"Near this spot JACOB GROZING erected a grist mill in 1776, which was used as a place of refuge by the settlers during the Indian troubles, here on May 16 1780. A patrol of Revolutionary Soldiers was attacked by a band of Delaware Indians.
As recounted in the Selinsgrove Times Tribune, 1939
At the end of Brush Valley Narrows, Union county, about one-half mile southeast of the Forest House is the location of what was known as French Jacob's Mill. The land has long been in the possession of the Wohlheiter family. There in the spring of 1780 occurred a massacre known in history as the Massacre of French Jacob's Mill. The mill was built in 1776 by Jacob Groshong, or "French Jacob," as he was called by his neighbors. Groshong's nickname, "French Jacob" is still preserved in that section in connection with a large spring a short distance above the Forest House. In 1787 he was assessed in his nickname instead of his proper name.
On May 16, 1780, a patrol of Continental soldiers was on duty as a garrison at the mill, and was attacked by a party of Indians. Four of the garrison were killed and several wounded. Those killed were John Foster, James Chambers, George Etzweiler, and Samuel McLaughlin.
The story is that the soldiers were swimming in the mill race, having just returned from a patrol of the neighborhood and were confident no Indians were in that neighborhood. Christian Shively, who lived near the mill, heard the firing while threshing grain in his field. He immediately hid his wife and two small children near the creek. He then rolled some logs into Penn's Creek and tied them to the raft. In this way they floated down the stream to Beatty's, where New BerIin is now located.
In the Annals of Buffalo Valley, Philip Pontius relates that his father also heard the signal, unhitched his horse and made a circuit thru the woods, gun in hand, to the mill. He related how one man named William Fisher narrowly escaped. He was running to the mill during the attack. Just as he reached the door his foot slipped on a wet board and he fell into the door. The bullet intended for him struck into the building on a line where his head would have been had he not fallen.
"John Foster was an uncle of Captain John Foster, of Mifflinburg, and a brother of the old Major Thomas Foster. James Chambers was the son of Robert Chambers. "George Etzweiler, Junior, left a widow, Mary. George Etzweiler, a son of the one killed, kept hotel at McKee's Half Falls, as late as 1812. William Fisher was the grandfather of James Crossgrove and Sheriff John Crossgrove, and resided in Limestone, where James Crossgrove lately resided.
William Gill told me he heard old Mrs. Overmeter say that the e people who were killed, were brought over to the place adjoining Philip Seebold's residence, above New Berlin, and were buried in the old graveyard on the bluff at the creek, where Dry Run comes in, nearly opposite where Tuscarpa Run enters Penn's Creek, on the Snyder county side. (Philip Seebold said, in 1872, that George Etzweiler was buried on Jacob Cook's place, now Peter Slear's, in Limestone township.) Here old John Trester and the first settlers were buried. The graveyard, probably the oldest in the county, was not used after 1791, when the people commenced burying in New Berlin. It belonged to Thomas Barber, who was killed in 1792, by the timbers of an old barn falling on him...."
Thank you for all your research and posting! I’ve happened across your blog more than once while searching for historical info…then I seem to fall in a rabbit hole of random reading. You have gathered a massive amount of “local” history, and I’ve enjoyed the read! My best, Ann
ReplyDeleteThank you for posting this story including your sources! I am a descendant of "French Jacob" and have actually been to the monument you posted. Great research and writing! Zenda
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