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MOOMAW HOMESTEAD

The following article appeared in the Scioto Gazete of Chillicothe, Ohio dated Apr. 2, 1937.

AN HISTORICAL HOME.

     In 1812, John Moomaw, picked up his belongings and made his way across the mountains via Virginia into Ohio and coming into Ross county he proceeded to travel up0 along Upper Twin creek and there he stopped and built himself a rude log cabin.

Built Log Shelter

      This shelter was but a temporary affair, and he waited until he was in a position to build himself a real home.
     When that time arrived, which was only a few months, he proceeded to fell the trees needed for his home.  The framing timbers he selected were from yellow locust.  They were felled and the logs squared and put into the structure with the pin and thole method.  Later, he picked out straight clean limbed poplar trees and chopping them down he rived from these logs the weather boarding which covered the frame work.

In Sept. 1941 Mrs. Murry told of the reunion held there.  She gave a good description of the house.

UPPER TWIN RESIDENCE BUILT IN PIONEER DAYS.
A Resident Of The Community Tells Of Recent Moomaw Reunion At Old Home
BY MRS. MITCHEL MURRAY

     Family reunions have been the order of the day for the past several weeks as clans and family branches meet in annual conventions to renew acquaintances and take stock of past-year events.  Most of these assemblies are conducted in parks, church yards and other public sites, but when the setting is in the old home from which most of the family fore-fathers sprang, the interest is deepened as traditions and history are recalled.
     Such as the case on Sunday, Sept. 1, when the second consecutive year, the home of Mr. John Poole on Upper Twin was the scene of the annual Moomaw reunion.  The late Mrs. Poole was the great granddaughter of the pioneer John Moomaw who built the house in the early 1820's.  This enterprizing German settler not only built his own house but made the furniture for it.  Some of this still is used by the family.

HOUSE UNIQUE.

     The plan of the house is unique.  The basement containing the kitchen and the storage cellar is of stone.  The immense fireplace with its swinging crane, is one of the largest in this section of Ross county.  The great chimney on the outside of the house covers a large part of the west end of the structure.  The old dough trough, which stands in the kitchen, has been used through the years by succeeding generations of the Moomaw family for the process of preparing the bread for baking.
     To reach the second story of the house a stairway leads up from the kitchen or you can walk up the hillside at the rear of the home and enter a door into the hall from which the second story rooms open.  On this floor, as well as on the third story, there is a porch, enclosed on the ends.  Including the spacious ground floor porch the front of the house presents a rather, unusual three-storied open air arangement.

     The first year we held the reunion here Mrs. Pool showed us around the house.
     I remember a few thins not mentioned in either article.
     Mrs. Pool showed us a room on the third floor where, at one time, they raised silk worms.
     The barn had a large smooth floor on which they threshed the grain.  This was where they held their church services.  They were Brethren (Dunkers).  In the Ross County Museum is the basin they used in the foot washing ceremony.  It is made of a short log, cut in half and hollowed out, and mounted on short legs.
     The house and barn are both ruins.  The chimney fell down last winter.
     The Muddy Creek Church records give - John son of John and Barbara Mumma, b. 2 May 1776 bapt. 12 May.  His birth and death dates are both wrong in Kloepfer.  He was still alive in 1850 but died before Sophie died Sept. 1860 aged 78 yrs. 5 mos. 14 da.

 FREDERICK son of JACOB

     Jacob Mumma was the first of the name that we have a record of arriving in this country.  He arrived in Philadelphia on the Pennsylvania Merchant, Sept. 1731 with three children under 14.  Jacob, Margaret and Frederick.
 
   I have copies of two handwritten sheets from the files of the Lancaster County Mennonite Historical Society, Lancaster, Pa.  It is not clear who wrote them or when.  It says in part.    
     "
Copied Aug. 1856 From a small book Uncle John Mumma has -
     "
Family records of grandfather and his offsprings to the present time.  Frederick Mumma was born in Germany, came to America young, died Feb. 8, 1814, and was 84 years of age.  His wife, Fronica, her maiden name was Nolt, died in 1807.  They had nine children. - John, Elizabeth, Jacob, Aney (Amy), Christian, Barbara, Jonas, David, and Mary.  These came to Maturity."
     If Frederick was 84 in 1814 he would have been born in 1730.  Just one year before the voyage.  Why did Jacob arrive alone with three such young children?
     Jacob died intestate in Lancaster County in 1748.
     Frederick left a will.  It is recorded in Will book K Vol. 1, p. 519
     The list of the children of Frederick would appear to be in birth order, and since there is so little in Kloefer on this family I will use the order in this list to number the children of Frederick.
     In these notes we find that 137 Jonas was born 1752 and died 1851 will was probated May 19, 1827. It is not in the order of Index to Lancaster CC.   Wills.  Where was it probated? Kloepfer gives b. 1762 d. 1827 Donegal twp  Could he have been over the line in Dalphin Co.?
     The rest of these notes deal with Jonas the son of 133 Jacob.
    
Is this the John of the above list of children of Frederick?

JOHN MUMMA and BARBARA BOWER
Charles Appler

     John Mumma b. 27 Nov. 1750 presumably Lancaster Co. d 2 Apr. 1839. York Co. bur. Flickinger's or Mumma's Burial Ground.
     md. Barbara Bower b. 15 Jan. 1755 d. 8 July 1832 d/o Nicholas and Elizabeth Bower of Hempfield twp.
     Children as revealed by his will on file in York Co. Book S p. 34
     John Mumma
     Abraham Mumma
     Samuel Mumma
born 18 Oct. 1795 d. 23 Sept. 1885

 

 

 

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