Soloman Linthicum (1796-187?) did his level best to help populate Randolph Co. and is very likely a brother to my John W. Linthicum, who died young in 1847 and left very few records in Guilford Co. having died intestate and leaving several orphans as his wife, Diana Causey predeceased him. I know John is a son of Daniel Linthicum (1770-1849) from a “memoir” found in church records dating from the time of his death. These records were apparently taken home by Soloman and kept in the family until about 3 years ago when I was very lucky to make contact with the NC family that had the records in a “shotgun” letter writing campaign. I wrote the whole thing up for the “success stories” column in our local gene clubs paper.
Most researchers think that Daniel was one of the 3 sons and 3 daughters of Richard Linthicum (ca 1745-1819) and Mary Sherwood who Richard brought to NC from MD with his Sherwood in laws around 1788 after Mary Sherwood probably had died? There is strange and strained family tradition here and also confusion in the best published works I have found as to who Richard’s parent were. Equally strange are no marriage records for Richard and Mary in MD and never even a mention of a wife for our good Methodist, Daniel Linthicum in all my research going on ten years now. I have high hopes for finding answers for at least a couple of these questions in Randolph Co.
Terry L. Linthicum
Green Valley, AZ 85614
fayrankin@juno.com
If anyone has information regarding this lineage please contact me here and I will forward the information to Terry!
Making a Case for “Shotgun Genealogy”.
In December 2004, I had returned home from a trip to Greensboro, NC with quite a few more tidbits of information about my Linthicum ancestors who had come to that area from Maryland right around the end of the Revolutionary War. Among the many copies I brought home with me were copies of area telephone books. Feeling that I had pretty much exhausted most of the sources of information available to discover more about these Linthicums that I am pretty sure are my direct ancestors, I detailed my findings and my need for more information in a long, wordy letter and launched it off to close to 50 Linthicum families in the Greater Greensboro area.
I received exactly one reply, a phone call from a widow of a Linthicum. A mention that I had made of “my” John W. Linthicum’s obituary from the Greensboro Patriot in 1847 which indicated that he could have had a troubled past with “spirits”, struck a chord with her as she had an old church notebook with a memoir in it for a John W. Linthicum who had turned around a troubled past and become a good church member. I asked the lady to send me a copy of the document so I could better understand what it was.
I had made previous contact with the historians of some local churches and I turned to one to help me make sense of what I had received from the lady in Greensboro. To make a long story short, the church historian put me in touch with a historian for the Methodist Church who finally concluded that the copies I had sent to him were copies of Quarterly Conference Minutes from the Guilford Circuit of the Methodist Church. His words in the e-mail to me were electrifying:
“Terry: You have led us to a great discovery. The Guilford Circuit Quarterly Conference Record book which we have a copy of from 1832-65 has some notable gaps. The pastor noted in that record book that there are missing records from the meetings of the Quarterly Conference from 1847 and 1848 and YOUR COPIES ARE FROM THAT MISSING PERIOD!!!!!!!!!!! This is a truly great find because we never find any pre-Civil War Methodist Church records anymore”
The historical significance of the book to the church was only icing on the cake for me and my benefactor provided a copy to the church historian. More importantly to me, there was information in that memoir that probably exists in no other place: the memoir indicated the birth and death dates of John W. Linthicum and indicates that his father was Daniel Linthicum. I hope that someday this information that came to me by almost pure serendipity will help me to positively identify these men as my 3 and 4th Great Grandfathers.
Linthicum Family References in the Guilford Circuit Record Book.
This Guilford Circuit was the result of a division over slavery within the original Guilford Circuit of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South (MECS) of the North Carolina Conference in 1846. Those who pulled out of the MECS formed the Guilford Circuit of the “Union Methodist Church.”
In December 1846 this group assumed the name and adopted the discipline of the Wesleyan Methodist Church. In August 1858 this group pulled out of the Wesleyan Methodists and adopted the Constitution of the United Christian Church.
Abstracts by Michael Perdue, Wentworth, NC in May 2006
The dates cited are dates of the meetings of the circuit quarterly conference:
7-11-1846- Quarterly Conference of the Guilford Circuit of “Union Methodists”. John W. Linthicum is listed as exhorter.
9-19-1846- John W. Linthicum and Daniel Linthicum listed as exhorters and John as Secretary to the Quarterly Conference.
1-2-1847- John W. Linthicum is listed as an “unstationed preacher.”
4-10-1847- John W. Linthicum applied for and obtained a renewal of his preaching license. Daniel Linthicum applied for and obtained a renewal of exhorting license.
6-19,20-1847- Committee appointed to draft memoir of John W. Linthicum, deceased.
3-18-1848- Memoir appears in the minutes of the Quarterly Conference:
John W. Linthicum was born the 19th day of August 1801 of pious parents and was early taught the principles of the Christian Religion his father Daniel Linthicum being an exhorter for several years in the Methodist E(piscopal) Church, he had not the means furnished him of acquiring an education as would have been desirable from the fact that his parents were poor but being a quick turn of mind and capacious intellect succeeded in getting what was then called a tolerable English Education he was always a strong advocate of Antislavery sentiments he served the Hatters trade and then his occupation confined him mainly to the town of Greensboro, Guilford County, NC not far distant from the place of his birth being thus situated where vice was common and an evil influence surrounding him almost constantly he formed associations which led to dissipation he commenced forming a strong bias against religion and became addicted to an intemperate use of intoxicating liquors and under their poisonous influence almost gave himself up to infidelity and thus continued for years almost beyond the hope of his pious parents and friends on one occasion his pious Aunt interrogated him on the subject of religion when he told her he did not want it but the Washingtonian Temperance Society was started and a society formed in Greensboro and at the earnest solicitations of friends he was prevailed upon to give his name and though he was partly intoxicated at the time yet such was his integrity that he never afterward swerved from pledge but became an efficient lecturer. In the great temperance cause in the latter end of the Summer of 1842 he made a profession of religion and joined the Methodist E. Church and continued a faithful member of the same for some years acting as class leader and exhorter as much to the satisfaction of all who knew him until the Division of that church into North and South on account of slavery after which he with the writer and several others of the Brethren who were anti-slavery in sentiment withdrew from the communion of the church and organized ourselves into what we called the Methodist Union Church that was done in 1846 and in the following September the quarterly conference acting under the authority of the above organization licensed him to preach which he continued to do as long as he lived not long however after he was licensed until we obtained information of the Wesleyan Methodist Connexion of America and appointed a general convention to consider upon the propriety of connecting ourselves with that body of Christians which was held on the 12 of December 1846 when we assumed the name and attached ourselves to that church. Brother Linthicum labored in the Wesleyan Methodist Connexion faithfully and successfully up to his last illness which terminated his earthly existence on the 3 day of September 1849. He left the shores of mortality, left several children to mourn his loss, his wife having gone before him to the sprit land; also numerous friends to lament his loss but we rejoyce in the belief that our loss is his infinite gain we trust that he has exchanged this earth with all its sorrows for Heaven this vale of tears for a crown of glory bright, his warfare is over, he has gained his laurels no doubt.
Daniel Wilson
John Sherwood
(Comity) [Committee]
Solomon J. Linthicum is appointed steward. Christopher Linthicum is licensed to exhort.
5-29-1848- Solomon Linthicum is a class leader and steward.
10-21-1848- Daniel and Christopher Linthicum are exhorters. Solomon Linthicum is a steward. Daniel Linthicum’s license as an exhorter renewed.
4-7-1848- Solomon Linthicum is a class leader
8-13-1849- Christopher Linthicum is an exhorter
11-10-1849- Solomon Linthicum is steward
8-12-1850- Solomon Linthicum listed under class leaders, exhorters and trustees.
8-1-1851- Solomon Linthicum is listed as a steward.
1-24-1852- Solomon Linthicum listed as class leader.
4-24-1852- Solomon Linthicum obtained license to exhorter.
7-17- 1852 – Solomon Linthicum, exhorter- renews license to exhort.
8-13-1853, 8-22-1854 and 8-4/6-1855- Solomon Linthicum’s exhorter’s license renewed.
11-3,4-1855- Solomon Linthicum’s license to exhort is dropped at his request.
10-2-1858- Solomon Linthicum is listed as a representative from Zion Church in Randolph County, NC.