"Ancestrees"

Joseph THARP ^{2 3 4}

  General Notes:

In 1785, Joseph and his father, William, witnessed a land purchase when John Heath bought 150 acres M. Cannon on Troublesome Creek. Heath and Cannon were both from Guilford, North Carolina previous to this purchase.

In 1790, Joseph lived in Guilford Co., North Carolina. (CL-429, p. 152) On Jan. 20, 1792 he purchased 200 acres of land that was partially in Guilford and partially in Rockingham Co., North Carolina. On Nov. 24, 1796, Joseph of Rowan Co. sold this 200 acres on Little Hogan Creek that was then Rockingham. By 1800, he is listed in the Rowan Co. census. That census lists him with the following household members: 40010-22010-00.

Joseph has not been found with certainty in any census record after that point. It is possible that he is the Joseph Tharp living in Fairfield Co., OH in their 1807 tax lists though not enough info on his has been found to verify this. It is likely that he is the Joseph Tharp in Tippacanoe Co., IN in the 1830, and Clinton Co., IN in the 1850 census due to the alignment of his age, his birth place and his migration pattern. In the 1830 census for instance, he is living next door to sons William, Able and Isaac. Dana Norton found that in the 1850 Clinton Co., IN census, he was 87 years old, born in Delaware. He is listed with Elsey (his wife?), age 84, born in NC and his son, Abel's family. Abel was born in NC about 1795. Next to their household lived Elsey Tharp Bush (age 26, b. Oh) and her husband Adonijah Bush. This is obviously a daughter of Joseph and Elsey. This pattern of migration and birth places would fit - as our Mary did marry in Ohio. The last census he and Elsey are in, is the 1850 Clinton Co., Indiana census. There is a possibility that his wife Elcy died shortly after 1850 and he is the Joseph Tharp who married an Elizabeth Uhler on Feb 28, 1854 in Boone Co., IN. (CL-317h, 419, 425, 547, 599, 600)

Four of his children's birth dates come from a single sheet of paper of unknown origin that recorded their births and is now housed in a folder in the North Carolina University Library, Historical Records Collection, Chapel Hill, North Carolina. He had at least one more daughter in the 1800 census records who was under age 10, who was not on this sheet. We can tell from this paper and from a birth date calculation on our Mary Tharp's cemetery stone that this Joseph is the father of our Mary. (CL-317)

There were two other Josephs in North Carolina that could be confused with our Joseph. A Joseph Tharp who was younger than ours, purchased land with Samuel Owens on 12/24/1780 on the Haw River. A slightly younger Joseph Tharp, b. abt. 1772, died in 1839 in Iredell Co., North Carolina. This is likely the Joseph whose estate was probated there in Feb.1840 and who was in the 1830 Iredell Co., NC census. The 1830 Iredell Co., NC Joseph was supposedly born between 1760 and 1770. He was living adjacent to a Hannah H. Tharpe, William Tharpe Sr & Jr. and Peter Tharpe. I actually believe this to be the Joseph who was b. abt. 1772 and had a son named Peter, but it still could be our Joseph Tharp instead. (CL-427) Joseph, b. abt. 1772, married Mary Harris on Nov. 10, 1791 in Guilford Co., NC according to Bob Tharp who provided all this researched data. There is also a Joseph in Monroe Twp., Darke Co., Ohio in 1840 that needs to be checked. ⁴

Joseph married Elcy CALHOUN, daughter of James Irvin CALHOUN and Jenny JOHNSTON, on 11/10/1791 in , Guilford, VA.¹ (Elcy CALHOUN was born about 1766 in , , NC and died after 1850 in , Clinton, IN.)