Tonoloway Primitive Baptist Church and Cemetery, Pennsylvania

The Tonoloway Primitive Baptist Church and Cemetery are co-located on Route 655, in Belfast Township, of Fulton County, Pennsylvania. To reach it, take Route 70 to the Warfordsburg, PA exit. Go North a few miles to Rt. 655, then turn right. Follow this winding road until you reach the church, on the right.

This church is a part of our family history, with a number of relatives worshipping here. It is not hard to imagine John K Carson and his wife Rachel attending services here, since they lived in and around Warfordsburg for some time. However, church records do not include them as members. We do know that Rachel's grandparents, great grandparents, and great-great grandparents were all members of the church.

The church was built in 1752, then rebuilt in 1804. It was the tenth Baptist church constructed in America. During the civil war, the church served as a hospital.

Here are a few photos I took while on my trip in May of 2006:


The Tonoloway Primitive Baptist Church, as viewed from Rt 655


The Tonoloway Primitive Baptist Church and a partial view of the cemetery. The graves of Benjamin Truax, Sr. and his wife Parthenia, are difficult to see in this photo, but they are directly between the camera lens and the church window on the far right.


A marker for Benjamin Truax's grave. I don't know if this was placed here as part of the Bi-Centenial memorial service (1976), or more recently.


The Marker placed in 1976 to remember Benjamin's Revolutionary War service.

Benjamin B Truax & Perthinia/Parthenia Pittman

The book "History of Tonoloway Baptist Church", contained an entry for Benjamin and Parthenia Truax (GGG Grandparents of Chester Carson).

"Benjamin Truax and Parthenia, his wife, were received by the church in November of 1770. They came from new Jersey at an early date and settled in the part of the county that became Thompson Township. Benjamin served in the Bedford County Militia during the American Revolution. He died May 10, 1801, at the age of seventy. Parthenia had died October 31, 1781, aged thirty-nine years, seven months and fifteen days. I believe her tombstone is now the oldest in Tonoloway Cemetery. The Truax children were Joseph (born 1758), William (born 1763), Samuel (born 1764), Rebecca (born 1769), Benjamin (born 1774), Elias (1775-1786), and Parthenia."


Headstones for Parthenia (left) and Benjamin Truax.

Samuel B Truax and Rebecca Abigail (Sarah) Stillwell

Samuel B Truax and Rebecca Abigail (Sarah) Stillwell are a GGGG Uncle and GGGG Aunt of Chester Carson.

While in the Fulton County Libary, I discovered a book by Harry Stuart Holman, M.A, published in 1980, titled "History of Tonoloway Baptist Church". It shed new light on these relatives of ours.

The Tonoloway Baptist Church still stands today, and in a future posting I will show you photos of it and the cemetery that contains several of our ancestors.

Samuel was born in 1740 in Woodbridge County, New Jersey. Sarah was born five years later, in the same county. They were married in about 1765.

We know that Samuel and Sarah were in Bedford County, PA by August of 1774, when they joined the Tonoloway Baptist Church at the time of its founding (when it was known as Sideling Hill Church).

Samuel was a member of the Rangers of the Frontier. The Rangers were a group of men in the early 1780's who road the countryside protecting settlers from Indians or other provocations.

In 1787 a land survey, performed on Samuel's behalf, identified 150 acres of land located just north of Little Cove Road, in Bethel, PA.

Samuel and Sarah had eight children: Rachel, Stillwell, Mary, Samuel, Elizabeth, Jane, Rebecca, and Meriam.

Samuel died March 12, 1801. His wife, Sarah, died September 15, 1801

May 2006 Genealogy Road Trip, Part I

On May 10th, I headed north to Maryland and then into Pennsylvania, to try and discover additional information on our ancestors.

My primary goal was the discovery of John K Carson's parents. John K, if you don't remember, was a grandparent of Chester Carson.

Most records on John K Carson, including his own written record of his birth location, consistently place him in Hancock, Maryland and the Warfordburg, Pennsylvania area from his birth until at least middle adulthood. So, this is a prime location to search for more information.

I set my sights on two libraries... the Washington County Free Library, in Hancock, MD, and the Fulton County Libary, in McConnellsburg, PA, home of the Fulton County Historical Society.

I spent only a few hours in the Washigton County Free Library. I was able to search all microfilm they had on newspapers at about the time of John's birth. None had birth announcements, only death and marriage notices. Another dead end.

I did meet a gentleman who was introduced to me as "the local genealogy expert." He told me something very important. "Don't trust birth locations as absolutely accurate," he said. "Oftentimes families of that era reported their home, or a birth location, as their postal district. In that time-period, the Hancock, Maryland postal zone was quite large, extending down into Warfordsburg, PA. Your ancestor could have actually been born anywhere in this region."

"Unfortunately," he continued, "the likelihood of finding any record of his birth, anywhere in the region's government records, is remote."

So far, his depressing assessment has proven to be true.

Next time, I'll describe some of my findings in Warfordsburg.