A Painful Loss and a Precious Comfort

       When we last left off from following the journal of David Jones, he had left the Delaware villages and was travelling eastward in the company of his pilot, the Jersey Indian Pontus Newtemus.  We’ll pick up his story there.

       Sabbath 28 [February, 1773], In the morning, parted with my pilate [sic] in great love and friendship, having travelled at least seventy-five miles together in the solitary wilderness; and though he always behaved well, can't say that I was without some fear at times, lest he should do me an injury.  Went four or five miles down Ohio, and came opposite to Mr. William Mc Mechens, from whence I took water for the Shawannees.  Much ice was driving down the stream, yet when I called, Mr. Mc Mechen ventured over in a little canoe, that threatened danger, leaving at that time my horse behind, we came safely over.  When we arrived to this shore, my sensation was truly pleasing, hope raised high expectations of seeing New-Jersey once more.  Here remained for some weeks, waiting for the arrival of my brother and Mr. Clark, who were gone for corn to Monongehela.  And as I am now about leaving this famous country, think proper to speak a little on a subject chiefly omitted.

       This William McMechen is almost certainly the brother of Dr. James McMechen who had provided shelter for Jones earlier and was present at the passing of his friend, the Rev. John Davis (see my previous post, "An Untimely Passing").  I suppose it stands to reason, since there were so few whites established along the frontier settlements, but it still amazes me at the interconnectedness of these stories.  It seems as though Jones always runs into the most interesting characters!

       The land, according to my judgment, has been justly described; but this is not all the excellency of this new world, for its waters abound with the greatest abundance of fine fishes.  There is a kind of fish here called white perch, some of which are larger than a shad, and very agreeable food.  Sun-fish, or what is called yellow-perch, are here as large as a shad.  There is another kind of fish called buffaloe fish, many of which are larger than our sheepshead—Catfish of an extraordinary sort are taken here, some of which are said to weigh an hundred pounds.  We took one, that after seven of us had eaten twice of it, part was given to the Indians.  Large salmon are to be met with here also—some sturgeon, prodigious large pike, chubs, mullets, and various kinds of small fishes.  I have been informed that shad have been taken, and some herrings; but the riches of the waters are not fully known, the people not having seines made as yet.  The wild beasts met with here, are bears, wolves, panthers, wildcats, foxes, raccoons, beavers, otters, and some few squirrils [sic] and rabbits; buffaloes, deer and elks, called by the Delawares  moos.  The fowls to be seen are wildgeese[sic] , ducks of various kinds, some swans, abundance of turkies [sic], some of which are very large; pheasants, pigeons, and some few quails, by some called partridges.  This country promises the inhabitants a plentitude of the necessaries of life; and having described it according to my knowledge, and best information, would have here left the reader: but as God was pleased to bring me through some very trying scenes, thought proper to communicate the same, hoping it may be of some benefit to such as meet with tribulations, in this world of sorrow.

       Friday, March 19, left Ohio alone, and encamped on the creek called Weeling [sic]. This was the only night that I slept alone in the wilderness: the solitary repose can scarcely be described, many thoughts arose, none otherwise to be removed, only by the proper exercise of faith on him, who has promised never to leave nor forsake his children.  It was so ordered that not even a wolf howled to disturb me.

       Just stop and imagine that for a moment.  To be travelling alone in the Ohio River valley in the early 1770’s, surrounded not only by wild animals but also by potentially hostile Indian tribes.  I think it says a lot about Jones’ courage and yet he gives all the glory to God who providentially prevented even the wolves from disturbing his slumber.  Such is the sweet rest that only those who are kept in the mutual hands of the Father and the Son can know (John 10:27-30).

       March 25, was crossing the Alegini [sic] mountain— the snow was nine inches deep, and suffered not a little by the severe cold.

       Sabbath 28, came to Old Town, and preached in the evening at Col. Crassop's [Michael Cresap]. On the week following, was taken with the pleurisy, and lay at David Bowen's, at Conegocheage [Conococheague].

       Saturday, April 3, drew off about fourteen ounces of blood, which relieved so much, that in the afternoon, fell into a pleasant sleep, and had such a representation of my family at home, that after awaking, told some of the people, that it was my belief that my son was dead, and found when I came home, he had departed about that hour.  From that time my spirit sunk in me, with an unaccountable sadness.  From this infer, that God doth sometimes give intimations of future events in sleep (Job 23:15).  But in common, no notice should be taken of slumbering imaginations.  After recruiting my strength a little, went through New-Castle county, having some business to transact there.

       Thursday, April 22, set out in hopes of seeing my family once more in the land of the living, but about sixteen miles from Philadelphia, at a small town called Chester, met an acquaintance, who gave me the sorrowful news that my favourite son was dead.  Though this news was expected, yet when it verbally reached my ears, it struck me through the very heart, with such extacies [sic] of sorrow, that my soul seemed as if it would expire.  Sorrowfully I rode to Philadelphia, and was prevailed on to remain there over the Sabbath.  Had buried two children before, but as Jacob's heart and life was bound up in Benjamin, so was mine in this son.  At this time, life seemed a burden, and all the world a mere empty nothing.  Sleep was only obtained when exhausted with weeping.

       Saturday 24, in the morning when I awoke, the wounds began to bleed afresh: but, unexpectedly, these words came with such power, that relief was soon obtained, viz. "My son despise not the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him: for whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth."  That part of the verse in particular, which says, "whom the Lord loveth, he scourgeth," was of singular support in my present distress; impressing on my heart such a sense of God's love to me, that such was the relief, that the next day, was enabled to preach.  The words are in Heb. xii. 5,6. what a precious saying is that! which so comfortably affirms, "that whatsoever things were written aforetime, were written for our learning; that we through patience and  comfort  of the scriptures might have hope."  There is no condition, in which any of God's children can be, but he hath left a word suited exactly to their case.  And indeed it must be so, seeing that his promise is "I will never leave thee nor forsake thee."

       Monday 26, set out, and at night lodged at a friend's house.  When retired to my bed-chamber, thoughts crowded into my soul—The sorrowful scene began to open to view, anticipating my arrival to meet my beloved wife, in my absence, bereaved of a dear son.  Ideas of my darling came fresh into my soul—I knew not how to go home and miss him.  Circumstances of his death came into mind, how hard it was to leave him alive, and find him dead! what is common to human nature in distress, fruitless wishes were not a few: such as, oh! that I had been with him, or even had been permitted to attend his  dear remains to the solitary grave! but now, alas! alas! I shall never more see him on earth!—These thoughts with many of the same nature, were productive of floods of tears 'till sleep gave respite.

       What can one say?  To see three of your own children laid in the grave, I can only imagine the anguish Jones must have felt even as he conveys his feelings through his journal to us so many years later.  Yet Jones’ anchor had been firmly cast into the rock that is Jesus Christ, and from the Word of God he obtained relief.  May it be so for us that, in times of joy or sorrow, we find our sufficiency in the Son of God, Jesus Christ.  

    

Christ, not man, is King!

Dale

1)      David Jones, A Journal of Two Visits Made to Some Nations of Indians on the West Side of the River Ohio in the Years 1772 and 1773 (Burlington, NJ: Isaac Collins, 1774), p. 73-5. 
2)      Ibid., p. 75-7. 
3)      Ibid., p. 77-8.

More of Capt. Cresap's Sharpshooters

       Here’s another account of Capt. Michael Cresap’s frontier riflemen from the same book I referenced in my last post.

      One of the first companies that marched to the aid of Washington when he was at Cambridge in 1775 was that of Captain Michael Cresap, which was raised partly in Maryland and partly in the western part of Virginia. This gallant young officer died in New York in the fall of 1775, a year before the surrender of Fort Washington, yet his company may be taken as a fair sample of what the riflemen of the frontiers of our country were, and of what they could do. We will therefore give the words of an eyewitness of their performances. This account is taken from the Pennsylvania Journal of August 23rd, 1775.

       "On Friday evening last arrived at Lancaster, Pa., on their way to the American camp, Captain Cresap's Company of Riflemen, consisting of one hundred and thirty active, brave young fellows, many of whom have been in the late expedition under Lord Dunmore against the Indians. They bear in their bodies visible marks of their prowess, and show scars and wounds which would do honour to Homer's Iliad. They show you, to use the poet's words:

"'Where the gor'd battle bled at ev'ry vein!'

        "One of these warriors in particular shows the cicatrices of four bullet holes through his body.

       "These men have been bred in the woods to hardships and dangers since their infancy. They appear as if they were entirely unacquainted with, and had never felt the passion of fear. With their rifles in their hands, they assume a kind of omnipotence over their enemies. One cannot much wonder at this when we mention a fact which can be fully attested by several of the reputable persons who were eye-witnesses of it. Two brothers in the company took a piece of board five inches broad, and seven inches long, with a bit of white paper, the size of a dollar, nailed in the centre, and while one of them supported this board perpendicularly between his knees, the other at the distance of upwards of sixty yards, and without any kind of rest, shot eight bullets through it successively, and spared a brother's thigh!

       "Another of the company held a barrel stave perpendicularly in his hands, with one edge close to his side, while one of his comrades, at the same distance, and in the manner before mentioned, shot several bullets through it, without any apprehension of danger on either side.

       "The spectators appearing to be amazed at these feats, were told that there were upwards of fifty persons in the same company who could do the same thing; that there was not one who could not 'plug nineteen bullets out of twenty,' as they termed it, within an inch of the head of a ten-penny nail.

       "In short, to evince the confidence they possessed in these kind of arms, some of them proposed to stand with apples on their heads, while others at the same distance undertook to shoot them off, but the people who saw the other experiments declined to be witnesses of this.

       "At night a great fire was kindled around a pole planted in the Court House Square, where the company with the Captain at their head, all naked to the waist and painted like savages (except the Captain, who was in an Indian shirt), indulged a vast concourse of people with a perfect exhibition of a war-dance and all the manoeuvres of Indians; holding council, going to war; circumventing their enemies by defiles; ambuscades; attacking; scalping, etc. It is said by those who are judges that no representation could possibly come nearer the original. The Captain's expertness and agility, in particular, in these experiments, astonished every beholder. This morning they will set out on their march for Cambridge."

  Talk about confidence.  I’ve got some friends who are excellent shots but I’m not sure that I would want them to shoot an apple perched on my head!  Call them foolhardy or call them brave, there’s no question that these men were expert marksmen and the dread of their Indian and English foes.

Christ, not man, is King!

Dale

1)          Danske Dandridge, American Prisoners of the Revolution (Charlottesville, VA: The Michie Company, 1911), p. 5-8.

Capt. Cresap's Backwoods Sharpshooters

       I ran across this account while reading a book about Patriot prisoners during the War for Independence.  Its account of the marksmanship prowess of the “average” backwoods rifleman is remarkable indeed.  What is also remarkable is the writer’s description of their dress and their ability to subsist on very little.  Each man was essentially his own quartermaster!  Such troops would have been a nightmare for the British commanders, no doubt.

EXTRACT OF A LETTER TO A GENTLEMAN IN PHILADELPHIA, DATED FREDERICKTOWN, MD., AUGUST 1, 1775.

       Notwithstanding the urgency of my business, I have been detained three days in this place by an occurrence truly agreeable. I have had the happiness of seeing Captain Michael Cresap marching at the head of a formidable company of upwards of one hundred and thirty men, from the mountains and back-woods, painted like Indians, armed with tomahawks and rifles, dressed in hunting-shirts and moccasins, and though some of them had travelled near eight hundred miles, from the banks of the Ohio, they seemed to walk light and easy, and not with less spirit than at the first hour of their march. Health and vigour, after what, they had undergone, declared them to be intimate with hardship and familiar with danger. Joy and satisfaction were visible in the crowd that met them. Had Lord North been present, and been assured that the brave leader could raise thousands of such like to defend his Country, what think you, would not the hatchet and the block have intruded upon his mind? I had an opportunity of attending the Captain during his stay in Town, and watched the behaviour of his men, and the manner in which he treated them; for it seems that all who go out to war under him do not only pay the most willing obedience to him as their commander, but in every instance of distress look up to him as their friend ox father. A great part of his time was spent in listening to and relieving their wants, without any apparent sense of fatigue and trouble. When complaints were before him, he determined with kindness and spirit, and on every occasion condescended to please without losing his dignity.

       Yesterday the company were supplied with a small quantity of powder from the magazine, which wanted airing, and was not in good order for rifles; in the evening, however, they were drawn out to show the gentlemen of the Town their dexterity at shooting. A clapboard, with a mark the size of a dollar, was put up; they began to fire off-hand, and the bystanders were surprised, few shots being made that were not close to or in the paper. When they had shot for a time in this way, some lay on their backs, some on their breast or side, others ran twenty or thirty steps, and firing, appeared to be equally certain of the mark. With this performance the company were more than satisfied, when a young man took up the board in his hand, not by the end, but by the side, and holding it up, his brother walked to the distance, and very coolly shot into the white; laying down his rifle, he took the board, and holding it as it was held before, the second brother shot as the former had done. By this exercise I was more astonished than pleased. But will you believe me, when I tell you, that one of the men took the board, and placing it between his legs, stood with his back to the tree while another drove the centre. What would a regular army of considerable strength in the forests of America do with one thousand of these men, who want nothing to preserve their health and courage but water from the spring, with a little parched corn, with what they can easily procure in hunting: and who, wrapped in their blankets, in the damp of night, would choose the shade of a tree for their covering, and the earth for their bed. ¹

Christ, not man, is King!

Dale

1)          Peter Force’s American Archives, Series 4, Vol. 3 (Washington, DC: 1846), p. 2.