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- George Witmer, born ca 1740(1774) and died 1780. He resided in Northumberland County, PA. On Easter morning in 1780, as his oldest son, Philip, aged 19, was lighting the fire, the cabin door was broken open by Indians. The Indians tomahawked Philip, and shot George, the father, while he was reaching for his gun. They killed the mother before she got out of bed. Sarah(aged 17), Mary(aged 10), Peter(aged 8), George(aged 6), John(aged 4) and an ..... were carried off. Sarah carried the baby for two days, but it cried and worried so, that an Indian dashed it against a tree and killed it.
Catharine(aged 14) and Ann(aged 12), were in the Sugar Bush at the time of the attack, looking for sap. Seeing the house burning, they hid for three days until the neighbors, fearing some of the family were likely to have been in the Sugar Bush before daylight, looked for and rescued them.
Catharine married a man named Baker and years after went to the Genessee Valley of New York. Ann married an Ermentrout and remained in Pennsylvania.
Tradition states that the Indians divided the captives among themselves. Sarah and George followed the Senecas, Peter and Mary the Mohawks, and John, the Tonawandas. When they were released, the younger children had become so accustomed to savage life that they did not want to stay with the whites. Family legend states that Sarah went to Philadelphia and married Horatio Jones, who had belonged to the Bedford Co. Rangers at the time they were taken by the Indians in 1781; Jones was carried captive to the Gennessee country. It is more than probable that it was there that Sarah met him.
George and his wife were parents of nine children.
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1740 - 1780 (40 years)