Home About Travel History Genealogy Resources
Americana Journeys - Genealogy Tracing History
William Amend - First to be Baptised in Western Reserve
On November 18, 1827,
William Amend steps forward to the baptized by Reverend Walter Scott
in the first meeting of the Mahoning Valley Baptist
Society in New Lisbon, Columbiana, Ohio. He is noted as the first man
known to be baptized in the Western Reserve. This was part
of the “Campbellite” Baptist Restoration movement and later
a foundation for the Latter Day Saints movement as well as the Disciples
of Christ or “Christians”. He wrote a letter in July of 1872,
two months before his death about this event, it was included in a sermon
delivered at the memorial of a pastor, William Baxter, in 1875.
In the letter he states that his parents were Presbyterians and that he married a Methodist, and in 1822 they became Presbyterian, likely members of the United Presbyterian Church of New Lisbon meeting in a log schoolhouse,while the Methodists met in a brick meeting house on High Street in an area nicknamed “Gospel Knob”.
The Mahoning Valley Baptist Association meetings were held in a wood frame meeting house built in 1815 for the New Lisbon Calvanistic Baptist Church on the corner of Jefferson and High Street. In November of 1827. After the first day of a series of meetings William returned on the second day to accept the baptism in the nearby stream as proposed by Reverend Scott. He was said to be a meditative man and well-thought-of in the community. The letter is very well written so he was clearly educated. His sister, a Mrs. Conover, was still living in Ohio in 1872.
William Anthony Amend was born February 8,1797 in Monongalia, Virginia (now West Virginia) and died in Hiawatha, Brown County, Kansas September 14, 1872. He married Susannah (Susan) Boyle in Jefferson County, Ohio, April 20, 1818.
William and Susan have a son, Anthony Amend, born in 1821 or 1822 (estimated) in Columbiana County, Ohio, and a daughter, Mary Jane, in 1823. They have another son, Serenus Conover Amend, born in 1831, followed by sons William, 1834, Moses, 1840, and John Henry in 1850.
Records and Timeline for William Amend
William Amend appears in tax records for Ohio in the years 1833 and 1834 and in the census of 1840 in Carroll County, Ohio with large family including a male over 60, presumably Anthony.
In 1844, Anthony Amend, the son, marries Mary Hales (Hayles/Hale) in Carroll County, Ohio. Then the family apparently leaves Ohio, as also in 1844 William Amend and Anthony Amend apparently purchase land from William Taylor in Wood County, Virginia, the date according to a later sale deed.
In 1850, the census for Wood County, Virginia (Parkersburg WV) shows Wm. Amend, 55, farmer, in a household with Susanna Amend, 55, Serenus Amend, 18, farmer, William Amend, 15, Moses Amend, 9, Anthony Amend, 84, and an Eliza Guin, 18. Another record shows William and Susanna Amend having a son, James Henry Amend in 1850, and Serenus marrying Mary Badgley in 1851.
In 1852, a deed shows that William Amend with his wife Susan and Anthony Amend sell 80 ½ acres land in Wood Co. VA for $1400. Susan signs with X, William and Anthony sign in writing. It is uncertain if this is Anthony the father (86), or Anthony the son (30). If the father, signing with a signature would be important. Though, signing with a signature might suggest the son.
Anthony Amend, the father, no longer appears in any records after 1852. William Amend and family head west. In 1853 Mary Hale Amend dies in Ohio. Also in 1853 William Amend is with his son, Serenus, in Lee County, Iowa, where Anthony Amend remarries to Sarah Ann George in 1853.
In 1856, Anthony and Sarah Amend have a daughter Ann, born in Clark County, Missouri. In the 1860 census Anthony Amend and his wife Sarah are in Sweet Home Township, Clark County with children Agnes (14) John W. (13) Lawrence (11) and James Henry (9).
In 1861, William’s wife Susanna (Boyle) Amend dies in Clark County, Missouri. 1862-1865 – Serenus Amend serves in Civil War on the Union side, Company I, 102nd Illinois Volunteers, serving in the siege and occupation of Atlanta and a variety of skirmishes and battles. In 1868, Serenus Conover Amend records a land purchase in Powhattan, Brown Co. Kansas.
In the 1870 census, James Henry Amend is in a boarding house in Missouri working for the railroad. Serenus Amend, wife Mary, and William Amend (74) are in Brown County. Kansas.
In 1870, William Amend’s son, Anthony Amend and his eldest son John W. Amend record land patents in Crawford County, Kansas. The land is part of the Cherokee Neutral Lands in a dispute with the Missouri River, Fort Scott and Gulf Railroad. They may have settled on the land as early as 1866 and recorded it in 1870 when the case was decided. The land cost $1.25 per acre at the pre-emption price. Father and son each recorded two plots of 160 acres. In 1872, Anthony Amend buys another adjoining land parcel.
In 1872, William Amend dies in Hiawatha, Brown County, Kansas and is buried in the Powhattan Cemetery in Powhattan, Brown County, Kansas.
The Amends and Hales seemed to travel together. An Elizabeth Hale born in Columbiana Ohio in 1835, marries Anthony and Serenus Amend’s brother William M. Amend in Van Buren, Iowa, January 26, 1855.
William
Amend’s Parentage
Anthony Amend
Anthony Amend was clearly the father of William Anthony Amend. His mother and earlier family line is less clear. Various genealogies have conflicting and possibly inaccurate references.
What is known. A census record in 1850 in Wood County, Virginia shows Anthony Amend age 84, with birthplace of Pennsylvania. This would calculate to birth year circa 1766. There is currently no certain birth record found. There were apparently three known Anthony Amends (Ament or other spellings) born in York County, Pennsylvania about this time. They have been confused in various online public family trees.
A researcher, James
F. McJohn of Cambridge University wrote a history of “The Ament
Family of York County” in 1992. He listed a
number of records and his comments of what they meant. He had detailed
records of an Anthony Ament born in 1857 in York County who appears as
serving in the Revolutionary War in 1776 and later appears in Hardin
County, Kentucky, first in a land transfer in 1809 and then the census
of 1810, where he dies about 1844, mentioned in a will of his son, another
Anthony Ament 1808-1844.
This Anthony is confused with William’s
father in the Family Search and other genealogy trees. Another Anthony
Ament or Amend is born June 30, 1767 in York County. In some trees this
is referenced as William’s father’s birth date, but is more
likely a different Anthony who marries a Barbara Pfaff and dies in 1850
in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania. He is mentioned in the will of
Barbara Pfaff’s father.
McJohn states in a comment that an Anthony Amend sold land in Monongalia County, Virginia with the intent of going to Columbiana, Ohio. He states that this Anthony’s parents were John Anthony Amend and Mary Magdalena Paulus, who had left York and settled in LovettsvilleLovettville, Loudon County, Virginia. He insists that the Anthony of Hardin, Kentucky was the son of John Anthony’s brother, Henry Ament. A headstone in Carroll County, Maryland notes the death of Annamaria Maria Amend in 1796, mentioning a husband, Heinrich. McJohn believes that the third Anthony (who died in Westmoreland) was the son of a John Ament who married Maria Apollonia Paulus, sister of Magdalena. This John Ament is possibly the brother of John Anthony and Henry. This would be three brothers, each having a son named Anthony in the years 1757, 1766 and 1767.
Many online trees follow this family as Ament, which appears on gravestones, while more formal documents like land records, deeds and wills, seem to use Amend. The families going forward from this point appear to divide by the spelling.
What the records show.
A land record shows an Anthony Amend in a land survey warrant in Lower Windsor, York County, Pennsylvania for 1762. This may be the Johann Anthony Ament who marries Mary Magdalena Paulus. Mary Paulus Ament dies in Loudon in 1806 on what is called the “Ament Farm”. John Anthony Amend lives in Shenendoah and Rockingham, Virginia for a time, then dies in Bear Perry Township, Muskingum County Ohio in 1816. This would be William’s grandfather, if James McJohn is correct.
A will for Anthony Amend is filed in probate court in Muskingum, County in 1818. The will is dated in 1816, likely in the hand of one of the witnesses, when the subject is in ill health., Jacob Trout is executor, getting a majority of his property. Jacob Trout is married to a daughter, Anna Maria Amend, who he married in Frederick, Maryland. The will refers to a son Anthony and a second son Larence (Lorentz) who is deceased at the time. It includes the names of George, Margaret, and Polly, very possibly grandchildren, by Lorentz and Anna Maria and witnessed by Trouts and Stoners with Caspar Trout as executor. It gives a portion of a borrowed note to a son, Anthony Amend (spelled Amand), who is to pay an amount to a son-in-law, John Dorshimer (Dortscheimer). The names in the will are associated with Loudon and Rockingham, Virginia. It would tend to confirm that this will is for the Johann Anton Ament who married Maria Magdalena Paulus. A number of baptism records in the New Jerusalem Lutheran Church in Loudon reference an Anthoni Amend with a wife Maria Magdalena, also with son, Lorentz. There are also records with a Jacob Trout (Traut) and wife Anna Maria (Amend). But is the Anthony in the will, son of Johan Anthon, the Anthony Amend of Monongalia and Columbiana, or the Anthony Ament of Hardin, Kentucky?
Muskingum County, Ohio is about 100 miles from Columbiana where one Anthony settled in 1816 and the same distance from Hardin, Kentucky where the other settled in 1810. None of the names of witnesses seem to relate to any known names associated with William and Anthony Amend going forward. All the names associated with the will appear to be Lutheran. William said his parents were Presbyterian. The son, Anthony, who is mentioned in the will is not among the witnesses.
Genealogist Craig H. Trout published a detailed tree of his ancestor Jacob Trout who married Anna Maria Amend. He provided some detail of the Ament family for reference, from where much that has appeared in online trees has come, but says that he did not fully vet the references regarding the Ament family. He commonly used the Ament spelling, as did James McJohn.
William Amend’s mother?
The wife of Anthony Amend of Columbiana, Ohio and Wood County, Virginia, mother of William Anthony Amend is not completely proven, but most probably, Mary Moore.
A reference by an earlier researcher had listed Anthony Ament who died in Hardin, Kentucky as having married Barbara Funk in Shenandoah, Virginia in 1784, then remarrying in 1791 to Mary Moore. This was referenced in Craig Trout’s research and many trees now reflect this. But the actual name on the marriage to Barbara Funk was Anthony Ammon. The name on the marriage to Mary Moore was Anthony Amand. These have been previously taken for spelling variations of Ament, but on inspection of more detailed records, show these are two different Anthonys. A marriage bond for 1791 in Shenandoah, shows Anthony Amand marrying Mary Moore. A land sale record for Anthony Ament in 1804 is also signed by his wife Barbara, who gives up rights of inheritance from her father, Henry Funk, so clearly two different marriages. A marriage record in Pennsylvania shows an Anthony Ament and wife Barbara, but this is likely the third Anthony and Barbara Pfaff. The name on the will of (John) Anthony Amend, filed in Muskingum County in 1818 is spelled alternately as Amand, the same as the marriage bond to Mary Moore, and both these documents refer to Caspar Trout, so clearly tied together. The bond was made with John Moore, likely the father, possibly a brother. The marriage date of 1791 could easily coincide with a birth of William in 1797.
Tax records for the Trouts in Shenandoah appear beginning in 1787, and coincide with tax records for Anthony Ammon on nearby property. This is most certainly the Anthony Ammon who married Barbara Funk. According to Trout, a Michael Best was indentured to John Anthony Amend while in Loudon, Virginia. There are several Bests who settled around Hardin, Kentucky. So, it would suggest this is the Anthony Ament who also settled there beginning in 1810. If McJohn is correct, and he is a cousin of Anthony Amend (of Columbiana), he would not be listed in the will as a son who would pay money borrowed from his father to a brother-in-law.
Anthony Amend could have borrowed money from his father about 1816 to
obtain land in the Ohio Valley when it was first surveyed, and was not
present for the writing of the will or the probate filing. He could have
married a Presbyterian and converted when he separated from the rest
of the family, or could have begun in a German Reformed
United Church, which in some form were called Presbys, and later merged
with Presbyterian.
Following McJohn’s theory.
A grave marker in Carroll County, Maryland shows an Annamaria
Amend (age 2) died in 1791 and an Anna Maria Amend b. July 2
1732 died in 1796,
her husband is Henrich Amend. Could this be (Anna) Maria Apollonia
Paulus, the mother of Anthony of Hardin, Ky, aunt of Anthony Amend
of Ohio? The marker says in German they were married 3 years and 7
months and had 2 other children.
Land Warrant records for York County, Pennsylvania listed by Neal Otto Hively show John and Henry Amend, and John and Henry Ament, living on land in Lower Windsor and Chanceford Townships, York County.
In 1800, a tax record shows an Anthony Amend in Berkeley County, Virginia with one adult male, two horses and no slaves. McJohn believes this is the Anthony who went to Columbiana, Ohio, but William Amend would have been born by this time, so seems less likely this is correct. Two land deeds from Monongalia, Virginia seem more likely. An Anthony Ammon purchases land in 1796, and then sells it again in 1800, with the deed also signed by his wife, Polly. There are others in this family who use Polly as a nickname for Mary. This would be the timeframe form William and a daughter Mary to be born in Monongalia, before the family moved on.
Records for William and Anthony.
Records are fairly definitive for Anthony Amend and William Amend going forward. In records at the Bureau of Land Management, Anthony Amend is in the Ohio River Land Survey of 1816 with a land patent for 78 acres registered at Steubenville. The patent registry is for the Northwest Quarter of Section Twelve of Township Thirteen in Range Three, signed by Pres. James Madison, 1816, the “fortieth year of Independence”, Certificate # 442. After the passage of the Land Act of 1820 he acquires a second patent for Section Twenty-Two, registered in Steubenville signed by Pres. John Quincy Adams, 1827, Certificate # 1575. The parcel located at 17 W 5 N Sec 22 for Anthony Amend appears in Ohio Tax Records until 1837.
In 1840, William Amend’s census record in Carroll County, Ohio, includes a male over 60. This would most likely be his father Anthony, now living with his son, probably having sold the land in 1837, when he would have been about 71. There is no female 50 or over, so his wife would appear to be gone.
The land purchase in 1844 in Wood County, Virginia is possibly made jointly by father Anthony and son William with his wife, Susannah (Susan from later deed signatures). The father, Anthony, would have been 78. Perhaps this land purchase is by William and his wife, and his son, Anthony, who would have been 26 years old. The younger Anthony married Mary Hale (Hayles) in 1844 in Carroll County, Ohio, so the move to Wood, Virginia must have shortly followed, but she does not sign the land sale deed in 1852 as Susan does. The amount of the sale was $1,400.
In 1850, Anthony Amend appears by name in the census for Wood County along with William as being 86 years old and born in Pennsylvania. If he is the signer of the land deed in 1852, that is the last record of him. If Anthony the son of William is the signer, then 1850 is the last record of the elder Anthony Amend.
There is a simple tombstone for William Amend in the Powhattan cemetery. His son, Anthony Amend is then murdered in Labette, Kansas two years after his death.
Here is the text of William Amend’s letter describing his Baptism found in the “History of Columbiana County” Dated Hiawatha, Kansas, July 23, 1872
“Dear Sir: In answer to yours of the 16th, I will
begin with myself. My parents were Presbyterians, my wife a
Methodist
; we married April
18,
1818. In 1822 we joined the Presbyterian Church. In the fall of 1826,
Mr. Vallandigham, the pastor of that church, commenced preaching on
election, foreordination, total depravity, etc., which soon disturbed
my mind.
I did not believe that man was so bad as he said ; neither did I believe
that God was partial, — that he must have just so many, no more
and no less. So I began to investigate these things. I soon found that
God was no respecter of persons, — that the election was in regard
to character; and by this I also learned the ancient gospel. I now
discovered that I was not a baptized person."
"I went to see Mr. Vallandigham
about these things, and he told me that I wanted to pry into God’s
secrets that I could not know, — that
I was tempted, and he was afraid it was of the Evil One. He then asked
me if I ever had any correspondence with Alexander Campbell, or if
I had ever read any of his writings. I told him that I had not. ‘Well,’ said
he, ‘you have got hold of Campbell’s doctrine."
"Said I, ‘ If
that is so, he must be an ancient gospel man, but I learned these things
from the Bible.’ So, after many hard struggles
to overturn my arguments, he said, ‘Well, if nothing else will
do you, I will immerse you, but I do not like to adopt the plan.’ ‘Why?’ said
I. He said, ‘If I immerse you, some more will want to follow
your example. I will immerse you, but it is not essential to salvation.’ I
then told him that he should not immerse me; that I would wait until
I could meet a man who believed the gospel. So we agreed to part."
"After that I sometimes went to the Baptist meeting; it was a social
prayer-meeting; Bro. Joab Gaskill was bishop. I took part with them
that day. I lived
five miles from Lisbon, and Gaskill four miles, and Gaskill wished
me to go home with him. I went, and we conversed upon these things
and upon
the ancient order of the gospel, which was altogether new to him. Just
two weeks after that, Bro. Scott commenced preaching the ancient gospel;
and on the Friday night before, I was reading the second chapter of
Acts to my wife at home. I said to her, ‘This is just what we
need to make us fit subjects to wait upon the Lord.’ She said, ‘Well,
you had better go and preach it;’ and I replied, ‘The first
man I meet that will preach this gospel and promise to live it, I will
go with him, let the world say what it will.’ "
"On Saturday, Bro. John Campbell sent one of his sons to tell me that
a very smart man by the name of Scott would preach the next day at
eleven o’clock, and that he wished me to hear him. I promised
to go, and did so. When I got there the house was full; I went up the
steps to the
door, but could get no farther. Bro. Soott had the commission for his
text, and went to Jerusalem as the Lord commanded. Very soon I found
that this was the man I had promised to go with."
When
he got to the place where they cried out to Peter and the rest of the
apostles, ‘Men
and brethren, what shall we do to be saved?’ he
asked, ‘What did Peter tell thorn (sp)?’ He paused as
if waiting for an answer, and then said, ‘I will tell you asooret(sp).’ He
then repeated Peter’s reply: ‘Repent and be baptized,
every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission
of sins,
and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit;’ and said, ‘This
is the secret.’ He then cried out, ‘If there is any person
present who is willing to take God at his word, now is the time to
come.’ "
"I then went forward, pressing through the crowd till
I got to him. He took me by the hand and said, ‘Is there any
person present who knows why this man should not be baptized for
the remission of
sins?
If so, let him tell it now, or forever hold his peace.’ Bro.
Gaskill then spoke up and said, ‘I can receive and fellowship
him with all my heart.’ ‘Thank the Lord!’ said
Scott; ‘you
shall be immersed for the remission of sins.’ The meeting closed,
and I went with Joseph Powell to get a change of clothes; we then
went to the water; I was baptized, and came up out of the water.
Bro. Scott
delivered a beautiful address on the ancient gospel, after which
I went to Bro. Powell’s, changed my clothes, and went on my
way rejoicing.”
This event was also described in Walter W. Jennings’ “Origin and Early History of the Disciples of Christ"
“Just as he was about to close his sermon, a stranger came in and took a seat. When Scott concluded a few minutes later by again quoting Peter's words and inviting any one present to come forward and be baptized for the remission of sins, this stranger at once went forward. Everyone was surprised, for the new convert had not been enlightened by the minister, yet he walked with the firmness of an assured purpose. The preacher, too, was astonished, but since, when questioned, the man seemed to understand the matter fully, Scott at once baptized him "for the remission of sins," November 18, 1827. Great excitement ensued, and before the meeting closed seventeen persons accepted primitive baptism. Although Scott was pleased with the initial success, he could not help wondering why the stranger, a William Amend, had come forward on a simple invitation, when his first two sermons had failed to convince any one; hence he determined to write a letter of inquiry. Amend answered, declaring that he had been a strict Presbyterian, but that he could not believe all the things taught; consequently he turned to his Bible and studied it for a year."
In a letter sent to Reverend Scott, William Amend said of the event,
"I
had read the second chapter of Acts, when I expressed myself to my wife
as follows: 'Oh this is the gospel; this is the thing we wish -- the
remission of our sins! Oh that I could hear the gospel in these same
words as Peter preached it I I hope I shall some day hear it, and the
first man I meet who will preach the gospel thus, with him will I go.
So, my brother, on the day you saw me come into the meeting-house my
heart was open to receive the word of God, and when you cried, 'The Scripture
shall no longer be a sealed book. God means what he says. Is there any
man present who will take God at his word and be baptized for the remission
of sins? -- at that moment my feelings were such that I could have cried
out, 'Glory to God! I have found the man whom I have long sought for.'
So I entered the kingdom when I readily laid hold of the hope set before
me."
Sources: History of Columbiana County, Anna Maria Ament Ahnentafel - Craig H. Trout, The Ament Family of York County, PA - James F. McJohn, Origin and Early History of the Disciples of Christ - Walter H. Jennings, Bureau of Land Management. Virgina Marriages 1785-1940 - Ohio Wills and Probate Records 1786-1998