The Last Colonials describes life in the 1700s in the northern colonies of America, what our ancestors ate, the clothes they wore, and how they eked out a living in Pittsylvania Country, the “uncivilized” land west of the Allegheny Mountains that separated the eastern parts of Pennsylvania and Virginia from their far western lands. It compares the wealthier eastern colonists’ way of life with the poorer settlers who lived in the “far lands.” Read how the early settlers coped with the Indians who killed entire families in the scattered settlements. Learn how the settlers made clothes from plants and animals, how they preserved food, what their children went through at school, and how the strict Puritans maintained law and order. The colonial era ended when the colonists won their War of Independence from England and became citizens of the new United States. This book will take you through their years of strife, toil, and their ultimate success in creating the American Industrial Revolution.
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The Families of Nancy Ann Lynn Corbly
The Families of Nancy Ann Lynn Corbly is the story of her life with her Lynn family, and, after marrying Pastor John Corbly, her life in that family. Nancy Ann Lynn was born into a family firmly grounded in its old, well-established Scot-Irish roots. She was the daughter of an early pioneer family who migrated westward across the Allegheny Mountains into the uncivilized lands, the Pittsylvania Country, which was claimed by Virginia and Pennsylvania. All the men she knew as a child including her brothers, father, uncles, and, yes, she also knew John Corbly at an early age, all of them served in some military capacity in the Revolutionary War and in the many wars against the Indians. She lost two uncles and a brother in the fights against the Indians. This book includes the genealogical biographies of her Lynn and Corbly families and includes a genealogical and individual index.
The Muddy Creek Ledger of Greene County
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The Muddy Creek Ledger was an account book maintained by William Seaton at his general merchandise store on the south bank of Muddy Creek in Cumberland Township, Greene County, Pennsylvania, from 1793 to 1796. It recorded his accounting of business that he conducted with the settlers primarily in Cumberland Township, but also in neighboring Greene Township to the south and Jefferson Township to the north. It was rescued from destruction by Howard Leckey, the historian of the Ten Mile Country including Greene County, in 1936 and archived for today’s historians.
The 168 ledger pages have been computer-enhanced for easier readability in this book. It contains a detailed index for the genealogically-minded reader.
Pastor John Corbly and his neighbors in Greene Township
This is a companion book to Pastor John Corbly, his biography. It is about his neighbors in Greene Township, Greene County, Pennsylvania. The 
first recorded surveyed plat of Greene Township was made in 1796. This book includes all information available from official records about each person who bought the first tracts of land in that township during his, and later, his surviving wife, Nancy Ann Lynn Corbly’s lifetime. Only factual, recorded information from Pennsylvania and Greene County archives, historical society data, family Bibles, and personal family histories has been used. A detailed index is provided for the genealogically minded reader.
This is a companion book to Pastor John Corbly. In it you can read the information available from official state records, bible excerpts, archived data and personal histories of those settlers who obtained the first recorded plats of land in Greene Township begining in 1785, the first year that surveyed data became available from the Mason and Dixon Line Survey. There is genealogical family data on each settler insofar as official records were available. It is full of interesting information not readily found elsewhere.
Letters, Journals, & Diaries of ye Colonial America
Letters,
Journals, & Diaries of ye Colonial America
Get your copy now! These 93 stories provide a unique insight into the
lives of mostly ordinary colonial people who lived in extraordinary times.
Read the first description of the New World in the exploring ship captain’s logbook, a letter from the first indentured servant, and the trial of Bridget Bishop, the first person hung for witchcraft in Salem. Compare the diary of the richest man in Virginia to Mary Cooper’s diary wherein she longed for rest from her labors.
Read 16-year-old George Washington’s Rules of Civility, the pathetic letter from near-destitute indentured Elizabeth Sprig, Benjamin Franklin’s account of Grime’s confession and hanging, John Adams’ defense of British soldiers in the Boston Massacre, and the first prayer given in the First Continental Congress.
Read 16-year-old Sally Wister’s diary of the battle of Germantown, a journal
of the participants in the Boston Tea Party, Paul Revere’s account of his
Midnight Ride, and newspaper accounts of President Washington’s death and
funeral.
This is not just another volume of the history of colonial America. It is
a book full of interesting, little known stories about mostly ordinary people
who lived during the colonial era of America’s past.
Small sample of contents:
Yale College was founded, secret diaries, Colonial Child marriages,
a hapless indentured servant, diary of everyday Colonial life, George Washington’s
death and funeral, and much more.
The Last Colonials
The Last Colonials
Pastor John Corbly
Pastor John Corbly
John Corbally immigrated to America in 1747 as the Baptist religion was introduced in opposition to the King’s Anglicanism. He became a lay minister, but persecution drove him to the Pennsylvania frontier. Ordained, he ministered until his death, established many Baptist churches, and was known as “The ablest Baptist minister of his time in the Pennsylvania frontier.” This is not a retelling of previously printed material; it represents over thirty years of meticulous research. Previously unknown information is disclosed here including: the bogus picture of him, his birthplace, his true first wife, exact locations where he lived in Virginia and Pennsylvania, his long-lost treatise on The Believer’s Defense of Baptism, his involvement in the Ketoctin and Redstone Baptist Associations, his involvement in the Whiskey Insurrection from the government’s point of view, the Corbly Massacre as described in his and his daughter’s letters, and many other previously unknown facts. A detailed index is provided. Get your copy now!*Baptized in 1761 and imprisoned for preaching the Baptist religion in Virginia in 1768.
*Revolutionary War soldier, Chaplain, Militiaman, Judge, Patriot, and Indian fighter.
*Delegate to the General Assembly in Williamsburg, Virginia, in 1777-1778.
*Founder or co-founder of 30 Baptist churches in southwestern Pennsylvania.
*and much more!!
See a preview here!
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Mesquite Roots
Mesquite Roots
a novel of Oklahoma History
This is a historical novel about the last great land giveaway in the United States, the Land Run of 1893. In Mesquite Roots you will discover how the early homesteaders learned to live on the prairies in the Indian Territory. You will learn how to build a soddy, an over-jet, and a cat and clay chimney. Many of the events and people described in this book are factually true as are all of the locations. You will be captivated by vivid descriptions of age-old Cherokee Indian rituals for birth, death, and marriage. You will read how our government’s shameful treatment of the Native Americans affected the life of Tiana, a Cherokee princess, and her Indian family. You will follow the life of an Indian boy abandoned on the open prairie who was adopted by the young homesteading couple who found him, the remarkable way he obtained great personal wealth, and how he rose to prominence in Oklahoma and the United States Congress.
*In 1828, Congress gave the First Americans 9,400 square miles of western prairie in Indian Territory, in perpetuity, in preparation for their planned removal from Georgia.
*In 1830, Congress passed the Indian removal Act which was signed into law by President Jackson.
*In 1832, a Supreme Court decision established tribal sovereignty which protected the Indians in Georgia from United States laws.
*In 1838, President Jackson, the Indian Fighter, defied that decision and ordered General Winfield Scott to forcibly remove 17,000 peaceful Cherokees from their land in Georgia and move them a thousand miles to the Cherokee Outlet. Four thousand died from exposure and disease along the Trail Where They Cried.
*In 1883, a cartel of wealthy cattlemen formed the Cherokee Strip Livestock Association and leased six million acres in the Outlet from the Cherokees who were required to move from that land.
*In 1892, outgoing President Benjamin Harrison ordered the livestock removed from the Outlet in preparation for the last great land giveaway in the United States.
*In 1893, incoming President Grover Cleveland declared the last remnant of the Cherokee’s land in the Outlet open for settlement by thousands of eager pioneers in the third, and last, Land Run into Indian Territory.
*The Land Run of 1893 is where this story begins.
Excerpt from Mesquite Roots
The morning sun bore down unmercifully on the great mass of anxious homesteaders as they jostled their conglom- eration of wagons, buckboards, buggies, and mounts into positions at the starting line. Now and then a driver yelled threats and cursed another driver who got in his way. Many men, a few women, and several young boys had threaded their mounts between the closely packed wagons until they stood at the starting line. Occasionally, a a foolhardy man rested on his bicycle. In one hour the soldiers would fire their guns, signaling the start of the Run. Wes and Clay had cupped all the horses the last drinks of water they would have for a few hours. They sat astraddle their sorrels, waiting impatiently. Patience and Tiana had checked the wagons for the last time. The cow ponies shifted their weight nervously in their traces. Now they only had to wait for the signal.
It happened without warning! Cannons fired all along the starting line! The explosions and simultaneous yells of the wagon drivers frightened children as they whipped their teams into a headlong race for the choicest pieces of land. Mounted riders spurred their horses to the front of the throng. Ladies whipped their horses, trying to keep their buggies abreast of the wagons. Dogs ran brazenly in the midst of the great onrushing crowd, barking their warnings to passersby. A riderless horse ran wildly along with the endless streams of wagons. An overturned wagon with its team of struggling horses blocked the way for those behind, its cargo strewn about, and its passengers thrown to the ground. Painful snorts and whimpering whinnies signaled that a horse had gone down somewhere. Bicyclists in vest shirts and derbies pedaled as fast as they could, adding an unsurreal aspect to this historic event. Great clouds of dust swirled aloft, falling upon those unfortunate enough to bring up the rear.
As far as the eye could see this great phalanx of dirty, sweating humanity raced into the Cherokee Outlet. The country’s last great land giveaway had begun precisely at twelve o’clock noon, September 16, 1893.
