Rev. John Harrison “Preacher John” Cleveland
BIRTH 1740
Orange County, Virginia, USA
DEATH 25 Mar 1825 (aged 84–85)
Oconee County, South Carolina, USA
BURIAL Beaverdam Baptist Church Cemetery
Fair Play, Oconee County, South Carolina, USA
Pvt. Continental Line, Lt., NC Militia
Rev. John H Cleveland was born abt 1738 at Blue Run, Orange County, Virginia, the son of Col. John Cleveland and Martha Elizabeth Coffey. He was known as "The Father of Baptist Principles."
>From "The Genealogy of the Cleveland and Cleaveland Families," Edmund J. Cleveland and Horace G. Cleveland, Hartford, Conn. Case, Lockwood & Brainard Co., 1899
Vol. III, P. 2058-9
#16009 Rev. John Cleveland. Baptist Clergyman. 1772-1785 went with his brother Larkin from VA to NC. They journeyed on pack horses and cut their way.
"When he would preach, the wicked people would take him out of the house and beat him severely, but he would preach on, and when they let him go, would mount a stump or log and finish his sermon."
They came to the Pickens District of SC and were the first settlers. They lived in the Pendleton Dist. of SC at Cleveland's Ferry (in what is now Oconee). He was one of the first settlers of Franklin Co., GA in about 1785 when it was inhabited by Indians. He had a home on the Tugaloo. Larkin had a home on the GA side in sight. They dwelt there for many years and raised a family, who settled at various points along the Tugaloo. He was a preacher at Chauga Church, Oconee So., and Eustonala Church, GA. "He was good to his neighbors and the poor, kind to his many darkies, who thought their master better than any other man." He was living with his son-in-law Benjamin Harrison at the time of his death.
The small marker is on his relocated grave. The larger marker and plaque is located near where they lived before Lake Hartwell covered the family graves.
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Early pioneers of Oconee County, South Carolina. Relocated from an unmarked cemetery at Fair Play area of Hartwell Lake on April 22, 1988. Historical marker rests above the grave markers for Rev. John H. Cleveland 1740-1825
PVT. Continental Line -- LT NC Militia AND Mary (Mollie) McCann Cleveland 1741-1808
Inscription
Rev. John H. Cleveland 1740-1825
PVT. Continental Line -- LT NC Militia
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/65890653/john-harrison-cleveland
