This is an open invitation.  The Genealogical Society of Southwestern Pennsylvania will be holding its yearly meeting and luncheon on Sunday, December 14, 2008 at the Citizens Library, 55 S. College St., Washington, PA.

We will be installing the 2009 Officers and Board Members.  We will hold the induction of the Pioneer Families of Southwestern Pennsylvania and we will have a visit by General George Washington and his wife, Martha telling us about December 1758 during the French & Indian War.

Attendance fee will be $20.00 which includes lunch.  Contact gsswpa@gmail.com for a reservation form.

                                                                              Bryan Cunning, Re-enactor

 

In honor of my father-in-law, Edward William Nixon whose last birthday on this earth was on 9/11.

   1957 - Germany

JUST A COMMON SOLDIER               by A. Lawrence Vaincourt

He was getting old and paunchy and his hair was falling fast,

And he sat around the Legion, telling stories of the past.

Of a war that he had fought in and the deeds that he had done,

In his exploits with his buddies; they were heroes, every one.

And tho' sometimes, to his neighbors, his tales became a joke,

All his Legion buddies listened, for they knew whereof he spoke.

But we'll hear his tales no longer for old Bill has passed away,

And the world's a little poorer, for a soldier died today.

He will not be mourned by many, just his children and his wife,

For he lived an ordinary and quite uneventful life.

Held a job and raised a family, quietly going his own way,

And the world won't note his passing, though a soldier died today.

When politicians leave this earth, their bodies lie in state,

While thousands note their passing and proclaim that they were great.

Papers tell their whole life stories, from the time that they were 

young,

But the passing of a soldier goes unnoticed and unsung.

Is the greatest contribution to the welfare of our land

A guy who breaks his promises and cons his fellow man?

Or the ordinary fellow who, in times of war and strife,

Goes off to serve his Country and offers up his life?

A politician's stipend and the style in which he lives

Are sometimes disproportionate to the service that he gives.

While the ordinary soldier, who offered up his all,

Is paid off with a medal and perhaps, a pension small.

It's so easy to forget them for it was so long ago,

That the old Bills of our Country went to battle, but we know

It was not the politicians, with their compromise and ploys,

Who won for us the freedom that our Country now enjoys.

Should you find yourself in danger, with your enemies at hand,

Would you want a politician with his ever-shifting stand?

Or would you prefer a soldier, who has sworn to defend

His home, his kin and Country and would fight until the end?

He was just a common soldier and his ranks are growing thin,

But his presence should remind us we may need his like again.

For when countries are in conflict, then we find the soldier's part

Is to clean up all the troubles that the politicians start.

If we cannot do him honor while he's here to hear the praise,

Then at least let's give him homage at the ending of his days.

Perhaps just a simple headline in a paper that would say,

Our Country is in mourning, for a soldier died today.

The Genealogical Society of Southwestern Pennsylvania will be holding its Fall Family History Conference on Saturday, October 18, 2008 from 9:00AM to 4:30PM at Citizens Library in Washington, PA.  The speakers will be William “Bill” Poellet, Jr., railroad and oil historian presenting “Echoes of Washington County, The Railroad and The Oil Well”, Frank J. Kurtik, historian and archivist, presenting “Monongahela Rye Whiskey – Its Impact on the Culture and Economy of Nineteenth Century America” and “Vesta Coal:  An Overview of the Bituminous Coal Mining Operations of Jones & Laughlin Steel”  and Elissa Scalise Powell, CG  presenting “Windows to the Past:  Newspaper Research” and “Hiding Behind Their Skirts:  Finding Women In Records”.  Vendors will also be displaying their products.  Registration fees are:  Members - $25.00 and Non-members $30.00.  A continental breakfast and box lunch is included in the conference fee.  Registration is due by October 4, 2008.  For a word document copy of the registration form, please e-mail gsswpa@gmail.com providing your name and e-mail address.  Come and join us for an interesting day.

     “I saw behind me those who had gone, and before me, those who are to come.  I looked back and saw my father, and his father, and all our fathers, and in front, to see my son, and his son, and the sons upon sons beyond.  And their eyes were my eyes.  As I felt, so they had felt, and were to feel, as then, so now, as tomorrow and forever. Then I was not afraid, for I was in a long line that had no beginning, and no end. And the hand of his father grasped my father's hand, and his hand was in mine, and my unborn son took my right hand, and all, up and down the line that stretched from Time That Was, to Time That Is, and Is Not Yet, raised their hands to show the link, and we found that we were one, born of Woman, Son of Man, made in His Image, fashioned in the Womb by the Will of God, the Eternal Father."

Extracted from the work of Richard Llewellyn
"How Green Was My Valley"

 

 

Jonathan Nixon (Abt 1753-1799)

     Jonathan Nixon was born about 1753 in Frederick County, Virginia, the son of George (Nickson) Nixon and Elizabeth Arnold. He married Nancy Sarah Pugh about 1774 in Augusta County, Virginia and set up housekeeping in Hampshire County, Virginia (WV) where Jonathan intended to patent a 133-acre farm that that he had warranted from Lord Fairfax of the Northern Neck of Virginia. The land included the cove and headwaters of Chenoweth's Run, which was a tributary of the Great Cacapon River.

     Possibly because of the encroachment of the Revolutionary War on his land, in 1779, Jonathan Nixon re-assigned the Hampshire County, Virginia farm to Edward Curtis and moved his family to Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania which at that time was also being claimed as Monongalia County by the Commonwealth of Virginia. The family remained in Pennsylvania until about 1786. From the book, "The Ten Mile Country and Its Pioneer Families", the original Petition for a New State circa 1780 located in the Library of Congress, has Jonathan Nixon's signature on it. In 1782, he also signed Petition No. 8 from the inhabitants of Yohogania and Monongalia counties to the Governor Harris of the State of Virginia asking the Governor whether the signers were still Virginia citizens or should they now swear their allegiance to Pennsylvania due to the creation of the Mason-Dixon line. Jonathan appears on the 1783 Westmoreland County Property Tax rolls as having 30 acres cleared, 3 horses and 2 cattle. Then with the formation of Fayette County in 1784, Jonathan sells his land on Georges Creek, Fayette County, Pennsylvania to Alexander Jamison. After the sale of his land, Jonathan Nixon still appears on the 1785 and 1786 Fayette County, Pennsylvania State Tax lists in German Township. By 1787, Jonathan warrants 385 acres near Boothsville, Harrison County, Virginia (WV) where he moves his family and lives out the rest of his days.

     Jonathan had originally wanted to migrate to Kentucky and purchase land from Daniel Boone. There is a verbal history as told by Rev. Jesse Nixon (1816-1906), Jonathan Nixon's grandson, to Rev. Henry Morgan that a group of men from southwestern Pennsylvania and northern West Virginia left on a trip to Kentucky to meet up with Daniel Boone concerning land. The group included Jonathan Nixon, William Hibbs, Edward Parrish, Thomas Townshend, Charles Snodgrass and a number of others. After crossing the Tygart Valley near current Grafton, West Virginia, a couple of the men remained at a cabin due to the illness of one man and the others continued on the journey. The men that stayed behind were killed by Indians. This event put an end to the Kentucky plans of Jonathan Nixon and his friends. The traveling party took the dead men home, saw them buried and, afterwards, returned with their families to live out their lives in the Upper Monongahela Valley in the areas of Harrison, Marion and Taylor Counties.

     Jonathan Nixon died in Booth's Creek, Harrison County, Virginia (WV) on 4 July 1799 at the age of forty-five and is buried in the Nixon Cemetery on the Apple Valley Rd., Fairmont, Marion County, West Virginia.