Person:John Winchell (1)

John Winchell, born 1760, was a native of Dutchess County, New York. He served from May 7, 1778 to February 17, 1779 in the Fourth Company of the Second Regiment of the New York Line under Capt. Samuel T. Pell, the regimental commander being Col. Philip Van Cortlandt. In 1779 he married Rachel Avery, the daughter of Alpheus Avery. No pension record has been found. Following their marriage they moved from Dutchess County, across the Hudson to Ulster County. Some years later they moved to Delaware County where they lived for a time and accumulated property from a lumber business on the Delaware River. In 1808 or 1809 he led a party of emigrants west by way of Pittsburgh, suffering many hardships enroute. In what is now Randolph County, West Virginia he made an investment in land but his title proved worthless and his investment was a complete loss. Indiana Territory having been opened to settlement about this time, his party continued down the Ohio, stopping for a short time at Cincinnati, Ohio, and Louisville, Kentucky. In the late summer of 1809 they reached Perry County and he bought 320 acres of land in Tobin Township on August 3. He did not long survive the rigors of pioneer life for on September 4, 1811 he died and was buried in the Upper or Lamb Cemetery at Tobinsport. His wife died August 19, 1815 and was buried at his side. His will is of record at Vincennes, Knox County, Perry County not being organized at the time of his death. His Revolutionary service is authenticated by the Military Register in the New York Archives and by the Second Edition of the Winchell Genealogy. (Source: Revolutionary Soldiers of Perry County, Indiana, & Marriage Records 1814 - 1850, Lafayette Spring Chapter, DAR, Tell City - Cannelton, Indiana, February 1950.)

136 JOHN WINCHELL (48 Stephen, 13 Stephen, 2 Nathanael, 1 Robert). Born on the estate of "Great Nine Partners," Duchess Co., NY, in 1760; m. Rachel Avery (dau. of Alpheus); d. 14 Sept., 1811, aged 51 years; she was b. 1762 and d. 19 Aug., 1715, aged 53 years, as inscribed on their tombstone in Tobinsport, Ind. According to Dr. A. A. Simons of Cloverport, KY, a grandson of 320 Catherine, 136 John first moved from his father's home in Duchess Co. across the Hudson to Ulster Co., NY; later he moved into the next county to the westward (Colchester, Delaware Co.), where he seems to have lived for some years during which he made a fortune of about thirty thousand dollars in the lumber business on the Delaware River. John's daughter, Catherine, was married at Colchester in 1807. In 1808 or 1809 John started on a long trip westward with a party of seventeen, including his ten children, two children by marriage and two grandchildren (873 Ransom and 881 Melvina). The journey must have been one of many privations and dangers, over the worst of roads through the wilderness. 874 Richard was probably born somewhere on the journey. While in Pittsburg, then an unincorporated town of only 400 houses, they accidentally found Arad Simons, 320 Catherine's husband, who had preceded the main party by considerable time, and had not been heard from for months. It was probably in Pittsburg that John joined with Burrows and McGregory in the purchase of about 42,000 acres of land, investing the greater part of his fortune in this way. The land was part of the "Dewees claim or grant," located in Randolph Co., VA (now West Virginia), on the Dry Laurel and Gladys forks of the Cheat River. The "Dewees grant" was covered by prior grants and the investment proved a complete loss. Upon leaving Pittsburg, the family journeyed in a flat-bottomed boat down the Ohio, stopping for a short time at Cincinnati and Louisville to Perry Co., Ind., where they arrived probably in the fall of 1809. But John's daughter, Catherine, remained with her husband (and her sister, Charity) at Louisville, KY, where Charity was married. In 1816 or 1817 Catherine and her family moved to Perry Co. Some of John's descendents still live near Rome, Perry Co., Ind., and in Kentucky near Cloverport. John served in the Revolutionary army. (The Winchell Genealogy)

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3} Lafayette Spring Chapter, DAR. Revolutionary Soldiers of Perry County, Indiana & Marriage Records 1814-1850. (Feb 1950).
2. ↑ Family Gene Records Collection (Ancestry.com).