

1810 census, Woodford Co KY Benjamin Veatch (26-46), near Asa C Veach (16-26), Charity Veach (26-46m w/4 ch), Oshy Veach (26-46)

(These three men are called sons of PA-KY Benjamin’s first marriage—shouldn’t proximity to Charity point to them being children of her husband Daniel’s possible first marriage?)

1820 Federal Census for Orange County, Indiana: Benjamin Veach 400001/10010

The Big Question

Why put Jacob with any of these Benjamins? Location in Jessamine Co KY?

He married Polly Hilton, 1805, Jessamine Co KY. Several Veatches were in that county and neighboring Woodford County.

Veatch Families Leave Maryland

James and Rachel Veatch were the parents of eight adult sons. Nathan, Ninian, Jeremiah and Hezekiah lived and died in Maryland; James Jr was serving with Maryland troops when he died in a prisoner of war camp during the Revolutionary War. Daniel died in Woodford Co KY. John died in 1790 in Rowan Co NC. Benjamin possibly died in Pennsylvania, but more likely in Frederick Co MD.

There were at least four Veatch men in Woodford and Jessamine Counties at the time Jacob was married there in 1805. It has been assumed that Jacob, Asa Clifford, Benjamin and Oshy were brothers, although only their presence in the same area indicates that might be true. By 1810 Jacob had moved to Indiana and is never found associated with any of his likely brothers.

These four older generation men were:

Benjamin (above), age unknown, married Sarah Powers in 1794 in Woodford Co, deceased by 1820 when she was listed with a large family. He served in 1793, KY Volunteers and is possibly the same man listed in PA in 1786. Benjamin is asserted to have been a son of Benjamin Veatch of Frederick Co MD and Bedford Co PA, but with no real evidence.

The other three men were sons of Daniel Veatch and his wife, Dorcas Plummer, and first cousins of Benjamin. This writer has a recent autosomal DNA match to a descendant of Nancy Ann (Veatch) Whitlatch, a daughter of Daniel and Dorcas.

Daniel Veatch Jr, b 1755, married at age 36 in 1791 to Mrs Charity Baker in Mercer Co KY, and he died in 1806. He was some years older than his known wife and might have had an earlier wife and family. He served in the Revolutionary War in Maryland; her widow’s pension lists her children; she is on the same page in 1810 census as Asa C, Benjamin and Oshy and lived until 1850.

Jeremiah Veatch was born in Maryland in 1759 and married at age 23 Priscilla Wilson in 1782 in Fayette Co PA. He served in the Revolutionary War in 1776 in Maryland and moved the next year to Washington Co PA. An incomplete list of their children is in her widow’s pension documents. They were in Jessamine Co KY in 1810.

Elijah Veatch was born in Maryland in 1751/5, served in Revolutionary War in Virginia and supposedly died in Monroe Co KY in 1843. His 1818 pension application from Caldwell Co KY mentions without giving names a wife, 55, a daughter, 35 with a “natural deformity,” a “weakly” son, 16, and a two-year-old grandson. In 1820 he was next door to Nathan Veatch, age 25-44. In 1833 he was a resident of Tomlinson, KY. E.D. Veatch, “one of his heirs at law,” attested in 1843 in Mercer Co KY to the death of Elijah Veatch; this man was a son of Daniel Veatch. His censuses are difficult to locate, and he was not in Jessamine or Woodford County.

Conclusions:

1. There is not enough evidence to place Jacob Veatch as a son of Benjamin Jr.
2. There is not enough evidence to place Jacob Veatch as a brother of Asa C, Oshy and Benjamin Veatch.
3. No evidence has been found for first marriages of one or two Veatches of Woodford and Jessamine Counties, other than the existence of several men born before the known marriages.
4. Jacob Veatch was almost certainly a great-grandson of James and Rachel (_____) Veatch of Frederick Co MD.
5. Jacob Veatch was possibly a grandson of Daniel and Dorcas (Plummer) Veatch.
6. Asa Clifford, Oshy and Benjamin Veatch were possibly sons of Daniel Veatch Jr from a first marriage.
7. No evidence has been found that Jacob Veatch or his unknown father were in Pennsylvania, although that is possible.
8. No evidence is known for the parents of the second Benjamin; he might have been another brother of the other three in that portion of Kentucky.
9. No descendants of Benjamin and Esther (_____) Veatch have been positively identified.
10. Recent shared DNA matches at Ancestry.com show this writer connected with

1. The second Benjamin Veatch and wife Sarah Powers.
2. The third Benjamin Veatch and two of his children.
3. Three children of Daniel Veatch.
4. Multiple children of Mary Veatch and husband James Ellis. These have the highest number of matching cMs and are the biggest puzzle of all.

[1] We Veitches, Veatches, Veaches, Veeches. Wanda Veatch Clark, ed. Redmond OR: Midstate Printing, 1974.

[2] His two children known living in 1880 both said he was born in KY. Sarah Ann said mother born Maryland, while Mary Ann incorrectly stated her mother was born in SC.

[3] Mrs C W Veatch’s article gives a probable construction of this family. The article, “Memo Regarding the Origin of the Original Veatch (Veach) Family Groups of Mercer, Woodford, Jessamine and Harrison Counties KY,” from the Veatch Family Association Newsletter, are possibly mistaken in the family they give our Jacob’s supposed father Benjamin.

[4] “Second Census of Kentucky,” p 304: Benjamin Veach, Jessamine Co, 8/29/1800; Scott Co KY, p 168: Benjamin Veech: 10010/41010/0.

[5] Her date of death is from Harry [no last name given, but probably Veatch] at Genforum, hdveatch@erols.com.

[6] Maryland, Compiled Census and Census Substitutes Index, 1772-1890, Ancestry.com.

[7] This Was the Life, Excerpts from the Judgment Records of Frederick County, Maryland, 1748-1765, p 219. Ancestry.com.

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