Friends of Humanity
Some time ago, I wrote about my five-times great-grandfather Thomas Longley, who moved his family from New York City down the Ohio River to Kentucky in 1788. Thomas was a Baptist. I don’t know if he was raised in the denomination or converted at some point, but I know he attended the First Baptist Church of New York City, where he served as a deacon from 1787 until his departure to Kentucky (Parkinson 1846). Thomas continued to practice his Baptist faith in Kentucky, joining the Mays Lick Baptist Church as one of its earliest members (Goins 1980).
Down the Ohio River
In July 2017, my parents and I went on a cruise down the Ohio River from Pittsburgh to St. Louis, near where the Ohio meets the Mississippi…What I didn't realize was that, in making this journey from Pittsburgh down the Ohio River, I was actually replicating—although in a considerably different style—a trip made by the family of my five times great-grandfather, Thomas Longley.