Zebulon Collings (1745 - abt. 1850)

Born 1745 in Pennsylvania

Ancestors

Husband of Lydia (Spencer) Collings — married 1768 in Nelson, Kentucky

Husband of Elizabeth (Heady) Collings — married 22 Mar 1790 in Kentucky, USA

Descendants

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Biography

Zebulon Collings was named after his paternal Grandfather.

Zebulon is named in the DAR Patriot Index re: his father's patriotic service during the American Revolution. ^[1]

The family of William and Ann Elston Collings came from Pennsylvania to the Froman?s Creek/Cox's Creek area of Nelson County in about 1780. William and Ann were about fifty years of age and both died before 1788.

Among their children were Zebulon Collings, a well-known powder-maker, born in 1746, and his brother William Elston Collins who was about 12 years younger.

Zebulon is believed to have married Lydia Spencer in about 1768 and they lived, as his parents did, in the Nelson County area. Lydia died and in 1790 Zebulon married his second wife, Elizabeth Heady Truax. Among the six children of Zebulon Collings were three sons, Benjamin, William and Isaac. Zebulon's brother, William Elston Collings, married Phoebe Hoagland and in about 1808 they moved with a number of their grown children and several other relatives to Pigeon Roost in Scott County, Indiana Pigeon Roost was a rugged, frontier area, so named because it was a roosting place for thousands of passenger pigeons.

These birds provided the settlers with both a food supply and a source of income because they could be killed and sold in Jeffersonville. Although no Indians were living in the Pigeon Roost area when the Collings family arrived, small bands were often seen hunting in the vicinity.

With the outbreak of the War of 1812 a number of men from Pigeon Roost joined the Indiana Militia and fought with General William Henry Harrison. At that time the British were successfully holding several forts in the Northwest Territory and from these forts the Indians were launching raids on Indiana settlers. On 03 Sep 1812, a war party moved into present day Scott County and attacked the settlement of Pigeon Roost. Richard Collings, the son of William Elston Collings, was serving with Harrison?s Militia in Vincennes leaving his wife and children unprotected. They were killed that day in a skirmish that left a number of the Collings family dead and all houses but one burned to the ground. This did not deter the Collings or other settlers who eventually rebuilt their destroyed homes and lived out their lives in Pigeon Roost.

Back in Kentucky, Zebulon's son Benjamin Collings and his wife Sarah McGrew were living in the stone house on Plum Creek described in last month's column. Their youngest child, Samuel, was born here 07 Dec 1812, just four months after a number of his cousins had died at Pigeon Roost. The road near this property was the old Sheperdsville Shelbyville Road that Benjamin had helped survey in 1808, a survey made before the formation of Spencer County and the development of Taylorsville. The children of Benjamin and Sarah Collings were: Joseph, born 1789; Rachel, born 1790; Elisha, born 1791; Cassender, born 1794; Isaac, born 1796; Archibald, born 1799; Reuben, born 1801; Sarah, born 1806; Felix Ben, born 1808; and Samuel. Felix Ben studied medicine in Cincinnati where he met and married Adelia Elizabeth LePage. They returned to Spencer County where Dr. F.B. practiced medicine in the Waterford community while continuing to farm the land his parents had settled. Felix Ben's sister Sarah married Adelia's brother George LePage.

Sarah and George lived first near Waterford where they were members of Plum Creek Baptist Church. Then in about 1840 they moved their membership to Taylorsville where George was ordained a minister. He apparently had personal financial resources and made most of his income as a moneylender and investor.

Eventually Dr. Felix Ben bought out the interests of most of his brothers and sisters in their parents' property but it appears that he may have shared the house and farm with his brothers, Isaac and Elisha. Isaac was married to Mary Ann Polly Newman in 1819 and it may have been about this time that the Collings added a large frame wing to the eastside of their stone house, an addition that nearly doubled the size of the original structure.

When George McMichael bought the Collings' house in recent years only a portion of the frame addition was still standing. He managed to save a wonderful staircase complete with banisters and balusters but has to tear down the rest of the frame wing, which was badly deteriorated and could not be saved. No one living today remembers the stone house with its complete frame addition. However, the McMichaels were given a photograph taken in about 1900 in which the house appears with both kitchen wing and frame addition, the only known image of the building in its entirety.

Today the stone house has been standing for well over two hundred years. It has survived innumerable storms and the New Madrid Earthquake. But when George McMichael purchased the old Collings property this house was in desperate need of repair. Restoration has taken time and great effort, with the result that today this magnificent structure is one of the most beautiful and historically significant houses not only in Spencer County but also in the entire state.'

Name

Name: Zebulon /Collings/ ^{[2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9]}

Brashear’s Station

Footnote #10 Wm Pope Jr et al vs Thos Stansberry et al, Bullitt Circuit Court Decrees No. 68; Deposition of Isaac Froman 10 Nov 1807. • Names of the 18 or 20 men in the party described by Froman who might be among the following, all of whom were ‘resedenters’ of Brashear's Station in the spring of 1779: “…Spencer Collings and Zebulon Collings, brothers, et al…”

Footnote 13; Deposition of Patrick McGee, 29 Apr 1820, who says he resided in 1779 at "Salt River Garrison," which was located where the Town Fork (of Salt River) and Floyd's Fork meet; he also says that Isaac Froman, Zebulon Collings & Spencer Collings resided there at that time. Isaac Froman, Zebulon & Spencer Collings, however, all lived at "Brashear's Station"; and Spencer Collings, 17 Apr 1820, says he resided at "Brashear's Station" near the mouth of Floyd's Fork on the lower side of the fork in 1779, and names … Zebulon Collings & Isaac Froman et al as being hunters at the station at that time. • Collings vs McGee's Heirs, loc cit, Cf.

Footnote #38  The following list of settlers who resided at Brashear's Station … is compiled from court records in Bullitt, Jefferson, and Nelson counties: “…Spencer Collings, Wm E Collings, Thomas Collings, Zebulon Collings et al…” ^[10]

Military

Private Zebulon Collings served under Brigadier General George Rogers Clark and Captain James Rodgers in the Western Army in the 'Northwest Territory' (Ohio). He is named on a Jefferson County Militia payroll dated May 1782. General William Crawford’s catastrophic defeat at Sandusky followed a month later (04 Jun) and a Kentucky militia disaster, the Battle of Blue Licks, about one-and-one-half months after that (19 Aug). ^[11]

Virtually all able bodied men served in the Kentucky Militia throughout the early years though often informally. Zebulon and his brothers apparently built and defended Brashear’s Station and, no doubt, participated in various battles and skirmishes with the Shawnee. It is fortunate even one document remains to memorialize Zebulon’s service.

Marriage

Husband: Zebulon Collings

Wife: Elizabeth Heady

Child: @I3238@

Child: @I3239@

Child: @I3240@

Marriage Date: 22 Mar 1790

Place: Kentucky, USA ^{[12] [13] [14] [15] [16] [17]}

Sources

1. ↑ DAR Patriot Index A024580 accessed 17 Sep 2020.
2. ↑ Source: #S42 Page: Database online. Source number: 202.000; Source type: Electronic Database; Number of Pages: 1; Submitter Code: RBM. Data: Text: Record for Zebulon Collings
3. ↑ Source: #S79 Page: Database online. Source number: 202.000; Source type: Electronic Database; Number of Pages: 1; Submitter Code: RBM. Data: Text: Record for Zebulon Collings
4. ↑ Source: #S79 Page: Database online. Source number: 1119.000; Source type: Electronic Database; Number of Pages: 1; Submitter Code: WAY. Data: Text: Record for Zebulon Collings
5. ↑ Source: #S79 Page: Database online. Source number: 8391.000; Source type: Electronic Database; Number of Pages: 1; Submitter Code: JJ2. Data: Text: Record for Zebulon Collings
6. ↑ Source: #S79 Page: Database online. Source number: 7944.000; Source type: Electronic Database; Number of Pages: 1; Submitter Code: WAY. Data: Text: Record for Zebulon Collings
7. ↑ Source: #S79 Page: Database online. Source number: 2907.000; Source type: Electronic Database; Number of Pages: 1; Submitter Code: JBW. Data: Text: Record for Zebulon Collings
8. ↑ Source: #S115 Page: Database online. Data: Text: Record for Zebulon Elizabeth Collins Truax
9. ↑ Source: #S178 Page: Database online. Data: Text: Record for Zebulon Collings
10. ↑ ‘Bullitt’s Lick, the Related Saltworks and Settlements’ by Robert E McDowell; Louisville, Kentucky (a paper read before The Filson Club 07 May 1956) https://bullittcountyhistory.org/bchistory/mcdowellbullittslick.html
11. ↑ See attached image and Captain James Rodgers’ payroll May 1782 James, James Alton “George Rogers Clark Papers 1771-1784” : Trustees of the Illinois State Historical Library; Springfield, Illinois 1920 (Virginia Series) Vol IV pp 328, 405 https://archive.org/details/georgerogersclar19clar/page/405/mode/1up?view=theater
12. ↑ Source: #S115 Page: Database online. Data: Text: Record for Zebulon Elizabeth Collins
13. ↑ Source: #S42 Page: Database online. Source number: 202.000; Source type: Electronic Database; Number of Pages: 1; Submitter Code: RBM. Data: Text: Record for Zebulon Collings
14. ↑ Source: #S79 Page: Database online. Source number: 202.000; Source type: Electronic Database; Number of Pages: 1; Submitter Code: RBM. Data: Text: Record for Zebulon Collings
15. ↑ Source: #S79 Page: Database online. Source number: 2907.000; Source type: Electronic Database; Number of Pages: 1; Submitter Code: JBW. Data: Text: Record for Zebulon Collings
16. ↑ Source: #S79 Page: Database online. Source number: 1119.000; Source type: Electronic Database; Number of Pages: 1; Submitter Code: WAY. Data: Text: Record for Zebulon Collings
17. ↑ Source: #S236 Page: http://kykinfolk.com/spencer/Families/Collings.htm Data: Text: Time was: Joellen Johnston, History columnist

• Harding, Margery Heberling “George Rogers Clark and His Men, Military Records 1778-1784” : Frankfort 1981 p 168 https://www.worldcat.org/title/8233457

• Hackman Constance A Leona M Lawson and Kenneth R Scott. 1980. The Collings Richeys and the Pigeon Roost Massacre : Listing Many of the Survivor’s Descendants and Including Most of the Major Accounts of the Massacre. Indiana? Alice Rebecca Scott.

Acknowledgements

• Thank You to Ronald McKinney.