A sojourner is someone who passes through a region. There were a few sojourners who passed through Bedford County whose association with this region touched it in some way.
A narrative of the Thomas Powell Expedition of 1625 was described by John H. P. Adams in the early 1900's and included by Thomas C. Imler in the 1971 book, The Kernel Of Greatness. Adams provided a transcription of a report supposedly written by Captain Thomas Powell and submitted to the governor of the Virginia Colony on 25 October 1625. Somehow, the original report came to be in the possession of John H. P. Adams and his daughter, Mrs. Henry Nycum. Unfortunately, Captain Powell's account does not exist in any form within the Archives of Virginia and, to add insult to injury, the original document owned by Mr. Adams was destroyed in a fire. So this account exists only in a claim that it existed at one time. John H. P. Adams, who is notorious for having changed the name of the Indian trader, John Wray to Robert McCrea, supposedly provided a transcription of the Powell report to Mr. Imler.
Captain Thomas Powell, in the ship, Seafoam, sailed up the James River in 1620. He apparently was engaged by the Governor of the Virginia Colony to find the origin of the Potomac River, and his adventures were described in his journal as a report to the Virginian governor.
"I have the pleasure of reporting to your highness that after going many days a little northwest through the wilderness we came to a high plateau of land which abounds in all kinds of game. We there camped and killed and ate our fill; when well rested, we continued about the same direction, when we came upon some water that drained northward; we followed it and it got bigger, when to our great chagrin we heard thunder noise. We were then close to a great mountain when all of a sudden it disappeared and from all of its noise I think it fell through the earth. I know not what to name it unless 'Lost Water,' as it can never again get on top of ye earth; we then went towards the setting sun for two days when we came to other waters going, toward the north star. We continued along its bank till, it got much larger. We found it not so good traveling, and crossed to the other side. In doing these things we lost one of our men, George South, which I much regret. We got him and of course buried him in his clothes near a big pine tree, that we marked. We came on down this water two days' travel when we came to a large water. By making log rafts all got over safe, where we rested and fished two days. We took our course towards the north star one day's journey and came to another water as though it came from the north star; we followed it three days' travel; we came to where there were three waters come together, one was near the star. This water had a sweetish taste; was full of the most beautifully speckled fish we have ever saw. There were lots of Indians here; they showed us all the friendship they could; we continued up this till we came to high ground; we went beyond that where the water runs toward the north star, then we turned and came back to the big water we had crossed. We followed it for many days, then we came to a great water which seemed to come from the high sun; we followed it till we came to water going towards the high noon; we followed it; we came to our own big water where we followed our trail home. I assign myself your humble servant. Captain Thomas Powell."
In the foregoing account the 'Lost Water' is currently known as the 'Lost River.' It is located in Hardy County, West Virginia. The Lost River disappears into the ground and resurfaces three miles distant with the name, Cacapon River. It flows northward into the Potomac River.
The river that got larger as it flowed northward would have been the South Branch of the Potomac River. The 'tree' under which George South was buried was identified as near the residence of a man by the name of 'Mr. Blue.
The 'water' that had a 'sweetish taste' has been identified as the Sweet Root Creek (located in present-day Southampton Township). The other two 'waters' that merged with the Sweet Root were Bushy Fork (whose head is located in present-day Monroe Township) and Elk Lick Creek (which, like the Sweet Root, is found in Southampton Township). The three streams merge into Town Creek just south of the present-day town of Chaneysville in Southampton Township, and flow south to empty into the Potomac River.
A report such as the one claimed to have been made by Captain Powell could have been fabricated by anyone at any time. But assuming that the report was indeed factual, then Captain Joseph Powell and his men would have been some of the first Euro~Americans to set foot in the region that would become Bedford County.
The next Euro~American to make an appearance in the region of present-day Bedford County was, according to some researchers, Martin Chartier. Chartier was a French Indian trader who came from Canada, set up trading posts along the Mississippi River and eventually settled with his Shawnee wife near Old Town, Maryland. To early historians of Bedford County, Martin Chartier's connection to present-day Bedford County was simply that he passed through it. Chartier supposedly traveled with a group of Amerindians of the Hathawekela tribe, of the Shawnee clan, in the year 1698 from the Potomac River in the east to the Ohio River valley in the west. They apparently traveled along the Warrior Path, from Achsinnink / Standing Stone (i.e. Huntingdon) to Opessah's Town (i.e. Old Town, Maryland). Their route took them northward through Allequippa Gap to the intersection with the Raystown Path, along which they then traveled westward along the Raystown Branch of the Juniata River, through the vicinity of Shawnee Cabins, and on across the Allegheny Mountain. Similar journeys were made by other Euro~Americans through the region, such as Conrad Weiser in 1748. The apparent significance of Martin Chartier's journey in 1698 (if it did, in fact, occur), was that it would have been the earliest, and possibly only, traverse of the region by a Frenchman.
This entry for sojourners in Bedford County refers to the family's claimed residence from 1710 to 1732.
The Dibert family tradition makes the claim that the family of John and Mary de-Burt (variously, Dibert) traveled northward from Virginia about the year 1710. It is claimed that they established a homestead in the vicinity of the present-day Dutch Corner in Bedford township. In some accounts, the deBurt homestead was known as Fort Wingawn in an attempt to suggest that the family built their own fortification. No evidence of any fortification was discovered by the Commission To Locate The Site Of The Frontier Forts Of Pennsylvania performed in 1917. It would seem that the Dibert family descendants have simply created a unique family tradition. How the De-Burts were able to eke out a living for twenty-some years in the wilderness, without the provincial authorities discovering them is absolutely amazing.
The tradition claims that Mary was the daughter of Martin Chartier and an Amerindian woman, Sewatha (although it should be noted that DNA testing on three direct-line descendants has revealed no Amerindian genetic material). Perhaps Sewatha's racial ancestry was the key to how the family could reside for so many years on territory not yet purchased from the Amerindians without receiving any retribution or complaints from those Amerindians. (The de-Burt family was not mentioned in any contemporary accounts even though the Amerindians were very vocal in their complaints against many other Euro~American squatters on their lands, prior to them being purchased by treaty.) The de-Burts' peaceful coexistence with the natives came to an end after roughly twenty-two years. Of the family of fourteen, the parents and seven of the children were massacred by Amerindians about the year 1732. [In the same way that their twenty-two year residence went unnoticed, their massacre likewise failed to be recorded in any public record.]
The surviving five children went back to Virginia, and then in 1740 one of them, Charles Christopher Dibert, moved back into present-day Bedford County, settling in the Dutch Corner area ~ supposedly right where the family first settled in 1710. Apparently the origin of the tradition started with this Charles Christopher Dibert, who made the claim that the statement: "this is the land my Father returned to, which was his Father's settlement", was included on a land warrant filed on 13 December 1766 by Michael Dibert, grandson of John and Mary and recorded in Deed Book A at the Bedford County Court House. The fact of the matter is that no such entry can be found in the Deed Books maintained by the Register and Recorders Office. In fact, no public records exist to support the tradition. The descendants of John and Mary de-Burt base their claim, and its details, on sources which, despite being 'published' were not derived from any authenticated public information.
Descendants of John and Mary de-Burt claim that the information in their family tradition is 'proven' by being included in books maintained in the Library of Congress and therefore the information has to be accurate and correct.
The sojourn of the de-Burt family in this frontier region from 1710 until 1732 cannot be definitively proven ~ but then, it cannot be definitively denied.
Before leaving this subject it might be noted that the advocates for the proof that the de-Burt family homesteaded in Bedford County in 1710 point to a stone on which was inscribed the date '1710'. The viewer is supposed to assume that the inscription was made in the year 1710. It most definitely could not have been made at any later date, could it?
In the book, The Kernel Of Greatness, a traditional story was included which stated that a 'recorded' settlement of eleven families took place in the year 1728 by a group of Virginians. In that year, Joseph Powell, a grandson of Thomas Powell (who died in 1820 at the age of ninety-nine years), was claimed to have led a group of thirteen other men into the Town Creek Valley to look for a place to settle. The group consisted of Powell and Herodius Blue, Philip Brandwater, Robert Fleehart (Freehart), Michael Huff, Richard Iames (Iiames), Joseph Johnson (Johnston), George Painter, Thomas Prather, Ignatius Rock, John Spergen (Spurgeon), John Still, George Tunis and Achor Worley (Wooley). Powell, himself, returned to Virginia without homesteading in this region at that time; he would return later. Of the remaining twelve men, all but one, George Tunis, traveled back to Virginia and brought their families northward to live in what would become Bedford County.
It should be noted, that of this group, only Michael Huff's, Joseph Johnson's, John Spergen's and Achor Worley's names (or at least those of their descendants) appeared on any tax assessment return for this region ~ perhaps because the others died prior to being 'caught' by the tax assessors. Joseph Johnson became the first Euro~American to die and be buried in this region. His tombstone, engraved with the death date of 1731, was located in the Shawnee Graveyard. It was, unfortunately, destroyed by highway construction. Iames died in 1758. Brandwater died in 1768. Still died in 1770, and his wife, an Indian, took their children and moved west. Worley died in 1775. Blue, Fleehart, Painter and Rock's death dates are not known, but they are believed to have died by drowning early on while trapping.
As was the case of the deBurt settlement, the fact that the Town Creek settlement was able to survive for many years, without its existence being questioned by the authorities of the provincial government of Pennsylvania, is pretty astounding. Permanent settlement in this region was forbidden by the Proprietaries prior to the formal purchase of it from the Amerindians in 1754 as part of the terms of the Treaty of Albany. And in view of the complaints made by the Amerindians over the settlements to the east (resulting in the expulsion of the settlers from the Burnt Cabins settlement and elsewhere), it is amazing that they were not bothered by this Town Creek settlement.
According to tradition, Joseph Powell returned to the Town Creek settlement in 1737. His brother, George, accompanied Joseph on this trip. By that time Joseph had married Rachel Perrin, (daughter of John Perrin and niece of trader, John ray) and she also came with him on this trip. The Powells settled along the Little Sweet Root creek, and it was there that Joseph and George established a trading post along the east slope of Martin Hill.
Performing a little math provides the unique fact that Joseph Powell, if ~ having died in 1820 (as noted by Thomas Imler in the book The Kernel of Greatness), at the age of ninety-nine years ~ would have been born circa 1721. To have led the expedition of men into the Town Creek region in 1728, he would been only seven years old at the time. The other, presumably adult, men must have been very trusting to follow a seven-year-old boy into the wilderness. And also, Joseph must have married before he was sixteen, because he would have been that old when he brought his wife and brother George to this region in 1737, and established a trading post. Apparently either the frontier settlers were hardier than we give them credit for, or historians sometimes make mistakes.
John H. P. Adams agreed with the death date and age of Joseph Powell, but he noted that Powell married John Perrin's daughter in the year 1765 or 1766. That would have made him forty-four years of age when he married, which makes more sense than the information supplied by Tomas C. Imler. But if Joseph Powell was married before moving into the Bedford County region, bringing his wife and brother, George, with him, then he would not have "returned to the Town Creek settlement in 1737."
In regard to George Powell, Joseph's brother, as noted above, he helped to establish a trading post in the Town Creek settlement as early as 1747. It was located on the Little Sweet Root Creek.
According to tradition, George Powell discovered a cave in which there was a deposit of saltpeter. It was located in the gap created by the Little Sweet Root Creek flowing between Martin's Hill and Tussey Mountain before it empties into the Big Sweet Root Creek near the present-day village of Point Pleasant. Although George Powell is credited with finding the cave and the saltpeter deposit, it is claimed that Michael Huff gathered it, Huff, in turn, supplied the saltpeter to Jacob Rowland, who then made powder which was used by the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War. Unfortunately, none of that information was available to anyone who could have, or would have, recorded it in any public record.
According to the tradition held by the Guthrie family in the state of Indiana, the parents of Daniel Guthrie took up residence near Ray's trading post at the same time that he was conducting his business. They would have come to reside near "the Narrows of the Juniata River", according to the tradition, prior to the year 1737 when their son, Daniel was born.
The first appearance of anyone by the name of Guthrie, or any variation, in the tax assessment returns for the region was in 1775. As with certain other tradition claims, the amazing thing is the question of how the family got away for forty years without being taxed or mentioned in any public document. It wouldn't be completely improbable, but it certainly would have been a feat. And that feat is all the more amazing in this case. Whereas the various other traditions have been familiar to historians and mentioned in several books throughout the last two centuries, the Guthrie tradition has, to this point, gone largely unnoticed in this region.
Other traders and entrepreneurs arrived soon after Ray. It is claimed that Thomas Kinton (variously, Kenton) arrived in 1736 and established a 'tavern' on the north end of Will's Mountain to the west of Bedford Borough. The vicinity in which Kinton established his post was eventually named Kintons Knob.
A man by the name of Thomas Kenton appeared in the published Pennsylvania Archives as an owner of land in Oxford Township (Philadelphia County) in the year 1723. His land was mentioned in relation to the 'great Road leading to Burlington'.
Thomas Kinton's name next appeared in the Archives in the year 1751 when he witnessed an agreement transacted by George Croghan with Twightwees tribal leaders. Kinton apparently could not write because he made his mark ('X') by the name Thomas T. K. Kinton. He was also listed as a 'fur trader' on a treaty signed at 'Log's Town on Ohio' on 28 May 1751.
A man by the name of Thomas Kenton was listed as the applicant of two lots, #196 and 197, on the 1766 plat of Bedford town drawn by John Lukens. Then, the name of Thomas Kinton appeared on the Bedford Township, Cumberland County tax assessment return for the year 1768.
According to recent historians of the borough of Everett, John Patton (variously, Paxton) was an early resident of their area. The house he built, supposedly in the year 1738, is claimed to be the oldest building still standing in present-day Bedford County.
Patton has been described as a mapmaker, Indian agent, innkeeper and jack-of-all-trades. There are a number of references to John Patton (variously Patten) in the published Pennsylvania Archives, ranging between the years 1732 and 1790, but none of them contain information to identify them with the particular individual who has been claimed to reside in this region. The identification of John Patton as an early trader and jack-of-all-trades and the builder of the oldest building in Bedford County is a recent discovery.
The name of John Patton does not appear in the 1884 History of Bedford, Somerset and Fulton Counties, Pennsylvania book; it might be noted that at that time, in the 1880's, the house of Michael Barndollar, constructed circa 1787 was identified as the oldest structure in the town.
Representatives of the Bedford County Historical Society visited the building but were not convinced that the structure was any older than dating to the 1800's.
A recent owner of the building made the claim that it was constructed circa 1738 by John Patton because records in the Lancaster County Court House state that John Patton purchased 200 acres of land "west of the Susquehanna in 1734" and then, in 1736 purchased an additional 250 acres "along the Juniata". How the owner could think that those descriptions pointed to the house that stands in Everett today is anyone's guess.
In 1978, an attempt to register the house on the National Register of Historic Places was not approved.
