Rebecca Longwell

Rebecca Longwell, daughter of Robert Longwell and Martha Elizabeth Rebecca Ferrell, was born July 24, 1823 in Virginia, likely in Tyler County before West Virginia became a state. She was the oldest of at least eight children—John W., Joseph, Robert, Mary A., Thomas Benton, Nancy Jane, and Martha. Rebecca is my husband’s 2nd great grandmother with their nearest common relative being her son Robert.

In the spring of 1823, a marriage bond filed in Tyler County noted that “a marriage is suddenly intended to be had” between Robert Longwell and Martha Ferrell. The phrasing was standard for the clerk, though Martha was already expecting their first child. They married on June 1, 1823, and Rebecca was born later that summer. By 1824 and 1825, Robert appeared on the Tyler County personal property tax lists as one adult male over 16 with no taxable livestock or enslaved persons—evidence of a modest beginning for the young family.

Rebecca grew up as the oldest of eight children, likely helping her mother with the younger ones as the family established itself in early Tyler County. On December 8, 1831, the Longwell home burned, destroying her father’s War of 1812 discharge certificate and likely many of the family’s early possessions. The fire, noted years later in Robert’s pension papers, occurred during Rebecca’s childhood.

Around 1846, Rebecca married Henry F. M. Church, son of William Clark Church Sr. and Sally Cohen, likely in Monroe County, Ohio. A later census suggests a marriage year of 1850, but the birth of their first son in 1847 makes that entry almost certainly incorrect. Through Henry, Rebecca married into one of the oldest Church families in the region: Henry was a grandson of Henry “Old Hundred” Church and Hannah Kiene, early settlers along Fish Creek whose descendants formed the core of the Littleton‑area Church community.

Rebecca and Henry had six children: William Henry, Sarah, Robert, Martha, George, and one unidentified child. They spent their early married years in Monroe County. On October 9, 1850, they lived in Ohio Township with their children William (3) and Sarah (10 months), and Rebecca’s younger brother Joseph, who was mistakenly enumerated as “Joseph Church.” Henry farmed land valued at $500, and the agricultural schedule shows a productive operation for a man of 24: five improved acres, 145 in timber, livestock worth $137, and a harvest of 1,100 bushels of corn. Rebecca’s parents and siblings lived next door.

During the early 1850s, Henry purchased two 40‑acre tracts in Monroe County—one from David and Elizabeth Paden in 1850, and another from Jacob and Ann Bare in 1852. Neighboring deeds confirm his residence there, and in 1856 he sold the Bare tract, marking the end of his Monroe County landholdings. These records place Rebecca and Henry firmly in Monroe County through the mid‑1850s, just before their move to Wetzel County, Virginia (now West Virginia), where they settled among Henry’s Church relatives along Long Drain. Their son Robert was born in Littleton in November 1850, and Rebecca’s father died in Monroe County in 1852.

On December 30, 1857, Rebecca and Henry sold 114 acres on Long Drain to Hew Garner for $407, retaining a lien until the purchase money was paid. The tract bordered land belonging to Henry’s brother Samuel C. Church, showing the two brothers’ farms lay side‑by‑side. Rebecca and Henry were living in Wetzel County when their son George was born in October 1858.

By July 30, 1860, Rebecca and her family lived in Sardis, Ohio Township, Monroe County, Ohio. The census enumerator recorded four children—William, Robert, Martha, and George—meaning that Sarah, who appeared in the 1850 census, had likely died during the decade. Rebecca kept the house while Henry farmed, with his personal estate valued at $500. William, Robert, and Martha were all attending school. George, the youngest, was two years old.

On August 16, 1870, Rebecca and Henry lived in Burton, Wetzel County, in the home of Henry’s brother Samuel C. Church and his wife Sarah Elizabeth Anderson. Although Samuel was listed as head of household, Henry still owned $1,000 in real estate, showing he held land independently. Rebecca and George were unable to read and write; Robert could read but not write; Martha and George attended school. The neighborhood was a cluster of Church families living on adjoining tracts along Fish Creek.

In November 1871, Henry conveyed a 28‑acre tract on the north side of Fish Creek to their son William, an early transfer of Church family land that bordered the old line of Henry’s grandmother, Hannah Church. This transaction shows that Rebecca and Henry were already helping their children establish farms in the neighborhood where the extended Church family lived.

On September 3, 1874, Rebecca and Henry joined the other heirs of Henry’s grandmother, Hannah Church, in conveying their inherited interest in a 194‑acre tract to Philip Shough. Their signatures confirm Henry’s status as an heir and Rebecca’s presence in Wetzel County by this date. Because the 1874 acknowledgment was later found to be improperly certified, Rebecca and Henry re‑acknowledged and ratified the deed in May 1890.

Rebecca’s son Robert married Lucinda Murphy in 1876, daughter of John Murphy and Joanna Ullom, in Wetzel County, linking the Church and Murphy families of Long Drain and Fish Creek.

In 1878, Henry had to appear in court because a 55‑acre tract he owned in the Green District had fallen behind on taxes. He paid the overdue amounts to keep the land, a small glimpse into the financial pressures Rebecca and Henry faced while raising their family along Fish Creek.

On June 5, 1880, Rebecca and Henry lived in the Church District of Wetzel County in the household of their son William, his wife Narcissus, and their children. Rebecca and Narcissus managed the home while Henry and William farmed. Rebecca’s nephew Doliver (or Dallaven) Longwell lived with them as an adopted son. Rebecca and her son George were able to read and write; Henry could not.

Rebecca’s mother died of paralysis in Monroe County on October 3, 1880, at age 75.

In November 1890, Rebecca and Henry divided their Long Drain property among their sons. They conveyed 71 acres to William, stating it represented his full share of their estate. William immediately sold the tract to his brother George, and Rebecca and Henry added another 7¼ acres the next day. 

Rebecca appears in an 1893 deed as an attesting witness when her son Robert and daughter‑in‑law Lucinda sold a 47‑acre tract on Long Drain to S. A. Carney. The land, part of the Littleton area, had come to Lucinda from her parents, John and Joanna Murphy. Rebecca’s signature shows she was living in Wetzel County and present at a transaction linking both the Church and Murphy families.

In July 1894, Rebecca and Henry, living in Littleton, signed an oil and gas lease with the South Penn Oil Company covering their 170‑acre tract on Long Drain. The lease granted drilling rights, pipeline construction, and rental terms, with Rebecca and Henry receiving one‑eighth of all oil produced and $30 per year for each gas well marketed off the property. The lease provided Rebecca and Henry with a small but helpful source of income in their later years.

On June 14, 1900, Rebecca and Henry were living on a rented farm in the Clay District. Rebecca reported having had six children, with three still living. Two of the surviving children are known—Robert (d. 1932) and George (d. 1943). Their daughter Sarah had died between 1850 and 1860, and one additional child apparently died in infancy and never appeared in the census. That leaves William Henry and Martha as the two children whose death dates have not yet been located. The census recorded July 1823 as the birth month and year for both Rebecca and Henry—correct for Rebecca, but incorrect for Henry, who was born in October. Their son William lived next door.

Henry died in Wetzel County on April 16, 1904 and was buried at Thomas Chapel Cemetery in Wetzel County. Rebecca shares a joint tombstone with him, though her death date was never engraved.

By April 27, 1910, Rebecca—now 86—lived with her son George and his large blended family in Clay District. Eleven people lived under one roof, with George farming to support the household. Clarence, George’s son by his first wife, attended a normal school. Rebecca’s paper trail goes cold after this census record.

Although Rebecca’s death date was never recorded, the records she left—census entries, deeds, and the stone she shares with Henry at Thomas Chapel—preserve her place in the Fish Creek and Long Drain community.

References

• Henry Church, U.S., Selected Federal Census Non-Population Schedules, 1850–1880.
• Martha Longwell, Monroe. Death Records 1867–1891, 1892–1908, image 103, FamilySearch.
• Personal Property Taxes, 1824, Tyler County, Virginia: Tyler. Personal Property Tax Records 1824, image 7, FamilySearch.
• Personal Property Taxes, 1825, Tyler County, Virginia: Tyler. Personal Property Tax Records 1825, image 7, FamilySearch.
• Personal visit to Thomas Chapel Cemetery, Wetzel County, West Virginia.
• Robert Church, Certificate of Death no. 15621, Littleton, Wetzel County, West Virginia, November 29, 1932.
• Robert Church, West Virginia, Deaths Index, 1853–1973.
• Robert Church, West Virginia, Marriages Index, 1785–1971.
• Robert Longwell, US, War of 1812 Pension Files, 1812–1815.
• U.S. Federal Census, Burton, Church District, Wetzel County, West Virginia, 1870, 1900.
• U.S. Federal Census, Church District, Wetzel County, West Virginia, 1880.
• U.S. Federal Census, Clay, Wetzel County, West Virginia, 1910.
• U.S. Federal Census, District 106, Ohio Township, Monroe County, Ohio, 1850.
• U.S. Federal Census, Ohio Township, Monroe County, Ohio, 1850, 1880.
• U.S. Federal Census, Sardis, Ohio Township, Monroe County, Ohio, 1860.
• U.S. Federal Census, Tyler County, Virginia, 1840.
• Wetzel County, West Virginia, Birth Records 1854–1898, Marriage Records 1854–1899, Death Records 1854–1899, Probate Records 1847–1899, Wills 1847–1899, image 35, FamilySearch.
• Wetzel County, West Virginia, Court Records 1879–1884, image 68, FamilySearch.
• Wetzel County, West Virginia, Deeds 1855–1865, image 337, FamilySearch.
• Wetzel County, West Virginia, Deeds 1870–1872, image 437, FamilySearch.
• Wetzel County, West Virginia, Deeds 1880–1882, image 410, FamilySearch.
• Wetzel County, West Virginia, Deeds 1890–1891, images 228–229, FamilySearch.
• Wetzel County, West Virginia, Deeds 1891, images 121–123, FamilySearch.
• Wetzel County, West Virginia, Deeds 1893–1894, image 361, FamilySearch.
• Wetzel County, West Virginia, Deeds 1893–1895, image 203, FamilySearch.