Quaker Wild Oats

Most people don't know that Daniel Boone was born a Quaker, since his Indian-fighting lifestyle wasn't consistent with the pacifistic beliefs of the Friends. The Boones were Quakers, however. Squire Boone, the father of Daniel and our distant great-grandmother Sarah Boone Wilcoxson, was born in Bradninch, Devonshire, England on December 6, 1696. He came to America as a young man and married Sarah Morgan of Berks Co., Pennsylvania, on September 23, 1720. According to some accounts, the marriage of their daughter Sarah to a non-Quaker helped prompt the Boone's decision to move away from Pennsylvania.

Sarah, Daniel's eldest sister, had fallen in love with a young man named Wilcoxen, and in 1742 married him though he was not a Quaker. She was promptly censured by the Exeter Meeting for "marrying out," as were her mother and father for allowing it, and all three expressed contrition. But Squire Boone said, "that he was in a great streight in not knowing what to do, seeing he was somewhat Sensible that they had been too Conversant before."

That Sarah and her young man had been "too Conversant" was already a community rumor and, if true, a transgression the Meeting could hardly overlook. A committee of Quaker ladies was appointed to look into the question and counting backward, "found the truth of a former suspicion vis., that Sarah Wilcoxen, daughter of Squire Boone, was with child before she was married." The ladies listened solemnly to the paper Sarah "produced to this Meeting condemning the said action," then they expelled her.

It was a trying time for Squire Boone and his wife. Exeter, a small settlement with little enough for diversion, kept few secrets. Nor was Sarah's their only disgrace. "The Boones were active for good," the Meeting book notes around this time, "but sometimes overcome with evil. Strong drink, so common, overcame one or more who had to be dealt with." Squire began thinking about leaving Pennsylvania. And though trouble with the Friends prodded him, it was not the only reason. His free spirit, his wanderlust, was at large again. He wanted to be where the forest was outside his front door.

Obviously Squire and Sarah placed their love for their daughter, their daughter's happiness and her love for John Willcockson, above their formal connection with religion. It was a difficult situation, but they seem to have put family first and rallied together to survive against oppression. The guides at the (now) Berks County, Pennsylvania, homestead of Squire Boone point out that the affair of John Willcockson and Sarah Boone was one of the events that drove the Boones from the Society of Friends. It was part of their narration in 1980 to relate that, when Squire finally made up his mind to leave Pennsylvania, he was so embittered by his neighbors' attitudes that, on the day that he left, he made a pile of all of his belongings, which wouldn't fit into the wagons, and burned them, rather than let his neighbors have them.

John and Sarah Boone Willcockson apparently accompanied her family to North Carolina, where John appears on the first known tax list that was compiled in 1759.
http://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/usgenweb/pa/chester/history/family/will0002.txt BillScroggins@classic.msn.com

The child Sarah carried when she and John Wilcoxson married was our William Butler Freeman's maternal grandfather, David Wilcoxson.

Except for the Boones and the allied Morgans, I haven't found any other Quakers in the family. We do have the Peffleys (and on Lee's side, the Troxels) who, as Swiss Dunkers, were welcomed into Pennsylvania by the Quakers, since their beliefs and style of worship were compatible.

The Peffley--Peffly--Pefley Families in America and Allied Families 1729-1938. Being a historical and genealogical record. Compiled, edited and published by May M. Frost and Earl C. Frost. 793 Eighteenth St. San Bernardino, Cal. 1938.

Nicholas and Barbara arrived at Philadelphia Aug. 19th, 1729, in company with 74 other families of Palatinates on the Ship Mortenhouse, James Coultas, Master, from Rotterdam, Holland. Nicholas took the Oath of Allegiance in the Courthouse at Philadelphia on the day he arrived.
March 2nd, 1737, Nicholas had 150 acres of land in Bethel Township, Lancaster County, (after 1785 Dauphin Co., after 1818, Lebanon Co.) Penna., at a place called the "Hole among the Hills." Here he spent the rest of his life. It is said that he was killed by Indians in 1748. Before his death ... he acquired 320 acres more in the vicinity. Purchase of the property was completed by his heirs in 1749. Nicholas Peffley was not a member of the Church of the Brethren. For some reason his wife's name is not mentioned in the land transaction referred to above, but the name "Widow Peffley" appears on the earliest assessment list that exists for Bethel Township, 1751. No further record of her has been found.

Their son Jacob was born about 1724 in Germany and died in 1786 at the family homestead near Bethel Township, Lancaster Co., Pennsylvania. I visited the farm a few years ago when the original log house was being dismantled to move. It is a beautiful location.

from Brent Rodes:

Johannes Peter Trachsel was born Lenk, Canton Bern, Switzerland 11/6/1691. Johannes died 4/16/1766 Frederick Co., MD, at 74 years of age.

He married Anna Juliana Catherina ( Trautheger ?) Frauhuger Switzerland, ca. 1721. Anna was born Canton Bern, Switzerland ca. 1703. Anna was the daughter of Johannes Frauhuger and Barbara Jaggi. Anna died 4/16/1795 Frederick Co., MD ?, at 91 years of age. Anna immigrated, 8/17/1733. Immigrated on ship "Samuel" with husband Johannes Peter Trachsel on 8/17/1733.

[His son]Christian Troxell was born Egypt, PA 3/17/1738 or 39. Christian died after 1813 Kentucky.

The Troxell-Steckel House, which is furnished in the old way and is open to visitors, was built by Christian Troxel's first cousin, the son of his father Johannes Peter's brother Johannes Nicholas. As you can imagine, with the repetition of names, it can be difficult to keep track of who's who.

John Peter Troxell built the Troxell-Steckel House in Lehigh County, Pennsylvania.

The house was built in 1756 by Johann Peter Troxell. He had been born in the Palatinate region of Germany in 1719 and emigrated to Pennsylvania in 1727. Johann Peter's father Johann bought 250 acres in Egypt, PA; Johann Peter later secured the land. Johann Peter and his first wife Anna Barbara Saeger had two children before she died. His second wife was Catherine Maria Magdalena Schreiber; the couple had three children while living in this house. The family later moved to Gwynedd Township and eventually to Frederick County, Maryland.

Interestingly enough, Grandpa Irvin Peffley discovered that Nicholas Peffley, like the Trachsels, orignated in Canton Bern, Switzerland, but in the Signau District rather than Lenk.