Post date: Sep 13, 2011 2:32:40 PM
Continuing story of 4th Great Grandfather.
Abraham Miller returned from the Revolutionary War, married his sweetheart Catherine Clapper and settled into their farm, Stony Ridge, in western Maryland's Washington County.
Their first child, Susannah Miller, born 1784, was soon followed by another daughter, Catherine born 1785. Then John Miller was born 1786 and Abraham, Jr., was born 1787. Records are sketchy during this period, but Catherine died and her younger sister Elizabeth Clapper came to take care of the children. Between 1787 and 1788, Elizabeth Clapper became the wife of Abe Miller and their first child was born in 1789, Elizabeth Miller, Abe's fifth child. The family days were spent at beautiful Stony Ridge and their days were filled with chores, babies, religion, fun while attending other weddings and funerals.
In 1790, Abe decided to ride northward to visit Huntingdom Co. in Pennsylvania for their Sharpsburg friends, the Fouse and Brumbaugh families had migrated into the valley of Morrison's Cove along Clover Creek. Both Fouse and Brumbaughs, were former neighbors of Abe's Uncle David Miller. Grandpa Brumbaugh left first with sons in 1788 to seek a less expensive section, for by 1788 tracts were already settled in Washington Co. MD. The pioneer wanted to buy up a larger piece of virgin land for less and then he would be able to leave more acres for his sons - land was the gold they were after.
Abe road past Chambersburg on into the mountain valley where his uncle's friends resided and he was persuaded to join them. When he returned to his farm, Elizabeth wasn't ready to move to a strange place without some deep thinking and it would take time to find a buyer for Stony Ridge. Abe became more interested in migrating when he saw more and more of their friends leaving to go west to "Caintuck" or into the Shenandoah Valley or into the northwest of Pennsylvania. Fouse and Brumbaugh had sold him on the north.