Editor's Note: In early 2008, Gary Stemen and Larry Pardoe,
two well known and competent family historians engaged in an e-mail dialogue relating to the Hill
and Robb families of Lycoming and Sullivan County ancestry. Included in the covnersation were
Bob Robb and Bob Sweeney. Here is a set of excerpts from their conversation that
bear on the following history and are worth reading for the context:
Editor's Note: In August 2016, Gary updated
the historical files found further down this page.
****************************************************
A Dialogue of Family Historians
From: Lorin
F. Pardoe, Jr. [mailto:pardoe@paonline.com]
Sent: Thursday, January 10, 2008 1:54
PM
To: Gary
Stemen
Cc:
Subject: Hill and Robb
families
Hi
Gary,
In reply to your recent message
about the Hill and Robb families:
I have my Hill family starting
with John Hill and Mary Robb.
I don't go back any farther on
John, although Mary was daughter of Robert Robb and Susanna Fleming. No
further info on either or any siblings, if
any.
You have probably seen these
queries posted on the Ancestry.com message boards for Sullivan Co., PA, but if
not I will "paste" below. It might help you sort out John Hill from
Jacob Hill family? Incidently I don't have anything in tree as to Jacob
Hill family.
The following query
was posted on the Ancestry.com messge boards for Sullivan Co., PA on May 26,
2006 by Kathy Heilman:
I'm taking a side
trip and trying to locate some of underground railroad participants in
Sullivan & Lycoming counties. I find references to John Hill, but who was
he? I believe Hillsgrove's John Hill, who was married to Mary Robb, died in
1834, and John Cheatle Hill, their son, died in 1841. I can't find anything to
indicate that John C. had a son, although I think perhaps a Franklin Hill may
have been one.
Do you have anything,
or is there anyone who might?
This message was
also posted on the Ancestry.com message boards for Sullivan Co., PA by Kathy
Heilman on June 5, 2006 in reply to two other messages also posted
there:
"There were probably
at least 3 Hill families lliving in the
John Hill of
Hillsgrove was the son of John & Susanna Hill and arrived in
I have seen many
references to a John Hill, who was involved in the Underground Railroad and
took runaways to Marshall Battin. I'm interested in finding more information
on this John Hill, his family connections and his role in the Underground
Railroad.
Thank
you!
Kathy
Heilman"
The below biography on John Hill
is also extremely informative and can be found
at:
"
************************************************
Copyright.
All rights reserved.
http://www.rootsweb.com/~usgenweb/copyright.htm
http://www.rootsweb.com/~usgenweb/pa/pafiles.htm
************************************************
File
contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Joy Fisher
sdgenweb@yahoo.com August 1,
2005, 12:07 am
Author: Biographical Publishing
Co.
JOHN HILL.
This early pioneer was the first permanent settler on the Loyalsock
Creek, in Hillsgrove township, Sullivan County, Pa. He bought his land, with
the
improvements on it that had been already made, of a man by the
name of
who took his family in a
canoe and went farther down the creek.
John
Hill was a native of
November 15, 1793, and after a
thirteen weeks' passage landed at
February 18, 1794. He was
a man of fine education, as his books and writings
testify. On March
15, 1796, he was married to Mary Robb, daughter of Robert and
Susanna Robb of
Mary's age and death are not recorded,
but it is known that she lived to a good
old age, respected by all
who knew her. Their home was a house of entertainment
for travelers
during their married lives. The old Hill property has been a home
for travelers for one hundred years, and still is; at the present date (1899)
it
is conducted as a licensed hotel. To John and Mary Hill were born
four children,
as follows: Susanna, born October 14, 1797, married
Joseph Sadler, an account of
whose life follows in this sketch;
Mary, born April 14, 1799, married David
Cheatle,
born March 31, 1801, died a bachelor October 4, 1841, at the age of
forty; and Martha Jane, born January 15, 1805, and married to Isaac
Craven,—she
reared a family of three sons and two daughters, and
lived to a good old age.
Joseph Sadler, who
married Susanna Hill in 1819, was a son of Samuel Sadler of
County, and lived
there until his death June 3, 1820. His wife lived to the age
of
sixty-seven years and eleven months. Their only child was John J.
John J. Sadler was born in Sullivan County March 21,
1820, and after growing
up settled upon the old homestead left him
by his father. He resided there and
actively engaged in agricultural
and lumbering pursuits until his death,
September 12, 1890. He is
survived by his wife, who now lives in the village of
Hillsgrove. On
November 3, 1853, he was united in marriage with Anna H.
Bothwell,
who was born in
they
reared six children: Harriet W., born August 1, 1854. and died August
28,
1856; Claudius W., born November 14, 1856; Justin S., born
August 22, 1859, and
died March 1, 1860; Clara A., born April 22,
1861, is the wife of Malcolm
McCormick, and lives at
13, 1866; and Charles R., a barber by trade living in
January n, 1866, and
married to Philena Sherman.
Claudius W.
Sadler obtained a public school education and after leaving school
engaged in working for the tannery in Hillsgrove, hauling bark and lumber.
He
followed that line of work for five years, after which he located
on the Susanna
Sadler property, where he has since resided. He has
greatly improved the farm
and has added to it, until there is now
100 acres in all. He has carried on
general farming and has by good
management been very successful. He is a man of
honor and possesses
the esteem of his neighbors and many friends throughout the
township. On November 17, 1884, he was united in marriage with Laura
Hoagland,
who was born in the
a daughter of Uriah and Electa (Peppers) Hoagland, both of whom
now reside in
Shunk. Politically Mr. Sadler is a Republican. He is a
member of Hillsgrove
Lodge, I. O. O. F., and Shunk Lodge, No. 220,
P. O. S. of A. In religious
attachments his wife is a member of the
Methodist Episcopal Church at Hillsgrove.
Additional Comments:
Extracted
from:
Book of Biographies of the
Seventeenth Congressional District
Published by
Biographical Publishing Company of
And lastly, you inquired about the
"History of Lycoming County, PA", 1892 by John F. Meginness. It too is
online thru the Rootsweb pages for
57 Chapters - 1227
pages.
Table of
contents:
Chapter 6 has an article on Robert
Robb (I stumbled across while getting page link for you - don't know if he is
same as Robert Robb married to Susanna Fleming but
possible).
You probaby have to go thru the
pico search on main page to search for individual families such as Hill or
Robb which I haven't done.
Good
luck,
Larry
Pardoe
******
----- Original Message to Bob Robb-----
From: Gary
Stemen
Sent: Sunday,
January 20, 2008 3:52 PM
Subject: Robb
Family
My name is Gary Stemen, and I have been in contact
with Larry Pardoe and Bob Sweeney in regard to the extended Rogers
Family.
I am aware that Bob forwarded you an email in
regard to a little side trip I am taking. I have been looking into the
Sullivan County Robb family as relates to the extended
I have looked into the "four Robb
brothers" noted in the Northumberland and Lycoming
County references which are available on-line, and have gathered census
(and other) information from various other sources, one of which is the
Sullivan county PA GenWeb site. I can provide and am willing to share a
reasonably comprehensive overview of the Sullivan County Robb
family (as relates to the
I have not been able to tie Henry Robb, Esq.
(referenced repeatedly in the Muncy Luminary, et al, publications) into this
research to date.
I am also going to make this data
available to Bob and Larry for their personal
use.
I would hesitate to publish this data as
gospel without verifying the information
firsthand through local documentation unavailable to
me.
If you are interested in what I have, please reply
by email.
Regards,
******
----- Original Message -----
From: Lorin F. Pardoe,
Jr.
Cc: Bob Sweeney
Sent: Sunday,
January 20, 2008 4:49 PM
Subject: Re: Robb
Family
Thanks for copying me in on your
email to Bob Robb.
As before, the only thing I have
would be Robert Robb and wife Susanna Fleming and daughter Mary Robb. I
have Mary Robb marying John Hill from Upton, Leicester, England having
children Susannah Hill, m. Joseph Sadler; Mary Hill, m. David Rogers; John
Cheatle Hill, d. at home of William F. Robb (not sure how connected - possibly
brother of Mary Robb?); Martha Jane Hill m. Isaac Craven; Ann Caroline Hill
(She was listed in "Egle's Notes and Queries")-nothing further on
her.
******
From: Bob Robb
[mailto:packrobb@verizon.net]
Sent: Sunday, January 20, 2008 9:36
PM
To: Lorin F. Pardoe, Jr.;
Gary Stemen
Cc: Bob
Sweeney
Subject: Re: Robb
Family
Robert Robb (Bob) here. It's
spooky seeing my name with Susanna Fleming.
I spent some time at the Muncy
Historical Society and found some stuff on Robert Robb including the location of
the Robert Robb house in Muncy.
I unfortunately have found nothing
connecting my Robbs with the Robbs in Lycoming or
**************************************************************
Consequent to these exchanges, Gary provided the following three documents. The first is taken back for six generations, up through the early 1900s. This time frame is the relevant portion for our local history. There is more data contained in Gary's master file for those who wish to contact him. He has agreed to maintain this data and has placed a statement to that effect, along with his contact information, in the opening comments within the first file. The second file is a compendium of the original Robb family wills. Finally, Gary provided a link to John Blair Linn's Annals of Buffalo Valley: 1755-1855 [Harrisburg: Lane S. Hart, 1877], which touches upon the dispute that caused Captain Robert Robb to have his allegiance to the new government called into question at the time of the Revolutionary War. We are very grateful to Gary for this detailed and informative history:
Annals of Buffalo Valley: 1755-1855
Editor's Note: A searchable sversion of the first of these files can be accessed at Descendants of John Robb
You may note that the second of these three sources contains at the end a statement of the successors in interest as of 1819 to David Robb of Tyrone, PA. This document names five Robb brothers and one sister, and their spouses, as follows:Copyright © 2008 Robert E. Sweeney and individual Contributors. All Rights Reserved. Prior written permission is required from Robert E. Sweeney and individual Contributors before this material can be printed or otherwise copied, displayed or distributed in any form. This is a FREE genealogy site sponsored through PAGenWeb and can be reached directly at ~Sullivan County Genealogy Project (http://www.rootsweb.com/~pasulliv)