Virgin Gaskill

  General Notes:

On October 2, 1815, a widowed mother and nine of her children and their families began a 39-day, 569-mile wagon trip from New Jersey to Preble County, Ohio. Virgin Brown, age sixty-four and a Quaker, was the widow of John Brown who had died in 1800 in New Jersey. She was accompanied by the following children and grandchildren: William Brown and wife, Elizabeth VanSkiver, and eight-month-old son Levi; Joseph Brown and wife, Abigail Fowler, and their four-year-old son Joseph and two-year-old William; Clayton and wife Priscilla Marple and four children, Isaiah, John, Beulah,.and Abraham; Mahlon and wife Alice and possibly six children; Mary Brown Moore and husband David Moore and two children, four-year-old Samuel and two-year-old David; John Brown and his second wife, Sarah Moore, and four children, Elizabeth (daughter of his first wife), Nathaniel, Joseph G. and Bathsheba, ages fifteen, eight, six and four, respectively; and three unmarried children, Beulah, Abraham, and Samuel.

The Browns arrived in Warren County on November 9, 1815, and camped near Asher Brown's home, Virgin's brother-in-law. From here the men traveled to Preble County to choose their land and clear it and build cabins for their families. The Browns settled primarily around section 12 of Israel Township. Since there was no Quaker meetinghouse in the vicinity, the Browns attended the meeting at West Elkton, but with the influx of so many Quakers in that area, a new meeting was set up by 1821 and was known as Westfield and the area soon became known as Quaker Ridge.

Virgin Brown was the daughter of Joseph and Grace Powell Gaskill. She was born in 1751 in Burlington County, New Jersey, and died in 1832 in Israel Township, Preble County Ohio, and is buried in Westfield Quaker Cemetery as are most of her children.

Virgin married John Brown, son of Samuel Brown and Ann Buffin, on 2 Jun 1775 in NJ. (John Brown was born on 19 Aug 1752 in Burlington Co. NJ and died on 6 Aug 1800 in New Jersey.)