IGNATIUS
PIGMAN
Ignatius Pigman, the preacher who led many Marylander's to
Ohio County around 1800, was a Methodist Episcopalian, a denomination organized
in Maryland in 1784 (commonly referred to as the “M. E.” church), a cousin of
the current Methodist Church. Therefore, several early Ohio County
churches leaned heavily towards the Methodist beliefs. It is said that
the first Methodist Church to be organized in Ohio County was at Goshen, just
outside of Beaver Dam, in 1804. Shortly afterwards, the No Creek M. E.
and Bethel M. E. Churches were established.
Born about 1755, Pigman was handsome, a minister, an adventurer, an
opportunist, a holder of thousands of acres, and he died in poverty, the fourth
child and third son of Matthew and Mary Pigman. He was born about 1755 near
Laytonville, Frederick (now Montgomery) County, Maryland. Although he is the
most publicized of all the Pigmans, nothing is known of his first 20 years. On
19 September 1775 he received the original survey for 122 acres of Hillsborough
in Anne Arundel County, the site of the 1790 Pigman Mill. This property was patented
to his elder brother, Joshua 27 July 1795 (HR Land Office). It was during this period that Ignatius became interested in property and
mills. He and Edward Crowe built several mills in the area and one as far south
as Georgetown.
On 3 August 1777, in Anne Arundel County, Maryland, the Rev. Thomas Reed of
Rock Creek Parish married Ignatius and Susannah Lamar. She was the daughter of
John and Sarah Marshall Lamar (Sarah was the daughter of William Marshall, and
she was also married at certain times to John Pettinger, and Higginson Belt,
and was widow of John Lamar). They lived in the same area as the other Pigmans,
although Ignatius does not seem to have farmed. In 1782 he was admitted into
connection of the Methodist Church. This was the beginning of an intensive
career in the church for the next six years.
The children of Ignatius and Susannah Lamar
Pigman, all born in Montgomery County, Maryland, were:
RHODA, the first child born 25 April 1778. She
married Stephen Statler, 18 June 1797. He was born in Pennsylvania in August 1770 and
became the first sheriff of Ohio County, Kentucky. Children were: Eliza, Mattie,
Sallie, Susannah Lamar, Learner Blackman, and Ignatius Pigman. Rhoda died in 1852;
Stephen 9 June 1856; both buried in the Tatum Graveyard in Ohio County.
ANNE (AMY) was born 14 January 1781. On 13
January 1801 she married Samuel Work, who was Clerk of the Court in 1803.
He was born 25 November 1722. One child George born 12 November 1801. Samuel
died 4 March 1818, Warren County, Kentucky. Amy died 15 October 1846 Hinds County,
Mississippi.
SALLIE was born in 1784. Ignatius wrote Ato
Daniel (Lamson) Morrison, of Bardstown, "I am willing to give my daughter
Sallie, on account of my friendship for your father Isaac Morrison." They were
married 7 June 1805, in Owensboro. Sallie died 9 December 1852 in Covington,
Tennessee.
SIDNEY married John Rice on 29 June 1809 Ohio
County, Kentucky.
PHILENIA, named for her aunt, married Harrison
Taylor 6 October 1813, the son of Harrison and Jane Curlet Taylor. A
child was Dr. Pigman Taylor. Harrison died in December 1878, he and Philenia
are buried in the Taylor Cemetery near the site of Barnetts Station.
POLLY was born after 1790. She never married and
lived to an old age.
WESLEY, the only son, went to Ohio after his
father's death and his return from New Orleans. Nothing more is known of him.
The following is copied from "Ohio County, Kentucky in
the Olden Days". A series of Old Newspaper Sketches of Fragmentary
History, by Harrison D. Taylor. Originally published Louisville, 1926. Library
of Congress Catalog Card Number 74-88166
Ignatius Pigman was a Methodist preacher of widespread fame, both in Virginia
and Maryland. He was an orator, a Christian gentleman, and an energetic
business man. He came to this county and acquired titles to various lands,
returned to Maryland and sold Kentucky lands to his neighbors and friends, and
took in exchange their homes or the proceeds of their homes in Maryland. This
perhaps was done in good faith, but it resulted disastrously for some who
bought Kentucky lands. A good many persons had come to the county during the fall
season when the low flats, or bottom lands, were most lovely to the eye of the
beholder, and they bought such lands; but during the following winter and
spring their lands were almost entirely submerged in water, and they abandoned
them in despair. It was then thought that the value of the lands of the county
was in proportion to their elevation. The whole face of the country was at that
time covered with a rich, black loam-mould and a luxuriant growth of cane and
pea vines. Many of Pigman's emigrants, therefore, selected the most broken,
hilly locations. It needed only a few years' cultivation for the rains to wash
away their soil and their hopes. That fact accounted for so many abandoned
farms in the county. The men owning the bottom or oldest title finally
recovered most of their lands that had been sold. In the meantime Pigman became
insolvent, and, with his only son, removed to New Orleans, where he died in
1815.
On a review of the whole case we may perhaps justly record Ignatius Pigman as a
public benefactor. Nearly all of the early settlers he brought from Maryland
were peaceable, industrious, and moral citizens. Many of them were strictly
pious. The strict economy and unwearied industry which it required to live on
their poor lands, or to purchase the better titles to them when lost, grew into
a second nature or habit. This has been handed down from generation to
generation, and we now number among our most peaceable, orderly, and prosperous
citizens many of the descendants of those early Marylanders.
To attempt a true delineation of Mr. Pigman's character would be difficult.
Tradition represents him censured by some and highly esteemed by others. That
he stood high in the estimation of many is evident from the numerous children
that were named after him, Ignatius, Ignatius P., and Pigman still being the
given names of many of the men and boys of the county. On the other hand it is
evident that many men suffered from buying lands from him to which their titles
were defective, and others from buying land that proved poor and worthless. It
may, however, be urged that few men in that early day were judges of the better
titles, and that his own favorite son-in-law, who no doubt had choice of his
lands, selected among the poorest. That Pigman was a public-spirited man is
evident from the fact that at such an early day he built a cotton gin in
Hartford. Upon a survey of the whole case it seems that bad luck or bad
management, or both, were his only crimes. He had five daughters, all of whom
married worthy men, whose descendants rank among our most respectable citizens.
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The following is a foot note to this chapter:
No printed biography of Ignatius Pigman has been found. He was born in Virginia
or Maryland, and in 1777, while living in Montgomery County, Maryland, married
Susannah Lamar, daughter of John Lamar. "The Minutes of the First
Methodist Conference at Baltimore," a manuscript in possession of the
Baltimore Historical Society, indicate that in 1782 he was "admitted as
preacher," and served various churches in Virginia and Maryland until
1788. During that year, or shortly thereafter, he came to Kentucky in the
interest of his church. His many land transactions, in all probability, were
made primarily for the purpose of helping settle Ohio County and establish a
stronghold of followers in his denomination. He failed in the land business
chiefly for the same reason as many others of his time who suffered in
consequence of unreliable titles. He evidently did not fail in his religious
work, for tradition has it that he built one of the first churches in the
county; but to what extent he succeeded is now not definitely known.
That he was highly esteemed by most of his contemporaries is inferred from the
following tradition: Discouraged with his efforts in Ohio County and wishing to
get into a milder climate, he moved to New Orleans about 1810. He aided the
American soldiers-including the Ohio County boys in their preparation for the
city's defense against the English. Exposure resulted in pneumonia of which he
died. The Battle of New Orleans was fought on January 8, 1815, and two days
thereafter the news that peace had been declared on December 24 preceding
reached New Orleans. This same news had reached Hartford before the report of
the battle. A peace celebration was in progress in Ohio County, with the
Reverend Thomas Taylor as the chief orator, when the victory at New Orleans was
announced to the assembled crowd. With the same messenger came the report that
Ignatius Pigman had died, and the peace celebration was prolonged into a
memorial meeting in his honor.
Ignatius Pigman was the father of five daughters and one son: Rhoda (Mrs.
Stephen Statler), Anne (Mrs. Samuel Work), Sidney (Mrs. John Rice), Philena
(Mrs. Harrison Taylor-Harrison, son of Richard), Polly (died at an advanced age
unmarried), and Sallie (Mrs. Daniel Morrison), and Wesley Pigman who after the
death of his father, made Ohio state his home.
