In our previous post we learned of Jacob’s and
Catherine’s fate at the hands of Native Americans, possibly working with
British officers. Jacob was killed and we looked at what possibly is his final
resting place. His wife was taken prisoner and, to our knowledge, never heard
from again. Their son, George, escaped and, had he not escaped, I’m pretty sure
I wouldn’t be here to write this post now! Heck! There wouldn’t even be a
Drums, PA to write about!
Now remember, the goal of such coordinated British and
Indian attacks on the frontier was to force Colonial soldiers to protect the
frontier thus weakening the force available to fight the British. What they
achieved, however, was to drive the revolution-resistant Germans into the
Revolutionary camp. Such is not an easy thing to do given the oaths the Germans
each swore upon arrival. The oath was a promise and with these people a promise
is a promise! However, when those to whom you’ve sworn allegiance break their
promise and turn on you, it is time to change allegiances.
But what of George, the 12-year-old boy who escaped with
his life by hiding in a chimney? What must he have been experiencing? How did
he internalize the trauma he’d just experienced? What became of George?
One longs for a letter or a diary, perhaps just a
newspaper article, that would give us a hint. None has yet been found. We can
only apply what we know others have experienced under similar circumstances. In
1884, Herbert Hoover, who later became the 31st President of the
United States, along with his younger sister and his older brother, watched as
their mother died of Typhoid Fever and Pneumonia; this being just a few years after
their father died. Later Herbert’s brother Theodore recalled how he felt
saying, “A lad of that age (12) feels…a helplessness and despair and a sort of
dumb animal terror. What will become of him…, adrift on
the wreck of (his) little world.”[1]
Orphaned at the age of 12, adrift on the wreck of his
little world, what did become of George? He reemerges in the record in 1782
when, according to Helman, at the age of 20 he enlists as a Continental
Soldier, Private Fourth Class, in Captain Peter Hay’s Company under Philip
Boehm, of Williams Township, Northampton County, Fourth Battalion.[2]
However, where was he between 1774 and 1782?
Where does an orphaned pre-teen go under such
circumstances? One logical answer is, if
his Grandfather Philip and/or Philip’s wife, were still alive, he possibly
could have been taken in by them! He may, as well, have been taken in by his
maternal grandparents. There is a Strauss family counted by the 1790 census
living in Moore; head of household was Henry Strauss.
An interesting point to note is how George named his
children. It was almost as if he was sending a message to the future! His first
child, born February 15, 1787, was a boy they named Philip. Both George’s grandfather
and father-in-law were named Philip. George and Anna Margret[3]
Woodring Drum’s next child, another
boy, was born February 6, 1791 and they named this child Jacob, probably after George’s
father. Jacob was followed by another boy on October 16, 1792 and George and
Anna Margret named this baby George. Was this order-of-naming George’s way of
showing his respect and gratitude to his grandfather for taking him in and
raising him through his teenage years?
In 1779, the continued unrest on the frontier of
Pennsylvania and southwestern New York reached a breaking point. George
Washington had finally had enough. He ordered General John Sullivan into the
Susquehanna Valley of Pennsylvania. His mission was to break the power of the
pro-British Indians. In June of 1779, Gen. Sullivan, at the head of 2,500
Continental Soldiers, began his march. Sullivan’s campaign greatly weakened the
eastern tribes, so much so that they never were a serious threat to the
Pennsylvania frontier again.[4]
 |
| Location of the massacre with the 1933 memorial. |
As part of this campaign, a force was gathering to make
an attack on an encampment of Indians and Tories (American colonists who still
considered themselves British) near the village of Catawissa along the
Susquehanna River in 1780. Catawissa is approximately 20 miles west of
Conyngham. One of the companies heading that way was a group of 41 men under
the command of Captain Daniel Klader. On September 10, the company reached a
point near present day Conyngham, close to the Little Nescopeck Creek and,
along a small feeder stream. They stopped there to rest. Shortly after noon
when the company least expected it, a contingent of Indians attacked them! Some
accounts suggested the Indians numbered as many as 300 while others claimed
less than 30! [5]
Rogan H. Moore in his 2000 book The Bloodstained Field put the actual
number of attackers at 30.[6]
Because at least one was noted to have had red hair, it was surmised that the
attackers included British soldiers as well. That the Indians at least had
British support seems evident. An account given by Lt. Col. Stephen Balliett
who commanded one of the details sent to bury the dead, reported that found
among the dead men were “a new fuse and several gun barrels, etc., bent and
broken in pieces with a British stamp thereon.”[7]
In further support of this theory George W. Drum (George, George, Jacob,
Philip) produced a lock and rusted barrel of a gun of apparent English
make that he said had been plowed up “in long after years” from the “slaughter
grounds.”[8]
Or so the story has been told across the years. Recent
research has cast doubt on certain specifics of the traditional story including
who was in charge. Specific to the company’s leadership, according to an
article that appeared in the Hazleton Standard-Speaker in 2005[9],
a researcher named Thomas Verenna of Easton, PA was unable to find evidence
Daniel Klader existed. Verenna asserted that all the histories of the event,
including Moore’s recent book The Bloodstained Field, were based on an
erroneous story first published in the Hazleton Sentinel in 1860 and
reprinted in 1880 and again in 1888. If he is correct, then Milo Daniel Clader,
reputed to have been the Captain’s Great3 Grand-nephew, was
mis-informed when he gave remarks on behalf of the K/Clader Family during the
dedication ceremony of the Sugarloaf Massacre Memorial on September 9, 1933;
remarks that were included in the Annals of the Sugarloaf Historical
Association in 1934.[10]
In his remarks Clader said Danial Klader was one of nine children, 3 boys and
six girls, of Valentine and Catherine Klader. He said the boys were named
Daniel, Abraham, and Jacob. Clader asserted that all three served in the
military; Daniel and Abraham both dying in the massacre.
 |
| This image is called "An American Forest". It appears on page 9 of a small book entitled Who were the First Builders? It was published in 1874 in London by T. Nelson and Sons. The volume I own does not give the author's name. My volume is heavily damaged. It was recovered from books that were being discarded after being damaged in the Wilkes-Barre flood of 1972. A handwritten inscription written in impeccable penmanship says, "Reward of Excellence presented to Marien W. Morris by her attached teacher M. A. Longstreth 12 mo. 1874. |
One man, John Balliet, paid particular attention to these
stories. He had originally been chosen to be a member of one of the burial
details but due to sickness in his family, was unable to go. However, when he
heard the stories of this wonderful valley, he determined that he would take
his family there and homestead. In 1784 he did just that making him the first
settler to homestead in the Drums Valley.
Of course, when it comes to history,
what is true is only what is written down. Oral history passed down through the
years says a man named G. H. Raup (there are various spellings of this name;
Reip, Reab[12]) was
the first settler arriving in the valley in 1782. A small booklet entitled Drums
Methodist Church and Valley Notes [13]written
in 1953 by Miss Nora Drum (Nathan S., Philip, George, Jacob, Philip),
Mrs. R. S. Small, and Mrs. Millard Shelhamer, three members of the St. Paul’s
Methodist Church, a.k.a. Drums Methodist Church, says Raup’s farm was located
on land owned in 1953 by Mitchel Arnold in “East Butler”. However, as documentation
of this fact appears to be lacking, John Balliet was given the honor of being
the “First Settler of Drums”.
Of course, when it comes to history,
what is true is only what is written down. Oral history passed down through the
years says a man named G. H. Raup (there are various spellings of this name;
Reip, Reab[12]) was
the first settler arriving in the valley in 1782. A small booklet entitled Drums
Methodist Church and Valley Notes [13]written
in 1953 by Miss Nora Drum (Nathan S., Philip, George, Jacob, Philip),
Mrs. R. S. Small, and Mrs. Millard Shelhamer, three members of the St. Paul’s
Methodist Church, a.k.a. Drums Methodist Church, says Raup’s farm was located
on land owned in 1953 by Mitchel Arnold in “East Butler”. However, as documentation
of this fact appears to be lacking, John Balliet was given the honor of being
the “First Settler of Drums”.  |
| Balliet Park at Beisel's Corner |
Balliet located his farm near a point that became known
as “Beisels Corner”, so named due to the number of Beisel Family members who
eventually located at this crossroad, approximately a mile west of Drums
Corner, so called for the same reason, which became the center of the village
of Drums. On May 27, 1984, the Drums Lions Club placed a monument near Beisels
Corner, the 200th anniversary of Balliet’s arrival in the valley, to
commemorate the occasion.
That George Drum was among the early settlers of the
Valley is certain. What is not certain is the year that he actually arrived.
Helman tells us he was born in 1762[14]
but leaves us with the question of where, specifically, George was born. It
seems fairly clear he was born within the 30 miles radius that encompasses
Allentown, Whitehall Township, Cherryville, Moore Township, Bethlehem, Easton,
and Williams Township.
The military company George joined in 1782 at age 20 was
from Williams Township. There is a record of a George Drum paying his “freeman”
tax there in 1785, he was counted by the Pennsylvania Septennial Census as a
Williams resident in 1786 and when he paid his Freeman Tax, again in Williams,
in 1789, he had to pay for four cattle. His occupation was noted as “weaver.” George
was probably in Williams, PA when not on military duty, through the 1780’s.
Searches of the 1790 and 1800 censuses do not show a
“George Drum” in the valley. Unfortunately, it is difficult to find him in
other places as well! There are two candidates in the 1790 census: one in Allen,
PA and one in Albany, PA. “George Drum” in Allen, Northampton County, includes
one too many male children. “Geo Drum” in Albany, Berks County, matches the
expected family statistics but is in an unexpected county. Two George Drum’s
appear in Albany in 1800 but neither come close to “our” statistics.
A “George Drumm” and a “Phillip Drumm” do appear in the 1810 census for
Sugarloaf, Luzerne County.
 |
| Note the spelling of "Sugarloaf". |
Given the George Drum included in the 1790 census living
in Allen, PA, it is possible “our” George had moved there in 1790 prior to the
month the census was taken. However, no record has yet been found that confirms,
or even hints at, this family’s location between 1790 and 1804 when Isaac is
laid to rest in the St. Johns cemetery.
We next find George in 1808 when he is listed as a member
of the German Reformed consistory at the time the first church building was
built in St. Johns.[15]
The day before Christmas that same year, Philip purchased two acres and 100
perches of land in Conyngham for $40.00[16],
Lot #7, from Dr. Benjamin Rush[17]
of Philadelphia. George is included on a list of nineteen parishioners who, in
1809, signed Rev. Frederick W. Van de Sloat’s Church constitution which he
wrote at their request,[18]
and George is included on a list of road workers, which he also audited, in
1810.[19]
Philip builds a wool-processing mill near Fritzingertown on the Little
Nescopeck Creek in 1810,[20]
George is appointed Justice of the Peace in 1811[21],
and George buys land in 1813[22].
So where were they between 1790 and 1804?
One likely answer is that they were in Allen/Moore for the
early 1790’s but already in the valley when the 1800 census was taken, perhaps
living with his father-in-law, Philip Woodring! As noted above, the early
censuses did not list family member names, just the name of the head of the
household followed by a series of statistics for who was living in that
household. For example, statistics such as the number of household members who
were free, white males less than age 10; number of free, white females ages 26
- 44; slaves; etc. were collected.
Philip Woodring does not appear in the 1790 U.S. Census
for Nescopeck, as the Lower Luzerne County area was known at the time, either,
and is also difficult to find in other locations, as well. Two Woodring
families, Nicholas Woodring and Samuel Woodring, do appear in the 1790 census
living in Whitehall, PA. Whitehall township is just north of and abuts Allentown,
just west of Moore Township. Unlike George, however, Philip Woodring does
appear in the 1800 census for the valley, by then called Sugarloaf.
It is highly probable that George’s father-in-law, Philip
Woodring, moved his family from the Whitehall area to the valley sometime in
the early 1790’s. George’s wife and children may have followed him and lived
with the Woodring’s and other friends while George was on military assignment
and then, upon his discharge, he joined his wife and children, continuing to live
with friends and family until he was able to establish a place of his own in
the valley. This he accomplishes probably in 1808 when Philip purchases the
land in Conyngham.
On July 25, 1796, Helman tells us George was commissioned
a Captain of the Militia, Fifth Company, Eighth Regiment, for frontier service.[23]
She is not kind enough, however, to tells us any further details than those! It
is interesting to note, however, that the Whiskey Rebellion began in 1795 in
Pittsburgh, PA. Is it possible that George was one of the soldiers that
Washington took with him to this frontier town to put down the rebellion and help
keep the peace?
If the George Drum who appears in the 1790 census living
in Allen is “our” George, and if he was living in Williams in 1789, just
married a few years earlier, why did he move? Perhaps he just wanted to be
closer to family, to the Woodring’s and the Strauss’s and/or his grandmother if
she was still alive, now that his grandfather had passed. However, once he
arrived there, he found the Woodring’s had plans to move north, to join the growing
German community in what was then called Sugarloaf. With nothing left to hold
him to Williams or Allen/Moore, perhaps wanting to get away from the area where
he lost his parents and perhaps now both grandparents, especially after
receiving a new military appointment on the frontier, he decided to follow his
father-in-law and start a new life in the German community in that valley to
the north as well!
Return to the Drums of Drums, PA on August 27,
2018 for the 6th post, It Takes a Village.
[1]
Wert, Hal Elliott, Hoover: The Fishing President; portrait of the private
man and his life outdoors (Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 2005) p 19
[2] Helman,
Laura M., History and Genealogy of the Drum Family (Allentown, PA:
Berkemeyer, Keck & Co., 1927), p3
[3] “Margret”
spelled as it appears on gravestone. Listed in Helman genealogy as “Margaret”
[4] Stories
from PA History, The American Revolution, 1765-1783: Chapter Four: Border Wars,
Explorepahistory.com http://explorepahistory.com/story.php?storyId=1-9-11&chapter=4
accessed 5/13/2016
[5] Bradsby,
H.C., ed, History of Luzerne County, Pennsylvania (Chicago: S.B. Nelson
& Co., 1893). Chapter XXI (continued): Sugarloaf Township. http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/luzerne/1893hist/
accessed 6/7/2016
[6]
Moore, Rogan H., The Bloodstained Field, A History of the Sugarloaf
Massacre, September 11, 1780 (Bowie, MD: Heritage Books, Inc. 2000)
[7]
Bradsby, Chapter VIII: Sugarloaf Massacre.
[8]
Bradsby, Chapter XXI (continued): Sugarloaf Township.
[9]
Jackson, Kent, “Rewriting History: Autor disputes names of Sugarloaf Massacre
militia leader, victims”, Hazleton Standard-Speaker (June 21, 2015) P1A
[10] Clader,
Milo Daniel, “Address of Milo Daniel Clader”, Annals of the Sugarloaf
Historical Association, Vol. 1 (Hazleton, PA: Sugarloaf Historical
Association, 1934) pp 11 – 13
[11]
Moore. P15
[12] Bradsby,
Chapter XXI (continued): Butler Township
[13]
Drum, Nora, Miss; Mrs. R. S. Small, and Mrs. Millard Shelhamer, Drums
Methodist Church and Valley Notes (Drums, PA: St. Paul’s Methodist Church,
1953)
[14]
Helman, p3
[15] 200th
Anniversary: 1792-1992 (St. Johns, PA: St. John’s United Church of Christ,
1992)
[16]
Helman, p 28
[17]
Bigelow, Mrs. John L. and Mrs. E. B. Mulligan, Jr., Eds., Let Freedom Ring
(Conyngham-Sugarloaf Bicentennial Commission, 1976, Limited Edition) p 14
[18]
Munsell on Butler Township, 1880, History of Freeland, PA, https://www.andrew.cmu.edu/user/ct0u/munsell_butler.html
accessed 8/11/2016
[19] Bradsby,
Chapter XXI (continued): Sugarloaf Township.
[20] Butler Township History, Butler Township website, http://www.butlertownship.org/about-us/history/Print.html accessed 6/14/2016
[21] Butler
Township History
[22]
Helman, p 28
[23]
Helman, p3
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