Comments on: James McPherson’s neighborhood http://www.spokesrider.com/2008/12/03/james-mcphersons-neighborhood/ Bicycle touring and history Fri, 05 Mar 2010 13:27:33 -0600 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: John McPherson http://www.spokesrider.com/2008/12/03/james-mcphersons-neighborhood/comment-page-1/#comment-1959 John McPherson Wed, 07 Jan 2009 18:41:27 +0000 http://www.spokesrider.com/2008/12/03/james-mcphersons-neighborhood/#comment-1959 The curator of the museum at Clyde is correct. My third great-grandfather was not the grandfather of General James Birdseye McPherson. I think some of this confusion can be attributed to a lot of older material written about my James McPherson, which erroneously referred to him as General McPherson or "the old General". Colonel was the highest rank he ever attained and that was during The War of 1812 when he served as a spy and a scout for General Hull's army. Some people have confused the two James with one another and it makes me wonder if perhaps this somehow confused the interviewer of James Black. As for the descendants of Col. James McPherson, he only had one son - Henry who I am descended from. Henry had two sisters - Elzabeth and Rachel. Henry did however have a son James. Their mother, who was Col. James' first wife, was Catherine Hoffman, a white woman who had also been a captive of the Indians, but they were married in 1796 not 1809. After the death of his first wife in 1832 he married another white woman Dorothy "Dolly" Tullis. He had two daughters by her - Martha and Jane. This information is suppoted by entries in the Henry McPherson family bible which has been handed down to me. As for where 'Shawnee Heritage" obtained their information I have no idea. I spoke with Don Greene several years ago about information he had posted on his website. At the time he could'nt tell me where he got his info. One final comment - I suspect the Molly Kiser you mentioned was probably Polly Keyser, who according to the text on the historical marker which marks the site of the council house in Lewistown, Ohio lived with " Captain John Lewis" and was his "drudge". The curator of the museum at Clyde is correct. My third great-grandfather was not the grandfather of General James Birdseye McPherson. I think some of this confusion can be attributed to a lot of older material written about my James McPherson, which erroneously referred to him as General McPherson or “the old General”. Colonel was the highest rank he ever attained and that was during The War of 1812 when he served as a spy and a scout for General Hull’s army. Some people have confused the two James with one another and it makes me wonder if perhaps this somehow confused the interviewer of James Black.

As for the descendants of Col. James McPherson, he only had one son – Henry who I am descended from. Henry had two sisters – Elzabeth and Rachel. Henry did however have a son James. Their mother, who was Col. James’ first wife, was Catherine Hoffman, a white woman who had also been a captive of the Indians, but they were married in 1796 not 1809. After the death of his first wife in 1832 he married another white woman Dorothy “Dolly” Tullis. He had two daughters by her – Martha and Jane. This information is suppoted by entries in the Henry McPherson family bible which has been handed down to me.

As for where ‘Shawnee Heritage” obtained their information I have no idea. I spoke with Don Greene several years ago about information he had posted on his website. At the time he could’nt tell me where he got his info.

One final comment – I suspect the Molly Kiser you mentioned was probably Polly Keyser, who according to the text on the historical marker which marks the site of the council house in Lewistown, Ohio lived with ” Captain John Lewis” and was his “drudge”.

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