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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 77017 ***
+
+
+
+
+
+    Some Forgotten
+    Pennsylvania Heroines
+
+    An Address By
+    Henry W. Shoemaker
+    At meeting of
+    Bellefonte Chapter
+    Daughters of the American Revolution
+    Bellefonte, Pa., May 6, 1922
+
+[Illustration: Woman’s face]
+
+Altoona
+
+[Illustration: Union label]
+
+Published by Times Tribune Co., 1922
+
+
+
+
+Some Forgotten Pennsylvania Heroines
+
+
+Mrs. Richard, and Ladies of Bellefonte Chapter, D. A. R.
+
+Some months ago, in the daily newspapers, a dispatch dated Washington,
+D. C., propounded this question: “Who were the greatest women in the
+past history of Pennsylvania?” Without waiting for the readers of the
+article to offer suggestions, the following names were mentioned:
+Betsey Ross, Rebecca Biddle, Lydia Darrah, and Lucretia Mott. It would
+seem a pity if this quartet should be regarded as the final estimate of
+greatness in Pennsylvania womanhood, despite the years of persistent
+propaganda at work in favor of some of them. In the first place the
+genuineness of Betsey Ross’s connection other than professional with
+the first American Flag has been frequently questioned, and were it
+not for her social connections her claims would probably be entirely
+outlawed; the same is the case with Rebecca Biddle and Lydia Darrah. In
+this present age we are too prone to estimate a person’s greatness on
+the basis of wealth and social position. If a wealthy woman delivers
+a speech, writes a few paragraphs, makes a donation to charity, she
+is accorded an exalted place in a sycophantic world. A woman’s social
+position cannot be judged by her occupation; a servant girl may
+come of an aristocratic family, and a millionaire’s wife, a common
+vulgarian. It is women like Lucretia Mott, who have triumphed over
+life’s obstacles, or broken the bonds of caste, and done something
+uplifting and permanently worth while who will ultimately be classed as
+the greatest of Pennsylvania women. Lucretia Mott, preacher, teacher
+and reformer, is too widely known to need further mention here, but
+there are many other Pennsylvania women, some scarcely mentioned in
+history’s pages, who should be re-discovered. It may some day be a part
+of the unselfish labors of the D. A. R. to establish them in their
+proper places among Pennsylvania heroines. In point of fame which
+transcends the borders of the State, like in the case of Lucretia
+Mott, we must not fail to mention Mary Jemison, known as the “White
+Woman of the Genessee.” In beautiful Letchworth Park, near Rochester,
+New York, a handsome bronze statue, on a granite pedestal, testifies
+the high regard in which this remarkable Pennsylvania woman is held
+by the people of the Empire State. As a child, in 1755, Mary Jemison
+was captured by Indians at her parents’ home on Marsh Creek, Franklin
+County, and taken to Ohio. Later after the fall of Fort Duquesne, she
+was given the chance to return to her family, but refused, preferring
+the society of the Indians. She first married a warrior named
+Sheningey, and after his death became the wife of Hiakatoo, commonly
+known as Gardeau, a fighting Indian whose name is not remembered in a
+kindly manner by residents of the West Branch Valley. His part in the
+tomahawking of the wounded at Fort Freeland, near Milton in 1779, gave
+him an unenviable reputation, but as to the merits of the case the
+loyal “White Woman of the Genessee” is silent. As the wife of Hiakatoo,
+Mary Jemison became the mother of a large family, who inherited a
+sort of Kingship or overlordship of the Senecas in Western New York
+State. The last “King” Jemison died several years ago near Red House,
+on the Allegheny River; in his lifetime he sold patent medicines
+in Pittsburgh, and exhibited a unique collection of Indian relics,
+including the silver war crowns of Chiefs Cornplanter, Blacksnake,
+and Red Jacket. Mary Jemison is principally remembered by her book of
+memoirs which she dictated to James E. Seaver, an historian, shortly
+before her death, and which gives a vivid picture of Indian warfare
+and pioneer conditions during her long life. Her influence on the
+Indians was beneficent, and her aim was always to bring the two races
+together in friendly intercourse, her feeling being that, of the two,
+the Indians were the least savage and warlike. Eastern Pennsylvania can
+claim another equally picturesque Indian captive in Regina Hartman,
+yet her unmarked last resting place in Tulpehocken Churchyard, near
+Stouchsburg, Berks County, is known only to a few, among them Dr.
+Walker L. Stephen, of Reading, the best-posted Indian folk-lorist in
+Pennsylvania. If Regina Hartman had lived in New England or Europe she
+would rank as one of the great historical personages of all time, yet
+Pennsylvania claims only a mild acquaintance with her. For the benefit
+of those present who have not heard of her strange story, we will
+summarize it briefly. During an Indian attack along the Blue Mountains,
+in the vicinity of the present Town of Orwigsburg, Regina, then nine
+years of age, was carried into captivity by the Indians, and for seven
+years was taken from place to place by her captors. At last, after the
+final peace of the French and Indian War, in 1763, when Mary Jemison
+elected to remain with the Indians, a great army of white prisoners
+were turned over to the British Colonial forces, and sent east to
+Carlisle Barracks, to be restored to their relatives. Regina Hartman’s
+mother journeyed to Carlisle, but out of the long line of sunburned
+children who were marched past her could not recognize her long lost
+daughter. The unhappy woman, in bitter disappointment after her long
+trip, broke down and wept. Her grief attracted the attention of Colonel
+Henry Bouquet, the brave deliverer of Fort Duquesne, a Huguenot from
+Switzerland, who was in charge of the released captives, and addressing
+her in Pennsylvania German, he asked if there was any song that she
+used to sing to her missing daughter in the old childhood days. The
+poor woman recollected one particular hymn, and going along the lines
+of refugees started to sing:
+
+          “Allein, and doch nicht ganz allein
+          Bin ich”----
+
+It was there that a tall girl sprang from the crowd, and fell into her
+mother’s arms. The reunion was complete and Regina spent the remainder
+of her life ministering to her mother’s comfort at their humble home
+in Northern Berks County. After her mother’s death she lived alone,
+becoming known locally as a saint, through manifold deeds of goodness
+and charity. Now she rests in an unmarked grave, and later historians
+have attempted to class her as a myth, alongside of “Molly Pitcher,”
+who luckily has been rescued from such obloquy by the prompt action
+of the Pennsylvania Legislature and Governor Brumbaugh. In 1916, when
+the handsome bronze monument to Mary Ludwig, known as “Molly Pitcher,”
+a real daughter of the American Revolution, was unveiled in the old
+Cemetery at Carlisle, her identity was made sure by the engraving
+of all her names, and her sobriquet, on the front of the granite
+pedestal, so that she may rank for all time as one of the greatest of
+Pennsylvania heroines. Mary Ludwig, known as “Molly with the Pitcher”
+and “Molly Pitcher,” was born in the Palatinate, but brought as a
+small child by her parents to Berks County; later they moved to the
+Cumberland Valley, where Mary became a servant in the home of Colonel
+William Irvine. At the time of the Revolution she was the wife of
+Sergeant Casper Hays; at the battle of Monmouth, when her husband, a
+cannoneer was wounded she successfully took charge of the cannon; and
+later when relieved carried water to the soldiers under fire. It is
+said that General Washington was an observer of her bravery, and made
+her a sergeant by brevet. In the battle, one of her former admirers, a
+man of wealth and position, was given up for dead, and tossed into a
+trench for burial the next morning. Despite the fatigues of the day,
+Molly crept out at dead of night, and carried him back to the lines,
+and helped to nurse him back to health. After the war she returned to
+Carlisle, where Sergeant Hays died; later she married Sergeant Jerry
+McCanley, a semi-invalid from shell shock. In her later years she
+scrubbed the marble floors of the Court House at Carlisle, unable to
+support her helpless husband and children on a pension of $40.00 per
+year. For further information concerning this remarkable woman see the
+article by Rev. C. P. Wing, in “Pennsylvania Magazine,” 1879, Volume
+III, and Judge E. W. Biddle’s scholarly address delivered at the time
+of the dedication of the monument. Among the lesser known Pennsylvania
+heroines, Somerset County is justly proud of Peggy Marteeny, the
+daughter of Henry Marteeny, an old soldier of the Revolution, of
+Huguenot antecedents. During an attack by Indians along the old Forbes
+Road, Peggy was riding her spotted Spanish pony through the woods
+when she came upon a white man, badly wounded, and badly frightened,
+running for dear life, closely pursued by redmen, who were brandishing
+scalping knives. Without a moment’s hesitation Peggy sprang from her
+horse, and put the white man on it, then giving it a few smacks across
+the flanks, sent the animal galloping away, trusting to her own long
+legs to escape the savage pursuers. Somerset County was also the home
+of Rebecca Statler and Rhoda Boyd, heroines of Indian adventures.
+Near “Molly Pitcher’s” handsome moniment in the ancient Cemetery at
+Carlisle, are the graves of Hugh H. Brackenridge, the distinguished
+Pittsburg Jurist, and author of that amusing work “Modern Chivalry,” a
+story much on the style of “Don Quixote”--and his wife, formerly the
+Pennsylvania German girl Sabina Wolfe. On one of Judge Brackenridge’s
+horseback journeys through the mountains he noticed the graceful Sabina
+nimbly vaulting over a stake and rider fence, and fell in love with her
+on the spot; athletic prowess still seems to be a compelling motive in
+the awakening of love, for we have recently read in the papers of a
+wealthy western youth who eloped with a show girl, who he said he fell
+in love with after she had won a race on a Pogo stick at the Midnight
+Follies. The Brackenridge-Wolfe marriage turned out very well, so much
+so that the unknown Sabina soon became the social arbiter of the Smoky
+City. Pennsylvania Mountain girls are noted not only for their beauty,
+but for their courage. Kentucky accords a high place in history to the
+small dark girl, Mabel Hite, whose forbears went from Berks County to
+the “Dark and Bloody Ground” for her heroism in carrying water under
+a heavy fire from hostile Indians to the brave defenders of the Fort
+at Bryant’s Station, who were an earlier “Lost Battalion” and might
+have perished of thirst but for the intrepid bravery of this young
+Pennsylvania girl. Barbara Frietchie, who some historians say was a
+myth, but will ever be immortalized in Whittier’s stirring poem, was
+born in Pennsylvania, but was taken to Frederick, Maryland, by her
+parents at an early age. Your speaker once asked General Henry Kyd
+Douglas of Hagerstown, who was an Aide to General “Stonewall” Jackson
+during his famous ride through Frederick Town, if Barbara Frietchie
+really lived. The old General replied that he knew Barbara well, that
+she was no myth, the only mythical part was that the flag which she
+hung out was the stars and bars, and not the stars and stripes. Perhaps
+in the excess of his Southern sympathies, this gallant old Confederate
+may have been temporarily color blind. Another celebrated frontier girl
+was Frances Slocum, the Indian captive of the Wyoming Valley, whose
+memory is splendidly perpetuated by the able historians of the North
+Branch Valley; then there is Elizabeth Zane, the early love of Daniel
+Boone, a Pennsylvania frontier girl whose life was full of stirring
+adventures, and whose relatives were the founders of Zanesville, Ohio;
+there is Jennie Wade, the unhappy heroine of the Battle of Gettysburg,
+shot while baking bread the same day that her lover was killed in
+battle, and Jane Annesley, the beautiful red headed girl of the West
+Branch Valley, whose auburn tresses were coveted by the warlike Indian
+Skanando, and who followed her until he scalped her. She survived the
+scalping many years, being still remembered by older residents about
+Lock Haven as an aged woman hoeing corn, wearing a black scull cap. And
+we must not forget to mention Genevieve Loverhill, the intrepid girl
+scout and scalp hunter, also of the West Brandy Valley. The mother of
+the immortal Abraham Lincoln, plain Nancy Hanks, was of Pennsylvania
+origin, like her husband Thomas Lincoln. By a strange coincidence
+the early homes of the Lincoln, Hanks, and Boone families were close
+together in Eastern Berks County. Montgomery, Chester, and Berks County
+have vied with one another as the early home of the Hanks family,
+but Rev. J. W. Early, a venerable clergyman of Reading, writing on
+the 100th anniversary of “Father Abraham’s” Birth, in 1909, in the
+Reading Times, stated that the family originated in Berks County, and
+the early spelling of the name was Hanck, whereas in Chester County
+there is a family called Hanke, possibly of a different stock. Nancy
+Hanks, the typical pioneer mother, occupies an outstanding place in
+the Nation’s history, and we can feel closer to her, and her ideals,
+by reckoning her as one of our Pennsylvania women. Dr. Stephen, before
+mentioned, tells us that Jane Borthwick, to whom Robert Burns, in his
+youth, dedicated several lovely poems, and who later emigrated to
+Pennsylvania, is buried in Womelsdorf, Berks County. We cannot close
+this rambling discourse without mentioning a little known Centre County
+heroine, Mary Wolford, for whom Young Woman’s Town, now ruthlessly
+re-named North Bend, and Young Woman’s Creek, now ruthlessly polluted
+by tanneries, are named. While encamped with her parents, formerly from
+Buffalo Valley, near the great hollow buttonwood tree, below Milesburg,
+where the spartan Indian chief Woapalannee, or Bald Eagle, is said
+to have slept standing up, this fierce warrior fell in love with the
+tall, slim and beautiful pioneer girl. She was indifferent to his
+advances, being engaged to James Quigley Brady, the “Young Captain of
+the Susquehanna,” a younger brother of the famous Captain “Sam” Brady.
+Bald Eagle managed to have the “Young Captain” scalped, which caused
+his death, and later captured Mary Wolford, and started North with
+her, towards the old Boone Road, leading to New York State. Somewhere,
+beyond the creek, which now bears her name, the lovely Mary broke loose
+from her captors, although a wooden gag was in her mouth, and her hands
+were tied behind her back. Boldly she plunged into the stream, which
+was swollen by a flood; gagged and her arms helpless, she was carried
+off by the swift current and drowned. Days afterwards her body was
+washed ashore at Northumberland, near where young Brady was buried, and
+the lovers sleep their long sleep side by side. There are many more
+forgotten Pennsylvania heroines, but the list just given will suffice
+for the present. If we can honor these, as are their due, we will have
+enhanced the cause of Pennsylvania history and helped to place it
+alongside that of New York, New England, the South, and other sections
+where deeds of worth and valor are recognized. All of these forgotten
+women were brave, courageous, simple and God fearing, well worthy to
+serve as a high ideal for our young girlhood. They also show that the
+noblest traits are found in the humblest homes, that womanhood can be
+brave and intrepid just as much as man, that there are self-made women
+as well as self-made men. Some day let us hope that in the rotunda
+of the Capitol at Harrisburg, purged of its group of professional
+politician statues, or some Hall of Fame specially constructed for
+the purpose, we can gaze upon lifelike effigies in marble of Lucretia
+Mott, Mary Jemison, Regina Hartman, Molly Pitcher, Peggy Marteeny,
+Mabel Hite, Frances Slocum, Mary Wolford, and above all Nancy Hanks,
+typical of the most exalted heights to which womanhood can attain,
+unaided, many of them untaught, but pure in patriotism, pure in heart,
+the bright galaxy of the glory of Pennsylvania womanhood. We cannot
+honor them too highly, we cannot praise them extravagantly enough, for
+they are milestones in the normal development of our feminism. This
+great work is going on. That women of equal worth are being born under
+similar conditions and are alive today, let us but remember that Jane
+Addams, the daughter of a Berks County innkeeper, has done more for her
+sex, and for humanity in general than almost any other woman living,
+and carries out fully the lofty standard that Pennsylvania sets for its
+womanhood.
+
+[Illustration: Woman]
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber’s Notes
+
+    p. 4, hyphenation of “folk-lorist” has been retained.
+    p. 6, “horeback” changed to “horseback”.
+    p. 7, period spelling of “moniment” (monument) has been retained.
+    p. 7, “Pensylvania” changed to “Pennsylvania”.
+    p. 9, “loftly” changed to “lofty”.
+
+
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 77017 ***