This interesting family story was sent to William L. Anderson III, 5th great grandson of Nancy Means, in December 1997 by Paul Corbett, another Means descendant, who lives in Sharon Pennsylvania.
NANCY MEANS, born about 1717, came to America with her father in 1718, probably from Ireland. She married 1st, WILLIAM SLOAN. They had the following issue:
· William, (lived in Kittaning, Pennsylvania
· John
· Robert, b. 1738; d. 4 March 1816
· Jane, b. 7 October 1744 [Great-Great-Great Grandmother of William McGuire Plonk]
Nancy or Ann as she was called, married 2nd, JOHN WASSON, died 26 May 1756. Following is an account of the death of John and the capture by Indians of his wife.
In the spring of 1756 we find Ann Wasson living with her second husband, John Wasson, and seven children on a plantation of 450 acres in Peters Township, Cumberland County, Pennsylvania. These were very dangerous times, as there had been many Indian uprisings, and Fort McCord had fallen with the loss of many lives. Reverend John Steele’s Meeting House had been turned into a fort for the protection of the women and children of the neighborhood. John had taken his family to the fort for safety and as it was seeding time had returned to his plantation to till the fields. Ann leaving her children at the fort, returned to assist her husband, and without any warning they were attacked by Indians. John was killed and scalped; Ann was taken captive.
In the “Pennsylvania Gazette,” page 108, 1756, was the following account: “On Wednesday 26th May 1756, They (the Indians) came the Plantation of John Wasson in Peters Township, Cumberland County, whom they killed and mangled in so horrible and cruel manner, that a regard to decency forbids describing it, and afterwards burned his house and carried off his wife. A party of Steele’s and Peters men went out after the enemy, but to no purpose.”
John and Nancy had the following issue:
· Thomas
· James
· Elizabeth, b. 12 October 1747; d 6 December 1834
After the Indian raid, the authorities were notified and John Potter, the Sheriff of Cumberland County, learning from the older children of an uncle, a brother to Ann, living near Newton, Bucks County, Pennsylvania, notified him as follows:
Mr. Robert Means-
These are to certify to you, your brother, John Wasson, last Wednesday was barbarously killed by the Indians and his wife carried captive, and as the time is so exceedingly dangerous in these parts and no relatives of the orphans here to take care of them, the children desires to go to you; and all things considered, it appears to us most advisable; and with them we send you an account of his estate as it is now situate, his crops in the ground, the young lads can tell you best. His debts appears to be near fifty pounds, and if you incline to administer, send word to come up with the young lads yourself, you being the highest relative. This 29th of May 1756.
John Potter
Will Maxwell
Hez Alexander
William Dunwoddy
Moses Thomson
It is not known just where Ann was kept captive, but she was held for three and one-half years. On 27 November 1759, a pass was granted to Teedyuscung, a famous Deleware Chief, at the Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, to conduct four white captives, two women and two boys, to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to deliver them to the Governor. On 1 December 1759, they were delivered to James Hamilton, lieutenant governor of the province of Pennsylvania. The other woman was Maria Wagoner, wife of Conrad Wagoner. The young boys were nearly naked, and the lieutenant governor, in his message to the legislature, requested that they provide the necessary clothing for the boys.
Ann Wasson was reunited with her children, and in 1769 she was living at Mercersburg with her family. On 22 April 1762 letters of administration were issued at Carlisle, Pennsylvania, on the estate of John Wasson, with Ann Wasson and William Sloan, her eldest son, as administrators. In the settlement of this estate, it was brought out that John Wasson had received all and singular the personal estate of William Sloan, the first husband of Ann. As this sum was now due to the Sloan children, William Allison, John Holiday, William Maxwell, and James Potter were asked to act as arbitrators. On 26 May 1762 they made settlement with the consent of all parties. This settlement was confirmed at an Orphan’s Court held at Shippensburg, Pennsylvania on 8 March 1763.
In November 1951, while digging a ditch along the South Penn railroad on his farm, one and a half miles northwest of Williamson, Pennsylvania, Elmer C. Myers uncovered the skeleton of a man, believed to be that of John Wasson. Dr. William E. B. Hall, Chambersburg Hospital pathologist, who examined the remains immediately after they were found, reported that the man was brutally attacked with both a tomahawk and war clubs. Marks on the skull and other indications pointed to a violent death; ribs were fractured by blows to the body, and one of the skeleton’s arms was broken by twisting. The discovery of the skeleton prompted research into the life of John Wasson and it was learned that he had taken up residence on the farm in Peters Township during the period of the French and Indian Wars. The farm was located only a few miles from the Rev. John Steele’ s church at Church Hill, near the present village of Lemasters.