In 1669 LaSalle, a Frenchman, discovered the Ohio River, and consequently claimed all the territory watered by it as belonging to France.

In 1751, when Gist, an agent of the Virginians who formed the Ohio Land Company, visited the Great Miami River Valley he wrote: "The land is very rich, level, and well timbered, some of the finest meadows that can be. The grass grows to a great height on the clear fields, and the bottoms are full of white clover, wild rye, and blue grass."

In 1784 Virginia, claiming the territory northwest of the Ohio by purchase from the Indians, ceded it to the United States.

In 1792 Robert J. Skinner was born in Virginia, although the obituary from Wapakoneta gives Robert's birth date as 1788. His tombstone records his birth date as 1792. The names of his parents are unknown at the time of this writing (March 19, 2003).

"Aunt Lida's letter" that follows was found in the unpublished manuscripts of Mary Helen Morrison Haag in the Dayton and Montgomery County Public Library. As well, several of our Morrison family members in Pennsylvania and Tennessee have a photocopy of the original letter, which gives a brief history of our Skinner grandfather. Unfortunately, LCG, the author of the letter does not give the name of Robert Skinner's father. And I am still researching that line of ancestry.

We know from the letter that Robert J. Skinner's father was a student at Oxford and was pressed into British service at the beginning of the Revolutionary War. During his service the patriots captured him. Upon release at the end of the Revolutionary War he remained living in Pennsylvania and made his living as an artist painting landscapes.

The letter also lets us know that Robert J. Skinner's grandfather was an East India merchantman, member of the East India Company. And further investigation revealed that he left an inheritance to Robert J. Skinner. It was this inheritance that Robert J. Skinner was going to claim when he died tragically and unexpectedly in 1849 during the Cholera Epidemic in Dayton.

By all accounts, Robert J. Skinner had an honorable, ethical, respectable, proper and descent character and the letter's author, LCG, glowingly tells us he had "good breeding." Also LCG describes him as "intelligent" and others have described him as sharp, bright, smart, gifted and able. He socialized with people of every ranking as well as "men of affairs and high standing" in the community in which he lived and worked. We learn, too, that in his youth he developed an "appreciation of music and drama" and historians have noted that he provided a building where plays were performed and poetry was read.

Robert's excellent character together with his apprenticeship at setting type in Philadelphia would eventually lead him on down many paths. And, like our Morrison ancestors, our grandfather-ancestor Robert J. Skinner compiled an impressive record of achievement in his brief lifetime. From apprenticing as a typesetter in Philadelphia during his youth, to publisher and editor of the "The Ohio Watchman" in Dayton, to accepting a Presidential Appointment from President Andrew Jackson to serving as Ohio State Representative, LCG lets us know Robert J. Skinner "was a power in the formative stage of the State (Ohio), drafting laws for the legislature, molding opinion through his paper, and by his enthusiastic, fervent, magnetic temperament, influencing others by the energy of his own conviction, sincerity of purpose, and unblemished integrity."

"Letter written to Aunt Lida Morrison Holland (Sarah Eliza Morrison Holland) whose mother was Harriet J. Skinner who was the daughter of Robert J. Skinner and Mary Hollis.

"Your great-grandfather Skinner was a student at Oxford England, and was yachting an [in the] English Channel when he should have been at his books. He was pressed into service as a seaman on an English ship at the beginning of the Revolutionary War. His father an East India Merchantman and member of the company of that name, refused to ransom him. He was taken prisoner by an American man-of-war and carried to America. Mails were slow in those days and again his father refused to assist in his exchange, expecting the experience to steady him. He was paroled and could do nothing to make a living but to paint a landscape.

In Pennsylvania, he married a Miss Jones. He announced his marriage to his father, when peace was declared, who was angered afresh. He wrote that he could like in the bed that he had made, but if he had a son to inform, he would place such papers with the East India Company as would enable that son when twenty-one years of age, to claim and inherit his estate. Your Aunt Martha Skinner was the first-born. Her father was instructor in books and manners, forbidding all association with common children lest she be unfit for presentation to her future life in England. She was old enough to remember her father's pleasure when his son was born, Robert Jones Skinner. (Your Grandfather.) He announced his son's birth to his father and was as careful to his son's education and environment as to his daughter's.

When Robert Jones Skinner was fourteen years old his father died and Robert went to setting type in Philadelphia. His employer's wife, middle age, was fond of society; her husband was too busy to accompany her. She needed an escort and preferred a man too young to create talk. Her husband chose our grandfather for that duty because of his good breeding; his intelligence and appreciation of music and drama made him also a companion that was agreeable to the lady. They went and came in her carriage, after concert or play he was invited to take supper with the lady, her husband and often others of his employer's friends: among them, men of affairs and high standing and women of gentle birth.

The young republic was growing, her future, the law of equality, etc., etc. were discussed by ardent patriots. Your grandfather became saturated with the spirit of that age and resentful of his grandfather's treatment of his father; felt he could not live in England. In the new world that offered equal opportunities to all, he would carve his own future, and then he wished to marry. The East India Company papers were burned; it might take money to secure his claim, etc. He for the time, at least, ignored his claim, bought a printing press and took it to Dayton, Ohio, going back for his bride a year or so later.

He was a power in the formative stage of the State, drafting laws for the legislature, molding opinion through his paper, and by his enthusiastic, fervent, magnetic temperament, influencing others by the energy of his own conviction, sincerity of purpose, and speck less integrity.

He (Robert Jones Skinner) married Mary Hollis and his sister, Martha Skinner, married Joseph Hollis, so as Martha and Robert Skinner were brother and sister, and Mary and Joseph Hollis were brother and sister, their children were double first cousins. Robert and Mary Hollis Skinner had eight children: Anna Martha, Harriet Jane, James Hollis, Phoebe Eliza, Sarah Maria, Mary, Robert and Laura.

• Anna Martha died at fourteen from after effects of scarlet fever.

• Laura was born the day Anna Martha was buried.

• Sarah Maria died young.

• Laura died at seven years.

• Mary and Robert died in your father's (David Humfreville Morrison) and mother's (Harriet Jane Skinner-Morrison) house.

• The same week with their father and mother (Robert J. Skinner d. June 26, 1849 and Mary Hollis Skinner d. June 28, 1849), your little sister (Anna Marie d. June 25, 1849) and brother (Adrian Clifford d. June 28, 1849) died.

• George disappeared after the Mexican War.

• Robert Married Belinda Hussey; had a large family. He and every member of his family are dead.

• Harriet married Mr. Gest [also spelled Gist] of Philadelphia.

• Mary married Phineas Pomeroy. Now do you see how cousin Mary Pomeroy is a double cousin. She is Aunt Martha Skinner Hollis's oldest daughter.

There were no maiden ladies among the Hollis Skinners. No widow of that race ever remarried, and while there were some fast men, there was never an imprudent woman. That was one of your Aunt Martha's boasts.

Our grandfather was in a position to go to England in 1840. His visit to Dayton, at the time of his death, was to arrange his business for his old age. What he had refused to claim in his youth, he was not free to look after for the benefit of this children. He had really no time before. Your Uncle James H. Skinner went the next year to the first World's Fair in London, found the location of his Grandfather's estate upon Skinner Street. Found it covered by immense breweries, was told that millions were then involved in the displacement of incumbents, that unusual difficulties would be presented by his non-residence, etc. He gave it up. An old Englishman told my mother afterward, an unclaimed estate is held in trust by the queen. You only needed the record of your grandfather's birth, the record of his marriage and his son's birth and the road was clear. Pennsylvania kept such records in that early day. Aunt Martha Skinner Hollis was bitterly disappointed.

Your tablespoon is James and Phoebe Hollis's grandmother's. (Hollis Skinner's parents.) This is all I am able to write now." L.C.G.

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Updated 19 Sep 2008
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