John Carpenter (abt. 1737 - 1806)

Descendants

Died 3 Sep 1806 at about age 69 in Coshocton County, Ohio, USA

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Disputed origin and parents

It has been stated that John Carpenter was born in England, and also that he was Scotch-Irish. There is no reason to believe the internet rumor that he was born in Hampshire, England, son of (Lord) William Carpenter and Elizabeth Hayes. There is no evidence to support this. However, he and his wife inherited land (from his father-in-law) in Hampshire County, Virginia.

Furthermore, there is no hard evidence for his year of death, although his estate was settled in 1806. His place of burial is unknown, but in 1967 the DAR placed a memorial marker for John Carpenter (showing death year of 1800) at the Prairire Chapel Church Cemetery in Guernsey County, Ohio.

Biography

"Let us picture the man we are here to honor. According to tradition, he was a short-legged, stocky man, who they said, could not run very fast, that the Indians would surely capture him. But he was not the kind of man who ran; he was the kind who stayed to fight. He was an Ohio Pioneer, and those two words are enough to distinguish any man. But there were many more: John Carpenter began his fight for liberty and for the establishment of our Republic soon after he came to Virginia from England in 1750. He was a neighbor of George Washington and he served under him, both in the French and Indian War and in the American Revolution. In the later years of the Revolution he was sent west of the Alleghenies to assist the settlers fighting the Indians and the British. This, no doubt, gave him a liking for the Ohio Country. So in 1781, he brought his family and settled at the mouth of Short Creek, which flows into the Ohio River near the present site of Warrenton, in Jefferson County. There he built a cabin and established a fort, the site is still known as Carpenter's Fort."^[1]

Soldier during the French and Indian War

County histories record the family memory that John Carpenter served under George Washington during the French and Indian War. This would mean that Carpenter was a member of the Virginia Regiment, which was led by Colonel George Washington (see right), who reportedly said of Carpenter "that as he could not run fast, the British or Indians would eventually get him."^[2] And the Indians eventually did get him -- twice -- but they weren't able to keep him or kill him.

After the disastrous campaigns at the beginning of the French and Indian War, Washington turned his attention to building a string of forts across Virginia's western frontier, to protect against the Indian raids which were driving the settlers off their farms.^[3] Later, the Virginia Regiment participated in General Forbes' Expedition of 1758, which captured the French Fort Duquesne (on the site of present-day Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania). Perhaps this was the first time that John Carpenter saw the Ohio River.

Here is an image of a typical eighteenth-century frontier fort, with blockhouses at the corners to house the settlers when they retreated from the nearby farms, and room inside the enclosure for their animals as well. During times of trouble with the Indians, and sometimes for months on end, the settlers lived in the fort and ventured out to their fields by day, taking turns as armed guards.

Married to Nancy Beaver

John Carpenter was placed in command of one of these little forts, probably in Hampshire County, as that is where his future wife's (adopted) father owned land. As the story goes, Carpenter and his men came across a band of Indians who had just set a farm cabin on fire. "In the ensuing battle, most of the Indians were killed and Carpenter entered the burning cabin. Here he found a young woman who had been tomahawked by the Indians, lying on a bed. Her husband had been murdered by the savages. She eventually recuperated from her wounds and became the wife of John Carpenter."^[4]

Presumably John Carpenter and Nancy Beaver were married around 1760, as their son Edward was born in 1761.^[5] John and Nancy inherited land in Hampshire County from her father John Beaver, and in 1771 they bought the other half of this land from her sister and co-heir Susannah Scott (see footnote below).

"He lived in Western Pennsylvania in 1770's."^[6] At the time, western Pennsylvania was claimed by Virginia, and Carpenter certainly assumed that he was living in Virginia: In a 1777 land record his residence is given as "Ohio County, Virginia."^[7]

Lord Dunmore's War

In 1774, Lord Dunmore's War (named after the Governor of Virginia at the time) broke out, the result of a year of escalating violence between frontier settlers and Indian tribes from across the Ohio River. "From the perspective of the backcountry, the shots fired on the Ohio late in 1774, not those at Concord six months later, constituted the beginning of the American Revolution. Though the Ohio campaign was led by a royal governor, its muscle was provided by two thousand men who had waited a decade in mounting frustration and anger while the king neglected their needs. This was their declaration of independence."^[8]

Sgt. John Carpenter was one of these frontiersmen who struck out at the Ohio Indians in defiance of the British policy of restricting western settlement. In July 1774 a force of 400 men under Major Angus McDonald destroyed Wakatomica and nearby Shawnee towns in central Ohio, near present-day Dresden. During this expedition, Carpenter served with Ensign Derrick Hoagland in Captain George McCulloch's company. One of Carpenter's daughters would later marry Hoagland's son Issac.^[9] One of the privates in this company was Silas Hedges, who had witnessed Carpenter's 1771 deed (see above) and who was married to Hoagland's sister Margaret.

It is probably not a coincidence that Carpenter and several of his children settled in this area (on the border of Coshocton and Guernsey Counties) when it was opened for settlement many years later; this is the general area where John Carpenter died.

Soldier in the Revolution

John Carpenter served in the Revolution as a Quartermaster Sergeant (a senior non-commissioned officer) in Captain Ewell's company of the State Garrison Regiment. He served for three years, being discharged on 1 June 1781.^[10] When he joined his regiment in June 1778, it was attached to the Continental Army under General Washington's command, after the horrible winter at Valley Forge. The middle-aged Indian fighter joined his regiment just in time for Washington's pursuit of the British army across New Jersey as they withdrew from Philadelphia. This campaign saw the Battle of Monmouth, where Washington famously rallied his fleeing troops and fought the British counterattack to a standstill.

"The regiment remained in the service of the Continental Army until late 1779 when called back to Virginia." Carpenter was later sent to the Ohio Valley toward the end of the Revolution, where "he became an associate of Lewis Wetzel, the Zanes and other famous frontiersmen. His adventures would fill a volume."^{[11] [12]} Wetzel and the Zanes were associated with Fort Henry (present-day Wheeling, in Ohio County, West Virginia), so this is presumably where John Carpenter was stationed. He mustered out on 1 June 1781, while General Cornwallis's troops were raiding through the Virginia heartland. But John was already in the middle of a war zone and, as a private citizen, he continued fighting, with his family at his side.

"Near the close of the Revolution, Washington sent Carpenter to the west of the Allegheny Mountains to help the settlers to resist the Indians who had become allies of the British.... When Washington sent him to western Pennsylvania, he settled on Buffalo Creek in western Washington County (then still part of Ohio County, Virginia), east of Wellsburg, West Virginia. He was a noted hunter, also, and in many of his hunting expeditions, he crossed the few miles across Virginia, and the Ohio River into the Short Creek Valley, less than 20 miles below Steubenville. The more he saw of the Short Creek area, the more it appealed to him, and the greater became his desire to settle here."^[13]

Across the Ohio, captured by Indians

"Carpenter built a cabin in 1781, west of the Ohio, on Short Creek, and readied a clearing for corn the following season. While doing this he commuted to Short Creek from his Buffalo Creek home. When Cornwallis surrendered, October 19, 1781, he was about ready to move, even though it meant being a squatter in the Ohio Country. But first he planned to go to Fort Pitt for a supply of salt.... He started for Fort Pitt, approximately 40 miles away, taking two pack-horses. On the way he was captured by a band of Wyandot Indians and taken to the Moravian town, Gnadenhutten, where he was compelled to give up his clothing in trade for an Indian costume."^[14]

Two weeks after they captured Carpenter, the group of Indians arrived at their village of Sandusky, on the shore of Lake Erie. Knowing his reputation as a fighter, they wanted to adopt him as a member of their tribe. Carpenter pretended to go along with their plan, so he could gain their trust. They allowed him to wander around their town, and occasionally they sent him outside to get the horses. One day he discovered that the horses had strayed farther away than usual, and he decided that this was his chance to escape. "He mounted one of the horses and rode towards home, reaching Fort Pitt after several days almost starved and exhausted."^[15]

The Gnadenhutten Massacre

"The capture of Mr. Carpenter, and the murder of two families about the same time, that is to say, in the two or three first days of March, contributed materially to the Moravian campaign, and the murder of that unfortunate people."^[16]

"The Moravians were peaceful Christian Indians. Carpenter's disappearance gave rise to the belief in the settlement that he had been killed by Indians. When some soldiers visited the Moravian town later and discovered his clothing there they felt certain that this had been his fate, and that the Moravian Indians were the guilty ones. Indians from west of the Ohio river had been raiding settlements in western Pennsylvania, and had killed all the members of the William Wallace family. At Gnadenhutten the soldiers found the clothing belonging to his family.

"A short time after this, the Moravian massacre occurred, when ninety men, women and children were murdered by soldiers under Col. David Williamson. A court of inquiry was called at Fort Pitt to determine why this, the most cruel tragedy in early history of Ohio, had been enacted. The actors attempted to exculpate themselves from blame by exhibiting the clothing found in the village. This evidence of the Moravians' guilt, they claimed, prompted them to make the attack. John Carpenter was summoned as a witness for the accused. He identified the clothing as his own, but explained how the Moravians came to possess it."^[17]

Nancy kills an attacking Indian

"Some time later John and Nancy were in their truck patch near their cabin, when two Indians crept out from the nearby woods and fired at John. Both bullets passed through his body. One Indian rushed forward to scalp him, while the other redskin attempted to reach Nancy. Neither of the Carpenters had any weapons, only their garden hoes.

"As the one savage made for Carpenter's scalp, Nancy began striking the Indian on the head with the heavy hoe she had been using. She was a stout, determined woman, and with her first stroke, the Indian fell to the ground; several more strokes ended his life. At this time their eldest son, Edward, rushed out of the cabin, and the remaining Indian fled. John Carpenter made it into the cabin, and shortly recovered from the two wounds he continued his pioneer efforts and by 1785 had been chosen Justice of the Peace of the Short Creek settlement."^[18]

Stream of new settlers

"The Revolutionary war having been brought to a conclusion, the tide of veteran soldiers, discharged from their long service in the cause of American independence, began to pour through the passes of the Blue Ridge seeking homes on the then far distant frontier along the banks of the Ohio.... Carrying a few earthly possessions on pack horses, men, women and children treaded their weary way over the perilous bridle paths, and, regardless of the government prohibition, pushed across the frontier determined to possess the land 'if they tomahawked their way through.' ^[19]

"The crops cultivated by these early settlers were gathered with infinite toil and danger; from the opening of spring until the advent of winter, the pioneer farmer was forced to abandon his cabin home and seek protection for his family in the shelter of the block-house or the fort. When the rigors of winter locked field and forest in its icy embrace, he was exempt from the depredations of his savage foes, but just at the time when his constant presence upon the farm was of the utmost need when the spring was opening and the time of seeding was at hand, the implacable savages started on the war path and began their work of pillage and destruction, hence it was necessary for the farmers to go out upon their farms to work in companies, one party doing guard duty with their muskets in hand, while the other party cultivated the growing crops; thus they alternately worked and stood guard until the shades of night forced them to again seek the shelter of the block-house or the fort."^[20]

With the stream of new settlers as the Revolutionary War ground to a close in 1782, Carpenter's cabin grew into Carpenter's Fort with three blockhouses, offering shelter to nearby farmers from the persistent threat of Indian attacks. Around the fort grew "Norris Town," apparently on Carpenter's land.^[21] But this territory was still officially recognized as Indian land, and on 23 Sept. 1783 the Congress of the Confederation issued a proclamation forbidding "all persons from making settlements on lands inhabited or claimed by Indians, without [outside] the jurisdiction of any particular state."^[22] With the Treaty of Fort McIntosh in January 1785, the land just west of the Ohio came under the jurisdiction of the Confederation government, which moved to evict the squatters. The squatters, for their own part, had elected William Hoglin (of nearby Hoglins Town) to be their governor, and John Carter was one of two local Justices of the Peace.

The army evicts the squatters

In April 1785 an Army detachment led by Ensign Armstrong passed through the area and warned the settlers to leave.^[23] "At several places, notably at Norristown, the squatters had organized to resist him with fire-arms. If he had begun to burn cabins it is possible he would have had a battle on his hands. What probably happened in all six settlements was the same as what happened at Norristown. When Armstrong entered he found waiting for him forty armed men, to whom he read his instructions and who thereupon agreed to move off by April 19."^[24]

Armstrong was followed in November by another expedition led by Captain Doughty, who evicted settlers and destroyed houses along the west bank of the river. The "Report of Houses Burnt by Capt. Doughty," a macabre census of the area, lists two houses belonging to John Carpenter, while a third was left standing because it sheltered a sick Norris family.^[25] Of course many of the cabins (as well as Carpenter's fort) were rebuilt after the army left, as Captain Doughty foresaw, because "the poor devils have nowhere to go."^[26]

Later years

"Mr. Henry Hogland, son of governor William Hogland, west of the Ohio, was married to the highly amiable Elizabeth Carpenter, eldest daughter of John Carpenter, esq. landlord of Norristown, west of the Ohio. The marriage was celebrated at the governor's hall, on Friday, the twenty-seventh day of May, at twelve o'clock, and the evening was most agreeably spent in dancing, firing of guns, and drinking of toasts for the success of the new state, and prosperity to the new and first married couple in it. . . . Capt. Swearingen and the governor were seated at the head of the table."^[27]

Charles Williams, son-in-law of John Carpenter, wrote of the 1780s: "Those were very troublesome times. I lived hard but free. Then I married a girl named Susanna Carpenter. I had to steal her away and, as we were poor, I was unable to get a marriage license for want of money; but it all came right. There was a justice of the peace in Virginia, and he agreed to marry me for a buckskin, and we went over the river in Ohio and got married on a big rock in the woods; some that were present were barefooted; then we went home and had a fine dance."^[28]

Here is another account of this marriage: "At twenty or twenty-one he [Charles Williams] left his father's house, crossed the Ohio into what is now Jefferson county, and soon after became engaged to Susannah Carpenter, one of seventeen children connected with the principal family of the settlement in wealth and influence, her father having given his name to the settlement, "Carpenter's Fort," or Carpenter's Station, as it was sometimes called. The attachment of the parties was mutual, but the stern old gentleman refused his consent, and was inexorable. Consequently an elopement was determined upon. The good old man was decoyed from home one day, upon one pretense or another, by Samuel Morrison, who was among the first settlers of this county, and afterward brother-in-law to Williams, and the young couple made good their escape, crossed the Ohio and were married in the usual everyday dress of early settlers.^[29]

"In 1797 the Carpenters moved from the fort to Stillwater creek near the present site of Smyrna. From here John Carpenter moved to what is now Coshocton county, leaving the farm in charge of his son Edward."^[30]

"John Carpenter apparently died in 1806, and George Carpenter was appointed administrator of the estate. The immediate heirs of John Carpenter were: Edward and Catherine De Long Carpenter, George and Susannah Tilton Carpenter, Jacob and Elizabeth Carpenter Highshoe, Charles and Susannah Carpenter Williams, William and Ann (Nancy) Carpenter Morrison, Ira and Sarah (Sally) Carpenter Kimberly, Issac and Mary (Polly) Carpenter Hoagland, William and Sarah Critchfield Carpenter, and Thomas and Delilah Critchfield Carpenter. On November 20, 1810 these heirs sold 128 acres of land in Section no. 7 to John Humphrey for $1,280. At the time of this sale, George and Susannah Carpenter were the only heirs of John Carpenter residing in Jefferson county."^[31]

Children of John and Nancy Carpenter^[32]:

1. EDWARD CARPENTER, b. September 27, 1761, Virginia; d. January 12, 1827, Guernsey Co., Ohio (Londonberry Cemetary); m. CATHERINE DELONG, d. March 21, 1822, Guernsey Co., Ohio.

2. ELIZABETH CARPENTER, b. 1761(?); d. November 11, 1848, Richland Twp., Guernsey, Ohio; m. HENRY HOAGLAND, May 27, 1787.

3. SUSANNAH CARPENTER, b. abt. 1765, On James River, VA; d. Abt. 1830, Coshocton Co., Ohio; m. CHARLES WILLIAMS, abt. 1787.

4. GEORGE CRAWFORD CARPENTER, b. 1767; d. March 1827, Mechanic Twp., Holmes Co., Ohio; m. SUSANNAH TILTON, 1791, Jefferson Co., Northwest Territory, Ohio.

5. SARAH CARPENTER, b. Abt. 1772; m. IRA KIMBERLY.

6. NANCY CARPENTER, b. Abt. 1775; d. 1835, Mechanic Twp.,Holmes Co., Ohio; m. WILLIAM MORRISON.

8. MARY CARPENTER, b. September 28, 1778, Jefferson County, Ohio; d. September 28, 1852, Clark Twp., Coscocton Co., Ohio; m. ISAAC HOAGLAND, March 19, 1798, Ohio.

9. WILLIAM CARPENTER, b. January 04, 1783, Carpenter's Fort, Jefferson, Ohio; d. March 29, 1855, Butler Twp., Knox Co., Ohio; m. SARAH CRITCHFIELD, 1805, Muskingum, Ohio.

10. THOMAS CARPENTER, b. May 15, 1786, Carpenter Farm (Holmes Co., Ohio); d. January 12, 1858, Mechanic Twp., Holmes Co., Ohio; m. DELIAH CRITCHFIELD, March 09, 1808, Muskingum, Ohio.

Sources

1. ↑ Quoted from a speech given on Sept. 17, 1967 when the Massillion County Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution dedicated his Revolutionary War grave marker at the Prairie Chapel Church Cemetery in Guernsey County, Ohio. The words of this speech are largely a paraphrase of part of his story as given in William G. Wolfe, Stories of Guernsey County, Ohio: History of an Average Ohio County (1943), p. 873.
2. ↑ William G. Wolfe, Stories of Guernsey County, Ohio: History of an Average Ohio County (1943), p. 873, quoted at Patricia Poitinger's website. It appears that John Carpenter enlisted at Baltimore City, Maryland on 1 March 1756 in Christopher Gist's company of the Virginia militia, "being described as age 19 - 5 ft 4 1/2 inches tall," per a collection of notes attached to John Carpenter's profile at ancestry.com with the title, "history." Some reference to the actual enlistment document and its location would be helpful.
3. ↑ A Council Of War, Held At Fort Cumberland, July 10th 1756
4. ↑ Robert H. Richardson, Tilton territory: A historical narrative, Warren Township, Jefferson County, Ohio, 1775-1838 (1977), page 19, quote posted at ancestry.com
5. ↑ Per the age given on Samuel's gravestone. One can speculate that John and Nancy had an earlier child or children who died young, which would of course make the marriage year earlier, but that would push the marriage into the hottest part of the war, which seems unlikely.
6. ↑ Robert H. Richardson, Tilton territory: A historical narrative, Warren Township, Jefferson County, Ohio, 1775-1838 (1977) , page 19.
7. ↑ On 11 March 1777, John and Ann Carpenter of "the County of Ohio in the State of Virginia" sold to Thomas Holobach of Hampshire County, for 200 pounds, Lot #9 on Patterson Creek in Hampshire County, "containing 280 acres which was granted to a certain John Beaver (now deceased) by deed from the Proprietor of the Northern Neck of Virginia bearing date 5 June 1749, and the said John Beaver... died Intestate... the same descended to the said Ann and Susannah now wife of Edward Scott, his daughters, which said Edward Scott & Susannah his wife conveyed their moiety or part thereof to the said John Carpenter by Deeds bearing date 18 Sep 1771..." Witnesses were Silas Hedges and William Scott; John's wife Ann signed with a mark. John Carpenter appeared in the Hampshire Court in March 1779 to acknowledge the deed. The text of the entire deed with a digital image is at the Descendants of Thomas and Margaret Hollenback website. Silas Hedges lived in Buffalo Creek and married [http://www.genealogy.com/users/s/y/t/Curt-L-Sytsma/FILE/0003page.html Margaret Hoagland -- two of her brothers later became fathers-in-law of two of John Carpenter's daughters.
8. ↑ Eric Hinderaker and Peter C. Mancall, At the Edge of Empire: The Backcountry in British North America (2003), p. 159, quoted at wikipedia.org.
9. ↑ Curt Sytsma's notes on the frontier Hoagland family, online at ancestry.com, citing "Virginia State Library: Pittsburgh List (Dunmore 1774)" in Genealogical Research Notes by Joann Hoagland-Oldham, Notebook No. 12, shared with Curt Sytsma on September 8, 2001.
10. ↑ The Official Roster of the Soldiers of the American Revolution Buried in the State of Ohio (1929), p. 69.
11. ↑ William G. Wolfe, Stories of Guernsey County, Ohio: History of an Average Ohio County (1943), p. 873, quoted at Patricia Poitinger's website.
12. ↑ 1st Virginia State Regiment.
13. ↑ W.E. Farver, "Carpenters Settled Doughty Creek in Indian-Fighting Days," in The Daily Record, Friday, April 2, 1965, p. 16; digital image attached to family trees at ancestry.com
14. ↑ W.E. Farver, "Carpenters Settled Doughty Creek in Indian-Fighting Days."
15. ↑ William G. Wolfe, Stories of Guernsey County, Ohio: History of an Average Ohio County (1943), p. 875, quoted at Patricia Poitinger's website.
16. ↑ Samuel Kercheval, History of the Valley of Virginia (1833), pp. 290-91.
17. ↑ William G. Wolfe, Stories of Guernsey County, Ohio: History of an Average Ohio County (1943), p. 873, quoted at Patricia Poitinger's website.
18. ↑ W.E. Farver, "Carpenters Settled Doughty Creek in Indian-Fighting Days," in The Daily Record, Friday, April 2, 1965, p. 16; digital image attached to family trees at ancestry.com
19. ↑ History of the Upper Ohio Valley (1890), Vol. 2, pp. 810-11.
20. ↑ History of the Upper Ohio Valley (1890), Vol. 2, pp. 811-12.
21. ↑ Carpenter is described as "the landlord of Norris Town" in his daughter's 1787 wedding notice (see text below). And in 1785, when Captain Doughty's troops burned the homes of the squatters (see text below), two of John Carpenter's houses were burned, but a third house, sheltering a sick Norris family, was spared. Presumably all three houses were part of the fort.
22. ↑ Randolph C. Downes, "Ohio's Squatter Governor: William Hogland of Hoglandstown", in Ohio History: The Scholarly Journal of the Ohio Historical Society, Vol. 43 (1929), pp. 276-77.
23. ↑ From Ensign Armstrong's 1785 report to Col. Harmer: "On the 6th I proceeded to Hoglin's or Mercer's Town (Martin's Ferry) , where I was presented with paper No. 2, and from the humble disposition of the people, and the impossibility of their moving, I gave them to the 10th, and I believe they generally left the settlement at that time. At that place I had been informed that Charles Norris and John Carpenter had been elected justices of the peace..." Quoted from History of the Upper Ohio Valley (1890), Vol. 2, p. 452.
24. ↑ "Ohio's Squatter Governor: William Hogland of Hoglandstown", p. 279.
25. ↑ "Report of Houses Burnt by Capt. Doughty" in Papers of the Continental Congress 1775-1789 , transcribed at Some Names of Ohio Territory "Squatters". This report also lists a house belonging to William Hogland, future father-in-law of John Carpenter's daughter Elizabeth.
26. ↑ "Ohio's Squatter Governor: William Hogland of Hoglandstown", p. 281.
27. ↑ "Ohio's Squatter Governor: William Hogland of Hoglandstown", p. 273, quoting The Pittsburgh Gazette, 29 Sept. 1787.
28. ↑ Journal of Captain Williams, quoted in History of Coshocton County, Ohio: Its Past and Present (1740-1881), pp. 418-19.
29. ↑ History of Coshocton County (1881), page 413.
30. ↑ William G. Wolfe, Stories of Guernsey County, Ohio: History of an Average Ohio County (1943), p. 873, quoted at Patricia Poitinger's website.
31. ↑ Robert H. Richardson, A Time and Place in Ohio (1983), p. 245, quoted at Patricia Poitinger's website.
32. ↑ Per Patricia Poitinger's other website, which errs in the given name of Ira Kimberly's wife -- it was Sarah. In addition, there is no evidence of a Carpenter daughter married to Samuel Morrison..

John Carpenter's findagrave memorial

Acknowledgments

Thanks to Patricia Poitinger for her efforts in gathering and organizing Carpenter family records, and for her generosity in freely sharing her research.

Thank you to John Schmeeckle for creating Carpenter-4118 on 11 Dec 13. Click the Changes tab for the details on contributions by John and others.