Return to Milestones Vol. 3, No. 1
This article, featuring some of the women who contributed measurably to the early history of Beaver County, was based on research done by Margaret Ross for a series of lectures. It was prepared for Milestones by Grayce Kugel.
In November 1921, Judge George A. Baldwin ordered the jury commissioners to prepare a list of 1200 names for filling the jury wheel for the coming year of 1922. It was to contain 1040 male names and 160 names of ladies old enough to vote. Why Judge Baldwin proposed a figure of thirteen percent for determining lady jurors is a mystery but it was thirteen percent more than they had ever before - for these were the first women jurors in Beaver County. After she gained voting privileges this was just another step in recognizing the total woman. Her opinions had been suppressed in public but she always remained the mainstay of the home. Tales have been told and retold of her courage and fortitude. By some degree, the Indians had already liberated the woman. Queen Aliquippa was a powerful leader of the Western Pennsylvania Indians in her day. She traveled to Philadelphia in 1747 to inform the Governor of the activities of the French on the Ohio. Her son Canackquasy spoke for her as she was getting older. They were good friends of the English. In 1753 she lived at the mouth of the Youghiogheny River and was visited by George Washington. He says in his journal, "I went up about three miles to the mouth of the Youghiogheny to visit Queen Aliquippa, who had expressed great concern that we passed her in going to the fort, I made her a present of a watch-coat and a bottle of rum, which latter was thought the much better present of the two."
Women traveled through some very rough country. A Lukens family history written in 1940 tells of Sarah Smith Lukens and her husband Thomas who in 1795 rode horseback from Chambersburg, up the Susquehanna and over the Allegheny mountains to the Allegheny River near the mouth of the Clarion. Here they were captured by the Complanter Indians. The head chief Garganwahogah (pronounced Gyantwacha) decided he liked the man and his squaw and made the Quaker sign of eternal peace. Thomas Lukens was familiar with the sign and gave his answer. Garganwahgah called in his small chiefs and they proceeded to make a Treaty of Eternal Peace and record it on a strip of doe skin by sewing in designs. The skin of a female deer represented a good and lovely woman. Garganwahgah contended that a good and lovely wife always made a good man much better and in this way complimented Sarah Smith Lukens.
An excerpt from the Journal of Mrs. Mary DeVees of Philadelphia and published in 1938 recounts the story of one of our first families in Beaver County. About 1758 Elizabeth Nicholson, a talented English girl married George Baker at a fashionable church wedding in the city of Philadelphia. Her wedding trousseau was fashioned in London and family legend says it was of the finest materials and workmanship. Sometime later they migrated to "Virginia" territory and about 1771 voyaged down the Monongahela River to the Point where a settlement (Pittsburgh) was located at the junction of the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers forming the Ohio. They stayed here for a short time to purchase supplies and journeyed on downstream looking for a homesite.
When evening came they made camp on the north side of the river at the mouth of the Big Beaver. They soon found they were not welcome when Indians on the bluff over-looking the camp shot arrows into the air not to injure them but to warn them that they were intruding as the recent treaty had opened land on the south side to white settlers but the north was still Indian territory. At daybreak the travellers broke camp and started south. A few miles and they were at the mouth of a sizable stream (Raccoon Creek). They made their way several miles from the Ohio where a small rivulet was tumbling down the hill. Investigating they found a good spring for water supply and a spot for a cabin. A new adventure was in the making. The spot was located strategically with the creek on one side and a trail now known as Brodhead Road on the other. The Baker family lived here several years at peace with the Indians until 1774, when Chief Logan's family was massacred, a deed which sent the Indians on a rampage against the white settlements. The Baker family was captured, their cabin burnt and they were taken on a long trip to Detroit. They were in captivity until after the surrender of Burgoyne October 17, 1777. Having been sold to the English they were exchanged as prisoners of war and allowed to make their way to Virginia territory on the south side of the Potomac where father George and son Michael enlisted in the army of the Revolution. After the war the family returned to the old home, exact year unknown but it must have been in the early spring as they found a rose bush and an apple tree Elizabeth had planted in full bloom. Their cabin lay in ruins, the well full of rubbish, the cabin site overgrown but they were back home and a fresh start was all they asked for. When a new home was built it was strong and sturdy, a log cabin with a stockade, referred to as a fort. Here many friends and neighbors took refuge when threatened by Indian raids.
From another family history, we have an account of a young missionary lady. (This was recorded in the Archives of the Moravian Historical Society.) Maria Agnes Roth was born April 4, 1735 in Wirsche, Wurtemburg, and came to America with her parents in 1737, lived near Philadelphia and made acquaintance with the Moravians. In order to be nearer to them, they moved to the Lehigh mountains near Bethlehem. She married John Roth at Behtlehem in 1770 and they took up their abode at an Indian mission on the Susquehanna. She was very frightened when she first saw an Indian. He had a fierce and warlike appearance.
She liked the work very well and soon became fond of the Indian brethern. In 1772 they traveled to Friedenstadt on the Big Beaver Creek. (Now known as Moravia, in Lawrence County). During an eight week journey through the wilderness she fell off her horse with her ten months old baby in her arms but neither was harmed. After a short stay here they moved with their one hundred and ten Christian Indian charges to the Muskingum River where they began the settlement of Schoenbrunn.
An incident in one day of the life of one of our early resident ladies is told in Warner's Beaver County History. About 1779 on Raccoon Creek where William Anderson was engaged in building a calf pen, he was attacked by Indians and shot through the left breast.
Stunned for the moment, and insensible to his surroundings, he finally recovered enough to start for Beeler's Blockhouse, a distance of several miles. Meanwhile, his wife, hearing the report of the gun, started with her infant child into the cornfields to make her escape. The savages mounted the fence and looked for her, but did not discover her. She had lain down in the high grass with her child who fell asleep. Her small dog, usually disposed to bark, remained perfectly quiet. Under cover of darkness she made her way to the fortress where she found her husband enfeebled from loss of blood. Mr. Anderson recovered and with his heroic wife lived to a good old age.
The Armor Family relates that our pioneer women had special skills. Thomas Armor and Jane Moor were united in wedlock on August 5, 1783 by a minister who was serving the flock of the mission on Montours Run. This mission in 1785 became the Montour Presbyterian Church. Thomas and Jane had thirty-nine grandchildren, all of whom were born on the original tract of land on Raccoon Creek next to Biggers. With manifold duties of wife and mother, Jane led a busy life. There was danger of attack on women by the Indians when the men were away from the cabin. It was imperative that women be adept with the rifle. Thomas said, "wife Jane was a good shot". She proved that statement when a bear decided to help itself to a good meal from the pig sty which had a new family in it. Jane watched her chance, took aim and fired, bringing down the bear - shot between the eyes.
Another story of a brave lady is found in Bausman's History of Beaver County. Mary Davis Dungan was the wife of Levi Dungan and was a woman well qualified to be a help-mate for him in this wilderness life. Two instances may be given of her courage and capability. In 1789 she made the long journey form her western home to Philadelphia on horseback with a few neighbors taking with her money to enter the tract of land which had been blazed out by her husband in 1772. She made the journey to the east and back in safety and brought with her the patience for the land, dated September 1, 1789. Before her marriage Mrs. Dungan had lived in the home of the celebrated physician (signer of the Declaration of Independence) Dr. Benjamin Rush, to whom she was related and with whom she studied medicine until he went to Edinburg to finish his training. At his departure, the library which they had jointly accumulated became by mutual agreement her property. After her marriage to Levi Dungan, she took a part of this library with her to the wilderness home and continued her medical studies. At one time from Indian attacks these precious books had to be hid away for nearly a year at the Mineral Springs and were nearly ruined as a consequence of dampness and mildew that it brought her to tears. But the medical knowledge thus acquired by this brave little woman was often drawn upon for the relief of her own family and her neighbors. The following incident of exigent need and prompt assistance from her skill is related. Two neighbors William Langfitt and Isaac Wiseman had been down to the mill on King's Creek to get some corn ground. On their way home they were attacked by the Indians. Wiseman was instantly killed and Langfitt was shot several times through the body but kept his seat while his frightened horse carried him over the trail to the Dungans where he was taken in unconscious. There was no surgeon obtainable nearer than Fort Pitt and Mrs. Dungan at once set about to care for the wounded man. With a knitting needle she packed the bleeding wounds with strips torn from a silk handkerchief and with compress and bandage arrested the hemorrhage. Langfitt recovered and lived to the age of 96. Levi Dungan died in 1825 and his wife is believed to have died earlier.
Near the turn of the century, the hostilities from the Indians were lessening but Bausman records one final tragedy: "In the closing part of March 1790 Jacob Colvin and his wife, Mary, started in the morning from the house of Mrs, Colvin's father, Samuel Swearingen to prepare for their home a house and garden on the farm which is situated in Hanover Township. The couple had been married something over a year and took with them their child. They had worked all forenoon and were on the way back home, Mrs. Colvin riding behind her husband on the same horse carrying her little child of perhaps four months on her lap. Without any warning when about about 1/2 mile from her father's house and on his farm, two sharp rifle shots rang out upon the air and the balls passed through her body and also through the arm and side of her husband. The husband and wife, both fell from the horse. Mr. Colvin got to his feet and endeavored to assist his wife, but seeing that she was beyond help and that the Indians were appraoching he managed to get on his horse and escape to the house. The shooting attracted the attention of the neighbors and within a couple of hours a rescuing party was formed and proceeded to the place of the murder. They found the body of Mrs. Colvin who had been scalped and that of her babe which had been brained upon the side of a tree. Other neighbors soon arrived and a party was formed which followed the retreating savages to-the bank of the river at the mouth of King's Creek. The pursuers did not dare to cross the river and that was the end of the search. This was the last murder committed by the Indians within what is now Beaver County."
There is a diary in The Little Beaver Museum that tells of an interesting trip made by a young lady in 1810. Her name was Margaret Van Horn Dwight, from New Haven, Connecticut. Today, one can hardly believe the hardships of this journey. The inns were small and many of them dirty. Most of the places to stop overnight were taverns where drunkenness was a common thing. The roads were rocky and muddy. The river crossings were difficult and dangerous either by ferry or fording. Miss Dwight, who was twenty years old at the time, was not favorably impressed by Pennsylvania. She found the Dutch hard to understand and the "waggoner" very bad. When Miss Dwight's party came to the Beaver River, they crossed it on a raft and found a "very good inn at Beaver Town". The next day they travelled ten and a halt miles and found "a very comfortable inn" at Greersburg (Darlington). The girl who wrote the story of her rough wagon trip married John Bell, Jr. from Ireland who was a wholesale merchant in Pittsburgh. Margaret Bell became the mother of thirteen children. She died in 1834.
Beaver Town was a bustling community around 1800 and the first pay school was opened that year. General Martin Smith in moving from Connecticut to Ohio, stayed a few days in Beaver. Some persons became acquainted with his daughter, Miss Electa Smith, and found her a lady of superior education. They prevailed on her to remain and open a school. This she taught in a small cabin that was built from timber obtained from the old barracks at Fort McIntosh when it was demolished by order of the War Department in 1788. She married James Lyons of Beaver.
A reprint of a Beaver County Times article by Theo Malone claims a romantic love story is woven into the history of the Vicary House in Freedom. After being sealed for many years a "Bride's Room" was found beautifully furnished and decorated entirely in white. The walls and woodwork of white, slightly yellowed by age, the huge old-fashioned white canopied bed, and white furniture with a white motif, all stood in mute evidence of a lost love. Who the bride was to have been or the reason for sealing the room remains a mystery today. For his valor in the War of 1812, William Vicary, a prominent Philadelphia sea captain, was granted a tract of land by the United States government. The grant extended from Dutch Run in Freedom to Crows Run. His wife, Mary, tired on her lonely life during her husband's long absence at sea, persuaded Captain Vicary to migrate westward and settle on the land. In. 1826 work was begun on the house and seven years later it was ready for occupancy. Huge stones had been hauled from the quarries on the Crow Run property and dragged by horse drawn sledges to the site overlooking the Ohio. All the partitions, including those in the basement, are of this handcut stone. Each of the two floors and basement have center halls 14 x 36 feet and there are four 18 foot square rooms with three rooms in the attic.
A woman who held a responsible position was Miss Gertrude Rapp. She was born in 1808 in Harmony, Pa. the daughter of John and the granddaughter of George Rapp. She was a woman of culture and refinement and managed the silk business at Old Economy. Among the industries of Old Economy none proved their efficiency and cleverness more than in the making of silks and velvet, which at that time compared favorably with any made in any part of the world. The silk factory was located on 14th Street and a building for the culture of cocoons was across the street. At the rear of the factory was the dye shop, where the silks were colored before being made into materials for dress goods, school ribbons, handkerchiefs, satin vesting, etc. An exhibit of their silk fabrics sent to the Columbian Exhibition received the highest praise. Miss Rapp was modest, refined and kindly, disclaiming all credit for her good works. She was always ready to love and do good work for those who tried to harm her. Bausman wrote that she spent her whole life in the Society. She was well versed in English, French, and German. She was an accomplished musician, sang, played and made equisite wax flowers and fruit. She possessed unusual personal beauty and remained in old age always the dignified and courteous "Mistress of the Great House". She died in Economy in 1899.
In a letter provided by Gladys Hoover, J. R. Warren writes about another notable lady. This one was from New Brighton. Sarah Jane Clarke Lippincott, better known as Grace Greenwood, was first an author of juvenile stories and later a pioneer journalist and newspaper woman. She visited the wild western frontier and wrote about it. She was the only woman pictured in Bausman's History of Beaver County. Literary references mention her pathos. She could make her readers cry. In some of her writings she mentions riding to the Fort McIntosh ruins and looking up and down the Ohio. She loved that view. She visited Old Economy and glimpsed Father Rapp and daughter Gertrude in a beautiful carriage. Her early book "Greenwood Leaves", tells of her horseback riding with her brother to Big Knob, the highest point in Beaver County. When she took her first trip overseas she referred to herself as a strongminded woman" and her companions as "unprotected females". Her picture is on display in the National Portrait Gallery. She was the only woman among the poets and writers of her day. Aside from Grace Greenwood, Myra Townsend, founder of the Home of the Good Shepherd, and Queen Aliquippa were mentioned in "Women of the Century - 1899", a women's Who Who.
We can be proud that these three Beaver County women were thought of so highly in the early part of the century. However, we should also hold in respect those not listed in publications - the many unknown ladies who either braved the elements to help make their families secure or touched the lives of those around them and provided comfort.