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I would not claim to be a Binkley expert, but I seriously doubt that these brothers were born in Germany. (For one thing, their names are not German.) I show them in my files as the sons of Peter Binkley, b. unknown, d. 1839, and his second wife, Tabitha Morris, whom he married in Davidson Co., on April 2, 1831. (Peter was previously married to Salley King, whom he married on April 24, 1792, in Bethania, Stokes Co., NC, according to my data. The date and place for this marriage are not from my own research). Some of this information comes from Virgil White's Index to the War of 1812 Pension Files. A cousin has sent me information that the children of Peter and Tabitha were
William, b. 1832, Blackstone b. 1833, Andrew Jackson, b. 1835, and Tennessee b. 1838. I know that some of her data came from the obituary of Andrew Jackson Binkley's son, Henry Blackstone. She shows more children for this couple than those mentioned in Mrs. Binkley's book.
It has always been my understanding that all of the Binkleys in Middle TN were the descendants of Peter Binkley, who came to PA from Alsace, Germany, in 1736. Peter was born in Switzerland, where his surname was "Binggeli," which became in Alsace "Binkley" and in the US was sometimes spelled "Pinkley" (among many other variations). A member of the Moravian Church, Peter later moved to Moravian communities in Monocacy, MD, and Bethania, NC. A number of his children and grandchildren settled in Robertson and Davidson Co. at the end of the 18th century. (Among the early settlers in those counties who were his descendants were Freys, Fischers, and Childresses.) His son Adam was certainly in TN by the time Peter made his will in 1791 and is believed to be one of the earliest settlers in what is now Cheatham Co.
I do not know who the Peter who married Salley King and Tabitha Morris was. Previously some people had identified him as the son of Peter the immigrant's son, John, who was my third great-grandfather. However, that Peter is believed to have died around 1811 and could not have served in the War of 1812. The list I have of Adam's children shows that he had had a son named John Petrus, born in 1770. Could this be the Peter who served in the War of 1812? If so and if he married in NC, then he must have come to TN later than his father.
This is one of several instances I have encountered where descendants of Peter the immigrant are said to have been immigrants themselves. Often it is the result of stories handed down in the family. Because the Binkleys were German-speaking and immigrated from Alsace, many descendants believed that they were German, rather than German-speaking Swiss. Also, because after immigrating Peter and his family lived in Moravian communities where German was spoken, the German language seems to have persisted in the family longer than might have been expected. One family believed until recently that their ancestor, a daughter of the above-mentioned John Binkley, had come to America from Holland, presumably because Peter had sailed from Holland. The daughter herself was born in MD, then lived in NC before coming to Robertson Co. Even when the family lore is wrong, it is interesting to see how part of the truth was handed down from generation to generation.
Please feel free to make corrections or comments to the above.
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