History of Bradford County, Pennsylvania, with Illustrations and biographical sketches, Part 15

Author: Craft, David, 1832-1908; L.H. Everts & Co
Publication date: 1878
Publisher: Philadelphia : L. H. Everts
Number of Pages: 812

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William Dunn was a native of York county, Pennsyl- vania, but became a speculator in the Susquehanna lands. He made a settlement on the flats just opposite to Camp- town, and some improvement at the mouth of Camp creek, which was first called Dunn's creek, and the improvement " Dunn's Possession." He was killed by the Indians dur- ing the Wyoming troubles. His name is found among the list of the killed in the battle, but this is probably a mistake.

Benjamin Skiff and Stephen Skiff were settled on a pitch made by John Staples, the farm subsequently owned by Jonas Ingham In a deposition . made by Col. John Franklin he says, " that in the lifetime of Jonas Ingham, this Dept. was often at his house near Wyolusing creek ; that he understood and believes that the sd. Ingham was living on a farm which he purchased of Isaac Benjamin ; sd. farm was formerly known as 'Staples Pitch' and claimed by Benjamin and Stepheu Skiff, who this Dept. understood and believes were settled on the lands before the massacre by the savages at Wyoming, which took place July 3, 1778." At the time of his settlement there in 1789, Mr. Ingham says the cabin was still standing. August 30, 1787, Benjamin and Stephen Skiff, from the " Mohawk district, Montgomery Co., N. Y.," sell " Staples Piteli" to Benjamin Eaton.

Stephen Skiff enlisted in Captain Ransom's company and served through the Revolutionary war. The family were from Windham Co., Connecticut.

Ambrose and Justus Gaylord laid a right in Springfield and drew Nos. 20 and 21, which included the Irving and Homet farms at the old Misiscum at Homet's Ferry. They came here in 1776 or '77. On the commencement of the troubles of the Revolutionary war, both the brothers enlisted in the Continental army, and served through the war. Justus held the rank of sergeant in Spalding's company.

Benjamin Budd, with his sons John, Joseph, and Asa, drew lots Nos. 14 and 15 in Springfield, subsequently owned by George and William Terry and the Hortons. The lots were purchased by Parshall Terry. His wife, Rachael Budd, has narrated the story of their settlement, which contains such a picture of frontier life of that period, that it is inserted at considerable length.

NARRATIVE OF RACHAEL BUDD.

From "Letters of an American Farmer," by St. John de Creve- Cœur. 3 vols. Paris, 1787.º

The authort of these volumes, a Frenchman by birth and education, but an American by adoption and by virtue of over thirty years' residence, became acquainted with Mrs. Budd probably within a few months of the battle of Wyoming, as his account is dated Orange county, April 28, 1779. The book is dedicated to the Marquis de La Fayette, then a major-general in the American army. It was originally published in English. As it appears in its French dress, this narrative is so full of Gallicisms and inflated verbiage as to discredit its claim to be a verbatim report, though given in the first person. Yet there is no reason to doubt the substantial accuracy of Mrs. Budd's statements, and, as she and her husband were among the carliest settlers within the limits of Bradford County, as well as at Wyoming, a condensed report of her story is given here; the language of the original being quoted only where not objectionable by reason of verbiage or prolixity.

Mrs. Budd, who does not give her maiden name, was the daughter of a clergyman at Southampton, Long Island. At the age of seventeen she married Benjamin Budd, a neighboring farmer, shortly after which they removed to Orange county, where they remained until she was the mother of six sons and two daughters. Tired with con- tending with a rigorons climate and ungrateful soil, her husband entered with enthusiasm into the new project of the Connecticut people for a colony on the Susquehanna river. "Nothing," she says, " could be more seducing than the descriptions of this new country as printed in our newspapers. The first path was hardly broken when we sold our farm and departed for Wyoming. I cannot de-

# Lettres d'un cultivateur américain, addressées à Wm. S-on Esqr., depuis l'année 1780 jusqu'en 1786. Par M. St. John de Creve- Cœur : Traduites l'Anglois. Paris, 1787.

+ Hector St. Jean de Crevecœur, a French writer, born at Caen in 1731, emigrated to America in 1754, and settled on a farm near New York. In 1782 he published his " Letters of an American Farmer," and was appointed French consul at New York. He is said to have enjoyed the confidence of Washington and Franklin. Died in France, 1813.

HISTORY OF BRADFORD COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

scribe to you the fatigues and dangers that we encountered in this long journey ; for you know that from Wells' ferry, on the Delaware river, there is a continuous forest of 120 miles, mountainous, filled with pines, hemlocks, beech, spruce, and wild laurel." This wild region they traversed with great labor and difficulty, accompanied by their eight children, and a goodly stock of cattle, horses, sheep, and swine. "We arrived finally in this promised land. Every- thing I saw announced its fertility and abundance. I viewed withi peculiar pleasure the striking contrast afforded by the rugged hills which we had traversed, and the beautiful lowlands which they surrounded, skirting both sides of this lovely river."

The date of this arrival is not given ; but in Wordeu's list Benjamin Budd is said to have acquired 13 shares in the Susquehanna company in 1768; and in "a list of settlers at Wilkes-Barre, 24 July, 1769," occurs as follows : " No. 92, Benjamin Budd, deserted" (or left the settle- ment). This fixes his arrival as among the earliest at Wyoming. Here, in a society of seventeen families, within the space of two leagues, lodged in her humble bark eabin, and exposed to many privations, though rich in hopes, Mrs. Budd became the mother, four and a half months after their arrival, of the first white child born in Wyoming. " We named him ' Susquehanna Budd,' in memory of the new place of his birth. My husband made him a cradle of bark, very commodious. , Although this furniture evinced the lowliness of his fortunes, this ehild might have been able, but for this eruel war, to become a rich colonist."

In the subsequent troubles between the Connecticut and Pennsylvania settlers Mr. Budd lost all his cattle, and was himself carried a prisoner to Philadelphia; and his wife, being reduced to indigence, placed five of her children at service,-the eldest at Mehoopany,-and with the assist- ance of her second son, and with the little Susquehanna in her arms, returned to Orange county; five days' travel through the snow of early winter, with ouly a couple of blankets for nightly shelter from the cold. The following May, her husband having been released from prison, they returned to Wyoming. He seems, however, by reason of his peace principles, to have lost the confidence of the Con- necticut people during the Penuamite troubles, and after five years' residence at Wyoming (presumably in the year 1774), he removed his family to Wyalusing, hoping to end his days there. "In our neighborhood lived Job Chilloway and the old Hendrick, two respectable Shawanese Indians. They were more acute and subtle than these natives gen- erally are; they loved gold and silver ; they had acquired from their compatriots more than five hundred acres of lowlands,-an immense property, if you knew all the value of it. They were generous and humane. We found among them the resources of friendship.

"The rich pastures of the neighborhood, the repose which we enjoyed, the honesty of our neighbors, made us very soon forget all our old calamities,-they served only to make us enjoy our present happiness. My second son married a woman who gave him 300 acres of land at Wissaek* (Wysox), a new settlement above Wyalusing; our oldestt

was established at Mehoopany." The three years of her residence at this loved and peaceful asylum Mrs. Budd speaks of as the happiest period of her life. But they were not to enjoy their quiet longer. The sharp definition of sympathy and co-operation which ranged the seaboard pop- ulation ou the side of Whig or Loyalist, reached the most obseure retreats of the frontier. Budd's three oldest .sous took part with the Whigs; while their father, though a non-combatant and a pacificator, became obnoxious ou ac- count of suspected Tory sympathies, and in common with the whole population of " the three upper settlements of Wi-o-Lucing, Wissaek, and Standing Stone" was forced to retire; the more pronounced Tories going northwardt into the Indian country ; while others took refuge in the settle- ments below.

"Our two savages retired with the rest to Shenando (Chenango?), an Indian village. Happy mortals ! They knew where to find peace; and we dared to call them savages ! Would to God we had followed theni, as we were several times invited to do!" The third son, who had joined the militia against his parents' wishes, had been carried a prisoner to Montreal, by the way of Ockwako and Niagara; and at the time of this relation his mother had heard nothing more of him.

Returning to Wyoming, probably in 1777, the Budds found everything changed from the peaceful situation of former years. " All was turmoil and excitement. The time of happy hospitality was past; rumors and factions only remained. They reproached my husband for his tranquillity and love of peace as a crime. Reduced to culti- vate land which did not belong to us, we passed our nights deploring in secret the loss of our former opulence, and the quiet of Wyalusing; we wept to recall that in twenty-nine years of fatigue and hardship we had enjoyed but three years of peace and repose.

"Ah," said I to my husband, " why did we not remain where we were? Here we are distrusted and despised. Exposure to the depredations of the two parties (at Wya- lusing) could not be worse than these daily insults which we do not deserve. You have no doubt heard, Monsieur, of the embassy of savages from Ockwako, who came to reclaim the cattle of the settlers who had taken refuge among them. 'We have given hospitality,' said they, 'to the whites whow you have exiled and persecuted ; we have received them into our villages, because they were uuhappy and hungry. They have touched our wigwams,§ but we have no milk for their children. The village has sent us to reclaim their cows : what do you say to it?' Our leaders had the imprudence to arrest them. It had been easy to foresee the folly of such conduct, which teuded to attach these tribes to the Royalist cause; but such was the power they (our leaders) had usurped, that nobody dared find fault with their proceedings.

" In the mean time Brant and Butler fell on our settle- ments with the rapidity of lightning. You know the bloody details of this frightful tragedy, which resulted in the destruction and banishment of more than twelve hun-

# Tbe name I have been unable to learu.

¡ Probably Asa Budd.

į To Anaquaga, Ockwako (Owege?), and Shenando, as the names of these Indian villages are given in the narrative.

¿ A ceremony which conferred the right to demand hospitality.

HISTORY OF BRADFORD COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

dred families, established along a line of one hundred and twenty miles of shore."

On the approach of the enemy Mr. Budd and his family, consisting of wife, three young children, daughter, and son- in-law,* took refuge in the stockade, } into which Mrs. B. was carried with a broken leg, from an accident on entering the bateau to cross the river. After the battle and subse- quent capitulation, Mrs. Budd says that the old Indian, Hendrick, was the first to enter the fort, where he reeog- nized her husband and family, whom he saluted with every mark of friendship. On inquiring for the two eldest sons of the family, he was told that they were supposed to be safe at Mehoopany, at which he expressed gratification ; but as it afterwards appeared, he knew better than they. Two hours after this the prisoners were all ordered, for their own protection, to paint their faces with vermilion, which was served out for the purpose, and they were ordered to quit the country within five days. Towards night Hendrick re- turned and led Mr. Budd away to the Indian camp, passing the field of battle, where he recognized on all sides the bodies of his friends and neighbors. At the camp Hen- drick presented him with his two sons, painted red. They had come down from Mehoopany, as would appear from Mrs. Budd's narrative, to join in the defense of Wyoming; but having been taken prisoners, were indebted for their safety to the friendly offices of Hendrick. Seeing his friend's distress at the desolation which had overtaken his country, and his despondency and despair of ever finding a better fate, Hendrick advised him to return to his old home at Wyalusing, saying that his house there was not, and should not, be burned, and promising him protection, adding that Budd was a man of peace, and the friend of every one, and that no one would harm him. Finding him disinclined to run so great a risk, Hendriek gave him two horses, and told him to take what property and supplies he had brought with him into the fort and go in peace, and with his blessing.

Three days afterwards this afflicted family started for Shamokin by water; but finding a lack of accommodations when they arrived there, went on to Northumberland, where they found, indeed, abundant hospitality, but were destined soon to suffer worse evils than had yet befallen them, for while Mrs. Budd was lying helpless with her broken limb, her husband and two of her sons died with the smallpox. "They lost their lives in this new settlement after having escaped from the fire and sword of our enemies. I more than once reproached my cruel destiny for leaving me to survive such disasters. I recommended myself to God, and thought of all my parents and friends. But how should a woman in my condition ever hope to join them ? I departed finally, accompanied by three sons who remained to me, and my daughter Rachael, who had a child at the breast; the other daughter married, in Pennsylvania, was ignorant of

our fate. Mounted on one of the horses that the good Hen- drick gave us, we were advised to take the lower road. Scareely had we passed the great forest when my daughter was attacked with the smallpox, and my cruel fortune obliged me to leave her at the first house that we came to. They promised me to take care of her, for our company was too large to admit of our awaiting her convalescence."

Taking with her her daughter's child, ten months old, and the remainder of the party, Mrs. Budd proceeded on her way to join her friends in Orange county, passing the Delaware at Minisink. One of her sons left her at this place in order to rejoin his wife, whom he had taken to an asylum in the forest during the general disaster. Soon after, her little grandchild died in her arms with the smallpox, and she was herself attacked with it; hoping then, as she says, to finish her painful career. But fortune was not so good to her ; " for I am, as you see, nearly blind, and an object of unavailing compassion. My daughter re- joined me at the end of thirty-two days. She rented a house in the vicinity of my parents, and their bounty, united to her industry, procured for us a comfortable sub- sistence. Ah ! if my husband had been willing, this is the asylum I would have proposed to him. Perhaps he might still have lived; but I was fated to weep alone. Such were the gradations of our misfortunes and ruin; after having owned successively four plantations, I now await only the little hillock of earth which will ere long cover me. Let the moment come : it will be one of repose."

There were probably in the Susquehanna valley other persons by the name of Budd who did not belong to the immediate family of Benjamin. This, with the apparent difficulty of always understanding clearly Mr. Budd's narra- tive, renders the relation of the parties uncertain. Franklin reports a Joseph Budd slain in the massacre, but probably not a son of Rachael, although she had a son of that name.

Miner's list of 1772 gives Benjamin Budd, page 138. Captain John Budd is mentioned in Worden's list. John Budd, in 1802, deposes to the sale by h s father to Parshall Terry of the Terrytown plantation. Harding reports Asa Budd at Tunkhannock at the invasion ; this was, I suppose, one of those spoken of as at Mehoopany. What was the name of the second son, who married at Wysox, and what his wife's name, she does not state. Probably Asa was one of the two whose lives were saved by Hendrick. This Hendrick, called a Shawanese Indian by Mrs. B., appears to be the same called Peter Hendrick, a Mohawk, by Miner in his " History," p. 91.

OTHER EARLY SETTLERS.

Besides the families named, there were at various times within the limits of old Springfield, but at what particular location cannot now with certainty be ascertained, the fol- lowing persons : Josiah Dewey, Isaiah Pasco, Caleb Ather- ton, Jacob Burt, John Segar, Philip Fox, - Winters, Casper Hoover, and Parker Wilson. The most of these were probably lessees, under parties holding either the Penn- sylvania or Susquehanna company's title. The following memoranda of deeds throw light on other settlements :

"To all people to whom these presents shall come, greeting : Know ye, that. I, Gideon Church, of ye town and county of West-

$ This son-in-law, whose name is not given, appears afterwards to have gone cut to the battle, from which he did not return.

+ Mrs. Budd says "at Shawney, called Kingston." It is evident that she means Forty fort, which was the one used for a refuge for the women and children, and where the capitulation took place, while the Shawney stockade was in Plymouth township, and was not in use at the time of the battle.

HISTORY OF BRADFORD COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

moreland and State of Connecticut, for and in consideration of twenty pounds lawful money to me in hand paid, of Benjamin Hatch of Shef- field, in the county of Berkshire, in Massachusetts Bay, do by these presents give, &c., one quartor of n whole proprietor's right of land, now in partnership with the heirs of Ezbon Hatch . . . together with ye pitch and improvements made on Wialushin creek about five miles from ye mouth, or where it falls into ye Great River, to have and to hold ye above granted and hargained premises together with all ye privileges and appartenances as thereunto belonging . . . this 19th day of August, A.D. 1777."

From which it would appear that there were settlements even above or in the immediate neighborhood of Skiffs, but by whom made does not appear. Under date of 26th Oc- tober, 1782, Asahel Atherton conveys to Aaron Wormer [Warner ?] "abont 300 acres lying in that part of said town, near Wiolusink, and within the bounds of a township there laid out on the creek, called and known by the name of Wiolnsink creek, ... with the privileges and appurte- nances," etc. The deed does not sufficiently describe the land to locate it, but it is quite likely that Caleb Atherton made the improvements.

At the month of Rummerfield creek, Anthony Rummer- field [Rommerfeldt ?], a blacksmith by trade, from the Mo- hawk region, was a settler previous to 1774. After the war he removed to Catherines town, in Tioga Co., N. Y., where, under date of Jan. 9, 1794, he sells to Matthias Hollenback " a piece of land near Standing Stone, including the month and falls of a creek which empties itself into the Susquehanna river, ... with my possession, improvement, and mill-work, formerly erected by me the said Anthony Rummerfield."

Next above Rummerfield was Simon Spalding, who moved up the river from Wyoming in 1775, remained a year, and then leased to Conrad Sill. In a deed bearing date April 1, 1790, to his son, John Spalding, the property is described as a "tract of land containing 300 acres, lying opposite the Standing Stone, extending up the river three- fourths of a mile to Van Alstine's possession, which tract was laid out to me in 1775 on a proprietor's right, belong- ing originally to Jonas Shepard. The said land, in 1776, I leased to Conrad Sill for five years, on which said Sill built a house and barn and other improvements."

"Sunday morning, 7 o'clock, moved toward Tioga, and encamped on a piece of low ground by the river, where there has been a settle- ment, and four families dwelt there in 1775. This place is called 'Standing Stone Bottom.' Captain Spalding, who commands the independent company in General Hand's light troops, lived at this place." [Anon. Journal of Sul. Cam.]

"Captain Spalding is one of those for Wyoming; he is the truest of any which I have seen yet; his interest doth not lay here at all, he claiming only a certain place near the Standing Stone, on which he formerly lived." [Captain Sbrawder to John Van Campen, Pa. Ar., x. 24.]

Next above the Spalding place was the settlement of Richard Fitzgerald. His former place of residence was Schodac, in Albany Co., N. Y. While here he was drafted for the old French war, and for a year was on garrison duty at the British fort at Oswego. "In the spring of 1776," says his nephew, William Huyck, who was the adopted son of Mr. Fitzgerald, "our family emigrated from the county of Albany ; we went on as far as Springfield, at the head of Lake Otsego, and when the lake was clear of ice, when my uncle procured a bateaux, and we moved

down the river with considerable difficulty to Standing Stone." Here they were successfully engaged in farming until about Dec. 6, 1777,* when a party of "about twenty of those refugees came to his uncle's house, having the aforesaid Indian, Hopkins, and his lieutenant, Parshall Terry, with them, and plundered the house of an abundance ; putting it into a boat of our own, proceeded up the river with their booty, driving off four cows, young cattle, eigh- teen sheep, and three good horses. Two other families above us shared the same fate, and a Mr. Fitch, a near neighbor, was not only plundered, but himself captured and never returned." To this Mr. Elisha Harding adds that the party took Mr. Fitzgerald as far as Wysox, where they bound him to a flax-brake, and declared they would break every bone in his body unless he would hurrah for King George. The honest old Dutchman replied, " I am an old man and cannot live long at any rate. I had rather die now, a friend to my country, than live longer and die a Tory." Mr. Harding adds, " they released him."

The Whig families had intended to go down to Wyo- ming with the troops, but they moved so rapidly that oppor- tunity was not afforded. Soon after the departure of the expedition, Mr. Fitzgerald gathered what effects the enemy had left him and with his family started in a canoe down the river. Their progress was slow on account of the thickly floating ice, and tedious on account of the cold. When they reached Blackwalnut they found the river was frozen over, and they could proceed no farther. Taking possession of one of the deserted houses, there they remained until spring, when, in the month of March, with other Whigs living in their neighborhood, they retired to Wyoming. Two fat hogs which the plunderers did not discover, and the corn they could not take away, afforded the family sub- sistence. They remained at Wyoming until the battle, in which Mr. Huyck served in the ranks and escaped, while old Mr. Fitzgerald remained in the fort. Immedi- ately after the battle they pressed out of the fort with other fugitives. Stopping a day or two at Northumberland, they made their way to Paxton, where they remained until Oc- tober following, when " we all returned to Wyoming, which place we now kept possession of by garrison. I was young, but as we were compelled to live in a state of perpetual de- fense, I entered the military service, in which I continued until I joined the army under General Sullivan." In this expedition Mr. Fitzgerald was one of the guides. Return- ing with the expedition, they remained at Wyoming until peace, when the family returned to their old plantation at Standing Stone. Here he died some time previous to June 1, 1789, as at that date his widow, Nelly, took out letters of administration on his estate.

Henry Birney, a native of Ireland, was an early settler in Plymouth, being there as early as 1773. Abont 1774 or 175 he moved to Standing Stone, and settled on the farm now owned by Asa Stevens. His wife was a Shears. On the breaking out of the war he moved his family back to Plymouth, and himself entered the Continental . army, in which he served most of the time until the close of the war,

# Mr. Huyck says it was about a fortnight before the expedition sent against the Tories, which was Dec. 20, 1777.

HISTORY OF BRADFORD COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

when he moved his family back to Standing Stone, where he lived until 1812, when he sold his plantation to Judge Stevens and moved to Scioto, in Ohio, where he died at an advanced age.

Mrs. Rachel Birney, wife of Henry Birney, died in Standing Stone, July 22, 1805, aged fifty-seven years. The Luzerne Federalist, in announcing her death, says, "She lived on the river thirty-three years, and suffered many losses and hardships with her family during the long and bloody wars, by the inhuman savages."

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History of Bradford County, Pennsylvania, with Illustrations and biographical sketches, Part 15

Author: Craft, David, 1832-1908; L.H. Everts & Co Publication date: 1878 Publisher: Philadelphia : L. H. Everts Number of Pages: 812

Author: Craft, David, 1832-1908; L.H. Everts & Co
Publication date: 1878
Publisher: Philadelphia : L. H. Everts
Number of Pages: 812