!
Michael
Hillman
As the tensions between the
English and the American colonists began to deepen, the
English, following traditional warfare tactics, began to
systematically occupy the major cities and their
immediate surrounding countryside. The Colonial
Confederacy, aware of the vastness of the continent, set
about securing the interior of the country. With
interior supply and communication routes free from
British attacks, Washington settled down to fight the
superior British forces in the only way he could, in a
war of attrition. With the fighting confined to the
coastal plains, life in Stony Branch valley continued on
unabated.
Nevertheless, many still wished
to support the colonists’ army. Michael Smith, the
first blacksmith in the Valley, served as a Private in
what was called the German Regiment, seeing action at
General Washington's defeat at the Battle of White
Plains, New York. John Patterson also served as a
Private. Henry Groff, who served in the Calvary, saw
action outside of Philadelphia. Lastly, according to
family folklore, Mathias Zacharias II was present at the
siege of Yorktown and subsequently acted as one of the
guards escorting the Hessians captured there as they
were moved to York.
Those who were unable to join
the colonists’ army, joined the local militia. The
militia provided local security against possible
small-scale British attacks, thereby allowing the small
regular American army to concentrate its efforts on
attacking the main elements of the British army. Many
farmers in the valley, flush with new farms and young
families, opted to support the cause in this way,
including John Crabbs, who served as a Corporal in
Henry
William's 'Game Cock Company, and Lucas Flack,
who served as a sergeant in what was called the 'Flying
Camp' Battalion. However, not all able-bodied men
answered the call-to-arms. Abraham, David, and Henry
Whitmore, Philip Miller, Henry Lynn, and Jacob Christ
were all fined by the 'Committee of Observation' for
failing to enroll in the local Militia.
For those who, due to age or
infirmity, could not or would not actively fight on the
side of the rebellion, an oath of allegiance to the
cause was required, typically to their new state
government. This was conceived as a way to demonstrate
their loyalty to the Revolution. Someone who swore the
oath was a "juror" while someone who refused
to swear, a "non-juror." Non-jurors come under
suspicion of being Loyalists. This label often led to
harassment, fines, confiscation of property or even
expulsion from one’s land. Unfortunately, it wasn't
always that simple to determine who was and was not a
threat to the revolutionaries’ cause.
Not all non-jurors were
necessarily Loyalists. Quakers and German brethren
refused to swear oaths of allegiance to any cause that
would involve them in war. The Methodists also tended to
refuse the oath based upon religious grounds. Because of
the need to clearly identify Loyalists and supporters of
the revolution, revolutionary leaders allowed those, who
because of religious doctrine would not swear an oath,
to, instead, 'affirm' their support for the revolution.
Those Stony Valley farmers who publicly voiced their
support for the Revolution included Benjamin Whitmore
Sr., John Whitmore, Andrew Owler, Jonathan Hayes, and
Nicholas Keffer.
Failure to take the oath
resulted in penalties from simple fines to outright
confiscation of lands. Daniel Dulany, a patron of the
Crown, refused to take the oath, and as a result, lost
all of his lands, including ‘Buck Forest.’ Today ‘Buck
Forest’ would encompass a large track of the land
south of Motter Station Road.
The decision whether or not to
support a war effort is an age-old quandary. The
families of the Stony Branch Valley had struggled to
settle their lands, plant their farms and raise their
families. Many had left their homes in Europe for
freedom from both economic and religious tribulation.
They did not take lightly the disruption of the
lifestyle they had worked so hard to secure. As we,
modern day inhabitants of the Stony Branch Valley,
survey our lands, our lifestyles and our family
security, it is not hard to imagine the sacrifices they
contemplated as they struggled with the decision to
support the colonies’ war effort. But support it they
did, some from belief, some from social pressure and
some for fear of reprisal.
In spite of the war, or because
of the war, new settlers continued to arrive in the
valley. Among those arriving in the midst of the
Revolutionary War were the last of the original founding
families, the Troxels and Martins.
‘John Peter' Troxel, the
patriarch of the Troxel family in Stony Branch Valley,
was born in 1719 in the Rhine area of Germany. One
interesting tradition of this time period was German
tradition of giving children traditional 'saint' names
at baptism, which were not the names by which they were
known. Thus it was not uncommon, if a family had a
favorite saint, to have all the children of the same
gender, with the same first name, though they would be
known and sign documents with their middle name, which,
needless to say, makes historical research of this time
confusing at best.
'Peter' Troxel, immigrated to
America with his parents in 1737. On landing at
Philadelphia, the Troxel family proceeded to the German
settlement in Egypt, Pennsylvania. Remarkably, the house
the Troxel's built in Egypt in 1744 still stands today.
Thanks to the efforts of many concerned citizens, it is
now completely restored -- a historical monument to a
historical time period and family. Following the death
of Peter’s first wife Anna in childbirth, in 1750,
Peter married Catharine Schreiber and, over the next 29
years, they would be blessed with nine more children. In
1776, Peter, then an accomplished miller of grain,
joined the German migration headed for the rich farmland
of the south, settling just south and east of the
present Tom's Creek Bridge.
In Troxel family folklore, two
stories have been passed down through the years about
the Troxel's and the genesis behind the name for Tom's
Creek. In the more chivalrous one, the Troxel's are
credited with purchasing their land from the Indian Tom,
for whom the well-known creek supposedly derived its
name.
In the other, the Troxel's were accompanied on
their move into the valley by an Indian named Tom, whose
name was then latter applied to the creek which ran
through their farm. Alas, neither story appears true. The
earliest known official use of the name 'Tom' as the
designation for the creek that drains the Emmitsburg
region is in a 1761 deed between Martin Earnest and
Michael Stringer, for thirty-one acres of land just to
the south of Tom's Creek Bridge, sixteen years before
the Troxel's ever set foot in the valley. When the
Troxel's did finally settle in the valley, they bought
their land from Christian and Sara Keffer, not the
Indian Tom. The 400 acre farm, which was known as
'Chance Medley', went for a whopping 2,450 pounds, a
300% profit for the Keffer's in just three years!
In Emmitsburg's history, the
Troxel family is most remembered for being the builders
of the first mill at Tom’s Creek, near the junction of
Tom's Creek and Flat Run. Credit for this achievement
goes to Peter's eldest son, John Troxel. Born in 1747,
John married Elizabeth Martin, sister of Mathias Martin,
who had married his younger sister, Anna.
The Troxel
family members were also key players in the building of
the Elias Lutheran Church, which closely resembles their
old church in Egypt, Pennsylvania, most notably, the
church's alter, which is an exact duplicate. Peter
Troxel, Jr. is credited as the architect of the church's
steeple, the stone of which was drawn from a small
quarry on the hill on Mathias Zacharias' ‘Single
Delight’, overlooking a long-forgotten log
church.
Mathias and Anna
Martin, the
founders of the Martin family in Stony Branch,
participated in the Troxel move into the Stony Branch
Valley, purchasing for 900 pounds from John Patterson,
204 acres adjacent to the new Troxel homestead. The
prodigy of the Troxels and Martins have played a long
and colorful role in the shaping of the Stony Branch
Valley. It is often said, half jokingly, that one should
watch what one says because you can never be sure if you’re
talking about family.
In fact, almost everyone who has
not recently moved into Emmitsburg can somehow trace
some part of their family tree to these two
families. Interestingly enough, in spite of the
fact that the colonies were in rebellion and resources
were scarce, the offices of the government still
functioned, including the land offices. One practically
unknown scribe, unable to procure a new ledger during
the war, made do with what he had and recorded all the
land transactions in the back of an old ledger. Because
of this person, the record of land transactions in Stony
Branch was unbroken.
In 1777, John Diggs, acting as
executor of his father William's estate, sold 115 acres
on the northern side of Tom's Creek, just above where it
entered the Monocacy, to Isaac Hornacre for 155 pounds.
Unfortunately, little is known of Isaac Hornacre, so
little can be written about him. Following the death of
Jacob Shiyer in 1778, Shiyer's daughters Susanna Forney,
Elizabeth Ott, and Catharine Dotters, sold Shiyer's 130
acre 'Stony Hill' estate to their sister Hannah's son,
Samuel Singer for 550 pounds. The price difference
between these two similar size tracks of lands
undoubtedly reflects, in addition to the presence of
some type of home, the fact that Shiyer's 'Stony Hill'
was adjacent, at the time, to a wagon road that
connected the Tom's Creek Valley with the 'civilized'
world down south.
In 1778, Benjamin Whitmore sold
his 96-acre track of land, called 'Benjamin's
Adventure', just north of the Monocacy and east of Stony
Branch Creek, to Jacob Thomas. In 1787 John Adams Forney
divided his land in half, selling the northern half,
upon which Bill Kuhn's new house sits, to Catherine
Marker for 100 pounds. The southern half went to
Lawrence Olar (now part Richard Valentine's Black Flint
Farm) With her purchase, Catherine became the first
woman in the valley to own land outright in her own.
(Editors note: About time!!)
In 1779, Jonathan Hays and
Andrew Owler traded slivers of land, which would today
be on the opposite side of Grimes' Road from their main
farms. With this information, we can pretty well date
the formation of the county lane that would someday
become Grimes' Road. Supporting this conclusion are
references in deeds to a 'Wilson's Ford' named after
Joseph Wilson who owned the land to the east of Jonathan
Hayes, his father-in-law. Joseph Wilson was the son of
Robert and Elizabeth Wilson, who settled in the area
around 1733, twenty-four years before William Emmit
appeared on the scene. The original Wilson Homestead,
known as 'Wilson's Fancy', was located on Flat run, on
what is today the southeastern portion of
Emmitsburg.
In 1787 Philip Miller, passed
the ownership of his lands, which included everything on
both sides of Sixes Bridge Road, from Grime's Road to
Sixes Bridge, onto his sons, Henry and Philip in return
for certain guarantees, including that they school and
support their sisters Sophia and Catharine. However,
Philip was not long for the valley. In 1789, Henry
Miller bought outright 205 acres from his brother
Philip. Philip then sold the remaining 100 to Jacob
Christ for 184 pounds.
The most interesting, yet one of
the smallest land transactions that occurred in Stony
Branch in this time period was that for 5 acres from
Mathias Zacharias to a Henry Boyer. Located just to the
north of the then Thomas’ property, now Valentine
property, it held a strategic crossroad for the valley.
Through it, one could go south on the road that
parallels Stony Branch Creek down to the Monocacy or go
north towards the new mill built by John Crabbs and, if
necessary, on to Emmitsburg. Travelers also could go
west, up a sloping incline, where the path joined up
with a wagon road adjacent to Stony Hill that would take
them to Frederick and beyond. One could also go east,
following the new lane between the Owler and Hayes
farms, the present Grime's Road, cross the Monocacy at
Wilson's Ford and head to parts east.
These paths, trodden by many a
traveler 200 years ago, were still in use within recent
memory and are still plainly visible today. One can only
wonder about who has traveled these almost forgotten
paths and of the wonderful rich stories that were told
as they were lazily transmitted. It was on this
crossroad lot, that in 1789, the community of Stony
Branch erected a log church, the first and only church
in Stony Branch Valley. The history of this church is
shrouded in mystery, a mystery this community should
consider well worth uncovering.