JACOB VAN METER, Abraham and James Hackley Chenoweth of the early Perry settlement were great great grandsons of
the first Chenoweth in America and of his wife, who was Mary Calvert, daughter of Charles Calvert, the third Lord
Baltimore. They were grandsons of William Chenoweth and his wife, Ruth Calvert, she also a daughter of the House
of Baltimore. The Baltimores were Roman Catholics; the Chenoweths were Protestants.
George Calvert, the first Lord Baltimore, was an Englishman, descended from a noble family in Flanders. He was
a great favorite of King James I. The King knighted him and he became Sir George Calvert. The King was Protestant.
Sir George later confessed to the King that he had become a Roman Catholic and tendered his resignation as one
of the King's secretaries of state. King James declined to accept the resignation, but after his death on March
27, 1625, his successor, King Charles, accepted the resignation and in that same year created Calvert Baron of
Baltimore, a large estate in Ireland. Henceforth, Calvert was called Lord Baltimore and those who came after him
were known as the Lords Baltimore.
King Charles later promised Sir George the new colony in America which was named Maryland, but before the charter
passed the seals, the first Lord Baltimore died April 15, 1632. He was succeeded by the second Lord Baltimore,
Cecilius, eldest son of the first Lord. Charles Calvert, the third Lord, who figures in the Chenoweth family lineage,
became Governor of the colony in 1661. Charles died February 24, 1714, aged 85. His body was interned in England,
at St. Pancras, near London. He had been married four times. By one of these marriages he had a daughter, Mary,
who about 1705 married John Chenoweth, Gent. They fled to America to escape the religious strife of the times.
From them descended the Chenoweths of Pike county.
The powerful House of Baltimore, favored of mighty kings, degenerated from glory and riches to oblivion and poverty.
About the time that Charles, the third Lord of the House, became proprietor of Maryland, the family in some way
incurred the enmity of James II who was of their own faith. The House of Calvert lost all of its favor and power
at the English court. From all of its favor and power at the English court. From that time on the family began
to degenerate. To what extent may be understood from the following with reference to the last of the Baltimores
in England.
In 1860, Colonel Angus W. McDonald was sent to England by Governor Letcher of Virginia to obtain data for establishing
the true boundary line between Virginia and adjacent states. In the course of his researchers in London, he sought
the representative of the Baltimore family, and finally discovered him a prisoner for debt in Queen's Bench prison
to which, about 12 years before, he had been transferred from Fleet prison after being confined there for more
than eight years.
"A sad end," says a commentator, "for the last of the Baltimores-Sic Transit Gloria Mundi,"
which last, translated by Merl Chenoweth of Winchester, Indiana, means "So Passes Earthly Glory."
The arms of Maryland are the arms of the Lords Baltimore, and the motto of Maryland is that of the Calvert family:
"Fatti Maschii, Parole Femine," an Italian proverb cited in the great Dictionary of the Accaderria della
Crusea thus: "Deeds are males, words females," implying that deeds, not words, make history.
Abraham Chenoweth, 1836 settler at Perry, married his third cousin, Rachel Chenoweth, who was a daughter of Arthur
Chenoweth and Elspa Lawrence. Arthur was born March 31, 1740; his wife October 20, 1749. Their daughter Rachel,
wife of Abraham, was born December 30, 1789. Rachel's grandfather was Arthur Chenoweth (Chinoweth), Sr., third
son of the first John Chenoweth and Mary Calvert. Rachel's father was a brother of John and Samuel Chenoweth, mentioned
in a previous chapter as having married Hannah and Patience Cromwell, descendants of the English family whence
came Oliver Cromwell of the English Protectorate. Abraham Chenoweth and his wife were both direct descendants of
the third Lord Baltimore.
Rachel Chenoweth's grandfather, the first Arthur, is said by some Chenoweth historians to have been the first Chenoweth
born in America. He was born near Joppa, in Maryland, in 1716, according to a record in an old Bible, the property
of his son, Samuel.
Five of the nine children of Abraham and Rachel Chenoweth were born in Nelson county, Kentucky. They were George
W., William, John, Arthur and James Hackley Chenoweth, Jr. The four other children, Mildred Anne, Miles B., Mary
M. and Valinda J., were born at Columbus, Indiana.
George W. Chenoweth, born in Nelson county, Kentucky, April 1, 1813, died in Columbus, Indiana, September 20, 1824.
He is buried there.
William Chenoweth, so well known in the early history of Perry, was born in Nelson county, Kentucky, August 24,
1814. He married Sarah Shoemaker May 15, 1834, in Clinton county, Indiana. She was born in Indiana March 27, 1817,
and died in Linn county, Missouri, January 19, 1906. Their children were Abraham Van Meter, John Shoemaker, Calista,
Rachel, Mary Ann and James William Chenoweth.
William Chenoweth was one of the Pike county Forty-Niners, who left Perry in a wagon-train for the California gold
fields in the late spring of 1849. He died on the way, July 26, 1849, and was buried near the Great Salt Lake in
Utah. His children, named above, were all minors at the time of his death. Milton Hay, then a Pittsfield attorney,
uncle of John Hay, the noted diplomat, was appointed in the Pike county court as their guardian. Later, in 1856,
the children's uncle, Miles B. Chenoweth, became their guardian. David Johnston, Milton Cheek and Edwin C. Hutchinson
were the court-appointed appraisers of William Chenoweth's Pike county estate following his death on the plains.
Abraham Van Meter Chenoweth, son of William, was born September 2, 1835, He married Sarah Jenkins and located at
Purdin, Missouri. He died there July 12, 1905. His children were William, Charles, Elsie, Mary, Calista, Valina,
Ann, Edith and Bell.
John Shoemaker Chenoweth, second child of William, was born at Perry October 13, 1837. He married Martha J. Irving
at Chambersburg, September 4, 1860. He was for years one of the active business men of Versailles, engaged in the
buying and shipping of stock. He removed from Versailles to Colorado, where his wife died in 1900. Later he returned
to Illinois, and died at the home of a daughter, Mrs. Mary Dober, at Concord, Illinois, June 12, 1923. The children
were Anne, who died in infancy; Mrs. Nora Oeters, who died February 1, 1914; Mrs. Sarah Burgesser, who located
in Fruita, Colorado; Mrs. Mary Dober, who resided at Concord, Illinois; Mrs. Lota Bell and Mrs. Ida Reid.
Mrs. Calista Chenoweth Jenkins, daughter of William Chenoweth, born at Perry January 6, 1840, died at Purdin, Missouri,
February 6, 1915.
Rachel Chenoweth, born at Perry September 5, 1842, died November 9, 1875. Mary Ann, a sister, born at Perry January
8, 1845, died March 12, 1904.
James William Chenoweth, last of William's children, was born at Perry April 21, 1847. He was a little over two
years old when his father died on the western gold trail. With his mother, he made his home in Missouri until he
was 14. He returned to Pike county with his uncle, Miles B. Chenoweth, and later engaged in the livestock business
until he was 35 years of age. Then he entered the mercantile business at Chambersburg, in partnership with James
H. Dennis, under the firm name of Chenoweth & Dennis, remaining in that business until a short time before
he removed to Iowa. He married Mary Irving at Chambersburg, January 7, 1874. She died the following year, leaving
an infant daughter, Maude. On October 3, 1878, he married Married Mary Irving's sister, Margaret McQueen Irving,
by whom he had four children, Harry K., Mary, Teresa and Irving.
In August, 1924, Mr. Chenoweth and his wife, who had moved to Sigourney, Iowa, returned to Chambersburg for a visit,
attending, while there, the Reavis meetings and the annual Christian church homecoming and chicken dinner. After
his visit at "the Burg" he returned to Sigourney, and a few days later, September 4, 1924, died suddenly
in his home. The body was brought to Chambersburg and burial was in the brown cemetery.
The second Mrs. Chenoweth died at the home of her daughter, Mrs. Russell Gerard, in Sigourney April 15, 1938. She
was 80 years, 11 months and five days old. The body was brought to Chambersburg and interred in Brown cemetery.
Mrs. Maude Newton, daughter of James W. and Mary (Irving) Chenoweth, born in 1874, resides in Atlanta, Georgia.
Harry K. Chenoweth, son of the second marriage, married, resides in Jacksonville, Illinois. Mary Chenoweth is the
wife of Dr. Russell S. Gerard of Sigourney, Iowa. Teresa Chenoweth is the wife of H. C. Hudelson of Boise, Idaho.
The Reverend Irving S. Chenoweth, youngest child of James W. and Margaret (Irving) Chenoweth, was born at Chambersburg
May 18, 1883. He died of pneumonia at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, May 26, 1922, having just celebrated his tenth
anniversary as pastor of Philadelphia's First Christian church. He graduated from Eureka College in 1905. In his
class were Miss Ella C. Ewing, who gave up her young life on the mission field in Africa, and Clark H. Marsh, who
died in the service of the Y. M. C. A. in the World War.
Shortly after his graduation he went to St. Louis and became the assistant to the Reverend James M. Philputt in
the Union Avenue church. Leaving St. Louis he went to New York and took the full course in Union Theological Seminary,
preaching meanwhile at Brentwood, Long Island, later becoming pastor of the Second Christian church on 169th Street,
New York. In 1912 he settled for his life's work in Philadelphia, and soon thereafter he married Miss Nelle Dickinson
of Eureka, Illinois. She, with two children, Irving, Jr., and Ann, survived him. She resides in Chicago.
Arthur Chenoweth, son of Abraham and Rachel, was born in Nelson county, Kentucky, July 24, 1816 and died January
26, 1850.
James Hackley Chenoweth, fifth child of Abraham and Rachel, born in Nelson county, Kentucky, October 29, 1819,
came with his parents to Perry in 1836, arriving November 16 and locating one mile east of present Perry, where
he helped his father improve 160 acres of land. He followed farming until 1851, when he started a saw-mill three
miles northeast of Perry, running it for 18 months. Then he sold the mill, farmed for three years, spent four years
in Missouri, then returned to Perry in 1861 and continued farming and clearing land. In 1872 he started the first
hotel in Perry. His wife, whom he married at Perry February 4, 1841, was Margaret E. Johnston, a daughter of the
early county surveyor, David Johnston, who in 1828 located near Griggsville, moving two years later to Perry township,
where he resided until his death in September, 1879.
Mildred Anne Chenoweth, sixth of Abraham's children, was born in Columbus, Indiana, February 17, 1823, and died
there October 17, 1828.
Miles B. Chenoweth, born at Columbus, Indiana, May 13, 1827, died at Chambersburg, May 14, 1904. His wife was Anna
Eliza Allen, whom he married November 16, 1848. She died April 4, 1904. They were parents of four daughters, Mrs.
Anna Chenoweth Dorsey, Mrs. Alzada Browning, Mrs. Octavia Dennis and Sarah Chenoweth; and grandparents of Mrs.
Dot Dorsey Swan, publisher of The Republican. This family history has been related in an earlier chapter.
Mary M. Chenoweth, born in Indiana February 14, 1829, married John Kile in Pike county, March 19, 1846. She died
July 30, 1881. Valinda Jane, ninth and last of Abraham's children, married Edwin C. Hutchinson at Perry, October
1, 1851, with the Reverend Nicholas Hobbs officiating. She died March 19, 1895.
Abraham Chenoweth died at Perry, March 31, 1861, aged 74 years, three months and four days. His wife, Rachel, died
December 30, 1864, on her 75th birthday. Both are buried in Old Baptist cemetery at Perry.
James Hackley Chenoweth, son of Major William of the Revolution and brother of Abraham, was born in Nelson county,
Kentucky, July 7, 1801. It is said that he was named for one James Hackley, who was a clerk in the early store
of Audubon & Rozier in Elizabethtown, Kentucky, and who was afterwards an officer in the U. S. regular army.
He was described as "one of the most starchy and fine dressing men" of his day. The Audubon for whom
he clerked was John James Audubon, who became the noted American ornithologist.
This James Hackley Chenoweth, who for near a half-century was one of the best known men around Perry and who was
familiarly called "Uncle Jim," came to Illinois from Kentucky in 1832, stopped for a while in what is
now Scott county, then crossed the river into Pike county in the spring of 1833, locating on Sections 27 and 28
in what is now Perry township, adjacent to and including a part of the present town of Perry. Here he built a double
log cabin in which he lived for several years. He then built a large frame dwelling which in early days was a stopping
place for all who passed that way, a place that became known far and wide for its old-fashioned cheer and hospitality.
Thirty acres of his original land entry of 240 acres was later laid off by Mr. Chenoweth into town lots as "Chenoweth's
Addition to the Town of Perry." He later increased his landed estate to between 500 and 600 acres in Pike
county, with an additional acreage in Missouri.
The year before he came to Illinois, Mr. Chenoweth married Miss Artemisia C. Burkhead in Nelson county, Kentucky.
One child, Abraham, was born to them in Kentucky. Here in Pike county, Illinois, nine more children were born,
namely: James Hackley, Jr., Mary, Joseph K., Joseph S., Robert A., Ruth, David J., Jacob Van Meter and Susanna
R. Mrs. Chenoweth died January 4, 1874, and Mr. Chenoweth then made his home with a married daughter, Ruth, wife
of Charles O. Turner. The son, Robert A. Chenoweth, served two years in the Civil War, in the 33rd Illinois Infantry.
Abraham, first born of the children, located at Hartley, Texas. Ruth, who married Charles O. Turner, resided at
Perry and at Maryville, Missouri. James H. married Artemisia C. Johnston of Perry, October 23, 1856, she a daughter
of David Johnston and Sarah Day. They settled at Lathrop in Clinton county, Missouri. Mary E. Chenoweth married
Thomas Johnston (brother of Artemisia) and they settled at Maryville, Missouri.
Jacob Van Meter Chenoweth, son of James Hackley, born near Perry June 27, 1850, married Elizabeth Parke May 13,
1875. He was a farmer and dealer in livestock at Perry, and later settled in Kansas where he died, leaving a large
family.
David J. Chenoweth, born in Pike county January 13, 1848, married Ella J. Dorsey of Perry, March 12, 1868. He owned
some land near Perry and ran a meat market in the town.
The first Joseph Chenoweth, born in 1836, died on March 28, 1840 and is buried in Old Baptist at Perry. The second
Joseph married Ann M. Davis in Pike county, May 19, 1863. Their first child, Percy, died August 18, 1864, aged
five months and 28 days. He is buried at Old Baptist.
Robert A. Chenoweth, son of James Hackley, married Hattie E. Mathews, in Pike county, May 28, 1868. Herr Victor,
a son of J. H. and Artemisia C. (Johnston) Chenoweth, died October 17, 1867, aged three years, ten months and 27
days. Susanna R., a daughter of James Hackley and Artemisia (Burkhead) Chenoweth, died January 12, 1861, aged six
years, eight months and eight days. Both children are buried in Old Baptist cemetery at Perry.
James Hackley Chenoweth was born in Nelson county, Kentucky, July 9, 1801, and died at Perry April 19, 1882, the
last of the pioneer Chenoweths in this region. His wife, Artemisia C. Chenoweth, died January 4, 1874, aged 62
years, three months and nine days. They rest in the Chenoweth burial plot in Old Baptist.
The Chenoweths of the early Pike county settlement are long dead. Few have known that in some of Pike county's
oldest cemeteries are burials of direct descendants of the once powerful House of Baltimore. One of these burials,
that of the early Samuel Chenoweth, is lost. It is somewhere in the region north of Griggsville or near Perry.
Others of these burials are in Old Baptist and Dorsey cemeteries at Perry and Brown cemetery at Chambersburg. Another
burial of a descendant of the Baltimores, that of Charles Calvert Beaven, who bore the name of the third Lord Baltimore,
is in Goodin cemetery on Honey Creek in Martinsburg township.