Long Live The Dyes!

According to Silas Thorla, Furmin Dye (the 20th child of Ezekiel Dye) told him that a "Tom" Dye settled in Parkersburg, West Virginia. "He was a "wild one", something like a typical cowboy. He would hit the settlement with a whoop and a hurrah riding an Indian pony. Long live the Dyes!"

The relationships that are evolving in this family history are summarized in the following combination of text and figures. This is truly a work in progess and I take this opportunity to thank those that have shared information with me.

Middlesex County, New Jerseyis the starting point for the following analyses. Emphasis is on the movement of the children of John Laurens Dey from Middlesex County, New Jersey, located by the red dot on the map below.


The focal point, for family history reasons, is Ezekiel Dye who migrated to Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania (just south of Pittsburgh) and then to Renrock, Ohio.

The figure below is an abreviated family tree starting with John Laurens Dey of Middlesex County, New Jersey, showing the first four generations of some of his descendants. The emphasis was on selecting those family members who migrated from Middlesex County, New Jersey.

This may help keep the relationships between these individuals and the areas they migrated to in perspective. As noted previously, there were a number of migration paths followed by these dyes and an understanding of the history of this family requires the chronology of their movements as fundamental background. In the following figure the migration paths are shown by bold lines. The Dyes that migrated are numbered and the migration paths are numbered and dated accordingly. Clearly, there must be a more systematic way to chart the migrations.

Migration Times and Paths

  1. ~1776 : John Dye (2) and Amos Dye (4) from Middlesex County, New Jersey to Prince William County, Virginia

  2. ~1782 : Vincent Dye (1) from Middlesex County, New Jersey to Prince William County, Virginia

  3. ~1789 : Ezekiel Dye (3) from Middlesex County, New Jersey to Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania

  4. ~1805 : John Dye (2) and John Dye (9) from Prince William County, Virginia to Lawrence Township, Washington County, Ohio

  5. ~1806 : Ezekiel Dye (3) from Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania to Morgan County, Ohio (Renrock)

  6. ~1806 : Thomas Dye (8), Ruben Dye (7), and John Dye (10) and from Prince William County, West Virginia to Wood County, West Virginia

  7. ~ 1808 : John and William Dye, sons of William Dye to Mason County, Kentucky

  8. ~1819 : Thomas Dye (8) from Wood County, West Virginia to Meigs County, Ohio

  9. 1820 - 1850 : Intermarriage between Ezekiel Dye's family (children and grandchildren including Lucinda Dye, Anna Isabella Dye, Ezekiel Dye, and Amos Dye) and his brother John Dye's family (children and grandchildren including Samuel Dye, John W. Dye, Elizabrth,and Sophia Dye).

  10. 1843 : Henry Dye (11) from Wood County, West Virginia to Vinton County, Ohio

  11. ?1858 : Thomas Dye (8) from Meigs County, Ohio to Lawrence Townshop, Washington County, Ohio.

    The red dot (4) marks the location of Moss Run in Washington County, Ohio where John Dye settled from 1803-1807 . 1 marks the location of West Newton, Pennsylvania where Ezekiel Dye lived for several years prior to his departure for 2 - Renrock in the time period 1803-1806. 3 marks the location south of Antioch, Monroe County, Ohio, settled by Daniel Dye and his sones in 1813. 5 marks the location of Dyesville settled by Thomas Dye in 1819. 6 marks Hamden, Vinton County, Ohio where Henry Dye moved in 1837.

    At this scale, one inch (approximately the distance between Stubenville, Ohio and Wheeling, West Virginia is about 20 miles. Thus, John and Ezekiel's families were about 20 miles apart. John and Daniel's families were about 15 miles apart. Dyesville is about 30 miles from Renrock and about 5 miles from Hamden. Although not meant to be precise, these measures give the reader a sense of the distance separating these families.