Lytle Web Generation One

1. WILLIAM¹ LYTLE was born in the eighteenth century, probably in what is present–day Northern Ireland. He probably died between 1817 and 1819 in either present–day Oil Creek or Allegheny Township, Venango County, Pennsylvania.¹ Place of burial is not known. I do not know the name of William’s wife. Olive Peters² suggested that William’s wife was named Jane, since both his sons, John and William [Jr.], named their first daughters Jane. Also note that William’s daughter Nancy (Lytle) McCasland named her second daughter Jane.

When did the Lytles come to Venango County? There are conflicting reports.

From Sesquicentennial, Pleasantville, Venango County, Pennsylvania, 1821–1971, p. 6, Helen Carson Waddell, Chair of Compilers:

In the year 1794, four families moved into the region and settled in the forest—William McCaslin and William Lytle directly from County Tyrone, and William Broadhead and William Neill from Center County in this state. William McCaslin settled SW from the Bean Farm, William Lytle just below the National Wells, SW of Pleasantville on the Mill Farm. William Broadhead near where Mr. Siggins now lives and William Neill settled in [what became known as] Neilltown.

However, I could find no documentation of the Lytles being in Venango County before 1805. Our Lytles were not in the 1800 Venango County census, but William and son John were on the 1805 tax lists. Also, I could find no early William McCasland in Venango County.

Newton (1879) reports John Lytle (son of William) being born in Ireland, and coming to Venango County in 1812 from Moneysharvin, Maghera, County Derry. However, John Lytle’s father, William Lytle, [Sr.], was probably the progenitor of our Lytle clan in Venango County. The federal censuses for James Lytle (John's son) lists James's parents as "not of foreign birth," although this probably is an error. The 1805 tax assessments list shows John Lytle being taxed for property in Allegheny Township.

Another source, the “Neill Papers,”³ page 31, would, by inference, have the Lytles coming to Venango County, Pennsylvania, from Ireland via a stay in Pittsburgh in the late 1790s or early 1800s. If the “Neill Papers” are correct, Joseph McCasland married Nancy Lytle in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1795. If the Lytles came with the McCaslands to Venango County, they would have had a short stay in south-western Pennsylvania before coming to Venango County. There was no William Lytle (or Little) enumerated in the Pittsburgh area for the 1790 federal census.

In short, our Lytles were probably not in Venango County in 1794, but were in Venango County before 1812. Probably our Lytles were from what is present–day Northern Ireland, coming to North America in the late eighteenth century, and then migrating west to Pittsburgh. After a stay in Pittsburgh they probably came up the Allegheny River to Oil Creek and hence to Venango County with the McCaslands or at about the same time the McCaslands came, early in the nineteenth century. This would be the route taken by our Fleming and McClintock ancestors.

The earliest Lytle deed recorded in Venango County is for a Thomas Litle and his wife Jane (Jean) selling Domain Land–1266 (200 acres) (I do not have the location) to John Grist, instituted 1815, recorded 28 February 1834.⁴ I can not associate this Thomas Lytle with our Oil Creek Lytles.

Although there were no Lytles on the 1800 and 1810 census lists for Venango County, William [Sr.] and John Lytle were taxed in Allegheny Township, Venango County, as early as 1805.⁵ The last tax record for William [Sr.] was 1817—there was no assessment in 1818 and his name is missing in 1819.⁶ William Lytle [Sr.], apparently signed an agreement to buy 200 acres from the Holland Land County before his death (between 1817–1819, see deed below). On 21 August 1819, a deed was drawn up to John Lytle for this tract.⁷ The estate of William, Sr., was not entered into probate in Venango County and apparently the heirs settled without recourse to court—I understand a common practice in those days.

Venango County Deed Book C., p. 280:

The Holland Land Company to John Lytle, of Allegheny Twp., part of Tracts #113 and #126, being 200 acres deeded to Litle “in trust and for the use of the heirs of William Litle, of Venango County, deceased.” Dated 21 Aug. 1819; recorded 30 Sept. 1819. Witnesses: William Ayers and Joseph M. Fox.

**Known children of William Lytle and wife,⁸ probably all born in northern Ireland:**

+	2	i.	Nancy² Lytle, born 1779; died 22 January 1841; buried in Concord Cemetery, Allegheny Township, Venango County; married Joseph McCasland.
+	3	ii.	John Lytle, (great great grandfather of the author), born between 1780 and 1790, either in North America or the north of Ireland; died 1837 in Oil Creek Township, Venango County, Pennsylvania; place of burial not known; married circa 1814 (based on birth of first known child) Sarah Morrison.
+	4	iii.	William Lytle [Jr.], born circa 1795; died November 1871; married Isabella McFate.