Chasing History: Exploring My Ancestral Roots - Blog Post #32 By Tonya Graham McQuade
My Great Grandmother Fleeta Jackson Brandt
In my previous post, I discussed why the “Ulster Presbyterians” emigrated from Scotland and England to settle in Ireland, some of the reasons they eventually decided to leave Ireland, and how and why they ended up in Pennsylvania. In today’s post, I will look more specifically at some of my own relatives on my mom’s side who were part of this migration: the Archers and the Renicks. In a future post, I will discuss the Jacksons and Hamiltons, who also immigrated from Ireland - but they were part of the “Irish Quakers" (also mostly from England and Scotland). My Great Grandmother Fleeta Jackson Brandt (1890-1968), my mom’s maternal grandmother, descended from all of them.
Please note the following abbreviations:
- GGP’s - Great Grandparents
- GGF - Great Grandfather
- GGM - Great Grandmother
Fleeta was born in Marion County, Illinois, where her family had lived for several generations. Between 1900 and 1910 (according to Census records), her parents moved to St. Louis, Missouri. There she met and in 1908 married her husband, Frank Anthony Brandt (1887-1931), who lived on a neighboring street. One of her sisters also married one of his brothers. My husband Mike and I drove through their old neighborhood with my parents when we visited St. Louis in April 2022, but their houses on Chouteau Avenue and La Salle Street were no longer standing. In their place sat a park.
Frank and Fleeta eventually moved to Chicago, Illinois, where they raised their seven children in a Catholic home. So, somewhere along the line, Fleeta's ancestors must have converted from their Presbyterian and Quaker roots. Perhaps Fleeta herself did when she married Frank, whose father Frank Virgil Brandt (1857-1923) immigrated from the Kingdom of Bavaria in modern-day Germany - which had a Catholic majority - in 1881/2. It was Fleeta’s great-great grandparents who first moved to Illinois from their birthplaces of Kentucky and Maryland; and it was their Ulster Presbyterian great grandparents who immigrated from Ireland to first Pennsylvania, then Virginia.
Another photo of Fleeta
John and Eleanor Archer (two of my many 10th GGP’s - did you know we all have 4,096?) lived in Warwickshire, England, in the mid-1500’s, where their families had been for several generations. However, my 9th GGP’s moved to Ireland at some point, for my 8th GGF was born there in 1636. Sampson Archer, my 7th GGF, was born in Tyrone County in Northern Ireland in 1696, so his parents obviously moved north and joined the Ulster community. Those last three generations all immigrated to America, for my 7th, 8th, and 9th GGP’s all died in the Colony of Virginia. Most likely, they arrived in Philadelphia and lived there for a time, then traveled along the Great Wagon Road to the western frontier of Pennsylvania and later Virginia, as was typical of many of the Ulster Presbyterians (1).
The Great Wagon Road used by Settlers in the 1700’s
The earliest Archers appeared in America in 1665, but the ones from whom I directly descend - Sampson Archer and Rebecca Thompson Archer - arrived with their family in 1737 and eventually took claim to 1000 acres near Natural Bridge, VA. Two of their daughters - Elizabeth and Sarah (my 6th GGM - we only have 256 of those) - married Renicks. Sarah (1742-1811) married William Renick (1737-1807), my 6th GGF; and her sister Elizabeth (1722-1809) married Capt. Robert Rennick (1710-1757), William’s uncle. A bit confused? Believe me, I’ve been down many bewildering rabbit holes in my research!
William and Robert both descended from my 8th GGP's George Renick (1675-1737) and his wife Margaret (1682-1747), who immigrated with their family to Pennsylvania around 1720. They lived in the Philadelphia area until the late 1720’s, eventually settling in Paxtang (aka. Paxton) Township, Lancaster County, Virginia, near the Susquehanna River (in modern day Dauphin County, VA). George and Margaret were both born in Enniskillen, Fermanagh, Northern Ireland, and both died in Paxtang, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.
With them from Ireland they brought three sons - William, Thomas, and Robert - and one daughter, Elizabeth. I trace my line through William. (Unfortunately, every Renick relative seemed to name one of their sons “William,” which makes it even more confusing!) The Renicks were active in the Abington Presbyterian Church near Philadelphia through the 1720s. It was there that sister Elizabeth married Robert Poage/Polke in 1723. In 1728, however, according to church records, Rev. Malachi Jones excommunicated George Renock and his wife, son-in-law Robert Polke, son William and wife, and Henry Jamison for some reason (it didn’t take much in those days). It must not have been too serious, because by 1733, he was serving as an elder of the Paxton church and attended the Donegal Presbytery. (Obviously, the Presbyterian Church kept detailed records).
Based on an early land record, George Renick and his sons first acquired land along the Susquehanna River in the area of Paxton Township in 1730. The record reads: "An Early Settler on the Susquehanna: Whereas George Renick, late of Iniskillen, having about eleven years since arrived in the province with the first settlers of Donegal, yet has never obtained leave to settle on any of the proprietor's lands, without which leave he never would presume to attempt it, and being now desirous that himself and three sons, William, Thomas, and Robert and his son-in-law, Robert Polke, might be allowed to settle down on some tract together in one neighbourhood, I therefore think it advisable that pursuant to his request he and his said sons and son-in-law be suffered to enter on the quantity of one thousand acres, near Susquehanna, between Sohataroe and Pextan, and that the same may be marked out to him and his said sons in a regular tract by the surveyor of Lancaster county or his order at the said George's charge, upon this express condition, that he and his said sons and son-in-law shall comply with such terms as shall be proposed by the proprietors or their agents, when lands in those parts shall be granted, or otherwise shall quietly quit the same. Dated at Stenton, the 25th day of January, 1730.”
William’s siblings - Thomas, Robert, and Elizabeth - all moved to Virginia in the 1740’s. The details for William get a bit murky here - as he either died in 1741 in Paxton or lived until 1797 and died in Hampshire, West Virginia. Obviously, it can’t be both, but researchers definitely disagree on the specifics. His son William Renick, my 6th GGF, and his wife, Sarah Archer, married in Pennsylvania in 1761, then soon after moved to Frederick County, Maryland, where most of their children were born. Their youngest daughter, however, Rachel Ruth Renick (my 5th GGM), was born in Barren County, Kentucky in 1783. A 1799 land survey shows that William had been granted 200 acres there. After Rachel married James Gerald Black, Jr. in 1805, the Renick and Archer names no longer appear in my family tree. James (whose ancestors were also from Scotland) and Rachel Black eventually settled in Tonti Township, Marion County, Illinois.
One of the more interesting stories I have run across in my ancestry research relates to my 6th GGM's sister Elizabeth “Betsy” Archer being captured by the Shawnee, along with her seven children, in 1757, at which time they also killed and scalped her husband Robert. Once they arrived in the Ohio Valley, she and her children were separated from each other, and they lived among the tribe for the next seven years until a treaty required the tribes to return their white prisoners in 1764. One of her sons was raised alongside Tecumseh! Here’s what I learned …
Location of August County, Virginia
By the mid-1700’s, Capt. Robert Renick and his wife Elizabeth were living on the James River in Augusta County, in an area that is now part of West Virginia. They had seven children: William, Robert, Thomas, Joshua, Betsy, Nancy, and Margaret). Carving out a life at this time on the Allegheny frontier was difficult enough, but the French and Indian War (1754-1763) was also underway, which pitted the North American colonies of the British Empire against those of the French, each side being supported by various Native American tribes. Men were being drafted from Augusta County to join the command of a young Major George Washington in response to Virginia’s governor “hearing complaints from our frontier in Augusta County of many parties of Indians, etc., robbing and ill treating our people” (2). Renick was one of those men who served in the Virginia militia and was apparently among those wounded in the Braddock Expedition in July 1755, which I will explain a bit more in my next post where I discuss the French & Indian War..
It was in the midst of this war that the following episode took place. I came across this story in various forms on Ancestry.com, shared from the Annals of Augusta County, the book Chronicles of Border Warfare, by Alexander Scott Withers, news reports from the time period, and even historical markers as shown above (3). Here I share the version I found most clearly presented (4):
Elizabeth Archer, daughter of Rebecca Thompson and Sampson Archer, had come from northern Ireland in 1737 with her family, who took claim to 1000 acres near Natural Bridge, VA. In 1741, Elizabeth married Robert Renick, who had settled in Augusta County, VA, in 1740. They lived in what was then the Virginia frontier.
Virginia records show that on June 10, 1740, Robert Renick received a patent to 400 acres of land on the Buffalo Lick Branch in Augusta County, VA, and on November 10, 1757, obtained a patent to 90 acres on Purgatory Creek, a branch of the James River.
Robert Renick joined the Virginia militia and quickly advanced through the ranks. He was granted 300 acres in Orange County, Virginia, in 1745. As a Captain of Horse (cavalry), he was active in warfare with the Indians.
On July 25, 1757, a band of about 60 Shawnee Indians stole past the fort, which was near the Renicks' wilderness home, and captured Elizabeth and her children Joshua, William, Betsy, Margaret, Nancy, Thomas, and Robert. The Shawnee went on to a neighboring house where Robert was visiting, and killed and scalped him in view of the children.
The Shawnee and their captives then embarked on a long journey to the Miami Valley Indian town in Ohio. Elizabeth carried her son Robert, who was about eighteen months, the greater part of the way to Chillicothe, Ohio. But his incessant crying irritated the Indians, and they killed him by dashing his head against a tree.
On arriving at the towns on the Scioto River, the children and Mrs. Renick were separated, divided up among their captors, and scattered. Elizabeth was pregnant at the time. Soon after reaching the Indian towns, she gave birth to a male infant and named him Robert, after his murdered father and little brother.
Elizabeth's son Joshua, who was about five years old, was taken to Piqua and raised by Tecumseh's parents. Joshua became the companion of Tecumseh and his brother, the Prophet. He ignored the pleas of his relatives to return to civilization, remained with the Indians and became a Miami chief. He took an Indian wife, amassed a considerable fortune, and died near Detroit in 1810, according to one account.
In the autumn of 1764, Colonel Henry Bouquet was the commander of Fort Pitt (Pittsburgh). To subdue the ongoing Indian uprising, he led a force of nearly 1500 militiamen and regular British soldiers from the fort into the Ohio Country.
On October 13, 1764, Bouquet's army reached the Tuscarawas River. Shortly thereafter, representatives of the Shawnee, Seneca, and Delaware came to Bouquet to sue for peace. Bouquet then moved his army from the Tuscarawas River to the Muskingum River at modern-day Coshocton, Ohio. This placed him in the heart of tribal lands and would allow him to quickly strike the natives' villages if they refused to cooperate. As part of the peace treaty, Bouquet demanded the return of all white captives, in exchange for a promise not to destroy the villages or seize any of their land.
In compliance with this stipulation, Elizabeth Renick was ransomed with two of her sons, William and Robert. Betsy, her daughter, had died on the Miami. Her son Thomas returned in 1783, but soon after left and settled on the Scioto, near Chillicothe.
The return of the captives caused much bitterness among the tribesmen, because many of them had been forcibly adopted into Indian families as small children, and living among the Native Americans had been the only life they remembered. Some white Indians managed to escape back into the native villages; many others were never exchanged. However, Bouquet managed to return more than 200 white captives to the settlements back east.
Elizabeth Renick had to contend with children who didn't know her, who didn't know each other, who had adopted Indian ways, and who feared leaving the tribe. William Renick became a soldier and spent his life fighting Indians. He served in an expedition that resulted in the Battle of Point Pleasant, where the Shawnee leader Cornstalk was killed.
Elizabeth Archer Renick was brought to Staunton, VA in 1767, and lived out her days in the area where her home had been attacked.
The Indians delivering up the English captives to Colonel Bouquet
near his camp at the forks of Muskingum in North America in Nov. 1764 (5)
What made this story even more interesting to me is that for many years, I have taught the book The Light in the Forest, by Conrad Richter, which deals with very similar events. In my next post, I will give a bit more background about the French & Indian War, Colonel Bouquet’s treaty, and how The Light in the Forest relates. But I've got one more historical doozy: as if the family story I just related isn't crazy enough, one of my 6th GGM's on my father's side was ALSO captured, along with her sister and brother, by the Shawnee and Delaware tribes in 1758, and her parents were killed in what became known as the Seybert Massacre. I'll talk about that in my next post as well. Stay tuned!
Endnotes:
1. Mires, Charlene. “Great Wagon Road.” Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia, https://philadelphiaencyclopedia.org/essays/great-wagon-road/.
2. Secrest, Betty Harrison. Settlers by the Long Grey Trail: Some Pioneers to Old Augusta County, Virginia, and Their Descendants of the Family of Harrison and Allied Lines. B.H. Secrest, 1975. Pg. 201.
3. Fillmon, Tim. “Cartmill's (Cartmell) Gap Historical Marker.” The Historical Marker Database, https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=206612.
4. “Elizabeth Archer Renick.” History of American Women, https://www.womenhistoryblog.com/2008/12/elizabeth-archer-renick.html.
5. Canot, Pierre Charles and Benjamin West. “The Indians delivering up the English captives to Colonel Bouquet near his camp at the forks of Muskingum in North America in Nov. 1764." Philadelphia, 1766, Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/resource/pga.05601/.
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