On March 5, 1740 Heinrich Jager and his wife, Maria Heinimann Jager along with their son, Heinrich Jager (Jr.), his wife Ursula Wurtz Jager and their children, Johannes and Heinrich Jager, were granted permission to emigrate from Switzerland. (Johannes had been baptized in the parish church at Arisdorf, Basel-Land, Switzerland on May 14, 1737). Shortly thereafter, they sailed down the Rhine River from Basel to Rotterdam Holland.  From Rotterdam they boarded the ship Friendship and set sail for America.  The ship arrived in the port of Philadelphia on September 23, 1740.  Because of storms encountered on the voyage the trip took much longer than planned.  Other passengers on the ship wrote to their relatives in Europe that about 40 of the people had perished enroute to America.  Among those who died was Ursula Wurtz Jager, the mother of Johannes (John Hunter) Jager. 

 

Heinrich Jager (now known as Henry Jager) the widower of Ursula married again about 1742.  His second wife was Anna Maria Schaublin, daughter of Christian and Barbara (Spitteler) Schaublin.  Anna was baptized at Oberdorf, Basel-Land, Switzerland on October 6, 1723.  Henry Jager and his second wife Anna Maria had two children: Anna Maria and a son named Heinrich Jager.  By this we know that Heinrich Jager, the son of Heinrich and Ursula, must have died prior to 1745 when Heinrich (designated as Heinrich, IV), son of Heinrich and Anna Maria, was born.

 

Anna Barbara Jager was born about 1743 and Heinrich (IV) was baptized at Heidelberg Township, York County, Pennsylvania on March 18, 1745.  The baptism of Heinrich (IV) was officiated by Reverend Jacob Lischy, a Reformed Church minister.  By this, we know that at that time, the Jager family was of the Reformed Church religious persuasion.

 

On February 16, 1742, Henry Jager (now known as Henry Yeager) was issued a warrant for 100 acres of land in Heidelberg Township, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania by Richard Penn, who was son of William Penn.  The land was surveyed on March 11, 1744 and contained 166 acres.  It was located about 5 miles east of the town of Hanover, PA.

 

Henry Yeager (Heinrich Jager, Henry Jager) died in 1748 with his will dated April 8, 1748. At Orphan’s Court in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania (part of York became part of Lancaster County in 1748) on June 6, 1749, John Heggendorn was appointed guardian of John Yeager (Johannes Jager, John Hunter).  Henry Wirt was appointed guardian of Anna Barbara and Henry Yeager.  Later Henry Wirt married the widow of Henry J\Yeager – Anna Maria (Schaublin) Yeager. 

 

John Yeager was apprenticed to Christian Schaublin (Anna Maria’s father) as a blacksmith. Christian had immigrated to the United States in 1736 along with John Heggendorn (John Yeager’s Guardian).  All of these people were members of a pacifist religious persuasion while in Switzerland.  John Heggendorn was identified as a member of the Church of the Brethren when he affirmed his signature as witness to the wills of George Phleeger in 1753 and Valentine Alt in 1755 in York County, Pennsylvania.

 

John Yeager married Barbara Bowman, daughter of Jacob and Varena (…….) Bowman, about 1760.  The marriage probably took place on Plum Run, a branch of the Conococheague Creek in present day Washington County, Maryland.  Plum Run is about 5 miles west-south-west of Hagerstown, Maryland.

 

John and Barbara settled on Plum Run on the land that was part of her dower and additional land that John Yeager purchased from Elizabeth Smith in Frederick County, Maryland on April 26, 1766. 

 

John Yeager (as Johannes Jager) and his father-in-law, Jacob Bowman, were naturalized as citizens of England at a Philadelphia court August 8, 1767.  At the time they were shown as living in Frederick County, Maryland, but that portion of Frederick became Washington County in 1776.

 

On March 14, 1773, John Yeager purchased 79 acres of land in Augusta County, Virginia from John Jackson for £40 (current Virginia money).  The land record indicates that he was John Yeager of Augusta County, Colony of Virginia indicating that he had already moved to Virginia from Maryland.

 

Then July 1, 1773, he sold his property on Plum Run in Maryland to Jacob Tollor for £200 (current money of Pennsylvania).

 

Later in the year (November 15, 1773) John Yeager purchased an additional 279 acres of land in Augusta County from George Shoemaker for £160 of current Virginia money.  This property was adjacent to his March 1773 purchase.  This last tract of land had been patented to Valentine Sevier, father of John Sevier (first Governor of Tennessee). The property was about ½ mile west of the community of Broadway, VA on the east side of the north branch of the Shenandoah River.  The property had ¾ mile river frontage and included Cedar Creek, a tributary of the Shenandoah River and Vals Springs, another tributary of the river and probably named for Valentine Sevier.

 

As for the name changes it appears in all of the records in Maryland that John Hunter/John Yeager is called Johannes Jager or John Yeager.  However, when he moved to Rockingham County, Virginia, he adopted the English translation of the name and became John Hunter.  In all of the records in Virginia he is called John Hunter except for the following:  the marriage of his son in Rockingham County, Virginia in May of 1781.  In all of the Tennessee records he is known as John Hunter.

 

It should be noted here that when John Yeager was naturalized, he affirmed his allegiance to England rather than taking an oath.  Therefore, at that time, he was a member of a pacifist religious persuasion.  His commitment to the Brethren faith was not deep enough to prevent him from taking up arms in the creation of his new country.  During the Revolutionary War he served as a private in the Virginia Militia in the company commanded by Captain Abraham Lincoln, grandfather of the President.

 

Like many of his contemporaries of the pacifist religious persuasion, John Yeager followed the example of Reverend Peter Muhlenberg who was a Lutheran minister at the Lutheran Church in Woodstock, Virginia in the Shenandoah Valley.  Muhlenberg, in a sermon, declared “that there is a time to pray and a time to fight and that time has now come!”  At the end of his sermon he removed his clerical collar and invited those who were interested to join him in the Continental Army.  Most of those of German ancestry in the Valley served under Colonel (later General) Muhlenberg. This probably included John Yeager (now John Hunter) and certainly his son John Hunter, Jr. 

 

Since John Hunter was no longer a pacifist, he was no longer welcome in the pacifist church. And by 1783, in Washington County, Tennessee, he and his wife Barbara became members of the Baptist church and were among the founding members of the Cherokee Creek Baptist Church when the Church Covenant was signed on the “first Saturday in September 1783”.

 

On July 28, 1783, John Hunter sold his property in Rockingham County, Virginia to Michael Hawber, according to the Rockingham County Minute Book 1778-1792, pg 279. On September 23, 1783 the court ordered payment to John Hunter for one horse lost in service in June 1782.  Other Rockingham County records were destroyed during the Civil War.

 

Since John sold his land in Rockingham County in July of 1783 and appears in the Cherokee Creek Baptist Church minutes in September 1783, we may assume that he moved to Washington County, Tennessee during this period.  His home in there on Little Cherokee Creek was about a mile from the home of John Sevier.  It is probable that he and his sons played a substantial part in defense of the frontier, but no records exist to confirm this.

 

By 1787, through purchases and grants, John Hunter owned 939 acres in Washington County, Tennessee, centered about the present location of the Union Church on Little Cherokee Creek and extending about a mile along the creek and half that distance on both sides of the creek. In addition he held an additional 300 acres in trust for Peter Ruble, who still resided in Virginia.

 

February 20, 1795 the Washington County Court ordered the survey and construction of a road from (what is now) Johnson City, Tennessee to Telford, Tennessee, and which approximates the present route of State Highway 67.  The order is as follows:  Ordered that a wagon road be laid out from the wagon road that crosses Sinking Creek to the head of south Cherokee and down said creek to Roberts old mill and that Philip Ozames (Ausmus), John Hunter, Henry Hunter, Abraham Hunter, Frederick Andes, Charles Headrick, Peter Ruble, John Bewley, Anthony Bewley, Absolom Scott, Amos Ball and William Pugh be a jury to view and lay out the same.  (Note:  it was common in Tennessee through the mid 1800s that roads were ordered by county courts and neighbors who abutted the roads were responsible for maintenance.)

 

Interesting in the above order is the relationship of many of these neighbors. 

1.   Henry Hunter and Abraham Hunter are sons of John Hunter.

2.   Philip Ozames is the father-in-law of Henry Hunter.

3.   John Bewley is the son of Anthony Bewley and also the son-in-law of John Hunter.

4.   Peter Ruble is John Hunter’s brother-in-law (Peter married Catherine Wirt –John’s half-sister.)

 

Obviously, then, the Hunter family (through their extended family) had a significant influence in the early formative years of the county.

 

John Hunter died at Cherokee Creek, Washington County, Tennessee June 7, 1823.  John’s will (which was dated February 25, 1809) and a codicil (dated January 27, 1819) was proved at the July Court in 1823.  In the will he only mentions Barbara and Isaac to receive a proportional part of his estate, as the other children had previously received 100 pounds.  The codicil to John’s will stated that his faithful slave Bet (Betsy) was to be set free after the death of Barbara, and Bet’s emancipation on July 23, 1823 is recorded in the court minutes of Washington County.  (Note that Bet is shown in the 1850 Census of Washington County as age 70 and born in Maryland.  She is living with her grandson Henderson Hunter, age 17.) John’s wife, Barbara died at Cherokee Creek on November 22, 1831.  Her death is recorded in the Minutes of the church and the inventory of her estate was recorded January 3, 1832.

 

Both John and Barbara are buried in the Cherokee Creek Baptist Church Cemetery in Washington County, but no gravestones mark their graves.

 

John and Barbara had 10 children:

Married Elizabeth Osman

Married David Robinson

Married Ann Clark

Married Barbara Bollinger

Married Mary Marks

Married Robert Frier

Married John G. Bewley

Married 1. Sarah Linville   2. Sarah Kimbrough

Married Henry Ruble

Married Elizabeth Kiger

 

It is believed that John Hunter, Jr. moved to Madison County, Kentucky about 1791 and after the family’s arrival, twins were born to John Hunter and Elizabeth Osman.  The twins were Henry Hunter and our ancestor, Ellen Hunter.  Nothing is known of their life in Kentucky at this time, nor do we know when and where Ellen Hunter married Samuel Spillman.  However, there is a record in Campbell County, Kentucky of a marriage of Samuel Spillman to Nally Hunter the 13th of September, 1813.  This fits in with the birth date of their oldest child born in 1815.

 

After John Hunter, Jr. left Kentucky he moved to Knox County, Indiana. (Later to become Gibson County, Indiana)  No records are available in Knox County regarding purchase of land, but we do know that he owned land in Gibson County.   

 

1819 John Hunter and wife Polly sell 200 acres in Gibson County, Indiana to Joseph Montgomery.

1820 Territory Census - John Hunter in Gibson County, Indiana.

1824  John Hunter (no wife shown) buys 30 acres of land in Gibson County, Indiana from Benjamin Montgomery and wife, Polly.  John pays $25.00 for the 30 acres.

1826  William Hunter settles in Belmont Precinct; Wabash County, Illinois on SE ¼ section - from "History of Wabash Co., IL".

1832 William and Nancy Hunter sell land in Gibson County, Indiana.

1843  Isaac and Melinda Hunter sell land in Warrenton, Gibson County, Indiana.

No records were found in Gibson County of sale of land by John Hunter.

 

Information from County Histories:

From "History of Gibson Co., IN" published by James T. Tartt and Co., 1884

Pg 198

…… John Hunter, who opened a shop on his place in 1808, was the first blacksmith.

Pg 198

…… In 1813 (the year the county was formed) Robert Anderson supervisor of Saline Road from John Hunter's to Black River

pg 72

…… First Roads - The court appointed Joshua Embree supervisor of the road through Montgomery Twp from Anderson's Creek to John Hunter's.  All residents east of Hunter's place were required to assist in maintaining the road.  And for the Saline road opposite John Hunter's to Black River, Robert Anderson was appointed supervisor and the residents west of Hunter's in Montgomery Twp were required to assist in keeping the road in repair.

 

John Hunter, Jr. died sometime after 1832 in Wabash County, Illinois, but there is no record of where he is buried.

 

We can be assured that Samuel Spillman was married to Ellen Hunter as evidenced by this excerpt from a history of Gibson Co. published in 1896 regarding the heritage of William S. Spillman, a grandson of Samuel and Ellen:

"History of Gibson County" published 1897 by Elia W. Peattie, "The grandfather, Samuel Spilman, was a native of Kentucky and came to this county about 1805. (note: not sure he came this early)  He married a daughter of John H. Hunter..." 

 

Also, nothing is known about the early days of Samuel Spillman (also spelled Spilman), but we find this notation in "History of Gibson Co., IN" published by James T. Tartt and Co., 1884:

Pg 221. From the mountains of Tennessee, the land of pure air and crystal waters, eminently fitted by nature for the habitation of man, but then accursed by slavery, came Samuel Spillman, in the year 1806, a tanner by trade, being compelled to labor for the sustenance of himself and family, and labor by a white man being looked upon as being disreputable by the slave-holding aristocrats, he sought a home in the wilderness of Indiana Territory, where honest toil and was not looked upon as a badge of servitude and disrepute. Four miles west of the present town of Haubstadt, he settled in the timber and raised the usual log cabin.  Here he toiled, rearing a family of seventeen children, thirteen of the number being boys and the remainder girls. After being here a few years he established a tannery, which was the first in that portion of the county.  After years of arduous toil success crowned his labors, and he begun to acquire some property, and built himself a comfortable brick house, which was the first brick house in the township.

 

Nothing else we have found indicates that Samuel came from Tennessee, but in all probability he was a native of either Kentucky or Tennessee.  On November 21, 1839 he donated a one acre tract of land for the purpose of building a Christian Church, identified as being in Section 33, Township 3, Range 11 West, in Gibson County.  The church was later known as the New Liberty Church.  

 

On December 8, 1851 the living heirs of Samuel, with their spouses, were all named in a deed transaction in Warrick County, Indiana wherein they sold a lot in the city of Evansville to John Hunter Spillman. Among those named were Mary Ann Spillman Harmon and her husband Micajah Harmon – our ancestors.

 

Although the history noted above indicates that Samuel and Ellen reared 17 children, we only know the names of 11, so perhaps the others died young. Samuel died July 13, 1851.  Ellen died December 15, 1852.  They are buried in the Mount Moriah Cemetery, Gibson County, Indiana. 

 

1. John (born Plum Run, Washington County, Maryland November 27, 1762)

2. Maria Susannah (born Plum Run, Washington County, Maryland about 1764)

3. Jacob (born Plum Run March 16, 1766)

4. Henry (born Plum Run about 1768)

5. Abraham (born Plum Run September 2, 1771)

6. Christiana (born Plum Run May 20, 1774)

7. Catherine (born Linville Creek, Rockingham County, Virginia October 27, 1776)

8. Joseph (born Linville Creek, February 22, 1779)     

9. Barbara (born Cherokee Creek, Washington County, Tennessee May28, 1784)

10. Isaac (born Cherokee Creek, about 1786

 

​John Hunter's Revolutionary War service

• Posted 22 Aug 2017 by raca176

  John Hunter (Johannes Wilhelm Jager) served in the Virginia Militia under the command of Army Captain Abraham Henry Lincoln (born March 18, 1744 - died May 4, 1786). Lincoln married Bathsheba Herring and was a farmer in Amity Township, Pennsylvania. He and his family moved to Kentucky following the war where he was killed by Native American. He was grandfather to Abraham Lincoln of Kentucky birth who was elected President of the United States in 1860.

• John Hunter Jr and John Hunter Sr Revolutionary War Service

• Posted 22 Aug 2017 by raca176

  The following is a transcription of the court declaration made by John Hunter Junior for his Revolutionary War pension: 

   

  Declaration in order to obtain the benefit of the act on Congress passed June 7th 1832.

  ​

  State of Illinois

  County of Wabash

   

  I on this third day of December 1832 personally appeared in Open Court, before Ephraim Phar, Beauchamp Aurvey (?) and John Compton, Judges of the County Commissioners Court of Wabash County now sitting John Hunter, a resident of Mount Carmel in the County of Wabash and State of Illinois, aged seventy years, who being duly sworn doth on his oath make the following declaration in order to obtain the benefit of the act of Congress passed June 7th 1802.

   

  That he entered the service of the United States, under the following named officers and served as herein stated.  The first time he entered the service in December in the year 1780 as a substitute for his father John Hunter Sen. Under Captain George Baxter of Rockingham County Virginia, and was attached to Genl. Muhlenburgs Brigade, that he then reside in Rockingham County Virginia, that his Company was marched through Richmond and Manchester, to the long Bridge near Portsmouth, that he was engaged in a skirmish at said Bridge with the British that he served three months, was discharged and returned home.  That some time in the latter part of the summer of 1781 he was drafted  and had a substitute by the name of Charles Osman to serve in his place, that his said substitute served under Genl Muhlenburg and was in the service two months that during the time his substitute was in the service he volunteered and entered the service himself under Captain Jacob Cogan (?), the he marched directly to Yorktown, and arrived there on the evening the batteries were opened, that he served during the siege and was there when Cornwallis and his Army were taken prisoners, that at the siege he was attached to Genl Muhlenburg Brigade, and returned with the prisoners to Manchester, under the command of Col Vance and served about two months at this ____, that he does not know of any person by whom he can prove his services in the Revolutionary War, that he has written some time since for affidavits of his services but has received no answer and does not know that any person is living by whom to prove said services.

   

  That he never received any written discharge from the service, that he was born in Hagerstown in the State of Maryland on the 27th day of November, 1762, he has a record of his age at home taken from the original record in his fathers family bible, said bible is at present in possession of Joseph Hunter near Jonesboro in East Tennessee.

  As above stated he was living in Rockingham County Virginia when called into service where he continued to live for about one year thereafter, from there he removed to East Tennessee and resided there about ten years, from there he removed to Madison County Kentucky, where he lived about twelve years from there he removed to Montgomery County in Said state and lived in the latter County about four years from there he moved to (Knox) now Gibson County in the (then Territory) now state of Indiana in the Spring of the year 1807, and that has lived there and in Lawrence and Wabash Counties in the State of Illinois since.  He hereby relinquishes every claim to a pension or annuity except the present, and declares that his name is not on the pension role of the aging of any state.

   

  Sworn and subscribed, the day and year aforesaid.  [Signed John Hunter]

   

  Mr James Pool a Clergyman residing in the County of Wabash and Augustus Lavattete residing in the same hereby certify that are well acquainted with John Hunter who has subscribed and sworn to the above declaration, that we believe him to be seventy years of age, that he is respected and believed in the neighborhood where he resides to have  been a soldier of the Revolution, and that we concur in that opinion.

   

  Sworn and Subscribed the day and year aforesaid. 

  [Signed James Pool, Augustus Lavattete, his mark]

   

  And the said Court do  hereby declare their opinion after the investigation of the matter , and after putting the interogatory ___ used by the War department, that the above named Applicant was a Revolutionary Soldier and served as he states, and the Court further certifies that it appears, to them, that James Pool who has signed the preceding Certificate is a clergyman resident in County of Wabash and that Augustus Lavattete who has also signed the same is a resident in County of Wabash and is a credible person, and that their statements [following pages missing].

• Revolutionary War Veteran

• Posted 22 Aug 2017 by raca176

  During the Revolutionary War John Hunter served as a private in the Virginia Militia in the Company commanded by Captain Abraham Lincoln. This is Abraham Lincoln, grandfather of the president.

  ​

  His service in the militia indicates that like many of his contemporaries of the pacifist religious persuasion, he followed the example of Reverend Peter Muhlenberg, a famous Lutheran minister of the time in the Shenandoah valley of Virginia. Reverend Muhlenberg, who was pastor of the Lutheran Church at Woodstock, Virginia was commissioned Colonel, later General, of the 8th Virginia Regiment on January 12, 1776, and at the conclusion of his next religious service declared ".... that there is a time to pray and a time to fight, and that time has now come!" After completing his sermon he removed his clerical robe and invited those who were interested to join him in the Continental Army. Most of those of German ancestry in the Shenandoah valley, including the militia when they were called up, served under General Muhlenberg. This probably included John Hunter and certainly included his son, John, as we learn from his pension records.