The Weakley Family Story

My father was James Archie Maroon. My mother was born Rose Margaret Weakley in Madera, CA, daughter of Chloie Mable Myers and James William Weakley. She was always very much interested in history. Whenever the family went for a drive and we drove by historical markers, we would always stop. We'd gather around it like some sort of shrine and, although we were all reading it together, she insisted on reading it out loud. When we returned to the car, she would talk about the significance of it for miles, making sure we understood why it was important. She also used to tell us family stories, but she never really knew much beyond her father's generation. That is very unfortunate, because her Weakley family has had a rich and varied history.

The earliest known ancestor that I have record of on the Weakley side is my great-great-great-great-great grandfather James Weakley, who settled in West Pennsboro, Cumberland County, PA.. We know that he was born in 1704, but we don't for sure know where. The references I have seen say that he was born in Devonshire, England. There is no doubt the family name originated in England, long ago. Weakley is a derivative of an English name, Weekly, from the area of Weekley, or in Old English "wych elm wood," in Northampton, England. However, most of the people with whom James Weakley migrated to that part of Pennsylvania were from Ireland, many of them from County Antrim. Other genealogists say they have proof that Ireland is where he came from, but I have yet to see it. James was married to Jane Wilson. I haven't been able to find much about her except as it pertains to her marriage to James, and the fact that she was born in 1715 and died in 1768, and some information that may be gleaned regarding their life together in Cumberland Valley.

Anyway, we also don't know when Jane and James emigrated to Cumberland County, although it has been said they were married in England and moved together to Pennsylvania in 1725 from Devonshire, England. They appear to have immigrated with James' brother William and possibly Robert. Reports confilct, although there is evidence that Robert was his brother. They also appear to have settled in near their kinsmen the Rutherfords. In the 1734 records for the Blunston Licenses, a sort of land license, James and William lived near James, John, and Robert Rutherford. Robert Rutherford apears to have been the patrarch, patenting land for himself and and his grandson Robert Weakley. Robert moved south with his uncle James Rutherford and cousin Griffith Rutherford, possibly with the migration of John Caldwell who led a group of settlers south to Lunenburg county, VA, sometime in the late 1730s or early 40s. William and James Weakley remained behind in Pennsylvania. In
1742, William was listed as a tax collector for West Pennsboro township in Lancaster county, an area that was to become Cumberland county some 8 years later. By 1748, William had joined his kinsmen to the south and was listed among the tithables for Lunenburg county, VA, along with Robert Weakley and James and Griffith Rtuherford. Griffith was to go on to become a famous general of the American Revolution, and Robert son of Robert became a colonel in that same conflict, fighting sometimes side by side with his cousin. Col. Robert was later to serve in the United States Congress. Rutherford counties North Carolina and Tennessee were named for General Griffith Rutherford. Weakley County, Tennessee, was named for Col. Robert Weakley. This branch of the fmaily went on to live a brilliant history which can be followed in the book The Southern Virginia Weakley
Families and their Descendants, by Samual Anderson Weakley.

But James and Jane Wilson Weakley remained in Pennsylvania, carving out an existance in the American wilderness. According to James Senior's will, they had quite a number of children: James (1740), William (1742), Edward (1743), Robert (1745), Samuel (1755), Nathaniel (abt 1756), Agnes, Jane, Martha, Isabel and Mary. Their first born son and my great-great-great-great grandfather James Weakley was born on February 27, 1740.

This was a colonial pioneer family in the truest sense. Cumberland did not officially become a county until after 1740 (until this time the area was a part of Lancaster Co.), and the town of Carlisle, where their descendants settled, was not incorporated until 1750. Harrisburg at the time was Harris Ferry, a rope ferry that helped folks get across the Susquehanna. It isn't clear how early they were there, but some reports have it that the Weakleys may have been among those who jumped the gun on settling the area as early as between 1725 and 1730, pushing out the local Indians. Settlement did not become official until 1736. Even the latter settlement was not in agreement with the Indian tribes, thus contributing to the tensions that led to the French and Indian War. Tradition has it that the area was a wilderness of oak, and the pioneer family cleared it off to make for better farm land and built a log cabin, which was about all that was available to folks that far out at that time. It could be months before a strange face was seen. The area where the Weakleys started out at has been described as a collection of cabins with farms. It was formed mostly for safety reasons due to the understandable anger of local native populations. In addition, the hills around Cumberland Valley had become a safe haven for bandits and thugs trying to stay just beyond the reach of the legal authorities. Grouping farms and cabins made perfect sense in this light. James fortified the immediate area with a stockade, a small fort in which he enclosed his family and the homes of a number of neighbors. When the area became sufficiently populated, it was divided up into townships in 1735, and the Weakley family found itself living in Pennsboro Township. It wasn't a town as we would imagine it today, but rather a loose community of farms.

The Weakleys were devout Christians. Because the area was first settled by Scotch-Irish, the primary faith of the area was Presbyterian. It has been estimated that some 90% of the inhabitants of early Cumberland were Scotch-Irish. This fact and the fact that Presbyterian was basically a Scotch Irish faith has also made me suspect that the Weakley's were from Ireland, and before that Scotland. In 1734 Rev. Alexander Craighead was given permission by the local Presbytery to begin a ministry in the area beyond the Susquehanna river. He developed two congregations here: Silver Springs and Meeting House Springs, the Weakley's joining in the latter congregation. Soon after, his father, Rev. Thomas Craighead, started congregations elsewhere in Cumberland County. Alexander Craighead had a son by the name of Thomas Craighead, who later married William Weakley's daughter Rebecca. Alexander Craighead wrote the first anti-crown manifesto long before revolutionary passions came to a head.

Tensions were high during these early periods. Cumberland county lay right in the path of major Native American migratory routs. There were many raids by and against various Indian peoples, and it became so intense at times that many settlers decided this was not the life for them and either retreated back to the relative safety on the East side of the Susuhanna river, or moved south to greener and presumably safer pastures. Quite a number of homesteads were destroyed and sometimes entire families killed, although not nearly as many as some reports would have us believe. Things came to a head during the French and Indian War. The Weakleys obviously survived, and apparently prospered on their farm. The town of Carlisle grew up near Meeting House Springs, and the Weakley's lived in the area of what became West Pennsborro Township, near present day Dickonson. They apparently worked hard and prospered, developing quite an estate. James and Jane Weakley moved from the head of LeTort's spring and built a plantation that ran along the banks of the Yellow Breeches Creek for seven miles. Records in Harrisburg, PA, show that the Weakley's patented thousands of acres of land. According the Frances Weakley's The Weakley Family in America, this strip of land extended from Mt. Holly Springs to the Old Stone Tavern, about seven miles long and three miles wide. Their old log cabin was replaced by a nice stone house. They built three mills: a fulling mill, a lard mill, and a grist mill, all of which generated money from the surrounding countryside. Dating from the 1700s, the historic Barnitz Mill still stands on what used to be the Weakley estate, which makes a number of researchers think it is one of the mills built by the Weakley family. In addition, they accumulated quite a store of money. The children, except Nathaniel (under sixteen in the year 1772), grew up and married, each of the sons was allowed to build a house on the estate, with ownership remaining in the hands of father James until his death. Jane Weakley died in 1768 at the age of 53 and was buried at the cemetery near Meeting House Springs, 2 miles northwest of Carlisle next to Conedoquinet Creek. James Weakley joined her there in 1772, in his will dividing up his land among three of his eldest sons, James, Edward, and Samuel. Curiously, son William received no land at all. James Sr.'s son, our direct ancestor James Weakley the younger, was given over half of the plantation where James the senior resided, possibly including the main house, although that isn't clear. James senior's money was primarily divided among his daughters and young Nathaniel. Four hundred pounds were set aside for the purchase of land for Nathaniel later on. The very modest amounts given to some of the daughters (except Martha Weakley, who was given 130 pounds, which probably indicates a greater need than the other sisters) and son William makes me think they were already established financially. James senior's last will and testament follows, taken down just a couple of months before his death:

After his death, the family continued on in the area. Cumberland county was a hotbed of discontent leading up to and during the American Revolution. Some of the primary thinkers of the time resided in the area. James Wilson (it is doubtful he was related to Jane Wilson Weakley, but we don't know), one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence and US Constitution, lived in Carlisle at this time, so the inhabitants of Cumberland Valley were no doubt well informed of happenings. Secondly, since the population was for the most part Scotch-Irish, there was probably a greater propensity to rebellion against Britain than had they been English to begin with. Most if not all of the Weakleys were involved in the Revolution in one way or another. All of the brothers except Nathaniel (that we know of) joined to fight for independence, most of them with the Cumberland County Associators. James became a lieutenant under the command of Col. John Davis. I am still looking for information on actual battles and campaigns he may have been involved in.

After the war, our Lieutenant James and his wife Rebecca McKinly went back to farming, as did Samuel and Edward. Robert entered the fulling business. We think that William was by 1790 living in Adams County, so I still need to do some research regarding him. Nathaniel became a merchant and tavern keeper, and quite a busy sort. Newspapers of the time are peppered with his activity, going into partnership, then a few months later dissolving it to start his own store, selling his store to become a tavern keeper at The Sign of the Lamb, selling it to start an inn. Nathaniel Weakley was instrumental in building a retaining wall to protect the city graveyard from the elements, and his inn acted as a metting house for militia units.

After the revolution, passions were not just turned off. Discontent and distrust of authority still ran strong. When the Whisky Rebellion began to foment around Pittsburgh in 1794, there were a lot of folks in the countryside who were sympathetic, many of them patriots from the Revolution. Townsfolk were less inclined to rebel against their new country. The story goes that a well known captain from the Revolutionary War (there is no mention of his name in the records) led a rabble consisting primarily of farmers and plantation owners into the town to stage a protest. From historical descriptions, I would be surprised if the Weakleys weren't part of it. Word got back to George Washington who decided it was time to put a stop to it, heading out for Pittsburgh with the intent of stopping in Cumberland County on the way in order to quell passions and recruit assistance. He brought his army across the Susquehanna, riding more as a king surveying his domain than as a general prepared to put down an insurrection. And that is how he was treated when he reached Carlisle. People came from miles around, our Weakly family among them, to view the hero of the Revolution and the man who even then was looked upon as the father of our country. He was the closest thing to royalty the American people had. Dignitaries were sent to meet him and escort him into town. When he arrived he was not greeted with rifles and protests, but with cheers from well wishers and gawkers, no doubt aware that they were witness to history. Here he recruited additional help among the locals. Among others, Nathaniel Weakley joined up to march with Washington to put down the rebellion, so while he missed his chance to fight in the Revolution, he nonetheless participated in an important chapter of American history.

Most of life returned to normal during these time. When it came time to repair or build a new church, the congregation of Meeting House Springs decided to rebuild in the town of Carlisle, building the First Presbyterian Church of Carlisle, which is still in use. Most of the Weakley siblings seemed to have moved their memberships along with their church, while some others began attending at Big Springs, later the town of Newville. These are the places where they did most of their marrying, christening, and dying, the church becoming the center of their lives and where we find most of the existing records of them. The Old Graveyard in Carlisle was originally the burying ground for First Presbyterian Church, and many Weakleys can be found buried there. Many famous inhabitants of Carlisle are also buried there, including Molly Pitcher of Revolutionary War fame.

Some time prior to the war, Lieutenant James had married Rebecca McKinley, the daughter of Isaac McKinley and granddaughter of John McKinley of York county, PA, and had settled in to raise their many children, including Jane (born 1774), Isaac (1778), Rebecca (1779), Nancy (1781), James (1785), Nathaniel (1788), Elizabeth (1790), and William (1794). Son Isaac, born October 22, 1778, (apparently Revolutions don't get in the way of building a family) was our great-great-great-great grandfather. The family prospered following the war. James built a mansion, and added to his land holdings to the tune of hundreds of acres. Lieutenant James died in 1820 at the age of 80.

As his sons grew, James had allotted them pieces of land on which to build their homes and raise their families, similar to what his father did for James and his siblings. Isaac married Martha Brittain (sometimes spelled Bratton) at the Big Springs Presbyterian Church in Newville on March 10, 1803. Martha, born March 12, 1779, was the daughter of Adam Brittain and Ann Gillespie Brittain. We don't yet know when or where Adam was born, but we do know that he was a captain in the Cumberland County Associators during the Revolutionary War. Ann Gillespie married Adam on February 17, 1778. Ann was born the daughter of William and Eleanor Gillespie in Nottingham, MD, in 1753. Eleanor and her children had moved out of Nottingham in. It is believed the Gillespies were Scotch-Irish, as well. Some reports say that Eleanor moved after her husband William had died.

Anyway, we don't know all that much about Isaac and Martha Weakley. We are still researching this part of family history and have found very few records so far. We have found the names of only some of their children. Rebecca Weakley (January 27, 1804), Thompson Bratton Weakley (September 27, 1810), and Jane Eleanor Weakley. Isaac was apparently named after his maternal grandfather, Isaac McKinley. Isaac and his family can be traced through the census records, but because he died before the 1850 census, when details such as names and ages of various family members were included, and because we have been unable to find a will for him, we can only guess at some of the background information. The will of his father James states "I give devise and bequeath to my son Isaac Weakley that part of my farm that he now occupies containing about one hundred and forty acres to him his and heirs forever," with requirements that he make payments to his two sisters Mary and Elizabeth. Isaac died in 1848 at the age of 70 and is buried in the Old Graveyard in Carlisle, PA. Martha survived him by several years and is found in the 1850 census living with her son Thompson Bratton Weakley and his family. Martha Weakley died October 1, 1857 and is buried next to her husband in the Old Graveyard.

Thompson B. Weakley married Amelia Stuart at the United Presbyterian Church in Shippensburg, Cumberland County, PA, on July 22, 1835. Amelia was the daughter of John Stuart and Barbara Steene. [See The Stuart and Steene families] Like his father Isaac, we don't yet know a whole lot about Thompson, but there are some intriguing tidbits that create more questions than answers. We find Thompson and Amelia in the 1850 census for Dickinson Township. Thompson is listed as an innkeeper, and the census is taken in a hotel. All of his children are listed, along with his sister, and his mother Martha Brittain-Weakley. The good man was doing what folks did in those days, and that was taking in family members when they were old. Thompson and Amelia's children were James M. (1836), John L. (1837), Isaac Wilson (1839), Anne E. Weakley (1841), Martha B. (1843), Joseph T. (1847), and Samuel B. (1849). Of these children, Isaac Wilson Weakley is our great great grandfather. Mother Martha died around 1857 at the age of 77. We then lose all track of Thompson and his family. They don't appear in 1860 census. There is no sign of them that we have been able to find between 1850 and 1870. It appears that Thompson and Amelia separated some time during this period, something that was extremely rare in those days. It could be that Thompson was only visiting, or decided to try his hand at California fronteir life for a time, perhaps waiting to send for Amelia sometime later. We just don't know. We do know that son Isaac Wilson Weakley headed west, moving to Yuba County, CA. It appears Thomspon and several of his other sons went to California and settled first in Yuba county, then Stanislaus, along with Wilson. Amelia is not with them. She stayed in Cumberland County. At some point Thompson returned to her, because he died on July 15, 1875 in Cumberland County. Amelia lived to 1895, and is buried in the Old Graveyard in Carlisle, PA.

Wilson Weakley, the preferred name of Isaac, married Rachel Sivils December 26, 1866, probably in Stanislaus or Butte County. It raises the questions about the Civil War. Did Wilson participate? He had to be in California by 1866 to meet and marry Rachel, but that still gives him time to have fought in the war from Pennsylvania. History tells us that there was a great migration immediately following the war, between the years of 1865 and 1870. Were the Weakleys part of this great migration? This begs further investigation.

Rachel and Wilson appear together in the 1870 census records in Stanislau County. They have two children at this time: James William (1868) and Charles Weakley (1869). Living next door is father Thompson B. Weakley, aged 59, along with Wilson's brothers James M. and Samuel. Another brother Joseph T. moved out to California. For a time they all settled around Modesto, CA, in the own of Empire, where Wilson and Rachel bore the rest of their children, including Lucy Amelia (1871), Harry Wilson (1873), Rachel Annie and Joseph Edward (twins, 1875), Fred (1885), Orrin (1886), Clifford (1887), Horace (1888), Harry, and Samuel. They lived here until sometime after 1890 when, except for Joseph brother of Isaac Wilson, who remained in Stanislau County, the entire family moved to Madera County, east of the city of Madera in the direction of the small town of Raymond, and settled on a piece of land that came to be known for the next 80 years as the Wide Awake Ranch. Isaac Wilson Weakley died there in 1905, and was buried in Arbor Vitae cemetery in Madera. His obituary from the Madera newspaper follows.

DEATH OF OLD PIONEER

W. Weakley, a Well-Knonw Farmer, Passes Away

From Monday's Daily

Wilson Weakley, a pioneer of California, and a respected and well-known farmer of the county, died at his home about ten miles east of town at 8 o'clock this morning of Bright's disease. He had been ill for some months. He leaves a wife and ten children to mourn his loss. They are James, Charles, Harry, Joseph, Fred, Samnel [sic], Cliff, Horace, Lucy, and Annie Weakley.

Deceased was a native of Cumberland County, PA, and was 65 years old. He came to California when a boy and settled in Butte county, afterwards moving to Stanislaus county, where he engaged in farming for years. He then went to Merced, following his chosen pursuit, and about eleven years ago he came to this county and has been farming what is known as the Weakley ranch, near the old Bates station, for a number of years. He had a host of friends in all of the counties in which he lived. He was a member of Madera Lodge, No. 279, A.O.U.W., in which he was insured for $2000.

The funeral will take place from the Weakley ranch to morrow [sic] morning at 10 o'clock, and will arrive in town between 2 and 3 o'clock in the afternoon. The interment will be at Arbor Vitae cemetery.

Rachael Sivils Weakley moved to Fresno shortly after her husbands death, where she resided until her death in 1922. Her obituary that appeared in the Madera, CA, paper the morning after her death follows. A quick glance at the dates and other data shows several discrepancies that need to be worked out.

Pioneer of Madera County is Called by Death

Mrs. Rachael S. Weakley, who will be remembered by the older residents of Madera as one of the pioneers of the county, passed away yesterday morning in Fresno where she has made her home for the last 15 years. Mrs. Weakley was the widow of Wilson Weakley who for many years, prior to his death in 1912, was manager of what is known as the "Wide-a-Wake" ranch in Madera county.

Mrs. Weakley first came to California from Iowa in 1853, crossing the plain with her people in a prairie schooner drawn by ox teams and enduring all the hardships of pioneer life. The family settled in Honcut, where Mrs. Weakley’s mother, Mrs. Lucy Sivils, whose age now lacks but two years of the century mark, still resides. In 1892, Mr. and Mrs. Weakley came to Madera where they made their home for 15 years.

Mrs. Weakley is survived by her mother, Mrs. Lucy Sivils of Hocut; two daughters, Miss Lucy A. Weakley and Mrs. Ann Crawford of Fresno; six sons, James Weakley of Madera, Joseph and Fred Weakley of Fresno, Samuel Weakley of Colusa, Horace Weakley and Clifford Weakley, both of Kansas City, a sister Mrs. Alice Haling of Honcut; and two brothers, J.D. Sivils of Sacramento and Lee Sivils of Huncut.

Funeral services will be held at 1 o’clock Tuesday afternoon at the grave in the Arbor Vitae cemetery, with Reverend David McCalaugh officiating.

The Wide Awake Ranch continued and prospered, and was a hub of activity for the various kinfolk who grew up or married into the family there. It passed from Wilson to his sons, most of whom sold out to their brother Joseph Edward Weakley, and it remained as a family farm until Joseph's passing in 1970. It was almost left to my mother at that time, but Uncle Joseph changed his will just before he died, and the farm was sold off to satisfy the dispute among various parties. The above mentioned James William Weakley, born June 18, 1868, is my grandfather.

James didn't stay with farming his whole life. Early on he purchased a wagon and became a teamster, ferrying mostly lumber with a 20 mule team between Madera and the foot hills and forests of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, mostly around Sugarpine. He would take the road through Raymond up through Coarsegold, up to the mountains to pick up lumber or logs and carry them down to the transportation hub that was Madera, then return with goods and supplies for mills and townsfolk. He was also commissioned to carry machinery to the mountains, and in fact carried disassembled parts of a steam engine locomotive that would be used to replace men like him, taking lumber down into the San Joaquin Valley city of Fresno. When it was developed, he continued to ferry lumber between the lumber mills and the train, with frequent trips to Madera, much as a trucker might do today. A huge man even by today's standards, I often imagine James on those long, quiet trips from the mountains to the valley, nothing and no one to keep him company but the sound of the wagon wheels and the rhythm of the mule's hooves. The drive is a beautiful one, the old dirt roads now having given way to paved, the road winding its way down through the rolling foothills, by quiet streams and finally through farmland into the town of Madera. The quaint town of Raymond was a good central point for him, and that is where he settled with his family. In 1910, he met and married Chloie Mable Myers, my grandmother.

The daughter of Joseph Myers and Margaret Matilda Fancher, Chloie was a young woman when she married James, barely 16 years old at the time. She was born and raised in the valley town of Visalia, county seat of Tulare County, CA. The Myers family lived right outside the city, in the direction of Exeter. I worked for a time at the Visalia library. Right next to it is the old building that was once the library, built in 1905, and before that the oldest school in Visalia, the Little White School, was on the same spot. The old part of Visalia appears much as it did back then, and when you walk down the sidewalks of main street you get a definite sense of the age of the place. These were the streets my grandmother walked down as a child, the library where she no doubt visited, before her family moved to Madera County and she married my grandfather in 1910.

Joseph and Matilda Myers had 13 children, all of them born in California, of whom Chloie was the youngest: Nancy (1867), Albert (1868), Joseph E. (1870), Stephen (1872), Ellen (1872), John (1876), Alice (1878), George (1881), Charles (1883), Matilda (1885), Sopha (1889), James L. (1892), and, finally, Chloie Mable (1894). Joseph as the son of John and Ellen Myers. Margaret Matilda Fancher was the daughter of John Fancher and Ann Mariah Smith. The Fancher family has had a very moving family history. John Fancher's brother was Captain Alexander Fancher, who led a wagon train known as the Fancher Party into Utah where he, his family, and almost the entire wagon train of 140 men, women and children were massacred by and at the direction of Mormon officials at Mountain Meadows, Utah, in 1857. Alexander and his family were on their way with several hundred head of cattler to Tulare County where they were to join his brother. John Fancher had registered the first cattle brands in Mariposa and Tulare counties in 1852. His JF brand was purchased by a cattle company in the San Joaquin Valley and is still in use today. Fancher Creek in Fresno County runs through the city of Fresno and was named for John Fancher. [See The Fancher Family, coming soon to this website].

Joseph and Matilda Myers and family moved to Madera County around 1908 or so onto the ranch known as the Adobe Ranch, named so due to the material used to build the house and ranch buildings. Fairly close to the Wide Awake Ranch, it was here that James Weakley met young Chloie Myers.