Halterman Family
Captives, Massacre & Survival
Compiled by
Teresa Martin Klaiber 2020
Rosemount Overlook,
Scioto County, Ohio
When
I was a toddler my paternal grandmother, began teaching me to count by singing Ten
Little Indians. It is one of those
little ditties that get stuck in your head.
When I was older, we went on outings that included climbing Rosemount
Hill in Scioto County, Ohio. Perched on
a rock we could see much of the valley.
Grandmother taught me about the Scioto Valley and the proud Shawnee
villages. She was always ahead of her
time, quietly explaining that they were eventually displaced and their life was
not anything like the 1950 western cowboy and Indian movies. As I sat spellbound by her tales, little did I
know just how much my ancestors were intertwined with more than one Native
American skirmish.
One
of these events involves my maternal mother’s family. Several 1880’s county
histories from southern Ohio give varied accounts concerning the capture of
three Halterman boys in 1758. Because
given names are often repeated from generation to generation, and some authors
simply repeat and embellish without documentation, it has taken Haltiman/Haldeman/Halterman[i]
researchers time to reconstruct the facts.
My
3rd great grandfather Daniel L. Halterman was born 33 years after a horrible
attack in Hawksbill, Augusta County, Virginia.
Daniel was born in Hardy County, Virginia, married in Shenandoah County
and migrated to the Scioto Valley before 1820.
I have wondered if Daniel’s father, Jacob Haldiman sat him down, while
overlooking the Shenandoah Valley, and told him the story of his captivity. If
so, the story, was lost, in our branch of the family by the time my great
grandfather was born.
The
Haldeman/Halterman/Haltiman/Holdiman’s fled persecution of their Mennonite
faith, migrating from Switzerland to Lancaster in colonial Pennsylvania, to the
beautiful Shenandoah Valley hoping for the promise of religious freedom, good
land and good fortune. Christian was
born about 1677 in Eggiwil Parish, Bern Switzerland, baptized there 13 May
1677, the son of Michael and Magdalena Gerber Haldiman.[ii] [iii] He and wife Christina Kneissley Haldeman
settled in Lancaster County, along with three known children: Barbara, Jacob
and John.
Christina’s
father Anthony’s (also from Eggiwil) estate papers were filed in Lancaster
County, 1733 listing Christian as an heir.
The first of the Mennonite settlers, had already migrated from Lancaster
County, Pennsylvania to Massanutten in the Shenandoah Valley, Augusta County,
about 1728[iv].
The Mennonites would have travelled the
Great Wagon Road as it passed through Lancaster and entered the Shenandoah
Valley where they would continue into the valley on the Great Warriors
Trail.
Christian’s
son Jacob Haldiman married to Maria Catarina Boin on Muddy Creek, Lancaster
County, Pennsylvania by the Rev. John Casper Stoever 13 May 1740.[v]
A
significant document known as The Treaty of Lancaster established rights to
settle along the Warrior’s Trail in 1744.
Migration increased. The Haldiman family decided to join fellow
Mennonites that had removed to Augusta County, Virginia, after the death of
their 3rd son George Daniel Haldiman (January 1748 - September 1748)
in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.[vi]
The
Shenandoah valley might have reminded them a little bit of what they might have
seen in Switzerland. The family of Jacob and Maria Catarina Boin
Haldiman migrated with three little girls, sons Jacob (born 1742), Gabriel (born
about 1743) and Christopher. Within the Massanutten Patent granted Jacob
Stoever was the settlement that became known as Hawksbill or Brock’s Gap. The
family moved shortly after George Washington had surveyed much of the area for
Lord Fairfax in 1748.
Researcher’s
incorrectly state that during the time frame an attack at the settlement, was in Rockingham County. Rockingham County
was not formed until 1778 from Augusta. The area of Hawksbill is now in Page
County, Virginia near the town of Luray.
Hawksbill Mountain is the highest point in Shenandoah National Park.
Part of the Blue Ridge Mountains, the area takes my breath away when we have
been able to visit. There are several
Indian burying grounds and signs of villages in today’s Page County which can
be seen on Hawksbill creek.[vii]
The Natives considered the area of Massanutten a common hunting ground. During the French & Indian War many
settlers in Virginia lost their lives.
Hawksbill would be just one in a list of many horrendous attacks.
Researchers
incorrectly state that the attack on Hawksbill was in August 1758. The actual attack took place in May 1758.[viii] Letters written to appeal to the Dutch church
to help the Mennonite Refugees give the correct month.
Daniel
L. Halterman’s father, Jacob was sixteen years old when the Native Americans
attacked his family at Hawksbill.
Brother Gabriel was about 15 years old and the youngest Christopher just
eight. Glorified accounts tell how
Indians attacked the John Stone family then the Haltiman/Holtiman’s. The three little girls, one just a baby, and their
mother were among the estimated fifty killed that day in May 1758. To date the names of Jacob’s sisters are
still lost in history.
Father,
Jacob Haldeman managed to escape. The mother, and two daughters
were killed by tomahawk and the baby girl smashed against the wall. Sadly
this is a common story told of many attacks during that time. One account goes
so far as to say that the Indian’s were amused by the young boys so took them
as captives after killing the mother’ Articles I
have read the Natives took, those able, to replenish their own work forces. Like
Mary Draper Ingles in 1755, the boys would have been forced to walk many miles
back to villages in the Ohio valley. “During
the 1750’s and 1760s nearly two thousand captives lived in the Ohio villages.”[ix]
In
some of the narratives, Christian is said to have also migrated from Lancaster,
Colonial Pennsylvania to Hawksbill with Jacob’s family.[x] His daughter Barbara’s
mother-in-law was murdered during the attack and it is said that Christian’s
wife, Christianna Kneissley Haldeman was killed during the hostility. That version of the story has the elder Jacob
and father Christian returning to Lancaster County, Pennsylvania together. Did
they know that two of the boys, Jacob and Christopher survived?
Tales
say the boys were taken to Chalahgawtha, a Shawnee village. This village was moved several times. As with other written narratives readers assume
that was present day Chillicothe which was in the area of one of the
Chalahgawtha settlements, and ironically where descendent, my great grandfather,
Stephen Simpson Halderman was born almost 95 years later.
Gabriel
is said to have died the winter of 1759/60.
Smallpox struck the Indians around 1759-60. Food for thought, a sad possibility, that he
and others got smallpox from “smallpox blankets” given by the British as
“gifts” with the intention of killing as many Indians as possible. An early
horrible tale of germ warfare. The winter would be just as harsh on the
captives and that alone, with lack of food and supplies, could have caused a
child’s death. In 1807 Gabriel was
remembered when Jacob and wife Caty named a child after him (Jacob, Jacob,
Jacob, Christian). Christopher’s
daughter Eve Halterman Evans would also name a son Gabriel Evans, born in 1820,
in Jackson County, Ohio in remembrance of the captive Gabriel Haldeman.
Oral
history says that Jacob was treated well and “adopted” by his captors. A descendent of Christopher[xi]
says he was not treated well. There are no first hand accounts that this
compiler has located, as of this writing.
Where the boys kept together or separated into other tribes?
In
November, after the horrible massacre it was duly recorded in the Augusta
records that Jacob Haldeman “has removed out of the colony…”[xii]
Along with most of the Mennonites, Jacob and father Christian returned to
Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. It is
exceedingly sad to think of these two men returning to Pennsylvania with so
many hopes and dreams dashed.
Jacob’s
sister Barbara had married Michael Joseph Kauffman. The Kauffman’s had also fled the Virginia
colony returning to Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Kauffman, Jacob Bomer, Samuel Bohm (Boehm)
and Daniel Stauffer (Stoever) wrote to Holland,
7 September 1758, after returning to Lancaster County, describing the
Mennonite refugees plight. The
correspondence states that the wives and children of Jacob Holtiman (as
spelled) and John Stone were among the 50 people killed. They received a reply in December that they
were providing the Mennonites with 50 pounds English Sterling to come to their
aide.[xiii]
The letter does not specify how the funds were to be distributed. Many had nothing but the shirts on their
backs when they fled from the Indians.
Repeated
narratives and published histories have been unclear about when Jacob was returned
to the settlers. One account says 1762
others 1764.
It
never ceases to amaze me when I discover early valuable documents. The Minutes of Conferences, held at
Lancaster, August 1762. With sachems and warriors of several tribes of northern
and western Indians. Pennsylvania Treaties. is one of those detailed and
transcribed items.
Present
on 13 August 1762 was James Hamilton Lt. Governor, William Logan, Benjamin
Chew, Joseph Fox (among others) and many Chiefs of different nations including
Tomago or Beaver, Chief of the Ohio Delawares.
Other Nations represented included the Shawnee, Kickapoe and Tuscaroras.
The Governor rose and went to the Place where
the English Prisoners sat, and received them one by one, from the Hands of King
Beaver, and here follow their Names.
- Thomas Moore, taken from Potowmack, Maryland.
- Philip Studebecker, taken from Conegocheague, Ditto.
- Ann Dougherty, taken from Pennsylvania.
- Peter Condon, taken from Ditto.
- Mary Stroudman, taken from Conegocheague, Ditto.
- William Jackson, taken from Tulpehocken, Ditto.
- Elizabeth M' Adam, taken from Little Cove, Ditto.
- John Lloyd, taken from Ditto, Ditto.
- Eleanor Lancestoctes, taken from Ditto.
- Dorothy Shobrin, taken from Big Cove, Ditto.
- Richard Rogers, taken from Virginia.
- Esther Rogers, taken from Ditto.
- Jacob Rogers, taken from South Branch, Ditto.
- Archibald Woods, taken from Ditto.
- Christopher Holtomen, taken from Ditto.
- Rebecca Walter, taken from Ditto.
- Hans Boyer, a Boy, taken from not known from whence.
It
was not just the Shawnee that raided Virginia, many other tribes, including the
Delaware and Cherokee had joined during the Indian Wars.[xiv] All the narratives I had read prior to
finding the conference seem to assume it was the Shawnee that had taken all
three boys. Four long years in a totally different environment than the boys
were used to living. From many articles,
that this compiler has read, adjustment back to civilization must have been
difficult. Many captives learned different skills and a different way of life
in captivity. Jacob is not released with
his brother and may explain why narratives give two different years: 1762 and
1764.
As
a condition of peace with the Ohio Indians Henry Bouquet had demanded the
release of prisoners held by the Delawares and Shawnees. The Articles of Agreement was finalized in November
1764. The Shawnees were not as prompt as
the Delaware and some captives were not released until 1765.[xv]
“Between Bouquet’s advance ot the Muskingum in the fall of 1764 and the summer
of 1765 over five hundred captives had been returned to…Fort Pitt.”[xvi] A review of known lists by this compiler have
yet to reveal when my ancestor, Jacob was released.
What
is known from documentation the boys father, Jacob, and their grandfather Christian, having
returned to Lancaster County, Pennsylvania were both deceased by March
1764. Their uncle Michael
Koffman/Kauffman was administrator of both estates and directed to distribute
Christian’s remaining funds to the representative of the eldest son Jacob as
well as son John. The Orphan Court records show that Michael then acted as
administrator of Jacob as well. Neither
of Jacob’s sons, Jacob or Christopher are cited in the accounts.[xvii]
Both
brothers reappear in Virginia in the 1780’s, active in Shenandoah and Hardy
county. Jacob received a land grant in Hardy County, Virginia 6 Aug. 1789 on
the headwaters of Lost River.[xviii] He had property in both Hardy and Shenandoah
County. He left all his possessions to
his wife Elizabeth when he died before November 1811 in Shenandoah County.[xix]
Christopher
settled back in Hardy County with wife Eve and in 1803 gave a deposition
concerning some disputed lands stating he had lived with his father Jacob
Halterman in Brocks Gap between 1755-1760.[xx]
I
am saddened by behavior of humanity that
has created chaos in our world. The
Mennonites faith emphasized peace not war yet in search of their own freedoms
they and many others forced Native tribes to fight for what they believed
in. Sitting on a rock listening to
stories with my grandmother, on Rosemount Hill, brought me peace as a
child. For many years we used Rosemount
as a short cut as we travelled from central Ohio to Kentucky. I never failed to think of the Shawnee and my
grandmother’s stories when we drove over the hill. Knowing that a new by-pass
was about to open, and we might not go that way again, I had hubby pull over one last time. It has been sixty-six plus years since I
learned Ten Little Indians. My
journey has opened doors and my head is full of stories I learned along the
way. The trees, on Rosemont, have grown
but the view is still there. The Scioto Valley, so rich in history, so peaceful
to look at perched high on a rock.
[i] Varied spellings are
utilized in legal documents throughout the history of the family.
[ii] Kirchenbucher der kirchgemeinde Eggiwil. Taufrodel Nr.1
1648-1697. Satate Archives of Canton Bern, Switzerland, page 184.
[iii] Kirchenbucher der kirchgemeinde Eggiwil. Eherodel Nr. 1..
State Archives of Canton Bern, Switzerland Michael and Magdalena married November 1667
[iv] Many online articles
suggest the Haldiman’s migrated with the first Mennonites to Massanutten, they
did not.
[v] Records of Rev. John
Casper Stoever Bapt. And M. 1730-1779 p 57.
[vi] Pennsylvania,
Lancaster Muddy Creek KB
[vii]Kercheval,
Samuel. History of the Valley of
Virginia 1833
[x] His daughter
Barbara’s mother-in-law was murdered during the attack as well and in one
instance it is said that Christian’s wife, Christianna Kneissley Haldeman was
also killed during that hostility
[xi] Gabriel Evans acct
[xii] Virginia, Augusta,
Order Bk 1 p 219
[xiii] Richard K MacMaster Danuel L. Horst, Rober F. Ulle, Conscience
in Crisis: Mennonite and Other Peace Churches in America, 1739 (N.p.: n.p.,
n.d.), page 126-7.
[xiv] The Virginia Gazette,
Williamsburg, VA 16 Jan 1761 “Nov 22 Affairs
in the Cherokee Nation have taken such an unfavourable turn….Oct 29 …extract of
a letter…some other Indians who had carried four prisoners with them…If this is
true we must give over all thoughts of ever freeing our people again, who are
prisoners in the Nation, their number according to the …accounts we can get is
near 200….
[xvi] Pennsylvania Magazine
of History and Biography. Vol 125 #3. Redeeming the Captives: Pennsylvania
Captives among the Ohio Indians…
[xviii] WV Land Grants 1-76
bk U p 1 writ 13 May 1788
[xix] Virginia, Shenandoah,
Wb 1 p 476
[xx] Lyman Chalkely, Chronicles of the Scotch-Irish Setlement
in Virginia: Extracted from the Original Court Records of Augusta County
1745-1800, 828 (Baltimore, MD: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1965), page 42.
