JOHN RITCHIE FARM, Est. 1777, NELSON COUNTY, KY
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RED STAR pinpoints location of John Ritchie cabin. Red line shows winding road back to the property from Hwy 31E and, turning South, the road follows the path to Landings Run. Yellow star shows Linn's Fort and, to the Norrh, St. Thomas Catholic Church and Cemetary. Notice the many Ritchie descendants living in the area of the Beech Fork?
Using a 1978 VINTAGE AERIAL photo, I am able to show you the still-standing structures (yellow) on the Ritchie farm. Red denotes structures demolished after 1978.
The current landowner purposely allows vegetation to hide the cabin/home from limiting trespassers.
There the two other structures, a wooden workshop and the old ice house.
John Ritchie - the myth versus known facts
The unknown origins of the man known as John Ritchie. Unknown? I say, a Y-37 DNA Test done by myself and someone in Pennsylvania and/or Scotland could help answer the origin mystery if anyone in my family questions what I write here today. Regardless of the repeated stories handed down through generations of the Ritchie family to the contrary, John Ritchie was probably born in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, to a Scots-Irish father named William Sn. Having personally walked the John Ritchie farm, now is private hands, this past JUN2020, I can tell you through pictures what the homestead looks like, but little less. Research genealogists, on the other hand, can provide answer that may destroy the myth of the bourbon industry sprouting from his homestead in 18th century Nelson County Kentucky.
The most recent comprehensive research provide the following facts
The most recent comprehensive research provide the following facts
- Tax Records of Bedford and Westmorland Counties, Pennsylvania, 1773-1778 record all four members of the William Ritchie family together in that place in the year 1787. William Sn. is the putative father of William Jr., Abraham, and John Ritchie.
- Military Records shows that in 1778 or 1779 a John (Riche_, and Abraham (Riche) and a Samuel Lemon serve together in the 13th Virginia Regiment commanded by a Col. John Gibson. John Riche was stationed at Fort Crawford, and a muster roll survives showing the months of April and May. Although the date of the muster roll is in question, it is believed to be 08JUN1779.
- Nelson County Tithe 1785-1791 Records prove that three man named Ritchie: William, Gilbert, and John were living in close proximity to one another in 1787 Nelson County, a conclusion drawn from the fact Gilbert and John appear in the 17th and 18th positions in the recorded-as-encountered tax lists. Other evidence shows Gilbert to be another son of William Sn. Further conclusions are drawn that William and Gilbert later move to Bourbon County around 1790, while John Ritchie stayed in Nelson County, as he appears in 1792 Nelson County Tithe records.
- The tithe records mentioned above correspond to the John Ritchie Deed of 13AUG1787 for 4 parcels of land containing 590 acres by survey bearing date 01MAR1786, lying and being in the County of Nelson on the south side of the Beech Fork in Nelson County.
- Marriage to Jemima Quick is certain, because the 1787 Will of Cornelius Ritchie names her, but not John. It is suggested the couple had married by 1785 and already migrated to Kentucky. Jemima's father and, presumably her as well, did not even arrive in this pioneering area until 1780, so they were not married on the bank of the Licking River as the Ritchie legend states. The marriage date1785 would should John and Jemima married in western Pennsylvania-Virginia-West Virginia, squatted land where they had there first son in 1778 Kentucky.
- 1790-93 Jemima's brother John Quick and family were prisoners of Shawnee in Ohio.
- 1793 John Ritchie (the father, or the son) rides in Russell's Regiment of Kentucky Cavalry, a company of mounted volunteers whose mission was to push the Indians north through Ohio. This is the military record that Dale Hamilton dismissed in this Ritchie text.
- 1797 John Ritchie paid Nelson County taxes, and continued to do so in following years.
- 1814 John Ritchie died between April and August in an unmarked grave on the family farm.