Nye executor of his will. A George Nye was a
neighbor of Henry's and seems to have had a son named George who went to Ohio, probably
with the Bowman/Bowser party in 1798. Members of the Nigh/Nye family were already in Ohio
when the Bowman/Bowser party arrived in 1798. Ebenezer and Ichabod Nye purchased land from
Putman, Rufus and Co. (The Ohio Land Company) near Marietta in 1788 and in 1797, Lewis Nye
made similar purchases. In 1804-05 Lewis Nye moved up the Muskingum River to Jonathan
Creek, an important tributary of the Muskingum. He built a hewed-log house (where
Newtonville now is). He was probably the first of the Brethren to buy land on Jonathan
Creek.(7)
George Nye was the second Brethren, after Lewis Nye, who
settled along Jonathan Creek. George bought his Hopewell Township land from the
Chillicothe Land Office in 1805.(8) He and Lewis Nye were soon surrounded by Brethren
living along Jonathan Creek in Hopewell and Newton Townships.(9) George Nye, like his
father, was land smart. That is, he was probably a surveyor and could read maps. He may
have joined the surveying crews who were laying out the ranges and townships between the
Scioto River and the Seventh Range before Ohio became a state in 1803; at the same time he
searched for good farming property. Washington County, Ohio had a great attraction for
George Nye.
Several other Nye families lived there. It was in Washington
County that George Nye found Lydia Gardner. They were married in 1808. He took her to his
property on Jonathan Creek where they lived until he sold out to John and Jacob Bowser in
1814 and 1817.(10) While he lived on Jonathan Creek, George Nye seems to have attracted
other Brethren to buy land and settle around him; Adam Plank, Elijah Schofield, Abraham
Eversole and Adam Cover, were among the first to arrive.
Other Brethren who may have accompanied the Bowman/Bowser
group in 1798 when that party rafted down the Ohio River and then became the first
settlers along Jonathan Creekare liste below: David Horn and his brother Daniel from
Washington County, Pennsylvania arrived in 1805 in Newton Township, on Jonathan Creek in
Muskingum County. The Horns were closely tied to two of the Jonathan Creek Brethren
families who lived on farms adjacent to George Nye in Perry County. Daniel Horn loaned
John Bowser $103. And his daughter, Mary Horn, married Adam Plank.
Elijah Scofield, from Allegheny and Washington County,
Maryland, is documented as arriving on Jonathan Creek before 1810.(11) A well known
Brethren minister, he preached on a far-reaching circuit, which extended into Licking
County and Muskingum County. In 1817, Elijah Schofield organized 25 families as the
Jonathan