 |
Susquehanna River from the Site of Fort Augusta in Sunbury, Pennsylvania photo by Cindy Cruz, 2018 |
INTRODUCTION
William and Sarah Nichol McWilliams were the first of my maternal
McWilliams ancestors to own land and bear children on American soil. As
colonists who purchased original land warrants in York and Northumberland Counties
in Pennsylvania, they settled in the wilderness where Native Americans had
lived for centuries. They followed waterways and ancient Indian trails through
the Susquehanna Valley to establish their home. They witnessed the rebellion
against British rule in the colonies and supported the fledgling US government
from its inception. They cleared forests, obtained food, clothing and shelter
by their own manpower, escaped Indian uprisings, and managed to evade all the
other perils they faced as pioneers in the rugged Pennsylvania valley where
they settled. Through their strength, tenacity and Presbyterian faith, they
persevered, prospered and established the legacy of a long line of American
farm families who carried on the McWilliams surname. I like to think that I
possess those traits in a few drops of William and Sarah’s blood in my veins
and I treasure the heritage of my childhood on a Barton County, Missouri farm.
Today, I begin the McWilliams’ story with a bit of creative
imagery based on primary resources created by William’s neighbors in
Northumberland County during the Revolutionary War. Indian attacks on settlers in
the same time period added to the hardships they faced. Then, I will backtrack to
the beginning of William’s life and document his adventures in chronological order.
I owe special thanks to my fifth cousin, Jerry D. McWilliams in Wyoming, and fourth cousin, Frederick D. Rhinehelder in Pennsylvania, who generously shared McWilliams information and encouraged me in my research.
.JPG)
photo by Cindy Cruz, 2018
THE GREAT RUNAWAY
William McWilliams probably scanned his surroundings with apprehension, searching for Indians who might be lurking in the underbrush, as he and his family joined the throng of terrified Pennsylvania pioneers fleeing to Fort Augusta for shelter. Every river and path was filled with people carrying only essential provisions for their journey to safety. Men herded livestock ahead of them and guarded the caravan against possible attacks as they quickly pressed on toward the stockade located at the forks of the Susquehanna River.[i]
As he watched over his wife and four young children on that summer day in 1778, William may have been haunted by memories of his own flight from Armagh, Ireland, when he was a child.[ii] Just as his father had been killed in an Irish skirmish [unproven information], he may have feared for his life. Indians had ambushed scores of settlers, slaughtered them, torched their property, and took their scalps as trophies. The colonists whose lives were spared often suffered serious wounds or were hauled away as prisoners by the Seneca and Iroquois tribes.[iii]
Residents of the area had been ordered by the militia to take refuge just when their wheat was ready for harvest. The crop was crucial for nourishment through the long winter, but it was left in the fields. News of frequent Indian attacks had frightened the settlers, so William presumably needed little encouragement to take heed of the order. Most of the carnage had occurred ten to twenty miles north and east of his land, but William took no chances. He made the fifteen-mile journey and stayed at the fort until the militia drove most of the Indians farther west.
.JPG) |
Model of Fort Augusta in Hunter House Museum, Sunbury, PA photo by Cindy Cruz, 2018 |
Many of the residents who fled emptied their
homes of their household cooking utensils, tableware, clothing, and food
supplies before leaving. They buried or hid their possessions for safekeeping,
in the event that their dwellings might ransacked and/or burned. They could take
only a small amount of necessary food and clothing with them to the fort. The
stockade was crowded with soldiers and families.[iv] Luckily,
William’s family suffered no harm, but during the next year several of his
neighbors were killed at Fort Freeland, and the nearby Chillisquaque
Presbyterian Church, his house of worship, was burned by the Indians.[v]
 |
Marker Commemorating the Burning of Chillisquaque Presbyterian Church in 1779 Located in a Boulder on the Cemetery Grounds photos by Cindy Cruz, 2018 |
THE PATH TO PENNSYLVANIA
William was no stranger to hardships. He was born around 1739, in Ireland, to parents of Scottish descent.[vi] They were most likely part of the “Plantation of Ulster,” an organized colonization of the northernmost Province of Ulster in Ireland. The English government placed Presbyterian Scots and others on land seized from rebellious Irish inhabitants. Discrimination against the Presbyterian Scots who resided on Irish soil, and drought-induced famine in the early 1740s may have contributed to Williams’ father’s death and his family’s emigration to America sometime in the decade before 1750. They joined a quarter-million other Scots-Irish Presbyterians who sailed to the American colonies in the 18th century seeking religious freedom and land ownership.[vii] They probably spent at least six weeks in miserable conditions on board a crowded ship with limited food and water as they crossed the Atlantic to emigrate to America.
Unsourced print material states that the widow McWilliams’ maiden name was believed to have been Watt and she migrated with three known children named John, Hannah, and William. Nothing is known of the McWilliams’ early years in Pennsylvania, except that William was said to have settled in Bristol, Bucks County, after his arrival from Ireland.[viii] This seems plausible because Bristol is north of Philadelphia on the Delaware River, one of three major ports of entry for Scots-Irish immigrants into America.
William was first documented in America when he was about
thirty years old. He made application to the Proprietaries of the Province of
Pennsylvania for a warrant on 200 acres of “vacant woodland” in a large
community of Scots-Irish Presbyterian settlers on February 26, 1768. The
property was west of the Susquehanna River in Chanceford Township in York
County.[ix]
Chanceford would later be divided and the plat became a part of Lower
Chanceford in 1806.[x]
A survey of the land recorded the actual acreage as 249 acres and 103 perches.[xi]
It was here that William established his first independent residence and assumed his role as husband and father.
 |
West Bank of the Susquehanna River in Goldsboro, York County, Pennsylvania Three Mile Island Cooling Towers Can be Seen in the Background photo of Cindy Cruz taken by her sister LaRita McNeely, 2021 |
NEXT - PURCHASING LAND FROM THE PENNS
[i] Meginness, John Franklin, Otzinachson; A History of the West Branch Valley of the Susquehanna, Philadelphia, H.B. Ashmead, 1857, pages 216-218; accessed https://archive.org
[ii] Floyd, J.L. & Co., Genealogical and Biographical Annals of Northumberland County Pennsylvania, Chicago, IL, J.L. Floyd & Co., 1911, p. 224, William McWilliams; accessed https://archive.org
[iii] Meginness, pages 192-216
[iv] Youmans, Martha Follmer, “Journal of Anna Margaret Follmer 1775-1781,” Special Issue Historical Leaflet Series Publications of the Columbia County Historical Society, pages 7-17, August 1976, Bloomsburg, PA; accessed Northumberland County Genealogical Library, Sunbury, PA
[v] Finney, Rev. William Gardner, The History of the Chillisquaque Church,
1926, Pennsylvania, Church and Town Records, 1708-1985,
page 2, Historical Society of Pennsylvania; Historic Pennsylvania Church and
Town Records; Reel: 236, accessed www.ancestry.com
[vi] Finney, page 79
[vii] Leyburn, James
G., The Scotch-Irish, A Social History,
Chapel Hill, NC, The University of North Carolina Press, 1962, Abstract;
accessed homepages.rootsweb.com/~mcclell2/homepage/migrate.htm
[viii] Floyd, p. 224, William McWilliams
[ix] Pennsylvania, Land Warrants and Applications, 1733-1952, Harrisburg, PA, Pennsylvania State Archives, Land Warrants, William McWilliams (1768), 26 February 1768; accessed www.ancestry.com, Chester, 1768, image 64
[x] Gibson, John, History of York County, Pennsylvania…, Chicago, Illinois, F.A. Battey Publishing Co., 1886, p. 734; accessed https://archive.org
[xi]
Pennsylvania State Archives, RG-17, Records of the Land Office, Copied Surveys,
1681-1912, series #17.114, volume C-194, p. 197 & reverse, William
McWilliams, No. 4764, February 26, 1768, Chanceford Township, York County;
accessed www.phmc.pa.gov, Images of Each Survey, page C-194, p. 197 and reverse
No comments:
Post a Comment