USA > Pennsylvania > Schuylkill County > Blue book of Schuylkill County : who was who and why, in interior eastern Pennsylvania, in Colonial days, the Huguenots and Palatines, their service in Queen Anne's French and Indian, and Revolutionary Wars : history of the Zerbey, Schwalm, Miller, Merkle, Minnich, Staudt, and many other representative families > Part 6
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34
In the said county of Berks-for which he agrees to pay to our use within the term of six months from the date hereof at the rate of fifteen pounds ten shilling current money of this Province, for every hundred acers ; and also to pay the yearly quit rent of one Half Penny Sterling for every Acer thereof, to us, our Heirs and Assigns, for ever; these are therefor to author- ize and require you to survey or cause to be surveyed unto the said Conard Minich at the place aforesaid according to the method of Townships appointed, and said quantity of One Hundred Acers.
If not already surveyed, or appropriated, and make Re- turn thereof into the Secretary's office, in order for confirma- tion, for which this shall be your sufficient Warrant. Which
74
BLUE BOOK OF Indian Troubles in Penna.
warrant and survey in case the said Conard Minich-fulfills the above agreement within six months from the Date hereof, shall be valid otherwise void. Given under my Hand and the seal of the land office by virtue of certain Powers from the said Proprietaries, at Philadelphia this thirteenth day of January, Anno Domini, One Thousand Seven Hundred and fifty five.1
JOHN PENN.
To John Luken,
Surveyor-General.
THE NEYMAN MASSACRE
About the year 1780 a military post was established at the Schuylkill Gap, near Cape Horn, below Mt. Carbon, for the protection of the inhabitants and the woodmen who were engaged in cutting timber from the gap, the present site of Landingville. The huge trees were intended for masts for the ships of the French navy, the ally of the Colonial govern- ment, in the War of Independence. A saw mill, owned by Balsar Gehr, stood at the mouth of the Norwegian Creek, where it. empties into the Schuylkill River (Mt. Carbon), which was in charge of John Neyman, sawyer. Neyman lived on the brow of the hill, in a small log cabin, in the rear of where the Pottsville Hospital now stands.
MILITARY COMES TO THE RESCUE
A letter, August 30, 1780, from Valentine Eckart to V. P. Moore states, that "John Negman (y) who lived at the saw mill about three miles above Conrad Minnich's, on Sun- day was, with his wife and three young children, barbarously murdered by the Indians."2 Colonel Eckart applied to the Pro- vincial Council for protection and ammunition. Captain Dennis Leary, in command of the detachment protecting the
(Note 1-See index for copy of original.)
(Note 2-Vol. 8, p. 529, Penna. Archives.)
75
SCHUYLKILL COUNTY Indian Troubles in Penna.
workmen cutting masts, also wrote Commissioner Moore, September 1, 1780, informing him that he, with a detail of four men, buried the Neyman family and was joined in the pursuit of the Indians by Captain Baldy with ten men and the next day by Colonel Lindermuth with fifty men between them. They scoured the woods to Reading but found no traces but a house and barn, on the Little Schuylkill River, were burned and a little boy, named Shurr, was missing. Sixty men were left at different settlements to protect the people. More protection was needed as the cunning savages rendered the masts cut unfit for usage by nicking or notching them.1
HOW "OLD DRESS" SCARED THE INDIANS
How "Old Dress" scared the Indians in the Indian mas- sacre after the French and Indian War shows what a strate- gist can do if he has courage and is endowed with enough presence of mind. The Dress family lived in the Panther Valley, (Bender Thal).
The Indians had been friendly at first, but since success was beginning to crown the efforts of the hardy pioneers, there were mutterings of discontent among them, and they had upon one or two occasions shown their hostility, but no real depredations had been perpetrated as yet.
Murders had been committed farther south, defenseless women and children were scalped or taken into captivity, their homes burned and their cattle driven away and the settlers were tortured beyond measure, but "Bender Thal" remained unmolested.
Word came one day that there was an uprising among the Indians and that they were headed for the Valley. The block stockade, Fort Lebanon, near what is now Auburn, had served upon early occasions as a place of refuge for the
(Note 1-Penna. Archives, Vol. 8, p. 542.)
76
BLUE BOOK OF Indian Troubles in Penna.
settlers when in danger of being attacked; but it was now abandoned and the thoroughly frightened pioneers in "Bender Thal" made their preparations to flee to the block house, near the site of Schuylkill Haven.
The women and children were gathered together and placed in charge of George Zerbe, who gathered the cattle to drive them to a place of safety. The Dress family formed part of the little caravan that turned toward the fort, but "Old Dress" was obdurate. He would not go.1
He was the first settler to discover rich farming land in that locality. He had spent several years in the "Thal" re- turning again and again to it and finally brought to it his wife and family. The Indians had given him the first kernels of corn which he planted as seed and in turn he had shown them how to fashion the rude farming implements he used, the iron for which he brought from the Lesher, Pott furnace, on Maxatawny creek.
Once he had opened an abscess for "Sagawatch," the great chief of the mongrel tribe, and dressed it with home- made salve. Not without some display of the necromancer's art, it must be confessed, for he knew he was powerless among them, and "Sagawatch" was cured. He had frequently treated their "boils" with which they were afflicted, the result of dirt and squalor and improper food, for they were a lazy set, and looking upon him as something of a medicine man, the Indians called him the "Little White Father ;" and believed, some of them, that he had supernatural powers.
It was only the week before that an apparently friendly set had visited him. The mother had just completed the famn- ily baking in the huge Dutch oven back of the log cabin and on the plea of wanting a present from the "Little White Father" everyone of the large brown well-baked loaves of
(Note 1-Valentine Tress was a taxpayer in Pine Grove Township, Berks (Schuylkill) County, 1772. His will shows George Zerbe, Sr., and George Zerbe, Jr., as administrators of his estate.)
:
77
SCHUYLKILL COUNTY Indian Troubles in Penna.
bread had found their way into a sack with other things they managed to lay hands on, and the good wife had another batch of bread to make. In the meantime the family subsisted on potato buffers," (a species of hoecakes made of grated potato and flour and baked on the hearth) until the leaven had raised and the new bread was again baked.
Just a glance at "Old Dress" would show that he was not a man to be trifled with. Short, stout, broad of girth, and with sinewy muscles that stood out like whip cords, he was the picture of health and alert activity. His face was smooth and red and as has often been said of men who wear that type of whiskers, around the face from ear to ear underneath the chin, it was easy to be seen he was a man of determination. He wore his hair, which was scant, for he was partially bald, all combed up after the fashion of those days into a single tuft on the top of his head. This tuft from long practice stood up straight. If anyone could circumvent the Indians, the settlers knew he could. There was little time for par- leying and the women and children with their leaders were soon out of sight.
Dress made his way hurriedly to the hillside and screened from view by some friendly bushes, watched the approach of the redskins. They came, some seated on their Indian ponies, the young braves running at the sides of the old men. Smeared with their war paint and with their war toggery on, beating their tom-toms and yelling like mad, they struggled up the defile.
He could not count them, although he at first tried. There was Sagawatch, too, the greasy villain and traitor. What could he do single handed against so many, with his one old flint lock musket and home-made cartridges and Marie not here to help load.
He fingered the tuft of hair, his top-knot, which he knew would soon be hanging with the other smoking and gory
78
BLUE BOOK OF Indian Troubles in Penna.
scalps from the belts of the foremost of the band, and his mind was made up. Taking an extra hitch at his rusty brown linsey woolsey trousers and rolling up the sleeves of his yellow grey woolen shirt, he ran as hard as he could in the direction of the oncoming murderous crew and in full view of them to the crest of the near- by hill. Screaming and yelling at the top of his voice and wildly gesticulating with his long bare arms and pointing with his fingers: "Come on, Boys," he yelled. "Here are the Indians." (Cum Buva, dah sin Sie, die Incha.) He screamed until he was purple with rage and told one imagin- ary party, with the wildest of signs and commands, to close up the defile and prevent their escape, the others should file up the left and right and surround them, and the rest should follow him. "Sagawatch," the murderous "tuyfel," could un- derstand German he knew, for he himself had taught him many words in the current vernacular. And then, still screaming as loud as he could and doubly gesticulating, he ran down the hill with all his might toward the red warriors, who thought they were being attacked by at least a battalion of soldiers under command of "Old Dress," whom Capt. Leary had reinforced with his squad, and they showed the white feather and turned tail and fled as fast as they could in the direction in which they had come.
All night "Old Dress" watched at the single window of the little log hut. His blunderbuss and old musket ready, he would sell his life as dearly as possible, if they returned ; but they never did.
When the settlers returned, "Old Dress" was quietly sit- ting in front of his cabin mending an old fish net. The cattle had all been recovered by him from their impounding in the clearings in the mountain fastnesses and returned to their rightful owners. The cows had been milked, the cream was ready for the good wives to churn and everything was going
79
SCHUYLKILL COUNTY Indian Troubles in Penna.
on as usual. The Indians never molested the settlers again, and even to this day "Old Dress" is a hero to the descendants of the families of the early settlers of "Bender Thal."1
The Indian path along Sharp Mountain to Indian Run and the remains of the Indian village, at Swatara Creek, show many traces of a peaceful occupation of the land by the sav- ages at this point. The settlers were mainly of a migratory character in the west end, at this date, and they prudently avoided an encounter with the savages, or the latter who fre- quently used these paths from Berks County to Fort Augusta (Sunbury) were, doubtless, too much engrossed with larger game when on the war path and left them unmolested.
INDIAN STORY
One of the Indian legends related by an aged resident of the Panther Valley, was that of an Indian ghost, who wandered around the crags and bluffs through which the Swatara Creek runs, near Swatara. His father told him that the Indians who lived there had been out on a marauding trip and returned with a large amount of loot and some gold. One of the braves con- cealed the gold under a rock near the creek. Ile was killed by his companions for the treachery, and ever after his wraith was seen wandering in and out among the rocks to find his ill- gotten treasure. The narrator remembered frequently tracing his steps in and out on the Indian causeway, to find that treasure. His genii was the red man's ghost, whom he hoped to encounter some time unexpectedly and wrest from him his secret of wealth that would prove as fabulous as that of the hidden recesses in Monte Christo's Halls, but he never found him nor the treasure.
Gold was said to have been found upon the "Gobbleberg," (near Schuylkill Haven) and the Indian superstition claimed that when it thundered and lightened, the rocks were some- times cleft in twain and the hidden recesses were discovered to
(Note 1-Old Schuylkill Tales.)
80
BLUE BOOK OF Indian Troubles in Penna.
be gorged with nuggets of gold. Whoever could claim them before they closed was in favor with the spirits of the air, and the genii of the mountain. Many hunted for this gold, but it was like hunting for the pot of that precious metal that hangs at the horns of the prismatic rainbow.
Many of the flights, by the thoroughly frightened settlers, to the block houses and Indian forts were superinduced by false alarms. "The Indians are coming" ("Die Incha Kum- mah"), was sufficient to startle the sparse communities into almost immediate flight. On one occasion an old woman, whose son could carry her no further, was left in the woods (at her own request) to die. She could not live much longer anyway, she said, while the rest of the family hastened on to a place of safety. When the Indians came up to her place of refuge they proved to be a squad of Captain O'Leary's Co- lonial Guards, who were protecting the woodsmen out to sight such timber as was needed to cut for the use of the navy yard at Philadelphia, and they carried the old lady to a place of safety between them.
Another legend is told of an Indian maiden, Wanomanie, who sprang from the highest point of the rocky crags on the pinnacle of Sharp Mountain, (south of Henry Clay's Monu- ment,) into the declivity below and was killed. All because her father, Sagawatch, would not allow her to marry the dusky lover of her choice. It was said that on moonlight nights, in harvest time, she could be seen on a misty evening, through the clouds, taking the spring into the abyss below, her lover a close second, taking the leap after her, and Sagawatch leaning over the crest of the mountain to watch the lovers going to their certain death. Whether these ghostly sights were only apparent to those who had been imbibing too freely of spirits of another brand, or whether they were the innocent victims of hallucinations will be left to the vivid imagination of the readers.1
(Note 1 -- "Old Schuylkill Tales.")
8I
SCHUYLKILL COUNTY War of the Revolution
War of the Revolution
ROM the passage of the infamous Stamp Act, March, 1765. by the British Parliament, when
Benjamin Franklin declared, "The Sun of Ameri-
can liberty has set"; and when Patrick Henry, in the House of Burgesses, in the oldest American commonwealth, Virginia, denounced the Act in the presence of two of the future presidents of the United States, George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, who were Provincial delegates : to the attempted enactment of the Bos- ton Port Bill, June 18, 1774; through the dark days following the offering of the resolution in Congress, June 7, 1776, by Richard Henry Lee, of Virginia, declaring that, "the United Colonies were and ought to be free" and the involving of Lee's resolution into the subsequent Declaration of Independence, which as a formal document was adopted July 4, 1776; during the bitter struggle of the infant republic, to the sur- render of Lord Cornwallis, October 19, 1781 ; and the declara- tion of peace and the ratification of the treaty and final de- parture of the British troops, November 25, 1783; during the sacrifices and struggles incident to an eight year's war with a powerful nation, Pennsylvania, was ever loyal to the cause and motives that actuated the colonists to withdraw from the oppressive protection of England and establish the grandest and most effectual form of Republican government on the face of the globe.
The Pennsylvania Associators and committee of obser- vation represented the sentiments of the yeomanry of the state. They stood in the same relation to the American
82
BLUE BOOK OF War of the Revolution
colonies and their leaders in the War of the Revolution, as did the First Defenders, when Abraham Lincoln issued his first call for troops in the Civil War.
At a meeting held in Reading, July 2, 1774, resolutions were passed and a committee appointed to meet with other committees in Philadelphia, from the different counties in the Province. From the first formation of the Associators, the Berks County contingent were active in their support of the military defense of the rights of the colonists, contributing the allotted quota of men and forage for the army; and in raising the necessary supplies and money for the sinews of war.
The following composed part of the first committee chosen to represent Berks County at the Provincial meeting, Philadelphia :
Edward Biddle, James Lewis, Christopher Schultz, Mark Bird and John Jones. None of the Associators lived north of the Blue Mountains, but Dr. Jonathan Potts, Secretary, owned tracts of coal land around what is now St. Clair ; and Baltzar Gehr owned and operated a saw mill on the site of Pottsville, at the mouth of the Norwegian Creek where it empties into the Schuylkill River. Others of the Associators were : William Reeser, Christopher Witman, John Old,1
Sebastian Levan, George Nagel, Michael Bright, John Patton and Jacob Shoemaker, Associators, are closely allied with this region through their descendants of successive gen- erations who populate Schuylkill County .?
After the battle of Lexington was fought, April 19, 1775, eight companies of riflemen were raised in Pennsylvania to join the Continental army, near Boston : of these that of Cap-
(Note 1-John Old was the ancestor of Daniel Old, a carpenter and contractor, who lived in Pottsville, 1840-'60. He built and owned the residence, 409 West Market Street, among other properties. He left no descendants.)
(Note 2-Penna. Archives, 5th Series, 5th Vol., p. 138.)
83
SCHUYLKILL COUNTY War of the Revolution
tain George Nagel was the first from Berks County. They joined Colonel Thompson's battalion of twelve companies of riflemen and were the first troops from Pennsylvania to reach Boston.1
Efforts were made to recruit companies from each of the townships and the quotas of the more thickly settled portions of the county were augmented by recruits from the straggling and remote borders. The Welsh of Caernarvon Township raised a company of eighty-three Associators that were in the campaign in Canada during that dreadful retreat in mid- winter from Quebec. Other companies from Berks were in the Massachusetts' campaign and in the army of the Southern Department and participated in the final capitulation of Cornwallis.
The Captains of these companies, of the regular Continen- tal line, were: Henry Christ, Miles Regiment; Jonathan Jones, First Pennsylvania Battalion; Benjamin Weiser, Hausegger's Regiment: Jacob Bauer, Oddendorf's Corps ; John Spohn, Magaw's Battalion ; John Lesher, Patton's Regi- ment ; Jacob Moser, Harmar's Sixth Regiment.
At a Provincial Conference, held at Carpenter's Hall, Philadelphia, June 18-25, 1776, provision was made to form a "Flying Camp," of 10,000 men, in the middle colonies ; the quota for Pennsylvania being 4,500 men ; this militia to march to such place as ordered by Congress. July 13, 1776, Berks County reported as having raised more than their quota of men to complete the battalion.
March 17, 1777, a militia law was passed by the Penn- sylvania Assembly. The President of the Supreme Executive Council of the Commonwealth was to commission one free- holder in each county to serve as a lieutenant of the militia for the said counties. The constables of each township, borough, ward or district in the said counties were to return
(Note 1-Penna. Archives, 2d Series, Vol. X, pp. 3-13-34.)
84
BLUE BOOK OF War of the Revolution
to the lieutenant an exact list of the names of every male white person residing within the township, borough, ward or district, between the ages of eighteen and fifty-three years, capable of bearing arms. Each county was to be sub-divided into districts, each district to contain not less than 440 and more than 680 privates and each district was to be sub-divided into eight parts. The militiamen of the district were required to meet and elect three field officers ; one colonel, one lieu- tenant colonel and one major, who were to be freeholders and inhabitants of the district and the militia men of the sub- divisions were to elect one captain, two lieutenants, one ensign and two persons to be styled court martial men, who shall respectively be such persons as are entitled to vote for members to serve in the General Assembly. The whole of the militia so enrolled were required by law to be exercised in companies, under their special officers, on the last two Mondays in the month of April and three first Mondays in the month of May and in battalion on the fourth Monday in May and in companies on the last two Mondays in the month of August and the last two Mondays in the month of Sep- tember and the third Monday in the month of October and in battalion on the fourth Monday in October. On which days officers and privates were expected to attend and drill under penalties of fines.
Brunswick Township, under this law, was organized into the third battalion or northern section of Berks County. The battalion officers were: Colonel, Michael Lindemuth, Bern Township; Lieutenant Colonel, George May, Winsor Town- ship, and Major, Martin Kercher, Winsor Township. The officers of the second company of the battalion, which was the Brunswick Company, were: Captain, Conrad Minnich ; Ist Lieutenant, John Graul; 2nd Lieutenant, John Stout ; Ensign, Phillip Boning; Court Martial men, Gideon Moyer, John Crawford and George Stout.
85
SCHUYLKILL COUNTY War of the Revolution
October 17, 1777, General Washington reported that, "the term of service of many of the military had expired and that one-half of the men capable of bearing arms, from the ages of eighteen to fifty-eight, should be called into the field." The quota from Berks County was three hundred men and one hundred and fifty men in Berks were recruited January I, 1778. The system of supplying men was simple and ef- fective. It was carried on in such a manner as to render as- sistance to the government without the people suffering losses. The time of service was short and many returned and attended to their crops, upon which the army depended for forage and supplies and that their families might not starve, and went out again. Others offended against discipline and went home to attend to their affairs before their terms of service expired and almost invariably returned when a fight was impending. Through this method several hundred militia men were kept in the field continuously, from Berks County, to reinforce the operations of the regular line under General Washington.
It will be noted by the above that the term "Court Mar- tial" was not one of opprobrium, nor was it used in the mili- tary sense now given it. A "Court Martial" man, in the Revolutionary war, was a "reputable citizen" and ranked next to ensign.
THE OATH OF ALLEGIANCE
The General Assembly, of Pennsylvania, June 12, 1777, passed an Act requiring the men of the State to take an oath of allegiance and fidelity to this State. This was necessary owing to the loosely joined federation of states in rebellion against the King and to having no constitution ; the test oath showing who would openly stand for the new government.
This oath required great courage on the part of those who took it, for if the revolutionary cause should fail, their property would surely be confiscated and they, themselves, be imprisoned.
86
BLUE BOOK OF War of the Revolution
In some of the counties of the State many declined to take the oath, but in Berks County nearly every man took it; the original lists (Berks County Historical Society Library) con- taining about six thousand names. These men were formed into eighty or ninety companies, of sixty-four men each, and many of them in turn served some time in the field.
Of the men of Berks County, who served in the Revolu- tionary war, as Associators, Militia men, or long term Conti- nentals, scarcely two-thirds of their names are on record. A few of these missing names may occasionally turn up but the bulk of them will never be found.
In some of the Western States, where societies of the D. A. R. and Sons of Veterans exist, this taking of the oath of allegiance is considered sufficient evidence for admission to the organizations.1
As has been heretofore stated, the Berks County militia men, all of whom took the oath of allegiance, guarded pris- oners, were in the campaign in New Jersey ; while Wash- ington's army was at Valley Forge they reinforced it and assisted the militia of other counties in patroling and guard- ing the open country between the Schuylkill and Delaware rivers, and also participated in the battles of Brandywine and Germantown.
Of the six battalions of Berks County militia no complete records have ever been found. They may never have been recorded in the Pennsylvania Archives, or they may have been lost or were most probably burned in 1808 or 1814. In the former year many public documents were destroyed that had been stored in a two-story frame building in Washington, D. C., and when the British forces of General Ross, September 24, 1814, marched unopposed into the city and burned all of
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.