This receipt, which is a printed blank filled out, is given verbatim.  Unfortunately the descendants of this man have failed to preserve anything like a regular record of the early events in his life, whereby a very interesting and useful narrative is somewhat marred.  We are unable to learn when or where he landed upon our shores, or what he did for some years afterwards.  We can only gather, that somewhere east of the mountains, in Pennsylvania, that he married a lady named Nancy Crockett; that he afterwards moved to Augusta county, Virginia, where he stayed he stayed until the spring of 1795.  It is probable that Mr. McGovern married about 1780; that he moved to Virginia in 1783.  From Kentucky he came to Adams county in the spring of 1795, and purchased 1,000 acres of land in Liberty township, where he lived and died.  The part of this land on which he settled, after became the property of Alf. Riffle.  A portion yet remains in the hands of descendants.  He reared a family of nine children, named Jane, Thomas, Betsy, Peggy, James, Polly, John, William and Robert.  Jane married Thomas Foster; moved to Kauawha Licks, where she died.  Thomas married Jane Graham; lived and died in Liberty township, on the farm now owned by his son, Thomas McGovney.  Betsy married Aaron Robuck; they lived and died in Liberty township.  Peggy married John Vance; they settled three miles north-west of West Union, where they died of cholera.  James married Elizabeth Douglass; now lives in Greene township.  Polly married Adam McGovern; settled in Liberty township, and soon died.  John married Nancy Graham; settled near Chicago, Ill., where they both died.  William never married lived in West Union, where he died in 1833, with cholera;  Robert married Sally Mason, daughter of Thomas Mason.  Thomas, the second child, who married Jane Graham, reared a family of nine children, named James, William, John, Louisa, Elizabeth, Morello, Crockett, Thomas and JAne. (Two of these children, to-wit: William and Thomas are the names that head this article.)  James married Eliza, daughter of Thomas Holmes, and lives three miles north-west of West Union; is farming.  John married Rebecca, daughter of Thomas Holmes; removed in 1860 (or 1869) to Missouri, where he is farming.  Louisa married Thomas Perry, son of Judge Perry; settled in Liberty township, where she died in 1842.  Elizabeth married Needham Perry, a son of Judge Perry.  Her husband died some years ago, and she was married a second time, to Joel Weeks.  They live in Liberty township, and farm.  Morello married James Holmes, a son of Thos. Holmes; lives three miles north of West Union, who farms.  Crockett married Sarah, daughter of Thomas Holmes.  He runs a planing mill in Manchester.  Jane married Alexander Davidson, who died in the army in 1834.  The widow lives in North Liberty.
     WILLIAM McGOVNEY, the second, in the above family, was born Sept. 24, 1813.  He married Isabella, daughter of Judge McClanahan, May 8, 1839.  They have reared a family of seven children, three sons and four daughters, to-wit: Mary Elizabeth born, 1840, married C. C. Ellis; lives in Huntington county, Ind.; farming.  Samuel T., born 1843, married Miss Wright; lives in Indiana druggist.  Louisa A., born 1845, married W. F. McDaniel; they removed to Vernon county, Missouri.  Elenora, born 1847, married George M. Fulton, who lives near North Liberty.  Mr. Fulton is engaged in farming.  Isabella, born 1849, married William Gardner, who lives in Huntington county, Ind., engaged in farming.  John M., born 1854, married Belle McKay; he lives on the old homestead engaged in farming.  Newton, born in 1857, never married.  Mr. McGovney lives on the East Fork of Eagle creek, Liberty township.  He owns a farm that was first settled about 1800, by Conrad Fester, also adjoining it, a farm settled by Judge Needham Perry, about the same time.  He now owns over 450 acres of land, which is in a high state of cultivation.

     THOMAS McGOVNEY, who is the eighth in the family, lives on the West Union and Decatur pike, four miles west of the former place.  He owns 250 acres of the original purchase made by his grandfather, James McGovney.  This property was also the homestead of his father, Thomas McGovney.  It is a pretty place, pleasantly situated, and highly cultivated.  Mr. McGovney owns 330 acres, in all.  He married Sarah McNeil, daughter of John McNeil.  They are the parents of four children, three daughters and one son.  These children are:  Cora A., born Nov. 17, 1856, died Apr. 6, 1857.  Mary Jane, born Feb. 8, 1858, married F. M. Morrison, Mar. 1, 1876, died Apr. 5, 1879, leaving a son, named Roy Elmo, who was born Jan. 8, 1879.  Margaret Isabel, born Dec. 22, 1860, died Jan. 27, 1868.  They all repose in the Kirker graveyard.  John Clinton, born July 20, 1863, living with his parents.  Of Mrs. McGovney's ancestors, we can only reach back to her great grandfather, but when, or where, he was born, whom he married or even what his christian name was we know not.  All that we can learn about him, is, that he lived in Kentucky, at an early day, had a wife, and two sons, named Joseph and John.  It was in the early settling of that State, that Mr. McNeil lived there.  Late in the fall, one season, he, and some neighbors, went a distance into the forests to hunt and kill their winter's meat.  He took with him his son, Joseph, then seven or eight years old, to ride the pack horse and take care of him, while the party were hunting.  One night as they were lying by their camp fire, they were attacked by Indians and the whole party killed - except the boy, who was unhurt.  The Indians, when they had seized him were fiercely attacked by a large dog, by which their grasp upon him was released and he sprang into the darkness of the woods, and eluded his captors, and made toward his home as well as he could.  With only his pants and shirt and a pair of socks on, accompanied by his faithful dog the little fellow made his way, through the cold and snow toward home which he reached after being out three days and nights, almost perished with cold and hunger.  On his road, he had to wade a stream that was up to his neck.  When night came on, he would seek a place beside a log or rock that would be some protection, where, with the warmth imparted by his dog, who slept with him, he was saved from perishing with the cold.  When he reached home, his feet were so badly frozen, they never regained their natural condition.  These two brothers lived in Kentucky, till they grew to manhood and married.  They came together and settled in Wayne township, Adams county, in the spring of 1800, and each raised a family of ten children.  The older of these brothers, Joseph McNeil, was the grandfather of Mrs. McGovney and one of his sons named John McNeilis her father.  This John McNeil reared a family of four children - all daughters, named, Sarah A. (now Mrs. McGovney), Mary Adaline, Nancy Jane, Susan Margaret.   This faily, including Mrs. McGovney's family, are all members of the U. P. church at Cherry Fork.  Joseph McNeil, and his oldest son, James, were both in the war of 1812.  The son who went into the army at 18, was celebrated for his fleetness of foot.  While the troops were lying at Sandusky, he had a foot race with an Indian that created some interests at the time.  Six thousand men were present to witness it, Gov. Meigs being also on hand to see it.  The spectors formed two lines, between which the parties ran.  McNeil was the winner and was presented with a cane, as a memento of the contest.  This cane, he, in after life, constantly carried with him.  Thirty-eight years after the event, he was at Ripley, O., when a steamboat arrived, and a passenger recognized McNeil with his staff, as the young man, who ran the race with an Indian at Sandusky in 1814.  In July, 1863, a bummer who appeared to be hovering around Hobson's men, who were in pursuit of Morgan, for plunder, met McNeil, who was riding a very good horse, and demanded it for the use of the army, enforcing his claim, by presenting a pistol at the old man.  McNeil immediately drew his cane for fight.  The bummer withdrew his pistol, let go the rein, and the rider went on with his horse.
Source:  Historical Sketch of Adams Co., Ohio - Publ. 1880 - Page 24

     Peter McKenzie was born Jan. 14, 1811, and in 1835, married Miss Susan Boyle, who was a native of Maryland.  They are the parents of five children, four sons and one daughter.  Two sons survive - the others are deceased.  Names of children: John  who married Rebecca Moore, in 1873.  He died Mar. 26, 1879, leaving two sons named Daniel Coleman and John Calvin.  Jane , the third child, died Oct. 7th, 1875.  She never married.  Daniel, the fourth child, married Mary Saterfield.  He died May 5, 1872, leaving three children, two sons and one daughter, named John, Wesley and Anna.  The latter is since dead.  The oldest, named Duncan, married Mary Jane Bayless, lives at Waggoner's Ripple and farms - has three children, named Laura, Elizabeth, and John Franklin.  The son is dead.  Peter, the youngest son, is not married, but lives with his parents.
Source:  Historical Sketch of Adams Co., Ohio - Publ. 1880 - Page 38