BYERLY COLLECTION, UNSORTED MATERIALS RECD. SUMMER 1985
Apparently written in 1920
Sent to D.A. Holloway by Dr. Charles Freeble 1994
Edited/certain immaterial information deleted. Not pertinent to question from DFN
Andrew Byerly, the founder of the family in this country, from whom Andrew Jackson Byerly is descended was born in Germany in 1715. Possessed of a pioneer spirit, the spirit which later made him one of the famous frontiersmen of Colonial days, he emigrated to America, November 9, 1738, on the ship "Charming Nancy", Chas. Stedman, commander, from Rotterdam. His name was given on the passenger list in the original as Adreas Beyerlie. The years have seen this modified to the present spelling of Byerly. On the same venturousome ship came Jacob Wannamaker, the founder of a family of great wealth.
name again appears in connection with the manor, for at that time,
Andrew Byerly, the great grandfather of Andrew Jackson Byerly, as before said, located at Lancaster, Pa.. He purchased a lot on North Queen Street, near Centre Square, Oct. 25, 1745. He owned this property as late as 1754. Byerly was married twice. Of his first wife, little is known. He had some daughters by her. About 1744, he married Phoebe Beatrice Gulden, a native of the Canton of Berne, in Switzerland. ( note by DAH. the writer has combined his wives. His first wife was Maria Catharina and they were probably childless. His second wife was Beatrice Kuhlin by whom he had several children, Michael (1748), Catharina Elisabetha (1750), Maria Elisabetha (1752), and Johann Frantz (Francis) (1754). Phoebe Gulden was his third wife by whom he had Jacob (1760), Andrew (1763), and Joseph (1768)) The Guldens were a famous people in Switzerland. One of the family was a great preacher who incurred the enmity of the government and with his family came to this country in 1710. The Reformed Church Records of Lancaster show children by Andrew Byerly and his wife, baptised between Feb. 3, 1745 and Feb 4, 1753. Byerly took a great interest in the affairs of his day and at Lancaster conducted a tavern.
It was during those days that the English people and the Colonies were engaged in battle with the French and Indians in the western frontiers for control of all that vast wilderness. In 1755, General Braddock assembled his army at Fort Cumberland, Md. Byerly became a baker for this army. He was a friend of General George Washington, afterwards the first president of the U.S. Washington had great admiration for Byerly, the pioneers, and entered him in a race against a boastful Catawba Indian warrior on a wager of 30 shillings. Byerly won the race greatly to the surprise of General Braddock and also the Indian chiefs.
After the defeat of General Braddock, forts were established west of the Alleghany Mountains, Fort Ligonier being the oldest. Fort Pitt was also established at the place where Pittsburgh now stands There were no settlers at this extreme boundary line, altho explorers had penetrated this far. In 1760, Andrew Byerly was granted by the State of Pa. 300 acres of land, his land warrant being number 36. It was located in the Brush Creek Valley on the Forbes Road, about 25 miles west of Fort Ligonier, the farthest point of civilization in the west. Undaunted by hostile Indians Byerly and his family built a log dwelling house in the wilds and this house became a relay station and tavern for the few military men who went from Fort Ligonier to little Fort Pitt west of the Byerlys. At Fort Pitt there was a little garrison, standing always in danger from the Indians. While others may have passed thru this wilderness before Byerly,, yet he and his family were the first permanent settlers west of the Allegheny Mountains. At this far away point in the days of Indian warfare, the home of Andrew Byerly, the pioneer of Lancaster Pa, now the Pioneer of all the West, became the stopping place of the famous men of Colonial days. The Journal of James Kenney , 1761 - 1763 speaks of visiting Byerly at Bushy Run or Byerly Station as it was called then. Kenney was commissioner of Indian affairs of Pa. Here Frederick Post, a celebrated Moravian missionary to the Indians was a frequent visitor. Josiah Davenport, John Bartram, the biologist, and others often stopped at this home. The military men of the day knew Byerly and as they passed to and fro between eastern and western Pa. they stayed at Byerlys. Colonel Henry Bouquet of Berne, Switzerland who defeated the Indians on the Byerly farm in the most decisive Indian battle ever fought in America was a personal friend of the Byerlys having come from the same place as Mrs. Byerly in Switzerland. The family now had several children, Michael, and Francis were born at Lancaster, Pa., while Jacob was born at Fort Bedford in 1760 where Andrew Byerly was stationed for a short time as a baker. Joseph and Andrew were younger sons, born in the wilderness at Bushy Run.
For the two or three years the Byerly family lived in comparative safety at Bushy Run, they made friends with the Indians and as time went on they were joined by a few neighbors, one of these being Christopher Rudebaugh.. At a little later date came the Clingensmiths, Willards, Kemerers, and Walthours to whom the Byerlys have been connected in marriage.
But this era of peace was to end for in 1763, Pontiac, a great and powerful leader of the Indian tribes of the frontier formed a union with others for the extermination of the white men. The dangers to the little western forts and the scattered settlers became acute. Here and there a murder report from distant settlements came into the forts. On May 29, 1763, Captain Ecuyer the brave commander of Fort Pitt wrote Colonel Henry Bouquet of the murders and distress on the Frontier. He says in one place in his now famous letter, "The Indians have told Byerly ( at Bushy Run) to leave his house within four days or he and all his family would be murdered". When this warning came, Byerly was away helping to bury some neighbors who had been killed. His wife had a child only three days old but arose from her bed and started for Fort Ligonier nearly 30 miles distant.
She rode the Relay horse with the babe in her arms who was Andrew. Joseph rode behind while Michael,, and Francis walked. Michael had to carry Jacob much of the way who was only three years old and suffering from a stone bruise.
Francis was eight years old at this time. He is the grandfather of our subject, Andrew Jackson Byerly. Michael was the oldest, 13 yrs while Joseph was 18 months old. As they neared the fort they were joined by Byerly who arriving home had rea the message, "Gone to Ligonier" written on the door of the cottage by Mrs. Byerly. They got within the gates just as the howling Indians caught up with them but they were safe at last.
Colonel Bouquet with a small number of troops started out for the relief of Forts Ligonier and Pitt. Never in all American history has there been a more difficult march than this one from Fort Bedford 50 miles from Ligonier. On Aug.5, 1763 the army neared Bushy Run. Byerly with 18 others was keading the advance when without warning they were shot upon and 12 of the 18 fell. The rear troops came up and the battle was on between Bouquets little army and the hordes of Pontiac.
(DAH: something of an exaggeration of the numbers of Indians involved.)
The fight continued during the next day. Byerly carried water during the night in his hat to the wounded, from a little spring between the contending lines. Bouquet defeated the Indians in the following day, breaking forever the hold of the Red men in America. Parkman the Historian says this was the most decisive battle ever fought in America between white men and Indians. The battle was fought on the farm of Andrew Byerly, and is known as the Bushy Run Battlefield. I am indebted to Dr. Cyrus Cort of Overlea, Maryland, a great, great, grandson of Andrew Byerly for an account of the ownership of this battlefield. Descendants of Ephraim Blaine came into possession of the tract thru the fact that "Ephraim Blaine jumped the older and original Byerly claim by a patent, confirmed by the Pennsylvania Executive Council in the distracted days of 1786, long after the death of the elder Byerly, and when his widow and children were in no shape to dispute his unjust usurpation. For forty-one pounds of provincial currency when that currency was comparatively worthless, he managed to get a technical title to the old Byerly tract of over 300 acres along the Forbes Road, on the historic field of Bushy Run"
Hon. Jos. H. Kuhns who was council for the Blaines in the later stages of the suit for the possession of the land wrote Dr. Cort long after the trial the following letter which is published in Dr. Cort's "Col. Bouquet and Campaigns"
Greensburg, Pa., May 2, 1883
Rev. Cyrus Cort:
Rev. and Dear Sir:- Your esteemed favor received. I am satisfied that the story of Blaine's claim to the battle ground is apocryphal. He was an intruder upon Byerly, who was, in point of fact, the first actual owner of the ground by occupancy and legal authority of the proprietary government of Penna.
Respectfully,
Jos. H. Kuhns
<> She married Benjamin Lord , an Englishman a few years after the death of Andrew Byerly. After his death she again remarried. She is buried among her children at the old Brush Creek Cemetery in Westmoreland Co., Pa. Three of her sons married daughters of Mrs. Harman and their descendants are scattered all over the U.S. The children of Andrew and Phoebe Beatrice Byerly were--
1. Michael
2. Francis
3. Jacob
4. Andrew
5. Joseph
6. A Mrs. Hugh Mellon.
MS ends here.
Byerlyfilbin4.txtmfilbin@juno.com (Michael T. Filbon
1/15/2000 djanesremcrna@Juno.com
The Express Rider also going thru the Bushy Run relay station, also warned the Byerlys of the coming danger. He was the last messenger to get through to Bedford alive.
Page 8: During the first night, Andy is supposed to have crawled through the Indian lines to reach his spring about 150 yards from the hill top to bring water to the wounded. This is questioned by authorities at the Park today, stating they wore woolen hats and is not suitable for carrying water. However it seems most plausible to this writer, as by evening of the first day, there would be sufficient empty wooden powder kegs available to carry water, much easier when crawling on one's stomach through Indian sentries to bring water than balancing in one's hat.
Page 10. In 1764 The Byerlys, after Boquet's treat, returned to Bushy Run and rebuilt the tavern or inn. Note from Traveller's journal: Byerly ran Bushy Run as a sort of tavern or gathering place, and trading station, a stop for express riders:
It was rated as average and better than many.
In 1765 noted from the Military Journal of Capt. John Schlosser that Serjt. Beyerley was discharged on24 April, 1765..
Page 11: A notice states that the Byerlys lost their land in Brush Creek to Col. Ephriam Blaine who had been commisary Sgt. To Col. Bouquet in his 1764 Ohio campaign. This is not the Lt. Blaine who had been commandant at Ligonier during the 1762-64 period. Blaine purchased at sheriff sale using worthless continental currency for debts incurred. Held in limbo until 1786 when county governments established jurisdiction it was upheld. Thus passed from family control, the grounds, the inn, the gathering place, the relay station which had meant so much to their lives.
Page 3.
Andrew Byerly was induced to establish a relay station for these express riders at Bushy Run, midway between Fort Pitt and Fort Ligonier. He had been given a grant of land from Col. Bouquet and the provincial government on which he erected buildings for his station.
Page 5
And that night Byerly, at his own imminent risk, managed to bring in a few hat-fulls of water from a spring nearby. (Marked on road maps as Byerly spring.
Page 6
A dispute arose as to the ownership of the tract of land held by Byerlys, A certain Ephraim Blaine, by a patent confirmed by the Pennsylvania Executive Council in 1786, managed to get control of 300 acres of land long after the death of Andrew Byerly, when for some reason, the heirs did not establish their claim.
Page 7
The three preceding three pages of transcript was graciously provided by Marti Dell, a Byerly researcher.
"Sgt. Andrew Byerly, Bouquet's Co., 1st Bn., Royal Americans evidently was discharged in 1765. ----By 1762 he was stationed at Byerly's Station. A settlement at Bushy Run---where he hosted travellers passing between Pittsburgh and the east. He served occasionally as an express carrier."
Lancaster County Historical Society January, 1929
"1759, This same year, Mr. Byerly located on a grant made by the commandant at Ft. Pitt of 230 acres of land located on Bushy Run, now Westmoreland County, near the present site of Harrison City where he erected a log house and established a station to accommodate express riders and government agents traveling between Fort Pitt ------
------ "A great part of the battle of Bushy Run was upon the grant of land to Mr. Byerly and during and after the battle he assisted in relief work by creeping to a little spring at the foot of the hill and carried water to the wounded in his woolen hat."
By George Dallas Albert 1881
Refers to a grant of 300 acres on Bushy Run from the British officer at Fort Duquesne in order to make a comfortable stopping place for travelers between east and west.
and
---Byerly's settlement dates from 1759, warrant #36
Page 24 His Land Warrant is #36
-------" Their lands, as will be seen later on, were not patented to them: they were at first merely squatters with perhaps a show of title from the commander of the fort."
Based Primarily on the Pennsylvania Archives and Colonial Records
First Edition By C. Hale Sipe The Telegraph Express, Harrisnurg, Pa.
"---; Andrew Byerly stealing silently and stealthily through the gloom from the spring on the hillside with water for the wounded and dying;"
Volume I
George Thornton Fleming \<.br>The
American Historical Society, Inc. New York & Chicago, 1922
Chapter XXIV Henry Bouquet, Soldier of Fortune
p.501 "Byerly was a host in himself. During the night he was active in succoring the wounded, making frequent trips to a little spring he knew and bringing water in his cap to the wounded, each trip at the peril of his life. He was a pioneer and a patriot , one of the best type of hardy frontiersmen who made the border habitable. His descendants are numerous; many yet in Westmoreland County who are prominent and influential in their several spheres of life."
By C.M. Bomberger, Jeannette Publishing Company, Jeannette, Pa. 1928
Chapter VI Andrew Byerly
Refers to family tradition for the role Phoebe and Andrew played in the flight to Fort Ligonier but nothing about anything he did thereafter.