Biographical Sketch of the MICHENER Family (1881); Chester County, PA Contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by Candace Roth . Copyright. All Rights Reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/pafiles.htm ********************************************************* From THE HISTORY OF CHESTER COUNTY, by Futhey and Cope (1881); Ppg. 656-658 "MICHENER.*--The name Michener occurs on the records of Philadelphia as early as 1686. I. John and Sarah Michener appear to have been the primal American progenitors of the family. They had six children. In 1715 they removed with their family to Abington. II. William Michener, son of John and Sarah, was born 1696. He married Margery Kester. They had ten children. He was an early settler in Plumstead, Bucks Co., where he owned 400 acres of land in 1725. His widow died there 2,15,1821, aged ninety-three years. III. John Michener, son of William and Margery, was born 3,2,1721. He married Mary Hayworth. They had nine children, of whom two -- Mahlon and Arnold -- removed to and settled in Chester County, the former in New Garden, the latter near Downingtown, where their descendants may still be found. III. Mordecai Michener, son of William and Margery, was born 1,30,1723. He married Sarah, daughter of John and Elizabeth Fisher, in 1748. He retained a patrimony of his father's estate. They had ten children. In 1784 he sold his farm (130 acres) and removed to a farm in Londongrove, near West Grove meeting- house, with his wife and three unmarried children,--Mordecai, Elizabeth, and Catharine,--accompanied, about the same period, by four others, married,--John, Barak, Deborah, and Robert,--with their families. Mordecai died 9,25,1795, aged sevey-two years; Sarah died 6,6,1812, aged ninety years. 1. John was born 12,21,1750. He married Martha Longstreth. They had ten children. They removed to Bradford in 1788, and two years later to (now) Penn township near Jennersville. In 1805 the whole family removed to the State of Ohio. John died in 1837, aged eighty-six; Martha in 1815, aged fifty-nine. 2. Barak was born 3,17,1754. He married Jane Wilson. They had six children. They came to Chester County in 1784, and located near to West Grove meeting- house. In 1814 they removed to Ohio, whither their children, who were mostly married, soon followed them. Jane died in 1831, aged eighty-two years; Barak died in 1838, aged eighty-four years 3. Deborah was born 4,3,1757. She married Mordecai Balderson. They had thirteen children. On removal to Chester County they settled on a farm adjoining that now owned by Thomas M. Harvey. The family all removed to Ohio in ____. Mordecai died in 1820, aged sixty-five years; Deborah died in 1828, aged seventy-one. 4. Mordecai was born 1,28,1759. He married Alice Dunn, who had also removed from Bucks to Chester with her parents, Ralph and Anna Dunn. They had four children, of which the present writer was the baby. They retained the homestead near West Grove. Mordecai died 1,6,1854, aged ninety-five years; Alice died 8,30,1824, aged sixty-two years. 5 Elizabeth was born 3,18,1762. She married Joseph Brown, who also came from Bucks with his father, Abraham Brown. They had twelve children. Joseph retained the homestead of his father near Jennersville. Four of their children after marriage removed to Ohio. Joseph died 5,5,1851, aged eighty-eight years; Elizabeth died 7,7,1811, aged forty-nine years. 6. Robert was born 10,15,1763. He married Sarah Stradling. They had one child. They came to this county in 1795, and resided near Jennersville. In 1813 they returned to their native county. Robert died 4,4,1849, aged eighty- five years; Sarah ____. 7. Catharine was born 11,8,1766. She married William Thompson. They had eight children. They all went to ____. William died 7,19,1806, aged ____; Catharine subsequently married Eli Kennard. They had one child. The survivors of the family all went to Ohio. Catharine died 9,6,1850, aged eighty-three years. III. William, son of the above William and Margery Michener, was born 6,8,1729. He married Martha Doane. They had eleven children. Five of them obtained a residence in our county. 1. Elizabeth was born 1755(?). She married Charles Plumley. Their descendants still reside among us. Elizabeth died 1820, aged sixty-five years. 2. Joseph was born 11,19,1757. He married Anna, daughter of Ralph and Anna Dunn. He owned a farm adjoining the West Grove Meeting property. They had five children. Anna died 7,29,1796, aged thirty-eight years. He subsequently married Rebecca Good. They had four children. Joseph died 8,10,1853, aged ninety-five years; Rebecca died 8,29,1858, aged eighty-nine years. 3. Martha was born 10,15,1761. She married David Stackhouse. They removed with their family and settled in New Garden, where their son, Silas Stackhouse, now in his eighty-seventh year, and numerous other descendants, reside. David died 1,__,1853, aged ninety-four years; Martha died 10,30,1848, aged eighty-one years. 4. William was born ____. He married Ann Beans, and had five children. They lived on the Toughkenamon Vineyard farm, where some of their descendants still live. William lived to a good old age. 5. Jonathan was born ____. He married Susanna Doane. They had ten children. Their son William, now in his eighty-sixth year, is living with his daughter near Jennersville. There has for a long period been quite a number of Micheners and their descendants living in the northeastern section of the county, but I have not ascertained to which branch of the family they belong. It is worthy of notice in this connection that soon after the close of the Revolutionary war a very remarkable emigration took place from Bucks to Chester County. The emigrants appear to have been mostly Friends, and very largely from Buckingham Monthly Meeting to that of New Garden, as they were then constituted. If my notes are correct, during the ten years from 1784 to 1795 New Garden Monthly Meeting received certificates of membership for two hundred and seventy members. Of this number, one hundred and eighty-one were from Buckingham Monthly Meeting alone. About forty of them were Micheners. Two suggestions have been offered for this unusal emigration,--the hope of finding a more fertile soil, and the prosperous condition of the society of which they were members with the limits of the Western Quarterly Meeting. These may have been causes; but when I remember the terrible tragedy of the Doanes, which had very recently occurred in the immedaite vicinity, with the violent excitement, embittered feeling, and suspicion which prevailed, it looks more like a modern 'hegira' of the lovers of peace and quietness to escape the confusion and perhaps danger by which they were surrounded. In the above notes I have given the ages of the ancestral members of the family so far as known. The result is interesting. The mean age of the whole 24 persons is 78.58 years; of the 20 elder ones it is 84 years; and of 18 it is 87.11 years. * Furnished by Dr. Ezra Michener."