CATHARINE BALLANTYNE / ROBERT BOYD - MONROE CO; W.VA
Andrew
BALLANTYNE and his wife, Agnes SMART, and their four children
came
from Dundee, Scotland, to Norfolk in 1801, and thence to the Sinks
of Monroe.
Their friends, Andrew Miller, May Broady, and others, came by
the
same ship and others had preceded them. Ballantyne was a skilled
weaver.
And like a true Scotchman of his time he was a great reader and
student,
Especially of the Bible. For many years he taught in an old
schoolhouse
that stood close to his home near Hillsdale. He and Andrew
and
James Miller would regularly walk to one another's homes on Sunday,
a circuit
of 10 miles, for the purpose of religious worship. They were
elders
of the first session after the Lebanon brick church was
completed.
The three daughters were as fond of reading as their parent
In order
that a borrowed book might be promptly returned, they would
read
at night what their father had read by day. Their books, heavy both
in binding
and subject matter, are still in possession of their
descendants.
They also delighted in feats of memory. One of these was
committing
the 119th psalm, the Shorter and Longer Catechisms, and much
of the
Presbyterian Confession of Faith. Children: Jean (Michael Beamer,
1824)
- Elspeth (b.1796) (Philip Beamer,Jr.) - CATHARINE(ROBERT BOYD) -
Robert
(Mary Harper)- Marjorie (born at sea 1801)(John Crawford).
Source:
A History of Monroe County, West Virginia, Oren F. Morton, B.
Lit.
Staunton, VA, The McClure Company, Inc. 1916
****************************************************************
Thanks
to Karen Schrode from Ohio, USA