General Notes

Have not found proof that Joshua was of Washington's group at Valley Forge.  He supposedly had foot damage from the extreme cold. 

Have copy of will.

His parents were Prebyterians and he was reared in that faith but in 1772 he affiliated with the Cowmarsh Baptist Church and was ordained for the ministry in that denomination on the 26th Dec 1785.  He served the Cowmarsh Church as one of it's earliest ministers and was likewise the first minister of the church of Mispillion which was formed about 1781.

The swamp country of DE was exceedingly unhealthy and Rev Deweese contracted Tuberculosis.

Rev Mogan Edwards, in his history of the Bapists of DE, written in Mar of 1891, refers to the intended emigration of Rev. Joshua Deweese in May 1791, to the "western world"----the reason of his goings to the backwoods was that he might have land for his great family.  Mr. Deweese's transition from a state of nature to a state of grace was tedius and distressing;  his account of that transition put me in mind of what Jon Bunyan saith of himself in his "Grace Abounding" but it will not be long fffbefore he make another transit from a state of Grace to a state of Glory for his lungs are wasting fast.   (Penn. Magazine, Vol 9  pp 197-213)

The exact date the Deweese family left DE is not known but on Mya 22, 1791, Rev Deweese sold his plantation in Kent Co. To William Burroughs Jr. for 250 pounds.  The said plantation adjoined that of his deceased father-in-law, Thomas Bowman.

The caravan included not only all the children of Joshua Deweese but his brother, John and all his family.  It was an ardous journey over the mountains, fording rivers and the health of Joshus  grew steadily worse.  They settled temporarily in the mountains of Wharton Twp and Rev. Deweese purchased land in the wilderness in what is now Monogehlia Co. W VA at the PA line.

Before a home could be erected on the land he died in dec 1791.  His will is on record in Fayette Co. PA.