As soon as I hit the ‘Publish’ button on my previous post, I found more information about the McFARLANDs (of course!). I wanted to share with you what I found. For this post though, I’m backing up to Bart’s paternal 6th great grandparents, John and Mary (KINDER) McFARLAND, the parents of George McFARLAND who married Sarah JACK (whose family we learned about in the last post). John and Mary’s children were some of the first settlers in Missouri. Below are little bits of information I discovered about them. (Before you get started, please note that the children are not listed in their birth order.)

John McFarland, Senator from North Carolina & His Twin Sister Mary

John and Mary’s son – John – became a state Senator in North Carolina representing Buncombe County in 1808. Kudos to Mary Helen HAINES for every having found this information. It took me a lot of searching to back up what she stated. She was a stellar researcher so I didn’t doubt what she said but I can tell you that you won’t find this information in a Google search, you won’t find it at Newspapers.com, and even on Ancestry I had to dig through their card catalog and databases to find this. You can find his service listed in the History of Buncombe County, North Carolina.¹ It appears he only served one term.

John and his family did eventually come to Missouri but they were not in the first wave of McFARLANDs to arrive. They came in the second wave, arriving sometime after April of 1815. They didn’t make it as far west as the first wave of McFARLANDs.² John died in St. Genevieve County, Missouri.³

John had a twin sister, Mary, about whom I know little. I don’t know if Mary made it to Missouri or not.

George and Jacob

John and Mary’s son George – Bart’s paternal 5th great grandfather and whose family was the subject of my previous post – was the first to move his family to Missouri Territory. He and his wife, Sarah JACK (who went by Sally) moved with their family and initially settled in St. Genevieve/St. Francois Counties in Missouri, then moved to Cooper County, Missouri, then to Lafayette County, Missouri, and then to Johnson County, Missouri. Researchers believe he was responsible for encouraging the rest of the family to move west. This first group of McFARLAND emigrants (including siblings George, William, James Ray, and Anna) chose a precarious time to move to Missouri. They arrived just in time for the 1811 earthquakes along the New Madrid fault line. These were intense earthquakes estimated to be between 7.7 and 8.2 on the Richter. There were two large earthquakes that followed this one in early 1812 along with many smaller earthquakes (some say as many as 2000 in the 5-month period following the big one) along this fault line. William’s son John reminisced about the New Madrid earthquakes shortly before his death saying,

“In the winter of 1811 and 1812 the great earthquake occurred at New Madrid. The first shock was about the first of January, 1812. We were then living in a half-acre camp in the woods. The first shock was before day and the next was about daylight. It continued at intervals pretty much all the winter of that year. The family continued to reside in Cooks Settlement until the fall of 1816 when we removed to what was then called the Boonstick County, and settled about five miles south of Boonville in Cooper County, Missouri, about one half mile above where Rankins mill now stands…”⁴ George died in Johnson County, Missouri.⁵

I don’t know whether Jacob came in the first wave of McFARLANDs or the second, but I do know that once the second wave arrived, their brother George (same one as above) immediately sold out and move west to Cooper County, Missouri, and Jacob went with him. Jacob was married twice. Once in Tennessee to Elizabeth WEBB with whom he had one child. The second marriage was in North Carolina to Nancy CATHEY with whom he had six more children. Jacob died in Cooper County, Missouri.⁶

James Ray and William

James Ray also accompanied his brothers George and Jacob to Cooper County, Missouri. James arrived in New Lebanon, Cooper County, Missouri, sometime during the fall of 1819 and was one of the first settlers there.⁷ While in Cooper County, James ran for office as a Congressional Representative. He lost his election. I was unable to support this information with a newspaper article but as I said before Mary Helen HAINES’ research is solid. You can find more information about James at the Clan MacFarlane website at the link listed in the previous paragraph. Some of the McFARLAND family moved from Missouri into Texas. James was one of the ones who went to Texas. He’s said to have died in Grayson County, Texas.⁸

Like his brother George, William arrived in Missouri just in time to experience the New Madrid earthquakes. It was William’s son John who gave the description of the New Madrid earthquakes that I quoted above. In the years 1814-1817, William was appointed each year as a township Justice of the Peace in St. Michael’s Township, St. Genevieve County, Missouri.⁹ William moved west when the second wave of McFARLANDs arrived in the St. Genevieve/St. Francois County, Missouri, area. In 1818 he was living in Howard County and served as a member of the Territorial Legislature representing the southern district of Howard County. In 1819, he moved farther west with his brother George to Cooper County, Missouri. In 1819 William became the first sheriff of Cooper County, Missouri. The following year he was elected as a judge in Lamine, Cooper County, Missouri. In 1822, 1824, and 1838 he was elected to serve in the legislature representing Cooper County.¹⁰ William died in Cooper County, Missouri.¹¹

Reuben and David

Reuben was a devout Presbyterian. His friends and family called him “Old Uncle Reuben”. Reuben organized the Cumberland Presbyterian Church in the McFarland Settlement and he and his family took care of the church throughout his lifetime. He and his brother John both owned property that straddled both St. Genevieve and St. Francois Counties in Missouri. The place where all the McFARLANDs settled in St. Genevieve/St. Francois Counties was called McFarland Settlement in the early days. It was located about 7 to 8 miles southeast of the town of Farmington, Missouri. Reuben remained in St. Francois County when other members of his extended family began to push west. Reuben was described as “a natural mechanic, as well as being a good blacksmith, gunsmith, carpenter, cabinet maker, etc., and used tools of his own making. He was also a man who made friends of every one with whom he came in contact. He made a clock that kept perfect time, and the violins of his making were equal to any purchased from dealers.”¹² The McFarland Cemetery is located on what used to be Reuben’s land and various McFARLAND family members are buried there including Reuben.¹³ There was also a clay pit on Reuben’s land where they made bricks used in building the first brick houses in the McFarland Settlement area.¹⁴

David moved to Cooper County, Missouri with his brothers when they moved. He died there in 1835. I don’t know when David came to Missouri Territory but I know he was in Cooper County, Missouri, by 1830.¹⁵

Jesse and Benjamin

In regard to Jesse, I’m not sure if he came to the St. Genevieve/St. Francois County, Missouri, area with the first or second wave of McFARLANDs. He doesn’t seem to have gone farther west into Missouri with other family members. He died in St. Francois County, Missouri.¹⁶

Unlike his brothers, Benjamin didn’t move west into Missouri Territory with other family members. He lived to be 91 years old and died in Kentucky.¹⁷

Rachel, Catherine, and Anna

Their sister Rachel made it as far as Cooper County, Missouri but I don’t know much about her or her life. Their sister Catherine is a complete mystery for me. Anna, however, did come to Missouri Territory with the first wave of McFARLANDs. She was married to a man named George CATHEY. Like her brother George and other family members in the first wave, Anna would have been present for the New Madrid earthquakes. Although Anna and her family moved west, they didn’t stick with her brothers. Anna and George CATHEY moved to Pettis County, Missouri and were there in 1840 and then by 1850 they were in Cass County, Missouri.¹⁸

Mom and Dad – John & Mary

I want to circle back to the parents of all these children – John and Mary (KINDER) McFARLAND – for a minute. John served in the militia in Montgomery County, Virginia, during the Revolutionary War and his service qualifies his descendants for membership in the Daughters of the American Revolution or Sons of the American Revolution. John’s father, also named John, was too old to fight but is considered a Patriot because he gave food for the Continental Army. However, the younger John who married Mary KINDER had a brother named Joseph who was tried for treason in 1779, so apparently not everyone in the family was on the same side in that war. He came to an agreement with Virginia and avoided death for treason but he was later killed in a duel.^{19, 20}

Final Thoughts

If the McFARLANDs are your family, I encourage you to go check out Mary Helen HAINES’ work on the various websites listed below. The first Clan MacFarlane link listed in the Resource List below has photographs and maps that I don’t have permission to include in this blog post. Mary did a lot of very detailed work on this family history. I hope you find this family to be as interesting as I’ve found them to be.

Until next time,

Lisa @ Days of Our Lives blog

Resource List

1. Ancestry.com. History of Buncombe County, North Carolina [database on-line]. Provo, UT: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2005. Accessed 19 November 2024.
2. “McFarlands in Missouri.” The Home of Clan MacFarlane Worldwide. Accessed November 18, 2024. https://clanmacfarlane.org/public_html/index.php/genealogy/genealogical-histories/144-ch-4-mcfarlands-in-missouri-2.html.
3. “Clan MacFarlane Worldwide Genealogy.” The Home of Clan MacFarlane Worldwide. Accessed November 28, 2024. https://genealogy.clanmacfarlane.org/getperson.php?personID=I30026&tree=Mac1.
4. “McFarlands in Missouri.” The Home of Clan MacFarlane Worldwide. Accessed November 18, 2024. https://clanmacfarlane.org/public_html/index.php/genealogy/genealogical-histories/144-ch-4-mcfarlands-in-missouri-2.html.
5. Find a Grave. Accessed November 18, 2024. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/14656973/george-mcfarland.
6. “Clan MacFarlane Worldwide Genealogy.” The Home of Clan MacFarlane Worldwide. Accessed November 28, 2024. https://genealogy.clanmacfarlane.org/getperson.php?personID=I29575&tree=Mac1.
7. “Townships Formed.” Cooper County Historical Society. Accessed November 26, 2024. https://www.coopercountyhistoricalsociety.org/townships-formed.
8. “Fannin County, TXGenWeb, A History of Our McFarland Family.” Accessed November 18, 2024. https://sites.rootsweb.com/~txfannin/mcfarlandour.html.
9. “Clan MacFarlane Worldwide Genealogy.” The Home of Clan MacFarlane Worldwide. Accessed November 28, 2024. https://genealogy.clanmacfarlane.org/getperson.php?personID=I29522&tree=Mac1.
10. “Townships Formed.” Cooper County Historical Society. Accessed November 26, 2024. https://www.coopercountyhistoricalsociety.org/townships-formed.
11. “Clan MacFarlane Worldwide Genealogy.” The Home of Clan MacFarlane Worldwide. Accessed November 28, 2024. https://genealogy.clanmacfarlane.org/getperson.php?personID=I29522&tree=Mac1.
12. “McFarlands in Missouri.” The Home of Clan MacFarlane Worldwide. Accessed November 18, 2024. https://clanmacfarlane.org/public_html/index.php/genealogy/genealogical-histories/144-ch-4-mcfarlands-in-missouri-2.html.
13. “Clan MacFarlane Worldwide Genealogy.” The Home of Clan MacFarlane Worldwide. Accessed November 28, 2024. https://genealogy.clanmacfarlane.org/getperson.php?personID=I30555&tree=Mac1.
14. “McFarlands in Missouri.” The Home of Clan MacFarlane Worldwide. Accessed November 18, 2024. https://clanmacfarlane.org/public_html/index.php/genealogy/genealogical-histories/144-ch-4-mcfarlands-in-missouri-2.html.
15. “Clan MacFarlane Worldwide Genealogy.” The Home of Clan MacFarlane Worldwide. Accessed November 28, 2024. https://genealogy.clanmacfarlane.org/getperson.php?personID=I30555&tree=Mac1.
16. “Clan MacFarlane Worldwide Genealogy.” The Home of Clan MacFarlane Worldwide. Accessed November 28, 2024. https://genealogy.clanmacfarlane.org/getperson.php?personID=I29482&tree=Mac1.
17. “Clan MacFarlane Worldwide Genealogy.” The Home of Clan MacFarlane Worldwide. Accessed November 28, 2024. https://genealogy.clanmacfarlane.org/getperson.php?personID=I29618&tree=Mac1
18. “McFarlands in Missouri.” The Home of Clan MacFarlane Worldwide. Accessed November 18, 2024. https://clanmacfarlane.org/public_html/index.php/genealogy/genealogical-histories/144-ch-4-mcfarlands-in-missouri-2.html.
19. “Fannin County, TXGenWeb, A History of Our McFarland Family.” Accessed November 18, 2024. https://sites.rootsweb.com/~txfannin/mcfarlandour.html.
20. “A History of Our McFarland Family – Part 2.” Fannin County, Texas, USGenWeb. https://www.txfannin.org/family-page/038/mcfarlandafamilyahistory.