AARON SPALDING of CAMPBELL CO, KENTUCKY - FIFTH GENERATION

Study of the settlement of Kentucky after the Revolution underscores the motivation of our pioneering ancestors to seek a new life beyond the Appalachian Mountains of western Virginia. Kentucky was a "promised land" of mythical proportion. To this Canaanland, pioneer families traveled by horseback and mule-drawn wagon. Spalding ancestors journeyed northwestward from Maryland to Fort Redstone on the Monongahela River, then by water to Fort Pitt, and by flatboat down the Ohio River to the frontier settlements. Others rode through western Virginia to Cumberland Gap and along the Wilderness Road to the bluegrass region of central Kentucky. They brought with them their shining dream of a new start in a "western Eden."[1]

When Moses Clark Spalding and his extended family left St. Mary's County for the Kentucky frontier, the usual route was by flatboat down the Ohio River to Limestone Landing, today's Maysville. Families disembarked at Limestone to avoid Indians at the Falls of the Ohio. From Maysville, they traveled overland to a family station. These stations protected settlers from Indian attack which made isolated homesteading impractical. Between 1774 and 1790, every frontier community boasted a blockhouse station.[2] Men left their families at the stations while they homesteaded by constructing a rude shelter and planting a crop.

Among the migrating southern Maryland families were John Aaron and Bennett Spalding going west to claim bounty land for Revolutionary War service. Moses Clarke Spalding must have followed soon after with John Clarke, his kinsman, settling in Lincoln Co, Kentucky, after 1790.[3]

On May 20, 1794, in Lincoln County, the clerk of the county court wrote an order to "bind out Aaron Spalding, about twelve years old, to Francis Spilman to learn the trade of shoemaker, it appearing that Moses Clarke Spalding, father to the said Aaron, does consent to proper provision for his maintenance and education."[4] Many children were bound or indentured to learn trades. Aaron Spalding became a shoemaker's apprentice beginning his lifework. His occupation "tanner" was listed in Judge Charles W. Spalding's "Spalding Memorial" by the Indiana family of his oldest son, William DeCoursey Spalding, who became a Baptist minister in Withamsville, Ohio.[5] It was revealing that the oldest son, alone among Aaron's children, listed his father's birthplace as Maryland on the 1860 Census of Clermont County, Ohio.[6]

Moses Clarke Spalding indentured his other children from May to October of 1794 in Mercer County: Thomas to shoemaker John Hughes; Charles to saddler Robert Mitchell, then to David Sutton, hatter; Nancy to Benjamin Fields, weaver, then to John Little; Joseph to blacksmith William Hall. [See Appendix below for Mercer County Court Order Book indentures.]

Aaron was fortunate in the selection of his master. Francis & Rebecca Erskine Spilman had come from King George County VA with eight children to claim bounty land near Danville, Ky., about 1790. A family legend recounts that Frank Spilman had been wounded at Valley Forge. With his best friend's death wish that he should care for his young wife, Frank married the friend's wife, Rebecca Erskine. A complete Spilman history may be found in The Spilman Papers by Malcolm Melville.[7]

Many important events mark the sojourn of the Spilman family in Lincoln Co Ky. William DeCoursey Jr. married Martha Frank Spilman, daughter of Francis Spillman, on July 26, 1786.[8] The ties among the Spalding, Spilman, and DeCoursey families continued for many generations. William DeCoursey Sr. became minister of Licking Baptist Church in Kenton County on October 1794; he appeared on an Early Campbell Co Tax List in 1795.[9]. Thomas Frank Spilman, son of Francis & Rebecca Spilman, was born in Danville, Lincoln County, in 1794. By 1796, the Spilmans were in Campbell County with Aaron Spalding, their young apprentice.[10]

Francis Frank Spilman became a surveyor in Campbell County. He was ordained a minister in the Regular Baptist Church on Nov 8, 1823. He performed marriages for several of his children. He died 1866 at age 71.[11] He & his wife were surrogate parents for Aaron. On the 1850 US Campbell County Census, Aaron Spalding, forgetting his Maryland origin, reported he was born in VA and his age was seventy, making his birth date 1780; but according to the indenture record, his birth date was closer to 1782.[12] Aaron Spalding completed his apprenticeship and married Hannah Herbert in Campbell County, 4th January, 1805, the daughter of Virginia Militiaman Josiah Herbert[13][14]. Perhaps they were married by the Baptist minister William DeCoursey, for their first son was named in honor of the venerable Campbell County pioneer. Six sons and two daughters were born to the couple during the years from 1807 to 1825.[15] They were founding members of Four-Mile & Twelve-Mile Baptist Churches in the Ohio Valley. They were listed among the membership of the two churches beginning in 1814 and ending in 1852.[16]

Aaron probably died before 1856 when his children sold his farm near Twelve-Mile Church.[17] Aaron & his wife Hannah Herbert Spalding are probably buried in Twelve-Mile Baptist Church's original cemetery on an island in the middle of the creek. Tramping through weeds and water, the remains of the older church and island cemetery are visible 300 yards upstream from the bridge over 12-Mile Creek and the present 12-Mile Baptist church on Washington Trace Rd., Ky. State Rt. 1566. [18]

Children of Aaron Spalding-Spaulding and his wife Hannah Herbert:

1. William DeCoursey Spaulding b. Oct. 7, 1807; m. Hannah Battle Mar. 23, 1828; d. Jan. 11, 1888 Clermont Co, Ohio.

2. James Spaulding b. c1809; m. (1) Maria Streeter Jan 19, 1827 (2) Polly Dilce (3) Margaret Ann Townsend; d. aft. 1860.

3. John Spaulding b. Dec. 26, 1810; m. Elizabeth Strawn Nov 16, 1831; d. Mar. 10, 1888 Campbell Co, Ky.

4. Nancy Spaulding b. c1811; mar. Geo. W. Forrester June 4, 1829; d. ? 

5. Rebecca Ann Spaulding b. Dec. 26, 1818; m. Robinson Gillham (sic) Jan. 25, 1838; d. Jan. 17, 1893.

6. Ephraim Dozier Spaulding b. c1820; m. Mary Brown Dec. 7, 1845, d. ?.

7. Henry E. Spaulding b. c1822; mar. Delia Ann Giles Dec. 8, 1843, d. Sept. 26, 1890.

8. Aaron Spaulding Jr. b. c1825; mar. Mary Ann Townsend Jan. 18, 1848 Twelve-Mile Church; d. aft. 1870.

For those wishing to visit ancestral sites of a by-gone age, collect the invaluable Northern Kentucky Chamber's "Historic Back Roads Tour of Northern Kentucky" and travel down river into the hinterlands of southern Campbell Co. Twelve-Mile Church is designated a Kentucky Historic Site, while old Four-Mile village has historic stone houses. It is within the realm of possibility that you will tread the land your ancestors won in the War of Revolution, 1776-1783, and claimed during the Great Migration. Kentucky, "the bloody hunting ground," was not easily wrested from the British and their allies, the fierce Shawnee. The Herbert and Spalding ancestors were up to the challenge of both founding a nation and a state while forging the freedoms we enjoy today.

JOHN SPAULDING of CAMPBELL COUNTY, KENTUCKY - SIXTH GENERATION          Back to Main Page

Footnotes & Bibliography:

1. Alvey, R. Gerald, "Kentucky Bluegrass Country," Univ. of Miss. Press, 1992, p. xiii.

2. Hammett, Regina, "History of St. Mary's Co, Md, 1634-1990," 1994, p. 93.

3. "Counties of Central Kentucky," a map pub. by Ky. Historical Society.

4. "Lincoln Co Ky Court Order Book 4," 1791-1794," p. 310.

5. Spalding, Charles W., "Spalding Memorial," Chicago: Am. Pub. Co, 1897, Appendix III, "Maryland Spalding," p. 998.

6. 1860 US Census of Clermont Co Ohio, p. 250.

7. Melville, Malcolm L, "Spilman Papers," privately printed, Forestville, CA, May 1965, Chapter IV: "Francis Frank Spilman," pp. 47-71.

8. Cooley, Elizabeth, "Early Days of Alexandria, Kentucky," Ft. Thomas, Ky. 1956, in Ky Hist. Soc. Library, Frankfort, Ky., p. 21.

9. "Early Kentucky Tax Records" in "The Register," Ky. Hist. Society, Vol 26, 1928, pp. 24-36.

10. Campbell Co Ky November Court Order 1796: "Ordered that Francis Spilman, et al, mark out nearest & best way from said Spilmans to John Fowler's Salt Works on Bank Lick and make a report."

11. Melville, op. cit., pp. 49-51.

12. 1810, 1820, 1830, 1840 US Census Records of Campbell Co Ky.

13. Marriage Bond of Aaron & Hannah Herbert Spalding in Campbell Co Courthouse, Alexandria, Ky, in "Old Marriage Bonds" Box A; copy in possession of Pat Doster, Brevard, NC.

14. Worrel, Stephen, "Campbell Co KY Marriages, 1795-1850," privately printed by author, 1992, p. 192.

15. Family Tree Maker FGSs by Pat Doster, Brevard, NC. See Bibliography.

16. Houston, Jean, "Four & Twelve Mile Baptist Churches," NGS Quarterly, Vol 61:1, March 1973, pp. 40-46.

17. Campbell Co Ky Deed Book 31, p. 127, Campbell Co Ky Courthouse.

18. "Historic Backroads Tour" booklet, N. Ky Bicentennial Com., p. 12.

Appendix:

Aaron Spalding's indenture to Francis Spillman located in the Lincoln Co Ky Court Order Book 4, 1791-1794, p. 310. "Lincoln Co Ky Court Records," Vol III, by Cook Publications, Evansville, Ind., 1990, p. 96.

Mercer Co Ky Court Order Book 3, 1793-1801, p. 102. "Mercer Co Ky Court Records," Vol I, by Cook Publications, Evansville, Ind., 1987,  pp. 123, 136, 137, 387 & 401.

May 27, 1794: "Ordered that the Clerk bind out Thomas Spalding, son of Moses Clark Spalding, to John Hughes, shoemaker, as the law directs."

May 27, 1794: "Ordered that the Clerk bind out Charles Spalding, son of Moses Clark Spalding, to Robert Mitchell to learn trade of saddler."

May 27, 1794: "Ordered that Clerk bind out Nancy Spalding, daughter of Moses Clark Spalding, to Benjamin Fields, to learn art of spinning."

Aug 26, 1794: "Ordered that order for binding out Nancy Spalding to Benj. Fields be reversed & that Clerk bind out Nancy to John Little to learn spinning & knitting."

Oct 28, 1794: "Ordered that Clerk bind out Charles Spalding, son of Moses Clark Spalding, to David Sutton instead of John Mitchell to learn trade of hatter."

Oct 28, 1794: "Ordered that Clerk bind out Joseph Spalding, son of Moses Clark Spalding, to William Hall to learn trade of blacksmith."