The Resides Family
The Resides Family: Early Centre County Scots-Irish and Adventist Pioneers
— Justin K. Houser
The Resides family, several members of which were prominent in the early Adventist/Messiah’s Church movement in Centre County, have been a presence here for more than two hundred years. The earliest traces of the family appear to be in Ayrshire, Scotland, where the name Raeside / Raysyde / Raside / Raesid / Resyd / Ryside, among other spellings, appears at the end of the 17th century in the registers of Presbyterian parishes in Kilwinning, Stewarton, Dalry, Kilbirnie, Fenwick, and Irvine, all of which were southwest of Glasgow near the Firth of Clyde, and to the northwest of County Antrim, Northern Ireland. These communities were only a few miles distant from each other, as shown on the below map.
Scots and English borderers had been settling in Northern Ireland, known as the province of Ulster, en masse since the early 1600s when King James I of England, also known as King James VI of Scotland, completed the conquest of Ireland and gave rights to a number of “undertakers” to “plant” Protestant settlers in the region. These borderers, also called “reevers,” lived along the area where England and Scotland joins, which was a lawless area at the time. They were fiercely independent and defensive by nature, living as they did in an area of constant struggle for domination by the thrones of England and Scotland and their associated nobility. They were generally Presbyterian by faith, which in Scotland had become the Established Church in 1560, but which, across the border in England, was a barely tolerated “dissenting” faith. Although many borderers promptly relocated to the plantations in Ulster, considerable unrest upended many of the settlements by mid-century. The victory of the Protestant forces of William of Orange at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690, however, as well as a great famine in Scotland from 1695 to 1698, pushed many more borderers to settle in Ulster in the late 17th and early 18th centuries. Among these migrants were very likely members of Raeside family from Ayrshire, Scotland.
Early Irish ancestors are notoriously difficult to research due to a massive fire in Dublin during the Irish Revolution in 1922 which destroyed many primary sources. Nevertheless, many fragmentary and even complete early sources remain and, with time, are becoming better indexed and digitized. From what is available we have thus far gleaned the following pertinent information: A “James Ridside” was listed as a Protestant householder in Drummaul, County Antrim, in 1740. The last will and testament of John Reside of Carnmoney, County Antrim, was probated in 1741. The surname Reside appeared in the townland of Ballyhunsley in the parish of Dunluce, in 1803 and 1828. By 1860, the surname Reside existed in Ardclinis, Drummaul, and Tickmacrevan, all in County Antrim, with the highest concentration (four properties) in Drummaul. These leads indicate that the surname was quite rare in Ulster and provide tantalizing possibilities for further research. The following map shows where these communities are located in Northern Ireland, just across the Firth of Clyde from Ayrshire, Scotland.
We are on much firmer footing in tracing the first Resides immigrants to America. James Reside, also known as James Resides, was the progenitor of the family in Centre County. According to an article printed in the Keystone Gazette in 1906 about the Resides family reunion,
James Resides emigrated from Ballymona [sic, Ballymena], county Antrim, north of Ireland. After remaining in Philadelphia some time, he came to Centre county (then Mifflin) and settled along the foot of Muncy mountain north of Hunter's Park, cleared a large farm now occupied by a grandson, Philip Resides. He married a Miss McCartney, of Huntingdon Co., who, when a child used to be hid in swamps to keep the Indians from finding her.
Available records bear this story out. James Resides was born sometime between 1755 and 1760 in Ballymena, marked on the above map. When he came to North America is not definitely known. A record of indentured servants in Philadelphia shows that a Robert Reside, servant of William Finlay, was assigned on February 10, 1746, to William Plumsted of Philadelphia, merchant, for the remainder of his time, six years from August 1, 1741. This suggests that Robert Reside arrived in Philadelphia on or about August 1, 1741, and was indentured to pay for his passage. He is probably the Capt. Robert Reside listed on the South Side of Union Street in the 1790 census of Philadelphia. How he is related to James is unknown, but a connection seems likely. It seems likely that James Resides also had a sister, Rosanna, who married John McCartney, who also lived for a time in Centre County but whose family moved to Huntingdon County.
James Reside first appears in Potter Township, Mifflin (now Centre) County, on the tax assessment list of 1793 as a single freeman. His marriage to Hannah Margaret McCartney likely occurred later that year or the following year. On July 15, 1796, he purchased 193 acres in “Upper Bald Eagle Township, Mifflin County,” now along Valley View Road outside of Bellefonte, from John Turner. That same year he was a member of Capt. Joseph Miles’s “Rangers,” a local militia company. James and Hannah Margaret continued to reside on their farm in Valley View in a log cabin which existed until about fifty years ago when it burned down. This property was very remote in those days; there was no road nearer than Buffalo Run Road and the few settlers lived in isolated clearings along the side of Muncy (now Purdue) Mountain above the Buffalo Run stream. James became a citizen of the United States on August 26, 1806, at the courthouse in Bellefonte, and signed his own name on the document as “James Reside.” Hannah Margaret died some time in the 1830s, per census records, and James passed away about 1843, at which time he was well into his 80s. Their burial places are unmarked.
James and Hannah Margaret (McCartney) Reside were the parents of the following children: Mary (Resides) Shaffer (1794-1824), John Resides (c1796-?), Hannah Margaret (Resides) Brower (1797-1875), William Resides (1801-1878), James Resides (c1805-1835), Philip Resides (1806-1894), Nancy (Resides) Eckley (1808-1880), Susan Resides (c1810-1827), Sarah (Resides) Galbraith (1813-1891), and Ellen C. (Resides) Hasty (c1815-1844), my direct-line ancestor. Religious affiliations for most of the children are unclear but it appears that they may have been mostly Methodists or Baptists.
William Resides, son of James and Hannah Margaret, was the ancestor of the Resides who were members of the Advent Church and who are buried in its cemetery. He was born April 1, 1801, on his parents’ farm along Buffalo Run in what is now Benner Township, Centre County. At the age of 24, on June 16, 1825, he was married to Sarah Steere, by the Rev. James Linn, Presbyterian pastor of Bellefonte. Sarah was born March 15, 1804.
On September 17, 1833, William purchased 302 acres of land in Boggs Township from the Bank of the United States, a portion of the John Black warrant, for $755. Six and a half years later, on April 6, 1840, William and Sarah sold the land to Henry Bush for the same price, $755.
After selling their land, the Resides family continued to live in Boggs Township where they engaged in farming. It is likely that they may have rented the farm which William later purchased in 1851. During this time, Sarah (Stere) Resides, who had been a converted Christian for nearly fifteen years, embraced the doctrines of the Advent Church in 1848 following the extensive missionary efforts of Rev. J. D. Boyer, and her husband was converted at a revival later that year and already by August was involved in the organization of a camp meeting. They were among the first members of the Marsh Creek Messiah’s Church. Sarah was already ill, however, and frequently unable to attend services; she passed away on April 6, 1849, at the age of 45. Her obituary in the Advent Herald newspaper reports that in her dying days she stated that she did not think that she would recover, “and exhorted her friends to meet her in the kingdom of God.” The text from her funeral was St. Paul’s teaching on the resurrection, 1 Thess. 4:13-15. Sarah was laid to rest in one of the first graves in the Advent Cemetery. Her headstone contains a hand pointing to heaven and a quote from Job 19:26: “And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God.”
On April 11, 1851, William purchased a 119 acre tract in Boggs Township, from Andrew and Margaret Gregg, Moses and Priscilla Thompson, and James and Juliann Irvin for $477.75. The sellers were all heavily involved in the iron industry and it is likely that they had had this tract of land timbered to provide charcoal for their furnaces, and then sold the land to be used for agriculture. It appears that the property was along what is now known as Lucas Road.
By 1870, William moved in with his daughter, Sarah, in Snow Shoe, and was working on the road; they were also active in the Messiah’s Church there, being among the founding members in October 1869, and with William serving as deacon. On December 31, 1870, he made report at Quarterly Conference from the Snow Shoe congregation that “Meetings good and Regular but few in number and no Sabbath School.”
William Resides, then of Boggs Township, executed his last will and testament on January 18, 1878. He left all of his estate in equal shares to his sons John, William, and Phillip, his daughters Mary Eckley and Phebe Hazelett, the children of his daughter Sarah Rose, and his daughter Nancy Crider. William appointed his esteemed friend (and son-in-law) Jacob A. Crider and his son John Resides executors. He passed away June 24, 1878, at the age of 77, and was laid to rest beside his wife in the Advent Cemetery. His gravestone is a fitting tribute to his Adventist faith. A hand points upward to heaven and the inscription is from Job 19:25, “For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth.” His by then 90-acre landholding was sold to his son John in 1881 for $1,247.81.
William and Sarah were the parents of seven children: John Resides (1826-1887), William Resides (1830-1895), Philip Resides (1833-1907), Mary (Resides) Eckley (1835-1912), Phoebe Ellen (Resides) Hazelett (c1837-?), Sarah (Resides) Rose (c1840-?), and Nancy (Resides) Crider (1843-1923). Of these children, Philip, together with his wife Matilda (Walker) Resides (1836-1916), became leading members of the Advent Church at Marsh Creek. Philip regularly appeared in the minutes of the Quarterly Conference and provided reports on the Marsh Creek congregation. In 1870 he was part of a committee to purchase a campground. He was also a prominent member of the Bald Eagle Grange No. 151, P. of H. It appears that Mary Resides (1835-1912) and her husband Thomas Eckley (1835-1899) were also members of the Advent Church.
Justin K. Houser is an avid historian and genealogist with deep roots in Centre County. Anyone interested in sharing further information about the Resides family can contact him at jkhouser84@gmail.com