USA > Ohio > Ohio early state and local history > Part 19
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Harmon, Margaret Snowden (Mrs. William); Jackson, Ethel Snowden (Mrs. George Cleo).
CAMPBELL, ROBERT:
CAMPBELL, ALEXANDER:
Atkinson, Maude Stanley (Mrs. W. H. S.);
Campbell, Laura Eugenia (Miss);
Leister, Alice Noble (Mrs. Mark L.);
Porter, Harriet Noble (Mrs. Edwards H.);
Ringle, Eugenia Adams (Mrs. Fred G.).
Stanley, Elizabeth Kaup (Mrs. William B.).
HART, JOHN:
Brewer, Florence Muirhead (Miss).
HAYES, THOMAS:
Atkinson, Maude Stanley (Mrs. W. H. S.);
Stanley, Elizabeth Kaup (Mrs. William B.).
HOFFMAN, WILLIAM: Hill, Bertha Good (Mrs. Frank E.).
HUSTON, ROBERT:
Molen, Emma V. Huston (Mrs. J. P.).
OSBORN, ELIAS, SR .:
OSBORN, ELIAS, JR .: Atkinson, Maude Stanley (Mrs. W. H. S.);
Kaup, Lillian Eugenia (Miss); Locke, Eleta Kaup (Mrs. John P.); Stanley, Elizabeth Kaup (Mrs. William B.).
SIMPSON, JOHN: SIMPSON, ALEXANDER: Williard, Electa Stout (Mrs. George P.).
STARK, COLONEL JOHN: Runyan, Corinne Hedges (Miss).
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Military Services of Ancestors
PENNSYLVANIA.
This Colony is distinguished in our Chapter by having the greatest number of names on the Honor Roll, there being thirty- three; the next, Massachusetts, having fifteen. Pennsylvania had, too, a more varied population than the other Colonies, the liberal policy of Penn's government making a strong appeal to the emigrants of the different nationalities, who were seeking greater civil and religious liberty. Of these, the English were the first to come; then followed the Scotch-Irish; and a little later began the large inflow of German-Dutch, for such the great majority were, having gone to Holland from the Palatinate, and thence to America. It might not be inaccurate to say that the English represented the organizing and executive ability, the Scotch-Irish, the grit and energy, and the German-Dutch the thrift and prudence, which combined, have formed the powerful State of modern times.
The Cyclopedia of Fayette county, Pennsylvania, says of Colonel Paull:
"James Paull, who lived in Fayette county from childhood to old age, and was one of its prominent and most honored citizens, was born in Frederick, now Berkeley county, Virginia, September 17, 1760, and in 1768 removed to the West with the family of his father, George Paull, who then settled in that part of Westmoreland county, which afterward became Fayette."
Judge Veich says of him in his "Old Fort DuQuesne:"
That early in life he evinced qualities of heart and soul calculated to render him conspicuous, added to which was a physical constitution of the hardiest kind. Throughout his long life his bravery and patriotism, like his generosity, knew no limits. He loved enterprise and adventure, as he loved his friends, and shunned no service or dangers to which they called him. He came to manhood just when such men were needed."
At the early age of eighteen, in 1778, James Paull was drafted for service in the Revolutionary War, and three years later was made a First Lieutenant by Governor Thomas Jefferson, of Virginia.
In that capacity he served in a Company raised principally by his effort and which accompanied General George Rogers
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Clark on a projected campaign against Detroit. This expedition was a failure, and Lieutenant Paull returned on foot through the wilderness from the Falls of the Ohio (Louisville, Kentucky) to Morgantown, Virginia, and thence home, being accompanied by the men of his own command and also the officers and men of Major Craig's artillery.
Probably there is no event of the Revolution that we in Ohio feel so keenly as we do that of the horrible torture and death of Colonel William Crawford, partly because of its aw- fulness and partly because it occurred within the bounds of a neighboring county. Among the men who volunteered to go with Colonel Crawford in 1782, on this perilous expedition against the Wyandottes, was James Paull, then twenty-one years of age.
In a pamphlet published by Robert A. Sherrard in 1869, there is printed the story of his hardships and almost miraculous escape from the Indians, as recounted by Colonel Paull to the writer. The length of this paper prevents our mentioning more than one or two incidents of this story, thrilling as it is.
After a two days battle with the Indians at Upper Sandusky, a retreat was ordered and our young soldier might have been left in the camp, except that a friend shook him saying "Jamey, Jamey, up and let us be off, the men are all going." Jamey, as the Scotchman called him, did not again see his friend until he met him at his home in Pennsylvania.
Paull, with eight companions, were the last to leave the camp. They traveled all night and until noon the next day, before stopping for food or rest; then they halted and began to eat of the ash-cake they carried with them, but were inter- rupted by one of their number with the warning that Indians were approaching, whereupon all quickly hid themselves. Lieutenant Paull says: "From the place of my concealment I had a full view of the twenty-five Indians that gave us such a scare. I could with my rifle have brought down any one of them, but I durst not, knowing it would bring about my own destruction and that of my comrades, for every one of these Indians was armed with a rifle and on their way to Upper Sandusky."
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Their next meeting with the savages was not so fortunate and Lieutenant Paull saw all his companions fall, and his own escape was due to the fact that he put no faith in the promises of the Red Man, and like most of the men of his day felt that any mode of death was preferable to being tortured by Indians. As it was, he had a chase for his life, but finally escaped and pursued his journey alone. One night he slept in a hollow log, and another he spent on a shelving rock near the Tuscarawas River.
How interesting it would be to trace the route taken by James Paull from Upper Sandusky to Wheeling, or just above that point, where he crossed the Ohio-the route which, in these days of automobiles, and with Colonel Paull's narrative, might be quite easily followed.
Through the kindness of Mrs. G. P. Williard, I received the following account of Robert Parker, which is copied from "The Chronicle of the Bards."
"Robert Parker, son of William and Elizabeth (Todd) Parker, was born in 1754, and died in Mercersburg, Pennsyl- vania, May 1, 1799. He entered the service of the United States from Philadelphia, April 28, 1777, as Second Lieutenant, in the Second Continental Artillery, Colonel John Lamb, in which his brother-in-law, Andrew Porter, was a Captain. He was promoted to First Lieutenant in 1781, and transferred to the Fourth Continental Artillery-the Pennsylvania Regiment, Colonel Thomas Proctor. He was made Captain to succeed Thomas Story, October 4, 1782. He served until June 1783.
Lieutenant Parker was with his battery at the battles of Brandywine and Germantown in 1777; in the battle of Mon- mouth in 1778; with General James Clinton's Brigade in Gen- eral Sullivan's expedition against the Indians in 1779, and in the siege of Yorktown in 1781. He was in the Southern army in 1782 and 1783.
While the army was at Valley Forge, Lieutenant Parker was one of a number of officers sent to Carlisle, Pennsylvania, by the Board of War to learn the art of fixing ammunition. Space forbids our copying the letter of General Gates, written on April 28, 1778, and addressed to Captains Craig, Proctor,
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Parker and Lieutenants Cooper and Parker at Carlisle. At that time there were only two Parkers in the Conti- nental Artillery, Captain Phineas Parker, of Baldwin's Artillery Artificer Regiment, and Lieutenant Robert Parker of the Second Continental Artillery. It thus appears that both of them were chosen for this important service. Lieutenant Parker's stay at Carlisle was probably his first visit to the Cumberland Valley, in which he made his home after the Revolution. He kept a journal of the Sullivan Expedition that has been preserved and was printed in the Pennsylvania Magazine of History for October 1902 and January 1903.
When General Lafayette visited America in 1824, James Madison Porter, the youngest son of General Andrew Porter, was presented to him soon after his arrival in New York. "Porter," said the French hero, "I remember that name; are you any relation of Captain Porter whom I met at the Brandy- wine?" "A son," young Porter answered. "I bless you for your father's sake," Lafayette said. "He was a brave man. He had with him there a young man, a relative, I think, whose name I have forgotten. They fought very nearly together." "Was it Parker," Madison Porter asked? "That was the name." "He was my mother's brother." "Ah, indeed," the Marquis said. "They were good soldiers, and very kind to me when I was wounded."
Captain Parker was a member of the "Society of Cincin- nati." He was appointed Collector of Excise for Franklin county, by the Supreme Executive Council, November 17, 1787. He built for himself in the village of Mercersburg a fine mansion for that period, which is still standing. In the east wall is a tablet, bearing his initials "R. P." almost obliter- ated by exposure to the elements. Captain Parker was mar- ried May 10, 1787, to Mary Smith, daughter of William and Mary (Smith) Smith. She was born in 1764 and died at Mer- cersburg, December 1, 1848. It has always been told in the family that Captain Parker received a promotion to Colonel just at the close of the war, but owing to the confusion at that time, he did not receive his commission; but from then until his death he bore the title of Colonel.
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During the Civil War, when General Lee passed through Mercersburg, the old home, with many heir-looms, of Colonel Parker, was partially destroyed.
Harrisburg received its name from John Harris, who, with his wife Esther (Say) Harris, emigrated in or about 1700, with several brothers, from Yorkshire, England. He was born in 1672, and was a brewer by occupation. He settled on the site of the town in 1726; died in 1748, and was buried at the foot of a large mulberry tree on the river bank.
Samuel Harris, his son, established a ferry over the Sus- quehanna River in 1753. The town was founded in 1785, under the name of Harrisburg. Samuel had been born there May 4, 1733. He was an active participant in the stirring scenes of the old French War, and was present at the surprise and defeat of Braddock near Fort DuQuesne. He was the decided friend of his country and her cause in the War of the Revolution, dur- ing which he was appointed Captain of Cavalry.
He married Betsey Bonner (Boner), she being a native of Ireland. They were married at Philadelphia long before the Revolutionary War, in 1758, and settled in what is now Harris- burg, where their son William, was born. Samuel Harris emigrated to and settled on the bank of Cayuga Lake, in the year 1795, where he died "August 19, 1825, aged 85 years."
The above is the inscription on a monument erected to him, and on the same stone is the following: "Elizabeth Harris, wife of Sam'l Harris, born at Philadelphia, March 17, 1740; died December 25th, 1828, aged 88 years. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy."
William Harris, son of Samuel and Elizabeth, was also a Revolutionary soldier. He enlisted when a mere boy, as a fifer, and served to the close of the war. He was in the Com- pany commanded by Captain John Lee, afterward by Captain Hugh White, in the Regiment under Colonel Morrow, and served under these officers as a fifer (musician) for about three months. In the spring of 1778 he enlisted and served as a spy under the command of Peter Grove. After the war he married Mary Meade, whose father came from Wales.
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William Harris moved from Harrisburg to Livingston coun- ty, New York, where he lived until the year 1818, when he returned to Pennsylvania, and settled near Meadville. This town was founded by his wife's ancestors.
William Harris was a gunsmith by trade; wherever he lived, in Pennsylvania, New York, or Ohio, he had Indians for cus- tomers, whose guns he made and inlaid with silver, etc. In this way he learned the language of several tribes.
He did not receive a pension for his services in the Revo- lution until after he came to Seneca county, Ohio, which was in the spring of 1820. Then Mr. Abel Rawson, one of the pioneer lawyers of Tiffin, procured it for him.
With unfailing loyalty he rendered aid during the War of 1812. As he was needed more at home than in the field, he ran bullets by hand, while his two sons enlisted and went to war. He died in 1834, and is buried on the Stanley farm, in the little public cemetery on the banks of the Sandusky River, near the old "Fort Seneca."
Beside the two sons, Augustus and Samuel, who served in the war of 1812, William Harris had a daughter, Tabitha, who was born in York State and came to Ohio with her parents. She married for her first husband, Benjamin Culver, in 1828, the marriage ceremony being solemnized by Rev. James Montgomery, a Methodist minister and the first Agent for the Seneca Indians. He occupied the Fort, built by General Harrison in 1813, as his home.
When Washington street, in Tiffin, was graded, Mrs. Culver loaned a yoke of oxen for the purpose of pulling stumps and hauling away logs.
After being a widow for several years, Tabitha H. Culver married Dr. William Hugh Stanley.
Benjamin Coe, and his son Moses, both served in the War for Independence, Benjamin as private and Lieutenant in the Philadelphia county Militia, and Moses as Ensign in the West- moreland county Rangers.
Joseph Coe, the father of Benjamin, was born at Jamaica, Long Island, where he married. He was the grand-son of Robert Coe, who was born at Thorpe-Morieux, Suffolk county, England, and was baptized there in October 1596. The family
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arrived in Boston in July, 1634, and finally settled on Long Island, near Jamaica. They trace back to one John Coe, of Essex county, England, who served under Sir John Hawkhood, in what was known as the "White Company" in the wars in Italy between the Pope and the Church. He had the dis- tinction of being Knighted for gallantry in the Battle of San Galla.
Some twenty or thirty years before the Ship "Welcome" brought William Penn to the shores of America, there had sailed up the Delaware another party of Englishmen, who settled among the Swedes at or near what was later known as Old Chester. Among these was one John Snowden, who had been thrown in prison for preaching the Quaker faith at Knaws- borough, Yorkshire, England. Upon his release, with a brother and sister, he emigrated to the land of religious liberty. Here he became a man of much prominence, owning large tracts of land on both sides of the Delaware. He was one of the Pro- prietors of West Jersey and as such, signed the concessions in 1677. He was Associate Judge of Bucks county in 1704, and in 1712 he represented Bucks county in the Provincial Assem- bly. He moved to Philadelphia in 1720 and died there in 1736, at the ripe age of a hundred and four years.
John Snowden, the 2nd, had lived in Philadelphia many years before his father moved there. He was one of the found- ers of the First Presbyterian church of that city, and was the first regularly ordained elder of the Presbyterian Church in America, being ordained in 1704. He lived on Second street, below Walnut, his property extending from Second street to Dock Creek. It remained in the family for three generations, covering a period of a hundred and twenty-five years.
Rev. Nathaniel Randolph Snowden, who was born in this house in 1770, has left in his diary an interesting description of this old place that sounds very strange in these days:
"He wrote of the beautiful stream that flowed behind his father's garden, with grand old trees on both sides, and re- called with fond memories his boyhood days, when he and his brothers went fishing in Dock Creek and gathered quantities of fine blackberries that grew beside the stream." The old number of this house was 141 South Second street.
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The second wife of John Snowden and the mother of his children, was Ruth, the daughter of Benjamin Fits-Randolph, of the family that had been very prominent in New England and New Jersey in the Colonial days. Her brother was Nathan- iel Fitz-Randolph, a Revolutionary Captain of Princeton, who gave the land to the trustees of Princeton College, on which Nassau Hall now stands.
The Fitz-Randolphs, as the name indicates, were of Norman descent. Their ancestors went to England with William the Conqueror, and were lineal descendants of the Dukes of Brit- tany.
Isaac Snowden, son of John, was Quartermaster of the Fourth Battalion of Philadelphia Associates, under Colonel Thomas Mckean, in active service from 1775 to 1777. He, with his brother Jedediah, were Commissioners under the Act of Congress to sign Continental Currency, from 1777 to 1779. There are several of these Continental notes in exis- tence, bearing his signature; one in Independence Hall; four at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania's Rooms; one in Harvard Library, of which John Fiske gives a fac-simile in his "History of the United States."
Isaac Snowden was a man of ability, and filled many offices of trust. He was treasurer of the City and County of Philadelphia from 1780 to 1782; he was one of the early mem- bers of the State in Schuykill; Charter member of the Second Presbyterian Church; first treasurer of the First General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States; trustee and treasurer of Princeton College, during which time, he, with Mr. Bayard, advanced the money for Dr. John Wither- spoon's trip to Europe to look after the interests of the United States.
Five of Isaac Snowden's sons were graduates of Princeton, three of them becoming distinguished Presbyterian clergymen.
The Snowdens were numerous in the American Army, and as far as can be learned, were all American patriots. Isaac was so ardent a patriot, that during the British occupation of Philadelphia, he and his family were obliged to flee for safety to the summer home in Princeton.
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John Price was born in Bucks county in 1744, and died in the same place in 1780. He served in the Revolution as First Lieutenant of the Third Company, Second Battalion of Penn- sylvania Militia.
Among the many Scotch-Irish emigrants who settled in Pennsylvania during the first half of the Eighteenth century, there came one William Stewart, who had been born about 1738 at the family home on the estate of the Stewarts of Fort Stew- art, at Green Hill, near Letterkenny, county Donegal, Ireland.
The Stewarts trace their ancestry back to the ancient Lord High Stewart of Scotland, whence springs the long line of Stuart Kings and Queens. Lieutenant William, as he is gen- erally designated, being a younger son and dissatisfied with the English law of primogeniture, determined to carve out his own fortune. It is not known just what year he arrived, but in 1760 he was married to Mary Gass, at Chambersburg, Penn- sylvania.
When the Revolution broke out, he early responded to the call and enlisted in the Cumberland county Militia in July, 1777. He was Second Lieutenant in the Company of Captain William Donaldson, under Colonel John Davis. He was wounded in 1777, and tradition says, promoted to a Captaincy. In August of 1782, he again enlisted under Captain James Harrell, to fight the Indians, who were threatening Cumberland county from the North-west. In payment for his services he was given two hundred acres of land on Indian River, near Mercer, Pennsylvania. This land he later divided between his two youngest sons. A priceless personal record of Lieutenant William Stewart is a leaf from his family Bible, now in the pos- session of his great grand-daughter, Mrs. Clarissa Pentacost Eagleson, of Columbus, Ohio. Inscribed on the front of the leaf, supposedly in his own hand writing, is the following:
"Wm. Stuart, his Bibel, bought in Carlisle from John Wilkey. "Wm. Stuart is may name, Do not stale this book, for fare of shame for undernath is the oners name- for if you stale it you may depend that shurely you will be brought to shame."
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On the reverse side are the names, with dates of birth, of eleven children.
Captain Patrick Anderson, was born July 24, 1719, in Ches- ter county, Pennsylvania. He was educated in Philadelphia, and for some time taught school, but subsequently settled on his father's farm, about two miles from Valley Forge.
He was in service in the French and Indian War, and at the commencement of the Revolution, was a member of the Chester county Committee. In 1776, he was commissioned Captain of the Musketry Battalion, and his services in the war were those connected therewith. He served as a member of the Assembly from 1778 to 1780. In 1781 he was appointed on a Board of Commissioners in charge of the navigation of the Schuylkill. He was prominent in civil life and was one of the organizers of the Pennsylvania Chapter of the Society of the Cincinnati.
James Anderson, son of Captain Patrick, was also an officer in the War for Independence, being Lieutenant of Cavalry in Colonel Moylan's Regiment. Tradition says he was later made Captain in the same regiment of Pennsylvania troops.
The grand-daughter of James and Mary (Stuart) Anderson, married William Stephenson, whose ancestor, John Stephenson, was Sergeant in Captain Thomas Proctor's Company of Penn- sylvania Artillery in 1776. On his tombstone in the Cross Creek, Pennsylvania, village cemetery, is this inscription:
"He was a brave old soldier of the Revolution."
Alexander Brown was commissioned July 31, 1777, Lieuten- ant Colonel of the Fifth Battalion of Cumberland county Mili- tia. His wife was Jane, daughter of James Alexander, who as a lad of ten years, came to America from Ireland, where his family had previously emigrated from Scotland. They settled in Chester county, Pennsylvania, later moving to Cumberland county, where he married Rosey Reid.
In the days when the sylvan forests of Penn's grant were still unexplored, it was the common, rather than an unusual occurrence, for a young man of ambition to be attacked by "wanderlust." James Alexander was not an exception, and
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he started out for an adventure. After having traveled a dangerous journey of a hundred or more miles, he reached a beautiful valley in central Pennsylvania, to which the Indians had given the grand old name of Kishacoquillas, in honor of a Shawanese Chief. He was attracted by its beauty and fer- tility, saying, "No man should desire a better soil than this." Here he planted a settlement and returned home to tell of his wonderful location and to move with his family thither.
The record of the Alexander family, in speaking of the mode of getting beyond the frontier, says: "Jas. Alexander had his wife and children, goods and chattels, packed on the backs of horses, and his money-nine hundred silver dollars-in a long blue stocking, for he too, was a Presbyterian. He was accompanied by William, afterward Judge Brown, and his family. Judge Brown located at the entrance to the valley, Jas. Alexander proceeding five miles westward, erecting his cabin near one of the "fine springs of clear cold limestone water that abound in that region." At another of the springs, and only a short distance from the Alexander cabin, there stood in that early day the wigwam of the celebrated Mingo Chieftain, Logan, one of the noblest characters to be found in the history of the American Indian. The story of his life and his famous speech is well known. Only last year, Pickaway County His- torical Society deeded five acres of ground surrounding that Logan Elm to the Ohio Archeological and Historical Society, for a park. It was under this tree that Logan made the speech that has become renowned as a gem of oratory.
James Alexander served in the Commissary Department of Washington's Army at Valley Forge, during that terrible winter of 1777-1778. For this service he received sixteen hundred acres of land in Clearfield county, Pennsylvania. His son-in-law, Colonel Alexander Brown, whose record we have given, served his country loyally, and died in Philadelphia in 1791, while a comparatively young man.
Another patriot of this beautiful Juniata Valley was the ancestress of one of our members, who kindly furnished me the following:
Moses and Susannah Donaldson were patriots, living in Hart's Log Settlement, Huntingdon county, Pennsylvania.
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During the Revolutionary War, the British, to quell the tide of patriotism and intimidate and destroy the patriots, offered the Indians a bounty for patriot scalps.
In January 1778, Colonel John Piper urged the "Supreme Executive Council," to permit him to raise a force of one hun- dred and sixty men to be stationed at five different points in Bedford county, thirty of them to guard the inhabitants of Hart's Log Settlement and Shaver's Creek." The Council replied there was no fund for the payment of such militia and that it was expected that the people of the county would cheer- fully exert themselves in their own defense, without enlistment and military pay. This failure to provide military organiza- tion and protection was followed by others. In fact there cannot be said to have been any very efficient protection during the War.
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