Hannah BARKER

  General Notes:

HANNAH BARKER BENEDICT- HER STORY, PART II The second of two parts (see Vol 1 No 3 Fall 1993): Historv of Peru Township. Morrow Countv. Ohio, Senteniel Printing House, Mt. Gilead, Ohio, 1897 - From a recopy by Larry R. Benedict, (1st Cousin, 4 generations removed of Aaron E. Benedict and Great-Great-Great Grandson of Hannah Barker Benedict, November 1992) As stated in Part One: "A brief history of our settling of Alum Creek, in Peru Township, Morrow County (then Delaware) Ohio. Written in 1858, by request of her children, by Hannah Gidley, formerly Benedict - Whose maiden name was Barker". PART TWO: "After harvest I went to Sunbury to get some wheat of [sic] Vanduser; I got the wheat and was going several miles with it to mill when an acquaintance offered to send a boy with it and let me rest, which kind offer I gladly accepted. The boy was gone until near dark; I was twelve miles from home, mostly through the woods; I wished to start as late as it was; they said if I could not stay they would let their son take part of the load and go with me. We had moonlight three or four miles; after the moon set it clouded over and was very dark; my horse was acquainted with the path and I let her take her own course; sometimes she had to go around fallen timber and I apprehended that we would be lost in the woods, but after a long time we got safely home. Cyrus was very sorry that I had made such an effort to get home, but I was afraid they would suffer for bread stuff. At another time I was at Sunbury on an errand and when I had come about four miles on my way home from the last house I found my horse was sick; I felt very- badly and saw no way I could reach home that night, but after i left her rest awhile she seemed better, and I got her up and let her some distance; not having much load I ventured to get on again and rode slowly, reaching home about dark. In the fall of next year Cyrus was taken with what was called frog felon on the thick part of his hell[sic]; it was very painful; he tried to open it with his knife, but the pain increased, and I thought it best to have it lanced. I knew of no one who could do it but George Hess, and he lived nine miles from us, so I started in the afternoon and rode very fast; when I got off my horse I should have fainted if I had not laid down to rest. Hess soon started back with me and we got through in time to lance it before dark. Lancing it gave so much relief immediately that I felt fully repaid for my trouble. We had many errands that called us to the settlements, such as weaving, milling or trading a little at a store when we had beeswax or fur to sell to get salt or other necessaries. I went once and took a bear skin and bought some sickles, after we had raised some wheat. I went instead of Cyrus because it hurt him to ride, and if he stayed could work some and help make improvements. We could find plenty of honey in the woods, but there was not much sale for it, but the wax was ready sale at 25 cents per pound. Salt was very scarce and very high; $4 per bushel by weight' 50 pounds was called a bushel; could put it all in a half bushel by rounding it up, a little, for I saw it tried. Cyrus, being la] good hunter killed many deer and turkeys, and there was a bounty paid for wolves, $5 a head for the old ones and $2.50 for the young ones; he killed a great many of them and took their scalps, with the ears on as proof, to Delaware to get money, as every little [bit] helps in settling a new country. War came on and we suffered much in our feelings; there had Isic] one more family came, but others that were coming and began to move, stopped as there was alarm for war. In the fall of 1812 some of our relatives came, so that we did not feel quite so lonely, but living on the frontier we were afraid of the Indians. After Iwar] was declared it was said they took more liberties but were forbidden by Government to hunt east of a line specified near Sandusky. Two Indians came to our house one day; I was very much alarmed and thought they were spies. Cyrus and one of his brothers had gone to watch a deer lick, not far off, and I sent for them, and as they were eating the men came in and the Indians left the table and started for the woods. There was now eight families in the settlement; some of them got together and thought it best to send for Hess and others to come and pursue the Indians and see what their motive was, according, the company started from our house the next morning as soon as it was light, and they soon came to the Indians' camp; one of them was up and made signs of peace. They took the Indians, brought them back to our house and I got breakfast for all of them; the Indians were then taken to Delaware on house [sic] back, found to be friendly and were sent back to Sandusky. Soon after this two young men from 7 or 8 miles west of us said they had come with their lives in their hands to let us know that the Indians were all about them and had killed two men, cut one open and took out his heart, and that the rest had all gone into fort, and we have just heard of one man, a few miles east of us, being shot, as he opened his door in the morning. I think these statements proved to be true, but we though [sic] they were men that the Indians had some spite against, as they were apt to do in time of war. Cyrus had gone some distance to see a doctor as he still had poor health and left us in care of his brother, Reuben; if he though [sic] best to move to Sunbury before his return that he (Reuben) should assist us, so I sent the young men to him; he soon came up, seemed very much alarmed and said to me "Hannah, if thee is going with me set that wheel away." We had raised a good crop of flax and were ready, so I broke and swingled led. note-beat] a number of pounds and had just begun to spin it, but I went and took it with me. We stayed six weeks and I got it spun and wove about thirty yards in that time. Four families started next morning; the other four thought they would stay; but we had not gone far before we met six men on their way to inform us that there was a report of a man being shot, by an Indian; through his coat, but was not hurt; he had wounded the Indian who had gone off bleeding, and that it was 3 or 4 miles below this settlement. George Hess was one of the company; he turned back and told me to stop at his house; the other men went on and told their story and before bedtime every family had left Alum Creek. Before I reached Sunbury I met Cyrus; he had heard so many reports that he could stay no longer to be doctored, but thought it best to go back to his family. He rode up to our farm several times; no Indians disturbed it. When we returned home, Cyrus, myself and Anna walked; he hired a man to take our things and the other children, and paid him with deer skins that he had left at home. One day while Cyrus was chopping in the woods a friendly Indian came up to him and seemingly desired to tell him something about the white man and the Indians, but could not talk much English so the Indian motioned him to sit down on a log, which he did, the Indian continued to motion for him to side [sic] along until he had reached the end of the log and could go no father [sic], then the Indian said: "This is the way white man is serving Indians." Cyrus' aged parents, Aaron and Elizabeth, and several of his brothers and sisters moved out here in 1812, in the midst of our trouble on account of the war; the others did not come until peace was declared. The old people had ten children; they and their families all moved here except two son-in-laws, Israel Buck and Benjamin Earl, who died in Peru, N.Y. When Cyrus' mother died, in 181 2, I counted up her posterity and there were one hundred and two, all living within sixteen miles of her, except two who remained in [New] York State. At the time we settled on Alum Creek our certificates were at the Short Creek Monthly Meetings, near Mt. Pleasant, Ohio. We expected there would be relatives and friends that would emigrate to this place and settle us, so that we could have a meeting in our own neighborhood, and so it proved. Not long after our relatives came, some friends of our settlement attended Monthly Meeting at Short Creek and requested meeting privileges. A meeting for worship and a preparation meeting was granted, after a committee from Short Creek had visited us, and not long after Alum Creek Monthly Meeting was permanently established. In 1820 1 attended a quarterly meeting at Mt. Pleasant and then remained in the neighborhood until the yearly meeting, which was one week after, and attended that, which was the first I attended, and I have been at yearly meetings of Friends but twice since, and being now so far advanced in years it is not likely that I shall ever be at another, being now in my 74th year. (In this account but very few of the many hardships, trials and privations are given which Hannah experienced during the first years of their settling in what was then an unbroken forest. It is said that her trials and privations were so severe that she said 'that it seemed to her that she had watered every foot of their land with tears of sorrow.' But she did not live in vain; she lived trusting in Him who can all sorrows heal. During her last sickness she was a great sufferer for about four months previous to her death, but Him in whom she had trusted to guide her through life was still with her to comfort and cheer her and to 'make her dying bed as soft as downy pillows are.' Her room seemed filled continually with the presence of her Saviour, and in the midst of her severe suffering she never murmured or complained, but was pleasant and cheerful, always meeting her care takers with a smile. A short time previous to her departure her friends were gathered around to do what they could to relieve the sufferings of the dying saint, and when life seemed almost gone and her spirit about to take its flight, she said to her weeping daughter who was standing by her bedside realinging the loss of a Christian mother -in a calm and peaceful voice; 'Do not weep for me, my dear child, but rather, rejoice with me that the end is near,' realizing fully the truth of those comforting words of Paul, 'For our light afflictions which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.') And thus she passed from earth to heaven to dwell forever with those who have washed their robes and made them white with the blood of the lamb..." From the editor: Cyrus BENEDICT died 7 May 1828, age 54 yrs. Some time later, Hannah, his widow and author of the above, married William GIDLEY, a widower, who had settled on land near Cyrus and Hannah's son, Sylvester. Hannah Barker BENEDICT Gidley died 26 Aug 1862, age 77 yrs. Within the book from which this story was taken, there are other accounts concerning Aaron and Elizabeth BENEDICT's children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. As it is a county history, there is quite a bit of history of the area mentioned as well as stories pertaining to the settlers and their encounters with Indians (Native-Americans). Ancestry: Cyrus6, Aaron6, Gideon4, Joseph3, John2, Thomas1

Hannah married Cyrus BENEDICT, son of Aaron BENEDICT and Elizabeth KNOWLES, on 5 Dec 1799 in Peru Twp., Clinton Co., New York, USA. (Cyrus BENEDICT was born on 28 Dec 1774 in Clinton, New York, USA, died on 7 May 1828 in Peru, Morrow, Ohio and was buried in Morvin, Marion, Ohio.)

  Marriage Notes:

Cyrus BENEDICT's wedding to Hannah BARKER was the first wedding to be held in the Quaker meeting house built in 1795, and there are several articles about this. [See this newsletter, Vol. 4, No. 2., pp. 15, 18-19, "Hannah (Barker) and Cyrus Benedict?s Wedding."]

Hannah next married William GIDLEY after 1832 in Morrow Co., Ohio. (William GIDLEY was born about 1771 in Saratoga, New York and died on 18 Apr 1855 in Peru, Morrow, Ohio.)