Katherine Lollar Rowland writes,

• John A. Jameson (the writer) - 1842-1926; wife Emma McCain, 1846-1917
• Joseph Jameson (writer's father) - 1812-1885; wife Sarah Ann Brown ,1818-1892
• John Jameson (writer's grandfather) - 1784-1820; wife Elizabeth McCoy, 1781-1841
• George Jameson (writer's greatgrandfather) - abt 1760-1834; wife Rebecca Rankin 1763-1842*

* I feel sure that Rebecca Rankin is the great-grandmother who came down on the flatboat. She was born in Cumberland County, Pa, died in Warren County, is buried in an easily-found site near the entrance to the Pioneer Cemetery on West Main Street, in Lebanon. She was the daughter of John Rankin, the famous abolitionist, whose home high above the Ohio River at the town of Ripley, was a well-known safe place for slaves escaping across the River in the mid-1860s.and is now an Ohio historical site.

• Beers History of Warren County pages 330, 752, 950
• Jameson Family Photos

My great-great-grandfather on my father’s side came from Scotland in 1756. The Jamesons there-upon immediately became identified with the cause of the colonies, and were active in the Revolutionary struggle.

At the Post of New York, colonel John Jameson, a brother of my great-great-grandfather, was Commandant of the Post at the time when Major Andre, the British spy, was taken prisoner. Andre was turned over to him, and confined at the Post until he was condemned to death. almost all school histories mention Colonel Jameson in that connection.

My grandfather, John Jameson, was born in 1784.

My great-grandmother’s maiden name was Rankin. The Rankins were prominent Revolutionary people. Captain James Rankin, great-grandmother’s brother, served thru the Revolution from first to last. He was with the command which crossed the Delaware in the last days of December, 1775 and captured Trenton, and was present at the surrender of Lord Cornwallis. His widow received the pension falling to a Captain’s widow, for a period of 52 years.

William Rankin, a brother of my great-grandmother, was in the battle of Sandusky Plains in 1772, when Captain Crawford was defeated by the Indians. It is a part of common history that the command was almost completely wiped out, Crawford was captured, and burned at the stake by the Indians.

William Rankin escaped, and travelled nine days through the woods, subsisting on a frog and a bird which he caught, and finally reached Fort Pitt – now Pittsburgh, Pa.

Other Indian Wars

George Jameson, my great-great-grandfather, was under “Mad Anthony” Wayne in the operations against the Indians in Ohio. He arrived at Fort Washington – now Cincinnati, probably in the summer of 1795. They used that place as a base of operations, and recruited the army, largely in Kentucky. They meanwhile built Fort Recovery – now Greenville, O. It was here that General St. Clair had suffered his defeat by the Indians in 1792, or 1793. Afterwards, they built Fort Wayne, Indiana, and Fort Defiance.

They met the Indians probably in August, 1794, in the Maumee Valley, severely defeating them. My great-grandfather was at the treaty with the Indians which followed.

Boating on the Ohio

Some time late in 1785, my great-grandmother, in company with the women of two other families, and with the assistance of one man, came from Pittsburg (Fort Pitt) in a flat-boat down the Ohio River to Cincinnati, (Fort Washington) and met great-grandfather there. Six months later, they went into the country about 15 miles, near North Bend, and established a home there. Great-grandfather, (George Jameson) was present at the meeting at the Indian town of Chillicothe, Ohio, when the present boundaries of the State of Ohio were determined.

Other Ancestors

Isaac Jameson, a brother of Great-grandfather, somewhere about the year 1804 took it into his head that America owed something to France for her assistance in the Revolutionary struggle. The Government would not allow soldiers to be recruited in this country to fight in the wars of a foreign county, but was willing to wink at some small efforts to assist France. So he got about 100 men together, took them to France, had them enlisted in the French service, went along with them as their Captain in Napoleon Bonaparte’s campaign in Egypt, and was killed in the battle of Alexandria.

My ancestors have been through nearly all the wars of the country, grandfather had three nephews in the Civil War, two of whom were killed.

In our relationship, there was a Mary Jameson, a cousin of my great-grandfather, who had a strange experience. Her parents, and the entire family were captured by the Indians about the time of Dunmore’s War. Her parents, and all the other children were killed. She was spared, and raised to womanhood among the Indians, and married a chief. She lived and died with them. She became a rich woman through the land she obtained from the Indians, and because of the white settlements which began to improve the Genessee Valley.