Fellow Family
in America 1700 - 1900

© Cynthia Joyner 2005 (Click HERE before copying)

Version 6.0: 08/16/2005

◄Robert & Rachell Fellow (Gen 4)                                       Generation 5                                             John & Ann Fellow (Gen 6)►

Wayne Co, North Carolina to Indiana

John & Abigail (Coleman) Fellow [before 1864]                       Photo courtesy of Joyce Overman Bowman

John Fellow was born in 1793 in North Carolina. He married Abigail Coleman born in 1809
in North Carolina, daughter of Elijah Coleman & Mary (Parker) Coleman.
John & Abigail were married at the Contentenea Quaker Meeting House in 1827 in North Carolina.

John Fellow was part of a formal expedition by the North Carolina Quaker Yearly Meeting to colonize freed slaves in Haiti in 1826. He acted as his father's agent for eight Negroes. This expedition on the Sally Ann was part of a continuing effort by the North Carolina Quakers to deal with slavery in the early 1800s. Slaves freed in North Carolina would be picked up by authorities and re-sold; Quaker meetings ended up owning slaves on paper until they could be relocated to free states, Liberia, or Haiti.

In 1832 the Fellow family decided to leave North Carolina and settle in new territory in Indiana.  They were given certificates of removal from Contentnea Monthly Meeting to go to White Water Monthly Meeting in Indiana.  This journey of about six hundred miles ended when they were received with those certificates on March 28, 1832 by White Water MM, Indiana.  The group included his father Robert Fellow, his brother Price with his family, his unmarried Fellow sisters and his brother-in-law Joshua Hall with his children. 

After being received at the White Water Meeting John and his family, his father and sisters transferred by certificate dated April 21, 1832, to New Garden MM in Indiana.

There was much forment in the Indiana meetings about the slavery question and the position that Friends should take.  John and Abigail were active in Newport MM in 1843.  This meeting was formed as an anti-slavery Meeting and on April 20, 1844 John and Abigail were dismissed from the New Garden meeting “for joining separatists”.  On Feb 21, 1846 the family transferred to another anti-slavery meeting, Cherry Grove.

They continued to help slaves on the underground railroad.   Manumission of Slaves in Wayne Co., Indiana has documents signed by John Fellow giving slaves their freedom.  During the Civil War the family’s house was attacked by Knight’s of Columbus.  A family letter tells this Civil War Stoning Story .

Indiana Land records list 

Indiana Land records linked to source 

Indiana Census records

Family Picture  Family Group Sheet

Children:

Return to Generations 1 - 4 of Fellow Family

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Cynthia Joyner  
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