Two of the signers of the Hopeful Church in Boone Co., KY in 1806 were Daniel Beemon and John Beemon. The Beemon family appears in the Hebron Church records of Culpeper Co., VA (now Madison Co.). Probably the original name was Böhme (Boehme) but the origin of the family is obscure. A Harman "Bahmer", who witnessed a deed from Matthew Smith to Jacob Barler in 1747, may have been the father of Daniel Beemon who was born about 1750-55, perhaps in Culpeper Co., as his first child appears in 1777. In civil records, the name often appears as Beemy. Note that an association with the Barler (Barlow) is present in the marriage of the later generation. There may be deeper significance to these associations than is known now.
Starting with Daniel Beemon, whose name appears in the Hebron Church constitution in 1776 as Böhme (written by another person who listed all the names), a family of nine children is shown in the records as born to Daniel and Nancy. She was associated, it would appear, with the families of Barbara Yager Clore Chelf. Barbara Yager married first Peter Clore and, when he died, second Phillip Chelf. It is a possibility that Phillip had a first family. The exact position of Nancy in this complex is uncertain but that she came from the group can hardly be doubted. Based on the Hebron records, the nine children of Daniel and Nancy (?) Beemon were:
Susannah, b. 28 Sep 1777. She married 2 Feb 1797 Daniel Barlow.
John, b. 31 Dec 1779. He married Margaret Zimmerman. John and Margaret moved to Boone Co., KY.
Joshua, b. 14 Feb 1781.
Catherine, b. 4 Feb 1783. She married Aaron Barlow on 28 April 1801.
Nancy, b. 28 Jul 1785.
Rosina Beemon, b. 27 Dec 1787.
Daniel, b. 22 Oct 1790. Moved to Boone Co., KY.
Mary, b. 13 Dec 1795.
Anna, b. 18 Jan 1799.
It appears that the sons, John, and his wife, and Daniel, moved to Boone Co. in the first wave of immigrants and were signers of the Hopeful Church constitution. It also appears that John's younger brother, Daniel, at the age of 15, moved with his brother to Boone Co. and was permitted to sign the church constitution. The father, Daniel, was still appearing in Madison Co., VA records for he sold 180 acres to Samuel Carpenter on 4 Oct 1808. But this is the last record in Madison Co. and B.C. Holtzclaw speculated that a major portion of the family may have moved to Boone Co. shortly after this time.
This short sketch on the Beemons is intended to help sort out the Beemons in the early Boone Co. records. Notes on the Beemons appeared in Beyond Germanna , vol. 4, issue 5. More work on the Boone Co. people is needed. One of the things that we have seen so far is the families which immigrated to Boone Co. were highly related. Tracing some of these relationships is important.
Did you notice the mention, a couple of issues back, of the journal or diary of Rev. Wm. Carpenter? Wouldn't it be fun to find this and bring it to life again? It may still exist. The best place to start a search would probably be in the Lutheran archives.
We gratefully acknowledge the work of John Blankenbaker who published over 2,500 Germanna History Notes via the Germanna-L@rootsweb.com email list from 1997 to 2008. We are equally thankful to George Durman (Sgt. George) for hosting the list and republishing the notes via rootsweb.com.