| The following article: Pioneers to Ol’ Lawrence County, The Northern Families,
had its focus primarily on how John Milligan II, son of John and Sarah (Robinson)
Milligan of Triadelphia, W. Virginia, made his way to the Missouri Territory of 1816.
We had no idea at the time we started this project, that we would encounter the other
families we also wrote about here. They had a big influence on the John Milligan II
Pioneering Story as these other families were also pioneers to the Missouri Territory as
well.
The article, originally intended to be titled, “How John Milligan II came to Ol’
Lawrence County”, grew with every discovery of fact. First we discovered how the
Daniel and Esther Culp Family had become very good friends of the Milligan Family in
the Martinsburg and Shepardstown area of Northern Virginia, so we followed their
history into the settling of Eastern Kentucky during the American Revolutionary War
years of the late 1770’s and early 1780’s west of the Allegany Mountains on the
Cumberland Plateau. Then we ran into the Ruddell Family and their Harrowing Tale of
American Folk Lore survival that ended up with Abraham Ruddell becoming the husband
of Mary Culp in Bourbon County, Kentucky after he had been released from his Shawnee
Indian Kidnappers in the 1790’s. It was one discovery after another and this document
kept growing and growing. We ended this article with the arrival of John Milligan II of
the Milligan Campground history currently in Strawberry, Sharp County, Arkansas at the
Reeds Creek area of the Missouri Territory.
Well, we ended up changing the Title of this piece to what you see now below
however the study is still continuing as there were more families that had an impact on
the life of John Milligan II who were also Pioneers of the times. So, continuing on with
this study of family history, we are currently writing Volume II of the document,
Pioneers to Ol’ Lawrence County, “The Southern Families”, which will detail the
pioneering history of the families that impacted John Milligan’s life who originated at the
southern end of the Great Shenandoah Valley and pioneered their way into the Missouri
Territory of 1814-1816 as well. So Volume II will follow the families listed in the on the 2nd page of Volume I. We plan to have that article completed by Christmas of 2008. This article is proving out to be a real Eye Opener.
It is our wish that everyone who reads this Volume I document comes away with
a more truthful understanding of the events that brought these families to the Missouri Territory in 1816 than what you have previously been told or read and what they and their families had to go through to get there.
We hope you enjoy the read.
Tom Milligan |
