Notes |
- David was according to some 2nd hand sources born in Lancaster Co, PA and others in Wautuga Co., North Carolina. He moved with his family to NC where he was reared. David Mast is erroneously listed as being a soldier in the Revoluy War with his father, both having supposedly fought at Charleston. However, when the records of the Siege of Charleston are checked, the name is spelled Mash and does not refer to him. He was known by the name of Captain Mast because he was one of two leaders, the other being David Hoover, who brought 64 families from North Carolina to the Stillwater area of Ohio in 1801/2. He built five cabins in 1802 according to a website by Judith Baker on the internet. (C-2570) One of them was still lived in in 1918 and in 2002 it still existed in Butler Twp., Miami Co., Ohio at 2151 Kershner Road. It's logs were covered by clapboard by 1914.
David is the Capt. Mast listed as living in what is now the Poke Grove, Randolph Twp. area of Montgomery Co., Ohio in 1806. Originally, the 64 families settled on lands on a 4 mile stretch along the Stillwater River. It encompassed lands in what was then Butler Twp., Clay Township and most of them in Union Twp., Miami Co., Ohio However, boundary changes in 1825 placed David's land in Randolph Twp., Montgomery Co., Ohio instead. His cabin was the first to be notched in the Stillwater Woods with many others following for the large party of families they brought to Ohio. The beautiful large two story home he built afterwards has been restored by Cinda Lightner Kratzner and is located just outside of the town of Union in Randolph Co., OH on State Route 48. He was taxed in 1804, 1810 and 1816 in Montgomery Co., Ohio. He was in the deed records of West Milton, Miami Co., Ohio in 1836 dealing with Lot 50. (C-1025)
Absalom, one of his son's, apparently used the same title as displayed in a letter quoted below. W.H. Beers in THE HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY, BOOK III, (1882) on pages 54-56, give a very interesting account of David Mast's migration to Ohio with his family. The account is quoted from a letter written by son, Capt. Absalom Mast. "On the 10th day of Sept. (1802) ... my father, with four of his sisters and their husbands, bid adieu to old North Carolina, in company with one or two more families. They resided in Randolph County, (NC), of the Hewary River. They were all in low circumstances; had money enough to make their entries, and to buy some provisions during the winter. They halted for winter quarters at what is now called Ridgeville, eight miles north of Lebanon; rented a log cabin of Luther and Calvin Ball . . . Our Carolina tramps, or families, left Ridgeville vicinity (just north of Lebanon, OH) on the 4th day of March, 1802. They proceeded to the Stillwater woods, (arriving on 20 Mar.1802) where they had previously made their selections and on my father's purchase the first house or cabin was raised or notched." An interview with Mary Hoover of the same Montgomery Co., Randolph Twp. area, Ohio adds further interesting detail. "They had to cut a road north, through the wilderness, as they moved on their entries of land, which were purchased in 1798. . . David Mast settled on the northwest quarter of section 3." Nearby neighbors included Daniel Hoover, Daniel Hoover, Jr., and David Hoover. "Indians were numerous then but never molested the settlers of this township, although as settlers arrived and rumors of Indian depredations were being committed, there were block-houses built and the neighbors were collected in them at night for mutual protection against the Indians, but every morning the settlers would disperse to their respective clearings." Capt. Mast has several letters quoted on these pages of Beers book. It is most interesting to look up. Items in ( ) are quoted from other sources: Mrs. McIntosh and "Beside the Stillwater" articles published in "The Independent". (C-270g)
Another accounting of this same story comes from his grandson, Wesley J. Mast, in a letter he wrote at age 85 on Sep. 3, 1910 to Mr. C. Z. Mast. "David Mast, his two brothers, John and Jacob, seven sisters and their husbands came here in the early part of March 1802. They had left their homes in North Carolina in 1801 and had spent the winter in Ridgeville, Ohio north of Lebanon, Ohio. The sisters were Nancy, Elizabeth, Hannah, Mary Mollie, Catherine, Susannah. Their husbands were James Curtis who married Nancy, Daniel Hoover who married Hannah. John Waggoner who married Mollie. Henry Fouts who married Susannah. Leonard Eller who married Elizabeth and David Hoover who married Mary. Andrew Sheets who married Catherine." He lived in Montgomery Co., OH in the 1804 and 1810 tax lists. He was the grantor of land in West Wilton, Miami Co., OH in 1836, the year he died.
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