Puritans, Patriots and Pioneers: An Elwell Family History

Like leaves in the wind, the lives of seven generations of the Elwell Family were driven by early American history. A short fourteen years after the Mayflower, Robert Elwell landed at the Massachusetts Bay Colony and prospered in one of the first settlements in the New World. His children fought in the first Indian War and endured the Salem Witch Trials. A new frontier in West Jersey became a refuge; and, two generations later, the starting point for a westward migration that lasted for over a century. Patriot Thomas Elwell sought his fortune on the Allegheny frontier and sharpened his skills as a soldier in Dunmore’s War. He survived eight years of Revolutionary War service including front line combat in key northern battles, Valley Forge and the final southern campaign leading to Yorktown. Thomas moved west to Cumberland to welcome troops mustering to put down the Whiskey Rebellion before homesteading as an early settler in Ohio. His children pushed westward to build lives in the new Northwest Territory.