USA > Pennsylvania > Juniata County > History of that part of the Susquehanna and Juniata valleys, embraced in the counties of Mifflin, Juniata, Perry, Union and Snyder, in the commonwealth of Pennsylvania. V. 2, Pt. 2 > Part 27
USA > Pennsylvania > Perry County > History of that part of the Susquehanna and Juniata valleys, embraced in the counties of Mifflin, Juniata, Perry, Union and Snyder, in the commonwealth of Pennsylvania. V. 2, Pt. 2 > Part 27
USA > Pennsylvania > Snyder County > History of that part of the Susquehanna and Juniata valleys, embraced in the counties of Mifflin, Juniata, Perry, Union and Snyder, in the commonwealth of Pennsylvania. V. 2, Pt. 2 > Part 27
USA > Pennsylvania > Union County > History of that part of the Susquehanna and Juniata valleys, embraced in the counties of Mifflin, Juniata, Perry, Union and Snyder, in the commonwealth of Pennsylvania. V. 2, Pt. 2 > Part 27
USA > Pennsylvania > Mifflin County > History of that part of the Susquehanna and Juniata valleys, embraced in the counties of Mifflin, Juniata, Perry, Union and Snyder, in the commonwealth of Pennsylvania. V. 2, Pt. 2 > Part 27
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In 1787 Samuel Barber lived near the month of Switzer Run. On his place was an old grave- yard on the bluff near to Pom's Creek, and in it were buried many of the first settlers of that neighborhood. It was not used after 1791. Here Sammel Barker was killed in 1792, by the timbers of an old barn which he was tearing down, falling upon him. One of his danghters married William McConnell, the other a Swinchart. The property remained for some years after the death of Mr. Barber. It was subsequently owned for many years by Philip Seebold, who made it the place of his residence until his death in 1874.
Robert Barber was married to Sarah Bonde; Thomas Barber to her sister, Mary Bonde ; aud Paschall Lewis to Elizabeth Bonde-all sisters and daughters of a highly respectable Lancaster County family, and had for his patrimony the land south of the White Springs Mill. The carly settlers of this region were mistaken in their ideas of the productiveness and fertility of the soil upon which they settled. The red shale lands and the lands adjacent to Pen's Creek were covered with a heavy growth of timber of various kinds, while the limestone clay-hills, farther back, were covered with a growth of serubby bushes. The settlers, not unnaturally, concluded that the lands sustaining the big oaks and pines were the richer, and took them in preference to the others, and did not discover their mistake until the lapse of years revealed it.
Thomas Barber died in 1827, aged sixty- eight years ; his wife in 1818, aged fifty-seven. They left two sons-John and Samnel B .-- and several daughters. Samuel B. Barber was elected a county commissioner in 1835, and af- terwards was appointed a justice of the peace by the Governor. Afterwards, about 1843, John Barber, Samuel B. Barber, Jame- Barber, Samnel Wright, with their families, emigrated from the White Springs neighborhood to the blooming prairies of Stephenson County, Ill. This exodus from Limestone was composed of sixty-three individuals of all ages ; they travel-
Captain John Clarke, of the Revolution, lived on the first farm west of Miflliuburg, on the south side of the turnpike. He was living there before the Revolutionary War. In 1775 he is assessed with fifty acres of cultivated land, two horses, three cows, six sheep, one slave and one servant. In 1774 he was one of the grand jurors at the Northumberland County Court. In 1776 he left the valley in command of a company in Col. Philip Cole's battalion of Northumberland County Associators ; was en- gaged in some of the skirmishes with the Brit- ish subsequent to the battles of Trenton and Princeton, which had taken place before his company had joined the army of General Wash- ington, The company as such served about
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three and a half months. A daughter of Cap- tain Clarke was married to David Watson, an early settler in the valley. She was the mother of John C., David and William Watson, late of West Buffalo township. Captain Clarke died February 22, 1802, in his seventy-third year ; his wife, Florence, died in 1807, aged seventy six ; both buried at the Lewis grave- yard. The Clarke farm next passed into the hands of Jacob Brobst, who lived there until his death, in 1825. In 1815-16 he was a mem- ber of the Legislature of Pennsylvania, and was re-elected for the session of 1816-17, but breame insane before the meeting of the General Assembly and did not take his sent ; neither did he ever recover his reason.
The following extract from a letter of Goy- ernor Snyder to George Kremer, then a rising Democratic politician of Union County, under date of November 21, 1816, has reference to the misfortune of Mr. Brobst :
"I should like much to see you pitted against that fiend, Lieb, in the House of Representatives; but un- less Brobst resigns, I cannot see how the Speaker could constitutionally issue a writ for the election of another. A writ of lunacy could be awarded by the court of Union County, and thereupon a writ might isstte for a new election. The people might meno- rialize the House that, through mental derangement, the art of God, one of their representatives is disqual- ified to represent the wisdom of the county. This, accompanied by certificates from regular bred physi- cians,-Doctors Dongal, Van Valzah, etc.,-would undoubtedly bring the question fairly before the House, and a precedent established in his case, if there is not one already, in this country or in England. But, if he has any interval of sanity, this might be embraced to procure his resignation. Thus all difficulty would be removed, and make room for your election, which, I suppose, would be certain if the Longstown interest does not oppose you. Whatever may be done, it will be all-important to keep out of view his having been mad before his election, or that the people were so who elected him."
Mr. Brobst did not have a Ineid interval, he did not resign, and Mr. Kremer was not elected. Dr. James Smith, of Mifflinburg, was married to the only child of Mr. Brobst. Dr. Smith died in 1826, leaving a widow and chil- dren. Some of his posterity have continued to own the Clarke-Brobst farm down to the present day, Mr. Oscar W. Smith, a grandson of Dr.
Smith, being the present owner. Others of the Smith family reside in Hartley, Lewis, Hartle- ton, Mifflinburg and other parts of the country, as well as in several States of the far West.
George Overmeier lived about a mile west of New Berlin, where Joseph Seebold now lives. Hle was a member of the first grand jury of Northumberland County ; was a captain in the War of the Revolution, and died in 1806. He had a large family of children. To his son Jacob he bequeathed his rifle and shot-ponch carried during the war.
Johan Nees lived along Penn's Creek and had a small mill there, which after became Green's, Stees', Bellas', ete. There has been no mill there for many years except a saw-mill. Jolm MeCashan lived on the De Haas survey, in the northeast part of the township.
John Rearick lived near Wehr's ; was one of the grand jurors at the first court of Northum- berland County, held at Fort Augusta May, 1772.
Adam Smith lived near to the Mathers place. His descendants of the third and fourth generation still ocenpy the old place.
David Smith lived on Barber's land, and after the ercetion of the mill at White Springs became the first miller there.
Andrew Pontius was the owner of the Le Ray place (the scene of the Indian murder of 1755), which he afterwards sold to John Stees. It re- mained in the Stees family for many years ; in fact, part of it is still owned and occupied by Frederick Stees, a descendant of the John Stees who purchased of Pontius. For many years John Stees carried on a distillery at this place.
Philip Hoy was located east of the Le Roy or Pontius place. He came there in 1773 and in 1775 had twelve acres of land under enlti- vation. His descendants still own part of his original domain.
The names of Daniel Lewis and Samnel Mathers appear in the assessment of 1775. The wife of Daniel Lewis was Margaret Paschall, a relative of Thomas Paschall, of Philadelphia, and the owner of' a great amount of land. She was married three times : first, to a man named Watson, by whom she had sons, -Jesse, James (who built the Seebold Mill) and John, all
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settling in the valley ; second, to a man named Mathers, by whom she had sons,-Samuel and Thomas Mathers, also early settlers; and third, to Daniel Lewis, father of Paschall. In 1785 the name of Daniel Lewis disappears from the assessment lists, and that of Paschall Lewis appears in its stead. The burying-ground called Lewis' Grave-yard, takes its name from the elder Lewis, on whose land it was mainly situ- ated. Paschall Lewis owned the farms now D. W. Pellman's, and died in 1820, aged sixty years. His children were Margaret, married to Thomas Clingan, of Kelly township ; Mary, married to Samuel Wright, who, about 1843, removed to Stephenson County, Ill. ; Sarah, married to James Merrill, Esq., a leading law- yer of his day ; Elizabeth, married to Robert Cander, of White Deer Mills; and Amelia, married to Sammel Ileise, of Columbia, Pa.
The Thomas Paschall and George Ryne sur- veys had been owned by Daniel Lewis, in his life-time, and remained undivided, as far as the giving of title-papers was concerned, until, in 1809, Paschall Lewis became the owner of .the northern part of the tracts, and Thomas Ma- thers of the southern part. The Lewis property remained a long time after the death of Pas- chall Lew's in the occupancy of Samuel Wright, a son-in-law, who finally removed to Illinois, and the farm was sold some years afterward (1847) to Samuel Pellman, whose son, David W., is still its owner.
The Mathers property is now owned by Longinus Walter, who occupies the old stone house built in 1802, and by Peter Bingaman, who has the eastern portion of the tract.
John Scott was a tenant on the Barber lands at the time of the Revolution, as was also Pat- riek Watson. The latter had his cabin on the elevated land a little east of the school-honse, below the White Springs Mill. In the spring of 1780 a party of Indians made a descent upon the dwelling of Watson, shot and sealped his mother and also shot Watson through the body. Christian Shively, who lived near by, having heard the firing, went to Watson's cabin, where he found Mrs. Watson lying on the floor scalped and a dog licking her bloody head. She was still alive, but unable to speak,
and in reply to his questions about Patrick, made motions which he understood to mean that Patrick had gone up the run. He, accordingly, went up the run in search of him, and found him near the White Spring, where he had stopped to take a drink, not knowing that he was wounded mutil, in drinking, he discovered the water running out through his wound. He died in a short time. He and his mother are buried in the Lewis grave-yard, and are among the first buried there.
Patrick Watson was an uncle to David, William and John C. Watson, late well-known citizens of West Buffalo township.
Christian Shively, who came from Lancaster County, had purchased the John Harris survey and improvement of 1755, near the mouth of the White Spring Run, and was living there before the commencement of the war. He did not leave at the time of the big runaway of 1778, and had hoped to remain undisturbed with his family at the place which he had selected as their home. He was aware, however, of the danger incurred by remaining, and on one occasion, before the murder of Watson, having occasion to go to a so-called fort near New Berlin, he hid his wife and two children in his corn-patch, with the directions to remain there until his return. During his absence, Mrs. Shively, not feeling secure in the protec- tion of the growing corn, had left the corn-patch and waded over Penn's Creek, and hidden her- self' and children in the thicket of bushes at the foot of Jack's Mountain, and while there in hiding, she saw two Indians going up the moun- tain at a short distance from her, but fortunately without being discovered by them. After seeing the Indians she was afraid to leave her hiding- place. Mr. Shively, after his return home, went to the corn-patel where he supposed his household treasures were concealed, and after having scarehed it over and over, without avail, was on the point of giving up the search in despair, when he heard the faint wail of a child, which seemed to come from the opposite side of the creek. He then found them and accom- panied them to their cabin. After the murder of Watson he set about making preparations for his departure from the settlement. He
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UNION COUNTY.
buried his stove in the soft, boggy ground which skirted the run, expecting that the day would comte when he would return and exhume it. lle made a raft of logs, tied together with hickory withes, upon which he placed his wife and children, and floated with them down Penn's Creek. After the war was over he returned and found some apple-trees which he had planted before his hegira, bending under their weight of fruit ; but the concealed stove for many years eluded all attempts to find it. Many and many a time did the old gentleman, in after-years, with stick in hand, go over the meadow prod- ding it at every point where he thought the errant stove was concealed, until at last, after many years of persisting search, it was at last -truck and brought forth to the light of day. Mr. Shively lived to an extreme old age, dying in 1812, aged almost ninety-two years. He had -ons,-Daniel, who moved to Ohio ; Christian, who moved to Clarion County, Pa. ; George, who lived and died on the okl place in 1851, where Jacob, S. Shively, a grandson of the settler of ante-Revolutionary times, now lives; John, who died in 1862, aged nearly eighty-six years, at the place on Penn's Creek, now the property of Jacob Klose, where he also had a saw-mill, now George Rarick's ; Henry, who had a tan- nery near White Spring (he was found dead).
An old Indian was killed by a young girl, in what is now Limestone township, under the following circumstances :
On July 14, 1780, a man named Baltzer Klinesmith, who lived on the north side of the mountain which separates Buffalo Valley from the valley in which New Berlin is situated, started to the harvest-field in company with his two daughters, Catharine and Elizabeth, aged eighteen and sixteen years, and while on the way they were met by a band of Indians, who killed and sealped the father and took the two girls prisoners, and brought them to the spring on the south side of the mountain, just outside of the boundary of the borough of New Berlin. Therethey stayed all night. The next day the In- diaus went out on a scout, leaving the two girls in charge of' an old Indian, who busied himself in cleaning and drying the bloody scalp of the murdered Klinesmith in the presence of his
daughters. After he had finished this job to his satisfaction, as it had commenced to rain, he sat down under a sapling, leaning his back against it, and directed the girls by motions to gather brush to cover a sack of flour, which stood near by, and thus protect it from the rain. Whilst the girls were thus employed the old In- dian fell asleep and began to nod. The younger girl, Elizabeth, seeing this, picked up an axe, which lay by the side of the old Indian, and, motioning to her sister to run, she sent the axe crashing into the skull and brain of the old man and ran. The old man gave a fearful yell, which was heard by the other Indians, who were on their return. The girls separated as they ran. The returning Indians espied Catharine, gave a yell and started in pursuit of her, and shot at her just as she was springing over the trunk of a prostrate tree that had been torn ont by its roots. The ball entered below the right shoulder-blade and came out at her side-she bore the scars of this wound to her dying day. Finding that she was wounded and that the tree, which she had just then sprung over, af- forded a convenient hiding-place, she crept under the tree and close to it, and soon had the satisfaction of seeing and hearing the Indians pass over the tree or log under which she lay and continuing their pursuit of her. Elizabeth had in the mean time reached Beatty's harvest-field and given the alarm. The reapers, as was the custom then, had their rifles near at hand, which they immediately grasped and went in search of the Indians and Catharine. The Indians es- caped and Catharine was found ; she was much weakened from loss of blood; but she had taken off her apron and with it stanched the blood of her wounds. She soon recovered and lived to survive two husbands. She first married Daniel Campbell, a soldier of the Revolutionary War, and had by him two children,-John, who died near Mifflinburg, and An, who married Samuel B. Barber, who, as before stated, moved to Illinois, Daniel Campbell died April 22, 1793. Her nest Imisband was Robert Cham- bers, who lived at the place long owned by Samuel Pellman, now owned by Aaron Klow. She also survived him. There are persons still living in the neighborhood of White Springs
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and in Mifflinburg who have offen heard Mrs. Chambers relate with her own lips this thrilling adventure of her youth.
In 1838, Moses Van Campen, a celebrated Indian fighter, then living in the State of New York, applied to the United States government for a pension by a petition, which is full of in- terest. From this petition the following ex- tract is made, as it is very reasonably supposed to refer to the party of Indians of which the murderers of Klinesmith were a part.
" In the summer of 1780 a man was taken prisoner in Buffalo and escaped. He came in and reported there were about three hundred Indians on the Sin- nemahoning hunting and laying in a store of provis- ions, and would make a descent on the frontiers ; that they would divide into small parties, and attack the whole chain of the frontier at the same time, on the same day. Colonel Hunter selected a party of five to reconnoitre, viz .: Captain Campbell, Peter and Michael Grove, Lientenant Cramer and myself. The party was called the Grove party. We carried with us three weeks' provisions, and proceeded up the West Branch with much cantion and care. We reached the Sinnemahoning, but made no discovery but old tracks. We marched up the Sinnemahoning so far that we were satisfied it was a false report. We returned, and a little below the Sinnemahoning, near night, we discovered a smoke. We were confident it was a party of Indians, which we must have passed by, or they got there some other way. We discovered there was a large party, how many we could not tell, but we prepared for the attack.
" As soon as it was dark we new-primed our rifles, sharpened our flints, examined our tomahawk handles and all heing ready, we waited with great impatience till they all lay down. The time enme, and with the utmost silence we advanced, trailed our rifles in one hand, and the tomahawk in the other, The night was warm ; we found some of them rolled in their blankets a rod or two from their fires. Having got among them, we first handled our tomahawks. They rose like a dark cloud. We now fired our shots and raised the war-yell. They took to flight in the ut- most confu-jon, but few taking time to pick up their
.. . as Penn's Creek, and had killed and scalped two or three families. We found several sealps of different ages which they had taken, and a large quantity of domestic cloth, which was carried to Northumber- land, and given to the distressed who had escaped the knife and tomahawk,"
In 1780 the name of Edward Tate appears
upon the assessment roll of Buffalo township. On May 6, 1782, he, being at the time a pri- vate in Captain George Overmeir's company, was shot through the foot in an engagement with the Indians, somewhere between Mifflin- burg and Wehr's tavern. "A member of the company were on a seont, and were talking at the time of the merits of their respective guns. One said he could shoot the drop from an In- dian's nose. Just at that moment the Indians, who were in ambush, fired upon them and several fell. Tate, who was wounded, ran and concealed himself. Au Indian in pursuit came near to where he lay concealed, and looked over the fence, but did not discover him."-Linn's Annals. It is said that two men, named Lee and Reznor, were killed at the time, and that their bodies were taken over to Captain Over- meir's, near New Berlin, and buried in the old grave-yard near Penn's Creek. Edward Tate died in Mifflinburg-or Youngmanstown, as it was then called-in 1794. Ilis son William, who was married to a daughter of Hugh Beatty, died in Hartley township in 1859, abont a mile and a half north of Hartleton, where he had lived for a number of years, and had erected a saw-mill, still in existence. X
Between 1775 and 1778 Robert Chambers, from the neighborhood of Chambersburg, in Franklin County (then Cumberland), became the owner of the land which is now embraced in the Aaron Klose, Benjamin Chambers, Jo- seph Chambers and William Chambers farms. A cabin was erected, and some patches elcared and cultivated; but, owing to the uncertainty of affairs and the disturbed condition of the country, he did not reside there himself per- manently, and did not bring to his new home his wife and daughters and younger sons. His son James was one of the patrols who were
Narrows, in May, 1750. Before the close of the war Mr. Chambers died, and was buried in Cumberland County. His sons, Robert, Benjamin and Joseph, after the restoration of tranquillity, came up to Limestone, and had the property divided between them. Their mother died in 1797, and is buried in the
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Lewis grave-yard. Robert (2d) had what is now the Aaron Klose farm; he died in 1825. Hi- children were Mary (married to Joseph Musser, Esq., of Millinburg; they moved to the West), Rebecca (married to John A. Van Valzah, Esq .; both dead) and Robert (who also went West).
Joseph Chambers had the farms now owned by William Chambers and Joseph Chambers. His children were Robert, Sally, Rebecca, Ben- jamin, Thomas, Samuel, Joseph, Mary, Pas- chall and Ellen. Of the sous, Robert, Benja- min, Thomas, Samuel and Paschall removed to Stephenson County, Ill., as did also the daugh- ter, Mary, married to Joseph Hayes. The daughters, Sally and Rebecca, died in Union County. Ellen is the wife of Robert Foster, of' West Buffalo. Joseph and his son, William, are the owners of the old Joseph Chambers farm.
Benjamin's share of his father's land was where his youngest son, Benjamin, lived until about 1883, and which he still owns. Benja- min's sons were James (the venerable presi- dent of the Mifflinburg Bank, still living), Robert (who died near Mifflinburg in 1864), and Benjamin (living just outside of the bor- ough of Mifflinburg, in Limestone township). llis daughters were Mary, Elizabeth and Sally (living in Mifflinburg); Rhoda (who was married to Thomas Martin); Caroline (mar- ried to Andrew Forster) and Keziah (married to George N. Youngman, Esq., of Mifflinburg).
In 1799 Henry Sanders came from Lancas- ter County, and settled in Limestone township, about a mile below the Centreville bridge, where a Sanders has been living ever since, his grandson, Jonathan Sanders, being the present proprietor. Mr. Sanders died in 1850, aged eighty-two years. His sons were Henry, David, John and Jacob. David moved to Western Pennsylvania, where he died, in 1878; John died in Snyder County, Pa., in 1876; Jacob removed to Sandusky County, Ohio.
Henry Sanders, Jr., succeeded his father in the ownership of the family home; was elected a commissioner of Union County in 1811, and died January 11, 1870, aged seventy-four years.
llis children, all of whom reside in Union and
Snyder Counties, are Joseph, living in Lewis township; Jonathan, in Limestone; Jacob, in New Berlin; Henry K., in Centreville, Suyder County, Pa .; Mary, married to Daniel Reber, of Limestone; and Catherine, widow of Smith, in New Berlin.
In 1812 Simon Wehr commenced to keep tavern at the place ever since known as Wehr's. The township elections are held here, but of late years the tavern has been discontinued. His son, Peter Wehr, still occupies the old tav- ern as a farm-house.
Solomon Kleckner, in 1793, bought one- fourth of the Captain Irvine tract (one of the officers' surveys), where his son George died. The place was sold in 1835 to William Forster (now Dr. William F. Secbold's). He was also the owner of several farms in the eastern part of the township, south of the Limestone Ridge, in the neighborhood of the Hoys, where he died in 1837, aged seventy-two years. He was also the owner, for many years, of the mill at New Berlin. Several of his sons went West. Ilis son Jacob died on the old homestead ; William K. died near Vicksburg, leaving sons and daughters resident in the county; Michael has been for more than fifty years a resident of New Berlin (he served as county treasurer from 18.41 to 1843, county commissioner from 1864 to 1867 and sheriff from 1870 to 1873).
In 1793 Christopher Secbold became, the owner of the mill built by James Watson. This mill has been owned by a Secbold ever since that time. Christopher Seebold was a native of the kingdom of Würtemberg, and was brought to America when a child seven years old. He came from what is now Lebanon County, Pa., to Union County, and died in 1814, at the age of seventy-three; buried at New Berlin. Ile had two sons, John and Christopher. John became the owner of the mill, which is still in the hands of his posterity. Christopher kept a tavern in New Berlin and was the owner of the lots on which the court- house and offices for the county of Union were located at the time New Berlin was chosen as the county-seat for the new county of Union. In 1813 he was appointed a justice of the peace. In 1820 he was elected comty treasurer
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