James Reuben Land

by Myrtle Geirk

Book written by my great-grandmother, on my maternal side, helped by her daughter, both now deceased. My g-g-grandparents James Reuben and Rebecca (Haigwood) Land, and my grandmother Martha (Maggie Land) Johnson reached Paradise Valley in October 1872 by a wagon over the Oregon Trail, then toward Indian Territory, Paradise Valley, now Moscow, Idaho. They would have been sooner but g-grandmother had to stop in Missouri for a year having a baby. Their daughter Martha Land, the little girl on the wagon train. Her daughter wrote the story Myrtle, Their family. Myrtle who wrote and published family editions for us before both passed. The story of the Lands from the first one known in the Carolinas of this family.

I have all the history of the journey, children.... The farmers there before them helped get settled. The book says they lived 5 miles west of the town of Moscow.... February 13, 1873 Rebbecca Rossetta Land born there and Linza Leroy Land born December 11, 1876. The others born before the trip. G-G grandpa, I believe helped build the first Baptist Church. Both G-G grandparents went to Ione, Oregon when old, and died there. The other family of Lands split from the wagons going to Oregon. Have another book about Mattie when she married a Johnson. I know there are relations under other names after the women married.

James father and mother Ananias Land (Some say a reverend) and Nancy Kilby, in the 1800s in the N Carolina. Most of this histoMAP0000.jpgry on Gen. sites by Cousin Curtis Siver.

Here are some names g-grandma remembered from Paradise Valley and the new Moscow. Also supposed to be a community once named Johnson after my g-g-grandparents Christopher Campbell Johnson SR.

Contributed by Jacquelyne Thornton

---