Have you ever gone back thru your sources for a person to discover that the source contains more information about your family and their FAN club than you originally realized? That’s the situation as I’m updating sources for Henry Duggins. Henry Duggins [KGM3-TX3] is the stepson of my 4th great-grandfather, James Crawford.

Because of this relationship, I expect to find some of my CRAWFORD FAN club members: the CRAWFORD and DUGGINS surname along with the SELLERS surname.

• DUGGINS — Henry and William — stepsons of my ancestor James CRAWFORD
• CRAWFORD — James and James — the two CRAWFORDs married in Garrard County, KY who seem to migrate together
• SELLERS — Nathan – Father-in-law of Henry DUGGINS
• SELLERS — James and William — brothers of Nathan who married Mary and Sarah CRAWFORD respectively
• DOOLEY — land owner in Garrard County KY who appears to have followed same migration path as the two James Crawfords

Thus, when I find all of these surnames in a piece on the Religious History of Preble County in the 1881 History of Preble County, Ohio, I wonder how many of them may have also been in the area of Garrard county, Kentucky prior to 1800.

page 103
Religious History
The pioneer religious organization of Eaton, and, for that matter, of Preble County, was that of the Christian church. The Eaton church of this denomination was first organized at the house of Nathan Sellers, about one mile south of the village in the year 1807. The organization grew out of a camp meeting held on the premises of Mr. Sellers and conducted by Reuben Dooley, Barton W. Stone, David Purviance and William Kinkade. Elders Dooley and Stone had at this time just commenced their labors. The following, from Stone’s Biography, affords a glimpse of the manner of religious work then carried on and the difficulties which had to be surmounted. Stone says:

“We preached and baptized daily in Eaton for many days. No house could contain the people that flocked to hear. We had to preach in the open streets to the anxious multitude. At night, after service, the cries and prayers of the distressed in many houses around were truly solemn. Almost the whole town and neighborhood were baptized and added to the Lord. We left this place and preached and baptized in many others. We were poorly clad and had no money to buy clothes. Going on at a certain time through the barrens, a limb tore Brother Dooley’s striped linen pantaloons very much. He had no other, nor had I a pair to lend him. We consoled ourselves that we were in the Lord’s work and that He would provide. He tied his handkerchief over the seat, and we went on and preached to the people. That night we lodged with Brother Samuel Wilson, whose wife presented Brother Dooley a pair of home-spun linen pantaloons.”
Soon after the organization was effected in Eaton the public church was built in the southwest part of the village. That structure, which long remained standing, and became widely known as “the old Public church,” was used by the Christian church in common with other religious organizations. The church appears to have prospered for the first fifteen years of its existence, and to have numbered among its members many of the pioneer families of Preble county, among whom may be named the Sellers, Dooleys, Crawfords, Bruces, Brubakers, Hardys, Duggins, Bantas, Shidelers, Flemings, Baileys, Bloomfields, and Vanausdals. The early ministers of the church were Reuben Dooley, William Kinkade, David Purviance. John Hardy was pastor of the church at the time of his death, in 1819.

History of Preble County, Ohio: with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches (N.p.: H. Z. Williams & Bro., Publishers, 1881), Page 103 – Religious History; digital images, Archive.org, http://www.archive.org viewed online 13 August 2022.

Wondering whether these four ministers had connections to my FAN club in Kentucky, I searched Google for each of them.

• Reuben Dooley — son of Moses Dooley who settled in Madison County, KY in 1781. Reuben Dooley migrated to Preble County, OH in 1808 where his father lived. (History of the Restoration Movement).
• William Kinkade, author of the book, The Bible Doctrine, was born in Pennsylvania and raised in Kentucky. His memorial on Find a Grave provides details about his life.
• David Purviance’s biography indicates that he moved his family from Tennessee to Bourbon County, Kentucky in 1792, where his path would have crossed with the host of the 1807 Preble County, Ohio, camp meeting, Nathan Sellers.
• Barton W. Stone may have also crossed paths with Nathan Sellers in Kentucky when Barton Stone was one of the ministers at the Cane Ridge Revival in Bourbon County, KY in 1801.

While I don’t know anything about the other pioneer families who were members of ‘the old public church’, two surnames caught my attention: Bantas and Vanausdals. These two surnames are in my tree — just not in my CRAWFORD branch of my tree. The Banta family was part of the Low Dutch Colony of White Oak Station in Madison County, Kentucky. (Wiki-Tree: Low Dutch Settlements in Kentucky)