In it, John states the following: He was born 10 Sept 1759 in Maryland. Parents not named. When he was young, the family moved to Hampshire Co., VA. In 1782, near the end of the war, John enlisted in Virginia and served under the legendary General "Light-Horse Harry" Lee, father of Robert E. Lee. The following year, he returned to Hampshire County, eventually moving west to Mason Co., KY.

 

Using these clues, I picked up John's trail, starting in Virginia. Hampshire County personal property tax records show John taxed every year between 1783-1798 on humble holdings, typically a single horse. He was always paired in Hampshire County tax lists with both Isaac Short and Jacob Short. Particularly insightful is the 1790 tax where both John and Jacob are in the home of Isaac Short. This suggests connectedness — but what connection? The answer is found in 1791 when Jacob Short's probate distribution names legates John Short and Isaac Short.

 

It must be in Hampshire County 1783 that John weds Mary X. We learn her first name in John's last will. Her last name is unknown. All their children, declared in later records, were born in Virginia.

 

Around 1800, at the age of 40, John, Mary his wife, and children resettled further west up the Ohio River Valley in Mason, KY. Brother Isaac Short is enumerated in the 1800 census there, but not John. Just as in Hampshire, no deed records point to John owning property in Kentucky.

 

It is in Mason that John Short must meet neighbor John Brown who will purchase a 1000-acre 1803 land patent in Clermont from Robert Baylor. The recently created Virginia Military District in southwestern Ohio granted land to veterans who had served from Virginia. Acreage was allocated according to rank. And it was not unusual, as in this case, for the original grantee to sell their land never having set foot on it to a speculator who divides and resells it. Brown apparently had some agreement in advance of his 1810 purchase of the Baylor patent because in 1805 John Short's son 'Samuel' purchased 100 acres of the property on Ten Mile Creek in Amelia from John Brown. That deed' references "John Short's line" which is also curious since John would not officially purchase his 150 acres on Ten-Mile until 1813. It is interesting that John "occupies" his land in 1810 and Samuel settles on his by 1811. While still in Mason, John signs the 1809 marriage bond for daughter Sophia Short to wed Thornton Jackson. (It is from this couple that I descend).

 

In 1814, John deeds the eastern 50 acres of his farm to sister-in-law, Dorcas! It would seem then that residing on John's farm are John, his wife Mary, sons Isaac and William, along with their wives and children, and John's "insane daughter" Polly. Dorcas and her children living next door, son Samuel and family on his 100 adjoining acres. Daughter Sophia Short and her husband Thornton Jackson also crossed the river and settled on Ten Mile in 1816. Both perished from cholera in 1833, years before the 1850 all-name census, leaving proof of their children speculative at best.  

(Read the rest of the story and see the sources cited in Clermont County Genealogical Newsletter May 2024)