Volume 2 Number 3

Summer 1985

Letter From the Editor

Albert C Skinner Obituary

Debrett Ancestry Search

Ethnic Skinners

Gasoline Alley

Dolorose Skinner Legutki Celebration

miscSKINNERlaneous

NY, Sherburne

Christ's Church Cemetery

PA, Mill Run

Skinner Family

Queries

Resurgence

S.A.L.E.

Skinner Allied Lines Exchange

Scot's Skinner Reminisces

Skinner - Davis Scrapbook

Skinner Kinsmen Letter

Skinner Name of Scottish Origin

Skinner Settlement

John Skinner's Will

Truck Driving Granny

Index Page

Thanks to William Weiler for transcription of this article.

According to a tombstone in the Jersey Church Cemetery in Somerset County, near Confluence, Pennsylvania, a certain Nathaniel Skinner, Sr., was born in 1706, at Woodbridge, New Jersey.

In a history of New Jersey, according to Harry S. Rush of Fargo North Dakota, who is a descendant of Nathaniel Skinner, the following statement was found: "A Rev. William Skinner who lived at or near Woodbridge had come from Scotland. (the original name was MacGregor). He was supposed to have participated in an uprising against George II. He changed his name to Skinner and fled to America. He married Elizabeth Cortland of New York." (He must have been of our (George Skinner) family because there are many Cortland Skinners hanging on the family tree, including a grand-nephew by that name at this writing.)

He had a son, James, who we believe was the father of Nathaniel of the Jersey settlement. The family came into Somerset County by wagon train from New Jersey along with some fifteen or twenty families about 1773.

Nathaniel died in 1801, and is buried at the Jersey Church Cemetery. He supposedly had a large family: Samuel, Nathaniel, Jr., James, Robert, Reuben, and several daughters.

James and two other Skinners served in the Revolutionary War and were given tracts of land by the government for the service rendered. James took a plot of land known as the James B. Leonard Tract (now Shroyer place). The other two Skinners, possibly Samuel was one, and his brother, took up plots or tracts of land lying north of the Kooser farm in the area of Kern, Johnson, Critchfield, and running to Mud Pike.

Reuben came to the Mill Run area and established the mill at Mill Run on the Elijah Kooser property. He died in 1821. After his death, his family emigrated farther west.

Robert Skinner's son, Willet Skinner, purchased, lived, and died on the farm on which the present Indian Creek Baptist Church is located. His son, Abraham, took over the farm and remained there until his death. It was he who deeded the oak grove and cemetery to the church trustees. Willet had a family of fourteen girls and seven boys. The boys were all licensed or ordained ministers.

One of the sons, Sylvester Colborn Skinner (RW 1422), was married to Adeline Thorpe in 1838 and moved to a part of the Thorpe farm near Ohiopyle, Pennsylvania. They had eleven children: Sarah Jane, Sabine, James, David, John M. Abram, Tabitha, Jefferson, George Marcellus, Ella.

Sylvester and his son, James, were in the Civil War, Sylvester as a chaplain and James as a private who contracted smallpox and died. Sylvester was also minister of the Baptist Church.

The Hickman Chapel Church is built upon a plot of ground given by M. C. Skinner in 1900. This was a part of the original Skinner farm.

Marcellus Skinner was married to Margaret Moon and had thirteen children. (For more on this family, see "Skinner Family" 'Mongst the hills of Somerset : a collection of historical sketches and family histories.) Earl and George are the only children living in Mill Run. Earl married Jessie Tissue.S) George was married to Bess Tissue and their children are: Leola, Carl, Dwight, Esther, and Harold Wayne who died in infancy. Leola, living in Mill Run, was married to Ralph Miner and had four children, with two, Donna and Kerwin, living in Mill Run. Carl, also living in Mill Run, was married to Mary Julia Bailey. Their children were John and Carol Ann. etc.