An American Family History

Levi Cline was born on February 19, 1795 in Shelby County, Kentucky. His parents were John Cline and Susannah Leatherman.

He married Elizabeth McClaskey on June 27, 1816 in Shelby County. Elizabeth was the daughter of James McClaskey and Martha Parsons. Levi and Aaron Cline put up a bond that Elizabeth had no parents or guardians in the state of Kentucky.

Milton Cline (1817),
Martha Cline (1819, married Daniel H. Lenon),
Thmpson Cline (1821, married Catherine Yerkes),
Nancy Cline (1822),
James Albert Cline (1824, married Susan Lenon),
Lucetta Cline (1826, married George W. Lenon),
Susannah Cline (1828, married Isaac H. Wright),
John Cline (1830),
Elizabeth Cline (1831, married Abner Shanks),
Jane Cline (1833), and
Hannah Cline (1836).

In 1820, Levi and Elizabeth were in Shelby Township Jefferson County, Indiana.

In December, 1829 Levi bought land in Jackson Township in Section 15 of Carroll County, Indiana.

He brought his family from Kentucky in 1830.

Levi and Elizabeth were among the founding members of the Paint Creek Baptist Church.

In 1832 he was a member of the grand jury.

In 1834, Levi was the revenue collector for Carroll County.

Levi died on March 14, 1836 in Camden, Carroll County, Indiana.

He was buried in Paint Creek Cemetery.

from Signs of the Times, and Doctrinal Advocate and Monitor, Volume 74

Highland Park, Des Moines, Iowa,
April 1, 1906

. . . I will try to tell you what I hope the dear Lord has done for me. My mother was born in Kentucky, and claimed to be a descendant of the Huguenots, of South Carolina. My father was a Virginian, and claimed his father was with George Washington during the Revolutionary war. They were married in Wilson County, Ky., about 1810, moved to Washington County, Ind., about 1820, and from thence to Carrol County, Ind., in the fall of 1829, where I first saw the light of day, April 8th, 1830. I claim to be the first white child born in Jackson, in that county.

At about that time others moved into the settlement from Ohio. The Indians were all around us, and I have as vivid a recollection of seeing them as though it were but yesterday; a large village of them was but twelve miles from our cabin, but the government moved them away in 1830. Several new comers were Old School Baptists, among them were William Hance and wife, Elder John Shanks and wife, Levi Cline and wife, who were my father and mother. They organized a church and called it Paint Creek, and from that day to this, now over seventy years, the members have met together on Saturday before the first Sunday in each month, and now in a large, line meeting-house.

. . . My father died when I was about six years of age, and my mother had the care of a large family of children. She was a close and severe disciplinarian, and gave us many talks on good moral character, which I know came from a good heart; but still I thought her religion was very bad, and came from a deceived heart. Time went on, and mother was married to a man who was a Baptist, and at last I concluded to leave the farm and go to the village and make my own living. . .

John Cline

from Recollections of the Early Settlement of Carroll County, Indiana by James Hervey Stewart

John W. Penn made some remarks, in which he said that the men who helped to raise his cabin when he settled in Carroll County, were John Shanks, Abner Shanks, Levi Cline, John Lenon, Daniel Lenon, Jacob Slusser, Joseph Neff, and William Armstrong. These men were now nearly all gone.