Genealogy is fun

Notes for Benjamin Franklin CAVE:

• Birth: 12 January 1815 in Stanley, Page County, Virginia.
• Death: 14 May 1891 in Jackson, Kosciusko, Indiana, USA.
• Residence: 1870 Jackson, Kosciusko, Indiana, USA
• Residence: 1860 Jackson, Kosciusko, Indiana, USA
• Residence: 1880 Jackson, Kosciusko, Indiana, USA
• Residence: 1850 Jackson, Kosciusko, Indiana, USA

We are descendants of son *****Benjamin F[ranklin] CAVE (1815 – 1891) who married Dicy RUNKLE, daughter of Peter and Mary “Sally” Gunner RUNKLE, on 1 September 1839 Champaign Co. OH.We will continue with their story. They lived near their parents in the southeast corner of presentday Champaign Co. OH where Benjamin farmed. In 1840 Census they are in Mad River township.They were members of the Myrtle Tree Church; Dicy joining 28 March 1841 and Benjamin joining in 25 January 1847. This is the church where David Runkle, brother to Dicy, was a minister for many years. They were removed by request of letter, 25 September 1847. They had moved on into Koscuisko Co. Indiana in 1847. On 17 June 1848 they made purchase of a piece of land in Section 12 of Jackson township, Koscuisko county, on the Eel River Bend, about one mile from the county line of Whitley. The deed lists this as about 60 acres more or less. It shows very clearly on the 1879 Atlas of Koscuisko county. ohio personal injury lawyer . cosmetic dentists . In the 1914 Atlas the land is in the name of son, David CAVE, and next to him in section 11, is his brother Joseph L. CAVE with 45.42 acres. The Eel River bends through both pieces of land. At the north end of the land owned by Benjamin and Dicy, stood the school #6 called German Baptist School on the 1879 Atlas. Perhaps this is where the children attended school. We still do not have any photos of Benjamin and Dicy, but there must be some out there somewhere. We do not know very much about them only the few stories we have been given about the farm. We were told that Dicy carried a piece of a snowball plant there from the old home and this plant was still healthy and huge in a photo taken in the 1950′s when Martha Hyde and Francis Koch made a visit to the old homestead. We have photos of the homestead, not dated and in need of repairs. The first two children Joseph L; and our ******Perry CAVE, were born in Ohio. Five more children were born to Dicy in Indiana; David; Amanda; Mary Jane; John; and George W. Tragedy struck in the late summer of 1850 and little John and Mary Jane were taken probably by some epidemic that roared through the area. Little Amanda born after this time was also taken in 1853. There were many such epidemics that went through the country wiping out entire families in these wilderness lands. Sharp TVs . Our family faired a little better than some; as they still had the four boys who would make it to adulthood. The three little children are buried in the “Hidy” cemetery on the CAVE homestead, beside their grandfather, Peter Runkle. Joseph and his wife farmed on the Eel River and George and his wife lived in South Whitley. David never married and lived on the old homestead until his death when the farm went to Grace CAVE Howard, a daughter of George. Our Perry CAVE was the only one of to move on west.I want to stop here and give a small account of the problem Benjamin and Dicy faced with Peter RUNKLE. Now Dicy’s father, and our gggrandpappy , the Colonel Peter RUNKLE had lost his first wife, Mary Gunner Runkle, the mother of his children. Peter remarried to the widow Catherine Frysinger, 22 February 1821 in Champaign county, OH. It seemed he just kept getting into HOT WATER after that, and often poor Catherine got the blunt of his troubles. He was a Veteran of not only the Revolutionary War; but he was involved in the bloody Indian vs settlers battles on the frontier of the OHIO Valley, for many years. If you want to understand the nightmares that poor old Peter must have lived with in his later years just read the book ” The Frontiersman” by Allan Eckert. It doesn’t excuse him for the treatment he gave poor Cathy, but it will give you a better picture of why he may have taken to the bottle. This was one of the blackest times in American History, but few people realize what happened in the OHIO Valley with the slaughter of both the Indians and the white people over the OHIO lands. I have to say here how my heart goes out to the American Indians struggle to hold onto their lands. There are several good books now being written that present the story of these wonderful tribes of people in early America.Peter probably found it much easier to forget all of this “blood letting” in the bottle. Unfortunately he beat poor Catherine until he left her for dead. She recovered, but was a cripple after that. In the divorce records in the Champaign county courthouse files, what little it tells is that she was given a divorce from Peter in July 1833. Peter was later made a ward of his children. They were to see to Catherine’s welfare with a support pension for the rest of her life. No doubt this gave son David Runkle, more trouble that he wanted as he was a minister in training with the church at Myrtle Tree, and his wife Mary Ann Frysinger, whom he married in 1825, is the daughter of poor Catherine! It was probably a great sadness, but also a relief when good sister Dicy and her husband Benjamin take old Peter along with them to Indiana! David and Mary Ann Runkle had been excluded from the church membership, 24 November 1849, having been members since 1836. Was this still over the problems of Peter? They were reinstated and in the minutes of the meetings of the Myrtle Tree Church; Brother David Runkle was granted a license to preach 8 December 1849. He continued in this calling until his death many years later.