Hugh Linn : Short Biography

Hugh Linn was born in 1753 in Aghaloo Parish, County Tyrone. In 1777, he married Sarah Widney of the neighboring parish and county of Errigal Trough, Monaghan. The couple migrated first to somewhere southwest of Newry, then emigrated to America with three young children in 1788. A fourth child, 8-year-old William, was too frail for the journey and was left in the care of an aunt named Rebecca Lee.

Another child, Hugh Linn II, later described the family's travel to the port of Londonderry, saying they had watched "[t]he church spires of Newry, Emyvale and Aughnacloy, one by one, disappear in the distance ..." We might ask why the family traveled nearly twice the distance to depart from Londonderry rather than Belfast. The Lee family lived in Aghaloo Parish, making Londonderry the logical port of departure.

In America, the family settled in the tiny village of Concord, Franklin County, Pennsylvania, where Hugh continued in his family's occupation of farming. The region around Concord had as yet no established churches, and Hugh opened his home to neighbors far and near for Bible reading and prayer. His cabin came to be called "Immanuel", meaning "God with us". In such a wilderness, Hugh Linn and Sarah (Widney) Linn raised a family of eight children, doubtless cherishing in their hearts the one child left on the other side of the big pond.

Hugh Linn II later dictated the family's history to his grandson Dr. George Wilds Linn, who had it published under the title A History of a Fragment of the Clan Linn in 1905. The book affirms the years of the elder Hugh's birth and death as they are inscribed on his gravestone. The gravestone, an image of which is attached to this profile, gives Hugh's exact date of death. Hugh and Sarah are buried in the Concord Union Cemetery.