Person:James Driver (3)

He is found on the Ann Arundel Co, MD census for 1800, the Baltimore Co, MD census for 1820.

The Carroll County land records abstracts has this entry; Liber WW-1 1837-1838

408 - James Driver - 30 Oct 1837 (made 6 Sep 1837) From James Hood (of John) and wife Sarah S., for $809 cm, parts of adjoining tracts, Sally's Chance Resurveyed, Poole's Desire (next to Greebury's Grove); the second part includes part of Warfield's Forrest, Richard's Third Chance, totaling 111+acres.

From Marjorie Matzen

James served from 1777 to the end of the Revolutionary War. He received a land grand in Maryland for his service. He also served in the War of 1812 and received a second grant. [No one has ever applied to join the DAR through him.]

At the time that James sold his land in York County, Pennsylvania, there was placed a notation on the border of the deed that he had gone to Maryland. (York County is just across the border from Baltimore County.)

When he received his inheritance from his father, James gave his receipt: "Washington County, Summerset Township, June 18, 1812. Received of Alexander Peden, one oth the Executors of the estate of my father, James Driver, Dec., the sum of one hundred dollars and fifty cents which I receive as my full share of his estate, real and personal (during the life of his widow) coming or belonging to me as a legatee, and I also hereby acknowledge the receipt of thirteen dollars and thirty three cents for service rendered to my father previous to his decease. Witness my hand. James Driver."

That same day, James signed another document regarding his father's estate where he names himself as "James Driver, of Baltimore County and state of Maryland..."

In the 1810 census, his numbers were 3-2-1-0-1-2-1-0-0-1-0

1850 Census Ohio

    Driver, Adam   ERVM 433
    Driver, Enoch G.    ERVM 450
    Driver, Henry  BRPE 626
    Driver, Henry  LUPR 2
    Driver, Isah   ERVM 450
    Driver, James  ERVM 435
    Driver, James  FARU 419
    Driver, Lucretia    ERVM 450
    Driver, Mary A.     HMW8 574
    Driver, Michael     MNSW 201
    Driver, Noah   FARU 429
    Driver, Robert ERPO 51
    Driver, W.     NTW1 151
    Driver, Wesley ERVM 448
    Driver, William     ERHU 409
    Driver, Willson     ERVM 449

(The ERVM are our family - not sure about the others)

The family story was that 3 brothers came to America from Wales - a fourth stayed in Wales and was hung as a thief. One brother went South, the others North. Also, the Drivers were supposed to have been involved with the Underground Railroad during the Civil War. Maps of the Railroad routes show one branch going directly to the Sandusky area from the South, so this story may have been true. Information about the Underground Railroad stops is spotty; composed from memories, there is no master list of sites that sheltered (or hindered) runnaway slaves.

Larry Soule's Genealogy File (lsoule@@acm.org) has a record from the Baltimore archives:

Chancery Court (Chancery papers) 1842/12/01 #11804: John T. Worthington vs. William Baer, James Driver, Lucy Driver, and Frederick A. Schley, CR. Mortgage foreclosure. Recorded (Chancery Record) 162, p. 593. Accession No: 17,898-11804. MSA S512-11628 1/39/4/

Perhaps the route taken from Maryland to Ohio by the Drivers?

The National Road was originally called the Cumberland Road because it started in Cumberland, Maryland. By 1825, it was referred to as the National Road because of its federal funding. The enabling act for admission of Ohio to the Union in 1803 contained provisions for construction of a road linking the East and West. Congress then passed "An Act to Regulate the Laying Out and Making a Road from Cumberland, in the State of Maryland, to the State of Ohio." In 1811, contracts were signed for construction of the first ten miles west of Cumberland. The road reached Wheeling in 1818. It entered Columbus in 1833, and Congress made its last appropriation for the road in 1838. During the 1830s, Congress had begun to turn the road over to the states for administration and maintenance. Construction was suspended in the early 1840s because of lack of congressional appropriations. Indiana completed its intrastate segment in 1850. The road then continued on to Vandalia, Illinois, but it did not continue on to Jefferson City, Missouri, as had been planned, the idea being that the road was to go through state capitals as it moved westward. The old National Road became part of U.S. 40 in 1926.

The official name of the Cranberry Creek Cemetery is Oak Bluff Cemetery, Berlin Twp. I believe it is called Cranberry Creek because that is the name given to the area by locals. None of the cemeteries I saw in Erie County are abandoned - most had at least one recent grave and all were mown regularly.

James' grave at the cemetery is at the end of a row. Space for his wife's grave is to his left. Though no headstone exists now (1990's) for Lucretia, it is said she is buried there. No record was found for her in any other Erie County cemetery. An oak tree was planted over the plot - only a stump remains but it is at least 6 feet in circumference.

Other graves at the cemetery (all are grouped roughly together into a Driver section) that I cannot place at this time are:

    George Hobbs
    died April 11, 1837
    age 21y, 4m

    Nancy Ann
    wife of ? (unreadable)
    died September 12, 1891 (the year is difficult to read)
    age at death is there, but is unreadable

From Vermilion 2000 City Directory

The City of Vermilion "The Heart of the North Coast" was first settled between 1808 and 1811. This area was part of a tract offered by the State of Connecticut to the Fire Sufferers whose property had been plundered during the Revolutionary War. A section of Connecticut's Western Reserve, it was appropriately called the Firelands. Using the name the Indians had given the river, the Firelands Company named Township No. 6, Range 20, Vermilion.

From A Standard History of Erie County, Ohio

Information about James in an article about his grandson, William Pickett

... was a Methodist minister and also a shoemaker by trade, and came to Ohio as a pioneer preacher and died in Erie County in old age.

From Renee Cannon, a possible descendant

I remember my grandmother saying that there was a horse thief in the family -- and that it was for real! Second, she also indicated that her family was very much a part of the underground railroad.

Regarding the persistent rumors that there is Indian blood in the Driver family, with no proof that this is our Driver family

from Mary Cross <cross@@buckeyeweb.com>

According to Indian Blood - Finding your Native American Ancestor by Richard Pangburn, Driver is a Wyandot tribal name. 1843 Muster Roll of the Wyandots from Sandusky Ohio listed; 1. Francis Driver`s family, consisting of one female over 55, one male and one female between the ages of 25 and 55, 3 females between ages 10 & 25, and one boy under 10. 2. Isaac or Issac P. Driver`s household which consisted of one male between the age of 25 and 55, and one boy under 10. 3.James Driver`s family, consisting of one male and one female, both between 10 and 25, and 2 females under 10. Among the WYANDOT TRIBAL PEOPLE listed on the 1855 census were Issac P. Driver, Magee 46, Catherine 46, Sarah 19, & Susan 18. Francis Driver had married Matilda Stephenson, an adopted Wyandot from Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. A few months after Francis Driver died (Jan. 24, 1847), his widow married Francis A. Hicks, then the Chief of the Wyandot Nation in Wyandot County, Kansas. Among the students at the Kansas Methodist Mission School in 1848 was Susan Driver, a Wyandot, age 14.

1. ↑ FTW Data Collection. Maryland Marriages, 1778-1800
   p. 63.