The Eastburn Homestead -- Part 2

The Eastburn Homestead today

In the first post about the Eastburn Homestead, we looked at the early years of the Eastburn family in
Mill Creek Hundred, beginning with David Eastburn's purchase of about 150 acres of land near Milltown in 1804. Twelve years later, along with his brother-in-law Abel Jeanes, Eastburn purchased about 200 acres near Pleasant Hill, south of Corner Ketch. The property basically sat on the south side of Paper Mill Road, between Polly Drummond Hill Road and Upper Pike Creek Road. In addition to having a brick house, an inactive grist mill, and various other structures, the property contained several working limestone quarries and lime kilns.

Two years later, in 1818, the men divided their joint property between them nearly in half, with Eastburn taking the northwestern portion and Jeanes the southeastern. Eastburn's part was slightly larger, but Jeanes' section included what's now the Eastburn-Jeanes Lime Kiln District and seemingly all the existing structures at the time. The real question for us is whether the Eastburn House was there when the tract was purchased, and when the house was built. If "probably in the early 1800's" is good enough for you, feel free to skip the next section. If not, read on and be prepared to be frustrated.

As far as I know (and this includes talking to the new current owners), there's nothing definitive in or on the house that gives an exact date. The county lists it as 1810, but the older picture further down in the post had a date attached to it of 1813 (for the house, not the photo). Both of these dates would slightly predate the arrival of the Eastburns, and both (or even an earlier one, which we'll get to later) are certainly plausible. If new information arises to corroborate one of these dates I'll be perfectly willing to accept it, but when I read the evidence, my money (disclosure -- I have very little money), is on a slightly later date.

The Family of David and Elizabeth Eastburn

David Eastburn, Jr.

I'll start this out by saying that this is a post that was never meant to be, but I'm glad it is, as it truly does
have a reason for being. In researching the recent posts about the Eastburn Family Homestead, I found it was important to understand the Eastburn family themselves. So to that end, I decided to write a quick rundown on the first generation of Eastburn children in MCH, the offspring of David and Elizabeth Eastburn. Have you ever tried to write a "quick rundown" on 14 people? In case you haven't, I'll tell you it doesn't work, especially when the people are as well documented as the Eastburns. And so...this post.

The Eastburns are a remarkable group for several reasons, but the most important one for us is the impact they had on the area. Although, as you would expect with so many children, some of them moved away, many remained within a short distance of the home farm. This would have been especially important because David Eastburn, Sr. died in June 1824, when the oldest child was 22 years old and the youngest only 6 days old. Elizabeth Jeanes Eastburn (who never remarried) was certainly a very strong woman.

Another remarkable thing about that first generation of MCH Eastburns was their health. The child mortality rate in the US in 1815 was about 46%. That means that 46% of children born then did not make it to their fifth birthday. (When people long for "The Good Old Days", just remember facts like that.) The Eastburns, however, went fourteen for fourteen. All the children survived childhood, and most lived into what we would consider old age today. I've never seen anything that mentions it, but I strongly feel that the home of the widowed Elizabeth was always a busy place, with family members constantly visiting. The Eastburns always seemed like a strong, close family. 

The Eastburn Homestead -- Part 1

The Eastburn Homestead

There have certainly been a number of prominent families in Mill Creek Hundred over the past several hundred years, but few have had quite the reach and staying power to match the Eastburns. We've come across the Eastburns many times before in the blog, spanning several generations of the family and focusing on sites all over the hundred. However, one site that's only been mentioned in passing and never fully investigated here is the one that would have been the most dear to the family -- the original Eastburn Homestead near Pleasant Hill, south of Corner Ketch. Although the family was large and by necessity spread out, this home remained an important family base for nearly a century.

One catch, though, is that this wasn't really the "original" Eastburn home. It wasn't even their first home in Mill Creek Hundred. There were several purchases prior to the move to Pleasant Hill. When I started finding and trying make sense of the deeds, my first reaction was just to give up and go get a drink instead (although to be fair, that's my first reaction to a lot of things these days). However, after taking a bit of time to sort them all out I think I now basically understand what happened, even if some of the details still elude me. What I can tell you for sure about the family is that Quakers David Eastburn and Elizabeth Jeanes hailed from Bucks County, Pennsylvania, and were married at the Gwynedd Meeting in Montgomery County in December 1801.

In December 1804, David Eastburn bought at auction two lots in Mill Creek Hundred, totaling about 150 acres. These had formerly been the lands of Thomas Springer and were located nowhere near Pleasant Hill and the area the Eastburn clan would soon make their own. This farm was at Milltown, and I believe sat on the west side of Mill Creek, encompassing what would much later become the Lindell Farm. It did not include the Reynolds-Lindell House or the mill, which were then owned by Andrew Reynolds. The tract does come west from Mill Creek and share borders with Reynolds, Rev. William McKennan, John Ball, and the heirs of Simon Paulson, and also excludes a strip for Reynolds' mill race. Beyond that I can't make much sense of the exact metes and bounds, but if anyone wants to take a crack at it I'll be happy to send you the deed.