Valley Girl Views: A Memorial For Pvt. Christian Hettick, 1781 Lewisburg

Along Rt 192, Or Buffalo Road, outside of Lewisburg is a headstone for Christian Hettick.

The location today is 2740 Buffalo Rd, Lewisburg Pa, in front of Tilo Industries.
In various documents mentioning the location over the years, it is referred to as: "two miles west of Lewisburg on the road to Buffalo Crossroads"; "Private, Wolfe Farm"; "at the John P. Ruhl Farm near Buffalo Crossroads" ; "just above Andrew Wolfe's, where the rocks jut out upon the road, in the corner of the woods"; "A mile from Gundy's Mill"

The stone reads:

CHRISTIAN
HETTICK
Pvt
McGrady's
NORTHUMBERLAND CO
RANGERS
PA TROOPS
REV. WAR
OCTOBER 6 1781

Spellings were rarely standardized at this time, so in various records the Hettrick surname appears as: Hetick, Hetrick, Hettick, Hettrick, and even Haetrick.

The story behind the stone can also be found in Linn's Annals Of the Buffalo Valley:

"6th October Christian Hetrick a private in Captain Samuel McGrady's seven-months men was killed. He lived at Derr's and his party was called out upon the appearance of some Indians on Buffalo creek. They did not come up with them and on Hetrick's return home a mile and a half above Gundy's mill he was shot. When found he had a bullet wound and was scalped and tomahawked.

He [Christian] was one of the first residents upon the site of Lewisburg and is buried just above Andrew Wolfe's where the rocks jut out upon the road in the corner of the woods. My father often pointed out the place but he did not know the man's name "

Some descendants report that Christian's son Andrew, approximately seven years old, was actually with his father when he was killed and that Andrew was carried into captivity by the Indians. Another family story is that the children were out digging up turnips, and Andrew was captured by the Indians. As Alene Ruyle records:

"There are always variations in stories handed down by word of mouth from one generation the next. I have heard that this account I am giving is not the same as told by some descendants of Andres Hettick. However, this narrative is as was given to me by Andrew Hettick's granddaughter, Emily Hettick Ruyle."

[I've included her recollections on down in this post]

Although a tombstone, this is not actually a grave. The stone was placed in 1940, 159 years after Christian Hettick's death. The location would have been in the basic location as passed down in local lore, but would not mark the exact spot.

Sometimes these WPA stones, placed in the 1930s and 1940s, are not... completely accurate. For this stone however, there are plenty of records verifying the story. Most substantially are the pension records, filed for by Christian's widow, for her children.

There are many other records of Christian in the area, as well - see additional sources under "Read More" at the bottom of this page.

In 1958, an article in the Lock Haven Express investigating the history of a stone house "on island near Jersey Shore" includes the following information:

"For our answer we turn back the pages of early court records to an Article of Agreement of 1 September, 1777, between one Christian Hettrick and one Thomas Forster, of Upper Paxton Township, Lancaster County (now Dauphin) setting forth that said Hettrick "hath bargained and sold unto said Thomas Forster The said plantation he now lives on (meaning Hettrick) . . of 150 acres subject to the Proprietaries Purchase money due • ." terms of which Hettrick was to continue to "live on said plantation until April first next :.. when he will deliver peaceable possession" . . Hettrick to put in one half part the cleared land in grain for himself and he allows said Forster to put in the other part in grain for himself. and promises to pay said Hettrick the sum of 125 pounds Continental Currency.

Long Term of Litigation

This was recorded 12 December 1789. The variance in dates is of course, due to the long term of litigation over settling land titles in over settling land titles in all this disputed area, but more chiefly in this case because Christian Hettrick was killed by Indians in a skirmish of October 6, 1781. He left a widow and four very small children, whose prior claim had first to be settled before Thomas Forster could have his title cleared.

So it does not seem likely that Thomas Forster would build such a substantial house in the winter of 1777 and early 1778 because of the unstable conditions of this frontier. He was a lieutenant and captain in the county militia meanwhile. In the face of his military obligations and many other uncertainties, everything points to the fact that only temporary quarters could he constructed at such a time, except for what Christian Hettrick had already placed there. There is still more to the story when we note that the wife of Christian Hettrick, so cruelly widowed. was born Agnes Forster, supposedly a daughter of John Forster first of Paxton Township, Lancaster County. then of Buffalo Valley. Thomas Forster's father is also a John Forster, though not necessarily the same John. But we can assume, however, that if Agnes and Thomas were not brother and sister, at the least they were cousins."

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Christian's Son Andrew Hettick

Captured by Indians

In Portrait and biographical record of Macoupin County, Illinois

there is a record of Samuel E. Hettick great grandson of Christian Hettick. It states:

"His [Samuel's] father, Stephen, was the son of Andrew Hettick, whose father, Christian, was a native of Germany who Settled n the Pennsylvania Frontier and was murdered by the Indians when the son Andrew was a little lad of six years. The child was in captivity to the savages for three years but was finally rescued by soldiers and returned to his mother..." Page 465-466

In recollections of Emily Hettick Ruyle, as told to granddaughter Alene E. Ruyle, there is the following account:

ANDREW HETTRICK's CAPTURE BY INDIANS

By Alene E. Ruyle

"Highlights of my childhood were stories told to me by my grandmother, Emily Hettick Ruyle. She told me the following narratives before I was nine years old. Her home was only a quarter of a mile from our house.

Often times when our parents went out for the evening, they left brother, Henry and me with grandma and Aunt Ann Ruyle who was a daughter that lived with her. A couch in the living room unfolded for a bed. Above the couch was a mantle on which stood a Seth Thomas clock with weights. It had to be wound every night. It always fascinated me to watch Aunt Ann wind the clock. Our grandparents bought this clock during the Civil War with ten dollars in gold. After the clock was wound, we were to rest on the extended couch until our parents came for us. Henry was always ready to go home but I always wanted to stay the remainder of the night. So, I pretended to sleep. Sometimes this worked and sometimes it didn't. Often my father nicked me up and carried me out to the buggy and home I went.

On cool Saturday mornings in the fall Grandmother and I would sit by the wood fired kitchen range with the oven door down. in this cozy atmosphere I enjoyed hearing about the days when she was a girl and especially the story of how her grandfather, Andrew Hettick, was captured by the Indians. I never grew tired of her telling this story again and again. Indian stories are always entertaining for children and this true one really fascinated me. Andrew Hettick, his wife and six children were the first settlers in Scottville Township, Macounin County, Illinois. He was a native Pennsylvania and cane from Ohio in 1817 and was in Monroe County 1818 Census from the American bottoms in Madison County, Illinois, to Greene County in 1820 and to Scottville township, Macoupin County, Illinois in the year 1825. His log cabin was the first building in the township. It was located at the head of a small stream, Nigger Lick.

There are always variations in stories handed down by word of mouth from one generation the next. I have heard that this account I am giving is not the same as told by some descendants of Andres Hettick. However, this narrative is as was given to me by Andrew Hettick's granddaughter, Emily Hettick Ruyle. She was the daughter of Andrew's son Stephen and his wife, Delilah Sharp Hettick.

Christian Hettick and his family lived in Pennsylvania, near Lewisburg where there were many hostile Indians. They had a palisade built around their log cabin as a protection from the Indians. Turnips had been planted outside the palisade. The children went there to get raw turnips to eat. They had been warned not to go far because the Indians might get them. Soon all the larger turnips were gone. The children ventured farther and farther from the protection. One day they heard the Indians coming. They were all able to get inside the palisade except Andrew. He was the youngest and about four years of age. (born May 1 1775) Andrew was up on the palisade when an Indian threw a tommy hawk. He fell backward outside the palisade and the Indians ran up, grabbed him and fled off through the timber with him. They dressed his head with feathers and cared for him as if he were one of their own.

Andrew learned about hunting, trapping as he grew up with the Indians. One squaw as especially good to him. When the Braves went hunting, they would say that they were going to kill that white boy if they were not successful in their hunt. The squaw could tell by their war calls as they returned if they had been successful on the hunt for food. If the situation was not favorable, she would put a blanket on the ground, set Andrew on one end, throw it over his head and sit on the other end of the blanket.

A white trader in a canoe came periodically with wares. He would trade with the Indians for beads, arrow heads or any other trinkets they might own. One day he asked the white boy if he knew what his name was before the Indians captured him. His reply was that it was Hettrick. The trader told him that he knew some Hettick’s so and asked him if he would like to go live with them. The white boy's reply was in the affirmative.

The trader told him to be at the river's bank before daylight on a certain day. The plan worked well. The trader told Andrew to lie down in the bottom of the canoe and stay there. Andrew later said that the trader rode hard all day. He was afraid the Indians might miss the white boy, come in search of him in a canoe and overtake them. He was about 14 years old when he was reunited with his family."

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Page 643 In:

Indian wars of Pennsylvania : an account of the Indian events, in Pennsylvania, of the French and Indian war, Pontiac's war, Lord Dunmore's war, the revolutionary war, and the Indian uprising from 1789 to 1795 ; tragedies of the Pennsylvania frontier based primarily on the Penna. archives and colonial records / by C. Hale Sipe ; published in 1929

Pennsylvania Genealogy Magazine 1971, Page 19

Muster Rolls, Etc., edited by Thomas Lynch Montgomery, 1743-1787, 1906, page 550

Petition of Ephraim Morrison and Agnes, his wife, late Agnes Hettick, formerly widow of CHRISTIAN HETTICK, deceased, and of Andrew, Catharine, Elizabeth and Poily Hettick, surviving children of said CHRISTIAN HETTICK, states about October 6, 1781 he was called into service under the command of Capt. Samuel McGrady against a party of Indians in the neighborhood of Buffaloe Creek, said County. A party of men went out, and not meeting with the Indians he was killed by the Indians while returning home. His body was found about a mile from Gundy's Mill in said County, shot, tomhawked and scalped. The children of late CHRISTIAN HETTICK were born as follows: Andrew Hettick born May 1, 1775. Catherine Hettick born March 15, 1777. Elizabeth Hettick born June 15, 1779. Polly Hettick born October 16, 1781. Agnes Morrison, late Agnes Hettick, supported her children and remained the widow of late CHRISTIAN HETTICK until May 8, 1787, when she married Ephraim Morrison. Pension granted her and said children of late CHRISTIAN HETTICK.

Detail

Pennsylvania Archives, fifth Series, Vol IV edited by Thomas Lynch Montgomery under the direction of the Hon. Frank M. Fuller, Secretary of the Commonwealth, Harrisburg, PA: Harrisburg Publishing Company, State Printer, 1906 page 550

Web address

https://books.google.com/books?id=sBUUAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA550&lpg=PA550&dq=christian+hettick+killed+by+indians&source=bl&ots=snMwnhqK1j&sig=rrPgP74QExd3US6nMgWGE9C6FRA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjvgayn7MvOAhVK_WMKHZDJCRcQ6AEIJTAB#v=onepage&q=christian%20hettick%20killed%20by%20indians&f=false

Birth 07 May 1750 From the record:

Evangelisch,Grossingersheim,Neckarkreis,Wuerttemberg

Name: Christian Hettick Birth Date: 1750 Birthplace: Pennsylvania Volume: 78 Page Number: 235 Reference: Ten

Mentioned in the VanDyke affadavit

Pennsylvania, U.S., Oyer and Terminer Court Papers, 1757-1787 for Christian Hettick

Letter as printed in:

Alldredge-Aldridge-Bracken-Nesmith families and their kin

In Linn's Annals Of Buffalo Valley

In Annals Of Buffalo Valley by John Blair Linn, Christian Hettrick is referred to as both Hetrick with one t, and Hettrick with two ts. Either could be considered correct.

Page 208 [1781] -

His widow, whose name was Agnes, married Ephraim Morrison in 1787 and from an affidavit made to get a pension for Hetrick's children, I got the facts. Her children were:

Andrew born May 1 1775

Catherine 15th March 1777

Elizabeth 15th June 1779

Polly 16th October 1781

Page 28 [1769] - Mentions a "Hettrick's Store"

"The distance of the river line of the John Cox survey (which included Gabriel's settlement) from the mouth of Penn's creek to the Indian line was two hundred and ninety two perches; of the Richard Willing, from the black oak or Spanish oak marked by Gabriel and the Indians, to a white oak which stood on the river bank near Hettrick's stores was two hundred and ninety five and one half perches "

On Page 195, 1781 -

"The ejectment for White Deer mills property was resumed. The suit is brought by Vannost and has this distorted title: "Timothy Macabees lessee of James Claypoole vs Judias Iscariot with notice to Catherine Smith widow in possession" To November term we have the commencement of a series of suits between Ludwig Derr and Christian Van Gundy which after many years ended in the pecuniary ruin of the latter. It was brought to November term lessee of Christian Van Gundy vs Thomas Troublesome lessee of Ludwig Derr with notice to Christian Hettrick, tenant in possession. It astonishes a lawyer of the present how our predecessors managed to keep cases so long in court. Van Gundy's application had not the shadow of chance against Derr's title

yet the contest went on for years until Van Gundy's money gave out. This suit was for the present site of Lewisburg "

Page 66 [1765] Includes mention of where Christian Hettirck "now lives, at a hickory on the West Branch of the Susquehanna.."