PIATT-L Archives

From:
Subject: Re: [PIATT] Rev Dunham at Conococheague
Date: Sun, 18 Jul 2004 03:34:39 +0000

For John Keilch:

Yes, I agree that the division of the Baptists in the Piscataway area in the early 1700s was an important event to the Pyatts and related families. I believe that by following the histories of the congregations and of the allied families we might be able to pick up a few new facts relating to Pyatts and their times.

I continue to be amazed by the distances across which people travelled and kept in touch in those days. (Should I admit how often I don't see my own first cousins today?) And the distances that supply ministers were sent is astounding, considering the transportion was by foot or horse. In further general readings on the churches I learned that the Piscataway 7th Day Baptist Church regularly drew families from over 20 miles away. Trying to put that in perspective, I have to ask myself if I would be willing to climb into the buggy early enough on Saturday to travel the 20 miles to Ashland OH (20 miles from this computer), hoping to arrive by noon, listen to a very long sermon (before or after lunch?), spend time catching up on gossip, listen to another sermon perhaps, and then ride the 20 miles back home. What if it rained? What if it were cold? What if I didn't agree with the sermon?!?

The division between 1st Day and 7th Day Baptists, in this case, was precipitated by an exchange between Mr Bonham and Rev Edmund Dunham. I'll post that story in a different thread. 7th Day was not new, there having been observors of 7th Day in and around Westerly RI before the split in Piscataway. However, the Piscataway church seemed to become a mother church for several congregations, among them the Shiloh church in Cumberland Co NJ. And didn't a Piatt/Pyatt go there, too?

The two unnamed Pyatt women who married Doty men--could they have been anyone other than Rene's daughter(s) and/or granddaughter(s)?

Yes, the Conococheague-Piscataway connection is very nearly a smoking arrow, giving indication that others of Rene's family were there in Conococheague for a time at least, other than the Jacobs. And it indicates to me that the Conococheague families kept in touch with those in New Jersey. As long as I've been researching, I've been troubled by the lack of Dunham neighbors, families from which Jacob Pyeatte III could have chosen his wife Elizabeth, in central PA. But, if Jacob III had reason to travel back to NJ, well.....there were plenty of Dunham ladies there. How did her convince her to go to the howling wilderness? Well, if great uncle Rev Jonathan had been there..... If she knew of other people who had gone there.....

From my readings I believe Conococheague was considered an area rather than a place. It spilled into present day Maryland and went toward McConnellsville. The largest area of settlement has been thought to have been around Greencastle in present day Franklin Co. Path Valley is north of what was considered Conococheague.

To cite the source of the place of Rev Jonathan Dunham's ordination as Conococheague, it is "Morgan Edwards' Materials Toward a History of the American Baptists," Philadelphia, 1770, an original copy held by the Library Company of Philadelphia on Locust St in Philadelphia. The publication of the book was only 25 years after the ordination in 1745 and Rev Jonathan Dunham, who spent most of his pastorate back in Piscataway, lived until 1779 (or 11 March 1777 according to Edwards), nine (or seven) years after the publication of the book. Now, the question would be, should we suspect that Morgan Edwards interviewed Rev Jonathan Dunham for his notes?
--
Laverne Ingram Piatt
Ontario, OH

This thread:

• Rev Dunham at Conococheague by
  • [PIATT] Rev Dunham at Conococheague by John Keilch <>

  • Re: [PIATT] Rev Dunham at Conococheague by