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diff --git a/77017-0.txt b/77017-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..efc080f --- /dev/null +++ b/77017-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,290 @@ + +*** 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 *** |