1. MORDECAI⁶ BALDERSTON (JOHN⁵, JOHN⁴, BARTHOLOMEW³, TIMOTHY², RICHARD¹)^1,2 was born January 31, 1755 in Wrightstown, B. PA, and died April 21, 1820 in Short Creek, Ohio. He married DEBORAH MICHENER February 11, 1778, daughter of MORDECAI MICHENER and SARAH FISHER. She was born April 23, 1757 in Plumstead Twp, Bucks County, PA, and died October 04, 1828 in Short Creek, Ohio.

More About MORDECAI BALDERSTON:

Military service: 1782, Revolutionary Army under Captain Lanning and Captain Kester

Occupation: Bet. 1785 - 1802, Weaver

Notes for DEBORAH MICHENER:

Deborah Michener was a descendant of a prominant Quaker family. Her great grandparents, John and Mary Michener, brought their certificate from the Society of Friends from England to Philadelphia Monthly Meeting about 1686. Her grandmother Mary Kuster, the wife of William Michener, was the granddaughter of Paulus Kuster who came from the Upper Rhine to Germantown, Pennsylvania in 1687. William Michener settled in Bucks County in 1723. They had several children, among them Mordecai Michener, Deborah's father. Why Mordecai and Deborah were not married within the Society is a mystery, but it could have been a result of all of Mordecai's conflicts, or that they were married without consent of their families.

The children of Mordecai seem to have had their own problems with the Quaker precepts. In 1801 Hannah was discharged for "marrying out of unity," and in 1804, Jacob was discharged for training with the Militia. In 1817, Joseph was also discharged for marrying out of unity.

Whether life became too difficult in Bucks County or if the Balderstons just desired to make a new life farther west in 1802, Mordecai, Deborah and their children joined the westward movement and went to Belmont County, Ohio, where a relatively new Quaker community was being established. The Friends here were mainly those who had come from North Carolina and Virginia to escape the influence of slavery. Slavery had been prohibited in the Northwest Territory by Ordinance of 1787. There is no evidence that any of Mordecai's brothers or sisters made the move to Ohio with him, although other descendants did move to other parts of the country. Several members of the Michener family ultimately immigrated to Belmont County, however. At the time of his arrest in 1778, Mordecai was identified as being a weaver, the trade of his ancestors, but it seems his vocation was farming while in Ohio. The Balderstons must have owned property in Belmont County because Mordecai appears on the 1810 and 1820 county tax rolls. Mordecai and Deborah lived in Belmont County until his death in 1820. He left a will leaving most of his property to Deborah. In it he mentions his daughters Deborah Bush and Sarah Thompson and other unnamed children. The executor of the will was the father of his son Jonathan's wife, Peter Babb. (Belmont County Probate Office Vol B p. 122).

Children of MORDECAI BALDERSTON and DEBORAH MICHENER are: