Moving to the Great Frontier

Charles McKinnis

Source: Copy of "Lineage of Charles McKinnis and Rachel Carr 1722-1914" from the 10th annual reunion of the McKinniss family at Tecumseh's Trail, Lafayette, Ind., on Aug 28, 1913

He was born in 1780 in Pennsylvania, and in 1802 emigrated to Chillicothe, Ohio, accompanied by his wife and family, and also his brothers, Robert and George, and their families. Their trip was quite adventuresome and well worthy of mention. Robert made the journey overland from Butler County Penn., but prior to his departure the brothers felled a large pine tree on the banks of the Beaver Creek, Butler County, and from its trunk fashioned a very commodious canoe, of such size, it is said, that the family flour barrel was stowed crosswise in the stern during the trip down the Ohio. The canoe was floated down the creek and the Allegheny River to Pittsburgh where Charles loaded his family and all their posessions and proceeded down the Ohio River to what is now Portsmouth, where they were met by the brother, Robert, and with the assistance of his arm and rifle they safely made the rest of their journey to Chillicothe.

Chillicothe at that time was one of the few military posts in the new state of Ohio. The brothers made livelihood by raising corn and other agriculture products for sale to the government for the garrison. How ever, the entire family suffered severely from malaria and ague, and shortly moved to Jackson county, taking residence at the old McKinniss homestead north of Coalton. This site was selected on account of its proximity to the sulphur springs on the old farm, discovered by my great-grand-father on one of his hunting trips, and to the beneficial effects of these waters he attributed the cure of the entire family from the fevers that troubled them while on the Scioto.

At that time Indians still roamed in this vicinity, and these resident bands took a great fancy to Joe, the small son of the family, the father of L.W. McKinnis, and Mrs. L.H. Tripp, who lived at Hamden. So pressing were their attentions that Mrs. McKinnis, becoming alarmed, induced the pioneer to move back again, nearer the protection of the garrison at Chillicothe. This they did, and again engaged in agriculture pursuits, raising corn and stock. They were not only able to raise enough for their own needs, and to sell to the garrison, but engaged in the New Orleans trade with profit, transporting corn and pork by flatboat during the rises of the Scioto down the Ohio, and thence via the Mississippi to the gulf.

Charles again took residence at the homestead in Coal Township, building the nucleus of what became of the old farm home with which most of us associate fond memories of happy times. This home was destroyed by fire about 1897, and was situated near the present Thornhill residence on the Coalton-Byer Pike.

While conducting an extensive farming business, he still employed a portion of his time in the river business as pilot of flatboats in the Ohio and Mississippi trade, and the cause of his death, March 29th, 1837, was directly traceable to a strain received while "shooting the rapids" at Louisville. While he lost his life in the service, it is a fact that he never lost a boat on these rapids, the most dangerous portion of the whole route from Portsmouth to New Orleans.