A son of Hans Peter and Anna Margaretha (Schmidt or Kuntze) was baptized on 4 February 1733 at the First Reformed Church in Raritan, New Jersey. He married Sara whose last name is not known at this time around 1757. They moved to Pennsylvania after his father's death in 1763 in Frederick County, Maryland. They lived in what is now Huntingdon County and in 1778 built a fort there to provide his family and neighbors with shelter from attacks by Indians.
"This fort (called Fort Hartsog) was erected for a defense of the settlers in Woodcock Valley about 1778, when a number of other minor forts were built at or about the same time in this (Huntingdon) county. This Fort is near Marklesburg on the Broad Top railroad in Penn Township. Dr. J.H. Wintrode kindly took the writer to the site of this fort and we found that it was located on a high brow of a hill on the farm now owned by David B. Brumbaugh, about 150 feet east of a public road, leading from Marklesburg to Huntingdon. There is not a vestige of the fort left to mark the place. Tradition places it upon the highest point of the Brumbaugh's farm. In appearance, the site was the most commanding in Woodcock Valley, as one can have an uninterrupted view in all directions from this point of location. The writer was unable to learn that it had ever been used for any other purpose than to harbor the settlers. This fort was located on the old Indian path coming from the eastward through the Tuscarora Valley, Aughwick, Woodcock Valley, to Hollidaysburg, and to Kittaning Point. Being on this commercial highway to the westward, the direction pursued by the traveller in early times, when in quest of a home west of the Alleghenies, it is likely that its importance to the settler, the soldier, the adventurer, in fact to all who were arrayed against the red man, was of such character as to entitle it now some memorial stone which shall preserve its history."
Even with this fort the attacks became more and more frequent and deadly and in 1779, Peter and his family moved back to Frederick County to live in peace. Around 1785, they returned to Pennsylvania.
Peter and Sarah had the following children:
Daniel, born January 12, 1759
Peter Hartsock, III, born about 1761
Elizabeth Hartsock, born April 17, 1764
Samuel Hartsock, born about 1766
Jonathan, born about 1768
Sarah, born about 1770
Samuel, born about 1770-1774
No comments:
Post a Comment