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Excerpts from Allegheny Passage: The South Branch Settlement
– a history of PA, Emmert Bigginger
The Eyman (Iman, Inman) Family
The Eyman family has been referred to on several occasions, and a brief treatment
here will suffice. The family was of Swiss origins and of Mennonite faith
in the Seventeenth Century. On the South Branch, many of them were Brethren.
Some Eymans lived in Lampeter Twp., in Lancaster C., PA. Land grant records
for Hardy County show Christian Eyman purchasing land in 1790 and again in
1791, a total of 595 acres. Christopher Eyman purchased 30 acres in 1793.
The name of Christian Iman appears in 1788 on the Hardy County Tax rolls.
Christian Eyman settled about three and a half miles south of Petersurg near
a place now called Imans Run, and he was a neighbor of the Landes, Deterick
and Judy families.
A possible ancestor is Christian Eyman born in 1701. He married a Garber.
The family of Elder John Garber of Flat Rock Church in Shenandoah County,
Va., had close connections with the Landeses and Eymans of South Mill Creek,
and this suggests ancient connections among their respective families.
The children of Christian Eyman, as far as is known, were Jacob, born 1725,
Barbara (1727), Fronika (1729), Christian (1736), and Katherine (1742) (C.
C. Eyman papers) In Hardy County, the Eymans intermarried with the Hyers,
Stuckeys, Whetstones, Peacocks, Powers, Petersons and Lundes families. Each
of these families had units which belonged to the South Branch congregation.
Peter Eyman, born Aug. 6, 1762, married Hanna Whetstone of Hardy County.
They migrated in 1810 from Hardy CO., W. Va to Fayette Co., Oh., where he
is mentioned in the History of Fayette County, by D. S. Dills (1881) as being
settled on Whetstone Run and as being German Baptist. In the Lea Kersting
papers, he is described as "an Elder in the Dunker Church." He died
in 1844 and Hanna died in 1842. His son, Peter, also a Brethren minister,
settled in Ross C., Ill and then moved to Carroll Co., Indiana. He later advocated
variant practices in the church which were rejected by Annual Conference.
He then organized the "New Dunkers" (Brethern Encyclopedia, 463-464).
Abraham Eyman, born in 1767, said to be the son of Abraham who immigrated
to this country at the age of 14, married Susannnah Whetstone of Hardy County,
W. Va. They moved in 1797 with their two sons to what is now Monroe Co., Ill.
In 1810, they moved to St. Clair County. He was a blacksmith. They had a total
of twelve children, and were described in the County Portrait and Biographical
Record as a "Dunkard" family (271) (The information concerning Peter
and Abraham Eyman was generously shared by Mrs. Donald Taylor of Alexandria
Va.).
Jacob and Barbara Eyman moved to Westmoreland Co., PA. On June 14, 1809,
they signed papers releasing their 131 acres of land in Hardy Co., W. Va.,
to Dunker, John Tetrice (Deterick) who is believed to have moved from Washington
Co., Md. And to have been a son of John Tiler, one of the ministers of the
Conococheague Church in 1770.
Nancy Eyman married Rudolph Hyer, born 1768. Susan Iman, born in 1808, daughter
of Robert and Susan Iman (Eyman) of Pendleton Co. W. Va., married Dunker Hiram
High. They were buried in the Pince Church Cemetery in Hampshire County, near
Purgittsville. The Pine Church, one of the oldest in Hampshire County, was
a meeting place of the Dunkers from around 1814.
Most Eymans moved west, but Jacob and Emanuel, sons of Christian, remained
in Hardy County. Emanuel stayed on Iman's Run, learned English at age 22 and
became a teacher, physician and minister, though not Brethren.
George Robinson, Jr., of Washington Court House,
Ohio, commenting on Jesse Eyman, who died over sixty years ago, said "his
family had been active in the church (Dunker) here and back in West Virginia.
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