Chapter Four -- The Second Generation, South

JOHN₁ CASEBOLT (1746? - 1825?)

As was indicated in the previous chapter, we have reason to believe that John was Thomas₀ Casebolt's eldest surviving son, born and raised in Baltimore County, Maryland in the rural area northwest of the town of Baltimore.

Assuming that he was at least 21 when he and his mother, Sarah_0.1 sold Pleasant Valley in 1767, John must have been born in 1746 or earlier. Thomas₀ bought Casebolt's Delight in early 1743. It is conceivable that, now having his own property, he married in 1744 or 1745 and that John was the first issue in 1745 or 1746.

By 1774, when he was about 28 and seven years after the sale of his father's land, John had arrived in what is now Pocahontas County, West Virginia. Sometime after the sale, he must have made his way west to the valley of the Shenandoah in Virginia, which was the most popular route to the Western frontier which then was what is now West Virginia, Tennessee and Kentucky. His most direct route would have been to follow the Potapsco River, near which he had lived, west to present-day Frederick, Maryland; thence south to the Potomac to pass through the Blueridge Mountains into the Valley of Virginia where the Shenandoah runs from the southwest. The distance would have been about 60 miles.

The journey south up the Valley to Staunton, Virginia, which as recently as 1770 had been the county seat for almost everywhere west of the Alleghenies! would have been another 100+ miles; across the Valley and

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CASEBOLT -- An American Family         Copyright 1992 - RAK

Ch.4 - Second Generation, South                    Page 4-1

Last Revised: 6 September 1992