Randolph County Indiana Biographies Surnames Starting with D
Farmland Enterprise, June 17, 1904 - The tenth annual reunion of the families of the Moormans, Diggs and Ways , held on Thursday of last week at the grove of Henry A. Moorman, four miles east of Farmland, was one of the best they have ever had. About one hundred and fifty representatives of the families were present. Following the dinner the association was called to order by T. Frank Moorman, its president, and a literary and music program given. The Diggs branch of the family are the descendants of Sir Dudley Diggs, Master of Rolls, under Charles I of England, who settled in Virginia upon a grant of 4444 acres to which he gave the name of "Chilham Castle Manor Place," in honor of his castle in Kent couty, England. From Virginia representatives of his came to this county about the year 1820. The ancestor of the Moorman family came to America with William Penn, settling in Pennsylvania. He was a Quaker and came to obtain for himself and his descendants that liberty of conscience which was denied him in the land of his nativity. The immediate ancestors of this family came to this county from Guilford county, North Carolina, in 1822. In the early history of the county they owned large tracts of land which the descendants have quite largely retained. The Way family are the descendants of Henry Way, the Puritan who came to America in 1630 and settled at Dorchester, Massachusetts. William Way, the great-great-grandson of Henry, was born on the island of Nantucket, August 8, 1756. Later he removed to South Carolina, and from there to this county, in the year 1817. Paul Way, a son of his, acting as county agent of this county, platted and laid out the original plat of the city of Winchester, and for many years was one of its foremost and most public spirited citizens, while many other members of the family have been and are men of sterling worth. Moorman Way was probably the ablest lawyer who ever practiced at the Randolph county bar. Intermarriage is responsible for the relationship of these families, and so for the triune character of their reunions. T. Frank Moorman was re-elected president and Henry A. Moorman secretary of the association, and the place of meeting for next year the grove where the present reunion was held, the time being the second Thursday in June, 1905.