An American Family History

The Booher Family of Sullivan County, Tennessee and Washington County, Pennsylvania

East Tennessee is part of Appalachia. At the end of the French and Indian War, colonists began drifting into the area. In 1769, they first settled along the Watauga River. During the Revolution, the Overmountain Men defeated British loyalists at the Battle of Kings Mountain. The State of Franklin was formed in the 1780s, but never admitted to the Union.

Martin Booher was born about 1746 in Pennsylvania.

Christian Booher (1774, married Margaret Roth),
Martin Booher (1775),
Mary Booher (1777),
Magdaline Booher (1778),
John Booher (1779, married Catherine Zimmerly),
Peter Booher (1780),
Catherine Booher (1781),
Samuel Booher (1788),
Michael Booher (1789),
Elizabeth Booher (1793),
Adam Booher (1794),
David R. Booher (1799), and
Barbara Booher (1800).

Martin Booher came to Sullivan County about 1800. Supposedly the family "came riding in fine coaches drawn by four horses with silver mountings on the horses and coaches." They also brought many people they had enslaved.

Martin was a large landowner in Sullivan County, Tennessee and Washington County, Virginia.

On September 17, 1811, William and Susannah Head of Washington County, Virginia sold 305 acres to Martin Booher of Sullivan County, Tennessee for $2,000.

In 1814, during the War of 1812, Martin was on Captain William King's muster.

Simon Deck married a Miss Booher about 1830.

Slavery is an immoral system of forced labor where people are treated as property to be bought and sold. It was legal in the American Colonies and the United States until the Civil War.

John Booher was born about 1755 in Pennsylvania.

He married Barbara Barnett.

John and Barbara's children included:
Jacob Booher (1777, married Catherine and Elizabeth Barnett),
Mary (Polly) Booher (1780, married Jacob Deck and her cousin John Booher),
William Booher (1783, married Lydia Frederic)
Benjamin Wesley Booher (1786, married Catherine Booher),
John Booher (1788, married Margaret Zimmerly),
Frederick Booher (1791),
Isaac Booher (1792)
Henry Booher (1792)
Jehu Booher, (1797, died in infancy),
Elizabeth Booher Parrigan (1797, married Henry Parrigan).

At the time of the 1820 census, John Booher was in Washington County, Virginia. The household consisted of a man and a woman over 45 years old and a girl and a boy between 16 and 25. They had enslaved a woman between 26 and 44 and 4 children under 14 (1 boy and 3 girls).

Jacob Booher and Margaret Beeler

Benjamin Booher

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©Roberta Tuller 2026
tuller.roberta@gmail.com
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