Sometimes we underestimate the mobility of the early generations of European settlers in what became the U.S. Causes for relocation included the lure of inexpensive or better land, avoiding oppressive governments or security threats, finding better opportunities, or avoiding legal problems. A major reason for people relocating in the late 1700s and early 1800s was simply that extended families tended to move together for support and kinship ties.
An example is a man who made his final move to Southeast Missouri was Aaron Pinson. His birth occurred in either Fairfax County, Virginia, or the area that became Orange County, North Carolina in the late 1740s, son of Aaron Pinson Sr. Aaron Jr. spent his formative years in Orange County, but in 1766, the North Carolina Assembly passed a hefty poll tax to pay for the Governor’s Palace. Backcountry settlers strongly objected. Additionally, Aaron Sr. was an early convert to the first New Light-Separate Baptist Church, which began in North Carolina in 1755. To seek greater freedom of worship, the family moved to South Carolina in about 1767. The congregation in the northwest part of South Carolina, near the Georgia border, built Raeburn’s Creek Baptist Church. Pinson land was on the Saluda River in what became the 96 District.
Aaron Sr. preached at Raeburn’s Creek meeting house and had charge of the Little-River-off-Saluda Church in 1771-72 while awaiting his ordination. The sect experienced harassment, the area was lawless, and escalating raids by Cherokee and Muskogee in 1773 caused many settlers to flee the area. This time the family crossed the mountains into the recently organized Washington District.
Aaron Jr. first appears in public records in Washington District, and either he or his father signed a petition to North Carolina asking that the region become a county. The American Revolution began at about the same time, and Aaron Jr. and at least three of his brothers and two brothers-in-law served the Patriot cause. Aaron Sr. became a justice of the peace for the district in 1778, and was minister for Cherokee Creek Baptist Church.
The family moved east to Wilkes County, North Carolina by 1782, but only remained about two years. They returned to South Carolina—most of the family to the same area they once lived, which became Laurens County, but Aaron Jr. lived on Tyger River in nearby Spartanburg County. Aaron Jr. had married either in South Carolina or in the Washington District to Elizabeth, possibly Wells. By 1790, the couple had four sons and four daughters.
Aaron Sr. died by 1800, and in 1804 and 1805 Aaron Jr. sold his Spartanburg County land. He moved to Warren County, Kentucky, in 1805, as several of his South Carolina neighbors did. The area where they lived was part of Warren County that became Allen County in 1815.
Even though he was over 70 by the early 1820s, Aaron Jr. and his family made one more move. Most of the family last appeared in Allen County in 1821, and Aaron’s son, Aaron III, purchased land in 1825 in Washington County, Missouri, near the St. Francois County line. Aaron Jr. and several of his children helped start a new Baptist Church in 1831. Providence on Big River Baptist Church included among its members two Aaron Pinsons and a Betsy Pinson. The record book lists Aaron’s death in 1832 and Elizabeth’s in 1835. In his lifetime, Aaron Pinson Jr. had lived in five (possibly six) states, made six (possibly seven) major moves, and seen the building of a new country.
