In 1763 the King of England proclaimed that the land west of the Appalachians belonged to the Indians. Those who went against what the King proclaimed were called trespassers. John Peter Markley was a trespasser.
John Markley moved into the Ohio Valley looking for a change in life. He saw this fertile land as an opportunity for a better future. He acquired plenty of land, which for years remained, in his family. This land was used as large and profitable farms. The acquisition of this land was very interesting. Especially when viewed through eyes of the 20th century.
John had acquired over 1,000 acres by 1785. One particular piece of land caught his eyes so he laid claim to it. At the same time another man also laid claim to the same piece of land. They decided to settle it through what was called ‘fisty cuffs’ or fighting. John Markley won the fight and gained control over this land of some 175 acres. He named it Flog Hill after the means in which he had to attain it.
John Peter Markley was born on November 27, 1724. Some records indicate that he may have been born in Wurthemburg, Germany as Johann Peter Merkle. If he had been born in Germany, then he immigrated to the New World sometime before he was thirty years old. The change in his name to John Peter Markley could have been a literacy issue or perhaps it was done to fit in with the majority of those around him once he arrived in the Americas. Regardless of how he gained his name or how he arrived, his life was exciting as well as interesting from what little I was able to find.
John Markley lived in the New World during the time of the Revolutionary War. He actively fought with the colonies to break their bondage with Britain. Little is known of what role he actually had in the war but one can assume he fought well and hard. This assumption can be gained in light of how he successfully acquired Flog Hill.
Until recently I knew absolutely nothing in regards to the existence of John Peter Markley. I grew up in a hardworking family who had more of a concern in economic survival than in keeping track of family history. It is difficult in knowing your family’s history, let alone the present family as a whole, when one is constantly moving around to be where the work is. In this regards roots are hard to come by.
My Dad was a military man as was his father and my Mom also came from a military family. Most of our lives were spent moving around and not being near family. The majority of my family that I know of are located mainly in Illinois.
The great farms of the Ohio Valley did not sustain all of the descendants and over time they too were lost as our side of the family ventured into Illinois and other places as well. Despite of the sparse evidence available I was able to piece things together with the help of relatives I had no idea existed and whom I found in my search on the ever expanding World Wide Web. Now I know who this interesting man John Peter Markley is, he is my Great Great Great Great Great Great Grandpa through my Dad’s Mother! I thinks the generational math is pretty close there.
John Peter Markley was a settler and a farmer. His descendants would for the most part follow his farming footsteps on their large farms in Ohio. He and his wife, Eve, had six children. One of their children was Joseph Markley and he married Susanna Weighley. Together they had fourteen children. Yikes! Horatio Markley was their sixth child. He married Nancy Link and they had four children of their own. Mathias Markley was their youngest child. He and a lady named Susanna married. She was my Great Great Great Grandma and my Grandmother told me that she despised drinking so much that she wrote poems about John Barley’s Corn. I can only guess that this was some kind of whiskey and that possibly her disdain for it may have stemmed from her husband’s love for it. I say this with some tongue-in-cheek because this kind of attraction seems to be somewhat common in our family.
Mathias and Susanna had four children and one of them was named Joseph Franklin Markley. He married Laura Benson, my Great Great Grandmother. She and Joseph had nine children. Their second son, Elmer Hayes Markley, married Florence Ward and she gave birth to their eight children. My Grandmother, Marjorie Markley, was one of their daughters and she married Harry John Hicks, Jr. Together they brought four children into the world and their oldest was my Dad, John Charles Hicks. He married Barbara Jean Stevens, my beautiful mother, and they have remained together until this day. Together they had my sister Kelly Lynn Hicks, my brother Jerry Joseph Hicks and myself, John Charles Hicks, Jr. I am the middle child.
As I alluded to earlier, I come from a long line of military men. This history dates back to my Great Great Great Great Great Great Grandfather’s service in the Revolutionary War. My Mom’s Dad served on Air Force One as the Chief Pilot. He flew the likes of Richard Nixon, Lyndon B. Johnson, Robert McNamara and Maime Eisenhower to name a few. His main job was to do the checks on who would fly on Air Force One and who would not. He also flew closely around the “Hump Missions” in South East Asia and is included among the ranks of those who survived.
My Grandpa on my Dad’s side was also a pilot and a Captain in the U.S. Navy. He flew in and commanded bomber squadrons during and after WWII and he trained pilots to fly as well. One of these he trained was the actor Robert Taylor.
My Dad spent his first career of over twenty years in the Navy, as did his Father. I grew up in a military family and from my experiences I have learned that it was the women who kept the family together and made it possible to survive the rigors of military life. After witnessing this through my Mom’s actions I can safely assume that most women have always played this kind of role. This includes my Great Great Great Great Great Great Grandmother Eve Markley during the Revolutionary War.
Eve Markley must have been a very strong woman to survive the already tough atmosphere of the settler’s life in early American. On top of this she had to survive for the time when her husband was away and fighting in the Revolutionary War. During this time she was left to tend to her six children and land in an area that was rife with conflict with other settlers and Indians as well. She died in 1813 as an old woman in her eighties, which was an unusually old age for this time period. Her husband John Markley died before her at the age of 72. They must have been a hardy people to live such long lives in such a harsh time in our history.
My research so far has taught me that the strong work ethics that are present in my life have deep roots in my family history. I have wondered how I have survived a pretty tough life so far but I can see that God has blessed me with experience handed down through the generations that have taught me to survive anything that comes my way. My family has survived the turmoil in coming to America. They survived the Revolutionary War and the settling of the lands west of the Appalachians. They survived life in the military. They survived economically any way they could find no matter if it was farming or selling caramel corn, which I found out my Dad’s family before him did. They had a caramel corn business called Hicks Carmel Corn. They sold their product at fairs throughout Illinois and made a decent living at it. Through all of this and much more I have learned that our family is one that is not afraid to work and one with the know-how to survive.
It must be stated that regardless of one’s roots, survival in this world is not the most important thing to get right while alive. Getting right with one’s Creator by trusting in the life, death and resurrection of His Son Jesus Christ is the most important thing anyone can do in this lifetime. I know of some of my hard working ancestors who lived and died rejecting Jesus and with that they reaped the most unfortunate but most assuredly deserved punishment which is eternal hell, separated from their Maker. While the world wants to believe that survivors and conquerors will be rewarded for their hard work and great accomplishments the harsh reality is, works can never save a man, only the blood of Jesus Christ can.
So regardless of how many 'fisty cuffs' you may win you will never conquer death on your own, only Jesus Christ has done that. I have accepted Him as my Saviour and am now in the most important family for all eternity!
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