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From: "Merle C Rummel" <>
Subject: Re: [BRE] 2 Questions to Merle about Four Mile Church: Brethren Farmer
Date: Sat, 11 Dec 2004 06:51:41 -0500
References: <46.5e79d68c.2eeb56af@aol.com>


> Now to understand the meaning of Toney's .... ("Toney's tell of hives" -
> from Merle's article).
>

the Toney Family is one of Madelaine's several ancestor lines here at the
Four Mile. (Research in this family is what started the whole
book -encouraged and assisted greatly by Madelaine's mother, Elsie
Olt.)(Elsie was the daughter of Elder Cornelius C Petry, her mother was Emma
Toney -and lived on one of those old farms near the Four Mile Church.)

Maybe you remember from back in the '70s several interviews on (?CBS)
TV -with: "Ancel Toney -the Kite Man". Ancel was some 80 years old (born
1887) -and built huge colorful kites, big enough to fly in (in fact -to
celebrate his 90th birthday, a son pulled Ancel up in one behind a pickup
truck -and I think that is what brought about the TV special). Ancel lived
about 20 miles from us (at Farmland IN) -when we wrote the book, and we
frequently went over to see him -and got plenty of information from the
beginning of the 20th Century.

Just shows that you didn't read the full book -the local library here at
Liberty IN has the whole book up -online -at:
www.union-county.lib.in.us/USGenWebpage1.htm

The book includes the group of interconnected families of the Four Mile
Church from their origins in mostly Franklin Co Virginia (and before -back
into Maryland and PA) and concludes with the children and grand children of
the families as they moved acrossed the state of Indiana (in its opening and
settlement -1820s and 1830s), and on west -mostly to Iowa and
California -primarily ending about 1860. More recent research has shown
that there are a couple more families -not knowingly connected to the
primary family group, and mostly that did not stay locally.

The Four Mile Church is just inside Indiana on the Ohio State Line. In the
early days it had two primary centers -one about 5 miles south of Boston IN
(Upper Four Mile -the one existant today), the other just north of College
Corner OH/West College Corner IN (Lower Four Mile). Both were centers of
Elder Jacob Miller Children and connected Families particular ones had
married into -they migrated here together soon after 1800. The Nine Mile
Road paralleled the Little Four Mile Creek (and Ohio State line) and
connected the two congregations -many of these families lived on it.

Merle C Rummel
Church Historian

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