Mightier Acorns

It’s hard for me to express just how many men named “James Callan” there are.

In my Callan Name Study spreadsheet, I have 22 of them – and that’s not counting those with a middle name. Just “James” and a variation of “Callan,” but if I also count those with an “Andrew” or “Joseph,” or anything at all in the middle name position, the number doubles.

And one of those men just destroyed my working theory about the fate of James “1st” Callin, the father of James and John Callin of Milton Township, Ohio.

A Stranger’s Familiar Biography

On WikiTree, Callon-95 is the pater familias for a cluster of Callon folks who lived in Tate Township in Clermont County, Ohio. There are some records to support many of the details in this secondary source, so I’ll begin with what it tells us:

JAMES COLLON
was but a boy in the Revolution, but was for nine months a drummer in the western Pennsylvania regiment from near Pittsburg. In 1788 he emigrated to Kentucky, and 1808 to Franklin township, and in 1810 to Tate township, near Mt. Olive, where he died in 1857. In Wayne’s Indian campaign of 1794 he was a scout and spy and an associate of Simon Kenton. Of his children William and Robert went to Indiana, James and John died in Tate, where Samuel still lives, Rachel was married to Robert Carr, Keziah to Christian Zimmerman, and JeMima to Morgan Ford.

from the Clermont County Genealogical Society Record of Clermont’s Illustrious Heroes who Fought the British in 1776.

There is no single source to tell us his date of birth, but 1770 would make him 5 years old at the outset of the Revolution in 1775, and it would make him 18 when he emigrated to Kentucky. That would also make him 87 at the time of his death. I think some of the estimates that date his birth in 1768 make sense, and would put him closer to the 21-year-old age of majority when he went to Kentucky, which would make it easier for him to acquire some land.

There is a marriage record showing he married Ann Wells in Mason County, Kentucky, in 1798, and their first few children were born there before the family moved north into Ohio. But that would place this James Callon in Kentucky in 1794.

There is also this:

In 1789, James Callon left his native State, Pennsylvania, to become a citizen of Kentucky. In 1808 he came to Franklin township, and two years later to his final settlement in the southern part of Tate, where he departed this life in 1857, at the age of eighty-nine years. He was with Mad Anthony in his campaign, serving as a spy, and was one of the hundred men sent out to divert the attention of the Indians, who followed this small detachment five miles, killing but eight men. Callon was an associate of Kenton, and often accompanied him in his forays against the Indians, always being brave and intrepid-

History of Clermont County, Ohio.Tate Township. Philadelphia: Louis H. Everts, 1880. pp. 316-317

The Overlap

In my piece, Theoretical: James Callin’s Military Career, I described the evidence supporting the Callin Family History’s claims that my 5th-great-grandfather did serve in the Continental Army at Valley Forge. But the CFH asserts that after the war, James Callin “entered some bounty land” in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, and remained there through the end of his life. I have never been able to find land records, bounty records, warrants, deeds, or wills to show my ancestor in Westmoreland County after the Revolution, so I looked farther afield than that county to see if I could find evidence that he moved after his sons left for Milton Township, Ohio.

I think I made a convincing and compelling case that he might have gone to Kentucky, and I hung my theory that he fought again under his former commander, General Scott, on this entry:

Muster Roll of a Company of Mounted Spies and Guides under the command of Captain Joshua Baker, Major Notley Conn’s Battalion, in the Service of the United States, Commanded by Major General Charles Scott, from Jul 10 to Oct 21, 1794:

Rank, Name:
[Private], Callen, James
[Private], Callen, John

Clark, Murtie Jane, “American Militia in the Frontier Wars, 1790-1796,” pg. 43-44.

But I knew all along that the evidence was thin, and that this James Callen in a Kentucky militia might be somebody else. And now I have found another likely candidate: James Callon.

Retract and Regroup

As it turns out, other researchers have also seen Murtie Jane Clark’s book and attached that source to the James Callon who died in Clermont County in 1857. So, I have to reconsider the story I’ve been telling myself and look at the facts I have to determine what to do.

Among the first questions I asked was, “Could this ‘Little Drummer Boy’ be the same person the Callin Family History placed at the Battle of Brandywine?” While I don’t have conclusive proof for James “1st” Callin’s date of birth, marriage, or whereabouts after 1779, I’m confident that the evidence we do have supports the timeline suggested in the Callin Family History. James “1st” was likely born around 1750, because if he is the man listed on the tax rolls in Bedford County, PA, in 1773, he would have to be at least 21. The CFH claims he married in 1778, and the Revolutionary War muster rolls seem to support that. (He was furloughed during that period.)

So, if they are different people, could they be related? Possibly, but I would rule out a father/son relationship – the Drummer boy was born before James 1st’s marriage date, and James 1st had a son named James who we know died in Milton Township in 1820. We know nothing certain about either man’s parents or siblings, so I could only speculate that they might be cousins.

There is still a possibility that James 1st could have relocated to Kentucky after his sons, James and John, migrated to Ohio in 1810 and 1816, respectively, but I will have to examine the records for Mason County to see if there is a spare “James” in that area.

I have had my reservations about the idea that my James Callin might have fought with the Kentucky militia in his 40s. Considering we have a younger candidate with proof he lived in the area and who local historians identified as part of the Kentucky militias, I am back to having no evidence of James “1st” Callin’s precise whereabouts after 1779.

Stepping Back

This feels like a loss of progress because I put so much thought and imagination into the idea of my ancestor following his old commander to a new frontier and finding his sons a home during his travels. But at the end of the day, I want to know the facts. Holding onto this particular story would keep me from finding the facts.

And, after all, learning things like this is the reason I started the Callan Name Study – so I can have a clearer idea of how the threads of these stories might weave together.