Shoemaker/Schumacher Family

Main Page

Shoemaker (Schumacher), Purget (Purgett, Purgit, Purgitt)

Mollie Shoemaker, wife of Frederick Purget(t)

Shoemaker/Schumacher Proposed Lineage

Compiled by Judy Griffin - email address & Diane Kleinke, 2007.





Schumacher/Shoemaker

Information on this line contains information from Genealogy of Three Loudoun County Shoemaker Lines by Lillian Lankerd, information in Shoemaker Pioneers by Benjamin Shoemaker III, and Peter Schumacher genealogy compiled by Richard Schumacher. (1)

Peter Schumacher was born in 1638 in Cleebourg, Alsace France and died after December 4, 1717 in Cleebourg. He married Anna Barbara Heckh, born in 1646 in Cleebourg, Alsace France. Peter’s ‘inheritance record’ dated February 9, 1712/13 gave the children the farm to take care of in their place. Peter’s will was updated on December 4, 1717 when he extended his son Rudolph’s rights for four more years. Peter and Anna’s children were Georg, Diebold, Elisabeth, Peter, Maria and Rudolph.


Shoemaker Immigrants

According to Pennsylvania Folklore Society, (2) the following left Cleeburg, Germany to come to America in 1749: Jacob Shoemaker, Damiel Shoemaker, Barthel (Bartholomew) Shoemaker, Anna Barbara Shoemaker, Michael Rummel, John Jacob Rummel, and Hofner Bannes. Also Jacob Clor left the nearby town of Bremmelbach. Shoemaker Pioneers also states that the ship Christian arrived in Philadelphia on September 13, 1749 with passengers: Michael Rummel, Jacob Rummel, Joh. Jacob Banutz, and Jacob, George and Michael Shoemaker. Rudolph Shoemaker came from Cleeburg in 1752.

According to Shoemaker Pioneers, there were probably seven or more brothers or cousins that settled in Loudon County, Virginia. They came from Cleeburg or nearby villages in that part of the German Palatinate that is now in the Province of Alsace in France. Six of these relatives are known to have occupied adjoining properties in Loudon County, Virginia. These were: Peter, Bartholomew, Jacob, George, Daniel and Simon. There was a seventh relative, Rudolph, and at least one female, Juliana, who married Phillip Baker. Almost all of these immigrants appear to be children of Rudolph Schumacher. However, the Damiel is likely to be our Daniel, son of the Jacob who was Rudolph’s nephew.




Daniel Shoemaker

Daniel Shoemaker (Jacob3, Georg2, Peter1) is thought to be one of the immigrant Shoemakers. He married Maria Elizabetha Hoffman on February 1, 1757 in Frederick County, Maryland, (3) married by John Conrad Steiner. Daniel left Cleeburg and arrived in America, probably Philadelphia, in 1749. In 1756 he served in the Fairfax County militia, rank of Trooper. He is said to have lived in Loudoun County, Virginia, near the Potomac River in 1761, delivering tobacco and produce to landings on the Potomac River. Daniel Shoemaker, his wife Elizabeth and son Peter were mentioned in Loudoun County leases, September 12, 1765. Daniel was on the Loudoun County tax lists from 1782 to 1787. Loudoun County was created out of parts of Fairfax County in 1757.

The children of Daniel and Maria Elizabetha are thought to have been:




Peter Shoemaker

Peter Shoemaker (Daniel4, Jacob3, Georg2, Peter1) was born on April 1, 1757 and married Anna Maria Margaret Wilhelm at the First Reformed Church, York, Pennsylvania on February 5, 1780. Peter’s birth date may not be correct if his father’s February 1, 1757 marriage date is correct. In 1778, Peter Shoemaker of York Township, York County, Pennsylvania served in the Sixth Company of the Third Battalion of the York County Militia during the Revolutionary War. Peter bought 124 acres at Grand Cacapon, Hampshire County, Virginia in 1795. (7) Peter may have moved to Hampshire County circa 1780, he was the assignee of a Christopher Ohaver in a January 1781 land grant for 144 acres on Elk Hill in Hampshire County. (8) He was listed as in the area of Hugh’s Run, with land adjacent to James Alexander in two 1795 land grants.

Peter was listed in the 1782 tax list for Hampshire County with four in his household, and in 1784 with five in his household and four buildings. A Peter Shoemaker was listed on the Hampshire Personal Property Tax Lists for the Upper (Western) District from 1804 to 1814, though some of these may have been his son Peter Jr. (9) In the 1810 Hampshire County census, Peter Shoemaker was enumerated just before Henry and Frederick Purgett. Peter and Anna were over age 45. They had one son, age 10-16; two sons, age 16-26; one daughter under age 10; one daughter age 10-16; and a daughter age 26-45. In the 1820 Twin Township, Ross County census Peter was enumerated near Frederick Purget and just before Henry Shoemaker. Peter’s household had one male 45 and over; one male 18-26; one female 16-26; and two females 45 and over.

According to Shoemaker Pioneers, Peter and Margaret lived in Hampshire County until the War of 1812. By 1815, they resided in Twin Township, Ross County, Ohio. Peter died in Ross County in 1822, and his administration papers mention his widow Margaret, his eldest son Peter, his son-in-law Frederick Purget, and sons Henry, John and Daniel. This mention of Frederick Purget is the only source for our Mollie as a daughter of Peter. She was not named in the papers. It appears that all of Peter’s children went to Ohio except George. From Peter’s estate papers, the children of Peter and Anna were:



Rudolph Schumacher

Rudolph Schumacher (Peter1) was born in 1693 in Cleeburg, Alsace, Germany and died circa 1767 in Frederick County, Maryland. In 1752 Rudolph Schumacher of Cleeburg (Kleeburg), Weissenburg District, Alsace left for America. (17) Rudolph was excused from paying taxes in Frederick County, in 1754 because “he was upwards of 60 years of age and so infirm that he was unable to labor for a maintenance.” (18) On August 2, 1767 he took communion at George Schumacher’s.




Muddy Creek Settlement, Augusta County (Greenbrier), Virginia

The story of Indian Chief Cornstalk’s raid on the Greenbrier settlement relates to some of the Shoemaker families who settled in this area (some of our Crouch family also settled on the Greenbrier). In particular, this story involves the See and Yoakum wives of Rudolph Shoemaker’s grandsons, Peter John and John.

Cornstalk’s Raid (31)

The story of Cornstalk’s Raid on the Greenbrier settlements in 1763 has been told by Stuart, Parkman, Withers, Doddridge, Waddell, Price, Lewis, Chalkley, Morton, and others. Captain John Stuart, who founded a new settlement at the Big Levels about 1770, seems to have been the first scribe to give the story to the world, and, apparently, he did not put the story in writing until more than fifty years after the event. He claimed to have received his information from relatives of Mrs. Clendenin, and it is entirely possible that he may have interviewed Mrs. Clendenin personally, as she remarried about 1767 and later moved back to the Levels from the Jackson River country. Moreover, he may have heard the story from Mrs. Clendenin’s brother, William Ewing, who served in Captain Stuart’s company at the Battle of Point Pleasant in 1774.

All the other accounts, except the Holcomb story, appear to be recasts of the Stuart version. The Holcomb story purports to have been dictated by a grandson of John Ewing, who had heard the story related by John Ewing, himself. John Ewing, a brother of Mrs. Clendenin, also a fellow captive and eyewitness to some of the atrocities, was well qualified to tell the story correctly.

The several stories agree on major points, but diverge somewhat on certain minor details. This sketch is drawn from all the authorities on the subject, with all doubts and discrepancies resolved in favor of the Stuart and Holcomb versions.

We may sing about our Georgia, Colorado, Michigan and other moons, but the Pontiac moon of May, 1763, had blood on it. The Algonquin chieftains, in secret council near Detroit, summoned by king Pontiac April 27, 1763, agreed to attack all the English posts recently surrendered by the French. A certain phase of the moon in May was to be the signal for a concerted attack. This was the beginning of Pontiac’s War. The plan was so successfully executed that nine or ten English posts from western New York and Pennsylvania to northern Michigan fell to the Algonquins practically without a struggle. Fort Pitt and Detroit alone held out. That fact changed the history of the American colonies. Had those strongholds fallen, Pontiac’s warriors could easily have swept the country clean of palefaces from the Mississippi to the Allegheny front. As it turned out, Pontiac’s army was engaged in besieging Fort Pitt and Detroit. Meantime, as a part of the original plan, the interior tribes fell savagely upon the trans-Allegheny settlers nearest to them.

These settlers, be it remembered, had no business in those parts at that time. Virginia lands west of the “front” were not then open to settlement and could not be purchased at any price. The Indians, particularly the Algonquin tribes of Ohio, had never ceased to claim them. The vast region constituted their prize “game preserve.” They even regarded Virginia hunters as trespassers, and permanent settlers as outlaws to be shot down at sight. Moreover, all this was well known to Virginians.

By 1760, however, the French and Indian War was practically over. Frontiersmen east of the “front,” anticipating that the Indian border would be pushed back to the Ohio, lost no time in heading their wagon trains for new pastures on the Greenbrier and by 1763 were raising fields of wheat and corn, wholly ignorant of Pontiac’s diabolical designs. Two or three years of quiet and safety had led them to regard Indian troubles as things of the past. The Indians well knew of these growing settlements, having visited them as hunters, while the palefaces had come to regard the redskins as harmless nuisances.

The business of scalping the Greenbrier settlements fell to Cornstalk, the Shawnee chieftain, who, with his warriors, resided on the Scioto, in Ohio, some sixty miles from the Virginia border. The two white settlements which gained historical fame were the Muddy Creek settlement lying north of the Greenbrier and west of Muddy Creek Mountain, and the Clendenin settlement on the Big Levels near Lewisburg. They were about twenty miles apart, and the people comprising them have been variously estimated at from one to two hundred. Both settlements probably took root in 1760 and 1761.

Cornstalk did not strike the Greenbrier settlements when blood was on the May moon. Apparently he waited for the June or July moon. Historians have not been specific as to the date of the Cornstalk Raid. Holcomb’s version of the Clendenin massacre as published in the West Virginia Historical Magazine in July, 1904, unequivocally states the date as June 27, 1763. Since that version purports to have been inspired by John Ewing, one of the captives, that date ought to be regarded as correct. However, Judge Chalkley, in his Abstracts of Augusta County Records, has uncovered two sworn depositions which seem to challenge the correctness of the Holcomb date. These depositions were used in a lawsuit about 1804. One of them was made by John Ewing himself subsequent to 1803, in Gallia County, Ohio, forty years after the occasion. In it he states that he and his niece, Jane Clendenin, were made captives and carried away by the Indians July 15, 1763.

The other was made by James Burnside of Monroe County, in 1803. In it he states that Archibald Clendenin was killed July 15, 1763. This, then, appears to be the correct date of the Clendenin massacre, and the Muddy Creek massacre was probably July 14, 1763.

On this premise, and allowing the Indians two weeks or more for covering the two hundred miles distance, they must have started on their tomahawking expedition on or before July 1, 1763. At that time Pontiac’s main armies were besieging Detroit and Fort Pitt, from which fact it may be concluded that Cornstalk and his Shawnees were left to attend to western Virginia.

Authorities agree that Cornstalk’s scalping band consisted of about sixty warriors. Crossing the Ohio in canoes, which they sank at the mouth of the Kanawha, they proceeded overland a distance of about 160 miles, to Muddy Creek, where several scattered families were living in imagined peace and security, Here they broke up into small parties and, under the guise of friendship, secured entrance into the various homes, where, according to Withers, “every civility and act of kindness which the new settlers could proffer were extended to them.” Then, “in a moment of the most perfect confidence in the innocence of their intentions, the Indians rose on them and tomahawked and scalped all save a few women and children of whom they made prisoners.” Thus, in one short day, the Muddy Creek settlement was literally annihilated. No one but the captives was left to tell the story and they had no one but themselves to whom to tell it.

It was a glorious day for the Shawnees. It is reasonable to assume that they encamped for the night at Muddy Creek and feasted on domestic fowl and beefsteak. Leaving a few Indians to guard the hapless captives, the band proceeded up the Greenbrier about twenty miles to the Big Levels.

Here the Shawnees had the time of their lives. The leading citizen of this settlement was Archibald Clendenin, who had but recently been appointed constable of the Greenbrier district. He had come over from the Cow Pasture about 1760. He had married Ann Ewing about 1756, and they brought with them their first child, Jane, born early in 1758. Two other children were born to them at the new settlement. John was about two years old at the time of the raid, the other a young baby. Clendenin was likely about twenty-eight, and was famed as a hunter. There may have been a dozen or more families comprising what was known as the Clendenin settlement, and it is reasonable to suppose they were scattered over considerable territory.

For one reason or another, it appears that all the settlers were assembled at Clendenin’s on that fateful July 15,1763. Several historians have it that Clendenin had bagged three fat elk and had invited his neighbors in for a feast. Another one states that the neighbors flocked to Clendenin’s through curiosity to see the Indians. Strangely enough, the John Ewing story as handed down by Holcomb makes no mention of any feast or of any other prearranged meeting of the neighbors. Yet, the neighbors, were there – all of them – as it has repeatedly been written that Con Yoakum was the only man of the settlement to escape slaughter. He hastened to the Jackson River settlements east of the divide and gave the alarm that frustrated the Indian attack upon the settlement at Carr’s Creek. Otherwise, the “cleanup” of the Big Levels was as complete as the one the day before at Muddy Creek. Certain it is that the Big Levels people had not heard of the Muddy Creek disaster. It also seems improbable that the entire neighborhood could have congregated after the Indians arrived, moved by curiosity, for how did they know the Indians were there? There is plenty of room for speculation pro and con, and the student of the event is free to draw his own conclusions.

Let Captain John Stuart speak: “From Muddy Creek the Indians passed over into the Levels where some families were collected at Clendenin’s, numbering between fifty and one hundred persons, men, women, and children. There they were entertained as at Muddy Creek, in the most hospitable manner. Clendenin had just arrived from a hunt with three fat elk, and they were plentifully feasted.” This massing of neighbors – whatever the reason – made it easy for the Shawnees. Instead of breaking up into small parties and visiting each household separately, as at Muddy Creek, they found their quarry rounded up for them. Great luck for the Shawnees!

Hear Captain Stuart again: “In the meantime an old woman with a sore leg was showing her distress to an Indian and inquiring if he could administer to her relief; he said he thought he could, and drawing his tomahawk instantly killed her and all the men almost that were in the house.” Withers adds: “This seemed to be a signal of a general massacre, and promptly was it obeyed. Nearly every man of the settlement was killed and the women and children taken captive.”

Hear Holcomb: “Her (Ann Clendenin’s) story of the surprise was as follows: On the day of the capture, while she was getting dinner, a seemingly friendly Indian entered, and soon after him another, followed at intervals by still others, until the house was filled with nineteen Shawnee warriors. Then Clendenin saw their imminent danger, and determined to make his escape. Watching his chance, he darted through the open door and ran. But he was too late. Almost the same instant two Indians fired, both balls hitting him in the back, and he fell forward on his face dead.”

Bear in mind this is the story claimed to have been handed down by John Ewing himself, and it is noticeable that no mention is made of any general slaughter. Nor did John Ewing witness the slaughter. As the story goes, he was out of sight of the house hoeing corn with two negro boys. About noon they heard a rifle shot (probably the two fired simultaneously at Clendenin) in the direction of the house. While surprised, they were not frightened, as they thought Clendenin might be shooting wild turkeys or other game. Hear Holcomb: “However, they determined to go to the house. On arriving at the top of the hill they saw several Indians near the house. Even this did not alarm them, as it was common for friendly Indians to visit the settlements. John and one negro (Tom) proceeded to the house, fearing no danger. On their approach, two of the Indians met them in the most friendly manner, greeting them in broken English with ‘how de do?’ and offering to shake hands. The boys found themselves in the clutches of a foe. Then they realized the horror of their situation.

“Mrs. Clendenin was bound to a shaving horse in the yard, her little boy and girl clinging to her in terror, while one of the Indians was swinging her helpless infant in the air. When she saw her brother, she exclaimed: ‘Oh, John, they have killed Archie. Why have you come, too?’ Just at that moment one of the warriors came up with the reeking scalp of her husband and slapped it against the side of the burning dwelling.” As stated by Captain Stuart: “Mrs. Clendenin did not fail to abuse the Indians, calling them cowards, etc., although the tomahawk was drawn over her head with threats of instant death, and the scalp of her husband lashed about her jaws.”

Without doubt, the “Clendenin Massacre” was a midday affair. The men were killed, the women and children made captives, the homes plundered and burned, and the horses stolen. It was a day of fiendish terror, especially to the survivors. Stuart says: “The prisoners were all taken over to Muddy Creek and a party of Indians detained them there till the return of the others (warriors) from Carr’s Creek, when the whole were taken off together.”

No writer has told us how long the Carr’s Creek raiders were gone, but, as the distance covered by them going and returning was a hundred miles or more, the captives must have remained at Muddy Creek two or three days at least. But the “slaughter of the innocents” was not yet finished. On the first day of the retreat, Ann Clendenin escaped. This so angered the Indians that they promptly killed her little baby. Her little two-year old John was carried through to the Ohio County, where his captor turned him over to two squaws who quarreled over him. To settle the dispute, the warrior tomahawked him.

This, in brief, is the story of the Cornstalk Raid on the Greenbrier settlements during the Pontiac War in 1763. Scarcely a white man survived, and not a drop of Indian blood was shed. The only person known to have offered even the slightest resistance was Ann Clendenin, the young wife and mother. The Greenbrier Valley was completely desolated and so remained for six or seven years.

Henceforth the frontiersmen of Virginia nursed an undying grudge against the Shawnees. Many of the soldiers who assisted in the defeat of Cornstalk at Point Pleasant in 1774, were but paying off an old score. And – from one way of looking at it – when Cornstalk and his son were murdered at Fort Randolph in 1777, the child-stealing, baby-killing old chieftain was but being paid an old standing debt in his own coin.

The Families of Elizabeth See and Elizabeth Yoakum, Cornstalk’s Raid (32)

In 1744 the Colony of Virginia purchased all the land east of the Ohio River from the Indians and opened it to settlers. Favorable reports of this land reached the Sees in Bucks County. So, Frederick [See] went to this frontier wilderness to inspect it, walking the entire five hundred miles there and back. This fact was related by his wife Catherine in later years, . . .

Frederick See established his home on this land in Greenbrier in the Big Levels section on Muddy Creek. Here he brought his family and a settlement grew up around him. Other kin followed, two other Yoakum boys, Conrod and Valentine, and Abraham Vanderpool were here in 1753.

In 1755 war broke out between France and England. The Indians were incited by the French to make war on the back-country inhabitants of Virginia (the original territory of Old Greenbrier). All who were then settled on the Greenbrier were obligated to retreat to the older settlements for safety. Beginning in 1762, the settlement of Greenbrier was renewed. Among the settlers were Frederick See, Archibald Clendenning, Joseph Carroll, Felty Yoakum and others with their families; to the number of more than a hundred.

Two small blockade forts had been erected as strongholds into which the settlers were to flee at the approach of danger. One fort stood below the present town of Alderson, West Virginia, and the other at the juncture of Mill Creek with Muddy Creek. Another house-fort was that of Archibald Clendenning’s, about three and one half miles southwest of Lewisburg in what is now Fort Spring district.

On June 16, 1763, Cornstalk, chief of the Shawnees, and sixty warriors suddenly appeared at the settlement at Muddy Creek. They came professing friendship and bringing with them much game which they had procured enroute. The inhabitants feeling secure in the belief that the hostilities (1755-1762) were over remained outside the fort (as did their neighbors the next day at Clendenning’s). Preparation for a huge feast was soon underway and Frederick See killed one of his few precious cattle to supplement the venison and wild game supplied by the Indians.

At a given signal the next day the Shawnees fell upon the settlers, killing and scalping all the men except one, plundering and burning their homes, and taking the women and children prisoners. Leaving a few warriors behind to guard the terrified, dazed and anguished group, Chief Cornstalk and his band went some twenty miles to the Clendenin settlement, again wearing the mask of friendship to disguise their horrible purpose.

Clendenin was a brave man and a hunter of renown and believed himself to be on good terms with all the Indians, who came to hunt deer and elk in these savannahs. On the day of the massacre, he had just returned from an excursion near the spring of Lewisburg and had three fine elk. The advent of the Indian’s friendly visit and the return of the hunters soon attracted all the people, between fifty or a hundred to his home near the stockade being twenty paces apart. The Indians were entertained and feasted on the fruits of Clendenin’s hunt and every other item of provision which could be mustered.

An old woman, who was one of the settlement, having a very sore leg and having understood that the Indians could perform the cure of an ulcer, showed it to one near her and asked if he could heal it. His answer was to bury his tomahawk in her brain and raise a fearful war cry. This seemed to be the signal for a general massacre. Too late, Clendenin with one child in his arms, started for the brush but was felled in his tracks. Again, every man was killed (except Conrad Yolkum) and the women and children made captive.

Conrad Yolkum, suspicious of the Indian’s professed friendship when they arrived at Clendenin’s, took his horse out under the pretext of hobbling it at some distance from the house. Soon afterward, he heard the report of guns and outcries from the house and alarmed, mounted his horse and rode as far as Lewisburg.

Deciding that he must have been mistaken, he rode back to ascertain the truth, but as he neared Clendenin’s a number of Indians fired at him. Fortunately all missed, and he fled, going to the fort on Jackson River, spreading the alarm as he went. But the people refused to believe this warning and were massacred at will by the few pursuing Indians, who continued their raid to Carr’s Creek in Rockbridge County.

The Indians completely destroyed the settlement and then herded their prisoners, including Mrs. Clendenin and her baby and two small children, westward to Muddy Creek where they joined the captives there and all were kept for several days, awaiting the return of the small Indian band that had gone into Rockbridge county.

Driven to despair by the cruel and unprovoked murder of her husband and friends, Mrs. Clendenin boldly charged the Indians with perfidy and treachery and although the bloody scalp of her husband was flaunted in her face and the tomahawk threateningly raised over her head, she never ceased to revile them.

When the Shawnees were all re-assembled at Muddy Creek, the Indians set out for Ohio. In going over Kenney’s Knob, the prisoners were in the center and Indians front and rear, Mrs. Clendenin slipped into a thicket unnoticed. Her escape was revealed when the baby she had handed to one of the women began to cry. Mrs. Clendenin though pursued, managed to elude her foes and returned that night, a distance of ten miles, to the tragic scene of the massacre.

She covered her husband’s body with trash and rails and hid in an adjacent cornfield where she spent the night agitated with fear and despondency. Later, as she regained her composure and strength, she resumed her flight and reached the Jackson River fort in safety. Eventually, the two children of Archibald Clendenin’s were restored to their mother. Ann Clendenin’s grave in the Old Welch graveyard was marked at a ceremony during the 160th Anniversary of Greenbrier County, June 1938.

Catherine See and Children in Captivity

The destination of the Shawnees was Old Town near the present city of Chillicothe, Ohio on the banks of the Scioto River. The captives forced along at the tireless pace of the Indians, tried valiantly to keep up for well they knew it was a matter of life or death; any who weakened and fell behind, any crying babe was ruthlessly killed. The trek ahead was long and grueling, a distance of one hundred sixty five miles as the crow flies, over some of the most rugged terrain east of the Mississippi River. Two mountain ranges lay ahead, the Blue Ridge and the Allegheny, not to mention the streams and rivers to cross.

Catherine See, keenly aware that her younger children would soon he exhausted by the hardships of the journey, resolved with a courage born of desperation, to save them from an inevitable fate. One of the warriors rode along the trudging line made up of about one hundred fifty women, young boys and children, many burdened with the loot the Indians had collected. His mount was a horse the property of Frederick See. It was perhaps the third day on the trail that Catherine requested that he give up the horse that her children might ride. This the Indian angrily refused to do. Seizing a pine knot from the ground, Catherine knocked him off the horse. He sprang up brandishing his tomahawk and would have killed her then and there, but for the interference of the other Indians who admired her fearlessness and called her the “fighting squaw.” Catherine was permitted to keep the horse and use it for her family.

At length the weary prisoners and their captors reached Old Town across the Ohio River. One can well imagine the excitement that prevailed on the return of the victorious chieftain and his band; the shouting and rejoicing of the inhabitants as a great procession of both sexes and ages doubtless poured out of their dwellings on hearing the signal gun and peculiar whoop announcing the return of the raiders. Then followed the ceremonies usual for the occasion. There were the trophies to see, the utensils, tools, guns, clothing, horses, etc., all seized from the settlements; and the great number of white captives. One ceremony which provided the Indians with entertainment was an ordeal to which nearly every prisoner was subjected; it was to “run the gauntlet.” It was done in this manner; a large number of squaws and Indian boys armed with clubs and switches lined up in two rows facing each other, then the prisoners were compelled to run between the lines, while the Indians struck them with their sticks and threw dirt or rubbish in their faces.

Catherine See’s turn came. She was now about 48 years of age and had spent the past twenty-five years of her life on the frontier, where to remain alive was to become physically tough and mentally alert. Doubtlessly the story of her triumph in getting her horse had spread through the village and the Indians were eager to see the “fighting squaw” undergo this test. They were not to be disappointed, for to their astonishment, Catherine suddenly seized the club of the nearest Indian and swinging it lustily right and left, soon had the Indians overcome and scattered.

In accordance with Indian custom a general council decided the division of the spoils and the fate of prisoners taken by the tribe. The older daughter, Catherine, was given to the son of Chief Cornstalk for his wife. This girl could hardly have been more than fourteen. How the older boys were placed is unknown and Catherine and the younger girl were taken into some family; at least all were under shelter except little John, who had to stay outside with the Indian dogs. One can imagine that housing was strained by the sudden addition of one hundred fifty prisoners.

It so happened one day that most of the tribe left the village for some special purpose. Catherine was left behind in charge of an aged squaw, who was subject to seizures of some kind. On this day, the old woman had one of these attacks and fell into the fire.

Catherine calmly placed her foot on the old woman’s head and held it there until she died. When the Indians returned and heard Catherine’s report of the happening (what she chose to tell) she received no blame as the old squaw’s condition was generally known. There was one less in the wigwam and John then could sleep inside. Later he was adopted by an Indian family, as were also the Brown and Zane children.

Colonel Henri Bouquet’s Expedition Against the Ohio Indians

With the two settlements of Muddy Creek and Clendenin’s destroyed by the invasion of the Shawnees, the few remaining settlements were practically cut off from the East after 1763. The Indians continued the war and on some of their excursions went to within a few miles of Staunton, Virginia. Appeals for relief from the border country at length were heeded and the British government ordered Colonel Henri Bouquet to make an expedition against the Ohio Indians to put an end to these deprecations and force the return of their captives.

Colonel Bouquet’s headquarters were at Fort Pitt, one hundred and fifty miles from the Shawnee towns on the Scioto. Here he had assembled his regular troops, the Royal Americans, and two hundred Virginia Rangers; many were volunteers. For the meeting with the Shawnee chiefs, he marched down the Ohio River to the forks of the Muskingum where a stockade camp was prepared. In 1763 Bouquet had defeated the Indians at Bushy Run with a small force – five hundred regulars against a large Indian contingent. The Indians, over-awed by his former victory and by his boldness in penetrating so far into the wilderness, were ready to make peace and give up their white prisoners.

With his army drawn up in battle array, Bouquet met in conference with the Ohio chiefs where they tendered him an offer of peace. His reply was a master stroke.

In part he said . . . “and now I am come among you to force you to make atonement for the injuries you have done us. I have brought with me the relatives of those you have murdered. They are eager for vengeance, and nothing restrains them from taking it but my assurance that this army shall not leave your country until you have given them ample satisfaction. I give you twelve days from this date to deliver into my hands all prisoners in your possession, without exception; Englishmen, Frenchmen, and children; whether adopted into your tribe, married, or living among you under any denomination or pretense.” . . .

These [the list of captives returned 1764] most certainly are names of Virginia captives. There is Mrs. Gilmore and two children; Margaret Yokeham, the wife of either Felty or Valentine; Peggy Reyneck (Renick); the two See boys and Mary See, which could be Mary Catherine See, the mother or younger sister. The list reveals the physical condition of children; the fact that some either didn’t know their own names or the clerk was lax in recording it.

When the day came for the captivated’s departure, scenes of grief and anguish prevailed for many Indians refused to give up their beloved adopted children and many half-savage children clung frantically to their foster parents. Despite orders from Colonel Bouquet many of the Indians followed the returning army at a distance. Only a night or two after leaving the Muskingum, little John See stole away from the encampment and rejoined the Indians.

Tradition tells that his Uncle Michael See gave a trader one hundred dollars to get him back. John See returned to Hampshire to live with his uncle’s family. He told Nancy Greenlee See when he visited at Point Pleasant in Mason County, Virginia on his way from Kanawha Falls to Indiana about 1825 that when he was a lad returned from the Indians his Aunt Barbara used to tell some of the family to watch and follow him on his excursions into the forest for fear he would return to the Indians.

We can well imagine the rigors of this winter journey through the forest to the fort at the forks of the Ohio. Later the captives were taken by their military escort to Carlisle, Penn. where their relatives had been awaiting to be reunited with the long lost, the supposed dead. That scene defies description. There was joy, sorrow, tragedy, and disappointment; many were unclaimed and utterly homeless.

Catherine See had her burden of grief for her daughter, Elizabeth (Catherine) did not return with the captives; legend recites that she was the mother of an Indian babe and either remained with the Shawnees by choice or restraint. Her story is unknown. Only one fact is recorded. It is found in the diary of Van Meter, who with George Harness, whose wife was a See, and a Stump made a trip from Moorefield, Virginia to Chillicothe, Ohio and met a Mrs. Johnson who was related to them all. She was a daughter of Frederick See, who had been killed by Indians. (From Ohio Archaeological Records).

The Virginia captives were doubtlessly placed in the custody of Captain Morgan of the Virginia Rangers. One source says they were taken to Staunton where they were restored to their relatives.

The See family returned to Hampshire County to live with their kindred. Catherine See married John Hardy, pioneer of Hardy County. Later they all returned to the Greenbrier, where John Hardy’s name appears on the county tax list in 1783-1786. There is no record of the daughter, Lois, but tradition relates that she married ______ Van Bibber, as yet this fact is unconfirmed. There is little, too, regarding the youngest Catherine (Elizabeth). But a tattered copy of Reverend John Anderson’s marriage records from 1776 to about 1785 gives Peter Tho- or Sho- to Elizabeth Lee (See) in January 1776.

This Peter Tho- or Sho- is probably Peter Shoemaker and Elizabeth, daughter of Frederick See. Whether Elizabeth or Catherine were older, or the names interchanged, one can only guess. Peter Shoemaker was in Greenbrier County 1783-1786. They are said to have moved to Kentucky to the Big Sandy. Catherine See, known in later life as “Aunt Kitty” Hardy died in 1806 or 1807. Truly her history is remarkable, a span of four score years and ten in time; in distance from the Rhine River to the Greenbrier. . . .

The most interesting of all data relating to George See is to be found in a Grant displayed in the Greenbrier County Museum, Lewisburg, West Virginia. It is a Land Office Treasury Warrant issued by Henry Lee, Esquire, Governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia for four hundred and sixty four acres of land in Greenbrier County on the west side of Muddy Creek, joining the lands of Peter Shoemaker and John Wilson and including a survey made for Frederick See in the year 1751. It was issued in Richmond, Virginia, September, seventeenth, 1792.

Two years later (1794), Peter Shoemaker, “attorney in fact” for George See and Patty, his wife, sold 365 acres of the land granted George See by patent, to Jacob Hockman for the “sum of Five Shillings current Money of Virginia.” This deed also is on exhibit. The description of the land expressed “by poles and degrees” also depends upon certain sycamores, sugar maples, white oak, and hickory trees. A deed to Peter Cline for the other hundred acres is recorded at Greenbrier Court House.

Another source states: “When the time arrived for the Indians to release their prisoners, all of the See family except the twin, nine-year-old Elizabeth, were freed. Cornstalk would not agree to let her go, but kept her for nine more years during which time his young son took her as his squaw and, according to family tradition, she had an Indian child by him. Later she escaped or was ransomed, because she eventually left the Indians, and married a white man named Peter Shoemaker.”

Not only was Peter’s future wife taken captive, but also his brother John’s future wife, Elizabeth See. Elizabeth was captured at Greenbrier in July 1763 and returned in January 1765 at age 12. (33)

Brothers Peter John Shoemaker and John Shoemaker

In 1804 Peter Shoemaker, then in Adams County, Ohio, gave a deposition stating that in February, 1773, he started from Muddy Creek in Greenbrier County for the Kenawha in company with James Campbell, James Pauley, and Walter Kelly, and went as far as Gauley River, where Walter Kelly turned back. (34) The others went on to what is now the mouth of Campbell’s Creek, where Campbell made a tomahawk improvement.

Peter Shoemaker was a member of Captain Bullit’s Survey Company, surveying near the site of Maysville, Kentucky in 1773 (Collins History of Kentucky). Peter was recorded in Greenbrier County, Virginia the same year. Peter Shoemaker’s will was written July 1, 1799, was presented to Adams County Court, exhibited, proved and ordered to be recorded on the 26th day of June 1804.

In the 1775 payroll list of Botetourt Militia men who fought at the Battle of Point Pleasant, Dunmore’s War were: (35) Peter Shoemaker, 51 days pay; George See, 16 and 83 days pay; George Yokem, 10 days and 83 days pay – all in Matthew Arbuckle’s Company. Peter Shoemaker also received 62 days pay, Capt. John VanBebber’s Company. Lastly Peter Shoemaker, Botetourt, 19 days pay as a Scout.

John Shoemaker was listed on the 1782 Greenbrier County personal property tax list, William Hamilton’s District. He was listed with 3 horses, no slaves. Also living in this district were Peter Shoemaker, Michael Sea, Conrod and George Yochim/Yoacham. On the 1782 list of people paid for furnishing rations during the Revolutionary War were Peter Shoemaker, 74 rations; John Shoemaker, 74 rations; George Sea, 74 rations; and Michael Sea, 74 rations. (36)

Peter, John and Simon Shoemaker appeared on the Greenbrier personal property tax lists in the 1780s. Peter and John appeared in 1782, 1783 and 1788. Peter and Simon also appeared in 1786 and 1792. A Thomas Shoemaker appeared in 1783. In 1787 Peter, John and Simon appeared, as well as John and George See, Conrad Yocum.

There appears to have been a land record for John Shoemaker, August 9, 1786, 50 acres on Muddy Creek. There is a March 3, 1785 land survey for Peter Shoemaker in Muddy Creek Settlement adjacent to George and Michael See. (37)



Endnotes

1 Peter Schumacher of Cleebourg, Alsace, France, January 7, 2004, Richard Shaefer, online at Rootsweb Family Tree.

2 Pennsylvania Folklore Society, Vol I, p. 108.

3 Reformed Church for Frederick County, Maryland at the Fackenthat Library, Lancaster, PA. These records state that Daniel Shoemaker married Elizabetha Hoffman on 1 Feb 1757.

4 Ledgers of Payments, 1818-1872, to U.S. Pensioners Under Acts of 1818 Through 1858 From Records of the Office of the Third Auditor of the Treasury, 1818-1872; (National Archives Microfilm Publication T718, 23 rolls); Records of the Accounting Officers of the Department of the Treasury, Record Group 217; National Archives, Washington, D.C. Virginia Pension Office, Mary M. Schumacher, widow of George, Rank private, commencement March 1836, died July 6(?), 1847.

5 Joseph Claybaugh, History of Clinton County, Indiana, Indianapolis, IN:. A. W. Bowen & Company, 1913, pp. 893-894.

6 The Evangelical Lutheran Ch. for Frederick Co., MD (available at the MD HX Soc. in Baltimore) state Henry, son of Daniel and Elizabeth Shoemaker, was born 20 Feb 1772.

7 Virginia Northern Neck Land Grants, 1775-1800. Vol. III, Book X. X-5 Peter Shoemaker 124 A. (15 Oct 1790) in Hampshire Co. on Great Cacapeon adj. George Michaels. 7 Dec 1795.

8 Virginia Northern Neck Land Grants, 1775-1800, Book S. S-159 Christopher Ohaver of Hampshire Co. asne. of Peter Shoemaker 144 A. on Elk Hill in said Co. Surveyor Elias Poston. Adj. Martin Roller. 19 Jan 1781.

9 Horton, Vicki Bidinger. Hampshire County [West] Virginia Personal Property Tax Lists, 1800-1814. Baltimore, MD, USA: Genealogical Publishing Co., 2002.

10 Marriage Records 1798-1910, Ohio Probate Court, Ross county; FHL, Batch #8311207, film #1395522, patron submitted form.

11 1850 Census, Highland County, Brush Creek Township, Ohio; County of Ross, Ohio Biographical Sketches, Ross County Genealogical Society, pp. 684, 848.

12 OHADAMS Digest, Vol 2, Issue 81, Descendants of Samuel Shoemaker, email from [email protected], to [OHADAMS] mail list, 13 Jun 2007.

13 Henry Holcomb Bennett, editor, A History of Ross County, Ohio, Madison, WI: Selwyn A. Brant, 1902, pp. 684-685.

14 OHADAMS Digest, Vol 2, Issue 81, Descendants of Samuel Shoemaker, email from [email protected], to [OHADAMS] mail list, 13 Jun 2007.

15 Dodd, Jordan R, et. al. Early American Marriages: Virginia to 1850. Bountiful, UT: Precision Indexing Publishers, 19xx.

16 Hampshire County, West Virginia Marriages, 1863-1900. County court records located at Romney, West Virginia or Family History Library microfilm #0815361.

17 Pennsylvania Folklore Society,, Vol. XVI, p. 176.

18 Frederick County Judgement Dockets, Book H 2, p. 564; Frederick County, email from [email protected], to [MDGEN-L] email list, February 8, 2001.

19 Henry HERDMAN & Frederick FREE, email from Robert A. Fetters [email protected], to [email protected], January 26, 2001.

20 John Shewmaker and Elizabeth Youlkam. Aug 13 1782 married by John Alderson (Greenbrier Co Marriage Records, Book 1A:135 - from image of original).

21 freepages.family.rootsweb.com/~dhickman/fam/TheHickmans-4.html.

22 Henry Holcomb Bennett, editor, A History of Ross County, Ohio, Madison, WI: Selwyn A. Brant, 1902, p. 824.

23 OHADAMS Digest, Vol 2, Issue 81, Descendants of Samuel Shoemaker, email from [email protected], to [OHADAMS] mail list, 13 Jun 2007.

24 OHADAMS Digest, Vol 2, Issue 81, Descendants of Samuel Shoemaker, email from [email protected], to [OHADAMS] mail list, 13 Jun 2007.

25 OHADAMS Digest, Vol 2, Issue 81, Descendants of Samuel Shoemaker, email from [email protected], to [OHADAMS] mail list, 13 Jun 2007.

26 OHADAMS Digest, Vol 2, Issue 81, Descendants of Samuel Shoemaker, email from [email protected], to [OHADAMS] mail list, 13 Jun 2007.

27 OHADAMS Digest, Vol 2, Issue 81, Descendants of Samuel Shoemaker, email from [email protected], to [OHADAMS] mail list, 13 Jun 2007.

28 OHADAMS Digest, Vol 2, Issue 81, Descendants of Samuel Shoemaker, email from [email protected], to [OHADAMS] mail list, 13 Jun 2007.

29 OHADAMS Digest, Vol 2, Issue 81, Descendants of Samuel Shoemaker, email from [email protected], to [OHADAMS] mail list, 13 Jun 2007.

30 United Church of Christ, German Reformed (now St. James), Lovettsville, 1773 - , Records: Baptism only 1786-1859, early in German, originals at UCC archives, Lancaster, PA; copies at church; microfilm through LDS, translation at Handley library & Lib. VA.

31 A. E. Ewing, “Cornstalk’s Raid on the Greenbrier – 1763,” West Virginia Review, June 1936, pp. 266-268, www.wvculture.org/hiStory/cornstalkraid.html.

32 A Chronicle of the SEE family and their Kindred, written and compiled by Irene See Brasel (1892 - 1963), http://members.aol.com/hconor2/Brasel.htm.

33 Elizabeth “Yoakim” is mentioned on List F "List of Prisoner’s delivered up by the Shawanese Indians at Mackwayack and arrived at Fort Pitt 5th January 1765" as being 12 years old, taken July 1763 from Green Bryar, Augusta County (William S. Ewing “Indian Captives Released,” Western Pennsylvania Historical Magazine, V39 (1956):187-203.) Other Yoakums mentioned in the Captivity lists include George, Margaret, and Sally (age 5).

34 http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~donkelly/KELLY/Kelstates/virginia.htm, Chalkley, Augusta Co. VA records.

35 Circa July 1775; Botetourt County, VA; Payroll list of men who fought at the Battle of Point Pleasant, Lord Dunmore’s War; Botetourt Militia; Virginia State Archives; Misc Microfilm #78: The first line of the microfilm reads: “Public Service Claims, Pittsburgh, 1775.” http://incolor.inebraska.com/gwbrownx/smithbiblio1.htm.

36 Shuck: V1: 109-11.

37 Mar 3, 1785: Land Survey for Peter SHOEMAKER in Muddy Creek Settlement adjacent to George See’s property and to Michael See’s property. References a survey of 125 acres made in 1773. Greenbrier Co, WVA Deed Book #1, p. 194 (typed transcript) and Apr 6, 1791: Land survey for George See for 465 acres in Greenbrier Co on west side of Muddy Creek joining land of Peter “Shoomaker” and John Wilson. Including [land in] a survey made for Frederick See in 1751 - 2 state warrants, one for 1300 acres #10933 [?] of which 100 acres and the remaining 365 acres by warrant for 600 acres #151....- Greenbrier Co, WVA Deed Book #2, p. 143.

Copyright © 2000
By Diane Kleinke and Judith Griffin