- This topic has 4,357 voices and 15 replies.
-
Posts
-
Found this report of a Blackfoot traditon in a small place close to Pittsburg. The link goes to the reply, as well. Same old, same old in the reply.
“I met an elderly man who said he grew up in Dorseyville in a community of Blackfoot Indians who owned land in the area and intermarried with freed slaves and their descendants. Is there any history of such settlements in Dorseyville or elsewhere?
— Alan Berg “
http://www.pittsburghcitypaper.ws/prev/archives/newsarch/ask/ask02/ya32002.htm
Brenda
Brenda,
The link does not work for me. I think I might have read this one too. As many times as you see this forum listed online anymore, in links on other web sites, maybe some people are changing their minds.
Techteach
The only thing I can suggest is a google search that would catch it stored– that is how I found it. I think sometimes that newspaper archives are closed or just hard to get into for some reason. I find it interesting because of the Pennsylvania location near Fort Pitt. Thought it might be worth checking out some early names on a rainy day.
Does Fort Pitt have some significance towards the term “Blackfoot”? My Joseph Woods was discharged there at the end of the Revolutionary War in 1783.
vance
Vance,
My ggggrandmother with the Blackfoot ID was from Beaver County not too far from Pittsburgh. She married into the Ralston family. http://www.rootsweb.com/~pabutler/1895/95×74-1.htm#john%20ralston%20jr
Techteach
Thanks.
My Joseph Woods started out (b. 1745) in Albamarle Co, VAwent to Rockbridge Co, Va when he married, by the time of the Rev War he was in Wheeling, which now is W Va, back then Va.
What time frame was your ancestor near Fort Pitt?
After the War Joseph Woods went S to what was the border of the settlers and the Cherokee naiton. His son John spent some time living in the Cherokee Naiton (1801-1803) — had a passport issued by JR Meigs signed by Chief Glass. Maybe that’s when they parted company with those who went further North.
Vance
Originally posted by vance hawkins
Does Fort Pitt have some significance towards the term “Blackfoot”? My Joseph Woods was discharged there at the end of the Revolutionary War in 1783.
vance
Vance,
Dorseyville is near Pittsburg, the site of Ft. Pitt, so it makes me wonder about the roots of the oral tradition mentioned in the question to the newspaper by the above individual about Dorseyville. This guy’s question was shot down, so to speak, however, with the same-old, same-old that any mention of Blackfoot in the east–until Linda- received from hearers of the tradition.
Ft. Pitt, of course, was a center for Indian Trade. Hanna [Vol.2, pp. 360-361 reprints a census taken of NON-ARMY personnel in 1760 living at Ft. Pitt. [taken by order of Col. Bouquet.] According to Hanna, most all of these individuals were Indian traders….I suspect the “Friendly Indians”– which might include the Blackfoot – would be likely to be found around settlement outposts that were significant coming together places for people involved in the trade……Actually, it seems more than possible to me that some “Friendly Indians” worked for Indian traders.
Additionaly, I think a lot of mixed groups were moving more northward in PA….?
I have too much going on here at present, but I would like to check out the early census in the areas near Ft. Pitt and Dorseyville to see if we pick up any familiar families or surnames in the area.
Brenda
Originally posted by techteach
Vance,
My ggggrandmother with the Blackfoot ID was from Beaver County not too far from Pittsburgh. She married into the Ralston family. http://www.rootsweb.com/~pabutler/1895/95×74-1.htm#john%20ralston%20jr
Techteach
Nancy McLane?
Yes, Brenda. Nancy McLane is my ggggrandmother.
I originally thought that both wives might have been NA, because the last name of the first wife was kind of different. However, I read that some people removed “Mc” in front of their names and changed it to “Ma” to disguise their Scotch-Irish ancestry. I have since found that her family, who were Quaker, came to the Slippery Rock area to teach Seneca children. The Seneca near there were identified as Cornplanter Seneca.
Her sons left Iowa and returned to Pennsylvania, while Nancy McLane’s children remained in Iowa. Nancy is buried beneath a headstone that reads Blackfoot (It is a new headstone, though.).
Deb’s Blackfoot ancestor married a brother to John Ralston. Her name was McClellend and also has the story of Blackfoot Cherokee, as do I through Nancy. All (except the first wife and her sons) are buried in the same cemetery in Iowa.
Techteach
Wonder what records exist for the Cornplanter Seneca after the Revoltionary War? Have you checked into that?
Brenda,
I checked a bit. The Cornplanter Seneca were awarded a reservation around Oil City, PA, in return for Cornplanter’s support (not sure if it was the Rev or afterwards that he supported the Americans). The reservation was a place of haven for refugee Indians, so the reservation was not entirely Seneca.
My source for the original information was a book written by Nancy’s step grandson, “Life Along the Slippery Rock.” He said that the Indians in that area were Cornplanter Seneca. Yet one that he talked of was called Mohawk Tom. He indicated that most were involved in moving lumber down the river.
Techteach
There must have been a McLane in this area at least by 1785 when General William Irvine made a survey of Western Pennsylvania as he mentions a “McLane’s Line”. He also mentions an old [abandoned?] Moravian town about three or four miles from this line…… and “from the mouth of Shenango to Cuscuskey on the West Branch [Mahoning] is six or seven miles; but it was formerly all called Cuscuskey by the natives along this Branch, as high as the Salt Springs, which is twenty-five miles from the mouth of Shenango. [Hanna, Wilderness Trail, Vol I, p. 342].
This is from a chapeter which discusses “KUSKUSKIES ON THE BEAVER”, “…three or four contiguous towns of the Mingoes, located along the Beaver River…” Seneca were there. Delawares and some Shawnee later occupied the area. … It looks like the Moravians moved to the Big Beaver c. 1770….
I am unable to tell from what I have when these sites along the Beaver were totally abandoned…..I am also not sure how to interpret Irvine’s remark, above. Was there still a small native town of “Cuscuskey” c. 1785 or is he referring to an “old town’?
Brenda
Originally posted by techteach
Brenda,
…………The reservation was a place of haven for refugee Indians, so the reservation was not entirely Seneca.
……….Yet one that he talked of was called Mohawk Tom. He indicated that most were involved in moving lumber down the river.
Techteach
Well, it does seem that the Cornplanter Seneca, like the Seneca of Sandusky, were composed of members from various groups who came together to live and, in this case, became “Cornplanter Seneca” as he was the band’s leader and the Seneca were the hosting group.
Wonder if there was a census done on the Cornplanter reservation?
I seem to recall Thomas McIlwaine from the Mingo list referring to the Seneca there being in the lumbering line of work…..
Brenda
Family lore has Nancy as an orphan, although it is muddled lore. Something about an illegitimate birth. Bill looked up Lanes in the area for me a couple of years ago. They were listed as FPC. John Ralston’s father did not include him in the will ostensibly because he had already provided him with his portion, but he was not particulary generous to the other sons who came to Iowa either.
BTW, at the risk of being SOP as Tom phrases it, when surfing, I discovered that Frederick Douglass was part NA and born in the Delmarva penisula, particularly Tuckahoe.
Techteach
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.