The branch of the Hatfield family represented in this collection is descended from Nathaniel Hatfield. Nathaniel Hatfield was born in Delaware around 1762; later, he would marry Nancy Judy in Virginia. The Hatfields came to Clark County, Ohio, in 1808, settling in Springfield Township (just northeast of Pitchin). Nathaniel fought in the War of 1812 and died on August 21, 1812 (buried in Garlough Cemetery, Green Township). Nancy died in 1851 in Clark County. Nathaniel and Nancy are known to have given birth to six children: an unidentified daughter (1794?-August 19, 1812), Martin (1796?-August 26, 1820), John (April 3, 1798-June 14, 1883), Elizabeth (1800?-August 18, 1812), James (December 17, 1801-October 28, 1855), and Samuel (May 18, 1803-June 3, 1842).
(See "Biographical Sketch of Kitchen and Hatfield Families" in Box 2, File 3, for a more detailed history of the Kitchen and Hatfield families tailored to the contents of this collection).
The Abraham Kitchen and James Hatfield families were some of the earliest American settlers to arrive in Clark County, Ohio, and both families' histories have been intertwined throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Both families settled in what was by the 1850s the northeast corner of Green Township, Clark County, Ohio, and their farms shared boundaries. During the first half of the nineteenth century, members of the Kitchen family married members of the Hatfield family.
From the guide to the The Erasmus Jones and Lavina Hatfield Kitchen Collection, 1834-1972, 1887-1907, (Wright State University, Special Collections and Archives)
