Joshua Painter, a son of John Painter (1775-1860) and his first wife Rachel (née Redd), was born about 1797 in Frederick County, Virginia, probably on the Painter family plantation near Winchester. He migrated with his family to Ohio, where in 1814 John Painter entered land in Perry Township, Richland County.

"Joshua Painter & Mary Bland of lawful age" were married on 27 August 1818 in Richland County, Ohio. James Huntsman, Esq., performed the ceremony. (James Huntsman, like John Painter, was an entryman of the county's Perry Township, and was a justice of the peace in 1818.) Two years later, Joshua Painter was enumerated in Logan County, Ohio. Mary Painter died there in 1828, and Joshua Painter remarried the following year.

"Logan County Ohio I do certify that on the sixth of August A D 1829 I did join together Joshua Painter and Lydia Lewallen in the holy State of Matrimony agreeable to the Rules and ceremony of the Methodist Episcopal church.
Benjamin Lane M G."

A Logan County headstone inscription shows the Rev. Joshua Painter's 1835 date of death. His widow Lydia Painter and John Bishop married on 23 September 1840 in Logan County.

Notes

"Ohio, County Marriages, 1789-1994," index and images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/XZXM-Z5J: accessed 14 Sep 2013), Joshua Painter and Mary Bland, 27 Aug 1818. (Richland Co., Ohio, marriages, vol. 1, p. 38.) James Huntsman was a Richland County justice of the peace in 1818. (John B. Meredith, Directory for Richland County: with important statistics and historical facts connected with the pioneer life of early settlers (Mansfield, Ohio: J. B. Meredith, 1870), p. 57.)

1820 U.S. Census, Zane Twp., Logan Co., Ohio; p. 35 (line 3), 7 Aug 1820. Painter, Joshua. The household of five persons included one female age 16 to 25, two males age 16 to 25, one male age 45 and over, one male age under 16 and under. Household of Jacob Lewallen on preceding page.

"Painter, Mary, d Aug 1828, in 28th yr (wife of Joshua Painter; fallen)" (Zane Township - Mount Moriah Cemetery Inscriptions, Genealogy and Local History in Logan County, Ohio Cemeteries, Robert Bremer, comp., 2010.) "The third church erected [in Zane Township] was that of the Methodist Episcopal, and was known as Mt. Moriah Church...There is adjoining the church a graveyard, where sleep the early members of the church. The first interment was that of Mary, wife of John [sic] Painter, early in 1828..." (History of Logan County and Ohio, W. H. Perrin and J. H. Battle, eds. (Chicago: O. L. Baskin & Co., 1880), p. 482.)

"Ohio, County Marriages, 1789-1994," index and images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/X87L-68K: accessed 14 Sep 2013), Joshua Painter and Lydia Lewallen, 6 Aug 1829. (Logan Co., Ohio.)

1830 U.S. Census, Zane Twp., Logan Co., Ohio; p. 84 (line 2), Joshua Painter.

"Painter, Joshu[a], Rev., d 9 Dec 1835, in 39th yr (of M.E. Church)." (Zane Township - Mount Moriah Cemetery Inscriptions, Genealogy and Local History in Logan County, Ohio Cemeteries, Robert Bremer, comp., 2010.)

"Joshua Painter Late of Zane Township in said [Logan] county" died intestate (without a will). "Lydia Painter widow of Joshua Painter" declined to administer her late husband's estate. Property worth $65 was set aside for the maintenance for one year of the widow and children under 15 years of age (not identified). The 10 Feb 1836 sale of Joshua Painter's property (including four books) brought $128.02½. ("Ohio, Probate Records, 1789-1996," images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-1971-31207-5228-43?cc=1992421&wc=M934-F3P:352896683: accessed 23 Sep 2013), Logan > Administration dockets 1830-1842 vol B-C > images 154 and 155 of 443.)

"Ohio, County Marriages, 1789-1994," index and images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/X87L-T9F: accessed 14 Sep 2013), John Bishop and Lydia Painter, 23 Sep 1840. (Logan Co., Ohio.)

1850 U.S. Census, District 87, Zane Twp., Logan Co., Ohio; dwelling 120, family 120, lines 38-41 and 1-7, pp. 162B-163 (printed), 13 Sep 1850.
38. John Bishop, 53, farmer ($6,713), Va.
39. Lydia -----, 42, NJ.
40. Henry -----, 19, farmer, NJ.
41. Elizabeth -----, 17, O [Ohio].
42. [blank]
1. Ruth [Bishop], 9, O.
2. Jacob -----, 7, O.
3. John -----, 5, O.
4. David -----, 2, O.
5. James -----, 10/12, O
6. Almina Painter, 16, O.
7. Jacob -----, 24, laborer, O.

Joshua Painter's parents long puzzled family researchers. Yet the 28 Aug 1862 final settlement of John Painter's estate, Richland Co., Ohio, lists the 14 children of John Painter who lived to maturity as "heirs at law," including Joshua Painter. Having first married in 1818, he is clearly too old to have been a son from his father's second, 1808 marriage. It is also clear from this list that the eldest son from the second marriage, Hamilton Painter, one of the estate administrators, was unaware that Joshua and two other sons from the first marriage were deceased.

Oral tradition among descendants of Joshua Painter's brother Jacob holds that the sons from the first marriage and their step-mother did not get along, and that Jacob's older brothers (not identified) ran away. Jacob, too, would run away, and be brought back home until he was old enough to be on his own.

"Rev. Joshua Painter, a local preacher, was born in Virginia, in 1799, and died at Mechanicsburg, [Champaign County,] Ohio, December 8, 1836. 'My mind is perfectly calm.'" (Rev. Maxwell Pierson Gaddis, Sen., Last Words and Old-Time Memories. Original and Compiled From the Most Authentic Records (New York and Pittsburgh: Phillips & Hunt / Cincinnati and Chicago: Walden & Stowe, 1880), p. 425.) Comments: Since Joshua Painter’s 1818 marriage did not need his father’s consent, he was then at least age 21; born no later than 1797. The death date reported, December 1836, is off by a year, since Joshua Painter’s property was sold at an estate auction in February 1836.



Methodist records are an obvious avenue for additional research.