Tonight I decided to put together a few maps to show how my Leeper family migrated across the country.

The Leeper family came from Ireland probably around 1740 and first settled in York County, Pennsylvania in Chanceford Township.

Sometime before his marriage in 1773 my 6th great grandfather Samuel Leeper migrated to Eldersville. He most likely made the trip through Cumberland, Virginia so is the southern route above.

At the time Eldersville would have been in Virginia. The border was not yet set and later Eldersville would become part of Washington County, Pennsylvania.

In about 1806 James the son of Samuel migrated on to Osnaburg Township, Ohio. This is near where East Canton is today. James died there in 1823.

My 4th great grandfather Absalom Leeper migrated on to near Phillipsburg, Ohio before 1823 as he was there when he married. Absalom was born in Eldersville, Pennsylvania in 1798 so this was his second move.

Absalom did not stay long in Phillipsburg as he moved west and was near Trenton, Iowa in 1836 shortly after the area was open for settlement. He actually moved to Wisconsin Territory as the Iowa Territory was not in existence until 1838.

In the fall of 1836 Absalom preached in the home of Isaac Briggs which was the start of the Pleasant Hill Church of Christ south of Washington, Iowa. Absalom preached for Pleasant Hill Church of Christ for many years. The Pleasant Hill church is still active today as the Pleasant Hill Christian Church.

Absalom passed away in 1896 after having lived in the Trenton area for 60 years.

His children scattered across Iowa, but I will have to do more research before writing a post about them.

Here is the entire migration path of the Leeper Family. Putting together these maps has helped me better understand how this branch of my family ended up in Iowa.

I created a similar post for my Rowe family in my post A Virtual Hike Idea.

I need to do this for more branches of my family. Which one will be next?

Steven