The Reason

The purpose of this blog is to inform my family what I uncover--and allow you to share what you uncover--about our family ancestors. This would include Loughs, Westcotts, Tanners, Gaines, Bates, Montgomerys, and Ayers. These are about all I have time to dig around searching for. Furthermore, none of this information is original with me. Most of it has been originally researched by others and I found it on the internet. Time is limited.

I'm sure I will throw in other information about other members of the family that I find interesting. I have been blessed by God to have an extended family that I truly enjoy. So there are Harpers, Lloyds, Priests, Laws, and a host of other families that I want to know about, too.

(By the way, if you post something, please be sure it isn't revealing some family secret or other. I don't want to have a bunch of people angry with me.)

Thursday, March 1, 2012

The Lough Family—Across the Country

Nearly every family in the United States migrates across America. The Lough family is no different. From origins in Germany, we came across to Pennsylvania, pioneered in Virginia, into the Northwest Territory (by then the states of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois), to Texas, to Oklahoma, to Oregon, to New Mexico, and back to Texas. We’ve put a lot of miles on our moccasins.

Johan Peter Loch and his small family moved from the Palatinate in Germany in 1739 to Philadelphia, PA, migrating on the ship The Loyal Judith. He moved to the Tulpehocken Valley in Pennsylvania, where a large number of German immigrants lived.

In 1783, after his service in the Continental Army, George Lough moved his family to Pendleton County, Virginia, a trip of about 275 miles. He moved to the Hacker Valley in Virginia a short time later (100 miles, across the mountains). This part of the state became central West Virginia during the Civil War.

George’s son John settled in Champaign, Ohio, during his lifetime (about 300 miles from Hacker Valley). Philip, son of John, remained in Ohio until at least 1860, when he has moved to Jefferson, Indiana (200 miles). He remained in Clinton County for the rest of his life.

Sometime after the Civil War, James Randolph moved to Texas. He married Mattie McCown in Collin County, Texas, farmed in Farmersville, and died there in 1918. He came by one of two routes: from Indiana through Missouri, down through either the Indian Nations or through Arkansas and into Texas. It is possible that he came down the Mississippi River into Arkansas and crossed into Texas from there. A lot of Tennesseans migrated to Texas along this route. Either way, it was quite a trip, about 1000 miles.

His daughter Malinda, or Linnie (Isn’t that a coincidence, since most everyone insists on calling my wife Lynette “Linnie”?) was probably born in Farmersville. She later moved to Fort Worth, made a short stay in Oklahoma after (maybe before) her marriage to Charles Garrett (Charlie’s WWI draft card shows they lived in Morris), and returned to Fort Worth, where she died in 1946.

James Carey Lough, Linnie’s son, was raised in Farmersville, TX, and later, when he was 16, moved to Fort Worth. After living there, he moved to Oklahoma, where he met and married his wife Susie in Bristow in 1924. The family lived in Brown, Oklahoma, according to the 1930 Federal Census. Jim Lough died in Wewoka in 1949.

Jim’s son Dan (my Dad) began in Wewoka, where he married Esther Gaines in 1951. They moved to Curtin, Oregon, then back to Oklahoma. When Dad was drafted, he lived in Camp Chafee, Arkansas, and Fort Sill/Lawton, Oklahoma. After his release from the Army, he returned to Cromwell, OK, then made his way to Maljamar, New Mexico, then to Hobbs, then to Lovington. After retiring, he moved to Bandera, Texas. And he now lives in Corpus Christi, Texas.

Then there's me, who began at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, to Cromwell, to Maljamar, to Hobbs, to Lovington, to Las Cruces, NM, to Laramie, Wyoming, to Clifton and Morenci, Arizona. Then to Sweetwater, Texas, back to Fort Sumner, NM, then to Abilene, TX, to Aspermont, to Early, and now in Canyon, TX.

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