User:NoraNell

John Spiller was born about 1741 in the Shannendoah Valley of Virginia. At some point he traveled to North Carolina and met up with Daniel Boone who had moved there from Pennsylvania. John accompanied Daniel Boone on his 2nd trip over the gap into Kentucky. This was the trip that included Boone's wife and family.

At some point they were attacked by Indians and during the battle, it became hand to hand. John Spiller used his gun as a club, somehow damaging it. He survived, but his gun was damaged, so he traveled up to western Pennsylvania to the gun smith, Christopher Gump to have have it repaired.

While waiting to have his gun repaired, he took lodging in the area and met and married Rachel Jackson, daughter of Thomas and Ann Jackson. Thomas gave the young couple some of his land in Washington County, PA and they lived there until Rachel's death about 1808. They had numerous children, mostly girls, except for a son, Thomas Jackson Spiller, who was born about 1784.

John Spiller served in the Washington County Pennsylvania Militia during the Rev War and has a bronze grave marker placed by the Sons of the Revolution in the Sugar Creek Cemetery near Port Homer, Ohio.

About 1810 John marries again. His 2nd wife is a young widow with two children. Her name is Catherine Marquis Cooper. He moves to Jefferson County Ohio, near Stubenville and has many more children with Catherine. He farms and since his son Thomas Jackson Spiller has moved with him, they go into business providing wood to the boats plying up and down the Ohio River.

John Spiller dies in 1829 and is buried near Port Homer, Ohio, either on the family farm or in the Sugar Creek Cemetery. He was still fathering children when he was in his 70's, 80's. He was very close to 90 when he died. WE know that he fathered at least 16 children with two wives in his lifetime and since many died at birth, we have reason to believe there were many more.

Thomas Jackson Spiller takes a wife in October 1810 in Jefferson County Ohio. Her name is Susannah Spitler (Spitten). The record of the solemization of their marriage is found in Vol. 2, page 176 of Jefferson County, Ohio marriage records.

They have a least 10 children. Only one son is born or lived past birth. That is Thomas Jackson Loch Spiller, who was born in 1833 or 34, depending on which record you look at.

After John Spiller dies in 1829, Thomas Jackson Spiller and his family move down the Ohio to Meigs County. There used to be a little town called Spiller, Ohio there just east of Pomeroy. I believe it was in Lebanon Township. It can be found in old atlas's from 1915 and earlier.

Thomas Jackson Loch Spiller marries Martha Ann McDaniel in 1860. She is just 16 years old. They have 8 children, the first of whom, Addie, dies shortly after her birth in September 1861. Then comes my Grandmother, Emma Marie, Florence, Charles Edson, Mary "Mayme", Cora, James, and John.

Cora and James die as young people. Cora died just short of her 20th birthday in 1891 and James died 3 Oct 1887 at the age of 14 years. From the discription in the family journal kept by Martha Ann McDaniel Spiller, they may have had juvenile diabetes. They simply waste away. They are buried in the Morse Chapel Cemetery in Meigs County.

The girls, at least Emma and Mayme moved out to Oregon in the 1890's. Martha and Thomas moved out to Oregon along with their youngest son, John in 1899. The initially lived at Montavilla, which was a small community east of Portland. It is now just a neighborhood within the city of Portland. They had a small farm and stayed there until they moved into a small home on the property of their eldest living daughter, Emma Spiller Hughes.

Mayme married John Sherman Jewell and had three children, two sons and a daughter. One son, Dana, was the Asst Chief of Police of Portland when he died of a heart attack in 1941. Jesse Dale Jewell became a doctor and was an obstetrician with the US Navy. He happened to be aboard the USS California in Pearl Harbor on the morning of 7 Dec 1941. Instead of getting off, he stayed aboard tending the wounded and dying in spite of bombs and straffing. He finally had to be carried off himself, but not until all his clothes had been burned or blown off.

J Dale Jewell attained the rank of Rear Admiral and was awarded the Navy Cross for his valor and dedication at Pearl Harbor. in 1952 he was the Grand Marshall of the Veterans Day Parade. He and his wife Lola never had any children.

Emma Marie Spiller married Noah D. Hughes, a master building and US Marshal on the Riverboats between Portland and the Dalles on the Columbia River. They had two children. Richard Randolph Hughes, my father, and Nora Marie Hughes, my aunt. My Aunt Nora never had any children, and I was the only child of my father.

All these people were those who made up the greatest generation this country has ever seen. They are the ones who went through 2 World Wars, and who valued education, morality and family. They are my hero's.