From: A history of Shenandoah County, Virginia, by John W. Wayland.
Contributed by Rev. L. L. Roush, Rutland, Ohio
John Roush (Rausch) and wife Susannah were among the early settlers in
Shenandoah County. About 1738 they emigrated from the Palatinate, a small
country on either side of the Rhine, near Alsace-Lorraine. The causes for
their coming to America were religious persecutions, devastating wars, and
political oppression, but most especially the former. Devout Protestants
they were from the beginning and more ardently so later when they espoused
the pietistic movement, or "religion of the heart", which even occasioned
greater persecution from their Catholic neighbors. First in Pennsylvania
and later in the Shenandoah Valley they became active as land owners,
tanners, builders of churches, etc.
John Roush, Sen., took up a tract of 400 acres of land on Mill Creek, a
little west of Mount Jackson, and from time to time added to and sold until
there are more than thirty land transactions recorded in his name or some
of his sons.
This man and woman were the progenitors of a large family the descent of
whom is now to be found in almost every state of the Union. They are
specially numerous in Mason County, West Virginia, Adams, Highland, Meigs
and Gallia counties, Ohio, to which they emigrated from the Valley in
1795-1800.
They were active in the Lutheran faith in these early days, and John Roush,
Sr., lies buried in the old cemetery at Pine Church. The leaning grave stone
shows him to have been born 1711 and died 1786. The family was largely
responsible for the founding of Old Solomon's church near Forestville in 1793,
a son, Henry Roush, having deeded 2 1/2 acres of land now occupied by the
church and cemetery. For this sort of things they have made themselves
prominent in the communities to which they later went.
Having had personal acquaintance with George Washington and Peter Muhlenberg,
their ten sons engaged in the war of Independence, some of them remaining in
the service until its close, George and Jonas being with Washington when
Cornwallis surrendered. Jacob was with General Andrew Lewis in the terrible
battle of Point Pleasant, West Virginia, October 10, 1774. By nature they
have been a patriotic, home-loving people and have served their country in
every conflict from the French and Indian War to the late World War.
The children of this family whose descent is now being traced are as follows:
Philip, 1741-1820, buried in Cheshire, Gallia Co., Ohio. John, Jr. (Captain
in Revolution), 1743-1816, purchased 6,000 A. on the Ohio river in Mason Co.,
W. Va., to which he moved 1798; left no descent. Jacob, 174?-1830, had shares
in the Ohio Land Co.; came to Gallia Co., O. about 1796; buried there. Henry,
1749-1830, came to Mason Co., W. Va., 1798, and to Letart, Meigs Co., O. 1800,
where he is buried. Daniel seems never to have left the Valley. He left no
offspring. George, 1761-1850, came with his brother, Captain John, 1798;
later to Meigs Co., O., buried in Racine, O. The descent of his thirteen
children are numerous in this vicinity. Jonas, 1763-1850, came to Mason
County, 1800, where his descent is numerous, buried in Nease Settlement
Cemetery. Mary Magdalene, married Lewis Zirkle, whose descent is still in
the Valley in the vicinity of New Market. Three of Philip's sons were of the
company that formed the third permanent settlement of the Northwest Territory,
in Sprigg Township, Adams Co., O. The families of George and Jonas founded at
New Haven, W. Va., the first church west of the Alleghany mountains.