The Garlock-Elliott Family


Follow the Chamness Family’s Migration Trail

In putting the Chamness history together I saw that the path of our ancestors would make a great family vacation route, so here are the genealogy highlights of the trip. I'm sure you'll find many other awesome experiences along the way. When you get out your maps to plan your trip, be sure to include Rt. 25 on either side of the Cumberland Gap, at Middlesboro, Kentucky. Parts of it follow the Old Wilderness Trail carved out by Daniel Boone. Edward Chamness and family traveled this road to Indiana.

Old St. Paul's Episcopal Parish Church, Baltimore, MD

Anthony and Sarah were married at St. Paul's Church in Baltimore. There is a still an active church, Old St. Paul's Episcopal Parish Church, founded 1692, located on Charles Street at Saratoga in Baltimore, Maryland, four blocks north of Harbor Place and the Convention Center. This is very likely the church where Anthony and Sarah married in 1735. The Parish Office is one block west of the Church at 309 Cathedral Street, 21201.

Gunpowder Meeting, Sparks, MD

The first records we have of Anthony and Sarah as Quakers are from the Gunpowder Meeting. It is still an active meeting located at Sparks, 21 miles north of Baltimore on Route 83, the Harrisburg Expressway. Exit 24, Belfast Road, west toward Butler approximately 1/3 mile to Priceville Road. Turn left onto Priceville Road and continue approximately 1 mile. Where Priceville Road turns right and Quaker Bottom Road continues ahead at the crest of a steep grade, make a sharp right turn into the Meeting House Drive.

Monocacy Meeting , near Buckeystown MD

In 1741 Anthony and Sarah transferred from Gunpowder MM to Monocacy Meeting in Maryland near what is now Buckeystown. This is located in the Monocacy Valley about five miles south of Frederick and just north of the Potomac River in Frederick County, Maryland. Monocacy Meeting was absorbed by the Fairfax Meeting, Loudon County, Maryland.

Carver's Creek MM, Bladen County, NC

Anthony and Sarah transferred from Fairfax MM in 1749 to Carver's Creek MM in what was Bladen County, North Carolina at the time. Carver's Creek MM It is no longer in existence and I was unable to locate it .

Cane Creek MM, Snow Camp, NC

Anthony and Sarah were charter members of the Cane Creek MM when it was set off from the Carver's Creek MM in 1751. It is still an active meeting located near the village of Snow Camp on the Greensboro-Chapel Hill Road in Alamance County, North Carolina. The cemetery has a memorial marker dedicated to the pioneer Chamnesses.

Snow Camp highway marker

Today in the Snow Camp area of Alamance County, North Carolina, you can see a historical marker for Snow Camp and Simon Dixon's place along Cane Creek. Very near this marker is the site of Anthony's original Land Grant of 1750.

Sign on Sylvan School Road, Snow Camp, NC near Anthony Chamness' Land Grant of 1750, Photo by Janice Donley, 2000.

Snow Camp historical roadside marker
The local community and the Friends support the Snow Camp Historical Drama Society who presents “The Sword of Peace” during the summer months. The drama tells the story of Simon Dixon, the miller, and his wife, Elizabeth and how their quiet lives are disrupted by the Battle of Alamance and how a young Quaker man resolves the conflict of going to war or standing for the peaceful beliefs of his faith. The Group also presents “Pathway to Freedom,” a story of the Quakers who participated in the Underground Railroad. Replicas of log buildings and meeting houses typical of an early Quaker community are also on the site.

Centre MM, Guilford County, NC

Centre MM is still an active meeting located on what is now Highway 62 in Guilford County, North Carolina near the Randolph County line. Joseph Chamness and his family belonged to this meeting.

Providence MM, Providence Township, Randolph Co., NC

Margaret Norton, first wife of Joseph Chamness died in 1784 and is reportedly buried in the cemetery of the Providence MM, although the minutes of the Meeting do not include a record of her burial. Joseph and his second wife, Hannah Beeson, were buried here, however, there are no stones for them. The cemetery is located in Providence Township in the central upper part of Randolph County, North Carolina next to the Guilford County line.

Spring MM, near Graham, Alamance County, NC

Spring MM is in the southeastern corner of Alamance County, North Carolina about 15 miles southeast of Graham and a few miles east of Cane Creek Meeting. Edward Chamness' wife, Hannah Woody and her family belonged to this meeting.

White Lick MM, Mooresville, Morgan County, IN

White Lick MM was in Morgan County, Indiana. This was the first meeting Edward Chamness and his family attended when they arrived in Indiana in 1828. It's original location was a couple of miles north of Mooresville on State highway 267, about 1/4 mile north of County Line Road--on the right hand side of the road and up on a hill. The building is no longer standing.

The location of this first site was lost over the years, but was located by accident some 20-30 years ago. A man was digging there and coming upon a row of stones realized they were gravestones. A monument has been placed at the site and there are about a dozen stones still in the cemetery. The Meeting had moved to a new site northwest of Mooresville. That building is no longer standing either and we have no relatives buried in either cemetery.

Sugar Grove Meetinghouse, Plainfield, IN

Edward and Hannah Woody Chamness are buried in the cemetery at Sugar Grove Meetinghouse. The Sugar Grove Meetinghouse [part of the Plainfield Monthly Meeting] was the home meeting of Edward and Hannah Woody Chamness when they lived in Hendricks County, Indiana. They both are buried in the cemetery there.

Take I-70 west out of Indianapolis to the Plainfield exit (State Road 267). Go north on 267 to the first stop light, then turn left onto County Road 600 S. Go past two 4-way stop signs and proceed about 600 ft further to the top of the hill. The Meetinghouse and cemetery are on the right.

Sugar Grove Meeting House, Hendricks County, Indiana

Sugar Grove was set up in 1826. It was both a local meeting and later the Yearly Meetinghouse for the Conservative Friends. The Sugar Grove Meetinghouse was not sold (when it was "laid down" in the 1970s) but was given to the existing Western Yearly Meeting along with a trust fund for the upkeep of the building and cemetery. It was just put on the historic register. It had not been modernized -- no lights, heat from a stove, etc. It is worth looking-up if you are in the country. I attended some Christmas Eve meetings there -- in candlelight and with a pot of wassail heating on the stove to enjoy together after meeting. One half of the building still has its benches. The two sides (originally men's and women's) were divided by a shutter."

--Joyce Overman Bowman (Indianapolis First Friends Meeting)

 

Abner Creek Cemetery, Washington Township, Hendricks Co., IN

Rhoda Bray Chamness, wife of Owen is buried at Abner Creek Cemetery. Owen is probably buried there also but there is no stone. The cemetery is located on 150N approx. a half mile off of 475E in Washington Township, Hendricks County, Indiana. Turn West off of 267 or it may be easier to turn off 36 to the North. It is between two houses some distance from the road on the south side between roads 425 and 475E.

Abner Creek Cemetary

Stan B. from Pennsylvania told me he was raised in Indiana, about an hour's drive from Abner Creek Cemetery. He said that when he was young his father, uncle and grandfather had spent a vacation and several weekends cleaning the cemetery. It was overgrown, head-high, with briars and brambles.

Some years later Stan and his aunt visited the cemetery and found it had been mowed but many stones were down and placed along the fence. A couple of their family stones were missing. When he visited in July 2000 he found the cemetery was nicely mowed.

Mt. Jackson Cemetery, Indianapolis, IN

Lucas Brooks and Lydia Martha Lindsey Chamness are buried at Mt. Jackson Cemetery located on Tibbs Avenue, Indianapolis, Indiana. Their daughter, Sarah Ellen and her husband, John Mack Garloch, are buried there also.

 


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Last modified 01-Jan-2001
Contact: Janice Donley jdonley@garlock-elliott.org | Designed by Susan K. Donley | Programmed by H. Edward Donley