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"Is this our Gershom Van Atty???"
...An Extract of a Letter from D.S. Witter, Esq.
In the TeStrake book, the author writes: "The
following information has been provided by Christina Finlayson of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
from her efforts in tracing her descendant, Gershom Vanatta." "Report
of Daniel S. Witter on Indian Depredations: The following is an Extract of a
Letter from D.S. Witter, Esq., to a friend in this neighborhood, dated, Lower
Yellow Banks, April 28, 1832". Then he follows with the article below, then
a "Note: There were several men named Vannatta (one of the many spelling
variants) in Mercer County, then attached to Warren County for governmental
purposes. According to "Mercer and Henderson Counties" (1882), 119,
the "Vannattas all removed to the vicinity of Muscatine, Iowa" in the
fall of 1835. Gershom Vannatta served in Pike's 1831 Rock Island County Company
and in Peter Butler's Warren County Company in 1832. No other mention of Indians
having fired on a man has been found. St. Vrain attributed the attack to
Winnebago Indians."
Lower Yellow Banks, April 28, 1832
"On the 21st about midnight five Indians entered my house and I made my
escape and got off. I had, on the day previous, buried most of my
articles, & c. On the 20th., Gershom Van Atty started to go up to see
me, for the purpose of ascertaining what I intended doing; when, about half a
mile below Edwards' river he was fired upon by an Indian who lay concealed in
the grass; two other Indians immediately rose and ran towards Van Atty, but on
finding the other dead, they turned their attention to him, which enabled Van
Atty to make his escape. Black Hawk's band is at this time about 1000
warriors, most of them in a body, and determined to fight; a few are scattered
through the country doing mischief."
Gershom received a Bounty Land Warrant #72969 for 160 acres in 1855 in Oregon.
He attaches a note stating that he partially lost his eyesight in summer
1891.
Sarah Van Atta, Gershom's wife, also gave a report of his experiences fighting
in the Black Hawk War which was published in the Grand Ronde, Oregon
newspaper.
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