Pioneer

I view my 4th great-grandfather, John Faucett, as a true pioneer.  English? Irish? Ulster Scot? I don't know where he fits as far as nationality is concerned, but the pioneering spirit was definitely there.

His family had settled in the western Virginia frontier [modern-day Greenbrier Co., WV] during the mid-1700s. Indians, probably Shawnee, raided the homestead, killed most of John's family and took him captive. John was eventually swapped back and ended up in western Pennsylvania. There, he served as a ranger and spy [ scout and guide] for the Continental troops and militia charged with protecting western PA, northern VA and the eastern Ohio territory from British and Indian raids.

At age 46, John decided to head west for Ohio. He packed his belongings and pregnant wife on a flatboat and headed down the Ohio for Cincinnati. The Faucetts spend the next quarter century in the Miami Valley [Warren Co., OH] farming and raising a family. Four of the children married and started their own families.

Then John's pioneer blood kicked in again and he decided to move the family to Indiana. He sold out to son Thomas and bought two tracts of land a few miles west of the new Hoosier capital.

Five children and their families [Thomas stayed in Ohio for a few more years] joined him on the move to Indiana. John was 73!

Quirky details:
Thanks to a somewhat odd boundary drawn by the land office officials, John's adjoining tracts ended up in different counties. John would reside in Marion County and most of the rest of the clan became Hendricks County residents.

Moving to new land at 73 has to be unusual and getting five adult children to agree to tag along? Can you say close-knit family?

John died in 1838 at age 86.

Although the kids pretty much stayed put in Indiana, a few of the grandchildren moved farther west, some to the Pacific Northwest.