Susan Wylie Day & Her Horrific Demise

 

By Teresa Martin Klaiber, October 2022

 

Susan Wylie was the daughter of James Wylie.  She married Nathaniel Day circa 1737, probably in Pennsylvania. Susan and Nathaniel had five known children.  Several of the children were born while residing in Plumstead Township, Bucks County, Pennsylvania.  Susan’s daughter Martha,  is this compiler’s ancestor. Martha married Charles Kinnison who was a Greenbrier volunteer at the Battle of Point Pleasant. I have blogged about the Kinnison’s before.

 Susan’s father, James Wylie, is mentioned when amounts were paid to John Campbell for his burial and the notation that seven gallons of liquor were at the funeral, 30 January 1761.  A good send-off.

 Most history books and researchers have state that Susan’s husband, Nathaniel Day,  died in 1754. They go on to state that Susan and her children then migrated to Virginia with her father.  But at least one version states that Susan’s husband was scalped and survived. There is a pay statement to a Nathaniel in 1757 opening speculation.  This compiler believes this could be either Susan’s husband or the son. Nathaniel (Jr.), even if born in 1738 shortly after his parent’s marriage, was only about 19. Nathaniel Day received pay for service in the Company of William Preston in November 1757 along with John Day, another son of Susan Wylie Day, born circa 1742, who was still in his teens. (Ref. Draper Manuscript Collection. Papers of Col. Wm. Preston, Volume 6QQ, item 114; microfilm roll #101.)  Nathaniel Jr. did fight in Dunmore’s War (1774).

 Pocahontas county publications tell the story of the massacre.  The genealogy of county formations shows Pocahontas not formed until 1821.   John Day states that the Indians came into Botetourt County. (Botetourt was not formed until 1770 from Augusta.)

 The beautiful Cacapon River flows for some 81 miles. Capon Springs lays within Hampshire County today. Some accounts place Susan’s death in adjoining Frederick County. The Cedar Creek watershed encompasses a large portion of southwestern Frederick County. The massacre is attributed, by John Day, to Shawnees.

  The time-frame was during the French and Indian Wars. Many of the Indians travelled long distances in alliance with the French Canadians.  In June 1756 Fort Vause was attacked by French, Ottowa, Miami and Shawnee.  While many Cherokee volunteered in the company of Captain McNutt (Annals of Augusta County p 129/130).  So many sad, bloody tales. Leevice Vause was captured, taken to a Shawnee camp, but escaped. The Levisa Fork, a tributary of the Big Sandy River and named in her honor. The Annals of Bath County tell of another massacre near Jackson’s River in 1756. 

 Various accounts of the Wyle family have been repeated about the tragedy that unfolded from Indian attacks.  At least one version states Susan’s husband was scalped but survived.  Yet another indication that he migrated to Virginia and this compiler wonders about the 1757 pay stub.  The events of the Indian attack of the Day family in 1756 were given in great detail by their son John but he never mentioned his father. 

 Some say Indians attacked the farm while the family was working in the fields.  The youngest child David was killed instantly.  Susan, Martha and Sally [Sarah] were taken prisoners by the Indians and marched over the mountains in the Cacapon River area of Frederick County.  Martha said that her mother remarked to her friends that she believed the Indians intended to kill her and when asked why she thought that she said that they had given moccasins to all the prisoners but her and left her bare foot.  The History of Pocahontas County says that all were ready to move when  a warrior walked up to Mrs. Day and with his war club struck her a stunning blow between her shoulders, knocking the breath out of her, and then in an instant lifted her scalp-lock.  She was left there in a state of insensibility and it was never known whether she recovered consciousness or died immediately.

 A party of twenty,  under Captain Fry, had set out to try and retrieve the prisoners, among them was Susan’s son John, about 14 years of age.  Years later when Susan’s son, John applied for a military pension he gave the following account:

 "The Shawnee Indians had come into Botetourt County in the said State of Virginia and killed my brother David Day and taken my mother and two sisters, Sally Day and Martha Day, prisoners, and also took some other property and made for their towns, the first night the Indians camped on a mountain, between Cape Capen (sic) River and Cedar Creek and at that camp killed my Mother, Susan Day … Captain Fry raised twenty men of which I was one. We followed said Indians, and when we came to the Indian camp aforesaid, there lay my mother dead, and stripped naked, her head skinned (sic): and we lifted her and laid her between some rocks and laid some rocks over her: and we followed on after the Indians, and the second day came in sight of them at their camp, and I raised my gun to shoot one of them, and just as I was about to draw trigger, I saw one of my sisters rise up right before the muzzle of my gun between me and the Indian: and I was so alarmed at seeing my sister rise before my gun that I involuntarily hollored, which so alarmed the Indians that they broke and ran, leaving the prisoners, and what they had at the camp, and run with all their might: and we got the prisoners, and what property the Indians left at the camp, and brought all safe to the fort."

I recommend the following for my readers:

 Church Records of Pocahontas Virginia LDS 1017649 item 3

 White Pole Meeting House by Frank Johnson

 Descendants of Christopher Day of Bucks County Pennsylvania, compiled   by J. Edward Day, 1959 

 "Our Pioneer Ancestors" written by Ruth Hendrick De Verter...

 Genealogical History of William Henry Kinnison of Angus, Nuckolls, County, Nebraska, Don E. Kinnison,   2nd Ed, 1981 LDS #1035948, item 5

 Historical Sketches of Pocahontas County, West Virginia by Wm T. Price 1901

 

Alexander Brown - A wee bit Irish

Alexander Brown - A wee bit Irish

By Teresa Martin Klaiber January 2020

Alexander Brown, was born in Ireland, according to son, Rev. Matthew Brown, family stories, and children’s census records. At least three sons were born in Ireland: Adam Brown born 8 April 1766, Samuel born about 1770, and Isaac Newton Brown born 16 April 1771.

Both Adam and Samuel migrated from Ireland to Hampshire County, Virginia, where their father  settled, then on to Ohio County, Kentucky. When Adam Brown died in Ohio County, 10 August 1853 from flux, the death register listed his father Alexander and mother as Winney Brown.  Winney is most likely short for Winifred an old English/Welsh given name.  DNA,  for this compiler, indicates that Adam is a ½ brother to later siblings, confirming, what earlier researchers suspected, that Alexander had more than one wife.

In a published sketch, it is stated that Samuel Brown immigrated to America with his father when he was twelve years old[i].  If this statement is accurate then Alexander and family migrated to America in 1782.  According to one researcher[ii] Winney Brown died in Ireland before the migration.

The first confirmed documentation of Alexander Brown is in Frederick County, Virginia on the personal property tax of 1782 with 10 white and 1 black within the household.  From experience, this compiler believes that Alexander actually arrived in America about 1781 to be established in Fredrick and paying taxes by 1782.   Historically the Irish Volunteers had organized and in December 1781 had met at a meeting place of the Presbyterian Synod of Ulster. The Brown children appear in later Presbyterian records in America.  As they settled in America they were faced with talk of the Battle of Guilford Court House in North Carolina and the surrender at Yorktown.

Conjecture repeated by some researchers say Alexander had a wife Mary Bradford. Grace Kelso Garner[iii], wrote that Nancy Caudy daughter of James Caudy, Jr. married 30 October 1781 to George Alexander Brown. She then cites the children of our Alexander Brown. In 1995, Wilmer L. Kerns wrote in Frederick County Virginia Settlement And Some First Families of Back Creek Valley that Garner was erroneous.  A deed and mortgage involving Alexander and Thomas Lewis written a year prior to Alexander’s death indicates that his wife was named Ann.[iv]  To date it is not clear who the mother of nine of Alexander’s children was.

Alexander was active in Frederick County and was witness to the will of John Buckanon in January 1789.   In 1791 Alexander Brown purchased property from William Linegar in Hampshire County, Virginia. He paid 120 pounds for 223 acres on the North River at Great Cacapon.  He settled at the mouth of the North River of the Great Cacapon on the wagon road leading from Romney (Hampshire County)  to Winchester (Frederick County).  The state road was completed from Winchester to Romney in 1786.  Brown was involved in a Chancery court case involving Isabel Feeley in 1795.[v]  By March 1792 he was established in his new home and  appears in a list of letters remaining at the post office at Winchester, Frederick County, Virginia.[vi]

Kern’s surmised that Alexander Brown was a blacksmith because he gave grandson William Day blacksmith tools in his will.  Alexander wrote his will on the fourteenth day of August 1816.  Alexander Brown stated these were the tools that he had set up William’s father with. William Day was one of the children of Alexander’s daughter Nancy Brown. Nancy had three children with Ammery Day[vii].  William’s siblings were John Day and Larkin Day.  In 1798 Thomas Henderson was cited as living in adultery with Nancy.  The Day children later utilized the Henderson surname.  Thus it is unclear, at this writing, if Brown set up blacksmith tools for Ammery Day or for Thomas Henderson.  Alexander references daughter Nancy as Day in his will so it is “assumed” the blacksmith tools were for Day.  There is documentation that Alexander Brown paid tax on a grist mill in 1814 and the property he sold to Thomas Lewis has a “merchant” mill which is mentioned further in this report.  He would be paying tax on a mill if it was on his property.  As of this report it is unclear if he is the miller.

No wife is mentioned in Alexander Brown’s will. He gave a slave each to son Adam and Samuel. Alexander then requested that his plantation be sold and the sums divided among the children. He appointed “trusty friend” George Sharf, Daniel Carmichael and John Caudy to be executors of the estate.  The appraisement was June 1817.

The estate lingered in court.  The Winchester Gazette announced a trust sale 19 Oct 1822 for 124 acres by subscriber Thomas Lewis for payment of a certain sum due to George Sharf and Daniel Carmicheal, executors of Alexander Brown.  The land was to be sold at the tavern door of said Lewis upon the premises to the highest bidder.  The land described as on the road leading from Winchester to Romney including a Merchant Mill[viii] and an excellent stand for a tavern having been occupied as such for several years.  It appears the property did not sell at that time.  Instead it was leased to John Martin & Nicholas Baker with John Brown acting as trustee prior to John’s migration to Perry County, Ohio.  They failed to make their payments.[ix] In October 1828 Matthew Brown, David Brown, John Clayton & Polly late Brown his wife, David Pugh and wife Jane late Brown, Samuel Rusk and Elizabeth nee Brown his wife appointed Isaac Brown of Perry County, Ohio to act as their attorney-in-fact.[x]  It was not until April 1834 that Adam and Samuel Brown both of Ohio County, Kentucky also appointed Isaac Brown to act as their attorney-in-fact.[xi]  Isaac Newton Brown finalized the sale of the property to John Wolford in 1837.[xii]

The will, as well as tax records, prove that Alexander Brown was a slave owner.  Son Matthew Brown was interviewed, in Bowling Green, Ohio, as the oldest man in the county. He said that when a lad he saw his father sell a woman who had two little children and saw the frantic mother begging to intercede for permission for her to come back some time and see her children.[xiii] This left a deep impression on Matthew who became a devout minister.

Children of Alexander Brown

i.  Adam Brown born 8 April 1766.  Married Marry Baldwin. Resided Ohio County, Kentucky.

ii. Samuel Brown, born about 1770  Ireland, married Hannah Taylor.  Resided in Ohio County, Kentucky.

iii. Nancy Brown birth estimated 1766-1784. M. Ammery Day, associated with Thomas Henderson. Resided in Hampshire County, Virginia.

iv. Isaac Newton Brown, born 16 April 1771 in Ireland; died 01 March 1853  Perry County Ohio; married (1) Mary Clayton 27 October 1795; born 18 February 1777 in VA; died 27 January 1822 in Perry County Ohio; married (2) Eleanor Chenoweth 27 March 1823 in Perry County Ohio.

v. Jane Brown birth estimated between 1775 – 1794.  Married David Pugh. Jane died  19 Sep. 1824 Perry County, Ohio.

vi. Mary Brown, born February 1779; died 28 August 1858 in Clayton Township, Perry County Ohio; married John Calvin Clayton Abt. 1799. Died Perry County, Ohio. She is the ancestor of this compiler.

vii. Elizabeth Brown born between 1785 & 1794. Married Samuel Rusk. Resided Perry County, Ohio.

viii. Rev Matthew Brown, born 16 June 1786 Frederick County VA; died 27 October 1884 Wood County Ohio; married Mary Constance Queen 14 April 1811.

ix.  John Brown born 1791 – 1792. Hampshire Co., Va. 1810. Said to marry 1. Polly Skinner.  John 1830 in Pike Twp., Perry Co., OH with female b 1790-1800. Marries Mary Meddleton in Perry County, Ohio in 1836.  Rev. Matthew Brown performed marriage. Migrated to Knox Co., MO between 1850 & 60.  He names a son Isaac.  (Isaac Newton Brown s/o Alexander also bore a son John Brown in 1798 Hampshire County.  Caution researchers to not confuse records). 

x. David Brown born about 1793 Hampshire County, Virginia.  Migrated to Pike Township, Perry County, Ohio.

---

[i] W. H. PERRIN. J. H. BATTLE, G. C. KNIFFIN, KENTUCKY A HISTORY OF THE STATE, EMBRACING A CONCISE ACCOUNT OF THE ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE VIRGINIA COLONY; ITS EXPANSION WESTWARD, AND THE SETTLEMENT OF THE FRONTIER BEYOND THE ALLEGHANIES; THE ERECTION OF KENTUCKY AS AN INDEPENDENT STATE, AND ITS SUBSEQUENT DEVELOPMENT. , F. A. BATTEY AND COMPANY, 1888.[ii] Hal Harrocks[iii] Early Settlers of Western Frederick and Eastern Hampshire County[iv] Virginia, Hampshire dbk 19 p. 288-290 Alexander Brown and wife Ann to Thomas Lewis of Hampshire County, VA.[v] Library of Va., Chancery Record Index. Frederick 1795-014 LVA reel 175 206 329[vi] Bowen’s Centinel and Gazette. 12 March 1792[vii]Amory Day sold pp to Ransom Day for 35.83 in 1815.  The items included beds, blankets, spinning wheel…tools. Hampshire dbk 19 p 139-40.[viii] Map of Mill Sites c. 1859  shows “a” mill on the road from Romney at North River.  HistoricHampshire.org    James Caudy property was also on North river and he is known to have had a mill in 1813/14.[ix] Virginia, Hampshire dbk 26 p 360[x] Virginia, Hampshire Dbk 26 pp320-321[xi] Virginia, Hampshire Dbk 29 page 326[xii] Virginia, Hampshire dbk 41 page 124.[xiii] Wood County Sentinel, 2 April 1881.

Day Research Faux Pas

Day Research Faux Pas

compiled by Teresa Martin Klaiber May 2012

 

The past several years I have been dusting off many years of research and have been carefully scanning and double checking documentation. Amazing what a good review will uncover.

Scanning my Day research I realize I was one of the contacts James Edward Day made shortly before his death.  He had written Descendants of Christopher Day of Bucks County, Pennsylvania in 1959.  His 1994 letters state that he now knew the parents of Christopher were Christopher Day and Elizabeth Gowland from Eston, Yorkshire.

It was not long until I was able to find what I always term a “red flag” in research.  Many of the web sites that are floating state that Christopher Day of Bucks County was baptized  22 March 1689.  My own website has not been updated and is in ERROR.   [Not only did I key in the baptism as 22 March 1689 using secondary material but I also put that he was possibly born in the Province of Pennsylvania.   I must have been sipping wine at the time!]  

The Yorkshire records are now readily available.  But apparently no one has looked at them closely or chose to ignore the burial records.  The Eston Parish records were transcribed by the Yorkshire Archaeological Society & Yorkshire Parish Register Society and I did plow through the transcriptions .

J. Edward Day was correct that a Christopher Day married Elizabeth Gowland  30 January 1677 [Eston Register page 36].  It is followed by the baptism of a daughter 26 August 1677.  Three more daughters were baptized between 1678-1687.  Then on 22 March 1690 Christopher son of Christopher was baptized at Easton [page 46]. It was followed almost immediately with “Christopher Day son of Christopher Day Bur ye 8 Day July” 1690 [page 46].

The following year Christopher and Elizabeth Gowland Day have another daughter Elizabeth baptized and recorded.  The elder Day’s both died within a month of each other at Eston in 1721.

They may have had another son after the death of Christopher in 1690. It was common to name a child after a deceased infant.   It is doubtful there was yet another Christopher with son Christopher during this time when the records for this parish are reviewed carefully.  

There are  other red flags.  Our ancestor, Christopher Day resided in Bucks County, Pennsylvania.

The first recorded land purchase  mentioned for a Christopher Day occurred  in 1689 in the Province of Pennsylvania within what is Bucks County.  The purchase was from Arthur Cooke for a portion of a 2000 acre survey.  1689 places all of the issues cited at Eston in England as infants.  

The History of Bucks County, Pennsylvania mentions an Arthur Day and Richard Day as landowners in Plumstead, Bucks County that J. Edward Day never connected to the family  and warrants further research.

The Christopher Day of this topic is said to have married wife Martha 4 November 1714 and then baptized two days later at Pennypack Baptist Church in northeastern Philadelphia. The church was first known as Lower Dublin Church. Portions of the church wanted Saturday as the Sabbath when Keithians [dissident Friends   sometimes called Christian Quakers] merged with Lower Dublin.  J. Edward Day commented in correspondence that Christopher was a witness to a Quaker wedding in 1722.

Using a mathematical assumption [the word we never want to use in genealogy] that places Christopher of Bucks County just coming of age at his marriage in 1714 – his birth could be about 1693.  Even this presents a problem.  According to The History of Bucks County Thomas Dungan sold 50 acres to our Christopher Day in 1708.  This is about one mile above Cross Keys where Christopher Day is buried.  Dungan was the minister at Pennypack Church.   Using the same mathematical assumption had he just become of age in 1708 he would be born about 1687.   This makes linking Christopher who dies in Bucks County, Pennsylvania in 1748 even less likely to be the son of the Day family cited in the Eston records above.

No one, to date, has been able to pinpoint Christopher Day's age when he made his will in Bucks County in 1748 [WBK 2 p 141].  If he died age 80 he would have been born about 1668. this places him as an older gentleman when he married at Pennypack.  He and Martha had six children including Nathaniel [my line] and Christopher Jr. born about 1723.

This is not the first time that erroneous material has been regenerated.  It is not the first time I have made an error.  When one makes a faux pas it is just best to get it out there and hope that this will also "regenerate" so that the questions can be answered.

Come All You Tender Hearted

compiled by Teresa Martin Klaiber
December 2010

By now all my readers should be aware of my love of ballads and how they can be used in genealogy and history.

My families genealogy includes the sad story of Floyd Alson McCormack [1836-1906] and wife Francis Jane Ratliff McCormack's two daughters deaths in Carter County,Kentucky..

A few years ago a family cousin, Robert McCormack, asked if I knew of a ballad sang by the Stanly Brothers. I immediately sent him the copy from Ballad Makin in the Mountains of Kentucky by Jean Thomas. What is interesting about her publication is that she says the ballad "came to Jilson Setters' ears..." It did not say that Jilson Setters aka William Day was the author.

Over the years Robert has collected several versions of the ballad and now has a web page that is a true delight. Simply titled The Fire Tragedy, I am sure my readers will enjoy it.

As the snow storm moves into Eastern Kentucky, I am scanning McCormack items in my collection and refreshing my memory concerning the ballad. Among my items is a copy of the Carter County Herald, Olive Hill, Kentucky, dated 26 October 1922. The article is titled "A Sad Recollection."

This article has a few inconsistencies and states that Mrs. Francis McCormick was a widow residing in Flat Woods, Carter County and suffered from rheumatism. After putting her little girls to bed, she went to the neighbor's house to get some liniment and while there the house caught fire and burned. This article states the the affair happened in 1867.

The newspaper version follows:

Come all ye tender hearted
Your attention I will call;
I'll tell you how it started,
Come listen one and all.
On Wednesday night there was a light
Saw shining on the hill;
A mother ran with all her might,
While everything was still.
Two little girls had gone to bed,
While mother ached with pain;
"I'll get some liniment," she said,
"And soon return again."
Don't stay too long, dear mother,
For well be lonesome here,"
And then mother might have seen
Them drop a silent tear.
She went into a neighbor's house,
Some hundred yards away,
Twas there she sat and talked with them
Bud did not mean to stay.
They hear a noise life thunder
As the flames began to roar;
Ain't it an awful wonder
They never went to the door?
Time passed on much longer,
But still she did not go;
Ain't it an amazing wonder
The mother acted so?
When she started home again
Her house was in a flame;
She cried, "My babies, you're gone,
I am the one to blame."
She burst the door asunder
The flames rolled over her head.
She cried aloud, "No wonder."
She found her babies dead.
The little ones had gone to sleep
Before their mother came.
Oh how still they slept,
Wrapped in the red hot flame.
Their little bones lay on the ground,
They both lay face to face,
Their arms they were entwined around
Each other they did embrace.
Don't grieve for them, dear mother,
For they are now at res,
Ain't it an amazing wonder
How soon they both were blessed?
If they had said with you, ma,
Till they had both grown old,
They could not have purchased what they have
Though they had a world of gold.
We know they are gone from you, ma,
It's their eternal gain;
They're beyond the curtains of the sky
Where they'll never know no pain.
We know they're gone from you, ma;
God will it so to be;
Just put your trust in him, ma;
Your babes you soon shall see.

This version published in the Carter paper states that it was composed by M. J. Williams in 1888. The version published by Jean Thomas varies in many ways and never uses the word ain't or ma.

The story has some twists. In 1870 Francis was living in Greenup County, Kentucky working as a seamstress with her children and an Elizabeth Williams age 67 born in East Virginia. The little girls vary in ages from 8 years old to 6 months. Husband Floyd is not in the household. However he reappears in 1880 in Lawrence County living with a younger wife Martha [Haney]. Thus she was not a widow in 1870. Floyd did not die until 20 June 1906.

Looking for M. J. Williams who composed the ballad in 1888, I found Montraville J. Williams, the son of Jefferson Brooks Williams living next door to John Q. A. Davis, a violin and dulcimer maker in 1880 in Olive Hill, Carter County, Kentucky. Williams is 22 years old working on his fathers farm but was certainly influenced by John Q. A. Davis and his music.

Kentucky Vital records show that Montraville J. [spelled a variety of ways] was born 24 February 1858 in Smokey Valley, Carter County to Jefferson B. and Mary Griffith Williams.

By 1900 Montraville Williams is living with a sister's family and is selling organs. Montraville appears to have never married and is found in 1920 living as a boarder in Eagle, Carter County with no occupation, just two years prior to the writing of the article in the Carter County newspaper.

I was able to to locate the obituary of "Mont J." Williams published 17 January 1929 in the Carter Herald. With a special thanks to James Powers at the Boyd County Library, I did not have to make the drive on this snowy day to obtain the obit. We discussed what a wonderful genealogy find the obituary was because it lists when each of the siblings pre-deceased Montraville. Sadly the article does not state the one thing I had hoped - which was his occupation and involvement with music and musical instruments. According to the obituary Montraville J. Williams died 12 January 1929 and was buried at Globe, Kentucky.

Anyone with further information on any other ballads that M. J. Williams may have compiled is encouraged to contact me.


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