This post is first in an ongoing series, sharing the first draft of my Revised Callin Family History. James Callin is the earliest known ancestor of one branch of the Callin (or Callen/Callan) family. This descendant report uses the Register Style of the New England Historic and Genealogical Society.
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First Generation
1. James "1st" Callin was most likely born about 1750 in the British Isles, possibly in County Louth, Ireland. He served as a soldier in the American Revolution before he married and started his family in southwestern Pennsylvania.
To quote the original Callin Family History:
“As far as we know the Callins in this country all descended from one man, James Callin, who with his brother John (who never married), emigrated from Ireland to America about the commencement of the Revolutionary War.
Our fathers tell us that these two brothers enlisted in the Continental Army and fought under Lafayette at the battle of Brandywine and remained in this army till the close of the war. These brothers settled on government land in Westmoreland Co. in Western Penn., where they remained the remainder of their lives, John sharing the home of James, who married about the year 1778.”
Records do appear to support these facts. Pennsylvania tax records show that James Callin lived in Hempfield, Bedford County, Pennsylvania in 1773. His name appeared directly above a Patrick Callan in this tax roll; Patrick may have been related to James, but what their relationship was is not known.
Patrick Callen’s descendants, who bear familiar names like John, James, and Hugh, are documented in The Callen Chronicles published by Edna Callen McNellis in 1990. I also share a distant DNA connection with one of Patrick’s descendants, and while we don’t yet have the documentary evidence that tells us what the precise connection is, all of the tenuous connections between Patrick’s family and James suggest that the James in this tax record is “James 1st” Callin from The Callin Family History.
In 1773, the area of Bedford County in which James and Patrick lived became part of the newly formed Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, and Patrick moved to Buffalo Township, Armstrong County, Pennsylvania. However, Virginia also claimed this same territory and established Yohogania County there in 1776. The territory was disputed until the Second Continental Congress recommended in 1779 that the two new states settle their differences and focus their attention on fighting British forces instead of each other.
Virginia militias had a long history of recruiting from these disputed areas, and that is why I find it likely that the James Callin who appears in the muster rolls of the 4th Virginia Regiment of Foot is the same person as “James 1st” recorded by The Callin Family History. Private James Callin was serving in this unit in September of 1777, and the 4th Virginia Regiment was attached to the 4th Virginia Brigade under the command of Brigadier General Charles Scott at the Battle of Brandywine, which took place in Chadds Ford Township, Delaware County, Pennsylvania on 11 Sep 1777. James mustered under Company M, commanded by Capt. James Lucas in Oct 1777, and served with a Private Edward Callin in that company from at least October 1777 to February 1778. While Edward appears to have transferred to another unit or left the army after Feb 1778, James appeared on the rolls until November 1779.
If James married in 1778, as claimed in the Callin Family History, he did so during his military service. More likely, he married before enlisting or after leaving the service. If records of the event exist at all, they have not been found in Westmoreland County, Bedford County, or Washington County (where the records from Yohogania County were stored after the settlement of the Pennsylvania-Virginia borderline). He may have married before coming to America, though that seems less likely. The name of his wife was not passed down to George Callin and his cousins.
We assume that James 1st and his brother, John (or perhaps, Edward), died in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, sometime after 1816, the year the younger of his two known sons left Pennsylvania for Ohio. The Callin Family History doesn’t actually claim this, and as of this writing, no records or cemetery memorials have been found that match these men.
There are records that suggest James 1st and his brother John may have continued their military service after the Revolutionary War. Two men named James and John Callin appear on the muster roll of a company of “Mounted Spies and Guides” under the command of Captain Joshua Baker, Major Notley Conn's Battalion, in the Service of the United States, Commanded by Major General Charles Scott, from 10 Jul to 21 Oct 1794. This is the same Charles Scott who commanded the 4th Virginia Brigade at the Battle of Brandywine; which suggests the possibility that James Callin may have moved his family to Kentucky.
Further evidence would need to come to light to confirm any of this, but the facts present a compelling theory which may fit what George Callin recorded in his book. Unfortunately, the National Archives did not have a record of service for a James Callin from that area or serving in that unit.
James "1st" Callin and his unknown wife had the following children:
2 i. James "2nd" Callin, born abt 1779; married Mary 2nd, abt 1800, Pennsylvania; died abt 1820, Richland County, Ohio.
3 ii. John Callin, born abt 1780; married Elizabeth Simon, 1801; died 1835, Richland County, Ohio.
iii. Polly Callin was born about 1782. She died in 1825 at the age of 43 in Pennsylvania.
iv. Unknown Callin was born about 1784 in Pennsylvania.
From The Callin Family History:
"Record of Polly, Daughter of James 1st.
"Born about 1782. Grew to womanhood in her Pennsylvania home. Was captured by the Indians, and started for the Indian country. Her father James 1st gathered some neighbors and militia and followed the trail, they were guided by bits of clothing Polly had from time to time stuck on bushes. After several days pursuit, the Indians with their captive were overtaken. In the skirmish that followed Polly attempted to escape by running. An Indian fired at her just as she fell over a log and he supposing her killed did not further molest her, there her father found her after the fight, and the men made a litter and carried her home. She was shot through the knee, and for the want of proper surgical attendance, became a cripple for life. She never married, lived to be middleaged, and noted for the exemplary life she lived. The date of her death is unknown but somewhere about 1825."
The Callen Chronicles records offer what might be another version of the same story:
"It may be about this same time [the spring and summer of 1778, when Patrick Callen was enlisted with Capt. John McCleland's company escorting provisions to Fort Hand in Westmoreland county] that the story has been told about Patrick's and Sarah's identical twin daughters, their names uncertain. 'During the Revolutionary War when there was much Indian activity in Westmoreland Co., the two little girls were kidnapped in an Indian raid when Patrick was away from home. The little girls were about five or six at the time, and both were taken. About 10 or 12 years later (after the Revolutionary War was over) [so, around 1790] a fur trader went into a remote Indian village, in far western Pennsylvania or Ohio, to trade with the Indians. While he was in the village he saw two young white women, about 18 years old, living with the tribe. One was the wife of a young indian brave and had a tiny baby; the other was unattached, but under the "protection" of a family in the tribe. During his visit he had no opportunity to talk with either of the women; however, after he had traded with the indians and left the village, he found one of the young women under the supplies in his canoe. She told him that she wanted to return to her white family; she said that she had talked with her sister before leaving and that her sister had wanted to remain behind with her indian family.'
She returned to Patrick and Sarah Callen, and the story continued:
"...the returned daughter had not been injured or mistreated, the family that had taken her in in the tribe had treated her as a daughter. Though she never regretted returning to her natural family, she was often restless. She was a private person, enjoying her time alone and in the woods, and she was described by her nephew, Watson, as 'special and different'. She had a way with wild animals that no one, not even her family understood. She was slender, tall, and very blonde but she spent every day in the sun and the wind and she was as brown as an indian. Watson said that his grandparents just let her be herself, and did not attempt to change her, but cherished her for who she was."
The nephew, Watson, mentioned at the end of that passage was the son of the unnamed girl’s brother, Hugh Callen, who founded Callensburg, Pennsylvania, in 1825. While the facts of these stories may never be proven, the fact that two families would have passed down such similar stories is another indication that those two families could be related.
The Callin Family History also says this about the unknown son of James 1st:
"James the first had a son whose name we do not know. Born about 1784. He with his wife and children determined to emigrate to Ohio and about the year 1820 went to the banks of the Allegheny, built a house boat on which he embarked his family intending as he told his friends to float down the river until he found a place that suited him when he would stop and enter some Government land. His friends never heard from him afterward. We believe, however, that he found a country to suit him; that he landed and made a home. We are confirmed in this belief by the many people of our name scattered over the southern part of the State."
It seems unlikely that we might ever know who the unknown son was. His family may have prospered and flourished somewhere down river from the Allegheny. The Callen Chronicles mentions several records of Callins in Mason County, Kentucky, which is located on the Ohio River about 350 miles downstream from Pittsburgh. The Unknown son could be one of them, or may have simply been lost to one of the million tragedies of the frontier. The best we can hope to do is to record their story, and continue to look for evidence of who they were in the pages of history.
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