Anglin's Creek and Beyond

Johan Georg Amick in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, was only one among several immigrants to America named Amick (Emig, Emich, Ihmig, etc.)  In York County, Pennsylvania, there lived another Amick family who immigrated to America:  Johannes Emig and his wife, Dorothea Rotter.  Johannes was born in 1722 in Alsace-Lorraine, and his relationship to Johan Georg is unknown.  If I were to research the European roots of Johan Georg of Bucks County, I would begin in Unterhoffen, the ancestral home of Johannes of York County.  A southern branch of Amicks descends from Johan Conradt Emig, who is said to be the son of Johann Georg Emig.  Conrad Amick immigrated to South Carolina, and I've wondered if all three of the Emig immigrants mentioned might not be related and possibly all be children of Johann Georg Emig.  The dates of marriages and births certainly indicate that all of the immigrants could be of the same generation.

I don't have the time or the energy to write about the global Amick family, so I will follow Johan Georg's children from Pennsylvania down to Pendleton County, Virginia, and then on to Anglin's Creek in Nicholas County.  Henry Amick, grandson of Johan Georg, left Bucks County around 1790 to move his family to Pendleton County.  He had served in the militia in the Revolutionary War, operated his father's mill when he inherited it, and had at least three children by the time of his move. His son, Jacob Amick, Sr., was born in Pennsylvania in 1789; another son, John, was born 6 September 1790 in Pendleton County.

Certificate awarding 40 acres to Jacob Amick
for service in the War of 1812.  From www.fold3.com.

From military pension records, we know that Jacob Amick was drafted into the Virginia Militia in Pendleton County during the War of 1812.  His pension file is a mammoth 100 pages long, and despite the numerous affidavits, testimonies, and written accounts, the dates do not always agree.  One record states that Jacob served from Sept. 1814 to Nov. 24 1814; the British burned Washington, D. C. on 24 August 1814, and that may have influenced his enlistment (either he was motivated to defend his country, or the country was motivated to draft more soldiers).  The Treaty of Ghent was signed on 24 December 1814, but the war continued (Battle of New Orleans) until January 1815.  Another record says Jacob was drafted 13 February 1815 at Franklin and continued in service for 14 days before being discharged at Moorefield in Hardy County in April 1815.  It's possible that he served two enlistments, and he was discharged in 1815 after the Americans beat the British at New Orleans.  In support of this theory, the land bounty certificate above states that he served in two different companies.

On 5 June 1814, three months before he enlisted in the militia, Jacob married Rachel Shroyer in Pendleton County.  Rachel is reported to have been born in 1797 near Dahmer in Pendleton County.  Things may have been a little crowded on the Amick homeplace.  After Jacob's mother died about 1809, his father married a woman, supposedly much younger than he was, about 1810.  They had a daughter shortly after. The 1810 census in Pendleton County shows Henry "Eamick" with five children younger than five years, one daughter age 10-15, three sons ages 16-25, and both a man and a woman older than 45 years (Henry and his new wife, Catharine).

Jacob's brother, Nicholas, had left about 1797 for Kentucky, and in the years after their mother's death, several of the other Amick children began moving on.  Children of Henry and Barbara Amick relocated to Nicholas County, WV, Fayette County, WV, Atchison Co., Kansas, and Spencer County, Indiana.  Henry Amick, Jr.(on the 1820 Pendleton County census) followed his brothers to Nicholas County, but he was not found in county records in later years.

Nicholas County was formed in 1818 from parts of Greenbrier, Kanawha, and Randolph Counties.  Both John and Jacob Amick are listed on the Nicholas County census in 1820.  Jacob Amick is found on the 1830 census, which was enumerated on June 1 of that year, in BOTH Pendleton and Nicholas County (his father, Henry, is also listed in the 1830 Pendleton census).  The 1830 Nicholas County census lists John Amick and John Amick, Sr.

Jacob received a land grant of 80 acres there on 20 June 1823.  Other land grants were awarded on 7 June 1824 (325 acres, including improvements where Jacob Amick lived and adjacent to land of John Amick), 8 September 1824 (100 acres) and 11 April 1825 (73 acres).  Jacob also purchased land from Henry Eye (100 acres) on 1 March 1829.  As late as 31 August 1846, Jacob received a land grant of 200 acres in Fayette and Greenbrier Counties (recorded in Nicholas County) on both sides of Meadow River which included a small improvement and a mill above the mouth of Anglin's Creek.

Jacob and Rachel had nine children, five of whom were born in Pendleton County:
1)  John Amick, born 1815
2)  Samuel Amick, born 1816
3)  Henry Amick, born 1 November 1817
4)  Rachel Amick, born 1824
5)  Jacob Amick, Jr., born 1826
6)  Arthur Amick, born 3 March 1833 (twin)
7)  Mary Amick, born 3 March 1833 (twin)
8)  Elizabeth Amick, birth date unknown
9)  Catherine Amick, birth date unknown.

The Jacob Amick family is found on the 1840 census in Nicholas County, with Jacob listed as being between    50 and 60 years old.  He has a total of seven children.  On the same page of the census is found John Amick, Sr. and John M. Amick.  By 1850 the Nicholas County census reports that Jacob Amick, 62 years old, lives with his wife, Rachael, and their children, Jacob, Rachael, and Polly (Mary).  His son, Henry, lives next to them with his wife, Jane, and son, Jacob, who is one year old.

Numerous affidavits on the pension application of Rachael Amick in 1876 and again in 1887, when she lost her pension certificate and had to reapply, state that Jacob Amick, Sr. died 6 September 1859.  They swore to it!  But on the 1860 census we find Jacob and Rachael Amick; he is age 65, and she is age 60.  No children live with them, but all of their neighbors are Amicks, including their son, Jacob Amick, Jr.  The census is to include those people living in the home as of June 1, 1860; even if the count includes someone who had died in the last 30 days, Jacob would not have been included if he had died 6 September 1859.  I'm not sure how the witnesses in Rachael's pension application could not have remembered whether Jacob had died before or after the Civil War, but his death is listed in the Nicholas County records as having died in September 1868, as reported by his son, Jacob Amick, Jr.  Jacob's burial place has not ever been found, but it's believed that he was buried near the mill on Anglin's Creek.  W. D. Amick, who lives at Runa, says that he has looked extensively on that side of Anglin's Creek, and he has not been able to find any evidence of a grave in the dense woods.

As evidenced in her pension application, Rachael lived in the homes of her children and moved from one house to another.  That's how she lost her pension certificate in 1887.  In the 1870 and 1880 censuses she is found living beside her son, Jacob, with her unmarried daughter, Rachael.  When she lost her pension certificate, her address was listed as Big Clear Creek in Greenbrier County, and Dr. McClung of Rupert wrote of his examination of her.  Her first pension was $8 per month and was later increased to $12 per month.  According to the pension collection, Rachael was last paid her pension on 4 June 1894 and was dropped from the rolls due to her death, so her death occurred sometime around that time, certainly in 1894.  Her grave is also unknown, but it seems reasonable that she would be buried beside Jacob on the property along Anglin's Creek.  If her birth date of 1797 is accurate, she died at the age of 97 years old.