My Genealogy Hound

HERRING, JOHN R., farmer, Sec. 18; P. O. Ft. Madison; son of Geo. Herring, who was born in Pennsylvania, June 17, 1781, his parents being early settlers of that State; when 14 years of age, he was sent by his father to Beaver Co., near Pittsburgh, to hold a claim purchased there soon after the treaty with the Indians; he passed his time in hunting, etc.; he was visited by Mike Fink, a noted pioneer hunter and trapper, whose history has since been published. May 1, 1806, he married Fanny Rowland, who was born Oct. 5, 1782; had nine children. In 1813, they became early settlers of Morgan Co., Ohio, where he engaged in hunting, his wife following him with a horse, carrying in the pelts and hind-quarters of the deer, with which they paid for their land, on which they remained until 1835, when they came to Appanoose Co., and the following fall to Lee Co., settling near the line of West Point and Washington Tp., where, in 1841, Mrs. Herring died, and in 1843, Mr. Herring married Nancy Hamilton, with whom he lived until his death, Dec. 10, 1867, at the advanced age of 87 years. But three of his children are now living, John R., the youngest, was born April 2, 1824, in Morgan Co., Ohio, remaining at home until his father’s second marriage; then, for a time, attended school at Ft. Madison, after which, his father having given himself and sister each 40 acres of land, they erected a cabin and began to improve the farm. After raising a crop, he loaded a flatboat and took it to New Orleans, which proving successful, he made thirteen successive trips, employing a man to conduct his farm in the meantime; in 1849, he resumed farming, threshing during the season for that branch of industry; in 1852, in company with Jefferson Hopkins, of this township, took the overland route to California; ar ived at Sacramento the last of July; went thence to Nigger Hill, where he joined a company in putting a flume in the American River, which proved unsuccessful; he left and visited Forbestown; thence to Gibsonville, the Yuba and Feather Rivers, the first two years in mining, then in a store, clerking for a year; thence to the Mikora and Scotch Rivers, mining for a time; thence to Cottonwood, near the Oregon line; thence to Beaver Creek; then went to Eureka and purchased a claim which he worked for a time, but not proving a success abandoned it and worked by the day for the balance of that season. Oct. 1856, he married Miss Mary E., daughter of Joseph and Abigail Prince; she was born in Portland, Maine, Oct. 25, 1822; lived there until 9 years of age, when her mother died, and her father took her to Belfast where her father left her; she remained there a few years, went thence to Salem, Mass., then to Boston, where she was engaged in doing house-work, in genteel families, for five years; thence to Newburyport and Newmarket, N. H., and, after visiting the principal cities in seven different States, went to California, via Panama, where she met Mr. Herring and was married October, 1857, via the same route, returned to the States, to their present place of residence, since which (with the exception of five years spent as Guard at the Penitentiary) he has been cultivating and improving his farm, which now contains 215 acres of land, valued at $30 per acre. Have one child, George Denny, born June, 1863. Mr. Herring was a Democrat, but since the firing the first gun at Ft. Sumter, has been a Republican. Mrs. H. is a member of the M. E. Church.